Month: January 2022

What we’re about to share is absolutely stunning and could put South Florida in the path of an Arctic airmass this weekend. 

The National Weather Service (NWS) in Miami warns of an “Arctic air mass heading into South Florida this upcoming weekend.” 

NWS Miami provided an infographic explaining the potential setup that could leave area-wide frost and freezing conditions in South Florida. 

1/26: An Arctic Airmass could pay a visit to South Florida this upcoming weekend, bringing well-below average temperatures and the potential of an inland freeze. This #WeatherExplained infographic explains the potential setup that could lead to the coldest air so far this season. pic.twitter.com/BWATI2jtES

— NWS Miami (@NWSMiami) January 26, 2022

“Temperatures on Saturday are forecast to not get out of the 50s over most of the area, and even southern areas around Miami may struggle to reach 60 degrees under clearing skies and gusty northwest winds,” NWS Miami said. “This will set the stage for the coldest night and morning which will likely be Saturday night and Sunday morning.”

“Current indications are that the probabilities for freezing temperatures early Sunday morning are increasing over inland Southwest Florida, primarily Glades, Hendry, inland Collier, and inland Palm Beach County well away from Lake Okeechobee. In these areas, duration of temperatures of 32 degrees or below could be as much as 4 hours. 

Over the rest of the area, low temperatures Sunday morning are forecast to range from the mid-30s over the outlying suburbs of the east and west coasts, upper 30s Gulf coast, and upper 30s to lower 40s over most of metro Southeast Florida,” NWS Miami said. 

Weather conditions Saturday evening and Sunday morning could be cold enough for freeze warnings. Here’s the freeze outlook for the weekend. 

The potential freeze-mageddon comes as “The Sunshine State” produces one of the smallest crops since the 1940s. 

In what appears to be a citrus shortage developing, frozen orange juice futures have risen nearly 40% since the beginning of November. Currently, they trade around $1.59 per pound as speculators could push contracts as high as $2. 

At this time, the state’s citrus growers are praying freeze-mageddon is not unleashed across the state; otherwise, it would mean more crop loss and higher prices, something consumers would not be too fond of. 

Authored by Pat Buchanan,

Before he appeared at his first solo news conference of 2022, President Joe Biden knew he had a communications problem he had to deal with.

Namely, how to get off the defensive.

How to avoid spending his time with the White House press corps defending his decisions and explaining his actions as allegations of failure, one after another, were tossed up at him?

Biden entered knowing what issues would be paramount and what questions would be raised:

Why had he been unable to control a coronavirus pandemic now killing 2,000 Americans a day?

Why was he unable to contain an inflation eating up the wages, salaries and savings of American families at a yearly rate of 7%?

Why was he unable to secure a southern border that 150,000 illegal immigrants were crossing every month?

To get off the defensive and onto offense, Biden brought his own questions for his GOP inquisitors and conservative critics:

“What are Republicans for? What are they for? Name me one thing they’re for,” Biden demanded to know.

Turning the tables, Biden charged his Republican critics with having no policy goals, other than the willful obstruction of his goals.

“The fundamental question is: What’s Mitch (McConnell) for? … What’s he for on immigration? What’s he for? What’s he proposing to make anything better? … What’s he for on these things? What are they for?”

Biden was making the case that while the Democratic Party has an agenda of declared goals, providing benefits to millions, the GOP is the party of “No.”

Why not fight our battles on this terrain for a change? Biden was demanding. And, behind his exasperation, he has a point.

Democrats do have an agenda. They do have things they want to accomplish. And the party of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is basically an opposition party whose goal is to prevent them from succeeding.

There is another reason Biden would like to force Republicans to identify their goals. Naming them would reveal the divisions inside the GOP on priorities and open Republicans up to the kind of attacks the GOP is mounting against Biden’s agenda.

In short, behind Biden’s demand that the GOP identify its goals was an attempt to shift the debate onto terrain more familiar and favorable for the Democratic Party.

