Liberal Mantra

W.H.O. Proclamations Guiding YouTube Censorship (Plus: Debunking Debunks)

Published by Papa Giorgio

(You can JUMP to my FACEBOOK CONVERSATIONS if you wish – “A” or “B“)

I noticed some of the viral videos by Drs. Daniel Erickson and Artin Massihi are being removed from YouTube. As it turns out, YouTube apparently are using the World Health Organizations proclamations as their guiding light to censor people free speech/thought. Here Laura Ingraham notes the issue:

(Hat-Tip to: POWERLINE | 23 ABC NEWS BAKERSFIELD)

Basically the Doctors in their original video (can be seen HERE, HERE, Channel 23 Bakersfield has it HERE, see also HERE) were basically saying it is time to open up California. The video has been removed from YouTube — hard to find. 23ABC BAKERSFIELD has the FULL video on their Facebook still:

(ALSO SEE BITCHUTE)

[fbvideo link=”https://www.facebook.com/345739135535736/videos/229285844807563/” width=”691″ height=”400″ onlyvideo=”1″]

Similarly, another doctor in the heart of the battle in New York says it is time to open back up, via the NEW YORK POST:

I’m an emergency physician at St. Barnabas Hospital in The Bronx. I have been in the ER every day these last few weeks, either supervising or providing direct care. I contracted a COVID-19 infection very early in the outbreak, as did two of my daughters, one of whom is a nurse. We are all well, thank God.

COVID-19 has been the worst health care disaster of my 30-year ­career, because of its intensity, duration and potential for lasting impact. The lasting impact is what worries me the most. And it’s why I now believe we should end the lockdown and rapidly get back to work.

[….]

It is precisely what I have witnessed that now tells me that it’s time to ease the lockdown. Here’s why.

First, the wave has crested. At 1 p.m. April 7, the COVID-19 arrivals slowed down. It was a discrete, noticeable event. Stretchers became available by 5 p.m., and the number of arriving COVID-19 patients dropped below the number discharged, transferred or deceased.

This was striking, because the community I serve is poor. Some are homeless. Most work in “essential,” low-paying jobs, where distancing isn’t easy. Nevertheless, the wave passed over us, peaked and subsided. The way this transpired tells me the ebb and flow had more to do with the natural course of the outbreak than it did with the lockdown.

Second, I worry about non-coronavirus care. While the inpatient units remain busy with sick COVID-19 patients, our ER has been quiet for more than a week. We usually average 240 patients a day. For the last week, we averaged fewer than 100. That means our patients in this diverse, low-income community are afraid to come to the ER for non-COVID care.

Gotham-wide, the number of 911 ambulance runs declined to 3,320 on April 18, down from a peak of 6,527 on March 30, according to New York Fire Department data. The current nadir is significantly below the average.

A large share of those staying home surely have emergency medical and surgical conditions not related to the novel coronavirus. The growing numbers ­dying at home during this crisis must include fatal myocardial infarctions, asthma exacerbations, bacterial infections and strokes.

Meanwhile, our pediatric volume in the ER has practically disappeared. Visits to primary-care pediatricians are also down, with vaccine schedules falling behind. Everyone seems to be avoiding the health system — an important and unfortunate consequence of the stay-at-home strategy.

Third, inordinate fear misguides the public response. While COVID-19 is serious, fear of it is being over-amplified. The public needs to understand that the vast majority of infected people do quite well.

Finally, COVID-19 is more prevalent than we think. Many New Yorkers already have the COVID-19 infection, whether they are aware of it or not. As of today, over 43 percent of those tested are positive in The Bronx. We are developing a significant degree of natural herd immunity. Distancing works, but I am skeptical that it is playing as predominant a role as many think.

More testing will better establish the numbers among those with mild illnesses and no symptoms. My professional ­experience tells me the number of infected people will be high. Testing is important work, but it should happen in parallel to the immediate resuscitation of the economy and getting people back to work.

At present, the testing is ­imperfect. We can’t wait months. We must protect the vulnerable and mitigate without destroying the economy…..

All of these doctors are in agreement that Covid-19 is serious. But they are also in agreement on two things, that is:

  1. California is not New York;
  2. The economy is an important monetary and healthy factor.

To Wit…

Armstrong & Getty discuss Brett Stephens New York Times article where it seems the rest of America is being asked to respond to The Rona just like New York City is. In an excellent article Brett notes:

  • As of Friday, there have been more Covid-19 fatalities on Long Island’s Nassau County (population 1.4 million) than in all of California (population 40 million). There have been more fatalities in Westchester County (989) than in Texas (611). The number of Covid deaths per 100,000 residents in New York City (132) is more than 16 times what is in America’s next largest city, Los Angeles (8). If New York City proper were a state, it would have suffered more fatalities than 41 other states combined… (NEW YORK TIMES)

THE FEDERALIST likewise uses Brett’s article as a launch pad, noting:

  • The claim that New York is not responsible for the severe lockdowns we see across the country is the kind of revisionist history that we will all be drowned in over the coming weeks. Through late March and early April, Drs. Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci made clear time and again that their recommendations were based mostly on data from New York, where the most cases and testing existed.

Now there is a debunking of sorts making the rounds…

FACEBOOK CONVOS

…the first I was made aware of it was by a friend in the health industry. He sent me a link to this statement by the The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM):

The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) jointly and emphatically condemn the recent opinions released by Dr. Daniel Erickson and Dr. Artin Massihi. These reckless and untested musings do not speak for medical societies and are inconsistent with current science and epidemiology regarding COVID-19. As owners of local urgent care clinics, it appears these two individuals are releasing biased, non-peer reviewed data to advance their personal financial interests without regard for the public’s health.

COVID-19 misinformation is widespread and dangerous. Members of ACEP and AAEM are first-hand witnesses to the human toll that COVID-19 is taking on our communities. ACEP and AAEM strongly advise against using any statements of Drs. Erickson and Massihi as a basis for policy and decision making.

