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WHO and the Chinese By Silvio Canto, Jr.

Posted By on April 17th, 2020

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

It’s becoming more and more difficult to defend the WHO and now the UN.  In other words, don’t expect the UN to stand up to China anytime soon.  

This is from FOX:   

President Trump ignited a firestorm on Tuesday after announcing that the U.S. would temporarily cease funding the World Health Organization (WHO) after accusing the agency of dangerous “political correctness” in embracing China’s cover-up, thus paving the way for the coronavirus pandemic.   

But WHO is only one patch of an increasingly fragile fabric that is the United Nations.

“China is in a position to veto and stub out any effort by the U.S. to pass a resolution against it in the Security Council,” Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, an Israel-based attorney who specializes in suing terrorist regimes and state sponsors who orchestrate human rights abuses on behalf of victims, told Fox News.

“As an economic powerhouse with the ability to punish smaller countries that rely on its trade and markets, most of the 190 countries that are part of the General Assembly would be loath to join in a U.S.-sponsored resolution that would condemn China for its role in the pandemic.

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Remember Federalism? COVID-19 Takes us Back By Shoshana Bryen

Posted By on April 17th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/04/remember_federalism_covid19_takes_us_back.html

States, jealous of their power and prerogatives when it suits, have been furious over what some governors call federal inaction on COVID-19, deliberate or not. But equally, each state has a department of public health, a director of that department and staff. Each state is presumed to have a plan for emergencies: floods, forest fires, airliner crashes (the last fatal crash in the U.S. occurred in 2009, but it used to be on the “prepare for” list) or pandemics. Closing schools and parks is not handled in Washington. Calling out the state National Guard is, as its name suggests, a state prerogative.

Emergency plans are expensive, and states are often strapped for cash; so is Washington. And, now that the feds and the states are beginning to plan for “reopening,” each will look for a way to take credit and lay blame. President Donald Trump has pre-empted some of this with his announcement that the White House will work with all 50 governors to create reopening plans. Governor Andrew Cuomo conceded that New York cannot manage without Washington when he announced that he won’t fight with the President. If he won’t, no one outside the media will.

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German Police Arrest Four in Foiled ISIS Plot to Attack U.S. Military Base By Rick Moran

Posted By on April 17th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/blog/german-police-arrest-4-in-foiled-isis-plot-to-attack-u-s-military-base/

It’s useful to remember that there are other problems in the world besides the coronavirus and one of them is Islamic terrorism.

The fanatics apparently don’t pay much attention to the news and I doubt whether they’re following WHO guidelines on how to stop the spread of the virus. Instead, terrorists are going to do what terrorists do and to hell with the rest of the world.

In Germany, four terrorists were arrested after plotting to attack a U.S. military installation and assassinate a critic of Islam.

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Vitamin D and Coronavirus Disparities Supplements may promote immunity, especially in people with darker skin. By Vatsal G. Thakkar

Posted By on April 17th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/vitamin-d-and-coronavirus-disparities-11587078141?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

Black Americans are dying of Covid-19 at a higher rate than whites. Socioeconomic factors such as gaps in access to health care no doubt play a role. But another possible factor has been largely overlooked: vitamin D deficiency that weakens the immune system.

Researchers last week released the first data supporting this link. They found that the nations with the highest mortality rates—Italy, Spain and France—also had the lowest average vitamin D levels among countries affected by the pandemic.

Vitamin D is produced by a reaction in the skin to the ultraviolet rays in sunlight. Many Americans are low in vitamin D, but those with darker skin are at a particular disadvantage because melanin inhibits the vitamin’s production. As an Indian-American, my skin type is Fitzpatrick IV, or “moderate brown.” Compared with my white friends, I need double or triple the sun exposure to synthesize the same amount of vitamin D, so I supplement with 5,000 international units of vitamin D3 daily, which maintains my level in the normal range. Most African-Americans are Fitzpatrick type V or VI, so they would need even more.

