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April 2020

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

The Art of an Oil Deal Trump uses diplomacy to limit the harm to U.S. shale producers.

By on April 14th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-art-of-an-oil-deal-11586819335?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

“So credit to Mr. Trump for using U.S. global influence to mitigate the mayhem. Russia and Saudi Arabia have agreed to take on the bulk of the cuts. After Mexico balked at an order to cut its production by 400,000 barrels a day, President Trump volunteered the U.S. to cover 300,000 barrels of its share.”

President Trump has been chasing a diplomatic victory, and he got one this weekend when he brokered a deal between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia to limit their production that may also limit the bloodbath in the U.S. shale patch.

OPEC and Russia have agreed to curtail their production by 9.7 million barrels a day—about 10% of global output—in May and June amid a steep falloff in demand due to the coronavirus that is expected to exceed 20% of last year’s consumption. After Russia last month refused Riyadh’s calls to cut supply, Saudi Arabia opened up its tap and slashed its crude price.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

Med School Needs an Overhaul Doctors should learn to fight pandemics, not injustice. By Stanley Goldfarb

By on April 14th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/med-school-needs-an-overhaul-11586818394?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

As the number of Covid-19 infections rises and the death toll mounts, the media is doing a good job of focusing on the safety of the health-care workforce and the capacity of hospitals to deal with a surge of desperately ill patients. What has received less attention is that many doctors haven’t been adequately trained in medical school to deal with a situation like this.

Most medical schools don’t require students to do coursework on pandemic response or practical preparation for a widespread and sustained emergency. American medical training as a whole doesn’t include a strong grounding in public-health issues or disaster preparedness. Instead, two of the nine specific curricular requirements decreed by the body that accredits medical schools are focused on social issues in medicine, including “the diagnosis of common societal problems and the impacts of disparities in health care on medically underserved populations,” particularly “in a multidimensional and diverse society.” None mention public health or epidemics. 

Physicians are highly educated, but that doesn’t mean they know everything—even things broadly related to the practice of medicine. When doctors speak on topics they don’t understand, they can confuse the public and other physicians. While medical schools require students to study statistics, these courses are generally superficial. They wouldn’t equip most physicians to grapple with epidemic models like the ones on which Deborah Birx has been briefing the White House press.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

China Still Misleads the World on the Coronavirus A truthful account of the virus’s progress there would help us know what to expect. By Walter Russell Mead

By on April 14th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-still-misleads-the-world-on-the-coronavirus-11586818132?mod=hp_opin_pos_2

As the world struggles to contain the coronavirus outbreak without triggering a new Great Depression, China is withholding vital information that would save lives and significantly alleviate the economic catastrophe that now threatens to immiserate hundreds of millions of people around the world.

This isn’t the old coverup, when Communist Party bumbling and deceit allowed a local outbreak to turn into the worst global disaster in decades. The new coverup is even more brazen. China continues to falsify vital information about the epidemic on a massive scale.

The evidence comes from many sources. In a classified report to the White House, the U.S. intelligence community has concluded that China underreports both deaths and the total number of cases. The Economist magazine compared China’s reported statistics with those from other countries and found that numbers changed dramatically in response to political events, such as the firing and replacement of local officials. Using conservative figures and assumptions, a report by Derek Scissors of the American Enterprise Institute estimates 2.9 million total cases in China, rather than the total of about 82,000 Beijing reports. If Mr. Scissors is right, the number of cases that China has concealed is greater than the total number of cases reported in the rest of the world.

These data matter. Without accurate information about the number and location of cases, including asymptomatic cases from China, it is much harder for the rest of the world to understand basic facts about the disease and its spread. And the absence of accurate information from China makes it much more difficult to know when it is safe to lift lockdowns.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Covid-19, China and Henry Kissinger by Moshe Phillips

By on April 14th, 2020

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/25527

He is ready to gamble that his “pragmatic” solution is the correct one and he furthermore demands that we all gamble along with him — no matter the stakes.

