Update On The Domestic War On "Terror"

Pretty obviously I'm not the only person who's been considering the meaning of the Dem and Deep State determination--or so they want us to believe--to launch a euphemistic Domestic War On "Terror". I say euphemistic because what they term "terror" is nothing but a bad joke and attempt to gaslight the American public. The continuing military occupation of the Imperial City on the Potomac, the open threats to unleash the Deep State FBI and DoJ against political dissent, the persecution of those who would dare reveal the corruption behind the entire Zhou regime, and much more--it's all intended to intimidate. 

That is likely a sign of weakness. Yesterday we reviewed some of the polling that reveals the basic weakness of the Zhou regime, and the rapid decline in support or tolerance for it. Today there are two articles that expand a bit on the meaning of the DWOT, and are very worthwhile as a follow-on to yesterday's reflections.

First we have Greg Hunter's Election Panic Coming in 2022 – Martin Armstrong. To say that Martin Armstrong has had a checkered past is probably an understatement. You can, and should, read about it here. However, for my purposes I simply want to present some of what he's saying as a plausible narrative in the current situation, working from Hunter's summary.

Hunter begins by citing a Rasmussen Reports poll from 4/13/21--so very recent. The results present a shocking picture of a regime--the Zhou regime--that appears to lack basic legitimacy:

Most voters say it’s more important to prevent cheating in elections than to make it easier to vote and, by more than a two-to-one margin, they reject claims that voter ID laws are discriminatory.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that just 29% of Likely U.S. Voters say laws requiring photo identification at the polls discriminate against some voters. Sixty-two percent (62%) say voter ID laws don’t discriminate. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

A majority (51%) of voters believe it is likely that cheating affected the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, including 35% who say it’s Very Likely cheating affected the election.

Seventy-four percent (74%) of Republicans believe it is likely last year’s presidential election was affected by cheating, a view shared by 30% of Democrats and 51% of voters not affiliated with either major party.

The Institutionalization Of Hypochondria

That's the term that Dr. Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford Medical School uses to describe what has been inflicted on the American people via the Covid hoax. He describes this, and addresses other matters as well, in a nine minute interview at Just The News:

Stanford prof: CDC has sown 'fear and panic,' paved way for 'institutionalization of hypochondria'

"It's going to be very difficult to undo" the public fixation on "disease avoidance" provoked by public health agency's COVID hypervigilance, said Jay Bhattacharya.

Here's a transcript of the relevant part of the interview:

Sophie Mann: Talking about fear, and being scared, do you think that the American public's understanding and attitude toward disease in general has changed over the last year? It seems like there's a lot more fear of a lot more things at this point, and the boundaries of American life, especially with an administration like the Baiden administration which has been so--in some cases--overly cautious about restrictions around the coronavirus. It seems like the attitude toward everyday life and the risk of contracting anything could really be on the rise in a permanent fashion in this country. Is that what you're seeing, and--if so--how do you think we should go about counteracting that?

Jay Bhattacharya: I mean, I am seeing that. I'm calling that the institutionalization of hypochondria. We basically have said, Look, the avoidance of disease is the central problem in your life--no matter who you are. It [the central problem in your life] is not taking care of your kids, it's not practicing your faith, it's not doing as well as you can in your profession--none of that is as important as avoiding disease. That's the message we've sent the American public for the last twelve months, fourteen months or so. And I think it's going to be very difficult to undo that. I do think people yearn to return to normal life and I think, given what we've seen, in the trends in the United States, that is gonna happen, it just will be slower to undo the harm that we've done to the American populace by creating this fear over the last fourteen months.

From Bhattacharya's Wikpedia page: 

 

Jay Bhattacharya (born 1968 in Kolkata, India) is a professor of medicine at Stanford University and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He directs Stanford's Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging. Bhattacharya's research focuses on the health and well-being of populations, with a particular emphasis on the role of government programs, biomedical innovation, and economics.

Most recently, Bhattacharya has focused his research on the epidemiology of COVID-19 and evaluation of the various policy responses to the epidemic. He is a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, a document proposing a relaxation of social controls that delay the spread of COVID-19.

 

UPDATED: The Domestic War On "Terror"

No, I didn't watch or listen to Zhou Baiden last night--I knew others would do that for me. Others, for example, like Conrad Black:

Joe Biden’s Speech Was a Declaration of War on America

All the welfare spending masquerading under the new code word of "infrastructure" will be up for grabs in Congress. Whether it passes--and in what form--is anyone's guess at this point. It's toward the end of his account, however, that Black gets to what I took to be the heart of Zhou's threatening message:

After the usual reassertion that everyone is created equal, Biden slipped in the need to ”root out systemic racism that plagues America… White supremacy is terrorism” and has “surpassed Jihadism” as a menace. He gave no hint of what he thinks of organizations that are constantly threatening to burn America down if they're not successful in extracting a full-body immersion in self-humiliation from the majority of Americans who despise all racism. Rarely in his rabidly bowdlerized summary of the nation's affairs does the president allow the truth to intrude. This made the opposition response by Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina particularly effective.

In sum, Biden’s address was cringe-worthy, fatuous, and deeply distressing. The State of the Union is almost at suicide watch.

As it happened, while Zhou was threatening the non-Prog majority of the nation in this way with a Domestic War On "Terror", I was reading an interesting article by John Whitehead:

The Global Deep State: A New World Order Brought to You by COVID-19

Whitehead's first few paragraphs do a good job of putting Zhou's threats into context:

Has China's Existential Crisis Come Five Years Early?