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China’s post-covid propaganda push

Posted By on April 16th, 2020

https://www.economist.com/china/2020/04/16/chinas-post-covid-propaganda-push?utm_campaign=the-economist-today&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=salesforce-marketing-cloud&utm_term=2020-04-16&utm_content=article-link-1

China calls it the biggest emergency-aid operation that it has mounted abroad since 1949, when the Communist Party seized power. Hardly a day goes by without news of Chinese medical supplies, from masks to ventilators, reaching grateful recipients; and of Chinese medical teams flying to foreign countries to help them fight covid-19. Just a few weeks ago China was by far the biggest victim of the new coronavirus, and its government was widely chided for covering up the initial outbreak. Now China is trying to paint a new picture—of itself as a model for taming the disease, and as the world’s saviour.

State media are on hand to trumpet each donation, no matter how small. On March 21st a freight train set off from the eastern Chinese city of Yiwu bound for Madrid, more than 13,000km away. In addition to its cargo of commercial goods were 110,000 masks and nearly 800 protective suits donated by a state-owned firm (they arrived more than two weeks later). The aid was worth less than $50,000. But a state-media website called it a “new turning-point” in the building of a “health silk road”. Among slogans reportedly affixed to the train was one saying: “Come on, matadors!”

It is hardly surprising that China is turning its attention to the plight of other countries. Its covid-related data are of dubious quality, but it has clearly achieved a dramatic reduction in infections at home. Almost all of its newly reported cases involve travellers from abroad. As the world’s biggest producer of much of the medical kit that is most urgently needed globally, and with its own demand for it much reduced, China is well placed to assist. Indeed, in a pandemic, “to help others is also to help oneself”, as a Chinese spokeswoman put it.

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America needs an ‘Iran consensus’ By Lawrence J. Haas

Posted By on April 16th, 2020

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/493067-america-needs-an-iran-consensus

The current debate over whether the United States should ease sanctions against Iran in light of the latter’s struggles with COVID-19 reflects a broader reality: More than four decades after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, we still lack a consensus about the nature of the regime in Tehran and how to deal with it.

For Iran, we need something akin to the “Cold War consensus” of decades ago, when our two political parties agreed that America’s biggest global challenge was Soviet-led communism and that Washington should defend itself and its allies by “containing” the Soviets.

Such an “Iran consensus” is long overdue. Ever since the revolution of 1979 ousted the U.S.-backed Shah and ushered in a terror-sponsoring, hegemony-seeking, nuclear weapons-aspiring, anti-Western theocracy, Washington has pursued a confused, disjointed, meandering approach toward the Islamic Republic.

To nurture an Iran consensus, especially at a time of bitter partisanship in Washington, the man elected president in November should consider appointing a bipartisan commission of foreign policy elders – former secretaries of state, national security advisors, and so on – to consider the nature of Iran’s regime, clearly delineate the challenges it poses, and outline an approach around which the country can broadly rally.

That’s because, as our policies of the last four decades make clear, we lack agreement on even the most basic issues relating to Iran. Those include:

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Does Israel have a ‘no exit’ strategy from corona? Ruthie Blum

Posted By on April 16th, 2020

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/right-from-wrong-israels-no-exit-strategy-624890

Hebrew memes circulating on social media poked fun at the current form of warfare, which involves not charging at the enemy with tanks and rifles, but rather binging on Netflix and junk food.
The battle between the Israeli Health Ministry and Finance Ministry over the lifting of coronavirus-spurred lockdowns is heated. Early on in the crisis, when schools, malls and office buildings closed last month, government officials projected that life would resume some semblance of normalcy in the immediate aftermath of Passover.
 
It was a mid-April date on which parents pinned hopes and to which everyone looked forward. But to no avail. The kids are still home, stores remain shut and freedom of movement feels like a thing of the distant past.
 
To counter bouts of anxiety, loneliness and cabin fever – amid a rise in COVID-19 deaths and a drop in employment – we Israelis initially turned to humor. Hebrew memes circulating on social media poked fun at the current form of warfare, which involves not charging at the enemy with tanks and rifles, but rather binging on Netflix and junk food.
 
Growing fat is not the only reason that our patience has begun to wear thin, however.
 
