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October 2020

Scott Atlas blasts critics of Trump’s comeback rally ‘I don’t even know what the controversy is about’ Amber Athey

https://spectator.us/scott-atlas-blasts-critics-trump-comeback-rally/?utm_source=

Dr Scott Atlas, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, is slamming critics who deemed President Trump’s comeback rally in Florida unsafe, alleging that they have an ‘agenda’ separate from health concerns.

Atlas, who is also a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, told The Spectator in an interview Tuesday that the President met the standard of care necessary to be cleared for public events. According to the Center for Disease Control, individuals who have COVID-19 may be around others if it has been 10 days since their symptoms first appeared and if they have gone 24 hours with no fever without the use of fever-reducing medication. However, various media outlets criticized the fact that the mask-less president had not yet tested negative for the virus when he scheduled the rally.

‘He meets that [CDC] definition,’ Atlas told The Spectator. ‘I don’t even know what the controversy is about him being outside, doing his job. I mean, he’s like all other Americans. He knows he has to go to work. And he’s not infectious. He’s not contagious.’

The incredible vanishing World Health Organization

https://spectator.us/lockdown-incredible-vanishing-world-health-organization/?utm_source=

‘Lockdowns just have one consequence that you must never ever belittle, and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer’

The lockdown is dead…long live the lockdown?

In an interview last Thursday on Spectator TV, WHO special envoy David Nabarro warned seven months too late that the ubiquitous global response to the coronavirus pandemic might be a bit of an oopsie-daisy:

‘We in the World Health Organization do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus,’ Nabarro said. ‘Lockdowns just have one consequence that you must never ever belittle, and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer… It seems that we may well have a doubling of world poverty by next year. We may well have at least a doubling of child malnutrition.’

Now, there was nothing astonishing about Dr Nabarro’s claims. It’s been obvious since April, when Sweden’s outbreak crested, that lockdowns are not necessary to manage the coronavirus danger. And it’s been obvious since the US lost 6.6 million jobs in one week that lockdowns are an elaborate form of economic suicide. In fact, it was obvious before a single lockdown was ordered. Only a government bureaucrat with six weeks of paid vacation and a salary set by statute could believe that the economy can simply be turned off and on with no consequences.

So it wasn’t Nabarro’s words that were remarkable. What was remarkable was that they were coming from the World Health Organization. It was so remarkable, in fact, that Cockburn suffered a crisis of confidence. WHO’s track record on predictions is so abysmal that you could build a tidy fortune asking it to pick football results and then betting the opposite way. The same organization which suggested the coronavirus couldn’t spread person-to-person, which attacked travel bans as bigoted and which doubted the existence of Taiwan, now suddenly says that lockdowns are bad policy? That’s the best argument possible in favor of lockdowns being excellent policy.

Ignore the Polls! They’re dated relics that no longer reflect the reality of the electorate. By Auguste Meyrat

https://amgreatness.com/2020/10/12/ignore-the-polls/

According to most election polls over the past few weeks, Joe Biden is leading Donald Trump in most states, often by double-digits. On leadership ability, most responders to these polls also favor Biden over Trump. Because of this, most election experts and their models predict a massive blue wave that will bring Biden and the other Democrats into office.

Another poll, however, seems to run against this idea: a plurality of Americans (roughly 39 percent) think their neighbors will vote for Trump. Not only does this cast doubt on other polls showing Biden in the lead, it also casts doubt on the very idea of polling itself. If the phenomenon of the “shy Trump voter” is real and the polls seem incapable of accounting for this, then the polls are never going to be accurate. 

Perhaps it’s time to consider the possibility that election polls and the models based on them are passé. They are the obsolete remnant of the 20th century that believed in reducing everything to scientific, quantifiable data. To work, they rely on a tolerant political climate, cooperative participants, and objective data compilers and analysts. In each of these regards, none of these factors exist today, and Democrats have only themselves to blame for it since they have subordinated everything to their political agenda.

This can be seen most easily with the first factor: tolerance. In their more liberal days, Democrats used to preach tolerance, but as a more activist, socialist Left has taken over the party, tolerance has now morphed into enthusiastic validation. While tolerance can allow for disagreement, the command to celebrate minority populations, habits, and opinions equates disagreement with rank bigotry. 

Slouching Towards the Socialist States of America by Chris Farrell

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16624/socialist-states-of-america

What was troubling 24 years ago is now at a fevered pitch. What was then a disturbance is now a revolution. What was then subversion is now a coup….. “Journalists” within the news media do not report factual developments, and those who do find their Internet presence suppressed by the social media giants. Many enlightened liberals are participating naively in their own destruction in a fashion and on a scale not seen since 1917 Russia.

