• DON’T DONATE TO YOUR ALMA MATER.  One effective way of protesting academia, that Marxist bastion, is to withhold donations.  So, when your alma mater calls for that annual alumni fund, stiff them – and tell them why.  Starve that beast. Your money is used to promote multicultural, environmental, LGBTQ and anti-American awareness, as well as the rest of the radical left agenda.  In particular, it goes to free rides for minorities which enable the colleges to tout their diversity and burnish their liberal bona fides that sustain government funding.  Meanwhile, tuition for whites rises unabated. It’s a typical socialist wealth redistributionist scheme.  Some colleges are declared sanctuaries for illegal aliens who get free or discounted tuition. A number of them join gangs that maraud over campus.  Cowardly administrators refuse to quell disruptive behavior by naïve brainwashed students.  Don’t be a sucker. When the endowments fall maybe the indoctrination will abate in favor of academic freedom and campus discipline. Money talks.  http://www.williamjdodwell.com/  12/6/18

• HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM THE FAR RIGHT.  May all right-wing zealots be prepared to lead the battle to get President Donald J. Trump re-elected next November.  They must also persuade the electorate to record Republican victories that win back the House, increase the majority in the Senate, and take over the State houses.  Let’s paint the town red!  What’s more, we look forward to the Durham report, along with the ensuing convictions and imprisonment of Democrat crooks.  2020 could be a watershed year that restores the founding principles that ensure a meritocratic and judicious nation.

•             MY YEAREND MISSIVE:  HIGHLIGHT THE SCOURGES OF THE LEFT FOR VICTORY IN NOVEMBER.  As we face a new year fraught with political turmoil running up to the 2020 election, conservatives must establish how they will engage the enemy that is the newly emerged far-left as it systematically tries to destroy the nation.  This is not exaggeration.  At stake is the presidency of the United States and gains or losses in Congress and statehouses that will determine the success or failure of the radical liberal agenda.  Conservatives must strive to win maximum hearts and minds by next November to defuse the threat to the republic.  This requires intense focus, not only on President Trump’s many triumphs, but also on specific new pathologies of the left foisted on the citizenry.  How has liberalism wreaked havoc?  Let us count the ways.

At the federal level, leading Democratic presidential candidates attempt to legitimize outlandish proposals for tens of trillions of dollars of new spending that would suffocate the economy and thereby drastically lower the standard of living for most Americans.  Plans include such chimera as Medicare-for-all, free college tuition, student loan forgiveness, and  a Green New Deal that would abolish fossil fuels and retrofit all buildings and infrastructure.  What’s more, the left wants to relinquish America’s sovereignty in a new globalist orientation and vitiate the education system by lowering academic standards and politicizing curricula and practices that includes eradicating American history.  Ultimately, this is to produce docile uninformed Democratic voters.  And now, post-birth abortion is acceptable to many liberal officeholders, and the effort to nullify the Second Amendment gains currency among them.

In recent years, liberal politicians have relaxed the rule of law.  This comes in the form of support for open borders and sanctuary cities and states that accommodate violent crime, drug smuggling, sex trafficking, opioid abuse, as well as create overcrowding and a burden on the public fisc. Corrupted prison release programs put dangerous criminals on the streets despite promises to the contrary.  Law enforcement curtailment gives rise to widespread homelessness that poses threats to community safety and health, and the viability of proximate businesses.  Mayoral stand-down orders to police forbid them to engage Antifa thugs in acts of violence, and apprehend shoplifters and fare-beaters at great expense to local businesses and the public transit budget.  A look-the-other-way policy regarding water thrown on police officers diminishes respect for them, seriously lowers their morale, and invites escalation.  To undermine the rule of law, the linchpin of any civilization, leftist George Soros is funding ultra-liberal candidates for Attorney General throughout the country.

Government is not the only culprit.  The left also operates through a now corrupt media, including Hollywood and Madison Avenue, as well as a radicalized academe that promotes societal division and demographic transformation that subvert the nation’s heritage, identity, and ultimate survival.  Increasingly intrusive identity politics founded on a proliferation of contrived grievance groups fosters this destruction.

To be sure, the goal of the left is to destroy this nation through insolvency from government largesse, chaos in the absence of the rule of law, social strife from forced heterogeneity, and through an ongoing effort to disarm Americans.  Conservatives have to promote acute focus on this reality and constantly highlight its manifestations in drumbeat fashion to help achieve electoral success in November that will render the nefarious Democrat Party a smoldering pile of rubble.  12/30/19

                        The Christmas Song   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GivJtMPobwU&list=PLqHqmHiumqK-vT0oislpcr_UouVo6DDcq&index=79&t=0s

                        Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlN8YX_uUhs&list=PLqHqmHiumqK-vT0oislpcr_UouVo6DDcq&index=77

                    We are both secular conservatives but my views derive mainly from reading, observation and anecdotal evidence     while hers rest on research and scientific method.  Thus, it is gratifying that her more conclusive empirical                             analysis often corroborates my intuitive opinion.  What’s more, we share the courage to be most impolitic                             about incendiary issues. Her many media appearances make her an important exponent of conservative                                 thought.

                Our discussion was wide and varied covering, among other things, race, #MeToo, immigration and law                                 enforcement.  She indulged expansive monologues, some that challenged my powers of concentration and                             comprehension.  She even cited a longitudinal study of comparative behaviors in Europe going back to the                         Peloponnesian Wars.  Finally, after one arcane soliloquy she inquired of my opinion.  Suffering brain melt at that                 point, I deftly changed the subject.

            Feeling a bit amorous, I sauntered over to the grand piano nearby and played an apt Gershwin classic, “I’ve Got A             Crush On You”   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po9m1y2m7Vg .  When I returned to the table she did not             seem impressed.  Was it my arrangement?  The key?  The clinker I hit in the third bar?  I know.  The piano needed             tuning.  Glancing at the empty plates, I gazed into her eyes, slowly moving closer.  Then, lips millimeters apart, I                 whispered, “How about another piece of pie?”  12/19/19

• 
  UPDATE 2 to my article at LINK.  President Trump in his press conference 3/29/20 indicated what seems to be a return to his original reliance on Neil Ferguson’s 2.2 million projected U.S. deaths if no action were taken. That projection strongly influenced Trump’s decision to declare a 15 day social distancing period in mid-March.  But on 3/22, Trump seemed to lose faith in the number because of Ferguson’s model revision, and consequently decided to consider gradually lifting restrictions starting April 12^th.   

  Now Trump invokes the 2.2 million figure again (interestingly without reference to Ferguson anymore) as reason for an extended lockdown, also claiming it justifies his restrictions to date that have kept U.S. deaths to only about 2,000. Perhaps this means Ferguson’s model adjustment only applied to the UK death projection of 500,000, which he lowered to a maximum of 20,000, while leaving the U.S. projection unchanged. 

  If so, the question becomes, How can estimated U.S. deaths of 2.2 million be more than 100 times UK deaths at 20,000, considering the U.S. has only 5 times the population of the UK?  Are the respective population dynamics that disparate? My skepticism of the 2.2 million projection continues, and as such, my original question as to whether the COVID-19 scientific community can be trusted. 3/30/20

• UPDATE ON MY IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON CORONAVIRUS POST YESTERDAY.  Yesterday I posted an article   LINK  about my skepticism concerning 2.2 million U.S. coronavirus deaths projected by epidemiologist Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London.  Several hours after my posting, I saw reports that on the same day he radically revised his calculation because of a model error. 

  His changed U.S. death estimate does not appear to be reported.  But he lowered his UK death projection from 500,000 to 20,000, and possibly much lower, he said. This 96% reduction would translate proportionately to 88,000 U.S. deaths, instead of 2.2 million.  The current U.S. death toll is about 1,400. I don’t know if a strictly linear adjustment to the U.S. figure is valid, but clearly the revised projection is a small fraction of the original estimate, that I viewed as way out of line.

