Stealth transmission, asymptomatic carriers and a lack of testing mean no one really knows how common the virus is in the U.S.

By Daniela Hernandez and Ben Cohen, WSJ March 22, 2020 6:00 am ET

Marcus Smart, with teammates in November, had no signs of Covid-19 that would have warranted testing had he not been in the NBA. ‘I’ve had no symptoms and I feel great,’ he tweeted. Photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images

One night last week, a 27-year-old man on a business trip in Oklahoma City felt sick, stayed home from work and was later tested for Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

His positive result jump-started a series of events that led to the complete shutdown of American sports. Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert was the first National Basketball Association player widely known to be infected, and his diagnosis has since led to the testing of eight teams and 13 more positives among players, coaches and staff members.

But those tests also revealed something curious. At least seven of them, including Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant, didn’t report symptoms when they were diagnosed. Read more…

History will regard him as the president who saved American exceptionalism during a time of hardship and war.  It is he who will be credited with the rebirth of our nation, while globalism will be relegated to the dustbin of history, where it belongs.

By Shari Goodman, AMERICAN THINKER

For the last few decades, we have watched the left’s advancement of globalism, multiculturalism, and a world with no borders, to the detriment of our nation-state.  Nationalism was viewed with disdain by the media elite and their counterparts in academia as an outdated paradigm to be relegated to the dustbin of history.

In their effort to advance their mission, they created NAFTA, and under Bill Clinton, free trade with China was initiated in 2000.  China was officially welcomed into the World Trade Organization in 2001 with promises to reform tariffs and policies, tariff reductions, and open markets.  China also received Most Favored Nations Status.  Its admittance significantly resulted in it receiving the lowest tariffs, fewer trade barriers, and the highest import quotas. Read more…

24 people in serious condition from virus; over 5,000 tests administered in 24 hours; police minister reiterates call for full closure for 2 weeks

TOI STAFF Today, 9:25 am

Magen David Adom medical team members, wearing protective gear, handle a coronavirus test sample at a drive-through site for testing in Tel Aviv, on March 22, 2020. (Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday will hold a meeting on the possibility of tightening the country’s lockdown amid the coronavirus pandemic, as the number of infected in Israel shot up to 1,238.

The Health Ministry on Monday morning announced the new tally, a rise of 135 over Sunday evening. It said 24 people were in serious condition as a result of the virus, and 34 were moderately ill. The ministry said it had administered over 5,000 tests in the past 24 hours. Some 464 of the ill were at home and 120 were being treated in hotels that had been converted to house COVID-19 patients, the ministry said.

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Pres. Trump tweeted:

“WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!”

My guess is that he will shift gears and save the economy by allowing the disease to spread while trying to save the truly at risk.

Serious precautions and preventive measures are necessary to fight COVID-19, but the costs could prove to be massively out of scale with the risks

By Terence Corcoran, NATIONAL POST

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is seen on a screen in the financial district of Toronto, on Monday, March 16, 2020.Cole Burston/Bloomberg

The global economic experiment in pandemic control continues to expand, nation by nation, economic sector by economic sector, worker by worker. Governments are getting the headlines: In Japan there is talk of US$260 billion in government action. The U.S. is said to be aiming for US$1 trillion in new spending. Canada announced $82 billion in direct and indirect spending. France $550 billion. Spain $150 billion.

And so it goes around the globe, and where it will end, nobody knows. At his news conference Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau threw more measures into the mix when he noted the “massive” losses in the value of the pension assets of Canadians. He promised Ottawa “will be taking measures.”

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They have committed perfidy and for a split second of quick math, the Center-Left 46 seems to be 61. That “61” will last even less time than did Roger Maris’s 61-home run record of 1961 but they only want it long enough to oust Netanyahu.

By Rabbi Prof. Dov Fischer, INN 23/03/20  04:01

There will be fourth elections. I never doubted it. The unity agreement has little chance of being signed, although Netanyahu’s offer to Blue and White is statesmanlike and more than fair. However, the “cockpit” foursome prefer to try to oust Netanyahu rather than join a unity emergency government to handle the corona crisis.

I called it before the third round, and I wrote then that the fourth ultimately will be coming and will be deciding.  By then, Prime Minister Netanyahu will have been more or less acquitted or convicted.

If justly acquitted, he and Likud will win a landslide, and the Religious-Right coalition will govern without Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beyteinu party. By contrast, if wrongfully convicted, then Bibi will be replaced at the top of Likud’s list by a competent person, whether by Gideon Saar, Yuli Edelstein, Nir Barkat, or Gil Erdan. And then Lieberman will drop his religious war and will join a Likud-Religious coalition because he will have achieved his primary purpose and cold revenge — the downfall of Netanyahu.

Read more…

By Rachel Ehrenfeld, AMERICAN THINKER

George Soros seems to have developed a special dislike of the State of Israel. He has rewritten Middle Eastern history to better jibe with his idea of the “poignant and difficult case” of “victims turning perpetrators.” Soros, much like the virulent anti-Semitic graphic daily propaganda in Arab, Palestinian, and Iranian newspapers, has been comparing Israel’s self-defense against repeated attempts of annihilation by Islamist/Arab terrorists to Nazi atrocities. The successful defense against terrorism, especially preemptive actions, is never appropriate in Soros’ book.

