RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/coronavirus/covid-19-close-losing-its-epidemic

Coronavirus deaths in the country have nearly reached a level where the virus will cease to qualify as an epidemic under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rules, the federal agency reported on Friday. 

The CDC qualifies a disease outbreak as an “epidemic” if the number of deaths attributable to the disease exceeds a certain percentage of total deaths per week. That threshold for pneumonia, influenza and COVID-19 fluctuates slightly depending on the time of year, ranging from around 7% at the height of flu season to around 5% during less virulent months. 

CDC data indicate that deaths from those ailments began skyrocketing in the country around the second week of March, hitting a peak around early May and then plummeting quickly after that. 

The latest data show that the percentage of deaths in the country attributable to those factors had as of the last week in June reached its lowest point since the end of last year, becoming “equal to the [current] epidemic threshold of 5.9%,” the CDC said. 

The agency notes that the official tally of deaths “will likely change as more death certificates are processed, particularly for recent weeks.” Yet the number of deaths attributable to COVID-19, pneumonia and influenza have been declining for 10 straight weeks, the agency said on its website, suggesting COVID-19 may cease to qualify as an epidemic in the next few weeks. 

The welcome news comes as fear over a “second wave” of the virus has gripped the U.S., with some states experiencing fresh surges of COVID-19 along with increased hospitalizations. 

Though infections are significantly up in some places, deaths throughout the country have remained flat, due likely to several factors including a younger cohort of infections as well as improved treatment methods. 

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16161/a-pledge-for-july-4

As we encounter days of darkness;
Virus tyranny from abroad;
Criminality and
Insurrectionists at home;

With inner strength, and Light
from above, we shall endure and
prevail above adversities
As we honorably salute America’s Founding Fathers and our legacy of heroic Patriots!

“Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist.” 

Introduction by Kurt Lash

On December 3, 1860, a group of abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass, gathered at a public meeting hall in Boston, Massachusetts, to discuss “How Can American Slavery be Abolished?” Scheduled to coincide with the one-year anniversary of John Brown’s death (what abolitionists referred to as the “martyrdom” of John Brown), the meeting took place only a month after the election of the Republican Abraham Lincoln. The country was coming apart: South Carolina had declared its intention to secede from the Union and it appeared that other southern states would do the same.  Congress began considering emergency measures, including a constitutional amendment protecting slavery, hoping to convince the southern states to remain in the Union. Northern public opinion, already deeply divided over the issue of abolition, became a tinderbox of explosive emotions as each side increasingly advocated the use of force in support of their position.   

It was in the midst of this cauldron of public debate that Boston abolitionists decided to hold their event, one ostensibly about ending slavery but also one celebrating the violent abolitionist John Brown. Not surprisingly, the meeting attracted members of the public who were opposed to the abolitionist agenda.  In fact, the meeting was overwhelmed by a mob seeking to disrupt the event and prevent Frederick Douglass and the other abolitionists from speaking. Opponents filled the hall, shouted down the abolitionists, and mounted the stage. Abolitionist efforts to retake control of the event led to confrontation and chaos.  Police, who had done nothing to protect the meeting, eventually intervened and cleared the hall. No one was (seriously) injured, but the anti-abolitionists achieved their goal: The event was completely disrupted and the scheduled discussion of slavery never took place. Newspapers around the country reported on the near riot, with headlines in the New York Tribune blaring, “Freedom of Speech Violated in Boston . . . Police Powerless.”

A few days later, Frederick Douglass delivered a previously scheduled lecture at Boston’s Music Hall.  At the end of his prepared remarks, Douglass added a short statement regarding the fundamental importance of freedom of speech and the responsibility of officials to protect free expression from the mob.

https://fee.org/articles/modelers-were-astronomically-wrong-in-covid-19-predictions-says-leading-epidemiologist-and-the-world-is-paying-the-price/

In a recent interview, Dr. John Ioannidis had a harsh assessment of modelers who predicted as many as 40 million people would die and the US healthcare system would be overrun because of COVID-19.

Dr. John Ioannidis became a world-leading scientist by exposing bad science. But the COVID-19 pandemic could prove to be his biggest challenge yet.

