Barr: Murders Drop 50% in Chicago Thanks to President Trump’s Operation Legend

From Breitbart.com (Sept. 9):

“Over the first five weeks of Operation Legend, in Chicago, murders dropped by 50 percent over the previous five weeks,” Barr announced during a Wednesday update.

In the month of August, the Windy City saw a 45 percent decrease in murders compared to July and a 35 percent decrease compared to June, the attorney general continued.

“In fact, Chicago in August saw the lowest number of murders at any time since April. The bottom line is that Operation Legend has played a critical role in cutting Chicago’s murder rate roughly in half since before the operation,” Barr said:

Barr announced the launch of Operation Legend, a “sustained, systematic and coordinated law enforcement initiative across all federal law enforcement agencies working in conjunction with state and local law enforcement officials to fight the sudden surge of violent crime,” in July. Officials named the operation in honor of four-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was shot and killed in Kansas City June 29.

The operation has since expanded to several U.S. cities, including Chicago, Albuquerque, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Memphis, and most recently Indianapolis. Through these joint efforts, authorities have arrested over 2,000 suspects, 592 of whom have been charged with federal crimes. [read more]

How the Free Market and Civil Society Solved the COVID-19 Face Mask Shortage

From The Daily Signal.com (Sept. 4):

When the rapid spread of the disease and new regulations led to a shortage of face masks, both medical-grade and non-medical grade, the free market and civil society stepped up to meet the challenge.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told the Senate’s health committee in March that the Strategic National Stockpile held only about 1% of the N95 and surgical masks needed to protect medical workers against the disease in a domestic pandemic scenario.

It was clear that a response was needed to reverse the emerging shortage of masks for medical workers and American families.

While the Trump administration took action to address the shortage of N95 masks and other personal protective equipment, the story of how American businesses, big and small, and families reacted quickly to demand cloth face masks is one that should give us confidence in the power of the free market and civil society.

For example, a woman in Michigan started a Facebook group called “West Michigan sews hope,” which started out as a group making reusable cloth face masks for staff at Spectrum Health, a health system based in Grand Rapids.

The hospital told MLive in early April that it had received more than 300,000 “clinically equivalent” masks from its community.

The woman who started the group also worked with her church, Impact Church, to create mask-making kits for others to use when making masks for the hospital. Now, the group has broadened its reach to help provide masks for other institutions, such as local nursing homes and first responders.

Larger clothing and retail companies also responded to the increased demand for cloth masks. [read more]

More articles about the free market system:

• How Capitalists Serve the Public Interest
• Risk and Uncertainty
• Capitalism as a Moral Instrument
  

China’s Horrifying War on Uighur Women

From National Review. com (Sept. 2):

China’s abuse of Uighur Muslims is finally getting some much-needed global attention, with reports of millions herded into political-reeducation camps that recall history’s worst atrocities. Now, a groundbreaking new report by Adrian Zenz, a senior fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, reveals that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been systematically targeting Uighur women in a draconian birth-control campaign.

Chinese officials have been ruthless in their pursuit of limiting new Uighur births. Uighur women are subjected to forced pregnancy checks, medication that stops their menstruation, forced abortions, and surgical sterilizations.

The Chinese government has a long history of perpetrating such horrors on its own citizens. The “one-child policy” was infamously enforced, before eventually being loosened at the end of 2015 to allow couples to legally conceive two children. But even as the CCP regime was easing reproductive restrictions on Han Chinese, it was drastically increasing systematic control of Uighur women in Xinjiang, a province in Western China. Since 2017, the CCP has systematically detained over 1.8 million Uighur Muslims in “political reeducation” camps, and used them for forced labor.

Zenz’s research reveals that birth-control violations are punishable by extrajudicial internment in “training” camps, and evidence from the leaked “Karakax List” document states that such violations were the most common reason for internment. According to Zenz’s report, “in 2014, 2.5 percent of newly placed IUDs [intrauterine birth-control devices] in China were fitted in Xinjiang. In 2018, that share rose to 80 percent, far above Xinjiang’s 1.8 percent share of China’s population. Between 2015 and 2018, Xinjiang placed 7.8 times more new IUDs per capita than the national average.”

