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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION

50 STATES AND DC, CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT

A Failed State? Try the Elixir of Optimism

https://www.nysun.com/editorials/a-failed-state-try-the-elixir-of-optimism/91103/

It looks like the Democratic line going into the election is going to be that the coronavirus pandemic has exposed America as a “failed state.” That, at least, is the argument emerging in the left-of-center press. The idea seems to be that the full employment, rising wages, and economic growth Americans had been experiencing were an illusion — popped by Covid-19 to disclose a flat-footed state of incompetence and venality.

It sounds to us like wishful thinking. We’ve no doubt that our crisis is grave and that there have been errors at all levels of government, including federal, and in both parties (the one we worry about most is monetary policy). We’ve read the Times piece headlined “Nervous Republicans See Trump Sinking, and Taking Senate With Him.” What strikes us, though, is that the line on the left goes beyond Mr. Trump to the record of capitalism itself.

President Trump hadn’t been in office half a year when Foreign Policy issued a piece under the headline “Is America a Failing State?” It suggested, in the sub-head, that the “right path forward must not include Donald Trump as president.” Six weeks ago, when the novel coronavirus had only begun claiming American lives, the Atlantic put over one of its pieces a headline declaring: “America Is Acting Like a Failed State.”

Our Virus Is a Violent Teacher by Victor Davis Hanson

https://amgreatness.com/2020/04/26/our-virus-is-a-violent-teacher/

For a brief season in time, we glimpsed from the awful epidemic what was wheat and what was chaff, what was mahogany beneath and what a scrapped thin veneer above, who were the V8s and who the mere gaudy, tail fins—and how America ultimately got by and how it almost didn’t.

Before this virus has passed, those of the New York Symphony, like the defeated Redcoats at proverbial Yorktown, will be playing the real “The World Turned Upside Down”:

And then strange motions will abound.
Yet let’s be content, and the times lament,
you see the world turn’d upside down.

Before the virus, apparently we were prepping for our brave new progressive, centrally planned dystopia.

During the Barack Obama years, government agencies had begun to chart a new inclusive future for hoi polloi Americans. We were lectured frequently that the Obama arc of the moral universe was long, but it always bent toward his sense of justice. Translated that meant, like it or not, we Americans had a preordained moral rendezvous with a progressive destiny.

Suburban lifestyles, yards, grass, rural living, and commute driving were to be phased out. High rises, government run-buses, and high-speed rail were in: more people in less space, with less energy consumed, meant less trouble. Granny was better off in a green rest home, not the back bedroom.

Ohio was over; the EU was our future. Clean coal was a 20th-century embarrassment; the next and future Solyndra would be cutting-edge. The idea that the United States ought to be self-sufficient in energy and food seemed worthy of yawns.

Cali Dems Double Down Weaponizing a pandemic to crack down on Americans and hand out cash to illegals. Lloyd Billingsley

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/04/california-democrats-double-down-lloyd-billingsley/

“The rapidly expanding COVID-19 pandemic threatens the lives and livelihoods of Californians,” notes veteran journalist Dan Walters of CalMatters, “but it also lays bare some multi-billion-dollar shortcomings in state government finances that have been ignored for decades, despite many warnings.”  The state’s $20 billion “rainy day fund,” for example, will soon be depleted and the state forced to borrow money to remain afloat.

Californians have lost jobs in six of the state’s industry sectors, with more than 500,000 job losses in the first three weeks of March. Unemployment may soon exceed 12.5 percent, worse than during the Great Recession.

“Until further notice,” Edward Ring of the California Globe explains, “California’s economy is in free fall.” Those realities have yet to register with Gov. Gavin Newsom (pictured above), who is handing out $125 million to foreign nationals illegally present in the United States. The illegals will get checks for $500 with a cap of $1,000 per household. As CNN notes, these are people “who’ve broken the law,” but there’s more to it.

People illegally present in the United States use false documents, so the governor and state officials have no idea who is getting the $125 million. It is certain that the false-documented recipients are foreign nationals, so the governor is giving away money with zero compensation from the illegals’ own governments, primarily Mexico. The same applies to the costs of educating and incarcerating the false-documented, and paying for the illegals’ health care.

Covid-19: Not Nearly As Dangerous As You Think A sober look at the facts. Robert J. Shillman, Ph.D.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/04/covid-19-not-nearly-dangerous-you-think-robert-j-shillman-phd/

There is no “urgent crisis” due to Covid-19 that requires a lock-down of citizens. That conclusion is based on the following:

* The probability of dying from the virus in the US is very low: 1.5 out of 10,000.