  My article whimsically challenged the original 2.2 million projection in the context of a possibly politicized prognostication aimed at harming Trump’s reelection prospects.  But I stand by my warning of the potential danger of a compromised scientific community as evidenced in the AIDS crisis and by the climate-change hoax as I detailed. 3/27/20
  
• CAN WE TRUST THE COVID-19 SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY?  The Wall Street Journal and others reported that the main impetus for President Trump’s social-distancing and lockdown strategy was a report published by Imperial College London. Shockingly, it projected 2.2 million coronavirus deaths in the U.S. absent a rigorous containment and mitigation policy.  To date about 1,000 have died.  Does this study pass the smell test?  Apparently not for Trump anymore as he anticipates ending his lockdown by Easter. 

  Scientists and business people fundamentally differ in how they perceive problems.  Scientists tend to seek clinical near-certainty according to rigid protocols to validate conclusions. Oftentimes risk-taking is tempered by a fear of failure because human life hangs in the balance.  Business people rely on a less empirical risk-reward calculus that may entail uncertain tradeoffs of human, economic and political variables.  Hence, the apparent divide between commercial-minded Trump and his COVID-19 health advisers regarding the resumption of normal business activity amid the still extant coronavirus.

  Of course, politics by its nature inevitably pervades all aspects of life inasmuch as selfish motives always loom.  COVID-19 medical experts may honestly recommend action according to their clinical findings that ignore massive economic consequences.  But in view of the dubious outcome projected by the Imperial College London study, one might suspect an anti-Trump political agenda, even outside the U.S.  Prescribing a strategy that would destroy the U.S. economy and unseat Trump in November could be just what the (dishonest) doctor ordered.  Or not. Has the scientific community politicized the coronavirus against Trump?  

   This speculation about using the coronavirus as a tool to influence the 2020 presidential election has become as politically sensitive as questioning Obama’s birthplace.  In fact, even conservative Fox News suspended (fired?) host Trish Regan for passionately opining on it.  Indeed, the left has intimidated the right into shunning conspiracy theories regardless of merit.

   A COVID-19 cabal would not be the first special interest to compromise the scientific community.  Recall bogus statistical extrapolations in the 1980s that projected AIDS would wipe out much of the American population. Propagandists democratized the disease by scaring the public into believing the general population was at risk, including children.  This was to hide the fact that, with scant exception, only gays and drug addicts contracted the disease, then and now.  What’s more, some health officials expanded the definition of AIDS to inflate reported infections to inspire more donations for research. 

  And consider the climate-change Cassandras in media.  They pressure compliant scientists who fear losing their research money and jobs if they stray from green orthodoxy.  Predictions of widespread temperature extremes, receding Arctic ice and underwater cities never materialized.  Researchers manipulated data to skew results for political benefit as exposed in the University of East Anglia’s bombshell revelations in 2011.  How many scientists support the canard that we have only 12 years to save the planet?

  I’m not ready to impugn the integrity of the COVID-19 scientists. But history shows that when the political stakes are sufficiently high , there are few saints, even in the laboratory. Is the intense, even worldwide, hatred for President Trump enough for science and media to join forces once again?

  
  
• FREE THE CORONAVIRUS.  It is time to consider the economic side of the COVID-19 equation.  After a 15 day commitment to a health policy of social distancing involving lockdown restrictions, President Trump is ready to end the austerity and permit all business activity.  This is particularly fitting in view of the Democrat attempt to hold the economy hostage in order to extort Republicans into caving to unrelated concessions in the coronavirus economic stimulus bill. They include such accommodations as more union representation on corporate boards, and higher airline emission standards. 

• 
  

• ARE COVID-19 SCIENTISTS SELFISHLY AVOIDING A BETTER WAY?  Can health policy arrest the coronavirus without requiring economically devastating mitigation measures? Since the vast majority of non-elderly carriers suffer little or no symptoms, why the disruptive restrictions?  Officially, it is to suppress ALL infection so it does not spread to the immunity-compromised elderly (and non-elderly). Alternatively, why not consensually sequester that group for the duration of the outbreak and lift restrictions on everyone else?  This would relieve the current economic and social upheaval.

  Officials assert that since COVID-19 is more contagious and deadly than predecessor viruses, illness and morbidity among the vulnerable elderly would increase exponentially without lockdowns. Is this necessarily true?  Permitting the unfettered spread of the coronavirus (while quarantining the vulnerable) could result in a blanket natural immunity that could radically reduce infection. The policy would render lockdowns unnecessary.  This is under consideration in the UK. Why not here?

• THE MEDIA COVER UP THE INNOCUOUSNESS OF THE CORONAVIRUS.  The media seem to avoid reporting about the severity of the Chinese coronavirus.  There’s copious coverage about containing it, and about hospitals operating at overcapacity.  But how sick are the infected?  In most cases, probably not much. But the media act like the COVID-19 were equivalent to the universally fatal Ebola virus.

  The coronavirus is relatively innocuous for victims not having underlying respiratory and autoimmune problems. And rarely mentioned is the fact that victims who die are on average 80 years old who might have passed from other ailments, or natural causes.  One wonders if most victims could nurse themselves at home with OTC medications as with the flu. How many are hospitalized, not for suffering, but as a containment measure to perpetuate the obsession with contagion?

  A cost-benefit analysis that weighs the economic and social consequences of containment against the benefit of avoiding or recovering from what amounts to the common flu highlights the gross overreaction of government-mandated lockdowns. 

  Why are the media concealing the relative innocuousness of the coronavirus?  Because that revelation would nullify the justification for the lockdowns that tank the economy and threaten Trump’s reelection. 3/20/20

• CORONAVIRUS AND AIDS.  The hysteria over the COVID-19 virus is reminiscent of the AIDS scare spread throughout the 1980s when mass media terrorized the public into believing the general population was at risk.  But in fact, only two risk groups have ever existed: male homosexuals and intravenous drug users. Some alarmists extrapolated current infection rates ad infinitum as to project the eradication of half the U.S. population. “Safe sex” was the analogue of today’s lockdowns. Propagandists also expanded the definition of AIDS to elevate the infection rate.

  The aim of the sensationalism was to dispel the opprobrium that befell the gay community as a source of the disease, and to create mass fear to attract research money.  Well into the 1990s people finally got wise to the lies, and even some AIDS activists had to confess their fraud.

  Politics suffuses the coronavirus coverage as well. Anything that projects government power appeals to the left. Government lockdown mandates and bloated government stimulus programs make liberals smile.  The left exaggerates the severity of the coronavirus to maximize hysteria.  They hope that will destroy the economy and derail Trump’s reelection.  For the same reason, the left continually discredits Trump’s handling of the pandemic.  3/20/20

• STOP THE MADNESS!  Government mandated lockdowns in reaction to the COVID-19 virus unnecessarily destroy a great economy and a record stock market. 95% of the population sacrifices for the benefit of the 5%, that being the sickly elderly. As I previously suggested, resources ought to be concentrated on protecting the vulnerable elderly to include their quarantine, and let the rest of the country get on with their lives. 

  Contracting the Chinese novel coronavirus among the non-elderly is no big deal. For the vast majority, it’s less serious than the seasonal flu, notwithstanding the coronavirus’ higher contagion rate. Some medical people have said half the population will get the virus anyway. What’s more, the reported low death rate for the coronavirus is actually even lower because of the inability to establish the true number infected.  It is distorted because of the absence of sufficient testing kits, and a current selection bias toward the infected who are sick and thus more likely to die. The unknown is the number of infected who have not been tested, and those infected without symptoms who will likely never be tested.

