Month: July 2022

Authored by Clayton Fox via The Brownstone Institute,

The media, and the people who work in and around it, the Blue Checks™ of Twitter, have upped the ante over the past few years regarding how far they are willing to go to enforce various preferred narratives. 

Pick any major story of the past three years – e.g. Lab Leak, Jussie Smollett, Russiagate, Ukrainian Biolabs, Ivermectin, Hospitalizations From COVID v. With Covid, January 6th, ‘Transitory’ Inflation, and of course Hunter’s Laptop – and you will find absolutely hysterical narrative pushing up front followed by retractions, corrections, and outright denials as reality became undeniable. 

In the meanwhile, our civilization was ripped apart, our citizens were gaslit and impoverished, and in countries across the Western world, innocent people were removed from polite society, branded as lepers, and fired from their jobs. 

Why? Because there is one story that just won’t die and for which no corrections have been issued – the shibboleth that vaccination can prevent infection, transmission, and help “end” COVID.

While there is never an excuse for hateful rhetoric towards, and intervention in, the personal medical choices of law-abiding Americans, perhaps one could have, kinda sorta, understood the campaign if the new vaccines had provided long-lasting immunity and prevented community transmission. They do not. 

Early on we were told: “Nine out of ten [vaccinated] people won’t get sick” (Columbia University feat. Run-DMC, February 12th, 2021, no this is not a joke); “Vaccinated people do not carry the virus, don`t get sick” (Dr. Rochelle Walensky, March 29th, 2021); “When people are vaccinated, they can feel safe that they are not going to get infected” (Dr. Anthony Fauci, May 17th, 2021). 

And by mid-summer, 2021, we were still being told that unequivocally, these vaccines were a resounding success worthy of uncritical support. On July 27th in Scientific American, Dr. Eric Topol wrote, “Vaccination is the closest thing to a sure thing we have in this pandemic.” Not to be outdone, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the NIAID told CBS on August 1st, that the unvaccinated were responsible for “propagating this outbreak.” 

But on July 29th, 2021, the Washington Post reported a scoop that the CDC was privately acknowledging that the vaccinated could spread COVID as easily as the unvaccinated. Occasionally, they are forced to report inconvenient facts. And August 5th, CDC Director Walensky told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that, “They continue to work well for Delta, with regard to severe illness and death — they prevent it. But what they can’t do anymore is prevent transmission.”

While there is a mountain of medical literature available demonstrating quite clearly the failure of these vaccines to prevent infection and transmission, the August 5th declaration from the CDC Director should have made clear that being vaccinated is contributing in no way to the safety of others, nor to the eradication of this virus. 

In fact, Israeli Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz was even caught on tape in September of last year explaining that the use of the Israeli Green Pass wasn’t intended to make a difference epidemiologically, but because it would help convince people to get vaccinated. And even vaccine poobah Bill Gates admitted in a late 2021 interview, that, “We got vaccines to help you with your health, but they only slightly reduce the transmissions.”

So there should be no question that continuing to suggest in any way that these shots are a panacea, and that those who refused to get them were plague spreaders, should have been thoroughly trashed by Fall 2021. 

Nonetheless, on September 24th President Joe Biden coined his now famous phrase “a pandemic of the unvaccinated.” To our north, Prime Minister Trudeau called the unvaccinated science deniers, misogynists, and racists, and asked rhetorically whether Canadians should “tolerate” them. 

And during the first week of January 2022, while kicking the unvaccinated out of French daily life and public spaces, French President Emmanuel Macron said he wanted the measures to “piss off” his unvaccinated citizens. With world leaders speaking this way, it’s no wonder so many Blue Check™ elites took up the banner! 

Prominent media figures like Amy Siskind, Pulitzer Prize winner Gene Weingarten, and more have come out of the woodwork in recent months to share with us their enthusiasm for medical discrimination. Noted neurotic Howard Stern is all in on forced vaccination due to what must be his own debilitating fear of his mortality. Bill Kristol says the unvaccinated have “blood on their hands.” 

David Frum, heir to Maimonides, writes, “Let the hospitals quietly triage emergency care to serve the unvaccinated last.” Charles M. Blow was “furious” at the unvaccinated. CNN contributor Dr. Leana Wen suggested that the unvaccinated should not be allowed to leave their homes. The Ragin’ Cajun even wants to punch the unvaccinated in the face! 