Guess what? I'm not an economist! Nevertheless, I urge you to read Zerohedge's article on China's forthcoming census report. The short story is this: While everyone knew that within the next five years China's overall population--which is already rapidly aging--would actually begin to decline, it's being reported by the Financial Times that that process began last year. 

Population decline in a country attempting to overtake the US economically and as a major strategic competitor is a very big deal, because it exacerbates already existing structural weaknesses:

Deflation Threat Looms As China Suffers First Population Decline Since 1949

China is battling not one but three vicious demons. The interconnected issues of insurmountable debts, deflation, and demographics threaten to sap the world's future growth potential. 

Fending off the 3 D's: debts, deflation, and demographics requires the People's Bank of China to slash borrowing costs and unleash an enormous amount of credit into the local economy to cover up the faltering demand that usually persists with demographic challenges.

The question we should be asking is China really on the "rise," as President Xi Jinping believes ...

Many of us will remember the good old days of Japan Inc., back in the 80s, and that's exactly the parallel that analysts are drawing to the bind the Chinese find themselves in. As Japan Inc. discovered, battling two vicious demons--debt and deflation--is bad enough, but when demographic collapse is added into the equation everything gets worse. The problem for China is that, despite the perception of China as a modern economic powerhouse, it is actually nowhere near as advanced as was Japan. In particular, China has a vast poor and aging work force population--and no definite plans in place to provide for their old age.

Legal Matters: John Solomon, FISA

I'm gonna keep this brief. You've all heard about the search warrant that was executed against Rudy Giuliani this morning, and you may also have heard that Victoria Toensing's telephone was also seized via warrant. Nick Arama has a good article on this: 

Raid on Giuliani Concerns John Solomon Conversations, Victoria Toensing Also Served With Warrant

The search warrant against Giuliani is, at least notionally, predicated on a FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act) investigation--a claim that Giuliani was somehow engaged in representing the Ukrainian government without being registered as a foreign agent. That, of course, has become the grabbag national security violation that the FBI and DoJ now deploy against targets of the Deep State--people like, oh, Michael Flynn. It looks like flim flam to me, but the harassment value is very real.

However, a statement by Giuliani's attorney indicated that the FBI/DoJ are looking for communications between Giuliani and John Solomon, which suggests that Solomon is the real target here. Arama points out:

Briefly Noted: Major Narrative Fail

Let's get right to it. How do Americans feel about new gun control laws after years of non-stop street violence?

Americans Under 30 Have Rapidly Turned Against Gun Control Laws, Poll Finds

A new ABC News/Washington Post poll released Tuesday from among more than 1,000 U.S. adults found that Americans overall are less supportive of new gun control legislations than they were just three years ago. People between the ages of 18-29 saw the sharpest decline in backing for new weapons laws, with fewer than half now saying new legislation is needed to reduce the risk of future mass shootings or to block "red flag" buyers.

In April 2018, the last time the ABC/Washington Post survey was conducted on this issue, 65 percent of these young Americans said they support gun control laws. That percentage is now 45.

The news doesn't get better across any demographic. Self-confessed liberals still strongly support gun control, but that's about it.

TTAG notes that, despite every form of narrative manipulation thrown at the public, it's as if:

Gosh, it’s almost as if living through a year of pandemic, riots, increased urban violence, the proliferation of zero bail policies and defunded police departments has had an effect on the American public. Maybe those 8.4 million first-time gun buyers’ opinions are being affected by their status as new firearm owners and that’s being reflected in these results.

Maybe those new gun owners just aren’t buying the party line that the best way to DO SOMETHING about violent crime is to disarm law-abiding gun owners and limit their ability to defend themselves and their families. Crazy, huh?

Politics: Race, Taxes, Wealth

Three political points for today.

First, an interesting article at the Washington Times-- 

Trump's pollsters: Democrats' racial terrorism strategy will backfire again

With that title in mind it's not hard to follow the reasoning of these pollsters--the racial terrorism strategy, beyond the obvious and deep harm it's causing the country, is a bad political strategy. The article is fairly lengthy, but ...

In 2016 we were crazy enough to predict President Donald J. Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton when the conventional wisdom was that it was going to be a Clinton landslide. ...

... Whether it was the economy, jobs, terrorism, immigration, crime or America’s standing in the world, voters said things had gotten worse and they wanted something new. Voters viewed Mrs. Clinton as a continuation of the Obama/Biden term.

Lost in the final tally was one very significant data point. According to a Pew research poll conducted among actual 2016 voters, two-thirds (67%) of Americans said race relations had gotten worse during the Obama/Biden years. Interestingly, it was the lowest job rating that President Obama received on any issue.

Clearly, what we call the Democrats racial terrorism strategy had backfired on them in the 2016 elections.

Now turn to Zhou. The authors set the table by reviewing the racism lie that Dems--not just Zhou, but the entire party--have built their fraudulent regime upon. Then, they go over the results of their survey--how poorly this is playing with Americans from most walks of life:

Gullibility: Its Dangers And Uses

The biggest advantage the Dems have is a base of low information, highly suggestible voters: The Gullibles. This is a category that cuts a wide swath across the general population. The Gullibles are people who are disposed to replace the hard work of analyzing facts with the relatively easy and self-satisfying ego trip of imposing an ideological narrative upon reality.

