SPLC Releases Fear-Mongering 'Hate Map' Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

 

Article by Tyler O'Neil in "PJMedia":

The scandal-plagued Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) decided to release its fear-mongering "hate map" in the midst of the coronavirus crisis on Wednesday. Rather than helping in the midst of a crisis, the SPLC aimed to take advantage of people who are already on edge to push its fundraising scheme and political attacks.

Ironically, the SPLC acknowledged the coronavirus in its fundraising email about the new report. "As the coronavirus continues to spread, we are guided by our concern for the health and safety of our staff and the communities we serve, including you," the email reads. "During this challenging time, we are committed more than ever to continuing our fight for justice and pushing back against those exploiting this pandemic to further their radical agenda."

Yet the report has nothing to do with correcting misinformation on the pandemic and everything to do with furthering the SPLC's own radical agenda, fomenting fear and mistrust in an already polarized America. As I documented in my book Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center, last year former SPLC employee Bob Moser came forward about being complicit in "a highly profitable scam" to bilk donors by exaggerating hate. He spoke out amid a racial discrimination and sexual harassment scandal that cleared out the SPLC's leadership. The organization has yet to release the internal review it promised amid the scandal.

Instead, it released an updated version of the map of "hate groups" that inspired a terrorist attack in Washington, D.C. in 2012.                         

"It is appalling that the SPLC would choose this moment of crisis to launch their divisive and false 'hate report.' Instead, we call on SPLC to apologize, retract it immediately and join the rest of America in uniting against this common health threat. They should use their influence to assist American communities in productive ways, rather than sow discord and division among them," Jeremy Tedesco, vice president of U.S. advocacy at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), told PJ Media.

ADF has played a role in 56 Supreme Court victories (10 in the last decade) but nonetheless finds itself on the list of "hate groups." ADF's ideological opponents have condemned the SPLC's false accusation, but the SPLC continued to list ADF as a "hate group" in the report published Wednesday.

The SPLC's new report — which covers the year 2019 — claims to find 940 "hate groups," far fewer than the 1,020 "hate groups" in the 2018 report. The decline came from a split among neo-Nazi groups, which fell from 112 to 59. The report claims that white nationalist groups rose as did "anti-LGBTQ hate groups," which the SPLC dubbed "the fastest-growing sector of hate."

Amid the scandals last year, Current Affairs Editor Nathan J. Robinson zeroed in on "hate groups" that "barely seem to exist at all." Of the ten groups Robinson identified, only four have been removed, including the most hilarious of his examples, the Wildman's Civil War Surplus & Herb Shop. The one-woman website CarolynYeager.net is still on the list, as is Tony Alamo Christian Ministries — despite the founder's death in prison in 2017. The African fashion boutique Luxor Couture remains on the list, as do the small "groups" Sharkhunters International, Hell Shaking Street Preachers, and Wotan's Nation — whose website has expired.

ACT for America, a national security organization founded by Lebanese-American Brigitte Gabriel, accounts for 39 separate "hate groups," even though ACT for America scrapped its chapter program in 2017 and officially shut all its chapters in 2018. The SPLC listed 47 different "hate groups" as part of ACT for America in 2018.

"Since our chapter members faced harassment in the aftermath of 'hate group' labels we scrapped our chapter model entirely," Robert Maxwell, the group's communications director, told PJ Media. "So we actually don't have chapters anymore and have moved to an activist model which has performed stronger for us because it allows our members to act in unison without being limited by geographical barriers."

As for the SPLC releasing the report amid the coronavirus, Maxwell said, "The SPLC is a classless organization so this report's timing doesn't shock me. I know they need to exaggerate claims of hate groups for donors but the fact that they still include defunct ACT For America chapters on their hate list shows you that they aren't even keeping accurate records."

The "anti-LGBTQ hate group" accusation may be the most notorious. SPLC spokesman Mark Potok once said the organization's "goal in life is to destroy these groups, completely destroy them." In 2012, a shooter targeted the Family Research Council (FRC) in Washington, D.C., aiming to shoot everyone in the building and smear a Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich in their faces. He found the group thanks to the SPLC's "hate map."

The 2019 increase in "anti-LGBTQ hate groups" is deceptive on many levels. While organizations like ADF and FRC do advocate for religious freedom and traditional Christian values, they do not promote hatred against LGBT people.

Brad Dacus, president of the "anti-LGBTQ hate group" Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), told PJ Media that his organization has "consistently promoted love and respect for everyone, including those in the LGBT movement." He even recalled giving legal advice to a mother in a lesbian relationship. A social worker was threatening to remove her children from her, and PJI "provided the mother of two with counsel on what she needed to do to avoid wrongfully losing her children."

"That's not what a hate group does," Dacus quipped. "We at Pacific Justice Institute not only defend people who might have different religious convictions but we also have made a concerted effort to reach out to exemplify how individuals can respectfully disagree even though they have very different beliefs." He pointed to a video exposing the SPLC and announced that PJI would release a video series showing "how to lovingly and respectfully promote unity and true tolerance among people with different beliefs and perspectives."

