MEDIA Comments turned off

Fauci strongly rebuts media efforts to paint him as a Trump hostage By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on April 14th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/04/fauci_strongly_rebuts_media_efforts_to_paint_him_as_a_trump_hostage.html

Monday’s COVID-19 press conference will be memorable because President Trump used it to slap back at the media’s attempt to rewrite his timely and aggressive response to COVID-19, even as media types were on the airwaves saying it was nothing more than a flu. What shouldn’t get lost about that same press conference is how Dr. Fauci responded to a reporter who tried to get him, not just to blame Trump, but to act as a hostage to or puppet of the administration.

The press conference that ended up shooting off so many fireworks began innocuously enough. Trump walked out and offered “condolences and best wishes” to those in the South who had experienced severe and deadly weather. Then, he stated that the number of new infections is flat and that hospitalizations are slowing in hot spots, something that is especially good in light of the apocalyptic nature of the expert predictions.

Trump next invited Dr. Fauci to step to the podium. Fauci cheerfully said that, while last week was bad, it seems as if this week we may be on the other side of the bell curve. He was also enthusiastic about his discussion with the Congressional Black  Caucus, and ways to help minority communities.

MEDIA Comments turned off

A CBS reporter screeches at Trump – but she’s wrong about her facts By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on April 14th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/04/a_cbs_reporter_screeches_at_trump__but_shes_wrong_about_her_facts.html

“Anti-Trumpers, of course, didn’t care about the facts nor about respect for the office. They simply liked seeing a shrieking leftist shrew hurling lies at the Republican President of the United States.”

CBS’s Paula Reid was on fire during Monday’s Presidential task force press conference about COVID-19. She started by demeaning Dr. Fauci by asking him a question that implied he’s either hostage to or a puppet of President Trump. That was just a warm-up. Later in the press conference, she started shrieking at President Trump that a video he had shown earlier in the press conference misrepresented his affirmative response to COVID-19 because it implied that he was on top of things in February.

A visibly irritated Trump answered that, in fact, he had taken many steps during February to respond to COVID-19, but CBS’s disrespectful little harridan wouldn’t let up. Aside from being a disgraceful way to talk to the leader of the most powerful nation on earth (if you don’t respect the man, at least respect the office), Reid was completely wrong in her assertion. In other words, she wasn’t a powerful woman taking on a tyrant, she was a shrill Karen being disrespectful to a President of the United States who’s been working hard to protect the American people:

POLITICS Comments turned off

Nancy Pelosi and her Democrats’ unending shame By Patricia McCarthy

Posted By on April 14th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/04/nancy_pelosi_and_her_democrats_unending_shame.html

There are some truly terrible people in Congress; there always have been some throughout American history.  But as the country navigates the course of this mis-modeled and over-hyped COVID-19 pandemic, Nancy Pelosi stands out as a genuine enemy of America.  She loathes the president so much she has relinquished any semblance of ethics and her own personal character.  Every word she utters is a lie.  

She knows damn well that the president was on top of this virus crisis while she and her fellow anti-Americans were gleefully and despicably embroiled in their attempt to remove the president from office.  Not one of the principals in this fiasco – Pelosi, Adam Schiff,  Jerry Nadler, or the rest of them gave a single thought to the potential threat of the disease emanating from China.  There is no record of any of them even mentioning it until the economic shutdown brought it to their attention.  But for calling Trump ‘xenophobic’ when he banned flights from China, none of them registered the virus as dangerous to the U.S.  Once it became clear it was a serious threat, they all got on board to blame it on the president, to spread the lie that he was late to recognize it and is thus to blame, as Barbra Streisand put it, for 20k deaths.  What abhorrent nonsense. Pelosi is the de facto leader of a liars’ club.  And just as when the same bunch went after then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, there is not one bit of truth to their accusations and they all know it.  This is how malevolent Pelosi and her disciples are.  No plot to destroy this president is too wicked to employ. 