For the truth is that Democrats are the party of government, and Republicans are the party of the private sector. These are their historic roles. Biden is seeking to re-elevate that critical difference.

Democrats, for example, are almost unanimous in their support of federally funded universal pre-K, child care, the child tax credit, student loan forgiveness and federal standards for voting in federal elections.

Historically, Democrats led the fight for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, civil rights, voting rights, welfare and most of the rest of a federal monolith that now consumes perhaps a fourth of our GDP.

Republicans have been the party that resisted the expansion of government over our lifetimes, and its role has often been to conduct an orderly retreat to a new defense perimeter after the most recent defeat.

The most celebrated Republican of the last century was Ronald Reagan, who famously declared that the nine most terrifying words in the English language were, “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”

Republicans have emphasized, as a major role of government, providing the security that citizens cannot provide for themselves.

Security against crime and violence, security against an invasion of the country, security against hostile foreign powers.

Biden’s problem is that while millions might agree on aspects of his Build Back Better plan, the present primary concerns of the electorate are those government duties that his party is visibly failing to perform: controlling the pandemic, stopping the shootings and killings of cops, halting the invasion across our southern border, preventing the loss of incomes and savings to inflation.

Yet, despite the imperiled position of Biden’s party today, it has relative strengths and long-term trends in its favor.

First, America’s white majority, home to the base of the GOP, is a diminishing majority, on average older than the core constituencies of the Democratic Party — the young, the migrants and people of color.

Second, the Democratic mega-states in presidential elections — California, New York, Illinois — seem solidly blue, while Republican mega-states like Texas and Florida seem less solidly red.

Third, America’s major media centered in New York and Washington, D.C., is liberal and Democratic, as are our cultural institutions — museums, Hollywood, higher education, the entertainment industry.

Fourth, the trend for democracies is toward transferring more and more power to central governments, not less. Under President Calvin Coolidge, the U.S. government share of GDP was 3%.

As for the culture wars, traditionalism has been in retreat since the 1950s.

Biden appears to be a failing president who believes in the inevitable victory of the ideology toward which he himself has been moving over his half-century career since arriving in Washington as a 30-year-old centrist Democrat.

Unfortunately, he may not be wrong.

On Monday, Quebec’s draconian new vaccine passport law for unvaccinated people went into effect. Unvaxxed people will be denied entry to big-box retailers unless they shop for food or visit the pharmacy. Even then, they will be under the supervision of an employee (to make sure they don’t buy anything else). 

Quebec expanded the vaccination passport to enter all businesses with surface areas larger than 16,000 sqft or more — except for groceries and pharmacies. The new measure was announced on Sunday night. 

Hi. As directed by the Government of Quebec, we will implement the vaccine passport at our stores in Quebec. We ask for our
customer’s patience and understanding as we continue to ensure a safe and efficient customer experience.

— Walmart Canada (@WalmartCanada) January 24, 2022

For pharmacies located in Walmart and other big-box retailers, an unvaxxed must be “accompanied at all times during his or her travels by an employee of the business, the pharmacy or any other person mandated by them for this purpose” the measure reads. 

“This person may not purchase products other than those related to the pharmaceutical service they are receiving,” it also said. 

What’s transpiring in Quebec is another example of how vaccine passports create two-tier societies, punishing unvaxxed for disobeying the government. We first described this as a possible scenario in the early days of the pandemic — now it has become fact. 

There’s no more debating if society is headed for a two-tier society because it’s already happening in Canada. 

Have the unvaxxed tried shopping online? Or did Quebec ban them from that? 

By Megan Brenan of Gallup

President Joe Biden is viewed as likable and intelligent by three in five Americans.

However, at the end of a challenging first year in office, with his approval rating at a personal low of 40%, less than half of U.S. adults think he possesses five other positive character qualities, least of all being a strong and decisive leader (37%) and able to manage the government effectively (38%). Slightly more think he displays good judgment in a crisis (43%), is honest and trustworthy (45%), and cares about the needs of people like themselves (48%).

