Tag: joe biden

Every family is entitled to FREE Covid tests ahead of Thanksgiving get togethers as part of $600million Biden project to prevent wave of cases

Every family in the US will be entitled to order up to eight free Covid tests this winter to help avoid spreading the virus to loved ones.

Families were offered four tests per household in late September, but this has now been expanded to another four swabs — which are worth $12 per package.

The tests — made available through a $600million grant to test suppliers — can be ordered online from CovidTests.gov and take at least two weeks to arrive.

They are being offered ahead of the Christmas and New Year vacations, but the update comes too late for Thanksgiving — with orders needing to have already been placed to guarantee the swabs’ arrival.

Covid cases are rising again at present, with wastewater surveillance showing a five percent uptick in the concentration of Covid particles over the week to November 8. Flu cases are also ticking up, with the number reported rising 60 percent in the week to November 12, the latest available.

A total of 14.5million homes have ordered free Covid tests so far, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services told DailyMail.com. 

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Biden Judicial Nominee Appears Stumped by Basic Legal Terms at Nomination Hearing

A nominee for a district judgeship in Oklahoma struggled during her nomination hearing on Wednesday to define basic terms for orders issued regularly by judges.

Sara E. Hill, who is nominated by President Biden to be the district judge for the Northern District of Oklahoma, was grilled by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., on the Senate Judiciary Committee about basic legal and Constitutional terms and definitions — a practice that’s become usual for him in recent months after several nominees have struggled to pass his tests.

When Kennedy asked Hill the difference between a “stay” order and an “injunction” order — two orders frequently issued by federal courts — Hill stumbled through her answers.

“A stay order would prohibit, um, sorry. An injunction would restrain the parties from taking action. A stay order … I’m not sure I can, actually can, can give you that,” she said.

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Biden’s Justice Department Says Marijuana Consumers Are ‘Unlikely’ To Store Guns Properly In Latest Defense Of Federal Ban

The Biden administration has once again found itself in federal court defending a ban preventing people who use marijuana from buying or possessing firearms, arguing that historical precedent “comfortably” supports the restriction and that cannabis consumers with guns pose a unique danger to society, in part because they’re “unlikely” to store their weapon properly before using marijuana.

In a brief submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Wednesday, attorneys for the Justice Department responded to a series of prompts from the judges, asserting that the firearm ban for marijuana consumers is justified based on historical analogues to restrictions on the mentally ill and habitually drunk that were imposed during the time of the Second Amendment’s ratification in 1791.

The federal government has repeatedly affirmed that those analogues, which must be demonstrated to maintain firearm restrictions under a recent Supreme Court ruling, provide clear support for limiting gun rights for cannabis users. But several federal courts have separately deemed the marijuana-related ban unconstitutional, leading DOJ to appeal in several ongoing cases.

For the case before the Third Circuit, the government is defending the ban against Erik Matthew Harris, who was convicted of violating the federal statute prohibiting the possession of a firearm by a person “who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance.” As the Daily Caller first reported, Harris’s legal representation also submitted a supplemental brief to the court on Wednesday that broadly disputes both the substance of the conviction under the statute, as well as the idea that there are relevant historical analogues to uphold the existing ban.

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Indonesia’s President Urges Biden To Lift FDA’s Kratom Import Restrictions, Advocacy Groups Say

In a meeting with President Joe Biden this week, the president of Indonesia urged the administration to lift a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) alert that broadly restricts imports of kratom to the U.S., according to a pair of advocacy groups.

Indonesia is one of the primary international exporters of kratom, a plant native to Southeast Asia that’s used for pain relief, managing the symptoms of opioid withdrawal and other purposes. The plant is currently unscheduled under U.S. law, but FDA issued an import alert in July that has seriously limited kratom imports from Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo met with Biden for a bilateral meeting at the White House on Monday. According to the American Kratom Association (AKA) and the Kratom Coalition, Widodo used the opportunity to request administrative action to remove the FDA restrictions, emphasizing the economic and environmental consequences of the current kratom import policy for Indonesia.

