Destruction, from The Course of Empire by Thomas Cole
(1836). Image via Wikipedia
The great Victor Davis Hanson published a piece at National Review Online, a site that I
don’t generally visit. However, his essay, “The Fragments of A Civilization,”
was linked on some of the aggregators, and it is worth a read.He takes on Hillary, the Russia hoax, the Mueller
investigation, the 2020 debates, Joe Biden’s virtual campaign, and more. His
essay closes with:
To paraphrase Sophocles, 2020 saw
many strange things and nothing stranger than peak Trump derangement syndrome,
COVID-19, a self-induced recession, our first national quarantine, and riots,
looting, and arson, all mostly unpunished and uncontrolled, in our major
cities.
So we are in revolutionary times,
even as we snooze about a recent systematic effort, hidden with great effort by
our own government, to destroy a prior presidential campaign and transition,
and now a presidency.
We are asked to vote for a candidate
who will not reveal his position on any major issue of our age, because he
feels to do so would enlighten the undeserving electorate and thereby cost him
the election. So we continue to sleepwalk toward a revolution whose architects
warped our institutions in 2016–2020, and they now plan to alter many of them
beyond recognition in 2021.
Translated, that means that they
don’t regret what they did in 2016–2019, only that they belatedly got caught
for a brief time.
And so by changing the rules after
2020, they are vowing never ever to get caught again.
More
than 500 years ago, Christopher Columbus’s intrepid voyage to the New
World ushered in a new era of exploration and discovery. His travels led
to European contact with the Americas and, a century later, the first
settlements on the shores of the modern day United States. Today, we
celebrate Columbus Day to commemorate the great Italian who opened a
new chapter in world history and to appreciate his enduring significance
to the Western Hemisphere.
When
Christopher Columbus and his crew sailed across the Atlantic Ocean on
the Niña, Pinta, and Santa María it marked the beginning of
a new era in human history. For Italian Americans, Christopher Columbus
represents one of the first of many immeasurable contributions of Italy to American
history. As a native of Genoa, Columbus inspired early immigrants to
carry forth their rich Italian heritage to the New World. Today, the
United States benefits from the warmth and generosity of nearly
17 million Italian Americans, whose love of family and country strengthen
the fabric of our Nation. For our beautiful Italian American
communities — and Americans of every background –Columbus remains a
legendary figure.
Sadly,
in recent years, radical activists have sought to undermine Christopher
Columbus’s legacy. These extremists seek to replace discussion of his
vast contributions with talk of failings, his discoveries with atrocities, and
his achievements with transgressions. Rather than learn from our history,
this radical ideology and its adherents seek to revise it, deprive it of any
splendor, and mark it as inherently sinister. They seek to squash any
dissent from their orthodoxy. We must not give in to these tactics or
consent to such a bleak view of our history. We must teach future
generations about our storied heritage, starting with the protection of
monuments to our intrepid heroes like Columbus. This June, I signed an
Executive Order to ensure that any person or group destroying or vandalizing a
Federal monument, memorial, or statue is prosecuted to the fullest extent of
the law.
I
have also taken steps to ensure that we preserve our Nation’s history and
promote patriotic education. In July, I signed another Executive
Order to build and rebuild monuments to iconic American figures in a National
Garden of American Heroes. In September, I announced the creation of the
1776 Commission, which will encourage our educators to teach our children about
the miracle of American history and honor our founding. In addition, last
month I signed an Executive Order to root out the teaching of racially divisive
concepts from the Federal workplace, many of which are grounded in the same
type of revisionist history that is trying to erase Christopher Columbus from
our national heritage. Together, we must safeguard our history and stop
this new wave of iconoclasm by standing against those who spread hate and
division.
On
this Columbus Day, we embrace the same optimism that led Christopher Columbus
to discover the New World. We inherit that optimism, along with the
legacy of American heroes who blazed the trails, settled a continent, tamed the
wilderness, and built the single-greatest nation the world has ever seen.
In
commemoration of Christopher Columbus’s historic voyage, the Congress, by joint
resolution of April 30, 1934, modified in 1968 (36 U.S.C. 107), has
requested the President proclaim the second Monday of October of each year as
“Columbus Day.”
NOW,
THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America,
by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws
of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 12, 2020, as
Columbus Day. I call upon the people of the United States to observe
this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities. I also direct that
the flag of the United States be displayed on all public buildings on the
appointed day in honor of our diverse history and all who have contributed
to shaping this Nation.
IN
WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this ninth day of October, in the
year of our Lord two thousand twenty, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and forty-fifth.
