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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION

50 STATES AND DC, CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT

THE AUDACITY OF THIS MAN TRUMP

https://abyssum.org/2020/12/13/how-dare-donald-trump-turn-out-to-be-one-of-the-best-presidents-the-united-states-of-america-has-ever-had-in-spite-of-his-personal-flaws-which-he-never-tried-to-hide-

I’m still trying to understand what 80 million voters disliked about President Trump so much that they decided to cast their votes for a man who served forty-seven years in government and has done absolutely nothing for the American people. And, I’m still flabbergasted that those same people would vote for a woman to serve as Vice President, a heartbeat away from the Presidency, with a rather checkered and not so moral past. I wondered why they despised and hated President Trump so much.

And so, I have many questions:

Did you dislike that Trump made cruelty to animals a felony?

Did you dislike he raised billions to stop the opioid crisis? 

Perhaps you feel that he destroyed ISIS, killed terrorists, including the leader of ISIS and the Iranian General responsible for thousands of American deaths, all without going to war? 

Did you dislike the fact that the media and democrats, Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Cuomo, and Jim Acosta said we’d be in World War III by now with North Korea, and their prophecies did not come to pass?

Did you dislike Trump because under his leadership we became energy-independent and an exporter rather than an importer of oil, no longer relying on the Middle East for our petroleum needs? 

Did you dislike him because he wanted to build a wall to keep criminals and drugs from coming into our country?

Did you dislike him because he just slashed the price for medications in some cases by 50%, which is driving big Pharma nuts?

Perhaps you dislike that he signed a law ending the gag-order on pharmacists that prevented them from sharing money-saving options on prescriptions? 

Is your dislike for President Trump based on the fact that he signed the Save Our Seas Act, which funds $10 million per year to clean tons of plastic and garbage from the ocean?  

Where Did the New Mad Left Come From? By Victor Davis Hanson

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/12/where-did-the-new-mad-left-come-from/

Utopianism is age-old, as are its tragic consequences — and we haven’t seen the worst yet.

B outs of extreme leftism are frequent in history. Plato’s Apology, Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France, and Vladimir Lenin’s What Is to Be Done? — all offer us insight into the mind and methods of the hard Left.

America has experienced surges of mainstream anarchism, socialism, and communism, most profoundly during the late 19th century, amid the Great Depression, during the Soviet-American alliance of World War II and afterward, and in the 1960s. But rarely have these radical movements openly and without apologies made such inroads into and inside government and the establishment as during the past decade.We had earlier seen massive rioting, looting, and iconoclasm, similar to the chaos of summer 2020. But seldom did they continue with the de facto approval of mayors who restrained the police and turned their downtowns over to virtual occupiers setting up “autonomous” zones. Nor had we see seen city councils defund police operations. New York’s mayor Bill de Blasio and Seattle’s mayor Jenny Durkan were not so much hard-Left Democrats or socialists as they were anarchists who ceded control of parts of American cities to other anarchists.

We cannot recall any district attorney in memory who simply declared that an entire array of crimes no longer existed, and that those convicted of them would be let loose on the public. Yet Los Angeles County district attorney George Gascón recently announced that his office will not be charging anyone arrested for making criminal threats, possessing drugs and drug paraphernalia possession, being publicly intoxicated or under the influence of a controlled substance, loitering to commit prostitution, resisting arrest, or a host of other crimes.

In essence, Gascón simply overrode the California legislature and his own county statutes. He has made up his own laws in his own private fiefdom of Los Angeles County — a jurisdiction of over 10 million, larger than 40 states.

Courage vs. Covid 2020: The Age of UnReason, the Year of Fear. Jack Kerwick

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/12/courage-vs-covid-jack-kerwick/

The present year is the Year of Fear. It is the year of raw, wildly irrational fear. 

For sure, the inexhaustible fear-mongering on the part of opportunistic political partisans in the Government-Media-Industrial-Complex has exacerbated, exponentially exacerbated, the fears of tens and tens of millions of Americans. Yet the elites have not, strictly speaking, caused this fear.

They have only revealed it for all of the world to see.

To put this in terms with which most of us have long been familiar, the transformation of a cold virus into an existential crisis legitimizing the indefinite revocation of the United States Constitution and the reduction of the Land of the Free to an internment camp—and one in which its prisoners seem only all too happy to observe “Social Distancing” protocols while cowering behind their masks—has proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that most people really are ridden with fear.    

Fear is universal. It is at once necessary and desirable—as long as it is oriented toward objects that warrant its attention. 

In other words, when the fear is reasonable, when it is proportionate to the danger posed, it is fulfilling its natural function. 

COVID stats demonstrate that very little COVID is transmitted through bars and restaurants By Jack Hellner

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/12/covid_stats_show_that_very_little_covid_is_transmitted_through_bars_and_restaurants.html

When will the media and government officials show the actual scientific data, instead of just repeating the talking points, that they base all their strict mitigation and lockdown decisions on science? It’s clearly a lie. The answer is ‘never’ because neither facts nor science have mattered for a long time.

