NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

New York City Restaurateurs Can No Longer Swallow Subjective, Unscientific COVID Restrictions Cuomo’s leadership style is autocracy, not transparency. By Ruth Papazian

Posted By on October 24th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/10/23/new-york-city-restaurateurs-can-no-longer-swallow-subjective-unscientific-covid-restrictions/

Restaurants, delis, and pubs are the lifeblood of our neighborhoods. They’re places we go to congregate with colleagues, celebrate with family, and catch up on “hyperlocal” news and gossip with neighbors. Much of the character and vibrancy of a neighborhood is found in its eateries.

On April 13, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a Northeast regional plan to reopen the state’s economy in coordination with New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Delaware: “We have reached a plateau in the number of cases and . . . should start looking forward to reopening but with a plan. The art form will be doing it smartly, in a coordinated way, cooperatively and share intelligence.”

Unfortunately, Cuomo long ago ditched the idea of coordinating the full reopening of New York City with nearby states, and the Big Apple lagged months behind other regions in the state—and in the entire Northeast—to allow indoor dining and drinking.

Coincidentally or not, days after a planned class-action suit by more than 450 restaurants in New York City got local media coverage in early September, Cuomo relented—exactly one iota—and announced restaurants in the five boroughs could offer limited indoor seating starting September 30.

Restaurants in Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester and other suburban counties have been allowed to offer indoor seating at half of maximum occupancy since the middle of June, and are subject to significantly laxer mandatory practices.

Il Bacco Ristorante, the lead plaintiff in the class-action suit is located in Little Neck, Queens. Compare the COVID-19 protocols imposed on Il Bacco and Peter Luger Steak House, which is within walking distance in Great Neck, Long Island:

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Studies Show Significant Drop in Mortality Rate Since Beginning of Pandemic By Paula Liu

Posted By on October 24th, 2020

https://www.theepochtimes.com/studies-show-significant-drop-in-mortality-rate-since-beginning-of-pandemic_3550621.html

Two recent studies found that the rate of mortality has been dropping for hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

One of the studies was conducted on hospitalizations in the New York University Langone Health system between March and August. An author of the study, Leora Horwitz, also an associate professor at the Grossman School of Medicine at NYU, said that from the beginning of the pandemic until now, the mortality rate for patients infected with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus has decreased significantly.

The study, which looked at over 5,000 patients inside the Langone Health system, discovered that in the study timeframe, the mortality rate decreased from 25.6 percent in March to 7.6 percent in August—an 18 percent decrease from the start of the pandemic.

According to the data, the median age was seen to have decreased over time, meaning that as time went on, most patients infected with the CCP virus were younger. Although that change seemed to partially explain the decreased mortality rate, it didn’t account for all of it.

“Even after risk adjustment for variety of clinical and demographic factors, including severity of illness at presentation, mortality was significantly and progressively lower over the course of the study period,” the study stated.

Patients of all ages experienced a decreased mortality rate. Among those, patients who were at or over the age of 75 saw the largest decrease, from just under 45 percent in the beginning of March to a under 10 percent in August.

The study also suggests that the decreased mortality may be in part due to a combination of factors such as increased clinical experience, decreased hospital volume, as well as more advanced treatment procedures, something that was seen in another study conducted in the United Kingdom.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

MSNBC Host: Black Lives Matter ‘Never Advocated Violence Against Police’ By Tyler O’Neil

Posted By on October 24th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2020/10/23/msnbc-host-black-lives-matter-never-advocated-violence-against-police-n1081714

During the final debate with Joe Biden on Thursday, President Donald Trump recalled a particularly horrific moment in the Black Lives Matter protests, the chant, “Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon!” After the debate, MSNBC host Joy Reid falsely claimed that the group chanting that slogan was not connected to Black Lives Matter. She also claimed that Black Lives Matter protesters “have never advocated violence against police.”

Reid was lying through her teeth.

