The most useful phrase ever: "This, too shall pass"

Don Sucher  . . . "And then there is that ever-present fear. Fear for loved ones. Fear for our own selves and our futures as we expected them to unfold. Fears for society as a whole. A society that is changing before our eyes -- and with that, the possibly greater fear that the society which we loved, or at least in which we felt comfortably secure, may never return.

Wars, pestilence and famine have always brought these things; have always been a part of the human experience -- just as much as has been heat and cold and damp.

"But just as modern life has to a large degree shielded most of us from the effects of those things - that heat and cold and damp -- so most of us have to a remarkable degree been shielded, not only from the direct threat of wars, pestilences and famines, but even from the idea that such could be our lot.

"This morning missive shall not end with The Answer, for no such singular "answer" exists. But it does end with an admonition: That each of us -- you, me, our families, our neighbors, our communities our states, and our nation -- should work to make the best of these current realities. To learn from them. To equally be willing to lead and to follow. To put forth ideas, yes, but not to sneer at the ideas of others. To realize that while each of our lives is important -- central to us as living beings -- that there is also an overall "good" that must be kept keenly in mind. To realize and accept that the weak will now require extra help, and that those who are strong will have to use that strength - and possibly allow some of it to be stripped away -- for our common survival." . . .

All will pass, I suppose, except for Hollywood and media liberals. OK Go even made a video proclaiming this:

Anti-Trump School Assignment: “Republicans are using misleading names for the coronavirus that hurt Asian Americans”

Todd Starnes  . . . "The lesson focused on a story written by the Texas Tribune titled, “Asian Americans say some politicians stoking stigma with coronavirus.”
"Attached to the story was a quiz that included blatant anti-Trump and anti-Republican statements.
“ 'Read the following claim,” the lesson stated. “Republican leaders have used insensitive language based on unfounded rumors when referring to the coronavirus. Which sentence from the article provides the BEST support for the above statement?”

"Among the choices:

"His comment referenced a now-debunked myth that the outbreak began after a woman in China ate bat soup.

"Coryn later said that he meant to say that the Chinese government was to blame, not Chinese people or Chinese culture.Yet experts say that this kind of language encourages people to view the disease in simplistic geographic or racial terms.

"When the Ebola outbreak emerged in 2014, Africans were the primary target of bias.

Laney told me she could not believe the school would assign eighth graders such a politically-charged lesson.

“I was speechless and completely appalled that the school system would allow this kind of garbage to be brainwashed into our kids,” she said.

"She told me she called the school superintendent in Putnam County and was assured the lesson would be removed and the teacher would be spoken to." . . .

I saw this diagram myself in my niece's Ventura County middle school textbook, teaching the students where to get the best news source:

CNN?  Enquirer?

And in this corner, ladies and gentlemen....

Standing against these opponents.....

...we have:

Hidden history found beneath Alcatraz

BBC

"A team from Texas A&M University has gathered in the prison's recreation yard, where inmates would have spent as little as an hour a week away from the confines of the main block.

"The researchers are slowly dragging a bright yellow cart along the ground, pulling it up and down in straight lines.

"That's ground-penetrating radar," says Prof Mark Everett.

" 'The cart has a transmitter and a receiver - it sends an electromagnetic wave into the ground that then reflects off all the different structures underneath.

" 'Much like medical imaging would make a scan of the body, we are making a scan of the ground under the rec yard."

"Using this technique, the team has made a remarkable discovery: they have found the remains of a military fortress, which was thought to have been destroyed.

"Standing in the middle of the yard, which is still enclosed by 6m-high (20ft) walls, Prof Everett points to a spot where he has found evidence of a subterranean tunnel system." . . .

. . . 

"The biggest potential discovery so far is at the south of the island, lying beneath the prison's parade ground.

" 'This is an area that is of most historical significance to the park service. It is a very important part of the fortifications," says Prof Everett.

" 'It is called a caponier, and it is a large structure that juts out into the bay and provides defensive cover. We have seen it in the old photographs but it has completely disappeared from present view.' " . . .

. . . Hat tip to Jeff Hayden; Texas

‘Partisan Hogwash’: Tim Scott Rips Pelosi, Senate Dems for Coronavirus Distractions

Washington Free Beacon

Senate Democrats defeated the initial stimulus package on Sunday in a procedural vote after Pelosi announced her desire to push her own stimulus package. Pelosi's stimulus bill was 1,100 pages long, featured a wealth of progressive agenda items, and mentioned "diversity" 32 times.

