Politics As Usual: Here we are, a country at risk from a pandemic the world has never seen in our lifetime…and the Democrats just want to keep playing politics.
They politicize getting aid to job providers and small businesses that employ the MAJORITY of our country.
They politicize the federal and state reactions to the virus for cheap political gain.
They expose the unbelievable hypocrisy of their party and the left in general as they ignore the sexual harassment allegations against their presumptive nominee, Joe Biden.
If there was ever a time to put aside “politics as usual” this would have been the time. But the Democrats never forget the Obama era mantra of never letter a good crisis go to waste. Sad.
Beijing: Isn’t it amazing that not ONE person in Beijing contracted the CoronaVirus being so close to Wuhan? Just asking???
Democrats/Liberal Spin: You have to read the POLITICO article below where some left wing political scientists are trying to make the case that the older Americans who are dying are probably Trump supporters and that will hurt him in the general election.
Sick and wrong. As if people don’t die every day. In the end, the percentage of those who actually died from the Corona virus versus any other disease will doubtfully affect any political party or candidate, in either a negative or positive way. The mindset and analysis of such a scenario shows how low politics has gone.
I think the politicization of this crisis will hurt the Democrats more than anyone. Not because of the horrible death tolls, but because of their obvious and calculated political manipulations during this crisis. Most Americans see through this crap. Even most Democratic Governors are putting partisan politics aside to get things done for their constituencies and the American people.
But for Washington Democrats, especially Pelosi and Schumer, its politics as usual…or even worse. Using the Obama era mantra of not letting a good crisis go to waste, they put American lives and jobs at risk.
I just have a feeling the American voter is going to remember this crap. We’ll see.
Statistics & Models: How do we react when all those statistics and models prove out to be wrong…or at least over-blown to the point of truly being statistically irrelevant? At what cost to our country, the economy and the world has been damaged?
Read some of the analysis. Understand how irrational society can be, especially when it comes to politics in these polarized times we live in.
Let’s do our best to put this into perspective, not ignore it, not politicize it…but rather learn from it.
CoronaVirus: Be smart. Pay attention to the advice health care professionals are giving. Be diligent about your habits. Do your part to help. This is serious and should be taken seriously.
It’s a problem. It was not Trump’s fault. The haters just have to get over it and pitch in to help make this better. Let’s learn from this and be a better country for it.
It isn’t and shouldn’t be political.
Did we overreact? We will be better prepared for next time. The world was NOT ready for this. We need to ALL do our part. Follow the advice, keep your distance, touch less, clean everything and say a little prayer, it can’t hurt!
-Saul Anuzis
Click Here for Past Commentary from Saul
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Weekly News Video Summary:
Missouri Becomes First State to Sue China Over Coronavirus
The suit seeks to compel China to reimburse the Missouri state government for its treatment efforts and lost economic activity, as well as damages caused by “abnormally dangerous activities.” The attorney general filed the suit in the district court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
Trump signs executive order limiting immigration
President Trump on Wednesday announced he had signed an executive order that temporarily suspends the issuance of new green cards, a limit on immigration he says will protect American jobs amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Medicare, Social Security in dire straits even before pandemic, new report shows
Annual reports released Wednesday revealed that the funds for both Social Security and Medicare are being swiftly depleted, and even before the coronavirus pandemic it had become evident that Medicare would be completely insolvent in just six years.
Please Listen & Share!
This is the critical truth putting the “politics” of the Corona19 Virus in perspective.
‘The Data Is In — Stop The Panic And End The Total Isolation’: Fmr. Stanford Chief Of Neuroradiology Discusses Viral Column
Dr. Scott Atlas, the former chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center and a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, made a Friday night Fox News appearance to defend his viral column about why the ongoing coronavirus panic, and the ensuing government-enforced shutdowns, should end.
Atlas’ column, titled “The Data Is In — Stop The Panic And End The Total Isolation” and published Wednesday at The Hill, lists “five key facts” that are “being ignored by those calling for continuing the near-total lockdown,” along with evidence to bolster each one.