Then a couple other friends who disagree with a video by Drs. Daniel Erickson and Artin Massihi or just Dr. Erickson, noted both the above, and one was kind enough to post an article that specifically noted where the doctors “got it wrong.” And please do not get me wrong, I love friends that disagree with me. Why? Because it hones my knowledge of a topic. For instance, a friend posted this article from CALMATTERS “debunking” Dr. Erickson’s first video. But he wasn’t aware of another video that already responds to the charges he makes! I will post my shorter version of IT following the dialogue:

  • JIM G.
    In a rare statement late today, the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine declared they “emphatically condemn the recent opinions released by Dr. Daniel Erickson and Dr. Artin Messihi. These reckless and untested musings do not speak for medical societies and are inconsistent with current science and epidemiology regarding COVID-19. As owners of local urgent care clinics, it appears these two individuals are releasing biased, non-peer reviewed data to advance their personal financial interests without regard for the public’s health.” [then he linked the CALMATTERS article]

After I noted my post on my site… JIM G. said:

  • the article points out the very basic methodological flaw. It’s flaw in their study is so elementary, it’s ridiculous.

Since I like to get people to commit to a premise they want to defend, I simply asked: “what flaw Jim”

  • JIM G.
    simple lack of random sampling and suggesting that their findings can be extrapolated to a larger population.

//… But public health experts were quick to debunk the doctors’ findings as misguided and riddled with statistical errors — and an example of the kind of misleading information they are forced to waste precious time disputing.

The doctors should never have assumed that the patients they tested — who came for walk-in COVID-19 tests or who sought urgent care for symptoms they experienced in the middle of a pandemic — are representative of the general population, said Dr. Carl Bergstrom, a University of Washington biologist who specializes in infectious disease modeling. He likened their extrapolations to “estimating the average height of Americans from the players on an NBA court.” And most credible studies of COVID-19 death rates in reality are far higher than the ones the doctors presented.//

ME
JIM G.  in this video he said it cannot be extrapolated to another population? (YOUTUBE), and they started to test everyone who asked?

This has to be the worst example of flaws since the Dr. refuted them even before he was rebuked? The only flaws I see have been the gargantuan numbers thrown around by the modelers themselves. California is no where near the deaths near the flu.

VIDEO ISOLATED

 

Likewise, another friend focused on the same issue. What was different however is that he posted under the previous video my other friend was not aware of. And may I say, I doubt this friend, JEREMY J, watched the video he commented under — just assuming it was the original video. Likewise though, the above video is great for his response as well:

  • JEREMY J.
    I recently posted this elsewhere.

For those of you who have watched the video of Bakersfield California doctors Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi, owners of Accelerated Urgent Care with multiple office locations including Kern County, you should know that their core message “Millions of cases, small amount of death” is based on very bad data analytics.

For most of the presentation, Dr. Erickson does most of the talking. When I use “they” or “their” please understand that I am usually referring to Dr. Erickson.

They took the number of tests they had done in their own clinics (5213) and the number of positive results they had from those tests (340, or 6.5%), and “extrapolated” (their words) that data to the entire state. That is how they arrived at 4.4 million Californians already infected.

But in order to extrapolate, you must be comparing similar groups. The group of people who have been tested is unlikely to have the same rate of infection as the general population, and there is no evidence offered that they do. The doctors simply assume that Californians as a whole would have positive tests at the same rate as symptomatic people who come in for testing. This is a basic failing on their part and by itself makes the claim “Millions of cases, small amount of death” invalid.

They then cite the California statewide numbers (280,900 tests, 33,865, or 12%). Based on these numbers, Dr. Erickson then says “so the more you test, the more positives you get, the prevalence number goes up, and the death rate stays the same, so it gets smaller and smaller and smaller.”

This is such confused thinking that it’s hard to know where to start, especially for an audience unversed in statistical and epidemiological terminology. OF COURSE you will get more positive results if you test more people, but that isn’t what he is trying to say. Dr. Erickson appears to be saying that if more tests are done, the *percent* of positive results goes up. That is magical thinking. It certainly isn’t science. More likely, the difference between their local numbers and the statewide numbers is a manifestation of either different testing criteria, or Kern County simply has fewer cases than California as a whole (infection rates would not be expected to be uniform across the state).

Far from being based on facts, data, and science, their core message that there are “Millions of cases, small amount of death” is based on assumption, conjecture, speculation, and magical thinking.

I’ve watched the entire hour long news conference. It is obvious to me that they do not understand some basic things about microbiology and immunology. They use “incidence” and “prevalence” interchangeably, even though they are very different concepts. They misunderstand the concept of “herd immunity”. And they tout their real world, on the ground experience as more valid than that of an academician, even though they haven’t worked in a hospital setting for several years and haven’t cared for seriously ill COVID-19 patients. Wise physicians understand that both perspectives are valid.

To be sure, they make some good points, and I think they are generally well intentioned. But their overall message is fundamentally weakened by some seriously sloppy data analysis as well as sloppy use of terms.

Note he makes it clear their intentions are good. That is nice, but these are my responses:

  • ME
    No, he says in the video you cannot extrapolate his work to the state. He says that specifically. But then notes another California study. And as they test this way (random testing), other states are finding the same issue.

Just as one example, at a homeless shelter in Boston, out of the nearly 400 guests tested, 146 tested positive for Covid-19… all were asymptomatic.

…the other study mentioned by Dr. Erickson was this one mentioned in the REASON.COM article. These studies are all proving my early work (mid to late March), which I speak about here: RPT

In a humorous short discussion via email with A CLEARER PICTURE, a neat play on the word Fascism was noted by him that I wish to highlight here. It is a simple joining of two words:

Dr. Fauci + fascism = Faucism

Here is his short prose using the term:

  • [That] Statement you sent me from College of Physicians is unbelievable. This is getting serious. Fauscism is as contemptuous of our rights to share information and make up our own minds as they are of our rights to earn a living and freely assemble.”