These readings, from a Jan. 3-16 poll, are significantly lower than Gallup’s previous readings for Biden from a poll taken during the 2020 general election campaign; the poll included six of these seven character dimensions. The biggest change between September 2020 and now is a 14-percentage-point decrease in Americans’ belief that Biden can effectively manage the government. Excluding that shift from one of his stronger attributes to one of his weakest, the rank-order of items asked both times has stayed the same.

In the first year of his presidency, Biden has dealt with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the economy, immigration problems at the border, criticism over the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, and opposition to his legislative agenda from Republicans and some in his own party.

Independents, Democrats Drive Drop in Biden’s Positive Character Ratings

The declines in positive ratings of Biden’s personal characteristics are driven primarily by independents and, to a lesser degree, Democrats, while Republicans’ views have typically remained low.

• Independents’ assessments of Biden’s positive qualities ranged from 45% to 66% in 2020, and majorities thought Biden embodied four of the six characteristics measured. These ratings are now significantly lower — between 30% and 59% — with just likability and intelligence at the majority level.
• Between 74% and 91% of Democrats currently say Biden embodies each of the seven traits. From 2020 to 2022, Democrats’ perceptions of three of Biden’s traits fell significantly — effective government management (-19 points), strong leadership (-12 points) and caring (-8 points). Views of the other three qualities from 2020 remain roughly the same, and 91% now say Biden is intelligent.
• In 2020, 40% of Republicans thought Biden was likable, but no more than 17% said he possessed any of the other five qualities. Now, 28% of Republicans say he is likable, 26% think he is intelligent, and there has essentially been no change in views of whether the other five characteristics apply to him.

Gallup has periodically measured Americans’ views of a number of qualities for recent U.S. presidents, which allows for comparisons to Biden.

Strong and decisive leader — Biden’s 37% rating as a strong leader, a perceived weakness, is in sharp contrast to the three men who sat in the Oval Office before him. Donald Trump (54%), Barack Obama (56%) and George W. Bush (63%) averaged much higher readings over their presidencies. Leadership was consistently rated as Trump’s strongest quality throughout his term.

Can manage the government effectively — Views of Biden’s ability to manage the government effectively (38%) are somewhat weaker than the term averages for Trump (42%) and Obama (49%). George W. Bush’s 60% average on the measure reflects higher readings in his first term.

Likability — Biden’s relatively high score for likability (60%) falls short of Obama’s average (79%) but is much higher than Trump’s 37% term average.

Intelligence — The only other recent president for whom Gallup measured perceptions of intelligence in this format is Trump, who, in June 2018 registered 58%, roughly the same reading as Biden’s now.

Cares about the needs of people like you — Biden’s current 48% rating on empathy exceeds Trump’s average 41% for the measure throughout his presidency, but George W. Bush (54%) and Bill Clinton (62%) averaged higher readings.

Honest and trustworthy — Biden’s current 45% reading for honesty is higher than the presidential averages for Trump (36%) and Clinton (40%) but lower than Obama’s 56% and George W. Bush’s 59%.

Displays good judgment in a crisis — Biden (49%) was better reviewed than Trump (44%) during the 2020 campaign for displaying good judgment in a crisis — Gallup’s only measure of Trump on this dimension. Biden’s 43% current rating is on par with Trump’s and similar to George W. Bush’s 47% in 2005, but lower than Obama’s 57% average.

Bottom Line

Gallup has historically found a reciprocal relationship between presidential job approval ratings and personal qualities. That is, elevated approval ratings have typically been accompanied by positive opinions of a president’s personal characteristics. As Biden enters his second year in office with a relatively low approval rating, views of his personality traits are also mostly middling.

Effective management of government, in particular, is linked to job approval. This is a clear weakness for Biden right now, having fallen the most since 2020. Leaning into his perceived strengths of likability and intelligence could help him navigate the challenges he is facing.

