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U.S. Drug Overdoses Hit Record 93,000 in 2020

A different kind of epidemic is sweeping across the U.S.

QUICK FACTS:
  • Drug deaths in the United States set a new record taking 93,331 lives.
  • The data comes from statistics released on Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to The New York Times (NYT).
  • Deaths rose nearly 30% in 2020, rising in every state except for New Hampshire and South Dakota.
  • The biggest increases were in the South and the West.
OTHER SOMBER RECORDS SET IN 2020:
  • 2020 saw not only the most drug overdose deaths in a year but also the most deaths from opioid overdoses.
  • It also saw the most overdose deaths from stimulants like methamphetamine.
  • Moreover, it saw the most deaths from the highly deadly fentanyl, a class of synthetic opioids.
WHAT DOCTORS ARE SAYING:
  • University of California, San Francisco Professor of medicine Daniel Ciccarone said of the surge in overdose deaths, “It’s huge, it’s historic, it’s unheard of, unprecedented, and a real shame.” “It’s a complete shame,” reports NYT.
BACKGROUND:
  • The highest yearly deaths from car crashes, gun violence, and AIDS have already in recent years been overtaken by annual drug overdose deaths.
  • NYT reports “overdose deaths dipped slightly in 2018. But they resumed their upward course in 2019, and drug deaths were rising in the early months of 2020.”
  • Congress passed a package of bills in 2018 meant to reduce the drug overdose death toll by putting new limits on prescription drugs and improving addiction treatment access.
  • Congress also earmarked $1.5 billion to fight the epidemic earlier this year.
WHERE THE DRUGS ARE COMING FROM:
  • “It appears that the pandemic may have briefly interrupted the flow of fentanyls from China into the United States,” writes NYT.
  • Chinese money launderers have teamed up with Mexican cartels to profit billions from the U.S. fentanyl crisis.
  • The fentanyl boom facilitated by China is different from past opioid epidemics in that it “involves an international operation of people in multiple countries working together to produce and transport the drugs and then secretly shuttle the profits across U.S. borders,” according to The Washington Examiner.
  • “It’s the greatest drug scourge in American history—more Americans killed annually than any time in history, and so, yeah, this is a problem of epic proportions,” said Fentanyl, Inc. author Ben Westhoff.
  • One recent Fox News piece points out that China’s doctrine of “Unrestricted Warfare,” a book published by two Chinese colonels almost 20 years ago, lays out the strategy for “fighting [America] on every front, from cybersecurity to outer space to inner cities where Americans are overdosing on drugs like Fentanyl.”

Matters of the Heart

The pandemic is fading and it’s now time to take charge of our health again.

The number of deaths from heart disease, caused by traditional risk factors, far exceeds the cardiac deaths caused by Covid-19. Heart disease caused by blockage in the coronary arteries still remains the leading cause of death in this country.

The coronary arteries supply the heart muscle itself. They are subjected to inflammation throughout our lives that eventually leads to plaque formation in the lining of the arteries. This is called atherosclerosis or “hardening of the arteries”.

Gradual buildup of plaque leads to a restriction of blood flow that can starve the heart muscle for blood, leading to symptoms of shortness of breath or chest discomfort. We call these symptoms “angina”.

Sudden closure of the artery leads to total shut off of blood to a segment of the heart. This leads to damage of the heart muscle which we call a heart attack.

Most heart attacks are caused by plaque rupture, similar to a pimple bursting in the coronary artery channel. Often there are no prior symptoms since the artery channel is wide open until plaque ruptures. Almost half of all heart attacks lead to sudden death.

Imagine if we had an easy method to detect who has hardening of the coronary arteries!

Most of us believe that early detection of cancers save lives. We believe in mammograms to detect early breast cancer, colonoscopy to screen for colon cancer, and PSA for prostate cancer screening. We do have a method for early detection of coronary heart disease—think of it as “the mammogram for the heart”—that can save lives and is inexpensive, yet it is still not fully understood or prescribed by many physicians. It is called coronary calcium screening.

The method uses high-speed, low radiation CT scans such as Electron Beam CT scans. EBCT heart scans are the gold standard, but other CT scans are also beneficial to detect calcium in the coronary arteries.

Coronary calcium is the same as plaque or atherosclerosis. The more coronary calcium, the more likely a heart attack will occur unless there is an intervention with cholesterol-lowering meds (usually statins) and/or lifestyle changes.

