Sticking with Trump to the Bitter (or Glorious) End By David Solway

“To defeat Trump,” writes Victor Davis Hanson, “many of our institutions were deformed.” Indeed, we have witnessed a flagrant burlesque of electoral procedure, including the specter of foreign interference by China, Iran and Russia via Dominion Voting Systems in gerrymandering electoral results, as Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe has confirmed. And there will be lasting consequences. The effect of installing a parodic figure like Joe Biden, straight out of the Commedia dell’Arte, as the next president of the United States will result in three destabilizing factors.

A nation presided over by a sorry puppet who has been put in place by a political, technological and wealthy elite employing counterfeit means will become progressively dysfunctional. Secondly, an administration that owes its ascendancy to obvious electoral chicanery will look and sound like a banana republic, a wavering shadow of its former self, and an international laughing stock to be taken advantage of by its adversaries and competitors.

Finally, the idea of secession will enter the public domain. Rush Limbaugh worries that America is “trending toward secession.” Texas GOP chairman Allen West suggested that law-abiding states should “bond together and form a union of states that will abide by the Constitution.” Though he asserted “I never say anything about secession,” the implication is certainly present. Texit is in the wind. As Rep. Kyle Biedermann (R-Fredericksburg) said, “I am committing to file legislation this session that will allow a referendum to give Texans a vote for the State of Texas to reassert its status as an independent nation.”

Attorney Frank Friday has an amusing blog post at American Thinker, dismissing the notion of secession as unworkable and advocating instead for a football-league model of blue state realignment with Canada (Can-America) — as if Canada would be interested. Red state Big America would assume the burden of responsible statecraft and constitutional probity. The article is a lighthearted spoof, gets a dig in at Mark Levin’s eminently sensible The Liberty Amendments, but buries the alarming possibility of a secession scenario, along the lines, perhaps, of the “velvet divorce” which divided Czechoslovakia into Czech Republic and Slovakia. Of course, the conditions were far simpler then, for obvious historical and territorial reasons, but stand as a template for pragmatic action.

Lockdowns Do Not Control the Coronavirus: The Evidence

https://www.aier.org/article/lockdowns-do-not-control-the-coronavirus-the-evidence/

The use of universal lockdowns in the event of the appearance of a new pathogen has no precedent. It has been a science experiment in real time, with most of the human population used as lab rats. The costs are legion. 

The question is whether lockdowns worked to control the virus in a way that is scientifically verifiable. Based on the following studies, the answer is no and for a variety of reasons: bad data, no correlations, no causal demonstration, anomalous exceptions, and so on. There is no relationship between lockdowns (or whatever else people want to call them to mask their true nature) and virus control. 

Perhaps this is a shocking revelation, given that universal social and economic controls are becoming the new orthodoxy. In a saner world, the burden of proof really should belong to the lockdowners, since it is they who overthrew 100 years of public-health wisdom and replaced it with an untested, top-down imposition on freedom and human rights. They never accepted that burden. They took it as axiomatic that a virus could be intimidated and frightened by credentials, edicts, speeches, and masked gendarmes. 

The pro-lockdown evidence is shockingly thin, and based largely on comparing real-world outcomes against dire computer-generated forecasts derived from empirically untested models, and then merely positing that stringencies and “nonpharmaceutical interventions” account for the difference between the fictionalized vs. the real outcome. The anti-lockdown studies, on the other hand, are evidence-based, robust, and thorough, grappling with the data we have (with all its flaws) and looking at the results in light of controls on the population. 

Showtime’s Pathetic Exercise in Reagan Bashing By Alvin S. Felzenberg

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/12/showtimes-pathetic-exercise-in-reagan-bashing/amp/

The network’s The Reagans doc traffics in misstatements, partial truths, and strategic omissions to pin Trump’s rise on the late president.

In making its programming decisions for the interval between the end of the 2020 presidential election and the holiday season, the top brass at Showtime reverted to what had once been standard fare in Hollywood and elsewhere: Reagan bashing. Over four successive Sundays, the network released yet another hour of its tedious and repetitious documentary, The Reagans.

Warning to the uninitiated: Do not mistake what comes before you as an update of anything like PBS’s extraordinary presentation of Reagan and his era as part of its “American Experience” repertoire. What you see on Showtime is neither objective history nor a fair-minded attempt to review past controversies through the perspective of the present. Its creator, Matt Tyrnauer, to his credit, is straightforward about that. He is a man with a mission.

