Tuesday, August 11, 2020

BLACK LIVES MURDER - ANOTHER CHILD MURDERED BY ANOTHER BLACK APE

 

Cannon Hinnant, 5, was riding his bike in front of his father's house in Wilson on Sunday when Sessoms approached and shot him in the head. The motive has not been releasedCannon Hinnant, 5, was riding his bike in front of his father's house in Wilson on Sunday when Sessoms approached and shot him in the head. The motive has not been releasedCannon Hinnant, 5, was riding his bike in front of his father's house in Wilson on Sunday when Sessoms approached and shot him in the head. The motive has not been releasedIMAGES OF MURDERER AND VICTIM:


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8615711/Five-year-old-boy-riding-bike-shot-dead-neighbor-25-two-sisters.html

Five-year-old boy is shot dead at point blank range by neighbour, 25, as he rides bike in his own front yard in front of his two sisters, 8 and 7

  • North Carolina police charged Darius Sessoms, 25, Monday with the murder of five-year-old Cannon Hinnant
  • Hinnant's family say the boy was riding his bike in front of his father's house in Wilson on Sunday when Sessoms approached and shot him in the head 
  • The young boy's two sisters, 7 and 8, witnessed the shooting
  • Sessoms is their next-door neighbor and the families are said to have known each other for years
  • A motive for the killing has not been released but a family member said the young boy rode into Sessoms' yard
  • Neighbors say Sessoms had visited Hinnat's father Austin earlier that day 

Darius Sessoms, 25, was charged on Monday with the murder of five-year-old Cannon Hinnant in North Carolina

Darius Sessoms, 25, was charged on Monday with the murder of five-year-old Cannon Hinnant in North Carolina

North Carolina police have charged a neighbor with the murder of a five-year-old boy who was riding a bike in his own yard when he was shot at point blank range on Sunday evening. 

Darius Sessoms, 25, was taken into custody by Wilson police around 24 hours after he allegedly approached Cannon Hinnant in front of the young boy's father's house at 5:30pm and shot him in the head. 

Hinnant's seven-year-old and eight-year-old sisters witnessed the killing, their mother told WRAL

Sessoms lived next door to the family, and the killing is not believed to be random. Neighbors claim he had dinner with Hinnant's father Austin on Friday and had been over at the house earlier on Sunday. 

The motive for the killing is still under investigation, but a GoFundMe established by a family member says that the young boy rode into Sessoms' yard. 

'Sunday, August 9, 2020 a sweet soul named Cannon Hinnant was taken from this world over a senseless act,' it reads. 

'A beautiful 5 year old baby boy riding his bicycle was shot by his neighbor point blank in Wilson NC. One minute he is enjoying his life, the next it all ends because he rode into his neighbors yard.' 

Cannon Hinnant, 5, was riding his bike in front of his father's house in Wilson on Sunday when Sessoms approached and shot him in the head. The motive has not been released

Cannon Hinnant, 5, was riding his bike in front of his father's house in Wilson on Sunday when Sessoms approached and shot him in the head. The motive has not been released

Hinnant was playing in front of his father's house with his seven-year-old and eight-year-old sisters when he was shot in the head at point blank range on Sunday evening. The childrens' home is pictured, with the five-year-old's bike circled

Hinnant was playing in front of his father's house with his seven-year-old and eight-year-old sisters when he was shot in the head at point blank range on Sunday evening. The childrens' home is pictured, with the five-year-old's bike circled

The young boy was set to start Kindergarten on Monday and had just learned to write his name.  

'He was just a loving kid,' his mother Bonny Waddell told the Wilson Times. 'He had the biggest heart.'

'It’s devastating. No one should ever have to bury their child. No mother should have to go through this.' 

Hinnant's family said they have known the suspect for years and did not believe he could be capable of murder. 

'We used to play together and I never thought he’d kill someone. A mother now has to lay her son to rest at 5 years old which she should never have to do. He’ll never be forgotten,' Rachel Pipkin, a cousin of Cannon’s mother told CBS

Police were called to the scene on Archers Road at around 5.30pm Sunday where Hinnant was found with a gunshot wound. 