  At some point the austerity will create a backlash if the coronavirus continues.  The overkill will become apparent and cries of protest will ensue.  3/19/20

• END THE CORONAVIRUS LOCKDOWN.  The economic cost of arresting the COVID-19 virus through blanket closures that devastate the quality of life is too disruptive.  The focus should center on isolating the elderly having underlying immune-compromising conditions.  After all, the average age of death from the virus is 80. No need to shutter schools and businesses.  

  The perennial flu afflicts and kills far more than the coronavirus without massive economic dislocation.  Like the flu, the coronavirus should be allowed to spread organically and run its course while concentrating resources on the sickly elderly.  It is reported 85% of those infected experience little or no symptoms. 

  Indeed, the coronavirus spreads much faster than the flu and kills at a considerably higher rate.  As such, mass containment aims to minimize the number of infected and thus limit the spread to the defenseless elderly. Can’t a program insulate the elderly while the rest of the population functions normally, except for the temporary debilitation of some of those infected? How about quarantine of the vulnerable elderly?

• BLOOMBERG WAS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT ABOUT BLACK CRIME.  Presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg was absolutely right in his 2015 audio about black crime relative to the stop, question and frisk policy when he was NYC Mayor.  Ironically, law and order conservatives now denounce his view for political advantage in the 2020 campaign, and even Bloomberg himself recants it to shore up his black vote. 

  Bloomberg, in response to a study commissioned by his Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly, reported that virtually all crime in major cities was committed by minorities, mostly black, between 16 and 26.  Therefore, Bloomberg said, police could justifiably frisk blacks disproportionately, and in the process take illegal guns out of circulation.  Since racial blacks commit all the crime they should be subject to all the frisks.  The corollary is that virtually no whites should be frisked. Accordingly, Bloomberg rightfully pointed out that whites probably were frisked too much.

  Of course, this is racial profiling, but so what!  It’s reality.  Anecdotal evidence supports this too.  Miscreants seen breaking the law and violent criminals pictured in the newspapers are almost always black.  But in politics this truth is verboten as media grossly under-report black crime. Let's be real!  2/13/20

• SPEECH NAZIS RUN AMUCK.  PETA, the leftist animal rights group, now says the word “pet” is derogatory and could lead to animal abuse.  Therefore, it suggests more inclusive terms like “animal companion”.  At the same time, a New York City law was enacted that carries a fine of up to $250,000 for uttering the term “illegal alien”. 

  The left strives to maximize conforming language and group-think to augment its influence in social settings and then codify its authority through legislation. As a byproduct, the lawyers get rich on new litigation opportunities.   

  Unfortunately, the public acquiesces to this oppression out of fear of adverse social consequences.  For example, I encountered a man at a diner who talked about the revived XFL spring football league.  He lowered his voice to a whisper to say that it would have limited appeal, like women’s basketball. He then quickly apologized for insinuating a denigration of women. 

  This is why the left has progressed so far!  People are so easily intimidated into caving to political correctness, and they vote accordingly.  But I did my part.  I said loudly, “Yeah, who the hell wants to watch women’s basketball?”  The wimp was not amused.  2/12/20

  
  
• WE BROKE THE WOKE! 2020 OSCARS POSTS RECORD LOW RATINGS.  Sunday’s Academy Awards show posted its lowest viewership in history.  It attracted 11% fewer viewers than the previous record low set in 2018, and 20% fewer than last year’s program.  This is great progress for America.  Thank you for once again heeding my call for ignoring the Oscars in the quest to vanquish leftist Hollywood.  2/11/20

• OBAMA HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY. Democrats keep attributing the Trump economic recovery to Obama.  Rather, it was the Federal Reserve that fostered the small growth of his administration, not Obama. The Fed’s liquidity infusions through near-zero short-term interest rates and quantitative easing broke the logjam in the financial markets.  That stimulated a modicum of consumer spending and some business investment, while turbo-charging the stock market producing a wealth-effect that added further impetus. 

  Meanwhile, Obama raised taxes, increased regulation and restricted energy development – the antithesis of stimulus.  President Trump did the direct opposite and beneficially transformed trade policy to own the recovery. Give credit to Obama’s Treasury Secretaries for recapitalizing the financial system during the crisis.

  Democrats praise Obama for a greater decline in unemployment from 10% to 5%, while Trump brought the rate down only from 5% to 3.5%.  But Obama proceeded from a much higher base making more change easier.  Similarly, liberals point to some 175% stock price appreciation in the Dow Jones Industrials under Obama, versus only about 60% under Trump.  However, the Obama increase rose from a 6,500 starting point versus Trump’s 18,000 baseline.  2/10/20

• IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN.  TIME TO IGNORE THE OSCARS.  I reprise my annual appeal to ignore the upcoming Oscar Awards.  Leftist, anti-Christian Hollywood is a major enemy of conservatives.  It promotes Marxist dreck in its films and throughout media capitalizing on the public’s ignorance and mindless infatuation with its celebrities, the so-called American equivalent of royalty. No doubt the newly chastened (not) hedonists again will invoke #MeToo and Time’s Up nonsense for political absolution, and celebrate every other stripe of wokeness.  Let’s hope eventually we see more Hollywood defectors like the great James Woods.  Ban the box office!  And, make this ceremony the lowest rated in its history yet again!  2/6/20

• BLACK HISTORY:  THE GLASS HALF-EMPTY. In keeping with this perennial February commemoration, The Comprehensive Conservative highlights select chapters in black history:

-        The demise of the black family 1970 – present

-        Black crime 1970 – present

-        Black incarceration 1970 - present

-        Black homelessness  1970 - present

-        Urban blight 1965 - present

-        Drive-by shootings 1965 - present

-        Poor academic performance 1900 – present

-        Black illegitimacy and illiteracy 1965 - present

-        Black drug dealing 1920 - present

-        Government dependence 1965 – present

-        Affirmative action 1970 – present

-        No-bail liberation 2020

-        Rampant corruption among black public officials 1965 - present

-        Rampant corruption in black non-profits 1965 - present

-        Rampant corruption in black churches  1965 – present

-        Degrading rap and hip hop music 1985 – present

-        Black takeover of the NFL and NBA 1980 - present

-        Beautiful jazz and traditional music 1900 - present

Black pathologies, fostered by longstanding Democratic policies, derive largely from personal irresponsibility and moral deficits.  I spotlight them here to invite their denunciation in the black community as to encourage a new chapter in black history founded on conservative values.  That transformation is essential to black progress.  2/5/20

• KAMALA HARRIS’ FALL FROM GRACE.  Talk about not ready for prime time! Kamala Harris’ abominable presidential bid has reduced her to a bit player on the political stage.  Did you see Senator Schumer push her aside dismissively with a scowl at the podium last week after the witness vote in the Senate impeachment trial?  It looks like she may have to go back to servicing Willie Brown to get attention.  However, she’ll have to adjust her technique because Brown, at 86, probably needs a splint by now.  2/4/20

• OH NO!  IT’S BLACK HISTORY MONTH AGAIN.  Why?  Will it ever end?  This has been going on since 1926.  Hell, the white man couldn’t fill that much time touting his accomplishments.  OK, the idea is to promote ongoing social harmony with blacks through an understanding of their experience.  But why aren’t they assimilated by now, especially considering all the institutional support from government, media and the body politic?  No other group is so accommodated and commemorated. 

  Huge swaths of the employment market have been reserved for blacks through affirmative action – retail, security guards, food service, loading docks, etc.  What’s more, the NFL and NBA are theirs.  And, they get free taxpayer-funded Smart-phones and usage accounts for life.  What are they complaining about?  The white man has bent over backwards to help blacks.  What are they doing to help themselves? 

