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July 2020

ON MASKS: EDWARD CLINE

https://ruleofreason.blogspot.com/2020/07/no-masks.html

BRENDAN O’NEILL  

“The New Normal. These are the three most chilling words in public discussion right now. Masks, keeping our distance from each other, avoiding overseas travel, half-empty pubs, nods of the head taking the place of handshakes and hugs… these are all part of The New Normal….It’s clear now that the regime of social distancing has little to do with Covid-19. Rather, it’s the latest manifestation of contemporary society’s culture of distrust, suspicion and separation, where we’re always encouraged to see our fellow citizens as dangerous and diseased, liable to harm us with their words, their come-ons, their second-hand smoke, etc.”

Nor to mention the absence of masks, which if one is not wearing one will precipitate the instant deaths of customers at the neighboring table, even as they sip their latte. 

For relief from this insane totalitarian culture, I repair to several of my bought movies, such as: North by Northwest,, The Manchurian Candidate, Gladiator, and a dozen more, such as Shane and High Noon.

The big attraction for these and other films is the absence of face masks in any of the stories. They are the “Normal” for me, not “New,” or regurgitated assertions of “fighting” the virus to mandate obedience and “patriotism,” which are political impositions and aspirations, hiving on totalitarian opportunism if anything else..I need  to see these films as a relief from the constant threat of being punished for not wearing a mask (which I will not wear; I’ll starve first) and the incessant announcements  and reminders to wear masks and maintain one’s “social distance.”

Democrat Attorney General Keith Ellison : RAPE No Longer Concern of Police July 21, 2020 By Stephen Frank

http://www.capoliticalreview.com/capoliticalnewsandviews/democrat-attorney-general-rape-no-longer-concern-of-police/

Keith Ellison is the Attorney General of Minnesota.  On numerous occasions he has been charged and investigated for sexual assault.  The Bill Clinton of the mid-West.  Now he wants to make sure others get away with sexual assault and rape.  He wants social workers, not cops investigating rapes and assaults on women.

“Ellison stated: “If you’re a woman who’s been a victim of a sexual assault, and the assailant ran away, wouldn’t you rather talk to somebody who is trained in helping you deal with what you’re dealing with, as opposed to somebody whose main training is that they know how to use a firearm? Right?”

In a tweet one user was appalled by the attorney general’s disregard for police officer capabilities, writing, “How is this guy an AG? Doesn’t he know they have special units trained to deal with sexual assault victims. What an insult – ‘their main training is how to use a weapon.’ Yes, help the victim, but catch the perp! Good grief.”

GOP rapid response director Steve Guest tweeted his prediction should Ellison and the radical left win in November, “This is Joe Biden’s Democrat Party and a reminder that you won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.”

Defund the police and rape becomes a daily event—any women that votes for Biden is voting to put their lives at risk under the Democrats.

Another question is whether Keith Ellison can be considered a credible and unbiased voice on the issue of violence against women.

Another ‘Mostly Peaceful’ Protest: 49 Chicago Police Officers Injured By Carmine Sabia Jr

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/carminesabia/2020/07/21/another-mostly-peaceful-protest-49-chicago-police-officers-injured-n669341

Chicago has devolved into something that resembles the opening scene of the Sylvester Stallone movie Demolition Man where Los Angeles is crime-ridden and on fire.

The lack of care for the law, or law enforcement, is at an all-time high in the real world and on Friday night 49 Chicago police officers where injured in a scrap with protesters, The Daily Mail reported.

The Chicago Police Department released the video of the incident this week as the city’s mayor, Lori Lightfoot, continues to insist that she does not want help from the feds and President Donald Trump.

When the protest got to the statue of Christopher Columbus, which the officers were protecting, the crowd began hurling objects at the police.

Chicago Police Superintendent David O. Brown said that the mob of protesters “deliberately sought to injure officers.”

The Two-Step of the Elite Professors By Mark Bauerlein

https://amgreatness.com/2020/07/21/the-two-step-of-the-elite-professors/

The question to pose to our humanities signatories is this: why have your fields proven so discouraging to African Americans?  It takes quite a bit of cluelessness and self-regard to deflect your poor performance onto others.

Grave calls for the end of systemic racism are echoing throughout academia, broadcast in open letters and in-house emails, official declarations on college websites and commentaries in campus newspapers, pledges by college presidents, and promises by professors to remedy longstanding injustice. If one were to grade these self-righteous expressions, they would earn a D- for credibility, but an A+ for brazenness.