All that matters to this bunch is power over the people. Taking freedom and prosperity away is what power-hungry politicians and bureaucrats do.

On COVID, and its lockdowns, shutting down gyms, hair-cutters, bars, and restaurants, they’re particularly dishonest. Look:

What New York’s Contract Data Show:

Schools are safe, but living rooms less so during the pandemic. 

The vast majority of coronavirus cases in New York are spread by contact in living rooms and social gatherings, according to contact tracing data released on Friday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. 

The data made public by New York officials offers one of the more specific glimpses into how COVID-19 is transmitted in the state.

Is America’s Fourth Estate (Free Press) in Foreclosure? by Leni Friedman Valenta with Jiri Valenta

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16863/free-press-foreclosure

The modern meaning [of the fourth estate]… refers to the press as a fourth and free power — as even a “watchdog” — over the executive, legislative and judicial branches of our government. Today, however, it is the watchdog that needs watching.

It was all right for the New York Times, as its editor-in-chief, Dean Baquet, admitted, to have “built our newsroom” around the fake Russia Hoax for two years, but substantiated facts concerning the Biden family’s influence peddling were apparently “not fit to print.”

So far, still to be answered, is the question: If elections can ignore legalities with impunity, how, going forward, can there be trustworthy elections?

The “fourth estate” refers to freedom of the press. The term may have first been used by the philosopher-statesman Edmund Burke, who in 1787 highlighted the press as free and apart from the other three British “estates” — clergy, royalty and commoners.

The modern meaning, however, refers to the press as a fourth and free power — as even a “watchdog” — over the executive, legislative and judicial branches of our government. Today, however, it is the watchdog that needs watching.

The foundation on which the United States is built, freedom of speech and freedom of the press, is enshrined in the First Amendment to the US Constitution:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Before our eyes, however, this freedom is being distorted, strangled and withheld.

UPDATED: The Tragic Failure of William Barr Roger L. Simon

https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-tragic-failure-of-william-barr_3617008.html?utm_source=partner

I used to be a big fan of Attorney General William Barr.Now, as of Dec. 14, 2020, he’s gone, effective Dec. 23, almost a month before the actual end of a Trump administration, assuming that happens.Technically, Barr resigned, accompanied by the usual complimentary letter to the president, but something obviously went wrong in his relationship with Donald Trump.

What was it?

William Barr certainly knew how to talk the talk. His October 2019 speech on religious liberty at the Notre Dame Law School is particularly eloquent and meaningful. If you haven’t heard it, maybe you should as a reminder of the person he could be.

That was the same AG who promised, what seems like decades ago, he would get to the bottom of the reprehensible, treasonous to many, origin of the Trump-Russia investigation, known hereabouts as Spygate.He assigned John Durham, a reputedly hard-nosed U.S. attorney from Connecticut, to uncover the sources of this outrage and bring the miscreants to justice.

Unfortunately, within that promise soon emerged a hint of trouble to come. Barr informed us that higher officials—meaning, of course, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden—were not in Durham’s brief to investigate, although they had attended a fateful meeting in January 2016 from whence much may have flowed.

Some people were evidently above the law.

As justification for this, Barr made it seem he was trying to put an end to the politicization of the Department of Justice and the FBI—and maybe he was … in his own eyes.

Where Is The Criticism Of China From Environmentalists? Francis Menton

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2020-12-14-where-is-the-criticism-of-chi

You undoubtedly are aware that the international environmental movement has almost entirely been taken over and consumed by the climate change scare; and you also cannot help but be aware of the constant drumbeat of attacks by environmentalists on the U.S. government, particularly under President Trump, for its failure to reduce carbon emissions sufficiently to “save the planet.” At the same time, you are a reader of the Manhattan Contrarian. Therefore, you know that China is not only not reducing its own carbon emissions, but instead has well more than tripled them over the past twenty years (during which period U.S. emissions have declined modestly by about 15%); and today China is in the midst of a new round of massive expansion of its fossil fuel energy generation capacity, particularly with respect to the most carbon-intensive fuel, coal.

As quoted by me in a post just a couple of days ago, from the Global Energy Monitor, June 2020:

China currently has 249.6 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired capacity under development (97.8 GW under construction and 151.8 GW in planning), a 21% increase over end-2019 (205.9 GW). The amount of capacity under development (249.6 GW) is larger than the [entire] coal fleets of the United States (246.2 GW) or India (229.0 GW).

So then surely the major environmental organizations must be coming down hard on China? Wrong. Indeed, many of them are full of praise for China for its “climate leadership.” Sure, China gives plenty of empty lip service to Western climate orthodoxy; but could these environmentalists really be so dense as to be fooled by that, even as information as to China’s soaring emissions and hundreds of new coal plants is readily available (if not widely publicized by the CCP)?

