One Week Before the Election, the New Yorker Mentioned the 25th Amendment — But Only for Donald Trump; With Joe Biden, There Is Nothing to Fear

We May Need the 25th Amendment, wrote the New Yorker one week before the election, but only for Donald Trump; with Joe Biden, there is nothing to worry about. (Welcome, Instapundit  readers.)

Before getting to Sleepy Joe, needless to say, Jeannie Suk Gerson spends eight long paragraphs discussing why 25 applies primarily to Trump, who is a psychopath comparable, she suggests at one point, to… Hitler and Stalin. Furthermore, her history of the 25th "in temporary and limited ways" invokes Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, and George W Bush, but not a single Democrat. 

As it turns out, Joe Biden's health, mental or otherwise, is nothing to worry about. All the fears you may have about him are due to nothing more serious than a "lifelong stutter."

The only reason to fear for a candidate's mental health is if — as expected (sic) — Trump loses, Jeannie Suk Gersen says, because then

the period between November 3rd and Inauguration Day, on January 20th, is likely to be “the most dangerous moment” in his Presidency. “What does a malignant narcissistic person do when they’re enraged?” [John Gartner, a Duty to Warn psychologist] said. “They want to act out in an aggressive and sadistic way, to regain their sense of power.”

If you can stomach reading them, here are some excerpts from the New Yorker article:

Throughout the past four years, there has been chatter about Donald Trump’s mental health and stability, but little political will to make use of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution, which allows Congress to deem a President “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” and remove him from power. … The news that he was medicated with the steroid dexamethasone, used for seriously ill covid-19 patients, also alarmed many because its known side effects include aggression, agitation, and “grandiose delusions”—behaviors that, judging from the President’s Twitter account, at least, he already seemed to exhibit.

 … Section four of the Twenty-fifth Amendment provides two distinct avenues for removing a President against his will. In one, the Vice-President joins with a majority of the Cabinet to send Congress a written declaration that the President is unable to serve. In the other, the Vice-President does so along with a majority of “such other body as Congress may by law provide.”

 … The questioning of Trump’s fitness has persisted throughout his Presidency, as members of his party and his close associates fed the narrative of a deteriorating mind. In 2017, then Senator Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee who was then the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, called the White House an “adult day care center”; he went on to say, “I know for a fact that every single day at the White House, it’s a situation of trying to contain him.” In “A Warning,” published in 2019, an anonymous senior Trump official reported: “He stumbles, slurs, gets confused, is easily irritated, and has trouble synthesizing information, not occasionally but with regularity.” Similarly to Corker, the Administration official added that working with Trump was “like showing up at the nursing home at daybreak.” Other senior officials have said that Trump, who is seventy-four, appeared to be suffering from some form of dementia. Trump’s former White House adviser Omarosa Newman stated in her book “Unhinged,” in 2018, that Trump’s “mental decline could not be denied.” Trump’s former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said, in 2019, that Trump “has declining mental faculties.”

Others, including Trump’s niece Mary L. Trump, a clinical psychologist, have said that Trump’s behavior shows the symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder. A number of mental-health experts have also suggested that he may suffer from malignant narcissism, a term that was coined by the psychologist Erich Fromm, in 1964, in order to describe Hitler and Stalin. John Gartner, the psychologist who spearheaded the Duty to Warn movement in 2017 and has advocated removing Trump through the Twenty-fifth Amendment, told me that malignant narcissism is a “psychiatric condition that makes you evil,” combining narcissism (which features the extremes of poor self-esteem and distorted self-enlargement), paranoia (which Gartner sees in “the crazy conspiracy theories, sense of victimization, and demonization of minorities”), psychopathy (“lying and exploiting people”), and sadism. The condition is considered dangerous because the combination of aggression, suspiciousness, lack of empathy, and a fragile ego might result in vindictive and destructive acts when the sufferer is wounded. Shortly before Trump’s impeachment trial, in February, more than eight hundred mental-health professionals signed a letter to Congress, warning that “failing to monitor or to understand the psychological aspects” of humiliating Trump “could lead to catastrophic outcomes.”

Trump has repeatedly flipped the conversation about mental deterioration onto his opponent, who many have claimed also shows signs of senility. At a March rally, Trump said, of Biden, “They’re going to put him in a home, and other people are going to be running the country.” Talk of Biden’s mental decline began during the Democratic primary campaign last year, as other candidates observed that Biden garbled sentences, misspoke, and failed to finish trains of thought in some debates. (Biden has spoken about having a lifelong stutter.)

Last spring, Bernie Sanders’s surrogates and supporters promoted the hashtag #WhereIsJoe, implying that Biden’s campaign was keeping him out of sight to hide mental infirmity. Glenn Greenwald, founder of the Intercept and an outspoken Sanders supporter, tweeted that “the steadfast, wilful refusal of Dem political & media elites to address what is increasingly visible to the naked eye — Biden’s serious cognitive decline — is frightening.” Biden, who has said he would not seek a second term as President, released his physician’s report that he is healthy and “fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency” but offered nothing specific about his cognitive health.

 … As Frank Bruni put it, in the Times, “Please tell me why I should care whether Joe Biden is declining mentally when Donald Trump bottomed out morally long ago.”

Trailing Biden in polls, Trump has continually triggered shock waves around election integrity, claiming election fraud, attacking confidence in the process’s legitimacy, urging his supporters to “go into the polls and watch very carefully,” and, most alarmingly, at times refusing to commit to a peaceful transfer of power. (When pressed by NBC News’s Savannah Guthrie in mid-October, he did commit to a peaceful transfer of power.) If, as seems likely, voters deliver a loss for Trump, the Twenty-fifth Amendment comes into different focus, as an essential support to the democratic electoral process rather than an end run around it. In the event that the President’s mental state leads him to try to circumvent the election result in order to stay in power, having Congress remove him via the Twenty-fifth Amendment as “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” would be as legitimate a function of constitutional democracy as can be imagined.