Yet the SPLC report lists five different "hate groups" under the PJI umbrella: three "chapters" in California, one in Oregon, and one in Washington. The SPLC is a year behind: the Oregon and Washington offices opened in 2018, while new ones in Reno, Nv., and Denver, Colo., opened in 2019.

The SPLC also mixed up the chapters of the "anti-LGBTQ hate group" MassResistance. The 2018 report lists four chapters of the group, while the new 2019 report lists no fewer than 12 "hate groups." When reached by PJ Media, MassResistance Founder Brian Camenker insisted that no fewer than 8 of the SPLC's listings were false.

"To be specific, we DO NOT have chapters in these places: Torrance, CA; Lexington Park, MD; Detroit, MI; Las Vegas, NV; Austin, TX; Dallas, TX; Fort Worth, TX; Seattle, WA," he wrote. "We have done activism from time to time in most of those places (except Detroit and Seattle – where we did activism in nearby towns but not in those cities). But we do not have active chapters in any of them." He also denied having a chapter in Denver, Colo., although MassResistance does have a Colorado chapter.

"Again, the SPLC is extremely sloppy in their research and has no problem outright lying. Their purpose is not to be accurate, but to cause hysteria and fear among clueless liberals," Camenker argued.

The SPLC "hate map" includes many organizations that most Americans would abhor, such as Ku Klux Klan chapters and openly white nationalist groups. However, counting the number of groups arguably obscures the real nature of these movements. The Daily Stormer, a notorious white nationalist website that temporarily lost its hosting after the Charlottesville riots in 2017, counts for no fewer than ten "hate groups." The American Identity Movement/Identity Evropa has roughly 800 members and accounts for 39 different "white nationalist hate groups" on the "hate map." That equates to roughly 20 people per group. American Christian Dixie Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which accounts for 9 "hate groups," has a pitiful website and has been booted from Facebook and Twitter.

While the SPLC undoubtedly reports on many truly bad actors, much of its "hate map" involves exaggeration and political attacks. The report mentions Trump no fewer than 66 times. In one particularly telling passage, the report states, "It is time to move beyond the illusion that hate violence and extremism is merely a criminal crisis in America. It is also a political crisis. It has to be engaged politically."

The SPLC email announcing the report brags about the far-left group's efforts to "push internet companies like Facebook, PayPal, Twitter and others to protect members of targeted communities by preventing hate groups from using their digital platforms to raise money, recruit members and spread racist propaganda."

While America struggles with the coronavirus, the SPLC is hard at work demonizing conservatives, fundraising off of a hate "scam," trying to cover up its own scandals, and further pitting Americans against one another.

"This so-called hate map reinforces the fact that the SPLC cares only about surviving a major revolt from its own workforce," Gen. (Ret.) Jerry Boykin, FRC's executive vice president, told PJ Media. "SPLC’s own employees have identified systematic and long-standing racist and sexist practices and policies. Rather than trying to help the nation in a chaotic and confusing time, SPLC is only dividing the nation."

SPLC Releases Fear-Mongering 'Hate Map' Amid Coronavirus Outbreak 

Clinical Trial Raises Hopes That Malaria Drug Could Be Coronavirus Cure

Article by Chuck Ross for "The Daily Caller":

President Donald Trump asked the White House’s coronavirus task force about possibly using the drug, task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said Wednesday.

Birx said that the drug is being studied “very carefully,” as are several other potential therapeutics.

On Tuesday, a team of French scientists released the first results of a clinical study of the use of hydroxychloroquine on 24 coronavirus patients from southeast France.

The research team, led by Didier Raoult, a renowned infectious disease expert from l’Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire in Marseille, administered the drug for 10 days along with azithromycin, a common antibiotic.

Researchers said the drugs cleared the virus in the nose and throat of most observed patients in three to six days. The study found that after six days of treatment, 70 percent of patients administered hydroxychloroquine were clear of the virus, compared to just 12.5 percent of patients who were not given drugs.

Azithromycin boosted the effect of hydroxychloroquine, according to the study. After six days of treatment, all patients treated with the drug combination “were virologically cured,” compared to 57.1 percent of patients treated with hydroxycholorquine by itself.

“We therefore recommend that COVID-19 patients be treated with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin to cure their infection and to limit the transmission of the virus to other people in order to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the world,” wrote researchers, who acknowledged the small sample size of the study.

Researchers said the drugs cleared the virus in the nose and throat of most observed patients in three to six days. The study found that after six days of treatment, 70 percent of patients administered hydroxychloroquine were clear of the virus, compared to just 12.5 percent of patients who were not given drugs.

Lab studies have shown that hydroxychloroquine, which was developed in the 1940s, inhibited coronavirus. A study published in Cell Discovery on Wednesday by three Chinese scientists found that hydroxychloroquine inhibited coronavirus in vitro, or in a lab culture.

Hotez, the infectious disease expert, told The Daily Caller News Foundation he was “enthusiastic” about early results of studies involving hydroxychloroquine, though he said more data is needed to determine if the drug can effectively treat coronavirus.

“We urgently need to accelerate new antimicrobial therapies. If hydroxychloroquine could be approved in therapy it would be a game-changer,” Hotez said.

“The important next step is to show that it has an impact on reducing severity of symptoms in clinical disease.”