We could go on and on about the openness of The Gullibles to one hoax after another, but two relatively brief items illustrate the uses and dangers of gullibility for the Dems.

The first I found in a much longer post by Steve Hayward, which contains many interesting charts and graphs. However, this graph jumped out at me as encapsulating gullibility in our age of Covid:

That's pretty stunning, considering how dodgy Fauci's record has been over the decades. These results scream "gullible."

Watch Bannon And Braynard

I'm not attempting to chronicle the continuing efforts to document the fraud in Election 2020. However, there is a big picture that's gradually emerging. The big picture varies from state to state--in some states the GOP was complicit with the fraud, in some states they were probably incompetent. The constant in it all is: fraud. 

Currently, all eyes are on Arizona, and understandably so. However, the hard work is continuing elsewhere. One of the guys who's been doing this hard work--from the beginning of the post election period--is Matt Braynard. We've focused on his work previously, and he's still at it. His work centers on "traditional" vote fraud--abuses of absentee voting, non-resident voters, abuses of mail in voting, etc.

Steve Bannon did a nice 9:00 minute interview with Braynard on Monday. Unfortunately, I can't embed Rumble here, so you'll have to follow this link to watch the video.

The video touts developments in Wisconsin: 97% of Ballots With No ID in Wisconsin Were Fraudulent. However, the WI portion doesn't kick in until about 2/3 of the way through--6:00. The first six minutes largely deal with Georgia, and it's equally interesting.

Bannon and Braynard get into the big picture a bit--and, remember, we're only about three months into this Zhou regime. Poll after poll has documented that a huge proportion of the population--including a remarkable number of Dems--are very open to the idea that fraud influenced the outcome of the election. Braynard and others aren't going away. They're digging and they're getting results. The big picture is coming out, and it means that a very large portion of the American people will see that this Zhou regime is illegitimate.

This is a very big story, albeit slowly unfolding. As we noted yesterday, it's what's behind James Carville's angst. Voters in the affected states, in particular, will be irate.

Briefly Noted: American Caste System

Follow what science? Via TGP. Today we get the long awaited news:

CDC Updates Covid-19 Guidelines: Fully Vaccinated People Can Exercise, Gather Outdoors in Small Groups Without Face Masks

By Cristina Laila

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its Covid-19 guidelines on Tuesday and said fully vaccinated people can exercise and gather outdoors without wearing face masks.

The government is creating a caste system and moving toward vaccine passports by treating unvaccinated people as dirty lepers.

“As we gather more and more data on the real-world efficacy of vaccines, we know that most fully vaccinated people can safely attend worship services inside, go to an indoor restaurant or bar, and even participate in an indoor exercise class,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said during Tuesday’s announcement.

Land of the free? Not if Progs have anything to say about it!

UPDATED: Briefly Noted: CRT Under Legal Challenge

Even though CRT is one of the biggest stories in current America, time is limited and I'm not about to spend time on an obviously deranged view of reality. So, briefly ... I'll cite the views of two pundits who are by no means conservative in the sense that I am. I do so as a hopeful sign that the unease at the direction American society is taking has risen to the attention of the Center.

Paul Mirengoff references an article that documents legal challenges to the imposition of CRT as the default--indeed, the only allowed--public ideology in our schools and workplaces. Mirengoff's views, as reproduced, track mine pretty closely. He's not optimistic:

... A nation that teaches children to hate its history and to demonize a plurality of its population is probably doomed.

Fortunately, as John Murawski at RealClearInvestigations documents in detail, CRT is under challenge in courts. Here are some of the legal actions he describes, along with my tentative, off-the-cuff thoughts about the cases:

...

Murawski also quotes Douglas Seaton of the Upper Midwest Law Center, which is planning to file lawsuits challenging the imposition of CRT, on the stakes of the legal battle ahead. Seaton says:

You can’t have a country as diverse as ours without equality before the law. It’s a recipe for communal violence, tribalism. You can’t simply proceed that way. You’d be doomed to internecine battles between groups.

Steve Sailer cites an article by Ueber Neocon NeverTrump Bret Stephens--quoting Stephens at length. Stephens thinks that 

... anti-racism narrative will profoundly alienate liberal-minded America, even as it entrenches itself in schools, universities, corporations and other institutions of American life.

I'm not as sanguine, but consider it a good thing that Stephens' misgivings are appearing in the NYT. Stephens considers that 

Politics: Recall And Redistricting

Gavin Newsom will face a recall election in California. Most polling and pundit analysis indicates that Newsom will not be recalled. However, that may not be the end of the story. The LA Times has some interesting coverage and the title suggests that there's more going on here than the recall election itself:

California GOP could gain from a Newsom recall election — win or lose — if they play their cards right

The Dem position is articulated by Bob Shrum--yes, I agree: FWIW. Shrum wants people to think it's only and all about the election results:

“The recall will become nothing more than psychic satisfaction for Republicans — until they get the results on election night,” he said.

But, not so fast. Republican consultants argue that this election will give them an opportunity to put their message before the public at a time when dissatisfaction is high. Regardless of whether voters--who are normally a cautious lot--decide to take drastic action, the campaign could prove to be a preview for future events:

UPDATED: Equal Opportunity Blood Clotter

UPDATE: Commenter Mb corrected me. I had referred to the J&J shot as if it were an mRNA shot, but it's an "adenovirus." Which is different. I won't pretend to be able to explain the difference, but if you follow the link ...

