COVID studies: The Retractions

 

Retraction Watch monitors retractions of peer-reviewed articles/research that don’t hold up under scrutiny. It’s utterly damning to see the sheer number of peer-reviewed reports -- on COVID -- retracted – always after the damage is done: 

We’ve been tracking retractions of papers about COVID-19 as part of our database. Here’s a running list:

Retracted

“5G Technology and induction of coronavirus in skin cells,” published in Biological Regulators & Homeostatic Agents on July 16, 2020, withdrawn on July 24, 2020. Our coverage here.

“A Case Series of Stent Thrombosis During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” published on May 27, 2020 in JACC: Case Reports; retraction date is unknown.  Retracted as a duplicate publication by journal error.

“A Comparison of Early Rehabilitation in the Intensive Care Units of Patients With Severe COVID-19: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis,” published November 10, 2022 in Cureus; retracted on April 4, 2023.

“A data-mining based analysis of traditional Chinese medicine in diagnosing and treating COVID-19,” published on June 24, 2021 in The Anatomical Record; unknown when retracted.

“A deep learning model and machine learning methods for the classification of potential coronavirus treatments on a single human cell,” published on October 17, 2020 in the Journal of Nanoparticle Research; retracted on August 16, 2021.

“A Discourse Analysis of Quotidian Expressions of Nationalism during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Chinese Cyberspace,” published on September 8, 2020; retracted on April 12, 2022.

“A mechanistic analysis placental intravascular thrombus formation in COVID-19 patients,” published on April 25, 2020 in Annals of Diagnostic Pathology.  Retracted on June 22, 2020 as a duplicate publication by journal error.

“A meta-analysis of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) antibody treatment for COVID-19 patients,” published on August 20, 2021 in Therapeutic Advances in Chronic Disease; retracted on November 21, 2021. See our coverage here.

“A Model Based Analysis for COVID-19 Pandemic in India: Implications for Health Systems and Policy for Low- and Middle-Income Countries,” preprint possted on June 12, 2020 in medRxiv; retracted on August 18, 2020.

“A psychosocial exploration of body dissatisfaction: A narrative review With a focus on India during COVID-19,” published on July 29, 2021 in Frontiers in Global Women’s Health; retracted on January 19, 2023. 

 . . .

The rest of the list is here.  (Links via the original article)

RELATED:   Ben Bartee at PJ Media: “Peer-Reviewed Study: 'The Higher the Number of Vaccines Previously Received, the Higher the Risk of Contracting COVID-19' “

And American Greatness has more: click here. 

# # #

The Cleveland Haemosporidians?

 

The Cleveland Indians will always be the Cleveland Indians for me. The Indians’ mascot will always be Chief Wahoo.  But over at PJ Media, Robert Spencer explains what's really going on:

With skyrocketing crime and inflation, a steady exodus of sane people from her state, and test scores of students in the state plummeting, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-Planned Parenthood) and her henchmen have turned their attention to the most burning issue of our day: sports team mascots that offend the woke. Now New York’s remaining residents can look around at their smoking ruin of a state, as they watch the people who broke into their house drive off in their car and console themselves with the thought that nowhere in their formerly green and pleasant land is anyone being traumatized because there’s a sports team around called the “Indians.”

The Albany Times-Union reported Tuesday that “the New York Board of Regents has officially banned all uses of images and names for school mascots related to indigenous people.” At this late date in the woke-ification of America, there wasn’t even any controversy over this: “The board voted unanimously Tuesday morning, without discussion.”

This was the culmination of a process that has been going on for a good while: “The proposal was announced by the state Education Department in November, and education officials have been urging school boards to begin the process to change mascot images and names ever since.” Why is anyone on the New York Board of Regents paying attention to this matter at all? Because, you see, fans of teams called the Indians and Chiefs and Braves and even Redskins never realized it, but all the time they were rooting for their teams, they were really indulging in an act of hate.

In the Left’s view, you see, people name their sports teams after things they despise. 

. . .

The war against mascots is also completely inconsistent. There are ongoing efforts to force the Minnesota Vikings to change their name because the name “Viking” supposedly glorifies colonialism and white supremacism. But if the “Viking” name glorifies whiteness, why don’t the “Chief” or “Warrior” or “Indian” names glorify Native Americans? The war against mascots is, in other words, simply another Leftist effort to make Americans generally ashamed of their own culture and heritage. A nation that is ashamed won’t have the will to defend itself. . . .