A Uighur woman reported that in 2018, she was offered “free” surgical sterilization and threatened with internment if she refused. According to her Uighur doctor, her fallopian tubes were cut in the resulting tubal-ligation procedure, making her sterilization irreversible — a common experience for Xinjiang’s minorities. [read more]

Maybe the NBA should have on their uniforms that say “Uighur Women Matter.” Fat chance that will ever happen since China owns (not literally) the NBA. You don’t criticize China when you play or work for the NBA.

Also, where are the NAGs (that is the National Organization of Women) about these women being oppressed? Oh, wait. I forgot. The militant-feminists like abortion.

President Trump Adds Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, Josh Hawley And Others To SCOTUS Nominee List

From Daily Caller.com (Sept. 9):

President Donald Trump added 20 names to his list of potential Supreme Court Justices on Wednesday, supplementing the list he originally presented before the 2016 election.

Trump notably added three Republican senators to the list, including Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley. The original members such as U.S. 7th Circuit Judge Amy Coney Barrett and 3rd Circuit Court Judge Tom Hardiman remain on the list.

“President Trump’s list of potential Supreme Court nominees demonstrates his commitment to appointing originalists, who will abide by the Constitution, and textualists, who will implement the plain meaning of statutes,” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told the Daily Caller. “They will uphold the rule of law and ensure that America continues to shine as a beacon of freedom and justice around the world.”

Soon after the announcement, Cotton tweeted that it was “time for Roe V. Wade to go,” and well as affirming his support for the 2nd Amendment. [read more]

Good choices. Where's your list Biden? Now that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died President Trump can start thinking who is his top pick is once he gets re-elected (if he does which I hope happens). Or I guess he picks a replacement even before he’s re-elected. Which is even better.

Other articles on the Supreme Court pick(s):

• Trump met with potential SCOTUS nominee Amy Coney Barrett, sources tell Fox News
• 6 Things to Know About Supreme Court Prospect Amy Coney Barrett
• 7 Things to Know About Possible Supreme Court Nominee Barbara Lagoa
• Lindsey Graham: Republicans 'got the votes' to confirm Supreme Court nominee before election
• Meet the 11 Women on Trump’s Supreme Court List
• Horowitz: 16 questions conservatives should ask ANY Supreme Court pick
• Limbaugh: Why Biden won't release names of Supreme Court nominees
• Schumer: ‘We Will Use Every Tool’ to Delay Ginsburg Replacement
  
• Kay Coles James: Confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominee – don't give in to threats, senators
• Don't Let Democrats Hijack Trump's Next Supreme Court Pick
  
• Trump sets time for Supreme Court announcement
  

Inexpensive steroids reduce deaths of hospitalized Covid-19 patients, WHO analysis confirms

From Stat News.com (Sept. 2):

Use of inexpensive, readily available steroid drugs to treat people hospitalized with Covid-19 reduced the risk of death by one-third, according to an analysis encompassing seven different clinical trials conducted by the World Health Organization and published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The positive steroid findings — the result of a pooled look at data known as a meta-analysis — confirm a similar survival benefit reported in June from a single, large study. Corticosteroids are the first, and so far only, therapy shown to improve the odds of survival for critically ill patients with Covid-19.

Based on the newly published data, the WHO on Wednesday issued new treatment guidelines calling for corticosteroids to become the standard of care for patients with “severe and critical” Covid-19. Such patients should receive 7-10 days of treatment, a WHO panel said. But it cautioned against use of the steroids in patients with non-severe illness, saying that “indiscriminate use of any therapy for COVID-19 would potentially rapidly deplete global resources and deprive patients who may benefit from it most as potentially life-saving therapy.”

“The consistent findings of benefit in these studies provide definitive data that corticosteroids should be first-line treatment for critically ill patients with COVID-19,” said Hallie Prescott and Todd Rice, professors of medicine at the University of Michigan and Vanderbilt University, respectively, in an accompanying JAMA editorial. [read more]

Another article about steroids:

Steroids are life-saving for critically ill COVID-19 patients, WHO says

Party’s Over: Trump Orders Purge of ‘Critical Race Theory’ from Federal Agencies

From Breitbart.com (Sept. 4):

At the direction of President Trump, the White House Office of Management and Budget will move to identify and eliminate any trace of “critical race theory” in the federal government.