“There was an offshoot, separate group of people. Nobody knows who they are, they were never connected to the march,” the MSNBC host said of the “pigs in a blanket” line.

“There is absolutely zero, none, zero evidence that Black Lives Matter has ever pushed for anything violent, pushed for anything violent to happen to police,” Reid insisted. “Black Lives Matter is about one thing: stop killing black people just because you pulled them over for a parking violation or a moving violation. Just stop killing black people.”

“They have never advocated violence against police. For [Trump] to traffic that again tonight was not only desperate… it was also stupid,” she argued.

1. “Pigs in a blanket”

The “pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon” chant traces back to August 2015 when WKBT TV reported that Rashad Turner, founder of Black Lives Matter-St. Paul, defended the chant. Turner did not deny that the chant had taken place nor that it came from individuals disaffiliated with Black Lives Matter.

2. ‘Zero evidence’ of Black Lives Matter violence

Reid also claimed that “there is absolutely zero, none, zero evidence that Black Lives Matter has ever pushed for anything violent, pushed for anything violent to happen to police.”

Yet this past June, Greater New York Black Lives Matter leader Hank Newsome said, “If this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it.”

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Jewish Students at U of I File Complaint With Education Department Over Anti-Semitism by Rick Moran

Posted By on October 24th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2020/10/23/jewish-students-at-u-of-i-file-complaint-with-education-department-over-anti-semitism-n1082348

Jewish students at the University of Illinois-Urbana have filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education over the school’s handling of anti-Semitic harassment on campus. The complaint was filed last March, with a supplemental memorandum submitted in June and a letter in October. It was filed with the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.

Brandeis Center President Alyza Lewin said in a statement, “In the face of continuous stall tactics and almost no action from the university, we decided to publicize our efforts.”

Jewish Journal:

The complaint argued that Jewish and pro-Israel students have been subjected to a hostile campus climate over the past five years from anti-Semitism on both the right and the left. The complaint alleges that while the university has taken some action to address the campus climate, their “efforts have been wholly inadequate. In fact, in some cases, UIUC staff members were complicit in fostering this hostility and discrimination.”

The complaint proceeds to list 23 anti-Semitic incidents that have occurred on campus since 2015. Among the incidents were several instances of swastika graffiti, the UIUC Chabad Center for Jewish Life’s menorah being vandalized four times between 2015-17, and rocks being thrown at the window of a UIUC Jewish fraternity in 2017. In the latter incident, the police said they couldn’t do anything because there weren’t any suspects.

One incident involved the vice-chancellor.

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Administering ‘Truth’ in our Schools By Janet Levy

Posted By on October 24th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/10/administering_truth_in_our_schools.html

In George Orwell’s novel 1984, the Ministry of Truth is responsible for falsifying historical events and advancing government-approved versions of the ‘truth,’ such as ‘2 + 2 = 5’ and ‘War is peace.’ The ministry, the propaganda wing of the government of Oceania, one of the fictional superstates in the novel, uses ‘doublethink’ and ‘newspeak’ to obscure, distort or even reverse the meaning of words.

That was a fictional dystopia. But a few current examples will leave no doubt that the Orwellian manufacture of ‘truth’ is very much a salient feature of the American educational system.

Last week, the Palm Beach County School Board, FL,  voted four to three to reinstate William Latson, a former principal of the Spanish River Community High School, Boca Raton, who had emailed a parent: “I can’t say the Holocaust is a factual, historical event because I am not in a position to do so as a school district employee.” His dismissal of  the most well-documented genocide in history, and in a school with the largest Jewish student population in the country at that, caused shockwaves and resulted in his suspension.

In 1994, the Florida Legislature passed the Holocaust Education Bill (SB 660), mandating  lessons of the Holocaust to be part of the public-school curriculum. It said the Holocaust must be taught as “a uniquely important event in modern history, emphasizing the systemic and state-sponsored violence, which distinguish it from other genocides.”