Use in gene therapy and vaccination[edit]

Gene therapy[edit]

Adenoviruses have long been a popular viral vector for gene therapy due to their ability to affect both replicating and non-replicating cells, accommodate large transgenes, and code for proteins without integrating into the host cell genome.^[18] More specifically, they are used as a vehicle to administer targeted therapy,^[37] in the form of recombinant DNA or protein. This therapy has been found especially useful in treating monogenic disease (e.g. cystic fibrosis, X-linked SCID, alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency) and cancer.^[18] In China, oncolytic adenovirus is an approved cancer treatment.^[38] Specific modifications on fibre proteins are used to target Adenovirus to certain cell types;^[39] a major effort is made to limit hepatotoxicity and prevent multiple organ failure. Adenovirus dodecahedron can qualify as a potent delivery platform for foreign antigens to human myeloid dendritic cells (MDC), and that it is efficiently presented by MDC to M1-specific CD8+ T lymphocytes.^[40]

Adenovirus has been used for delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing systems, but high immune reactivity to viral infection has posed challenges in use for patients.

Vaccines[edit]

Further information: Viral vector vaccine

Modified (recombinant) adenovirus vectors, including replication incompetent types, can deliver DNA coding for specific antigens.^[41]

Adenovirus have been used to produce viral vector COVID-19 vaccines. "In four candidate COVID-19 vaccines... Ad5... serves as the 'vector' to [transport] the surface protein gene of SARS-CoV-2".^[42] The goal is to genetically express the spike glycoprotein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). A replication-deficient chimpanzee adenovirus vaccine vector (ChAdOx1) is used by the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine that has been approved for use.^[43][44] The Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine uses modified recombinant adenovirus type-26 (Ad26).^[45] Recombinant adenovirus type-5 (Ad5) are being used by Ad5-nCoV,^[46] ImmunityBio and UQ-CSL V451. The Gam-COVID-Vac (aka Sputnik-V) product is innovative because an Ad26 based vaccine is used on the first day and an Ad5 vaccine is used on day 21.^[45] Another one is ChAd-SARS-CoV-2-S; the vaccine reportedly prevented mice that were genetically modified to have human ACE2 (hACE2) receptors, presumably receptors that allow virus-entry into the cells, from being infected with SARS-CoV-2.^[47][48]

Possible issues with using Adenovirus as vaccine vectors include: the human body develops immunity to the vector itself, making subsequent booster shots difficult or impossible.^[49] In some cases, people have pre-existing immunity to Adenoviruses, making vector delivery ineffective.^[50]

Until today we were hearing that all blood clotting cases associated with the J&J adenovirus shot involved women--median age: 37 years old. However, Fox is reporting that a man has now believed to have shared in that "side effect". His age is reported to be in his "early 30s":

California man who received Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine hospitalized with blood clot

The patient is in good condition, with an expected hospital discharge in the next few days, a spokeswoman said

Excuse me. I'm not crazy about the idea of risking a blood clot in my leg, in the circumstances.

I'd really like to know. When CDC re-authorized this high risk experimental therapy, did they assume that it would only affect women? According to CBS News:

A panel of advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted earlier Friday to recommend resuming use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The shots are expected to be accompanied by a new warning about an increased risk of rare but serious blood clots for adult women under 50.

Time to revise the warning--already. Again: This adenovirus shot is experimental. Nobody knows what all could happen in the short run, much less in the long run.

UPDATED: SCOTUS Takes Big 2A Case

The SCOTUS today announced that it will take a major Second Amendment case. The case comes to the SCOTUS from New York, in the 2nd Circuit. New York--like eight other Blue states--requires a gun owner to provide what the state regards as a "proper cause" for wanting to "bear arms" outside his home. The reality is that, unless you're politically connected, it becomes extremely difficult to carry a firearm in any of those states. In the case at hand, New York was denying concealed carry permits to persons who said they wanted to bear a firearm for "self defense"--a pretty traditional reason.

Thus, the issue is pretty straightforward. Can a state demand a reason why a person wishes to exercise a constitutional right: not only to "keep" a firearm (in your residence) but to "bear" it. Next up--First Amendment? Why do you want to express a viewpoint that the government regards as not "proper?"

Now, while this case is, on its face, fairly narrow, it's also possible that the SCOTUS could address related issues that go beyond the actual holding. Such issues might include the extent to which states may regulate the 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms more generally. For example, other states than those most directly affected by this case have various laws in place that make gun ownership--let alone bearing a firearm--difficult or somewhat expensive. These measures go beyond such relatively traditional measures such as a ban on felons owning firearms. As a result, this case is raising hopes and apprehensions on both sides of the issue.

Thus, while the terms of the grant of certiorari are very limited, that won't prevent justices from voicing their views and presenting arguments that could sway lower courts on related issues:

Briefly Noted: Death In America

Briefly noted, because I'll be mostly just providing links. Something's going on in America, and it results from a total devaluation of life. Because it's largely kept from public view, people are complacent--but complacency is the first step toward death.

Tucker Carlson did a powerful show on Kim Foxx, George Soros' State's Attorney in Cook County. The footage is graphic and powerful, but note a number of key items:

Alderman Lopez talks of people being "gunned down by violence". Which tells you right there that he's afraid to name the problem.