Read the rest here. 

Exit question:  In the interest of keeping fans ashamed of themselves and their team, why did not the Tribe owners select The Cleveland Worms instead of the Cleveland Guardians?  Or, if it was important to keep “dians” in the new name, well then, how about

The Cleveland Haemosporidians?

(For utterly fascinating information about the “avian haemosporidian parasite,” click here.)

# # #

The Democrat Party we grew up with

 

Ben Garrison cartoon

The Democrat Party that many of us grew up with in the 50’s and 60’s is long gone.  Long gone.  The Progressive left has taken it over.  At PJ Media, Victor Davis Hanson (VDH) explains why so many of our family and friends can’t see it:

President Joe Biden is now 80 years old. He will be 82 when he campaigns for the 2024 presidency — and a clearly debilitated 86 should he be elected and fill out his second term. He has been in government for over a half-century.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and current representative from California is 83.

Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the second-ranking Democratic House member behind Pelosi, was House majority leader until early this year. He is 83, and has been an elected official for nearly 60 years.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is 72, with 48 years in elected government.

Democratic luminary and former chairman of the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is 89, and ailing — after 53 years as an elected official.

James Clyburn, D-S.C., is House minority whip and 82.

These are the official faces of the Democratic Party.

They came into power and maturity three decades ago during the Clinton years of 1993-1999.

Decades ago, they sometimes supported strong national defense, secure borders, gas and oil development, fully funding the police, and a few restrictions on partial-birth abortions.

Not now.

Their role has changed from that of liberals of the Clinton era to serving as the thin power-holding veneer that masks the new real Democratic Party.

The party has been changed beyond recognition by Senators Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the so-called Squad, the Congressional Black Caucus, newly elected senators like the Georgia duo of Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock – and Antifa and Black Lives Matter.

Yet Biden and company are still familiar American faces.

Their final role is to acculturate the electorate to the new Democratic Party.

Its radicals are breathing down their necks to get out of the way. Yet for a while longer they still need such an ossified veneer of respectability to ease the transition to what is now essentially a socialist-European green party. . . .

A socialist-European green party”.  That’s putting it nicely.  Some might say the “Progressive left” is completing the “fundamental change” of America’s constitutional republic into the New World Order.  Global communism.    

VDH concludes:

The new majority of radical Democrats allows the old fogies to bask in the limelight until they drop — exempt from counter-revolutionary criticism or inter-party primary challenges or demands to retire.

In return, the codgers reassure the nation that old faces like theirs cannot possibly be polyester revolutionary socialists — despite their role in airbrushing and photo-shopping the radical catastrophe unfolding before our eyes.

Read all about it here.

# # #

Digital Currency = Political Tyranny

 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr, has announced his bid for the Democrat Party’s nomination for President in 2024.  He’s been an outspoken (and published) critic of the COVID "vaccine” mandates and Dr Anthony Fauci, and now he’s taking on the imminent introduction of global bank digital currency (CBDC).  A digital currency challenges the dollar as the world's reserve currency.  Ben Bartee at PJ Media reports:

RFK Jr. Warns of Serious CBDC Threat to Liberty

. . .

Taking to Twitter, RFK Jr. succinctly laid out the reasons for his principled opposition to central bank digital currencies:

The Fed just announced it will introduce its “FedNow” Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in July. CBDCs grease the slippery slope to financial slavery and political tyranny.

While cash transactions are anonymous, a #CBDC will allow the government to surveil all our private financial affairs. The central bank will have the power to enforce dollar limits on our transactions restricting where you can send money, where you can spend it, and when money expires.

He goes on to warn of the obvious social control implications that this newfound government power to turn off the financial spigot on a whim will confer to the bureaucracy — of the hellish CCP social credit score variety.

“Watch as governments, which never let a good crisis go to waste, use Covid-19 and the banking crisis to usher in a new wave of CBDCs as a safe haven from germ-laden paper currencies or as protection against bank runs,” the son of the legendary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. concluded. . . .

July is right around the corner.

