The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Celebrity Reactions to Being Cooped Up During the Wuhan Virus Outbreak

RedState  "Despite being a perfect example of what it is to be massively out of touch with everyone else due to wealth combining with ideological isolation, celebrities and artists do serve a purpose. They are, first and foremost, entertainers.

"For the most part, we get pretty annoyed with celebrities who put social outreach and political change before their jobs. It’s a bad habit Hollywood has developed over the years, and it’s become so bad that even fellow celebrities have had to shame their colleagues into recognizing their place such as Ricky Gervais did at the Golden Globes."

. . . "During this Wuhan virus pandemic, celebrities have reacted in various ways. Some of them are doing the exact opposite of what they should be doing and are attempting to exhibit some kind of thought leadership, or what they think thought leadership is.

"Others are doing exactly what they should be doing and are doing what it is their job to do; entertain.

"I like to end on a good note so let’s get the bad examples out of the way first." . . .

Trump stands against Coronavirus and press adversaries

Jim Acosta Tries to Spin a Trump-Birx Interaction Into a Controversy, but the Transcript Tells the Real Story  "Because Jim Acosta is Jim Acosta, never a day goes by when there is a White House press briefing where he doesn’t try to make himself the center of attention."
. . . "Clearly, Birx was saying she had not heard of using it as a treatment. She didn’t shoot down any possibilities, but just said she’d not heard of using heat and light in that way." . . .
. . . "Clearly, Birx was saying she had not heard of using it as a treatment. She didn’t shoot down any possibilities, but just said she’d not heard of using heat and light in that way.

"But here’s how Acosta framed it:

Jim Acosta

✔@Acosta

Birx disagrees on sunlight as a treatment for the virus: “not as a treatment.” Again top government doctor disagrees with Trump’s scientific ideas at briefing.

More , if you like. But I feel much less intelligent after being told Acosta's view. He and CNN are made for each other, with his ego to match both Barack Obama's and Megan Rapinoes. 

No, President Trump Did Not Advise Anyone to Drink Clorox

"Seriously, you could never make this stuff up."

Toon added by TD

"If you watched the press conference for the Coronavirus Task Force Thursday evening, you saw the depraved, corrupt news media at its very worst. After President Trump had a scientist (Bill Bryan, Under Secretary for Science and Technology at DHS) deliver the wonderful news from a study indicating that heat and sunlight rapidly kill the Wuhan Virus, we watched as the reporters in the room literally went into a panic. They simply could not bear the fact that their dream of helping the Democrats destroy America might come to an end as summer dawns in the U.S. It was truly hilarious to watch.

"So of course they had to figure out a way to distract the public from this good news by drumming up yet another false narrative. That new false narrative has been derived from an exchange the President had with the detestable Washington Post hack Phil Rucker. When viewed in context of the full exchange, President Trump said nothing remarkable at all.

"But of course, pretty much the entirety of the fake news media immediately leapt to extract a portion of a sentence out of that context and construct a narrative that the President actually advised people to inject bleach or rubbing alcohol into their bodies.

. . . 

"For those who like to read stuff, here is a transcript of what the President actually said:

So, I’m going to ask Bill a question that probably some of you are thinking of if you’re totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting. So, supposing when we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you’re going to test that too. Sounds interesting. And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that, so that you’re going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me. So, we’ll see, but the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute. That’s pretty powerful.[End]

"So, he was attempting to summarize what Bryan had communicated to him and the Task Force members during a briefing held prior to the press conference. He was not giving advice to anyone, and in fact did not at any point suggest anyone drink bleach or rubbing alcohol, as every corrupt media outlet in America is contending this morning." . . .

"Not as a treatment," Birx responded from off to the side, appearing to choose her words carefully. "I mean certainly fever is a good thing when you a fever it helps your body respond. But not as, I've not seen heat or light." : Dr. Birx's response to Trump's discussion topic:  "... .Trump said, pointing toward his head then looking over to Dr. Deborah Birx. "You ever, have you ever heard of that? The heat and the light relative to certain viruses? Yes, but relative to this virus?"
He then responded regrettably to Philip Rucker of the WaPo...