"Sen. Tim Scott (R., S.C.) on Tuesday criticized Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and Senate Democrats for slowing down the progress on the coronavirus stimulus package for partisan reasons.

" 'For absolutely no reason, the speaker's passion for partisan hogwash started causing the type of delays that doesn't simply cripple our economy, but it imperils our health care response to people who are infected by the coronavirus," Scott said on the Senate floor.

" 'I honestly cannot believe we are still here not having already passed legislation that would make such a big difference in the lives of so many," he added. "Instead we had to waste time explaining to the speaker and to some of our friends on the other side that airline fuel emissions is not important in this legislation."

"He took aim at Senate Democrats for attempting to include their policy preferences, such as same-day voter registration, early voting, and diversity initiatives in their version of the stimulus package. He said the debates should be had at other times, but not in a moment of crisis.

" 'We all should be interested in diversity, but let's not hold up assistance from families because some folks like the speaker want to use this legislation as a way to bring diversity to boards," Scott said. "Listen, that is not the place for this debate. This conversation should be a conversation about our health care workers, about those infected, about those impacted. Not about partisan political gains."

"Senate Democrats defeated the initial stimulus package on Sunday in a procedural vote after Pelosi announced her desire to push her own stimulus package. Pelosi's stimulus bill was 1,100 pages long, featured a wealth of progressive agenda items, and mentioned "diversity" 32 times." . . .

More

As president, Joe Biden would smash religious freedom with ‘Equality Act’; equality plan will allow LGBT ideology to re-shape our civil liberties.

Paula Rinehart

Former .V.P Joe Biden grows irritated while defending calling V.P. Mike Pence 'a decent guy.'

"As COVID-19 captures headlines, Joe Biden’s plan to promote equality at the expense of religious liberty has quietly slid under the media radar. His newly unveiled policy is called “The Plan to Address LGBTQ Equality in America and Around the World.” It has vast implications for people of faith.

"In his plan, Biden solidifies the Democratic Party’s lurch to the left, leaving behind moderate faith voters whose support he, conceivably, might have won. A quiet legion of faith voters whom Biden likely cannot see privately confess they could be wooed by his personality and winning smile.

"Before Christians jump on the Biden bandwagon, though, they should carefully consider what his equality policy would mean to their everyday lives — and those of their children. His plan profoundly undermines religious liberty, which is the right to live out religious convictions in the public square. It leaves scarcely any aspect of life untouched. 

"The centerpiece of Biden’s 7000-word plan is the passage of the Equality Act, which includes the goal of overturning Trump-era religious policies. The real rub is that sexual orientation and gender identity are granted special legal status with the power to trump religious convictions. Faith-based adoption and foster care agencies would not receive federal grants unless they agreed to place children in same-sex homes. Housing, employment, medical services — all would feel the impact of policies that label religious conviction as discrimination, with the power to sue in court. Some have called this “persecutory progressivism.' ” . . .

All the facts you ever need to know about ABORTION

Lifesite

"The very moment a male sperm cell penetrates a female egg cell, a new human life comes into being. This event, known as fertilization, forms a tiny, single-celled human distinct from his or her mother mother.

This little life is called a zygote, meaning “yoked or joined together.”1 It's the living seed that will be a newborn baby in nine months’ time.   

The zygote’s DNA has its own set of chromosomes and genetic blueprint with data such as whether it’s a boy or a girl, which parent she’ll resemble more, and what color her eyes will be. The information in this one cell is so vast it would take 1.5 million pages to write out!2

The new life is also so small - less than 1/15th the size of a pinhead3 - it can barely be seen by the naked eye. But it packs a punch: it will grow to one billion cells with 4,000 distinct anatomic structures in only 8 weeks.4

Days 4-12 - Embryo implants in mother's uterus

By day four the zygote has left the fallopian tube and entered the uterus, where it can benefit from the nutrients its mother will provide. 