The cholesterol meds stabilize the plaque, reducing the chance of plaque rupture and a subsequent heart attack, even before the cholesterol is reduced, by reducing inflammation in the lining of the coronary arteries. The scan takes five minutes, no special preparation is needed.

The scanner software will add up all the bits of calcium in the coronaries and give a coronary calcium score (CACS). Know your score! The lower the score, the better.

The benefits of coronary calcium screening are profound because it changes what might otherwise be done. For instance, half of all heart attacks occur in persons with normal cholesterol! If you can identify these patients by finding a large amount of coronary calcium, starting a cholesterol medication in this situation can significantly reduce the risk of a heart attack.

At the other end of the spectrum, if you have high cholesterol levels, you may avoid being on cholesterol medication if you get a coronary calcium scan and have zero or very little calcium. Again, it changes what might traditionally be done: give cholesterol meds to someone with normal cholesterol and lots of coronary calcium; avoid giving meds to those with high cholesterol who do not need it.

Who should get the scan?

  • Men > 35 years old or women > 40 years old
  • At least one traditional risk factor: family history of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, smoking history, high cholesterol or low HDL (HDL is the good, protective cholesterol), sedentary lifestyle.
  • If you had a prior heart attack, a coronary stent or prior coronary bypass surgery, this is not the test for you because we know you have hardening of the coronary arteries.
  • No symptoms: if you have chest pain or shortness of breath, you need a stress test.

The test cost: $150 -$200, not covered by most insurance companies.

The two centers with some of the longest experience:

  1. The Dick Butkus Center for Cardiovascular Wellness at Saint Joseph Hospital in Orange, California, 714-744-8849; this is an EBCT scanner
  2. UCLA: 310-825-2631

Larry Santora, MD, FACC
Interventional and Preventive Cardiology
Medical Director of Orange County Heart Institute
Orange, CA

Medical Director of The Dick Butkus Center for Cardiovascular Wellness
Saint Joseph Hospital
Orange, CA

Arizona Rally Demands Release of Jan. 6 ‘Political Prisoners’

Hoisting flags and political signs, more than 250 Arizona conservatives rallied in Scottsdale on Wednesday to demand the release of pro-Trump protesters being held in federal prisons since Jan. 6.

“This nation will not be [made] safe by cowards,” said keynote speaker Matt Braynard of Look Ahead America, co-sponsor of the rally with local branch Look Ahead Arizona, at Sue Wood’s Scottsdale Studios.

Both groups called upon conservatives to organize at the community level to free more than 500 pro-Trump protesters in federal custody.

Braynard, a former Trump data analyst, is leading the charge with Look Ahead America to release what he called “political prisoners.”

He said Wednesday’s rally was a run-up to a large political protest to be held Saturday at a federal prison in Washington.

While the FBI has arrested 535 protesters, Braynard said, “in almost all cases, these were non-violent” people.

“They’re losing their jobs because their employers don’t want to employ them,” Braynard said, adding that 100 to 200 have been held without bail since they were arrested.

“They’re not forgotten,” he said, as he remembered the shooting death of Ashley Babbitt by a still unidentified White House security member inside the Capitol building on Jan. 6.

“I can’t help but wonder how a 90-pound woman who clearly was not armed—why the response was a bullet,” Braynard said. “You’re in the cross-hairs too. The insurrection narrative is the root of a very poisonous tree—the ‘Big Lie’ of insurrection.”

Wednesday’s rally was framed around Arizona’s coyote-skin clad “Q-Anon Shaman,” Jacob Chansley, who turned himself in to authorities three days after the DC protest.

Jeff Blase of Phoenix, wielding a “Free Jake!” sign, said he attended the rally to support Chansley and other political detainees.

“If you know anything about Jake he’s a non-violent person,” said Blase, who participated in other protests with Chansley. “Jake is a very smart individual as well.”

To prove his point, Blase said Chansley was videotaped inside the Senate Chambers leading the protesters in prayer.

“The reason I’m here is because of people like Jake who are nonviolent and who are being held in the [federal] gulag,” Blase said.

Chansley’s St. Louis-based defense attorney, Albert Watkins, described the conditions his client is facing in jail as “gulag-like treatment.”

