Truth Emerging

For John, BLUF:  Mnetioned in Dispatches.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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'We Were Badly Misled' About COVID Origin, Says ...

From Hot Air, by Capotain Ed Morreissey, 17 March 2025, 9:20 AM.

Here is the lede plus one:

Were they 'misled'? Or did they lead the charge against anyone who dared question the consensus?

Now that the cat has come out of the bag, suddenly the New York Times feels the need to get out in front of the backlash. For years, the NYT ran story after story, scathing column after column, about anyone who dared to challenge The Science®. How dare people suggest that a novel coronavirus might have emerged from the nearby lab being run under questionable practices doing exactly the kind of research intended to produce novel coronaviruses! Those dissenters were all raaaaaacists, remember?

Now, the NYT -- and not even in its own editorial voice -- wants to play victim of The Science®:

Since scientists first began playing around with dangerous pathogens in laboratories, the world has experienced four or five pandemics, depending on how you count. One of them, the 1977 Russian flu, was almost certainly sparked by a research mishap. Some Western scientists quickly suspected the odd virus had resided in a lab freezer for a couple of decades, but they kept mostly quiet for fear of ruffling feathers.

Yet in 2020, when people started speculating that a laboratory accident might have been the spark that started the Covid-19 pandemic, they were treated like kooks and cranks. Many public health officials and prominent scientists dismissed the idea as a conspiracy theory, insisting that the virus had emerged from animals in a seafood market in Wuhan, China. And when a nonprofit called EcoHealth Alliance lost a grant because it was planning to conduct risky research into bat viruses with the Wuhan Institute of Virology — research that, if conducted with lax safety standards, could have resulted in a dangerous pathogen leaking out into the world — no fewer than 77 Nobel laureates and 31 scientific societies lined up to defend the organization.

So, the Wuhan research was totally safe and the pandemic was definitely caused by natural transmission: It certainly seemed like consensus.

We have since learned, however, that to promote the appearance of consensus, some officials and scientists hid or understated crucial facts, misled at least one reporter, orchestrated campaigns of supposedly independent voices and even compared notes about how to hide their communications in order to keep the public from hearing the whole story. And as for that Wuhan laboratory’s research, the details that have since emerged show that safety precautions may have been terrifyingly lax.

And it goes on and gets better.  Read the whole thing.

There is little doubt in my mind that we, the Citizenry, were fed disinformation about the COVID-19 Pandemic.♠  I would like to put all the blame on Dr A Fauci, but that would not be fair.  He was aided and abetted by others in the medical community.  And, there was the Trump-despising Press, who went with Dr Fauci, because it was the easy way to place the burden on President Trump 45  Sad.  Very sad.

It is going to tqke time for experts, in and out of Government, to regain the confidence of the American People.  I hope those "experts" starat working on it soon.  I owuld like to get back to the time that Sergeant Friday and Inspector Lewis Erskine represented what was best in Government.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  An Undertaker friend of mine pointed out early on that the typical surgical mask was not suited to dealing with the COVID-19 virus.  Rather, we needed the N-95  But, I have been at hospitals that rejected the N-95 and asked me to don the ineffective mask.

Medical Staff Avoiding the Jab

For John, BLUF:  This is about COVID Vaccinations in the United Kingdom and the British health care system, the NHS.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Why NHS staff are shunning the vaccines

From The Conservative Woman, by Ms Sally Beck, 9 December 2024.

Here is the lede plus two:

NHS staff are boycotting covid and flu vaccinations while the government is busy promoting them to the public in a television and radio campaign.  Concerned by the low uptake in the health service, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has appealed to healthcare practitioners to get jabbed.  This season, only 14 per cent of NHS workers took covid jabs and only a quarter received flu vaccines.

The NHS say this is because hospital staff are busy and have no time.  Official figures tell a different story as NHS staff are taking double the days off sick post-covid vaccine rollout than they have since 2009.  Unusually, in 2020, absences rocketed in the summer months; absence is traditionally low between May and November.  Covid vaccines were offered to front-line staff from December 2020, a sharp rise in absences began in March 2021, three months into the rollout, when seasonal illness is traditionally waning.

Sick days have doubled from the baseline of 3.75 per cent to 6.75 per cent, the highest since 2009, and have not dropped back to 2019 numbers which were between 4.5 per cent and 4.75 per cent.  Even during peak pandemic months, absences ranged between 4.75 per cent in February 2020 to 6.10 per cent in May 2020.

This is just one more hit on our faith in the integrity of our health care systems.  Doctor Fauci did not increase trust in Medicine, but rather reduced it.  How long will it take to rebuilt that trust?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Greta Cringes

For John, BLUF:  Science is slowly emerging from a period of suppression.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Scientists Officially Declare End of ‘Climate Emergency’ During Prague Climate Conference

Here is the sub-headline:

Climate Intelligence Group (Clintel) “calls upon the entire scientific community to cease and desist from its persecution of scientists and researchers who disagree with the current official narrative.”