Critical race theory is the leftist, racist doctrine that forms the intellectual underpinnings of Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and other radical organizations currently engaged in unrest on America’s streets.

It alleges, among other things, that the United States is a white supremacist country, and that all white people are guilty of racism, whether they intend it or not.

President Trump has brought the issue of far-left indoctrination to the forefront of the national conversation in recent months. It was a major theme of the President’s Independence Day speech at Mt. Rushmore, in which he condemned far-left theories that “defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children.”

Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, announced on Twitter that the Trump administration will bring any dabbling in such theories by the federal government to a swift end. [read more]

Good for him! It’s a stupid Marxist theory that is undermining the values of America. It shouldn’t be in any gov’t agency or K-12 classroom.

Other articles on critical race theory:

• Trump Bans ‘Divisive, Un-American Propaganda Training’ for Federal Workforce
• I’m a Former Teacher. Here’s How Your Children Are Getting Indoctrinated by Leftist Ideology.
• Does Mathematics = Western Imperialism?
• 4 Key Moments From Trump’s Speech on History, Critical Race Theory
  
• Critical Race Theory robs & rapes reality
• Pres. Trump’s Executive Order Banning Critical Race Theory Doctrine Will Rock Universities Across the Country
  

Iran Caught Stockpiling Enriched Uranium Needed for Bomb

From Free Beacon.com (Sept. 4):

The United States has evidence that Iran is stockpiling enriched uranium, the key component in a nuclear weapon, in direct violation of international restrictions on Tehran’s use of the fissile material.

Nuclear experts predict that Iran is now just 3.5 months away from the "breakout time," a measurement of how close the country is to having the technology and materials to construct a nuclear weapon. It also now has the fuel to potentially construct two separate bombs.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) disclosed on Friday that Iran has nearly doubled its stockpiles of enriched uranium, generating concerns about the country’s continued progress on a nuclear weapon. Iran granted the IAEA access to several contested nuclear sites that had previously been off limits. A report on Tehran’s nuclear activities was shared with the United States and other United Nations members.

It is just the latest attempt by Iran to breach restrictions written into the original nuclear agreement governing the amount of uranium it can enrich and keep in the country. Iran has also been building advanced ballistic missiles, contrary to U.N. regulations. The revelations about its uranium enrichment are likely to provide fresh grist for the Trump administration as it seeks to reimpose a set of international sanctions on Iran. [read more]

German Virologist: Cut COVID Quarantines to 5 Days

From News Max.com (Sept. 2):

A leading German virologist who helped identify the SARS virus in 2003 is claiming that five days is long enough to quarantine after suspected exposure to the novel coronavirus.

Christian Drosten, the head of virology at Berlin's Charité hospital and a member of the European Commission’s advisory panel on coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), said on his “Coronavirus Update” podcast that the 14-day quarantine is nearly three times long as necessary according to research.

"There's already, let's say, a steep thesis, that after five days we say the infectious period is actually over," Drosten said on his podcast distributed by German public broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR).

"What can you do in reality so that you don't have a de facto lockdown? It's no use having all kinds of school classes, all kinds of workplaces under weeks of quarantine."

Drosten also said that the quarantine period should not be “wasted” by testing those suspected of exposure. He recommended testing only after the five-day quarantine had elapsed to determine if they were infected and still infectious.

And he dismissed the likelihood of re-infection from the SARS-CoV-2 virus and cast doubt on the effectiveness of face masks. [read more]

Three Types of People You Cannot Appease/Persuade

There are three types of people you cannot appease: The mad, the evil, and the zealot (and not necessarily the religious zealot). The mad cannot understand, so reasoning with them won’t help. If they’re hallucinating and think you are a monster trying to do them harm, they will try to kill you. The evil don’t care what you say (they have no conscience, so definitely a moral argument won’t work. Think: psychopaths and sociopaths.) The zealot thinks you are bad, inferior or evil. So they will think you are trying to trick or deceive them when you attempt to persuade them to your side. Or they think you are just stupid and don’t understand what you are talking about. A zealot can also be someone who has his/her mind up about a person, place or thing and cannot be changed no matter what the facts are even if you give a solid logical argument. 