“Mr. Chansley has been in solitary confinement since he voluntarily and peacefully surrendered himself to federal authorities on Jan. 9,” Watkins told The Epoch Times in an email. “His mental health and emotional well-being are significantly challenged. His ability to focus on his own defense has been encumbered.”

“He was not violent or disorderly or destructive in any manner. He was not armed. He did not threaten. There is no end in sight. His only reliable unmonitored contact with the outside world is his attorney—me,” Watkins added. “He is alone.”

Martha Chansley, Jake’s mother, told Wednesday’s gathering her son called her just minutes before the rally to say that “he is very touched and he really appreciates you and your love and your support and your prayers, because it’s really tough. It’s a tough time.”

“It takes a lot of courage to do what you know is right,” Chansley said. “Let’s continue to keep this faith because ultimately, in the end, God wins.”

Congressman Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) told the rally “there are reports that some of the prisoners have been tortured or held in solitary confinement 24 hours a day.”

“What are they trying to hide? Americans deserve the truth,” said Gosar. “[The prisoners] need to be treated fairly and with due process. So we have come here to demand equal justice under the law.”

Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem (R) asked the crowd rhetorically, “Have you seen my country lately?”

“This is what Bolsheviks do. They destroy people. They steal from people. They lie and they cheat, and then they kill you,” Finchem said. “[Jan. 6] was a setup. That’s what Bolsheviks do. One day I pray to God that the individuals who have foisted this upon us will be held accountable for the treason they have committed.”

Trump: Fulton County 2020 Election ‘Hand Recount Was Wrong By 60%’—’Beyond Incredible’

“The news coming out of Georgia is beyond incredible. The hand recount in Fulton County was a total fraud! They stuffed the ballot box—and got caught. We will lose our Country if this is allowed to stand,” President Trump said.

QUICK FACTS:
  • President Donald Trump released a statement on Wednesday condemning the 2020 presidential election vote recount in Fulton County, Georgia.
  • He emphasized the fact that the Fulton County hand recount was off by 60%, as confirmed by VoterGA.
  • But he also mentioned “illegal votes” found in Georgia as well as “obsolete voter registrations and “dead people” who had apparently voted.
  • President Trump called out “corruption at the highest level” and warned that “Our Nation is at stake!”
WHAT TRUMP SAID:
  • “[T]he hand recount was wrong by 60%,” Trump said.
  • “100,000 tally sheets for ballots were missing.”
  • “[T]hey duplicated thousands of extra votes for Joe Biden.”
  • There were “fabricated vote counts of 100–0 counts for Biden.”
  • “Ballot batch sheets fraudulently showed multiple unanimous 100–0 counts for Biden, as well as 150–0, and 200–0.”
  • “This is on top of the 35,000 illegal votes recently found in Georgia, and the over 100,000 obsolete voter registrations, plus thousands of dead people, deleted AFTER the election,” he added.
WHAT VOTERGA HAS SAID:
  • VoterGA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, all-volunteer, dues-free “coalition of citizens founded to restore election integrity in Georgia,” according to its website. “We advocate verifiable auditable recount capable and transparent elections.”
  • On July 13, the organization reported that “Fulton County’s hand count audit of the November 3rd 2020 election was riddled with massive errors and provable fraud.”
  • The VoterGA team “found 7 falsified audit tally sheets containing fabricated vote totals for their respective batches. For example, a batch containing 59 actual ballot images for Joe Biden, 42 for Donald Trump and 0 for Jo Jorgenson was reported as 100 for Biden and 0 for Trump. The seven batches of ballot images with 554 votes for Joe Biden, 140 votes for Donald Trump and 11 votes for Jo Jorgenson had tally sheets in the audit falsified to show 850 votes for Biden, 0 votes for Trump and 0 votes for Jorgenson.”
  • VoterGA’s press release also stated that Fulton County “failed to include over 100,000 tally sheets, including more than 50,000 from mail-in ballots, when the results were originally published for the full hand count audit conducted by the office of the Secretary of State for the November 3rd 2020 election. Those tally sheets remained missing until late February when the county supplemented their original audit results.”
  • “Petitioners contend that Fulton County did not provide drop box transfer forms for at least three pickup days when obligated to do so via an Open Records Request. Those missing forms are still needed to provide chain of custody proof for about 5,000 ballots,” also according to the press release.
WHY IT MATTERS:
  • VoterGA concludes that “all these anomalies,” now included in the Fulton County ballot inspection lawsuit, prove “additional counts of how the Equal Protection and Due Process Constitutional rights of Georgia voters were violated.”
You can download VoterGA’s full press release here:Download
WHAT ABOUT THE ARIZONA AUDIT?:
  • Arizona Senate President Karen Fann—who’s leading the GOP’s 2020 election audit effort in Maricopa County—told the radio station KTAR-FM on Tuesday that “the number of votes certified by the county and the number of ballots counted in the audit do not match,” according to reports.
  • “They haven’t released a number yet, if you will, however we do know that those numbers do not match with Maricopa County at this point”, Fann said.
AND PENNSYLVANIA?
  • Pennsylvania Republicans toured the Arizona audit and indicated in early July they’re intentions to conduct a similar audit which will be privately funded.
  • Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano (R)—chair of the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee—leads the effort.
  • Mastriano announced last week that he’s already sent letters to Philadelphia, York, and Tioga counties asking them to turn over election materials by the end of July.
  • The Philadelphia Inquirer reports those materials include ballots, voting machines, vote-counting equipment, mail-in ballot envelopes, and mail-in ballot applications.
  • Sen. Mastriano could resort to issuing subpoenas to force counties to comply if they refuse to provide the materials.

