This morning I wanted some news that didn’t involve the Chinese Virus ‘Crisis’ and thanks to a reader, Kristin, here is a little something you should know about.
LOL! But it does indirectly involve the virus because you can bet that gobs and gobs of borrowed billions is flowing to medical researchers in the quest for the magic bullet to stop COVID-19.
The federal government doles out grants in the billions of dollars to researchers in various fields, and does have an oversight department called the Office of Research Integritythat investigates fraudulent research and cheating researchers. “Research misconduct” they call it.
You have been hearing a lot on the news lately about our “Public Health Services” and ORIlists those federal agencies and acts as a watchdog over them.
Here are the Public Health Services we pay to guard our health:
Office of Public Health and Science
National Institutes of Health.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Food and Drug Administration
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
The Health Resources and Services Administration
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
The Indian Health Service
Office of Regional Health Administrators
Now check out the list of recently debarred*** medical researchers listed by ORI.
The message across the world must be—go to America foreign student/doctor and suck off the American taxpayers!
Have a look atDr. Sudhakar Yakkantifor example. He can be back as soon as 2024 looking for more federal bucks!
How many more ‘new Americans’ are participating in “research misconduct” and are not ever exposed?
No wonder that so many Americans are suspicious of medical information being put forth on the nightly news.
***The debarment and suspension procedures are intended to prevent waste, fraud and abuse in Federal procurement and non-procurement actions. Debarment or suspension of an organization or individual excludes that company or individual from doing business with the Federal Government.
There are some good things that will come from the Chinese virus crisis and one of those just could be a resurgence in the ‘Made in the USA Movement.’
Frankly, I wasn’t paying much attention to where my purchases were being produced, whether it was a new mattress or the food I’ve been putting in the freezer.
LOL! Our microwave quit a few months ago and my husband insisted we find one made in America. No luck after hours of research on the net and a phone call to our local appliance store. So now we get by the old fashioned way—without one!
However, the Smithfield Foods fiascoand the near complete dominance of China in many aspects of our consumer lives that has been revealed in recent weeks has me paying more attention.
Many of you may have seen a facebook post circulating which makes a couple of claims including these:
FOOD FROM CHINA… Smithfield Farms, the largest pork producing farm in the USA, was sold in September to China with the unanimous support of its stockholders! The hogs will still be raised here, but slaughtered and packaged for sale there before being sent back here.
[….]
Chickens
The same applies to many chickens. They can now be shipped there, but when they come back all that needs to be labeled is that they ‘WERE RAISED IN THE USA’. Not that they were processed in China!!!
This morning I wanted to see where the information was coming from and what was being said about it.
I don’t believe anything that the biased Snopessays, so I didn’t go there. And, I am not saying that USA Today’s ” fact checkers” are any more reliable, but they did provide some information especially about the ownership of Smithfield Foods that appears legit.
LOL! But USA Today glossed over some of the other issues raised in the post.
By the way, it makes no sense to raise hogs here and ship them live to China for processing as the facebook post claims is happening. Indeed that is why China bought at least one BIG MEAT company here—much easier to ship pork to China and elsewhere once it is packaged!
For readers of Refugee Resettlement Watchyou might recall that China was looking to build and own a beef plant in Montana a couple of years ago. It only makes sense to go where the cattle are still on the hoof and slaughter there!
I searched around and found an organization called “The Made in America Movement.” I’m way out of my comfort zone on this topic so I can’t vouch for them, or others like them, but it is worth having a look!
So, now I am headed to the freezer to read some labels!
So much for the President halting all immigration to the US during the on-going Chinese virus crisis. See yesterday’s post.
Today we have Politico(of all places) describing what is believed to be the direction President Trump’s executive order on immigration might take when it is revealed possibly today.
Trump’s immigration pause falls well short of full ban
On Monday night, President Donald Trump vowed he would suspend immigration into the United States during the coronavirus outbreak.
On Tuesday, he unveiled his plan. It was far short of a full ban. Trump announced that he will sign an executive order blocking most people for 60 days from receiving a permanent residency visa, or green card. But the order will still allow the government to continue processing visas for hundreds of thousands of temporary employees, including farm workers, landscapers and crab pickers — the largest source of immigration.
The order is also expected to carve out additional exemptions for so-called essential employees, including health care workers, and immigrants who come into the United States through immediate family members, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Trump, who will sign the executive order as soon as Wednesday, said the measure will be reassessed in two months.
“It would be wrong and unjust for Americans laid off by the virus to be replaced with new immigrants, labor flown in from abroad,” Trump said at the daily White House briefing, nodding to the 22 million Americans who have filed for unemployment in recent weeks. “We must first take care of the American worker, take care of the American worker.”
[….]
The move angered conservatives who were hoping the president would go further. The Trump administration has already paused most routine visa processing and refugee cases during the coronavirus pandemic, meaning the president’s executive order may be redundant for many already-stalled cases. Moreover, a majority of immigrants seeking green cards are already living in the U.S.