ALONGSIDE A general societal willingness to adopt inconvenient habits to contain the ultra-contagious virus that strikes “grandmas and grandpas” with a vengeance, there is a gnawing sense that health authorities are going a bit too far in their doomsday scenarios.

Defending their demand for increasingly stringent measures to “flatten the coronavirus curve,” these authorities often appear oblivious to the ills of a demolished economy and mass demoralization.
 
The perilous side effects are already evident. Indeed, in a matter of weeks, more than a quarter of the workforce suddenly found itself with no income, business owners became poverty-stricken overnight, domestic violence spiked drastically and the ERAN organization hotline for emotional first aid has been ringing off the hook.
 

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, POLITICS Comments turned off

Joe Biden’s Double Standard KC Johnson

Posted By on April 16th, 2020

https://www.city-journal.org/biden-campaign-due-process

, City-Journal.org

Selected Excerpt below: Read it all at link above.

Biden’s rhetoric has also employed a de facto presumption of guilt. On a 2017 conference call with campus accusers’-rights activists, Biden offered a simple message to those who alleged that they had been sexually assaulted: “I believe you.” Proof for their claims, it seems, wasn’t necessary. The following year, during Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination hearings, Biden suggested that women making high-profile allegations deserve an even greater presumption of truthfulness: “For a woman to come forward in the glaring lights of focus, nationally, you’ve got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she’s talking about is real.”

For reasons that neither paper explained, the Times and Post articles declined to address the chasm between Biden’s past proposals on how to evaluate sexual-assault allegations against college students or his political foes and his current position regarding appropriate standards when he is the accused party. Instead, both articles provided context by exploring President Donald Trump’s past record. But the validity of past sexual-misconduct allegations against Trump has no bearing on the question of Biden’s changing standards. As lawyer and blogger Scott Greenfield observed, the key issue at play here is Biden’s “hypocrisy. Either it’s due process for all or none. Biden doesn’t get a pass.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Pelosi, Schumer Take Small Businesses Hostage Again — Trouble Is They’ll Kill The Hostage Robert Romano

Posted By on April 16th, 2020

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/04/16/pelosi-schumer-take-small-businesses-h

Small business relief that was included in the $2.2 trillion legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump to shore up payrolls of millions of American workers during the Chinese coronavirus pandemic has been so popular that it is in danger of running out.

As of Tuesday, the $350 billion program had already exhausted $257 billion as President Trump’s top economic advisor told Fox Business, “At the present run-rate, we’re going to be out of money.”

Thirty million small businesses employ up to 60 million Americans, the backbone of the U.S. economy, and for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the shortfalls are just fine. Those are hostages.

The trouble is everyone knows they’ll kill the hostages, figuratively speaking, of course.

That is, they’ll let those funds run out, even if it means tens of millions more Americans will lose their jobs for good while they wait to exact another toll from taxpayers on behalf of their own special interests, including state and local governments they want to bail out again.

It’s a free for all.

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Phase One of Reopening Will Be Expanding List of Essential Businesses: NY Governor By Zachary Stieber

Posted By on April 16th, 2020

https://www.theepochtimes.com/phase-one-of-reopening-will-be-expanding-list-of-essential-businesses-ny-governor_3314817.html

Businesses that aren’t currently labeled essential could soon be allowed to reopen in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, suggesting the first phase of reopening will be expanding the list businesses deemed “essential.”

Cuomo last month ordered so-called non-essential businesses to shut down as part of his stay-at-home order, which largely restricted people to their homes. The order and similar ones made by governors across the country crippled the economy and cost millions of jobs. Some experts say they helped slow the spread of the he CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, a novel coronavirus that emerged from mainland China last year, but others say less strict social distancing measures could have accomplished similar effects.

Hospitalizations dropped again in New York overnight, prompting Cuomo to unveil details on the regional plan for reopening.

Officials will work on determining which companies that were shut down can be reopened.

“How essential is that business service, right? You have to start somewhere. Right now, we have the economy working with ‘essential workers’ so we want to start to bring the economy back, move up one tranche with how you define essential,” Cuomo told reporters in Albany on Thursday.