Jim Jordan Says He Knows Exactly Why Pelosi Wanted to Create a Select Committee on COVID-19 Response

Townhall "Rep. Jim Jordan, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, laid out why he believes the new select committee on the coronavirus, that was approved by the House on Thursday, was created.
"The Ohio Republican pointed to how there are already eight levels of oversight into the new relief stimulus bill that passed the House on Thursday and this will only serve as another means to attack President Trump.
" 'The ninth is political. Eight committees looking out for the taxpayer, the ninth looking out for Joe Biden. The ninth to go after President Trump," Jordan said on the House floor. "This is just a continuation of the attack that the Democrats have had on the President for the past four years. It started before he was president."
" 'A select committee in the summer of an election year to attack the President, when we already have eight different entities doing the oversight we're all supposed to do, to look out for the taxpayer interest, the Democrats want a ninth because the ninth is political. And the ninth will be chaired by our colleague [Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC)], the biggest supporter of the Democrats' nominee for president," Jordan concluded.
. . . 

"The House approved the select committee along party lines 212-182, with Rep. Justin Amash (I-MI) voting with Republicans, according to The Hill.
" 'The committee will root out waste, fraud and abuse," Pelosi said during the House debate. "It will be laser-focused on ensuring that taxpayer money goes to workers, paychecks and benefits. And it will ensure that the federal response is based on the best possible science and guided by health experts, and that the money invested is not being exploited by profiteers and price gougers.' "

CNN is still CNN

Want journalism? Don't go to CNN or some channel with the letters N, B, C in it. TD
Jonathan Karl vs. Jim Acosta; One of them is a first-rate reporter.     "Washington journalists obviously think of themselves as a united front, working as one to oppose President Trump, his ideas, his policies, his employees, his associates, and especially his reelection campaign. They’re happy to promote one another, their supposed competitors, in the interest of their shared project of trying to destroy Trump. That’s why it’s so unusual for a prominent member of the D.C. media circle to break ranks and criticize #Resistance journalism. Let’s have some applause, then, for Jonathan Karl of ABC News for calling out the performative outrage of CNN’s absurd Jim Acosta.
     "Acosta’s Kardashian-plus preening is so nauseating that Karl expends several pages of his book Front Row at the Trump Show calmly laying out why Acostan antics are exactly what White House correspondents should not be doing. In a 2018 White House performance, Karl recalls, Acosta huffed at length about Trump’s “enemy of the people” jibe, telling the president’s press secretary, Sarah Sanders, “I think it would be a good thing” if Trump disavowed the insult because “I think we deserve that.” Karl notes drily that when Acosta left the room, hardly anyone noticed, since reporters leave briefings all the time and CNN’s seat is by the door anyway. Acosta later claimed that he left the room in protest, as if “reporter walks out of room” constitutes any more of a story than “reporter orders a club sandwich.”
     "Acosta obviously relishes the combative spirit of the age and has taken to pulling more stunts than Evel Knievel in order to increase his public profile, not to provide any useful info to the public. He is unabashedly an entertainer, not a conduit: He might as well be smashing watermelons or juggling flaming bowling pins. So after he flounced out of the room like Miss Piggy that day two years ago, his follow-up report, live from the White House was . . . to propose a public protest, with himself presumably twirling a baton at the front of it. In his exclusive report to the world, Acosta breathlessly said this:

I think maybe we should make some bumper stickers. Make some buttons, you know, maybe we should go out on Pennsylvania Avenue like these kids who chant “CNN sucks” and “fake news,” maybe we should go out, all journalists should go out on Pennsylvania Avenue and chant, “We’re not the enemy of the people,” because I’m tired of this.

 "Oh, were you tired, Jim? Because that’s not how it appeared." . . .

CNN Segment Shows Cuomo Emerging from ‘Weeks’ in Isolation Just Days after He Feuded with Biker In Hamptons

Sick: CNN's Bill Weir Touts Killer Corona 'Buying Some Time' on Global Warming

"The actual first cause and patient zero of coronavirus may be unknown, but CNN climate correspondent Bill Weir on Thursday's New Day had another hypothesis: climate denialism and industrialization. The cable journalist went even farther, offering an upside to the brutal and painful virus wreaking havoc on the world.

"While some on the left have touted the environmental benefits of economic shutdowns, Weir was worried they would not be enough, . . ."

