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Fauci to Media: Stop Trying to Pit Me Against Trump Larry O’Connor

Posted By on March 25th, 2020

https://townhall.com/columnists/larryoconnor/2020/03/24/fauci-to-media-stop-trying-to-pit-me-against-trump-n2565595

Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the Trump Administration’s point players on the Coronavirus Task Force, is sick and tired of media jackals trying to pit him against the president and create division, discord, and distrust within the president’s team and the American people.

Fauci appeared on “Mornings on the Mall” on WMAL radio in Washington, D.C., Tuesday morning and he spoke passionately about how the media has mischaracterized his relationship with the president and has tried to drive a wedge between them.

“It seems like increasingly a bunch of the questions from the media are designed to create a rift between you and the president of the United States,” asked co-host Vince Coglianese, “are you sensing that as the media continually asks you questions about the differences you have with him?”

“That is really unfortunate. I would wish that that would stop because we have a much bigger problem here than trying to point out differences,” Fauci said. “There really, fundamentally at the core when you look at things, there are not differences. The president has listened to what I have said and what the other people on the task force have said. When I’ve made recommendations, he has taken them. He has never countered or overridden me. The idea of pitting one against the other is just not helpful. I wish that would stop and we’d look ahead at the challenge we have to pull together to get over this thing.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Trump’s Coronavirus Response Is Foiling His Enemies Conrad Black

Posted By on March 25th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/03/24/trumps-coronavirus-response-is-foiling-his-enemies/

The president is already unlimbering the economic guns and starting to spike the dreams of those who hope that the economic consequences of the anti-coronavirus measures will lose the administration its reelection.

The political aspect of the coronavirus crisis is developing in a familiar way. The president’s enemies in the media have led the propagation of panic in the country, and have been given enough encouragement to do that from the scientific community, some of whose members are enjoying their 15 minutes of world fame a little more than is seemly.

Trump’s opponents are thus able to swaddle themselves in the legitimacy of science as they hurl their brickbats at the president. As is his custom, the president has given his opponents plenty of ammunition by speaking constantly, leaving a rich trove of contradictory, and in some cases, it turns out after a few days, absurd reflections on the medical and related problems as they unfold.

As is also the well-established custom, his enemies cannot resist embellishing and fabricating. The claim he had disbanded the pandemic response section of the National Security Council is false, as are suggestions that he has ignored or overruled scientific opinion.

The assault on the president’s credibility as an enunciator of facts has had some success, partly because there is some reason to question his attention to facts and partly because he is routinely smeared by his media enemies.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Cannibal Man from Wuhan Lessons on immigration, law, and terrorism. Lloyd Billingsley

Posted By on March 25th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/03/cannibal-man-wuhan-lloyd-billingsley/

Vince Weiguang Li was born in Dandong, People’s Republic of China, on April 30, 1968, and graduated from University of Wuhan Institute of Technology with a degree in computer science. From 1994-1998 he reportedly worked as a software engineer in Beijing, but in Canada, where Li immigrated in 2001, he worked at menial jobs, fast-food restaurants, Wal-Mart and such. Li became a Canadian citizen in 2006, and on July 30, 2008, he boarded a Greyhound bus for Winnipeg.

Li sat next to Timothy McLean, 22, returning from work at a summer fair. Li suddenly brandished a large knife and began stabbing McLean in the chest. The larger, stronger man killed McLean then cut off his head, displaying it like a trophy to terrified passengers outside the halted bus.

Li frightened off would-be heroes then reentered the bus, where he dismembered McLean and began eating his victim’s innards. Li had no gun but a heavily armed Royal Canadian Mounted Police squad did not force entry and take down the murderer. Instead they waited several hours until Li broke through a window. The “Canadian cannibal,” as headlines described him, was then subdued and arrested. Officers declined to identify the killer or the victim.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Muslim Priorities in a Dangerous Pandemic Faith in Allah versus precautions against infection. Anjuli Pandavar

Posted By on March 25th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/03/muslim-priorities-dangerous-pandemic-anjuli-pandavar/

Yesterday I popped into hospital to have a recovering wound on my leg checked. The pedestrian entrance had been blocked off, with a temporary field hospital set up right on the road. The doctors at the entrance wanted to know whether I had any of the COVID-19 symptoms. I did not, but asked them to check anyway. I’m clear. It’s safe to continue reading.

Had I still been a Muslim, this very simple no-brainer encounter with doctors would have  thrown up any number of complications:

1. I might’ve objected to being asked such a question because I’m a Muslim and Allah protects me. They should ask such questions of infidels.

