vdare--2020-12-05--John Derbyshire: U.S Senate (INCLUDING REPUBLICANS) To U.S. Citizen Tech Workers—Drop Dead!

Earlier: Turkeys Vote For Christmas—GOP Votes To Import Leftist Indian Overclass (And Also Depress Tech Wages)
Outrage of the week was surely Utah Senator Mike Lee getting his S.386 bill through the U.S. Senate. S.386 means a massive loosening of the rules for foreign workers to take up white-collar jobs in the U.S.A.
Washington Watcher II wrote on Thursday:
The deceptively-named Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act scraps country caps on migration and allows India to dominate our immigration system. It’s estimated that over 90 percent of professional employment-based visas would go to Indians for the next 10 years under the bill. The Act is heavily touted by the Indian lobby and Big Tech.
Lee didn't have to break much of a sweat to get his bill passed. He used a Senate rule called "Unanimous Consent," which allows the chamber to pass legislation with no hearings or debate, so long as no Senator objects.
No Senator did—not one.
One of my themes about immigration, which I've been airing for at least seventeen years, is that it's really really hard to get people to think about immigration. It's a slow, silent process, working away invisibly in the background of our national life. There's always something more urgent, more dramatic, for politicians to make speeches about. Immigration policy is the classic case of frog-boiling.
The immigration boosters—which nowadays means Big Tech, Big Agriculture, the Fortune 500, and the Chamber of Commerce, with a small and dwindling support chorus of old-style immigration romantics singing about Ellis Island and Famine Ships—all know how reluctant people are to think about immigration.
They like that reluctance, so they make us more reluctant by adding yards and yards of fine print to the immigration rules: wrinkles, curlicues, escape hatches, specialty clauses. You need a Ph.D. level of knowledge to master it all.
I've been through the U.S. immigration system myself, twice, and I've been writing about it for twenty years; yet still today, when I'm reading some news story about the issue, I get caught by some acronym or piece of jargon I never saw before.
Just to illustrate that point, here are three short paragraphs from an article by Neil Munro. Neil's writing mainly about displacement of blue-collar workers here, but the level of jargon is the same for white-collar workers:
The CEOs are allowed to get green cards for roughly 11,000 blue-collar workers each year via the "Fourth Preference" category of the EB process. The 2018 data showed a work-and-wait workforce of just 737 non-college workers. But the 2020 data shows a work-and-wait population of 7,000 non-college workers. Many blue-collar industries are using the green card workforce to hire in compliant cheap foreigners—and exclude ambitious, disabled, or uncooperative Americans—from jobs such as truck driving, meatpacking, dairy and farming, landscaping, cooking, cleaning, fast food, and home health aide. Also, the blue-collar work-and-wait population is rising because roughly 50,000 migrants from Latin America have persuaded state judges to provide them with Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) status. That is a huge jump from 19,000 in early 2018. These SIJ migrants get their green cards from the fourth category slice of EB green cards, usually with employers' approval. [CEOs Balloon Captive "Green Card Workforce" in U.S. Jobs, by Neil Munro, Breitbart.com, December 3, 2020]
Let me go through the jargon there. "EB" stands for "Employment-Based." That's a category of Green Cards for permanent residence in the U.S.A.
Above, the Green Card I was issued in 1994—I became an American citizen before it expired.
You can get permanent residence all sorts of ways—for example, by being related to a U.S. citizen. Each way of getting permanent residence is graded into preference categories; for example, in the case of family relationships, by how closely related you are to that citizen. For Employment-Based Green Cards there are five preference levels.
Hoo-kay; so what's "work and wait"? Well, while you're waiting for your Fourth Preference Employment-Based Green Card—and you could be waiting a few years—you can be working here on a guest-worker visa, like the famous H-1B.
So far so good; but then my eye got stuck on SIJ, the Special Immigrant Juvenile status. What the heck is that? All these years reading and writing about immigration, I never heard of an SIJ.
Five'll get ya ten not one U.S. Senator could explain Special Immigrant Juvenile status to you. There are likely about fifteen people in Washington, D.C. who could explain it; and every one of them is an immigration lawyer trying to game the system on behalf of some Fortune 500 client.
(Translation of the phrase "gaming the system": replacing some American worker with a cheaper foreign one.)
That's our immigration system. That's what it's like: a vast tangled knot of laws, regulations, rules, executive orders, and court rulings. If Americans at large knew it in all its cold cash-racketeering dishonesty, there would be massive nationwide indignation.
They don't, though. They have too many other things to worry about—too many to permit them to take a couple of years off to study the difference between EB and SIJ.
Our legislators, or at any rate their staffs, should do the studying for us; but they are all bought and paid for by the employer lobbies and AILA … Sorry: That's A-I-L-A, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, whose members go to bed hungry very, very rarely.
There needs to be a great simplification. Someone needs to march into the Temple and overturn the tables of the moneychangers.
We thought Donald Trump might be the person, but he wasn't up to it.
Still, Trump can even now do the nation a service to stop the immigration system being even more of an assault on middle-class citizens than it currently is.
He can veto S.386 when it comes to his desk; or, if the congresscritters try to slip it into some other funding bill, he can veto that bill, no matter what it is.
I urge him to do so.
John Derbyshire [ email him] writes an incredible amount on all sorts of subjects for all kinds of outlets. (This no longer includes National Review, whose editors had some kind of tantrum and fired him.) He is the author of We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism and several other books. He has had two books published by VDARE.com com: FROM THE DISSIDENT RIGHT (also available in Kindle) and FROM THE DISSIDENT RIGHT II: ESSAYS 2013.
For years he’s been podcasting at Radio Derb, now available at VDARE.com for no charge. His writings are archived at JohnDerbyshire.com.
Readers who wish to donate (tax deductible) funds specifically earmarked for John Derbyshire's writings at VDARE.com can do so here.