  Until blacks modify their behavior to eradicate their many pathologies, all the Black History Months over the decades will not move the needle toward full integration.  To cite an apt metaphor - The ball is in their court.  2/3/20

• WHY NOT DIVERSITY IN THE NFL AND NBA?  Recall the days when the likes of Johnny Unitas, Frank Gifford, and Paul Hornung graced the gridiron.  Also remember Bob Cousy, Jerry West, and Harry Gallatin on the hardwood.  Back then, nearly all white players populated the NFL and NBA.  But today they're a rare bird.  What happened?
  

• ·LOCK AND LOAD.  It’s 2020 and time to get busy.  There are only ten months left to orchestrate a disastrous defeat for Democrats at the ballot box.  Avenge the Democratic injustices of the Kavanaugh and Impeachment hearings, as well as the social decay left in the wake of liberal Democratic policies. Let’s get Trump re-elected big time on November 3^rd.  1/1/20

• ESG: THE LEFT AT WORK.  The growing movement on the left to promote environmental, social and governance considerations in company management is aimed at co-opting the business sector in government’s ongoing pursuit of a new socialist order. Having institutionalized political correctness toward that end, and having indoctrinated youth in leftist politics through public education, government and mass media extend the Marxist model to business in the name of corporate social responsibility.

  At bottom is the newfound “stakeholders” model dedicated to constituents besides traditional shareholders, to include customers, employees, and the community. Indeed, this mindset has companies doing government’s bidding with respect to diversity, income redistribution, racial inequality, green projects, and immigration, under the guise of better operations.  Of course, this comes at the expense of profit in favor of supposedly nobler social benefits.  But those ultimately redound to more controlling government.  To ensure compliance with the new egalitarian corporate ethos, regulators impose increasing ESG reporting requirements.

  Some good notwithstanding, the seemingly benign ESG mandate undermines the capitalist archetype and incrementally empowers the state in typical Marxist fashion. 6/30/20

                                   
• THE MASK HAS BECOME THE COVID-19 FLAG.  Suddenly mask mandates proliferate everywhere.  Pelosi and her lackeys grandstand with one around their necks all the time now.  Dr. Fauci, who mocked the effectiveness of masks initially, now wears one.  And Biden now says that as president he would order everyone to wear a mask in public.

  The impetus behind the drumbeat is to promote the mask as a symbol of the leftist COVID-19 movement to derail Trump in November through renewed mass hysteria and continued economic sclerosis.  The mask has become the rallying flag.  It is also a meme by which to condition the public to ongoing obeisance to imperious government, a signature of the new Democrat Party.

  In any case, the mask is unhealthy as it traps harmful carbon dioxide and bacteria that has caused pleurisy.  The mask is also ineffective as it contains pores that are hundreds of times larger than the virus that escapes through them.  Once a sign of virtue signaling for good heath, the mask is now a political statement.  What’s needed is a standard stenciled image.  How about a government jackboot on the people’s neck?  6/29/20

• THE COMPREHENSIVE CONSERVATIVE.  He’s so conservative he works from a 1958 calendar with a pinup photo of Brigitte Bardot. http://www.williamjdodwell.com/  6/23/20

• CORRUPTION IN THE COVID-19 COMMUNITY.  In March I wrote an article entitled “Can We Trust the COVID-19 Scientific Community?” bit.ly/2N8yOxU

        Although skeptical, I was not ready to impugn that group’s integrity.  But less than three months later, I conclude that, like climate-change and the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, the COVID-19 community is seriously compromised.  This charge applies to certain scientists, hospitals, researchers, elected Democrat officials, medical literature, pharmaceutical firms, and health experts who have politicized or otherwise exploited COVID-19.  How so?  Let us count the ways. 

  -        The World Health Organization (WHO) consorted with China to conceal the initial impact of the Wuhan coronavirus. Properly, President Trump withdrew U.S. membership costing the organization some $440 million annually.

  -                 Many American epidemiologists openly support China’s prohibition against investigations into the Wuhan origin of the COVID-19 virus out of solidarity with the profession.  This pandering to China undermines the search for a vaccine and adds to the death count.  Could payoffs be at play here?

  -        The U.S. inaugurated nationwide lockdowns based on a now discredited 2.2 million U.S. coronavirus deaths projected by researcher Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London.  But oddly, that was 100 times his projection for the UK, even though the U.S. has only five times the UK population. That error, on which President Trump relied with concurrence of Dr. Fauci, led to national alarm and grossly overestimated hospital capacity, equipment and supply requirements.

  -        Leading COVID-19 expert, Dr. Fauci, and Democrat governors kept moving the goal posts for a return to normalcy.  Starting with just “bending the curve”, mass mitigation continued according to various timetables, including a wait for a vaccine in some quarters.  The apparent attempt to delay economic recovery until November to hurt Trump’s reelection became increasingly transparent.

  -        Two prestigious medical journals, The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine, published articles about COVID-19 based on fraudulent data that bypassed the standard peer review process.  Following objections raised by the medical community, the authors withdrew their works when they could not get the cooperation they needed from their data provider to respond to critics.

  -        Inflated death rates make the disease seem more serious than it is.  They encourage longer and more draconian mitigation practices that suppress the economy to the detriment of President Trump’s reelection.  Health officials redefined death to include comorbidities coincident with COVID-19.  Some doctors said hospital authorities forced them to classify deaths as COVID-19 against their will.  A particular motivation for hospitals is a government payment of $13,000 for each COVID-19 classified death, and $39,000 for each patient on a ventilator.  In addition, some hospitals harboring COVID-19 patients proactively admitted and comingled non-COVID patients.  What’s more, New York Governor Cuomo and other Democrat governors ordered nursing homes with non-COVID residents to accept COVID patients rather than send them to newly erected near-empty facilities.  More than 5,000 deaths occurred thereafter in New York. To induce the nursing homes to comply, Cuomo surreptitiously enabled legislation that protected the owners from legal liability in exchange for a $1 million campaign contribution.  What was the motive of these governors, hospitals and nursing homes?  Might it be to swell the death count for political and economic purposes?  Hey, they were going to die soon anyway.

  -        Johns Hopkins University epidemiologist, Jennifer Nuzzo, Democrat Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and others crusaded for social-distancing only to support an exception for Black Lives Matter protesters. Astonishingly, Nuzzo said the dangers of systemic racism exceed the virus.  So much for science.

  -        Scientists, governors and media have engaged in a concerted effort to dismiss cheap hydroxachloraquine as a COVID-19 therapeutic, despite promising trials.  Has the pharmaceutical industry orchestrated this cabal to permit the emergence of a new and much more lucrative substitute?  What’s more, the media dismiss the drug simply because President Trump supports it.  How’s that for journalism?

  -        Dr. Fauci and others support delaying school openings under the ruse of protecting children from infection and avoiding the spread to family members, despite evidence children are virtually immune to the virus.  The political goal is to keep one parent out of work to care for a child and thus hamper the economic recovery.

  -        Reticence in the COVID-19 community about certain realities is suspect.  Issues include: 1) The self-attenuation of the virus according to its genetic life cycle that one researcher says is about eight to ten weeks.  2) A considerable majority of cases are asymptomatic or involve only mild illness.  3) Asymptomatic cases do not transmit the disease. 4) Silence about indefinitely deferring a return to school, even though evidence shows the coronavirus does not affect children.  5) Studies show the ineffectiveness of lockdowns and masks.  6) The coronavirus does not spread efficiently in open air, especially in warm weather.  7) There's little mention of declining infection and death rates as aggressive testing programs identify undetected cases. This revelation would make the coronavirus seem too much like the seasonal flu.

  -        The contradictions about the effectiveness of masks.  Both Dr. Fauci and Surgeon General Jerome Adams initially dismissed the need for masks only to revert to wearing them in public in response to the political winds.

