Month: January 2022

Authored by Pat Buchanan,

“Every Day Is Jan. 6 Now.”

That was the headline over the editorial of 1,000 words in The New York Times of Sunday last.

On first read, I thought the Times was conceding its obsession and describing its mission. For the editorial began by bewailing yet anew the “horrifying” event, “the very real bloodshed of that awful day,” the “once-unthinkable trauma.”

Still, a year later, said the Times, “the Republic faces an existential threat,” as the “Capitol riot … continues in statehouses across the country, in a bloodless, legalized form that no police officer can arrest and that no prosecutor can try in court.”

“We should stop underestimating the threat facing the country. … (our) democracy … is in grave danger.”

What the Times is saying is that the electoral reforms being enacted democratically in red states — requiring voter IDs, for example, and subject to judicial review — are a Republican continuation of the Capitol riot.

Why cannot our liberal media let it go? Why does the distortion and hysteria about Jan. 6 seem to grow with each retelling?

Now, undeniably, as I wrote in a column the next morning, Jan. 6 was “The Worst of Days for Trump & Trumpists.”

“The worst of the day’s events for Trump came when a segment of a friendly crowd of 50,000 he just addressed concluded its march down the Mall to the U.S. Capitol by smashing its way into the building and invading and occupying the Senate and House chambers.

“Members of Congress were forced to flee and hide. A protester, an Air Force veteran, was shot to death by a Capitol cop. Vice President Mike Pence, who was chairing the joint session, was taken into protective custody by his Secret Service detail. Doors were broken open. Windows were smashed, and the building was trashed …

“What Americans watched was a mob occupation and desecration of the temple of the American Republic.” I added, “And the event will be forever exploited to discredit not only Trump but the movement he led and the achievements of his presidency.”

That last line understated what an obsession Jan. 6 has become for the nation’s establishment and media elite.

 

The left cannot let go of Jan. 6.

Indeed, it has fixated upon, exploited and exaggerated the riot to discredit and destroy the Trump presidency in the history books and to prevent Donald Trump from ever running or being elected president again.

Though Trump was exonerated by the Senate of the impeachment charge brought by Nancy Pelosi’s House, the House select committee wants to try Trump again and again in the court of public opinion and wants President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice to find some crime with which to charge and convict him.

There are other reasons the left cannot let go of Jan. 6.

Democrats have no other issue on which to run this November.

The Biden presidency has produced an uninterrupted string of disasters: the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle, the Texas border crisis, inflation, an explosion of gun violence and murders setting records in Democrat-run cities, failure to produce an adequate federal response to the delta and omicron waves of COVID-19.

Again, Jan. 6 was a riot, involving assaults on Washington and Capitol cops and the disruption of a formal congressional procedure to validate the electoral vote victory of Joe Biden.

But was Jan. 6 really the planned coup, the terrorism, the sedition, the armed insurrection, the attempt to overthrow the U.S. government?

Was Jan. 6 really comparable to Pearl Harbor and 9/11, during each of which 3,000 Americans went to their deaths in an hour’s time and major wars followed — as Vice President Kamala Harris said yesterday?

If so, why, a year after Jan. 6, 2021, has no one been charged with inciting a rebellion, sedition, treason, armed insurrection, plotting a coup, or a takeover of the government of the United States?

Thus far, all the charges prosecuted and punished are consistent with a riot, which is what Jan. 6 was. Comparisons of this three-hour mob action to Pearl Harbor and 9/11 are almost sacrilegious.

Was that QAnon shaman occupying the chair in the Senate chamber really the moral equivalent of Mohamed Atta ramming an airliner into the World Trade Center or Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto plotting the Dec. 7 surprise attack on Pearl Harbor?

Another reason for the left to paint up the horror of that day is that the perpetrators of Jan. 6 were not the radical left who battled cops and burned and looted Seattle, Portland, Milwaukee and scores of other cities in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing.

They were the “deplorables” of Trump, the populists of the American right, against whom any slander is justified.

Question: If the left is so terrified of Trump it feels it must prevent him from even running again, by imposing a criminal conviction, what does that say about the left’s belief in American democracy?

What does that tell us about the left’s trust in the people?

