Weaponizing the virus

The Wuhan virus, a/k/a COVID-19, has been weaponized by the Progressive left. More masks, more lockdowns – all driven by politics.  And telling the truth can be hazardous to your health.  Tyler O’Neil at PJ Media reports: 

Minnesota State Sen. Scott Jensen (R-Carver County), a doctor who was named the Family Physician of the Year in 2016, now faces an investigation for alleged “misinformation” and “recklessness” in his public statements about the coronavirus pandemic. The Minnesota Board of Medical Practice is investigating him for warning that coronavirus deaths may be inflated due to financial incentives to put “COVID-19” on death certificates and for comparing COVID-19 to the common flu.

“Less than a week ago, I was notified by the Board of Medical Practice in Minnesota that I was being investigated because of public statements I’ve made,” Jensen announced in a video posted Sunday. He said the complaints were anonymous, so he will not be able to face his accusers.

. . .

. . . “Hospital administrators might well want to see COVID-19 attached to a discharge summary or a death certificate. Why? Because if it’s a straightforward, garden-variety pneumonia that a person is admitted to the hospital for – if they’re Medicare – typically, the diagnosis-related group lump sum payment would be $5,000,” Jensen wrote on Facebook. “But if it’s COVID-19 pneumonia, then it’s $13,000, and if that COVID-19 pneumonia patient ends up on a ventilator, it goes up to $39,000.”

On April 21, FactCheck.org concluded, “The figures cited by Jensen generally square with estimated Medicare payments for COVID-19 hospitalizations, based on average Medicare payments for patients with similar diagnoses.”

Later that month, New York funeral directors told Project Veritas that they had seen “COVID-19” marked as a cause of death on death certificates even when the patient had not tested positive for coronavirus. The funeral directors said there was a financial incentive to twist the facts. When The New York Times named 1,000 coronavirus victims on its front page in May, it included a man whose death police are investigating as a homicide.

. . .

In his video, Dr. Jensen claims, “I’ve got the Department of Health in Illinois where one of the directors says, ‘Just because we put COVID-19 on the death certificate as the cause of death, that doesn’t mean the patient died of COVID-19.'”

As for the claim that Jensen engaged in “recklessness” by comparing COVID-19 to the common flu, the doctor and state senator quoted Dr. Anthony Fauci in an editorial published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“If one assumes that the number of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic cases [for COVID-19] is several times as high as the number of reported cases, the case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%. This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of COVID-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%),” Fauci wrote.

The rest of the report is here.  And I do not trust Gov. DeWine's "orders."

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The Cleveland Indians cave to the mob

scorecard from yesteryear

Say goodbye to the Cleveland Indians and Chief Wahoo.  Claire Russel at Liberty Headlines reports:

MLB’s Cleveland Indians to Change Team Name, Mascot

The Cleveland Indians baseball team said on Sunday that the team will change its name, citing concerns over racial division and tension.

“I know in the past, when I’ve been asked about, whether it’s our name or the Chief Wahoo, I think I would usually answer and say I know that we’re never trying to be disrespectful,” said the team’s manager, Terry Francona, according to CNN.

“And I still feel that way,” he continued. “But I don’t think that’s a good enough answer today. I think it’s time to move forward. It’s a very difficult subject. It’s also delicate.”

The baseball team announced last week that it was considering changing its name, since its “among the most visible ways in which we connect with the community.” 

The team had previously removed its “Chief Wahoo” logo, a caricature of a Native American that activists argued was racist.

The team name, however, was in part a tribute to the success of Louis Sockalexis, a former Native American star in Cleveland, according to Cleveland Magazine. 

Despite this, the team admitted that its name does not “advance social justice and equality.”

Suggestions from our household include the Cleveland Worms or the Cleveland Cave-Dwellers.

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Happy Independence Day weekend

President Trump celebrated the Independence Day weekend at Mount Rushmore.  Sundance at Treehouse posted this photo

and linked to the livestreams of the event.  

Happy Independence Day!

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"Abolished" ad

This 30-second ad is everywhere. but just in case you missed it . . .

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Schlichter: Stop Making Sense

It does seem almost impossible to make sense out of the chaos we are seeing everywhere.  Kurt Schlichter is always funny, and he always makes sense.  Here’s are some snippets from “Stop Making Sense” at Townhall:

You cannot reason with these people. Forget trying to convince them. You are not going to talk them out of their quest for power over you by deploying bourgeois conceits like "facts" and "evidence." Yet so many of us see what's happening and still take to Twitter or (increasingly) Parler to point out the sheer ridiculousness of the enemy's latest antics. But these actions are not ridiculous. They are tactically genius. Instead of confronting an impenetrable defense, they just scuttle around it and attack into our rear.

. . .

It's time for us to riot, not in the streets, because we have jobs and we're not going to destroy our own stuff, but at the ballot box. That's where we lay waste to their Venezuelan dreams. In the primaries, vote for woke conservatives, not establishment saps. And then in November, vote straight Republican down the ballot.

. . .

Finally, step four: Stop making sense. Unless it's directed at the unwoke, making sense is a waste of your time. This is about power. Time to use yours.

Mr. Schlichter’s article is here.  And it’s a bit of a wild ride.

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Lincoln meme

h/t Blazing Cat Fur

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What can conservatives DO?

art credit:  medium.com

It is alarming to see the riots, violence, lawlessness, and, well, insanity everywhere.  Most of the GOPe / Uniparty are standing around, wringing their hands in despair and doing not much of anything.  What can the concerned citizen do in these frightening times?  Fletch Daniels at American Thinker has an idea of what conservatives can actually DO.

Cultural tyranny reigns in America, the last step before full-fledged political tyranny. 

Lurking beneath the surface of virtue signaling leftists are tyrants seeking to exert their will over those they despise.  The defining leftist culture enables them to ruthlessly use all the power at their disposal, both real and imagined, to enforce a single acceptable viewpoint on society. 

. . .

Democrats in this country do not feel they need to hide their political allegiance or culturally approved viewpoints.  Most never shut up about it, believing they are speaking truth to power, even as they bask in the approval of the corrupt and wicked power centers. 

.. .

I wish I had a dollar for every American who uttered the phrase, “Never in my lifetime did I expect to see…” over the last few weeks.  We are living in the upside-down when patriotism is outlawed, the vilest of criminals are celebrated, and brave law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line daily are slandered as the worst of society so thoroughly that it descended into evil farce, when a kid’s show “Paw Patrol,” came under attack since it is apparently racist to have a positive police character in a children’s show.  

This is war and the left is playing to win.  Anyone who doesn’t get that by now, to include most of the NeverTrumpers, is either irredeemably stupid or an active collaborator.  Every pillar of cultural power in America, to include the unholy trinity of academia, the media, and government has declared cultural war on at least half the country.  And yet NeverTrumpers reserve almost all of their scorn for those with the audacity to not drop to their knees and surrender. 

. . .

The problem is that the silence enables the leftists to continue to drive the narrative and normalize ideas and behaviors that would have been considered unfathomable just a few short years ago while winning more converts, which shrinks that sane majority.  It is their toxic ideas that are being force fed to every young person in America and we are paying a heavy price for that. 

And here’s Mr. Daniels’ suggestion:

I’d like to see far more people vocally pushing back against the mob within their social circles.  Every person who pushes back emboldens others to do the same. 

Even if you don’t want to spoil the party or make everyone at the picnic uncomfortable, it’s worth the try.  My own batting average is low, but I count at least half a dozen in my circle who were apathetic liberals before I started speaking up, and they are now committed and vocal conservatives.  Mr. Daniels' full article is here.

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