RELATED:  BRICS Nations challenge US Dollar’s dominance (America First Report)

# # #

 

Cable News & State Propaganda

Ben Bartee at PJ Media reports:

Cable News Is Riddled With War Profiteers

The problem with cable news is that — outside of perhaps Tucker Carlson, who seems genuinely committed to exposing truths and has paid the price for it in the form of the Majority Leader calling for his censorship from the Senate floor [but see yesterday’s CTP blog here] — it’s not news.

It’s state propaganda, by and for the special interests that have purchased the state.

These special interests include big agriculture, big pharma, and, of course, the private weapons manufacturers that comprise the military-industrial complex.

Much more at the link here. So if you want the news, you have to turn off the TV and cancel your mainstream media subscriptions.  FTA: “The only way for viewers to discover said conflicts of interest is to do their own research.”  Or identify bloggers and websites that do the real digging.

JD Rucker at Discern Report has the plan:

To get the “real” journalists to speak the truth, we need “fake” journalists (like me) and non-journalists (the people) to beat the drums of reality. When those drumbeats get loud enough and are hammered often enough, the “real” journalists will have the cover they need to disseminate what is being said.

# # #

John Dale Dunn: Tucker Carlson pulled his punches

 

John Dale Dunn at American Thinker was disgusted with the surveillance footage shown on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program.  Mr. Dunn starts off:

I watched what I thought was a serious journalist blow the first night of the supposed big J6 tape release. But I couldn't help noticing that he picked stuff we already knew -- and he was WEAK. 

Where was the video of fed provocateurs and violence coordinators?

Capitol Police flash bang and rubber bullet/baton attacks on an unarmed citizen crowd?

The deceptions about the barricades?

The beatings of unarmed women and lots of unarmed men, and one, Roseann Boyland, who died?

What was so hard about demonstrating to the public that the J6 was a Reichstag Fire scam?

Sure, he said the J6 committee lied, but he pulled his punches even on the opening night and from there the week went downhill fast and he purposely got weaker and weaker.  Before the week was done, he opened his show about the International Women's Day award?  He didn't care -- he was just going through the motions.

. . .

The commentary below the article is split, many viewers thought the selected coverage moved the ball down the field a bit.  Others agreed with Mr. Dunn and thought the disappointing coverage was probably due to Deep State influences coming from Fox management.  Click here to read the full column and comments below. 

There’s additional footage (“Jan. 6 Videos Show Antifa Disguising Selves as Trump Supporters, Trumpers Stopping Vandals”) at PJ Media’s Catherine Salgado report;  click here.

# # #

Dr Robert Malone on COVID: a manufactured crisis

 

Your weekend read.  Dr Robert Malone is credited as the lead scientist in the development of the mRNA technology that can deliver a vaccine.  He just gave a speech at a conference in Mexico City, providing a warts-and-all history of the COVID crisis.  His criticism of the CDC and other US government agencies will confirm his status as a “domestic terrorist.”  As much as this blog has tried to keep up with Dr Malone, Steve Kirsch, Dr Peter McCullough, and others sounding the alarm about the COVID mandates, this speech will leave you speechless.  Dr Malone was invited

. . . to share my perspective regarding policies related to public health, vaccines and early treatment for SARS-CoV-2 throughout the various surges, and my thoughts and recommendations for future public health events.  My remarks will focus on the United States’ COVID response, but will also cover some international aspects. . . .

Full text is here.  Jaw-dropping.

RELATED:  At PJ Media, Robert Spencer reports on corruption in the medical profession and a new organization Do No Harm to resist the woke ideology. 

# # #

Let's Go Brandon SOTU (bumped)

This evening (9pm) is pResident Biden’s State of the Union Address.  The Media Research Center alerted readers and viewers that it will not be sugar-coating its coverage:

. . . We’re putting together a “war room” for Tuesday’s gaslighting of the American public: a brave squad of MRC bloggers, writers, and media analysts will huddle up at the MRC HQ with a stockpile of comfort food and snacks in hand, working late into the night to analyze the speech and the media’s expected lionizing of it.  

MRC will cover the SOTU from every angle — the inside scoops, the highlights, lowlights, gaffes, blunders, and mistruths. 

NewsBusters will handle media analysis. CNSNews will give you a breakdown of the content of the speech. MRCTV will bring you video clips (and humorous montages).

