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Ruth King

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The ‘New Normal’? Ridiculous Is the president right? Will we quickly revert to the status quo ante? No one knows. By Roger Kimball

By on May 10th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/05/09/the-new-normal-ridiculous/

Crises, even if they are manufactured ones, are great producers of linguistic mutation. Thucydides noticed this. In one of the most famous bits of his History of the Peloponnesian War, the great historian wrote that in a time of civil war certain words changed their usual meanings and took on new ones. For example, “reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak for unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question inaptness to act on any.”

It’s not only civil war that produces such linguistic deformations. Any crisis will do.

Our part of Connecticut was badly damaged by Hurricane (or, for the weather pedants among you, “Superstorm”) Sandy in 2012. Like many families, we had to move out of our house for months and were subjected to seemingly endless meetings with various local and FEMA officials who eagerly seized the chance to tell us huddled masses what we could and couldn’t do with our property. Just as every public official and talking head now is an amateur epidemiologist, so back in 2012 they were all expert meteorologists.

I remember one meeting in particular when it was explained to us that storms like Hurricane Sandy were “the new normal.”

“The new normal.” Is there a more nauseating flake of smug linguistic presumption? I think that the imperative “stay safe,” born of our coronavirus panic, comes close. But “the new normal” is worse because it pretends to knowledge not just solicitude. That wretched town official who was telling us serfs what we could and could not do with our homes did so on the hollow authority of knowing, or pretending to know, what the future would bring.

So it is now. At one of President Trump’s near-daily coronavirus press rallies last month, a media mouth began a question by noting the “new normal in which, you know, there’s [sic] smaller crowds in restaurants and bars and—” The president cut him off.

“Oh, that’s not going to be normal,” he said.

There’s not going to be a new normal where somebody has been having for 25 years 158 seats in a restaurant and now he’s got 30 or he’s got 60 because that wouldn’t work. That’s not normal. No, normal will be if he has the 158 or 68 seats, and that’s going to happen and it’s going to happen relatively quickly, we hope. . . . Our normal is if you have 100,000 people in an Alabama football game or 110,000 . . . we want 110,000 people. We want every seat occupied. Normal is not going to be where you have a game with 50,000 people.

Is the president right? Will we quickly revert to the status quo ante? No one knows.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

Common Sense and Self-Evident Truth in a Post-Truth World By Robert Curry

By on May 10th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/05/common_sense_and_selfevident_truth_in_a_posttruth_world.html

Convincing Americans that there is no such thing as truth defeats the very foundation of the American idea.

Many Americans today go far beyond simply rejecting the ideas of the American founders, the claims of the Declaration, and the Constitution.  They reject the very idea of truth.  These Americans were taught in American universities that there is no such thing as truth, that truth is an outmoded concept, that we now live in a post-truth reality.  The belief that the concept of truth is outmoded is no longer confined to academia.  It has invaded the world outside academia and won a great victory there; the Oxford Dictionaries selected “post-truth” as the Word of the Year for 2016.

And a great victory it is.  Convincing Americans that there is no such thing as truth defeats the very foundation of the American idea.  The Founders, famously, founded America on certain truths, truths they declared to the world were not only true, but self-evidently true: “We hold these truths to be self-evident…”  Self-evident truth occupies the first place and also the highest position among the declarations of the Declaration of Independence.  “Created equal” and “unalienable rights” and all the rest follow along after that bold opening claim.

The Founders certainly believed they built on the rock of self-evident truth.  But if there is no such thing as truth, then there can be no such thing as a self-evident truth, and everything the Founders declared and established can simply be dismissed.  There is no need to try to understand the thinking of the Founders — not even by professors of constitutional law.

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CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Remdesivir: George Soros & Bill Gates Partner with China on Coronavirus Drug! by Shawn Paul Melville

By on May 9th, 2020

https://civilianintelligencenetwork.ca/2020/02/12/george-soros-bill-gates-partner-with-china-on-coronavirus-drug/

As drug manufacturers speed up their efforts to find a new treatment drug for the coronavirus outbreak that has devastated China and has caused a world-wide panic, a Chinese drug company just announced that it has started mass-producing an experimental drug from Gilead Sciences that has the potential to fight the novel coronavirus (1).