On my Facebook, a friend said this: “I posted this as well. These [doctors] absolutely nail it. I’m tellin’ y’all, I’m feelin’ the ‘1984’ thing right now!” What this will do and is doing is the false modeling and the covering up of tracks by saying on the death certificate’s of people told they have a month to live because of cancer… and then this breakout appears on the scene, and while they are in the hospital dying, they catch The Rona. Their death cert doesn’t say “died of cancer, it says “died of Covid-19.”

After reading A CLEARER PICTURE’S latest post about the censorship, I remembered it was Tuesday, and boogied on over to TOWNHALL.COM to see Prager’s latest column. Here is a large excerpt from it:

…“Police state” does not mean totalitarian state. America is not a totalitarian state; we still have many freedoms. In a totalitarian state, this article could not be legally published, and if it were illegally published, I would be imprisoned and/or executed. But we are presently living with all four of the key hallmarks of a police state:

No. 1: Draconian laws depriving citizens of elementary civil rights.

The federal, state, county and city governments are now restricting almost every freedom except those of travel and speech. Americans have been banned from going to work (and thereby earning a living), meeting in groups (both indoors and outdoors), meeting in their cars in church parking lots to pray and entering state-owned properties such as beaches and parks — among many other prohibitions.

No. 2: A mass media supportive of the state’s messaging and deprivation of rights.

The New York Times, CNN and every other mainstream mass medium — except Fox News, The Wall Street Journal (editorial and opinion pages only) and talk radio — have served the cause of state control over individual Americans’ lives just as Pravda served the Soviet government. In fact, there is almost no more dissent in The New York Times than there was in Pravda. And the Big Tech platforms are removing posts about the virus and potential treatments they deem “misinformation.”

No. 3: Use of police.

Police departments throughout America have agreed to enforce these laws and edicts with what can only be described as frightening alacrity. After hearing me describe police giving summonses to, or even arresting, people for playing baseball with their children on a beach, jogging alone without a mask, or worshipping on Easter while sitting isolated in their cars in a church parking lot, a police officer called my show. He explained that the police have no choice. They must respond to every dispatch they receive.

“And why are they dispatched to a person jogging on a beach or sitting alone in a park?” I asked.

Because the department was informed about these lawbreakers.

“And who told the police about these lawbreakers?” I asked.

His answer brings us to the fourth characteristic of a police state:

No. 4: Snitches.

How do the police dispatchers learn of lawbreakers such as families playing softball in a public park, lone joggers without face masks, etc.? From their fellow citizens snitching on them. The mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, set up a “snitch line,” whereby New Yorkers were told to send authorities photos of fellow New Yorkers violating any of the quarantine laws. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti similarly encouraged snitching, unabashedly using the term.

It is said that about 1 in every 100 East German citizens were informers for the Stasi, the East German secret police, as superbly portrayed in the film “The Lives of Others.” It would be interesting, and, I think, important, to know what percentage of New Yorkers informed on their fellow citizens. Now, again, you may think such a comparison is not morally valid, that de Blasio’s call to New Yorkers to serve a Stasi-like role was morally justified given the coronavirus pandemic. But you cannot deny it is Stasi-like or that, other than identifying spies during World War II, this is unprecedented in American history at anywhere near this level…..

This coincides with my post on a friends Facebook last night, where I said after mentioning the removal of Drs. Daniel Erickson and Artin Massihi video:

Certain books and videos removed from Amazon for not being politically-correct. Posts removed from Facebook for not marching in step. YouTube removing or “doxing” videos that they say do not meet their guidelines (just think of Prager U’s fight). Twitter, etc.

You know, many years ago I wrote the Koch Brothers and tried to get a letter to them (being big libertarians) about starting a server for people to compete with YouTube and other blog hosting sites. Because I know at some point hosting sites will limit my speech to fit the prevailing PC winds.

The owner of the blog “A Clearer Picture” mentioned to me the following after seeing the above statement: “[That] Statement you sent me from College of Physicians is unbelievable. This is getting serious. Fauscism is as contemptuous of our rights to share information and make up our own minds as they are of our rights to earn a living and freely assemble.”

“Fauscism” what a great “medical” play on words. (Based on Dr. Fauci)

And yes, giving up our rights to modelers and to the World Health Organization (scientism) is a form of FAUCISM. Speaking to one of the models that led to what should have been a two or three week shut down was this one noted at TOWNHALL.COM (on April 5th):

….One prominent model in the shutdown is from the University of Washington, from their Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), funded by Bill and Melinda Gates. How closely does what they predicted track with reality so far? Turns out, not so well.

While the reporting data from some states are lagging, others have provided information that calls into question the validity of the whole model, and with it, all the actions taken by government.

On April 4th, for example, the IHME model predicted there would be between 120,963 and 203,436 Americans requiring hospitalization, with the average of that range being 164,745. In reality, there were 18,998…..

Sick, and because of the hatred for Trump from the Left and #NeverTrumpers… this is only the beginning of the emboldening of what they think they can do to us. As CNN and other’s say this is a trial run for:

  • The World Is Coming Together To Fight Coronavirus. It Can Do The Same For The Climate Crisis (CNN)
  • Coronavirus And Climate Change: The Pandemic Is A Fire Drill For Our Planet’S Future (NBC NEWS – BIG THINK)

Disinfecting the Media’s Narrative With Light!

Published by Papa Giorgio

Larry Elder Discusses the whole “Bleach” incident that the media blew up and took WAAAY out of context. And how dumb the Left must be to interpret any part of what the President said as ingesting or injecting caustic material – like Ross. (I include some video of differing modern day units that process blood with UV light at the 3:05 mark.)