AG William Barr: We Got Our Answer by Chris Farrell

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16860/ag-william-barr

AG Barr was installed to manage President Trump and put him on a glide-path to defeat in last month’s election. President Trump did not select Barr to be his Attorney General — the choice was made for the President by professional Republican political operatives and then presented to him as the only acceptable and Senate-confirmable solution….

When Judicial Watch obtained Justice Department records documenting that 27 phones from the Mueller team were mysteriously “wiped clean” — what did Barr do? Nothing.

Barr allowed Republicans to look at each other, nod and then smile about “what was coming” — until it never materialized. No justice for Hillary, or Comey, or Strzok, or Brennan or the remaining 30–odd names in the coup litany.

In recent weeks I have asked, “Why Does Barr Let Wray Lie and Flout the Law?,” and “Will They Really Get Away With It?” Then, just a few days ago, we learned that Attorney General (AG) Barr hid two probes into alleged criminal conduct of Hunter Biden for months. Barr also announced that he could not see any election fraud — or that he could — but it wasn’t really that bad. Barr told the Associated Press, “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election” [Emphasis added]. That’s like a mob witness answering, “I have no specific recollection, at this time.” It does not engender deep confidence and faith.

Keep in mind that while President Donald Trump was being impeached over the phony “Ukraine!” controversy, Barr and his FBI Director Wray were in the possession of Hunter Biden’s laptops (since December 2019) – loaded with who-knows-what Burisma information, etc., and did not utter a syllable. Are we beginning to see a pattern of conduct?

Many have wondered for months what, exactly, Barr was up to. He said some strong things supporting the president, then acted in a contrary manner. He talked a good game but seemed to miss a lot of glaringly obvious prosecution opportunities. Why? It seems we now have our answer.

This Is Susan Rice Meet Joe Biden’s choice to lead the White House Domestic Policy Council.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/12/susan-rice-discover-networks/

On December 11, Joe Biden named Susan Rice to lead his White House Domestic Policy Council. Rice’s consistent track record of dishonesty, prevarication, and poor judgment stretches back decades.

By the time she graduated from Stanford University with a degree in history in 1986, Rice was already a committed leftist with a heart and mind full of racial grievance. That year, she wrote an 86-page book titled A History Deferred, which claimed that because most U.S. students were “taught American history, literature, art, drama, and music largely from a white, western European perspective,” “their grasp of the truth, of reality, is tainted by a myopia of sorts.” “The greatest evil in omitting or misrepresenting Black history, literature, and culture in elementary or secondary education is the unmistakable message it sends to the black child,” Rice elaborated. “The message is ‘your history, your culture, your language and your literature are insignificant. And so are you.’” Published by the Black Student Fund — an advocacy group for which Rice interned — A History Deferred served as a guide for elementary- and secondary-school teachers who aspired to teach “Black Studies” from an Afrocentric perspective.

In 1985 Rice was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and subsequently attended New College, Oxford, where she earned a master’s degree in philosophy in 1988 and a Ph.D. in the same discipline two years later.

Praising the Dictator Robert Mugabe

While at Oxford in 1990, Rice wrote a 426-page dissertation praising, as “a model and a masterpiece in the evolution of international peacekeeping,” the 1979-80 British peacekeeping operation that had led to the political ascendancy of Zimbabwe’s bloodthirsty Marxist dictator, Robert Mugabe. In her dissertation, Rice lauded Mugabe as a “pragmatic, intelligent, sensible, gentle, balanced man” who possessed considerable “patience and restraint.”

Politicizing the Rwandan Genocide

Rice served on the Bill Clinton administration’s National Security Council from 1993-97, and as Clinton’s Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from 1997-2001.

Essential Facts About COVID-19 James D. Agresti

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/12/14/essential-facts-about-covid-19/

Given the spread of misinformation about COVID-19, Just Facts is providing a trove of rigorously documented facts about this disease and its impacts. These include some essential facts that have been absent or misreported in much of the media’s coverage of this issue.

This research also includes a groundbreaking study to determine the lethality of COVID-19 based on the most comprehensive available measure: the total years of life that it will rob from all people. This accords with the Centers for Disease Control’s tenet that “the allocation of health resources must consider not only the number of deaths by cause” but also the “years of potential life lost.”

On one hand, these facts show that:

The average death rate for people who contract COVID-19 is well below 1% and is much closer to that of the seasonal flu than figures that were commonly reported by the press.
The average years of life lost from each COVID-19 death are significantly fewer than from common causes of untimely death like accidents and suicides.
The virus that causes COVID-19 is “very vulnerable to antibody neutralization” and has very limited ability to mutate, which makes it unlikely to take masses of lives year after year like the flu and other recurring scourges.