STUDY: CNN Airs Least of Coronavirus Briefings, Network Skips 7 Hours Over Past Two Weeks

. . . "For six of the 14 briefings over the time period, CNN ignored Trump’s opening remarks, joining the briefing only after he had finished. Wolf Blitzer announced on April 6: “Once the experts start speaking, once the questions and answers begin, we’ll go back to that briefing.”
A week later, CNN’s John King offered this justification for ceasing the live coverage: “The briefing was breathtaking from beginning to when we dropped out and at times it bordered on dangerous.” The next day, an angry Jim Acosta declared “these briefings altogether are coming across like something out of ‘Baghdad Bob,’” with Trump “sounding very ‘Baghdad Bob’-like.' ”

The War on Homeschooling

"We talk about the “separation of church and state,” but the Left is very much interested in evangelism and in using the apparatus of the state to that end. Homeschooling is one of the few authentically radical movements of any consequence in contemporary American life, and the desire of powerful people such as Elizabeth Bartholet to inhibit it is very strong"

National Review

     "About Elizabeth Bartholet and homeschooling, Alexandra de Sanctis writes: “Though she doesn’t acknowledge it, the result of her ban on homeschooling would be that wealthy parents can continue to avoid public schools by sending their children to expensive private institutions while a dearth of school-choice policies and a lack of financial resources leave lower-income parents with no options at all.”
     "Most wealthy families do not avoid public schools by sending their children to expensive private schools. They segregate themselves geographically in affluent neighborhoods, where the high cost of entry and heavy tax burden perform the role of tuition and private-school entry requirements — exclusion. You can pay for exclusivity through tuition or you can finance it through your mortgage, but the result is the same.
     "Bartholet is pretty open about her program, which has less to do with ensuring equal educational opportunity across socioeconomic groups (ho, ho!) and more to do with extending the surveillance state, lest unsupervised proles make child-rearing decisions at odds with the priorities Bartholet would prefer to see enforced.
     "The conception of the public schools as a coercive and homogenizing moral force is fundamental to the mandatory-education project — our very first public-education law (known by the wonderfully evocative title “Old Deluder Satan Act”) was explicitly anti-Catholic in its intent, as were many of the public-education laws (Blaine amendments, etc.). Like our Puritan forebears, contemporary progressives believe that what keeps the infidels from the One True Faith is mostly ignorance, which can be cured through coercive indoctrination.
     "Leaving poor families with no choice in educational matters is, from that point of view, the great selling point of abolishing homeschooling and other alternatives — not a regrettable tradeoff." . . .

The Wuhan Virus Pandemic has Exposed the American Ruling Class

"Within 10 days, however, the Imperial College walked back their doomsday scenario reducing the fatality estimates by over 90%. Nonetheless, thanks to our media class, mass hysteria was consuming the nation, so more experts were needed to keep up the drumbeat of fear and trepidation."

Steve McCann  "At the culmination of a national health or societal crisis in the United States, it has become de rigueur for the media and innumerable pundits ensconced within the professional class to perform a post-mortem on how the citizenry handled the crisis and what lessons the rubes in fly-over country should have learned. But in the current pandemic, the top levels of professional class that populates the ruling class and runs the media and the major institutional bureaucracies has irretrievably unmasked itself. And the in the postmortems that will come, they will be found deficient.

"Credulous Cowards"

"An immutable tenet of today’s ruling class is that if someone or an institution within their power base is labeled as “experts,” then these authorities are not to be questioned and their assumptions, predictions or projections must be treated as gospel. The century that followed the rise of the Wilsonian progressives, who idolized a powerful government run by educated experts, saw enormous scientific, medical, and industrial achievements the hands of experts, the products of higher education. The professional class, usually products of higher education, grants deference to certified experts, and the media makes celebrities out of those experts that support important goals of the ruling class. Experts have had a very good century." . . .

Trump-supporting black Dem Georgia state rep changes his mind, won't resign and will face primary challenge

Please tell me Rep. Jones is not another Mitt Romney.

Thomas Lifson  "Vernon Jones, a black Democrat who has represented heavily black, suburban Atlanta District 91 in the Georgia House of Representatives since 2016, endorsed President Trump on Tuesday:

"It's very simple to me. President Trump's handling of the economy, his support for historically black colleges and his criminal justice initiatives drew me to endorse his campaign," Jones said Tuesday.

He added: "There are a lot of African-Americans who clearly see and appreciate he's doing something that's never been done before. When you look at the unemployment rates among black Americans before the pandemic, they were at historic lows. That's just a fact."

. . .
"For this heresy he suffered such vicious attacks that he decided to end his political career and resign.

Georgia Democratic Party chair and state Sen. Nikema Williams ripped Democratic State Rep. Vernon Jones after Jones bucked his party and endorsed President Donald Trump's re-election campaign.

"Vernon Jones is an embarrassment to the Democratic Party and does not stand for our values," Williams said. "Never has that been clearer than this moment, when he chose to stand with the racist president who has made an all-out assault on Black Americans, who has tried to rip away American health care, and who has failed our country in its greatest time of need during the most important election in our lifetimes."

. . .