The White House referred Marijuana Moment’s request for comment to the National Security Council (NSC). A spokesperson for NSC said they have “nothing to add on the Leaders’ conversation beyond the joint statement and fact sheet released on Monday” that do not explicitly mention kratom.

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Gun Hobbyists (and Liberty) Win Big in Court

The Biden administration’s scheme to threaten the public with tightened gun-control regulations by reinterpreting laws to mean what they never meant in the past is running into some speed bumps. Stumbling over one of those obstacles is an attempt by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to define unfinished firearm frames and receivers—functionally, paperweights—as firearms for the purpose of regulating homemade “ghost guns.” The courts aren’t buying the government’s argument and on November 9 delivered another slap to regulators and the White House.

“The agency rule at issue here flouts clear statutory text and exceeds the legislatively-imposed limits on agency authority in the name of public policy,” wrote Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt for three judges of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in ruling on VanDerStok v. Garland. “Because Congress has neither authorized the expansion of firearm regulation nor permitted the criminalization of previously lawful conduct, the proposed rule constitutes unlawful agency action, in direct contravention of the legislature’s will.”

Specifically, the court addressed portions of the ATF’s new “frame and receiver” rule which reinterpreted existing law, particularly elements of the Gun Control Act of 1968. The rule would extend the ATF’s reach and allow the government to restrict home construction of firearms in ways that the Biden White House wants as part of a crusade against so-called “ghost guns” but hasn’t been able to get through Congress.

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First photos reveal the COCAINE found in the White House: Images of the baggy in cubby hole that sparked White House investigation – and the culprit has still not been found

Photos of cocaine found in a phone locker in President Joe Biden‘s White House this summer can be revealed by DailyMail.com for the first time. 

The Secret Service included images of the bag of white powder that was found in a cubby hole used to store personal belongings near the White House’s West Executive entrance in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. 

Cocaine was found on Sunday, July 2 while the Biden family – including son Hunter – was spending the weekend away at Camp David ahead of the Fourth of July holiday.

The discovery prompted an evacuation of the West Wing and street closures surrounding the White House and then triggered an 11-day investigation once the substance was identified as the illicit drug. 

Documents obtained by DailyMail.com also show the Deputy Director of the FBI was involved in the investigation, which clouded the Biden administration in scandal this summer. 

The Secret Service closed the investgation in less than two weeks due to a ‘lack of evidence.’ 

The list of suspects had been narrowed down to 500, but security footage wasn’t able to determine the owner as cameras do not face the locker area. 

It is unclear if any suspects were interviewed during the short investigation. 

There also weren’t usable fingerprints or other DNA evidence on the ‘dime-sized’ zipper-lock bag that contained less than a gram of the drug. 

It had been sent to the FBI’s lab at Quantico for this analysis, the documents show. 

The Secret Service said the cocaine was sent for ‘destruction’ on July 14, a day after the probe wrapped up. 

Initial reports about the incident said the cocaine was discovered in the White House library, then the West Wing lobby and then finally the cubbies by the West Executive entrance.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s initial response to questions about whether the cocaine could belong to a Biden came in the form of pointing out that they weren’t home. 

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U.S. WEAPONS TRANSFERS TO ISRAEL SHROUDED IN SECRECY — BUT NOT UKRAINE

ONE MONTH SINCE Hamas’s surprise attack, little is known about the weapons the U.S. has provided to Israel. Whereas the Biden administration released a three-page itemized list of weapons provided to Ukraine, down to the exact number of rounds, the information released about weapons sent to Israel could fit in a single sentence.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged the secrecy in an October 23 press briefing, saying that while U.S. security assistance flows to Israel “on a near-daily basis,” he continued, “We’re being careful not to quantify or get into too much detail about what they’re getting — for their own operational security purposes, of course.”

The argument that transparency would imperil Israel’s operational security — somehow not a concern with Ukraine — is misleading, experts told The Intercept.

“The notion that it would in any way harm the Israeli military’s operational security to provide more information is a cover story for efforts to reduce information on the types of weapons being supplied to Israel and how they are being used,” William Hartung, a fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and expert on weapons sales, told The Intercept. “I think the purposeful lack of transparency over what weapons the U.S. is supplying to Israel ‘on a daily basis’ is tied to the larger administration policy of downplaying the extent to which Israel will use those weapons to commit war crimes and kill civilians in Gaza.”

