This week in pictures - Virginian edition

Why is there panic over the latest brand of flu?

Coronavirus is roughly similar to the flu that recurs annually, like the seasons. 

Why the panic? 

Part of it is driven by a press that thrives and makes money out of scaring us.  But there's another reason.

A lot of the fear comes directly from the loss of trust in institutions. The press, WHO, the official authorities are no longer implicitly believed by everyone. This is the cost of deceit. When you finally tell the truth your cred is gone.

— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) February 27, 2020

The institutions that once had credibility have squandered it by lying to us for too long.   Our Ruling Class is the worst in history.

Roger Kimball: Donald Trump vs corona hysteria

The most recent access to the madness of crowds was sparked by the coronavirus — China’s latest gift to the world. The hysteria over this flu-like ailment has been building for weeks. It finally took hold of the US markets on Monday, precipitating a panicked sell-off and creating a slew of bargains for people in the market to buy.

No one knows exactly how far or how fast the coronavirus will spread. Nor does anyone yet know what its toll will be. China did not help matters by its initial secrecy and posture of denial. But those Chicken-Little-like hobbits shouting ‘the sky is falling, the sky is falling’ should pause to catch their breath. There is a lot we do not know about this virus and a vaccine is likely a good year way. But those predicting ­— at times, their eagerness makes it seem they are hoping for — something as deadly (and newsworthy: ratings, my dear, ratings!) as the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 (when some 50 million were killed) are likely to be disappointed.

No sooner had news of the virus emerged than the left tried to weaponize it against Donald Trump. But his response to this apparent medical emergency has been magnificent. At first, the media condemned him for taking swift action to stop flights from places, like China, where the infection was rife and growing. ‘Can you believe it? Trump restricted flights from China. What a racist!’

Then, as more and more cases were reported and the markets turned sour, they berated him for not doing enough. ‘Why did you only ask Congress for $2.5 billion? Chuck Schumer said you should have $8.5 billion!’

Anyone wanting to see what patient leadership in action looks like should watch the president’s press conference Wednesday on coronavirus. He did what a leader should do. He reassured people. He presented the facts, so far as we know them. He outlined the many actions his administration was taking to mitigate danger and the various contingency plans should the disease worsen or spread more than we currently expect.

The president called on medical experts to explain various aspects of the situation. He was calm but serious, cautious but optimistic. The danger to the US at present, he pointed out several times, is very low. Currently, he said, there are 15 confirmed cases here. Fifteen. Most patients are recovering; one is in a serious condition. He also highlighted that every year, the flu claims anywhere from 25,000 to 60-odd thousand lives.

Read the whole thing.

Ukraine Launches CRIMINAL Proceedings Against Joe Biden Over Firing of Prosecutor Viktor Shokin

In January fired Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin filed an official complaint against Joe Biden for interference in Ukraine’s legal proceedings.

And today Ukraine launched criminal proceedings against former US Vice-President Joe Biden on allegations he pressured authorities into forcing the resignation of Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Viktor Shokin, Interfax-Ukraine news agency reports, quoting Shokin’s lawyer.

Media Ethics and the Trump-Russia Leak Wars

The common thread in all this bad Trump-Russia journalism is easily discernible: The media has surrendered its ethical responsibilities in order to be a conduit for airing anonymous, often-unverified accusations of rival political factions. But only one faction: the one opposed to Trump.

The upshot is that any attentive newspaper reader has reason suspect an agenda lurks behind the anonymous sources that have come to dominate political coverage....

If there are any self-respecting reporters still left in Washington, they’ll tell you what’s going on isn’t reporting – it’s leaks all the way down.

Bernie Sanders Takes Quiet Moment To Seek Advice From Portraits Of His Favorite Dictators

Babylon Bee

NORTH HERO, VT—After another long few weeks out on the campaign trail, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders finally got a few minutes to take a break at one of his three homes.

This particular home, his quaint, $600,000 lakeside mansion, has one of Sanders' favorite rooms in all of his homes: a "Hall of Dictators," where he hangs portraits of his favorite totalitarian despots.

"Hello there, fellas," Sanders said as he closed the door behind him. "I hope I'm doin' you proud, guys."

Read the whole thing.  

The Rebranding of Socialism as 'Democratic Socialism'

As we approach this year’s elections, the purveyors of socialism have tried to rebrand their product by calling it “democratic socialism.” The sales force and marketing department of democratic socialism, the Democratic Party, and the mainstream media, are plying a new fairy tale that democratic socialism is nothing like socialism. No siree, nothing like it, they sing in chorus. The chorus, however, is badly out of tune. Democratic socialism is not the wonderland of inclusiveness, social justice, equality, and happiness it is advertised to be. It will not end human exploitation and it will not save the planet. It is still socialism, just with a new name. Socialism has never worked for any nation and it will not work in this country, even with a new name.