Hotez said that an ideal study would be conducted in areas with high rates of transmission, such as the Lombardy region in Italy.

More clinical trials are underway. A researcher at Asan Medical Center, a top research hospital in South Korea, is conducting a clinical trial of 150 patients with mild cases of coronavirus. The lead researcher, Sung-Han Kim, estimates that the trial will be completed in May.

According to NBC News, French drug maker Sanofi is working with health authorities to study whether hydroxychloroquine can help with coronavirus. The company is encouraged by preliminary findings, according to NBC News, but still does not have enough data to determine its efficacy.

Health officials in Belgium and South Korea have recommended the use of hydroxychloroquine patients displaying either severe or mild symptoms from COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus.

The United Kingdom appears to have some hope for the drug. On Sunday, government officials there banned the export and hoarding of hydroxychloroquine and two other drugs that could be useful as therapeutics, according to Pharmaceutical Technology.

https://dailycaller.com/2020/03/18/hydroxychloroquine-coronavirus-covid19-cure-study/

Reality or Babylon Bee: Marvel's Newest Superheroes

New Marvel Comic Series Features ‘Nonbinary’ Superhero Named ‘Snowflake’

By Gabriel Hays | March 18, 2020 12:54 PM EDT

Marvel’s most recent comic book isn’t even about superheroes this time around. It’s progressive propaganda with a crime-fighting veneer. That’s it.

Even with two years of Marvel discussing token gay characters, or its parent company Disney trying to weave in a subtle lesbian kiss here or there, we were still surprised to learn that the superhero company decided that a “non binary” character named “Snowflake” or “Safespace” would be a cool new edition to the universe inhabited by Captain America.

Nerd culture outlet Bounding Into Comics reported that Marvel repurposed an older Marvel crime fighting team, “The Warriors,” into the “New Warriors.” Creator Daniel Kibblesmith’s description of this reboot destroyed any illusion that these folks were tough heroes.

Kibblesmith, who has also written comic books for beloved Marvel characters like Loki and Black Panther, lovingly described his project as a “story of teenage rebels. A lot of the [superhero] names are about teens fighting against labels that are put on them.” Rebelling against labels in 2020? This is going to be weird.

Of course, this means we are getting characters like “Snowflake” and “Safespace,” who are twins. Kibblesmith described how he came up with the names for this duo: “It’s this idea that these are terms that get thrown around on the internet that they don’t see as derogatory -- to take those words and wear them as badges of honor.”

He then described “Snowflake” who in addition to being poorly named, is “nonbinary and goes by they/them.” The writer added, “Snowflake has the power to generate individual crystallized snowflake-shaped shurikens. The connotations of the word snowflake in our culture right now are something fragile. And this is a character who is turning it into something sharp.”

We’ve come a long way from Peter Parker’s teenage angst, haven’t we?

Continue reading at: mrc NewsBusters

.

How C.S. Lewis Would Tell Us To...

Annie Holmquist for Intellectual Takeout

How C.S. Lewis Would Tell Us 

to Handle Coronavirus

Last week I saw a C.S. Lewis quote shared on social media. I’d seen this quote from his essay “On Living in an Atomic Age” before, but shrugged it off as a nice thought that didn’t really apply any more.

Never mind. Swap out “atomic bomb” for “coronavirus” and the relevance of the quote becomes quite clear:

‘How are we to live in [a coronavirus] age?’ I am tempted to reply: ‘why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.’

In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation.

It’s true. We tend to look at coronavirus and freak out because, as was recently mentioned, this new coronavirus is an “unknown.” Yes, this coronavirus is a “novel” disease, but as Lewis implies, there really is nothing new under the sun. Other ages have faced serious diseases and dangers. We just thought our brilliant scientific minds would exempt our postmodern era from such calamities.

Secretly, we all probably think we’re exempt from death as well. Au contraire, says Lewis. “Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before [this coronavirus] was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways.”  

So how do we deal with the current crisis? “The first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together,” Lewis explains. Sage advice. Take a deep breath and don’t panic. But after that, what?

If we are all going to be destroyed by [this coronavirus], let that [virus] when it comes find us doing sensible and human things – praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts – not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about [this coronavirus]. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.

Granted, not all of these things perfectly apply to this new coronavirus. It is wise to follow the CDC’s advice and practice some form of social distancing, but that social distancing doesn’t have to end our lives!

In fact, I’ve begun to see a silver lining in the dark cloud of this coronavirus. For starters, it’s striking at the heart of one of the largest complaints about postmodern society: busyness. With activities canceled, schools closing, and Americans working from home, we suddenly have a lot more time to be quiet and rest. Perhaps in that quiet and rest we’ll have more time to think, and to re-evaluate our lives. Are we prioritizing important things that will last? Are we espousing the right ideas, or are we holding on to some that don’t make much sense when we actually take time to quietly ponder them?

Another problem this coronavirus is alleviating is the dispersion of the family. Life before coronavirus tended to drive families in 10 different directions at once, leaving little time to spend just getting to know and support one another. Over the weekend, however, I began to see more families out walking around the neighborhood, trying to get out, but forced to spend time together. Will this time allow us to reconnect and build lasting relationships with those closest to us?

