Category Archives: Federalist

In between cable news interviews and performing TikTok dance routines, health care workers have also started protesting, and it raises the question: When do all these people do their actual jobs and, you know, provide health care?

To be sure, not all, nor perhaps even most of them, are spending their days whining to CNN about how tough their jobs have become and how frustrating it is that their hospital beds are full. But its a lot.

A group of 75 doctors in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, briefly staged a walk-out protest on Monday because theyre tired and resentful of patients who have declined to receive a vaccination shot against COVID. One of them, JT Snarski (Yes, thats her real name), wasnt too tired, though, to be on standby for MSNBC, telling a reporter in an interview that it was incredibly frustrating to see others dispute the safety of vaccines.

We are exhausted, another doctor said at a podium set up for the protest.

Im sure. And Im sure its also frustrating for doctors to treat opioid addicts who keep returning to the emergency room, wasting untold resources that could be put to better use. Yet health care providers have managed to deal with that day in and day out for years without needing to post crying selfies on social media.

Thats what Adam Hill, a doctor at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, did last week on Twitter. Hi. Im a healthcare worker crying at the hospital, he wrote. Its important to show more of this. Included with the post was a picture Hill took with his surgical mask pulled down and a solitary tear streaking down the side of his face.

The tweet was shared 13,000 times and received nearly 99,000 likes. (Hill then went to give an interview to a local TV news channel, which noted that he doesnt typically care for COVID patients.)

Powerful! Though Im not sure how much more of this we really need to see. Its everywhere.

Earlier this month another woman, nurse Felicia Croft of Shreveport, Louisiana, recorded a three-minute video on the verge of a breakdown because she has been experiencing the feeling of defeat in losing patients who succumb to the virus.

In November last year, nurse Kathryn Sherman of Nashville posted a type of before and after set of photos on Twitter, one that was taken professionally when she was a nursing student and the other, a selfie in hospital lighting, appearing haggard during a shift in the intensive care unit. How it started, How its going, her caption said.

We get it. The job is hard.

Thats why the Bureau of Labor Statistics has doctors and surgeons averaging earnings above $200,000 per year. Registered nurses are at more than $75,000 per year. This isnt charity work.

Its true that some hospital systems are overwhelmed with COVID patients who have not received a vaccine, perhaps by choice, but plenty of people get sick and die through their personal choices. Getting them not to die anyway is a health care providers role, one they signed up for. Yet some providers are musing aloud, in the New York Times no less, about declining care for the unvaccinated.

These people are quickly becoming the new public school teachers who expect constant attention for choosing a certain career path. Teacher appreciation month! Thank a teacher! Give a teacher something for free! Maybe they should trade places for a day with a garbage collector or even just a flight attendant.

Being a health care provider is just like plenty of other jobs. Some days are harder than others. We happen to be in a pandemic, which is the best time for doctors and nurses to shine, not whine.

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Whiney, Needy Health Care Workers Are The New Public School Teachers - The Federalist

The nine worst unemployment rates in the country are in states and areas run by pro-lockdown Democrats.

According to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the highest unemployment rates in July were in blue states. Despite the flow of federal COVID-19 bailouts for the last year and a half, these states saw significantly higher rates of unemployment than the national rate of 5.4 percent in July.

Nevada topped out the list with a 7.7 rate of unemployment for July and was closely followed by California (7.6 percent), New Mexico (7.6 percent), New York (7.6 percent), Connecticut (7.3 percent), Hawaii (7.3 percent), New Jersey (7.3 percent), Illinois (7.1 percent), and the District of Columbia (6.7 percent). All are Democrat-run. As tyrannical lockdowns are being lifted and businesses start to reopen, Democrat states are seeing some job growth but still have a long road to recovery.

On the contrary, out of the 20 states with the lowest unemployment rates, 17 are either completely led by Republicans or lean that way. Of the red states on the list, 25 saw an uptick in jobs since June. Idaho and Utah, both GOP-led states, both saw job numbers rise above the pre-pandemic numbers recorded in February 2020.