All of the above links/stories were posted after Dr. Walensky’s unequivocal announcement that the vaccines do not prevent transmission. 

And all of the self-satisfied segregationists are supported in their vitriol by the Blue Checks™ of the Medical Establishment, like Dr. Paul Klotman, President and Executive Dean of the Baylor School of Medicine, who said on camera back in January that he isn’t polite to friends and family who aren’t vaccinated. “Keep them away. I don’t do it respectfully, I tell them to stay away, and teach them a lesson.” Less vitriolic but equally problematic, the WHO’s COVID-19 “technical lead” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove continued to push the lie that vaccination can prevent outbreaks as recently as January 26th, 2022. She is, as well, a Blue Check™. And yes, Dr. Anthony Fauci is still at it, even as of April 14th, 2022, telling MSNBC that harsh Chinese lockdowns could be used to get the population vaccinated so that “When you open up, you won’t have a surge of infections.” 

The examples are legion. Blue Checks, Medical Blue Checks, Times Columnists, Radio Jocks, Presidents, and Prime Ministers have all espoused misinformation and/or hate speech regarding vaccination status. But they are all given intellectual cover by the official reporting of the fourth estate. Even in the face of all the evidence that there is no epidemiological basis for discrimination, our intellectual betters in the legacy media press onward the canard. 

On August 26th, the Toronto Star ran an article entitled, “When it comes to empathy for the unvaccinated, many of us aren’t feeling it.” Then, on December 22nd, published an explainer which stated that two doses won’t stop you from spreading COVID-19. Comme ci, comme ca. 

Back in February, MSNBC political contributor Matthew Dowd shared his insight that the unvaccinated do not believe in the United States Constitution, because if they did, they would get vaccinated for “We The People.” For the common good. 

An examination of the New York Times reveals three articles written this year which overtly continue supporting the idea that the vaccines prevent transmission. First, on January 29th in a piece entitled, “As Covid Shots For Kids Stall, Appeals Are Aimed At Wary Parents,” the author cites “public health officials” who say that to aid in “containing” the pandemic, kids must also be vaccinated. (It is worth mentioning that the current vaccines and boosters being distributed were designed in February 2020 to provide an immune response to a version of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein circulating prior to that, not entirely similar to what is circulating now.)

Then February 23rd, in a hit piece on the Surgeon General of Florida Dr. Joe Ladapo, the Times writes, “When public health officials across the country were urging vaccines as a way to end the pandemic, Dr. Ladapo was raising warning flags about possible side effects and cautioning that even vaccinated people could spread the virus.” 

So, Dr. Ladapo was correct? 

Finally, in a piece about Novak Djokovic published March 3rd, they write, “Djokovic was the only player ranked in the top 100 in Australia who had not received a Covid-19 vaccination, which experts have long said will not eradicate the virus unless most of the population receives one.” 

They do not address the question of how a vaccine which does not prevent transmission can eradicate a virus. And they won’t. As Israeli Health Minister Horowitz candidly admitted, none of this is about epidemiology. 

And even when mainstream media tacitly acknowledges the failures of the vaccines to prevent transmission, they skillfully elide the significance of this fact in order to allow them to continue to scapegoat the unvaccinated. In a dazzling display of sophistry, Time Magazine moved the Overton window in this January 12th, 2022 piece, “These Charts Show That COVID-19 Is Still A Pandemic of the Unvaccinated.” 

The author states that due to the rapidly narrowing gap between cases in the vaccinated and unvaccinated, some readers might think that the phrase “pandemic of the unvaccinated” is no longer justifiable. But with the grace of a ballerina, Time goes on to tell us that because the vaccines are still showing efficacy against severe illness, the phrase is still kosher. If an unvaccinated person gets sicker than his vaccinated neighbor who contracted COVID at a fully vaccinated wedding, that unvaccinated person is still the problem!

New York Magazine isn’t lacking in similar gymnastics. On February 16th of this year, Matt Stieb published a piece entitled, “Is Kyrie Irving Going to Get Away With It?” Irving is the Brooklyn Nets player who famously chose not to be vaccinated, and has become a fetish object for the Covidian Left. Stieb acknowledges that Irving’s vaccinated teammates were getting COVID at such high rates that it forced Nets management to allow Irving back to play in away games but still calls the New York City ban on unvaccinated athletes “a rare public health mandate with real teeth.” 