vdare--2020-12-05--Coronavirus Overreaction: Ruling Class Hypocrisy And Absolutism

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In my podcast, I talk about "the absurd over-reaction" to coronavirus . Let me enlarge on that.
You all know about the reaction, whether or not you agree with me that it's been an over-reaction. You know about the lockdowns and quarantines, the shuttering of restaurants, bars, and gyms. You've probably seen some of the protests against it all, like the big one in New York City's Staten Island midweek.
You've also seen the hypocrisy of our ruling class on flagrant display:
Nancy Pelosi getting her hair done, maskless, at a salon that was supposed to be closed.
Gavin Newsom, Governor of California, maskless, attending a birthday party at a pricey restaurant.
Michael Hancock, Mayor of Denver (right) the day before Thanksgiving gave a public address to the people of that city urging them to stay home and greet family by Zoom for the holiday. Less than an hour later, he got on a plane and flew to Mississippi to spend the holiday with his wife and daughter, presumably maskless.
Michael Hancock, Mayor of Denver (right) the day before Thanksgiving gave a public address to the people of that city urging them to stay home and greet family by Zoom for the holiday. Less than an hour later, he got on a plane and flew to Mississippi to spend the holiday with his wife and daughter, presumably maskless. Lori Lightfoot, Mayor of Chicago, attended a crowded street party to celebrate Joe Biden's apparent victory. That was November 7th. A week later she shut down the whole city and told Chicagoans to cancel their Thanksgiving plans. She did wear a mask some of the time at the street party, but dropped it when yelling into a bullhorn.
Steve Adler, Mayor of Austin, Texas, posted a video message to inhabitants of Austin November 9th saying, quote: "We need to stay home if you can … We need to keep the numbers down." It turned out he recorded that message while on vacation in Mexico, whither he had flown on a private jet.
Two days before flying to Mexico Adler had hosted a wedding and reception in Austin for his daughter and 20 guests—ten more than were allowed under his own city guidelines.
Two days before flying to Mexico Adler had hosted a wedding and reception in Austin for his daughter and 20 guests—ten more than were allowed under his own city guidelines. Just one more, though I could fill the whole podcast with these. This is Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York. November 18th Cuomo told reporters that, quote: "My personal advice is you don't have family gatherings—even for Thanksgiving." Next day, the 19th, he advised New Yorkers that: "This year, if you love someone, it is better and safer to stay away."
But then, the following Monday, Cuomo told a radio interview: "The story is, my mom is going to come up and two of my girls."
To the Governor's credit, after a fuss in the local media, he canceled the dinner. Although perhaps he flew to Mississippi to join Mayor Hancock and his family, I don't know
I know how I feel about these hypocrite politicians. I'm just having trouble imagining what you think of them if you are the owner of a small business you spent years building up, that has now been put out of business by their crazy regulations.
Isn't it all necessary, though? Wouldn't a lot more people die without those regulations? How do I feel about the possibility that I might be one of them? Or someone I love?
This is where I find myself thinking something's wrong with our deepest instincts. There is a point of balance to be found between carefree carry-on-as-normal and control-freak absolutism. We have not found that point.
Take traffic fatalities as a comparison. The U.S.A. suffers around 35,000 traffic fatalities a year. Every one is of course a heartbreaking tragedy to wives, husbands, parents, children, lovers and friends. Couldn't we get the number down somewhat?
Sure we could. We could go for control-freak absolutism: implement a nationwide no-exceptions speed limit of fifteen miles per hour. That's four times faster than walking: should be fast enough for anybody. Traffic fatalities would drop to a few hundred a year.
So why don't we do this, and spare ourselves those tens of thousands of tragedies? Because Americans wouldn't stand for it. The economy would be crippled: businesses can't move goods at fifteen miles an hour. Even just ordinary citizens would be up in arms: "What, I have to spend four hours driving to check on my granny sixty miles away?"
Sure, we take sensible measures to reduce the toll: speed limits, vehicle inspections, seat-belt laws. In the final analysis, though, we accept that normal life includes some number of deaths, possibly deaths of ourselves or our loved ones. We like normal life, even if it costs many deaths. We don't like control-freak absolutism, even if it saves many lives. We have found the point of balance.
In the case of the coronavirus, we haven't. Instead of seeking for it in a reasonable way, we have defaulted to control-freak absolutism, along with all those displays of hypocrisy from the absolutists.