Benefits aside, how are we going to respond in this time of crisis? Lewis suggests that some may panic and kill themselves, while others may decide to live it up and enjoy life while they can.

But there’s another way. Lewis reminds us that we are a part of nature “not as prisoners but as colonists.” As such, we are called not to worship nature as our mother and seek the survival of the fittest, but instead to practice “the law of love and temperance even when they seem to be suicidal.” He concludes by saying:

We must resolutely train ourselves to feel that the survival of Man on this Earth, much more of our own nation or culture or class, is not worth having unless it can be had by honourable and merciful means.

The sacrifice is not so great as it seems. Nothing is more likely to destroy a species or a nation than a determination to survive at all costs. Those who care for something else more than civilization are the only people by whom civilization is at all likely to be preserved. Those who want Heaven most have served Earth best. Those who love Man less than God do most for Man.

In a nutshell? Don’t seek to just survive this coronavirus. Live a life that makes a difference for others and looks beyond this world.

--

[Image Credit: Flickr-Quinn Dombrowski, CC BY-SA 2.0]

Tom Brady Puts ..

Stephen Kruiser for PJ Media

Tom Brady Puts the New England Patriots in Permanent Super Bowl Quarantine

(Image: CC/Flickr/WEBN-TV)

By Stephen Kruiser March 18, 2020

If the NFL Has a Season...

It is with indescribable joy that I am beginning this hump-day edition of the Morning Brief writing about something other than COVID-19, which, by the way, I spent part of Tuesday thinking I had. One trip out in public and I was imagining all kinds of things. I've been very sleep-deprived for several days for a variety of reasons and I’m really run down. My fatigue began playing tricks with my brain and nobody needs that kind of nonsense in these times.

When I did wander over to my computer yesterday morning I was greeted by the news that Tom Brady was leaving the New England Patriots after twenty years and likely heading to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Now, no one knows if the NFL is even going to have a season. One would like to think that we will be through the worst of everything by late August, but the NFL may prematurely shut it all down anyway. The Kentucky Derby isn’t until May, and that’s already been postponed until September now.

The news about Brady’s move is notable simply because the amount of success he had in New England -- six Super Bowl titles -- made it seem like he would be with the team until he retired. Even though he had an off, and frustrating, year in 2019, it still seemed like he and coach Bill Belichick would figure something out, if only so Julian Edelman didn’t have to endure the breakup (no word on who gets custody of him yet).

I have a lot of friends who are Patriots fans and many of them have wondered for a while if both Brady and Belichick are intent on proving each can be successful without the other. Maybe, but why let ego get in the way of all of that winning?

As a Steelers fan (long story) Brady’s tenure in New England has been the bane of my existence. I certainly won’t be sorry to see him go to the NFC. I am very grateful to him, however, for giving me a lead story that wasn’t about people dying.

Why the Remedy May Be Worse Than the Disease

Dennis Prager for American Greatness

As of this writing, 6,400 people all over the world have died from the coronavirus.
In the United States, 68 people have died.

Some perspective:

Chinese deaths (3,217) account for half of the worldwide total. If you add Italy (1,441) and Iran (724), two countries where many Chinese were allowed in until recently, that totals another 2,165. In other words, outside of China, Italy and Iran—with 5,382 deaths collectively—1,018 people have died. There are 7.8 billion people in the world.

Regarding Italy, the Jerusalem Post of March 16 reported that according to Nobel Prize-winning chemist Michael Levitt, “Italy’s higher death rate was likely due to the fact that elderly people make up a greater percentage of the population than they do in other countries such as China or France.” As former CBS correspondent Sharyl Attkisson further explained: “Italy has the oldest population in Europe and more elderly per capita than the U.S. Most of the Italian deaths are in patients in their 80s and 90s. In addition, Italy has a great number of direct China contacts. Italy was the first to join China’s ‘silk road’ economic partnership project … (Italy’s) deaths are out of a population of 60 million people.”

Regarding Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported on March 11:

“Iranian officials trace the origins of the country’s coronavirus epidemic to the holy city of Qom, home to … a number of Chinese-backed infrastructure projects built by scores of workers and technicians from China … ‘(China has) turned into a very toxic bomb,’ said Sanam Vakil, deputy Middle East director at Chatham House, a think tank in London.”

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump announced a ban on flights from China on Jan. 31—for which he was denounced by leading Democrats and throughout the left. The very next day, presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden declared, “This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia—hysterical xenophobia—and fearmongering.” On Feb. 2, the American Civil Liberties Union announced, “These measures are extraordinary incursions on liberty and fly in the face of considerable evidence that travel bans and quarantines can do more harm than good.”

The current consensus favors near total social isolation, or “social distancing,” as it is now called. The thinking is that we must shut down the Western world to prevent the exponential growth of the virus. If we don’t, our hospital systems will be overwhelmed. Many thousands, maybe more, would die, as doctors have to make grisly triage decisions as to who gets care and who doesn’t. This latter scenario is reported to have already happened in Italy.

Though there is no longer an exponential growth in the United States, they may otherwise be right.

Is this thinking correct? The truth is we don’t know.

