Mask Nation and ‘the Experts’ More proof that we’re living in the Age of the Great UnReason. Jack Kerwick

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/05/mask-nation-and-experts-jack-kerwick/

The Internment of 2020, otherwise known by the Orwellian nomenclature of “Social Distancing” and “Shelter-in-Place,” has always been nothing more or less than an exercise in social engineering unprecedented in American history for both the magnitude of its reach as well as the speed with which it’s been executed.

What we have witnessed over the span of the last two months or so is “the fundamental transformation” of the United States that has long been the prize on which the left has had its eye.

Whether the political and media elites who authored this dark chapter of our national life by stoking and exploiting the fears of tens of millions of American citizens will succeed in relegating forever to the dustbin of history the mode of existence we enjoyed just eight weeks ago is left to be seen. 

Those fears, though—those wildly irrational, paralyzing, life-denying fears—have hurled the country into the Age of the Great UnReason.

And nothing illustrates the contradictions of the age more than the Establishment’s position(s) on the wearing of masks.

As recently as March, during an interview with 60 Minutes, none other than Dr. Anthony Fauci insisted that there is “no reason” whatsoever that anyone except for the health care providers who “really need” them should “be walking around with a mask.”

The Curious Flynn-Kislyak Call Gets Curiouser Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2020/05/25/the-curious-flynn-kislyak-call-gets-curiouser/

It is likely that Kislyak, like so many other Obama-friendly foreigners, was in cahoots with the Democrats to entrap Team Trump before and after the election.

The infamous phone call between then-incoming National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, like so many tales of Russian collusion, is not as it first appeared.

In light of new evidence, it’s likely there’s no truth to the running narrative about the December 29, 2016 phone call that has been the basis of Flynn’s legal nightmare for more than three years. The case against the three-star general, concocted by Barack Obama’s corrupt FBI, centers on the accusation that Flynn discussed U.S. sanctions with Kislyak and later lied about it to the FBI.

And now that we know Flynn’s name in the call was never masked—as the Washington Post reported last week, it was surveillance conducted by the FBI, not by national security officials—Kislyak’s involvement deserves more scrutiny. 

Let us first dispel with the notion that Barack Obama imposed “sanctions” to retaliate for the Kremlin’s alleged election interference. The word “sanctions,” in fact, never appears in Obama’s executive order, which was issued the same day as the Flynn-Kislyak call and more than seven weeks after Election Day; the (barely) three-page document is filled with irrelevant gobbledygook. It was a slap-on-the-wrist, or as one senior Obama aide called the measures, a “symbolic” gesture.

I repeatedly have suggested that Kislyak was a willing partner with the Obama White House in executing the Russian collusion hoax. Kislyak served as the Russian ambassador to the United States for the entirety of Obama’s presidency; he visited the Obama White House at least 22 times.

Press reports describe Kislyak as a longtime Beltway insider, connected to the most powerful people in Washington. “I personally have been working in the United States so long that I know almost everybody,” Kislyak boasted in 2017. 

He was especially tight with his onetime American counterpart, Michael McFaul, an Obama bestie who was sworn in as U.S. ambassador to Russia in 2011 by his then-boss, Hillary Clinton; McFaul is the architect of Obama’s “reset” policy with the Kremlin.

The Common Sense Alternative to Fauciism We needed the common sense approach of a robust public debate about how to address the Wuhan virus. By Robert Curry

https://amgreatness.com/2020/05/25/the-common-sense-alternative-to-fauciism/

I have recently sought treatment recommendations from three different dentists for a problem I’m having. Two dentists, both well-known and respected by me, gave me diametrically opposed recommendations. My wife urged me to see the dentist who had helped her with a tricky problem for a third opinion. The third opinion contradicted the other two.

I mean no disrespect to any of the three doctors—on the contrary—nor to the dental profession. There really is nothing surprising about this. Three experts examine the same abundant clinical evidence and reach different conclusions. Situation normal. This is in the nature of clinical recommendations, and the nature of clinical recommendations flows from the nature of clinical evidence itself. 

In the end, it is for me to decide, relying on my own common sense to make the best choice I can. But this is not the approach our country is using when it gets treatment recommendations from Dr. Anthony Fauci—and this is a radical departure from common sense in our personal lives and common practice in public matters.

For example, accepting Fauci’s recommendation without a second or even a third opinion is like only allowing the prosecution’s medical expert to testify in a trial. The defense’s medical expert must be allowed to challenge the prosecution’s presentation of the medical evidence. Without the defense’s testimony, the law court becomes a kangaroo court. 

As I wrote in an earlier article, the belief in rule by experts rather than rule by citizens who, if necessary, consult experts and then decide, has been a long time coming. 