BEFORE getting to some of the fun stuff, my post on the Bleach incident: “Trump Then Clarified His Remarks | Clorox Bleach Injections“. Here is a cataloging of the UV Light technology that is a hundred years old, and, the entire point here is not to promote anything below as a cure, it is merely to point out as usual Trump is ahead of the MSM with actual technology to support his randomized statements.

But as you will see from the videos, this is “disinfecting light” brought into the body to fight the Coronavirus, something the AP wrote recently about:

  • Cedars-Sinai-Developed ‘Healight’ Medical Device Platform Technology Being Studied as a Potential First-in-Class COVID-19 Treatment (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

LOU DOBBS discussing it:

The President and his people probably got inundated with companies contacting them with technology they have been working on. If you take this into account, the portion where Trump said Dr. Birx and others would look into that makes more sense in context. The Presidents people have probably been brainstorming on all this.

To WIT…

I first heard (read) about this via RUSH LIMBAUGH, to which I excerpt from his transcript:

….Now, folks, it has long been known that ultraviolet light (UV) kills viruses and bacteria. This is known for a long time. The problem is that if it’s unfiltered, ultraviolet light is dangerous to humans and to human cells. What you have to do is filter out the dangerous UVC, ultraviolet C, leaving what’s called ultraviolet A light.

Then it becomes safe for human use. It has proven in the lab by a bunch of companies that at the right wattage and the right duration, ultraviolet A light is effective at killing a variety of viruses and bacteria — including the coronavirus. Ultraviolet A will kill the coronavirus. There is now a company making a product called Healight, H-e-a-l-i-g-h-t.

It was developed at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. The Healight is actually a catheter and is used on patients who are intubated, who have a breathing tube. So what happens is that the catheter, the Healight (that’s its brand name) is embedded with small LED lights that emit ultraviolet A in a specific way.

The Healight is inserted into the breathing tube of an intubated patient, and the light emitted from those days LEDs kills a wide variety of viruses and bacteria. The company that is behind the creation of this contraption has a video explaining and showing how it works. The video is largely text, what I just told you.

There is a graphic. There is a little video showing the devices — the catheter — actually being inserted in the breathing tube of an intubated patient. They’re intubated, then they turn the LED lights on, and they graphically replicate what happens. The bottom line is it’s in its early stages and phases…..

I also — a day earlier — posted on other UV Light technology as an example of possibilities of what Trump was clumbaly trying to get out of his mind to his words. AGAIN, just because I am posting this does not mean I am endorsing this… AND, in fact, I include a warning.

Dr. Kristi Wrightson is conducting a study to assess the ability of UV light to reduce the severity and duration of flu symptoms. The UV light device that she uses is called UVLrx, also a Santa Barbara company:

Dr. Wrightson found that patients’ symptoms resolve within 1-2 treatments with improvement in upper respiratory symptoms such as cough, sore throat as well as generalized symptoms such as increase in energy, decrease in body aches and fever.

Here is the WARNING about the above:

  • The idea of using UV light to treat infections started with a Nobel Prize – using UV light to treat tuberculosis infection of the skin. This, of course, is an external use. Using UV light to treat the blood had its heyday in the 1950s, but fell out of favor without leaving much of a paper trail behind….. UV light can cause tissue damage, as anyone who has suffered a sunburn can attest. What damage is being done with the UV light from this device, and can it have any clinically significant effect on infections at a dose that is safe for the tissue? These are unanswered questions. (SCIENCE BASED MEDICINE)

WIKI has an interesting “history” portion on its page regarding this and simply state: “This procedure fell out of favor in the late 1950s, at a time when antibiotics and the polio vaccine were becoming widely used. Since then it has been sidelined as a type of alternative and complementary medicine.” There is also a long article on this at the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health (Ultraviolet Irradiation of Blood: “The Cure That Time Forgot”?).

But, since this is an older technology and it seems the safest way to do this to blood is like the old way, outside the body. Here are some modern machines THAT DO THIS OUTSIDE THE BODY:

Trump did follow up the statements after a question came from a reporter by saying: “It wouldn’t be through injections, you’re talking about almost a cleaning and sterilization of an area. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t work, but it certainly has a big affect if it’s on a stationary object.” This is proof he wasn’t telling people to drink or injects disinfectant. But all the media likes to post is a paragraph from minutes earlier by President Trump to spread a false narrative. Trump said during that whole speech that he isn’t a doctor, it would be handled or administered by a doctor, and that they are seeing if it is even effective.

Trump Then Clarified His Remarks | Clorox Bleach Injections

Published by Papa Giorgio

This story is multiplied at many sites, but I like LEGAL INSURRECTION’S “inflection.” Here is the meat of their post, and I will include others sites after the excerpt (I will emphasize):

This is why when Donald Trump became president I told friends to always listen to his full remarks. Everyone knew the MSM would twist his words to make him sound evil and stupid.

The MSM and liberals on Twitter did just that yesterday. They claim Trump suggested people inject themselves with disinfectants in order to cure the Wuhan coronavirus.

[….]

Then Trump said this (emphasis mine):

  • So, I’m going to ask Bill a question that probably some of you are thinking of if you’re totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting. So, supposing when we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you’re going to test that too. Sounds interesting. And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute. AND IS THERE A WAY WE CAN DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT BY INJECTION INSIDE OR ALMOST A CLEANING? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that, so that you’re going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me. So, we’ll see, but the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute. That’s pretty powerful.

If Trump did not include the “or almost a cleaning” then yes I could see how people would think he meant an actual injection. Even then, come on, people. Use your freaking brain.

But ABC News reporter Jon Karl asked Bryan if there is any “scenario that could be injected into a person.”

Of course, Bryan said they “don’t do that within that lab at our labs.”

Trump then clarified his remarks because people are stupid:

  • “IT WOULDN’T BE THROUGH INJECTIONS, you’re talking about almost a cleaning and sterilization of an area. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t work, but it certainly has a big affect if it’s on a stationary object.”

