NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION, POLITICS Comments turned off

Why Joe Biden can do no wrong By Jonathan Turley,

Posted By on May 25th, 2020

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/499283-why-joe-biden-can-do-no-wrong

One columnist declared that former Vice President Joe Biden could boil babies and she would still vote for him. Feminist leaders have said they believe Biden raped a Senate staffer but they still endorse him. Good government advocates have opposed any investigation into prior sexual harassment or corruption claims against Biden. It seems politicians and pundits alike have discovered the glory of the “presidential bull.” In this instance, Biden is akin to a papal indulgence that allows writers, members of Congress and journalists to forgive any sin in a holy crusade to retake Washington.

In the 11th century, Pope Urban II formalized the use of indulgences, which could be purchased to forgive sins. A papal bull of the Crusade accompanied those who fought in the Holy Land and committed atrocities in the name of a higher order. The practice was defended as essentially drawing from the “treasury of merit” created by Jesus Christ, the saints and the faithful.

Now the 2020 election has become the ultimate crusade, and President Trump’s critics seem to be enjoying indulgences in tossing aside moral and ethical considerations. The freedom that is Biden is nowhere more evident than in a recent column by The Nation’s Katha Pollitt, who wrote about the allegations of sexual assault made by former Biden staffer Tara Reade. Pollitt dispensed with any struggle over feminist or moral qualms, declaring, “I would vote for Joe Biden if he boiled babies and ate them.”

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Wake-up Call to Myself Jan Mel Poller

Posted By on May 25th, 2020

I woke up this morning and asked myself, “what am I doing arguing about Hydroxychloroquine?”   I had been having a never-ending discussion about HCQ.  Neither of us were influenced by the other.

HCQ is a medical-scientific question.  It either works all of the time, some of the time or none of the time.  It is either dangerous all of the time, some of the time or none of the time.  I cannot have any effect on the question 0f HCQ.  I was able to have an effect on getting the Neo-Nazis and KKKers off AOL.  I was able to have an effect on destroying the Jew-Hating forum of MoveOn.org.  I will turn my efforts to more productive things.

It occurred to me that this widespread battle started because President Trump made a favorable comment about HCQ early in the epidemic.  Trump-Haters cannot stand anything that Trump shows any indication of supporting.  They do not have this reaction to any other medicine in the world and they all have the same question and they all have possible side effects.

An American I know who is living in Paris, France tells me that Americans are not well informed, unsophisticated and believe in propaganda from one source.  While Fox is not specifically mentioned it is alluded to.  After all, all the other prime media, like CNN, are always against Trump.   Never mind that I am not influenced by the news readers but by videos, audios and writings of original participants in interviews and events, people like politicians.  I am also influenced by investigative reporters who have consistently been proven right, by documents obtained under freedom of information requests (FOIA), and by lawyers telling us what the laws are.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Europe Is Firmly Committed To Economic Suicide Francis Menton

Posted By on May 25th, 2020

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2020-5-23-europe-is-firmly-committed-to-economic-suicide

In various posts over the years, I have argued that the long-term economic prospects for the likes of China and Russia are not very good. Among other reasons, the dictator-for-life governance model leads to inherent instability that undermines incentives for investment and growth. And then there’s the inevitability of state-directed capital allocation leading to massive investment in boondoggle projects that fail spectacularly. See as a couple of examples, from March 2018, “Is It Possible For A Dictatorship To Be A Top World Power?”, or, from July 2015, “In Case You Thought The Chinese Knew What They Were Doing.”

Therefore, Europe should have a huge leg up on these successors to Stalin and Mao. After all, the European countries basically have market economies, although overlain with bloated and unaccountable regulatory bureaucracies. They have a solid base of creative entrepreneurship. Really, how badly could they go wrong?

But the big problem for Europe is that most of their governments are firmly committed to economic suicide. This is particularly true for the countries with the largest economies, Germany and France. Among data points from just this week, here are a few:

From Deutsche Welle, we learn (May 20) that the European Commission is circulating a draft plan for massive support of the auto industry — 100 billion euros or more — that has been very hard hit by the virus crisis (sales down as much as 97% in April). However, the Commission intends to use the money to subsidize, in its words, “clean” modes of transport:  “[T]he paper proposes that €40 to €60 billion of the package come in the form of investments dedicated to “clean cars” such as electric vehicles, and other new technologies that do not rely on fossil fuels. The Commission is also seeking to have 2 million public charging ports across the EU by 2025. However, the plan does not touch on the fact that there is still massive debate on how clean small occupancy private vehicles can really be, electric or not.” The rest of the industry will be out of luck.

EDUCATION, HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Professors around America have been caught selling secret research to the Chinese Communist Regime. The national media won’t cover it, so here’s a list of who have been caught so far.

Posted By on May 25th, 2020

www.investmentwatchblog.com/professors-around-america-have-been-caught-selling-secret-research-to-the-chinese-communist-regime-the-national-media-wont-cover-it-so-heres-a-list-of-who-have-been-caught-so-far/

This UCLA professor was caught selling Air Force/Navy missile secrets to the Chinese. He’s facing 219 years in prison.

