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January 2021

As COVID admissions surge, states conflating patients hospitalized ‘due to’ and ‘with’ virus Numbers of incidental infections could form significant percentage of total hospitalizations.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/coronavirus/covid-hospitalizations-reach-new-highs-states-failing-distinguish

States throughout the U.S. are failing to distinguish between patients hospitalized because of COVID-19 and patients who merely test positive for the disease while being hospitalized for other reasons.

Hospitalizations have for months been viewed as one of the critical indicators of the coronavirus pandemic: Countries worldwide have relied heavily on the number of patients sent to hospitals because of the virus as a way of measuring how severe a region or a nation’s outbreak really is. 

In the United States, as in most other countries, one of the chief concerns of the pandemic has been whether or not hospitals have enough capacity to treat surges in COVID patients in addition to more routine procedures and emergency issues. The most recent surge in positive COVID-19 tests, which began in early October, has led to record highs of hospitalized COVID-positive patients.

The COVID Tracking Project, a group of public health experts and journalists who have been collecting COVID-19 data from state health departments since early 2020, currently lists over 125,000 hospitalized COVID patients nationwide, roughly double the earlier peaks seen in the spring and summer. 

Differentiating between ‘with’ and ‘due to’

Hunter Biden’s Guilty Laptop The most charitable reading of the sleazy saga is that Joe Biden, one of the most powerful men in the world, is an incredibly gullible idiot. Peter Van Buren

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/hunter-bidens-guilty-laptop/

I read the files on Hunter Biden’s laptop. They paint a sleazy picture of multi-million dollar wire transfers, potential money laundering, and possible tax evasion. They raise serious questions about the judgment and propriety of Jim Biden, the president-elect’s brother, and Joe himself. Call it smoke not fire, but smoke that should not be ignored. The files were supplied to TAC by a known source previously established to have access.

Joe Biden is lucky a coordinated media effort kept Hunter out of the campaign. The FBI has had the laptop since 2019, when they subpoenaed the files in connection with a money laundering investigation. Federal investigators also served a round of subpoenas on December 8, a month after the election, including one for Hunter Biden himself. While the legal thrust of the investigation by the federal prosecutor in Delaware is taxes, the real focus seems to be on Hunter’s Chinese connections. This all comes after the FBI has had over a year to examine some of the same files TAC looked at.

In the final weeks before the election, Hunter’s laptop fell into Republican hands. The story went public in the New York Post, revealing that Hunter Biden introduced his father, then vice president, to a top executive at Ukrainian energy firm Burisma less than a year before the elder Biden pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company. The meeting is mentioned in a message of appreciation that Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Burisma, sent Hunter Biden about a year after Hunter himself joined the Burisma board at a salary of $83,000 a month with no obvious work duties past making such introductions.

Nice work if you can get it, and to get it your dad better be vice president.

US: “Not Now One of the World’s Better-Functioning Democracies” by Guy Millière

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16911/us-functioning-democracy

“As President, I have no higher duty than to defend the laws and the Constitution of the United States. That is why I am determined to protect our election system, which is now under coordinated assault and siege”. — President Donald J. Trump, December 2, 2020.

“The top line here is very simple: [Many people] used a coordinated strategy across six battleground states — you’ve got Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — a coordinated strategy to stuff the ballot box with mail-in and absentee ballots, and do it in a way where they bend and often break the law…” — Peter Navarro, regarding his report, “An Indecent Exposure,” Newsmax, December 21, 2020.

There are accusations that many politicians in America are not even slightly interested in fair elections or equal justice under law — only about attaining power and keeping it in perpetuity.

“Make no mistake: voter fraud is real. [Many people], the media and the so-called public interest groups on the political Left will tell you otherwise, but they are either lying or totally ignorant. Voter fraud is a threat to the integrity of our elections, the heart of our democracy—and [many people] want to make the problem worse with their new voting laws.” — Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, Newsweek, June 7, 2020.

The evidence gathered is available to be seen. That judges dismissed lawsuits without seeing it does not make it disappear.

Many commentators apparently accept the idea that Biden will soon be president and resign themselves to it. Others apparently have decided that accepting so much lawlessness is unacceptable. It could, they assess, undermine American democracy, fatally erode American institutions, and plummet the country into an authoritarian future, foreign or domestic, and economic ruin.

“Weak-kneed [politicians],” columnist Charlie Eastman wrote, “who choose to wave the white flag instead of fighting to the last man to challenge the fraud that occurred in the 2020 election are committing political suicide”.

November 3, 2020. New York. Midnight. A reporter on television said that election vote counting had been stopped in several states. At this point, President Donald J. Trump seemed in a position to win and easily to have a second term. Commenting a bit later, he said, “We did win,” but added a warning: “We don’t want them to find any ballot at four o clock in the morning”. By morning, everything had changed. Thousands more ballots had appeared. States where Trump had a clear lead displayed different results. Former Vice President Joe Biden appeared to have won.

