I am now out of hospital after cancer surgery and appear to be back to normal.  No pain. Today is one of my normal posting days so I have posted pretty much as usual.  Tomorrow is my Sabbath, however, so I will not be posting then -- JR

The delusional Left
 
It’s always important to keep things in proper perspective. That is particularly important as the nation grapples with the fallout from the novel coronavirus, which has infected 100 Americans and killed six people. Sadly, more people died Monday night from the tornadoes that ripped through Tennessee.

But just so you know, the yearly flu has already infected at least 32 million Americans and caused 310,000 hospitalizations and 18,000 deaths.

The left’s delusional reaction to the coronavirus is more of a public threat than the virus itself. Seriously, friends, let’s just look at how the left has responded to this crisis.

When President Trump imposed travel restrictions on China, the left accused him of xenophobia. Monday, Dr. Deborah Birx, one of the nation’s top medical experts, said that the travel restrictions “bought us time and space” to combat the virus.

When the president created the Coronavirus Task Force, the left complained that it was “too white” and “too male.”

The left accused the president of muzzling medical experts. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told reporters over the weekend, “I’ve never been muzzled and I’ve been doing this since Reagan.”

The left accused the president of calling the coronavirus a “hoax.” Even liberal fact checkers have rejected that accusation as false.

The left accused the president of gutting the budgets of vital health-related agencies. That too was false.

The left even mocked the administration for praying, which is what decent people do.

Once again, it’s obvious that the left views everything — yes, even a virus — through a warped, ideological lens. Just think about that for a moment.

If there’s a potentially dangerous virus spreading around the world, the left would refuse to secure the borders. It would demand that experience and expertise take a back seat to racial quotas. It would lie about basic facts and mock people for seeking God’s wisdom and mercy.

Is that really the kind of government we want? Just something to remember in November.

By the way, a recent Gallup survey found that 77% of Americans are confident in the government’s ability to address the coronavirus situation. That confidence level is significantly higher than previous outbreaks involving the bird flu, the swine flu, and Ebola.

SOURCE 

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Biden Tries to Quote Declaration of Independence: 'You Know, the Thing...'

Despite his victory in the South Carolina primary, Crazy Joe Biden has been having a rough few weeks. Most notably forgetting what office he’s running for and getting caught in a lie about being arrested in South Africa. True to form, he made himself look foolish again on Monday when he was quoting—or attempting to quote—the Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident,” he said, somewhat slurring his speech while campaigning in Texas. “All men and women created by the—you know, you know, the thing."

You know “the thing”? I suppose if Ilan Omar can say 9/11 was “some people did something” it’s not all that shocking that Biden would refer to such an important historical document as “the thing.”

Or did Biden just forget which document he was attempting to quote?

That wouldn’t be surprising either. Biden seems to forget a lot of things these days. But it seems hard to imagine how he could forget one of the most quoted sentences in history.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

It shouldn’t be that hard to remember, Joe. You’ve probably heard it your entire life.

Imagine if Trump had made the same mistake. The media would be all over him. Think the media will call him out for flubbing such a well-known line of such a pivotal document in our nation's history? No wonder Trump wants to run against him.

SOURCE 

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Rep Mark Meadows Just Blew Up the Trump-Russia Scam With One Comment About Super Tuesday

Congressional Democrats have been selling the exhaustively debunked theory about Donald Trump being a Russian secret agent and using Russian President Vladimir Putin's help to win office in 2016.

Two investigations so far have shown that there was no Russian collusion with Trump. The Mueller investigation indictments showed that, to the extent there was interference in the 2016 election, it involved Russian troll farms buying about $100,000 in Facebook ads and setting up Facebook accounts to sow discord among U.S. voters.

Congressman Mark Meadows, an expert on the evidence in the collusion allegations, watched Super Tuesday's contests with more than a little interest. And when Mike Bloomberg got out of the presidential race, Meadows had this bracing take:

"Michael Bloomberg could barely win a delegate in a primary with $500+ million—but if you ask Washington Democrats, a few Russian trolls spending 100K on Facebook ads swung the entire 2016 election. Got it. #CollusionHoax"

The AP reports that Bloomberg ended the contest with 51 delegates. A quick, back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that Bloomberg spent $9,803,921.57  per delegate. The Daily Caller also found that Bloomberg had paid Democratic "superdelegates" $149,000 to give him their vote if the convention went to a second vote.

Money talks but it can't get you over the finish line.

SOURCE 

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More Hate
 
As I noted earlier this week, the left has nothing to offer on the coronavirus debate but hate and vitriol. The Trump administration is calling the shots, not Chuck Schumer, not Nancy Pelosi, not The New York Times.

Of course, that’s not stopping the left from carping, complaining, and offering unsolicited advice. But its progressive prescriptions are absurd. For example:

CNN complained about the racial makeup of the administration’s coronavirus task force. Just more evidence of how far the “woke” left has strayed from Martin Luther King’s dream that we should judge people not based on the color of their skin but on their abilities and the content of their character.