Fact 1: The overwhelming majority of people do not have any significant risk of dying from COVID-19.
Fact 2: Protecting older, at-risk people eliminates hospital overcrowding.
Fact 3: Vital population immunity is prevented by total isolation policies, prolonging the problem.
Fact 4: People are dying because other medical care is not getting done due to hypothetical projections.
Fact 5: We have a clearly defined population at risk who can be protected with targeted measures.
After Repeated Failures, It’s Time To Permanently Dump Epidemic Models
The crisis we face is unparalleled in modern times,” said the World Health Organization’s assistant director, while its director general proclaimed it “likely the greatest peacetime challenge that the United Nations and its agencies have ever faced.” This was based on a CDC computer model projection predicting as many as 1.4 million deaths from just two countries.
So when did they say this about COVID-19? Trick question: It was actually about the Ebola virus in Liberia and Sierra Leone five years ago, and the ultimate death toll was under 8,000.
With COVID-19 having peaked (the highest date was April 4), despite the best efforts of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to increase numbers by first saying any death with the virus could be considered a death from the virus and then again this week by saying a positive test isn’t even needed, you can see where this is going.
Since the AIDS epidemic, people have been pumping out such models with often incredible figures. For AIDS, the Public Health Service announced (without documenting) there would be 450,000 cases by the end of 1993, with 100,000 in that year alone. The media faithfully parroted it. There were 17,325 by the end of that year, with about 5,000 in 1993. SARS (2002-2003) was supposed to kill perhaps “millions,” based on analyses. It killed 744 before disappearing.
Later, avian flu strain A/H5N1, “even in the best-case scenarios” was to “cause 2 (million) to 7 million deaths” worldwide. A British professor named Neil Ferguson scaled that up to 200 million. It killed 440. This same Ferguson in 2002 had projected 50-50,000 deaths from so-called “Mad Cow Disease.” On its face, what possible good is a spread that large? (We shall return to this.) But the final toll was slightly over 200.
Now What? (A week old, but a good read)
By now, you have to be tired of people telling you what you ought to do during this pandemic.
Two weeks ago, experts within the CDC and WHO were telling us that using masks in the absence of sickness was a waste of time and a danger to society. People on social media and at the local Costco were being publicly shamed for wearing a mask in their race to secure toilet paper. What a difference a few weeks make! Less than a month later, everyone is full up on toilet paper, but the Surgeon General of the U.S. is now a recognizable celebrity for demonstrating how to make a 60% effective mask out of a textile and two rubber bands. The TikTok version is already in full production. Such is life in Pandemic America circa 2020.
While the best path ahead is still foggy given incomplete data and unknown risks, this article aims to put forward a potential course of action for reopening the United States economy based on hard data.
Watch Out For China Buying Spree, NATO Warns
Watch out for Chinese companies swooping in with buckets of cash to buy strategic stakes, or majority control in U.S. and European companies as asset prices fall due to the pandemic.
NATO sounded the alarm this week, though without naming names.
“The geopolitical effects of the pandemic could be significant,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in web conference of defense ministers on Wednesday. “Some allies (are) more vulnerable for situations where critical infrastructure can be sold out,” he said. Of course he meant China. China has been busy buying Greek ports.
It already pretty much runs Italian textiles. It’s a wonder Italy even makes an espresso machine anymore.
Pew Research: More than 9-in-10 Americans Call China’s Power a ‘Threat’ to U.S.
More than 9-in-10 Americans now call China’s power and influence in the world a “threat” to the United States, a new survey reveals.
The latest Pew Research Center survey finds that Americans are nearly unanimously worried about China’s dominance in the midst of the Chinese coronavirus crisis that has ravaged the U.S.
About 91 percent of Americans say China’s power and influence is a threat to the U.S. — 62 percent of which say China is a “major threat” and 29 percent of which say China is a “minor threat.”