BrightGene Bio-Medical Technology, a Suzhou based company (2), just announced that it has developed the technology to synthesize the active pharmaceutical ingredients of Remdesivir, the drug developed by Gilead Biosciences. Its stock price surged 20% in Tuesday morning trading in Shanghai (1).

“While BrightGene said that it intends to license the drug from Gilead, its move to start manufacturing at this early stage is highly unusual and a potential infringement of the American company’s intellectual property.“(1) This comes a week after Chinese researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology filed an application to patent Gilead’s drug Remdesivir to treat the new coronavirus, a bid that would give China leverage over the global use of the therapy to fight the outbreak (1)(3)(4).

The decision to seek a patent instead of invoking a “compulsory license” option that lets nations override drug patents in national emergencies, signals China’s commitment toward intellectual property rights. The timing is uncanny! Right? Gilead will retain the global rights to market the antiviral medication, once approved (3). Gilead has also announced that it is partnering with the Chinese Health Authorities on the clinical trials of Remdesivir as a treatment for coronavirus (5). Remdesivir was originally developed in 2016 by Gilead as a treatment for the Ebola virus (13). Many have argued that China stole the patent from Gilead due to a technicality, but you will soon see that this is indeed not the case (14).

And who exactly is Gilead Biosciences? Gilead is partnered with Wuxi Pharmaceuticals (Wuxi AppTec) owned by New World Order philanthropist and mass manipulator himself, George Soros (6)(7)! Here is a printout of Soros Fund Managaement Portfolio which will confirm this (8)!

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CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

OBAMA PANICS! Deep State Reporter Isikoff Releases His “Leaked” Call – Former President’s Fingerprints All Over Attempted Coup and More Documents Are Coming! Joe Hoft

By on May 9th, 2020

www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/crooked-obama-panics-deep-state-reporter-isikoff-releases-leaked-call-former-presidents-fingerprints-attempted-coup-documents-coming/

Disgraced former President Barack Obama appears to be in a panic.  General Flynn is now in the clear and the Durham investigation is ongoing. More documents are about to drop. There are rumblings that former members of his FBI (e.g. FBI General Counsel James Baker) have flipped and are working with Durham.

Obama’s Deep State henchmen who set up General Flynn and the crooked politicians and media hacks who supported them are terrified.

An audio of former President Barack Obama, whose Administration spied on the Trump team and Administration, was released by deep state reporter Michael Isikoff at  Yahoo News  on Friday night.

In the “call” which appears totally set up, Obama is concerned about the rule of law. 

Here is the transcript:

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ISRAEL, KRD NEWS Comments turned off

KRD NEWS-ISRAEL AND THE NEW YORK TIMES, BIDEN, SOVEREIGNTY IN JUDEA AND SAMARIA

By on May 9th, 2020

https://mailchi.mp/db1ebad35c89/krd-newsnew-york-times-claims-israeli-army-is-known-for-pioneering-cutting-edge-ways-to-kill-people?e=9365a7c638

Will the bias against Israel at the NY Times ever end?

IN TODAY’S FEATURED ARTICLE, “New York Times Claims Israeli Army Is Known for ‘Pioneering Cutting-Edge Ways to Kill People’” (Algemeiner, May 8, printed in full below), Ira Stoll takes on Times Jerusalem Bureau Chief David Halbfinger. Halbfinger’s opening sentence in an article describing how the IDF’s research and development arm is doing good in the wake of the coronavirus went like this:  

The Israeli Defense Ministry’s research-and-development arm is best known for pioneering cutting-edge ways to kill people and blow things up, with stealth tanks and sniper drones among its more lethal recent projects. But its latest mission is lifesaving.