As the omicron wave continues to infect thousands of people around the world, the number of daily deaths recorded in the US has just risen to the highest level in a year. According to data from Johns Hopkins, the 7-day average for newly reported COVID deaths reached roughly 2,200 a day, up about 1K from last fall.

That’s higher than the most recent near-term peak (just above 2,100 in late September), but still well below the record levels from last winter, when deaths reached a daily average of 3,400.

Meanwhile, the number of cases being reported daily in the US has sunk back to a 7-day average just above 200K, well below the million-plus daily numbers from earlier this year.

Globally, the number of cases and deaths reported daily continue to rise, even as a handful of countries including the US, UK and South Africa are starting to see a lasting decline in the intensity of the pandemic.

While the omicron variant is believed to be more mild than its predecessor, delta, the variant spreads among humans much more quickly. Because of this, there’s always the possibility that the number of severe cases might jump as the number of overall infections explodes.

“You can have a disease that is for any particular person less deadly than another, like Omicron, but if it is more infectious and reaches more people, then you’re more likely to have a lot of deaths,” said Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality-statistics branch at the National Center for Health Statistics, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Earlier this month, a team of forecasters warned about a pending uptick in deaths that could drive the US to eclipse 1M COVID deaths by the spring (currently, the US has recorded just over 872K deaths of patients infected with COVID).

Of course, while Americans like to complain about the state of things, blaming Republicans and the minority who refuse to accept COVID shots, the situation south of the border in Mexico, which never resorted to lockdowns, or any federal COVID restrictions, is objectively far more dire. According to the latest FT report on the situation, Mexico suffered 600,000 excess deaths last year. The paper went on to blame the country’s approach, which it said relied almost entirely on vaccines. As a result, 63% of Mexicans are fully vaxxed, slightly higher than the 60% global average.

In Denmark and the Netherlands, governments are relaxing their COVID measures, even as the number of newly reported cases has remained robust. The Netherlands, the only European country to go into lockdown following the arrival of the omicron variant, will relax many of its COVID measures starting Wednesday.

“We are dealing with an extraordinary amount of infections … yet still, we decided to take some steps to reopen,” Health Minister Ernst Kuipers said Tuesday, referring to an average of 52,000 daily positive cases over the last seven days in a country of 17.5 million, according to figures from the Dutch agency for infectious diseases (RIVM).

“Keeping the most restrictive measures in effect for much longer damages our health and our society,” Kuipers said.

As a result, Dutch restaurants, bars and cultural venues will be allowed to remain open until 2200 local time after having been closed entirely since Dec. 19. However, patrons will still be required to show proof of vaccination, recovery, or a negative test result.

In Denmark, a commission of health advisors has officially recommended that most COVID restrictions in the country be ended on Jan. 31. Yet, entry test and isolation rules governing travel to Denmark will be extended. Face mask use at hospitals and in elderly care should continue, the advisors said. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is expected to make an announcement on Wednesday.

Authored by Masooma Haq and Jan Jekielek via The Epoch Times,

Five-time Emmy award-winning journalist Sharyl Attkisson said she has seen an increased effort to manipulate the public to appreciate censorship and disapprove of journalism. One of the strategies that has been employed is the use of third-party fact-checkers, she said.

“Nearly every mode of information has been co-opted, if it can be co-opted by some group, [and] fact-checkers are no different,” Attkisson told EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders.”

“Either they’ve been co-opted, in many instances, or created for the purpose of distributing narratives and propaganda,” said Attkisson.

“This is all part of a very well-funded, well-organized landscape that dictates and slants the information they want us to have.”

Attkisson said she first started to notice news being controlled in the early 2000s when the media company she was working for was actively trying to suppress certain stories.

“The pushback came to be more about keeping a story from airing or keeping a study from being reported on the news, not just giving the other side, not just making sure it was accurately reported,” she said of pharmaceutical company stories she was covering at the time.