One party is effectively saying it will pack the courts, including the Supreme Court, with politically friendly judges, so that the judiciary will be an extension of one political party rather than part of a system of checks and balances, the separation of powers or a co-equal branch of government. One party is openly saying it will remove the electoral college, so that sparsely populated, rural states would be totally outvoted by cities. One party is openly saying that it would add more states, such as Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, to provide it with more Senators to create a permanent one-party rule. And one party is openly saying it would reverse core parts of our Bill of Rights so we could be jailed for free speech, or for owning a gun to defend ourselves, as the minutemen did, against “enemies foreign and domestic.”

This was the situation that brought about the downfall of Venezuela: the government confiscated guns, then people had no way of protecting themselves when the storm troopers showed up.

We have had a good run as a democratic republic – but the country is in danger of being fundamentally and permanently disfigured in a way that will make it unrecognizable. The crime and the cover-up will have been successfully completed. No scrutiny, no justice, no consequences, no memory, no country. The real shame, as in Venezuela, is that many will not even notice until it is too late.

Attorney General William Barr is on a Capitol Hill whispering campaign to select Republicans, telling them that US Attorney John Durham will not move against the anti-Trump coup plotters before election day. One wonders if he has bothered to tell President Donald J. Trump. The consequences for the republic are dire. We slide ever closer to being a failed state. When the justice system is compromised – and it is – we are no better than any other banana republic. No exaggeration. In mid-July, Obamagate indictments were overdue. It is mid-October.

Turkey: Erdogan Fueling Hostility Against the West by Uzay Bulut

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16528/turkey-erdogan-fueling-hostility

The current problem is greater than the Turkish government’s violations against territorial waters and airspace of Greece, its continued occupation of northern Cyprus, or its threatening Europe with mass Muslim immigration or Islamist terrorists, among other hostile actions.

The problem includes Erdogan’s fueling of hatred and hostility within society against Europe and the rest of the West.

This attitude does not seem fit either for Turkey’s European Union candidacy or its NATO membership.

On September 13, a group of Islamists in Istanbul’s Beyazit Square protested against French President Emmanuel Macron. They held placards warning that Macron and the satirical French magazine, Charlie Hebdo, “will pay a heavy price.”

The protesters were condemning Macron for his stance supporting Charlie Hebdo’s decision to republish cartoons of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed and France’s commitment to freedom of expression, and against Macron’s support for Greece in the face of escalating Turkish aggression in the eastern Mediterranean during the ongoing crisis between Greece, Turkey and Cyprus.

Charlie Hebdo, along with a kosher supermarket in Paris, were the targets of a massacre by Islamist gunmen in January 2015. The magazine recently reprinted the images to mark the start of the trial earlier this month of the alleged accomplices in the mass murder.

“It is never the place of the president of the Republic to pass judgement on the editorial choice of a journalist or newsroom, never,” Macron said. “Because we have freedom of the press.”

How China funds and organizes riots and civil unrest in America By Ghenghis Gary

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/10/how_china_funds_and_organizes_riots_and_civil_unrest_in_america_.html

There is growing comprehension of the extent of China’s attempts to undermine America and establish itself as the world’s dominant economic and political power. Globally, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), begun in 2013 has spread across all continents, enrolling at least 138 countries to date.

The BRI reach is vast and, although it lacks transparency, a common estimate is that it incorporates 38 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, 25 East Asia and Pacific countries, 17 nations in the Middle East and North Africa, 18 Latin American and Caribbean sovereignties, 6 Southeast Asia countries, and even 38 European and Central Asia countries including 18 EU members. China’s goal is to invest (buy) its way into these nations by first injecting its economic influence, then exercising its political force, and finally infusing its culture into BRI nations via “soft colonialism.”

Not only is China exerting economic and political superiority in these nations, but Xi Jinping’s BRI plan, under the guise of peace and security, is also establishing strategic military infrastructures in the form of naval ports, army land-bases, and air force installations in BRI member countries.

Although the United States is not a BRI member, what’s becoming more exposed through daily revelations is China’s sub-rosa investment, insurgent involvement, and planned takeover of America’s institutions and business sectors, including academia, entertainment, finance, agriculture and others.

What is less well understood and still remains largely obscured is China’s role in funding, organizing, and supporting anti-American groups responsible for the riots, looting, violence, and property destruction that have occurred over the last few months. What is becoming ever clearer, though, is that China had a central role in providing the financial support, structural assistance, ideological manifestos, and mass and social media propaganda tools to America-hating radicals who are intent on destroying this nation and its people’s way of life.

Gaffe-O-Matic: In One Day, Joe Biden Rolls Out Three Laughable Blunders By Matt Margolis

https://pjmedia.com/election/matt-margolis/2020/10/12/gaffe-o-matic-in-one-day-joe-biden-rolls-out-three-laughable-blunders-n1041238

Former Vice President Joe Biden is running for the most powerful office on earth. Biden had a very bad day on Monday, making a series of gaffes that once again destroy confidence in his ability to be president.