* The death rate attributed to Covid-19 in the US, which has placed increasing restrictions on people, is about the same as the death rate in Sweden, 2.0 out of 10,000, which has placed very limited restrictions on people.

Read below for objective details that lead to that conclusion:

Sources of Data: I used the most recent data for Covid-19 from the four websites below on 4/24/20.

[1] The Johns Hopkins’ website (for deaths by country…other than in the US).

[2] Worldometers (for deaths in the US).

[3] CDC (for deaths by age).

[4] Wikipedia (for population): The US has a population of 329,064,917, and Sweden has a population of 10,036,379.

VIDEO-TWO DOCTORS DISCUSS COVID19

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=408&v=xfLVxx_lBLU&feature=emb_logo

CORONAVIRUSPotential COVID-19 Treatment Thru UV Light Does Exist as Trump Suggested , Watch Video

http://thejewishvoice.com/2020/04/potential-covid-19-treatment-thru-ultra-violet-light-

Led by Mark Pimentel, MD, the research team of the Medically Associated Science and Technology (MAST) Program at Cedars-Sinai has been developing the patent-pending Healight platform since 2016 and has produced a growing body of scientific evidence demonstrating pre-clinical safety and effectiveness of the technology as an antiviral and antibacterial treatment. The Healight technology employs proprietary methods of administering intermittent ultraviolet (UV) A light via a novel endotracheal medical device. Pre-clinical findings indicate the technology’s significant impact on eradicating a wide range of viruses and bacteria, inclusive of coronavirus. The data have been the basis of discussions with the FDA for a near-term path to enable human use for the potential treatment of coronavirus in intubated patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). Beyond the initial pursuit of a coronavirus ICU indication, additional data suggest broader clinical applications for the technology across a range of viral and bacterial pathogens. This includes bacteria implicated in ventilator associated pneumonia.

“Our team has shown that administering a specific spectrum of UV-A light can eradicate viruses in infected human cells (including coronavirus) and bacteria in the area while preserving healthy cells,” stated Dr. Pimentel of Cedars-Sinai. Ali Rezaie, MD, one of the inventors of this technology states, “Our lab at Cedars-Sinai has extensively studied the effects of this unique technology on bacteria and viruses. Based on our findings we believe this therapeutic approach has the potential to significantly impact the high morbidity and mortality of coronavirus-infected patients and patients infected with other respiratory pathogens. We are looking forward to partnering with Aytu BioScience to move this technology forward for the benefit of patients all over the world.”

An ER Physician/Entrepreneur Perspective on the Wuhan Virus By Trevor Thomas

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/04/an_er_physicianentrepreneur_perspective_on_the_wuhan_virus.html

In California recently, two emergency room doctors gave a powerful briefing on what’s going on when it comes to the Wuhan virus in their state, our nation, and the world over. The two doctors in the video are Dr. Dan Erickson and Dr. Artin Massihi. Dr. Erickson is a former emergency room (ER) physician who now co-owns Accelerated Urgent Care in Bakersfield, CA. Dr. Massihi is his business partner. Bakersfield is the largest city and the county seat of Kern County, CA. Kern County has a population just over 900,000.

The highlights from their briefing:

The Wuhan virus has caused “severe disruption” for their urgent care business. Because of the forced shutdown and the forced total focus on only Wuhan virus patients, their “volumes [of patients] have dropped significantly.” Confirming what Portland, OR nurse, Josie Alexander, boldly declared just one day prior to their briefing, Dr. Erickson also revealed that many California hospital ICUs “are empty, essentially.” Because of this, hospitals are “shutting down floors, they’re furloughing patients, they’re furloughing doctors.”

In certain places in California, the health system has been “evacuated” to the point that they are operating at a “minimal capacity — getting rid of our doctors and nurses because we just don’t have the volume [of patients].”After talking to ER physicians around the country, “because COVID has become the focus” of our healthcare system, Dr. Erickson concludes that people with critical illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, hypertension, and the like, are not going to the doctor out of “fear.” Thanks to the media and many politicians across the U.S., we are dealing with an irrational and uninformed fear.