John Gartner, the Duty to Warn psychologist, told me that, if Trump loses the election, the period between November 3rd and Inauguration Day, on January 20th, is likely to be “the most dangerous moment” in his Presidency. “What does a malignant narcissistic person do when they’re enraged?” Gartner said. “They want to act out in an aggressive and sadistic way, to regain their sense of power.” He compared the voting public to “the abused spouse” who finally says to the abuser, “We’re going to leave you. We’re kicking you out of the house. Come January, we’re packing your bags. Well, what does he do then?” During that transition, it might be most important to have the Twenty-fifth Amendment at the ready. As for Biden’s mental health, Gartner declined to say that there were no signs of cognitive decline. But, referring to Donald Winnicott’s notion of the “good enough mother,” he deemed Biden “the good enough President.”

What Nobody Tells You About the Alamo and the Texas Revolution of the 1830s

Between Bryan Preston, Stephen Green, and Mark Tapscott, along with Mark Pulliam, Instapundit has had a field day — and rightly so — defending the Alamo against woke history.

The Texas State Historical Association’s chief historian wants us to forget the Alamo and view its defenders — and their supporters now — as racists. Walter Buenger, Ph.D. and TSHA chief historian, recently slammed the Alamo as an insignificant battle then and a monument to white supremacy now. The facts don’t support that at all.

Indeed. As it happens, I should like to add my voice by reprinting here my answer to a question on Quora (What is the most little known fact about the Battle of the Alamo?). 

Actualización: Bienvenidos, lectores de Instapundit.

Here goes:

The problem with the Left, international as well as American, is that they obsess so much over every sin, real or alleged, of the United States, going berserk over American/Western guilt, that they leave other nations — and their citizens — totally unscathed from the minutest amount of criticism, all the while ignoring basic historical facts. 

In the leftist telling, for instance (as well as that of La Raza), Mexico is seen as the sacred territory of the Mexican people, the target of the greedy eyes of los gringos who were allegedly nothing but despicable traitors to their country (Mexico), while single-minded Mexicans living in perfect peace are seen as the blameless victims of the Texans (and the imperialistic Anglo-Americans) wishing to introduce slavery to their region. 

That simplistic picture is leaving out a whole lot of information. 

La revolución started in 1835, but not in Texas alone, and — can you answer this question — following what event? There is this little overlooked detail of a Mexican leader overthrowing the constitution (yes, that would be the… very document outlawing slavery) and becoming a de facto dictator. 

Why is that important? Because what do you think happened after news of the revolt reached Mexico City? Did Antonio López de Santa Anna gather his legions and march north — while patriotic Mexicans throughout the country cheered or gleefully joined the army as it marched northward to put down la revolución? 

No, el padre de la patria did not march north, on the (self-declared) Republic of Texas. He marched North-West, towards… the (self-declared) Republic of Zacatecas — where his army put down the first, the very first (!), of the revolts that broke out throughout Mexico upon his seizing of power. Like the Alamo and Goliad later on, the city of Zacatecas became a bloodbath. 

In fact, like its neighbor up North, Mexico has always been a federation of constituent states (the United Mexican States is the federation’s official name) — and in the 1830s, there were 19 to 20 estados in los Estados Unidos Mexicanos (just like there were 24 to 26 states in the neighboring United States of America at the time; FYI, 180 years later, there are 31 estados in Mexico while there are 50 states in the USA). 

In 1835, there was not a revolt only in Tejas, but in as many as 11 (!) of Mexico’s estados (some striving for a return to la Constitución of 1824, others striving for full-out independence), i.e., more than half of them. 

After the plunder of Zacatecas, Santa Anna indeed marched northward — putting down more or less small revolts all along his path to Tejas. One reason for his relatively easy victories was… the lack of weapons in the hands of the citizenry. (In 1834, the civic militia had been — conveniently — disarmed by… guess which Mexican leader; si, señoras y señores, t’is none other than Santa Anna prior to his coup d'état…) 

All the attempted revolts failed, except one: those of the Yanqui English-speakers in the future Lone Star state. (Gracias, Second Amendment.) 

Within three or four years of the Battle of San Jacinto, where the Texans prevailed, at least two more secession movements would break out within the Spanish-speaking parts of Mexico: the (self-declared) Republic of the Rio Grande and the Republic of Yucatán (the latter of which actually managed to survive as an independent nation for seven years or so). 

South of the river, three other estados bordering (the by-then independent nation of) Texas — Coahuila, Nueva León, and Tamaulipas — tried to follow the neighboring Republic of Texas in seceding from Mexico in order to establish an independent country, but the revolutionaries in la República del Río Grande were put down by the Mexican Army as well. 

To conclude: 

These are the problems with the leftists’ facile criticism of the Texas revolution, or that of their equivalents in La Raza — based on their obsession with race, racism, and slavery in addition to other sins (albeit only when and if they are American): 

First, as we have seen, revolts had broken out throughout the country, all by Spanish-speakers with no relation to slavery wishing either to secede outright from Mexico or return the nation/the federation to democratic/republican rule. (That’s a whole lot of “traitors” to a dictatorial régime that “only” wished to, uh… stamp out democracy (!) just as much as if not more than among the Gringos up North, killing (fellow?) Mexicans to prevent them from creating independent patrias.) 

Second, as far as the 1824 constitution’s abolition of slavery is concerned — which is supposed to demonstrate the superior morals of the Mexican people and government — to what extent did it really benefit the Mexican people? It should remind you of the Tsar’s abolition of serfdom in 1863: to what degree were Mexico’s peones, like Russia’s serfs, really free, other than on paper, and how had their conditions really been improved after their countries’ respective flamboyant declarations? 

As it happens, a dozen years after the Texas revolution, an American visitor had this to say: 

Besieged by beggars. [the American] deplored the gross inequality of Mexican society and instinctively sided with the oppressed.  "With a soil and climate scarcely equaled in the world," he protested, Mexico "has more poor and starving subjects wbo are willing and able to work than any country in the world.  The rich keep down the poor with a hardness of heart that is incredible."