Meadows: Over 100 House Members Plan to Object to Electoral Votes By Zachary Stieber

https://www.theepochtimes.com/meadows-over-100-house-members-plan-to-object-to-electoral-votes_3641463.html

Over 100 members of the House of Representatives plan on objecting to electoral votes during the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress, according to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

“We’re now at well over 100 House members and a dozen Senators ready to stand up for election integrity and object to certification. It’s time to fight back,” Meadows wrote in a tweet late Saturday.

According to an Epoch Times tally, 45 representatives have publicly committed to objecting during the joint session. Eleven senators announced earlier Saturday they would object, joining Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.).

“The forgotten men and women are speaking out and Washington D.C. is waking up,” Meadows wrote in another tweet.

The final number of members of Congress who will object keeps rising, but the exact number who have committed so far isn’t clear.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), who tried suing Vice President Mike Pence over the vice president’s power during the joint session, claimed late last week that 141 Republican House members have announced plans to object.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), who opposes President Donald Trump, said during a podcast that he believes upwards of 100 members will end up objecting.

Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) said Saturday that he was on a call with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Trump, and “TONS of Jan. 6 election objectors.”

“This is a pivotal moment. Those who aren’t with us are against us – history will be unforgiving,” he added, using a hashtag for “Stop the Steal.”

After Hawley’s Dec. 30 announcement—becoming the first senator to commit to objecting—two groups of representatives joined the effort.

A former Army Intelligence Captain shares a boatload of election oddities By Carol Brown VIDEO

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/01/a_former_army_intelligence_captain_shares_a_boatload_of_election_oddities.html

On New Year’s Day, an interview on Pure Social TV (lots of new media cropping up these days) featured Seth Keshel, former Army Intelligence Captain. It focused on numerous election patterns that bucked historical trends.

Keshel is smart, serious, detail oriented, and gets right to the heart of things. He also uses simple graphics to support his points.

YouTube video (cropped)

General Michael Flynn tweeted out a link to the video yesterday stating:

Exceptional presentation by a statistical genius on the election outcome @SKeshel offers PureTalk w/ host @RealDougWade. In 21 Minutes, you’ll understand why @realDonaldTrump won the election.

About a month ago Keshel was interviewed on OAN. Meanwhile, it appears that he only just opened a Twitter account and is overwhelmed with followers.

A gifted warrior has burst onto the scene.

The video is 20 minutes long and well worth watching and sharing.

January 6 Updates for today By Carol Brown

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/01/january_6_updates_for_today.html

Here are updates related to January 6 broken down into various categories, presented in the following order: Rally updates, GOP objections to the votes, Peter Navarro statement, Mike Pence statement, the progressive angle, and a Trump request related to Georgia.

Rally updates

Sundance, at The Conservative Treehouse, has been posting daily updates which I’ve excerpted and summarized below. For those already in D.C. or en route, please click the link for pertinent information, warnings, and tips on a variety of topics. Additional information can be found here, here, here, here, and here. 30-second video: here.

The January 6th rally in Washington DC is shaping up to be the largest ever assembly in Washington DC history. From what can be ascertained from social media and grassroots communication to CTH, millions are inbound, and the scale is growing exponentially.

It’s recommended that you arrive before 9 am on the date of the event.

The primary venue will be The Elipse, a 52-acre park south of the White House fence and north of Constitution Avenue and the National Mall.

In anticipation of a crowd size that could reach into the millions, plan for the metro rail system to be shut down.

President Trump will be participating at the massive event.

GOP objections to the vote

The number of Republicans who will object to the vote is growing, although the most recent group of Senators have a request they want met before objecting. Fox News reports:

A group of GOP senators led by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, will object to the Jan. 6 certification of the presidential election results next week unless there is an emergency 10-day audit of the results by an electoral commission.

[snip]

Joining Cruz are Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.; James Lankford, R-Okla.; Steve Daines, R-Mont.; John Kennedy, R-La.; Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Mike Braun, R-Ind.; as well as Sens.-elect Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.; Roger Marshall, R-Kansas; Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.

A copy of the letter signed by the senators can be found here. Cruz will be on Maria Bartiromo’s Sunday Morning Future’s program at 10 am to discuss all of this.

An Insider’s View of Pennsylvania and the Battle for Our Republic By Frank Ryan and Dawn Keefer

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/01/an_insiders_view_of_pennsylvania_and_the_battle_for_our_republic.html

Col. Frank Ryan, CPA, USMCR (ret.) represents the 101st District in the PA House of Representatives, and Rep. Dawn Keefer represents the 92nd District in the PA House of Representatives.

On December 28, 2020, a group of state lawmakers, having performed an extensive analysis of election data, revealed troubling discrepancies between the numbers of total votes counted and total number of voters who voted in the 2020 general election.  These findings were in addition to prior concerns regarding actions by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the secretary of state, and others impacting the conduct of the election.

A comparison of official county election results to the total number of voters who voted on November 3, 2020, as recorded by the Department of State (DoS), shows that 6,962,607 total ballots were reported as being cast, while the DoS’s Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE) system records indicate that just 6,760,230 total voters actually voted.  Among the 6,962,607 total ballots cast, 6,931,060 total votes were counted in the presidential race, including all three candidates on the ballot and write-in candidates.

