SO MANY QUESTIONS, SO MANY ANSWERS THE MEDIA IGNORES: Frequently posing the most relevant questions are the scribes at Issues & Insights. Today, they note that CDC data shows “the current average U.S. overall death rate, even amid the coronavirus pandemic, is actually lower than it has been for much of the past seven years and well below the long-term average.” Don’t expect to see that in the New York Times or Washington Post any time soon.
DON’T SEE THIS MUCH ANYMORE: The National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF) and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Foundation (USPIRGF) issued a joint report recommending nearly $800 billion in federal spending cuts. Who knows, it might be the start of something positive.
IT’S A LONG, LONG WAY FROM WSJ’S NEWS SIDE TO THE EDITORIAL PAGE: David Marcus, one of many outstanding talents working for The Federalist these days, performs a systematic dissection of the Journal’s recent hit piece on HHS Secretary Alex Azar and finds a terminal disease – malicious liberal bias.
SCIENCE VS SCIENTISM: As Mark Twain said of lightning and lightning bugs, they sound a lot alike, yet they are anything but.
CORONAVIRUS KILLS SENIORS WHILE CORONAVIRUS LOCKDOWN KILLS KIDS: Issues & Insights finds multiple unintended consequences with lethal effects on children. Somehow, I doubt such consequences were in the mix of assumptions for those coronavirus models.
THOSE EPIDEMIC MODELS WERE WAY OFF: So Issues & Insights says it’s time to stop paying attention to them.
HOW WOULD YOU RESPOND TO THIS? We get fan mail.
NANCY PELOSI – LET THEM EAT ICE CREAM: The only element here more sickening than the Speaker’s tone deafness is James Corden’s bootlicking. Time for a revival of public shaming.
PROMISING ISRAELI CORONAVIRUS TREATMENT TESTED ON 1ST U.S. PATIENT: Please, more testing quickly.
TIME FOR THE MSM TO ADMIT THEIR HATRED OF TRUMP: Keeping up the pretense that they’re doing objective journalism is destroying the credibility of a profession to which I’ve devoted 35 years.
IS THIS REALLY THE END OF GLOBALISM? Can you guess the answer from the conclusion of this sharp-tongued analysis by Hillsdale College Professor David Azzerad:
“Many Americans have also shown themselves to be uncharacteristically passive as state and local governments restrict civil liberties, release prisoners, and refuse to prosecute burglaries and other property crimes. It is a dispiriting thought that the legacy of the coronavirus could be a stronger state, a more sheepish and fearful population, and a ruling class even more dedicated to globalism.”
REMEMBER DAVID BROCK? One of the cogs in his Democratic attack machine received more than $100K of stock in a Chinese tech giant that exists because the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) allows it to exist. Brock’s group refuses to answer questions about the gift because you’re a bigot/racist/climate denier/homophobe/oppressor/etc./etc.
IT’S BAD ENOUGH WE MUST DEPEND ON CHINA FOR OUR ANTI-BIOTICS BUT WHAT IF: They also cut off our access to critically needed “Rare Earth Elements” (REEs) without which much of America’s weaponry and operational military systems cannot function. Michael Ravnitzky writes:
“From the 1960s to the 1980s, the United States led the global production of REEs. Eventually, China’s labor cost advantages, less demanding environmental rules, and sites with commercially exploitable concentrations of REEs caused world production to shift almost completely to China.
“This was exacerbated by a ‘laissez-faire’ approach to long-term rare earth procurement strategies. China now produces 100 percent of the ‘heavy’ REEs and nearly all of the ‘light’ REEs. Development of known reserves in other countries has been hampered by logistical and investment hurdles, as well as the environmental and technical challenges of mining, extracting, and refining REEs.
“The only remaining American REE mining operation now sends its ore to China for processing (Emphasis added). In recent years, Chinese firms have purchased key U.S. magnet manufacturers, appropriated their technologies, established production in China, and discontinued the U.S. operations.
“China has also reduced the sale of its REEs to other nations, not only because of concerns about resource depletion, but also because of its national policy of shifting from the sale of commodities to the sale of higher-value finished goods.”
The U.S. Army recently recognized Ravnitzky with a much-deserved award for this piece. It’s a little tough sledding to read because of the unfamiliarity of some of its materials for the general reader, but if you care about the survival of the U.S., this is essential reading.
WHO GETS THE BLAME IF CORONAVIRUS LOCKDOWN WAS MASSIVE OVERREACTION? Good question and one that day-by-day becomes more relevant.
THINK SPYGATE INDICTMENTS ARE COMING? THINK AGAIN: Diana West offers a bracing splash of historical reality about indictments and the Washington Swamp. I hope she’s wrong on this one (as she does), but the history is there, thanks to M. Stanton Evans and Herb Romerstein. I knew them both and absolutely trust their insights, discernment and devotion to the Republic.
WHAT IF CHINA HAD BEEN TRUTHFUL ABOUT CORONAVIRUS? Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb believes the pandemic that has swept the world could well have been contained in China, perhaps even to the Wuhan region. This whole episode will be costing China for decades to come, and rightfully so.
8 REASONS TO BELIEVE HE IS RISEN: The evidence is deep and persuasive for many folks of undoubted intelligence. Not so much for others. Whichever side you come down on, it’s Easter Sunday, so consider these points.
IT’S SATURDAY, KIND OF THE LOST DAY OF EASTER: And this year, it’s the Easter we’re all staying home pondering, like the disciples, what’s next? Easter is important for many, maybe even most, Instapundit readers, who may appreciate sharing a little quiet reflection about the three most important days of the year.
Yesterday was the horror of the crucifixion. Tomorrow is the miracle of resurrection. But what about today, the in-between day of Easter? I have some thoughts. And if Easter isn’t your cup of tea, maybe you’ll appreciate the sentiment. Or just move along to the next great post, thankful for the freedom we all have, still, to believe or not to believe, and to speak or not to speak, as we each choose.
LOOKING FOR ANOTHER KIND OF RESURRECTION: It’s Easter, so people are talking about resurrections. Over at Issues & Insights, the focus is on a different sort of resurrection.
NO, CORONAVIRUS DIDN’T COME FROM THE WUHAN MARKET: Joshua Phillips of The Epoch Times leads this documentary that should open eyes to the reality the disease is man-made. This is a must-watch.
IS THIS AMERICA’S TURNING POINT? The answers from Robert E. Wright of the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) are blunt and likely to anger all the usual suspects. Take this graph for instance:
“As I recently argued elsewhere, America’s educational system has not prepared us for the government power grab because it does not create enough Emersonian independent thinkers or, frankly, even adult thinkers. Due to the extreme Left bias of higher education, many of America’s college graduates remain intellectually infantilized to the point that they can do little more than Tweet ignorant hate at any idea that does not accord with Progressive mantras.”
Too severe a judgement? I think not, but what do other Instapunditites think? And what a neat shot of the shark!
LOTS OF DEREGULATORY LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FROM CORONAVIRUS: Don’t expect to read about it in the MSM but lots of bureaucratic red tape in the health care field is being waived to speed the official response to the coronavirus pandemic. Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) and the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) are compiling lists, pointing to additional areas for action and making the case for permanent reforms.
CHINA BARS CHURCHES FROM STREAMING SERVICES: Millions of Americans are holding church services and meetings via the Internet during the coronavirus pandemic. Not so in China, which has recently increased its already oppressive measures against Christians.
WHEN IS A CORONAVIRUS DEATH ACTUALLY A CORONAVIRUS DEATH? Good question, raised by Julie Kelly of American Greatness. The answers are about as clear as a gallon of Mississippi River mud flats water.
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