Cannon Hinnant was due to start Kindergarten on Monday

Cannon Hinnant was due to start Kindergarten on Monday

Emergency responders tried to save him and he was taken to the Wilson Medical Center but later died. 

Sessoms was immediately identified as the suspect.  

He fled the scene in a black 2019 Toyota Corolla and was later located by authorities in a residence in Goldsboro. 

Police charged him with first degree murder on Monday, and he is being held with no bond.

He made his first ten-minute court appearance virtually from Wilson County Jail on Tuesday morning. 

Wilson County District Court Judge John Britt read Sessoms his rights and the charge he is facing. The suspect said he would be seeking his own attorney to represent him. 

He probable cause hearing was set for August 25.  

According to the Wilson Times, Sessoms was previously convicted of felony larceny of firearms in Wilson County in March 2016, misdemeanor maintaining a place for a controlled substance in Wake County in April 2016 and felony marijuana possession in Nash County in November 2016.  

Cannon Hinnant was set to start Kindergarten on Monday
The family is devastated by his death with some family saying they have known the suspect, a next-door neighbor, for years

Cannon Hinnant was set to start Kindergarten on Monday. The family is devastated by his death with some family saying they have known the suspect, a next-door neighbor, for years

A GoFundMe established for the family claims the young boy rode into Sessoms' yard

A GoFundMe established for the family claims the young boy rode into Sessoms' yard

Sessoms appearing in front of a judge via video link on Tuesday morning

Sessoms appearing in front of a judge via video link on Tuesday morning

Court records also show that Sessoms has two pending counts of felony maintaining a vehicle, dwelling or place for a controlled substance in Wilson County. 

Goldsboro Police Department, Wayne County Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Marshals Service task force assisted in his arrest. 

'The Wilson Police Department sends its sincerest condolences and prayers to the family of Cannon during this tragic time,' a police spokesperson said Monday. 

Neighbor Doris Labrant witnessed the shooting through her window from across the street. 

She told WRAL she saw Sessoms run up to the young boy, put the gun to his head and fire before running back to his own house. 

'My first reaction was he's playing with the kids,' Labrant said. 'For a second, I thought, "That couldn't happen". People don't run across the street and kill kids.'

On seeing Hinnant's father's reaction, however, she realized that the shooting was real and ran to lock herself inside and call 911. 

Sessoms' parents live right next door and the families know each other

Sessoms' parents live right next door and the families know each other

Sessoms fled in this car but was apprehended by authorities 24 hours later

Sessoms fled in this car but was apprehended by authorities 24 hours later

'Austin ran out of that house screaming and picked him up. They'll never get over it,' she said. 

'You don't expect to see somebody shoot someone. 

'It's almost like seeing a movie and then all of a sudden it dawns on you it's not a movie.'

She added that Sessoms' parent lived on the street for about 28 years and that she had not previously heard any altercations between the families. 

'There was no yelling, screaming,' she claimed.  

Neighbors gathered around the scene on Sunday night, shocked that the killing happened in their quiet neighborhood. 

'It’s usually quiet here. You might hear cars kind of loud and stuff like that, but as far as this right here going on, no, you don’t see nothing like this. It’s sad, it hurts and justice needs to be served,' said neighbor Frank Harvey told CBS

Police are still investigating to establish a motive for the murder

Police are still investigating to establish a motive for the murder

Speaking the WRAL, the boy's grandmother said that the family is happy to see Sessoms in custody but are devastated by the death. 

They held a tribute Monday afternoon at his grandparents’ house in Black Creek in which they called for an end to violence against children. 

'Really everybody just wants answers as to why this was done. There will be justice,' said Allan Wooten, the boy's uncle. 

His family described Hinnant as a nature lover who would look after injured insects. 

'He loved being outside,' his mother said. 'He always tried to save some creature. He loved any animal, any insect.'

She added that he loved his bikes and his two sisters and two brothers and that she had now nominated him for organ donation with the hope that he can live on through other children.