The lack of credibility we can prove by consulting the Left’s own measure of disparate outcomes. The now-famous list of demands issued by a good portion of the Princeton University faculty in an open letter to President Christopher Eisgruber has several signatories from humanities departments. Among the demands is this:

Redress the demographic disparity on Princeton’s faculty immediately and exponentially by hiring more faculty of color.

We might point out the illegality of reserving jobs by race, but the credibility problem lies elsewhere. In order for systemic racism to exist in the hiring process at a prestigious university such as Princeton, there has to have been a pipeline of African American job candidates who have faced discrimination. If a group identity is not proportionately represented in the professoriate and more individuals in that group need to be hired, we presume that a pool of persons from that group is waiting to be tapped for a job.

But here is the situation in the humanities. According to the Digest of Education Statistics, in 2016-2017, of the 1,347 individuals who earned a Ph.D. in English, only 54 of them were “black.” That’s a rate of 4 percent. The following year yielded a better number, but not by much: 65 out of 1,295 doctorates (5 percent). Both ratios fall way below the national African American share of the population, just below 13 percent. 

In foreign languages and literatures (several professors in these areas signed the Princeton letter), things are much, much worse. In 2016-2017, the tally was 12 black honorees in a total of 1,168 doctorates granted—barely 1 percent. The following year’s result: 20 out of 1,213.

Common Sense About China By Robert Curry

https://amgreatness.com/2020/07/21/common-sense-about-china/

A review “Communist China’s War Inside America,” by Brian Kennedy (Encounter, 56

China’s goal, Brian Kennedy writes, is “demoralizing the United States to the point where America believes that further resistance is futile.” They can’t succeed without the help of America’s elite.

Something really strange is going on in America today. If you have wondered why political correctness requires you to avoid using the word “Chinese” with regard to a virus that came from China, then I have the book for you. It’s Communist China’s War Inside America by my friend Brian Kennedy. The good news is that the book—the latest in Encounter Books’ “Broadside” series—is very brief (the main text is only 49 pages). It is also written in a beautiful, clear style. Despite its brevity, it provides all you need to understand the nature of the Chinese threat to America, and to understand what can be done and must be done.

Kennedy gets straight to the point, writing that the Chinese 

are confident that America has grown corrupt, and that its political, financial, and cultural elites are in near-complete sympathy with the globalist project of an interdependent world, with the P.R.C. [the People’s Republic of China] at its head.

And make no mistake: the Chinese have ample evidence that their confidence in America’s elites is not misplaced. 

I have a story from my own life that illustrates Kennedy’s point. Recalling what it was like before the pandemic panic took total control of American life will help to set the stage. Back then, the media, the celebrities, and the politicians had not yet mastered the talking points of the COVID-19 narrative. During one of those early days, a local radio news personality announced with great excitement that she had secured an interview with a prominent epidemiologist from the most prestigious university in our region. After thanking the professor profusely for granting the interview, the reporter asked the obvious question, the one that was on my mind at that time: “What is the difference between this flu and the Spanish flu of 1918?” 

Oregon’s Dem Senators and Portland’s Mob The Left’s romance with destruction and mayhem intensifies. Joseph Klein

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/07/supporters-portlands-mob-joseph-klein/

Oregon Democrat Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley are demanding a full investigation of “the unrequested presence and violent actions of federal forces in Portland.” Law-abiding Oregon citizens are not their primary concern. Neither is the safety of federal personnel trying to protect federal property. These pitiful excuses for public servants, along with other congressional Democrats, are all torn up about the welfare of the rioters who have committed unprovoked assaults on federal enforcement officers standing their ground on federal premises. They pretend not to understand the fundamental difference between constitutionally-protected peaceful assembly and mob violence.

“Oregonians’ demand for answers about this occupying army and its paramilitary assaults in Portland at the direction of Donald Trump and Chad Wolf [Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary] cannot be stonewalled,” Wyden said. “That’s not how it works in a democracy,” Wyden added.

Wrong, Senator Wyden. The real “occupying army” consists of the mobs who have occupied the streets of Portland for more than 50 nights, spreading chaos and destruction. Law-abiding Oregonian citizens are entitled to know why their own state and local police are not protecting their personal security and property.

The United States is a constitutional republic, not a pure democracy. The people rule through their elected representatives, with institutional protections for individuals and minorities from the tyranny of the majority.

The Founding Fathers detested mob rule. “Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint,” Alexander Hamilton wrote in The Federalist Papers, No. 15. “The very idea of the power and the right of the People to establish Government presupposes the duty of every Individual to obey the established Government,” said George Washington in his presidential farewell address.