Some of these Republican-led states and one Democrat-led state have already been refusing the Biden administrations supplemental unemployment benefits. But blue states and the 7.5 million people that have relied on these government handouts disguised as COVID-19 relief could receive a shock when the dollars are set to expire on Sept. 6, unless states channel other funds to go to the unemployed.

Even as the economy continues to recover and robust job growth continues, there are some states where it may make sense for unemployed workers to continue receiving additional assistance for a longer period of time, allowing residents of those states more time to find a job in areas where unemployment remains high, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh wrote in a letter last week.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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9 Worst Unemployment Rates In America Are In Areas Run By Democrats - The Federalist

A recently published study from the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention (CDC) shows there is no scientific rationale for forcibly masking schoolchildren. The studys publication simultaneously vindicates Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has been a vocal opponent of the policy due to its lack of scientific evidence.

When analyzing more than 90,000 elementary school students in 169 Georgia schools from Nov. 16 to Dec. 11 last year, the study found that schools that required mask use among students was not statistically significant compared with schools where mask use was optional. According to the CDC, this might be attributed to higher effectiveness of masks among adults, who are at higher risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection but might also result from differences in mask-wearing behavior among students in schools with optional requirements.

Moreover, as New York Magazine noted, Children are less likely to have severe diseasefrom SARS-CoV-2, and when infected less likely to be symptomatic, which correlates withlower contagiousness. Those facts alone may account for part of the reason why the Georgia study found no clear benefit for amasking requirement for kids in schools.

The studys findings provide further credence to actions taken by DeSantis, who has come under attack from the Biden administration for following the science on children and COVID-19. Following DeSantis signing an executive order last month prohibiting the forced masking of children in Florida schools, President Joe Biden announced at a recent press event that he has instructed Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to use all of his oversight authorities and legal actions, if appropriate, against governors who are trying to block and intimidate local school officials and educators as it relates to prohibiting mask mandates.

Cardona later echoed the presidents statements, saying that states like Florida are needlessly placing students, families, and educators at risk.

In response to the attacks, DeSantis blasted the White House for its obsession with using the powers of the federal government to forcibly mask children.

I mean, youve got to wonder, where are your priorities that youre so obsessed with this issue and so obsessed with taking away parents rights? the governor asked. And youre letting Afghanistan burn, our border burn, and so many other things in our country fall to pieces.

Shawn Fleetwood is an intern at The Federalist and a student at the University of Mary Washington, where he plans to major in Political Science and minor in Journalism. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

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DeSantis Vindicated: There's No Science Behind Masks On Kids - The Federalist

OnlyFans claimed last week it will ban sexually explicit imagery starting in October, although nudity posted in compliance with platform guidelines will reportedly still be permitted. The cultural establishment is siding with OnlyFans DIY pornographers, echoing and amplifying criticisms of the company for making its money on the backs of creators and then cutting off their income under pressure from payment processors.

Its true that OnlyFans rocketed to success during the lockdowns by exploiting creators, referred to sympathetically in the corporate media as sex workers, because the platform made it easier for them to commodify their bodies. That also made it easier for consumers of pornography to access and commission amateur content.

Neither the creators nor consumers on this platform are engaging with a healthy or moral product. OnlyFans was always exploiting our human weakness for cheap sexual pleasure, along with the socioeconomically disenfranchised creators who used the platform to sell their bodies.

But the cultural establishment, including legacy media outlets and mainstream celebrities, bears equal responsibility for this dynamic of exploitation. Without a culture that normalizes and lionizes pornographers, OnlyFans would be much less successful. The journalists who laud sex work are normalizing conduct for desperate working people in which New York Times reporters would never want their own daughters and sons to engage. They may not be honest about that or capable of articulating why, but its true.

