NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Hydroxychloroquine, a year later, 3 times higher survival rate. Trump was right.

Posted By on June 12th, 2021

https://joannenova.com.au/2021/06/hydroxychloroquine-a-year-later-3-times-higher-survival-rate-trump-was-right/

The world faced the greatest global health crisis in one hundred years, but it’s taken a whole year to write up a small study that shows hydroxychoroquine could improve the survival rate of people on ventilators by a factor of three, and that the dose matters.

If anyone says “but this is not a big study”, that’s exactly my point. Why is it so hard to get a large study of a drug that was already known to be useful against SARS-1 fifteen years before SARS-2 arrived. A drug that even the President of the US was talking about in the earliest days? In January 2020 we already knew that the three drugs that were “fairly effective” were  Remdesivir, Chloroquine and Ritonavir. On February 13, the South Koreans were already recommending hydroxychloroquine and telling us the anti-virals should be “started as soon as possible”. We had that head start, we threw it away.

Apparently the kings-of-compassion in the commentariat would rather see deaths than admit Donald Trump was right. And the experts in Pharmaceutical Giants only cared about the profit line.

And so it comes to pass, finally, that we find out what happened to 255 patients in May 2020 who were treated for Covid in a hospital in New Jersey. Sadly, 78% or 201 patients are described as “expired” — as if they reached their use-by dates. It was that bad. Just 54 survived. Only 3.5% “walked out of the hospital”. These were very sick people.

The research team hunted through the data to try to figure out what was different about the group that survived. But mostly the “alive group” and the “expired group” were similar. The research team considered many different risk factors like their blood pressure, weight, age, and conditions like diabetes. They trawled laboriously through all the medications they were given as well. Convalescent plasma (blood from survivors) was one of the few things that helped, boosting survival by a factor of two. But one drug combination finally stood out even more and that was Hydroxychloroquine and and Azithromycin. (Essentially very similar to The Zelenko protocol).

The WHO, funded by taxpayers in the West, long after these patients were saved, was working to stop HCQ from being used.

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Biden to Harris: Disaster 1 to Disaster 2 Steve Feinstein

Posted By on June 12th, 2021

www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/06/biden_to_harris_disaster_1_to_disaster_2.html

That “President” Biden is an unmitigated disaster as our chief executive is so painfully apparent to everyone that it hardly seems necessary to point it out.  Nonetheless, just briefly consider:

Catastrophic Governance

His policies — anti-energy, anti-business, anti-military, anti-America First — have wrecked the economy, driven gas to over $3.00/gallon, given us the absolute worst illegal immigration crisis in our history, and bankrupted the country. In a warped way, it’s kind of impressive that he’s done that in only a bit over four months.

Leadership Vacuum

No one believes Biden is calling the shots, He’s totally malleable to behind-the-scenes operatives, acting in a confused, unknowing fog, reading as best he can from the teleprompter, and hiding behind his weird “I’ll get in trouble if I answer any more of your questions” excuse.

Made America Weak Internationally

The ayatollahs from Iran, Russia’s Putin, and Xi Jinping of Communist China are licking their chops at the prospect of having their way with poor ‘ol Joe.

Family Corruption

Has there ever been a “First Family” with anywhere near the decades-long, indisputable record of dishonesty, financial misdealings, and outright graft that even approaches that of the Bidens?

Diminished Mental Capacity

For those among this readership who have a compromised older family member, it isn’t merely the grotesquely obvious signs of dementia that mark Biden as severely limited. It’s the more subtle behaviors that betray his overwhelming incapacity. A clear example occurred just recently when the ever-admiring and forever-excusing liberal media caught up with Biden as he was eating an ice cream cone. Breathlessly shouting out, “What flavor?” the media proceeded to float a softball his way, asking if there was any possibility that the Republicans might compromise with him on his infrastructure proposal.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Biden tries to erase Trump’s ‘America First’ on world stage By Alex Gangitano

Posted By on June 12th, 2021

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/558023-biden-tries-to-erase-trumps-america-first-on-world-stage

President Biden is seeking to erase former President Trump’s America First agenda from the international stage during his inaugural trip abroad for the Group of Seven (G-7) summit in England this week.

In words and deeds, Biden is sending the signal that America is back on the world stage and that it wants to work in partnership with Western allies on issues ranging from the rise of China and Russia to climate change and the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Biden’s taking a much less isolationist approach [that] will spur that good will and he needs to keep doing that,” said John Hudak, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Brookings Institution.

“This summit is the first big step in showing the world that America is back to the position it once held,” Hudak added.

Instead of demanding that other countries step up their defense spending and NATO commitments and warning that the United States is ready to go it alone, Biden’s first formal action of the trip was to announce an update to the Atlantic Charter with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The charter is a World War II-era document laying out shared commitments from the U.S. and United Kingdom, and the message was America Together, not America First.

