Displaying posts published in

March 2021

BOOKS, HISTORY Comments turned off

How the 1957 Flu Pandemic Was Stopped Early in Its Path By the time the virus reached the U.S., the country already had a vaccine ready. Becky Little

By on March 2nd, 2021

https://www.history.com/news/1957-flu-pandemic-vaccine-hilleman?li_source=LI&li_medium=m2m-rcw-history

On April 17, 1957, Maurice Hilleman realized a pandemic was on its way to the United States. That day, The New York Times reported on a large influenza outbreak in Hong Kong. One detail in particular caught the doctor’s eye: in the long waiting lines for clinics, the paper said “women carried glassy-eyed children tied to their backs.” He quickly got to work, putting out the word that there was a pandemic coming and pushing to develop a vaccine by the time school started again in the fall.

The first case of the pandemic had appeared in the Guizhou Province of southwestern China in February 1957. By the time Hilleman read about it in April, the Times reported that an estimated 250,000 Hong Kong residents—or 10 percent of the region’s population—were receiving treatment for it.

“We all missed it,” he later recalled for The Vaccine Makers Project. “The military missed it, and the World Health Organization missed it.”

The day after reading the story, he sent a cable to an Army Medical General Laboratory in Zama, Japan, asking the staff to investigate what was going on in Hong Kong. A medical officer identified a member of the U.S. Navy who’d become infected in Hong Kong, and sent the serviceman’s saliva back to Hilleman in the United States so he could study the virus.

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

FBI Sees Something, Says Nothing A little over a year after the strange death of Department of Homeland Security whistleblower Philip Haney, we’re still waiting for answers. By Lloyd Billingsley

By on March 2nd, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/03/01/fbi-sees-something-says-nothing/

On February 21, 2020, Philip Haney, author of See Something Say Nothing: A Homeland Security Officer Exposes the Government’s Submission to Jihad, was “found deceased” in Amador County, California. “There was misinformation immediately being put out that we have determined Mr. Haney’s death to be a suicide,” the sheriff noted three days later. “This is not the case.”

Haney apparently had been gunned down by a person or persons unknown and the sheriff was in possession of Haney’s vehicle and “the firearm located at the scene.” The sheriff also found Haney’s computer, phone, thumb drives, and documents and handed these items over to the FBI. Last July, the sheriff said the FBI had performed a forensic examination on these items, with results expected in “the next few weeks.” 

As of this week, a little over a year since Haney’s death, the results have not come in, leaving the case shrouded in mystery. On the question of motive, however, it was clear from the start that Haney had powerful enemies. 

“Haney’s controversial accusations that the Obama administration could have prevented terrorist attacks were polarizing among Americans,” Laura Hoy of Capitol & Celeb News (CCN) reported back on February 23, 2020. It was actually hard evidence, not merely “accusations.” But, as Hoy then explained, “Haney’s death is likely to become political ammo for Republicans heading into the 2020 presidential elections.” According to sources close to Haney, the DHS whistleblower was planning a new book that “would help boost support for Donald Trump in the upcoming election.”  

Sources close to Haney told Jack Mitchell of the local Ledger Dispatch that the documents found at the scene were indeed the new book, also present on the flash drive Haney carried at all times. The Department of Justice in September told journalist Rex Hastings these items were “exempt from disclosure” under the Freedom of Information Act. On February 18, the Amador sheriff’s office told me there was no new press release, and would say nothing else about the case.

Continue reading →
ELECTIONS Comments turned off

As Trump Blasts 2020 Election, Democrats Move on a ‘Monster’ Election Bill Democrats, shrewdly describing election fraud as a “Big Lie,” are emboldened to get their way. By Julie Kelly

By on March 2nd, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/03/01/as-trump-blasts-2020-election-democrats-move-on-a-monster-election-bill/

In his first post-presidential address, Donald Trump again blasted the 2020 presidential election much to the delight of his most dedicated fans assembled at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) gathering in Florida over the weekend. 

“We have a very sick and corrupt electoral process that must be fixed immediately,” Trump told the cheering crowd in Orlando. “This election was rigged. Our election process is worse . . . than that of a Third World country.”

