Author Archive: Stephen Green
March 25, 2020
CORRECTING THE NARRATIVE: Dr. Fauci Hits Back at Media Narrative That He and Trump Are At Odds.
COMMUNIST QUALITY CONTROL: Beijing Sends 150,000 Wuhan Virus Testing Kits to Prague, 80% Fail.
CIVIL RIGHTS: Lawsuit Filed Against New Jersey CoronaVirus Gun Ban.
BRENDAN O’NEILL: The luxury of apocalypticism.
People’s refusal to panic has been a great source of frustration for the establishment in recent years. ‘The planet is burning’, they lie, in relation to climate change, and yet we do not weep or wail or even pay very much attention. ‘I want you to panic’, instructs the newest mouthpiece of green apocalypticism, Greta Thunberg, and yet most of us refuse to do so. A No Deal Brexit would unleash economic mayhem, racist pogroms and even a pandemic of super-gonorrhoea, they squealed, incessantly, like millenarian preachers balking at the imminent arrival of the lightning bolt of final judgement, and yet we didn’t flinch. We went to work. We went home. We still supported Brexit.
Our skittish elites have been so baffled, infuriated in fact, by our calm response to their hysterical warnings that they have invented pathologies to explain our unacceptable behaviour. The therapeutic language of ‘denialism’ is used to explain the masses’ refusal to fret over climate change. Environmentalists write articles on ‘the psychology of climate-change denial’, on ‘the self-deception and mass denial’ coursing through this society that refuses to flatter or engage with the hysteria of the eco-elites. Likewise, the refusal of voters to succumb to the dire, hollow warnings of the ferociously anti-Brexit wing of the establishment was interpreted by self-styled experts as a psychological disorder.
Read the whole thing.
I’d just add that the Soviets used to declare dissidents to be insane, so there’s nothing new here from the Left.
NEWS I HOPE YOU CAN’T USE: Apple Watch Users Can Now Monitor How Bodies React To Coronavirus.
When we’re sick, cells in our immune system release small proteins called histamines which cause inflammation and expansion of blood cells. This process sends signals to our brain to increase heart rate and the amount of blood sent to such inflamed regions.
This elevated heart rate is most notable during sleep. Hence, Sleeping BPM will help give insight on how the body reacts to a sickness. Obviously, if users want to make use of this feature, they’ll need to wear the Apple Watch while sleeping at night – a time that’s usually used to replenish the battery of the watch. But given how most of us have quarantined ourselves, it shouldn’t be that big of a problem.
Not a replacement for medical care, but if people choose to share their data it will be useful.
TO BE FAIR, HE’S YOUNG AND INEXPERIENCED: Biden’s First Coronavirus Shadow-Briefing Was a Disaster.
DOWNLOADS FROM SPACE: SpaceX gets FCC license for 1 million satellite-broadband user terminals. “ SpaceX asked the Federal Communications Commission for the license in February 2019, and the FCC announced its approval in a public notice last week. The FCC approval is for ‘a blanket license for the operation of up to 1,000,000 fixed earth stations that will communicate with [SpaceX’s] non-geostationary orbit satellite system.’ The license is good for 15 years.”
PRIME: Amazon Care to provide delivery and pick-up of at-home COVID-19 test sample kits in Seattle trial. “Amazon is going to be working with a new research initiative backed in part by the Gates Foundation that will distribute at-home coronavirus assessment kits, and then deliver the collected samples to FDA-approved test facilities. Amazon Care, the health arm formed by Amazon initially for internal employee care, will be handling the delivery of the kits, as well as transportation of collected samples to the test labs, as first reported by CNBC.”
If this works, Amazon already has the infrastructure to take it national.
NEVER LET A CRISIS GO TO WASTE: Despicable: 8 Liberal Pet Projects Smuggled Into Pelosi’s Coronavirus Bill.
NO. NEXT QUESTION? Is There A Vaccine For Trump Derangement Syndrome?