POLITICS Comments turned off

Liberal-Backed Candidate Beats Trump-Endorsed Incumbent for Wisconsin Supreme Court Seat

Posted By on April 14th, 2020

https://www.theepochtimes.com/liberal-backed-candidate-beats-trump-endorsed-incumbent-for-wisconsin-supreme-court-seat_3310873.html

Liberal-backed challenger Jill Karofsky won a hotly contested race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Monday, beating a conservative-backed incumbent in state elections.

Karofsky upset Daniel Kelly, who was endorsed by Republican President Donald Trump, for a 10-year court term that could help decide future voting rights and redistricting issues in Wisconsin, a vital general election battleground.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Chinese Factories Shut as Export Orders Dry Up Amid Pandemic By Nicole Hao

Posted By on April 14th, 2020

https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinese-factories-shutter-as-export-orders-dry-up-amid-pandemic_3310277.html#

A large number of export-oriented Chinese factories were shuttered recently after they didn’t have enough orders to fill.

Some home appliance manufacturers also announced that they laid off employees because of a lack of export and domestic demand due to the pandemic.

As the outbreak of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, became severe in January, much of China was placed under lockdown and factories halted production for more than a month.

In February, Beijing encouraged companies to resume operations as it grew concerned about an economic slowdown. But Chinese companies were worried that the virus could spread among employees; many factories remained closed.

As some factories reopened in March, they realized they faced a bigger challenge—having no orders to fill. Orders were canceled as the virus spread to other countries, which also adopted social distancing measures and reduced economic activity.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Yes, California Remains Mysterious — Despite the Weaponization of the Debate By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on April 14th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/coronavirus-pandemic-california-

We’re fighting an epidemic of untruths pushed by unscrupulous reporters.

California is touchy, and yet still remains confused, about incomplete data showing that the 40-million-person state, as of Sunday, April 12, reportedly had 23,777 cases of residents who have tested posted for the COVID-19 illness. The number of infected by the 12th includes 674 deaths, resulting in a fatality rate of about 17 deaths per million of population. That is among the lowest rates of the larger American states (Texas has 10 deaths per million), and lower than almost all major European countries, (about half of Germany’s 36 deaths per million).

No doubt there are lots of questionable data in all such metrics. As a large state California has not been especially impressive in a per capita sense in testing its population (about 200,000 tests so far). Few of course believe that the denominator of cases based on test results represent the real number of those who have been or are infected.

There is the now another old debate over exactly how the U.S. defines death by the virus versus death because of the contributing factors of the virus to existing medical issues. Certainly, the methodology of coronavirus modeling is quite different from that of, say, the flu. The denominator of flu cases is almost always a modeled approximation, not a misleadingly precise number taken from only those who go to their doctors or emergency rooms and test positive for an influenza strain. And the numerator of deaths from the flu may be calibrated somewhat more conservatively than those currently listed as deaths from the coronavirus.

Nonetheless, the state’s population is fairly certain. And for now, the number of deaths by the virus is the least controversial of many of these data, suggesting that deaths per million of population might be a useful comparative number.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

The Art of an Oil Deal Trump uses diplomacy to limit the harm to U.S. shale producers.

Posted By on April 14th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-art-of-an-oil-deal-11586819335?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

“So credit to Mr. Trump for using U.S. global influence to mitigate the mayhem. Russia and Saudi Arabia have agreed to take on the bulk of the cuts. After Mexico balked at an order to cut its production by 400,000 barrels a day, President Trump volunteered the U.S. to cover 300,000 barrels of its share.”

President Trump has been chasing a diplomatic victory, and he got one this weekend when he brokered a deal between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia to limit their production that may also limit the bloodbath in the U.S. shale patch.

OPEC and Russia have agreed to curtail their production by 9.7 million barrels a day—about 10% of global output—in May and June amid a steep falloff in demand due to the coronavirus that is expected to exceed 20% of last year’s consumption. After Russia last month refused Riyadh’s calls to cut supply, Saudi Arabia opened up its tap and slashed its crude price.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Med School Needs an Overhaul Doctors should learn to fight pandemics, not injustice. By Stanley Goldfarb

Posted By on April 14th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/med-school-needs-an-overhaul-11586818394?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

As the number of Covid-19 infections rises and the death toll mounts, the media is doing a good job of focusing on the safety of the health-care workforce and the capacity of hospitals to deal with a surge of desperately ill patients. What has received less attention is that many doctors haven’t been adequately trained in medical school to deal with a situation like this.