We’ll watch the speech, so you don’t have to. . . .

And good news:  Mr. Vodkapundit (a/k/a Stephen Green) will be covering the speech with his usual DrunkBlogging at PJ Media here.  Here's Mr Green previewing tomorrow's drunkblog:

I can’t offer an effective one-man counter spin to the entire mainstream media, but I will provide one entertaining drunkblog before, during, and after the big speech.

And here's the updated link.  

# # #

Let’s Go Brandon SOTU

 

This evening (9pm) is pResident Biden’s State of the Union Address.  The Media Research Center alerted readers and viewers that it will not be sugar-coating its coverage:

. . . We’re putting together a “war room” for Tuesday’s gaslighting of the American public: a brave squad of MRC bloggers, writers, and media analysts will huddle up at the MRC HQ with a stockpile of comfort food and snacks in hand, working late into the night to analyze the speech and the media’s expected lionizing of it.  

MRC will cover the SOTU from every angle — the inside scoops, the highlights, lowlights, gaffes, blunders, and mistruths. 

NewsBusters will handle media analysis. CNSNews will give you a breakdown of the content of the speech. MRCTV will bring you video clips (and humorous montages).

We’ll watch the speech, so you don’t have to. . . .

And good news:  Mr. Vodkapundit (a/k/a Stephen Green) will be covering the speech with his usual DrunkBlogging at PJ Media here.  Here's Mr Green previewing tomorrow's drunkblog:

I can’t offer an effective one-man counter spin to the entire mainstream media, but I will provide one entertaining drunkblog before, during, and after the big speech.

# # #

 

RINO Kevin McCarthy: Speaker of the House

This blog linked the other day to Paula Bolyard’s column at PJ Media about the House debate over RINO Kevin McCarthy’s run for Speaker of The House.  She was encouraged to see open debate between Freedom Caucus members and establishment Republicans.  This blog agreed that the open debate was a good thing.  And to the extent that the maneuvering of the Uniparty was exposed to and in plain sight for anyone watching, it was a good thing.

BUT it turns out it was all Kabuki theater.  Again.  Kevin McCarthy is now Speaker of the House. 

Most of the Freedom Caucus, including Chairman Scott Perry, caved, and it will be business as usual.  All the talk about changing the system – was just talk.  As one reader commented elsewhere, the only tactic available to the House now is obstruction.  No constructive bill will get past the Senate and the pResident’s desk.  There will be no reversal of the Omnibus porkalooza. 

# # #

GOP vs GOPe : the Uniparty in plain sight

 

The curtain is pulled back.  Paula Bolyard is right about the GOP opposition to [R-establishment] Kevin McCarthy becoming Speaker of the House --- the floor fight visibly exposes the Uniparty’s concern for its own power and wealth – and it has nothing to do with the voters:

As of publishing time, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has lost five six votes in his bid to be House speaker and there seems to be no end in sight. There are around 20 Republican holdouts in the “never McCarthy” camp, and they’re showing no signs of budging.

. . .

Meanwhile, Republican establishment types are running around with their hair on fire, shouting about unity and warning that Republicans will pay a steep price unless they can show a united front in the early days of their House majority.

Hogwash.

One way or another, this will all be over in a few days and we’ll all go back to binge-watching mindless dramas on Netflix and planning our Super Bowl parties. A month from now, Rep. Jim Jordan will be holding hearings that won’t result in any Democrats paying a price for their treachery during Trump’s presidency, the House will once again be spending money like drunken sailors, and Congress will continue to get next to nothing useful done for the American people. Lather, rinse, repeat. Delaying the start of the congressional session by a few days, or even a month, won’t matter one iota. By the time the 2024 election rolls around, no one will care that there was a protracted fight for House speaker in early 2023.

. . .

What we’re witnessing now is the messy, glorious republican form of government our Founding Fathers laid out in the Constitution. Many Americans are tired of the Uniparty that exuberantly passes pork-laden omnibus spending bills in the dead of night and plays by Marquess of Queensberry Rules as our country plunges toward insolvency, immorality, and anarchy.

