NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

What Spreads Faster Than Covid? Vaccination. Our last pointless ideological fight may be over whether the vaccinated are spreaders. Holman W. Jenkins

Posted By on December 4th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-spreads-faster-than-covid-19-vaccination-distribution-breakthrough-infection-omicron-11638570230?mod=opinion_lead_pos8

It deserves a wow. Some 57% of the human population has received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, and 45% are fully vaccinated, in less than a year.

This means the vaccine has spread approximately twice as fast as the virus, never mind that the virus itself is an exceptionally fast spreader that organizes its own distribution without help from trained administrators and sub-zero storage.

Add that infection also offers a kind of vaccination, so now two kinds of resistance to Covid-19 have been spreading with unprecedented rapidity through the human population.

Numerous were the complaints about how Delta spoiled the summer even for vaccinated people, but it’s not clear why this was so. Vaccination takes away Covid’s deadliest property, its novelty to the human immune system, turning it into the equivalent of a cold or flu. Nobody lets the prospect of a cold or flu spoil their holiday (though perhaps they should for the sake of their elderly in-laws).

The point is not frivolous. It suggests why, rather than a dark new chapter, the Omicron variant may be our last big wallow in hysteria, from which we will awake slightly red-faced in the morning.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

John Eastman is right to resist the January 6 committee The congressional inquiry would be better named a congressional vendetta Roger Kimball

Posted By on December 4th, 2021

https://spectatorworld.com/topic/john-eastman-right-resist-january-6-committee/

The name of the game Congress is playing with its partisan inquisition is intimidation. John Eastman is right to resist. Every American who cares about our Constitutional rights should support him.

John Eastman, a former member of Donald Trump’s legal team, has just declined, through his attorney, to cooperate with the congressional inquiry into the events of January 6, 2021 at the Capitol.

I think he was right to do so, for several reasons.

In the first place, the congressional inquiry would be better named a congressional vendetta. Its composition is heavily weighted towards Democrats. The committee includes no “ranking members” of the opposition as the rules stipulate, hence the frequent invocation of the “Star Chamber” in descriptions of the inquiry. It is less an investigation than an inquisition.

Given the frankly biased structure of the congressional panel, Eastman, like Steve Bannon before him, was right to decline to testify or provide documents to aid in his own prosecution.

For readers who are a little fuzzy about just who John Eastman is, the relevant fact is that (apart from being a brilliant constitutional lawyer at the storied Claremont Institute), Eastman wrote the now infamous memo, originally a two-pager, later expanded to six pages, in December 2020 outlining various strategies that team Trump might consider in response to the 2020 election.

It is not, as widely reported, a scheme to “overturn” the election. It is an effort to layout various ways in which an election that was widely seen to be corrupt could be lawfully challenged.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

The comic cries of climate apocalypse — 50 years of spurious scaremongering By Bjorn Lomborg

Posted By on December 4th, 2021

https://nypost.com/2021/11/30/the-comic-cries-of-climate-apocalypse-50-years-of-spurious-scaremongering/

The recent UN climate summit in Glasgow was predictably branded our “last chance” to tackle the “climate catastrophe” and “save humanity.” Like many others, US climate envoy John Kerry warned us that we have only nine years left to avert most of “catastrophic” global warming.

But almost every climate summit has been branded the last chance. Setting artificial deadlines to get attention is one of the most common environmental tactics. We have actually been told for the past half-century that time has just about run out.

This message is not only spectacularly wrong but leads to panic and poor policies.

Two years ago, Britain’s Prince Charles announced that we had just 18 months left to fix climate change. This wasn’t his first attempt at deadline-setting. Ten years earlier, he told an audience that he “had calculated that we have just 96 months left to save the world.”

In 2004, a major UK newspaper told us that without drastic action, climate change would destroy civilization by 2020. By that time, it foretold, major European cities would be sunk beneath rising seas, Britain would be plunged into a “Siberian” climate as the Gulf Stream shut down and mega-droughts and famines would lead to widespread rioting and nuclear war. Not quite what happened last year.