2. I might’ve refused to be checked, objecting that Shari’a determines that a Muslim shall not submit to an infidel.

3. I might’ve refused to be checked on the grounds that my faith is strong. As a Muslim, dying of a virus benefits me as I become a martyr and will have a good Afterlife.

4. If they told me that I might infect others, I would say that it is my duty as a Muslim to adhere to the doctrine of al-wala’ wa’l-bara’. If it is Muslims I’m infecting, Allah will take care of them. If I’m infecting infidels, then Allah will be pleased with me.

5. Had I previously seen sheikh Saajid Lipham’s Thoughts on Coronavirus (COVID-19) video of a couple of days ago, I would have asked myself what my priorities are: this life or the next life? Who knows how I would’ve answered that question? The point is that had I still been a Muslim, the distinct possibility exists that I would’ve prioritised the “next life” of this one, and refused the test.

6. Had I previously seen sheikh Yasir Qadhi’s Advice in Light of Coronavirus (COVID-19) video of last week, I might’ve lectured the arrogant doctors that no matter what they do, if Allah decrees that we will all die of the virus, then we will all die of the virus. If Allah decrees that we will all be cured, then we will all be cured, even if we all infect one another. I might then have turned around and walked away, feeling sorry for the poor fools who do not have Islam.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Where Is Joe Biden’s Leadership? He calls coronavirus aid a ‘slush fund’ and echoes Nancy Pelosi.

Posted By on March 25th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/where-is-joe-bidens-leadership-11585091731?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

Amid the coronavirus lockdown, Joe Biden is now running a digital front-porch campaign. In a video streamed from his home in Delaware on Monday, Mr. Biden said he would focus on “what we should do to get this response fixed.”

The remarks that followed weren’t encouraging. He characterized the Senate’s coronavirus relief bill as “a plan that let big corporations off the hook,” and “a $500 billion slush fund for corporations, with almost no conditions.” This rhetoric about slush funds is straight from the antibusiness left.

Does Mr. Biden not understand the problem that companies are facing? They have to figure out how to remain solvent until the health crisis ends, otherwise nobody will be left to turn the lights back on. Under Nancy Pelosi’s coronavirus bill, companies that take federal aid would be put under a permanent $15 minimum wage. Adding such strings to emergency funding will make businesses reluctant to accept the relief, even if they really need it.

Mr. Biden went on to insist that “Social Security checks need to be boosted now” and “student debt should be forgiven for now.” He had more details in a Sunday tweet, saying that any coronavirus relief legislation “should forgive a minimum of $10,000/person of federal student loans, as proposed by Senator Warren and colleagues.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Private Industry Mobilizes Against the Coronavirus The feds don’t need to nationalize the economy to fight Covid-19.

Posted By on March 25th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/private-industry-mobilizes-against-the-coronavirus-11585091775?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

President Trump can’t do right by some critics no matter what he does. For three years he’s been denounced as a reckless authoritarian, and now he’s attacked for not being authoritarian enough by refusing to commandeer American industry. The truth is that private industry is responding to the coronavirus without command and control by the federal government.

Last week Mr. Trump invoked the 1950 Defense Production Act that lets a President during a national emergency order business to manufacture products for national defense, set wage and price controls and allocate materials. On Tuesday the Federal Emergency Management Agency used the Korean War-era law for the first time in this crisis to procure and distribute testing kits and face masks.

But Democrats want the Administration to take over much more of the private economy. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Sunday tweeted that the federal government should “nationalize the medical supply chain” and “order companies to make gowns, masks and gloves.” He has been echoed by Democratic governors and leaders in Congress.

Yet businesses across America are already chipping in where they can. Aerospace manufacturer Honeywell plans to hire 500 workers at its plant in Rhode Island, which currently produces safety goggles, to make millions of N95 face masks for medical professionals. 3M has doubled its global output of N95 masks and this week is sending 500,000 respirators to hot spots in the U.S.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

White House, Congress Reach Deal on $2 Trillion Relief Package for COVID-19 By Mimi Nguyen Ly

Posted By on March 25th, 2020

https://www.theepochtimes.com/congress-reaches-deal-on-2-trillion-relief-package-for-covid-19_3284826.html

The White House and U.S. congressional leaders in the Senate reached an agreement on a $2 trillion relief package amid the COVID-19 pandemic, White House official Eric Ueland said shortly after midnight on Wednesday.

Congress earlier passed an $8.3 billion emergency spending package (pdf) over the CCP virus in early March that Trump signed into law on March 6. The legislation enables funding to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 and other prevention measures.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are done. We have a deal,” he said.

The text of the deal was not expected to be available until later on Wednesday.