While establishment Republicans like Kevin McCarthy and Ronna McDaniel would like to keep the party’s dirty laundry hidden, the American people deserve to know how the sausage is being made. We need to know what’s being promised to Republicans who vote for McCarthy. There are rumors that he may try to bring Democrats over to his side, and Marcy Kaptur of Ohio is reportedly trying to cut a deal with him, which only increases distrust within the caucus.

And Ms Bolyard points out toward the end of the article:

But no matter what happens, the beauty is in the process. . . . enjoy the process, and thank God that you live in a country where we settle these things with words and not guns.

Read Ms. Bolyard’s PJ Media article here.

# # #

Throwing Trump under the bus

 

There was no red wave on Tuesday, so many major bloggers are already throwing President Donald Trump under the bus, e.g.:

• Matt Margolia at PJ Media here  ("Trump Mocks DeSantis Again...")
• John Hinderaker at Power Line here  ("Goodbye, Donald")
• Don Surber here   ("Life after Trump")
• UPDATE:  The New York Post

The word “fickle” comes to mind.  

Trump endorsed 174 candidates.  So far, 9 lost.  

So 5% lost.  95% won.  That’s a damn good batting average. 

For those who think that Ron DeSantis is the new standard-bearer for conservatives, please take on board Sundance's deep dive into his campaign contributions (at Conservative Treehouse).

# # #

Whither the Red Wave

 

Gary Varvel cartoon at Townhall

Gen Z = voters under 30.  Robert Spencer at PJ Media explains the mid-term election results:

If Della Volpe’s numbers are correct, and 64% of voters between the ages of 18 and 29 really voted for Democrats, then one thing is clear: the corruption and politicization of our educational system has worked.

. . .

What he is crowing about is the apparent fact that the voting group with the least life experience and the most recent subjection to the Leftist indoctrination that dominates America’s educational system ended up voting as it was brainwashed to do. Gee, that’s terrific, if you like evidence of the success of the relentless propagandizing of a vulnerable and impressionable captive audience, but neither John Della Volpe nor anyone else should be proud of it. What it shows is not that the Leftist case is compelling or persuasive; it shows that patriotic Americans have been far too complacent in allowing public schools to become centers of Leftist indoctrination and hatred of our own nation and heritage.

. . .

. . . In China, Communist leader Mao Zedong began the Long March in 1934 to evade nationalist forces; the term, however, came to be associated with his slow, steady, patient rise to power, culminating in the Communist takeover of mainland China in 1949. The Long March Through the Institutions was the same kind of slow, steady takeover, as Communists, leftists, and their allies gradually gained control of America’s colleges and universities, its primary and secondary educational systems, its popular culture, and above all its ever-growing federal bureaucracy.

Mr Spencer concludes:

Many, if not most, of the Gen Z-ers who voted overwhelmingly for the Left will, as they get older, come to realize how foolish and wrongheaded they were to support socialist internationalism and the managed decline of the United States. But others will never wake up, and will applaud that decline as retribution for centuries of alleged racism and colonialism. Even as their own cities and towns become ever more squalid, poor, dirty, and dangerous, they will continue to think of themselves as righteous for having chosen all that. That pride will be all they have left.

Full column is here. 

# # #

Marxism 101

 

Pat Cross cartoon

At PJ Media, Robert Spencer published an excellent comparison in historical terms of Biden’s ideology and that of the former Soviet Union.  Mr Spencer begins:

In Marxist theory, the final stage of socialism is true communism, when everyone shares of his or her resources equally, the state withers away, and true justice finally dawns upon the earth. We never have seen that stage and never will, because Marxism is rancid pseudo-religious hogwash that runs directly contrary to human nature. The real final stage of socialism is what we saw in the last ten years of the Soviet Union: an entrenched, all-encompassing, corrupt and inefficient state bureaucracy nominally presided over by a succession of senescent, barely-there incompetents. With his disgraceful descent into open authoritarianism Thursday evening, Old Joe Biden and the Democrats signaled their intention to skip right to that final stage: they’ve already got the doddering figurehead and the ravenous bureaucracy firmly in place.

. . .

And now that Joe Biden is out in the open about criminalizing his opposition and brooking no dissent, we can skip here in the United States right to the final stage of socialism. We have the entrenched deep-state bureaucracy, and we have the dementia-ridden septuagenarian puppet in charge, so we’re all set. . . .