  -        The left savors the prospect of a “new normal” founded on fear mongering and resultant acquiescence to government mandates, as well as on a new reliance on government assistance.  This experience sets the stage for invoking COVID-19 again as a pretext for future malicious government interference.

  -        A unified force currently promotes an oncoming COVID-19 second wave to create alarm in the hope of blunting the reopening phase.  In fact, certain researchers project hospitalizations and deaths that are orders of magnitude beyond both actual experience in the first wave and cases identified during a reopening.  At one point, Dr. Fauci said definitively that a second wave is inevitable.  He recanted later partly based on new testing results. The left misleads by reporting new cases identified from more extensive testing are actually second wave cases.  In fact, they may be first wave cases that were not detected before the new testing regimen.

         Mistruths and omissions about the nature of the Wuhan coronavirus, its scope, its severity, projections, mitigation protocols and therapeutics, abetted by economic and political interests, contributed to a grossly misjudged cost-benefit calculus.  This has resulted in unnecessarily cratering the economy and spending several trillion dollars on stimulus.  And the left continues the artifice in an effort to stall the recovery by delaying the reopening and propagating fear about a second wave to hurt President Trump in the November election.  Indeed, like climate-change, and AIDS in the 1980s, much COVID-19 reporting skirts science in favor of self-interest.  6/18/20
  
  

• THE COMPREHENSIVE CONSERVATIVE.  I lean so far to the right, I keep falling over.  http://www.williamjdodwell.com/

• RACIAL INEQUALITY:  A VIEW FROM THE FAR-RIGHT.  The George Floyd killing initially generated a clarion call for rectifying police brutality and alleged systemic racism in law enforcement.  Then it transformed into a societal self-flagellation over racial inequality.  Here’s my contrarian view. 

  Five years ago, I wrote an article in The Comprehensive Conservative entitled, “Black Scholar Tells It Like It Is About the Race Problem”. See  bit.ly/3cVFJ

  It was a response to a public speaking engagement of Jason Riley about his then new book, “Please Stop Helping Us:  How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed”.  In my article, I discuss certain inherent limitations to black equality, and the necessity for blacks as a class to change their behavior radically to have any hope of significantly closing the social and economic gap. 6/15/20

  
  
• BEWARE THE HYPE ABOUT A COVID-19 SECOND WAVE. Democrats and leftist media have exploited the Wuhan coronavirus to destroy the economy.  Now they try to sabotage the reopening phase by hyping a second wave on the basis of reported upticks in infections.  The left hopes to extend the malaise closer to the November election to hurt Trump. 

  Increased infection mainly reflects greatly expanded testing that exposes pre-existing cases not previously identified.  Many originate in high-risk nursing homes and Native American reservations.  And, that testing reveals a radical drop in the infection rate to under 7% as the virus self-attenuates. In any case, infections are not a primary metric because the vast majority of victims have been non-contagious asymptomatic or only mildly ill.  Greater hospitalizations are more concerning, but now ample capacity and plenty of ventilators ensure a better capability to handle a spike.  Most importantly, the falling death rate, now at .4%, is de minimis.

  We now know a serious second wave can be contained by isolating the elderly and others with underlying immuno-deficiencies. Therefore, lockdowns are unnecessary. The left promotes a second wave to stifle the economy further by scaring people into staying home and by restoring lockdowns to sabotage Trump's reelection. 6/12/20

• ARE REPARATIONS NEXT?  First demands called for police reform.  Then liberals howled for defunded police departments, new social programs and expanded affirmative action, largely administered by hopelessly corrupt inner city poverty operatives.  This, all in the name of one black thug, George Floyd, killed at the hands of a sadistic white cop. Government, media and corporations now prostrate themselves to accommodate the black community in a national guilt trip about racial inequality.

  As the left pulls at America’s heart strings capitalizing on newfound empathy for black equity, it is just a matter of time before it plays its ace.  Current virtue-signaling by politicians and a commiserative citizenry could conceivably lead to reparations legislation that might be amenable to a newly sympathetic Congress.  And, in the circumstance, President Trump may feel considerable pressure to sign it, under threat of the race card, to protect his reelection chances. 

  Look for an effort to place (hide) reparations in a future COVID-19 stimulus bill. An extra trillion relative to the multiple trillions spent on blunting the impact of the coronavirus might not meet the resistance it used to amid all the mea culpas over George Floyd.  Taxpayers, watch your wallet. 6/11/20

  
  
• DEREK CHAUVIN IS A BUM. AND SO WAS GEORGE FLOYD. 

  The left capitalizes on the racial implications of George Floyd’s horrific death. But race was not necessarily a factor in the killing.  The disreputable victim is a grievance proxy by which to trigger unrelated accommodations to blacks.  Those concessions extend well beyond police reform to constitute massive capitulation and virtue-signaling by government and business.  No doubt the left will lever this incident to garner more support for reparations.

  Black Lives Matter is a front for directing government funds, most of which will be stolen and squandered by notoriously corrupt ACORN-type groups and black churches.  The funds will also finance Antifa and other violent groups aimed at destroying the social order and sabotaging Trump’s reelection in November, with the full support of Democrats.  Sadly, many cowardly Republicans and gullible citizens assent.  6/10/20

• A GREAT CONSERVATIVE GOES DOWN FOR THE COUNT
  Nine-term Congressman Steven King (R-IA) recently lost a primary challenge in a bid for reelection. Because of his "nativist" positions, particularly on immigration, the left branded him a racist, and even his own shunned him.
  
  Steve King stood up for long-standing American values. His so-called "white nationalist" statements were expressions of support for the nation's sovereignty through secure borders,. They're made in opposition to leftist forces that work to suppress the white population by changing the demographics of the country, ultimately to diminish it through consequent social divisiveness and economic decline. His comments about the serious threat of drug smuggling at the southern border, including the use of children as "mules", is an obvious truth. Everyone knows it.
  
  The problem for too many Republicans, and even conservatives, is that political correctness trumps truth. If they don't cave they become pariahs even among themselves. More concerning is how much the electorate has been intimidated and brainwashed by left-wing operatives and their media allies. Unfortunately, the politicians capitulate to get elected. Steve King was the kind of fighter we need in this radicalized environment. He'll be sorely missed.  6/9/20

  
  
• THE COMPREHENSIVE CONSERVATIVE:  Do it the right way – the right-wing way. Link to website.

• THE INMATES ARE RUNNING THE ASYLUM.  A singular act of universally condemned police brutality by a white police officer on a black offender precipitated nationwide protests of systemic racism in law enforcement. Now that grievance has grown to calls for broad racial reform.  The catalyst is a combination of peaceful protests along with violence perpetrated by organized Antifa thugs, Black Lives Matter enthusiasts, and released prison inmates, all in the name of the original police victim, George Floyd.

  Mayors and governors have told police to stand down out of fear of uncontrollable escalation, vilification by leftist media, and charges of racism.  Even some police themselves pathetically kneel in solidarity with protestors.  Many demonstrators justify looting and destruction simply because property is “replaceable”. Antifa operatives funded by George Soros and some Hollywood celebrities threaten to invade residential areas, and now even train to gouge eyes out of their victims.

  The destruction is reminiscent of urban civil rights riots in the 1960s.  Like now, violence and looting nearly leveled particular major cities, some of which never fully recovered.  Such is also the case in Ferguson, MO and Baltimore, still devastated from unrest in 2014 and 2015 following fatal altercations between white police and black perpetrators.  Also in the 1960s, anti-Vietnam War and free speech protests wreaked havoc on college campuses and elsewhere, but interestingly stopped when the military abolished the draft in 1973.  Unlike today, elected officials in the 1960s generally supported the police in using appropriate force against the rioters. But like some mayors amid current protests, cowardly college presidents cravenly caved to student demands.