'He can live on through other kids,' she said. 'It was what he would have done if he was older. He would have saved anybody. He was the sweetest child.'

'He was one of a kind,' grandfather Greg Waddell told The Wilson Times. 'He loved to talk to everybody. He wasn’t shy.'

'He always had a smile on his face,' grandmother Wendy added. 'I can see him right now. Beautiful soul. He wasn’t scared of anything. He was very courageous.'

Monday's event was attended by the town's Mayor who also paid tribute to the young boy. 

'I have a child that’s five years old. My heart broke right then. I went home right then and I took my baby and just hugged her,' said Mayor Carlton Stevens.

If anyone has any information that could help, they are urged to contact Wilson Police at (252) 399-2323 or Crime Stoppers at (252) 243-2255. 

THIS IS THE REAL AMERICAN CAPITALISM - UBER CAN'T MAKE A PROFIT, EVEN SCREWING THEIR DRIVERS, SO THEY GO OUT TO BUY LEGISLATORS TO RIG IT FOR THEM - HOW MUCH?

 

UBER CAN’T MAKE AN HONEST PROFIT SO IT BUYS LEGISLATORS TO RIG CAPITALISM FOR THEM. CAN’T COMPETE ON A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD.

 

Regulatory Robbery: Uber lobbies for regulations to kill smaller competitors

by Timothy P. Carney, Senior Columnist | 

 

 | August 10, 2020 05:28 PM

Uber is very good at raising piles of money from investors, but it is not very good at making profits. So the company is resorting to a tried and true tactic of businesses in industries with small profit margins: lobbying for regulations that will kill smaller competitors and prevent new entrants.

Uber has issued a new lobbying agenda, and CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has placed an op-ed in the New York Times explaining why drivers and other gig-economy workers need more protections and benefits. Implicit in the piece is that Uber won’t help its drivers unless the government forces it to. It’s no mystery why it's doing this: It’s naked regulatory robbery.

Uber is ready, right now, to pay more to give drivers new benefits and protections,” Khosrowshahi says. “But America needs to change the status quo to protect all workers, not just one type of work.”

Translated: Uber won’t voluntarily treat drivers better but will instead seek burdensome employer regulations that Uber alone can afford, and which will crush smaller competitors.

Specifically, the CEO proposes that “states should require all gig companies to provide medical and disability coverage for injuries incurred on the job, creating a baseline safety net that we cannot give to drivers today without risking their independent status under the law.”

If that’s the problem, then why not remove the regulations that prevent companies from offering some benefits, but not all? After all, deregulation would maximize flexibility. Different companies could compete for drivers with different combinations of pay and benefits.

But that’s exactly the problem: If you’re Uber, you don’t want competitors trying something different from you. You want to release political pressure on you at the same time you crush your competitors.

Nothing does that like regulation.

“States should require all gig companies to provide medical and disability coverage for injuries incurred on the job,” Khosrowshahi writes, “creating a baseline safety net that we cannot give to drivers today without risking their independent status under the law."

Apparently, Uber could afford to fund such a disability policy, but it chooses not to.

Khosrowshahi also proposes that “gig economy companies be required to establish benefits funds which give workers cash that they can use for the benefits they want, like health insurance or paid time off.”

Of his proposed regulation, the CEO notes, “Had this been the law in all 50 states, Uber would have contributed $655 million to benefits funds last year alone.”

Of course, Uber, with a much better record raising cash from investors than making profits in the market, could snap its fingers tomorrow and have $655 million in cash. It could fill that fund easily. Lyft or Via will have a harder time.

More importantly, for Uber, such a massive “ante” to enter the industry would keep out new competitors, for Uber, UberEats, and all sorts of other transportation services where Uber hopes to dominate.

And Khosrowshahi knows that regulations often harm consumers by increasing costs. In his op-ed, he points out that if Uber were forced to treat all drivers as full-time employees: “Uber would only have full-time jobs for a small fraction of our current drivers and only be able to operate in many fewer cities than today. Rides would be more expensive.”