The head of the Chemistry Dept. at Harvard was caught secretly taking $1.5 million from the Chinese to set up a medical research lab in…WUHAN. In addition, he was paid up to $50,000 a month for other research he smuggled to the Chinese.

This professor from the University of Kansas had 2 research contracts with the Department of Energy. Turns out he was secretly working for the Chinese and smuggling research to them all along. He now faces 50 years in prison.

This is Zaosong Zheng. He was caught trying to smuggle 21 vials of cancer research from a Harvard medical lab to the Chinese goverment. He now faces 30+ years in prison.

This Professor from the world renowned Cleveland Clinic was secretly giving information to the Chinese while receiving $3.6 million in tax-payer funding for his “research”.

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB Comments turned off

600 Physicians Say Lockdowns Are A ‘Mass Casualty Incident’ Grace Marie Turne

Posted By on May 25th, 2020

www.forbes.com/sites/gracemarieturner/2020/05/22/600-physicians-say-lockdowns-are-a-mass-casualty-incident/#674c299a50fa

More than 600 of the nation’s physicians sent a letter to President Trump this week calling the coronavirus shutdowns a “mass casualty incident” with “exponentially growing negative health consequences” to millions of non COVID patients.

“The downstream health effects…are being massively under-estimated and under-reported. This is an order of magnitude error,” according to the letter initiated by Simone Gold, M.D., an emergency medicine specialist in Los Angeles.

“Suicide hotline phone calls have increased 600%,” the letter said. Other silent casualties:  “150,000 Americans per month who would have had new cancer detected through routine screening.”

From missed cancer diagnoses to untreated heart attacks and strokes to increased risks of suicides, “We are alarmed at what appears to be a lack of consideration for the future health of our patients.” 

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB Comments turned off

Why Didn’t the 1958 and 1918 Pandemics Destroy the Economy? – HINT: It’s the Lockdowns Ryan McMacken,

Posted By on May 25th, 2020

https://mises.org/wire/why-didnt-1958-and-1918-pandemics-destroy-economy-hint-its-lockdowns

Media pundits and politicians are now in the habit of claiming it was the pandemic itself that has caused unemployment to skyrocket and economic growth to plummet. The claim is that sick and dying workers, fearful consumers, and disrupted supply chains would cause economic chaos. Some have even claimed that economic shutdowns actually help the economy, because it is claimed allowing the spread of the disease will itself destroy employment and economic growth.

Leaving aside the fact there’s no evidence lockdowns actually work, we can nonetheless look to past pandemics—where coercive government interventions were at most sporadic—we should see immense economic damage.  Specifically, we can look to the the pandemic of 1957-58, which was more deadly than the COVID-19 pandemic has been so far. We can also look to the 1918-19 pandemic. Yet, we will see that neither produced economic damage on a scale we now see as a result of the government mandated lockdowns. This thoroughly undermines the claims that the lockdowns are only a minor factor in economic destruction, and that the virus itself is the real culprit.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Following Up on Fauciism A useful shorthand term for “expert-induced panic,” much in the way “McCarthyism” is shorthand for “anti-Communist hysteria.” By Robert Curry

Posted By on May 24th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/05/23/following-up-on-fauciism/

In an earlier article, I introduced the term “Fauciism.” But there is quite a bit more to the story, more than I could get into a single short essay. 

I happened to catch Anthony Fauci’s first appearance in front of the cameras with President Trump at the beginning of the Wuhan virus panic. Before Fauci spoke, I turned to my wife and said, “We are in big trouble now.” 

I remembered Fauci from a previous time. Back in the 1980s, Fauci was responsible for a different nationwide panic that turned out to be based on predictions that were  proven false by subsequent events.

I was alarmed and saddened to see Fauci on the dais with the president. Alarmed because of my concern that he was about to set off another panic; saddened that he had not been fired from his government sinecure on account of his earlier bumbling efforts.

In the early 1980s, Americans were told that everyone was at risk of getting AIDS. Fantastic numbers were bandied about. The claim was that millions of ordinary Americans were at risk. Oprah Winfrey had at least one show dedicated to perpetuating that belief. I remember the panic her show caused. When Oprah embraced that frightening vision of what was coming to America, it became a fact beyond dispute in the minds of many.

Many Americans who were swept up in this belief about AIDS have forgotten that panic, no doubt because we now know better. Events canceled that belief about AIDS, and it largely has been forgotten. I remember because I had to tell many, many panicked people that it was not true, and explain to them why it was not true. 

I knew then it was not true based on information that was readily available and fairly easy to obtain. I believed then and I believe now the man behind the panic also knew it was not true, though of course I might be mistaken about that.

That man was Anthony Fauci. 