The package would give direct payments of up to $3,000 to most U.S. families, and provide some $367 billion to a program for small-business loans to help them keep making payroll as workers are forced to stay home due to “stay at home” orders in several states across the country.

The package also includes a $500 billion fund for guaranteed, subsidized loans to help larger industries, $250 billion for expanded unemployment aid, and $75 billion for hospitals.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Pelosi-Schumer Coronavirus Contagion Democratic leaders kill a rescue bill under pressure from the left

Posted By on March 24th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-pelosi-schumer-contagion-11585006077

What a spectacle. Much of America is quarantined at home, the public is so panicked there’s a run on toilet paper, the country desperately wants reassurance, and Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer decide to take a bipartisan rescue bill as a political hostage.

That’s the display of Democratic leadership in a crisis the nation received on Monday as Senate Democrats blocked a $1.8 trillion bill that has urgent money for workers, hospitals, small business and, yes, even larger companies threatened by the forcible shutdown of the U.S. economy. When America most needs bipartisan cooperation, Democrats add to the economic uncertainty by putting their partisan interests above the needs of the country.

***

Democrats are lucky the Federal Reserve chose Monday to deploy its biggest financial guns so far, or the markets might have taken an even bigger fall amid Washington’s dysfunction. Equities still fell by 3% or so, but investors took some comfort in the Fed’s offer to buy as many mortgage securities and Treasurys as needed to calm the panic. The mortgage-securities market has been strained as sellers who need cash struggle to find willing buyers.

MOVIES AND TELEVISION Comments turned off

The Logic of Pottersville By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on March 24th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/03/coronavirus-recalls-logic-pottersville-its-a-wonderful-life/#slide-1

It is a wonderful life.

In director Frank Capra’s 1946 holiday classic movie It’s a Wonderful Life, an initial bank panic sweeps the small town of Bedford Falls. Small passbook account holders rush to George Bailey’s family-owned Bailey Building and Loan to demand the right to cash out all of their deposits — a sudden run that would destroy the lending cooperative and its ability to issue mortgages or preserve the savings accounts of the small town.

The villain of the story, Henry F. Potter, who is a cash-laden, though miserly rival banker, played brilliantly by Lionel Barrymore, offers to buy up the depositors’ shares in the Building and Loan — but at a steep 50 percent discount.

Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) tries to explain to his panicked cooperative depositors the logic of their frenzy, with the exclamation, “Potter isn’t selling. Potter’s buying! And why? Because we’re panicky, and he’s not.”

Capra’s post–Depression era movie, even in its black-and-white morality, reminds us that, in crisis, the majority has limited liquidity and cash. And sooner rather than later they must sell assets — property, stocks, shares, and household goods — to operate their businesses or keep their homes until things pick up. In a real depression, those with the least cash fail first and in great numbers.

And the minority who do have cash are always willing to buy, even in a depression, albeit at their price, which is usually steeply discounted. Panic, not logic, eventually takes over the collective mind, as we now see with the downward spiral of the current stock market and the hoarding of goods otherwise in plentiful supply.

The stock market descends in part because sellers need liquidity and think they will have less of it tomorrow, while cagey buyers believe they will sell for even less in 24 hours — and stock managers who sell more than buy conclude that there is not yet enough data or conjecture to convince the terrified public that the virus is either manageable or will turn out to be more analogous to 2009 rather than 1918.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

What a Doctor and Congressman (Mark Green, M.D. R- Tenn District 7)Has to Say About COVID-19 Rachel del Guidice

Posted By on March 24th, 2020

https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/03/24/we-still-have-to-be-vigilant-er-doctor-and-

““Americans should know that the vast majority … of the people who get COVID-19 are going to be fine,” says Rep. Mark Green.”

Mark Edward Green is an American politician, physician, and retired U.S. Army Major who currently represents Tennessee’s 7th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives.

Besides being a congressman, Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., is an emergency room physician and Amy special operations veteran. He joins me today on The Daily Signal Podcast to discuss his perspective on the coronavirus pandemic, what the Senate’s relief package gets right and wrong, and why the U.S. shouldn’t be dependent on China for pharmaceuticals and medical supplies. Read the lightly edited transcript, pasted below, or listen on the podcast:

Rachel del Guidice: I’m joined today on The Daily Signal Podcast by Congressman Mark Green of Tennessee. Congressman, it’s great to have you back on The Daily Signal Podcast.

Rep. Mark Green: Hey, thanks for having me.

Del Guidice: Given your background in medicine as an emergency room physician, and what’s on the minds and hearts of all Americans right now is the whole coronavirus pandemic, what is your perspective overall on everything that’s going on?