Also, with its massive capitalization, Uber is in best position to invest in an autonomous fleet, thus mooting these regs for them.

Arthur Delaney of the Huffington Post puts it well.

Uber got the government to bail out its drivers by making them newly eligible for unemployment, and now Uber wants new rules on its competitors https://t.co/NR8No1mP0E

— Arthur Delaney (@ArthurDelaneyHP) August 10, 2020

It’s not rare at all for companies to lobby for more regulation of themselves. A few examples:

What’s rare here is that Uber’s own consultants telegraphed this move of murder-by-regulation.

“Uber should lean into the progressive moment,” a former Uber adviser wrote in an op-ed last month. “It’s a PR masterstroke: The company continues its ‘we’re nice’ campaign, with a twist. Of course Uber wants to help drivers at all costs, especially now! And if being nice happens to result in crushing a rival? Call it killing with kindness.”

State lawmakers shouldn’t be fooled: Uber is calling for more regulation in order to reduce competition. When drivers and passengers have fewer choices, who do you think will be the winner?

 

OPIOD AMERICA - A NATION UNRAVELS

The epidemic raging within the pandemic: Opioid addiction

by Salena Zito, National Political Reporter | 

 

 | August 11, 2020 10:20 AM

WEST VIRGINIA — Craig Hettlinger explains that he started drinking when he was about 16 years old. He escalated to stronger drugs three years later when he played Division I soccer at Marshall University. He started every game for a team that was ranked in the top 20 in the country at the time.

“My freshman year, we had just tied the No. 16 team in the country. And what do you do after you tie No. 16 in the country? You celebrate because you played a really good game. And so, that evening, we went to a party and had a lot of alcohol and, me personally, had a good bit of cocaine,” he explained. “I passed out that evening at 19, and when I woke up, I was 32 years old in a homeless shelter in Richmond, Virginia, wondering how the hell I got there. I had literally lost 13 years of my life.”

Craig Hettlinger stands in front of the Huntington Addiction Wellness Center he founded to help bridge the gap in the recovery community.

(Photo courtesy of Craig Hettlinger)

Today, he is clean and sober and standing in front of Huntington Addiction Wellness Center, a treatment facility he helped found and was working to open to serve the addiction community.

When COVID-19 broke out before his official open date, the center temporarily served the homeless in his area in response.

“I remember watching Washington state and New York state and watching the numbers just pile up, and I thought to myself, ‘I've got this 30-bed facility, and we haven't got our grant money to open yet," he said. "If this happens in our area, why won't the hospitals use us?" An offer to Huntington’s mayor led to an eventual six-week partnership with the City Mission to house 31 of Huntington's homeless.

“We transitioned to recovery on May 19. And out of the 31 homeless that we housed, 28 of them stayed. Maybe they were coming in initially just for shelter, but by the time we got our hands on them and got to spend time with them, almost 100% of them stayed to try to push them to a better life, which is really, really cool,” he said.

Long before the pandemic came along, the nation, especially Appalachia, was in the throes of a deadly epidemic: opioid and meth addiction. It was a crisis that tore apart families, devastated communities, and destroyed lives. As the pandemic continues, so does the opioid epidemic, with the pandemic's widespread effects causing opioid addiction to escalate at alarming numbers.

The Overdose Data Mapping Application Program report published in May showed fatal overdoses rose by almost 11.4% over the last year. In July, the American Medical Association warned about an increase of reports from across the country showing a dramatic increase in opioid-related mortality during the pandemic.

Often, the very people who need the program's crisis care facilities have lost their jobs because of the virus and cannot afford to pay for critically needed help.

“In our business, the way our structure is, it's $500 to come in for 90 days. And in all reality, that's the cheapest you'll find is $5.50 a day. ... However, when you have a financial strain, it's difficult for people to pay that money. So, it would be amazing if programs like mine and other programs across the state could get some funding to accept people for free,” said Hettlinger.

Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said he has been monitoring the collision of these deadly forces since the very beginning of the COVID-19 shutdowns. It is what led him to introduce a bipartisan bill with Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado to amend the Community Mental Health Service Block Grant to authorize a set-aside fund for crisis care services such as the one Hettlinger runs.