  After nearly two weeks of continuous disorder including massive property damage, it appears police finally have freer reign to contain the violence, although in the face of popular and official opposition.  National Guard troops have intervened in some cities, but Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser summarily ejected them. In addition, President Trump offered military troops followed by the public disagreement of his defense secretary and some generals.

  Meanwhile, George Floyd, deplored in life, is celebrated in death.  Encomiums abound for this drug addict who spent many years in and out of prison. And corporations are once again intimidated into reassessing their policies regarding racial representation on boards and in the executive suite. The call for yet more affirmative action will create in-house tension, but large companies seem eager to placate the threatening left.  And, of course, governments promise to open check books for more social programs.

  In fact, the left is conducting an increasingly popular campaign to defund or abolish police departments by transferring their budgets to new boondoggles that inevitably will spawn corruption like the former Acorn groups under President Obama that Congress defunded.  The resultant law enforcement void could plunge cities into anarchy and set the stage for a new Marxist state coveted by the new Democrats.  An attempted coup is underway.

  Strong resistance in the streets is essential to ending the mayhem, ruffled political feathers notwithstanding.  This includes military troops as needed.  Senator Tom Cotton (R-ARK) said it best in a controversial op ed in the New York Times in which he called for military intervention:

  “One thing above all else will restore order to our streets:

                          an overwhelming show of force.”       6/8/20

• REASSESSING THE GEORGE FLOYD CASE.  There is universal outrage over the way Floyd died, and officer Derek Chauvin and his ilk must be held accountable. But mitigating factors now paint a different picture.

  Besides a record of multiple prison sentences including one for assaulting a pregnant woman, an autopsy report reveals that Floyd was high on fentanyl and had recently consumed amphetamines when apprehended.  This brings to mind the 1992 LA police encounter with Rodney King who was similarly intoxicated while resisting arrest.  The famous mass media video showing the police beating King did not show King’s preceding violence on arresting officers.  That part was enough to exonerate the cops in court.  Déjà vu?

  The obvious question from the Floyd video is why Chauvin didn’t put him in the police car.  Many presumed the cop instead engaged in wanton torture motivated by racial hatred.  But did Floyd, like King, pose a danger to cops?  While this would warrant extra manhandling, it does not justify unrelenting pressure on Floyd’s neck, which Chauvin should have known (but probably did not) was potentially lethal.

  In this context, Floyd’s death is reprehensible and demands accountability, but may no longer qualify as murder. See Candace Owens’s video at https://www.bizpacreview.com/2020/06/04/candace-owens-lights-social-media-ablaze-with-hard-hitting-confession-on-george-floyd-tragedy-929748   6/5/20

  
  
• WHAT IF GEORGE FLOYD WERE WHITE?  Protests against George Floyd’s alleged killing by white police officer Derek Chauvin are premised on the cop’s presumed racial animus.  But the real issue is undisputed police brutality.  If George Floyd were white, would there be any protests?  Probably not as this is just another chance to claim systemic racism in law enforcement.
  

  This, despite that adjudication exonerated the police in comparable incidents, including those involving Rodney King, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Eric Gardner, Freddy Gray, etc. Similarly, recall the black cheers for OJ Simpson on his baseless murder acquittal, predicated on a racially biased jury. For the protesters, were these cases about racial injustice, or defending black perpetrators no matter what? 

  Blacks engage in crime at a highly disproportionate rate relative to their numbers (13% of the population).  As such, black resistance to police action resulting in death is inevitably disproportional. Hence, the misguided perception of racial injustice.

  So, protestations about George Floyd’s death should concern police brutality, not race.  Protesters presume racial hostility motivated Chauvin. But he might have treated a white offender the same. The lesson is to weed out bad cops.  Race is irrelevant. 6/3/20

• THE COVID-19 RESPONSE:  THE GREATEST BLUNDER IN HUMAN HISTORY.

  Relying on an extremely erroneous UK statistical model that projected 2.2 million U.S. deaths from the Wuhan novel coronavirus, scientists and governments committed an unprecedented blunder. Concomitantly, nefarious Democrats and liberal media seek to level the economy to remake it in their socialist image, and sabotage President Trump’s reelection as a catalyst. Accordingly, the left promotes damaging lockdowns and other unproven restrictions costing trillions of lost revenue, tens of millions of jobs, and untold damaged lives.  

  The left stokes public fear to foster acquiescence to state mandates, even apropos of riskless children.  Leftists also capitalize on multitrillion-dollar Treasury stimulus to advance an unrelated redistributionist agenda, and to bail out profligate debt-ridden blue states.

  ALARMISTS WRONGLY FOCUS ON INFECTIONS INSTEAD OF DEATHS. CONTRACTING THE VIRUS IS LARGELY INNOCUOUS, EXCEPT FOR THE ELDERLY WITH UNDERLYING IMMUNO-DEFICIENCIES.  ALL OTHERS ARE ASYMPTOMATIC OR RECOVER.  MEANWHILE, THE MORTALITY RATE IS A FRACTION OF 1%, AS THE VIRUS ATTENUATES ON ITS OWN.  AS SUCH, GOVERNMENT SHOULD ABOLISH ALL RESTRICTIONS NOW, WHILE ENCOURAGING THE VOLUNTARY QUARANTINE OF THE ELDERLY.  5/27/20

  
  
• I WANT MY DINER BACK.  Everyone yearns to return to a favorite activity when COVID-19 passes.  For me, it’s Saturday morning breakfast at my local diner.  I pine for the bacon and eggs with assorted accessories as I sit for four hours at the end of the counter in a packed room.  With Fox News on the television before me in closed captions (at my insistence), I pour through several publications - I’m sure to the wonderment of thousands of patrons who have seen me there over the years.                                                          

  But now, still longing to get out of the house, I have to eat take-out in my car with the steering wheel in my lap.  Instead of television news, I listen to successive radio broadcasts of NY Governor Cuomo and NJ Governor Murphy giving coronavirus updates. Dropping food, spilling coffee, and clumsily maneuvering newspapers, it’s not the same experience. 

  When I get home, I spend another four hours at the grand piano, relishing the thought that, unlike breakfast, the government can’t take this away.  But I had a scare. Last week while playing, the doorbell rang.  Answering it, my wife said, “There’s a federal official here.” For what?, I asked worriedly.  “It’s the census taker.”  Whew!  5/26/20

• PERMANENT COVID-19 SOCIAL-DISTANCING AND MASKING:  A LEFTIST RUSE.  As the nation transitions from lockdown to reopening the economy, one has to question the need and effectiveness of continued social-distancing and masking to contain the spread of the Wuhan virus.  Given the miniscule statistical risk of serious illness or death in the non-vulnerable population, the economic and social costs of these practices far exceed the health risks.  As such, governments may reasonably eliminate these mitigation mandates while protecting the vulnerable elderly population, especially those in nursing homes. What’s more, the novel coronavirus is likely approaching the end of its natural lifecycle, perhaps irrespective of mitigation, as some studies indicate, especially amid warmer weather.                                                    

  • The cost-benefit calculus

    Like sheltering-in-place, the effectiveness of masking has been challenged.  See

    https://www-theblaze-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.theblaze.com/news/2020/05/15/former-neurosurgeon-masks-ineffective/amp  In fact, the CDC, the Surgeon General and Dr. Anthony Fauci himself had declared face masks ineffective before reversing themselves later when the politics intensified.

    Unlike lockdowns and masking, scientific evidence supports the effectiveness of social-distancing.  But the practice does not stand up to a cost-benefit analysis because the risk to the non-vulnerable population is so low.  The relatively few deaths and serious illnesses that occur without social-distancing do not justify the mandated economic and social sacrifices of reduced capacity in all businesses and public venues.

