RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/03/23/the-hibernation-of-democracy/

“Democracy was forced into hibernation – an utterly unprecedented state of affairs. Our nation and our lives became the property not of an engaged, free public discussion, but of an expert class of scientists and public-health officials to whom every major decision was entrusted. Parliament temporarily suspended itself. Even when it returned it failed to subject the suspension of public life to any real, meaningful scrutiny. Every other issue other than Covid-19 was forced out of the public realm. Even discussing the economic and social consequences of lockdown was shamed into silence. ‘Do you care more for the economy than for your own grandmother?!’ And we the people were transformed from democratic citizens into recipients of instruction; from free public actors into potential spreaders of disease to be controlled and punished; from voters into mere observers of the spectacle of crisis, our role nothing more than to watch the depressing daily press conferences and heed their warning that leaving our houses would cause death and destruction.”

For a year we have been living through one of the most extraordinary events of modern times: the hibernation of democracy. The suspension of public life. The adjournment of politics itself. This has been the most dire consequence of lockdown. We have witnessed the outsourcing of decision-making to non-political actors, the withering away of political opposition and political debate, and the decommissioning of the public itself. Stay at home, watch the news for Covid updates, and don’t breathe on, far less talk to, another human soul. That has been the instruction to the demos for the past year. The impact of all of this on the spirit and practice of democracy is likely to be long-lasting.

Today is the first anniversary of the imposition of lockdown in the UK. It was a year ago today that Boris Johnson, having initially bristled at the idea of enforcing a China- or Italy-style shutdown of society, solemnly addressed the nation and said: ‘Stay at home.’ It would last three or four weeks, we were told. It was just about ‘flattening the curve’ and preventing the NHS from being overwhelmed. We’d be out of it soon and cracking on with life relatively normally. How naive we were to believe that. Today, on this unhappy birthday, we’re in lockdown again – our third – and public-health experts are telling us that some social restrictions could last for years. A three-week shutdown has become a neverending nightmare.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/suspect-in-boulder-mass-shooting-identified-as-ah

Police have identified 21-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa as the suspect in the Boulder, Colorado, shooting that left at least 10 people dead, including a police officer, on Monday.

Boulder Police Chief Maris Harold on Tuesday identified the alleged shooter and the 10 victims, who range in age from 20 to 65.

The victims include Denny Stong, 20; Neven Stanisic, 23; Rikki Olds, 25; Tralona Bartkowika, 49; Suzanne Fountain, 59; Teri Leiker, 51; Kevin Mahoney, 61; Lynn Murray, 62; and Jody Waters, 65. Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley, 51, was also shot and killed while responding to the incident.

“I want to say to the community, I am so sorry this incident happened,” Harold said, adding, “We are going to do everything in our power to make sure this suspect has a thorough trial and we do a thorough investigation.”

Officials said that Alissa, 21, was shot during an exchange with officers at the King Soopers on Monday afternoon, leaving the suspect injured.

“The man who gunned them down will be held fully responsible. We don’t have the answer for that yet,” said Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty during the news conference.

When asked about the weapon the suspect allegedly used, officials refused to comment.

Alissa, whose last name is also spelled as Alyssa or Al-Issa, is slated to be charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder, officials said, adding that he’ll be transferred to the Boulder County jail to await court proceedings.

Police officers and an ambulance are seen at the scene where an active shooter was reported at a grocery store in Boulder, Colo., on March 22, 2021. (Cecil Disharoon/via Reuters)

Ali Aliwi Alissa, the suspect’s 34-year-old brother, told The Daily Beast that his brother was mentally ill, disturbed, and paranoid.

The suspect is “very anti-social” and paranoid, his brother told the news outlet, noting that he would often remark that he was “being chased, someone is behind him, someone is looking for him.”

“When he was having lunch with my sister in a restaurant, he said, ‘People are in the parking lot, they are looking for me.’ She went out, and there was no one. We didn’t know what was going on in his head,” Alissa said.