The Crisis Care Improvement and Suicide Prevention Act, Manchin said in an interview with the Washington Examiner, would direct states to utilize 5% of their Mental Health Block Grant for crisis care services.

The Wellbeing Trust projects approximately 75,000 people are at risk of overdose death or suicide directly due to coronavirus stress, with West Virginia topping that list.

There's only one caveat in the Crisis Care Bill: The 5% set aside for services will only happen after Congress increases that mental health block grant by 5%. Manchin said what he does not want to do is take away any of that important grant money from their current operations. “The number of overdose cases, exponentially, is just out of proportion," he said. "And they're rising tremendously from the opiate, and now with the COVID-19, and suicide, more people are dependent on drugs or alcohol."

The increase in cases has created more of a workload that many of these crisis facilities can’t handle. “They need extra funding for that. So, the extra 5% bump will come through directly into the crisis care centers, so they will have the personnel and be able to handle the growing cases,” Manchin said.

The two-term West Virginia governor and longtime Democrat said he and his staff have been hearing from both doctors and patients about the increase of overdoses and suicides and monitoring the spike in numbers coming through the state's Behavioral Health Bureau. He asked them what was needed, “and the additional support was what was requested.”

It is the dual depths of despair that deeply concerns Manchin. “We need to do something immediately, or we are going to lose more Americans to drugs, alcohol, and suicide because of the added burden of COVID-19. Without taking meaningful action as a nation, this epidemic within a pandemic will be deadly.”

 

HOLLYWOOD UP RED CHINA'S ASS - AS THEY LECTURE AMERICA ON WHAT IS WHAT!

Hollywood is importing Chinese censorship to the United States

by Zachary Faria, Commentary Fellow | 

 

 | August 11, 2020 07:31 AM

Hollywood likes to hold itself out as a progressive pioneer of social justice, but a new report highlights how the desire to get films into the Chinese market leads major film studios to violate their own social justice dogma. In fact, it often leads them to import the values of the Chinese Communist Party — the organization with the highest body count in human history.

The report by PEN America, a nonprofit organization that promotes free expression in literature, examines a collection of films that bowed to Chinese censorship in order to get access to the Chinese movie market. China allows 34 foreign films to be released in the country each year, and in 2018, quarterly revenue from China surpassed the United States for the first time. Before the pandemic, it was projected that revenue from China in 2023 would reach $15.5 billion.

Some Chinese censorship is minor, propaganda that can only be caught by alert viewers. Paramount cut the Taiwanese flag from Tom Cruise’s jacket for the Top Gun sequel, while the DreamWorks film Abominable (a collaboration with China’s Pearl Studio) featured the nine-dash line, a propaganda map asserting China’s control of the South China Sea.

Hollywood studios will often run afoul of the tenets of social justice they often push in the U.S. Marvel notably whitewashed a major Tibetan character in Doctor Strange to avoid offending the Chinese government. Studios ranging from Warner Brothers to Paramount to Twentieth Century Fox have either removed scenes of same-sex kissing from films or had them removed by China when the films aired. A complaint from a religious group in the U.S., on the other hand, would only draw mockery.

The most troubling takeaway from the report is not that individual scenes are being censored or self-censored but that studios have decided to base major film decisions on China, sometimes even unprompted. Marvel infamously brought in Chinese regulators during the filming of Iron Man 3 to ensure the movie stayed inbounds and added extra scenes to the Chinese version of the film showing Chinese doctors saving Iron Man’s life.

The days of Hollywood backing human rights in its work have disappeared. The 1997 film Seven Years in Tibet, portraying China’s 1950 invasion of Tibet, led to the blacklisting of director Jean-Jacques Annaud until his groveling apology 12 years later. Film star Brad Pitt was also penalized for the movie, which likely helped bar World War Z from a Chinese release.

Change is not a lost cause. The industry’s biggest stars have the power to push for it, as when Quentin Tarantino refused to sign off on a re-cut of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to appease Chinese censors. But if Hollywood’s other influential voices are unwilling to even stand up for their own creative freedom, why would they take a stand on behalf of the human rights of people they will never even meet?