Over 18,000 (and growing) medical
public health scientists and medical practitioners have signed the Great Barrington Declaration, pleads
with the various governments around the world to end the lockdowns and open the
economy. As of right now, over 166,000 members of the general public have also
signed the petition.
Here are some key points:
Current lockdown policies are
producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health. ...
Keeping these measures in place
until a vaccine is available will cause irreparable damage, with the
underprivileged disproportionately harmed. ...
Fortunately, our understanding of
the virus is growing. We know that vulnerability to death from COVID-19 is more
than a thousand-fold higher in the old and infirm than the young. Indeed, for
children, COVID-19 is less dangerous than many other harms, including
influenza. ...
Those who are not vulnerable should
immediately be allowed to resume life as normal ...
Schools and universities should be
open for in-person teaching.
Extracurricular activities, such as
sports, should be resumed.
Young low-risk adults should work
normally, rather than from home.
Restaurants and other businesses
should open.
Follow the science? Everyone knows
why the democrat states continue the lockdown, long past the curve being
flattened back in April, which was the original goal.
Number one. How incredible was Vice
President Pence last night? He was stand-up-and-cheer outstanding. It was just…
it was great.
And number two. I’m thrilled to
announce that our commander-in-chief, President Donald Trump, will be right
here tomorrow hosting the largest virtual rally in radio history. Be sure to
tune in. You don’t want to miss this. It will be special. And I am really
looking forward to it.
Now, later today, folks, we’re
gonna be posting more details on the Rush Limbaugh website and on the Rush
Limbaugh Facebook page. So keep a sharp eye out there. And you know what?
There’s gonna be a special in-box set up for you to send your questions for
President Trump. So be thinking of things you’d like to ask him today, and then
get ready for the largest virtual rally in radio history tomorrow.
Oh — and, folks, thank you again
for all of your continued prayers. I am so moved by your support. You know that
I know and believe that they work. And I cannot tell you how appreciative my
family and I are for all of you. Thank you, again, very much.
Greater Cleveland area listeners can tune in on Friday at noon to WTAM Radio 1100.
Justin Haskins is, I think, rightfully concerned about the
November elections – at all levels.His column at Townhall ("America Is Headed For A Voter-Fraud Nightmare in November") concludes:
Never before has America’s
political class so willingly and eagerly marched the country toward predictable
and preventable chaos. Mail-in balloting is, in fact, not a truly secure way of
holding an election. Even if large-scale fraud does not occur, the perception
will be that it did, and that should have been enough for politicians concerned
about voters’ faith in the election process to enact policies that would have
encouraged in-person balloting, a much safer route.
Unfortunately, that did not occur,
so unless it’s a total blowout on Election Day, it seems inevitable the country
is on the road to disaster. When we get there, Americans should know who to
blame.
That would be the political class – D’s for aggressively
pushing mail-in voting (and attempting to extend the deadline for counting ballots well past Election Day) and R’s for not aggressively pushing back.Our household will be voting in person on
Election Day. Mr. Haskins's column is here.
CDC recently updated estimated infection fatality rates for
COVID. Here are the updated survival rates by age group:
0-19: 99.997%
20-49: 99.98%
50-69: 99.5%
70+: 94.6%
Remember also that 94% of the fatalities had other
morbidities, such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer, according to
the CDC.
If you are old like me, or our overweight President, you
face a greater risk, but, for most people the chances of dying from COVID-19
are minimal. Yet, we are destroying the lives of children by keeping schools
shut down for most of the year. We are destroying countless small businesses
for a virus that is less deadly than the flu. We have shut down live sports and
entertainment for no good reason.
We all know of people who have died with COVID-19. But we
know of far more people who have died from other causes, such as traffic
accidents, drowning, murder, cancer, heart disease and so on. The problem is we
not balancing out the risk factors.
For example, we lose 37,000 people a year in traffic
accidents. From 1899 to 2013, it is estimated 3.6 million people died in
traffic accidents. Unlike COVID-19, people will continue to die in traffic
accidents for the foreseeable future. If we cut the speed limit to 15 mph and
require vehicles to be limited to a top speed of 15 mph, we would just about
eliminate those deaths. But society won't do that. The convenience and time
savings from much higher speed limits outweigh the risk of dying in a traffic
accident.
The treatment the President received was little different
from that received by most hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The only difference
was that he was given an experimental therapeutic that is not yet approved for
general use. Our healthcare system has learned a lot since March and the death
rates are dropping as better therapies are used to treat patients.