Having the freedom to engage in such behavior, by the way, is morally different than actually engaging in it. Im not of the belief it should be illegal, but its clearly immoral and our lack of consensus on that question speaks to the swift radicalization of our culture. When your education and corporate style guide both insist on referring to pornography as sex work, calling into question its morality is made much more difficult because weve softened the reality.

The conflict about payment processors is critical. OnlyFans move to ban sexually explicit content, its main offering, apparently comes in response to investor anxieties over the companys pornographic product. An Axios report listed three reasons potential investors were steering clear:

This is really interesting because it suggests our culture still stigmatizes so-called sex work, and the market is naturally directing a moral outcome. Thats not exactly true for several reasons.

First, to the extent investors are worried, as Axios reported, about subscriptions from minors, thats all well and good but should extend beyond fears about minors exposure to pornography. Second, the Axios report also suggests some of the VC funds are hampered from investing in the product by their limited partnership agreements, not their worldview. Perhaps those agreements still reflect a cultural stigma, but given the medias broadly positive treatment of OnlyFans, Im not sure how durable those restrictions are right now.

OnlyFans gets negative treatment and media coverage when pornographers are exploited and endangered, which is great but stops short of conceding those dangers are inevitable byproducts of sex work and a culture that normalizes it. (Again, normalizing and legalizing are different concepts, and the distinction is important.) Normalized pornography warps and numbs men, consequentially hurts women, and absolutely commodifies bodies and intimacy to psychologically scarring effects.

Tellingly, OnlyFans pledged in the wake of the announcement to be working towards a solution for its pornography creators, a decent indication the company is not worried about the stigma so much as its worried about profits. (The companys tweet was hashtagged #SexWorkIsWork.) Its understandable, then, that people who designed their business models and professional lives around the platform, selling their bodies with unfathomable ease, would now feel callously discarded by the companys decision.

Yet its the entirely predictable consequence of reducing your body and your sex life to a product. In a decadent culture, capitalists will sell whatever youre willing to sell. If that happens to be your body, theyll sell it just like they sell cars and data and hamburgers. Youre an object.

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OnlyFans Is Exploitive, But Not In The Way Elites And Prostitutes Claim - The Federalist

Joined by Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, more than two dozen Republican House members on the Second Amendment caucus released a comment criticizing a new proposed rule by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that would prohibit homemade guns, develop a backdoor gun registry, and regulate gun parts with a background check.

The proposed rule, the Definition of Frame or Receiver and Identification of Firearms was introduced in May and signed by Attorney General Merrick Garland. Public comments on the rule closed Thursday.

It would amend the Code of Federal Regulations, including the term firearm in order to regulate firearm kits, and amend the term gunsmith to clarify that gunsmiths must mark unlicensed guns effectively making the individual the manufacturer. It would implement regulations on nearly all portions of a firearm.

Contrary to ATFs claims that the [proposed rule] will clarify various aspects of federal gun laws, in reality the proposed rule would inject ambiguity after ambiguity into an otherwise unambiguous definition of firearm, which has existed unmolested since its enactment over half a century ago, the congressmen wrote. These changes will cause significant problems not only for the law-abiding public and the courts in trying to apply the agencys intent instead of a statute, but also for the firearms industry.

The rule would further complicate types of guns by crafting definitions for what ATF deems a complete weapon, complete muffler or silencer device, and a privately made firearm. A deadline would also be put in place for the timeframe of marking guns.

Mark Oliva, a spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, told The Federalist the caucus is correct in asserting its role to alert the Department of Justice and ATF as to the problematic nature of the proposed rule.

The proposed rule redefining frames and receivers by the Biden administration is a naked attempt at legislation through regulation, Oliva said. The proposed rule is an attempt to shift the goalposts and enact gun control the Biden administration knows runs counter to the will of Congress, the duly-elected representatives of the People.