Communists, socialists, and Islamists fit in the zealot category. You could also fit cults and the KKK in this category. Also, possibly in the evil category (especially the communists and socialists since most of them are atheists). Antifa, BLM and the far-Left are in the mad and zealot category. Mobs are all three usually.

The FDA Is Stifling Pharmaceutical Innovation

Commentary From Robert Zubrin on National Review.com (Sept. 2):

I started looking into the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) when I found it is preventing America from effectively responding to the COVID-19 epidemic. By blocking businesses and schools from using cheap, fast tests that could enable them to identify and send home COVID carriers, the FDA is stopping us from employing a technology that would allow us stay open while crushing the pandemic.

Is this an isolated case of malfeasance by the FDA? Or is it part of a consistent pattern?

In further researching the matter, I encountered numerous reports of similar past instances, but nowhere were they better analyzed and summarized than in the 2018 book Death by Regulation: How We Were Robbed of a Golden Age of Health and How We Can Reclaim It. Written by former Upjohn research scientist Dr. Mary Ruwart, the book is a comprehensive — and frankly shocking — indictment of a federal bureaucracy gone mad.

The FDA was established in 1906 by the Pure Food and Drug Act, but it was relatively harmless until its powers were radically expanded in 1962 by the passage of the Kefauver–Harris amendments that gave it absolute power over the pharmaceutical industry. As documented extensively by Ruwart, since that time, the FDA has indulged in ever greater abuse of these powers, inflicting alarming harm on America — and humanity at large — in the process.

By radically and continually expanding the paperwork, testing, and other legal and regulatory obstacles to bring a new drug to market or treatment to practice, since 1962 the FDA has caused the development time for new drugs to triple (from an average of four years before the amendments to twelve today), the cost to multiply 40-fold, and the number of new drugs introduced per year to be cut fivefold. Within five years of the amendments’ passage, 98 percent of U.S. drug companies (including all the small innovative ones) were eliminated from the drug-development business. Before the amendments, 50 percent of all new drugs invented worldwide were developed in the U.S. Today, it is 15 percent. Not only that, many new life-saving drugs have been kept out of the United States for as many as 20 years after they were put into use in the U.K. or Europe. [read more]

Trump administration announces $1B investment in AI, quantum computing

From The Hill.com (Aug. 26):

The Trump administration announced more than $1 billion in funding for new research institutes focused on artificial intelligence and quantum computing on Tuesday.

The funding will be allocated to seven National Science Foundation-led AI institutes and five Department of Energy-led quantum ones over the next five years.

“Today, the Trump Administration is making an unprecedented investment to strengthen American leadership in AI and quantum, and to ensure the Nation benefits from these emerging technologies," Michael Kratsios, the White House's chief technology officer, said in a statement. "Built upon the uniquely American free market approach to technological advancement, these institutes will be world-class hubs for accelerating American innovation and building the 21st century American workforce.”

The quantum computing centers will get a boost from private sector companies including IBM, Microsoft, Intel, Applied Materials and Lockheed Martin. [read more]

Ventilation Key to Preventing Spread of COVID-19 Indoors

From News Max.com (Sept. 1):

With schools and businesses reopening this fall, experts say proper ventilation can help reduce the spread of the coronavirus indoors where many outbreaks have occurred.

Epidemiologists say the aerosol transmission of the virus can be mitigated by a variety of methods.

Dr. Erin Bromage, a comparative immunologist and professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, said, while you can get the virus if an infected person coughs or sneezes nearby, you can also get sick if you are in an enclosed space for a long period of time where the virus has been released by someone just breathing into the air. In an article for Occupational Health & Safety, Bromage said a single sneeze can release 30,000 droplets.

In wide open spaces, the virus might be diluted and quickly dispersed, but in enclosed spaces the concentration can increase the risk of infection, according to FiveThirtyEight.

According to The Wall Street Journal, improving ventilation in businesses and classrooms can reduce the risk of viral transmission. Experts recommend changing the air four to six times an hour by introducing more outside air and enhancing filtration. [read more]

Makes good sense. Not only for schools but for homes and businesses too.