Kim Foxx talks of "equity and justice, NOT law and order". She talks openly of supposedly making up for the past as reasons for releasing--uncharged--minority and immigrant violent felons. Kim Foxx has been elected twice, and while I have nothing to learn about vote fraud in Cook County, I am also convinced that Foxx would have won any fair election. I know my neighbors.

But while this report is about Chicago, it's also about every other city with a George Soros chief prosecutor. Here the death is of individuals, but it's also the death of communities and cities. Check it out:

It All Adds Up

A "small number" here, a "small number" there--pretty soon all these side effects add up to a significant number. In fact, they already have.

Israel examining heart inflammation cases in people who received Pfizer COVID shot

By Reuters Staff

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel’s Health Ministry said on Sunday it is examining a small number of cases of heart inflammation in people who had received Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, though it has not yet drawn any conclusions. 

Ya know what? I'm just gonna say "no thank you" to heart inflammmation. That's right--I can draw my own conclusions.

Beyond T--Inter Specific?

Or should I have said inter-species? Is this the next frontier, or the next barrier knocked down? Who will stand against homo sapiens supremacy?

 

By the way, having run track in HS, no races were won by margins like that.

Briefly Noted: Not Everyone In The FBI Was Nuts

But they were afraid to speak truth to power. So to speak. Plenty of people in the Bureau knew this was complete BS, but they probably understood at some point that this was being driven from the top--that nothing they might say would make a difference. Check this out--Brian Auten was, AND STILL IS, the supervisory analyst who was in on all aspects of Crossfire Hurricane:

I totally missed these texts last October. There are some details that were missed (or not commented on) by Flynn's lawyers. "Brian having a scope way outside the boundaries of logic". Brian in this context is almost certainly Brian Auten. pic.twitter.com/PxDLAp6CC9

— Stephen McIntyre (@ClimateAudit) April 21, 2021

Three Recommended Articles 4/25/21

All three articles are related in a general sort of way.

Start with Jonathan Turley, who offers a law prof and defense attorney's view of:

The difficult realities of lethal force

He explains the principles that govern the use of lethal--or potentially lethal, to be more exact--force by the police, and he offers apt and specific case examples.

UPDATED: What's The Incentive For Big City Cops To Stay?

There's a chilling article in the NY Post about the rate at which cops are bugging out--retiring, taking disability, leaving for greener pastures where they'll be appreciated and will be able to do their job without Leftist harassment: 

Are NYPD officers rushing to retire amid city’s anti-cop climate?

The answer to that one is a total no-brainer. Of course they're rushing to retire--or, if not yet eligible, to find some other way out. Wouldn't you? This should give an idea of how bad things are:

White Flight

Monica Showalter does a survey of the results of Covid on government schools--especially in the primary stages. What's happening, as we start to get some date is a Wokester apocalypse: Public school enrollment plunges in California -- and everywhere else.

Showalter focuses on California, but notes that much of what she's talking about can be seen to one degree or another in other localities:

it's actually happening all over. Detroit, New York City, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Austin, Tucson, Minneapolis, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Janesville, Wisconsin, Chautauqua County, upstate New York, plus the entire states of New Jersey, Iowa, Vermont, Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Hawaii, North Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Washington, Virginia, and quite likely all of the others are reporting public school enrollment drops.

Yes, it is happening elsewhere. For example, in Chicago, which is one of the larger school districts in the country with one of the most radical government teachers unions.

The other thing that's happening in California and is certainly happening elsewhere is that the demographic that's fleeing government schools is Whites:

Defies Belief

No, really. I'm not trying to turn this blog into some poor man's version of The Onion or The Babylon Bee. This is stuff you can't make  up. Two stories, one after the other:

More blood clot cases following Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine reported

CDC committee votes to resume Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine despite possible blood clot link

However, "new language" will be included in the warning label, acknowledging a "remote risk" of blood clots. That should restore trust! Expect lengthy lines for the J&J injection--NOT.

You might wonder how remote "remote" is--especially if you're a woman aged 30-39, which seems to be the least remote group, i.e., the group most likely to experience the reality of this remote risk. How could they possibly calculate that risk in such a short time, even as new cases of clotting are cropping up? And are there other risks that might, you know, pop up down the road?

Zerohedge comments:

CDC Panel Recommends Resumption Of J&J Vaccine As "Benefits Outweigh Risks"

What little faith a sizable skeptical portion of Americans may have had in covid vaccines or the so-called "scientific process" may have just been crushed on Friday afternoon when shortly before 5am a CDC Panel recommended in a 10-4 vote (with 1 abstaining) to resume use of the J&J Covid vaccine, saying that it would add a warning about rare clots but not restrict its use as "benefits outweigh the risks. The decision sets the stage for regulators to allow use of the shot to resume.

Somehow I doubt that those injection centers that have been closing due to plummeting demand will need to be reopened.

It Was Really Just A Matter Of Time

There are multiple articles out today about an interview given by a Chauvin alternate juror. This was always just a matter of time, and we can now probably expect more jurors to speak out in self-justification--but, who knows, possibly in self-doubt. The fact is, however, that due to the dynamics of this show trial their stance won't matter. They participated in a show trial and nothing said after the fact will change that perception.

Now, understand that the alternates were only informed of their status at the end of the trial. However, that means, in effect, that since the experience of the alternates was essentially the same as the experience of the jurors who voted, their reactions are likely a proxy for the attitudes of the jurors who voted. 