Cooking the Books on COVID-19 Deaths By Brian C.Joondeph, MD

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/05/cooking_the_books_on_covid19_deaths.html

Fox News, and other cable networks, run a COVID death count ticker on the side or bottom of the television screen just as they show the major stock indices during the business day. Why are they so obsessed with deaths from the Chinese virus?

Most peoples’ moods are already melancholic over the unending economic shutdown, along with social distancing, masks, and restrictions on movement and assembly not normally seen in free societies. Why don’t news networks show a tally of recovered patients rather than deaths?

Aside from the morbid, “If it bleeds, it leads” mantra that guides much news reporting, the media wants to pin each death on the tail of President Trump. Twitter has a #TrumpDeathCount hashtag to blame every single death on the president, the more the merrier. This is ahead of the fall presidential campaign where Democrats will attempt to blame the entire Wuhan virus mess on Trump, from the economic devastation to the total number of deaths.

Governor Whitmer Orders Citizens To Barbecue Indoors

https://babylonbee.com/news/governor-whitmer-orders-citizens-to-barbecue-indoors

LANSING, MI—Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has ordered all citizens to barbecue indoors this Memorial Day.

The executive order restricts all Memorial Day barbecue celebrations to inside only.

“You’re more than welcome to celebrate your freedoms with a barbecue as long as you don’t go outside,” she said, wagging her finger like a school teacher. “Naughty boys and girls hold barbecues outdoors where the big, scary coronavirus can get them. Good boys and girls barbecue inside where it is safe.” 

Anyone who disobeys the order will be put on time-out and sent to bed without any dessert. Those who continually disobey will be grounded and have their Nintendo privileges taken away.

At publishing time, sources had confirmed this restriction would likely be extended through Labor Day 2025.

Wuhan Virus Watch: All the catastrophic predictions about reopening Georgia, Florida, and Texas were spectacularly wrong by Leslie Eastman

https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/05/wuhan-virus-watch-all-the-catastrophic-predictions-about-reopening-georgia-florida-and-texas-were-spectacularly-wrong/

Today’s update will begin with a summation of the predictions about a coronavirus catastrophe following the economic reopening of Georgia, Florida, and Texas: They were spectacularly wrong!

Three large Southern states that moved aggressively to reopen amid the coronavirus crisis have seen new cases and deaths largely hold steady since then — despite several controversies over some of their data.

In Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp bucked the White House and local officials to lift a stay-at-home order on April 24, the state reported 862 cases on Thursday, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

That was less than the 946 new cases counted on Wednesday, but helped spur a slight rise in a seven-day rolling average that’s been basically trending downward since the start of the Peach State’s reopening.

…Florida — which was among the last states to impose a coronavirus lockdown, on April 2 — hit a record 1,413 new cases on April 16, followed by a record 83 deaths on April 28, according to the Tallahassee Reports website.

Since the state began reopening on May 4, its seven-day average of new cases is essentially flat, according to a chart published by the New York Times.

…In Texas, there were 945 new cases on Thursday, for a total 52,268, according to the Texas Tribune.

The seven-day average of new cases rose fairly steadily from around 1,000 on May 1, when Gov. Greg Abbott began lifting the lockdown he ordered March 19, but began dipping on Sunday and is now around 1,250, according to a chart prepared by the Tribune.

France’s Determination to End Free Speech by Judith Bergman

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16057/france-free-speech

Private companies will now be obliged to act as thought police on behalf of the French state or face heavy fines.

“Under the pretext of fighting ‘hateful’ content on the Internet, it [the Avia law] is setting up a system of censorship that is as effective as it is dangerous… ‘hate’ is the pretext systematically used by those who want to silence dissenting opinions…. A democracy worthy of its name should accept freedom of expression.” — Guillaume Roquette, editorial director of Le Figaro Magazine, May 22, 2020.

“What is hate? You have the right not to love… you have the right to love, you have the right to hate. It’s a feeling… It cannot be judicialized, legislated.” — Éric Zemmour, CNews, May 13, 2020.

Asking private companies — or the government — to act as thought police does not belong in a state that claims to follow a democratic rule of law. Unfortunately, the question is not whether France will be the last European country to introduce such censorship laws, but what other countries are next in line.

On May 13, the French parliament adopted a law that requires online platforms such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat[1] to remove reported “hateful content” within 24 hours and “terrorist content” within one hour. Failure to do so could result in exorbitant fines of up to €1.25 million or 4% of the platform’s global revenue in cases of repeated failure to remove the content.

The scope of online content deemed “hateful” under what is known as the “Avia law” (after the lawmaker who proposed it) is, as is common in European hate speech laws, very broadly demarcated and includes “incitement to hatred, or discriminatory insult, on the grounds of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or disability”.