His thesis is simple: that Ronald Reagan, through a series of “dog whistles,” carefully woven into his rhetoric, paved the way for Donald Trump’s angrier form of populism, with policies that promote white supremacy as the intended legacies of both presidents. Whatever history’s final judgment of Trump may be, few would doubt that this is a lot to pin on Ronald Reagan. In comparing the two presidents, the creators overlook some essential facts: Reagan twice won the presidency in two landslides, both in the popular vote and in the Electoral College. Trump twice lost the popular vote and prevailed in Electoral College once and narrowly. Hidden in the numbers are the hopes and expectations the American people placed in both presidents and how the presidents regarded them.The only obvious similarity the documentary draws between Reagan and Trump is that both were entertainers. Both knew how to reach and move audiences, the filmmakers say — as if the calm reassuring Sunday night host of G.E. Theater, who entered into American living rooms every week after Ed Sullivan for eight years, was anything like the carnival-barking star of reality television, famous for his loud utterance of the two words: “You’re fired!” Both had audiences, but they related to them in different ways.

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/12/showtimes-pathetic-exercise-in-reagan-bashing/amp/

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Mutating cancer cells. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute, working with others in the Netherlands and Norway, have discovered that melanoma cells can “frameshift” to grow whilst avoiding the immune system. The process, however, generates new peptides (short proteins) that scientists can now target with new therapies.

https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/how-cancers-hurt-themselves-hurt-immune-cells-more

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-researchers-spot-new-peptides-that-could-point-way-to-slaying-cancer/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-03054-1

Gastro sensor gets “breakthrough” designation. (TY Nevet & UWI) Israel’s Exero Medical (reported here previously) has received Breakthrough device designation by the US FDA for its implantable biodegradable wireless sensor designed to continuously monitor for gastrointestinal leaks and healing status after surgery.

https://www.prnewswire.com/il/news-releases/exero-medicals-smart-sensor-granted-fda-breakthrough-designation-301192665.html

Covid-19 vaccine progress. The Israeli-developed BriLife Covid-19 vaccine is moving into Phase 2 trials. Hospitals including Sheba and Hadassah will test the vaccine on 1,000 volunteers including seniors and those with previous conditions. Meanwhile rollout of the Pfizer vaccine began – the Israeli PM first to be vaccinated.

https://unitedwithisrael.org/israeli-corona-vaccine-approved-for-phase-2-trials/

https://www.jpost.com/health-science/israels-vaccine-candidate-set-to-launch-phase-ii-clinical-trial-652110

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/293351 https://youtu.be/SuNJQ85eG6o

One ventilator for 3 patients. Israel’s Yehonatan Medical together with Sheba Medical Center have devised a ventilation system with a high-power output and built-in disinfecting mechanism that can treat between three and five patients simultaneously. It includes AI technology for alerting and adjusting to patient responsiveness.

https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/12/14/israeli-ventilation-system-could-give-covid-the-smart-treatment/

More intelligent Covid-19 treatment. Israel’s Iguazio (reported here previously) is to provide Israel’s Sheba Medical Center with clinical, real-time predictive insights from its AI Data Science Platform to help optimize care for Covid-19 patients. Iguazio’s systems will also help Sheba reduce delays in transporting patients.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3882399,00.html

Doctors arrive to help fight Covid-19. The Israel Experience Doctors’ Program has just brought 50 qualified doctors to Israel to help alleviate the coronavirus crisis. The doctors intend to make Aliya and simultaneously will prepare for Israeli medical licensing. 700 graduates of the program are already working in Israeli hospitals.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/293141

UV wavelength Covid-19 discovery. The ability of UV light to kill Covid-19 is well known. However, Tel Aviv University tests show UV with a wavelength of 285 nanometers kills 99.9% of the virus in 30 seconds – nearly as good as UV at 265nm. 285nm UV LED bulbs are cheaper and more readily available than 265nm.

https://unitedwithisrael.org/israeli-corona-discovery-uv-led-lights-kill-covid-19/

Brain-monitoring app tests for post-Covid symptoms. Israel’s Montfort (reported here previously) has enhanced its AI smartphone app that monitors neurological conditions. After six months of trials in Brazil, it now offers a test protocol for patients who have recovered from Covid-19 but still suffer long-lasting effects.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3881692,00.html https://www.mon4t.com/covid-19/

