WELL, GOOD: U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson Pledges $32B Military Build-Up. “The pledge of about £24.1 billion — or just under $32 billion — supports Johnson’s vision of what he calls a freer and more independent “global Britain” following the United Kingdom’s protracted divorce from the European Union via Brexit.”
Author Archive: Stephen Green
November 20, 2020
WELL, CALIFORNIA: Gavin Newsom’s Latest COVID-19 Order Doesn’t Even Make Sense.
VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: Stacy Abrams Is the Governor of Georgia and You’re Not.
Insanity Wrap needs to know: When is it OK to celebrate the ranting delusions of someone still contesting an election they lost fair and square?
Answer: When she has a (D) after her name.
Before we get to the sordid details, a quick preview of today’s Wrap.
- Gavin Newsom provides a shutdown carve-out for Hollywood
- Virginia Attorney General goes after guns (again).
- Barack Obama and Jimmy Kimmel (!!!) conspire against POTUS, lamely.
And so much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.
SPACE RACE II: China rolls out Long March 5 rocket for Chang’e 5 moon sample-return mission launch.
Chang’e 5 is scheduled to lift off on Nov. 24, according to a NASA description of the mission. (Official Chinese sources have said only that the launch will occur in “late November.”) The 18,100-lb. (8,200 kilograms) spacecraft, which apparently consists of four modules, will then make its way to the moon.
Two of the Chang’e 5 modules will remain in lunar orbit. The other two — a sample collector and an ascent vehicle — will touch down in the Mons Rumker area of the huge Oceanus Procellarum (“Ocean of Storms”), a vast volcanic plain that has been explored by a number of other moon missions, including NASA’s Apollo 12 in 1969.
If all goes according to plan, Chang’e 5’s sample collector will use a robotic arm and a drill to snag about 4.4 lbs. (2 kg) of moon dirt and rock, including material that will be sourced from up to 6.5 feet (2 meters) underground. The ascent vehicle will then loft this cache to lunar orbit, where it will dock with one of the orbiting modules and then be integrated into the other, which will haul the stuff back to Earth, according to the NASA description. The moon samples are scheduled to land in China in mid-December.
This is an ambitious and complex mission to carry out.
SAD: The second-largest radio telescope in the world is shutting down. “The Arecibo Observatory’s 1000-meter telescope in Puerto Rico can’t be repaired without putting crews under enormous risk.”
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Recounts and Lawsuits Are Karma for 4 Years of Dems Lying About Russia. “After what the Democrats put this president and the country through with the Russia collusion hoax, the impeachment charade, and four years of flat-out saying that the 2016 election wasn’t legitimate I don’t care if the Left has to suffer frustration forever. Put simply: they’ve brought this on themselves.”
REPURPOSING: AI discovered an old arthritis drug that can help elderly people survive COVID-19.
The once-daily medicine, called baricitinib, was first identified as a potential treatment for the virus by BenevolentAI, a startup based in London.
The company used its AI software to comb through scientific literature for drugs that might block the infection process. The most promising treatment it discovered was baricitinib, which it predicted could stop the infection from entering lung cells.
The new study has now shown the drug’s safety and efficacy in the largest group of patients published thus far.
Scientists from Imperial College London and Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet gave baricitinib to 83 COVID-19 patients with a median age of 81 who were being treated in hospitals across Italy and Spain.
They found that patients receiving baricitinib had a 71% reduction in mortality compared to the 83 people in the control group who had not taken the drug.
Not a huge group, but amazing numbers nonetheless.
PERHAPS GOVERNOR NEWSOM COULD START BY SETTING AN EXAMPLE — FOR ONCE: California struggles with how to enforce coronavirus orders.
FINGERS CROSSED: Immunity to the coronavirus may last years, new research suggests. Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University, said she was not surprised that the body mounts a long-lasting response because ‘that’s what is supposed to happen.’ Still, she was heartened by the research: ‘This is exciting news’.”
THAT WOULD CERTAINLY BE CONVENIENT FOR JIHADIS: Biblical Scholar Ilhan Omar: Christians Shouldn’t Serve in the U.S. Military.
November 19, 2020
IF YOU POINT OUT REPORTS LIKE THIS ONE IT’S BECAUSE YOU’RE ANTISCIENCE: Doctors Say Man Who Died After Falling off 10-Foot Ladder Actually Killed by COVID.
BIDEN’S ANTICOATTAILS: A Look At The State-Level Democratic Crash. “With the final results of the presidential race still up in the air, let’s look at the horrible job the Democratic Party did in down-ballot races.”
Previously: Politically, America is looking increasingly like Tennessee.
CHRISTIAN TOTO: Why Dennis Quaid’s ‘Reagan’ Biopic Can’t Arrive Soon Enough. “Hollywood’s latest hit piece on The Gipper comes from, where else, Showtime.”
The Left will never forgive Reagan for winning the Cold War.
JOANNE JACOBS: Biden won’t cancel your $50K student debt. “Forgiving billions of dollars in student loans will help the advantaged at the expense of taxpayers with less earning power, writes Mike Riggs on Reason. It also lets college continue to raise prices.”
So a win-win for Democrats.
READINESS: Navy, Marine Corps Rate ‘Marginal’ in New Military Strength Survey.
The Heritage Foundation 2021 Index of U.S. Military Strength graded the Pentagon “marginal” overall to handle two major regional wars simultaneously.
In the eyes of the more than 20 authors, the U.S. armed forces are capable of handling one major regional conflict, but their capability is questionable after that.
Dakota Wood, a senior fellow at Heritage, said in an online forum introducing the index that the American military is “two-thirds the size it should be” to addresses the challenges it faces. Over time, “modernization has largely been neglected.”
The oceans aren’t getting any smaller.
SORRY FOR… [CHECKS NOTES] ALL THOSE DRAWDOWNS AND PEACE TREATIES: Seriously? John Brennan Laments Biden Will Have to ‘Repair the Damage’ Trump Did in the Middle East.
VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: Lockdowns Now, Lockdowns Tomorrow, Lockdowns Forever!
Insanity Wrap needs to know: How much evidence does it take to prove a stolen election?
Answer: However much it takes, one website has that much and more.
Before we get to the sordid details, a quick preview of today’s Wrap.
- The Wuhan Virus is becoming less deadly.
- Democrat doxxes GOP official’s kids over recount.
- Some good sense from the good Doctor Paul.
And so much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.
GOOD, HE ACTUALLY MAKES STUFF: Elon Musk passes Mark Zuckerberg and becomes world’s third richest person.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Resistance to Tyranny is Being Served for Thanksgiving 2020. “Democrats have long been working on eroding the nuclear family, so it’s easy to see that the crackdown on Thanksgiving really doesn’t have that much to do with COVID-19. This obviously tees up a shot at Christmas for them too. This virus has been a wonderful excuse for leftists to go after a variety of things like, the Trump economy, happy families, and religion.”