The difference of 202,377 more votes cast than voters voting, together with the 31,547 over- and under-votes in the presidential race, adds up to an alarming discrepancy of 170,830 votes, which is more than twice the reported statewide difference between the two major candidates for president of the United States.  On November 24, 2020, Secretary Boockvar certified election results, and Governor Wolf issued a certificate of ascertainment of presidential electors, certifying that Vice President Joe Biden received 80,555 more votes than President Donald Trump.

The Department of State’s response and rebuttal were swift and condescending toward the 17 legislators issuing the press release.  The Department of State acknowledged the disparity in its published data, explaining that the SURE system is not the source of the information utilized to certify the election.

A New Year: Better or Less Bad? by Amir Taheri

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16909/new-year-better

To start with, it made most of us understand that as members of the human species, we are all in the same leaking boat. The pandemic was like a general amnesty or a conflagration that transcends boundaries and includes everyone, high or low, rich or poor, young or old.

One other important feature of the crisis may have been the reassertion of capitalism as the surest means of coping with a disaster hitting us out of the blue. The huge mass of available capital with historically low interest rates…. and virtually inexhaustible productive capacities across the globe, provided many nations with a shield against potentially fatal economic and social shocks.

The year just ending taught us not take things for granted and to value even the most pedestrian joys that existence allows us, such a walk in a park….

As 2021 begins, one is reminded of the verse by Persian poet Masud Saad Salman, hoping that the new year would not resemble the old one.

Masud, of course, was expressing that hope from the Nay Fortress where, having fallen from the grace in the court of a local despot, he had been imprisoned for a year, and was to remain there for the rest of his life. He lamented the fact that Saturday was like Friday and April like March and his share of sunshine reduced to a sickly ray from a hole in the roof of his cell. In other words, he wasn’t doing any better than many us did in the year just ended.

But, let us be provocative, didn’t 2020 have any redeeming feature?

I think it did.

Who Will Be Inaugurated? What is unlikely is not impossible—an admonitory caution, not an appeal to false hope. By Roger Kimball

https://amgreatness.com/2021/01/02/who-will-be-inaugurated/

Just because the theaters are closed doesn’t mean that we lack for drama. Our quivering reaction to the latest Chinese import may have shuttered Broadway, just as it has emptied restaurants and city streets—unless, of course, you are a member of the nomenklatura—but there is still plenty of excitement to be had in the unfolding entertainment of our political life, especially in the final episodes of what we might call “West Wing II—or Who Will Get to Write 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as His Return Address Come January 20?” 

On Saturday, a group of 11 Republican Senators—including Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and Mike Braun (R-Ind.)—joined Josh Hawley of Missouri in declaring they will vote against the electors on offer in several disputed states at the joint session of Congress on January 6. At last count, at least 40 GOP representatives plan to vote against the slate of Democratic electors in those states as well. 

In my view, this is as it should be, and not just because Republicans are now giving Democrats a taste of their own medicine. 

Remember how the Democrats went wild in 2004 when George W. Bush won the election? Remember what they have been doing to Donald Trump since before he was inaugurated in 2016? Spare me the lectures about “civility,” “the peaceful transfer of power,” and the general awfulness of Donald Trump. Turnabout is fair play, especially in a game when letting things go means ensuring more of the bad treatment you just endured. If anyone has it coming, it is the Democrats—and they deserve to get it good and hard. 

But that is not the only reason I applaud the decision of those stalwart Republicans to vote against the slate of Biden electors in those disputed states. There is also a matter of principle. In a statement released Saturday afternoon, the 11 senators joining  Hawley clearly outlined the situation. 

“America is a Republic whose leaders are chosen in democratic elections,” they wrote. “Those elections, in turn, must comply with the Constitution and with federal and state law.”

Who could disagree?

Calling Out the Fauci Administration With an eye on the polls, “unelected technocrat” Anthony Fauci nudges lockdowns far into 2021, and possibly 2022. By Lloyd Billingsley

https://amgreatness.com/2021/01/02/calling-out-the-fauci-administration/

“If he wants to lead the nation, he should run for office.” 

That sounds like Nancy Pelosi discussing the prospects of a Gavin Newsom presidency, but it’s really Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) calling out Dr. Anthony Fauci in a December 30 Fox News opinion piece. 

For most of 2020, Fauci had been telling Americans that to reach herd immunity and make the coronavirus a non-issue, about 60 to 70 percent of the nation would need a vaccine. Then in a December 24 interview with the New York Times, Fauci said he had been looking at “polls” showing that only half of all Americans would take a vaccine. 

Fauci thought “I can nudge this up a bit,” and boosted the number to 80-85 percent for herd immunity. So by “the beginning of the fall of 2021, we can start to approach some degree of normality.” If embattled Americans thought Fauci really had 2022 in mind it would be hard to blame them. 

Rubio granted Fauci’s good intentions but “let’s be clear about what he was doing: lying to the American people in order to manipulate their behavior.” That was a long overdue spanking but Rubio was not the first to give Fauci the smackdown he deserves.