Contents
Universities
Facts About:
Constitution
1st Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Universities
Light A Candle: How Some Universities Are Striking Back Against Cancel Culture. Daily Wire article, 4/24/22
Details on-campus attacks against conservative speakers.
Unsorted Data and Opinions.
We're Not an Outlier. Targeted Solutions Will Make America Safer Than Gun Control | Opinion
newsweek.com/were-not-outlier-targeted-solutions-will-make-america-safer-gun-control-opinion-1711251
Peter RoffMay 29, 2022
Opinion
Wilfred Reilly , Assistant Professor of Political Science, Kentucky State University
On 5/29/22 at 9:05 PM EDT
Opinion Uvalde
Following the horrific mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas last week that left 21 dead, 19 of them children, the Left is again demanding stricter gun regulations, from expanded background checks to banning AR-15s to a national gun registry. "Ban and buy-back every single assault weapon," tweeted California Congressman Eric Swalwell. "America isn't a global outlier on mental health, but it is an outlier on gun control," was a popularly shared sentiment on Twitter.
But the truth is somewhat more complex: Though horrific, the brutal reality is that mass shootings are rare—and the U.S. does not lead the world in this category. Nor are 100 million Americans going to give up their guns. And there is a role in the wake of a horrific event like Uvalde for thoughts, prayers and targeted solutions.
To start with, we are not getting rid of rifles. While AR-platform long guns may be the preferred weapon of mass-murdering lunatics, they are also the gun of choice for a huge number of adult home defenders who almost never break the law. Per the latest data from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, there are currently about 435,000,000 firearms in civilian hands in the United States, with roughly 20,000,000 being AR-15s and other "modern sporting rifles." Think about that for a minute: That is millions and millions of law-abiding Americans who legally possess AR-style rifles that they use safely for their own protection.
Many more are rifles of other varieties, mostly semi-automatics. Although mainstream networks like CNN often appear not to know this, a semi-automatic firearm is simply a gun that fires once when the trigger is pulled. Such weapons are extraordinarily common.
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Despite all this, the total number of Americans killed specifically by rifles in a typical year is around 400. Of course, every life is worth trying to protect, but it is not clear that banning rifles would make the United States a safer place, long-term. Scholars have estimated that legal civilian firearms—with rifles prominent among these—prevent up to four million crimes every year.
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UVALDE, TEXAS - MAY 28: People pray during a prayer service as they visit a memorial for the victims of the Robb Elementary School mass shooting in City of Uvalde Town Square on May 28, 2022 in Uvalde, Texas. 19 children and two adults were killed on May 24th during a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School after man entered the school through an unlocked door and barricaded himself in a classroom where the victims were located. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Moreover, it's not even controversial among scholars that getting rid of rifles would in fact do very little to reduce overall U.S. gun violence. Mass shootings draw our attention for obvious reasons, but, when analyzed seriously, turn out to kill less than 80 people in most years. In contrast, there were more than 20,000 total homicides in 2020.
Addressing these requires venturing deep into politically incorrect territory, for the majority of these deaths involved young Black (and poor white) men killing one another with cheap legal hand-guns and even with knives. These types of murders surged during the "Summer of Floyd" police pull-backs so widely cheered on the political left.
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And yet, even this level of violence isn't some barbarity unique to the U.S.: We rank 17 out of the 18 countries in our North American zone in murder rate, second to Canada but well behind civilized players like Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Jamaica.
Enough data. What can we do about the killings that do happen here?
In addition to the thoughts and prayers most of us truly do believe in, a basic after-action analysis of virtually every recent mass-casualty shooting indicates plenty of room for improvement on that front. Bluntly put, almost every one of these cases represents a remarkable example of "team failure" on the part of social media executives, educational authorities, and often law enforcement officers.
The Buffalo shooter had been reported to various authorities on multiple occasions for insane behavior that included wearing a HazMat suit to school once post-COVID classes resumed in person. He once beheaded a feral cat with a hatchet, discussed doing so on Dischord, and apparently asked his mother for help with burying the carcass. Nonetheless, his plot and weapons purchase went on unimpeded.