In late November, as the early details of the South African variant emerged (more transmissible, and “extremely mild”), we noted that this “could be a blessing in disguise as it pushes out the much more dangerous (and more stable) delta strain,” and could mark the beginning of the end of the global fearmongering over a virus that over 99% of the infected are expected to survive.

And now, a team of researchers from South Africa confirmed Friday that omicron might mark the end of the COVID pandemic (before SARS-CoV-2 simply becomes another endemic, largely seasonal sickness), shrouding the present global surge in a patina of optimism.

To wit, a study of patients infected with COVID at a large hospital in Pretoria, the city where the first outbreak of the omicron variant was recorded, revealed a short-lived wave that moved with “unprecedented speed” and caused much milder illness than earlier strains.

“If this pattern continues and is repeated globally, we are likely to see a complete decoupling of case and death rates,” the researchers said.

And for the sickest patients, the study showed that just 4.5% of patients hospitalized with COVID died during the current wave compared with 21% in earlier waves, according to a statement on the website of the South African Medical Research Council. What’s more, this time around, fewer people were admitted to hospital ICUs, and hospital stays were “significantly shorter.” Initially, the rate of admissions climbed rapidly, but it began to decline within 33 days of the first omicron admission analyzed. A snapshot of patients in the hospital on Dec. 14 and 15 showed that almost two-thirds of those infected with COVID had been admitted for other reasons (raising further questions about how many of the deaths they reported should really be considered “COVID deaths”.

Ultimately, the study at Biko analyzed records of 466 patients from the current wave and 3,976 from previous waves of the pandemic. It also found the following, according to Bloomberg:

• Hospital stays averaged 4 days compared with 8.8 in previous waves

• The mean age of those admitted was 39 compared with almost 50 in earlier waves

• Admissions to intensive-care units dropped to 1% of patients from 4.3%

• Admissions peaked at 108 compared with 213 during the delta wave

Now that cases are plunging in South Africa, the researchers were able to confirm that the omicron wave had “a lower admission per case ratio, lower death rate and lower rates of admission to the ICU compared to previous waves.”

The researchers at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria said this behavior could be a sign that the pandemic is coming to an end.

That suggests “omicron may be a harbinger of the end of the epidemic phase of the Covid pandemic, ushering in its endemic phase.”

Think about it. All these people who are sick right now (it seems like practically the entire world has fallen ill with COVID over the past month, whether they had been vaccinated or not) will emerge with more antibodies and more natural protection that humans have needed to build in order to protect themselves from the virus long term.

Just take a look at COVID cases vs. deaths in the US; while the number of people sickened and calling out of work has created congestion across the economy (and forced hospitals in some states to turn to the National Guard for assistance), far fewer people are dying due to omicron, which is believed to be the variant behind nearly all of the new cases being diagnosed in the US, and elsewhere.

Airline stocks in the US are now headed for their best week since November thanks to the newfound optimism.

Data from South Africa, the first country to report the arrival of omicron, is being closely watched by the rest of the world for any insights into how the omicron wave might pan out. As we noted a week ago, South Africa dialed back its COVID restrictions after new cases cratered.

All of this supports what the WHO and its leader, Dr. Tedros Adhanom, said about booster shots. While President Biden and the CDC open the door to second booster jabs (the CDC just cut the recommended time between shots to 5 months from 6), the WHO has warned against it, saying shots should first go to the developing world, and that no country could “boost” its way out of the pandemic.

Although if the South Africa data is any guide, pretty soon they won’t have to.

In a huge development concerning the heightened standoff between Russia and the West over Ukraine of the past two months, the Biden administration is said to be mulling a draw down of the US force presence in Eastern Europe – for example in countries like Poland, Romania, as well as the Baltics where the Pentagon has routinely conducted joint exercises – in a sign that Washington in “serious” about its negotiations with Putin.

According to the fresh NBC News report Friday, “The Biden administration is heading into next week’s talks with Russia still unsure whether Moscow is serious about negotiations, but if so U.S. officials are ready to propose discussions on scaling back US and Russian troop deployments and military exercises in Eastern Europe, a current administration official and two former U.S. national security officials familiar with the planning told NBC News.”