In 2016 Attkisson heard former President Barack Obama say news needed to be curated, after which mainstream media outlets started to consistently use the term fake news to describe mostly conservative news stories that they deemed untrue.

“And I remember thinking that was such a strange thing to say, because there was no big movement among the public, that people needed to have their information curated, that someone needed to step in and tell us what to think, curate what was online. But … after that, if you look at the media, day after day, there were headlines about fake news and curation of what should and shouldn’t be reported.”

Attkisson was referring to Obama’s comment at the White House Frontiers Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in October 2016.

“It’s relevant to our democracy, citizenship. We’re going to have to rebuild, within this wild, wild west of information flow, some sort of curating function that people agree to,” Obama said.

Because Attkisson was curious about this idea of curating news, she researched the topic of misinformation, which led her to a non-profit called First Draft, which was funded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton wave to delegates after Obama’s speech during the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, on July 27, 2016. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

“And if you looked at the nonprofit’s website when they said fake news, they meant entirely conservative-base fake news and their viewpoint; there was no liberal version of fake news. And then within a matter of weeks, President Obama gives the speech, the media takes off and runs with it.”

Attkisson said the fake news phrase was actually started by the left but was effectively turned on its head by former President Donald Trump and now most people think he coined the phrase.

“But it’s actually well documented as an invention of political activists on the left during the time period I described,” Attkisson said.

For her book “Smear” she interviewed people who work to spread misinformation and propaganda with the goal of confusing the public. “And they explained to me that, if they do nothing more than confuse the information landscape, maybe you don’t totally buy what they say, but they’ve done enough to make you not sure of anything.”

Censorship During the Pandemic

Attkisson criticized large news outlets for being a “mouthpiece” of the government or other special interest groups instead of challenging them or holding them accountable, particularly as it relates to the pandemic.

She said that soon after the pandemic began, she spoke to many scientists, government as well as private, about the virus and the course it was taking before she formed an opinion. She asked some of the scientists to speak out but they were afraid.

“They said they dare not speak out for fear of being controversial, and for fear of being called coronavirus deniers, because that phrase was starting to be used in the media. And secondly, they feared contradicting Dr. Fauci, who they said had been kind of lionized or canonized in the press for reasons that they couldn’t understand.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on Jan. 11, 2022. (Shawn Thew/Getty Images)

Dr. Anthony Fauci has been the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984, which allowed him to advise seven presidents on public health issues, including COVID-19. He has been accused of misleading the public about funding gain of function research in China.

Attkisson said the National Institutes of Health used taxpayer money to fund gain of function research in partnership with China but media reports were to the contrary.

“And then the narrative is being managed another way I remember after reviewing the grants themselves to my satisfaction, because I didn’t know what was true till I found the documentation and then still hearing, not just public health figures, but reporters claim as if they know the truth, that none of this had happened.”

She said that another way to confuse the public about the truth is to label something a conspiracy, like the lab leak theory connected to the novel coronavirus.

“And yet when you hear people say ‘conspiracy theory’ that’s designed to pluck this little part of your brain that says, well, that thing’s not true,” said Attkisson. “And I always keep an open mind and say, that crazy thing that they say is a conspiracy theory may well have some truth in it.”

Attkisson believes the reason some people can be manipulated into believing the narrative put out by corporate media is that they live in “a box,” meaning the Internet is their only source of information.

“And the people that want to control the information understand that if they can only control really a few basic sources—we’re talking about Google and Twitter and Facebook and Wikipedia—they’ve got a lock on information, because we’ve all been funneled to those few sources.”

She said their goal is to make you believe you are in the minority and make you afraid to raise objections to the narrative. “You can be made to believe that if you live in the box, so I’m constantly telling people, live outside the box. Yes, you can get information there and do what you do online. But certainly, trust your cognitive dissonance. Talk to the people around you.”