The former president described a long list of illegalities and abnormalities including an unprecedented volume of mishandled mail-in ballots, lack of voter identification, and “no excuse” absentee voting. Unelected partisans, Trump accurately said, rewrote rules at the last minute in violation of state election laws.

He goaded both his allies and enemies with suggestions he won the election—“maybe I’ll beat them a third time,” teasing a 2024 run—and urged Republicans to fight for election integrity at the state level particularly since the Supreme Court “didn’t have the guts” to hear several election-related lawsuits.

Moments before Trump took the stage, the event’s organizers released the results of a straw poll listing election integrity as the top concern of CPAC attendees. Polls continue to show the overwhelming majority of Republicans view the 2020 election as invalid despite attempts by Democrats, the media, and the U.S. Justice Department to criminalize any expressed doubts that Joe Biden won the White House fair and square.

Rigging the Vote Forever?

Republican state lawmakers are listening to their infuriated constituents. The GOP controls the legislatures in every state that flipped from Trump to Biden; several bills to prevent another election disaster are pending in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, and Arizona. “Legislators are taking aim at mail voting at every stage, with proposals to circumscribe who can vote by mail, make it harder to obtain mail ballots, and impose hurdles to complete and cast mail ballots,” according to an analysis by the Brennan Center, a nonprofit organization opposed to Republican election remedies.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Palestinian Terrorists to Biden: Do Not Believe the Palestinian Leadership by Bassam Tawil

By on March 2nd, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17108/palestinian-terrorists-biden

Who exactly is the Palestinian Authority leadership lying to and why?

Hamas issued a statement on February 25 in which it denied that the group had changed its attitude toward Israel. “Our political and national positions are well known and clear,” Hamas said. “They are expressed in our official documents and publications. We remain committed to the resistance until the liberation [of all of Palestine].”

Hamas “will pursue its resistance program until the liberation of the Palestinian land, from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea.” — Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas leader, alalamtv.net, February 20, 2021.

The Palestinian terror groups certainly deserve credit for being upfront about their true, lethal intentions toward Israel. Unlike the PA leadership, these terror organizations speak in a single and straightforward voice. Their message in Arabic and English is clear: we will spill as much Jewish blood as it takes to rid “Palestine” of the Jews.

Abbas is seeking to fool the Biden administration into believing that he has managed to persuade the terror groups to transform themselves into peace-seeking organizations. Abbas is utterly desperate for US funding. He is lying through his teeth to get the Biden administration to resume pumping cash into his regime — which is bankrupt in every possible sense of the word.

It now remains to be seen whether the Biden administration will allow itself to be hoodwinked by the PA’s master magician.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) claims that Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups have renounced terrorism and accepted Israel’s right to exist.

Hamas and the Palestinian factions, however, say this is not true and that they remain committed to “all forms of resistance” against Israel, including an “armed struggle.”

Continue reading →
WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

China Continues Crushing Hong Kong by Judith Bergman

By on March 2nd, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17112/china-crushing-hong-kong

The national security law not only carries sentences of up to life in prison, it also gives China jurisdiction to prosecute in mainland China violations of the law that took place in Hong Kong. It is now doing just that with 12 Hong Kong activists who attempted to flee to Taiwan by boat in August and were arrested at sea, ostensibly for crossing the border illegally. Extraordinarily, the national security law also applies to alleged violations committed by anyone, anywhere in the world.

In November, China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee passed legislation allowing Hong Kong’s government to oust elected politicians deemed insufficiently patriotic…. Preparing to participate in an election is now an act of subversion in Hong Kong.

Censorship is already widespread. The crackdown is evidently meant to spread even more fear to dissuade any protests and encourage self-censorship. In July… books by pro-democracy figures were removed from public libraries in Hong Kong for “review”….

Plans are underway to make buyers of prepaid SIM cards provide their real name and proof of identity, with false information punishable by 10 to 14 years in prison. It will give the police authority to demand personal data from service providers with or without a court warrant. It will make it impossible for activists to plan any anti-government activity without becoming known to the authorities.