 … He saw how freely rich Mexicans exploited their downtrodden brethren.  "The better class are very proud and tyrannize over the lower and much more numerous class as much as a hard master does over his negroes, and they submit to it quite humbly."

It turned out to be an American lieutenant by the name of Ulysses Simpson Grant, who was certainly not your average tourist (being part of James Polk's invasion force) but who, in the general's memoirs (as Ron Chernow points out), blasted the war (rightfully or otherwise) like no other man of his generation. 

Third, the praise bestowed on Mexico for outlawing slavery turns out to be moot in view of the fact that the whole reason why Texans — along with their fellow Mexican citizens in a dozen other states — revolted, it was because a dictator had seized power in the first place, overthrowing the celebrated constitution banning slavery in the process. 

Overthrown by Santa Anna, who turns out to be the fellow who declared: 

A hundred years to come my people will not be fit for liberty. They do not know what it is, unenlightened as they are …/… a despotism is a proper government for them …/…

Related: Wondering Why Slavery Persisted for Almost 75 Years After the Founding of the USA? According to Lincoln, the Democrat Party's "Principled" Opposition to "Hate Speech"

• Why Does Nobody Ever Fret About Scandinavia's — Ghastly — 19th-C Slavery Conditions?

Update: Again, when voiced by leftists, the whole affair becomes "The Mexicans showed how generous they were and look at the scandalous way in which those perfectly civic gentlemen were repaid by the ungrateful Anglo-American ruffians who settled in Texas" (i.e., by the treacherous (former) inhabitants of the racist USA).

Those leftists — American or foreign — never bother to ask why the Mexicans would invite foreigners to settle in (part of) their country in the first place. The answer is provided in an Instapundit post linking to a similar No Pasarán historical article as this one, but on Indians (What Nobody Tells You About Indians and Other Native Americans), where one mdmusterstone makes the following comment:

I'm surprised no one has mentioned "Comanches" by Fehrenbach, just finished it for a second time and have to say it seems to be the definitive volume on the subject.

• For 200 years the Spanish (and to a lesser extent the French) tried missions offering gifts and Christianity for the Amerindians--an utter failure. They invited Americans to migrate into Texas to act as a buffer to the yearly raids into Mexico.

• Thousands of Texans were murdered and tortured in unspeakable ways for amusement. The Comanches were savage and the Texans returned the favor but most Texas Rangers, stated at some point that they regretted what they did.

It occurred to me that the savage treatment of enemies by the Amerindians had no parallel in written history. Genghis' Khan's men for example would commit mass murder but wouldn't stick around for several days to enjoy the screams of someone staked face down on an anthill. The Amerindians were stone age savages and their ways of treating whites and red captives was, after 30,000 years, stone age norms of behavior unchanged and unchangeable.

Of course, this quotation is not meant to "return the compliment" i,e., to counter "No, the Mexican were the treacherous ones" (because in the minds of leftists, it always boils down to finding guilt and to vilify, to demonize, and to punish).

Everybody involved— the Mexicans, the Anglo-Americans — were perfectly open about and aware of Texas's status as a buffer zone with Comancheria and the dangers involved in settling there.

CPAC Attendees Interviewed by Mediaite Which Leaves Out All their Reasoning, their Arguments, and their Explanations

 
Mediaite dispatched its editor-in-chief into the lions' den (or the devil's den), sending Aidan McLaughlin to CPAC at Orlando's Hyatt Regency, where he proceeded to conduct interviews with various attendees. 

My interview lasted 6 minutes and a half, but leftism being what it is, they leave out all the reasoning and all the arguments to focus on a one-line statement — which they have already proclaimed as akin to insanity.

Result? All their readers chuckle as they are confirmed in their conviction that conservatives are "deluded" by their "baseless" beliefs.

For instance, the mainstream media invariably portrays Trump supporters as brain-washed. As I have explained, it is quite through reason and thought alone that I look at the Republican candidates, and at the presidential candidates. In 2016, I didn't think much of Donald Trump (as one can see in some of NP's 2016 posts), and preferred, say, Ted Cruz and Ben Carson to Trump. Likewise, it was entirely through reason that I preferred Cruz and Carson, as well as Trump, to Hillary Clinton.

Having seen (and been highly impressed by) Trump's record over the next four years, I preferred Trump to Joe Biden or to any of the other Democratic hopefuls, as well as — in the Republican camp — to Mitt Romney, Mitch McConnell, and, yes, even Ted Cruz and Ben Carson.

But when they simply put up who we would like to run in 2024 and the answer seems invariably to be Trump, it is to make us sound like thoughtless Neanderthals.

Likewise, I am quoted as making fun of the masks, full stop. 

Erik Svane, who on Sunday walked around the Hyatt Regency convention center in an American flag shirt and a gas mask (“it’s to make fun of all the people believing in the virus”)

Actually, my thoughts on the subject are far more extensive (as you can read in the 7 Basic Points about Covid-19 that You Need to Know).

As I write in Here Is the Key Question Regarding the Coronavirus:

Here is what would convince me, drama queens. 

Here is what would make you cross over to your side: 

Can you name a single article in a single newspaper, in any newspaper of any country in any language — the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Epoch Times, The Daily Signal, The Economist, Le Monde, Le Figaro, Berlingske Tidende, whatever — in which a writer makes a lengthy and detailed comparison between the pandemics of 2002 and 2009 on the one hand and the 2020 outbreak on the other? Showing, in the process, why the Covid-19 epidemic is far worse (or at least different)?

Indeed, can your direct me to the hyperlink of a single article showing a difference, vast or otherwise, in the death toll of Covid-19 and that of an average flu season?

I recorded the entire interview; if my voice is sometimes hard to hear or to decipher, it is because I am wearing the gas mask in question throughout.