From Legal Insurrection, by Leslie Eastman, Monday, 25 November 2024 at 10:00am.

Here is the lede plus six:

Legal Insurrection readers will recall that in my post on the United Nations climate conference in Azerbaijan this week, its president boldly declared that oil and gas were a ‘gift from God’.

The eco-activists attending the event were enraged.

The climate cultists will likely be working themselves up into even more hysteria because of another climate conference that occurred mid-November in the Czech Republic city of Prague.

The Czech division of the International Climate Intelligence Group (Clintel) organized a two-day climate conference in Prague on November 12-13, 2024, where climate scientists declared that the “climate emergency” is over. The conference concluded with a communiqué drafted by the participating scientists and researchers that targeted the climate hysteria promoted by the United Nations body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

‘The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which excludes participants and published papers disagreeing with its narrative, fails to comply with its own error-reporting protocol and draws conclusions some of which are dishonest, should be forthwith dismantled.’

This declaration supports the conclusions of the major Clintel report, The Frozen Climate Views of the IPCC.

Moreover, the scientists at the conference declared that even if all nations moved straight to net zero emissions, by the 2050 target date the world would be only about 0.1 C cooler than with no emissions reduction.

Later the article says:

The declaration has 18 different point referencing climate science and facts that counter the narratives being pushed by the IPCC and those who want to push their green agendas. I have listed the first six below (which should be familiar to Legal Insurrection readers); there remainder can be found in the copy of the declaration.

Here are the first three:

1. The modest increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide that has taken place since the end of the Little Ice Age has been net-beneficial to humanity.
2. Foreseeable future increases in greenhouse gases in the air will probably also prove net-beneficial.
3. The rate and amplitude of global warming have been and will continue to be appreciably less than climate scientists have long predicted.

Ms Greta Thunberg must be appoplectic.  This is a direct confrontation with those who believe climate change is real.

Science has alwys been the fight of insurrectionists against the establishment, even when the establishment thought of itself as "science".  We have only to look at Dr Fsauci and the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases fighting agaist the Great Barrington Declaration.♠  And, now, climate change.  I am so old I can remember when the big fear was global cooling.

As this chart shows, COVID did not hit every nation the same.  And, Sweden, with a different approach, did better than the United States, with it svaccines and lockdowns.

For it to be science, there must be a free exchange of ideas, with each side getting a chance to make a fair presentation of its ideas.  The use of ipse dixit is not science.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  In the US the Federal Government, comfortable in its assessment of the situation, worked to suppress alternative idea, thus suppressing the scientific method.

Speak Freely, as an American

For John, BLUF:  The Babylon Bee headline:  Ketanji Brown Jackson Warns Right To Free Speech Could Lead To People Speaking Freely.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Ketanji Brown Jackson ‘concerned’ First Amendment is ‘hamstringing’ government from censorship

From The Washington Examiner, by Reporter Annabella Rosciglione, 18 March 2024, 5:00 pm.

Here is the lede plus six:

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson raised concerns that the First Amendment may stand in the way of government censorship in unique times.

In Monday’s oral arguments for Murthy v. Missouri, Jackson appeared to be skeptical that the government could not censor social media posts in “the most important time periods.”

“My biggest concern is that your view has the First Amendment hamstringing the government in significant ways in the most important time periods,” Jackson said to Louisiana Solicitor General Benjamin Aguiñaga.

“You seem to be suggesting that that duty cannot manifest itself in the government encouraging or even pressuring platforms to take down harmful information,” Jackson said. “So, can you help me? Because I’m really worried about that because you’ve got the First Amendment operating in an environment of threatening circumstances, from the government’s perspective, and you’re saying that the government can’t interact with the source of those problems.”

Aguiñaga said his view was that the government should intervene in certain situations, but it has to do so by following the First Amendment.

“Our position is not that the government can’t interact with the platforms there. They can and they should in certain circumstances like that, that present such dangerous issues for society and especially young people,” Aguiñaga said in response. “But the way they do that has to be in compliance with the First Amendment. And I think that means they can give them all the true information that the platform needs and ask to amplify that.”

Jackson said a “once-in-a-lifetime pandemic” or other emergencies would provide grounds for the government to censor social media posts that are misinformative.

I am not a lawyer, just a graduate of Grade School, but I thought the Founders gave us the First Amendment for the purpose of allowing People to speak out against the Government, when the Government would rather they didn’t.

For example, The Great Barrington Declaration.

Is it that Justice Jackson not only doesn’t know what a woman is, but also doesn’t know the role of free speech in our federal Government?  If the federal Government drifts into tyranny, how else do the People give it correction, except by speaking out against the tyranny they see.  As Delegate Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1776, "let Facts be submitted to a candid world."  This requires free speech.