The Wall Street Journal recently featured a remarkable op-ed column by Henry Kissinger about Covid-19. What was conspicuously absent in the piece is any mention of China. Kissinger failed to mention China even once.

And it’s not like Kissinger has forgotten about China. The very last time Kissinger made headlines, at a November 14, 2019 speech before the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, he was warning about the danger that a permanent state of conflict between the U.S. and China would pose and he now ignored China’s role in the spread of Coronavirus. The question is why.

Is the article an illustration of Kissinger’s willingness to ignore the vital security needs of America and her allies? 

Kissinger still clings to his lifelong belief that dictatorships should be accepted by the West whether the dictatorships are Communist or Arab ones.

And Kissinger is most remembered by historians for two episodes.

The first was the success of his secret 1971 diplomatic mission to China, which led to the U.S. recognizing China –  and betraying Taiwan.

The second was his 1973 “Shuttle Diplomacy” aimed at forcing Israel to retreat from land it won in defensive wars. Kissinger must have realized he was forcing Israel to surrender lands to dangerous despots and risking its very survival by wanting it to go back to indefensible borders.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Civil Liberties Group Pushes HUD to Stop Confiscation of Bibles in Public Housing By Mark Tapscott

By on April 13th, 2020

https://www.theepochtimes.com/civil-liberties-group-pushes-hud-to-stop-confiscation-of-bibles-in-public-housing_3310264.html

Attorneys with the Americans for Civil Liberty and Justice (ACLJ) filed comments with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Monday urging officials there to support a proposed rule to stop public housing managers from confiscating Bibles and other religious literature from their facilities.

“We believe the rule should be implemented fully as the department has proposed,” ACLJ Executive Director Jordan Sekulow said in an April 13 letter to HUD made available to The Epoch Times.

The proposed rule is entitled the “Equal Participation of Faith-Based Organizations in HUD Programs and Activities: Implementation of Executive Order 13831.”

Otherwise, “religious organizations that currently, or in the future may, participate in department programs would continue to be targeted and burdened unequally merely because of their faith-based nature,” Sekulow wrote.

“The rule would serve to bring the department’s implementation of its programs in-line with the requirements of federal law, including the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” he said.

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MEDIA Comments turned off

White House hits back at media speculation on Fauci, says Trump ‘not firing’ him

By on April 13th, 2020

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-house-hits-back-at-media-speculation-on-fauci-says-trump-not-firing-him

The White House hit back Monday at rumblings in the media about whether President Trump might be preparing to oust Dr. Anthony Fauci, calling the speculation “ridiculous” and issuing an on-record show of support for the man who is the face of the administration’s coronavirus response.

Speculation of a frayed relationship between the president and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases reached a fever pitch when Trump retweeted a message that included the hashtag “#FireFauci,” but the administration said that the reaction to the post missed the point.

Rather, Trump was just trying to respond to a media “falsehood” about the coronavirus response, according to the White House.

“This media chatter is ridiculous – President Trump is not firing Dr. Fauci.  The President’s tweet clearly exposed media attempts to maliciously push a falsehood about his China decision in an attempt to rewrite history,” White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said in a statement.

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Beware of Government Overreach to Protect Our Health Don’t let heavy-handed regulations undermine voluntary cooperation Charles Lipson

By on April 13th, 2020

https://www.mercatus.org/bridge/commentary/beware-government-overreach-protect-our-health

When two important goals conflict, sensible people try to strike a sensible balance. This sense of proportion and mutual forbearance is central to living peacefully in a liberal society like ours.

It is important to remember these values as we deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. The most striking aspect of the American public’s response has been the extensive, purely voluntary compliance with city, state, and local guidelines and orders. That phrase “purely voluntary” is crucial. Some of the guidelines have hardened into legal mandates, but even in those cases people have cooperated willingly because they want to do the right thing, both for themselves and for their community.

What about cases where voluntary compliance breaks down, where people don’t follow the guidelines or even the laws? If personal values and social pressures don’t work, the authorities have to step in. But their first step should be a warning, unless a violations are malicious or pose serious danger. If finger wagging at lessor violations fails, the next step should be a fine or sometimes even jail. But punishment should be a last resort.