Ioannidis, the C.F. Rehnborg Chair in Disease Prevention at Stanford University, has come under fire in recent months for his opposition to state-ordered lockdowns, which he says could cause social harms well beyond their presumed benefits. But he doesn’t appear to be backing down.

In a wide-ranging interview with Greek Reporter published over the weekend, Ioannidis said emerging data support his prediction that lockdowns would have wide-ranging social consequences and that the mathematical models on which the lockdowns were based were horribly flawed.

Ioannidis also said a comprehensive review of the medical literature suggests that COVID-19 is far more widespread than most people realize.

“There are already more than 50 studies that have presented results on how many people in different countries and locations have developed antibodies to the virus,” Ioannidis, a Greek-American physician, told Greek Reporter. “Of course none of these studies are perfect, but cumulatively they provide useful composite evidence. A very crude estimate might suggest that about 150-300 million or more people have already been infected around the world, far more than the 10 million documented cases.”

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/07/02/happy-july-4-tyranny-of-the-woke-mob-might-be-worse-than-abusive-british-rule/

When we celebrate Independence Day, we rejoice over the freedom won from the English crown. But there’s a new master gaining power in America. We need to shrug it off before it takes over.

Because we’re marking the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress, it would be instructive to see where we are today by comparing a few passages from our founding document with current events.

1776: King George III has “sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”

2020: The cancel culture has cost people jobs, income, and social status.

1776: The king “has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.”

2020: Rioters, looters, statue-topplers, and the criminals holed up in “autonomous zones” have killed and injured, stolen, burned, and destroyed.

1776: The crown imposed “taxes on us without our consent.”

2020: Black Lives Matter is at its core a marxist organization, while its “partner organization,” the Movement for Black Lives, “calls for a ‘progressive restructuring of tax codes at the local, state and federal levels to ensure a radical and sustainable redistribution of wealth.’”

1776: The king abolished “our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments.”

2020: Defund the police.

1776: Our Creator endowed us “with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

2020: Conform or else.

https://www.city-journal.org/future-of-hamilton-musical

This Independence Day, Disney is giving America a big-ticket birthday gift: the musical Hamilton. After handing over a head-turning $75 million, the company will stream a filmed version of the Lin-Manuel Miranda Broadway megahit on its Disney+ channel. It could be just what the doctor ordered as an antidote to the nation’s gloomy mood, or it could be the opposite—another cultural touchstone swept up and spit out by the vortex of the Great Awokening.

That second scenario may sound absurd. After all, Hamilton is the beloved masterpiece of the diversity revolution, an ode to the country’s multiracial future and to “immigrants [who] get the job done!” Its cast was almost entirely nonwhite, with one notable exception: a campy, mincing King George III. Miranda himself, son of Puerto Rican parents, played the musical’s namesake hero, Alexander Hamilton. Audiences were swept up in the mischievous chutzpah of casting black actors as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and the clever rap couplets evoking the thrill of youthful revolution. “Rap is the voice of the people of our generation, and of people of color,” Miranda, winner of a MacArthur “genius” grant, has proclaimed. Hamilton won a Pulitzer Prize, a Grammy, and 16 Tony Awards. The show has grossed well over $500 million. Beyoncé, Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Stephen Sondheim, Jay Z, and a long list of other luminaries number among his fans. On social media, followers are counting the days and minutes until the television event. What could go wrong?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2020/06/30/trump-further-hone

During President Trump’s first four-years, he spent $23.5 million less on White House payroll costs than Obama, adjusted for inflation.

Trump’s White House payroll has 413 employees – that’s 55 fewer staffers than Barack Obama (FY2012) at the same point in their presidencies.

There was 36-percent turnover in White House staff, year over year. This was the same percentage as the previous year.

Comparing First Lady staff headcount: Melania Trump (11 staffers) versus Michelle Obama (24 staffers).

Today, the Trump administration released its annual report to Congress on the White House Office Personnel. The payroll data includes employee name, status, salary, and position title for all 413 White House employees as of June 30, 2020. Search the recent Trump administration (2017, 2018, and 2019) payroll data posted at OpenTheBooks.com.

Over the past 12 months, Trump further reduced headcount at the already lean White House by five employees. Last year, the president employed 418 staffers which was 36 fewer than Obama at the same point in their presidencies.