“Our revitalized Atlantic Charter, building on the commitments and aspirations set out eighty years ago, affirms our ongoing commitment to sustaining our enduring values and defending them against new and old challenges,” the new joint document states. “We commit to working closely with all partners who share our democratic values and to encountering the efforts of those who seek to undermine our alliances and institutions.”

The new charter is a good example of the kind of change Biden wants to make from Trump, who in most ways is the opposite of his successor.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

DAVID WURMSER David Wurmser. Courtesy. Will an Arab party entering Israel’s government lead the region toward peace or war? David Wurmser

Posted By on June 12th, 2021

https://www.jns.org/opinion/why-we-might-be-closer-to-war-than-we-think/

The success of Mansour Abbas represents a catastrophe for powerful interests everywhere. It is to be expected that interested parties with the power to act will work to sabotage him at all costs.

Over the last week, there have been increasing signs that Hamas may be preparing to re-initiate hostilities, starting along the border at a trickle, and then more as they go along. These signs should be taken seriously since the underlying tectonic forces that in part led to the last war are still in place.

And yet, in this particular situation, there is a new dimension that can further fuel the choice towards escalation by Hamas, as well as for the panoply of other actors that previously played a contributing role in detonating the region last month. It is likely that Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, the Joint Arab List in Israel, and Iran and Turkey outside Israel all have a strong common interest in sabotaging the new Israeli government taking shape.

This is most easily done via escalation, particularly because of the above-mentioned forces being threatened by Mansour Abbas and his United Arab List party (Ra’am). It is possible that even Jordan might harbor hostility, not because incoming Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is seen as a symbol of the settler movement, but because it cannot comfortably accept the success of Mansour Abbas.

Why? What does Mansour Abbas represent?

To answer, one must examine what he is not. He is not a dreamy peace processor. Nor is he given to grand theories of regional cooperation or of some contractual permanent change that would demand an alteration of his basic system of Islamic beliefs. No such leader would or could survive in any Arab society.

DAVID'S SLINGSHOT DPS, EDUCATION Comments turned off

Over 850 Harvard Affiliates Denounce Antisemitism, ‘Demonization’ of Israel By Dion J. Pierre

Posted By on June 12th, 2021

https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/06/11/over-850-harvard-affiliates-denounce-antisemitism-demonization-of-israel/

Over 850 students, faculty and other affiliates of Harvard University have signed a statement in support of Israel’s “right to self-defense” and the “right of the Jewish people to self-determination,” which also criticized what it called the rise of anti-Israel activism on campus.

The letter comes amid a nationwide spike in antisemitism that included two recent acts of vandalism involving the Harvard Hillel building.

“As members of the Harvard community we stand by the State of Israel in its right to self-defense and by the right of the Jewish people to self-determination,” the letter said.

Circulated on May 28 by the campus group the Harvard Israel Initiative (HII) — and signed by Harvard affiliates such as literature scholar Ruth Wisse, economist Kenneth Rogoff, and Harvard Chaplain and Executive Director of Harvard Hillel Jonah Steinberg — it denounced a rise in anti-Jewish hate crimes and encouraged “civil discourse” when discussing Israeli-Palestinian relations.

Other signatories included social psychologist Jennifer Lerner, attorney Alan Dershowitz, historian Niall Ferguson, and physician Jerome Groopman.

“We are tremendously saddened by the events of the last two weeks, starting with the tragic loss of innocent Israeli and Palestinian life, followed by a frightening spike in reported antisemitic attacks across the country and the globe, including cities such as New York and Los Angeles,” the letter said.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Effect of Communist China on America’s Clean Energy Plan by Judith Bergman

Posted By on June 11th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17335/china-rare-earth-materials

“[I]t is as if the Middle East not only sat on most of the world’s oil but also, almost exclusively, refined it and then made products out of it,” wrote The Economist in 2019.

It is not that rare earth materials do not exist outside of China, although it sits on the largest quantity: approximately 30-40% of all known rare earth deposits. Rather, extracting the materials is a difficult and highly polluting process that China was willing to take on…. “making it practically impossible for competing companies outside China to get a foothold,” according to the Danish Institute for International Studies.

China’s de facto monopoly forms an acute problem: international reliance on them could hamper vital industries and national security at a time of maximum competition between China and the US.

In February, the Financial Times reported that China was looking into export curbs on rare earth materials that are key to the US defense industry, such as the F-35. “The government wants to know if the US may have trouble making F-35 fighter jets if China imposes an export ban.” — Chinese government adviser to the Financial Times.

On April 16, however, after elections that were de facto a referendum on the Chinese plans to mine not just for rare earth materials, but also for uranium, a new Greenland government came to power, which vowed that it “will do everything we can to stop the Kvanefjeld project.” Greenland’s new government may impact not only China’s hopes for mining there, but also those of other countries hoping to break free of the rare earth dependency on China.