Jon Fleetwood is Managing Editor for American Faith.

Poll: Two-Thirds Of Americans Want China To Pay COVID Reparations

A TIPP poll carried out by the Center for Security Policy discovered that nearly two-thirds of Americans want China to pay reparations for the coronavirus pandemic.

QUICK FACTS:
  • Senior Analyst for the Center for Security Policy Michael Waller reported the poll showing “the American people are taking an increasingly hard line toward the Chinese regime” when it comes to the coronavirus.
  • He said that, if the virus is proven to have leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, almost two-thirds of Americans believe that “the Chinese regime should pay reparations for the destruction caused by the human coronavirus pandemic.”
  • That number “rises from 63% to 78% if investigations reveal that the Chinese government released the SARS-CoV-19 human coronavirus on purpose,” Waller added.
  • In sum, the poll found that 49% of Americans support the notion that the virus “was developed in a lab.”
  • The Center’s results “coincide with the numbers of a new Politico-Harvard poll, which shows that 52% of the public believes that the virus that causes COVID-19 came from a ‘laboratory leak in China.'”
HOW REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS DIFFER:
  • 71% of Republicans want China to pay reparations for an “accidental” leak, 61% of Democrats agreeing.
  • On the other hand, 88% of Republicans want reparations for an “intentional” release, 73% of Democrats agreeing.
BACKGROUND:
  • President Donald Trump has claimed since as far back as April 2020 that he’s seen evidence leading him to believe with a “high degree of confidence” that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab in Wuhan.
  • Media outlets called the Wuhan lab leak theory a “debunked” and “unfounded” conspiracy.
  • But Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) kept pressure on Dr. Anthony Fauci—head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)—over alleged U.S. funding of the Chinese lab involving so-called “gain of function” research. After this, Dr. Fauci too admitted in May 2021 that COVID could have come from Wuhan.
  • Now, according to The Wall Street Journal, a report on the origins of Covid-19 by a U.S. government national laboratory concluded that the hypothesis claiming the virus leaked from a Chinese lab in Wuhan is not only “plausible” but “deserves further investigation, according to people familiar with the classified document.”
  • Dr. David Asher—Donald Trump’s former lead investigator into the origins of Covid-19—said in recent days that a “huge” cash reward should be offered as an incentive to expose the Wuhan lab leak theory, even to encourage Wuhan scientists to break ranks and come forward with information. Dr. Asher, who worked for former U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo, said that “while China kept a tight grip in its people a cash incentive may be the way to unlock some crucial information,” according to News.com.au.

U.S. Navy Focuses More On Wokeness than War: Congressional Report

A GOP congressional committee found that the Navy’s top brass is more concerned about political correctness and diversity training than it is about fighting winning wars.