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Federal Judge Smacks Down Biden’s ATF AR-15 Gun Ban

A Trump appointed federal judge just smacked down an attempt by Biden’s ATF to ban AR-15 pistols with arm braces.

It’s amazing. No matter how bad crime gets, the Democrat left is still intent on trying to disarm law abiding Americans.

Gun sales are through the roof right now, as Americans were horrified by the attacks on mostly unarmed Israelis by Hamas in October.

The Washington Examiner reports:

Judge crushes ATF AR-15 gun ban

A federal judge late Wednesday gave millions of gun owners breathing room when he slammed the Biden administration’s effort to ban a big slice of the AR-15 market.

U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk blocked the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from enforcing its ban on AR-15 style “pistols” equipped with arm braces, calling the agency’s new rule unlawful.

“Public safety concerns must be addressed in ways that are lawful. This rule is not,” said the Trump-appointed judge.

The nine-page decision is the latest to challenge the ATF over its rule requiring millions of owners of braced guns to register the firearms and pay a $200 tax, or face 10 years in jail. Kacsmaryk’s decision is the most sweeping, covering the whole country.

At issue is the ATF’s rule issued earlier this year to ban the braces on the guns. The agency claims it turns a pistol into a dangerous rifle and supporters have cited how the weapons have been used in a handful of mass shootings.

However, for years before its ban, the ATF allowed the braces to be sold, and they have become so common that some estimate 40 million or more are in circulation, making the AR-style pistol one of the most commonly held firearms in the nation.

This tweet includes an image of the guns in question.

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Biden DHS Head Claims There Is “No Disaster” At The Border

Despite record numbers of encounters will illegal immigrants crossing the southern U.S. border in their thousands every day, including suspected terrorists, the head of the Biden Department for Homeland Security claimed under oath Wednesday that there is “no disaster”.

Alejandro Mayorkas made the claim while testifying before Congress regarding the border security budget and spending, and asking for more funding.

GOP Senator John Boozman told Mayorkas that “by every metric the situation at the border is a disaster,” adding that “what you’re asking for does nothing to get those numbers down.”

Mayorkas attempted to pivot the exchange to suggest Republicans are resistant to providing funding to hire more personnel at the border.

Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith further asked Mayorkas: “So the situation at the border, you’re saying, is not a disaster?”

“That is correct,” Mayorkas then answered.

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White House: Economy ‘Exceptionally’ Good and People Like Their Finances, But Don’t Feel Confident Due to COVID, War

On Monday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” White House National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard reacted to negative poll numbers on the economy by stating that “the economy is performing exceptionally well” but “people have been through a very challenging few years between the pandemic, and then the oil price spikes associated with Russia’s war. It’s going to take a while for them to feel really confident,” and most people “feel like their personal finances are better now than they were before.”

Co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin said, “Speak to this, though, because I think there [are] a lot of folks who have been waking up to headlines of poll results over the weekend, as it relates to Bidenomics versus, frankly, Trumponomics and where he stands — the president that is — compared to where…the former president stands in terms of how people are thinking about the economy and how, frankly, unhappy they remain about the economy.”

Brainard responded, “Look, if I look around the world, I don’t think there’s a leader out there who wouldn’t rather have the economic record that President Biden has today. We have been growing, 3% over the past year. We’ve had unemployment down below 4% for 21 months in a row. Real incomes are growing. Wealth — this is remarkable — wealth is up 37% for the median household since before the pandemic. And we’re growing faster and have lower inflation than any other advanced economy in the world. So, the statistics, I think, are very strong. Now, people have been through a very challenging few years between the pandemic, and then the oil price spikes associated with Russia’s war. It’s going to take a while for them to feel really confident, but if you look at surveys, 70% of Americans feel like their personal finances are better now than they were before. We’ve still got to work on kitchen table economics, there are still a lot of Americans sitting around their kitchen tables with costs of medicine, pharmaceuticals that are still too high, and we’re working on that.”

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