The Uvalde shooter was at least as publicly abnormal, repeatedly posting live videos of animal torture to social media. His attack was facilitated not only by widespread disregard of this behavior but also by an open entry-way door at his target school and, most disastrously, by the remarkable decision of nearly 20 armed police officers to wait an hour for backup and tactical gear before attacking him inside his classroom of horrors.
Not to be forgotten, the recent New York City subway attacker—not the biggest killer of the three due only to the grace of God and his own poor aim—was a literal social media personality known for calls for violent race war. For that matter, much the same could be said for Waukesha vehicular massacre suspect Darrell Brooks, aka the Black-activist Midwest rapper Mathboi Fly.
What to draw from these past mistakes and oversights? Well, quite a lot. As we saw during the Parkland tragedy years ago, the most basic level of facilities security and avoidance of—for want of a better word—cowardice on the part of very-first responders could prevent many such horrific incidents. So could policies which result in higher correlations between obvious and widely known warning signs and actual punishment, or at least the inability to purchase a deadly weapon. Although a man of the center- right, I openly support the sort of basic red flag laws that would have clearly blocked every killer described so far.
It is also certainly no coincidence that all three of the shootings I described occurred within a month of one another, and will likely be followed by more copy-cats. Given this, I propose another measure for immediate adoption: Mass media should stop naming and (unintentionally) valorizing these shooters, and certainly stop describing exactly how they came to attack their targets. It's the only way to prevent imitators. Those who commit such acts of intentional evil against the tribe should receive its ultimate penalty: being totally forgotten, never to be named again.
As for the majority-minority gang violence, here we should do exactly what the people calling for disbanding the police and for disarming the citizenry have been warning against for two years: We must support the influx of as many tough cops of all shades, armed citizens, and strong dads as possible into the hood (and the trailer park). Most significantly, we as a society should and must focus on the large real majority of murders as much as we currently do on atypical outlier cases involving police killers or "assault weapons." After all, all Black lives, and all other human lives, matter.
Wilfred Reilly is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Kentucky State University.
Press Bias
Race and “Privilege” in Public School Education:
Hari Sreenivasan, PBS Newshour Anchor, 2/6/2022:
“Critical race theory is NOT being taught in classrooms in America, at least not how it was originally designed.” (Emphasis clearly heard in original audio).
Contradictory facts not reported by the legacy media:
Despite McAuliffe’s repeated claims that the theory isn’t taught in Virginia schools, the phrase "critical race theory" appears multiple times on the Virginia Department of Education website.
A presentation on the website from 2015, when McAullife was governor, encouraged teachers to "embrace Critical Race Theory" as part of its "Culturally-Responsive Teaching and Learning Principles," with a stated desire "to re-engineer attitudes and belief systems."
More recently, a 2019 superintendent memo promoted both critical race theory and the idea of "white fragility." Another superintendent memo from 2019 endorsed "Foundations of Critical Race Theory in Education" as an important "tool" that can "further spur developments in education."
In June, education officials in Loudoun County, Virginia, acknowledged that critical race theory influences their work and in July it was revealed that a Virginia school district spent over $30,000 on critical race theory training for administrators.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mcauliffe-crt-racist-dog-whistle-never-been-taught-va
"McAuliffe’s idea that it’s not taught in Virginia schools is verifiably false. We have records, including actual contract receipts from Loudoun County, Virginia. They actually are paying six hundred and twenty five dollars an hour for consulting. That specifically references critical race theory by name...The former superintendent admitted in an email to parents that the ideology that they’re promoting in Loudoun county is directly aligned with critical race theory.
In January 2022, Fairfax County, Virginia public schools were forced to play “Privilege Bingo.”
Media Platform Bias
Facebook admits the truth: ‘Fact checks’ are really just (lefty) opinion.
https://nypost.com/2021/12/14/facebook-admits-the-truth-fact-checks-are-really-just-lefty-opinion/
Elite’s Arrogance
Climate Change
David Reidmiller
Director, Climate Center, Gulf of Maine Research Institute.
Speaking on climate change (PBS Newshour, 1/1/22):
“We know what the cause is, we know what the solutions are,
and now its a question of mustering the political will to make it actually happen.”