Just seven days later on February 23rd, Will Leitch, in the same publication, sighs, “Unfortunately, It’s Time to Let Kyrie Irving Play in New York.” He outlines all the reasons why epidemiologically it makes no sense to prevent athletes like Irving and Novak Djokovic from participating, but says, “It would feel like they got away with all their bullshit.” And also, they are “annoying.” 

And this barely concealed hatred for the unvaccinated from media and government and Big Tech—even in the rare moments when writers such as Leitch acknowledge the failure of the vaccines to prevent transmission—has real consequences. People have lost their jobs. People have been arrested for trying to go to a movie theater. 

Families got kicked out of restaurants, and patrons either cheered or remained indifferent, which is worse. A teenage boy at an uber-progressive and expensive Chicago prep school committed suicide after being bullied over an incorrect rumor he was unvaccinated. The stench of bad journalism rots people’s basic decency. 

A January Rasmussen poll found that, “Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Democratic voters would favor a government policy requiring that citizens remain confined to their homes at all times, except for emergencies, if they refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine…Forty-five percent (45%) of Democrats would favor governments requiring citizens to temporarily live in designated facilities or locations if they refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine…”

As well as, “Twenty-nine percent (29%) of Democratic voters would support temporarily removing parents’ custody of their children if parents refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccine.” Unfortunately, these disturbing results are politically lopsided, but it’s no surprise when you consider who the readers of most legacy media platforms are. 

The saddest thing is that these media outlets and their flag bearers really think their readers are all morons. The New York Times believes that, in the midst of the Omicron wave as boosted person after boosted person was getting COVID, they could tell you these particular vaccines are still the way to eradicate this thing, and expect you to deny reality and nod your head. 

It calls to mind the quote attributed to Solzhenitsyn (or Elena Gorokhova), “The rules are simple: they lie to us, we know they’re lying, they know we know they’re lying, but they keep lying to us, and we keep pretending to believe them.”

We have ceded the better angels of our common cerebrum to people who may not have our best interests at heart, and a sycophantic laptop class who gleefully endorses their diktats and “fact-checks.” Collectively: Sophistry Inc. 

Their behavior, endorsed by every single entity which holds power in our society, is destroying us, and has already poisoned us such that there may be no antidote. Yes, first they came for the unvaccinated, but that doesn’t mean they won’t come for you next.

Who could have possibly thought, amidst all this euphoria, that luxury college housing complexes for students might not be the best idea in the world?

It’s looking like for one complex – with, of course, a “resort style” rooftop pool (which everybody knows is integral to ones studies) – near the Texas A&M University campus is starting to find out this harsh reality. 

The 3,400-bed student housing complex, called Park West, is going to default on its July debt payment according to Moody’s Investors Service, who downgraded the company’s bonds deeper into junk territory this week.

The property, which provides off-campus housing for students, is located in College Station, Texas, Bloomberg reported in a mid-week wrap up. It has reportedly been struggling since even before the pandemic, thanks to the building’s higher rents.

Moody’s commented: “The project’s financial distress is directly linked to prolonged weakness within its College Station, Texas student housing submarket which has been an ongoing problem since Park West opened for fall 2017.”

$15.3 million is due in principal and interest, but the complex will only pay $8.5 million. The company that sold the bonds, NCCD-College Station Properties LLC, still has about $342 million in bonds outstanding, Bloomberg reported. 

The vice president and director of operations for the company confirmed that the company would default but offered up no other color. 

For a look at the complex’s posh amenities, you can review its website here. 

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Supreme Court followed up its June 23 landmark ruling that for the first time recognized a constitutional right to carry firearms in public for self-defense, by issuing a series of rulings June 30 reversing federal appeals court decisions that upheld gun restrictions in California, New Jersey, Maryland, and Hawaii.

Courts will find it difficult to uphold the firearms laws in question after the high court’s June 30 and June 23 rulings.

In unsigned orders, all four cases were remanded June 30 to lower courts “for further consideration in light of” the Supreme Court’s June 23 decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen. In that 6–3 ruling, the high court invalidated New York state’s tough concealed-carry gun permitting system.

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The Supreme Court has been strengthening Second Amendment protections in recent years. In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Supreme Court held the amendment protects “the individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation,” and in McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010), that this right “is fully applicable to the States.”

It makes no sense to recognize Americans’ right to defend themselves in their homes while denying them the ability to defend themselves outside their homes, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote June 23 in the court’s majority opinion.