Balancing the right to assemble with public safety

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MOVIES AND TELEVISION Comments turned off

Elites Hate Phyllis Schlafly Because She Defeated Them From Home With Six Kids In Tow By Colleen Holcomb

By on April 13th, 2020

https://thefederalist.com/2020/04/13/elites-hate-phyllis-schlafly-because-she-defeated-them-from-home-with-six-kids-in-tow/

Unable to defeat Schlafly in life, cultural elites in Hollywood are now attacking her posthumously in the brazenly dishonest ‘Mrs. America’ series.

Liberal cultural elites have had it out for Phyllis Schlafly since she defeated the Equal Rights Amendment in 1979. Now, producers of the FX/Hulu series “Mrs. America” have hypocritically done to Schlafly exactly what the women’s liberation and Me Too movements complain “the patriarchy” does to women it cannot control: rape and defile them.

The so-called Equal Rights Amendment, or ERA, was a perfect Hollywood cause. It allowed supporters to appear pro-woman, while Hollywood knew the amendment posed no threat to the elite power structure. ERA is touted as an effort to “put women in the Constitution” and ensure women’s equality. Hollywood elites jumped on board supporting ratification, and once the amendment passed Congress in 1972, 32 states passed ratification bills in rapid succession.

Enter Phyllis Schlafly, a Harvard University-educated, anti-communist crusader, who chose to get married and raise her six children instead of pursuing a paid career. Schlafly became a cultural villain when she inconveniently read the ERA and its proponents’ writings.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Declassified Info: DOJ, FBI Knew Trump Surveillance Was Based On Russian Disinformation By Margot Cleveland

By on April 13th, 2020

https://thefederalist.com/2020/04/13/new-info-doj-fbi-knew-trump-surveillance-was-based-on-russian-disinformation/

These facts establish the FBI used Russia’s meddling with the 2016 election as a pretext to investigate Donald Trump and the special counsel’s office was complicit in this ploy.

On Friday, the Department of Justice released newly declassified information from an inspector general report on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuse, revealing for the first time that the FBI had received information indicating the Christopher Steele dossier contained Russian disinformation. The newly unredacted portions of the IG’s report also confirmed there was no “network of sources” backing up Steele’s reporting.

While both revelations provide further fodder for attacking the Carter Page surveillance proceedings, the significance is much greater: These facts establish the FBI used Russia’s meddling with the 2016 election as a pretext to investigate Donald Trump and the special counsel’s office was complicit in this ploy.

More than two months ago, Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson dispatched a letter to William Barr requesting the attorney general declassify information and unredact information contained in four footnotes in Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s 478-page report on FISA abuse. In their letter, the senators noted that they “[were] deeply concerned about certain information that remains classified.”

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CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB Comments turned off

The Very Remarkable President Donald Trump Michael Busler

By on April 13th, 2020

https://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbusler/2020/04/13/the-very-remarkable-president-donald-trump-n2566739

In spite of the nasty negative press, the Democrats and the RINOs, President Trump’s achievements are truly remarkable.

Years from now, history will note a major event that occurred in 2016, an event that significantly altered the course of the country and the world. At the time, the U.S. was in the last year of a 10-year economic slump. It was, in fact, the only 10-year period in history where the economy did not achieve 3 percent annual growth in any year.

From 2007 to 2016 economic growth averaged about 2 percent. That subpar growth rate led to fewer opportunities for Americans. That led to poor employment prospects and stagnant wages. Many Americans had no opportunity. That led to resentment. 

Wary citizens were beginning to reject capitalism in favor of socialism. The country was headed in an un-American direction. 

On the world stage, a number of threats existed. There were numerous and long-term problems in the Middle East.  Russia and China were going on offense, and North Korea was getting serious about displaying their strength. As for America’s foreign policy, it was as if someone gave the “stand down” order to every conflict, which resulted in the U.S. taking very soft, and ultimately weak, positions.

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