Transport & Environment report 2021:
A single private jet can emit as much CO2 in 4 hours as the average person over the course of an entire year.
BBC News:
76 Private jets flew into COP27 in 2022.
Facts About Jan 6 2021 Capital Riot
The Department of Justice reported in the last week of 2021 that more than 725 people had been arrested to-date in connection with the U.S. Capitol breach on January 6, 2021.
According to the press release, 640 defendants “have been charged with entering or remaining in a restricted federal building or grounds.” Some defendants are facing multiple charges.
None have been charged with insurrection or any type of conspiracy. None have been charged with a firearms-related crime, and no defendants are reported to have been armed.
The Justice Department said the monetary cost of damage to the Capitol building is estimated to be $1.5 million. By contrast, the left-wing riots and looting that took place across American cities following the death of George Floyd in 2020 have racked up more than $2 billion in damages to civic institutions, businesses, residences, and citizens. More than 2,000 law enforcement officers were injured by this violence, according to a report from the Major Cities Chiefs Association.
Here is a breakdown of the charges filed through the last week of 2021:
More than 225 defendants have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees, including over 75 individuals who have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.
Approximately 140 police officers were assaulted Jan. 6 at the Capitol including about 80 U.S. Capitol Police and about 60 from the Metropolitan Police Department.
Approximately 10 individuals have been arrested on a series of charges that relate to assaulting a member of the media, or destroying their equipment, on Jan. 6.
Approximately 640 defendants have been charged with entering or remaining in a restricted federal building or grounds.
Over 75 defendants have been charged with entering a restricted area with a dangerous or deadly weapon.
More than 45 defendants have been charged with destruction of government property, and over 30 defendants have been charged with theft of government property.
At least 275 defendants have been charged with corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding, or attempting to do so.
Approximately 40 defendants have been charged with conspiracy, either: (a) conspiracy to obstruct a congressional proceeding, (b) conspiracy to obstruct law enforcement during a civil disorder, (c) conspiracy to injure an officer, or (d) some combination of the three.
Sources:
https://www.policemag.com/585160/more-than-2-000-officers-injured-in-summers-protests-and-riots
Facts About Election Reform Bills
of 1/2022
Biden’s Georgia Election-Law Distortions
By Karl Rove, January 12, 2022 (WSJ Op Ed)
President Biden went down to Georgia Tuesday to deliver an apocalyptic speech about the dangers facing our democracy. This is, he said, one of those “moments so stark that they divide all that came before and everything that followed.”
The first threat to democracy was the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by “forces that attempted a coup.” The other threat comes from election reforms passed in 2021 by GOP state legislators who the president said want “to suppress your vote, to subvert our elections.”
Mr. Biden argued that the U.S. Senate must respond and “defend our democracy” by passing the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. The former would authorize a federal takeover of elections; the latter would supersede a Supreme Court ruling that gives states greater freedom to change election laws. The president said passing both bills would be a victory of “democracy over autocracy, light over shadow, justice over injustice.”
Reckless nonsense.
First, neither the Freedom to Vote nor the John Lewis bill has anything to do with preventing another Jan. 6 attack. The federal government has many tools to prosecute those who broke into the Capitol, assaulted approximately 140 police officers, and interfered with a joint congressional session. Nothing in the bills expands or improves those powers.
Second, Mr. Biden was wrong to say Georgia Republicans passed “new laws designed to suppress your vote, to subvert our elections.” He substituted adjectives for evidence. His claims don’t survive even minimal scrutiny.
The president opened his assault on Georgia GOP legislators by saying “they’re making it harder for you to vote by mail.” He was referring to the new state law that prohibits local officials and private groups from mailing unsolicited absentee-ballot applications.
Previously, Georgia didn’t have a law allowing jurisdictions to mail everyone an absentee ballot application. When counties and political groups did so in 2020 under emergency rules, election officials received numerous multiple applications from the same voters. Georgia moved to end the confusion.
So is Mr. Biden’s claim that making voters request an absentee-voting application rather than mailing one to everyone “voter suppression” accurate? Let’s compare Georgia with a liberal state, New York.