FORMER VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN stated this week that he plans to:

A) Reinstate the immoral and unlawful policy of sending massive amounts of American taxpayer funds to the anti-peace, terrorist Palestinian-Arab regime;

B) Re-open the illegal terrorist PLO mission in Washington, D.C.; and

C) Re-open a separate consulate in Jerusalem for anti-peace Palestinian Arabs.   

THE ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA EXPLAINS why we should condemn Biden for these statements, and urge him to retract them: 

It is utterly immoral to fund the PA while it continues to incite hatred and terror, glorifies Jew killers in the media, and names PA schools, streets, government buildings, public squares and sports teams in honor of terrorists… Biden’s proposed payments are moreover partially illegal under the Taylor Force Law (which suspends certain funding to the PA, unless the PA ceases paying for acts of terror);….

The PLO mission…violated the Oslo accords’ prohibition on the PA’s involvement in foreign relations. Oslo provided that “the Council [defined as the Palestinian Authority] will not have powers and responsibilities in the sphere of foreign relations, which sphere includes the establishment abroad of embassies, consulates or other types of foreign missions and posts or permitting their establishment in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, the appointment of or admission of diplomatic and consular staff, and the exercise of diplomatic functions.”…

The PA’s despicable harassment and “lawfare” – bringing spurious charges against Israel at the ICC – and the PA’s longstanding refusal to even start negotiations, warrant bringing strong measures against the PA.  Biden’s plan to instead reward the anti-peace, terrorist PA, by re-opening the PLO office in Washington and a separate Jerusalem consulate, is appalling.  

US AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL DAVID FRIEDMAN says Washington is preparing to acknowledge an Israeli move to apply sovereignty in Judea and Samaria and in the Jordan Valley as of July 1. He stated, ‘Applying Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria is Israel’s decision’

I agree. Some do not (see below)…

***

More than thirty former DEMOCRAT NATIONAL SECURITY OFFICIALS, in a letter to the Democratic National Committee, called for a tougher stance on Israel.

Signees included former Obama administration staffers, such as former Deputy National Security Advisor and Deputy Director of the CIA Avril Haines, and former Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes. Clinton staffers Martin Indyk, who served as US Ambassador to Israel, and Strobe Talbott, who was deputy secretary of state, also signed the letter.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

This Oval Office Meeting Attended By Obama and Biden Was Key To the Anti-Trump Plot By Matt Margolis

By on May 9th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2020/05/09/this-oval-office-meeting-attended-by-obama-and-biden-was-key-to-the-anti-trump-plot-n389501

On January 5, 2017, a meeting was held in the Obama White House in the Oval Office. Both President Obama and Vice President Biden attended. This meeting, it turns out, was critical to the anti-Trump operation by the Obama administration, reports Mollie Hemingway at The Federalist. “It was at this meeting that Obama gave guidance to key officials who would be tasked with protecting his administration’s utilization of secretly funded Clinton campaign research, which alleged Trump was involved in a treasonous plot to collude with Russia, from being discovered or stopped by the incoming administration,” she wrote.

Also in attendance at this meeting was then-CIA Director John Brennan, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, then-national security adviser Susan Rice, then-FBI Director James Comey, then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, and other members of the national security council.

It was at this meeting that Barack Obama spoke with Yates and Comey about wiretapped conversations of Trump’s incoming National Security Adviser Gen. Michael Flynn with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the Trump transition, indicating that President Obama was directly knowledgeable of the efforts to surveil the Trump campaign and undermine the incoming administration.

Susan Rice wrote herself a now-infamous email documenting the meeting, writing “President Obama said he wants to be sure that, as we engage with the incoming team, we are mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia.”

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Flynn and the Anatomy of a Political Narrative By Andrew C. McCarthy

By on May 9th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/05/flynn-and-the-anatomy-of-a-political-narrative/

Obama officials and FBI collaborated to invent the ‘Russian collusion’ narrative

The FBI coordinated very closely with the Obama White House on the investigation of Michael Flynn, while the Obama Justice Department was asleep at the switch. That is among the most revealing takeaways from Thursday’s decision by Attorney General Bill Barr to pull the plug on the prosecution of Flynn, who fleetingly served as President Trump’s first National Security Advisor. Flynn had been seeking to withdraw his guilty plea to a false-statements charge brought in late 2017 by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

While working on the Trump transition team in December 2016, Flynn spoke with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, in conversations that were intercepted by our government (because Russian-government operatives, such as Kislyak, are routinely monitored by the FBI and other U.S. intelligence agencies). Among the topics Flynn and Kislyak discussed was the imposition of sanctions against Russia, which President Obama had just announced.