$30 million for emergency department. Philanthropist Sylvan Adams has donated $30 million to fund a new Emergency Medicine department at Tel Aviv’s Sourasky (Ichilov) Medical Center. A similar amount was allocated by the Israeli government. It will take two years to construct and will be the largest ER in Israel.

https://www.jns.org/sylvan-adams-donates-30-million-for-new-emergency-department-in-tel-aviv/

The Banality of BILL BARR Thomas J. Farnan

https://thenationalpulse.com/commentary/the-banality-of-bill-barr/

In June, Attorney General Bill Barr sat for an interview in CNN’s Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and predicted widespread fraud with mail in voting.

He said: “People trying to change the rules to this, to this methodology – which, as a matter of logic, is very open to fraud and coercion – is reckless and dangerous and people are playing with fire.”

At the time, Barr was the nation’s top law enforcement officer with an obligation to prevent election fraud under a bevy of federal statutes.

What He Could’ve Done.

Maybe an investigation of Silicon Valley billionaires ballot harvesting in black neighborhoods, for starters, and then a warrant for surveillance cameras at counting facilities in Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Atlanta and Detroit, with federal agents on hand to double check the chain of custody of boxes coming through the back door.

Instead, election integrity was preserved with federal investigations to prevent nonexistent seditious activity emanating from dubious white militias. The “reckless and dangerous” mail-in ballot operation the Attorney General warned about was ignored.

Trump’s political rise is because our institutions no longer work for the common good and instead serve the idiosyncratic preferences of the sclerotic establishment. Picking a bombastic outsider is the only way that 75-million Americans know to tell them to cut it out.

MICHIGAN Redacted Information in Dominion Audit Report Shows Races Were Flipped: Analyst by Zachary Stieber

https://www.theepochtimes.com/redacted-information-in-dominion-audit-report-shows-races-were-flipped-analyst_3625228.html?utm_source=news&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2020-12-19-1

The analyst who led the forensic audit of Dominion Voting Systems in Michigan said on Friday the information state officials pushed to redact shows that the outcomes of races were changed.

“The original report had log evidence that we published in the report to show exactly what we did and exactly the findings. Now, those did ultimately get redacted. And so now, the complaint is ‘well, but there’s no real proof and Dominion says ‘no, these things can’t be done,’” Russell Ramsland Jr. said during a virtual appearance on Newsmax’s “Greg Kelly Reports.”

“But at that point, Dominion’s argument is no longer with us. Dominion’s argument is with their own user’s manual and their own logs, because the logs—had they been able to be published—show very clearly that the RCV [ranked-choice voting] algorithm was enacted. It shows very clearly that the error messages were massive. It was very clearly [sic] that races were flipped,” he added.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Ramsland and his team at Allied Security Operations Group earlier this month audited Dominion machines and software in Antrim County, where officials on election night reported a win for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. The officials later said the results were skewed and that President Donald Trump actually received more votes in the county.

The audit was the first conducted post-election of Dominion products. It was part of a court case.

“Anti-Racist” Education Is Neither Frederick M. Hess and J. Grant Addison

https://americanmind.org/memo/anti-racist-education-is-neither/

Well-meaning Americans are being suckered into an illiberal political cabal.

Days before the Fourth of July, the famed KIPP charter schools announced they’d be abandoning their longtime slogan: “Work Hard, Be Nice.” In a statement, KIPP’s leaders said they were dumping the decades-old slogan because “Working hard and being nice is not going to dismantle systemic racism.”

KIPP lamented that the mantra encourages students to be “compliant and submissive” and “supports the illusion of meritocracy.” The missive closed by declaring that the slogan was at odds with KIPP’s goal: “Schools that are actively anti-racist.”

Slogans change from time to time—that in itself is fairly unremarkable. But KIPP’s stated reasoning puzzled many. “I have interviewed hundreds of teachers, students and staffers at KIPP since 2001,” wrote education columnist Jay Matthews at the Washington Post. “This is the first time I have heard any of them criticize the slogan.” Indeed, one might question why a four-word mantra should be burdened with having to “dismantle systemic racism” or how the nation’s largest charter school network decided working hard and being nice were at odds with its educational vision.