PS: I keep going back to the YouTube studio, editing subtitles, and hitting the Publish button. To no avail. If any reader can figure out why closed captions are not appearing on the video (I copied them and pasted them below the video), I would appreciate the explanation…

Aidan McLaughlin: So there's a lot of 2024 hopefuls speaking at CPAC this weekend, who's your pick? Who's your pick for 2024? 

Erik: Well it wouldn't be, uh… [fake hesitation] Mitt Romney, it would probably be… Donald John Trump… 

Are you excited for his speech? 

I'm very excited, we don't know what's going to happen… 

Yeah. Do you think there is a place in the republican party for Liz Cheney, Mitch McConnell, the politicians who have rebuked Trump for his actions after the election? 

Well um there would be if they attacked Democrats just as much as they attacked Republicans but they don't! They just attack Republicans, y'know, and so I wonder why do they always attack only the members of their own party instead of the opposite — which the Democrats never do! You know, they always stand [together]… 

A lot of Trump supporters turned on Fox News after the election, do you still watch Fox News? 

Much less, much less but every time that— now they've started going back to the way they were, kind of, a little bit, but not too much, y'know, and it's the same thing with the Washington Post in 2008, they said, the ombudsman came out and said "Yeah we weren't very fair towards uh McCain, we were too, we were too much in favor of Obama" [except he said so] after the election! So they always come out and do [the right thing] but [only after] it's too late, y'know, so [they want to have their cake and eat it too]… 

So you think Fox News has not been supportive enough of Trump? 

I don't know, I don't think they've been supportive of the truth! Y'know? the truth is you need to show what the Democrats say, you need to show what the Republicans say, and you don't use double standards!

Are there hosts on Fox News that you still like? 

Of course! 

Who are they? 

Tucker, Tucker Carlson. he always drives the liberals mad, and they always want to shut down speech! No Republican wants Democrats to, to shut down Democrats' speech as the mainstream media, [as] they want to shut us down… 

Do you believe the election was stolen? 

Do I believe the election was stolen? No! I don't! I think we should stop talking about all this cheating and we should accept who the winner is! I'm not talking about the White House, I'm talking about the Tour de France! And we need to accept that Lance Armstrong is the winner of the Tour de France, and anybody who said that Lance Armstrong cheated must be silenced as a conspiracy theorist and as a seditionist! 

So you're you're a big Lance Armstrong fan, I take it? 

No, I'm being, I'm being very facetious. [Laughter] For 12 years (!), everybody thought that he had won a record seven Tour de France prizes, and it was only after 12 years (!) that they discovered he had cheated! Now, after half a dozen days (!) the New York Times, the Washington Post, all the [social media] Twitter, Facebook, all said "oh no no there's no cheating!" How do they know?! What made them God?! When did they become all-knowing?! 

What do you think about the courts, including Trump-appointed judges, tossing out election challenges? 

What do i think about them tossing them out? Well, they didn't say "there was no cheating," they just said "we're not, we're not going to judge this…" This is again the the left always using so-called "experts" to, to silence people. Well, first it was "oh well, the journalists say there is no cheating." Oh, okay, we don't believe the journalists, and [then] they say "the politicians say there was no cheating" now it's "the judges." You know, I don't understand how (what's his name) Joe Biden could win more people, more votes than Barack Obama, when [he is much less eloquent]. He is he's kind of old, y'know, he was never a superstar like Obama was, and we've never seen a president win more votes in his re-election and yet lose the presidency. There are questions that are [odd] and the the media should be looking at them! 

Last question: what is the deal with the gas mask? 

Well, this is about the virus, the coronavirus… 

That's another protection? 

Well it's more to make fun of all the people believing in the virus…

Are you not concerned about the coronavirus? 

I was in the beginning! I was for the first two or three weeks. You know a quarantine means 40 in French, 40 days where you stay away, where you keep yourself away — and only if you're sick! not if you're healthy! You know, it's been going on for a year! And I'm asking people, "Is this pandemic worse than 2009, 2002, 1968, 1957?" I'm willing to believe it, if you give me the proof. But I haven't seen any dead people in the street. I haven't seen rotting corpses in the street. I haven't seen sick people collapsing and start uh throwing up black vomit. 

Do you not trust the the death numbers, the half a million deaths that they recognize? 

I [am willing to] believe the death numbers but I don't know, are they worse, or are they better, than 2009 and 2002 and 1968?

I think they're worse than 2009. 

They may be, but who do they concern? Are they only old people in uh in, what do you call it?… 

Nursing homes. 

Very good: nursing homes. Y'know, I think the average age in Denmark — I have Danish blood in my veins — the average age of the dead in Denmark and Sweden is 82. I mean, okay. We don't need to close [down], to refuse to go out for a cappuccino because people are dying. And that would be my grandfather or my father: they wouldn't ask us to [ruin the economy] either. 

Great. That's amazing. Thanks so much for doing that again. I really appreciate it. 

Thanks. What's your name again? 

Aidan McLaughlin. 

Okay. 

Mediaite. That'll go up, appreciate it…

COVID-19: Here Is the Key Question Regarding the Coronavirus

When President Donald Trump was diagnosed with Covid-19 almost six months ago, I used the event as an opportunity to write that

A close study of the Coronavirus — as well as of the various government responses thereto around the world since the epidemic erupted in January and February [2020] — ought to lead to the following seven main conclusions

Check out Here Are the 7 Basic Points about Covid-19 that You Need to Know. (Or: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Covid-19, But Were Afraid to Ask.)

Today comes an eighth point — perhaps the most important of all (if you are pressed for time, it starts five paragraphs down):

After attending CPAC in Orlando, I took a week's holiday in the Florida keys. Key West, especially, is a leftist stronghold, and over and over again, I was asked/ordered to wear my mask and pull it over my nose. I also got backlash (instead of laughter, or at least a chuckle) for wearing my World War II gas mask (that's not funny!). 

Even so, I was surprised while (semi-) wearing my (regular surgical light blue) mask at a post office in Key West, when the young man standing behind me in line started shouting to the postal employee, "Ma'am, Ma'am, this man has to leave; he won't wear his mask over his nose!"