Because the new life is so genetically distinct, it must release a special protein to prevent a defensive response by the mother’s immune system. Then the embryo can implant in the uterine lining,5 where the lifeline between mom and baby begins to form. This process is complete by day twelve after fertilization.6

The embryo also produces a hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) about eight days after fertilization. This hormone brings the menstrual cycle to a halt, allowing the pregnancy to continue. Present in the mother’s blood and urine, hCG is the substance detected in most pregnancy tests." . . .

. . . Week 20-22 - Baby begins to respond to sound . . .

. . . Week 23 - Baby can learn and remember . . .

. . . "Third Trimester " . . . Able to hear before birth, the fetus becomes highly familiar with the sound of his mother’s voice. So much so that the newborn baby, studies demonstrate, prefers her voice to others. The newborn also prefers “female voices to male voices and familiar lullabies heard before birth to new lullabies after birth.”42

Trump Campaign Calls Twitter’s Bluff On Misleading Campaign Clips

Twitter appears to have walked back its position on flagging campaign video and audio clips.

The Federalist

"Twitter has still not flagged fake news content published by the Biden campaign or the Democratic Super PAC Priorities USA for falsely portraying President Donald Trump calling the Wuhan coronavirus a “hoax.”

"Last month, both former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign and Priorities USA published deceptively edited videos depicting Trump downplaying the threat from the Wuhan virus by characterizing the outbreak as a new Democratic “hoax” similar to impeachment and Russiagate.

. . . 

"The video from Biden’s campaign racked up more than 300,000 views while the Priorities USA ad went viral garnering more than 15 million on the platform ,despite mainstream fact-checkers such as PolitiFact, Snopes and FacCheck.org each labeling the Democratic charges as false. The resistance Washington Post even rated the Biden video with four Pinocchios, the highest single false rating awarded by the paper. Facebook also flagged a Politico article making the assertion on the platform as fake news.

"Meanwhile, Twitter used its new policy regarding “manipulated media” to tag a video from the Trump campaign where Biden says “we can only re-elect Donald Trump” as misinformation in early March." . . .

Is Biden campaigning to be president of America or Iran?

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who worked with Biden during the Obama administration, said of him, “I think [Biden’s] been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”  . . .

The New Yorker

Andrea Widburg  "During Joe Biden’s vice presidency, Barack Obama entered into the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which lifted sanctions from Iran and gave the mullahs $1.7 billion in cash, all based upon Iran’s promises that it would slow its drive towards becoming a nuclear power. Even as he was entering into the deal, Obama admitted that Iran would probably use the money to continue its military build-up and worldwide terrorism.

"There’s reason to believe that Iran used that money to fund its deadly incursions in Syria. In 2018, Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement – something that he was easily able to do because Obama never bothered even trying to get Congress to sign off on the agreement. Trump reimposed sanctions on Iran, which greatly increased that despotic regime’s fragility.

"Joe Biden, though, still thinks that, if we just make nice to Iran, it will be our friend. In some ways, you have to admire a man who still has the naivete of a kindergartener, but that's still not what you want in a potential president of the United States.

"Biden’s latest push to help Iran comes in the form of a formal statement at Medium, in which he says that, because Iran is suffering so badly from COVID-19, America needs to help out. Joe admits, because he has to, that “the Iranian government has failed to respond effectively to this crisis, including lying and concealing the truth from its own people, and it continues to act provocatively in the region. . . .”

"Biden adds, though, that part of Iran’s suffering is Trump’s fault . . ."

The Coronavirus vs. Hollywood Liberals

CELEBS URGE ALL AMERICANS TO ‘SHELTER-IN-MANSION’ LIKE THEY DO

. . . “Have your personal assistants go out for food and liquor,” Cher added. “They’re more expendable. And they can leave stuff at the door and then stay in the guest house until scientists find a cure for this thing.” Other celebrities echoed their sentiments.  . . .

Wayne Lusvardi  "According to data compiled by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH), there have been 3,352 laboratory-confirmed cases and 65 deaths from COVID-19 virus in Los Angeles County since late February 2020.  This equates to a 1.9 percent mortality rate out of all cases or 6.5 deaths out of every 1 million persons in the county or 335 cases (not deaths) per 1 million persons.