Some other good posts follow:

  • Don’t Believe the Blue Checks: Here’s the Context to Trump’s Comments About UV Light and “Injecting” Disinfectant (RED STATE)
  • FACT CHECK: No, Trump Did Not Tell People To ‘Inject Themselves With Disinfectant’ Or ‘Drink Bleach’ (DAILY WIRE)
  • Fake News: Trump Didn’t Tell People to Inject Bleach or Lysol Into Their Veins to Fight Coronavirus (PJ-MEDIA)
  • ‘Sit This One Out’! CNN’s Chris Cuomo Apparently Forgets That He’s Probably The Last Person Who Should Bust Trump Over Covid19 And Disinfectants (TWITCHY — SEE BELOW)

>>> Cristina Cuomo Says She Treated Her Coronavirus With Clorox Baths, Vitamin Drips: Experts React (USA TODAY)

I do have to say though, there are some pretty funny Twitter stuff about the whole thing.

Trump Acted Quickley On Coronavirus (TIMELINES)

Published by Papa Giorgio

(Part 2 is here) I have seen multiple people I know (friends, family, acquaintances) pass along the very misguided idea that Trump dragged his feet on the response to the Wuhan Virus. This was in response to someone basically saying Trump got in the way of experts, and that he should just keep his mouth shut (adapted):

Dr. Fauci was interviewed at 3am the other morning [March 24th] (10 minutes of you time:DR. FAUCI INTERVIEWED BY WMAL) and the MSM hasn’t referenced his statements once. Also… the quote you are probably referring to is this one: when he was asked if he was worried about this becoming a pandemic:

  • “No, not at all. We have it totally under control,” Trump said. “It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.” (Jan. 22)

This was essentially three weeks after the first Chinese case was announced, and only 10-days after China shared the genetic information of the virus. (The first American known to have it was January 21st.) So I think you may be wanting something from the President that you wouldn’t expect from another. (In contrast to the below excerpted timeline) Trump ordered all flights from China halted January 31st.

By the time he declared a state of emergency (March 13), we had had 49 deaths by that time. It took the previous administration till there were a thousand Americans dead to declare an emergency. I think this is an “orange man bad” scenario. You should listen to Dr. Fauci’s wise words. 

This move by Trump SHOWED how quick he acted and to what measures. A must read article excerpted below is a MUST read to show where everyone’s mind was (except Trump’s):

The Impeachment That Killed Americans: Instead of dealing with the virus, Dems focused on getting Trump.

The lethal price tag for the months of the Impeach Trump obsession by Democrats is now in — and rising.

Over there at Breitbart, Joel Pollak, one of the serious journalists of the day, has put together this telling timeline that shows exactly what Democrats were doing as the coronavirus loomed. Here’s the link to Joel’s story — and here’s his very revealing timeline:

  • January 11: Chinese state media report the first known death from an illness originating in the Wuhan market.
  • January 15: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) holds a vote to send articles of impeachment to the Senate. Pelosi and House Democrats celebrate the “solemn” occasion with a signing ceremony, using commemorative pens.
  • January 21: The first person with coronavirus arrives in the United States from China, where he had been in Wuhan.
  • January 23: The House impeachment managers make their opening arguments for removing President Trump.
  • January 23: China closes off the city of Wuhan completely to slow the spread of coronavirus to the rest of China.
  • January 30: Senators begin asking two days of questions of both sides in the president’s impeachment trial.
  • January 30: The World Health Organization declares a global health emergency as coronavirus continues to spread.
  • January 31: The Senate holds a vote on whether to allow further witnesses and documents in the impeachment trial.
  • January 31: President Trump declares a national health emergency and imposes a ban on travel to and from China. Former Vice President Joe Biden calls Trump’s decision “hysterical xenophobia … and fear-mongering.”
  • February 2: The first death from coronavirus outside China is reported in the Philippines.
  • February 3: House impeachment managers begin closing arguments, calling Trump a threat to national security.
  • February 4: President Trump talks about coronavirus in his State of the Union address; Pelosi rips up every page.
  • February 5: The Senate votes to acquit President Trump on both articles of impeachment, 52-48 and 53-47.
  • February 5: House Democrats finally take up coronavirus in the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia.

And there, in black and white, is exactly the problem. Republicans at the time warned that Democrats were so mindlessly obsessed with impeachment that other issues were being routinely ignored. Immigration, trade, health care, and on and on went the list of concerns that were being ignored in favor of the impeachment obsession.

But there was another issue Democrats were ignoring while they spent their time impeaching the president. A very, very big issue that involved life or death.

The American Spectator’s Dov Fischer took it head on right here. His title:

The Real Threat to Our Democracy During Coronavirus

Pelosi, Schiff & Co. were too busy dragging the country through impeachment to pay attention to ominous developments in Asia.

Dov Fischer nailed it exactly.

Yes, indeed, while all that impeachment obsession was happening, the coronavirus was making its debut. Note well in the Pollak timeline this date — January 11, the day that “Chinese state media report the first known death from an illness originating in the Wuhan market.” And with that virus news out there, a mere four days later, Speaker Pelosi focuses not on that — but on holding the House vote that impeaches the president, followed by an elaborately staged spectacle in which she signs her name to the documents with a stash of 30 gold pens resting on a silver tray. Then, in another elaborately staged spectacle, she formally parades the articles through the halls of the Capitol to deliver them to the Senate.

Then there is January 21, a full 10 days after news of the virus has gone public — and the first known person who had been in Wuhan arrives in America. Carrying the virus. Two days later Pollak notes this:

  • January 23: The House impeachment managers make their opening arguments for removing President Trump.
  • January 23: China closes off the city of Wuhan completely to slow the spread of coronavirus to the rest of China.

And not to be forgotten: on January 31, President Trump announced this, per the Washington Post:

Trump administration announces mandatory quarantines in response to coronavirus

Announcement comes as U.S. airlines cancel flights to China amid growing fears

Mere days later, on February 4, President Trump delivered his State of the Union address, in which he said this:

Protecting Americans’ health also means fighting infectious diseases. We are coordinating with the Chinese government and working closely together on the coronavirus outbreak in China. My administration will take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from this threat.