The answer lies with KIPP’s stated desire to be “actively anti-racist.” This summer, the tragic legacy of American racism came to the fore. This has created propitious, historic opportunities to confront real societal challenges. Yet “anti-racism,” for all its high-minded claims and surface appeal, proves to be, on close examination, a farrago of reductive dogmatism, coercion, and anti-intellectual zealotry that’s remarkably unconcerned with either improving schooling or ameliorating prejudice.

Jeffrey Toobin and the Media’s Curious Code of Decency By Mark Heimingway

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/12/19/jeffrey_toobin_and_the_medias_curious_code_of_decency_144888.html

Some 3,000 Americans a day are dying of COVID-19, a significant chunk of the country won’t accept November’s election results, and Russian hackers appear to have compromised much of the federal government. Amid this mayhem, the mainstream media found time to address an issue that most Americans haven’t given a second thought: Will Jeffrey Toobin’s career survive?

In case you haven’t heard – or have mercifully forgotten – during an Oct. 15 New Yorker magazine staff meeting held on Zoom, the 60 year-old Toobin “was seen lowering and raising his computer camera, exposing and touching his penis, and motioning an air kiss to someone other than his colleagues,” according to a New York Times report. Dozens of staff members from the venerable magazine were assembled online for an election simulation exercise, which in retrospect sounds like an unfortunate euphemism.

On Nov. 11, Condé Nast, which owns The New Yorker, fired Toobin from a job he’d held for 27 years. Although he’s on self-imposed leave at CNN, he is still employed as its chief legal analyst. “Three CNN employees say that network president, Jeff Zucker, is a big fan of Mr. Toobin’s and a believer in second chances,” reports the Times.

Society’s blithe acceptance of ubiquitous Internet pornography might make an inadvertent indiscretion in front of your home computer seem understandable to many. However, for Toobin this isn’t a first transgression – it’s déjà vu all over again. His smarmy behavior has been public knowledge for a very long time. The Times recounts how in 2003 the married Toobin asked out a colleague. Before they could even go out, he left her an answering machine message explicitly describing in vulgar detail the sex acts he wanted to perform with her.

In 2008, Toobin had an affair with Casey Greenfield, the much-younger daughter of veteran political journalist Jeff Greenfield. When Casey Greenfield became pregnant, Toobin reportedly offered her money to have an abortion. When she refused, he told her he would make her regret the decision. After the child was born, Toobin had to be dragged into court and forced to pay child support.

The never-ending smugness of the NeverTrumpers They knew they were right even when they were wrong Douglas Murray

https://spectator.us/nevertrumpers-betrayal/

In March 2016 as Donald Trump looked likely to be the Republican party’s nominee to run for president, more than 100 foreign policy professionals signed a letter vowing not only that they wouldn’t work for him should he become president but that they would work ‘energetically’ to prevent his election. As the months wore on, the light in which the signatories appeared often shifted. Once Trump became the nominee, and then the President, these representatives of the ‘national security community’ appeared to have demonstrated one of the most damaging things any such group could demonstrate: their own irrelevance.

It turned out that more than a decade and a half into a set of wars that the world’s most advanced military had managed to fight to various draws, the American public did not much want to hear from foreign policy professionals.

Once Trump was actually in office the whole thing appeared in another light. A Republican president was in the White House, but 120 people who would normally have filled the administration of such a president had already signed a document vowing not to work for him. A number of people who would have been crucial in specific roles were overlooked because they had signed this and other similar letters.

Shortly after this vetting was becoming clear, I met with one of those who had convened the biggest NeverTrumper list. In retrospect, I asked, was it wise of him to have invited so many people who could have been of serious service to their country to effectively remove themselves from the running? The convener had no qualms. The Trump team were struggling already — and would struggle for another four years — to fill up many of the key foreign policy positions. But it was worth it. The NeverTrumpers were not cooperating. All they needed to do was to sit back and be seen to be right. Though few did fully sit back. For four years, the NeverTrumpers formed groups and pacs, filed columns and blogs and launched many a derisive tweet. But at least they had not contaminated themselves.

WHO IS STEALING AMERICA?

Riveting and crystal clear. Watch when you have an hour and a half to focus on this excellent presentation.

https://www.youmaker.com/video/60bb93fa-d621-4d44-b9d0-420b9621cb57