I’m not exactly sure what the federal violation is considering the man was selling the face masks; but the FBI determined he was ‘hoarding’ his supply, and arrested him for price gouging. The FBI confiscated 80,000 face masks from his “stash” of supplies.

New York – Baruch Feldheim, 43, is facing charges of assault and making false statements to the feds on Sunday outside his Borough Park home where he allegedly peddled and stored massive amounts of N95 respirator masks, federal officials said.

Feldheim is also accused of price-gouging. On March 18, he’s suspected of selling a New Jersey doctor about 1,000 of the masks for $12,000, a markup of roughly 700 percent, authorities said.

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New York City Mayor Bill deBlasio has released 900 inmates from city jails in an effort to reduce the risk of coronavirus. Days earlier he announced the intent to permanently close houses of worship that defy the ‘stay-at-home’ dictates.

New York – De Blasio made the announcement at a press briefing while reporting that a second member of New York City’s corrections department had died from the disease.

[…]  De Blasio announced last week that the city would release hundreds of nonviolent offenders, with those accused of offenses such as domestic abuse not eligible for release. Advocates have warned that jails and prisons are hotspots for the transmission of coronavirus due to the close proximity of inmates. (read more)

Beware of Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite. A review of his social media shows a strong political alignment with team “resistance“.  The head of the Army Corps of Engineers appears with Martha MacCallum to discuss his efforts within the COVID-19 response team.

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As more essential service outlets start to become overwhelmed at the stress upon their food delivery operations; and with more food store employees necessarily absent due to the coronavirus spread; regionally, the food supply chain will becoming more dependent on food bank distribution.

If the virus spread continues at current pace, some regional supermarkets with multiple locations will likely begin targeted shut-downs by retreating and disbursing available healthy (non-infected) employees on a store-by-store basis.  The potential for this issue is most likely to first originate within urban communities; and then outflow.

This reality is starting to become more evident in localized communities, and a distribution center in the greater Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, area gives a great example of what could become increasingly common across the nation.

Approximately 1,500 cars line up to receive essential food products from the Greater Pittsburgh Community Center.  The capacity was anticipated around 1,700 at the beginning of the three hour event. 1,500 cars were in line before it began.  [Video Story]

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Strange times we live in…

Earlier today in Tampa, Florida, the county sheriff let the criminal inmates out of his jail, and then went to arrest a pastor for delivering Sunday church services and put him in the same jail.

Now a federal judge rules that getting a hip replacement should be delayed to help offset medical supply needs; but killing babies is an “essential service” that needs to continue.

TEXAS – […] Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced last week that abortion providers were covered by a state order that required postponement of non-urgent medical procedures to preserve hospital beds and equipment during the pandemic.

U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel in Austin ruled that Paxton’s action “prevents Texas women from exercising what the Supreme Court has declared is their fundamental constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy before a fetus is viable.” (read)

“[Government] shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”  (First Amendment – U.S. Constitution)

Setting aside my profound disdain for this action… In the short-term there will likely be those who genuinely believe this is legally defensible as a result of a public health emergency. However, in the long-term two things will happen: (1) over time, and up to the possibility of SCOTUS intervention, the pastor will win any legal case against him; and (2) hopefully people will realize quickly the term “essential service” is arbitrary.

Inside the definition of two words “essential services” (which is different from area to area) is all that remains of your liberty.  The first amendment of the constitution applies equally for all persons in all areas; the definition of “essential services” does not.  That’s the legal issue that will see this pastor win, if he chooses to fight.  Faith, the ability to worship, is easily argued as the preeminent ‘essential service’ to the individual and church.

FLORIDA – A Hillsborough County pastor was arrested Monday after he intentionally and repeatedly violated orders that no gatherings of 10 or more people he held in order to stop of the spread of COVID-19 by holding services at his megachurch, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister announced Monday afternoon.

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An executive order [Full pdf Here] from Virginia Governor Ralph Northam requires all residents of Virginia to remain in lock-down until June 10, 2020.  Virginia is essentially shut down for three months…. But don’t forget to pay your taxes comrades.

RICHMOND—Governor Ralph Northam today issued a statewide Stay at Home order to protect the health and safety of Virginians and mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19. The executive order takes effect immediately and will remain in place until June 10, 2020, unless amended or rescinded by a further executive order.

The order directs all Virginians to stay home except in extremely limited circumstances. Individuals may leave their residence for allowable travel, including to seek medical attention, work, care for family or household members, obtain goods and services like groceries, prescriptions, and others as outlined in Executive Order Fifty-Three, and engage in outdoor activity with strict social distancing requirements.

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Unfortunately, with President Trump effectively communicating the latest information on the federal efforts to mitigate COVID-19, more corporate U.S. resistance media have decided not to carry the live broadcasts from the White House task force briefings.

Today at 5:00pm the White House will hold a briefing for the public and media on the latest mitigation efforts against the coronavirus. [Video Added]

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Well, well, well….  After the media went bananas trying to refute President Trump several weeks ago after he spoke optimistically about the potential for a malaria medication called chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine to be used to combat the coronavirus, today the FDA has approved its use.

WASHINGTON – The Food and Drug Administration on Sunday issued an emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, decades-old malaria drugs championed by President Donald Trump for coronavirus treatment despite scant evidence.

The agency allowed for the drugs to be “donated to the Strategic National Stockpile to be distributed and prescribed by doctors to hospitalized teen and adult patients with COVID-19, as appropriate, when a clinical trial is not available or feasible,” HHS said in a statement, announcing that Sandoz donated 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine to the stockpile and Bayer donated 1 million doses of chloroquine.

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Thankfully as a nation this crisis is causing us to reevaluate our priorities: faith, family, community and freedom; and seeing the easy dispatch of liberty also reignites that oft forgotten flickering flame…

Journalists are less important than janitors. Our nation’s best athletes are healthcare workers rushing to assist those in need.  The true heroes are not celebrities, but rather farmers, truck drivers, stock clerks, and supermarket cashiers.

The most valuable businesses do not glitter or present themselves with self-congratulatory award shows; they do today what they have always done to keep our food supply flowing.  Perhaps now, at least for a few short weeks, we stop taking them for granted.

Effective right now comfortably invisible workers are recognized as critical priorities; or as the government has officially designated them “essential services.”  These folks form the network of our lives; they always have, but we didn’t notice. Everything else is less than.

Any average hard-working American is worth more today than all those who chase the golden statues of Hollywood; and ultimately if they want to go down the superiority path… well, what they provide is essentially useless.

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