At Zerohedge--Alternate Juror On Chauvin Trial Says She Feared Riots, People Turning Up At Her Home. No sh*t? How unique do you think her attitude was, among the jurors? Duh! But the judge could have changed the venue and/or sequestered the jury. He didn't. And so ...

Briefly Noted: Is 'Equity' A Code Word In VA Schools?

Here's the story:

Virginia moving to eliminate all accelerated math courses before 11th grade as part of equity-focused plan

Is it just me, or does anyone else suspect that this is just a way of slowing down Asians--in the name of 'equity' for those students who are less 'focused' in school? Loudon county has lots of smart, ambitious Asians and, traditionally, this class of immigrants see excellence in math and science as a way to get ahead in America.

On VDOE's website, the state features an infographic that indicates VMPI would require "concepts" courses for each grade level. It states various goals like "[i]mprove equity in mathematics learning opportunities," "[e]mpower students to be active participants in a quantitative world," and "[i]dentify K-12 mathematics pathways that support future success."

During a webinar posted on YouTube in December, a member of the "essential concepts" committee claimed that the new framework would exclude traditional classes like Algebra 1 and Geometry.

Committee member Ian Shenk, who focused on grades 8-10, said: "Let me be totally clear, we are talking about taking Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2 – those three courses that we've known and loved ... and removing them from our high school mathematics program, replacing them with essential concepts for grade eight, nine, and 10."

He added that the concepts courses wouldn't eliminate algebraic ideas but rather interweave multiple strands of mathematics throughout the courses. Those included data analysis, mathematical modeling, functions and algebra, spatial reasoning and probability.

The changes were just the latest of many to prompt concern from parents in the state, which has seen in-fighting over controversial ideas surrounding equity and race.

The educrats say this will lead to "deeper learning". Not all parents are buying it:

A Loudoun parent who spoke on the condition of anonymity worried that the changes would "lower standards for all students in the name of equity."

...

Ian Prior, a Loudoun parent and former Trump administration official, similarly panned the move as a way to "stifle advancement for gifted students and set them back as they prepare for advanced mathematics in college. This is critical race theory in action and parents should be outraged." 

 

Do Dems really believe Asian parents will be fooled by the blather about White Supremacy and buy into dumbed down education? Will Asians make the move to private schools?

UPDATED: Bonfire Of Democracy?

Stay with me here. It take a bit to get this point across.

Larry Elder has a thoughtful article out, which you can read without the extraneous ads, here: Derek Chauvin: The Great White Defendant. As you can probably tell from the title, what Elder does is try to place the Floyd/Chauvin/Police event in the context of Tom Wolfe's novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities.

Here's how Elder does that:

A review of "Bonfire" explains: 

"The overarching theme of the book is the search for the great white defendant. The vast majority of defendants in New York City are minorities, arrested for killing another minority. The vast majority of the cops and prosecutors are all about the press and their careers. One drug dealer killing another drug dealer is not going to get you any attention; it's a dog-bites-man story -- no story. What you want is a man-bites-dog story. Therefore, subliminally, the police, prosecutors and press are always looking for a great white defendant who will make their careers."

Nobody, Wolfe writes, gets upset about massive media coverage of The Great White Defendant. Blacks enjoy watching media coverage of well-off white men, in this case a Wall Street trader, accused of serious wrongdoing, in this case murder. Guilty whites are used to perpetuate the systemic racism media narrative. And the media feel noble when pushing it. Win, win, win.

This brings us to the trial of Derek Chauvin, the white ex-Minneapolis cop convicted of murdering George Floyd, a Black man who initially resisted arrest.

What's a bit different now is that the Dems have latched onto this phenomenon in, yes, a systematic way. Whereas the earlier narrative leveraged publicity for the career purposes of prosecutors--which still goes on in the usual ad hoc way--this technique is currently being deployed for ideological movement oriented purposes. That's not entirely different, of course, from past efforts to incite public outrage and unrest, although the single minded determination of the MSM (broadly speaking) to drum the desired ideological narrative into the public mind over a period decades, utilizing mass rioting and show trials, is quite impressive. 

Lockdowns--The Brainchild Of A 14 Year Old's School Project?

Along with forever wars it seems forever lockdowns are another part of the Dubya legacy. And instead of interdisciplinary teams of scientists, economists, and legal scholars coming to the momentous decision--after years of peer reviewed studies--to throw our society and political order up for grabs in response to a relatively non-threatening respiratory virus, it seems that it was all instigated by a school project written by a 14 year old.

I'm not kidding. I know it sounds incredible, but remember--we're talking about government policy planning here. The question, as framed nearly a year ago by Jeffrey A. Tucker, in 

The 2006 Origins of the Lockdown Idea

runs like this:

How did a temporary plan to preserve hospital capacity turn into two-to-three months of near-universal house arrest that ended up causing worker furloughs at 256 hospitals, a stoppage of international travel, a 40% job loss among people earning less than $40K per year, devastation of every economic sector, mass confusion and demoralization, a complete ignoring of all fundamental rights and liberties, not to mention the mass confiscation of private property with forced closures of millions of businesses?  

Whatever the answer, it’s got to be a bizarre tale. What’s truly surprising is just how recent the theory behind lockdown and forced distancing actually is. So far as anyone can tell, the intellectual machinery that made this mess was invented 14 years ago, and not by epidemiologists but by computer-simulation modelers. It was adopted not by experienced doctors – they warned ferociously against it – but by politicians. 