Sadly, we are still seeing reverberations from the Federal Government suppressing information on COVID-19. To quote Wikipedia, "In March 2024, Kulldorff announced that Harvard had dismissed him."  Dr Kulldorff was one of the signatories of the Grest Barrington Declaration.

With the outbreak of COVID-19 we embarked on a path that damaged the lives of Citizens and harmed our economy.  Decisions were taken without a larger debate.  Mistakes were made and the average Citizen, and dissenting experts, were made to kowtow to the dictates of the Federal Government.  There was no larger debate.  There was no Congressional Declaration of War, in any form.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Trust the People

For John, BLUF:  "If we’ve learned anything from the pandemic and earlier disasters, we ought to be doing precisely the opposite by enacting new limits on government power during emergencies. Americans need what Swedes have enjoyed:  legal protection against autocrats posing as saviors."  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Lockdowns:  the Self-Inflicted Disaster

Here is the sub-headline:

Governments’ use of the pandemic to claim sweeping new emergency powers has had destructive effects.

From City Journal, by Author John Tierney, 6 July 2023.

Here is the lede plus two:

Long before Covid struck, economists detected a deadly pattern in the impact of natural disasters: if the executive branch of government used the emergency to claim sweeping new powers over the citizenry, more people died than would have if government powers had remained constrained. It’s now clear that the Covid pandemic is the deadliest confirmation yet of that pattern.

Governments around the world seized unprecedented powers during the pandemic. The result was an unprecedented disaster, as recently demonstrated by two exhaustive analyses of the lockdowns’ impact in the United States and Europe. Both reports conclude that the lockdowns made little or no difference in the Covid death toll. But the lockdowns did lead to deaths from other causes during the pandemic, particularly among young and middle-aged people, and those fatalities will continue to mount in the future.

“Most likely lockdowns represent the biggest policy mistake in modern times,” says Lars Jonung of Lund University in Sweden, a coauthor of one of the new reports. He and two fellow economists, Steve Hanke from Johns Hopkins University and Jonas Herby of the Center for Political Studies in Copenhagen, sifted through nearly 20,000 studies for their book, Did Lockdowns Work?, published in June by the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA) in London. After combining results from the most rigorous studies analyzing fatality rates and the stringency of lockdowns in various states and nations, they estimate that the average lockdown in the United States and Europe during the spring of 2020 reduced Covid mortality by just 3.2 percent. That translates to some 4,000 avoided deaths in the United States—a negligible result compared with the toll from the ordinary flu, which annually kills nearly 40,000 Americans.

Our response to COVID-19 was based on the twin pillars of "trust the experts" and don't trust The People.  And throw in a pinch of don't trust President Trump.♠  This seems just the opposite of the basis for our Republic, which is based, in large part, on trusting the People.

In honor of all those people who died unnecessarily in nursing homes in New York, or Veterans Homes in Massachusetts, we should dedicate ourselves to not letting timid Elected Officials and officious bureaucrats take away our freedoms and from feeding us false information,♥ and along with media, censoring debate.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  As exemplified by Speaker Nancy Pelosi decrying President Trump saying COVID-19 (Wuhan Flu) came from China and we should stop flights from there.
♥  As exemplified by the Government statements that we didn't need masks, followed by a mask mandate.

Going Mask Free

For John, BLUF:  The COVID Pandemic seems to be winding down.  On Monday,10 April, President Biden signed an act ending our three year national emergency.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Experts call for end of universal masking in hospitals, clinics

From United Press International, by Health Reporter Dennis Thompson, 19 April 2023, 12:04 PM.

Here is the lede plus three:

Healthcare facilities remain one of the last places left in the United States with COVID-era mask requirements still in effect.

It's time for that to end, experts say.

A prestigious collection of infection disease experts and epidemiologists say universal masking requirements in healthcare settings should be lifted, according to a commentary they published Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

COVID-19 has reached the point where it should be managed in a way similar to how other respiratory viruses are handled in hospitals, doctor's offices and long-term care facilities, the editorial argues.

So, when is this change of policy coming to the Merrimack Valley?

Or is it already here, in a practical way, given the mandated use by patients of the Blue Mask of Death?♠

In my case, being "elderly", I should still wear my mask in the hospital, although now I may be free to wear a KN-95.  I wear my mask when I go up for Communion, or when I think I will be in another crowded place.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  I would like to thank Mr John McDonough for the education that caused me to switch over to the KN-95 Mask for my normal usage.

Enough People to Sustain a Civilization

For John, BLUF:  To sustain a population a nation needs 2.1 births for every woman,  Not every woman will have children, so the number for those who do it above 2.1  If it doesn't happen then population of workers implodes and the Government will not be able to susktain the elderly.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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A new ‘devil’ of a problem for Planet Earth: vanishing humans

From The New York Post, by Law Professor Glenn H. Reynolds, 26 August 2022 5:56pm.

Here is the lede plus two:

When I was a kid, everyone was worried about the “population explosion.”  Paul Ehrlich’s book, “The Population Bomb,” was a runaway bestseller.