Like Georgia, New York requires people seeking to vote absentee-by-mail to request an application and doesn’t mail applications to everyone automatically. Yet while Georgia allows anyone to vote by mail, New Yorkers can’t vote absentee by mail unless they are out of town on Election Day, ill, disabled, taking care of someone who is ill or disabled, in a Veterans Health Administration hospital, or in jail for a nonfelony offense. Last fall, New Yorkers voted down a constitutional amendment to liberalize the state’s laws on vote-by-mail by 55% 45%. So when will the president travel to Times Square to condemn New York as an existential threat to American democracy?
The president also whacked Georgia for setting standards for the drop boxes where voters can deposit absentee ballots in lieu of mailing them. The state’s new law requires every county to provide a box (with additional ones for every 100,000 citizens), standardizes the hours during which they can be used, and requires boxes to be continually monitored. Mr. Biden called this “undemocratic.” Yet in the blue states of Delaware, Illinois, New Jersey and New York, which don’t have laws regulating drop boxes, you’d expect more unequal treatment and abuse. Areas that are unfavorable to the party in power may receive shorter hours or fewer drop boxes. By comparison, as a protection against manipulation and unfair treatment, all of Georgia is treated the same.
Mr. Biden then railed against the Georgia law prohibiting groups from providing food and beverages to voters within 150 feet of a polling location. “That’s not America!” the president exclaimed. Actually, it is. Almost every state has similar provisions forbidding electioneering near polling places. It’s banned within 50 feet in Mr. Biden’s Delaware and 100 feet in California, Illinois, New Jersey and New York. Was it the extra 50 or 100 feet that caused the president to label Georgia a hotbed of Jim Crow 2.0 “election subversion”?
I could go on, but you get the point. Georgia’s reforms don’t justify Mr. Biden’s cries of “voter suppression” or passage of the Freedom to Vote and the John Lewis Act. Mr. Biden knows there’s little chance those bills will pass anyway; that would require killing the Senate filibuster, which isn’t happening.
Tuesday was merely campaign kabuki to show progressives Mr. Biden was doing his darnedest to get their priorities approved. But it’s unlikely to help his party in 2022 that the president is focused on passing a federal election takeover through embellishment and vilification, rather than addressing Americans’ actual concerns—inflation, Covid, border security, jobs and Russia. And he’s undermining confidence in our elections in the process. Congratulations, Mr. President, way to go.
Georgia VS New York Voter Laws
WSJ, 1/15/22.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/who-you-calling-dastardly-chuck-schumer-georgia-voting-law-11642172418?mod=hp_opin_pos_1
In Georgia, anyone can get a mail ballot, no questions asked. In Mr. Schumer’s New York, by contrast, the first section of the state absentee application is an attestation that the voter is out of town, ill, caring for someone who’s ill, in a veterans facility, or in jail. “It is a felony to make a false statement in an application for an absentee ballot,” the instructions warn.
Mr. Schumer wants to impose no-excuses absentee voting on the whole country under some version of H.R.1, but he can’t even convince his constituents in blue New York. Last year’s ballot included a measure to loosen the state constitution’s absentee requirement. Not only did it fail, but it wasn’t close, 55% to 45%. Another measure that would have allowed same-day voter registration also failed, 56% to 44%.
How about early voting? For the most recent election in 2021, Georgia’s early voting period began Oct. 12, including two mandatory Saturdays and two optional Sundays, per a calendar at the Secretary of State’s office. In New York? “The early voting period is October 23-31, 2021,” the state elections board advised. So how exactly is Georgia blockading the ballot box?
Facts About Senate Filibuster Reform
Glenn Greenwald, Jan 2022
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/senate-democrats-use-the-jim-crow
Filibuster hypocrisy… is the norm in Washington. In 2017, when Senate Democrats were in the minority under President Trump, 32 of them signed a letter urging that the filibuster be maintained on the ground that it is necessary to safeguard “the existing rights and prerogatives of Senators to engage in full, robust, and extended debate as we consider legislation before this body in the future."
