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Germany’s New Coronavirus Thinking Berlin tolerates more Covid-19 spread for the sake of reopening its economy.

Posted By on May 15th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/germanys-new-coronavirus-thinking-11589498695?mod=opinion_lead_pos4

A strange thing happened in Germany this week: Covid-19 started spreading a bit faster and officials and the public managed to cope. It’s an important benchmark for other governments as they allow their own economies to emerge from viral hibernation.

Scientists at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the German government’s epidemiological advisory service, calculate that the coronavirus resumed its spread through the population as the country’s lockdown started easing in late April. The reproduction rate, or R0, was above 1 for several days this week, and as high as 1.1 last weekend. That means that each person infected with the virus transmits it on average to 1.1 other people—exponential growth.

This is as much a political event as a medical one. It seems inevitable that the coronavirus will spread as rapidly as any respiratory virus as lockdowns ease. But Chancellor Angela Merkel made a transmission rate of less than 1 a central plank of her reopening plan.

In an April press conference, Mrs. Merkel instructed Germans on precisely how overwhelmed hospitals would become at each level of R0 above 1. The RKI estimated the transmission rate at around 0.8 before Mrs. Merkel started easing the lockdown. Germans were warned that restrictions might return if the disease resumed its spread.

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Judge Sullivan vs. Justice Ginsburg By inviting outside help, the Flynn jurist is acting ‘beyond the pale.’

Posted By on May 15th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/judge-sullivan-vs-justice-ginsburg-11589498942?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

“Justice Ginsburg’s argument is that the job of judges is to judge, not to substitute for prosecutors.”

In his zeal to convict Michael Flynn of something, federal Judge Emmet Sullivan is harming his own reputation. He’s also violating the law, as he’d know if he had read Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s opinion last week overturning the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

On Wednesday Judge Sullivan appointed an ex-judge to explore whether former Mr. Flynn should be held in criminal contempt for perjury even though prosecutors have sought to drop the charges against the former national security adviser. The relevant case is U.S. v. Sineneng-Smith, in which the Supreme Court reversed a Ninth Circuit ruling striking down a criminal statute involving immigration as unconstitutionally overbroad. The case was overturned because instead of adjudicating the issues raised by the parties, the Ninth Circuit panel invited outside groups to brief them about a defense the defendant never raised.

This is akin to what Judge Sullivan is trying to do with Mr. Flynn by asking outside parties to make new arguments for prosecution—and even appointing former judge John Gleeson, who has shown clear public bias (in an op-ed) against Mr. Flynn, to make the case. Judge Sullivan’s abuse is more egregious given that the real prosecutors now say they don’t believe they can honestly prosecute Mr. Flynn.

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A portrait of viral antisemitism Right from Wrong: Though COVID-19 may be novel, there is nothing new about blaming the People of the Book for the world’s ills. Ruthie Bum

Posted By on May 15th, 2020

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/right-from-wrong-a-portrait-of-viral-antisemitism-628125

Nothing serves as a better Petri dish for the incubation of antisemitism than a global health crisis that causes economies to crash. It is no wonder, then, that the coronavirus pandemic has been an inspiration to Jew-haters and Israel-bashers of all strains.

Though COVID-19 may be novel, there is nothing new about blaming the People of the Book for the world’s ills. On the contrary, the phenomenon is as old and entrenched as the common cold.

But while quarantines were being imposed to “flatten the curve,” they simultaneously sparked an outbreak of antisemitic conspiracy theories about the ostensibly Jewish origin and spread of the infectious disease. Lockdowns also led to a burst of creative energy on the part of holed-up cartoonists whose work would have made the Third Reich proud.

Unlike the Nazi propaganda machine, however, today’s caricaturists have the weapon of social media at their disposal – one that has proven immune to vows by Facebook and Twitter to confront with “community standards” algorithms.

Yes, curbing anti-Jewish expression on the Internet by suspending individual posts is about as realistic a proposition as curing corona by donning a surgical mask – especially with the massive amount of web traffic that home isolation has wrought.

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Lessons for Liberators   by Tabitha Korol

Posted By on May 15th, 2020

“A Little Piece of Ground,” by Elizabeth Laird, is a propagandist book available to all children in many libraries across the country.  It concerns 12-year-old Karim who lives in Ramallah, historically an Arab Christian town, now a Palestinian city in central West Bank (Judea and Samaria), 10 km north of Jerusalem, Israel.  He hears of nothing but violence and aspires to be the Liberator of Palestine.