His history of how Israel fought for its independence could have been written by Noam Chomsky or Yasser Arafat: “After the war [World War II], Jews resorted to terrorism against the British in Palestine to secure a homeland in Israel,” Soros writes in his book, The Bubble of American Supremacy. “Subsequently, after being attacked by Arab nations, Israel occupied additional territory and expelled many of the inhabitants. Eventually, the Arab victims also turned perpetrators, and Israel started suffering terrorist attacks.”
Read more…

By Ryan Helfenbein, WESTERN JOURNAL

Alex Wong / Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump speaks as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, and Vice President Mike Pence listen during a news briefing on the latest development of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. at the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on March 20, 2020, in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)

The coronavirus pandemic has already had devastating effect. Over 270,000 cases have been confirmed worldwide with over 11,000 fatalities.

In the United States, over 18,000 cases have been reported with 233 deaths. In addition, the economic toll has already been felt as several states’ unemployment websites have crashed earlier in the week.

While we are nowhere near the end of this, many are pointing fingers at China.
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Sets out terms for emergency coalition; says pandemic could prove worst since Middle Ages, with world’s medical services at risk of collapse, UK and US on brink of losing control

By TOI STAFF 21 March 2020, 10:34 pm

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday warned that the health care systems of countries around the world are facing imminent collapse if the spread of the coronavirus cannot be contained, and claimed that the virus may turn out to prove the biggest threat to humanity since the Middle Ages.

At the same time, he implored his opposition rival Benny Gantz to join him in an “emergency unity government” in order to help save Israel from the virus, where he said it threatened to kill “tens of thousands.” Netanyahu said he would share power on a completely even basis with Gantz’s Blue and White party for three years, although he would insist on serving for the first 18 months of that period as prime minister, with Gantz then taking over. Gantz was tasked by Israel’s president on Monday with forming a government, after receiving the backing of 61 of the 120 MKs.

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These are just a few of the forces who have been working overtime for the past four years to sabotage, undermine, and ultimately destroy both candidate and then President Trump

By Joan Swirsky, CFP  March 21, 2020

Now that we’re in a de facto Martial Law mode––a shutdown of entire industries and small businesses, nighttime curfews, social isolation, a run on goods, huge sports events cancelled, a “shelter-in-place” mandate in California, releasing prisoners in New York (God forbid these  miscreants get a flu!), Broadway gone dark, and a craven media inciting and delighting in the panic they’re causing, it is relevant to ask:

• Are the powers-that-be withholding information about a deadly germ-warfare attack on the entire world, started by an aggrieved Chinese Communist nation that was perfectly happy with the Bush1 and Clinton1&2 and Bush1&2 and Obama1&2 regimes that kowtowed to their outrageous demands and unfair trade deals but is now existentially threatened because a Patriot President expects more equitable deals?
• Isn’t it both alarmist and immoral, as reported in American Thinker by Andrea Widburg, that the fake-news media have never told the American people that the scary statistics from Italy are the result of Italy’s recent Silk Road Project agreement with China, which resulted in more than 300,000 Chinese workers entering Italy?

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T. Belman. Who should be the Justice Minister is not a minor dispute. It goes to the heart of our democracy because the miniter will have a major role in deciding whether to strengthen the Knesset or protect the Court.

Also, I believe that Netanyahu would far prefer to find 3 MKs to cross over or to go to a fourth election.

Main dispute in talks on emergency government resolved. Ball is now in the court of Lapid and Gantz.

By Elad Benari, INN

Officials in the Likud and Blue and White parties said on Friday night, according to a report on Channel 13 News, that the main dispute in the talks on an emergency government has been resolved, and that a few other minor points of contention remain.

The report said that the draft agreement includes a clause stating that if the Knesset is dissolved by one of the parties before the rotation in the post of Prime Minister goes into effect, the premiership during the transitional government will go to the person who was next in line to assume the role. This means that if Binyamin Netanyahu works to dissolve the Knesset after a year and four months, Gantz will serve as Prime Minister during the transitional period.

Another unresolved issue is that of the Justice Ministry, according to Channel 13. Blue and White want the portfolio for themselves, whereas Likud talks about an agreed upon candidate, though such a candidate does not exist at the moment. There is also an alternative proposal: A Minister from the Likud and a Deputy Minister from Blue and White, who will make decisions together. At this point there is no agreement on this issue.

Read more…

No society can safeguard public health for long at the cost of its economic health.

The Editorial Board, WSJ March 19, 2020

Pedestrians walk through the Oculus transportation hub in New York, March 17. Photo: Demetrius Freeman/Bloomberg News

Financial markets paused their slide Thursday, but no one should think this rolling economic calamity is over. If this government-ordered shutdown continues for much more than another week or two, the human cost of job losses and bankruptcies will exceed what most Americans imagine. This won’t be popular to read in some quarters, but federal and state officials need to start adjusting their anti-virus strategy now to avoid an economic recession that will dwarf the harm from 2008-2009.