Oliva said it would bypass the lawmaking process and, in essence allow the president to enact gun control via executive fiat. It is executive overreach. It is nothing more than a gun grab.

The Republicans notably take issue with ATF redefining frame or receiver. Under the proposed rule, an upper receiver of an AR-15 would be deemed a firearm since the gun portion can be seen from the exterior.

However, ATF has always deemed the lower receiver of an AR-15 to be a frame or receiver since it is compromised of the fire control group: the trigger, disconnector, hammer, and fire selector. The lower receiver is the portion that is currently marked by my manufacturers with a serial number, but the upper portion would be marked as well under the new rule.

Of course, ATF has never considered the AR-15 upper receiver to be a firearm, the members insist. Rather, since the rifles creation, the agency has opined that only the lower receiver is considered the frame or receiver for this platform.

ATF has the potential to move further to restrict Second Amendment rights should President Joe Bidens director nominee, David Chipman, be confirmed in the Senate. Chipman was caught claiming on television that he is frustrated by the First Amendment rights of gun owners. The gun lobbyist told Congress he supports a ban on AR-15s.

These members of Congress are taking their oaths to uphold the Constitution seriously by standing up to the tyrants at the ATF. Their stand earns applause from gun owners nationwide, Aidan Johnston, director of federal affairs for Gun Owners of America said in a statement to The Federalist.

Read the full letter below.

2A Caucus Comments to ATF o by The Federalist

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Republicans Slam ATF For Attempting To Alter Legal Definition Of 'Firearm' - The Federalist

Months after the Department of Justice (DOJ) opted not to charge the unnamed U.S. Capitol Police officer who killed Ashli Babbitt on Jan. 6, a memo obtained by NBC News indicates the investigation will be fully closed.

Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran, was shot by the service pistol of an officer during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. She was trying to climb through a smashed glass door near the Speakers lobby. After receiving assistance from a Capitol Police emergency response team, Babbitt died at Washington Hospital Center.

The memo, written by the commander of the Capitol Polices Office of Personal Responsibility, states that no further action will be taken in this matter, according to NBC. The information comes on the heels of the DOJ announcing in April that it would not levy charges against the officer.

Specifically, the investigation revealed no evidence to establish that, at the time the officer fired a single shot at Ms. Babbitt, the officer did not reasonably believe that it was necessary to do so in self-defense or in defense of the Members of Congress and others evacuating the House Chamber, the department said in a press release at the time.

Shortly after the DOJs decision in April, Babbitts family unveiled a $10 million lawsuit against the Capitol police. The suit was filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which permits compensation in the case of a personal injury or death, caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of a Government employee while acting within the scope of his or her office or employment, under circumstances where the United States, if a private person, would be liable in accordance with the law of the place where the act or omission occurred.

Two weeks ago, Babbitts mother criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein for never getting back to her after reaching out. Babbitt served in the Middle East from 2004 to 2016 on multiple tours.

The Capitol Police did not immediately respond to The Federalists request for comment.

Originally posted here:

DOJ Shuts Down Investigation Into Capitol Police Shooting Of Ashli Babbitt - The Federalist

Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, and the left would have you believe that involving government in every nook and cranny of Americans lives will bring nothing but benefits for the public. But the case of Alta Fixsler, a girl British courts would effectively condemn to death, provides another example of the very real costs of the ever-encroaching power of the state on the rights of parents and the right to life.

The two-year-old Fixsler suffered a catastrophic brain injury at birth. Her parents, Hasidic Jews, consider withdrawing life-saving medical treatment against their religious beliefs. They wish to evacuate their child overseas, either to Israel or the United States, for treatment. American authorities have granted Fixsler, whose father holds U.S. citizenship, a non-immigrant visa to receive care.

But British authorities have forbidden Fixslers parents from transferring her overseas for treatment. By instead requiring that her medical care be withdrawn, they have all but issued her death sentence. A Mayrulingin the matter did not mince words: Alta has no quality of life. The burdens of Altas life outweigh any benefits that [British authorities have] been able to ascertain.