"Public health data has been sorted in the data tables below by the highest, lowest and moderate rate of cases, not by deaths. 
Location
"The highest rates of COVID-19 cases are located in Democrat West Los Angeles and Hollywood communities (103 to 201 cases per 100,000) compared to Republican suburbs in East LA County with the lowest case rate (0 to 17 cases per 100,000).  A moderate level of rate of cases is located in Democrat Central Los Angeles in lower-income communities (15 to 34 cases per 100,000). 
Age
"The typical age for contracting the virus ranges from 18 to 65, with a median of about 35 years old and only 20 percent in the elderly 65 and above age group.  Less than 1 percent are children under age 18. 
Income
"Income is bimodal -- meaning greater income is associated with both the highest disease rates (Democrat West LA -- $33,694 to $112,927 per household) and the lowest rates (Republican Eastern suburbs -- $66,891 to $187,444).  Those living in Central LA County with the lowest household income levels ($25,161 to $30,579) have a moderate disease rate. " . . .
Occupation
"Occupation is ighly associated with a higher rate of cases of COVID-19.  White-collar communities clustered in Democrat West LA County have much higher rate of cases (134 out of every 100,000) than in suburban Republican Eastern LA County with mixed blue collar and white-collar occupations (10.5 out of every 100,000)." . . . 

Miley Cyrus changes name to ‘Miley Virus’ to raise awareness of herself  (Parody)

. . . "Well, up steps Miley Cyrus. Though she won’t have any kids until we clean up this “piece-of-s^*t planet”, there are other personal sacrifices equally worthy. As of noon today she has volunteered to be called “Miley Virus”." . . .

                              Pictured, right: Cy...er..Virus.

A Sick Media; They use the coronavirus crisis to play propagandistic arbiters.

The American Spectator  "The other day Chris Hayes of MSNBC was pouting about the media’s coverage of Donald Trump’s press briefings. He called the airing of them “crazy.”

He particularly didn’t like MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell using one of them to talk about “reading the Bible.”
"Hayes’ pouting captures the arrogance and secularist prejudice of the media perfectly. The media sees its role not as a reporter of news but as a propagandistic arbiter — a Big Brother that will tell the public what it can and cannot take seriously.
"The media every day conforms more perfectly to Trump’s description of it as an “opposition party.” Its pulling away from presidential briefings during a national crisis vividly illustrates its status as an opposition party, engaged in a propaganda battle with a president whom it hates.
":The more propagandistic the media becomes, the more it insists that its coverage is “factual.” But no one takes that seriously. As Trump once told the media, “You guys have a real problem. No one believes you anymore.”
"The media has become all opinion, all the time. All the journalistic rigors of yesteryear have disappeared. Most hosts don’t even bother to fake up a just-the-facts mien. They now act like what they are: anti-Trump pundits who look high and low for new angles from which to attack him." . . . More here...

Give Hayes credit where it is due. even if the target was an easy one back in 2016:
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Condemns Democrat Mob Violence: Participants Should be ‘Identified and Prosecuted’

The press as part of the resistance

OAN flap demonstrates some flaming White House press corps hypocrisy  "The press has been publishing negative stories about One America News correspondent Chanel Rion for quite some time now. She's young, she's conservative, she was homeschooled, she's bright, she's not perfect (any more than they are -- she occasionally gets stories wrong or follows the wrong rabbit holes) and she certainly isn't part of their 'in' crowd. A CNN denizen calls this competitor network "a fringe outlet." Another CNN denizen claims that Rion promotes 'conspiracy theories' which sounds kind of funny coming from the network that spent years promoting the Russia collusion conspiracy. Worst of all, she's liked by President Trump." . . .

Sucking CNN: Anti-Trump Network Fails to Get One Show to Crack Top 20 in First Quarter Ratings

While The Media Plays Politics…A Truthful Timeline of Trump’s Coronavirus Response Emerges  "While the media plays politics to try and use the coronavirus crisis to harm President Trump, one social media hero posted a great timeline of everything the president has done since the beginning of the crisis.
"It’s something that sheds light on the incredible job the president and his team have done. it also pushes back on the constant drumbeat of the media narrative that the president didn’t act soon enough to stop the spread of the coronavirus." . . .

ABC’s Pitts to Pence: Do You ‘Talk to God’ About Those Who Died Because You Acted Late? . . . "So here we had a journalist ask the Vice President if he prays to the Lord with a heart of repentance for having been responsible for dead Americans. Surely, Chuck Todd would be proud of that question." . . .