RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/10/scott-atlas-white-house-coronavirus-adviser-critics-ignore-science/

Critics of the distinguished White House coronavirus adviser don’t have a leg to stand on.

The news media until recently had rarely criticized the medical advice of experts — especially those who worked for federal bureaucracies, international organizations, or elite universities.

Yet the much-praised Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, has demonstrably weakened the effort to fight COVID-19.

During the critical initial weeks of the virus’s spread, Tedros parroted Chinese propaganda. He falsely assured a complacent world that the virus was probably not transmissible between humans and did not warrant travel bans. The fact that Tedros was the first WHO director not to have a medical degree was seldom cited by the media.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel is known to the public for his past advocacy of the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act. Although he now advises 77-year-old presidential candidate Joe Biden, Emanuel once wrote an article for The Atlantic titled “Why I hope to die at 75,” contending that life after age 75 is, and should be, mostly over — now an eerie idea in a time of a pandemic that targets the elderly.Emanuel has often weighed in on the COVID-19 pandemic, sometimes in overly pessimistic fashion by suggesting that some acquired collective immunity and a viable vaccine were not likely to come soon.

Yet Emanuel also has been largely exempt from media criticism. No reporters have questioned his epidemiological expertise despite his background as an oncologist specializing in breast cancer.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2020/09/30/mapping-los-angeles-homeless-encampment-challenge–nearly-100000-cases-reported-since-2019/#6d635e794dee

Los Angeles represents the glitz and glamour of the California lifestyle. It’s a tourist mecca that boasted 50 million visitors in 2019 – an all-time high.

The greater Los Angeles area can also claim Muscle Beach in Venice; the Hollywood movie studios; the rich and famous in Beverly Hills; and a previously booming economy that trailed only New York City and Tokyo.

But the city itself is in trouble, and tourists should be advised to avoid some neighborhoods and streets entirely.

Today, Los Angeles hosts an estimated homeless population of nearly 40,000 people (the entire states of Texas and Florida have between 25,000 and 28,000 respectively). Affluent sections of the city have become dangerous with open-air drug use, human feces, medieval diseases, and, sadly, homeless encampments.

Since 2019, there have been at least 94,430 reported complaints of homeless encampments in public spaces –an average of 4,500 per month.

First elected in 2013, Mayor Eric Garcetti promised to clean things up. However, conditions are the same or worse. Last year, the number of encampment complaints spiked to 55,569. The same pace has continued in 2020 with 35,241 instances already reported through August.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16561/leila-khaled-terrorists-internet

An interesting legal question or two popped-up… right at the intersection of free speech and technology. Corporate standards for content and how Internet platforms engage in editorial decisions over content material (they supposedly are not responsible for) is increasingly becoming a point of contention.

Policing content and platform liability get more complicated with every passing day. The social media tech giants pretend they are not really responsible, unless they want to be — or they do not like your politics — or they are frightened of being prosecuted and fined for supporting terrorism.

Corporate America, and especially the Internet tech giants, do not see it that way. Consider the multi-billion-dollar Internet pornography industry that exploits and denigrates human beings through exploitation, child abuse and trafficking.

What happens when the giants decide that an election outcome must be decided in one way, and that anyone reporting or asking questions about a different outcome, a different way, must be banned and suppressed?

We have good news: Terrorists were stopped from exploiting the Internet and a state university event to propound their violence-inspiring, hate-filled rhetoric. Ten days ago, several online news and social media fora sounded the alarm over San Francisco State University (SFSU) hosting the terrorist Leila Khaled on September 23, 2020 via an Internet-based open classroom event. The occasion was described as “a historic roundtable conversation with Palestinian feminist, militant, and leader Leila Khaled, followed by Q&A discussion with students, activists, and scholars.”

Billed as “Whose Narratives? Gender, Justice, & Resistance: A conversation with Leila Khaled,” the event featured at least three other terrorists from the Weather Underground, Black Panthers and an advisor to Hamas. Today, the good news with which we are following up is that Khaled and the other terrorists did not win.

While Khaled is not a specially designated terrorist, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) is a designated organization — and Khaled is a member of the terrorist organization’s politburo. Because the online event was an Internet open classroom, there were no specific issues related to her physical admissibility to the U.S. Khaled has spoken in Europe several times (including at an EU conference in Brussels in 2017) but the same year, was denied entry to Italy.

https://amgreatness.com/2020/09/30/secret-report-how-cias-brennan-overruled-dissenting-analysts-who-concluded-russia-favored-hillary/

Former CIA Director John Brennan personally edited the report that was used to help justify continuing the Trump-Russia “collusion” investigation, which had been launched by the FBI in 2016.