Of course, this would mean the Kremlin must be willing to make major concessions as well, likely starting with a total draw down of the tens of thousands of troops reportedly mustered near Eastern Ukraine. For many weeks now, Kiev and Washington officials have alleged that Putin is ready to give the order for an offensive on Donbass by the end of January, which Moscow has consistently denied.

NBC writes further based on its sources of the scheduled Jan.10 Russia-US-NATO dialogue in Geneva: “The discussions could potentially address the scope of military drills held by both powers, the number of U.S. troops stationed in the Baltic states and Poland, advance notice about the movement of forces, and Russia’s nuclear-capable Iskander missiles in the Russian territory of Kaliningrad between Poland and Lithuania, the sources said.”

This is said to be among the list of “options” the White House is preparing ahead of the talks, just days away. Key to the forces draw down from Eastern Europe would be…

If Russia appears willing to discuss scaling back its presence in the region, the U.S. will be prepared to discuss specific moves, the official said.

Recall that for the past few years NATO member Poland has urged a larger US military footprint in the country, even offering to name a base “Fort Trump” which was floated during the last half of the prior Trump administration. 

Currently there’s an estimated 70,000 US troops across Europe, mostly in Germany, but some 6,000 of these routinely rotate through East European countries, with the bulk of these present in Poland.

NATO boss Jens Stoltenberg says they will never withdraw the conditional offer of membership to Ukraine which is the key demand from the Kremlin. It comes after alliance foreign ministers held a videocall over the build up of Russian troops on the border. https://t.co/TBiG7fojkx

— Jack Parrock (@jackeparrock) January 7, 2022

There’s a likelihood the Kremlin would welcome the move, also given that just this week the security situation has deteriorated in its large southern neighbor Kazakhstan.

There’s speculation that any further destabilization after five days of intense riots and emerging firefights could see Russia send a larger deployment force to the country, after a regional collective security organization (the CSTO) authorized peace-keeping forces to be send. There’s now an estimated 3,000 Russian troops in Kazakhstan. 

Kazakhstan’s president as well as international news wires are saying that Kazakh security forces have taken control of most of the city streets in Almaty, where days of riots have raged and central government buildings have been torched. Heavy military vehicles and armaments have also been seen deployed across other major cities. 

This after President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered his security forces to “shoot to kill without warning” – according to Reuters and state media. He reiterated in a Friday televised address that the demonstrators and rioters will be “destroyed” as prior riot control measures have moved to “counterterrorist” operations.

This as an estimated 3,000 Russian troops are said to be on the ground as part of a joint peace-keeping mission authorized by Russian-led the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). More may be on the way. 

Despite the claim that order is slowly being restored, there have still been widespread reports of gunshots ringing out over central city squares and streets, following dramatic images of the past few days showing pitched gun battles. Al Jazeera reports Friday:

The interior ministry said that 26 “armed criminals” had been “liquidated” and more than 3,000 detained since last weekend, while 18 police and national guard service members had also been killed.

Gunshots could be heard on Friday morning near the central square in the largest city, Almaty, where troops and protesters battled on previous days.

🇰🇿⚡️ Heavy armored vehicles on the streets of Ust-Kamenogorsk, #Kazakhstan. pic.twitter.com/k4esRcmAWj

— Ali Özkök (@Ozkok_A) January 7, 2022

Indicators suggest the Kremlin could be mulling a larger deployment to Kazakhstan, at a moment it has many forces near eastern Ukraine.

There are likely concerns among Russian officials that the military could be “spread too thin” in too much manpower is diverted from near Ukraine, where tensions have soared over the past couple months.

This is clearly designed as a signal. A battalion reinforced from the 331st Airborne Regiment with >40 BMD-2 and BTR-D vehicles (battalion set is ~40) and trucks waiting to fly to Kazakhstan in Ivanovo. https://t.co/zURQHC8qWx pic.twitter.com/e0cqo3jN0n

— Rob Lee (@RALee85) January 7, 2022

On Thursday the country’s Interior Ministry cited at least 18 police and security forces were killed, with hundreds wounded and injured – though with the lack of an international media presence on the ground during the chaos, it’s been hard for monitors to confirm figures – which likely also includes dozens killed among the protesters.