And the reaction to that speech from the Pelosi Democrats?

Famously, when the president reached the end of his speech, Speaker Nancy Pelosi ostentatiously stood and ripped the speech in half. That doesn’t count the Democrat members who made a point of walking out on the speech or labeling it, as Pelosi did, a “pack of lies.”….

(READ IT ALL)

I also wish to note the silliness of the media (in this case Joe Scarborough) saying that everyone knew this was coming. No. No they did not. Retired Admiral James G. Stavridis and Senator Tom Cotton were the lone voices on Hugh Hewitt’s Show, here Hugh talks about a special in the works:

I listen to Hugh first thing in the morning… and out of everything I heard from the MSM to talk radio… his voice was alone. Senator Tom Cotton and Admiral James G. Stavridis were the other lone voices…. on the Hugh Hewitt Show. I am looking forward to the special next week. (I inserted the videos BTW.) All Hugh had was audio — of course, radio — of Joe Scarborough saying “everyone knew.”

PJ-MEDIA has an excellent article noting easily some of the lies leveled at Trump and his administration. Here is their list:

10. Trump downplayed the mortality rate of the coronavirus
9. Trump lied when he said Google was developing a national coronavirus website
8. Trump “dissolved” the WH pandemic response office
7. Trump ignored early intel briefings on possible pandemic
6. Trump cut funding to the CDC & NIH
5. Trump “muzzled” Dr. Fauci
4. Trump didn’t act quickly and isn’t doing enough
3. Trump told governors they were “on their own”
2. Trump turned down testing kits from WHO
1. Trump called the coronavirus “a hoax”

I deal with both #1, #4, and #5 here: “CORONAVIRUS LIES VIA DEMOCRATS/MEDIA (UPDATED W/CONVO)” | And #8 and #6 are dealt with here: “WASHINGTON POST SWINGS AND MISSES” |  #2 (and #1) is dealt with here “LARRY ELDER DEBUNKS MEDIA’S LATEST LIES“

And no-one ever show this video of Trump and why it is so easy to take him out of context when one hates him, which is what FACTCHECK did:

….March 4: “Well, I think the 3.4% is really a false number.” — Trump in an interview on Fox News, referring to the percentage of diagnosed COVID-19 patients worldwide who had died, as reported by the World Health Organization. (See our item “Trump and the Coronavirus Death Rate.”)

March 7: “No, I’m not concerned at all. No, we’ve done a great job with it.” — Trump, when asked by reporters if he was concerned about the arrival of the coronavirus in the Washington, D.C., area. 

March 9: “So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!” — Trump in a tweet.

March 10: “And we’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.” — Trump after meeting with Republican senators…..

Yet, this is why Trump has said these things…

[fbvideo link=”https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=246481773156957″ width=”690″ height=”388″ onlyvideo=”0″]

 

Two Decades Of Foreshadowing Ventilator Shortages

Published by Papa Giorgio

Larry Elder discussed a FOX NEWS article…

…to which I use the NEW YORK TIMES to make the point that the attack on Trump (as if this is his fault) is unwarranted:

….“So much that was predicted has come to pass,” said Marcia Crosse, former head of the healthcare section of the Government Accountability Office. Since the early 2000s, the GAO, the federal government’s leading internal watchdog, has issued a steady stream of reports about poor pandemic planning.

[….]

That is only the most recent warning. As early as 2003, the GAO cautioned that many urban hospitals lacked enough ventilators to treat a large number of patients suffering from respiratory problems that would be expected in an anthrax or botulism outbreak.

“Ventilators have long been recognized as a weak link,” said Crosse, who spent 35 years at GAO before retiring in 2018.

[….]

Federal policymakers concentrated heavily on pandemic preparedness in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and anthrax scare in 2001, which both exposed gaps in the nation’s emergency response system.

In 2005, the administration of President George W. Bush published a landmark “National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza.” The document, among other things, highlighted the need for plans to distribute necessary medical supplies from the nation’s Strategic National Stockpile and to support state and local efforts to “surge” medical personnel and facilities to handle an outbreak.

Medical equipment such as masks and protective clothing in particular were given high priority as planners recognized that doctors, nurses and other medical staff were most vulnerable.

After the swine flu epidemic in 2009, a safety-equipment industry association and a federally sponsored task force both recommended that depleted supplies of N95 respirator masks, which filter out airborne particles, be replenished by the stockpile, which is maintained by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

That didn’t happen, according to Charles Johnson, president of the International Safety Equipment Assn.

The stockpile drew down about 100 million masks during the 2009 epidemic, Johnson said…..

Washington Post Swings and Misses

Published by Papa Giorgio

I have had this article thrown in my face too many times… and with a YUGE thanks to ACE OF SPADES for this. Here is the typical Facebook link to the Washington Post article (which is behind a paywall):

To say this article is a fav of Dems and #NeverTrumpers is an understatement. Here is an archived (not behind a pay wall) Washington Post opinion piece by a named source — the author of the piece.

(WASHINGTON POST)

  • Tim Morrison is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former senior director for counterproliferation and biodefense on the National Security Council.

President Trump gets his share of criticism — some warranted, much not. But recently the president’s critics have chosen curious ground to question his response to the coronavirus outbreak since it began spreading from Wuhan, China, in December.

It has been alleged by multiple officials of the Obama administration, including in The Post, that the president and his then-national security adviser, John Bolton, “dissolved the office” at the White House in charge of pandemic preparedness. Because I led the very directorate assigned that mission, the counterproliferation and biodefense office, for a year and then handed it off to another official who still holds the post, I know the charge is specious.

Now, I’m not naive. This is Washington. It’s an election year. Officials out of power want back into power after November. But the middle of a worldwide health emergency is not the time to be making tendentious accusations.