The ruling joins a growing line of cases in which U.K. authorities have demanded that parents watch their children die when care gets withdrawn. To the names of Charlie Gard, Alfie Evans, and other infants who succumbed because courts would not allow their parents to continue providing medical care, British courts would now add the name of Alta Fixsler.

In response to the justifiable outrage the Fixsler case has generated, the British intelligentsia continues to make the case that, however unfortunate the circumstances, the state and not parents should make these life-and-death choices. An Oxford University ethicist claimed parents dont have an absolute right to make decisions for their children. The legal and ethical system in [the U.K.] says that the childs interests must take precedence.

Of course parents do not have an absolute right to make decisions that would result in their childrens harm, or to abuse or neglect their offspring. But by all accounts, the Fixslers deeply love and care for their young daughter, and want to provide for her including via medical treatment as best they can.

As the mother of two young daughters, including one with a disability, I find the British willingness to substitute the judgment of the state for the wishes of two loving, qualified parents deeply troubling. The callous language used in its rulings, as when the judge wrote Fixslers parents would face the siren call of continuing medical treatment should she be transported to Israel, shows the way in which the U.K. court system devalues the lives of the most vulnerable in society.

Its not just the courts; socialized medicine is also to blame. Although notdirectly involved in the legal dispute regarding the Fixsler case,Britains model of universal health care, the National Health Service, denies access to life-saving therapeutics and treatments and empowers government, giving bureaucrats the authority to make critical care decisions for individuals, silencing the patient and their loved ones.

Sadly, our health-care and legal systems in the United States are not far behind. With the lefts constant push for socialized medicine, the growth of the murderous abortion industry, and legalized euthanasia, we may find ourselves in similar situations as the Fixsler case where vulnerable life is no longer valued.

As a society, we need to protect and cherish the most defenseless in our midst, and I hope and pray that Britain will come to the same conclusion for young Alta Fixsler.

Mary Vought resides in Virginia with her husband and two children. You can follow her at @MaryVought.

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Thanks To Government-Run Health Care, Alta Fixsler Is Fighting To Live - The Federalist

At the center of many of our current cultural debates today is a single figure: me, the global me through which people argue the unifying theme of public policy, spending, and law should be a commitment to getting everyone whatever they desire.

Nowhere is that more apparent than on the issue of abortion, where activists have chanted my body, my choice for decades. Until now, when the term is collapsing by being applied across the board.

Irrefutable challenges from the world of science to corporate abortions favorite slogan have permanently undermined that knee-jerk argument for ending innocent life. It turns out that appeals for what my body wants can be ignored when those in power want something else.Me is not as all-powerful as generations of abortion supporters have led us to believe.

The first flaw in using obsession with self as justification for all abortion is the assertion that my body is the only body. As numerous legal briefs in the Dobbs v. Jackson case before the U.S. Supreme Court detail, there are at least two bodies at stake in every abortion. The insistence of abortion activists that the will of the biggest and strongest body should prevail is the kind of argument you would expect from bullies.

They seize their empowerment by force, leaving the smaller and the weaker to suffer. One body is destroyed at the hands of another body without any appeal, the ultimate proof of inequality. One body has no choice.

A second flaw in the argument has been recently revealed by the sometimes-draconian steps taken in reaction to COVID-19. It turns out that Uncle Sam can force bodies to take steps they oppose.

In New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, California, Minnesota, and New Jersey, Democrat governors chose to put COVID-19 sufferers in nursing homes, causing the tragic and avoidable deaths of many residents. Schools were closed, and teachers unions chose to fight to keep it that way, leaving children and parents without options.

Businesses were shuttered, and masks were mandated. Workers struggled to pay bills as jobs disappeared. Nobody could choose to get back to business on his own. In fact, some bodies were arrested for trying.