     Ongoing post-lockdown restrictions imposed on the non-vulnerable population will continue to throttle economic activity and suppress the quality of life unnecessarily.  Also, government mandated social-distancing and masking foster public fear that inhibits a return to normalcy by creating the perception of a disease that is more serious than it is.  The healthy should have the option to resume normal lives with no restrictions. This would contribute to a herd immunity that eventually can ward off future infection without the severe costs of mitigation measures.

    The government ruse

    Outdoor mitigation protocols and the closing of schools, whose young occupants are at virtually no risk, lack scientific validation.  But that fact flies in the face of the left’s strategy to create the impression that everyone is at serious risk forevermore. That pretext justifies continued government mandates aimed at suppressing the economy in the hope of harming Trump’s reelection chances.  In addition, exaggerating the danger facilitates long-term efforts to expand authoritarian control by which to advance the left’s socialist model. 

    Now the left wants to protract mitigation until a vaccine exists.  But that will be no panacea.  Like flu vaccines, half the population won’t get inoculated, and it likely will be ineffective for a substantial portion of those who do. When the vaccine is available the left will doubtless point out this limitation as an excuse to continue mitigation until a cure is discovered, as long as it is not the very promising Trump-endorsed hydroxychloroquine.   

    The return to normalcy

    Restoring the pre-coronavirus economy requires removing all restrictions while protecting the elderly, in conjunction with their personal responsibility. Universal mitigation is unwarranted given that singular risk group.  Continued mitigation mandates will prolong recovery indefinitely to the long-term detriment of the economy and the quality of life, and to the benefit of the left’s destructive agenda. 

    Mass refusal to comply with social-distancing and masking orders, considerably more than seen in reaction to lockdown directives, could be the solution.  Ultimately, political pressure would force government to relent, as it did to ubiquitous civil disobedience during Prohibition. 5/21/20
    
  
  
• THE LEFT’S DREAM:  COVID-19 IN PERPETUITY. Democrats and their media allies pursue their dream of a permanent COVID-19 pandemic to justify ongoing control, government stimulus and other unrelated spending.  Officials repeatedly extend mitigation protocols to condition a fearful public to a false enduring coronavirus threat. Governments mandate continued lockdown, social distancing and mask-wearing despite no scientific basis for their efficacy. And nothing is ever mentioned of the natural dissipation of the disease, already in progress, that renders mitigation and testing superfluous.  Indeed, any possible near-term fix is anathema, such as herd immunity and hydroxychloroquine.

But failed commerce is part of the left’s game plan, which is to hurt Trump’s reelection bid, and continually shift societal reliance from the private sector to government. 5/18/20     

• IS A COVID-19 SOCIAL REVOLUTION BREWING?  Growing disaffection with COVID-19 lockdown mandates has bred animosity toward elected officials that yield increasing incidents of civil disobedience.  Tyrannical governance could set the stage for massive backlash, as austerity breaks the orderly interaction between employee and employer, consumer and business, citizen and government.  Political strife intensifies as nefarious leftist forces sow distrust for government as it uses the economic shutdown and authoritarian tactics to forge a new socialist order, and derail President Trump’s reelection.

  The citizenry has become increasingly suspicious of scientific pronouncements based on bad models and manipulated death statistics.  In particular, doubts grow about the assertions, contradictions and possible political motives of one Dr. Fauci.  Is he in bed with the leftist enemy?

  Could mass social angst flowing from lost freedoms and ruined livelihoods spur a revolution akin to the Vietnam War protests of the 1960s?  Today’s authoritarian COVID-19 intervention seriously undermines the individual's enterprising legacy that undergirds the nation's prosperity. The response evidenced in protestations and acts of defiance can escalate quickly amid resistance. Is that on the horizon? 5/14/20

  
  
• RIP - BARRY FARBER CONSERVATIVE TALK SHOW HOST.  Barry Farber, longtime conservative radio talk show host, died last week at 90. His amiable manner provided a certain ballast to the fire-and-brimstone style of most right-wing broadcasters. He embellished his Southern gentleman persona with colorful language that invoked vivid, but sometimes inscrutable, similes such as “…like the June bug on the jalousie glass.”, spoken in an endearing North Carolina accent.

  Dedicated to truth, he took some positions other conservatives dare not broach.  For example, notwithstanding some injustices of the McCarthy era, he pointed out that the Wisconsin senator did a service in exposing existential communist infiltration in the U.S. government and culture.  Farber also reminded his audience of the atrocities perpetrated by Nelson Mandela against his political opponents.  To wit, he ordered “necklacing” whereby a tire was placed around an enemy’s neck and lit afire.

  Such a charismatic and volubly articulate figure was destined to run for public office.  Indeed, he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1970.  He also ran for New York City Mayor in 1977 on the Conservative line. Unfortunately, he garnered only 4% of the vote but almost beat the Republican candidate. 5/13/20

  
  
• FOX NEWS WIMPS OUT. Fox Business fired Trish Regan in March for featuring a segment on how liberal media are capitalizing on the coronavirus pandemic to damage President Trump.  She claimed the media exaggerate the seriousness of the virus and blame Trump for its cause and effects, particularly the economic fallout.

  On Sunday night Steve Hilton presented a panel to comment on the coronavirus.  Kimberly Strassel of The Wall Street Journal addressed why liberal media constantly vilify the president.  She said it was political, but offered no specific suggestion about the goal.  Neither did Hilton or the other guests broach the particular anti-Trump motive.

  Obviously, leftist media use pandemic coverage to undermine Trump’s chance of reelection in November. But Fox does not permit that storyline.  Is this the kinder, gentler Fox hatched by the Murdoch kid?  The restraint seems right out of the political correctness rulebook that proscribes questioning one’s motive, or judging another.  Or, perhaps Fox is loath to entertain conspiracy theories, as if there could never be a legitimate one.

  Fox’s core audience wants kick-ass right-wing content.  The network’s refusal to expose the truly sinister motives of its leftist counterparts is an affront to that constituency.  5/12/20

  
  
• AMERICA, START YOUR ENGINES.  END COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS NOW. 

Liberal delay tactics

The left is trying to prolong COVID-19 lockdowns as much as possible to hurt President Trump in the November election.  Leftist celebrities en masse promote staying indoors. Democrats and the liberal media ignore studies that challenge the efficacy of lockdowns.  They also vigorously oppose the very promising prospects of hydroxychloroquine that might inconveniently end the pathogen quickly.  Mysteriously, even Dr. Fauci is a naysayer, despite his past praises for the drug as a treatment for corona viruses.  Governors move the goalposts for reopening the economy from bending the curve, to fourteen days of consecutive declines in deaths, to maximum testing for infection, to completion of contact tracing, to waiting for a supposedly imminent vaccine. Lockdown advocates emphasize the danger of a second outbreak which inhibits austerity relaxation. With no scientific basis liberals even speak of a “new normal” to condition the citizenry to a permanent pall over social and economic life that lends itself to ongoing government control.  This socialist mindset underlies the Democrat craving for evermore government stimulus to further the left’s agenda, virus related or not.

Liberals carp about President Trump’s mismanagement of the pandemic, particularly the testing programs.  In fact, impracticable universal testing and associated contact tracing as a condition for restarting the economy conveniently deter a return to normality.  The media promote fear mongering about the danger of prematurely reopening the economy, even saying Trump will kill people by taking that risk.  Anything to delay economic recovery before the election and otherwise tarnish Trump to influence the vote. Fortunately, continued lockdowns are producing a growing backlash to the detriment of Democrat governors.