Karim resides with his parents and three siblings on the fifth floor of an apartment building.  He hates living under the occupation, yet no one has told him that the Israelis ceased its occupation three years before he was born.  He knows that a Palestinian gunman shot two people in an Israeli café two weeks ago and, as a consequence, the next building was demolished.  His building is on lockdown, guarded by an Israeli tank to ensure that no one may enter or leave until further notice.  The residents may not go to work or shop for food, and his school was levelled, the computers confiscated.  

                        

More recently, a Palestinian gunman opened fire in Jerusalem, gravely injuring five adults and three children.  Three days later, new curfew hours were announced for his area, allowing two hours for shopping and errands.   That evolved into free daytime hours, but confinement continues from evening through dawn.  Now his father may tend his store and inventory, his mother may take the baby to the doctor, and Karim and Joni meet a new friend, Hopper, with whom to play soccer – until dusk. 

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Chuck Brooks on Protecting Data and Artificial Intelligence

Posted By on May 15th, 2020

 “Three Steps for Protecting Data in the Public and Private Sectors” Link: https://www.govconwire.com/2020/05/govcon-expert-chuck-brooks-three-steps-for-protecting-data-in-the-public-and-private-sectors/

My interview on Artificial Intelligence: The Word is “Altruism” Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) Inception Episode 3:

Link:

https://lnkd.in/e_AxWGb

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“Humanitarian Hoax” Author Linda Goudsmit Interviewed by Sharon Rondeau

Posted By on May 15th, 2020

https://www.thepostemail.com/2020/05/05/the-post-email-interviews-humanitarian-hoax-author-linda-goudsmit/

“WHO BENEFITS?” by Sharon Rondeau
Last week, The Post & Email had the pleasure of interviewing Linda Goudsmit, the author of a sizable series published on her blog over nearly three years.  Recently Goudsmit compiled all 50 articles into a book titled, The Book of Humanitarian Hoaxes:  Killing America with ‘Kindness’.

Goudsmit told us that her series arose from her conclusion that there is “a monstrous power-grab” aimed at consolidating authority under the United Nations to enable “one-world government.”

Contemplating her launch of the articles, which total 50, Goudsmit told us, “To me, it’s so interesting.  I’m 72 years old; I never, ever dreamed that in my retirement, I would become a political analyst.  I was an English major in college, and reading and analyzing books was my life.  I have four children, the oldest born in 1973 and the youngest in 1979, the year President Carter established the U.S. Department of Education.  I noticed the change in education when my youngest child was in elementary school in the 80s.  It was called ‘cooperative learning.’  Instead of individual learning, students learned in groups and the schools started introducing pro-collectivist materials into the educational curriculum.”

Fast-forward to today, Goudsmit observed, “It’s frightening.  Now we’re in the third generation of students indoctrinated toward collectivism and one-world government. I didn’t understand then what I was looking at, but what I understood was that when I was young, there were social pressures.  At that time, you grew up; you became a solid citizen, you pledged allegiance to the United States of America. People had differences of opinion but we loved the country; we were taught to love the country.”

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Brennan and Co. Targeted Flynn In Part Because He Knew About Billions They Were Running Off The Books Sara Lee,

Posted By on May 14th, 2020

http://stupidfrogs.org/article/brennan_and_co_targeted_flynn_in_part_because_he_knew_about_billions_they_were_running_off_the_books.html

Word broke nationally Tuesday that former Obama-era CIA Director John Brennan had suppressed evidence that Vladimir Putin was more interested in a Hillary Clinton win in 2016 than a Donald Trump win. My colleague Nick Arama covered the rumblings of that story in late April.

Brennan, in fact, seems to the be the big fish under U.S. Attorney John Durham’s microscope, but not just because of the latest news about suppressing Putin’s preferences. Sidney Powell, the formidable attorney responsible for helping Ret. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn successfully battle the drummed-up charges against him, has very specifically said Brennan has his fingerprints all over the smearing of her client because Flynn had a keen interest in auditing the intelligence community and ferreting out corruption.

But it’s the corruption itself that’s stunning. In early April, Powell told the Vicki McKenna Show that the disgraced intel leader and others in the intelligence community were targeting Flynn over billions of taxpayer dollars that he knew were not being properly accounted for.