Despite this, Latson was selective in teaching Holocaust material, saying, “I work to expose students to certain things, but not all parents want their students exposed, so they will not be and I can’t force that issue.” This was beyond belief for many in the community: the principal was implying not only that whether the Holocaust happened was open to interpretation, but also that the study of the topic was optional.

ELECTIONS, FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

The US: An Inspirational Leader in the Middle East by Con Coughlin

Posted By on October 24th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16679/us-leader-middle-east

By taking a robust approach to some of the region’s more intractable issues… such as relocating the American embassy to Jerusalem, the US has produced a number of profound changes to the regional landscape, the consequences of which are likely to be felt for many years to come.

The breakthrough in the peace process, moreover, has resulted in the region being clearly divided between moderate, peace-loving countries that are prepared to engage in the peace process, and rejectionist regimes, such as Turkey and Iran, that are only interested in causing further bloodshed.

It is these countries, as well as China, Russia, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela that have most to fear in next month’s presidential election if a strong and successful America returns again.

When it comes to confronting the many challenges that face the modern Middle East, the United States has proved itself to be truly inspirational at leading during the last four years.

From achieving a remarkable breakthrough in the Israeli-Arab peace process to curbing the malign activities of Iran’s Islamic revolution in the region, the US has already succeeded in establishing a legacy that is the envy of many of its previous administrations.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Beijing’s Covid Recovery Isn’t So Enviable China touts GDP growth but faces a hard call: rest on a fragile economy or try for a difficult transition? By Joseph Sternberg

Posted By on October 24th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/beijings-covid-recovery-isnt-so-enviable-11603393097?mod=opinion_featst_pos2

Few myths are proving so durable in our pandemic age as the notion that China has somehow cracked the coronavirus code. It hasn’t.

The argument proceeds in two steps. The first is to assert that Beijing’s authoritarian approach to mass lockdowns, followed by intrusive testing and tracing, defeated the virus in a way almost no democratic government has managed. This might be true, but it is also meaningless. It does little good to argue in favor of Chinese methods to control a pandemic when a democratic society would by definition find that authoritarianism a cost not worth paying.

More interesting is the second prong of the Beijing-beats-the-world myth: the economy.

We’re supposed to believe that China’s success in suppressing the virus has facilitated a phenomenal economic recovery—and, by extension, that our economies would be growing again too if only we had batted down Covid-19 as efficiently. The claim was bolstered this week by more good news from Beijing’s statistics gnomes, who reported gross domestic product increased by 4.9% in the third quarter compared with the same quarter last year. China is set to be the only major economy that manages to grow this year.

This might even be true. Chinese economic data are notoriously, oh, what’s the word I’m looking for . . . fake. Headline GDP numbers tell you less about the real state of the economy and more about the Communist Party’s political preoccupations and goals. Still, there is substantial evidence that the Chinese economy is growing to some extent. Important and harder-to-fudge measures such as industrial production and retail sales have improved in recent months.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Arab-Israeli Peace Cascade Sudan becomes the latest Arab nation to normalize relations.

Posted By on October 24th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-arab-israeli-peace-cascade-11603494933?mod=opinion_lead_pos4

Middle East failures contributed to Republican defeats in 2008 and Democratic defeats in 2016. If Donald Trump loses in 2020, it will be for different reasons. The U.S.-brokered deals normalizing relations between Israel and Arab states are a highlight of his Presidency, and on Friday the White House announced Sudan would join the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in ending its diplomatic boycott of the Jewish state.

These moves have been utterly confounding to Obama Administration alumni. They were certain that a pro-Israel foreign policy would inflame the Arab world, and that Mideast progress depended on accommodating the regime in Iran. In fact, Israel is the region’s chief source of stability and Iran its main source of terror and mayhem, and the Trump Administration treated them accordingly.