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

It begins. Faster than anyone anticipated.

As Joe Biden falls 3 times in a light breeze boarding Air Force One, the latest sign of dementia he presents, and as his first-ever press conference looms next week, the public is being prepared for a transition of power to Kamala Harris. The gay conservative site Outspoken reports that it has received leaked emails revealing:

…the White House is shifting toward a communication strategy that seeks to elevate Vice President Kamala Harris in all official White House business.

The directive, the employee reports, came from a top White House communications team member and instructs all agencies to refer to the Biden administration as the “Biden-Harris Administration” in place of the “Biden Administration.”

“Please be sure to reference the current administration as the ‘Biden-Harris Administration’ in official public communications,” the directive reads, with “Biden-Harris Administration” accented in bold. (snip)

The subtle move to diminish Biden was also reflected in the official Twitter account for the White House. The description for that account now reads, “Welcome to the Biden-Harris White House!”

Neither of the @WhiteHouse Twitter accounts from the previous two administrations mentioned the vice president in the account’s description. Under the Obama administration, the account description read, “Follow for the latest from President Obama and his administration.”

https://amgreatness.com/2021/03/22/the-feds-bogus-violent-extremists/

In her first official act as Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines issued a flashing red alert to the country. Jihadi-like Americans, especially those on the political Right, lurk among us and are plotting to commit vicious crimes such as kidnapping and assasinations.

These “US-based actors” allegedly will be moved to violence based on “narratives of fraud in the recent general election, the emboldening impact of the violent breach of the US Capitol, conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and conspiracy theories,” the March 1, 2021 document claims.

Haines divides “domestic violent extremists,” or DVEs, into three categories; a graphic of the U.S. Capitol building sits atop the category entitled “anti-government/anti-authority violent extremists.” That particular brand of terrorist, according to the report, is driven by their “opposition to perceived economic, social, or racial hierarchies or perceived government overreach, negligence, or illegitimacy.” (Perceived?)

The thin, three-page paper does little to substantiate her alarming assessment; it is short on proof but long on political usefulness for Democrats and the media, who continue to stoke fears about so-called domestic terrorists loyal to Donald Trump who orchestrated a “deadly insurrection” on January 6. (The word “unclassified” appeared on each page, as if to give the impression that a thick trove of “classified” material somewhere exists.)

A Politicized Intelligence Community

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/03/the-warning-lights-are-flashing-at-bidens-domestic-change-factory/

Good column except for this egregious statement:”Inexplicably, President Biden is well on the way to repeating a mistake that was made by his predecessor: creating a mess within the immigration system that does nothing of consequence for him except diminish his already-limited supply of political and civic goodwill. ” Why this gratuitous and false statement about Trump????rsk

Can he see them? Does anyone around him want to break the bad news?

S ince the final machines were installed on January 20th of this year, Joe Biden’s domestic-change factory has been surprisingly productive. Within days of its opening, the president had commissioned an assembly line for the manufacture of executive orders. Within six weeks, he had delivered an enormous batch of progressive spending priorities — albeit in a box that advertised a different product. Now, as he looks to ramp up fabrication, Biden is considering pushing for the construction of a second, high-efficiency factory on the site currently occupied by the Senate.

Thus far, at least, Biden’s investors seem pleasantly surprised by the yield. Were his presidency to be evaluated on Progressive MarketWatch, it would undoubtedly generate a “Buy!” And yet, despite this unbridled optimism, some warning lights are flashing down at quality control — frantic, scarlet, unceasing warning lights, of the sort that augur disaster when ignored. Can Biden see them? Does he want to see them? Does anyone around him want to tell him about them? The answers to these questions will determine the fate of the next two years, and, thus, his presidency.