The UK has said it will accept up to five million Hongkongers. Soon, however, even the ability to flee the country may become circumscribed. A new government proposal aims to give “apparently unfettered power” to Hong Kong immigration authorities to stop people, whether Hong Kong residents or not, from leaving the city….

The CCP is determined to crush Hong Kong and so far, it has been able to do so at practically no cost to China internationally.

The EU totally ignored human rights concerns it claims to profess. Several Western governments have condemned China’s actions with words, but so far, only the US has imposed sanctions on officials responsible for the crackdowns. It is important that these sanctions not be lifted.

Since China adopted its National Security Law in June 2020, Hong Kong’s government, under Chief Executive Carrie Lam, and China have sought to extinguish all opposition to Beijing and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and to eradicate Hong Kong’s core values. These include free speech, a free market economy, freedom of assembly and freedom of religious belief. Those rights were guaranteed in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, a UN-registered treaty. China voiced its contempt for that treaty as early as 2017. It said that it was a mere “historical document” without any significance.

Continue reading →
WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

What Nicolas Sarkozy’s conviction means for us By Peter Skurkiss

By on March 2nd, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/03/what_nicolas_sarkozys_conviction_means_for_us.html

A Paris court  has just found former French president Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and sentenced him to three years in prison, two of which have been suspended. The presiding judge said Sarkozy, who served from 2007-2012, used his position to peddle influence and violate state secrecy for political gain. Interestingly, the key evidence against the former president dates back to tapped telephone calls in 2014.

I am in no position to say whether this is an example of the rule of law being applied to the high and mighty or instead a selective prosecution and some form of political payback. I will note that Sarkozy is still influential among French conservatives and that his conviction hurts them. Also, he’s been out of office for eight years. 

My point in bringing this French matter up is not the Sarkozy’s conviction per se but what it might portend for the U.S. The hive’s vendetta against Donald Trump has been far from satisfied with the installment of Joe Biden as president. Trump is still extremely popular with the Republican base. And as his CPAC speech shows, the Orange Man is not going anywhere. Instead, Trump casts his shadow over the political dialogue in the country like no one else can. As such, he is a continuing threat to the globalists and the deep state. 

The groups that make up the hive fear and hate Trump with equal intensity. With Sarkozy’s conviction, they are dreaming of what might be possible in the U.S. They will reason among themselves that precedent has been broken in an advanced western country with the conviction and sentencing of a former head of state. What better way to take Trump off the board than to do something similar here? And to repeat, Sarkozy has been out of office for over eight years and the main evidence against him goes back to 2014. Yet still they went after him.

Continue reading →
MEDIA Comments turned off

Washington Post Fact Checkers Called President Trump a Liar to Cover Up Biden’s Corruption Daniel Greenfield

By on March 2nd, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/washington-post-fact-checkers-called-president-daniel-greenfield/

Once upon a time, the media used fact checkers to check its own facts before publishing a story. And then the media stopped checking its facts and started smearing everyone else.

The media’s false claim that Russia had somehow rigged the 2016 election to help President Trump win with “disinformation” became the basis for a media movement pressuring Big Tech to let the media’s fact checking censors silence conservatives with their ‘fact checking’.

Even as the media discarded all of its remaining standards, it claimed truth as its standard.

“This is an apple. Some people might try and tell you that it’s a banana,” CNN lectured viewers. “They might scream banana, banana, banana over and over and over again.”

At the Washington Post, which had declared war on President Trump early on, fact checking became its own industry. Glenn Kessler, the head of the Post’s fact checking team, and two junior members published a book last year titled, Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth. It was the last hurrah for the team which shut down its presidential fact checking operation in 2021

But Kessler and the Post continued touting its fake database claiming that President Trump had made “30,573 false or misleading claims” even while making it clear that the game had changed. When Joe Biden falsely claimed that there was no vaccine when he came into office, Kessler insisted that it was a “verbal stumble, a typical Biden gaffe”, but not false or a lie.