We have no idea how many people carry the COVID-19 coronavirus. Therefore, the rates of either critical illness or death are completely unknown. Perhaps millions of people have the virus and nothing serious develops, in which case we would have rates of death similar to (or even below) the flu virus. On the other hand, perhaps not many people carry the virus, but the rates of illness demanding intensive care and of death are much greater than those of the flu.

We can only be certain that shutting down virtually every part of society will result in a large number of people economically ruined, life savings depleted, decades of work building a restaurant or some other small business destroyed. As if that were not bad enough, the ancillary effects would include increased depression and divorce and other personal tragedies. The effects of closing schools for weeks or months will include family chaos, vast numbers of bored young people, health care providers who will have to stay home and more. Yet young people are the least likely people to become ill from the virus.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released this statement regarding closing schools:

“Available modeling data indicate … that other mitigation efforts (e.g., handwashing, home isolation) have more impact on both spread of disease and health care measures. In other countries, those places who (sic) closed school (e.g., Hong Kong) have not had more success in reducing spread than those that did not (e.g., Singapore).”

But the longer-term ripple effects are potentially far worse. Economic disasters rarely remain only economic disasters. To give a particularly dramatic example, the Nazis came to power because of economics more than any other single reason, including Germany’s defeat in World War I, the Versailles Treaty or anti-Semitism. Nazi success at the polls was almost entirely related to the Weimar economy. Communist parties don’t fare well in robust economies, but they’re very tempting when people are in dire economic straits. Only God knows what economic dislocation the shutting down of American and other Western economies will lead to. I am not predicting a Nazi or communist ascendancy, but economic and political disaster may be as likely, or even more likely, than a health disaster.

But here is a prediction: If the government can order society to cease functioning, from restaurants and other businesses to schools, due to a possible health disaster, it is highly likely that a Democratic president and Congress will similarly declare emergency and assert authoritarian rule in order to prevent what they consider the even greater “existential threat” to human life posed by global warming.

The dam has been broken. Maybe it was necessary. But when dams break, flooding follows.

Contrary To What The Media Told You, Trump Did Not Weaken Biodefenses

Tristan Justice reporting for The Federalist

Democrats and the corporate media have politicized the Trump administration’s approach to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, alleging that the president left the nation unprepared to deal with the outbreak by “dissolving” the White House office in charge of leading the response.

Trump however, did no such thing. The misconception stems from a reorganization of the National Security Council (NSC) to reduce its size and streamline its functions after having ballooned in bureaucratic size during the Obama administration.

Tim Morrison was the director for counterproliferation and biodefense on the NSC in the Trump White House before joining the Hudson Institute as a senior fellow. In a Washington Post op-ed, Morrison explains that part of that reorganization included the consolidation of three overlapping directorates including arms control and nonproliferation, weapons of mass destruction terrorism, and global health and biodefense into one arm of the NSC. Together they created the office that Morrison would lead starting in 2018.

“It is this reorganization that critics have misconstrued or intentionally misrepresented,” Morrison wrote in the Washington Post.

“The reduction of force in the NSC has continued since I departed the White House. But it has left the biodefense staff unaffected – perhaps a recognition of the importance of that mission to the president, who, after all, in 2018 issued a presidential memorandum to finally create real accountability in the federal government’s expansive biodefense system.”

While critics point to Trump’s reduction of NSC staff as evidence of the administration’s negligence related to the epidemic, Morrison notes that former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, congressional oversight committees, and prominent members of the Obama administration all concurred that the NSC had become “too large and too operationally focused.”

“That is why Trump began streamlining the NSC staff in 2017,” Morrison wrote.

Coronavirus Venice canals clearer after lockdown

Residents of Venice are noticing a vast improvement in the quality of the famous canals that run through the city, which are running clear for the first time in years, and fish can even be seen in the usually murky waters.

A Government Monopoly led to...

Fee.org

A Government Monopoly Led to 

Botched COVID-19 Test Kits, 

but Private Labs Are Now Saving the Day

The basic economic truth is that competition improves results.

March 16, 2020

The World Health Organization has declared the coronavirus a global pandemic. As of Friday afternoon, there are 132,000 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, and the global death toll has topped 5,000 people.

The fast-spreading virus claimed 196 lives in Italy, on Tuesday alone.

At this time, 90 percent of all cases are in four countries: China, Italy, Iran, and South Korea. Late this week, WHO declared that Europe has overtaken China as the new epicenter of COVID-19 (although this may have more to do with the two regions’ differing levels of openness and honesty in reporting than actual numbers). Even the Vatican reported its first case last Thursday.

Nowhere is immune, including the United States. Schools have been closed in at least 30 states and the District of Columbia as of Monday. Look for that number to increase.

As the rampaging virus wields its way around the globe, prevention and early detection are key to limiting its reach. While a travel ban limited US exposure to the source of the infection, unwieldy government regulations needlessly slowed the detection process for weeks.

Federal regulations barred any labs outside the federal government from developing a test to diagnose coronavirus. When the CDC sent out its test on February 5, it soon learned many of them were defective. The kits produced false positives.