That these conversations took place has been known for over three years — ever since a still-unidentified government official leaked that classified information to the Washington Post. For almost as long, it has been known that the FBI became aware of the Flynn–Kislyak discussions very shortly after they happened. What was not known until this week was that then–acting attorney general Yates was out of the loop. She found out about the discussions nearly a week afterwards — from President Obama, of all people.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Here’s What The 75th Anniversary Of VE Day Looks Like During Coronavirus Carlie Porterfield

By on May 9th, 2020

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2020/05/08/heres-what-the-75th-anniversary-of-ve-day-looks-like-during-coronavirus/#38e2527f5d43

Friday marked the 75th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender to the Allied forces and the end of World War II in Europe, but the coronavirus pandemic cast a shadow over memorials as the virus rendered large-scale celebrations too dangerous—especially for the war’s surviving veterans, now mostly in their 90s.

On Friday in Britain, Prince Charles led the country in a moment of silence, and military jets were flown over the U.K.’s four capital cities—and while residents are largely still housebound under the nationwide stay-at-home order, many families held tea parties, 40s-style, to mark the date.

In Paris, President Emmanuel Macron laid a wreath at the Arc de Triomphe at a sparse memorial service—the nearby Avenue des Champs-Élysées, usually bustling with shoppers and tourists, was nearly empty.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Chancellor Angela Merkel and other government leaders kept their distance as they laid wreaths at Berlin’s Neue Wache, Germany’s memorial to victims of war.

President Donald Trump was joined by eight World War II veterans for a wreath-laying ceremony in Washington, D.C., but observed social distancing measures—with the youngest veteran in attendance clocking in at age 96, the group is particularly at risk for coronavirus complications.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

‘Fear kills:’ WWII vets recall war, reject panic over virus Roman Kutukov and Yuras Karmanau

By on May 9th, 2020

https://apnews.com/a86aa84df7a2ae97adcc91cb52975f11

YAKUTSK, Russia (AP) — On the 75th anniversary of the allied victory in the World War II, The Associated Press spoke to veterans in ex-Soviet countries and discovered that lessons they learned during the war are helping them cope with a new major challenge — the coronavirus pandemic. As they recalled the horrors of the war, they also talked about how strength and tenacity were key to survival both then and now. Here is some of their testimony.

For Russian World War II veteran Valentina Efremova, the coronavirus pandemic is like going through the war all over again.

After the war, the 96-year-old said, “our lives were improving, year after year. And suddenly there’s this pandemic, which is like another war … this time, a biological one.”

But Efremova knows better than to panic and believes the outbreak — just like the Nazis back in the 1940s — will be defeated in the end. “Giving in to panic is like surrendering to the enemy,” she said.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Queen Elizabeth says ‘never give up, never despair,’ in VE Day 75th anniversary address By Laura Italiano

By on May 9th, 2020

https://nypost.com/2020/05/08/queen-elizabeth-delivers-ve-day-75th-anniversary-address/

“Never give up, never despair,” Queen Elizabeth II said in a poignant VE Day address Friday night — marking the 75th anniversary of the World War II victory in Europe.

“Today it may seem hard that we cannot mark this special anniversary as we would wish,” the 94-year-old queen said in the televised address.

“Instead, we remember from our homes and our doorsteps. But our streets are not empty: they are filled with the love and care that we have for each other,” she said.

“And, when I look at our country today, and see what we are willing to do to protect and support one another, I say with pride that we are still a nation those brave soldiers, sailors and airmen would recognize and admire.”

The Queen’s words fell on a national holiday usually marked by parades and other celebrations, a day instead subdued by the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown.

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