“Briefly delaying green cards for people, most of whom are already in the U.S. and working, and ignoring work visas doesn’t help U.S. workers and doesn’t ease pressure on hospitals, “ said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies.“Can’t know for sure until there’s actually something official to read, but this looks more like a political gesture than a serious policy move.”
[….]
“To continue most immigration at this time would show a callous disregard for those Americans who are enduring deep economic suffering,” said Roy Beck, president of NumbersUSA, which supports immigration restrictions.
[….]
Trump’s announcement had his critics decrying the move as a transparent attempt to rile up the president’s base in an election year, while distracting from the ongoing criticism of his coronavirus response.
Sorry I have been remiss in posting here, but see my posts at RRW on foreign-owned BIG MEAT companies (crooks indeed!), a longtime favorite topic of mine at Refugee Resettlement Watch. (click on the headlines)
The meat giants lobby for cheap immigrant labor (you support those low wage workers with taxpayer-funded welfare) while they change the character of the American heartland!
Editor: This is a guest column by my friend Bob Enos of Willmar, Minnesota. Regular readers of Refugee Resettlement Watch may remember Bob who compiled a great deal of information on the economic cost of migrant and refugee labor and wrote several articles for RRW in the past.
Go hereto read previous posts at RRW either written by him or about his work.
As the hysteria-driven lockdowns of coronavirus persist, constitutional conservatives are slowly emerging from under their beds. Spear carriers for social isolation and economic constriction in America have reacted to critics with the same derision accorded wearers of red MAGA hats. In less than thirty days, Americans have been persuaded to swap Constitutionally-guaranteed civil liberties in exchange for the illusion of protection from a virus that has touched a relative few.
This is not to say that the virus does not exist, nor that pockets of America do not suffer disproportionately from the health consequences of COVID-19.
However, neither the vast majority of Americans, nor family, friends, or neighbors, have been infected by the virus. Yet, the American public is expected – no, required – to support a one-size-fits-all national response that, to this writer, is akin to killing a flea with an elephant gun.
As international travel is acknowledged as the world’s COVID-19 courier, I’m led to an inescapable conclusion:
COVID-19 is, first and foremost, an unintended consequence of three factors, in order of significance: Open Borders movement, business globalization, and international tourism.
Presently, the nation of Sweden has the most relaxed posture in western Europe regarding COVID-19; she has no lockdown whatsoever. Many media pundits are nearly gleeful in reports of higher infection rates in Sweden compared to the rest of Europe. However, in its daily briefings on the virus, the Sweden Department of Public Health insists that its infection rate would be much lower, had the government enacted screening measures early on, for Swedish vacationers returning from Italy.
According to the state department of health here in Minnesota, our rate of infection as a percentage of the population is the lowest of any state in the nation.
The mean age for deaths attributed to COVID-19 here is 86. Pre-existing health problems accompany nearly all the fatalities, and the majority have been residents of nursing homes.
This past week, several meatpacking companies throughout the Midwest – names like Smithfield, Cargill, Tyson, and Brazilian conglomerate JBS – reported closures of plants in which anywhere from 20 to 80 employees tested positive for corona virus. What do nursing homes and meatpacking plants share in common? The majority of workers in both industries – industries hard-hit by labor shortages- are recent arrivals from third-world nations; populations for whom international travel is commonplace.
New York City – the epicenter of COVID-19 in the United States – is also America’s symbol for the “nation of immigrants.” Additionally, she is a preeminent international business center. Business travelers from across the globe travel in and out of New York City by the hundreds every single day.
Finally, New York City may be the most popular tourist destination in America for foreign travelers. Walk down Fifth Avenue on any given weekend in Autumn if there is any doubt.
Is it any wonder, then, that COVID-19 fatalities in the New York Tri-state area make up as much as half of the nation’s COVID-related deaths?
What we are witnessing is the unintended consequence of unbridled, open borders migration, be it for business, escaping third world poverty, or tourism.
Globalists are hard at work on damage control. Their messengers of doomsday scenarios will claim victory regardless of the outcome. If the death count is high, they’ll say “we told you so”. If the death rate is low, they’ll take credit for convincing the world to heed their warnings.
And let’s not forget the icing on the cake.
Leftists the world over are not about to pass up an opportunity to exploit a crisis that could hurt the President’s re-election campaign. If turning a blind eye to civil liberties sends President Trump packing and derails the conservative/national sovereignty contingent, well, you gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette. Collateral damaged be damned.
And the collateral damage? There are many versions of death. Nearly all agree that economic recovery will be long and drawn out, at best. The fallout will certainly be the death knell for many rural towns throughout the Midwest that have been hanging on by fingernails for years as it is.Hospitals will go broke. Record numbers face unemployment. Children are kept from schooling. Small retail businesses and the hospitality industry are crushed, many for good. Socializing is verboten. All in the name of containing a virus for which attributable deaths in New York’s Tri-state area (a population of nearly 20 million) make up roughly FIVE ONE HUNDREDTHS OF ONE PERCENT of its population.
My late mother, a nurse, had a one-liner of dark humor she picked up on the hospital floor: “the operation was a complete success, and the patient died.”