When I gave my invariable deadpan response ("You're absolutely right; after all, we don't anybody to die today"), used both in America and in Europe, he said forcefully, that's exactly right!, and I quipped that so far today, we were lucky, since I hadn't yet seen a single dead body in the streets. (Sometimes, my ironic bent takes me in the opposite direction, agonizing, in a voice full of melodrama, "yes, it's horrible; on the way to these premises, I have already come upon half a dozen rotting corpses!"…)

The young man (who, for what it's worth, may have been gay, not that it matters one way or another) started hyperventilating and stammering stuff like "I, I don't believe it! I can't believe I, I am hearing this!" (By this point, my mask was, for the sake of general peace, firmly in place.) The middle-aged woman behind him chimed in, saying to him (about me), "Don't let him get to you, he's ignorant" and, claiming to be a nurse whose policeman husband repeatedly — sigh — has to deal with skeptics like me, started explaining why masks are necessary and good for you. Then she added: "Everybody in here agrees that masks are necessary." And the five or six women in line behind her nodded and agreed…

There is just one — major — problem with that line of thought, and here it is:

How come it is that during the 2009 and 2002 epidemics, everybody "agreed" that lockdowns were not necessary, that — utterly unhygienic — face masks were not necessary, and that attempts to bankrupt thousands of businesses and impoverish millions of fellow citizens were not necessary?

Of course, we didn't actually "agree" to do nothing, we just simply did not do anything…

What is different from 2009 and 2002, where the epidemics ended up disappearing within a year or so thanks to the populations gaining immunity, which they gained precisely because there were no lockdowns and no (unhygienic as well as counter-productive) face masks, along with no impoverishment of any part of the citizenry?

In other words, in what way(s) is Covid-19 worse? 

I have asked this question to any number of people on both continents, and the answer I often hear is that of course 2020's Chinese virus is worse — as in it must be worse, because of the lockdown requests and because of the face mask requests.

But think about it: doesn't this explanation amount to putting the cart before the horse and isn't the deduction backwards?

Here is what would convince me, drama queens. 

Here is what would make you cross over to your side: 

Can you name a single article in a single newspaper, in any newspaper of any country in any language — the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Epoch Times, The Daily Signal, The Economist, The Australian, Le Monde, Le Figaro, Berlingske Tidende, whatever — in which a writer makes a lengthy and detailed comparison between the pandemics of 2002 and 2009 on the one hand and the 2020 outbreak on the other? Showing, in the process, why the Covid-19 epidemic is far worse (or at least different)?

Indeed, can your direct me to the hyperlink of a single article showing a difference, vast or otherwise, in the death toll of Covid-19 and that of an average flu season?

And my request is a bit of a trap, I will admit. Because no such article exists. 

Again: the articles do not exist.

I know that for a fact. Wait a minute! How? How can I be sure? After all, how can I know, or prove, a negative? For this reason, dear reader: Because if there existed, say, an October 15 article in the Washington Post by John Doe proving that the CCP virus is worse than previous outbreaks and/or an average flu season, all the leftists, and all the Democrats, and all the world's leftists would be citing (not without reason, au contraire) said piece over and over again, day in and day out. 

For the very reason that no comparative article is ever quoted, the article is nowhere to be found, i.e., it has never been written.

And yet, what with the urgency politicians took on this "calamity" it is pretty clear-cut that the word went out: and mainstream media editors across the globe called in their science reporter(s), needless to say, and told him (them) that, in order to make readers aware of how perilous the situation is, it was necessary to prepare a comparison between the earlier viruses and the present Coronavirus. 

(For the record, the only times that a significant difference has been observed between the current epidemic and past pandemics, has been between the (admittedly higher) death toll of Covid-19 and the (admittedly lower) death tolls of 1968 and 1957; however, those were readily explainable — by the growth of the world's populations in the intervening half century or so.)

When, after several hours, days, or weeks, the reporter(s) brought up nothing of importance, they were told to drop the matter — instead of… writing an article about… the lack of significant differences. 

Why? Because that would have proven that the melodrama of the face masks, the lockdowns, and the bankruptcies was — way — overblown, — way — unnecessary, and, as it happens, nothing less than a case of mass hysteria.

As I concluded my October piece,

Offer the elderly, and those with weak immune systems, quarantine, and break the chains of the rest of the population.

Related: Here Are the 7 Basic Points about Covid-19 that You Need to Know
• Is There 100% Irrefutable Proof that the Covid19 Pandemic Is Overstated?
• Anti-Americanism in the Age of the Coronavirus, the NBA, and 1619

Radio Courtoisie : Evelyne Joslain sur le contraste Trump/Biden et la CPAC

Erik and Grizzly Joe share the "same" face mask

  Le 10 mars 2021, Evelyne Joslain reçoit :

• Erik Svane, membre du groupe des Républicains à Paris
• Marc Amblard, avocat international, universitaire

Thème : « Le contraste Trump/Biden ; La CPAC »

Ce matin-là, deux-trois heures plus tôt, Erik atterrissait à l'aéroport Charles de Gaulle, de retour du tout premier CPAC en Floride… Cliquez sur le lien pour entendre l'émission d'une heure et demie… 

Patron d'émission du Libre journal du Nouveau Monde à Radio Courtoisie, Evelyne Joslain est l'auteur d'une poignée de livres sur les États-Unis.

Donald Trump Brings Massive Crowds of MAGA Supporters to Front of CPAC's Orlando Hotel (VIDEOS)

Welcome to America Uncanceled—with Errol Webber

Is Orlando's Hyatt Regency
larger than the Vatican?