Read the full column here.

# # #

Biden Takes On the Soul of the Nation ~ UPDATED

 

A F Branco cartoon

So pResident Biden will be delivering his “Soul of the Nation” speech Thursday, Sept 1 in primetime - 8pm. I found J. Robert Smith’s preview of this evening’s speech at American Thinker here.  But I have not yet found the speech itself scheduled in the TV listings. 

I would put this speech in my Must Miss category, but if I find that Mr Vodkapundit is going to Drunkblog it live, I’ll add a link later today.  Otherwise, I’ll look for commentary online to share after the speech.

UPDATE:  It’s being broadcast on C-Span.  As of 7:40pm, no sign of Drunkblogging at PJ Media.  ... As of 8pm, still no sign of Drunkblogging at PJ Media.  Apparently, no vodka is strong enough.

UPDATE 2 as of 7:45pm:  Sundance has posted livestream links here.  

# # #

The endgame is one-party rule

Democrats Are Lying and Everyone Knows It

Well, not everyone.  Here’s part of Stephen Kruiser’s column from yesterday at PJ Media:

. . . Let us begin with a point of clarification. I am well aware that we live in a representative republic and not a democracy, but I’ll be using the latter description because that’s what is being employed in the false narrative I’d like to pick apart.

. . .

The assault on democracy that the Democrats and their flying monkeys in the mainstream media are carrying on about is very much in progress, but it’s coming from them. They are waging a full-scale ideological war on anyone who doesn’t agree with their increasingly commie policies. Make no mistake about this: their endgame is one-party rule in the United States of America.

. . .

The laundry list of things they lie about grows every day and has done so at a greater pace since Donald Trump won the 2016 election. Russia collusion. J6 was an insurrection. The 2020 presidential election was one of the cleanest ever. Republican efforts to shore up election integrity are racist.

On it goes.

Of course, Democrats’ false narratives don’t become narratives without the corrupt corporate mainstream media aiding and abetting them. 

. . .

Read the full column here.

# # #

Thomas Jefferson: downright anti-American

 

Robert Spencer is the proprietor of Jihad Watch, a website that specializes in the histories and ideologies of Islam and jihad.  However, in his recent column for PJ Media, he reports on the politicization (i.e., going “woke”) of Thomas Jefferson’s legendary Virginia home, Monticello.  Mr. Spencer begins:

“Who controls the past controls the future,” writes George Orwell in 1984. “Who controls the present controls the past.” Were he with us today, Orwell would be getting tired of being right all the time, but he has just been proven right again: Thomas Jefferson’s famed mansion Monticello has been turned into a fount of woke propaganda that denigrates Jefferson and treats unsuspecting visitors to an over-the-top orgy of victimhood and white guilt regarding slavery. The Left hates America and wants very much for you to hate it, too.

. . .

Not surprisingly, “The Thomas Jefferson Foundation is run by a roster of big-money Dem donors and former Democratic officials.” Monticello’s descent “has largely been funded by left-leaning philanthropist David M. Rubenstein, who donated $20 million toward that effort in 2015. Rubenstein is “on the boards of the globalist World Economic Forum, China’s Tsinghua University, and the Council on Foreign Relations, among others.” Now it’s beginning to become clear why all this is happening.

The endgame is not just to make Americans despise Thomas Jefferson, but to make the average American ashamed of being American. That’s what this has been about from first to last. . . .

What’s more, the reason why the Left hates him with such burning intensity is not that he was a slave owner. Leftists love Fidel Castro, who enslaved an entire nation. They love all manner of authoritarians, totalitarians, and mass murderers. They’ve never minded the eggs that have to be broken to make their socialist omelets.

No, the real reason why the Left hates Thomas Jefferson is for all the things for which he should rightly be celebrated: Because he fought against tyranny. Because he helped create a free republic. Because he placed statements in those founding documents that would ultimately lead multitudes of the citizens of the new nation to believe that slavery was wrong and immoral and give their lives to bring about its abolition.

Jefferson is just the sort of man whom the fascist thugs of Antifa, busy smearing ACAB on the sides of buildings and hurling obscenities at police in pursuit of their vision of socialist utopia, and their moneyed backers would despise and fear. They want a docile American populace, frightened into submission to their authoritarian vision. The example of Thomas Jefferson could inspire Americans instead to pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to preserve our hard-won freedoms. Can’t have that. Jefferson’s name must be made anathema to Americans.