The vast social-distancing project of the last 10 days or so has been necessary and has done much good. Warnings about large gatherings of more than 10 people and limiting access to nursing homes will save lives. The public has received a crucial education in hygiene and disease prevention, and even young people may get the message. With any luck, this behavior change will reduce the coronavirus spread enough that our hospitals won’t be overwhelmed with patients. Anthony Fauci, Scott Gottlieb and other disease experts are buying crucial time for government and private industry to marshal resources against the virus.
Read more…

But in the draft of a paper on ethics by the Israel Medical Association, age will not be a factor in deciding who should receive care

By Ido Efrati, HAARETZ  | Mar. 20, 2020

The Israel Medical Association is drawing up a list of principles for treating serious coronavirus cases if the health system becomes overloaded as has happened in Italy and other countries in recent weeks – though age will not be a factor.

A position paper by the association’s ethics board, a draft of which has been obtained by Haaretz, discusses the dilemmas that may arise.

If intensive care units are overly taxed and there is a shortage of ventilators, doctors will have to consider a patient’s chances of recovery.

The paper, “Ventilation and Intensive Care in Stormy Corona Times,” is intended for “extraordinary conditions of a huge imbalance between needs and available resources,” the ethics board said.
Read more…

The FBI found more Hillary Clinton emails. This is, of course, after the State Department assured us long ago it had produced all releasable Clinton emails, including emails recovered by the FBI that Clinton tried to destroy or withhold.

We released 80 pages of emails that further document how former Secretary of State Clinton used her unsecure, non-government email system to transmit classified and other sensitive government information.

There are 11 new Clinton emails. The emails include one sent by Clinton a month after the Benghazi terrorist attack referencing a “Benghazi security” issue. The emails also include talking points, which are redacted, for a meeting with President Obama.

This is the second release from the batch of Clinton emails the FBI inexplicably found late last year Read more…

Amidst a global pandemic, the threat of war with Iran and economic collapse, the Blue and White Party is dead set on bringing Netanyahu down – even if it means taking Israel down with him.

By Caroline Glick, ISRAEL HAYOM

If Blue and White Party leader MK Benny Gantz forms a minority government with Avigdor Liberman’s Israel Beitenu Party and the Labor-Meretz party, based on the outside support of the Joint Arab List, Gantz’s success will torpedo Israel’s relations with the United States.

This week, a senior official who was present during Gantz’s meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in late January revealed: “Gantz committed in the Oval Office that, if he became prime minister, he would form a government of people that would support the president’s peace deal.”

The Trump peace plan includes applying Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and the Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. Labor-Meretz and the Joint Arab List are both violently opposed to the Trump plan. A Gantz government that includes them will be a government that is hostile to the Trump plan.

Read more…

By Monica Showalter, AMERICAN THINKER

Most Americans are horrified at the havoc the coronavirus has wrought on the U.S. and its economy – everything from lockdowns to school and church shutdowns, to missing products on store shelves, to business closures and layoffs, to travel and tourism restrictions, to the stock crash, to isolated elderly people being protected from harm’s way. That’s in addition to those who have been directly hit by the virus, some severely, and our horror at what is happening in Italy.

The only thing that keeps us going is the prospect of … getting through it.

But in a Fox News appearance on “Hannity,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made an important warning — that there has to be some kind of reckoning from China or else the upheaval is going to happen again:

“Instead of trying to do the work to suppress the virus, which is what the world demanded, the Chinese Communist Party didn’t get it right and put countless lives at risk as a result of that,” Pompeo told “Hannity.”

Read more…

By David Solway, AMERICAN THINKER

To adapt a phrase from Matt Margolis, Justin Trudeau is the worst Prime Minister in Canadian history. Like his American counterpart Barack Obama, he is both a know-nothing and a do-nothing leader, and an unmitigated disaster to the well-being of his country. For example, Trudeau’s unconscionably late and incomplete response to the COVID-19 pandemic — the “19” tells us it has been known for quite some time — much like Obama’s delayed response to the H1N1 pandemic of 2009, and his determination to keep an illegal border crossing open, are only the latest of his ill-gotten political escapades.

Indeed, like the Obama of 57 states and the Austrian language, Justin Trudeau is a full-blown ignoramus masking as an intellectual prodigy. Former National Post and Walrus editor Jonathan Kay, who acted as an “editorial assistant” for Trudeau’s memoir Common Ground, swooned over his book-lined shelves. “Trudeau probably reads more than any other politician I know,” Kay fawned, even if his “boyish, eager-to-please personality leads him to project publicly in a way that can seem intellectually unsophisticated.” Trudeau is indeed intellectually unsophisticated — not that there is anything wrong with that, but there is something wrong with pretending to know more than one does.
Read more…

By Guy Benson, TOWNHALL

Source: Xie Huanchi/Xinhua via AP