Wearing the most original face mask
at the event was Rayla Campbell

Donald Trump Jr & Kimberley Guilfoyle
interviewed by Gina Loudon

Hearty talk with PJMedia's Roger Simon

Jim Jordan, the man with no fear

MyPillow's Mike Lindell

The hotel's sour-faced employees were giving
CPAC attendees so much hassle regarding
face masks — without even the benefit of
an apologetic smile or a "Shucks, y'know,
those are (unfortunately) the rules, we all
have to follow them" — that on the third day
I pulled out my World War II gas mask and
started wearing it inside as well as outside;
I pointed it out to two of the worst ayatollahs
or so, expecting at least a (half-hearted?) chuckle,
but none of the uptight Karens (male as well
as female) even made a pretense of thinking
it was funny

Liberty Hangout's Kaitlin Bennett
(thanks to an NP reader)

MAGA's Lance Johnston

 

 

 

 

When Donald Trump to give his speech on the last day at CPAC, thousands of supporters turned out to line the streets in front of the Orlando Hyatt Regency

Earlier that Sunday, I was interviewed by Mediaite, the left-leaning outlet which proceeded to cut 99% of my words. Ten days later or so, after my return to Paris, I was interviewed by Radio Courtoisie.

How to Reply If You Are Being Badgered by Leftists Insisting that You Accept the 2020 Outcome as Fair'n'Square

If you are being harassed by leftists asserting that the 2020 election was totally on the level, here is what you say.

FYI, the following post is based on Why Do the Election’s Defenders Require My Agreement? by Michael Anton (thanks to Ed Driscoll, read Mike's whole piece) with comments by Neo (thanks to Sarah Hoyt), who cuts to the chase:

The question they’re really asking is: how far gone are you? Have you lost your mind? Do you not see what’s obvious to every thinking and decent person who hasn’t been taken over by QAnon fantasies: that Joe Biden won fair and square and everything else is a baldfaced and pernicious lie?

Again, here is how you respond:

• No no, I think it's insane to believe that any kind of cheating was involved, and I think everybody should agree once and for all on who the victor is.

— Oh, good! 

• Yes. Enough with this nonsense!

— Wonderful! So, you accept Joe Biden as our president?

• Joe Biden as president? No, no. I wasn't talking about the White House at all.

— Huh?! What were you talking about?!

• About the Tour de France. I fully accept that Lance Armstrong is the winner of the Tour de France (not just once but seven times), and that anybody questioning his victory is a crank, a seditionist, and a conspiracy theorist, as well as a jealous sourpuss.

— The Tour de — wait a minute! Those events have nothing to do with each other!

• True, a sports event has little to do with a (with any) nation's election, but the reaction is similar: the politicians and media outlets all over the country were claiming that the election was fair and square the within half a dozen days! They — as well as just about everybody else — did the same for Lance Armstrong's (record seven) victories for a dozen years — yes, exactly 12 years (!) — before we all discovered that fraud was involved. 

So tell me: Who made the leftists of 2020 all-knowing? Who made 'em God? 

Update: Welcome, Instapundit readers. Note: A number of IP commenters have quipped "Why reply or argue with them at all?" and/or better to spit out "GFYS" which "is simpler and to the point." But the point is not just your interlocutor(s), but third parties listening in or, if you are being interviewed, the media audience. 

These listeners/viewers, a number of them independents or borderline Democrats — who are currently being force-fed Trump's "Big Lie", his "kooks" believing in "conspiracy theories", and the "domestic terrorists'" active attempts at "sedition" and at fostering a "coup d'état" against "Our Democracy™" — need to get a strong and unequivocal example of why the skeptics are in fact on the mark while the Joe Biden believers are the true gullible parties (if not outright participants in the voter fraud).
 
Related: Voter Fraud — A Note to Leftists Who Claim that "Not a shred of hard evidence has been produced"

• Dennis Prager: The Numerous (and Sweeping) Anomalies Regarding the 2020 Election That Cannot Be Ignored

• Inside of a month, Democrats have redefined riots and election challenges from the highest form of patriotism to an attack on democracy — And by “democracy”, they mean the Democrat Party

• The Mote in Thine Own Eye: Why Are Conservatives So Naïve That They Refuse to See the Beam in the Eye of Those Who Hate Their Very Existence? 

• The Take of Bill Maher's Coronavirus Expert Guests Happens to Apply Perfectly to the 2020 Election 

• One of Erik's French TV appearances: 99% of the Capitol Protestors Were Entirely Peaceful, as Were 99% of the Group Which Entered the Premises 

• Stare Decisis: The Areas that Precedent Is Not Supposed to Include and Be Concerned With 

• How Would Reagan React to the November Election's Voter Fraud and the Riots of 2020? How About Abe Lincoln? 

• FYI, the current post is based on Americans Anonymous, one of my first (tongue-in-cheek) publications on the internet 18 years or so ago…

 …/… The most common frequently-asked question [asked] is: How do I respond to a group of smug [leftists] submitting me to a barrage of irony-laden questions, asinine comments, and demented accusations …/… ? Our main precept is this: Do your homework (i.e., know your facts, this being something you obviously prepare beforehand), and… agree with them. Agree with them wholeheartedly! …/… Then go "above and beyond the call of duty" …/…

Coronavirus: Is Ancient Rome's Warning Pertinent?

Kyle Harper claims that the ancient Roman world's Antonine Plague has an urgent warning for us in the Coronavirus age (February 15/17). The same could be said of the Middle Ages' Black Death (aka the Great Plague) and, more recently, of the Spanish Flu of 1918.

On the other hand, the only message from the pandemics of 2009, 2002, 1968, and 1957 — when no measures were taken and the virus vanished when (and because) the populations gained immunity — would be quite different: Do not overreact. In fact, do not act at all.

While the "vicious pestilence … killed as many as 2,000 Romans a day," I do not believe there is any city in any country of the world in the 2020s where the streets are filled with (rotting?) corpses and with ill and disfigured people collapsing on the sidewalk as they cough up black vomit. 

In fact, we are regularly told that the average age of the the dead is something between 75 and 82, depending on the country, with most of those occurring in nursing homes amongst seniors already suffering from other illnesses.