Meanwhile, on Friday a widely circulating social media video indicates that organized armed insurgent groups are forming in order to fight back against the government, as well as the foreign allies such as Russian troops that are assisting.

Big development in Kazakhstan. A group calling themselves the “Kazakhstan Liberation Front” have released a video promising to fight against the CSTO deployment as well as the security forces of Kazakhstan. pic.twitter.com/r7vubvvS47

— Kyle Glen (@KyleJGlen) January 7, 2022

By the hour and by the day, this continues to escalate, with Kazakhstan on the brink of a full-blown civil war led by anti-government insurgents. At the same time Moscow and Beijing are beginning to get more vocal about what they are calling a regime change “color revolution” which may have outside Western help, with the finger in particular being pointed at the US, and possibly related to Ukraine.

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota fired 700 unvaccinated health care workers on Tuesday, despite nurses at the clinic issuing a warning several weeks ago about staffing issues.

“While Mayo Clinic is saddened to lose valuable employees, we need to take all steps necessary to keep our patients, workforce, visitors, and communities safe,” the Mayo Clinic said in a statement Tuesday in confirming the mass firings.

 “If individuals released from employment choose to get vaccinated at a later date, the opportunity exists for them to apply and return to Mayo Clinic for future job openings.”

The employees had until Monday to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Officials said the 700 workers who were terminated represent approximately 1 percent of the Mayo Clinic’s 70,000 employees.

“While final numbers are still not available, nearly 99 percent of staff across all Mayo Clinic locations have complied with the required vaccination program, meaning they have been vaccinated or have received medical or religious exemptions,” said the Clinic in its statement.

Outside of Minnesota, the Mayo Clinic operates hospitals in Wisconsin, Arizona, Florida, and Iowa. The Mayo Clinic is the largest employer in Minnesota.

“Based on science and data, it’s clear that vaccination keeps people out of the hospital and saves lives. That’s true for everyone in our communities—and it’s especially true for the many patients with serious or complex diseases who seek care at Mayo Clinic each day,” added the Mayo Clinic, without noting that studies and data suggest the COVID-19 Omicron variant appears to easily infect fully vaccinated individuals.

Some longtime Mayo Clinic employees who were fired for not receiving the vaccine told Twincities.com that they wouldn’t comment on the firings because they fear “community retaliation against either themselves or their families.”

Several months ago, President Joe Biden announced that health care facilities that receive Medicaid and Medicare funding would have to impose a vaccine mandate for all their employees or risk losing federal funding. About a week ago, the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services reversed its policy and announced it would begin enforcing the vaccine mandate in about half of all U.S. states, including Minnesota.

The agency, in a memorandum, said it modified the compliance dates for its mandates, meaning that facilities that apply have to comply with the mandate’s first phase. All health care staff needs to have obtained the first dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine by Jan. 27, 2022—or 30 days after the CMS memorandum was issued.

In mid-December, nurses represented by the Minnesota Nurses Association held a press conference to call on hospital CEOs to address staffing concerns.

“To our patients, I want to say this: Nurses will be here when you need us,” Mary C. Turner, union president and a COVID-19 intensive care unit nurse, said at the news conference on Dec. 20. “To our hospital CEOs and elected officials, please hear us: Nurses need more than words, we need action to address the crisis of staffing and retention in Minnesota hospitals.”

COVID-19 is the illness caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

The Epoch Times has contacted the Mayo Clinic and the Minnesota Nurses Association for comment.

Delivery times for chips jumped in December, signaling the semiconductor shortage is worsening into the new year, according to research by Susquehanna Financial Group.

On average, lead times increased six days to approximately 25.8 weeks last month compared with November. This is the longest wait time since the firm began monitoring the data in 2017. 

As a refresher, lead time is the gap between when a semiconductor is ordered and delivered. An increase would suggest chip shortages are persisting, and declines would indicate easing. 

“The rate of lead time expansion has been choppy, but picked up again in December,” Susquehanna analyst Chris Rolland wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday. 

“Lead times for nearly every product category witnessed all-time highs, with power management and MCUs (microcontrollers) leading the charge,” Rolland said. 