Former CIA Director John Brennan personally edited a crucial section of the intelligence report on Russian interference in the 2016 election and assigned a political ally to take a lead role in writing it after career analysts disputed Brennan’s take that Russian leader Vladimir Putin intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump clinch the White House, according to two senior U.S. intelligence officials who have seen classified materials detailing Brennan’s role in drafting the document.

The explosive conclusion Brennan inserted into the report was used to help justify continuing the Trump-Russia “collusion” investigation, which had been launched by the FBI in 2016. It was picked up after the election by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who in the end found no proof that Trump or his campaign conspired with Moscow.

The Obama administration publicly released a declassified version of the report — known as the “Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent Elections (ICA)” — just two weeks before Trump took office, casting a cloud of suspicion over his presidency. Democrats and national media have cited the report to suggest Russia influenced the 2016 outcome and warn that Putin is likely meddling again to reelect Trump.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/09/the-capital-note-surge-in-entrepreneurship-amid-pandemic/

Spike in New Business Formation The wreckage of the Covid pandemic is not enough to stop Americans from opening up new businesses. The Department of Commerce reported a massive spike in new-business applications in the third quarter. While partially a reflection of the backlog in applications that built up during the lockdowns earlier this year, the spike is a surprising sign of the ability of the U.S. economy to weather the storm of the pandemic.

It also shows how unusual this year’s recession is. After the 2008 financial crisis, new-firm formation fell by roughly 25 percent, bringing real per capita GDP growth down by 2.5 percent. Despite a massive decline in real GDP this year, new businesses have increased in quantity and quality, according to Goldman Sachs Research:

[N]ew business applications have surged in Q3, with “high-propensity to succeed” business applications—those with similar characteristics to those that have historically led to firm creation—reaching their highest quarterly level on record, following a sharp virus-driven decline in March and April.

In large part, the surge in business formation reflects the forceful policy response to the pandemic. Near-zero interest rates, as well as an increase in personal income thanks to the CARES Act, have made it relatively easy for entrepreneurs to open new firms. It’s also a response to the changes ushered in by the pandemic, such as remote work and the increasing digitization of services.

Along with good news on payrolls and vaccines, the business formation numbers suggest a relatively swift labor-market recovery: Goldman Sachs researchers expect the unemployment rate to drop to 7 percent by the end of this year and to 5.6 percent by the end of 2021.

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/09/30/has-covid-19-peaked/

Joe Biden promises that if voters choose him this fall over President Donald Trump, he will take care of the coronavirus for us. He might be a bit late, though. It’s looking more and more as if the crisis is behind us.

If elected, Biden swears he “won’t wait to take action on COVID-19.”

“Minutes after the race is called, I’ll call Dr. Fauci and ask him to stay on,” he (one of his handlers, most likely) tweeted Saturday.

“During my transition, I’ll bring together experts and leaders from both parties to chart a path forward.”

Give him the White House, and “we will overcome this, together.”

It’s nothing more than an effort to stir the pot and keep the panic as close to a rolling boil as possible. Because even Biden and his aides can read simple tables, and what they’re telling us isn’t good for Democratic Party politics.

The most recent numbers published by the Centers for Disease Control for the week ending Sept. 19 show that total deaths reached only 58% of deaths expected for that week. We’ll pass over the Sept. 26 data, which shows total deaths at 13% of expected deaths, because delays in death counts skew the totals. For the same reason, the 58% figure is likely not reliable in regard to the baseline.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16560/black-lives-matter-appraisals-2

“BLM are basically, in my opinion, profiteers. They are profiting on trying to give a narrative, a false narrative, that is: ‘white racist cops are destroying the black community.’ No BLM presence walking through Chicago protesting black-on-black crime. You know why? Because it is not profitable. There is no money to be made.” — Leo Terrell, civil rights attorney and lifelong Democrat.

“Black Lives Matter does not support the critical civil rights issue of this day… educational freedom. How many young black kids are relegated to failing public schools in failing neighborhoods? Where does BLM stand on that issue? They stand with the progressive socialist left and the teachers unions. Ask yourself, has BLM ever condemned the action of Barack Obama in April 2009 to cancel the DC school voucher program?” — Allen West, former U.S. Congressman for Florida and retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel.