Americans today regard China as a major threat to the U.S. – more than global warming, Russia’s power and influence, the condition of the global economy, and global poverty.
The survey shows a continued increase in concern over China among Americans over the last few years. Between 2017 and this year, the number of Americans who now say China is a “major threat” to the U.S. has spiked by 21 percent.
The same Pew Research survey finds that more than 8-in-10 Americans call mass migration a threat to the U.S., with about 42 percent of those calling mass migration a “major threat.”
Officials say China amplified disinformation about coronavirus to spread fear
U.S. intelligence officials have reportedly determined that Chinese operatives helped spread messages that aimed to spark alarm about the coronavirus pandemic starting in mid-March.
The New York Times, citing six American officials across different intelligence agencies, reported Wednesday that the messages prompted the intelligence apparatus to examine the new techniques China, Russia and other nations are using to spread disinformation about the outbreak.
In particular, they were startled by the ability of the disinformation campaign to pop up in the form of text messages on many Americans’ cellphones, an amplification technique that some of the officials told the Times they had not seen before.
Many of the messages shared a common theme in which the receivers were encouraged to share the warnings that President Trump was poised to lock down the country in a mandatory quarantine. The spread of the messages became so far-reaching that the White House National Security Council (NSC) publicly denounced the rumors as “FAKE.”
“Text message rumors of a national #quarantine are FAKE. There is no national lockdown,” the NSC tweeted at the time.
The messages often claimed that they heard from a close friend or family member who works at the Department of Homeland Security, the Pentagon or some other government agency that the government was preparing for a full-scale lockdown.
Police Have Started Revolting Against Draconian Coronavirus Edicts
Police chiefs from Texas to Washington are standing up against draconian orders from local leaders demanding strict adherence to extreme social distancing measures to curb the spread of the novel Wuhan coronavirus.
The Houston Police Officers’ Union declared Wednesday that its members would refrain from enforcing local County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s ruling deeming it mandatory for any individual over the age of 10 to wear a mask in public.
“The Houston Police Officers’ Union believes everyone should be wearing a mask in public, in order to protect themselves from the virus and we are encouraging all of our officers to wear a mask,” the union wrote in a statement. “However, we draw the line at the draconian measures Hidalgo has decided to engage in.”
“Our officers work every single day to bridge the gap with our community and earn their trust, we will not stand idly by and allow Hidalgo to tear that bridge down, with her horrific leadership and echo chamber decision making.”
Paying Americans Not to Work
Much of the harm from the coronavirus is unavoidable, but it would be nice if politicians didn’t compound the damage by ignoring the laws of economics. The worst blunder so far on that score is the $600 increase in federal jobless benefits that is already undermining the economic recovery.
On Wednesday we ran an op-ed from Kurt Huffman, whose Portland, Ore., company helps chefs run and staff their restaurants. Because of the coronavirus, he had to lay off 700 people. But some restaurants have adapted with takeout and delivery, so he needs to hire some back.
Some extra unemployment insurance is necessary, but the rich extra compensation from the $2.2 trillion Cares Act is encouraging those employees to stay home. Mr. Huffman did the math in his op-ed: A starting wage for a line cook is about $640 a week. Oregon’s unemployment offers about $416 per week. But thanks to the $600 federal bonus, that same worker now collects $1,016. Why would anyone take a pay cut to go back to work?
We’re hearing similar stories from around the country as small business owners look to reopen on a tentative or partial basis. Employees say they’ll take the unemployment check for as long as they can make more money by not working. One internal Trump Administration analysis estimates that this work disincentive applies to millions of Americans.
This does not mean these workers are lazy. Workers are making rational decisions based on the economic incentives the political class has created. And they are acting exactly as many people said was likely.
Study: Elderly Trump voters dying of coronavirus could cost him in November
Mass casualties from the coronavirus could upend the political landscape in battleground states and shift contests away from President Donald Trump, according to a new analysis.