That the filibuster is an inherently racist tool, a relic of Jim Crow, is an odd position for Democrats to take given that just yesterday, they used the filibuster to block legislation proposed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). Indeed, Sen. Cruz’s bill not only attracted the votes of forty-nine out of fifty Republican Senators (the only exception was Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)), but also six Democratic Senators who face close races in 2022 and/or are from purple states: Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-NV), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Raphael Warnock (D-GA). That meant that Cruz had 55 votes for his bill — a clear majority. So why did it not pass? Because Senate Democrats invoked the racist Jim Crow relic in order to refuse to allow a vote on that bill unless it first attained 60 votes to close the debate. In other words, Democrats — on Thursday — used the filibuster to block Cruz's bill despite its having the support of the majority of the Senate.
What makes the Democrats’ conduct here even more notable is the substance of Cruz's bill. Cruz sought to impose sanctions on the Russian pipeline company Nord Stream 2, which is constructing the pipeline that will allow Moscow to sell large amounts of cheap natural gas to Germany and to Europe more broadly. There are few more pressing priorities for the Kremlin, if there are any, than construction of this pipeline. So by blocking Cruz's bill, Democrats [protected] Vladimir Putin and a vital Russian company from sanctions.
Chuck Schumer on the filibuster in 2017:
"Let us go no further down this road," Schumer said. "I hope the Republican Leader and I can, in the coming months, find a way to build a firewall around the legislative filibuster, which is the most important distinction between the Senate and the House."
"Without the 60-vote threshold for legislation, the Senate becomes a majoritarian institution like the House, much more subject to the winds of short-term electoral change. No Senator would like to see that happen, so let's find a way to further protect the 60-vote rule for legislation," he added.
Facts About Covid’s Origin
The Journal scoop Sunday that the U.S. Department of Energy has concluded that the Covid-19 virus leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China, doesn’t mean the case is definitive. But it is more evidence that the media and public-health groupthink about Covid was mistaken and destructive.
China has covered up whatever evidence it has about the virus’s origin, and it refuses to let the World Health Organization conduct a more thorough probe than it did in 2021. News reports say the WHO recently abandoned the second phase of its investigation. China’s behavior is prima facie evidence that it fears what an independent inquiry might find.
House Republicans are moving ahead with their own investigation and are pressing the Biden Administration for more detail about what it knows. That may explain the timing and perhaps the impetus of the leak about the DOE judgment. It’s another notable example of how the change in House control is countering media and government conformity.
On April 22, 2020, we published Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton’s op-ed pointing to the possibility of the lab leak and raising doubts about Beijing’s claim that it had originated in an animal “wet market.” The media conformity caucus immediately derided Mr. Cotton for peddling a “conspiracy theory” that had been “debunked,” as the Washington Post put it at the time.
We have since learned that public-health officials wanted to hide that U.S. financial aid to the Wuhan lab may have contributed to the “gain-of-function” research that could have led to the leak. It is a disgraceful episode, like so much of the initial Covid dogma.
Appeal to Heaven Flag
The Appeal to Heaven flag, also known as the Pine Tree Flag, dates back to the American Revolutionary War. It was commissioned by General George Washington and designed by Colonel Joseph Reed, his personal secretary. The flag was originally commissioned for use on six military cruiser ships, and was adopted on October 21, 1775. The flag became the official Massachusetts Navy flag in 1776.
The flag features a green pine tree on a white field, with the words "An Appeal to Heaven" in black text above it. The green pine tree on the flag symbolized strength and resilience in the New England colonies, while the words "Appeal to Heaven" stemmed from the belief that God would deliver the colonists from tyranny. The flag was a symbol of the American colonists' determination to resist British rule and their appeal to a higher power for justice and liberty.
The Appeal to Heaven flag was first raised at the San Francisco Civic Center on Flag Day in 1964, where it stayed until it was removed during the last weekend of May, 2024. The flag’s removal followed suggestions and assertions by some in the press that Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito’s flying it at a summer beach house was a partisan symbol of support for some far-right groups and causes.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/05/the-alito-flag-nonsense/
Facts About the New York State Case Against Trump
Judge Juan Merchan made political contributions to Democratic groups during the 2020 United States presidential election. He donated to Joe Biden's presidential campaign, to the Progressive Turnout Project, and Stop Republicans, a subsidiary of The Progressive Turnout Project. The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct investigated complaints about these donations, and determined that they were in violation of New York’s judicial ethics. The Commission issued judge Merchan a caution, which did not include a sanction but called for reconsidering the complaint in the future if Judge Merchan is ever accused of wrongdoing again.