The Big Surge In Coronavirus Deaths Is A Media-Fed Myth

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/07/22/the-big-surge-in-coronavirus-deaths-is-a-media-fed-myth/

Almost daily now we’ve been reading about how daily deaths from COVID-19 have reached record highs. It’s a scary prospect. But the truth is the mainstream press is grossly misleading the public by misreporting the death counts.

Here’s a typical report, from USA Today a few days ago: “As the outbreak continues to surge across the southern states, Florida, Texas and South Carolina set records for new daily deaths, reporting 156, 129 and 69, respectively.”

ABC News reported that “Nineteen states set single-day records for the most cases this week … Three states set a record today.”

According to PBS in Arizona, the state “on Saturday (July 18) set a record for coronavirus-related deaths reported in one day, with 147, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.”

The last story is particularly illuminating because the website the PBS article links to includes a chart of daily deaths in the state. It lists only three deaths on July 19. What’s more, the chart shows that there hasn’t been a single day in the state where deaths exceeded 65.

So where did that scary 147 number come from? The same place all the other “surging” numbers come from. Each day Arizona and other states file reports on how many people died from COVID-19. It’s not a measure of how many died that day. In most cases, the people died days or even weeks earlier.

Sending in the feds… to Chicago! By Ethel C. Fenig

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/07/sending_in_the_feds_to_chicago.html

After carping and snarking, Chicago’s Mayor Loro Lightfoot reluctantly agrees to receive federal troops that President Trump has offred to send to tame the tidal wave of violence engulfing the Windy City.

On Monday, Chicago’s Mayor, Lori Lightfoot (D–of course) sent a letter to the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, grudgingly agreeing to the president’s offer to send 150 federal agents to the city to help it cope with rising crime, “mostly peaceful” riots and looting, and skyrocketing shootings and murders.

Well, if they must come they can, but, 

“Mayor Lori Lightfoot says Chicago expects influx of federal agents to help city fight violence, ‘but we do not welcome dictatorship’”

Oh, of course not!  Her letter continues 

“What we do not need, and what will certainly make our community less safe is secret, federal agents deployed to Chicago. Any other form of militarized assistance within our borders that would not be within our control or within the direct command of the Chicago Police Department would spell disaster.”

Michelle Malkin beaten by BLM thugs and prevented from speaking at Denver pro-police rally By Peter Barry Chowka

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/07/michelle_malkin_beaten_by_blm_thugs_and_prevented_from_speaking_at_denver_propolice_rally.html

Conservative author and activist Michelle Malkin was brutally assaulted and prevented from speaking as she made her way to the speaker’s platform at a pro-police public rally in downtown Denver on Sunday.  The patriotic event, the 6th Annual Law Enforcement Appreciation Day billed as “family friendly,” was advertised in advance on social media including at Malkin’s Twitter, where she has 2.2 million followers.

Michelle Malkin @michellemalkin

9:32 AM MDT July 18

There are talkers. There are doers. Which one are you? Coloradans: Join @randycorporon @Casper4Colorado @stevereams me & many other patriots downtown Denver 3pm TOMORROW for 6th annual Law Enforcement Appreciation Day. NOW MORE THAN EVER. (Hi @jaredpolis)
 

Malkin was live-streaming the event from her cell phone on Periscope Sunday afternoon as the situation deteriorated after masked thugs wearing Black Lives Matter t-shirts assaulted two speakers and then set upon Malkin.  A diminutive child of immigrants from the Philippines who legally moved to the U.S. in the late 1960s, Malkin, who was born in Philadelphia in 1970, describes herself as a “little brown woman” with a “big mouth.”  Malkin linked to the entire 35-minute long Periscope video at her Twitter feed.

The Vindictive Spirit of St. Louis A progressive prosecutor targets a couple defending themselves.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-vindictive-spirit-of-st-louis-11595373104?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

By now all America knows Mark and Patricia McCloskey from the video showing the St. Louis couple holding legal firearms as they defended themselves and their home from a crowd of protesters trespassing on their property. A politically motivated prosecutor on Monday charged the couple with unlawful use of a weapon.

The felony count is because they pointed their weapons at protesters. Mr. McCloskey said he did so because he was “scared for my life,” and that of his wife. No shots were fired. Yet now prosecutor Kim Gardner is charging them on grounds they made the trespassers fear for their safety.

The good news is that there’s been plenty of official blowback. Missouri Gov. Mike Parson tweeted that “We will not allow law-abiding citizens to be targeted for exercising their constitutional rights.” He has promised a pardon if they’re convicted. Attorney General Eric Schmitt is working to get the case dismissed, noting that, in addition to the U.S. and Missouri constitutions, Missouri law recognizes the “castle doctrine.” This allows residents to use force against intruders, including deadly force, based on self-defense and the notion that your home is your castle.