When I joined the National Security Council staff in 2018, I inherited a strong and skilled staff in the counterproliferation and biodefense directorate. This team of national experts together drafted the National Biodefense Strategy of 2018 and an accompanying national security presidential memorandum to implement it; an executive order to modernize influenza vaccines; and coordinated the United States’ response to the Ebola epidemic in Congo, which was ultimately defeated in 2020.

It is true that the Trump administration has seen fit to shrink the NSC staff. But the bloat that occurred under the previous administration clearly needed a correction. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, congressional oversight committees and members of the Obama administration itself all agreed the NSC was too large and too operationally focused (a departure from its traditional role coordinating executive branch activity). As The Post reported in 2015, from the Clinton administration to the Obama administration’s second term, the NSC’s staff “had quadrupled in size, to nearly 400 people.” That is why Trump began streamlining the NSC staff in 2017.

ACE OF SPADES excerpts a portion after this commentary:

He notes that Trump did shrink the NSC — because Obama had bloated it from 100 persons to 400 in just a few years.

But the NSC retained its epidemic personnel — just merged with biodefense and counterprolifereation.

Here is that portion (plus some):

One such move at the NSC was to create the counterproliferation and biodefense directorate, which was the result of consolidating three directorates into one, given the obvious overlap between arms control and nonproliferation, weapons of mass destruction terrorism, and global health and biodefense. It is this reorganization that critics have misconstrued or intentionally misrepresented. If anything, the combined directorate was stronger because related expertise could be commingled.

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…..

Now ACE switches gears to note who is reTweeting the story:

So you can see how the media eagerly misleads the public — yes, an “office” was dissolved. But most of the personnel making up that office were retained, and added to a new, merged office.

So they say “the office” was dissolved and intend you to take that to mean that the epidemic unit was disbanded.

That’s a lie, but that’s what they want you to believe.

They are the enemy of the people and a reckoning is coming.

Via Tami, John Bolton is now tweeting out the article quoted above:

The rest of ACE’S post is a must read.

CDC BUDGET

This is quickly refuted by the actual budget… the first year is Obama’s… and so, spending on the CDC stayed at or was above O’s.

What Isn’t Taught During Black History Month (Larry Elder)

Published by Papa Giorgio

Larry Elder takes the opportunity this Black History Month to investigate certain myths surrounding Black history and why some people think Black History Month is not necessary. Topics:

  • Slavery;
  • Gun Control;
  • Minimum Wage.

(Also see my voluminous post on RACIAL MANTRAS)

Responding To “Blasphemy” – The Chosen One, Trump

Published by Papa Giorgio

I have seen alll-over-Facebook issues with Trump turning away from cameras and saying he “is the chosen one” — BTW! This will be the first encounter you will have in quite some time of Democrats taking seriously and literally the Bible’s edicts. Not in the case of the homosexual lifestyle mind you, just as long as it maligns Trump. Here is the video:

One friend linked to this article from a religious #NeverTrumper: “Trump Breathes Blasphemy, so Where Is the Righteous Anger?“

So I decided to pool a couple of my responses across FB here to make the point… but I sometimes feel that when friend’s ask me my thoughts on this they expect me to be like this (animated GIF to the right):

Okay, after the post to the article I linked to above, here are my thoughts, and a response and my response to IT.

ME:

I bet you think he really asked Russia to hack Hillary. Or that Trump really believed he could could shoot someone on 5th street… etc. But humor and sarcasm are not the forte of the Left

  • “Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he’s not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.” — Francis Bacon

A response from V.M.

Sean Giordano, either way he embraced blatant idolatry. He has been blasphemous before thousands!

In some countries blasphemy is a crime!

But our church leaders have said nothing! Only 2 Pastors I know of rebuked him and called for him to repent! Pastors Chuck Baldwin and Rick Wiles shouted publicly for trump to get on his knees and repent after he took our Lord’s name in vain from that political stump in NC last: “Trump called out by some Christians for using ‘Lord’s name in vain’ at fiery NC rally“

ME:

You use the word blasphemous often, but I do not think you know what the word means…

In another strain on GARY DEMAR’S Facebook, his posting Obama’s similarities to Messianism garnered a response to which I responded. But first, I wish to upload his pictures he posted with some others… all combined. (One of the commentators on Gary’s post linked to THE CONSERVATIVE TREEHOUSE’S post — which I threw in the mix):

Here is the comment I respond to:

R.L.

The difference is that Obama didn’t say it of himself or quote it of himself…these were ridiculous labels used by an over-reaching, left leaning media. President Trump grabbed a right leaning media personality statement, quoted it, and embraced the nonsense.

ME:

A quick look at Google (“obama messianism”) shows articles like these:

  • POLITICO: Messianic rhetoric infuses Obama rallies (In a giant Sunday afternoon rally suffused with Christian – and at times messianic – rhetoric,)
  • SLATE: Obama’s Cocky Messianism (But now, with Iowa as his witness, Obama is he starting to sound like he believes the prophecies, too.)
  • Don’t forget about this:

Comment two from ME: (I partly owe the humbly looking to heaven to plead not to be struck by lightning — as we have all done at some point in our lives, to my wife):

From one of my post many years ago, and would be a big (important) difference… Is that what does the base think? I am a conservatarian Evangelical… Would I or the media I follow think he (Trump) is a Messiah figure?

“He made so many promises. We thought that he was going to be – I shouldn’t say this at Christmastime, but – the next messiah” — Barbara Walters. “We”? The media? The left? Both? (RPT)

No. Since most religious people who view theology well are conservative, a belief in Trump being anything but reverent when he wrily looked to the sky to say “don’t smite me for saying this irreverent thing” — and then saying he is the chosen one to politically deal with the can kicked down the road for so long.

THAT is what he was saying. The crappy work of previous Presidents in this area forced him to be the “chosen one.”