Academic researchers writing in a little-noticed public administration journal — Administrative Theory & Praxis — conclude that when considering nothing other than the tens of thousands of deaths projected from the virus, demographic shifts alone could be enough to swing crucial states to Joe Biden in the fall.
“The pandemic is going to take a greater toll on the conservative electorate leading into this election — and that’s simply just a calculation of age,” Andrew Johnson, the lead author and a professor of management at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, said in an interview. “The virus is killing more older voters, and in many states that’s the key to a GOP victory.”
Johnson and his colleagues Wendi Pollock and Beth M. Rauhaus projected that even with shelter-in-place orders remaining in effect, about 11,000 more Republicans than Democrats who are 65 and older could die before the election in both Michigan and North Carolina.
How The Southern Poverty Law Center Started Inventing ‘Hate Groups’
On March 14, 2019 the Southern Poverty Law Center publicly fired its founder and long-time leader Morris Dees on accusations of racial and sexual discrimination, and announced it would bring in outside assistance to investigate the climate of the organization Dees had built and ruled over for almost half a century.
Since its founding, the SPLC had been treated — at least in the mainstream media — as an unquestioned arbiter of what qualifies as racism and hatred. Being added to the SPLC’s “Hate List” was the death-knell for any number of organizations that ran afoul of Dees.
In the earliest days of the SPLC, the Alabama-based civil rights law firm did target truly racist and hateful groups, most famously the United Klans of America, which the SPLC devastated in a successful lawsuit it launched in 1984. The result was financial largesse. Money flowed into the SPLC, driven by Dees’s brilliance for direct-mail campaigning and the hope of white liberals that a strong SPLC would mean the end to racism and hatred in America.
Apparently Resistance Isn’t Cool Anymore
Old: Resistance is cool and patriotic.
New: Resistance is ignorant and deadly.
Remember when resisting an authoritarian megalomaniac who through his elected office would infringe on your constitutionally protected rights and freedoms was really cool and celebrated by pop culture and the mainstream, legacy media? Yeah, that’s not a thing anymore.
To be honest, it wasn’t really a thing when it was a thing. More on that later.
Since the 2016 election, poor, sad souls who believed the baseless promises of professional political analysts who assured them that Hillary Clinton would shatter that glass ceiling and be the 45th president have routinely taken to the streets with horrifying costumes, profane chants and tragic acts of pathetic desperation. And they were seen as heroes to the thought-leaders on cable news and in Hollywood.
‘The View’ ignores Tara Reade’s Biden allegations after championing Kavanaugh accusers
“The View” hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, and Meghan McCain have been sounding off regularly on President Trump’s response to the coronavirus outbreak and the race between Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. Yet none of them have weighed in on a disturbing sexual assault allegation facing Biden leveled by his former staffer Tara Reade, who went public with her 1993 claim four weeks ago.
“The View” isn’t alone in the blackout. ABC News, which the daytime talk show is a part of, has not covered the controversy on-air and only acknowledged Reade’s claim in the republishing of an Associated Press report on its website on April 13, nearly three weeks after Reade came forward.
In addition, the network’s chief political anchor George Stephanopoulos failed to ask Biden about the allegation during an interview on ABC’s Sunday show “This Week” earlier this month.
States Made Risky Bets with Pensions Before Coronavirus. Now They Want a Bailout.
Staring down the coronavirus’s effect on their budgets, states like New Jersey and Illinois are calling on federal leaders to backstop public pensions as part of future coronavirus relief.
Democratic leaders in those states are pushing the federal government for billions in funding to shore up underfunded public pensions. Democrats in Congress have made bailouts for state and local governments a major priority for the next round of coronavirus stimulus, even allowing a major small business loan program to run dry as Republicans refused to package a renewal with more cash for states.
But the pension shortfalls are not just a product of the bear market, experts tell the Washington Free Beacon. Some states now seeking bailouts are in part covering for more than a decade of economic mismanagement, having chased increasingly risky investments to fund generous benefits at low up-front costs. Bailouts would allow states to dodge hard questions about the viability of excessively generous public pensions.
