RUTHFULLY YOURS

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.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/09/revolution-by-shenanigan/

EXCERPTS

Democrats propose to do away with the Constitution and impose a new one that none of us has agreed to live under.

Today’s shenanigan is tomorrow’s precedent.

The American constitutional order is a blend of democratic and undemocratic institutions, a result of the compromises that were necessary to create one nation out of 13 very different colonies, with different economic and political interests, different cultures, different religious habits — the genuine diversity of 18th-century American life. We have a federal system in which the states and U.S. government exercise a kind of dual sovereignty, with the states remaining powers in their own right rather than mere administrative subdivisions of the national state. The status of the states is reflected in the Senate, where each state enjoys equal representation regardless of population, and in institutions such as the Electoral College. Other antidemocratic measures in our constitutional order include judicial review and, most important, the Bill of Rights, which are constraints on the powers of temporary democratic majorities.

The Democrats currently are at war with the American Constitution. They believe that it is unjust that on two recent occasions their party has lost presidential elections, which happen in the Electoral College, in spite of winning a greater number of total votes across all the states. They dislike that the Senate gives power to less populated, rural, and largely Western states that are more conservative than are the big, densely populated urban areas in which Democrats thrive. And they are irritated that the First Amendment prevents them from imposing a federal censorship regime on political speech.

The Democrats’ approach to the Senate has been politically incompetent. When they were in power, they resented the effective maneuvering of the minority party, and so eliminated the filibuster in the matter of most federal judicial appointments, an innovation that they are regretting in the worst way right about now. Republicans extended the filibuster-free process to nominations for the highest court.

Now, some Democrats propose to simply create new Senate seats for their party by declaring the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico to be states, which would be illegal in the former case and unwise in the latter. But in the matter of Puerto Rico, they have the Texas-annexation shenanigans of the 19th century as precedent.

https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2020/09/28/nyt-bombshell-trump-paid-millions-in-taxes-owes-no-debt-to-russia-wait-what-n974892

“Trump Paid Millions in Taxes” isn’t nearly as scandalous a headline as “Trump Paid Only $750 in Taxes,” although, to be fair, it does have the advantage of being true.

“Trump Paid Millions in Taxes” isn’t nearly as scandalous a headline as “Trump Paid Only $750 in Taxes,” although, to be fair, it does have the advantage of being true.

Alexandria Brown dug deep into the New York Times‘ story to see if there was any truth to the shrieking headlines:

As Brown further noted, “Trump PAID, as in transferred to the US Treasury, $1 million in 2016 and $4.2 million in 2017. Note also that most of the overpayment was rolled forward, not refunded.”

People who own and run businesses take losses in some years, and pay little or nothing in taxes, and make great sums in other years and pay much more in taxes.

They also take advantage of tax breaks, tax credits, and tax incentives — just like you and I do.

Here’s a screencap from the actual NYT report:

The Treasury was millions of dollars richer in 2016 and 2017, thanks to checks signed “Donald J. Trump.” But thanks to our overly complicated tax code, the line-item amount Trump technically paid for those years was $750.

Fact Check: Are you kidding us with this nonsense, NYT?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-unhappy-returns-11601333853?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

The New York Times has spun out 10,000 words claiming that Donald Trump paid little or no income tax for many years. The Times says it can’t release the actual tax documents lest this compromise its sources, and Mr. Trump denies paying so little but won’t release his returns.

Voters can decide whom to believe, but one fact to note is that the story doesn’t assert illegal behavior. The IRS presumably signed off on the Trump returns, except in one case in which it is disputing a $72.9 million deduction claimed by Mr. Trump. This is a fight rich people have with the IRS all the time, often ending in Tax Court.

The report makes much of a deduction Mr. Trump took for business consulting fees that match payments his daughter Ivanka reported in separate filings. There may be legitimate reasons for those fee payments, and Ms. Trump ought to clear the matter up.

Is it a scandal if Mr. Trump legally exploited the tax code’s treatment of chronic business losses to pay little tax? Hardly. Mr. Trump admitted this himself in a 2016 debate. Congress littered the code with loopholes aimed at assisting real-estate businesses, among others. Democrats write a tax code to please their corporate donors and then selectively attack CEOs or businesses that use the loopholes.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/09/theres_a_gamechanger_out_there_that_should_end_the_wuhan_virus_paranoia.html

The 15-day lockdown that Americans agreed to in March to prepare hospitals for a possible influx of Wuhan virus patients has lasted for over half a year in some places. It’s disrupted businesses, education, and family life while harming people’s mental and physical well-being. On Monday, though, a game-changer hit the scene when President Trump announced an affordable rapid test for the Wuhan virus. The new test can be self-administered and will produce a result in around 15 minutes.

The Epoch Times reports:

President Donald Trump announced on Sept. 28 that the U.S. government will start distributing 150 million rapid COVID-19 tests to states this week in a bid to help governors safely reopen K–12 schools and economies.

Of the total, the administration is dedicating 100 million tests for schools and measures to help reopen economies. An additional 50 million tests will target the most vulnerable elderly population in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and home health and hospice sites.

[snip]

There are no restrictions on how the 100 million tests meant for schools and economies can be used, but the Trump administration will urge governors to prioritize for settings that need rapid, low-tech methods of testing, such as schools, first-responder facilities, and areas where outbreaks are detected, [Admiral Brett] Giroir [M.D., assistant secretary for Health, in the HHS] said. The administration plans to ship 6.5 million tests from the school allotment this week.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-barrett-announcement/

It was outstanding. Trump is at his best in such settings, when he really has no choice but to be on his best behavior. As for Amy Coney Barrett herself, she is truly an inspired choice — a distinguished professor and jurist who is a deeply grounded originalist and, everything suggests, a composed and winsome public speaker.

She hit the right notes today. She honored the legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, made her judicial philosophy crystal clear, and movingly introduced her incredible family. The high point may have been when Trump brought her family up on the stage with her. Her personal life shouldn’t strictly matter, but in the current context — when confirmations are political wars and there will be a determined attempt to portray her as a moral monster — it obviously does.

Democrats and the Left would be well-served to not wage a campaign of personal destruction against her and instead focus on the process and the supposed threat to the ACA, but they won’t be able to help themselves.