The first warning light pertains to the Democrats’ next legislative priority: H.R. 1 — or, if you are susceptible to question-begging nomenclative bullying, the For the People Act. In the Democrats’ eyes, H.R. 1 represents nothing less than the means by which American democracy will be preserved: a law that will safely land Flight 93, permanently banish the ghosts of Jim Crow, and finally usher the country out of the undemocratic hellscape in which it struggled until 2019. Indeed, H.R. 1 is held to be so imperative that it is being considered as the pretext for a daring run at the elimination of the filibuster.

https://amgreatness.com/2021/03/21/follow-the-science-they-said/

Throughout the Trump years and in particular during the 2020 COVID pandemic crisis, the nation was lectured by the Left “to follow the data,” as the Democrats proclaimed themselves the “party of science.” As sober and judicious children of the enlightenment, they alone offered the necessary disinterested correctives to Trump’s supposed bluster and exaggeration—and to his anti-scientific deplorable following (often dismissed by Biden as dregs, chumps, and Neanderthals).

In truth, leftists and Democrats have become the purveyors of superstition. Their creation of a fantasy world is not because they do not believe in science per se, but because they believe more in the primacy of ideology that should shape and warp science in the proper fashion for the greater good. What prompted Paul Ehrlich, Al Gore, or Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) hysterically and wrongly to forecast widespread demographic or climatological catastrophe in just a few years was not ignorance of science per se, but a desire to massage science for our own good.

The Godheads of COVID-19

The medical pandemic godhead of the Left has been octogenarian Dr. Anthony Fauci. His twin chief public relations explainer has been liberal darling New York governor Andrew Cuomo. Both were always supposed to be on top of “the science.” 

Dr. Fauci has not just been flat-out wrong on the science of COVID—in his assessments of the origins and possible dangers of COVID-19, of when we can get back to normal, of when the vaccinations would appear, and of which particular governors have been doing the most or least effective management of the disease. He has also, by his own admission, deliberately lied. 

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/biden-intel-report-reboots-russia-hoax-censor-daniel-greenfield/

Democrats never give up beating a dead horse until it’s lying in pieces in the gutter. Senate Democrats are back to demanding that the FBI investigate Justice Kavanaugh’s high school years, and the Biden admin is rebooting the Russia hoax to protect Hunter and the Big Guy.

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines presided over the release of the latest report, which claims to offer an intelligence analysis, but reads like a synthesis of Biden campaign talking points, right down to its absurd insistence that, Putin was helping Trump because he “probably also considers President Biden more apt to echo the idea of American Exceptionalism.”

Finally we’re getting an intel product that makes the Steele dossier seem credible.

The intelligence analysis also claims that the Hunter Biden thing is a Russian smear and that while the Russians tried to interfere in the election, nothing they did changed the outcome.

That’s convenient. Really convenient.

But Haines isn’t an intelligence professional. She’s an Obama lawyer who was brought in to politicise intelligence at the CIA and then as a legal adviser to the National Security Council.

“To safeguard the integrity of our intelligence community, the DNI must insist that, when it comes to intelligence, there is simply no place for politics ever,” Haines had told the Senate.

But that was her confirmation hearing. This is the reality of the job that she was picked to do.

“Foreign Threats to the 2020 US Federal Elections” is a stew of Democrat leftover talking points which never veers from its political agenda even if the result is self-contradictory gibberish.

The report’s first judgement insists that no “technical aspect of the voting process” was altered, while its second judgement contends that Putin authorized “influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting President Trump”, but then backtracks to clarify that “unlike in 2016, we did not see persistent Russian cyber efforts to gain access to election infrastructure.”

If Putin wanted President Trump to win and Biden to lose, why didn’t he hack the election? If he could do it in 2016, why couldn’t he do it in 2020? Did he develop carpal tunnel syndrome?

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/03/slandering-the-u-s-military-again/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=featured-content-trending&utm_term=first

The accusation that the military is full of racists and extremists is false, and damaging.