Justice Department Announces FISA Reforms to Prevent Another Carter Page Debacle

From The Daily Signal.com (Sept. 2):

The Justice Department announced a series of reforms to its procedures for obtaining Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act orders on Tuesday aimed at preventing abuses that the FBI committed during its investigation of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

Attorney General William Barr issued two memos laying out the reforms Tuesday.

One memo announced the creation of an FBI Office of Internal Auditing, which will review all factual allegations submitted in FISA applications. The other memo deals with surveillance of elected federal officials and candidates seeking federal office.

The protocols also lay out new rules for the handling of FISA orders for officials’ and candidates’ staff members and advisers.

The reforms include “any person who has been publicly announced by a campaign as a staff member or member of an official campaign advisory committee or group, or any person who is an informal advisor to the campaign,” Barr’s memo says.

Barr implemented the changes in response to the FBI’s abuse of the FISA system during a counterintelligence investigation of Page, a former Navy officer who was a national security adviser on the Trump campaign.

“FISA is a critical tool to ensuring the safety and security of Americans, particularly when it comes to fighting terrorism,” Barr said in a statement. “However, the American people must have confidence that the United States Government will exercise its surveillance authorities in a manner that protects the civil liberties of Americans, avoids interference in the political process, and complies with the Constitution and laws of the United States.”

“What happened to the Trump presidential campaign and his subsequent Administration after the President was duly elected by the American people must never happen again,” he added. [read more]

Another article on the matter:

Deep State Document on the Infamous Joseph Mifsud Finally Released – Indicates Mueller Gang Covered Up Scandalous Deep State Activity

20 Life Lessons from Leonardo da Vinci

The fact that Leonardo was not only a genius but also very human — quirky and obsessive and playful and easily distracted — makes him more accessible. He was not graced with the type of brilliance that is completely unfathomable to us. Instead, he was self-taught and willed his way to his genius. So even though we may never be able to match his talents, we can learn from him and try to be more like him. His life offers a wealth of lessons.

1.Be curious, relentlessly curious. “I have no special talents,” Einstein once wrote to a friend. “I am just passionately curious.” Leonardo actually did have special talents, as did Einstein, but his distinguishing and most inspiring trait was his intense curiosity. He wanted to know what causes people to yawn, how they walk on ice in Flanders, what makes the aortic valve close, how light is processed in the eye, and what that means for the perspective in a painting. Being relentlessly and randomly curious about everything around us is something that each of us can push ourselves to do, every waking hour, just as he did.

2.Seek knowledge for its own sake. Not all knowledge needs to be useful. Leonardo did not need to know how heart valves work to paint the Mona Lisa. By allowing himself to be driven by curiosity, he got to explore more horizons and see more connections than anyone else of his era.

3.Retain a childlike sense of wonder. At a certain point in life, most of us quit puzzling over everyday phenomena. We might savor the beauty of a blue sky, but we no longer bother to wonder why it is that color. Leonardo did. So did Einstein.We should be careful to never outgrow our wonder years, nor to let our children do so.

4.Observe. Leonardo’s greatest skill was his acute ability to observe things. It was the talent that empowered his curiosity, and vice versa. It was not some magical gift but a product of his own effort. When he visited the moats ­surrounding Sforza Castle, he looked at the four-wing dragonflies and noticed how the wing pairs alternate in motion. When he walked around town, he observed how the facial expressions of people relate to their emotions, and he discerned how light bounces off different surfaces.

5.Start with the details. In his notebook, Leonardo shared a trick for observing something carefully: Do it in steps, starting with each detail. A page of a book, he noted, cannot be absorbed in one stare; you need to go word by word. “If you wish to have a sound knowledge of the forms of objects, begin with the details of them, and do not go on to the second step until you have the first well fixed in memory.” [read more]

Source: Leonardo da Vinci (2017) by Walter Isaacson.

Operation Legend: More than 200 charged with federal crimes, 1,000 arrested, AG Barr announces

From Fox News.com (Aug. 19):

At least 217 people have been charged with a federal crime, and more than 1,000 arrests have been made in major metropolitan cities since the Department of Justice launched Operation Legend in July, U.S. Attorney General William Barr announced on Wednesday.