QUICK FACTS:
  • The report was commissioned by Republican lawmakers on the Senate and House Armed Services Committees and ordered by Army veteran Sen. Tom Cotton (AR), Navy reservist Rep. Jim Banks (IN), Navy SEAL veteran Rep. Dan Crenshaw (TX), and Marine veteran Rep. Mike Gallagher (WI).
  • The committee report was written by Marine Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Robert E. Schmidle and Navy Rear Adm. (Ret.) Mark Montgomery.
  • After 77 in-depth interviews with sailors of different ranks and duties, the report found that their frustration with non-essential training was “overwhelming.”
  • It showed the Navy’s drift towards a culture of careerism, political correctness, and risk aversion than training its sailors on how to fight and win, according to Breitbart News.
  • The report also revealed that sailors are feeling undertrained to face a 21st-century conflict with China and attested to a Navy less focused on warfighting than it is on compliance training.
  • It went on to criticize the Navy for overreacting to news media.
  • And the report concluded with a warning that “major peer-level conflict” in the 21st Century will “likely proceed swiftly and not permit significant time for organizational learning once it is underway.”
WHAT THE REPORT SAID:
  • The report said that “While programs to encourage diversity, human sex trafficking prevention, suicide prevention, sexual assault prevention, and others are appropriate, they come with a cost. The non-combat curricula consume Navy resources, clog inboxes, create administrative quagmires, and monopolize precious training time.”
  • “By weighing down sailors with non-combat-related training and administrative burdens, both Congress and Navy leaders risk sending them into battle less prepared and less focused than their opponents,” it went on to say.
HOW SAILORS FEEL:
  • “Sometimes I think we care more about whether we have enough diversity officers than if we’ll survive a fight with the Chinese navy,” lamented one female active-duty lieutenant. “It’s criminal. They think my only value is as a black woman. But you cut our ship open with a missile and we’ll all bleed the same color,” she added.
  • “I guarantee you every unit in the Navy is up to speed on their diversity training. I’m sorry that I can’t say the same of their ship handling training,” said one recently enlisted sailor who criticized the his leadership’s lack of emphasis on teaching basic operational skills.
  • Another commander said that “The Navy treats warfighting readiness as a compliance issue,” adding, “You might even use the term compliance-centered warfare as opposed to adversary-centered warfare or warfighter-centered warfare.”
  • “I’ve never heard anyone in any [congressional] testimony that I can think of that talks about actually winning. And so that’s not to absolve the Navy of its responsibility, but it’s just stunning to me,” said one career surface warfare officer.
BACKGROUND:
  • The congressional report comes after a string of serious naval accidents: the deadly collision of two destroyers at sea, the surrender of a small craft to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the Arabian Gulf, and a fire on the USS Bonhomme Richard in San Diego.
  • Navy leadership has been questioned by Cotton and Banks on diversity training in recent week. At one hearing, Cotton questionined why the Navy’s top officer put anti-racist activist Ibram X. Kendi’s book How to Be an Antiracist on his recommended reading list for sailors instead of a book on seafaring.
WHAT THE COMMITTEE SUGGESTED:
  • The report made several major recommendations including prioritizing warfighting and getting “politics and media out of the wardroom.”
  • It suggested, “Renew the Navy’s noble tradition of remaining out of politics. Limit social media accounts and activities by Navy officials, discourage use of toxic platforms by sailors, remove all political and sociological topics from Professional Military Education and replace them with essential warfighting courseware. Modernize public affairs training.”
  • It also recommended Navy leadership “Eliminate distractions. Institute a review to identify and reduce bureaucratic excess, nonessential communications, and unnecessary administrative burdens. Aim to create white space on calendars that can instead be used for training, doctrine, and warfighting fundamentals.”

MI Attorney Says She Has ‘Proof’ 2020 Election Was ‘Subverted’ (Video)

Michigan Attorney Stefanie Lambert said in an interview there’s proof of “anonymous logins” and malicious actors “accessing [voting] machines.”

QUICK FACTS:
  • Jim Hoft of the Gateway Pundit interviewed former prosecutor Michigan lawyer Stefanie Lambert about election fraud.
  • Since the 2020 U.S. presidential election in November, Lambert has been working to uncover election fraud in Michigan.
  • They discussed Dominion voting machines, as well as a subcontractor called Election Source which was “essentially running the elections.”
WATCH THE INTERVIEW:

Fifth Circuit allows chaplain-led courtroom prayers to continue after being ruled unconstitutional

Legal battle continues in years-old First Amendment case.

A federal appeals court sided with a Texas justice of the peace last week, allowing him to continue chaplain-led invocations before state court hearings while the lawsuit against him is adjudicated after his courtroom prayer tradition was ruled unconstitutional by a lower court. 