It has paid off. The first peace announcement came in August between Israel and the UAE, which had been working together covertly to beat back Iranian influence in the Persian Gulf. Next came Bahrain, another Sunni Gulf monarchy threatened by Shiite Iran.

The agreement by Sudan, a North African country of more than 40 million, to normalize Israel ties shows that the peace cascade goes beyond the Persian Gulf and could extend across the Arab world. Sudan’s leadership has been moderating, and the Trump Administration recently negotiated a tentative agreement for Sudan to compensate victims of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Epidemiologists Stray From the Covid Herd Great Barrington Declaration co-authors Martin Kuldorff and Jay Bhattacharya on the costs of lockdown, the science of immunity, and the politicization of the coronavirus pandemic. By Tunku Varadarajan

Posted By on October 24th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/epidemiologists-stray-from-the-covid-herd-11603477330?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

The Covid rebels make an unlikely pair. Jay Bhattacharya was born in Kolkata, an Indian city that pulsates with people. Martin Kulldorff is from Umeå, Sweden, population 90,000. Yet they have much in common. “I almost view Martin like a brother,” says the talkative Dr. Bhattacharya, 52, who moved to the U.S. with his Bengali parents when he was 4. “I mean, we complete each other’s sentences, as you can see.” The feeling is “mutual,” confirms the more phlegmatic Mr. Kulldorff, 58.

Dr. Bhattacharya, a physician and economist, and Mr. Kulldorf, a biostatistician—who study epidemiology at the medical schools at Stanford and Harvard, respectively—are, in the eyes of their critics, dangerous contrarians for opposing Covid-19 lockdowns. Some of the criticism borders on hysteria: A colleague accused Mr. Kulldorff of practicing “Trumpian epidemiology” after he gave an interview to the far-left Jacobin magazine in which he called for a “radically different” approach to pandemic management.

Most pertinently, the two men are the authors—with Sunetra Gupta, a professor of epidemiology at Oxford—of the Great Barrington Declaration. Published on Oct. 4, the declaration is a cri de coeur against lockdowns and other economic restrictions that have hobbled swaths of the world. It asked instead for “focused protection”—a policy of allowing “those at minimal risk of death” to resume their lives while societies concentrate on “better protecting those who are at highest risk.”

I interview the two men jointly by Zoom—Dr. Bhattacharya in California, Mr. Kulldorff in Massachusetts. The former speaks of a “systematic media campaign” against the declaration. He says Google “shadow banned” the text in the days after it was published. “If you typed in ‘Great Barrington Declaration,’ what would happen is that the actual website would appear on the second or third page, buried under a whole long list of negative stories.” (The matter has since been resolved, he says.)

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Mr. Biden Will ‘Transition’ You Now He won’t ban fracking. He’ll merely strangle it with regulation.

Posted By on October 24th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/mr-biden-will-transition-you-now-11603495321?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

Joe Biden committed the gaffe of telling the truth about his climate policies Thursday night when he said he wants to “transition” the U.S. from fossil fuels. The Democratic nominee is admitting that he plans to regulate the oil and gas business out of existence, and Americans soon to be “transitioned” may want to pay attention.

“Would you close down the oil industry?” asked President Trump during the debate.

Mr. Biden: “By the way, I would transition from the oil industry, yes.”

Mr. Trump: “Oh, that’s a big statement.”

Mr. Biden: “I will transition. It is a big statement. Because I would stop.”

Moderator Kristen Welker: “Why would you do that?”

Mr. Biden: “Because the oil industry pollutes, significantly.”

The Biden campaign knew their man made a political mistake because after the debate he tried to backtrack by saying he had merely meant that he’d eliminate subsidies for oil and gas. He also insisted he won’t ban shale drilling, known as fracking, though in the primaries he had said he would.

But Mr. Biden was telling the truth during the debate, and his policy proposals clearly show he plans to strangle oil and gas. Behold the transition strategy.