IN A TIME OF CRISIS, A PAYOFF TO GENERALLY BETTER-OFF PEOPLE FOR SOMETHING HAVING NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CRISIS: Joe Biden: Cancel $10,000 Of Student Loans Due To Coronavirus.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: A Hit List of Righteous Republican Anger From the Senate Floor. “After being the worst people on Earth on Sunday, Senate Democrats doubled-down on Monday and decided to be the worst people in history and continue blocking the coronavirus relief package all because Granny Boxwine showed up with a fetish list of progressive nonsense that made Chuck Schumer dance like a little puppet.”
Vivid.
WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: US Army eyes robot tanks with AI.
“For the first time the Army will deploy manned tanks that are capable of controlling robotic vehicles able to adapt to the environment and act semi-independently,” said Dr. Brandon Perelman, scientist and engineer at the Army Research Laboratory, in an interview with WarriorMaven and reported by Kris Osborn in National Interest.
The concept is aligned with ongoing research into new generations of AI being engineered to not only gather and organize information for human decision-makers but also advance networking between humans and machines, wrote Osborn, who previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army — Acquisition, Logistics & Technology.
“In the future we are going to be incorporating robotic systems that are larger, more like the size of a tanks,” he said.
See also: Loyal wingman.
UNEXPECTED, BUT WELCOME: Polis just bet on individuals over harsher crackdown.
Everyone I heard from fully expected Colorado Governor Jared Polis to issue a severe state-wide “shelter in place” order at his Sunday press conference.
George Brauchler seemed to think he would. Brauchler, recall, is a district attorney in the state and a prominent Republican who, in an alternate universe, might have been in the governor’s seat during all this. Shortly before Polis’s media conference, Brauchler pleaded, “Please do not issue any sweeping shelter-in-place order without first consulting with the agencies across the state who will be called upon to enforce such an order.”
On Friday, Colorado Public Radio’s Ben Markus asked, “Why Isn’t Colorado Sheltering In Place Like Other States?” During Sunday’s conference, several journalists seemed shocked that Polis did not issue such an order. Meanwhile, Colorado’s journalists have worried how to keep themselves in the “essential services” category and therefore exempt from any statewide crackdown. (Obviously I agree journalists need the freedom to keep working during this critical time.)
Rather than impose an extreme statewide crackdown, Polis instead did something remarkable, something that politicians often have trouble doing. He chose, at least to a substantial degree, to trust individuals to rise to the challenge, do the right thing, and do their part to keep Coloradans safe. Polis chose to lead with moral authority rather than the point of a government gun.
That’s the way to treat a free people.
I AGREE, BUT… Ex-Clinton adviser: Coronavirus pandemic ‘changes the presidential race overwhelmingly in Trump’s favor.’
“This crisis completely changes the presidential race overwhelmingly in Trump’s favor,” Dick Morris, who was Clinton’s political adviser and later campaign manager, told radio show host John Catsimatidis on Sunday.
“There is no more oxygen left in the room for Joe Biden. … He can’t say anything. He can’t campaign. He can’t attack Trump. He can’t talk about [the coronavirus]. There is nothing left for him to say,” he added. “Biden is kind of an afterthought. He’s almost in the history books.”
Biden, who is likely to win the Democratic presidential nomination, and his rival Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders have been sidelined from campaigning across the country because of the pandemic. Trump has also canceled campaign events, but the White House has held daily news briefings on the crisis.
Morris argued Hurricane Sandy had a similar effect on President Barack Obama’s reelection and other policy issues that could derail Trump’s chances of keeping the White House have been brushed under the rug as the coronavirus pandemic takes precedence.
“There are no other issues anymore in America. Nobody’s thinking about immigration, or income inequality, or climate change,” he said. “All Trump has to do now is be a good president. … Ride out this epidemic. Succeed in containing it, and he’s home free.”
…don’t get cocky.
March 23, 2020
CHRIS CILLIZZA IS THE STAR OF TODAY’S BIGGEST SELF-OWN: CNN Analyst Tries to Own Trump, Fails: ‘Viruses Don’t, Uh, Recognize Borders.’
HE STILL LOOKS TIRED, AND HE HASN’T BEEN PRESIDENT FOR OVER THREE YEARS: Obama Celebrates His Greatest Failure, Says Dems Must ‘Finish the Job’.