Longer wait times for microcontrollers, particularly used by automakers, could spell out more trouble for new car production. 

Rolland noted that companies are purchasing more inventory than they need to mitigate future chip disruptions. The pull forward is often called double ordering.

Semiconductor shortages have hampered many other industries, including electronics, heavy equipment, appliances, and other consumer durables that rely on automated applications.

The bottom line is supply chain disruptions continue and are possibly worsening despite President Biden’s pledge to fix the mess. 

For now, the shortages have been a boon to chipmakers. Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index is up more than 200% since the COVID low in early 2020. 

There are still no signs that lead times will peak this month. 

Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has sued the House select committee investigating the origins of the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol in an effort to stop telecommunications company Verizon from sharing his information with the panel.

The lawsuit (pdf) was filed in the U.S. District Court of Minnesota on Wednesday and names Verizon, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and other members of the panel.

Lindell filed the suit after the House select committee issued Verizon a subpoena for all of his records of communication on a cellphone he regularly uses for the period between Nov. 1, 2020, and Jan. 31, 2021.

“The Subpoena demands that Verizon produce certain records associated with a cell phone number regularly used by Mr. Lindell. The cell number was assigned for Mr. Lindell’s use by Verizon’s subscriber My Pillow, Inc,” the lawsuit states.

“Mr. Lindell brings this action seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to invalidate the Subpoena on several grounds and to prohibit its enforcement,” the lawsuit reads.

Lindell argues that the subpoena violates his First Amendment and Fourth Amendment rights.

“Enforcement of the Subpoena would violate the rights of Mr. Lindell and of his sources to freedom of religion, speech, press, political expression, and to associate with others to advance their shared beliefs,” the lawsuit states. “These rights are guaranteed by the First Amendment … Enforcement of the Subpoena would violate the right of Mr. Lindell to freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, which is guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment.”

The lawsuit also claims individual members of the select committee “acted without authority because they were not validly organized as a House committee” under the rules of the United States House of Representatives.

Additionally, Lindell says that “even if the Select Committee could issue subpoenas, the Subpoena exceeds the authority of the Select Committee because it requires production of records that are far beyond the scope of the Select Committee’s investigation.”

“It is a veiled effort to conduct an unauthorized criminal investigation, and it is not in furtherance of a valid legislative purpose,” his lawyers wrote.

Lindell is seeking “declaratory and injunctive relief to invalidate the Subpoena on several grounds and to prohibit its enforcement” and is also asking to review the information sought by the subpoena before Verizon “so that he may assert any applicable claim of attorney-client or other privilege before the information is produced to the Select Committee.”

The Epoch Times has contacted the House select committee and Verizon for comment.

A supporter of former President Donald Trump, Lindell was advocating for election integrity amid allegations of widespread voting irregularities and election fraud following the November 2020 general election.

Lindell has questioned the results of the election on social media. In January 2021, he was temporarily banned from Twitter for repeatedly violating the company’s civic integrity policy. A month later, Twitter permanently suspended his account for violating its policy against “ban evasion.”

Early last year, the MyPillow CEO made headlines when he was photographed leaving the Oval Office with mysterious notes in his hand. Lindell told The Epoch Times that the notes, which appeared to refer to “martial law,” were not official and claimed he was helping deliver them from a lawyer who said it was a suggestion for Trump.

The nine-member bipartisan committee investigating the origins of the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol has subpoenaed a number of people as part of its investigation, including former Trump national security adviser Mike Flynn, his former adviser Stephen Bannon and his former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows.

Congress went on to certify Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election after the certification session was interrupted when Trump supporters breached the Capitol in January.

Lindell told Insider on Wednesday that the subpoena was “election deflection” and that the Jan. 6 committee was “garbage.”

“This is all a big, big charade, and I’m not wasting my time on any garbage,” Lindell said. “This is an illegal, corrupt subpoena to get my phone records. I got nothing to hide, but I’m not giving them my records. Whatever happened to our right of free speech?”

“People who think this is a normal Democrat Party are sadly mistaken. This is deep state, CCP, China—China attacked our country. This is the biggest crime ever,” Lindell said.