The London-based Polar Research and Policy Initiative, recommended in March that the “Five Eyes” alliance, an intelligence-sharing group comprised of Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, set its sights on Greenland’s rare earths.

Wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles all rely on rare earth materials and China has a head start that can be measured in decades, when it comes to producing the various products of which they form a crucial part: More than 60% of the world’s solar panels… are made in China….

There is also a human rights aspect to the issue: Polysilicon is produced in Xinjiang, where China is accused of using forced labor in the production chains, because — ironically — heat above 1,000 degrees Celsius is required to make the material, and Xinjiang has an abundance of cheap coal power.

“It will cost us more than the Chinese to produce solar cells,” said Tom Duesterberg, former Commerce Department assistant secretary under President George H.W. Bush. “We could agree to pay that price, but it will be more expensive and take a long time. If tensions get bad with China, they’ve proven in the past that they are willing to cut off supplies.”

China is also the world’s largest producer of electric vehicles. “China is projected to produce around 13 million battery electric vehicles… by 2023, more than any other nation in the world. China’s estimated production level is also anticipated to exceed the combined output of other large markets, including the United States…. Biden’s plan could therefore end up boosting China’s green energy industry even more.

“The Middle East has oil, China has rare earths”, Deng Xiaoping said in 1992. Nearly three decades later, the world is almost completely dependent on China for rare earth materials. They constitute key elements in large swaths of modern technology from consumer electronics to military equipment and green technology: Mobile phones, computers, fighter jets, guided missiles, solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles, among others. While demand is soaring, China is virtually their worldwide exclusive producer. “To extend Mr Deng’s comparison, it is as if the Middle East not only sat on most of the world’s oil but also, almost exclusively, refined it and then made products out of it,” wrote The Economist in 2019.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Letters from a D.C. Jail The rule of law for anyone involved in the events of January 6 has been flipped on its head by the U.S. justice system; defendants are presumed guilty before proven innocent. By Julie Kelly

Posted By on June 11th, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/06/10/letters-from-a-d-c-jail/

This week, five Republican senators sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland regarding his office’s handling of January 6 protesters. The letter revealed the senators are aware that several Capitol defendants charged with mostly nonviolent crimes are being held in solitary confinement conditions in a D.C. jail used exclusively to house Capitol detainees.

Joe Biden’s Justice Department routinely requests—and partisan Beltway federal judges routinely approve—pre-trial detention for Americans arrested for their involvement in the January 6 protest. This includes everyone from an 18-year-old high school senior from Georgia to a 70-year-old Virginia farmer with no criminal record.

It is important to emphasize that the accused have languished for months in prison before their trials even have begun. Judges are keeping defendants behind bars largely based on clips selectively produced by the government from a trove of video footage under protective seal and unavailable to defense lawyers and the public—and for the thoughtcrime of doubting the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election.

The rule of law for anyone involved in the events of January 6 has been flipped on its head by the U.S. justice system; defendants are presumed guilty before proven innocent. The right to a speedy trial and the right to participate in one’s own defense are ignored, as are other constitutional protections.

Prosecutors insist the alleged crimes committed by Capitol protesters—unlike similar or more egregious crimes committed by leftist protesters last year—are exceptionally heinous because the acts resulted in an “attack on our democracy” and interrupted the official business of the U.S. Congress.

The Justice Department and federal judges also continue to lie in court about the number of fatalities from January 6 in order to make the event seem far worse than it actually was. A Senate report issued this week also repeated the falsehood that “seven individuals, including three law enforcement officers, lost their lives.”

But federal prosecutors and Beltway judges—many of whom were involved in the nonstop criminal hunt against President Trump and his associates for four years—are wasting no time doling out severe punishment for those who dared to challenge the incoming Biden regime.

Take, for example, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, the judge who refused to dismiss the case against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn even though both parties sought to do so. Sullivan is presiding over a handful of Capitol breach cases. Last month, he denied a request made by Jonathan Mellis, behind bars in the D.C. jail since February awaiting trial, to attend his father’s funeral in Virginia. Mellis faces several charges including allegations he attempted to strike a police officer with a stick. (Again, this is based only on evidence presented by the government. Nothing has been contested in court.)

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Cyber-Follies at Homeland Security By Robert L. Maginnis

Posted By on June 11th, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/06/cyberfollies_at_homeland_security.html

Russia, China, and the balance of the world’s bad cyber-actors won’t stop attacking American commercial and infrastructure targets like the Colonial Pipeline and JBS, the world’s largest meat-processing company, until we make them pay an unacceptable price.  Unfortunately, Congress and the federal government accept that grave risk.