Never forget the media's blind eye to Obama's corruption

Remember the "not a hint of corruption" lie?  The list of corruption is long but you won't read about it in the MSM.

The Virginian Pilot’s got to Virginian Pilot; a parody of a paper.

The Virginian Pilot’s got to Virginian Pilot; becoming a parody of a paper.

The headline is devoted to the death of a 101-year-old who’s a threeper: a black woman mathematician.  

The rest of the front page is devoted to the Global Warming scam.

Page 2 advertises Bernie Sanders’ coming to Virginia Beach in anticipation of Super Tuesday.

There follows an article on a public official charged with fraud.  

To make sure we don’t forget that all white people are irredeemable racists we have the photo and brief bio of the first Black man to attend – but not graduate – from Virginia Tech.  Other than the race of the individual we are left to guess why this article was written.

Finally, on page 4 we have an article about President Donald Trump’s historic visit to India which give the Associated Press writers the opportunity to sneer at the President and First Lady.

having read more of this skinny tabloid than is my usual habit, I then turned to the comics page which, in my opinion, is more grounded in truth and reality than the rest of the Virginia Pilot.

Mark Stey's Obituary to the IPCC Head who Headed the Global Warming Scam

The Warmographic Novelist who Got #CO-Tooed Rajendra Pachauri, 1940-2020

 

 

Excerpt:

for those supplicants before authority who insist that you can't pronounce on global warming unless you're a bona fide climatologist, that Dr Pachauri was, in fact, a graduate of the Indian Railways Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. That's to say, he was not a climatologist but a railroad engineer. So, if he ever availed himself of a free half-hour with a Danish hooker during that Copenhagen conference, I'm sure, like the Bombay to Cochin express, he pulled out on time.

In other words, he was a near parodically perfect choice to preside over the multi-trillion-dollar shakedown of the global economy that is "climate change". For one thing, Dr Pachauri had one of the largest carbon footprints in human history, bigger even than Al Gore's. He was in favor of "hefty aviation taxes" to "deter people from flying," but, fortunately for him, once you're part of the transnational jet-set nothing can deter you. He flew 443,243 miles on "IPCC business" in the year-and-a-half run-up to Copenhagen. I'm not sure whether that definition of "IPCC business" included his two weekend round trips from New York back to Delhi, once for a cricket match, once for a mere practice session for a cricket match.

Did anyone of the "experts" who want you to ride a bus and live under a government "carbon allowance" that permits you and Auntie Mabel one flight to Florida every three years query whether Dr Pachauri's presence at that cricket practice was so vital as to justify a 15,000-mile round-trip? That sound you hear is cricketers chirping.

As always with Steyn, it's worth it to read the whole thing.

Pelosi Disrespects American Heroes

Pelosi’s staff is attacking this video as disinformation that Twitter should censor

It is neither https://t.co/o4IGaG2pr3

— NSC Cleaning Crew Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) February 8, 2020

The Media Hates Democracy

The extent to which the media and their approved talking heads sincerely believe that an unelected national security bureaucracy should be deciding policy & running the country over the elected President is truly disturbing.

Before Trump, I didn't realize how bad it really was. https://t.co/Z9tnn7BBTE

— Andrew Surabian (@Surabees) February 7, 2020

Chris Matthews on Socialism

Chris Matthews laying it down.

Socialism is an issue in this campaign.

He doesn’t like socialism and “it doesn’t frickin’ work!”

pic.twitter.com/gRj8GDJztn

— Tim Murtaugh - Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TimMurtaugh) February 8, 2020

Democrats want free healthcare for illegal immigrants and felons to be voting from their cells

it used to be over-the-top parody to say that Democrats want free healthcare for illegal immigrants and felons to be voting from their cells

it’s now a consensus position among their leading Presidential candidates https://t.co/FunS4UQGJR

— Logan Dobson (@LoganDobson) February 8, 2020

Trump's Power Doubles After Absorbing Impeachment Attack

It's almost impossible to stay ahead of satire when the issue is Trump and the Democrats.

"Impeachment attack, go!!!" she cried as she unleashed a blue energy beam at Trump's chest -- a desperate, final gambit to impeach him forever and remove him from office.

