Patterico's Pontifications

1/11/2023

COVID Emergency Yesterday, COVID Emergency Today, COVID Emergency Forever

Filed under: General — JVW @ 7:28 pm



[guest post by JVW]

From NRO, earlier today:

The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will extend the existing Covid public-health emergency for another 90 days in response to the latest variant of the virus.

The announcement, which marks the twelfth time the state of emergency has been extended since it was first implemented by President Trump in 2020, preserves a suite of executive-branch powers that have been used to implement longstanding progressive policy goals, such as increases to Medicaid benefits.

You don’t have to be as cynical as I am to start to wonder if Democrats in general and progressive Democrats in particular don’t love the COVID state of emergency as it allows them great latitude to advance lefty aims such as student loan repayment pauses, increasing health benefits, changing voting rules, and a whole host of other programs, some of which are patently illegal, without having to go through that whole pesky legislative process that the totally uncool and out-of-date Constitution requires. This is evocative of that ridiculous gasbag Thomas Friedman’s musing that it would nice to have China’s system of government for a very short period so that we could enact all of the great environmental regulations that would otherwise stand no chance of passing a duly elected legislature, representative of all of the citizens and not just the bureaucrat/media/academic/entertainment consensus that runs today’s Democrat Party.

At least when a villain like Gavin Newsom holds on to emergency power he is doing so at the behest of a supine and frivolous legislative body controlled by his allies, not like the Biden Administration who appears to be working to prevent their political adversaries from carrying out their appointed tasks. I mentioned this in passing on an earlier thread at the end of last year, but the continued abuse of power by the Executive — which didn’t originate with Joe Biden’s Administration but seems to have achieved its maximum effect thanks to them — will likely lead us to articles of impeachment being filed by the House, and I for one will probably find myself supporting his removal from office.

– JVW

President Biden: More Documents Marked Classified Discovered (UPDATE ADDED)

Filed under: General — Dana @ 1:42 pm



[guest post by Dana]

In addition to yesterday’s news that President Biden’s lawyers turned over classified-marked documents to the National Archives after they had been discovered in a locked closet at the University of Pennsylvania, we are now learning that another batch of classified documents has been discovered:

Aides to President Joe Biden have discovered at least one additional batch of classified documents in a location separate from the Washington office he used after leaving the Obama administration, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Since November, after the discovery of documents with classified markings in his former office, Biden aides have been searching for any additional classified materials that might be in other locations he used, said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details about the ongoing inquiry.

The report points out that we do not know the classification level of the documents, exactly where the additional documents were located, or when the additional documents were discovered.

Neither the White House nor the Department of Justice have commented on this new revelation.

I’ll update the post when we learn something new.

UPDATE: The White House confirms that the documents with classified markings were found in President Biden’s garage:

In a statement released on Twitter, Special Counsel to the President Richard Sauber said the documents were found during a search for documents in Biden’s two Delaware homes.

“All but one of these documents were found in storage space in the president’s Wilmington residence garage. One document consisting of one page was discovered among stored materials in an adjacent room,” Sauber said.

–Dana

Rep. George Santos Called On To Resign, He Says That’s Not Happening (UPDATE ADDED)

Filed under: General — Dana @ 10:55 am



[guest post by Dana]

Of course this is coming after Rep-elect George Santos voted repeatedly for Kevin McCarthy in last week’s battle to secure the House speaker position:

Nassau County Republican officials on Wednesday called on newly sworn-in Rep. George Santos, the Republican who confessed to lying about key details of his background, to resign.

“George Santos’ campaign last year was a campaign of deceit, lies and fabrication,” Nassau County GOP Chairman Joe Cairo said at a news conference with other party officials.

Cairo took aim at Santos for having “disgraced” the House and made clear that the freshman congressman is “not welcome here at Republican headquarters.”

“We do not consider him one of our Congress people,” Cairo said.

Well, maybe you should have done your due diligence in fully vetting Santos. After all, even a small local newspaper was wise to his ways well before the election.

Santos certainly doesn’t appear to be going anywhere:

Hey, Nassau County GOP, you snooze, you – and the American people – lose.

UPDATE: House Speaker McCarthy commented about the calls for the newly elected representative to resign:

Leaving the Steering meeting, McCarthy said he was standing by Santos and would not call on him to resign. He said Santos would have to face the Ethics Committee but that the New York congressman would get some committee assignment.

“I try to stick by the Constitution. The voters elected him to serve. If there is a concern and he has to go through the Ethics, we’ll let him move through that, but right now, the voters have a voice in the decision … so he will continue to serve,” McCarthy said.

“He’s gonna have to build the trust here and he’s gonna have the opportunity to try to do that. … Is there a charge against him? In America today, you are innocent until proven guilty.”

McCarthy has also said that Santos would not be be seated on any top committees but that he would be seated on one committee.

–Dana


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