More than a year later, vaccines are mandated for our fighting men and women, and (in some places) for other groups of people like students, health-care workers, state employees, and even some private employees. And the debate over whether masks are needed goes back and forth with the speed of a tennis match at Wimbledon.

All kinds of bodies have been forced to make drastic changes based on choices made by those at the top. Cheering on those efforts are groups like Planned Parenthood, which quickly made its way toward the head of the line when COVID-19 relief became available.

The one thing corporate abortion does well is get paid. As Family Research Council reported, in the 25 years from 1994 to 2019, the nations largest abortion vendor pulled in $9.1 billion in total taxpayer funding.

But the engagement of groups like Planned Parenthood raises an obvious question: Why is it my body when the choice is about abortion, but Uncle Sams body when the choice is about COVID-19 precautions and vaccines?

And if it is my body, my choice, why isnt it also, my body, my money? Someones desire for a thing isnt a justification for dipping into the pockets of everyone in the nation. But for abortion, its my choice, your cash.

The American people have made it clear in polling that they do not want to pay for abortions here in the United States nor around the world. Yet the Biden administration and House Democrats are trying to open the door forfederal abortion funding by removing the longstanding Hyde Amendment.

Justifying the deaths of an estimated more than 62 million infants with a phrase that sounds like a toddlers complaint was always a shallow play. But given how quickly all the bodies in the United States and around the world have been forced into compliance with countless COVID-19 policies, its clear that those in power never believed personal choice was a real argument.

The raw abuse of authority shows that the actual agenda is often my choice, your compliance, whether the issue is abortion, COVID-19, or anything else. To truly fix that, we need politicians who understand that their choice as leaders is to assist the people the bodies who put them in office with respect for all, the born and preborn among them.

KristanHawkinsis president of Students for Life of America.

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'My Body, My Choice' Was Always A Lie, And Now Everyone Knows It - The Federalist

It is clear that Americans need a leader now more than ever, but who is stepping up to the plate to fight this crisis head-on? It certainly isnt President Joe Biden and his team at the White House, who have all been hiding behind each other and using vacation time to cower from the press.

Against expert and intelligence predictions, the Taliban swiftly dismantled the United States decades-long pet project in Afghanistan in just one weekend. This left thousands of Americans and U.S. allies stranded and at the mercy of terrorists who hate women and any religion but their own. Its a situation that warrants all hands on deck, but the people who are supposed to be in charge of the country and barking orders to get Americans to safety seem to be snoozing, taking long weekends, and washing their hands clean of any responsibility.

It took days for the president to give a public onscreen address after Americans spent their weekends watching their TV screens in horror as years of taxpayer dollars and American sacrifices went down the drain. When Biden finally left Camp David to deliver a couple of short speeches about the Talibans takeover, he used them to blame former President Donald Trumps plan to pull troops out of Afghanistan and refuse responsibility for any part of his botched withdrawal. Both of the times Biden addressed the nation days into the global mess, he refused to take questions from frustrated reporters in the White House press corps.

Biden also finally took the time to sit down with ABC Newss George Stephanopoulos and give one of his only presidential interviews since taking office. But once again, he used his platform to deflect blame for his administrations poor Afghanistan planning onto intelligence failures and lie that there was no way to avoid the chaotic events that followed the U.S troop withdrawal.

He also made flippant comments about the Afghans who died after clinging to U.S. planes and lied that no one is being killed right now.

I think the American people are with me, Biden concluded in a tone-deaf statement at the end of the interview that ignored the premise of so many peoples rage.

It shouldnt be too much to ask the leader of our country and a global figure to do his job, but all we get is a confused, tired old man who obviously cant handle the pressure that comes with his position and offers gibberish and false statements as reassurance.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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Who's Running The Government Right Now? Because It Isn't Joe Biden - The Federalist

One year ago today, Kenosha police responding to a domestic complaint shot 29-year-old Jacob Blake seven times in the back, leaving him partially paralyzed. A warrant had been issued for Blakes arrest in July 2020 on charges of third-degree sexual assault, criminal trespass, and disorderly conduct. At the time of the shooting, Blake appeared to be armed with a knife, struggled with officers, thwarted two Tasers, disregarded police commands, and was getting inside a vehicle with three children.