But Pelosi was horrified as Trump only absorbed the attack, feeding on its power.

"Ha. Ha ha. Ha ha ha HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!" he cackled as he gained more and more power from the impeachment attack. "Foolish mortals! Every attack only makes me stronger!"

Trump then drew on all his newfound power to create chaos at the Iowa primaries, cause himself to be acquitted, and force Pelosi to have a mental breakdown, all in the same week

Going, Going. Gone

The credibility of the mainstream press establishment is shimmering into nothingness, like the last bit of winter snow after a week of warm spring days; just as our respect and trust for such federal bureaucracies and establishments like the FBI are similarly evaporating. While acknowledging and accepting that such establishments are operated by mere mortals, with all the weaknesses and moral failings that ordinary human beings are heir to, and grudgingly accepting the understanding that the establishment news media trends strongly to the left in political sympathies … look, we can accept all that and a certain degree of human bias, but what’s getting hard to swallow of late is the sheer, mind-numbing, flaming incompetence of them all. Which might be a blessing, for terrifying competence on the part of our current Ruling Class and their minions would make protesting or opposing them that much more difficult. Instead, as Kirk so memorably put it last week,

“What we have is, instead, an aristocracy of dunces, men and women who tell the rest of us how smart they are, and then screw up the entirety of civilization based on fantasies they’ve come up with. The rest of us need to start recognizing that the emperor not only isn’t wearing any clothes, he’s drunk off his ass and waving his wing-wang in our faces. The people who’ve flim-flammed their way into power are all dangerously inept and terminally deluded. If you doubt me, open your eyes and look around yourself: Is there anything, anything at all that these soi-disant “elites” have gotten right in the last century? Anything at all?”

I have to admit that I supported the Republican part of this "establishment" in part because the Democrats were undoubtedly worse.  In part I allowed myself to be deluded (McCain, Romney). But the Never-Trump part of the Right has self-identified as deranged poltroons.  The curtain has been ripped in two and the fakery, the genuine incompetence and venality has been exposed.   And it was due to one man who the establishment could not destroy or dominate.  God really does work in mysterious ways with imperfect tools.  Thanks be to God.

State of the Union . . . and the 2020 Race

Trump’s State of the Union speech — very good. Pelosi’s toddler-like tantrum at the end — priceless.

Last night was not a normal state of the union speech. It was the opening of Trump’s reelection campaign for 2020. On one hand were Trump’s laundry list of accomplishments. On the other were the failures of progressive policies, few of which Trump left unskewered, and in particular the economic and regulatory policies of the “past administration.” Along the way, Trump threw red meat to conservatives on the 2nd Amendment, abortion and religion; he took more than a few swings at left wing shibboleths, such as late term abortion and sanctuary cities.

One can rate how well Trump has done by the degree to which he drives the left into fits of insanity. By the end, he had Crazy Nancy acting out like a two year old.

Read the whole thing.

Pelosi Defends Ripping Up Trump's Speech, Saying It Was Just A 'Clump Of Cells'

Babylon Bee

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Nancy Pelosi has been criticized for tearing up President Trump's speech after the State of the Union since immature behavior is almost completely unheard of among politicians.

But Pelosi has stuck by her actions, saying that tearing things up comes naturally to Democrats, whether those things are speeches about America and patriotism or unborn babies.

"What difference does it make?" she asked in her response after Democrats figured out how to operate the video camera. "It's just a clump of paper cells, no biggie. In no way is this representative of our hate for America."

"We need to tear the speech up to see what's in it."

Planned Parenthood applauded the tearing up of the speech, pointing out that the ripping of the paper was very similar to the procedure used to tear an unborn baby from his or her mother limb from limb. "It's great that in 2020, elected officials can finally demonstrate a late-term abortion procedure live on camera," said a PP spokesperson. "We are no longer living in the barbaric dark ages."

Best SOTU in my memory

Reagan set the standard. 

Trump exceeded it. 

With a little help from Nancy Pelosi who disgraced herself and her party.

Praying for Rush Limbaugh's health.

No one trusts a liar

This comment goes to a much, much, much larger problem in our political commentariat. These people truly don’t understand electoral politics. They don’t understand what registers with voters and what doesn’t. A couple of outlets are still persisting in their daily counts of the number of ‘lies’ they think Trump has told seemingly ignorant of the obvious fact that a) no one trusts them and b) Trump’s penchant for hyperbole is accepted as a part of his persona. (One would have thought that after they tried to fact-check Ronald Reagan to death and routinely declared things that he said about the economy and welfare and defense to be lies, that they would have learned that an institution that is widely viewed to be populated by liars loses the ability to put that label on anyone else.) They don’t even understand that politicians would rather not engage in high stakes questioning by reporters if they can avoid it.