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Rage and Recriminations in the Wake of COVID-19 For the past two months, the country has been on a moral bender, intoxicated by fear and panic. As with most benders, the aftermath will be painful. By Roger Kimball *****

Posted By on May 24th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/05/23/rage-and-recriminations-in-the-wake-of-covid-19/

In the middle of my tiny neighborhood on the Connecticut shore, there is a nobbly, plinth-like stone about 2 feet high surrounded by a circle of grass and some simple decorative stonework. On one side of the stone there is a brass plaque to “the eternal memory” of the 26 men from the neighborhood who fought in World War I, “the great conflict between liberty and autocracy.” On the other side, a plaque commemorates the 17 men who fought in World War II “that mankind might live in freedom.”

Every year for the more than two decades we’ve lived here, the neighborhood has marked Memorial Day with a little celebration: some children parade, place flowers by the stone, someone makes a few remarks at the clubhouse across the street. This year, there’s been no talk of getting together for a Memorial Day celebration because getting together is verboten. Our ancestors fought for liberty against the forces of autocracy, “that mankind might live in freedom.” We cower in our homes, constantly told to “practice social distancing,” and not to venture out of doors without a mask. 

In a recent neighborhood survey, 86 percent of the respondents (but not your faithful correspondent) were in favor of people keeping “a minimum 6-foot distance” from one another (my emphasis), 60 percent were in favor of “limiting large group gatherings on common properties.” 

One respondent noted that she (I feel sure it was a “she,” though the posted responses were anonymous) would be “happy to wear a mask in the neighborhood” but wanted “guidelines.” For example, “should I wear one in my front yard?” I would say yes, she should. “What about when running?” Definitely when running. Also when showering or eating. 

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

THE SHRINKING PRESIDENT …QUOTES FROM MACRON FEBRUARY 2020

Posted By on May 24th, 2020

‘Islamist separatism is incompatible with freedom and equality, incompatible with the indivisibility of the republic and the necessary unity of the nation.’

“In the republic, it is not acceptable to refuse to shake hands with a woman because she is a woman. In the republic, we cannot accept that someone refuses to be cared for or educated by someone because she is a woman. In the republic, it is not acceptable to drop out of school for reasons of religion or belief. In the republic, one cannot demand virginity certificates to get married. In the republic, we must never accept that the laws of religion can be superior to the laws of the Republic. . . .

And now that I have said all this, this isn’t a question of stigmatizing any religion. And what we have to do is not, as I have sometimes heard from some people, a program against Islam. That would be a profound mistake. There are millions of fellow citizens, French citizens, who . . . believe in Islam and who live according to the laws of the republic and who want to live as French citizens. What we must fight is the separatism I have just mentioned and all the practices I have just mentioned with great calm, with great determination, with great respect. . . . The risk is that the whole society will say “the problem is our Muslim fellow citizens,” which would be a huge mistake. But this Islamist separatism is incompatible with freedom and equality, incompatible with the indivisibility of the republic and the necessary unity of the nation.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

“Epidemic Prevention” Chinese Communist Party Style: Persecute Religious Minorities by Judith Bergman

Posted By on May 24th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16051/china-religion-persecution

One member of [The Church of Almighty God], who had been released, said that the police had “threatened to send her to the coronavirus epicenter in Hubei Province to be infected if she continued practicing her faith.” — From Bitter Winter, May 6, 2020.

Members of CAG are imprisoned in education camps alongside Uyghurs and other Muslims, Christians and Falun Gong practitioners. One CAG member said that the Xinjiang camp she was sent to had 400 inmates, mostly Uyghurs, Christians and Falun Gong members. She was beaten, nearly raped and subjected to all sorts of torture as part of the indoctrination effort. — From Bitter Winter, March 18, 2020.

When the elderly man in charge of the church asked why the government had destroyed it, the police viciously beat him. In April, authorities demolished a Three-Self church in Xining for being “illegal”. Throughout the coronavirus outbreak, the Chinese regime continued to remove crosses from Three-Self churches in Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong, and other provinces. — From Bitter Winter, April 11 and 23, 2020.

“Independent experts estimate that between 900,000 and 1.8 million Uighur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and other Muslims have been detained in more than 1,300 concentration camps in Xinjiang.” — United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCRIF), April 28, 2020.

“Meanwhile, authorities in Xinjiang and other parts of China have destroyed or damaged thousands of mosques and removed Arabic-language signs from Muslim businesses.” — United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, April 28, 2020.

“Human rights advocates and scientists presented evidence that the practice of harvesting organs from prisoners—many of whom are believed to be Falun Gong practitioners— continued on a significant scale.” — United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, April 28, 2020.

Since early 2020, China has been doubling down on its already extreme suppression of religious freedom, and the Covid-19 outbreak has done nothing to curb the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) enthusiasm. If anything, the virus outbreak has served as an excuse to crack down even more on freedom of religion.

In February, for instance, officials came to inspect whether a church in Henan province was implementing lockdown instructions, but, according to one church member interviewed by Bitter Winter, “seeing some bible verses written on a blackboard they said, ‘China is the land of the Communist Party, and we are not allowed to hold religious beliefs'”. The officials then “smashed everything in the venue and left, locking the door…”