The French law was directly inspired by Germany’s controversial NetzDG law, adopted in in October 2017, and it is explicitly mentioned in the introduction to the Avia law.

Iran: The Ayatollah, Amid Coronavirus, Calls for Jihad Against the Jewish State by Majid Rafizadeh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16062/iran-khamenei-jihad-israel

It is mystifying that Twitter, which wantonly censors so much, continues to allow… Iranian leaders to spread Nazi-inspired language and anti-Semitic sentiments on its platform. In general, “Big Tech” — Google, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter — have long since ceased being “neutral” transmitters of information as if they were “utilities”. Instead, they have become America’s Thought Police. They urgently need to be regulated the same way media is.

The ruling mullahs of Iran need to be held accountable by the international community for threatening to annihilate a fellow- member of the United Nations, the Jewish state. Not only are these threats unacceptable according to Chapter I: Article 2(1)-(5) of the Charter of the United Nations… They are also unacceptable as part of a double-standard in which the United Nations and the international community continue to be silent about Iran’s threats against Israeli citizens — not to mention Iran’s malign actions against its own citizens. Perhaps the time… is long overdue… for the U.S. to cease funding the UN, which seems only to conserve injustice and war.

Under no circumstances should the US, the UN or any other entity — read: Europe — in any way be assisting the malign mullahs of Iran.

Instead of concentrating on assisting and improving the living standards of its citizens, the ruling mullahs of Iran seem to be prioritizing the advancement of their anti-Semitic agenda.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently called Israel a “cancerous tumor to be destroyed,” promised “to support any nation or group that fights Israel,” and urged the Palestinian militant groups to cooperate more closely with each other and “expand the field of jihad in all Palestinian lands.”

Jordanian King Abdullah’s Empty Threats Trying to stand in the way of President Trump’s peace plan. Caroline Glick

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/05/jordanian-king-abdullahs-empty-threats-caroline-glick/

Should Jordan’s King Abdullah have veto power over Israel’s plan to apply its sovereign laws to its cities, towns and villages in Judea and Samaria and to the Jordan Valley, in accordance with the Trump peace plan? Just recently, senior leaders of Israel’s Blue and White Party began making noises to that effect.

In an interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel last week, King Abdullah threatened, “If Israel really annexes the West Bank in July, it would lead to a massive conflict with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.”

Subsequent news updates reported that “senior officials” from Blue and White were working to condition Israel’s implementation of the sovereignty plan on securing prior approval from Jordan.

During the ceremony at the Foreign Ministry marking the arrival of incoming Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, Ashkenazi said that Israel will implement the Trump peace plan “in dialogue with our neighbors, [and while] preserving of the peace treaties and the State of Israel’s strategic interests.”

Taken together with these news updates, Ashkenazi’s remarks raised the prospect that he and his partner, Defense Minister and vice prime minister Benny Gantz see Abdullah’s threat as a justification for abandoning their support for the sovereignty plan. It bears recalling that during the negotiations leading up to the formation of the unity government between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Likud and Gantz and Blue and White, Netanyahu made Blue and White’s support for the sovereignty plan his only substantive condition for signing the deal.

Abdullah, of course, will never approve the sovereignty plan, so giving him a veto means shelving the plan. This raises the question of whether there is any reason to give the head of the Hashemite clan that sort of power. Can he cause Israel harm so grave that it should abandon the sovereignty plan to appease him?

The Donald and the Dow By Sheldon Roth

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/05/the_donald_and_the_dow.html

Sheldon Roth, M.D., a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, is author of recently published Psychologically Sound: The Mind of Donald J. Trump.

The Ouija Board of Stock Market Indices

Trump-supporters felt anxiety as they watched recent White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefings.  In the face of disruption, disease, and death, the president confidently hyped stock market averages as victory.  In an April briefing, Trump was unequivocal: “The market is smart.  The market is actually brilliant…they’re viewing it like we’ve done a good job.  They view it that way.”

This disconnect — from lives ravaged by death, unemployment, zombification of cities and towns, and an unknown future — is hard to bear and set aside.  For loyal supporters, it is especially painful since oppositional media often rebuke Trump’s showcasing the stock market as evidence of his success: “[During his presidency] Mr. Trump has obsessed over the daily gyrations of the stock market like no president before him.  He trumpeted its relentless rise as a validation of his leadership, his financial acumen and his policies.  Disappointing days were the fault of Democrats, the media or the Federal Reserve” (The New York Times).

President Trump’s Basic Motivation

How can we understand Trump’s monocular view?  What drives his steadfast trust in economics?  If you are thinking strictly along familiar lines of money, politics, power, or greed, you miss the central emotional determinant: love.