During the 1960s and ’70s, those of us who fought in Vietnam became accustomed to having many of our fellow countrymen slander us as, at best, victims of a government that sent its poor to fight a criminal war and, at worst, war criminals ourselves, complicit in the routine commitment of atrocities. But the pendulum began to swing back the other way in the 1980s, and continued in the same direction through the Gulf War and 9/11 until, by the time of George W. Bush’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers had been elevated to the status of “secular saints.”

My fellow Vietnam veterans and I would no doubt have preferred such reverence to the chilly reception we received after the war, but secular sainthood has created its own set of problems — isolation from American society at large, unequal burden sharing, and a belief in the moral superiority of those who serve over those who haven’t — that threaten to undermine the bond between service members and veterans on the one hand and American society at large on the other. After all, healthy civil-military relations depend on mutual trust between soldiers and the society they serve.

Now, the pendulum seems to be swinging back to the bad old days of slandering the military, as part of broader claims that Donald Trump normalized “white supremacy” and other forms of right-wing extremism. The fact that there were veterans among the rioters who unlawfully entered the Capitol on January 6, the persistent claim that Trump appealed to extremist groups, and Trump’s popularity with the military form the basis for proliferating allegations that the military has become a friend to racism and extremism.

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/03/22/joe-biden-will-always-tell-you-the-truth-except-about-covid-vaccine-economy-border-crisis/

Almost exactly a year ago, then-candidate Joe Biden promised something that many apparently believed. “I’ll always tell you the truth,” he said. “This is the responsibility of a president. That’s what is owed the American people.”

So how is Biden doing on that promise?

Not very well, when you consider his inability to tell the truth about the COVID-19 vaccine, the economic rebound already underway, or the border crisis. Biden won’t tell the truth about the first two because he’d have to credit President Donald Trump. And he won’t tell the truth about the border crisis because he himself is entirely to blame for it.

Biden has repeatedly claimed that when he got to the White House, there was no plan in place to distribute the vaccine and that the credit for the widespread distribution all belongs to him. In his prime-time address earlier this month, for example, Biden said that “I have as president of the United States put us on a war footing to get the job done. Sounds like hyperbole, but I mean it, a war footing. Thank God we’re making some real progress now.”

But the former head of Operation Warp Speed, the program created by Trump to speed development and production of COVID-19 vaccines, told NBC’s “Face the Nation” over the weekend that “90% of what is happening now is the plan that we had.”

Of course, all you have to do is look at the data to see that rollout of the vaccine had nothing to do with Biden. By the time Biden took office, daily doses were well above 1 million – for a vaccine that nobody, including Biden, thought would be approved by then.

Biden isn’t telling the truth about the economy, either, or his $1.9 trillion plan to “rescue” it.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/wheres-the-science-behind-cdcs-6-foot-social-distance-decree-11616358952?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidance on Friday about how far apart children ought to be while in school. The old standard of 6 feet has been replaced by a 3-foot minimum, which will make it much more feasible for many schools to reopen for full-time instruction in person.

The adjustment applies only to schools, not society more broadly, and only when prevalence is low and schools are taking other measures, such as keeping kids in social “pods.” The preconditions may preclude the guidance from having its full intended effect. The World Health Organization has allowed 1 meter of distance (around 39 inches) both in and out of school. China, France, Denmark and Hong Kong, among others, went with this spacing. If the CDC’s guidance were applied universally—to include work and retail—that one adjustment could restore substantially more commercial activity.

More distance is always better when it comes to contagion. But the 6-foot directive might have been the single costliest measure CDC has recommended, which have been largely followed over the past year. So what science went into making—and, more important, sustaining—the recommendation?

Nobody knows for sure. Most agree the guideline derives from a belief that Covid is largely spread through respiratory droplets, like flu. Old studies suggest that larger respiratory droplets are unlikely to travel more than 6 feet, and therefore close contact with an infected person is the primary mode of exposure. This research was hardly conclusive, but by most accounts it formed the basis for the initial Covid recommendations. More-recent research shows that the novel coronavirus can also spread through airborne particles, known as aerosols, especially indoors.