“Powell, who took over Flynn’s defense last summer, told the Vicki McKenna Show on 1310 WIBA Madison on Tuesday that her client was ‘totally set up’ because he threatened to expose wrongdoing by top intelligence officials in the Obama administration,” the Washington Examiner reported Wednesday.

“He was going to audit the intel agencies because he knew about the billions [former Obama era CIA Director John] Brennan and company were running off books,” she said.

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Judge Sullivan Ignores Shocking Record of False Guilty Pleas

Posted By on May 14th, 2020

https://www.nysun.com/editorials/judge-sullivan-ignores-shocking-record-of-false/91

We may be slow, we often say, but then again, too, we didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. So in respect of Judge Emmet Sullivan’s outrage over General Michael Flynn’s desire to withdraw his guilty plea, let us just say our eyes are dry. The judge has gone so far as to appoint an ex-judge to recommend whether to charge the general for lying when he pled guilty. As if such pleading guilty to a crime one didn’t commit is all that unusual.

The fact is that it’s by no means rare for persons to plead guilty to crimes they didn’t commit. Some are scared. Others confused. Some lack the intestinal fortitude or financial wherewithal to stand up against the warnings or threats from the prosecutors. What’s so unusual in the Flynn case is that the Democrats and liberals are siding against the poor schlepper caught in the prosecutorial vice.

It turns out that one serious liberal institution, the Innocence Project, maintains a whole Website devoted to persons who plead guilty to crimes they didn’t commit. It’s called GuiltyPleaProblem.com. The first click on it brings up a headline asking the question, “Why do innocent people plead guilty to crimes they didn’t commit?” The Website offers illuminating background to the problem.

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Judge Sullivan: A Prosecutor in Robes by Alan M. Dershowitz

Posted By on May 14th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16025/judge-emmet-sullivan

In the Flynn case, the prosecution and defense both agree that the case should be dropped. Because there is no longer any controversy between the parties to be resolved, there is no longer any case properly before the judge. His only job is to enter an order vacating the guilty plea and dismissing the case with prejudice.

Under our constitutional system of separation of powers, the new prosecutor has no standing…. the separation of powers…. allocates the power to prosecute to the executive not judicial branch.

It makes no constitutional difference that Flynn pleaded guilty — even if his plea was voluntary, which is questionable in light of the threats against his son.

The Justice Department has the constitutional authority to dismiss a prosecution that it has brought at any time and for any reason, without being second-guessed by the judicial branch.

[Sullivan] is endangering our system of separation of powers and he should be stopped by a writ of mandamus or a motion to recuse. Judges, too, are not above the law or the Constitution.

Judge Emmet Sullivan’s decision to appoint a retired federal judge to argue against the Justice Department’s entirely proper decision to end the criminal prosecution of General Michael Flynn is designed to circumvent the constitutional limitation on the jurisdiction of federal judges. The Constitution limits this jurisdiction to actual cases and controversies. There must be disagreement between the parties that requires resolution by a judge. If the parties agree, there is nothing for the judge to decide.

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Losing Our Fears, in War and Plague By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on May 14th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/05/coronavirus-pandemic-us-economy-lessons-from-world-war-2/ 

Does World War II offer any lessons regarding our wrecked economy and staggering unemployment from the lockdown reaction to the coronavirus?

Seventy-five years ago this month, Germany surrendered, ending the European theater of World War II. At the war’s beginning, no one believed Germany would utterly collapse in May 1945.

On the morning of December 7, 1941, the day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, German invaders were on the verge of capturing Moscow. Britain was isolated. London had barely survived a terrible German bombing during the Blitz.

A sleeping America was neutral, but it was beginning to realize it was weak and mostly unarmed in a scary world.

But by 1943, a booming U.S. economy was fielding vast military forces from Alaska to the Sahara. Britain and America were bombing the German heartland. The Soviet Red Army had trapped and destroyed a million-man German army at Stalingrad.

How did the Allies — Britain, the Soviet Union, and the U.S. — turn around the European war so quickly?

The huge Red Army would suffer close to 11 million deaths in halting German offensives. Britain would never give up despite terrible losses at home and at sea from German bombers, rockets, and submarines.

Yet the key to victory was the U.S. economy. It would eventually outproduce all the major economies on both sides of the war combined.