RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/12/03/shocking-disparities-in-covid-19-attitudes-and-behaviors/

It should be obvious by now that the adoption of measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, has become politicized. Consider the presidential campaigns: President Donald Trump held large indoor rallies with mostly mask-less supporters, while President-elect Joe Biden seemed to have a mask sutured to his face and spent much of the campaign in isolation.

Gallup surveys published in November show that partisanship remains the most significant driver of the public’s perceptions of the COVID-19 pandemic and its behaviors in response to it. A majority of Republicans think the best thing for healthy people is to live their lives normally, while most Democrats and independents think sheltering at home is advisable to avoid contracting or spreading the virus. Similarly, Republicans are the most likely to say their lives have somewhat (59%) or completely (8%) gotten back to what they were before COVID-19.

This disparity is unfortunate, because it has never been truer that “we’re all in this together,” or more obvious that we need to rev up our efforts to minimize the probability of spreading COVID-19 infections, if we are “to return to normal activities.” A key metric, the percentage of positive tests for the virus, is currently unacceptably high – the seven-day average is currently over 9%, while the target is to keep it under 3%. 

A high percentage of positive tests means there is significant community spread of the virus, which makes effective testing, tracing, and isolation difficult, if not impossible. Moreover, the seven-day average of daily new cases has been increasing sharply over the past six weeks, and is currently approximately 160,000 per day (see figure below). These are ominous signs as we approach the winter months, with people often congregating indoors in poorly ventilated spaces.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/12/02/durham-special-counsel-give-biden-problems-column/3793099001/

Over the last few months, Democrats appeared to be laying the foundation to scuttle the Durham investigation as well as any investigation into the Hunter Biden influence peddling scheme. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) denounced the Durham investigation as “tainted” and “political.” On the campaign trail, Biden himself dismissed the “investigation of the investigators.” Over in the Senate, Democrats joined in the mantra with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and others denouncing the continued investigations. 

By converting Durham into a special counsel, Barr makes it harder to fire him. It is not uncommon for presidents to replace all U.S. Attorneys with political allies. Durham however is now a Special Counsel and his replacement or the termination of his investigation would be viewed as an obstructive act. Indeed, when Trump even suggested such a course of action, he was accused of obstruction by a host of Democratic politicians and legal experts. 

Biden’s choice for AG:Biden needs attorney general with integrity, proven record on civil rights

The appointment also makes a public report more likely. While Durham already secured a conviction, prosecutors do not ordinarily prepare reports. Special counsels do.  Moreover, with the Mueller report, virtually every Democratic leader demanded that the report be released with no or few redactions. The Trump administration waived most executive privileges and released most of the report except for grand jury information. Even that was not enough for figures like Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “I have said, and I’ll say again, no thank you, Mr. Attorney General, we do not need your interpretation, show us the report and we can draw our own conclusions.” House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler demanded the release of the “full and complete Mueller report, without redactions, as well as access to the underlying evidence.” The Durham appointment will now force Democrats to answer why they do not support the same public release of the report so that voters can “draw our own conclusions.”

https://www.aier.org/article/fragile-and-unsustainable-lies/

Many times throughout history, policymakers have doubled down on their own mistakes, refusing to believe that they were wrong or hoping that somehow doing the wrong thing twice or thrice would somehow make things right. Then it all came crashing down at once and the rulers lost their minds, and sometimes their necks or heads.

Economic, governance, and social systems often rely on each other in ways not readily discerned by narrow technocrats. When one crumbles, the others fall in rapid succession while all the putative experts express surprise. Look at the way that the U.S.S.R, one of the world’s two “super” powers, fell apart in the late 1980s when it lost enough feathers from its peacock tail in Afghanistan that its lies about the superiority of its command economy became obvious even to its own systematically deluded subjects.

When NPR proved inadequate to prevent Americans from seeing the few feathers left in America’s peacock tail, as evidenced by the surprise victory of Trump and his MAGA messaging in 2016, mass media joined forces with various “progressive” elements to create a propaganda machine that puts the old clunky Soviet state media to shame. 

Precisely because it is ostensibly private and domestic, America’s mass media, tarnished as its reputation is becoming, retains more credibility than any state-run media ever possessed. Many pundits have noted how 2020 resembles 1984, except the propaganda so far has come from a political resistance movement backed by parts of the government (FBI, CDC) rather than “the” state per se. 