The MIT Technology Review explains:

According to Duane Newton, the director of clinical microbiology at the University of Michigan, the biggest limitation in diagnostics is not the technology, but rather the regulatory approval process for new tests and platforms. While this process is critical for ensuring safety and efficacy, the necessary delays often “hamper the willingness and ability of manufacturers and laboratories to invest resources into developing and implementing new tests,” he says.

Case in point: FDA rules initially prevented state and commercial labs from developing their own coronavirus diagnostic tests, even if they could develop coronavirus PCR [Polymerase chain reaction] primers on their own. So when the only available test suddenly turned out to be bunk, no one could actually say what primer sets worked.

The government reversed course on February 29 and allowed private labs to begin developing their own tests. The results have been spectacular.

The old tests took two to seven days to process. The patient was left in limbo in the meantime. Within a matter of days of the government dropping its restriction, the Cleveland Clinic developed a test that delivered results within eight hours.

The change is due directly to the “federal government being responsive by changing those regulations,” said Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, at a press conference on Tuesday. The newly instituted, “unbelievable waiver system” has increased competition by “bringing the super-large, high throughput companies into the system.”

Vice President Mike Pence added that “outside experts … said that when the president brought the commercial labs in, he did exactly the right thing, because it’s those big companies that have logistics infrastructure all over the country … that can distribute tests [and] process the tests.”

An artificial federal government monopoly on testing produced a faulty kit and slowed progress in detecting and fighting the coronavirus. Socialism is an instituted government monopoly, not just on medicine, but on all economic life. The results are inefficiency, a sterile-sounding word until it means that Americans will lose their lives.

“The great strength the US has always had, not just in virology, is that we’ve always had a wide variety of people and groups working on any given problem,” Keith Jerome, the head of virology at the University of Washington, told the MIT Technology Review. “When we decided all coronavirus testing had to be done by a single entity, even one as outstanding as CDC, we basically gave away our greatest strength.”

Hmmm 

The basic economic truth that competition improves results lies at the heart of all human endeavor. The enormity of the coronavirus has driven this truth home in grim and unforgettable ways. It should never again be lost on those of us who imitate the Great Physician in longing to serve and save the least of these, our brothers and sisters.

Greta Thunberg Condemns...

Babylon Bee🐝

Greta Thunberg Condemns Coronavirus For Causing Apocalypse 10 Years Early

STOCKHOLM—Greta Thunberg has come out to condemn the coronavirus outbreak, saying the virus callously ended the world ten years before climate change even had the chance to.

As Thunberg is known for her fiery speeches and doomsday predictions about climate change, she began to worry that the spread of this virus would take the spotlight off her and her brave efforts and instead cause the world to worry about an actual, immediate crisis.

"How dare you cause the apocalypse a decade before it was supposed to happen!" she shouted at a press conference. "I was not consulted on this. I should be in school right now, but I'm not, because the whole world is under lockdown many years before I predicted the end would come."

"I still exist, remember!?"

At publishing time, Thunberg had been tossed out into the dumpster behind the Democratic headquarters in Washington, D.C., where she found David Hogg and dozens of other kids the Dems had exploited for their political agenda until they outlived their usefulness.

5.7 magnitude earthquake hits Utah; power outages reported in Salt Lake City

A 5.7 magnitude earthquake hit Utah Wednesday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

About 32,000 people lost electricity in the Salt Lake City Area, said utility Rocky Mountain Power.

There were no immediate reports of injuries, according to the Weather Channel.

The quake's epicenter was located northeast of Magna, Utah, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The earthquake hit a little after 7 a.m. local time. An estimated 2.76 million people likely felt the quake, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. Most residents felt their homes shaking for 10 to 15 seconds.

New father Ryan Jensen, who's baby was just born this morning at Altaview Hospital in West Jordan, Utah, said via text that the "Hospital was rocking. Man oh man as if being in born in a pandemic wasn’t enough, man that was nerve rattling." 

According to the Salt Lake City Tribune, Janis Ferre of Salt Lake City, wrote on Facebook: “It sounded as though our house was stretching.”

Added Holladay resident John E. Henderson: “It felt like somebody picked up my house and dropped it,” the Tribune said.

"Beyond power outages, some reported damages to their homes or businesses as pictures fell off walls, dishes out of cupboards or products off of the shelves," the Tribune said.

"Please stay away from the downtown area while crews assess damage," Utah Governor Gary Herbert said.

It was the largest earthquake in Utah since 1992, Utah Emergency Management said.

China defends expulsion of journalists, warns more possible

 
Article by Justine Coleman in "The Hill":

China on Wednesday defended its decision to expel journalists working for three American news organizations and to forbid them from working in Hong Kong, adding that more expulsions could be coming.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said during a daily press briefing that China would take more steps against American media if the U.S. did not “correct its mistakes,” Reuters reported.

“The U.S. has said that all options are on the table. Today, I can also tell the U.S. that all options are on the table for China,” Geng said, according to Reuters.

China announced Tuesday that journalists from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post would be forced to leave the country at the end of 2020 and would not be permitted to work in Hong Kong as allowed during past expulsions. 

The decision will affect at least 13 journalists, according to the Foreign Correspondents Club of China, which said it “deplores” the choice. The club has requested that Hong Kong ensure that foreign journalists and those applying for work in the semi-autonomous city would still receive employment without the Chinese government getting involved. 