“After all, the Second Amendment guarantees an ‘individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation,’ and confrontation can surely take place outside the home. … Many Americans hazard greater danger outside the home than in it,” Thomas wrote.

In the new orders, the Supreme Court summarily disposed of the four pending cases, simultaneously granting appellants’ petitions seeking review while skipping over the oral argument phase. Some lawyers call this process GVR, standing for grant, vacate, and remand.

In the Maryland case, Bianchi v. Frosh, court file 21-902, a coalition of 25 states led by Arizona challenged Maryland’s Firearms Safety Act of 2013. The statute, which was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in September 2021, required pistol purchasers to seek a license, complete safety training, and be fingerprinted. Maryland bans popular weapons such as the AR-15 and similar rifles and limits magazine capacity to 10 rounds.

Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, a Democrat, was defiant after the remand order. Military-style firearms “pose grave risks to public safety, as recent mass shootings in other states have made clear,” Frosh stated. Despite the Bruen ruling, the state’s law remains in effect, he said. “Marylanders have a right to be protected from these dangerous weapons.”’

Read more here…

Despite emerging signs of gasoline demand destruction, an exception could be made this weekend as a new forecast indicates that a record number of drivers are expected to hit America’s highways this Independence Day weekend despite minimal relief at the pump. 

“The biggest surprise – car travel – will set a new record despite historically high gas prices with 42 million people hitting the road” this weekend, auto club AAA said in a new report. This means the number of drivers on the road would exceed 2019 (pre-COVID) by half a million. 

“The volume of travelers we expect to see over Independence Day is a definite sign that summer travel is kicking into high gear,” said Paula Twidale, senior vice president, AAA Travel.

Twidale added: “Earlier this year, we started seeing the demand for travel increase and it’s not tapering off. People are ready for a break and despite things costing more, they are finding ways to still take that much-needed vacation.”

The emergence of gasoline demand destruction and threats of recession has brought down the national average price of regular gas (octane 87) by about 3% from the record high of $5.016 a gallon to $4.857 in the last few weeks. That’s a 16-cent saving per gallon — factor in the average fuel tank size for a US automobile is about 14 gallons — drivers will save a paltry $2.24 every time they fill up. 

We’re surprised the White House didn’t tout these savings ahead of the holiday weekend as they did last year. 

Dear @WhiteHouse we are waiting to ketchup on how it’s looking for 2022 https://t.co/GDF1z9qVJY

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 30, 2022

The crux of the problem and why gas, diesel, and jet fuel prices remain elevated is US refining capacity is a significant bottleneck as no new capacity is coming online amid robust demand. 

Humanity was peaceful – until guns showed up.

Learn how sinister and evil these weapons of mass destruction truly are in The Babylon Bee‘s latest masterpiece of awkward facts…

 

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

The White House Press Corps has blasted “ahistoric” efforts to limit reporters’ access to Joe Biden during briefings, charging that their presence is being unprecedentedly and severely restricted without explanation.

In a joint letter to Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, the Corps pointed out that this isn’t the first time complaints have been made about the practice and demanded that access, which was formerly unrestricted under other administrations, be restored.

The White House press corps has finally discovered this may not be the most transparent administration ever https://t.co/Upd6PLsW7D

— Kevin Dalton (@KevinForBOS) July 1, 2022

The letter states “We once again respectfully request the Biden administration – without exception-re-open all of the traditional venues for presidential remarks at the White House, including the East Room and the South Court Auditorium, for any reporter admitted to the White House campus.”

The letter further asserts that “The current method of allowing a limited number of reporters into these events is not only restrictive and antithetical to the concept of a free press, but it has been done without any transparent process into how reporters are selected to cover these events.”

“The continued inability of the White House to be candid and transparent about the selection process for reporters attending his remarks undermines President Biden’s credibility when he says he is a defender of the First Amendment,” the letter continues.

It adds that “The incongruity of these restrictions underscores the belief by many reporters that the administration seeks to limit access to the president by anyone outside of the pool, or anyone who might ask a question the administration doesn’t want asked.”

The reporters further note that restrictions brought in under COVID have yet to be rescinded while other pandemic related measures have been dropped.

The Corps also outline that President Trump while openly expressing contempt for the media on a daily basis allowed freer access than the Biden camp, which is now demanding access request forms be filled in by reporters.