 JOE BIDEN, SERVANT OF RED CHINA… .Just follow the money through Hunter’s pockets.


Well, it looks like the makeover has begun.

Corrupt Joe Biden, who used his office to enrich himself and his family, to say the least, is now the foreign policy maven, particularly on China. That's the spin from the New York Times, which has beclowned itself badly, trying to tell the audience that something smelly is shinola

To voters unsettled by President Trump’s disruptive approach to the world, Mr. Biden is selling not only his policy prescriptions but also his long track record of befriending, cajoling and sometimes confronting foreign leaders — what he might call the power of his informal diplomatic style. “I’ve dealt with every one of the major world leaders that are out there right now, and they know me. I know them,” he told supporters in December.

Brett McGurk, a former senior State Department official for the campaign against the Islamic State, said Mr. Biden had been an effective diplomat by practicing “strategic empathy.”

And unlike Trump, Biden was oh so personal, as well as "not an ideologue."

Mr. Biden made a quick “personal connection” with the Chinese leader, even if he sometimes confounded his Mandarin interpreter by quoting hard-to-translate Irish verse, said Daniel Russel, an aide present at several of the meetings.

“He was remarkably good in getting to a personal relationship right away and getting Xi to open up,” Mr. Russel said.

Had enough? The translation, according to Peter Schweizer's Profiles in Corruption is:

For Vice President Joe Biden, effective diplomacy was about forming personal relationships with foreign leaders. "It all gets down to the conduct of foreign policy being personal." The vice president had a series of important and tense meetings with Chinese officials on a variety of critical matters in the bilateral relationship. The trip coincided with an enormous financial deal that Hunter Biden's firm, Rosemont Seneca, was arranging with the state-owned Bank of China. What Hunter did during the official visit to Beijing we cannot know for sure. Other than a few photo ops with his father, he was nowhere to be seen. 

...and...

Approximately ten days after the Beijing trip, Hunter Biden's Rosemont Seneca Partners finalized a deal with the Chinese government worth a whopping $1 billion. The deal was later expanded to $1.5 billion. As of this writing, the fund's website says its investments amount to more than $2 billion.  

It's important to note that this deal was with the Chinese government--not with  Chinese company, which means that the Chinese government and the son of the vice president were now business partners.

Now he's Mr. Congeniality, the perfect opposite of President Trump who confronts China rather sternly on issues. To the Times, that's a bad thing. To the average 'hey fat' out in the American heartland as Biden puts it, Trump's diplomacy is actually standing up for the interests of Americans.

It's also a disgusting double standard. Trump is no China hater - he does his best to cut the best deal possible for main street America by driving a hard bargain the Chinese know they have no choice but to accept. Any time Trump says something concilatory to the Chinese, it's denounced as sucking up to dictators, while any time Joe does it - pocketing the profits, which any non-ideologue is adept at doing - he's Mr. Personality.

As Mickey Kaus well observed:

 

When Trump does it it's coddling dictators, with Biden it's Strategic Empathy! @michaelcrowley is at least a bit skeptical. https://t.co/Pnc9SqxAk4

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) July 6, 2020

 

Here's the problem with this kind of 'personal' diplomacy. It is very personal indeed to Joe, given the wealth it has brought is family members. It's also very dangerous, given that every string and hook China's oligarchs can get into him makes him an even bigger sock puppet than he already was. Combine with the world's dodgiest players considering Biden a non-entity (Osama bin Laden considered Biden a fool) and the picture is a very ugly one for America's interests. 

