REPUBLICAN SENATORS HOPING CROCODILE EATS THEM LAST: GOP Senators Propose Scrapping Columbus Day, Adding Juneteenth Federal Holiday.
Related: Did the Portland elk statue set on fire last night own slaves and fight for the Confederacy?
(Classical allusion in headline.)
TRUST IS PUBLIC HEALTH’S MOST IMPORTANT ASSET, AND THEY SQUANDERED IT WITHOUT A THOUGHT IN THE NAME OF EXPEDIENCY: The Coronavirus Credibility Gap: Politicians and experts sow distrust with double standards on protests and dissembling about masks.
Political leaders and health officials have often invoked “science” to justify decisions manifestly guided by their personal preferences. That costs them credibility. Restoring public confidence will require acknowledging their role in politicizing the pandemic, yielding to accommodations and sensible alternatives in the areas of greatest controversy, and focusing on the widely supported goal of not overwhelming hospitals, rather than less meaningful metrics such as increases in Covid-19 cases.
One of the earliest signs of politicization was the broad animus directed at protesters who objected to the lockdowns. In a country where liberty and free expression are as fundamental as air and water, it is remarkable how casually political leaders and health officials disparaged and banned their activities—and even targeted protesters for prosecution. Politics was also at play when New York Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered police in Brooklyn to break up a crowd of mourners who gathered for a Hasidic Jewish funeral, warning that their actions were “unacceptable” and threatening to arrest them.
Contrast this with the approach that many of the same political leaders and public-health experts took toward the protests catalyzed by George Floyd’s killing. These protesters were neither maligned nor targeted with fines and arrests based on social distancing or mask mandates. They were often joined in the streets by politicians such as Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.
The double standard in treatment was political. All these public gatherings were led by people expressing sincerely held beliefs that they felt outweighed the risk of Covid-19 transmission. Protecting such expression, regardless of viewpoint, is fundamental to the integrity of a democracy. Instead, politicians played favorites with this core American tenet. . . .
Further corroding public trust was health officials’ reversal about wearing masks. In February, they discouraged their use and told the public there was no evidence they were effective. Yet when questioned by Rep. David McKinley (R., W.Va.) on June 23, Anthony Fauci claimed the initial guidance was motivated by concerns about medical supply shortages—not doubts about mask effectiveness. No wonder many Americans don’t trust the calls to wear masks.
If political leaders and health experts want to restore their credibility and the public’s confidence, they need to begin by acknowledging that politics rather than science has influenced important public-health decisions and by making accommodations for dissenting perspectives. Alternatives to masks, for instance, include physical distancing and using face shields while indoors.
And while there is more to learn about immunity, there has not been a single confirmed case of reinfection among the 10 million cases of Covid-19 world-wide, according to a May report in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Until the data say otherwise, people who have recovered from Covid-19 should be exempt from restrictions.
Our ruling class and its satraps lack the necessary self-discipline and willingness to forego temporary gratification that is necessary to perform their jobs properly. Which is why they are performing their jobs badly.
DEVELOPING: Jeffrey Epstein Confidante Ghislaine Maxwell arrested on child sex abuse conspiracy, perjury charges.
As one wag tweets, “Better send her to a prison in Wisconsin so Hillary can’t find her.”
Flashback, from America’s Newspaper of Record: CDC: People With Dirt On Clintons Have 843% Greater Risk Of Suicide.
THE WIDE OPEN DOORS: A C-17 rolls into a very large maintenance hangar.
DECOUPLE AND CONTROL: U.S. Must Secure Supply Chains and Production.
To protect their own political, economic and military security, the U.S. and other democracies must treat Beijing’s CCP regime as the aggressive adversary it is.
Unfortunately, the economic globalization process that accelerated in the 1990s entwined the U.S. and Chinese economies. A large slice of U.S. manufacturing moved offshore. China began producing computers, communications gear and pharmaceuticals. Why? As China’s economy modernized, the U.S. bet political liberalization would follow. International integration would moderate China’s communists, and a democracy focused on internal development and peaceful economic competition would emerge.
Information globalization, however, didn’t follow economic embrace. The Great Firewall of China (attempting to isolate Chinese digital connectivity) exemplifies CCP hedging.
More:
Two words describe the solution: decoupling and control. Decoupling is wonkspeak for separating supply chains. (The word’s easy; the chains and decoupling process are complex horrors.) “Control of production” means “build it yourself.”
Read the entire mini-manifesto.
THIS IS WHAT CLASS PRIVILEGE LOOKS LIKE: Appeals Court frees Molotov Cocktail Lawyers on bail and home confinement. From the dissent:
On the night of May 29 in Brooklyn, Appellee Urooj Rahman got out of a car driven by Appellee Colinford Mattis, lit an explosive device known as a Molotov cocktail, and tossed it through the broken window of an unoccupied police car, setting the console on fire. Parked where people were nearby, she attempted to distribute bombs to a bystander and others for their use. She then left the scene in Mattis’s car, which contained one completed bomb and components for making more bombs. Their thinking was expressed by Rahman on a videotape, about an hour before the crime: “The only way they hear us is through violence.” The majority’s decision to affirm the release of these Appellees from pretrial detention subjects the community to an unacceptable risk of danger.
That’s from Judge Jon Newman, a longtime liberal member of the Second Circuit. A Bush (W.) and Obama appointee came together to make the majority that let these upscale terrorist lawyers out of jail. As I’ve noted before, the judicial branch is a haven of class privilege.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Black campus activists demand Pitt fire faculty found guilty of racial bias by committee of black jurors.
K12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: North Carolina: Homeschool requests overload state government website.
DAVID HARSANYI: The Left’s Coronavirus Narrative Is a Myth. “Most nations that have done better than the United States in this regard (sans Germany) are far smaller, and have an easier time containing spread by shutting down borders; or are more authoritarian, with the kind of pliant populations and governments that some U.S. pundits seem to desire.”
Never let a crisis go to waste.
LET ME JUST GET OUT AHEAD OF THE STORY AND SAY THAT GHISLAINE MAXWELL DID NOT COMMIT SUICIDE: Jeffrey Epstein Confidante Ghislaine Maxwell Arrested, Sources Say.
UPDATE: From the comments: “And my guess is this is why Berman was fired. He was blocking this.” Interesting.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Law prof wants to scrap US Constitution’s ‘racist’ and ‘gendered’ language.
RECOVERY SUMMER! Record jobs gain of 4.8 million in June smashes expectations; unemployment rate falls to 11.1%. Democrats, media hardest hit.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Joe Biden’s VP Pick Is Going to Be a Trainwreck, and President If He Wins. “The Democrats’ penchant for prioritizing diversity over all else may just be what wins re-election for President Trump. We still need to ponder worst-case scenarios, however.”
You might want to grab a fresh cup of coffee, or perhaps heroin, before clicking.
HARSH, BUT FAIR: Club for Growth Takes on #NeverTrump Lincoln Project ‘Grifters’ in Powerful New Video, Website. “The Lincoln Project has nothing to do with principle, and everything to do with lining the pockets of failed consultants by attacking conservatives.”
LAW SCHOOL REOPENING: How Do You Ask a Person To Be The Last Person To Die For A Mistake?
DECOUPLING IS GLOBAL: Modi deletes Weibo account, as China tensions simmer. “Modi was among a handful of foreign leaders with a Weibo account.”
BEIJING HAS NO ONE TO BLAME BUT THEMSELVES: Australia to spend $270b building larger military to prepare for ‘poorer, more dangerous’ world and rise of China.
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