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a stay that permits Montgomery County Justice of the Peace Judge Wayne Mack to continue offering chaplain-led invocations at the beginning of his court sessions.

At issue is whether Mack is entitled to a stay pending appeal after U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt ruled in May that the tradition of having volunteer chaplains perform courtroom prayers violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. 

“The judge has made a strong showing that the district court erred,” reads the Fifth Circuit’s opinion. “The other three stay factors also favor the judge. We therefore issue the stay.” 

First Liberty Institute, a national religious liberty legal nonprofit, represents Mack.

“Judge Mack is grateful that the Fifth Circuit allowed him to continue following our nation’s long history and tradition of opening court proceedings with prayer,” First Liberty Institute Deputy General Counsel Justin Butterfield said in a statement.

“We agree with the Fifth Circuit’s conclusion that prohibiting the prayers was wrong,” he continued. “It’s time for the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the State Commission on Judicial Conduct to end their harassment of Judge Mack.”

Mack, a Christian, established the Justice Court Chaplaincy Program to allow local faith leaders, primarily Chrisitan, to open courtroom proceedings with a non-mandatory prayer, short message or devotional.

Courtroom attendees are allowed to leave during this time if they do not wish to participate. 

Though the chaplains are predominately Christian, the chaplaincy program included leaders from multiple faiths, including Sunni Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu religious leaders. 

The judge was sued by the secular legal group Freedom from Religion Foundation, arguing that holding prayers in the courtroom is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.  Unlike the district court, the Fifth Circuit was less sympathetic with the group’s arguments. 

“The Supreme Court has held that our Nation’s history and tradition allow legislatures to use tax dollars to pay for chaplains who perform sectarian prayers before sessions,” the Fifth Circuit ruling added. “If anything, Judge Mack’s chaplaincy program raises fewer questions under the Establishment Clause because it uses zero tax dollars and operates on a volunteer basis.”

Mack is grateful the stay was granted so the chaplaincy program can at least temporality continue.

“I am so very grateful that we have our chaplaincy program in place to assist with helping families in our county through terrible tragedies and to provide a moment of perspective as our court begins proceedings,” Mack said in a statement. “I am pleased that this program can continue while we are presenting our case to the 5th Circuit.”

FFRF initially challenged the courtroom prayers in a lawsuit filed in 2017. The case was refiled in 2019. 

Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president, said in May that the “courtroom is not a church” and a “judge’s bench is not a pulpit.”

First Liberty Institute said Mack followed “a long tradition of opening courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, with a ceremonial invocation.”

The battle over the chaplaincy prayer program began in 2014 when FRFF initially wrote a demand letter to Mack.

In response, Mack wrote an open letter to “Pastors & People of Faith,” arguing the chaplaincy program was under “national and local attack” by those that “believe that God & Faith has no place in public lives and service.” 

Judge Mack promised to institute “religious values within the office” and open his courtroom with prayer during his 2014 Republican primary campaign for justice of the peace for Montgomery County Precinct 1.

The judge has implemented various faith-based initiatives, such as the Justice Court Chaplaincy Program and prayer breakfasts. 

He also serves as a coroner for Montgomery County and carries out death investigations. 

Vote Counts Don’t Match in Maricopa County 2020 Election Audit, Arizona GOP Claims

Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, who is leading the GOP’s 2020 election audit effort in Maricopa County, told the radio station KTAR-FM on 13 July that the number of votes certified by the county and the number of ballots counted in the audit do not match.

“They haven’t released a number yet, if you will, however we do know that those numbers do not match with Maricopa County at this point”, Fann stated on Tuesday, in a reference to the group of independent auditors hired by the state senate.

One America News specified on Tuesday that further expected findings would be reported “within the next 48 hours”.

Arizona auditors have been recounting 2.1 million ballots cast in the 2020 election in Maricopa County as well as 385 tabulators since 23 April. Although the county has already held two forensic audits, in February 2021 the Arizona GOP won a case in which it sought a third recount and examination of election equipment in the fourth-most populous county in the nation. In November 2020, Joe Biden outperformed Donald Trump in Maricopa County by over 45,000 votes and bested the latter statewide by a margin of about 10,000 votes, or 0.3 percent of the roughly 3.4 million ballots cast.