And these predictions have been failing for decades. In 1989, the head of the UN’s Environment Program declared we had just three years to “win — or lose — the climate struggle.” In 1982, the UN was predicting planetary “devastation as complete, as irreversible as any nuclear holocaust” by the year 2000. Indeed, at the very first UN environment summit in Stockholm in 1972, almost 50 years ago, the organizer and later first UN Environment Program director warned that we had just 10 years to avoid catastrophe.

In 1972, the world was also rocked by the first global environmental scare, the so-called “Limits to Growth” report. The authors predicted with great confidence that most natural resources would run out within a few decades while pollution would overpower humanity. At the time, Time magazine described the future as a desolate world with few gaunt survivors tilling freeway center strips, hoping to raise a subsistence crop. Life magazine expected “urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution” by the mid-1980s.

The scares were, of course, spectacularly misguided on both counts. They got it wrong because they overlooked the greatest resource of all, human ingenuity. We don’t just use up resources but innovate ever-smarter ways of making resources more available. At the same time, technology solves many of the most persistent pollution problems, as did the catalytic converter. This is why air pollution in rich countries has been declining for decades.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Women’s Tennis Has Balls. Does Wall Street? Cowardice and courage on the question of China. Bari Weiss

Posted By on December 4th, 2021

https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/womens-tennis-has-balls-does-wall

China is ruled by an increasingly totalitarian regime that uses technology to spy on its citizens. It is, at this moment, carrying out a genocide against its Uyghur Muslim population. It regularly vanishes people who dare to dissent. And it wants to control the terms of debate, politics and business worldwide.

Having disappeared doctors and scientists who tried to blow the whistle on Covid-19, the Chinese Communist Party has now targeted Peng Shuai, a tennis star who accused a former top Chinese government official of sexual assault. “Even if it is like an egg hitting a rock, or if I am like a moth drawn to the flame, inviting self-destruction, I will tell the truth about you,” she wrote on the social media platform Weibo. Then her message disappeared. And so did she.

These are facts discoverable to any American with an internet connection, which the hedge fund investor Ray Dalio surely has in his Greenwich, Connecticut, mansion.

Smart guy, one imagines, to be trusted with managing $150 billion of other people’s money, as his company Bridgewater does. But when Dalio was asked yesterday on CNBC about China’s human rights record, and how he thinks about it with regard to his investments, he feigned ignorance.

“I can’t be an expert in those types of things,” he told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin. “I really have no idea.” He went on to compare China’s government to that of a strict parent, and offered some mush of moral relativism about how the United States does bad things, too. This from a man who wrote a book called “Principles.”

You really should watch the whole thing:

BOOKS, CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB Comments turned off

New Book Exposes Fauci’s Mythological Scientific Acumen Jordan Schachtel

Posted By on December 4th, 2021

https://brownstone.org/articles/new-book-exposes-faucis-mythological-scientific-acumen/

I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of Dr. Scott Atlas’s new book, “A Plague Upon Our House,” which comes out on December 7.

In reading the account from his tenure inside of the Trump Administration’s COVID response team, acting as something similar to 45’s “COVID czar,” I was repeatedly struck by the seeming lack of intellectual capacity possessed by Anthony Fauci. I have certainly heard the rumors and seen Fauci’s public persona on display, and in his book, Atlas removes all doubt about Anthony Fauci the man. He confirms the clear reality that Fauci is just not a very bright person.

Like most career government bureaucrats, the routinely labeled “nation’s top infectious disease expert” does not live up to his corporate press and ruling class identity. Similar to his colleagues in Government Health, Fauci reveals himself as a midwit in his very best moments, but those moments do not occur in anything resembling a scientific proving ground.

Rather, Fauci and his compatriots flourish in Washington, D.C. because they are masters of media manipulation and the federal government bureaucracy. According to Dr. Atlas, Fauci, routinely exposed his lack of intellectual capacity and scientific expertise.

In one such White House COVID Task Force meeting, Atlas discloses that Fauci could not pronounce a medical term, while claiming that it was a proven and worrying symptom of COVID-19.