Tucker found the story behind the lockdown strategy laid out in a NYT article from February, 2006--Greetings Kill: Primer for a Pandemic.

Quick--Can You Name A Federal Agency That Doesn't Spy On You?

I don't think I'd want to bet anything important--like, the price of a cup of coffee--on getting the answer to that question right. Not after reading this:

US Postal Service Running 'Covert Operations Program' To Spy On Americans' Social Media Posts, Share With Agencies

Here's what caught someone's attention:

Among other things the USPS--and their cadre of those omnipresent 'analysts'--wants to know is, are you planning to protest Covid lockdowns? How many 'analysts' do you think the government has by now?

Even liberals found it all a trifle bizarre:

Tucker And Turley Weigh In On Chauvin Trial

Tucker Carlson, in his own inimitable way, expressed what took place at the Chauvin trial (via RedState):

The jury in the Derek Chauvin trial came to a unanimous and unequivocal verdict Tuesday afternoon: “Please don’t hurt us.” The jurors spoke for many in this country; everyone understood perfectly well the consequences of an acquittal in this case.

After nearly a year of burning, looting, and murder by BLM, that was never in doubt. Last night, 2,000 miles from Minneapolis, police in Los Angeles preemptively blocked roads. Why? They knew what would happen if Derek Chauvin got off.

…

But here’s what we can’t debate: no mob has the right to destroy our cities. Not under any circumstances, not for any reason. No politician or media figure has the right to intimidate a jury, and no political party has the right to impose a different standard of justice on its own supporters.

Those things are unacceptable in America, but all of them are happening now. If they continue to happen, decent, productive people will leave. The country as we knew it will be over. So we must stop this current insanity. It’s an attack on civilization.

Here's the full segment:

Where Are New Covid Cases Coming From?

Steve Bannon interviewed a very prominent epidemiologist on just this topic--Harvey Risch, from Yale, who has also been an exponent of the early use of HCQ to treat Covid. An excerpt of that interview is available at LifeSite: 

Yale public health professor suggests 60% of new COVID-19 patients have received vaccine

'Clinicians have been telling me that more than half of the new COVID cases that they’re treating are people who have been vaccinated,' said Dr. Harvey Risch.

I've come up with a complete transcript of that excerpt. What Risch has to say shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who's moderately well informed. While most people almost certainly believe they're getting jabbed in order to save themselves from a deadly viral infection--and, secondarily, to save others--the reality is quite different. For starters, the shots don't prevent infection nor, as has leaked out slowly, do they necessarily prevent reinfection. Here's Risch and Steve Bannon:

Very Brief: Meet The New DAG

 Lisa Monaco, Deep State apparatchik extraordinaire:

Monaco was Mueller's chief of staff, later she framed Russia for election interference, then she was part of the coup plot via the fraudulent ICA. After Obama, she propagandized collusion as CNN's senior national security analyst. Oh, she's also a friend of Danchenko's lawyer. https://t.co/iFIf65mCre

— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) April 20, 2021

Read her full Wiki bio. Super tied in with Robert Mueller and Andrew Weissmann.

ADDENDUM: And speaking of DoJ, Emerald Robinson is on a roll:

Trump's AG Bill Barr also has a book deal now. There's no word yet on when "AVERAGE GUY: HOW I FAILED TO KEEP EPSTEIN ALIVE OR PROSECUTE SPYGATE PLOTTERS OR INVESTIGATE VOTER FRAUD" will be out in stores.

— Emerald Robinson ✝️ (@EmeraldRobinson) April 20, 2021

Quick And Brief: SWC's Predictions

I wondered about not enough time to review the evidence, too:

A verdict that fast is likely a compromise - all agree to take 2nd degree murder off the shelf and accept third degree or manslaughter. Limited deliberation time indicates none were interested in thoroughly reviewing all the evidence introduced as that would take longer.

— shipwreckedcrew (@shipwreckedcrew) April 20, 2021

It won’t get that far. The Sixth Circuit will reverse if the Minn Courts do not. https://t.co/xZQx5PQdWw

— shipwreckedcrew (@shipwreckedcrew) April 20, 2021

OT, but after all, it's about our court system. Notice I didn't say legal system:

Amy Coney Barrett doesn't have time to look at election law cases or abortion cases or gun rights cases but she's got time to take $2 million for a book advance before she's done anything on the court?

— Emerald Robinson ✝️ (@EmeraldRobinson) April 20, 2021

Jason Whitlock says it:

This is what I predicted. Impossibly difficult for a jury given all the media and political focus. A quick return often means guilty but I have been surprised before. https://t.co/E9y6G1beAO

— Brett L. Tolman (@tolmanbrett) April 20, 2021

BRIEFLY NOTED: One Jab And Three Brain Surgeries Later ...

The good news is that 18 year old Emma Burkey--one jab and three brain surgeries later--is no longer suffering seizures, is out of the induced coma, and is off the respirator. She still has a tracheostomy tube in place though--which impairs her ability to give a big shout out to J&J--but is "recovering slowly." Which presumably beats the alternative. It's the risk you run when you participate in a medical experiment:

Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine recipient in Nevada undergoes 3 brain surgeries following jab

People my age will remember the great polio scare. This article is deeply interesting:

Gates Vaccine Spreads Polio Across Africa

And this one makes some pretty good points:

The big lie: How COVID-19 became a disinformation operation wrapped in a virus

The CCP pulled off the greatest deception in modern history. 