Another person noted this BLOGSPOT BLOG about Obama’s messianism. See also my post that has a similar vein:

Presidential Death Threats | Michael Brown | “Good Nazi’s”

Published by Papa Giorgio

Larry Elder dispatches quickly the idea that Obama received an abnormal amount of death threats:

He also discusses *Michael Brown and some of the candidates for the 2020 race saying he was murdered. Then I add-in Larry’s montage of media and Democrats saying Trump said “there were good Nazis.” (See more here: “Trump Is Right – Good People On Both Sides“) That begins at the 5:03 mark of the audio. More here. Enjoy:

*

* Here are other audios I have uploaded to my site on the topic:

Another Debunking Of “America Leads In Mass Shootings”

Published by Papa Giorgio

Any gay person, and/or person of color, is suicidal if they would willingly give up their Constitutional rights of self-protection to a government run by Progressives.

— Bruce Carroll [for the record, Bruce is a gay libertarian]

Older Posts:

REAL CLEAR INVESTIGATIONS has an excellent study of the history of mass killings in America:

Not a New Crime

Three years ago, Smithsonian magazine ran an article headlined “The Story of the First Mass Murder in U.S. History.” It was an account of World War II combat veteran Howard Unruh, who in 1949 went on a 20-minute “walk of death,” as one newspaper called it, indiscriminately shooting neighbors in his Camden, N.J., neighborhood with a German Luger. Before his capture, Unruh killed 13 people and wounded three.

It was a shocking tragedy, and the Smithsonian article is riveting. But it wasn’t the first mass murder in U.S. history. Or the second, or the third, or the fourth, or the fifth. It wasn’t even the only mass shooting in that decade. There were at least two others.

In the 1930s, there were two more mass shootings, which followed a psychotic farmer’s 1927 attack on a Bath, Mich., schoolhouse. Using a rifle and explosives, he took 44 lives, 38 of them students. Andrew Kehoe had wiped out most of the children in an entire town – and exacted a death toll greater than Columbine High School and Sandy Hook Elementary combined.

The first mass killing at an American school predates the existence of the United States. In 1764, a teacher named Enoch Brown was gunned down in his Greencastle, Pa., schoolhouse by Lenape Indians, who then tomahawked 10 children and scalped them.

From 1900 to 1928, African-American gunmen killed 40 people in seven separate incidents – six of them in the South, and the last incident in Chicago. Rampant racism of the day mitigated against widespread news coverage: Either the gunmen were targeting cops in response to police brutality — or the victims themselves were African-American, which apparently limited media interest.

Not all of these early 20th century cases would necessarily be classified as “mass shootings” by the FBI. The standard definition excludes killings done in the commission of another crime, which rules out, for example, the Kansas City Massacre and Chicago’s Valentine’s Day Massacre, famous gangland mass killings in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It probably would not include the weeklong crime wave of Charlie Starkweather, who shot, stabbed, or strangled 11 victims as he robbed his way through the Midwest in 1957-58. And most of Andrew Kehoe’s carnage was done with explosives, not his rifle.

And yet, the Las Vegas shooting of Oct. 1, 2017, the deadliest in U.S. history, was foreshadowed more than a century earlier in small-town Kansas. Holed up in the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, the Vegas gunman opened fire on patrons at a music concert. On Aug. 13, 1903, 30-year-old Spanish-American War veteran Gilbert Twigg used a .12-gauge shotgun on a crowd at an outdoor concert Winfield, Kan. Twigg killed nine people and wounded many more before turning a revolver on himself.

For more than a century, law enforcement authorities, victims’ families, and the media invariably ask the same question: Why? Why do they do it? The killers, in the cases in which they survive, often wonder that themselves. “I don’t know,” Howard Unruh told a newspaper reporter who telephoned him on a hunch when the killer returned to his apartment for more ammunition. “I can’t answer that yet.”

(READ IT ALL)

PJ-MEDIA responds to the lies — on cue — from the Left:

As expected, Democrats immediately began politicizing the shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. Quite a few of them even blamed Trump. Like clockwork, calls for more gun control have commenced. Democrats are even trying to pressure Mitch McConnell to cancel the Senate recess so they can vote on gun control.

A common myth you can expect to hear a lot in the coming days and weeks is that the United States “leads the world in mass shootings (CNN)” and therefore we must pass some law that will do nothing to stop future mass shootings, but will infringe on the rights of law-abiding gun owners.

What you might not hear is that this claim is completely bogus.

Sure, if you following conservative media, you’re probably aware of this. Townhall, The Daily Signal, Bearing Arms, FEE, The Washington Examiner, and others have all previously reported on how the myth that the United States leads the world in mass shootings is based on a deeply flawed study, which has been debunked by the Crime Prevention Research Center.

Yet, the myth remains alive and is sure to be regurgitated endlessly again.

The following video from John Stossel explains how the myth got started and why it’s bogus:

Many on the left have tried to delegitimize CPRC’s research. Snopes rated their claim as “mixed” but CPRC debunked their assessment here. Glenn Kessler, the fact-checker at The Washington Post, also suggests that CPRC’s research is misleading for including acts terrorism, which, he suggests, inflates the number of mass shooters abroad, however, if we excluded acts of terrorism from mass shootings, the El Paso shooting would not count as a mass shooting, as it is now being investigated as domestic terrorism. The Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting, and the Las Vegas shooting were also considered domestic terrorism incidents. If those, and other similar incidents, don’t count as mass shootings but as terrorism, then we should be having a completely different discussion……..

Debunking The ‘Trump is a Racist’ Myth (Larry Elder)

Published by Papa Giorgio

In the midst of The Democratic Party and the media labeling President Trump’s remarks about Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Illhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley as racist, Larry decides to do some digging. What did the president actually say? How long has the Democratic Party been labeling Republicans as racist? Have race relations actually worsened under Trump? Larry answers all these questions and more in this week’s episode.