The Chinese government said the expulsions were in reaction to U.S. actions against Chinese media, such as requiring Chinese state media to register as foreign embassies and reducing the number of journalists allowed to work for these outlets in the U.S.

The decision to prohibit the reporters from working in Hong Kong has specifically stirred outrage given the one country, two systems relationship put in place after China took control of Hong Kong in 1997. Reporters have previously been allowed to work in Hong Kong after they were expelled from China. 

Chinese officials said they were allowed to forbid the reporters from working in Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s Basic Law, which is its small constitution, says China can manage its foreign affairs and defense. 

China had previously expelled three Wall Street Journal reporters because of an op-ed headline that the foreign ministry labeled as racist. The headline was “China is the Real Sick Man of Asia,” referring to the coronavirus outbreak.

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/488177-china-defends-expulsion-of-journalists-warns-more-possible 

Scientist with 4 Degrees from MIT Warns....

Carmine Sabia for WesternJournal

Scientist with 4 Degrees from MIT Warns 'Deep State' Using Coronavirus Fear-Mongering To Suppress Dissent

By Carmine Sabia Published March 17, 2020 at 7:46am

A decorated scientist with four degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology believes the coronavirus pandemic is being used by the “Deep State” for its own purposes.

Shiva Ayyadurai said on Twitter that “fear-mongering” over the outbreak is being used to push an agenda.

“As an MIT PhD in Biological Engineering who studies & does research nearly every day on the Immune System, the #coronavirus fear mongering by the Deep State will go down in history as one of the biggest fraud to manipulate economies, suppress dissent, & push MANDATED Medicine!” he said.

As an MIT PhD in Biological Engineering who studies & does research nearly every day on the Immune System, the #coronavirus fear mongering by the Deep State will go down in history as one of the biggest fraud to manipulate economies, suppress dissent, & push MANDATED Medicine! https://t.co/Q5VeOqzWEp

— Dr.SHIVA Ayyadurai, MIT PhD. Inventor of Email (@va_shiva) March 9, 2020

It is important to note that Ayyadurai did not say the disease is man-made or a hoax.

You should follow the guidelines from doctors, federal, state and local governments and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But what Ayyadurai did say is that some in the government are using the pandemic to frighten people into obedience.

Think about what has transpired in less than a week’s time. We have handed control of nearly everything in our lives to the government.

In many places, they are telling us when we can leave our homes and when we must return to them.

They have decided what events or religious services we can attend, how many people are allowed to be there and which businesses are allowed to stay open.

In the process, the global economy has crashed with the assistance of the media stirring everyone into a mass panic.

People are hoarding and fighting over toilet paper as if it is the cure for COVID-19 and grabbing every canned and dry food they can find.

Again, this is a very real disease and it can be dangerous, particularly to those who are immunocompromised or elderly.

That said, the panic shopping and fear that many of us feel are not helping any of us.

Is Ayyadurai incorrect? If a vaccine for coronavirus was available tomorrow, do you not believe that the government could, and would, mandate that everyone get it?

Many of us would be thrilled to have it. But what about the people who decided that they would not take the vaccine?

Many schools and workplaces already mandate the flu shot. Now imagine the government requiring that citizens take the medicine they are told to.

If it could do that, what else could it force you to do next year? Next decade? Next century?

We all want to be safe, and we want you to be safe and follow the guidelines as we do not know what we are dealing with.

But it would also be wise to be vigilant and see the bigger picture.

The doctor could be way off base, but if he isn’t, that is a frightening prospect.

Dr. Fauci Says Wuhan Virus Testing Issues Are Not Trump’s Fault

Madeline Osburn reporting for The Federalist

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the renowned director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, addressed restraints on the testing process for the Wuhan coronavirus, saying neither President Donald Trump nor the CDC are to blame for shortcomings.

In an interview with political commentator Hugh Hewitt on “The Hugh Hewitt Show” Tuesday, Fauci said a “technical glitch” slowed the production of tests at the outset of the pandemic.

“It was a complicated series of multiple things that conflated that just, you know, went the wrong way. One of them was a technical glitch that slowed things down in the beginning. Nobody’s fault. There wasn’t any bad guys there. It just happened,” Fauci said.

At a congressional hearing on coronavirus test kits last week, Facui admitted, “The system is not really geared to what we need right now.”

Hewitt asked Fauci, who has advised presidents since 1984, whether “anything about the production of the test [is] President Trump’s fault” or if any other president would have run into the same problem.

“Oh, absolutely. This has nothing to do with anybody’s fault, certainly not the president’s fault,” Fauci said.

Hewitt also asked Fauci, “What is it like working with the president? You’ve worked with a lot of presidents.”

“It’s an interesting experience,” Fauci replid. “You know, each president has their own unique character. He’s somebody who is very active, a lot of things going on, very direct, very decisive.”

In late February, the New York Times reported that Fauci “has told associates that the White House had instructed him not to say anything else without clearance.”

At a press conference shortly following the report, Fauci denied the claim, saying he had never been “muzzled” by the president.