 

As I write this I hear that there's a verdict--c'mon, you know what I'm talkin' about. I presume that means 'guilty' of something.

Polling Hoaxes

When a regime needs to rely on hoax polls to gaslight the public into--hopefully--believing that everyone supports what's going on, you can bet they're in trouble. The goal is to suggest to people that they're all alone in being unhappy, isolated from family, friends, neighbors, community, nation. There's no point in beefing to them about how bad things are and--above all--there's no point in voting against the way things are. This tactic works less and less, as public distrust of the MSM and politicians reaches higher and higher levels. The wide availability of fact based information on the internet to counter the fake news is another huge countervailing factor. 

And so, if like me you read the Pew Poll with wonderment, you were probably thankful to be enlightened about what was really going on. All in one tweet:

RIP: the credibility of @pewresearch https://t.co/8bQTcgV83A

— Emerald Robinson ✝️ (@EmeraldRobinson) April 19, 2021

Right. If you believed that 59% number you probably also believe that the mRNA are 95% effective with no side effects.

Liz Peek at Fox has an overview of recent polling:

Biden's weak poll numbers – here's why many Americans unhappy with president, radical policies

Deeper dive into the numbers suggests support for the president is lukewarm

Basically, what Peek's deeper dive tells us is that, even in polls that show Zhou Baiden with his head above water, the real story is in the discrepancy between "strongly approve" and "strongly disapprove." The really key point in the article is: "Lukewarm doesn't get people to the voting booth." Not everybody in America votes in every election, and that's especially true in midterms, and that's why that discrepancy matters--a lot.

Complications

Fallout from the "pause" that was placed on the J&J Covid medication is continuing. As we know, the concerns about the J&J shot center on blood clotting. Today at LifeSite there's an extensive article on that subject:

Scientists warn Pfizer, Moderna vaccines may cause blood clots, too

The Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca COVID vaccines are under the microscope for their potential to cause blood clots, but scientists warn Pfizer and Moderna vaccines pose similar risks.

A lot of the content of the article derives from scientists associated with the anti-vaxxing movement. I say that not to disparage them, but simply in the interests of full disclosure for anyone who follows the link. These same scientists also cite medical establishment studies. I'm not qualified to pass judgment in any strictly scientific way--but you knew that already, right? My primary interest is in the bigger agenda of the people who have been dispensing disinformation about both the virus itself as well as the proper response to it--masking, lockdowns, school closures, etc. 

At the same time, when qualified individuals cite reasonable grounds for questioning the establishment narrative that is being used to deprive us of our freedoms, a certain amount of attention to medical and scientific issues is unavoidable. Yesterday I presented the views of a number of individuals, including two scientists who are actually active in the field of vaccine development. They both argued strongly that hesitancy to be vaxxed is, in fact, reasonable in the circumstances. 

America's Problem In A Graph

It's true--you can really can fool an awful lot of people most of the time. For example ...

The country's problems captured in one graph. Democrat voters are extremely gullible. https://t.co/bfB7NXQMXM

— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) April 18, 2021

How many of these low info folks do you suppose have even heard about Fauci funding the Wuhan research that gave us Covid-19--after that same research was banned in the US? But, of course, the people Fauci fronts for know all about that. Fools and cynics in the same mix lead to a perfect anti-constitutional storm.

Here's another joke on us. Fauci, as you know, is now going around touting multiple mask wearing. And yet ...

Stanford study quietly published at NIH.gov proves face masks are absolutely worthless against Covid

Yep, a peer reviewed study conducted at a prestigious university and published by the government's public health establishment came to that conclusion:

Did you hear about the peer-reviewed study done by Stanford University that demonstrates beyond a reasonable doubt that face masks have absolutely zero chance of preventing the spread of Covid-19? No? It was posted on the the National Center for Biotechnological Information government website. The NCBI is a branch of the National Institute for Health, so one would think such a study would be widely reported by mainstream media and embraced by the “science-loving” folks in Big Tech.

And, No, this study wasn't widely reported. Moreover, not only did the study conclude that masking confers no benefit, but it also concluded that it poses serious risks:

The existing scientific evidences challenge the safety and efficacy of wearing facemask as preventive intervention for COVID-19. The data suggest that both medical and non-medical facemasks are ineffective to block human-to-human transmission of viral and infectious disease such SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, supporting against the usage of facemasks. Wearing facemasks has been demonstrated to have substantial adverse physiological and psychological effects. These include hypoxia, hypercapnia, shortness of breath, increased acidity and toxicity, activation of fear and stress response, rise in stress hormones, immunosuppression, fatigue, headaches, decline in cognitive performance, predisposition for viral and infectious illnesses, chronic stress, anxiety and depression. Long-term consequences of wearing facemask can cause health deterioration, developing and progression of chronic diseases and premature death. Governments, policy makers and health organizations should utilize prosper and scientific evidence-based approach with respect to wearing facemasks, when the latter is considered as preventive intervention for public health.

Here's one reason that so few people have heard about this study:

Twitter has suspended @CortesSteve for citing a Stanford NIH study about masks. pic.twitter.com/2y460zkN0Z

— Raheem Kassam (@RaheemKassam) April 17, 2021

And yet I've heard Fauci referred to as "the hero of the pandemic." In fairness, Fauci appears to have been the second choice, as a replacement for the first hero--Andrew Cuomo. Liberals--what to say?