Howard Zinn would be proud (see here).  Read the full article here.

# # #

Follow up: monkeypox in the news

 

Stephen Green (Mr. VodkaPundit) is suspicious about the recent appearance of monkeypox. (This blog linked on the subject yesterday). Here’s some of his “Insanity Wrap” column from today at PJ Media:

Who needs to worry about monkeypox? “Everybody,” said Presidentish Joe Biden in Korea on Monday. “We’re working on it, hard, to figure out what we do,” he said.

Would it be too bold to suggest that they already have a plan?

Lockdowns, shots, school closures, masks, and stimulus checks.

. . .

Washington and the Global Panicmonger Industry just won’t give up trying to scare us, will they?  So we’re all going to die. If we don’t follow orders, that is.

. . .

But who is this “everybody” that Biden insists should be all aflutter over the pox?

These people:

As of Saturday, the World Health Organization reported there were 92 cases in 12 countries, and a further 28 suspected cases under investigation. The U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Portugal and Netherlands have all confirmed cases.

Maybe 120 cases, mostly restricted to a small subset of the populations of a dozen countries with more than half a billion people — and they basically have to be doing it to get infected.

I refuse to worry about monkeypox unless we find out that those wacky Wuhan scientists have been monkeying around with it.

Oh, wait: The Infamous Wuhan Lab Recently Assembled Monkeypox Strains Using Methods Flagged For Creating ‘Contagious Pathogens.’

At this point, things are starting to feel less like Groundhog Day and more like a reboot of Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, but with biological weapons instead of nukes.

Maybe it’s time we learned to stop worrying and love the plague.

But whatever happens: No. More. Lockdowns.

Stephen Green is obviously skeptical.  JD Rucker considers more insidious scenarios here.  insidious but not that far-fetched. 

# # #

Must Read of the Day: Imagine The Unimaginable

Victor Davis Hanson’s sobering essay, “Imagine the Unimaginable”, has been cross-posted at several blogsites.  It’s a Must Read.  Here’s the link to PJ Media site.  Quick take-away:

Ruling elites would rather be politically correct failures and unpopular than politically incorrect, successful, and popular. 

VDH closes his essay:

When revolutionaries undermine the system, earn the antipathy of the people, and face looming disaster at the polls, it is then they prove most dangerous—as we shall see over the next few months.

Sobering indeed.  Click here for the full essay.  

# # #

Prediction: more riots this summer

 

Athena Thorne predicts more riots this summer.  At PJ Media, she explains:

. . . Riots — or at the very least, large-scale organized protests (LOPs, for the sake of this article) — have become an industry, complete with its own infrastructure and professional workforce, and there are big bucks involved. Rioting isn’t going away any time soon.

. . .

And now, the infrastructure is in place and Big Protest’s shock troops are ready to roll at a moment’s notice. Not only that, but this industry is also intractably ensconced in the national establishment. The continuum comprises almost every sector:

Higher education teaches the justifications for the unrest and provides protest training exercises. It also provides manpower for summer riots, when staff and students alike are off for the summer and available.

Liberal government — local to national in scale — allows unrest to spread by undermining law enforcement’s ability to maintain order.

Corporate America supports the LOP industry by bankrolling it and also increasingly creating workplace cultures that encourage employees to back it.

The Fake News media provides messaging support and fans the flames.

Big Tech looks the other way as LOPs are organized and coordinated nationwide (even internationally in some cases) on its platforms.

Socialist policies, such as “free” healthcare, guaranteed incomes, and rent/mortgage relief, ensure that unemployed and underemployed troops remain idle and ready for deployment to a riot near them. Corporate money pays for their time, their meals, and the buses that transport them.

Worse, these structures are flexibly effective, no matter the cause of the moment — all roads meet at the intersection, after all. Whether it’s pressuring recalcitrant CEOs to fund “anti-racism” organizations, menacing justices to support women’s “rights,” or lending a hand to local ballot traffickers (as described in the film 2000 Mules), Big Protest is well-staffed, well-funded, and ready to roll. . . .

Read the full article here.

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