Nearly 400 firearms have been seized by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Barr launched Operation Legend on July 8 as “a sustained, systematic and coordinated law enforcement initiative in which federal law enforcement agencies work in conjunction with state and local law enforcement officials to fight violent crime,” the DOJ said in a release.

It was named in honor of 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was shot and killed while he slept in the early morning of June 29 in Kansas City, Mo. Last week, a Jackson County prosecutor announced second-degree murder charges against his suspected killer, 22-year-old Ryson Ellis, who was being held in Tulsa County Jail. [read more]

A Historic Agreement Peace in the Middle East

From American Thinker.com (Aug. 17):

News from the Middle East is usually cast in gloom and doom. What a delight that a positive image has emerged with the information that, with the help of the United States, a peace deal to normalize relations has been agreed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).  The UAE is a kingdom comprising seven small entities called emirates, possessing oil and natural gas reserves. Its capital Dubai is an important economic center, the most populous city and the business hub of the area.

A three-way phone call on August 13, 2020 announced an Abrahamic accord, salam aleykum v’shalom aleynu, (peace unto you and peace unto us) between the two countries.  This accord, involving direct flights, exchange of embassies, and sets of bilateral agreements, will advance peace in the Middle East, though it leaves the Palestinian issue unresolved. It affirms the validity of the remark by Abba Eban, “History teaches us that men and women behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.”

……….

The historic diplomatic breakthrough has two crucial elements: the UAE agrees to negotiate to a condition of full normalization and diplomatic relations with Israel, and to strengthen trade and technology, while Israel is committed to suspend any plans to “annex” the West Bank. Already, there is cooperation between the countries in the delivery of coronavirus test kits and collaboration between the two sides on technological matters. The countries face many common challenges and will mutually benefit from this historic achievement, which is intended to improve the region, spur economic growth, and introduce technological innovation.

The arrangement does not transform the Middle East, which remains a setting of tribalism, religious animosities,  and  sectarianism, but it is an important step for new opportunities in the area and particularly understanding of two factors: the benefits of collaboration and the danger of Iran that has ambitions to disrupt and control the region. There have already been months of recent economic and social collaboration between Israel with some Arab countries, particularly in coping with COVID-19 and other medical affairs, health care and medical innovation. At least one UAE dignitary was treated in the Sheba medical center near Tel Aviv, the largest hospital in the region, even before COVID-19 struck.

Much of the credit for the major diplomatic agreement goes to President Donald Trump. The Trump administration organized in February 2019 a Middle East security conference in Warsaw attended by most Arab countries. Trump argues that Israel will suspend declaring sovereignty over areas outlined in his Vision for Peace proposals of January 2020. Those proposals, though aimed at achieving peace between Israel and the Palestinian people, focused attention on Israel expanding ties with other Arabic countries. It remains to be seen whether this key foreign policy victory will give Trump, usually regarded as pro-Israeli, an electoral boost as he seeks reelection. [read more]

Bravo for President Trump!

Other articles on the agreement:

• 1 Question Remains in Trump’s Underappreciated Middle East Victory
• The Remaking of the Middle East

Lasting immunity seen after mild COVID-19 infection: report

From Fox News.com (Aug. 17):

A series of new studies have revealed signs of strong and lasting immunity in people who developed a mild coronavirus infection, according to a report on Sunday.

The studies, which have yet to be peer-reviewed, uncovered that antibodies and immune cells capable of recognizing the virus were apparently present months after infections concluded. The findings could help to eliminate the previous concerns over whether the virus could trick the immune system into having a poor memory of prior infections.

“This is exactly what you would hope for,” Marion Pepper, an immunologist at the University of Washington who authored one of the new studies told the New York Times. “All the pieces are there to have a totally protective immune response.”

While scientists have yet to forecast how long the immune responses will last, researchers who have been monitoring immune responses to the virus for months now, believe the recent findings are encouraging signs.

Having those defense mechanisms present means the body has a good chance of fending off the coronavirus if reinfected.