​The Arizona Democratic Party has repeatedly tried to throw sand in the gears of the GOP-led recount from day one. Just hours before the procedure, the state’s Democratic Party filed a complaint in Maricopa County Superior Court insisting that the audit violates “various statutory and Election Procedures Manual provisions” and urged the court to ban it.

After the judge ruled that the audit could continue, Arizona Democrats served up new accusations, claiming that the security at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, where the ballots and tabulators are being stored, is questionable. In addition to that, the Arizona Senate audit also came into the cross hairs of the US Justice Department, which alleged that the effort may be in violation of federal law and amount to illegal voter intimidation.

Meanwhile, in May, auditors raised concerns about a number of issues, including missing passwords, withheld routers, and allegedly deleted databases as well as controversies surrounding the chain of custody and ballot organisation. In response, the Maricopa Board of Supervisors denied all the allegations in an official statement, adding that it would not assist the state’s Senate auditors in the ongoing recount of 2.1 million ballots and urged the Arizona GOP to shut the audit down. The recount effort attracted the attention of former President Trump, who described the alleged discrepancies outlined by Arizona auditors as “devastating.”

On 26 June, the Maricopa Arizona Audit’s Twitter account announced that paper examination and counting were finished. However, the audit continues to take more time than was initially planned. But the organisers insist that “the main reason the forensic audit is taking 2.5 months is because Maricopa County Supervisors and Recorder have obstructed the audit and refused to cooperate”.

The team of independent auditors is due to publish a comprehensive report on all the findings.

The Arizona effort prompted a number of other states to follow suit. In June, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger acknowledged supposed irregularities in Atlanta’s Fulton County and announced on 14 June that 100,000 people would be removed from voter rolls across the state. The Michigan Senate Oversight Committee has also looked into 2020 election issues, but found no “systematic fraud” in the state.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania GOP members visited the Arizona audit and signalled in early July that they are interested in launching a privately funded audit of the state’s election results. The effort is led by Pennsylvania state GOP Senator Doug Mastriano, who chairs the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee and is regarded as a potential future gubernatorial candidate. Last week, Mastriano announced that he had sent letters to Philadelphia, York, and Tioga counties asking them to turn over election materials by 31 July. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the materials include ballots, voting machines, vote counting equipment, mail-in ballot envelopes, and mail-in ballot applications. The senator specified that if the counties refuse to provide the materials, he could resort to issuing subpoenas to force them to comply.

​In an apparent response to the growing Republican effort to review the 2020 election results and strengthen ID laws across the country, President Joe Biden delivered a speech on 13 July at the National Constitution Centre in Philadelphia. In particular, the president addressed what he called the “Big Lie”, i.e. concerns that he did not win the 2020 election fair and square.

“In America, if you lose, you accept the results”, Biden said. “You follow the Constitution. You try again. You don’t call facts fake and then try to bring down the American experiment just because you’re unhappy. That’s not statesmanship. That’s selfishness”.

However, the president’s remarks immediately prompted a backlash on social media, with netizens citing Hillary Clinton’s refusal to recognise the 2016 election results by claiming that they were “stolen” from her by Donald Trump and “Russian hackers”. For his part, American conservative journalist Jack Posobiec quoted Biden’s own 24 July 2019 tweet which said that “Russia undermined [American democracy] by interfering in the 2016 election”. “This you?” Posobiec asked, addressing Joe Biden.

Persecution of Indian Christians Unabated, 154 Acts Of Violence So Far This Year

United Christian Forum (UCF), a human rights group based in New Delhi that monitors atrocities against Christians in India, reports it has confirmed 154 incidents of violence in 17 states in the first half of the year alone in the mostly Hindu country.

“This year hasn’t been any different for Indian Christians except that Indian Christians across the globe came together to establish an exclusive day for themselves on July 3 and launched a decade of celebrations (2021-30) to honor the 2,000th anniversary of the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ,” the UCF said in a statement. 

According to UCF, mob violence is usually accompanied by a police team arriving at a place of worship disrupting prayer or church services.

These violent acts continue despite many directives by the country’s Supreme Court to stop attacking Christians.

More than 600 women and over 400 tribal people and Dalits, the lowest group in the Hindu caste system, have been injured in these incidents, as well as churches and places of worship damaged or destroyed.  

New anti-conversion laws have led to many false accusations and attacks against Christians. However, the UCF reports not a single Christian has been convicted of forcing anyone to convert.

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