“The dubious goal of the politics of racial grievance exploited by BLM and others is to finance their causes. Thus, in order to advance their agendas, they have to come up with a negative narrative regardless of its veracity. The story must pull on the heartstrings of blacks to ensure solidarity and of whites to keep them feeling guilty and compliant. Hence, the false narrative that ‘Blacks are being gunned down by white cops’ excites those who have been conditioned to accept the claim regardless of its factual accuracy.” — Dr. Eric Wallace, President of the Freedom’s Journal Institute for the Study of Faith and Public Policy.

“We now find ourselves in a place that I feel is the antithesis of the Civil Rights Movement. Instead of marching toward a world that deemphasizes the importance of skin color, we instead find ourselves pursuing a world where skin color is placed firmly and proudly at the forefront of identity, where Martin Luther King’s idea of judging people by the content of their character takes a decided backseat to a person’s ancestry…. a world where white people must apologize and atone for sins that they never committed and black people claim victimhood for horrors that they never experienced…. It is the exact thing the Civil Rights Movement aimed to defeat. — Leonydus Johnson, actor.

“Racism as a factor has never been more insignificant in American life…. you know who knows that? Barack Obama. Because when Barack Obama gives a commencement address at Howard University, he says that if you could be born at any time, anywhere, he said that it would be here and now. And this is a guy whose last name is Obama, born in Hawaii, middle name Hussein, knocks off Hillary Clinton and beats John McCain. And he believes racism is a major problem in America? Nonsense….” — Larry Elder, radio talk show host and bestselling author.

“The most important thing is helping people realize to how important their own attitudes are. I would argue that a person’s attitudes are more important than race, gender, social class in determining whether or not they are going to be successful.” — Dr. Carol M. Swain, former professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University.

This multi-part series (Part I here) focuses on the perspectives of blacks — conservative, liberal or libertarian — who appraise Black Lives Matter and its agenda. The following selection of commentary by blacks from all walks of life — actors, athletes, businesspeople, civil rights activists, clergy, commentators, physicians and politicians — demonstrates that black public opinion is not monolithic, and that BLM does not speak for all African Americans.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/allegation-hillary-clinton-orchestrated-collusion-hoax-to-distract-from-her-emails-according-to-russian-intel/

Hillary Clinton personally signed off on the Russiagate farce to distract attention from her email scandal, according to a Russian intelligence analysis that was obtained by U.S. intelligence agencies in July 2016.

That is the bombshell allegation that National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe has just dropped on the Senate Judiciary Committee, with the first presidential debate just a few hours away and with former FBI director James Comey scheduled to testify before that Committee tomorrow morning.

Ratcliffe’s letter to Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) asserts that in late July 2016, American intelligence agencies “obtained insight” into an analysis by Russian spies, which alleged that Democratic “U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had approved a plan to stir up a scandal” against her Republican opponent, Donald Trump. The plan involved “tying [Trump] to Putin and the Russians’ hacking of the Democratic National Committee.”

Let’s put this information in context.

Mrs. Clinton was cleared of criminal charges in a July 5, 2016, press conference by then-director Comey. This prompted outrage over whether the Obama administration had distorted the criminal law applicable to mishandling classified information in order to give Clinton a pass. The email scandal would dog Clinton throughout the campaign.

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/09/29/flu-vaccination-is-more-important-than-ever-this-year/

This year’s influenza (“flu”) season, which should kick off sometime in October, rev up in November, and last until spring, will be made more treacherous than ever by the concurrent COVID-19 pandemic (cases of which are currently surging in many parts of the nation). The coincidence of infections by the two viruses in the population has the potential to be a perfect storm.

There have been more than 7 million confirmed cases and about 210,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. this year, and public health experts are expecting an uptick in cases as winter approaches and people tend more often to be in crowded, poorly ventilated, indoor spaces. 

The morbidity of flu varies significantly from year to year.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that it has caused millions of deaths, hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations, and tens of thousands of deaths every year since 2010.  As shown in the figure below, the morbidity and mortality vary significantly from year to year. If this flu season is at the high end of the range, hospitals contending with large numbers of admissions for flu, in addition to COVID-19 patients, could well be overwhelmed.