Here's the second problem: This apparent media makeover for Joe, painting him as the great personal-touch diplomat who can get along with everyone is clearly the new party line being promoted in the press, and we can expect to see lockstep echoing of this embarassing face-lift. The JournoList talking points have gone out and now the shots are fired. As those shots went out, attempting to boost Joe while taking down Trump, the Chicoms themselves have been very active, too. Just days ago, according to a report in the Daily Caller, the Chinese investment firm that made Hunter a very rich man has quietly removed Hunter's name as a board member. That's to help Joe win his presidential bid for sure, which ought to make voters very wary given whose interests are being boosted. Worse still, the Caller reports, they allowed him to keep his sizable stake in the company - worth milions at least. No wonder he's comfortably ensconced in the Hollywood Hills these days, bored and playing 'artist,' dodging release of his financial statements to an Arkansas judge over a babydaddy case with a stripper looking for child support. No wonder he apparently settled with the woman and swept the whole thing off the front pages.

Now the makeover is on, with the media ignoring the pocket-lining entirely -- the New York Times makes simply no mention of it -- and the cash spigots still going. 

The whole thing -- pocket-lining and media coverup is a disgusting double-load of corruption that anyone with a brain can see right through. The GOP must keep the heat onto this issue because it's being distorted beyond recognition.

Photo illustration by Monica Showalter with use of images by Gage Skidmore, via Flickr // CC BY-SA 2.0Acaben, via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 2.0PxFuel public domain, and SKopp via Wikimedia Commons // public domain

 

 

We're not buying Joe Biden's 'tough on China' Act

 

By Ken Blackwell

Joe Biden is running away from his record as the "pro-China" candidate so quickly that his defenders in the liberal press can't make heads or tails of it.  Ordinary Americans are equally confused.

Biden spent over three decades opening American markets to Chinese goods, ignoring China's abhorrent human rights record, and dismissing the challenge posed by our greatest rival for global leadership.  The "made in China" era coincided with the closure of tens of thousands of American factories, stagnant working-class wages, and the loss of America's ability to produce essential goods domestically — a vulnerability that took on incredible significance when we learned that we were dependent upon China to produce the medical equipment needed to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

This disaster was facilitated by politicians of both parties, and no one was more gung ho than Joe Biden, poster child for the globalism that reigned supreme until the 2016 presidential election, which Donald J. Trump won by campaigning on a platform diametrically opposed to the "open markets and open borders" philosophy of the D.C. establishment.  In the White House, President Trump became the first American leader in decades to take a firm stand against China's malfeasance and demand a genuinely fair and reciprocal trade deal for American workers.

While Joe Biden was the vice president of the United States, conversely, he was downplaying the consequences of China's rise — even as his own family tried to get rich through deals with Chinese state-owned companies.

How is it possible, then, that Biden has suddenly tried to recast himself as the "tough-on-China" candidate in the 2020 race?

Biden's campaign even ran an ad claiming the president had "rolled over for the Chinese" in response to the coronavirus that Beijing unleashed on the world.  It's one of the most poorly executed flip-flops in American electoral history, coming just months after Biden called President Trump's life-saving ban on most travel from China "hysterical xenophobia."

No one is buying it.  Everyone knows about President Trump's record of success in bringing China to the negotiating table through strategic counter-tariffs.  The "Phase One" trade deal that was inked earlier this year represents the first major trade concessions from China in a generation.  Even the fanatical free-traders who actually liked Biden's globalism see right through his new façade.  The libertarians at the Cato Institute, for instance, published an article acknowledging that Biden's reversal is "futile" and "inherently lacks credibility."

Even the intellectual left is aghast at Biden's fake toughness on China.  The Atlantic called it "utterly futile" and "pointless — even dangerous."  The New York Times published an op-ed all but begging Biden to drop the act.

If even his own supporters are rolling their eyes at Biden play-acting as a China skeptic, why are he and his team even bothering to attempt the deception?

The answer is simple.  Americans have finally woken up to the economic and national security threat posed by China.  The coronavirus pandemic made that threat impossible to ignore.  No one wants to go into this November as the "pro-Beijing" candidate.

Unfortunately for Joe Biden, he's been the "pro-Beijing" candidate throughout his political career, and there's a decades-long record to prove it.

Ken Blackwell served as mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio treasurer, and a U.S. ambassador to the U.N.  He currently serves on the board of directors for Club For Growth. 

Image: Marc Nozell via Flickr.