The shooting was a justified use of force to ensure the safety of the officers and the children in the vehicle. No officers involved, including the officer who shot Blake, were charged. Nonetheless, Democrat politicians and their allies in corporate media seized on footage of the shooting, declaring it yet another act of racism and proof of Americas systemic oppression.

The results of this rhetoric included two deaths and lasting trauma in a middle-income midwestern city after ensuing riots that caused $50 million in property damage. The damage affected 100 businesses, including putting 40 out-of-business for good, according to a member of the Kenosha County Board.

This week, when the corporate media publishes reflection pieces to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Kenosha riots, keep in mind that their goal is to rewrite history and exonerate the politicians and race hucksters responsible for the violence. The true story of Kenosha matters not just for the residents of Kenosha who lived through it, but also for the rest of the country.

Republican Rep. Bryan Steil, who represents Kenosha in Wisconsins 1st Congressional District, says that while Kenoshans have proven resilient, theres still scars.

The physical imprint left on the city is still clearly visible today. Uptown Kenosha, where the brunt of arson and looting occurred, appears dilapidated and empty a year after the riots. There is a massive gaping lot and still bits of rubble where the 110-year-old Danish Brotherhood and 109-year-old Rodes Camera Shop once stood. The bricks are still charred in buildings across the street.

They werent just buildings, says Kimberly Warner, a single mom who owns two businesses in downtown Kenosha, but history.

A year after the rioting, there are still boards covering windows across uptown and downtown Kenosha. Many display artwork preserved from the Love is the Answer movement, an attempt by community members to paint positive pictures and messages in the wake of the deadly riots. Other signs are less uplifting. One sign downtown still reads please kids above, with an arrow pointing to second-floor apartments.

Even those who didnt see their businesses looted or burnt down are still affected today. Several other business owners I know and several officers that I know are suffering from PTSD from seeing some of the things that we saw, says Warner, her voice breaking. I sometimes dont want to close my eyes at night, because it all comes back.

Mark Wistar, owner of The House of Nutrition and Wellness in downtown Kenosha, tells The Federalist that, like any other business owners, he and his shop were majorly affected by COVID-19 closures. When the rioting came, many businesses in Kenosha were already struggling, and the damage put them over the edge. While many have recovered, others will never reopen.

Wistar, who used to be on Kenoshas tourism board, says the city really depends on tourism. The rioting gave the town a bad name, he explains. Because the media publicized it everywhere, even businesses that were not physically damaged continue to suffer from the stigma.

The plywood boards still covering shop windows point to the lasting trauma for business owners, but they have also sparked frustration among others. Many business owners expressed to The Federalist that the boards make Kenosha look dangerous and put off already uneasy tourists. They believe the boards need to go for the city to appear welcoming and for people to truly move on. The boards need to come down, so that those of us that are still here can heal, says Warner.

When I asked why some are still boarded up, downtown business owners agreed it is largely out of fear. Some small business owners without boarded windows, who are trying to get back to normal, would not talk to me out of fear they could be targeted with boycotts or violence.

Many Kenoshans are still waiting for Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers to be held accountable for the riots and the lingering fear and emotional damage they have inflicted on the community.The revisionist history to avoid this kind of accountability began right away, with Joe Biden calling for the officer involved to be charged and Evers all but declaring the shooting an act of attempted murder and racism.

The demonization of the officer and the canonization of Blake were based on a lie. The officer who shot Blake has been cleared. Blake has pleaded guilty to two counts of disorderly conduct and was sentenced to two years of probation.