This led to a lot of dystopian science fiction, like Harry Harrison’s novel, “Make Room, Make Room,” which became the famous movie “Soylent Green.”  It also led to a lot of policy changes, from China’s disastrous one-child policy to many policies in industrialized nations aimed at people having fewer children later in life.

The culture also changed.  My mother reports that when she was married, even married couples weren’t considered fully adult until they had children.  Raising kids was seen as one of the most important things people did.  Now, it’s seen as a distraction from the pleasures and opportunities of adult life, things like promotion at work or dating.

Population falling is a world wide phenmenon.  Even in Africa, with relatively high population growth, it is tapering off.  In China, Japan and South Korea, with previous high growth, Governments now find reproductine age cohorts uninterested in reproduction.

On the other hand, it appears the COVID-19 Pandemic has led to a slight boomlet in births:

Remote work spawns mini baby boom, economists say

.

This is thanks to UPI and Reporter Sheri Walsh, back on 20 October 2022.

An uptick in the number of women working from home since the start of the pandemic has contributed to a mini baby boom, according to a new study that claims the increase in births reversed two years of declining fertility in the United States.

A working paper, published by three economists, found that 46,000 more children were born in the United States after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, beginning with a small increase in births in 2020 and a larger "baby bump" last year.

For those of a certain age the magic number is 2.1 births per woman,  That is an average and it conmes down to most families have two children and every tenth having an extra, but other women making up for those who won't ever have children.  Otherwise it all eventually goes down the drain, to be replaced by more vigerious nations, although not neecessarily as Democratic.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Reinterpreting the Age of COVID

For John, BLUF:  The thesis is that Democrats have to pivot to stay in line with the People regarding COVID.  And, the story of the past few years are being respun, science notwithstanding.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Democrats Will Try to Retcon Their Response to COVID-19 With a New Narrative–Don't Let Them

The term retcon means a new interprutation on a previous event.

From Pajama Media, by Reporter Stacey Lennox, 27 February, 2022 11:57 AM ET.

Here is the lede plus five:

The polling firm that proudly served Joe Biden in 2020 has some advice for Democrats.  Impact Research wrote a memo, which is circulating on Capitol Hill, alerting Democrats that no one likes their policies regarding COVID-19.  Prepare for the most comprehensive attempt to retcon the last two years we have seen yet as Democrats now understand that their political fate depends on embracing reality.

Impact Research is advocating for Democrats to declare that their leadership has defeated the threat from COVID-19 and claim the win.  The title of the memo is “Taking the Win Over COVID-19.” From the memo:

After two years that necessitated lockdowns, travel bans, school closures, mask mandates, and nearly a million deaths, nearly every American finally has the tools to protect themselves from this virus.  It’s time for Democrats to take credit for ending the COVID crisis phase of the COVID war, point to important victories like vaccine distribution and providing economic stability to Americans, and fully enter the rebuilding phase that comes after any war.

There was no war.  There were artificial economic and education shutdowns that many public health experts objected to from early in the pandemic.  Once it became clear that the virus was a serious threat to people over the age of 65 who had other health issues and not the younger, healthier populations, thousands of health experts, researchers, and clinicians signed on to the Great Barrington Declaration in October 2020.

Related: Fauci Orchestrated ‘Quick and Devastating’ Takedown of Anti-Lockdown Experts

The document provided clear guidance to get low-risk younger adults back to work and children back to school.  At the same time, it called for creativity and local action to protect the vulnerable until treatment or vaccines became available.  Dr. Francis Collins and Dr. Anthony Fauci actively sought to discredit these ideas and maintain harsh restrictions.  Vulnerable and elderly Americans died by the hundreds of thousands anyway.

This is a two part message.  One part is about the spinning of the past to put a better face on it.  Including the revising of the history of our time in COVID lockdown.  The second is about how it is time for the Democratic Party to turn on a dime and fall into step with the People, with regard to it being time to move on from the COVID pandemic interregnum.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Confusion on the Left

For John, BLUF:  Not all demonstrations or protests are judged equal by the Progressives.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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“Mostly peaceful” versus “non-violent dangers.”

From The New Neo, by the Blogger Herself, 1 February 2022.

Here is the lede plus five:

Orwell would take note of the Canadian left’s reaction to the trucker convoy:

You’ve heard of mostly peaceful violence and fiery but mostly peaceful protests. Well, that’s how the leftwing propaganda fiction corporations describe violent thuggish gang-warfare assemblages they approve of.

But how do they describe completely, 100% orderly, violence-free protests they disapprove of?

They accuse those of creating “non-violent dangers.”

In other words, some people have been stirred to fearfulness by left-wing propaganda about the trucker convoy, even though that demonstration hasn’t just been mostly peaceful – it’s been totally peaceful so far.