The phalanx of private media and sundry have convinced tens of millions of Americans that: 

we are better off imposing lockdowns that cause far more harm than the virus itself (and sundry cognates, like the virus is super serious and novel, spreads easily via asymptomatic people, yet is stopped by irrational policies like curfews, as if people won’t simply start drinking earlier!); 
the current president is somehow illegitimate (Russian election interference, Ukrainian quid pro quo); 
nation-altering Constitutional reforms are necessary (de facto elimination of the electoral college, creation of additional states, SCOTUS enlargement); 
calling all people of Euroamerican descent racist isn’t itself racist;
a virus can differentiate between good protests (pro-BLM and pro-Biden) and bad ones (anti-lockdown and pro-Trump);
the American people chose a candidate who essentially did not campaign or set forth a coherent policy platform over one who, for all his faults, was president when the economy finally palpably improved and made enough progress in the Middle East to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

https://www.aier.org/article/covid-misclassification-what-do-the-data-suggest/

According to Worldometer, U.S. deaths from Covid-19 were 272,254 as of 11/29/2020. What are “deaths from Covid-19?” One definition would be deaths where Covid-19 was the primary cause. An example would be a patient who has a positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for the virus responsible for Covid-19 and a clinical picture of hypoxemia, bilateral pulmonary infiltrates on imaging, no obvious other cause, such as influenza or congestive heart failure (CHF), and who dies from progressive acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

 Another definition would be deaths where Covid-19 was a contributing cause but not necessarily the primary disease. An example would be a patient with diabetes or end-stage renal disease who develops an upper respiratory infection URI, has a positive PCR test, never recovers from the URI, deteriorates over many weeks to months and eventually dies. 

In this case the underlying cause of death was the diabetes or end-stage renal disease weakening the host defenses and the Covid-19 was the precipitating cause of acute illness and eventual death. Another definition would be a patient who dies, has a positive PCR test, but the Covid-19 clearly had nothing to do with the death. An example would be a trauma victim who had no respiratory symptoms prior to trauma and coincidentally has a positive PCR test. 

https://spectator.us/here-comes-president-joebama/

‘So you’re seeing a team develop that I have great confidence in,’ said former president Barack Obama this week when asked about Joe Biden’s incoming administration. Obama sounds a bit of a World King these days, but you can’t blame him for feeling chipper. He has his third book of memoirs out (he only writes about himself, it seems), he’s making millions through publishing and Netflix deals, his great nemesis Donald Trump appears finally to have been vanquished — and his gang is taking charge of Washington again.

Biden revealed a number of his cabinet ‘picks’ this week, and it’s a case of jobs for the old Obama boys and girls. Antony Blinken, deputy secretary of state under Obama, is to be the next secretary of state. John Kerry, the secretary of state under Obama, will be ‘climate envoy’. Janet L. Yellen, a chair of the Federal Reserve under Obama, will be secretary of the Treasury. Alejandro Mayorkas, deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security under Obama, will be secretary of homeland security. Avril Haines, deputy director of the CIA under Obama, will be director of national intelligence. Perhaps the freshest face is Jake Sullivan, the next national security adviser, who turns 44 this week. Yet even he was director of policy planning under Obama, as well as national security advisor to the then vice-president, Joe Biden.

In fact, the incoming Biden administration is arguably more Obamaish than the original Obama administration. In 2008, when Barack won the White House, he was a Washington neophyte who had to contend with the considerable power of the Clintons. His campaign chiefs could only stand aside and gripe as Hillary Clinton, the woman Obama had beaten to become the Democratic nominee, became secretary of state and pushed her allies into the best positions. This time, it’s the Biden campaign people grumbling as Team Obama swoops back in. ‘The Obama staffers are now cutting out the people who got Biden elected,’ an anonymous Biden staffer told Politico this week.

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-proves-most-philo-semitic-president-americas-b

Amid great uncertainty, the Trump administration is dedicating critical time and resources to bolstering America’s strategic position with respect to the tip of the spear of the global jihadist movement, Iran, by seeking to strengthen Iran’s greatest rival and America’s greatest friend in the Middle East, Israel.

In so doing, it is putting the finishing touches on the most philo-Semitic term in American history—to the benefit of our national interest.

The proof is in the pudding of an Iran that has found itself checked in its pursuit of regional hegemony, and reduced jihadist violence against America and its interests from Iran and its Islamist partners and proxies alike—all while America has been able to avoid new military entanglements and reduce the size and scope of existing ones.

What presidents do at the end of their terms speaks volumes about their true nature. And when it comes to matters of foreign policy, actions concerning Israel—the West’s frontline in a region marked by Islamist tyranny—serve as a vital litmus test on war and peace, and our civilization and its enemies.

In this regard, the contrast between the policies and proclamations of President Trump in the waning days of his first term, and those of President Obama at the end of his second term—both of which involved Israel—could not be more stark. Nor could it be more salient in the event the latter’s vice president—poised to reprise much of his boss’s agenda, with alumni in tow—soon assumes the Oval Office.