America is a sitting duck to cyber-criminals and state actors, who easily harvest our intellectual property, degrade our communications, create false information that influences our politics, and erode our national will from keyboards abroad.

Yes, cyberspace operations are the new nuclear weapons and can be scaled from pinpricks up to attacks that cripple entire countries.  The threat is so serious that it ought to capture the attention of every American.

The tip of the threat is cyber-crime, which costs the world perhaps $6 trillion annually, but more worrisome are state-sponsored cyber-attacks.  After all, cyber is an invisible weapon to impose a cost and consume resources.  No wonder our enemies in Moscow and Beijing host significant offensive cyber-armies and a variety of cyber-proxies that sow discontent and keep America tied down — an effective strategy.

President Joe Biden’s promise to put Russian president Vladimir Putin on notice for harboring cyber-criminals is an empty threat.  Putin knows that America offers easy cyber-targets, such as last month’s ransomware attack, which locked up Colonial Pipeline’s computers, leaving East Coast gas tanks empty for more than a week.

P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

A Bird By Any Other Name is a Thought Crime Elite birdwatchers are purging American natural history. Danusha Goska

Posted By on June 11th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/06/bird-any-other-name-thought-crime-danusha-goska/

The Black Lives Matter movement and Critical Race Theory are powerful, seductive, and glamorous. They generate abundant capital, financial and social. As Americans secularize, walking away from organized religion, race ideology provides a ritualized seal of spiritual superiority. This new religion promises a cleansing purge. America will be razed to the ground, literally or culturally. Cities will burn; statues will topple. Language itself will swallow old, bad words and speak only the righteous lexicon. This shining new vocabulary will not be selected by the messy process of raucous human tongues trying out what works best to speak the heart, the mind, the groin, with other busy, sloppy, greedy, horny, hearing-impaired humans, over the course of eons. No. New, holy syllables will be hand-forged by our betters, people who know what is good for us. A glorious tomorrow will emerge. A superior elite will educate, and, failing that, dominate the polluted masses.

Corporations and individuals have struggled to jump on the bandwagon and to share race ideology’s reflected glow. Coca-Cola told employees to “be less white.” America, the Jesuit magazine, urged Catholics to be “Woke.” Indoctrination in Critical Race Theory is required in schools, despite objections from parents, students, and teachers.

Race ideology is especially dominant in academia, sports, and entertainment. This is ironic because all three are elitist. These elites announce themselves as the representative of poor blacks. They do so while demonizing black conservatives who disagree with CRT and BLM.

Elite birders, aka birdwatchers, have harkened to the siren song of race ideology. These birders insist that birdwatching is a colonialist, white supremacist exercise.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

How to Unwoke Your School Board The ideological pandemic invading classrooms nationwide. Joy Overbeck

Posted By on June 11th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/06/how-unwoke-your-school-board-joy-overbeck/

There’s a vicious pandemic that no vaccine will cure, and it’s called Critical Race Theory (CRT.) This is “wokeness” and it is invading school districts and classrooms nationwide, infecting the minds of America’s progeny from preschool through college. It’s a relentless illness, spreading racial division and distrust with a deterministic dogma that defines all whites as programmed to be oppressors and all minorities as doomed victims of that white oppression.  

This is the story of what happened when this pandemic suddenly struck the Douglas County, Colorado, School District, which serves 63,000 students. Only 1 percent of those students are black, and black residents only make up 1.1 percent of the county population (with Hispanics at about 7 percent according to the 2010 census , the most recent available.) So Douglas County is simply not as diverse and “inclusive” as many woke left-leaners would like it to be. Still, somehow the county always rates at the top of those nationwide “great places to live” surveys. It’s full of leafy, affluent neighborhoods with friendly people and lots of dogs. The dogs and their owners’ ride of choice is a Ford 150 pickup or a domestic SUV. The predominantly white and Republican electorate is one of the most well-educated populations in the nation. The county has been untroubled by the Antifa and BLM burning and lootings afflicting the radical left hotbeds of the nation. Though a few anemic BLM marches were organized, mostly by whites from other counties, these were outdone in enthusiasm and frequency by the hundreds of Trump supporters  who all last summer and fall flocked several times a week to sidewalk honk and wave events and Trumpster car parades.  No violence or racial incidents occurred, and the fall elections produced decisive victories for all the local and state Republican candidates, as usual.  

t should be noted that for the last two years, the District’s Superintendent, Chief Academic Officer, and Chief Technology Officer have all been African-Americans.  Yet the three departed their jobs at the end of 2020. The Superintendent was placed on administrative leave following a formal workplace complaint of gender discrimination; he was ultimately cleared. Nevertheless he resigned, having previously told the Board he had another job offer. Although the Chief Academic Officer said “she experienced “microaggressions and passive-aggressive racism” almost daily, none of the three district officials had any specific complaints.