The COVID--19 Pandemic is creating strange bedfellows.  For example, Nation of Change, which I think of as reliably Progressive, today came out against the working class Canadian Truckers, accusing them of being "The ‘Freedom’ convoy:  Canada’s far right revolt".  So much for solidarity.

Have you seen the pictures of Canadian Truckers picking up trash?  Reminds me of the Tea Party.  It only brings to mind the AntiFa and Black Lives Matter demonstrations [riots] of 2020 by way of contrast.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

UPDATE:  Typos corrected.

Regards  —  Cliff

Following the Science

For John, BLUF:  The last two years appears to have seen a certain amount of fraud on the part of Federal Medical Sciencists, aided and abetted by the media, including social media.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Johns Hopkins Study:  Lockdowns Are A Failure

From Victory Girls Blog, by Ms Nina Bookout, 2 Februry 2022.

Here is the lede plus three:

Lockdowns are a failure. That’s the gist of a new in-depth study from Johns Hopkins. How much of a failure? Covid mortality rates were reduced by a mere .2%

Lockdowns during the first COVID-19 wave in the spring of 2020 only reduced COVID-19 mortality by .2% in the U.S. and Europe, according to a Johns Hopkins University meta-analysis of several studies.

“While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted,” the researchers wrote.  “In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.”

POINT TWO PERCENT! That’s it. That’s all the lockdowns did in regards to keeping us “safe” from Covid. : In other words, the draconian lockdowns have solved nothing and have, as we’ve written about multiple times, caused more problems than it solved!

There is a lot we didn't know about COVID-19 when we became awware of it.  I am sure that some in Government felt that their duty was to provide the People with a firm path forward, leaving no room for doubt for the benighted hoi polloi.

Going back to the root of the current problem, it seems that some from the Federal Health Establishment felt that it was more important to appear certain than to admit the uncertainty that existed.  The mask thing is, for me, an example.  From we don’t need them to we need two shows a self-serving set of bureaucrats, trying to downplay the importance of masks, to protect the supply, to eventually, everyone should be masked.  Self-serving medical-political leaders.  The thread through it all is don’t trust the benighted hoi palloi.  That is no way to run a democracy.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Russian Population Bust

For John, BLUF:  Russia is not the only nation losing population.  China, South Korea Japan♠ have all lost total population.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Russia loses a million people in historic population fall

From France 24, 28 January 2022, 22:02.

Here is the lede plus four:

Russia's population declined by more than one million people in 2021, the statistics agency Rosstat reported Friday, a historic drop not seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Ongoing demographic woes have been exacerbated by the pandemic with Rosstat figures showing more than 660,000 had died with coronavirus since health officials recorded the first case in the country.

The new figures continue a downward trend from the previous year when Russia's population fell by more than half a million.

The Covid-related fatalities figures published monthly by Rosstat are far higher than death figures released by a separate government website, which is dedicated to tracking the pandemic in the country.

Those government website figures only take into account fatalities where the virus was established as the primary cause of death after an autopsy and shows just 329,443 total fatalities.

This does not mean that Russia is about to collapse.  Far from it.  Russia is still a nuclear armed Regional Power.  Long Term, there are problems, but President V Putin will be in a nursing home before they impact Russia's foreign policy.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Japan’s persistent inability to reverse falling birth number includes a 2020 birth rate of 1.34 children per woman (2.1 needed to sustain a population), with just 840,000 babies born in Japan that year.  Thus, population peaked in 2008 at almost 128m, but last year dropped to 126m.

Free and Fair Elections

For John, BLUF:  President Biden seems to think that the Republican Party, which fought for 100 years for the rights of Black People to vote, has turned into the Democratic Party of the Old South.  He is sadly, and damagingly mistaken.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Biden Says 2022 Election “Could Easily Be Illegitimate”

Here is the sub-headline:

“Oh, yeah, I think it could easily be illegitimate … The increase in the prospect of being illegitimate is in proportion to not being able to get these reforms passed.”

From Legal Insurrection, by Professor William A. Jacobson, 19 January 2022, 07:00pm.

Here is the lede plus two:

oe Biden is setting the stage for Democrats to claim 2022 wins by Republicans would be illegitimate, based on the false claims of voting suppression that even CNN said were lies, CNN Skewers Biden’s Voter Suppression Lies. Yes, CNN.

Democrats are using fearmongering about “the end of democracy” in order to try to nationalize election controls away from states and local governments to lower election integrity. Unless Democrats can bust the filibuster — and that looks like it’s not going to happen because Manchin and Sinema are holding firm — then the voting bill is dead. (That vote may happen tonight.)

Democrats are expecting to lose bigly in the 2022 elections, so of course, Biden preemptively is suggesting the 2022 elections may not be legitimate. That’s just how Biden framed it at his press conference today:

I admit I am a bit confused.  Is the Presidenet saying that the election two years ago may have been illegitimate?  I know Democrats questioned the 2016 Presidential Election.  At Least Ms Hillary Clinton stated that.