Continue reading →
IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Biden’s Immigration Bill Would Be an Act of National Suicide Figures don’t lie – but liars can figure. Michael Cutler

By on March 2nd, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/bidens-immigration-bill-would-be-act-national-michael-cutler/

On February 28, 2021 the New York Times reported: Biden’s Immigration Plan Would Offer Path to Citizenship For Millions.

In reviewing the Biden administration’s catastrophic immigration proposals, the first question that should come to every American’s mind is, how does this benefit America and struggling Americans?

This is especially true because the Biden immigration bill would likely result in the lawful admission of more than 100 million immigrants!

I wrote about this issue in my article: “What Biden’s Immigration Policies Would Do To America: America’s adversaries can’t wait for this massive betrayal.” 

Incredibly this fact has been ignored by the mainstream media, but we will explore the true magnitude of the Biden Amnesty shortly.

News coverage of immigration almost always focuses on the aliens and those who profit from the admission of foreign workers but never on the citizens of our nation.

Continue reading →
ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Ballot Harvesting Ban Case Hits the Supreme Court Daniel Greenfield

By on March 2nd, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2021/03/ballot-harvesting-ban-case-hits-supreme-court-daniel-greenfield/

Where are we on voter integrity?

Anyone expecting the Supreme Court to affirmatively protect voter integrity was kidding themselves. We’re far enough behind the ball that we’re hoping that the Supreme Court protects the rights of states to ban grotesque violations like ballot harvesting. 

It’s easy to spit and dismiss that out of hand, but if you want to imagine the political system being a whole lot closer to doomsday, preventing states from stopping ballot harvesting would do it. But there are also bigger stakes in the mix in Brnovich v. DNC.

A major reason why little could be done about the 2020 election is that the Voting Rights Act rigged the system. The Democrats are free to argue that any interference with their electorate is a violation of the Voting Rights Act. Republicans can’t make that argument because political affiliation isn’t protected. That’s also why conservatives can be fired from their jobs for their political views, meanwhile other classes are protected by the legal system.

The Voting Rights Act is the nuclear weapon of Democrat election rigging. And the conservative judiciary has been chipping away at its abuses.

Continue reading →
FOREIGN POLICY, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Biden Returns to Obama’s Feckless Foreign Policy No worse friend, no better enemy. Bruce Thornton

By on March 2nd, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/joe-biden-returns-obamas-feckless-foreign-policy-bruce-thornton/

It was said of the Roman generalissimo Sulla that there was no better friend or worse enemy than he. This maxim of foreign policy––support and help your loyal allies, and damage and punish your enemies––was proven common sense for millennia. Then came the age of moralizing internationalism, the belief that a “new world order” had made that realist truth anachronistic and primitive, a reflection of our benighted past. Now diplomatic engagement, democracy promotion, foreign aid, and multinational institution see to global security, peace, and prosperity.

As a result, today there is no worse friend, and no better enemy than the West’s foreign policy and national security agencies.

Our foreign policy establishment has long clung tightly to these outworn “new world order”
narratives and paradigms despite the empirical evidence that such appeasing policies embolden and strengthen our enemies and convince them of our weakness. Exhibit number one is Obama’s involvement of the U.S. in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or Iran nuclear deal, a multinational compendium of empty promises, unenforceable conditions, and American danegeld. By the end of Obama’s second term it was obvious that Iran had no intention of giving up its nuclear weapons programs, its development of missiles to carry nuclear warheads, and its jihadist aggression in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen fomented by its proxies.

The last four years provide the evidence of that foreign policy failure. Donald Trump’s more realist Middle East policies signaled to the world that the U.S. was no long an indulgent, dotty Uncle Sam who would ignore provocations and assaults on our security and interests, or reward with foreign aid empty promises scrawled on “parchment barriers.” Instead of the wishful thinking of “diplomatic engagement,” Swiss-cheese agreements, and unreciprocated concessions, Trump took decisive action. He left the Iran nuclear agreement, imposed harsh sanctions on the regime, and punished its aggression with direct attacks on Iranian Republican Guard leaders, the most serious being the killing of Qassem Soleimani, head honcho of Iran’s imperialist Quds Forces abroad.

Continue reading →