Leak of sealed evidence in the Michael Flynn case points to a high-ranking deep state operative as a key to the Russia hoax conspiracy at DOJ and FBI Thomas Lifson,

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/04/leak_of_sealed_evidence_in_the_michael_flynn_case_points_to_a_highranking_deep_state_operative_a

General Michael Flynn was the first victim of the conspiracy of senior officials at the CIA, DOJ and FBI to unseat President Trump, and a leak about court-sealed new evidence in the legal case against him, under review by a US Attorney, upon close analysis points to a new key member, a point man of the conspiracy, a name until now only familiar to students of the Russia Hoax.  A new visage is going to join Comey, Brennan, McCabe, Strzok, Page, and Rosenstein on the front page of the cabal’s rogues’ gallery: Dana Boente.

On April 24, The US Attorney reviewing the case against Flynn released new evidence to Flynn’s lawyers, putting it under seal. His lawyer Sidney Powell gleefully tweeted:

#BREAKING The government just provided the #Flynn defense with remarkable new & long withheld BRADY evidence. Letter below just filed. Stay tuned.@realDonaldTrump @Techno_Fog @seanmdav @seanhannity @ProfMJCleveland @BarbaraRedgate @JosephJFlynn1 @lofly727 @GoJackFlynn

The Economy Will Reopen Sooner Than You Think Edward Ziegler

https://spectator.org/the-economy-will-reopen-sooner-than-you-think/

There will likely be a reopening of our economy on the very near horizon. And this reopening will be much sooner rather than later, with full acceleration within just a few months, perhaps even weeks. Here’s why. Problematic coronavirus testing issues may fast disappear as critical preconditions to reopening the economy. Testing issues won’t go away; they are simply likely to be left largely unresolved. In addition, new reports suggest that infections may be much, much more widespread than most had thought, which, in turn, means that there is a strong likelihood that we have much, much lower death rates from the coronavirus in all age groups. While most working people (not sheltered in place) may get the virus, the death rates for the entire population may turn out to be not much higher than the seasonal flu. For younger workers under the age of 60, mortality rates, which are already very low, will drop even lower.

Here’s the analysis supporting this reopening. According to a number of recent reports, the true infection fatality rate from the coronavirus for the entire population may well be much, much lower than had been previously thought, perhaps in the range of about 0.12 percent to 0.2 percent. At the high end in that range, if there’s an eventual infection rate of, say, 50 percent for the entire U.S. population, that’s a death toll of about 330,000 people. Most of these deaths, though, will likely to be of older Americans above 60 years in age. Older folks have much higher coronavirus mortality rates, perhaps 10 to 20 times higher than younger age groups. Actually, data now show that Americans over 55 may account for well more than 90 percent of all deaths from the virus. Looking at comparative data on death rates by age, we are not actually “all in this together,” though that’s a nice sentiment. Of course, this isn’t a big secret, and awareness of this reality grows as each day passes. It’s evident every day on our streets, in our parks, and at the widespread protests across the country for reopening the economy.

FBI Director Wray Behind Suppression of ‘Stunning’ Exculpatory Evidence in Flynn Case By Debra Heine

https://amgreatness.com/2020/04/24/report-fbi-director-wray-behind-suppression-of-stunning-exculpatory-evidence-in-flynn-case/

The Federal Bureau of Investigations withheld “stunning” exculpatory evidence in the case of President Donald Trump’s former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn at the behest of FBI Director Christopher Wray, the Daily Caller reported Friday.

The Federalist meanwhile reported that FBI general counsel Dana Boente was behind the effort to block the release of the Brady Material.

According to the FBI official who spoke to The Federalist, FBI general counsel Dana Boente led the charge internally against DOJ’s disclosure of the new materials. Boente, who briefly served as acting Attorney General after Trump became president, personally signed off on one of the federal spy warrants against former Trump campaign affiliate Carter Page. The new documents, which were filed under a protective order by DOJ on Friday, will reflect poorly on the FBI, the official told The Federalist. It is not clear when, or even if, those documents will be unsealed and made available to the public for review.

A source with “direct knowledge of the situation” told the Daily Caller that Boente was acting in coordination with the Trump-appointed Wray.

Flynn’s attorney, Sidney Powell, announced on Twitter Friday that she filed the new court documents containing exculpatory evidence.

“This afternoon, the government produced to Mr. Flynn stunning Brady evidence that proves Mr. Flynn’s allegations of having been deliberately set up and framed by corrupt agents at the top of the FBI,” Powell wrote in a Supplement to Flynn’s Motion to Dismiss. “The government has deliberately suppressed this evidence from the inception of this prosecution—knowing there was no crime by Mr. Flynn.”