Or is it that certain states have been doing evil things, rolling back COVID Pandemic exceptions to our commonly accepted voting practices.  Since Politics is a negotiation, I would be happy to offer up some options in exchange for Voter ID and signatures on Mail-in Ballots.  Is there a deal to be had?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Trusting the Election

For John, BLUF:  There has been controversey about the 2020 election, from President Donald Trump saying it was stolen to Democrats saying it was perfectly clean.  I expect the truth is less absolute.  I also expect the average voter thinks there were some problems, and thinks it is rubbish to deny it.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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More believe in cheating in 2020 election, hit ‘Zuckerbucks’

From The Washington Examiner, "Secrets" Column, by Columnist Paul Bedard, 23 December 2021, 10:46 AM.

Here is the lede plus two:

Angered by growing reports that Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg steered vote-generating donations to pro-Biden counties, more voters believe that cheating occurred in the 2020 elections.

Shoving aside repeated liberal media dismissals of cheating claims, those who believe it occurred increased from 56% in October to 59% in the latest Rasmussen Reports poll previewed for Secrets.

Asked “How likely is it that cheating affected the outcome of the 2020 presidential election?” just 36% said unlikely. What’s more, the largest group, at 40%, said that cheating was “very likely.”

To dispose of the background question, I believe that President Biden won sufficient Electoral Votes to become President of the United States.  Or, in an old expression, "Close Enough for Government Work."

At the same time I believe there was hanky-panky, as in Phildelphia and Atlanta.♠  Enough to swing the election?  I am doubtful.

I expect that, in reality, the average voter believes there is a certain level of corruption in voting.  When they are told the voting is totally clean they become doubtul of that claim to purity.  That is what happened in the 2020 November Election. The People reverted to that old Groucho Marks line:  "Who are you going to believe?  Me or your lying eyes?"  The more the Media and the Democratic Party doubled down on the cleanness of the election, the more the average Citizens began to doubt.♥

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  My concern is the way "Poll Watchers" were excluded from the vote counting process.  Why exclude the Poll Watchers?  It could be the vote counters were just irritated with the Poll Watchers.  However, that is petty and looks like the existence of petty dictatorships in some locations, something that brings to mind Tammeny Hall.
♥  I think we see the same thing with regard to COVID-19.  The Federal Government made pronouncements early on that did not pan out.  Rather than acknowleding the early mistakes, "scientists" just changed the story.  However, the average Citizen became a little dubious, and some became very dubious.  This argues for being open and honest and trusting the citizens to understand that things evolve as new information becomes available,

Diversity in Unity

For John, BLUF:  The linked blog post is about the fact that we are a diverse nation and there is no one answer to all problems for all People.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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IT’S ALL RELATIVE

From the Blog According to Hoyt, by Blogger Sarah Hooyt, 22 October 2021.

Here is the lede plus five:

It’s all relative. For instance one of my relatives asked me how I planned to survive if I wouldn’t take the vaccine, and I didn’t snort giggle.  Well, not audibly.  Because she lives in another country and I know how terrified they are.

Then there was the friend skedaddling from NYC to whom I said I was likewise skedaddling from Prison-Colorado and he — audibly!  Rude! — snort giggled, because he said compared to NYC Colorado looked wide open and free.

And that’s part of what I want you guys to realize.  It’s important.

It’s all relative.

There are two important assumptions not to make: Don’t assume the rest of the country is like your little corner of it.  AND don’t assume that the US is just bending over for this.  Not relative to the rest of the world.

Oh, yeah as a third assumption not to make (should I come in again?) don’t assume that the rest of the world is taking it lying down.  Just more than the US from those I know in the rest of the world. And there’s a reason for that.  And it’s important.

Yes, there are folks out there who think the Government (pick your level) has moved beyond the level of believability to the level of "Do as you are told."  We have gone from persuaision to direction.

I thought this was an important paragraph:

Actually that’s the big difference between us and the rest of the world.  The anglosphere is a small caveat either (and I’d like to know how big the resistance actually IS in Australia.  There are leaks around the edges) as they are somewhere between say Europe and us.

Getting vaccination is a decision.  I got vaccinationed as soon as I could, based on my health situation and the situation of those around me.  You should make a thoughtful decision based on your circumstances.  However, while your friends may shun you for not getting the jab, your Government should not be bullying you.  If they can't sell you on the value of the Vaccination they should go back and examine the trail of arguements they are using.

Sadly, President Joe Biden seems to follow the old Navy axiom, "If it doesn't fit, don't forvce it.  You need a bigger hammer."