Loren Merchan, judge Merchan’s daughter, is the president and chief operating officer of Authentic Campaigns, a political marketing agency. The company worked for Adam Schiff’s 2020 campaign and is currently working for his 2024 campaign. According to FEC records, Authentic received about $4M from Schiff’s House Campaign Committee in the 2020 cycle and has to-date received about $12M in the 2024 cycle, for digital advertising and consulting.
https://www.factcheck.org/2024/06/exaggerated-claims-circulate-about-judge-merchans-family/
Ohio’s Constitution
Reasons to vote for 60% threshold for amending Ohio’s constitution:
It should be challenging to change a constitution. Changing the constitution should be more of a consensus view than a simple majority position. Examples following this wisdom include:
The federal government
(Changes to the constitution require agreement by 2/3 of house and senate, then ¾ of states).
Only 11 of 50 states allow changing their constitution with a simple majority vote.
Democratic Party of Ohio (requires 66%)
Planned Parenthood (requires 66%)
League of Women Voters (requires 66%)
NAACP (requires 66%)
Ohio Teachers Associations (requires 75%)
The initiative does not effect initiatives that enact laws or change laws.
Example of federal judicial filibusters shows that having a low threshold for important initiatives has unpredictable and probably deleterious long term results.
The initiative requires modest representation of all counties (5% of voters from each county) for an petition for constitutional amendments.
Seeds of Hope
Light A Candle: How Some Universities Are Striking Back Against Cancel Culture. Daily Wire article, 4/24/22
The University of Chicago sent a letter to students at the beginning of the 2020-2021 academic year forthrightly defending the vigorous exchange of ideas — and insisting students should expect nothing less from a university environment:
Members of our community are encouraged to speak, write, listen, challenge and learn, without fear of censorship. Civility and mutual respect are vital to all of us, and freedom of expression does not mean the freedom to harass or threaten others. You will find that we expect members of our community to be engaged in rigorous debate, discussion, and even disagreement. At times this may challenge you and even cause discomfort.
Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called “trigger warnings,” we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual “safe spaces” where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own.
The letter added that true diversity — “[d]iversity of opinion and background” — is “a fundamental strength of our community.”
Other universities have put those commitments to the test. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) ranks Claremont McKenna College first in the nation for protecting conservative and liberal speakers. When a group of Black Lives Matter protesters shut down a speech by Manhattan Institute scholar Heather MacDonald, the university livestreamed her speech, posted the video on the school’s website, and suspended five students responsible for the disruption — two of them for a year.
Hypocrisy Documentation
July 2022 Definition of Recession – Statements with Biden in office vs a Republican president:
Politico's chief economic correspondent Ben White in recently wrote: "The report from the Commerce Department on gross domestic product over the April-June period (0.9 percent) followed a first-quarter decline of 1.6 percent and meets one — though far from the only — criteria for an economic recession. The figure is a first estimate and subject to future revisions," White wrote. Except that's not what White believed just last month when he wrote in a Politico newsletter, "I’m sorry to report that the conditions are ripe for a slide in gross domestic product growth that lasts at least two quarters, the technical definition of recession." Additionally, in the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic, White tweeted, "IHS just downgraded first quarter growth to -2.1% others are also going negative. The second quarter will be down by double digits. All of this just means we are in a recession right now."
MSNBC business analyst Stephanie Ruhle recently endorsed the Biden administration’s claim that the US was not in a recession after experiencing two quarters of shrinking GDP, but in 2019, she reported on air to Brian Williams that "A recession is just two consecutive quarters of economic decline.”
Meanwhile, CNN White House correspondent John Harwood has been retweeting people who have rejected the traditional, two-shrinking-GDP-quarters definition of recession. However, in 2019 Harwood tweeted, "recession = economy shrinks for two quarters."
Source:
Politico, CNN, MSNBC journalists back off recession definition they previously espoused