Atlas writes:

I politely listened as Dr. Fauci spoke about the study. He quickly jumped to what he often did—the alarmist interpretation of “how dangerous this virus is.” He then moved to other things “we don’t know,” speculating about potential problems from this virus. He then garbled out something that was almost unrecognizable. He had grossly mispronounced a medical term.

I leaned forward, struck by what I heard. I interrupted. “What did you just say?” He stopped immediately, frozen. No reply.

I repeated my question. “What did you just say? What are you trying to pronounce?” Fauci just looked at me. The room was silent. Then I said, “Are you trying to say encephalomyelitis?”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

The ‘First Iran War’ is just around the corner The next war won’t be a “Third Lebanon War.” Iran plans to strike Israel from Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, Judea and Samaria, internally with some Arab Israelis’ help, and through long-range missiles from Iran and Yemen. Nir Barkat

Posted By on December 4th, 2021

https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/the-first-iran-war/

As Jews and Israelis, these days are nothing short of bizarre. Iran, a terrorist state behind a global axis of evil, is once again having the last laugh. It is hard to watch as the US and Europe politely attempt to reach a deal with Tehran at the cost of an existential threat to Israel.

The murmurings in Europe of providing Iran an opportunity to take advantage of negotiations along with American ambiguity toward Israel on this issue are a warning sign to Jerusalem. The removal of sanctions will see billions of dollars pour into the Revolutionary Guard coffers for the country’s transformation into a nuclear state. No less dangerous, it will boost their confidence ahead of military action against Israel on multiple fronts.

The next war on our northern front won’t be a “Third Lebanon War” but the “First Iran War.” The Iranians are planning to strike Israel on six fronts: Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria, internally with the assistance of some Arab Israelis, and through the use of long-range missiles from Iran and Yemen. This will be a conventional war, but it will be far from straightforward.

To date, Iran has succeeded in establishing a regional axis of evil through the creation of a ring of armed divisions around the State of Israel.

In practice, Tehran is working toward the kind of warfare it is comfortable with, meaning far from its borders. Hundreds of thousands of Iranian missiles are dispersed on Israel’s borders, and they are launched in accordance with Tehran’s interests from time to time.

The Iranian working model is to build a security network in the form of Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist organizations.

Change the equation

EDUCATION Comments turned off

A PRO-PARENT EDUCATION AGENDA

Posted By on December 4th, 2021

https://christopherrufo.com/?mc_cid=d89864f563&mc_eid=9bde3e8efb

Parents in Virginia and across America are acutely aware of the cultural changes taking place in society, most notably occurring in public schools. We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, believe that state lawmakers should empower parents with insight and influence over their child’s education. 

We therefore call for state legislators to enact policies that families and students desperately need to reject the racial prejudice inherent in Critical Race Theory, maximize transparency around what is taught in K-12 classrooms, and secure education choice.

In other words, policymakers must listen to the voices of the parents who spoke in this past election.

Every generation is responsible for transmitting the lesson that America offers equality under the law and the opportunity for human flourishing to everyone regardless of their race, ethnicity, or country of origin.

Public schools are a crucial setting where children should be taught this lesson.

Schools occupy a unique place in their local communities as the institutions where policy and culture meet: Lawmakers provide taxpayer resources to teachers with the implicit understanding that they will impart lessons about reading, writing, and math, along with equality under the law, to their students. We trust the children learning these lessons to apply what they learn as they become the new parents, neighbors, employees, and lawmakers.

Around the country, however, many professional associations and some educators are betraying taxpayers and parents, not infrequently with the support of policymakers. They do so by supplementing lessons about math and reading and civic responsibilities with intolerant, racially discriminatory pedagogy. 