Remember, Tuesday is election day, not just in Maine and New York City and New Jersey and Virginia, but also here in Lowell.  Send a message to the politicians and the Civil Servants and vote.  If the number of voters goes up then folks in Government wonder why and become more alert and responsive.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Bottle Neck at Terminal island

For John, BLUF:  Our economy is built upon the idea of just in time delivery.  It saves lots of money, but it depends upon things, and people, showing up on time.  Now it is breaking down.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Driving a hard bargain: Haulage firms offer $100,000 salaries and $15,000 bonuses to lure 80,000 truckers and ease supply crisis as empty shipping containers are dumped in streets because California port is full

Here is the sub-headline:

• Trucking companies are offering lucrative incentives to attract more Americans to the trucking industry, where 80,000 jobs need to be filled this year
• One company is offering a $15,000 signup bonus, while others promise six-figure salaries
• But near the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, transportation execs say the problem isn't a lack of drivers - it's mass congestion caused by empty containers
• Steamships are refusing to take back empty containers, and charging trucking companies a per diem to store them
• That is driving some small businesses to close as the logistical situation at the ports worsens
• Head of the California Trucking Association has called for a state of emergency to be imposed
• It all ties into the supply chain chaos that's left cargo ships queueing for weeks to unload goods to trucking companies, which are unable to efficiently move them

From The Daily Mail, by Reporter Michelle Thompson, 21 October 2021, 12:28 EDT.

Here is the lede plus four:

Haulage companies are offering six-figure salaries and $15,000 sign-on bonuses while struggling to attract 80,000 new drivers who are needed to relieve the nation’s supply crisis.

But industry experts said more drivers won’t alleviate the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach backlog, where an empty shipping container fiasco is preventing trucks from moving product to consumers.

Facing an exodus of 600,000 retiring truckers by 2028, the transportation industry is desperate to recruit more people and estimates that 80,000 new hires are needed this year to offset attrition and clear a backed-up supply chain.

‘I can tell you that pretty much every single one of our members – no matter what part of the industry they’re in – is looking for drivers,’ Chris Shimoda, senior vice president of government affairs at the California Trucking Association, told DailyMail.com.

‘They are raising pay across the board, introducing things like signing and retention bonuses, trying to provide more local driving opportunities so that the drivers can be home with their families at night, but it's been a real struggle for several years.’

Some may think this is goinhg to just work itself out, over time.  However, how much time?  I think we can see the Christmas Season going down the tubes.

Maybe not, but the pain of it would be strong.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

A Red Flag

For John, BLUF:  We, as a nation, are filing in our efforts to have our People vaccinated against COVID-19.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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First Workers, Now Blacks:  Democrats’ Betrayals For Big Business Are Piling Up, But Can Republicans Seize It?

Here is the sub-headline:

Now roughly 72 percent of black New York City residents aged 18-44 are banned -- banned -- from entering dining establishments.

From The Federalist, by Christopher Bedford, 1 October 2021.

Picking up on the subheadline:

At a practical level, fighting the virus, I can almost imagine the value of the mandate, except it suggests an underlying problem.  Our Federal Government is not able to sell the solution.  Over the last year and a half they have squandered their reputation.

Worse, the President is a cranky old man who will not tolerate anyone thinking differently from him.  That is not just a bad personality trait. It will work against the success of our Democracy.

And, quoting The Federalist, “Now roughly 72 percent of black New York City residents aged 18-44 are banned -- banned -- from entering dining establishments.”  That sounds like a problem unsolved.  Why are we unable to reach out to our Black Brothers and Sisters and help them see value in Vaccinations?  Or, are the Unvaccinated right and we are wrong and the Vax is bad and we are stupid.  If it was 32% it would be one thing, but it is 72% who haven’t had the jab.  This should be a big red flag and should be causing the Federal Government to rethink its approach.  Alas, ’tint happening.  I think the House Speaker is just as stubborn as the President.  Stubborn leaders are not leaders.  They are dictators..

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

New COVID Variants

For John, BLUF:  The current Administration seems to be generating distractions from the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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CDC Says A New COVID Variant May Be Needed To Effectively Bury Afghanistan News

Here is the sub-headline:

September 8th, 2021 - BabylonBee.com.

Here is the lede plus one:

Officials at the CDC said today that the surprising virulence and persistence of Afghanistan news may require a whole new COVID variant to distract the country from it.

“We’re concerned that the only way to cure the administration of all this bad publicity may be a prolonged, shrieking freak-out over a new COVID variant,” said Dr. Ed Whittle,  Director of the CDC’s Department for the Cultivation of Existential Dread.  “So, we’re working night and day to come up with something really scary that would make the collapse of Afghanistan seem like a Martha’s Vineyard birthday party.”

It is the Babylon Bee, but that doesn't mean it is that far off.  The great Malcom Muggeridge once noted it is hard for sarcasm to stay ahead of reality.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Health of the Nation

For John, BLUF:  For decades we screened immigrants for poor health, and excluded individuals  Now we are told COVID-19 is very dangereous, except for those coming across our Southern Border.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Federal Court Ruling Just Made the Border Crisis Infinitely Worse

From PJ Media, by Reporter Rick Moran, 17 September 2021, 9:34 AM ET.