Most medical schools don’t require students to do coursework on pandemic response or practical preparation for a widespread and sustained emergency. American medical training as a whole doesn’t include a strong grounding in public-health issues or disaster preparedness. Instead, two of the nine specific curricular requirements decreed by the body that accredits medical schools are focused on social issues in medicine, including “the diagnosis of common societal problems and the impacts of disparities in health care on medically underserved populations,” particularly “in a multidimensional and diverse society.” None mention public health or epidemics. 

Physicians are highly educated, but that doesn’t mean they know everything—even things broadly related to the practice of medicine. When doctors speak on topics they don’t understand, they can confuse the public and other physicians. While medical schools require students to study statistics, these courses are generally superficial. They wouldn’t equip most physicians to grapple with epidemic models like the ones on which Deborah Birx has been briefing the White House press.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

China Still Misleads the World on the Coronavirus A truthful account of the virus’s progress there would help us know what to expect. By Walter Russell Mead

Posted By on April 14th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-still-misleads-the-world-on-the-coronavirus-11586818132?mod=hp_opin_pos_2

As the world struggles to contain the coronavirus outbreak without triggering a new Great Depression, China is withholding vital information that would save lives and significantly alleviate the economic catastrophe that now threatens to immiserate hundreds of millions of people around the world.

This isn’t the old coverup, when Communist Party bumbling and deceit allowed a local outbreak to turn into the worst global disaster in decades. The new coverup is even more brazen. China continues to falsify vital information about the epidemic on a massive scale.

The evidence comes from many sources. In a classified report to the White House, the U.S. intelligence community has concluded that China underreports both deaths and the total number of cases. The Economist magazine compared China’s reported statistics with those from other countries and found that numbers changed dramatically in response to political events, such as the firing and replacement of local officials. Using conservative figures and assumptions, a report by Derek Scissors of the American Enterprise Institute estimates 2.9 million total cases in China, rather than the total of about 82,000 Beijing reports. If Mr. Scissors is right, the number of cases that China has concealed is greater than the total number of cases reported in the rest of the world.

These data matter. Without accurate information about the number and location of cases, including asymptomatic cases from China, it is much harder for the rest of the world to understand basic facts about the disease and its spread. And the absence of accurate information from China makes it much more difficult to know when it is safe to lift lockdowns.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Covid-19, China and Henry Kissinger by Moshe Phillips

Posted By on April 14th, 2020

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/25527

He is ready to gamble that his “pragmatic” solution is the correct one and he furthermore demands that we all gamble along with him — no matter the stakes.

The Wall Street Journal recently featured a remarkable op-ed column by Henry Kissinger about Covid-19. What was conspicuously absent in the piece is any mention of China. Kissinger failed to mention China even once.

And it’s not like Kissinger has forgotten about China. The very last time Kissinger made headlines, at a November 14, 2019 speech before the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, he was warning about the danger that a permanent state of conflict between the U.S. and China would pose and he now ignored China’s role in the spread of Coronavirus. The question is why.

Is the article an illustration of Kissinger’s willingness to ignore the vital security needs of America and her allies? 

Kissinger still clings to his lifelong belief that dictatorships should be accepted by the West whether the dictatorships are Communist or Arab ones.

And Kissinger is most remembered by historians for two episodes.

The first was the success of his secret 1971 diplomatic mission to China, which led to the U.S. recognizing China –  and betraying Taiwan.

The second was his 1973 “Shuttle Diplomacy” aimed at forcing Israel to retreat from land it won in defensive wars. Kissinger must have realized he was forcing Israel to surrender lands to dangerous despots and risking its very survival by wanting it to go back to indefensible borders.