“This is very promising,” said Smita Iyer, an immunologist at the University of California. “This calls for some optimism about herd immunity, and potentially a vaccine.” [read more]

Should Motorists Run Over Anarchists at Impromptu Roadblocks?

From American Thinker.com (Aug. 10):

Anarchists' widespread use of roadblocks to attack motorists requires citizens, and especially potential jurors, to understand the full implications of these incidents.  This is especially true given the propensity of some district attorneys and prosecutors to, as I see it, virtue-signal by filing charges against the motorists rather than the potential carjackers and highway robbers.  A "hasty roadblock" as deployed frequently by anarchists can often be construed as prima facie evidence of violent intent, and, as motorists cannot read the anarchists' minds, they must act on the situation as they find it.

Another example of this principle is "suicide by cop" that involves pointing unloaded guns (see page 185) at police officers.  The shootings are nonetheless justified because the only thing that counts is what the cop knows when he has to decide whether to shoot, and he knows only that he is looking down the muzzle of a firearm.  There are rare exceptions in which the responding officer has reason to believe that a subject is suicidal and does not have a loaded weapon, but these are exceptions and not the rule.  This is something people need to understand before they are called for jury duty, because it is unlikely that a virtue-signaling prosecutor will allow them to learn about it once they are selected.  A dishonest prosecutor will try to second-guess the defendant by bringing in evidence that was discovered after the fact — e.g., the gun wasn't loaded or the rioters intended only to obstruct traffic without harming anybody.  "Reasonable" depends on what you know at the time, not what you or anybody else discovers afterward.

"Hasty Roadblock" = "Ambush"

The United States Army makes it emphatically clear that a roadblock can be a prelude to an immediate and violent attack on approaching vehicles and their occupants.  "An example of a hasty roadblock is a tree wrapped with enough charges to fell it across an approach route when the enemy comes within the ambush area."  Here is a fictional example from Sharpe's Honour starring Sean Bean.

There are videos of anarchists using "hasty roadblocks" to stop vehicles, which, at least as I see it, puts their drivers in reasonable fear for their safety.  This does not entitle drivers to take the law into their own hands by running over anarchists who are not trying to prevent them from escaping, or even those who have desisted from whatever violent acts they were committing but a moment ago.  In addition, motorists should try to retreat from a mob of anarchists if this can be done in complete safety, regardless of whether the state has a "stand your ground" law. As Kenny Rogers put it in "Coward of the County," "Walk [or drive] away from trouble if you can." [read more]

Probably should honk your horn first to give warning.

Socialism Part 5

Socialist policy employs two methods to accomplish its purposes: the first aims directly at converting society to Socialism; the second aims only indirectly at this conversion by destroying the social order which is based on private ownership.

………….

All socialists overlook the fact that even in a socialist community every economic operation must be based on an uncertain future, and that its economic consequence remains uncertain even if it is technically successful.

………………….

If the socialist community does not supply the comrades with the goods which they themselves want to enjoy, but with those which the rulers think they ought to enjoy, the sum of satisfactions is not increased, but diminished. One certainly could not call this violation of the individual will ‘economic democracy.’

For it is an essential difference between capitalist and socialist production that in the first men provide for themselves, while in the second they are provided for. The socialist wants to feed and house humanity and cover its nakedness. But men prefer to eat, dwell, dress and generally to seek happiness after their own fashion.

……………….

The man who clings to Socialism will continue to ascribe all the world’s evil to private property and to expect salvation from Socialism. Socialists ascribe the failures of Russian Bolshevism to every circumstance except the inadequacy of the system. From the socialist point of view, Capitalism alone is responsible for all the misery the world has had to endure in recent years. Socialists see only what they want to see and are blind to anything that might contradict their theory.

Source: Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis (1951) by Ludwig von Mises.

"Pandemic Pods" Are Fundamentally Reshaping K-12 Education

From Heritage.org (July 21):

The practice of organizing “pandemic pods,” in which parents team up with other families in their neighborhoods or social circles to hire teachers for their children, is getting more and more popular by the minute.

With many school districts around the country planning not to reopen classrooms this fall—or, at best, planning to offer some combination of virtual and in-class instruction—families are clamoring to secure education consistency for their children as the school year quickly approaches.