First, Biden forgot Mitt Romney’s name while attempting to explain why he opposes Senate Democrats targeting Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Catholic faith.

“You may remember, I got in trouble when we were running against that senator who was a Mormon, the governor,” Biden said. Is Mitt Romney that forgettable?

Later, in Toledo, Ohio, Biden forgot which office he is actually running for. Which seems like a big problem considering he’s been running for president for over a year.

Joe Biden: “I’m running as a proud Democrat for the Senate”

Biden also got the website wrong when telling voters in Ohio where to go online to get voting information.

After saying he’s running for Senate, a confused Joe Biden tells voters to go to http://IWill.com/Ohio, which is not a real website.And we’re supposed to believe Biden is fit for office?

COVID-19 Lockdowns Have Been A Disaster — End Them Now

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/10/13/covid-19-lockdowns-have-been-a-disaster-end-them-now/

Lockdowns to slow or even halt the coronavirus pandemic have been the focus of an intense debate since early this year. But in recent weeks and months, both the scientific and economic discussions have come down hard on one side: The lockdowns have been an immense failure, costing the economy trillions of dollars and, more importantly, thousands of lives. Time to put an end to this craziness.

For those who don’t recall, the initial lockdowns were sold to the public as an emergency move to “flatten the curve” for 15 days during March to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. Americans, wanting to do their part, grudgingly agreed to the two-week suspension of normal economic and social activities.

Unfortunately, governors used the opportunity to keep their economies closed indefinitely, in some cases clearly for political reasons. In California, where the shutdown has been devastating, recent re-opening guidelines included “equity measures” ranging from gauging neighborhoods’ “tree canopy” to alcohol availability and voting statistics.

To be absolutely clear, these benchmarks have nothing whatsoever to do with COVID-19. They are merely an effort by far-left California Gov. Gavin Newsom to pander to his increasingly extreme base of voters.

Such arbitrary actions have severe economic consequences. A recent research paper from the American Institute for Economic Research found substantial damage to the U.S. economy’s various sectors at the state, local and national levels. including measures of GDP, imports, exports, business formations, unemployment, industrial output and capacity use,

Chicago Gets Its Deadliest Month In 25 Years, 95% of Victims are Minorities Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2020/10/chicago-gets-its-deadliest-month-25-years-95-daniel-greenfield/

Black Lives Matter. Say their names. Rest in power.

Last month, Chicago recorded its deadliest September in more than 25 years as the city approaches 600 homicides in 2020 with a quarter of the year still left to go.

The Chicago Police Department on Thursday reported there were 81 homicides last month — the most for any September since 1993 when there were 84 — as well as 309 shooting incidents and 400 victims.

Through the first nine months of 2020, Chicago has reported 2,470 shootings — which have left 3,110 victims — and 588 homicides. The city already surpassed 2019’s homicide total by the end of August.

The number of September 2020 shooting incidents and shooting victims are also up 48% and 60%, respectively, over September 2019 totals.

Shootings and murders are up 50%. And they’re beating the nationwide increases. The victims are mainly “people of color”.

  The nation’s second-largest county has recorded more homicides this year than in all of 2019, the majority of which – 95% – were people of color, the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office announced this week.

Sorry, these are not the black lives that Democrats are looking for.

The SCOTUS Front in the War on Faith What we are witnessing is the toxic fallout of nearly two centuries of secularization. Bruce Thornton

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/10/scotus-front-war-faith-bruce-thornton/

The Senate confirmation hearings on Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court are an opportunity for progressives to indulge their irrational bigotry against faith, as well as try to block the appointment of a constitutionalist justice to the court. They are right to be in panic mode, for if Barrett is confirmed, the originalists will have a 6-3 advantage, meaning conservatives can afford John Roberts completely morphing into Anthony Kennedy.

Politics, of course, lies behind the Democrats’ attempts to obstruct Barrett’s confirmation by any means possible, and potentially damage Donald Trump’s chances of reelection. The hearings give them an opportunity to bash Trump and recycle the patent lies­­––the President’s refusal to condemn the marginal number of white supremacists, and other DNC duplicitous talking-points like his alleged bungling of the coronavirus pandemic. And don’t forget the patently specious claims serially flogged on Monday that nominating Barrett in an election year somehow violates some sacrosanct tradition. The only authority for what presidents and Congressmen do is the Constitution, and its enumerated powers of the executive do not cease until his last day in office.

More broadly, Democrats are worried that Obamacare and, more importantly, Roe v. Wade and other pro-abortion decisions, may be up for review and possibly overturned. Hence the usual preposterous rhetorical tropes like “coat-hangers” and “back-alley” abortions supposedly prevalent in pre-Roe times. In fact, natural toxic abortifacients like pennyroyal were probably more prevalent. But “pennyroyal” lacks the gruesome frisson of “coat-hangers.”