An avowedly Marxist worldview known as “critical theory” has spread within American culture. Over the past several decades, its racially biased application, Critical Race Theory, which “questions the very foundations of the liberal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitutional law” has taken root. The goal of CRT, according to the discipline’s own godfather, was that “scholarly resistance will lay the groundwork for wide-scale resistance.” Critical Race Theorist Gloria Ladson-Billings, the professor credited by NPR with bringing CRT to education, has declared that it’s hard to find a social studies textbook that doesn’t include or promote these concepts.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Kamala cuts a TV ad for the GOP By Thomas Lifson

Posted By on December 3rd, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/12/kamala_cuts_a_tv_ad_for_the_gop.html

It’s a safe bet that the GOP is going to replicate the 1994 “Republican Revolution” strategy that successfully flipped the House of Representatives to Republican control after 40 years in the wilderness of seemingly permanent minority status. Newt Gingrich nationalized the issues and came up with the Contract for America, promising change to a country unhappy with the early direction of the Clinton administration.

There may or may not be a new version of the contract with America, by unhappiness with inflation and Covid repressive measures are national issues that the GOP can capitalize on. I expect national advertising campaigns to vote GOP for House and Senate races.

Kamala Harris just provided an ideal 14 seconds of video for the GOP to use. The vice president is in effect denouncing the Biden-Harris administration policies (“It’s not right”) and then describing the pain they have inflicted.

It doesn’t get politically stupider than this.

Youi can bet that today more Democrats are thinking about how to get her out of the line of succession to the presidency than were contemplating bumping her out of office a couple of days ago.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Tehran Seeks a ‘Better Deal’ By Shoshana Bryen

Posted By on December 3rd, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/12/tehran_seeks_a_better_deal_.html

“Iran is prepared to reach a ‘good agreement’ quickly, with the goal of protecting the Iranian people’s rights and interests,” the Iranian foreign minister announced as Ali Bagheri Kani, the country’s chief negotiator, was arriving in Vienna for another round of nuclear negotiations. Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper posits that the Islamic Republic is coming to Vienna to reap economic and political benefits for its people.

Go with it for a moment. Accept that Tehran only wants to take care of its people and seeks a better deal than the one that imposed sanctions, limitations, and inspections.

But be careful.

Western media and politicians like to date Iranian cheating from the Trump administration pullout of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). But Iran cheated on the terms of negotiations with both the IAEA and the P5+1 before, during and after the deal. No less an authority than President Barack Obama said after cheating on agreements with the IAEA over the Fordow site was exposed in 2009, “As the international community knows, this is not the first time that Iran has concealed information about its nuclear program.”

The JCPOA was intended to halt all enrichment at Fordow and make it an R&D facility. Now, Iran has acknowledged not only continuing enrichment, but at higher levels with advanced centrifuges barred by the JCPOA.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Foiling a Chinese Military Operation in the United Arab Emirates The Middle East becomes a battleground for U.S.-Chinese competition. Michael Ledeen

Posted By on December 3rd, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/12/china-michael-ledeen/

China has long held a distinct advantage in the field of competitive intelligence, with its enormous edge in population.  This enables the People’s Republic to penetrate anywhere with a substantial ethnic Chinese population bloc with consummate ease, either by offering substantial amounts of money to potential allies or threatening to crack down on reluctant collaborators.

The Chinese have an ancient drive toward ethnic unity, and they do not accept the division of their people into tribes or clans. The current dictator, Xi, regards this unity in racial terms.  He believes that all Chinese share common characteristics, wherever they are born or raised.  Hence Xi believes that all Chinamen owe obeisance to the rule of China itself.  

It was no great surprise, then, when the United States discovered China at the heart of an espionage ring in the United Arab Emirates. The U.A.E. is one of the closest United States allies in the Middle East and has long manufactured American weapons and ammunition parts, but until recently there were only suspicions, not facts, to support the suspicions.  So far as Washington could tell, the U.A.E. was unaware of the military content of the Chinese project. So far as Washington could tell, the U.A.E. was unaware of the suspicions.  As the Wall Street Journal put the matter recently, the Middle East increasingly appears to be a primary ground for U.S.-Chinese competition.

The Chinese effort to penetrate the U.A.E. began like many of its previous espionage ventures, with considerable investment.  They apparently hoped to expand their outreach into directly manufacturing American equipment.  But their plot was discovered by American counter-espionage in time to prevent its fulfillment, and the plot was foiled.