“I’ve never been muzzled, and I’ve been doing this since Reagan,” Fauci responded. “That was a real misrepresentation of what happened.”

The COVID-19 pandemic shows our elite pundit class it completely worthless

Beckett Adams’ analysis at Washington Examiner 

The coronavirus outbreak has laid bare not only the deficiencies of the federal government, but it has destroyed also whatever remained of the facade of expertise and credibility that the pundit class had built for itself.

From the opinion sections of the New York Times to the Los Angeles Times, those who make up the ranks of America’s elite commentariat have failed utterly to provide audiences with measured and well-researched information regarding the COVID-19 disease. They have chosen instead to indulge in their worst, shallowest inclinations, spreading panic, ignorance, and fear almost as quickly as the infection itself. 

The general failure of the pundit class to serve even a moderately useful purpose in the time of the coronavirus pandemic has manifested itself in several forms.

First, there is the class of commentator that has given up entirely on the idea of being measured and has chosen instead to embrace hysterical panic. 

“Can we talk about [one] of the few topics I may actually know too much about: homicide?” MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirschner asked Tuesday. “Specifically, whether Donald Trump may have criminal exposure for some level of negligent homicide or voluntary/involuntary manslaughter for the way he’s mishandled the coronavirus crisis.”

He goes on in that vein for quite some time. I will spare you. 

Earlier this week, another MSNBC legal analyst, Neal Katyal, had this to say: “Idea: Trump resigns for grave incompetence. George W Bush and Obama run this thing together.” 

He added, “We can figure out how to do this constitutionally. It’s tough but possible. Doesn’t actually even need Trump to resign, he just needs to get out of the way [and] let the pros do the hard work.”

Unlike Kirschner, Katyal is not just some anti-Trump “resistance” lunatic. He served as a solicitor general for the Obama administration. He is fairly respected by both sides of the aisle. Yet, this is how he has chosen to respond to the COVID-19 virus, not with a restrained, knowledgeable response but with conspiracymongering and wish-casting. 

There is also the class of commentator that sees the pandemic as the perfect opportunity for partisan ax-grinding.

“Trump won’t be able to deflect and project and create a daft alternative narrative,” the New York Times’s Maureen Dowd wrote in late February for an article titled “Trump Makes Us Ill.” 

She adds, “The virus won’t respond to conspiracy theories from Rush Limbaugh or nasty diatribes from Sean Hannity or nicknames from Donald Trump."

Earlier, on Feb. 26, Dowd’s New York Times colleague Gail Collins authored an op-ed titled “Let’s Call It Trumpvirus.”

There is nothing I can say that will bring greater shame on Collins than her own headline, so let’s just leave it at that. 

Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin also claimed this week that there is a “particular cruelty" and an "irony” in the likelihood that more Republicans than Democrats will die from the virus because Republicans watch Fox News.

"[T]here will be less Democrat deaths because there will be less mass gatherings, there will be less opportunities for people to congregate and share this horrible disease," she said.

Fox Business anchor Trish Regan, meanwhile, did something a little different. On March 9, she used the pandemic as an opportunity to attack Democrats and the news media. 

Regan dismissed fears over the virus, telling her viewers the pandemic is yet “another attempt” by Democrats and their allies in the news media “to impeach the president.”

Democrats are creating “mass hysteria to encourage a market sell-off,” and it is all being done “to demonize and destroy the president,” Regan claimed while an on-air headline flashed: “Coronavirus Impeachment Scam.” 

The network placed her on hiatus until further notice following her remarks.

Next, there is the class of commentator that sees the pandemic as a perfect excuse to police for problematic language and other culture war favorites. This class includes the Atlantic’s David Frum, who believes that it is racist to refer to the virus by the name of the country and city where it originated.

“Nobody calls the 1919-20 pandemic the Spanish flu anymore,” Frum said this week on social media, “and not because we are soft on the Inquisition. It's just not a useful way to name a disease.”

Everyone calls it the “Spanish flu,” including David Frum.

“The reason sensible people resist Trump's urging to call coronavirus ‘China infection’ or ‘Yellow Peril’ or whatever name he's test-marketing tonight is that it's just too blinking obvious that his purpose is to redirect attention from his failure to do his job competently,” the Atlantic columnist also complained this week.

The president has never called the virus “China infection” or “yellow peril.” He has called it the “China virus.”

Lastly, there is the class of commentator that has responded to the virus by acting as the unofficial public relations arm of the Chinese Communist Party. 

“How uncomfortable is it,” NBC News’s Chuck Todd asked last weekend, “that perhaps China’s authoritarian ways did prevent this? Meaning, had China been a free and open society, this might have spread faster?”

Elsewhere, the New York Times published an op-ed titled “China Bought the West Time. The West Squandered It.”

Imagine having a platform as large and influential as NBC News or the New York Times and then squandering it to take cheap shots or praise the Chinese Communist Party, which is responsible for the pandemic in the first place. 

If nothing else, the viral outbreak has shown that the U.S. pundit class is no more informed or credible than your average comments section. Our commentariat is a collection of irredeemable zealots, partisan guttersnipes, and all-around know-nothings, which makes them not only the most useless class of person to be involved in the public discourse surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, but also one of the most dangerous.