Super Bowl Wrapping Itself in the American Flag

Trump wins bigly.

Uh-Oh: Sanders Campaign Texting 'Gulag For You' To People Who Aren't Voting For Bernie

Babylon Bee reaches the lopgical conclusion about Bernie's plans after his election ...

"This campaign is all about equality," Sanders said. "We do not condone the actions of these few volunteers, and we commit to sending all dissenters to the gulags equally."

Well, that's a relief! We'll also state for the record that we're big fans of Bernie and we welcome our new commie overlords.

Related:

‘Walls Are Closing In’ on the Democrats

The "walls are closing in" we were told endlessly by the liars in the Press.  But despite frantic and ceaseless efforts on the part of the Swamp dwellers, they never did.  No Russian collusion.  No abuse of power.  No obstruction of Congress.   And Donald Trump is going to be acquitted of the latest harebrained scheme to remove him from office by the Senate.

But there was a conspiracy cooked up by the Obama Administration, and the MSM to overturn the 2016 election.  And it used illegal means.

Roger Kimball makes a few worthwhile suggestions as to how this kind of conspiracy against the American people can be discouraged.

Schumer’s contention that the president’s acquittal (which he now implicitly acknowledges is a foregone conclusion) will be “meaningless,” coupled with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s insistence that the “stain” of impeachment will “forever” be attached to the name of Donald Trump, prompts me to suggest a few courses of action the president might take in his second term (some parts of which might be started even now).

First, to discourage such frivolous, wholly partisan efforts to overturn the results of a free, open, and democratic election, people who have committed felonies by leaking classified material or lying under oath should be prosecuted. A dozen or so indictments would have a clarifying and salutary effect.

I’d start with a few of the women who perjured themselves when lying about Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings. I’d follow up with some people involved in the “Russian collusion” hoax. And I’d finish by looking into Representative Adam Schiff’s (D-Calif.) and Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman’s claim that they did not know the “whistleblower” (Eric Ciaramella) and also into who leaked information from John Bolton’s memoir and revenge drama.

Second, as for removing the “stain” of impeachment, I propose that when the House flips to the Republicans again next year, a bill be introduced rescinding President Trump’s impeachment and publicly exonerating him of any and all wrongdoing.

Third, since the media as well as the Democrats (pardon the pleonasm) clearly enjoy the spectacle of impeachment, I suggest that Barack Obama retroactively be impeached, not for anything as mealy-mouthed as “obstruction of Congress” but for aiding and abetting America’s enemies by shoveling billions of dollars to the Iranian mullahs.

Other charges doubtless will be forthcoming when U.S. Attorney John Durham begins handing down indictments in the “Russian collusion” ruse and we have hard evidence that the attempted soft coup against Donald Trump was an explicit creature of Obama’s Administration. I’ve bought stock in popcorn companies in anticipation of this entertainment.

Here's a prediction.  And it's based on the incredible success of Trump during his three years in office despite the opposition of every power broker and interest group in DC.  I predict that Trump will get his revenge in his second term, and it will be awesome.  

Democrats’ Election Strategy: Call Everyone A Moron

Great headline, and so true.

Democrats may have abandoned their overtly racist tactics of the past, but their goals remain the same: divide to conquer.

That may work in small pockets, but nationwide it is a recipe for disaster. “You’re a racist, now vote for me” or “You’re a moron, now vote for me” may resonate well on CNN or when spoken about others in the third person at high-dollar fundraisers on the coasts, but they aren’t slogans that will win you many votes from the rest of the nation in between.

While a “news” story entitled, “Coronavirus task force another example of Trump administration's lack of diversity,” sounds great in the echo chamber of a CNN staff meeting, you’d have difficulty finding anyone sane who gives a damn about the race of their doctor when they’re sick. No one with a heart condition is walking out of the office of the best heart surgeon in the world because their skin color isn’t “diverse” enough.

But this seems to be what Democrats are pinning their 2020 hopes on – that people will ignore or discount how good they have it because “Orange Man Bad.” It seems unlikely that people they need votes from will, after 4 years of being called racist, sexist, homophobic, fat, stupid, rubes controlled by their fear, will go out and support candidates who promise to reverse the gains they’ve made under the Trump administration and embrace the policies crippling economies from Venezuela to France. But Democrats are going to try. Good luck with that.