Even one Kenoshan I interviewed in uptown, who says he believes there is racism in the Kenosha Police Department and wishes Blake hadnt been shot, said he understands why Blake was shot. After going over the footage of the shooting, he said, as an officer I probably would have been a little scared too.

More important, however, is how the false narrative from Evers, Biden, and the corporate press fueled the dangerous rioting that led to death and destruction. The heads of four Wisconsin law enforcement groups sent a letter to Evers last year, urging him to refrain from making statements specific to Kenosha Police involved shooting until the facts of the investigation are known, because it puts the lives of officers and the public at risk.

Evers did not just hurt the city with false rhetoric. He watched Kenosha burn at the hands of out-of-state thugs for three nights and stubbornly refused to send adequate aid quickly, actions residents believe could have prevented the riots. Within 24 hours of receiving requests for aid, Evers had sent fewer troops to Kenosha than he did to Milwaukee during the NBA finals.

By the second night, it appeared many outsider left-wing professional rioters from groups like Antifa and Black Lives Matter were pouring into the city and reaping terror and destruction.

I was there on the second night, when officers were still grossly unprepared for the flood of outside rioters. At the time, I wrote that Kenosha looked like something I had only seen in photos of war-torn countries.

Since law enforcement only had enough staff to protect public buildings, regular homes and businesses were left to individual self-defense. Men and women stood with baseball bats, hand-guns, semi-automatic rifles, and shotguns in front of their businesses and homes, I wrote at the time.

It wasnt until three individuals were shot and two died on the third night that Evers accepted help from President Trump and sent in enough national guardsmen to quell the riots.

Governor Evers has a huge sense of urgency for mask mandates, but when our town is burning to the flippin ground, he had zero sense of urgency, says Warner. He allowed our town to suffer and burn.

Today, Evers is still desperately trying to rewrite the narrative. In a flurry of articles this past week, Governor Evers, his administration, and local partisans have launched a concerted effort to sugarcoat what the governor did and did not do before, during, and after the riots, writes Steil in a Kenosha News op-ed.

Rule of law and police procedures did not matter to Democrats in the media and public office who wished to use the Blake shooting to push their political agenda. This agenda is the same as it has been for the entire BLM movement: radical social change.

Leftists real goal is not to eradicate racism. If it was, they wouldnt be inciting riots where racism is not to blame. Instead, their aim is socialism and what better way to advocate for the equity of socialism than to argue the entire American system is stacked against black and brown people.

Leftists are flat-out lying about police shootings like that of Blake, and indoctrinating the next generation into believing their lies by implementing critical race theory in schools across the country.Kids in K-12 are learning they are inherently racist if they are white and have no chance of success if they are black. While there are still Americans today willing to push back against these lies, the left is trying to ensure that by the next generation there wont be any.

If it can happen here, it can happen anywhere, says Winstar. No one would have ever thought Kenosha, a small working-class city, could see such turmoil, but it did. And every small town across America needs to be prepared. The lefts policies will make every city and town like Portland, Washington D.C., and New York City. They want everyones children to be force-fed critical race theory, and every town to respond to police shootings and arrests with abolish the police riots.

We are in a fight against propaganda and lies. The whitewashing of the preventable, deadly events of Kenosha perfectly encapsulates whats at stake. We simply cannot allow Evers, Biden, and leftist media to rewrite history. Kenosha was the result of fabricated Democrat outrage and deception.

The price for their political posturing was catastrophic in terms of lives lost and livelihoods and dreams destroyed. We cannot forget the images and video from the Kenosha riots. We must remain vigilant and hold those responsible accountable. Its the only way to prevent it from coming to a town near you.

Evita Duffy is an intern at The Federalist, co-founder of the Chicago Thinker, and a senior at the University of Chicago. Follow her on Twitter at @evitaduffy_1

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One Year After Riots, Kenosha, Wisconsin Is Still Picking Up The Pieces - The Federalist