So what, exactly, do these pods look like?

Families work together to recruit teachers that they pay out-of-pocket to teach small groups—“pods”—of children. It’s a way for clusters of students to receive professional instruction for several hours each day.

Some parents are using their pod arrangements to hire teachers who will supplement the online classes being provided by their school districts.

As Laura Meckler and Hannah Natanson of The Washington Post observe, pandemic pods are “a 2020 version of the one-room schoolhouse, privately funded.”

In the case of one northern Virginia family that Meckler and Natanson profiled, the parents pay around $500 per month to get in on an arrangement with other families in their neighborhood to share a teacher they are hiring for their pod of children.

As one mother named J Li wrote in a viral Facebook post last week, thousands of parents are “scrambling” to form pods through “an absolute explosion of Facebook groups, matchups, spreadsheets, etc.”

J Li describes the pod phenomenon as “clusters of three to six families with similar aged (and sometimes same-school) children co-quarantined with each other, who hire one tutor for in-person support for their kids.” The tutor may serve as a full-time teacher for the pod of students, or may only teach on a part-time basis or outdoor classes. [read more]

Interesting.

Another article on the Chinese virus and education:

Report: U.K. Study Shows ‘Very Little Evidence’ of Virus Spread in Schools

World's Top Epidemiologists - Masks Don't Work!

From Zero Hedge.com (Aug. 8):
Denmark boasts one of the lowest COVID-19 death rates in the world. As of August 4, the Danes have suffered 616 COVID-19 deaths, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.
That’s less than one-third of the number of Danes who die from pneumonia or influenza in a given year.
Despite this success, Danish leaders recently found themselves on the defensive. The reason is that Danes aren’t wearing face masks, and local authorities for the most part aren’t even recommending them.
This prompted Berlingske, the country’s oldest newspaper, to complain that Danes had positioned themselves “to the right of Trump.”
This apparently did not sit well with Danish health officials.
They responded by noting there is little conclusive evidence that face masks are an effective way to limit the spread of respiratory viruses.
Denmark is not alone.
Despite a global stampede of mask-wearing, data show that 80-90 percent of people in Finland and Holland say they “never” wear masks when they go out, a sharp contrast to the 80-90 percent of people in Spain and Italy who say they “always” wear masks when they go out.
Dutch public health officials recently explained why they’re not recommending masks.

"From a medical point of view, there is no evidence of a medical effect of wearing face masks, so we decided not to impose a national obligation," said Medical Care Minister Tamara van Ark.

Others, echoing statements similar to the US Surgeon General from early March, said masks could make individuals sicker and exacerbate the spread of the virus.

“Face masks in public places are not necessary, based on all the current evidence,” said Coen Berends, spokesman for the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment.
“There is no benefit and there may even be negative impact.”

In Sweden, where COVID-19 deaths have slowed to a crawl, public health officials say they see “no point” in requiring individuals to wear masks.

“With numbers diminishing very quickly in Sweden, we see no point in wearing a face mask in Sweden, not even on public transport,” said Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s top infectious disease expert. [read more]

Other articles on face masks:

• Scientists tested 14 different face masks – see the winners and losers
• Sweden’s disease expert says just wearing face masks could be ‘very dangerous’
• A National Mask Mandate Isn’t Necessary to Save Lives

CDC director: 'Possibility’ some individuals not 'diagnosed with COVID' are in death count

From Just the News.com (Aug. 4):

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday that there's a “possibility” some individuals who hadn't been "diagnosed" with COVID-19 are included in the total death count.

According to a USA Today report, hospitals get reimbursed more for treating COVID-19 patients compared to others.

During a House hearing last week, Redfield was asked if he thinks there are hospitals inflating COVID-19 deaths counts due to financial incentives.

"I do think there's some reality to that. When it comes to death reporting, though, ultimately, it's how the physician defines it in the death certificate," he responded.

"I think it's probably less operable in the cause of death, although, I won’t say there are not some cases. I do think, though, when it comes to hospital reimbursement issues for individuals that get discharged there could be some play in that for sure," he also said. [read more]

Another article on the matter:

Forty percent of U.S. Covid-19 tests come back too late to be clinically meaningful, data show