As can be confirmed by the likes of Tom Hanks, Madonna, Greta Thunberg, Prince Charles, Emmanuel Macron, and Donald Trump, the vast majority of infected are back on their feet after a week or two, if not less (in Boris Johnson's case, after a stay at the hospital).

In that case, I don't see the need for cafés, restaurants, and stores to remain closed, for absurd lockdowns to continue, or for our leaders to otherwise continue in their fixation for destroying jobs and careers as well as the entire economy.

Since the mass hysteria has been partly due to the desire to wreck the West's economies in order to ensure Trump's defeat in the November elections (see Governor Andrew Cuomo's recent remarks) — is that a conspiracy theory? also: doesn't that theoretically make the critics of Trump as bad as, if not even worse than, Trump himself? — I see no reason for the blue states and for the rest of the world's nations not to emulate, say, Florida and re-open up their economies.? By all means, continue to provide help for the elderly and let the infected self-quarantine. The VIPs mentioned above were able to do so, all on their own, so maybe there is a lesson here as well: the common citizen is an adult citizen sensible enough to be expected to act responsibly in the matter.

In short: Offer the elderly, and those with weak immune systems, quarantine, and break the chains of the rest of the population.

• Related: Here Are the 7 Basic Points about Covid-19 that You Need to Know

• Also (thanks to Damian): Let's Review 50 Years of Dire Climate Forecasts and What Actually Happened

Incidentally, the bio of the writer reads as follows:

Dr. Harper is a classics professor whose research analyzes the ancient Roman world and how it was affected by disease, climate change, slavery and other cultural and societal developments.

Affected by "Climate change"?! As in global warming? And as in the new ice age? And that, in which era? In… "the ancient Roman world"?!

So now we have climate change, global warming, and/or the new ice age around the birth of Christ? And, presumably, in all eras throughout human history?! Count on a bio to unearth an admission that the greens' entire mass hysteria has little to nothing to do with man-made emissions of the 20th century — unless, of course, you are speaking about the Tenth Legion's legendary SUVs and the Emperor Nero's notorious orgies in his Gulfstream jet.

Spot the Difference! Republicans "Pounce" While Democrats "See an Opening"

Although the modern journalism rule is that in a scandal involving a deplorable Republican, the scandal is the story, while in a scandal involving a Democrat, the "ferocious" Republicans' drooling, evil, and over-the-top reaction is the story*, sometimes you can't get around it:  a news story demands the Democrats' reaction to an event. 

So, how do you go about doing that? Count on the New York Times to provide an answer:

Title: "Democrats See an Opening" (in G.O.P. Oversight of Texas Grid); 

Subtitle: As the state reels from power outages, "Democrats look to turn the tables" on the Republicans who dominate state government. 

Quite a different description of the reaction to events, n'est-ce pas? So… civilized! Meanwhile, the very first sentence in the Texas report by David Montgomery, Simon Romero and James Dobbins reverts in a flash to the dirty, unfair, and violent idea of "pouncing" and unsportsmanship when describing the GOP: 

 … the Republicans who have run Texas state government for years, trying to undermine the Democrats who lead the state’s largest cities has been a blood sport for years.

In an October article on a similar subject, The Economist used the word "outlandish" and the verb "scheming" for the GOP, while again suggesting underhanded tactics. And take a look at the violence and the hatred in Luca D'Urbino's cartoon. 

The Economist's subject matter is called, without further inquiry, "Voter suppression" (sic) and the concluding sentence is "Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas … has been [trying] his darndest to prevent opponents from voting."

At risk of losing Texas, Republicans scheme to limit Democratic votes

The state is becoming younger and less white. It is not outlandish to imagine that Republicans would try to keep turnout low

Related — From Denmark, the Republicans Pounce Department, European Version: Trump Campaign Launches "Brutal Attack" and "Slaughter" on "New Buddy Couple" Biden and Harris

*Republicans Pounce Dept. — Instapundit quotes Jim Treacher on "ferocious" Republicans pouncing, leaping, slamming, seizing, launching brutal attacks, etc, etc, etc:

“When Republicans screw up, that’s the story. When Democrats screw up, the Republicans’ reaction is the story.”

Trump a Dunce? Well, Does This "4-year-old" Deserve a Nobel Peace Prize? Let Alone 4 or 5?

The next time you are told that Donald Trump is a dunce, a halfwit, an ignoramus, a hater, a racist, or a white supremacist, or that he has the mentality of a 4-year-old (that's how leftists conveniently get around using the un-PC word "retard"), ask them the following question: 

Does this president with the alleged mentality of a 4-year-old deserve a Nobel Peace Prize? Let alone four? Or five?

Chances being their making round eyes and going "ehhh?!" (WTF?!), since they probably have no idea what you are talking about, add as follows:

No, we're not talking about Trump's followers (they probably would never dream of nominating anybody they admire for some kind, for any kind, of European award), we are talking about the Swedes and the Norwegians, notably the members of their respective legislatures and the Nobel Committee, members of whom did just that — somewhat reluctantly, for that matter, in some cases — in the Fall of 2020.

For years, for decades, for half a century, we have been told, we ourselves have been saying (repeating mindlessly?), that what is necessary for peace in the Middle East is for Israel to come to recognize, or to come to some sort of understanding with, the Palestinians.

Nobody, but nobody, ever said during those tumultuous decades that what is necessary to solve the problems in the Middle East, is for Jerusalem/Tel Aviv to sign a peace treaty with… Bahrain (!).

But the dealmaker did just that. While getting Serbia to sign a peace treaty with Kosovo, the president managed to get the Israeli government to sign peace treaties with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (the Abraham Accords), Sudan, and Morocco. (For the record, Trump was first nominated for the Nobel Prize in 2018, after his summit with North Korea's Kim Jung Un.)

I hate to tell you this, but what does this tell us? What conclusions can we reach from this?

Four things; 1) Far from being a halfwit neanderthal, Donald Trump seems to be someone who uses his brains and even — imagine that — someone who thinks outside the box (probably has to do with his coming from the business world).