“The administration’s continued efforts to limit access to the president cannot be defended. Any notion that space is ‘limited’ is not supported by the fact that every other president before Biden (including Trump) allowed full access to the very same spaces without making us fill out a request form prior to admittance,” the letter notes.

“Let us be candid. Our job is not to be liked, nor is it to be concerned about whether or not you like what we ask. Reporters’ ability to question the most powerful man in our government shouldn’t be discretionary,” they further write.

As we previously reported, White House correspondents are becoming increasingly frustrated by a practice that seemingly limits access of reporters that Biden’s handlers don’t like.

New York Post reporter Steven Nelson implied last month that the White House is actively ‘blacklisting’ correspondents and outlets from events.

Nelson told Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre “For more than a year now the White House press office has been having … press events in the state room, state dining room, the executive office building,” adding that “There’s a process where people are selected and able to go into these presidential events where the president often takes questions.”

“I represent the fourth largest newspaper in the country and I haven’t been selected since November,” Nelson urged, noting that no one has explained how this so called section process for access to Biden actually works.

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US agriculture executives are warning that war and extreme weather have put global food supplies in danger as skyrocketing food prices have led to shortages and protests worldwide.

“We’ve actually got two crises,” Erik Fyrwald, CEO of pesticide and crop-seed maker Syngenta, told the Wall Street Journal. “The food-security crises and the climate crises.”

According to Fyrwald, extreme weather has been on the rise – including heat, drought and flooding which have affected farmers in America, Europe, Australia and India. On top of that, world grain and fertilizer markets have been disrupted by the war in Ukraine – which normally exports roughly one-third of global wheat supply – a figure projected to be cut in half this year according to the USDA.

Rising food prices are prompting unrest, as disruptions in the flow of crops from Ukraine compound existing stress on global supplies of grains and other goods. The head of the United Nations World Food Program has warned outright food shortages are possible in 2023 if Russia continues to block Ukraine’s crop exports.

Even among the world’s wealthiest countries, higher food prices have been taking a toll. U.S. grocery prices in May rose nearly 12% over the past 12 months, the largest annual increase since April 1979, according to the Labor Department. Prices increased 7.4% at restaurants and other food venues outside the home, also marking a more-than-four-decade increase. -WSJ

“It is very serious,” said Fyrwald, who added that food prices “will keep going up until and unless we can get product out through the Black Sea in the south of Ukraine.”

That said, wheat prices have come down 27% since Russia’s invasion drove them to record levels in March.

“There is just not going to be enough supply of certain ingredients,” Florian Schattenmann, CTO for Cargill, said during a Tuesday Journal event, adding that the war in Ukraine has put pressure on things such as sunflower oil – forcing companies to scramble for substitutes.

On Monday US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack spoke at the Journal event, where he said that Russia was destroying grain production in Ukraine. “They are making it hard for farmers to plant and grow their crops,” he said, while calling for Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea to reopen in order to get grain out of the country and help ease the food supply crunch – in part because trading must resume so that packed grain silos can free up storage space for this year’s harvest. Vilsack added that the US needs to find ways to increase its own crop production.

In South America, poor weather has made it more difficult for the agricultural sector to make up for shortfalls in world food supplies given the situation in Ukraine, while in the United States, the Midwest has been forced to slow its planting season for corn and soybean due to wet and windy conditions in the Midwest, while farmers in Western states are grappling with drought that’s affecting more than 78% of the region. In California, farmers have been bulldozing thousands of acres’ worth of almond orchards and shuttering decades-old dairies.

As conflict continues, Mr. Fyrwald said Syngenta is working with farmers in Ukraine but also continuing to supply Russian farmers with seeds and chemicals. Some agriculture companies, including Syngenta and Bayer AG, and grain traders, such as Cargill, have continued to sell seeds and handle crops in Russia despite pressure to sever ties after the invasion of Ukraine. Companies cite humanitarian grounds for their decisions to keep operating certain parts of their business in Russia, which is expected to increase its wheat exports from a year ago, according to the USDA.

“Snygenta has looked at it and decided that we serve farmers everywhere in the world,” Mr. Fyrwald said. “We are not political.” -WSJ

According to the USDA’s Vilsack, the US needs to look for new ways to boost crop production. 

“Every generation of Americans get tested,” he said, adding that the aftermath of the pandemic, weather phenomenon, and the war in Ukraine are “significant challenges, but there is significant capacity for us to emerge stronger.”