Inflated death counts

Death tolls are inflated by expanded definitional criteria, including co-morbidity factors, which exaggerate the impact of the disease.  Media mislead the public by reporting a mortality rate of about 7% of infections, ignoring valid extrapolations to account for the untested that suggest a real rate of just a fraction of 1%, comparable to seasonal flu.  Media rarely report about inflated deaths caused by deliberate misclassifications by hospitals induced by extra Medicare payments that slow the flattening the curve and reopening the economy.  Hospitals get $13,000 for each COVID-19 related death and an additional $39,000 for use of a ventilator, which sports an 80% fatality rate.

The cure is worse than the disease

The economic and social costs of lockdown far exceed the dubious benefit of risk mitigation, especially considering exaggerated death rates.  At this point the virus is waning on its own and probably becoming less potent.  What’s more, it may have been resistant to mitigation all along.  Nonetheless, the most vulnerable population must be protected, i.e.,  the elderly, especially those in nursing homes.  In addition, certain precautions are still warranted in the New York metropolitan epicenter.  Officials can closely monitor signs of a second wave of infections and act upon it immediately given appropriate preparations.

With that caveat, largely politically motivated restrictions should be lifted now and everyone should be allowed to act according to his risk appetite. People will continue to die, albeit at a declining rate, as the virus is powerful to be sure.  But now we know the price of the disease is consistent with past scourges and that expectations of Armageddon are unfounded.  America, start your engines.  5/11/20  

• COVID-19 ABATES ON ITS OWN, SO HOW IMPORTANT IS MITIGATION?  4/28/20 http://www.williamjdodwell.com/special-notice-16/special-notice-20/special-notice-21/special-notice-22/special-notice-23/special-notice-24/special-notice-25/special-notice-26/special-notice-27/special-notice-28/special-notice-29/special-notice-30/special-notice-31/special-notice-32

• ·LEFTIST BASTIONS SEEK COVID-19 STIMULUS MONEY.  It is so satisfying to see ultra-rich Marxist universities and well-off publicly-traded companies shamed into returning coronavirus stimulus funds.  Waiting for the next round of handouts are media companies, and state and local governments.

  The media industry seeks aid to compensate for ad revenues decimated by COVID-19.  It laughably justifies the help by their (selective) stewardship of the First Amendment. Ninety-percent of journalists are avowed liberals. All local papers today are owned by large leftist media organizations that mime the politics of the New York Times. That gold standard has become a vapid hodgepodge of climate-change, diversity, inequality, #Metoo , and LGBT. The only honest content in local papers are the obituaries. Taxpayers must not fund these propagandists.

  Spendthrift Democratic state and local governments also arrive at the federal trough.  They too need to cover tax revenue shortfalls resulting from coronavirus-related unemployment and business shutdowns.  If successful, they don’t have to cut bloated payrolls and outsize unfunded pension liabilities, or worry about raising taxes on a shrinking tax base.   

  Republicans in Congress must not cave to these pillars of the left.  Let them eat cake!  4/24/20

  
  
• NEW STUDY:  COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS ARE NOT EFFECTIVE.  See
  http://www.williamjdodwell.com/special-notice-16/special-notice-20/special-notice-21/special-notice-22/special-notice-23/special-notice-24/special-notice-25/special-notice-26/special-notice-27/special-notice-28/special-notice-29/special-notice-30/special-notice-31

• THE LEFT WANTS TO DESTROY THE ECONOMY.  The left wants to prolong the Chinese coronavirus lockdowns to maximize economic damage they hope will kill the president’s reelection bid.  Indeed, mass media are in lockstep in opposition to re-opening the economy.

  Leftists work to inflate death rates by ignoring comorbidity factors, thus justifying continued mitigation. The left also is united in opposing the promising hydroxochloroquine which possibly could end the pandemic almost overnight.  In addition, the left is monolithically critical of Trump’s every move, while trying to drive a wedge between the president and his health advisers.  The current mantra claims Trump did not act soon enough, even though mass media dismissed the threat early on.  Democrats try to exploit the crisis by forcing into aid packages liberal policies that failed in past legislation.

  Leftists dream of continuing austerity right up to the election, preventing Trump’s effective rallies in the process.  But there are indications the virus is abating.  In fact, a new Israeli report claims it has only a six to eight week life span regardless of mitigation measures. This means all restrictions could be lifted soon allowing for significant economic recovery before the election, and for plenty of Trump rallies.  4/16/20

  
  
• COVID-19 FINANCE:  A REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT.  See  April 13, 2020        COVID-19 Finance:  A Review and Assessment
  
  
  

• GOOD PROSPECTS FOR ECONOMIC RECOVERY.  Once the COVID-19 threat is over, the stage may be set for a robust economic recovery that could restore pre-crisis prosperity fairly shortly, albeit not without fits and starts.  Unlike past recessions, the current malaise occurred on the heels of good economic fundamentals in respect of employment, consumption, production, housing and inflation. And unprecedented government assistance will sustain workers and small businesses through the storm.

  Some expect massive pent up demand to fuel a full recovery.  However, there is some uncertainty about the timing of demand and supply coming into balance.  This will depend on coordinated re-hiring, spending, and business investment amid renewed consumer and business confidence.

  The price is unexpected trillions added to the national debt and tens of billions of unrelated wasteful spending, some of which will be baked into the budget baseline for years. What’s more, already overleveraged companies will be further indebted from government credit facilities. In addition, a possible doubling of the Fed’s inflated balance sheet from new crisis lending and additional quantitative easing will further complicate a normalization of ultra-low interest rates still distorted from the Great Financial Crisis. 4/8/20

• DR. FAUCI IS A COVID-19 FRAUD.  Why does President Trump not replace Dr. Fauci with another prominent spokesperson from the scientific community who would rebut the COVID-19 propaganda aimed at sabotaging the economic reopening and undermining his reelection?  Mysteriously, Dr. Fauci, who is corroborative or reticent about the misinformation, has been the only superstar speaking on behalf of the Administration.  A few dissenting rank and file scientists have appeared sporadically in the media, but Trump needs the regular presence of a stellar naysayer of Fauci’s stature before he was corrupted. 

An esteemed expert under the auspices of the president must expose the truth and repudiate the fallacies spread by the media to allay the fear that deters an economic recovery.

-        The oft-cited number of infection cases is not important. As such, the emphasis on testing and contact tracing that multiplies the count is misguided, except for computing an accurate fatality rate. But the left promotes a current surge as a pretext to roll back economic reopenings.  The virus cannot be contained substantially by its nature and even intensifies indoors such as during lockdowns.  Most Americans probably have been exposed without consequence.  The vast majority of confirmed cases are asymptomatic or only mildly ill.  Children are virtually immune and do not spread the disease. The elderly as the principal risk group by far should be the focus. (80% of deaths have been over 65.)

-        Only rates of hospitalization and deaths are significant indices of COVID-19 severity.  Heretofore, fatalities are commensurate with the seasonal flu.

-        COVID-19 deaths are inflated by co-morbidities and an expanded definition that now encompasses not only confirmed cases, but also those having only coronavirus symptoms, or contact with one who has tested positive. For example, one report cites a sample of seventeen cases of which only one tested positive. In addition, some have suggested that Democrat governors are incented to occasion deaths to save on Medicaid costs.

-        Hospitalizations are inflated by government financial incentives to use ventilators and classify deaths as COVID-19 related. In addition, hospitals are admitting many mildly sick patients and extending their stays unnecessarily.  This is to shore up profits by maximizing capacity utilization.  The current faux surge in hospitalizations contributes to public hysteria the left tries to promote.

• THE COMPREHENSIVE CONSERVATIVE

He’s a table-pounding, fire-breathing, bomb-throwing, frothing-at-the-mouth right-wing zealot who scares liberals into silence (and some conservatives too).