2) In that perspective, and apparently keeping an open mind, President Trump discovered that, in fact, Israel is not thought of as the Arab world's or the Muslim world's primary enemy (or perhaps not even an enemy at all?).

Iran is.

3) What do the Arabs and/or the Muslims really think of the Palestinians? They seem to be fed up with them and with their negative attitude.

4) Finally, the people who do not use their minds and who never think outside the box are revealed to be the professional politicians and the mainstream media — mindlessly repeating platitudes. For years. For decades. For more than half a century. (Perhaps, kinda, like members of a cult?…)

Isn't that the real reason that the professional Drama Queens hate Donald Trump so much? In fact, this is precisely what explains their animus towards the iconoclast come from the world of business.

After all (speaking of Israel), they all of them predicted that moving America's embassy to Jerusalem would unleash a major conflict. When did that war occur? Maybe they don't know as much as they like to claim…

In any case: Thanks to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the American government now seem to be back in the hands of the hysterical crisis creators.

“In Danish consciousness, there’s this idea that we were a very small and friendly colonial power, and also that racism is an American problem”

“In Danish consciousness, there’s this idea that we were a very small and friendly colonial power, and also that racism is an American problem.” (Katrine Dirckinck-Holmfeld, ex-department head at the Art Academy) 

“The notion Danes have of themselves is they built this immaculate welfare society, and built it so to speak singlehandedly by themselves, without help. All the economic funds that flowed in because of the colonial trade doesn’t fit that well into that picture.” (Lars Jensen, associate professor at Roskilde University)

Katrine Dirckinck-Holmfeld's seemingly innocuous remark holds a volcano of truth beneath it. As I write in 1619, Mao, & 9-11 (History According to the NYT), the education that Europeans, adults as well as kids, get in one country after another (both in schools and from media) — and that, tragically, Americans themselves have been getting since the 1970s — is based on Europeans hailing their respective country as friendly, fraternal, and harmonious, as contrasted with America and their alleged egocentricity, their alleged racism, and their alleged violence. As one French TV news host once (solemnly) put it, "the Americans may have liberty, but we have… (dramatic pause) solidarity!"

The school system was, as everyone knows, invented by Bismarck, a generation after the revolutions of 1848 sent millions of German and other immigrants to the New World, and the idea behind the system was to impress upon future citizens the goodness of der Vaterland (thus convincing them not to leave) or the élite-led nation (later, the nanny state) while demonizing the notion of self-government or "government of the people, by the people, for the people", notably by emphasizing the extent to which Americans were allegedly racist, violent, and dangerous.

The quotes above come from a New York Times story by Cara Buckley.

For a while it seemed no one had noticed that something rather prominent was missing from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, the prestigious institution housed in a palace on the edge of one of Copenhagen’s canals.

 … Midway through the autumn, [the bust of Frederik V, the 18th-century king of Denmark-Norway and duke of Schleswig-Holstein] vanished, though it wasn’t until early November that school officials finally realized it was gone. …

A few days later, the bust’s fate was revealed. An anonymous group of artists had unscrewed it from its plinth, popped a black garbage bag over its head and ferried it to the edge of the canal, before tipping it in. A video was released that showed the bust disappearing into the inky waters of Copenhagen Harbor.

 … About a week after the video’s release, a department head at the Art Academy, Katrine Dirckinck-Holmfeld, stepped forward to take responsibility for the sinking. She was fired the same day, and became a focal point for opprobrium.

 … Ms. Dirckinck-Holmfeld said she had hoped to trigger a broader reflection on cultural institutions’ role during the colonial period, and link that colonial legacy with controversial policies currently in place, namely the so-called ghetto laws. Defended by the government as a way to dismantle poorer non-Western immigrant enclaves so as to more fully integrate Danish society, the sweeping set of initiatives is criticized by many as harsh and discriminatory.

 … “This is about confronting our own image,” Ms. Dirckinck-Holmfeld said. “In Danish consciousness, there’s this idea that we were a very small and friendly colonial power, and also that racism is an American problem.”

Frederik V wasn’t the first Danish statue to be targeted by protesters last year. Figures of the missionary Hans Egede in Greenland and Copenhagen were daubed with red paint and inscribed with the word “decolonize” last summer. Not long after that, at the Copenhagen waterfront, the words “racist fish” were spray painted on the plinth of the Little Mermaid sculpture — which has been repeatedly vandalized and even decapitated over the years — to some puzzlement over the motives.

But even as monuments were toppled in America and Britain last summer by activists for racial justice, many Danes have not considered statues of their 18th-century royalty as problematic, and view actions against them not as expressions of free speech, but impediments to it.

 … Denmark was long considered a minor player in the slave trade, though recent research out of Harvard has challenged that view. The nation’s colonies included the Danish West Indies, now the U.S. Virgin Islands; Greenland; the Faroe Islands; and Iceland, with minor posts in parts of India and what is now Ghana. In Frederik V’s time, sugar from the West Indies was a major source of the country’s wealth, and some of Copenhagen’s most beautiful buildings of the era were built with lucre from the colonial trade.

Denmark was the first nation in colonial times to issue a moratorium on the slave trade, in 1792, though it gave the colonies until 1803 to acquire enough slaves to become self-sufficient, according to Lars Jensen, an associate professor at Roskilde University. By the time decolonization began in earnest in the 20th century, Denmark had sold or ceded nearly all of its colonies, with the exceptions of Greenland and the Faroe Islands (Iceland became independent during World War II).

There is disagreement over the extent to which Denmark is reckoning with that past. … Lars Jensen, who specializes in postcolonial studies, said there was a blindness in Denmark about the extent of its colonial past and that, he said, informs attitudes toward and treatment of migrants and refugees.

“The notion Danes have of themselves is they built this immaculate welfare society, and built it so to speak singlehandedly by themselves, without help,” Lars Jensen said. “All the economic funds that flowed in because of the colonial trade doesn’t fit that well into that picture.”