MSNBC is fretting about xenophobia. The left-wing media outlet Vox lectured us on “the history of racism and ‘cleanliness.’”

“Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd suggested that Trump is to blame for the coronavirus panic, saying, “You reap what you sow.” In Todd’s twisted mind, there is panic because no one trusts the government to handle the crisis because Trump has attacked and undermined our vital institutions. Again, this is total nonsense. The Deep State has been doing its best to attack and undermine Trump since before he was elected.

Meanwhile, the left can barely contain its glee over the fear currently roiling the financial markets. It’s not surprising. It doesn’t have much to run on.

Its radical policies — open borders, abortion on demand, free healthcare for illegal aliens, and much more — are tremendously unpopular.

Its candidates are not compelling.

Its convention could turn into a civil war.

But it’s just giddy about coronavirus!

By the way, Democrats have repeatedly complained in recent days that Trump cut the budgets of critical health-related agencies. This charge came up several times during the South Carolina Democrat debate. The only problem is that it is false.

An Associated Press fact check found that while Trump’s budgets have proposed certain cuts, Congress ignored them and actually increased funding. “The National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention aren’t suffering from budget cuts that never took effect.”

The Associated Press also rejected Chuck Todd’s claims that Trump has undermined the government’s response, writing:

The public health system has a playbook to follow for pandemic preparation — regardless of who’s president… Those plans were put into place in anticipation of another flu pandemic, but are designed to work for any respiratory-borne disease.

SOURCE 

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Liz Warren Is Finished After Her HUMILIATING Loss in Massachusetts

Great news!  I loathed that female Hitler

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Not to be confused with Pocahontas) arguably should end her presidential campaign after an embarrassing third-place finish in her home state of Massachusetts.

As of 11 p.m. Eastern, former Vice President Joe Biden had won the state with 33 percent of the vote, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (S-USSR) behind him at 27 percent. Warren trailed at 22 percent, almost 100,000 votes behind Biden.

Not only did Warren lose her own state but she took third place, behind both the ostensible moderate Biden and the socialist Bernie Sanders.

SOURCE 

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IN BRIEF

SCANDAL REOPENS: Federal judge orders Hillary Clinton to give sworn deposition for first time in server scandal (The Daily Wire)

NOT BACKING DOWN: Senate Republicans plan first subpoena in Burisma-Biden probe (The Washington Post)

ROLLERCOASTER OF EMOTIONS: Dow roars back from coronavirus sell-off with biggest gain since 2009, surges 5.1% (CNBC)

THIRD ELECTION IN UNDER A YEAR: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defeats Benny Gantz, but is still short a majority (The Jerusalem Post)

TIT FOR TAT: U.S. places new restrictions on Chinese journalists following China's expulsion of three Wall Street Journal reporters (Axois)

OBSTRUCTING AN EFFECTIVE POLICY: Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocks Trump administration's "Remain in Mexico" policy (Fox News)

ADMIN TO APPEAL: A federal judge has ruled that Ken Cuccinelli was unlawfully appointed to lead the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency and therefore lacks authority to give asylum seekers less time to prepare for initial screening interviews (ABC News)

DNI NOMINEE: Trump picks John Ratcliffe to lead intelligence community (CBS News)

ROUND 3: Supreme Court will once again consider fate of Affordable Care Act (The Washington Post)

"NOW WE'RE COMING AFTER THEM": Trump goes nuclear on Democrats at CPAC (The Daily Wire)

NO AUTHORITY: House Democrats lose appeal to force White House counsel Don McGahn testimony (Axios)

TAWDRY BEHAVIOR: MSNBC political pundit Chris Matthews absent from air amid sexual-harassment allegations (The Hill)

POLICY: The European welfare state is small compared to what Bernie Sanders is proposing (Foundation for Economic Education)

IDENTITY-THEFT RULING: U.S. Supreme Court gives states latitude to prosecute illegal immigrants (Reuters)

FAKE NEWS MEDIA, PART I: Trump campaign sues The Washington Post for "false, defamatory statements" vis-à-vis Russia (The Daily Wire)

FAKE NEWS MEDIA, PART II: Rep. Devin Nunes sues The Washington Post for Russia-themed "hit piece" (The Daily Wire)

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will drop limits on virus testing (The New York Times)

FOR THE RECORD: Iran triples its uranium stockpile. IAEA chief realizes Trump's suspicion of Iran may be correct. (The Daily Wire)

SHOWDOWN WITH TUBERVILLE: Jeff Sessions forced into runoff in Alabama Senate primary (The Federalist)

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For more blog postings from me, see  TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH,  POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, and Paralipomena (Occasionally updated), A Coral reef compendium and an IQ compendium. (Both updated as news items come in).  GUN WATCH is now mainly put together by Dean Weingarten. I also put up occasional updates on my Personal blog and each day I gather together my most substantial current writings on THE PSYCHOLOGIST.

Email me  here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here (Academic) or  here  (Personal).  My annual picture page is here.  Home page supplement

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