Here is the lede plus two:

A federal judge in Washington has ordered the government to stop using a public health law to deny families entry into the United States illegally.  U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan gave the government 14 days to appeal before the order is implemented.

Title 42 was instituted in March of 2020 in response to the pandemic.  The law allows for expedited removal of most illegal aliens, including families.

The immediate effect of Sullivan’s ruling will be dire. Families that show up at the border will not be turned away.  Instead, they will be processed and released as they await their court hearing — possibly as long as five years away.

This strikes me as revolutionary.  I remember going to the US Embassy in Manila, The Philippines, and seeing long lines of emigrants outside, holding what appeared to be x-rays.  Why?  Because of tuberculosis.  We were screening folks for infectious diseases.

The article quotes The Wall Street Journal:

In a statement, the ACLU said the policy was unnecessary to control Covid-19 in the U.S. and that the U.S. can safely allow migrants to seek protection.

“President Biden should have ended this cruel and lawless policy long ago, and the court was correct to reject it today,” said Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project.

Does this mean that both the ACLU and Judge Sullivan believe that Vaccination mandates are wrong?

Equally interesting is if the Executive Branch let this one go, without worrying about the consequences, because it aligned with the Administration's immigration policy.

This being Constitution Day, we should ponder, Article 2, Section 3, Clause 6, wherein the president must "take care that the laws be faithfully executed."  Do you think President Biden has ducked his responsibilty by soft peddling the value of this law, passed by Congress?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Exemptions

For John, BLUF:  After promising no Vaccination mandates, a few months back, President Biden has now come out with them.  He hasn't reached everyone, but even so, he has exceeded his Constitutional limits  I hope the US Supreme Court does its job.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Vax Mandate Exceptions

All Governent Employees must get the COVID-19 Vaccindation, as well as workers in businesses with 100 or more employees. For some reason, those in private enterprise may skip the Vaccintion if they submit to a weekly test.♠ 

Now, for the exemptions:

• The humdreds of thousands of illegal immigrants coming across our Southern Border.  They are not being vaccinated.  An exemption, for some reason.
• Postal Workers.  There are some 640,000 Postal Employees.
• Members of Congress, and †heir staffs, are not covered by President Biden's Vaccine Mandate.  They are in a separate branch of Government, as is the Judiciary.
• Then there are businesses, where firms with fewer than 100 employees (thus not part of the President's Mandate) accounted for 98.1% of the some 6 million employer firms in the US.

The President is getting help in his obsession with Vaccinations from Colleges and Universities.  Those institutions, which used to be hotbeds of independent thinking and freedom, have now moved into the area of fascism.  For example, at Rutgers University, in New Jersey, a student taking virtual classes was required to have a COVID-19 Vaccindation.  It appears Zoom has become so good it can transmit diseases,

On the other hand, there are all the unemployed and those not seeking work, which runs to millions of people.  The President's power over them is as yet limited.

I hope the reader is not confused.  I have had my two shots, as has my wife.  We plan on booster shots when are Primary Care Physician says so and they are available.  But, we are in the over 65 category and have some comorbidities.  I understand why some are reluctant to get the Vaccination.  And I respect their right to make their own choices.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Is the Weekly test painful enough that the CDC thinks it will drive people to get the Vaccination?

Vaccine Mandates

For John, BLUF:  President Biden seems to have little tolerence for pushback  If people won't do it his way, he doubles down, the Constitution be damned.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Horrific Outcomes of the Jacobson Case You’re Using to Justify Biden’s Vaccine Mandates

Here is the sub-headline:

Biden is about to find out that he’ll have as hard of a time eradicating freedom and personal choice in this country as trying to eradicate the coronavirus.

From The Hannah H Cox Blog, by Ms Hanna Cox, 10 September 2021.

Here is the lede plus three:

It’s been a hell of a news cycle for bodily autonomy.

The left is in histrionics over the new Texas abortion law that bans the procedure after six weeks, and the rest of us are aghast at Biden’s new executive order forcing private companies to mandate COVID vaccines for their employees.

You’ll find few people in both camps, however, a testament to just how partisan and unprincipled our country has truly become.  That’s a tangent for another time, though.  Right now, I want to talk about the legality of Biden’s mandate.

Even before the ink dried one could hear the lawsuits being filed.

The legality of mandating vaccines is based on the 1905 case, Jacobson v. Massachusetts.  This originated in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and made its way to the US Supreme Court.

Then there is the 1927 case, Buck v. Bell.  At the height of the Eugenics movement.  This ruling, written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., of Massachusetts, said it was legal to sterilize those who were "feebleminded."

On the other hand, we have Roe v Wade, which legalized abortion.♠  How does "Our Bodies! Our Choice!" fit into this?

If the Courts empower and encourage President Biden in this area we will see a further erosion of our civil rights in the United States and we will become a little more like the People's Republic of China.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  There was no abortion and the name of the child, a daughter was recently revealed.