Consider some of the Trump administration’s moves in recent weeks.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/fakhrizadehs-welcome-death-enrages-american-doves/

Tehran’s hysterical response to the assassination on Friday afternoon of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh is understandable. Fakhrizadeh was not only the latest Iranian scientist to be eliminated; he was the head of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear-weapons program that the mullah-led regime continues to deny. Furthermore, the inability of the regime to prevent the infiltration of foreign operatives and protect the lives of prominent figures such as Fakhrizadeh is a sign of weakness and thus a source of humiliation.

In addition, the targeted killing that everyone assumes was carried out by Israel—with the tacit approval of or hands-on help from the United States—came two days after U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Elliott Abrams announced Trump administration plans to tighten sanctions on Iran.

“We will have next week, and the week after, and the week after—all through December and January, there will be sanctions that deal with arms, that deal with weapons of mass destruction, that deal with human rights,” Abrams said at a virtual Beirut Institute event. “So, this will continue on for another couple of months, right until the end.”
In other words, up to Jan. 20 when Joe Biden is slated to assume the Oval Office, U.S. President Donald Trump doesn’t intend to succumb to lame-duck laziness and let Iran conduct business as usual.
Caught in a vise grip of economic pressure on one side and strategic surgical strikes on the other, while contending internally with a highly disgruntled populace, Iranian officials are in a panic. This explains the rise in pitch of their characteristically violent rhetoric against Israel, the “small Satan,” and America, the “great Satan.”

Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, for example, directed one of his customary threats at both, without naming them specifically.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16814/china-commerce-barbaric-acts

Those who trade with China, invest in it, or promote ties with Beijing — in other words, strengthen or legitimize the ruling regime — have to know they are enabling the Party and are therefore complicit in its crimes against humanity.

“The world could have and would have been different if captains of industry as well as cultural and sports elites had acted differently in the 1930s, but they can act differently now.” — Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center to Gatestone.

China’s regime is able to engage in malevolent acts because businesses enrich it with trade and investment. Cut off the trade and investment, and Chinese leaders will have no cash for barbaric projects.

American companies and Americans are enabling Chinese atrocities. That has to end.

China’s Communist Party is committing crimes against humanity. American companies are helping it do so.

It is, as explained below, no longer possible to “compartmentalize” China, so the White House and Congress should use their powers to end all trade, investment, and other business relationships.

In what the Chinese euphemistically call the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the Party is relentlessly eliminating cultural and religious identity and implementing race-based policies reminiscent of those of the Third Reich, at least before the mass exterminations.

At least a million — and perhaps more than three million — Xinjiang inhabitants, for no reason other than their Uighur or Kazakh ethnicity or adherence to Islam, are being held in facilities meeting the definition of “concentration camps.” Internees are dying in detention. Families are broken apart and children incarcerated in “orphanages.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16815/biden-administration-mexican-border

A number of corrupt officials along the way facilitate the transactions and perpetuate our 50+ year-long “War on Drugs” that we can never quite seem to win.

Mexican cattle crossing into Arizona cannot be traced once they enter the U.S. The cattle should be traceable all the way to the slaughterhouse. It is a question of disease. The sale, movement and slaughter of untraceable cattle are a means to smuggle drugs and a way for the Mexican cartels to launder money…. Drugs are hidden inside cattle.

You may be thinking (correctly) – “Hey, wait a minute! We have these threats… UNDER A TRUMP ADMINISTRATION?” Yes, we do. Now imagine what the “open borders” advocates within the Biden administration will demand in the way of public policy.

When was the last time you wondered if your food was safe to eat? Sure, in the dystopian weirdness of 2020 “COVID world” – people enjoy “contactless delivery” and online shopping for groceries – but did you really question if your ground beef was contaminated? Get ready to do so. It is the most under-reported story you have never heard of.

There is an increasing food security threat to the beef industry and the American people. That threat is part of a mosaic of corruption and criminality involving modern-day cattle rustling, Mexican cartel drug smuggling and money laundering. All told, hundreds of millions of dollars are in play. A number of corrupt officials along the way facilitate the transactions and perpetuate our 50+ year-long “War on Drugs” that we can never quite seem to win. The public corruption angle to this story is the subject of a current, ongoing investigation by Judicial Watch.

In Arizona, state law enforcement and agriculture inspections at cattle crossing points at the Mexican border are a thing of the past. Federal Customs Officers are not agriculture, veterinary or firebrand inspectors. Mexican cattle crossing into Arizona cannot be traced once they enter the U.S. The cattle should be traceable all the way to the slaughterhouse. It is a question of disease. The sale, movement and slaughter of untraceable cattle are a means to smuggle drugs and a way for the Mexican cartels to launder money.