vdare--2020-12-05--Why Did Blacks Make More Progress Before Civil Rights Than After?

From the New York Times opinion page:
Why Did Racial Progress Stall in America?
The answer may show us the path out of our fractured and polarized present.
By Shaylyn Romney Garrett and Robert D. Putnam
Robert D. Putnam is a political scientist. Shaylyn Romney Garrett is a writer.
Dec. 4, 2020
… In our book, “The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again,” we examine century-long data, tracking outcomes by race in health, education, income, wealth and voting. What we found surprised us.
In terms of material well-being, Black Americans were moving toward parity with white Americans well before the victories of the civil rights era. What’s more, after the passage of civil rights legislation, those trends toward racial parity slowed, stopped and even reversed. …
In measure after measure, positive change for Black Americans was actually faster in the decades before the civil rights revolution than in the decades after. For example,
These data reveal a too-slow but unmistakable climb toward racial parity throughout most of the century that begins to flatline around 1970 — a picture quite unlike the hockey stick of historical shorthand.
We draw attention to the unexpected shape and timing of these trends not as an attempt to argue that things are or were better for Black Americans than they might appear. Quite the contrary. Gains on the part of Black Americans — though clear and surprisingly steady during the first two-thirds of the 20th century — were due almost entirely to their fleeing the South by the millions during the Great Migration. Starting new lives in cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia meant access to better health care, education and economic opportunities. But these destinations, too, were characterized by a persistent reality of exclusion, segregation and racial violence. …
In the last half-century, however, that collective progress has halted, and many who fought so hard for this progress have now lived to see it reversed. …
It is against this backdrop of stillborn hopes and intergenerational reversals that Black Lives Matter protesters have taken to the streets. The recent police killings have undoubtedly been sparks in the dry tinder boxes of over-policed Black communities.


vdare--2020-12-06--Karl Rove's Greed Explains Why Perdue, Loeffler, Didn't Block Indian Overclass Importation Bill

Earlier : Karl Rove Is Back !
And Just Might Lose Georgia For GOP If Senate Candidates Don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ Threatened Amnesty A brief Twitter thread , screenshotted to protect it from Twitter deletion .
@ @ @ @ @ directly to stories .
ZeroHedge reports that the GOP is raising 400 % more money @ @ @ @ @ ...

Earlier: Karl Rove Is Back! And Just Might Lose Georgia For GOP If Senate Candidates Don’t Campaign Against Biden’s Threatened Amnesty
A brief Twitter thread , screenshotted to protect it from Twitter deletion. Click on images to go directly to stories.
ZeroHedge reports that the GOP is raising 400% more money than the Democrats in Georgia...


vdare--2020-12-06--Black Lives Matter? In 2020, Black/Brown Gun Violence in Chicago Has Killed 23 Times More Black/Brow

Black Lives Matter? In 2020, Black/Brown Gun Violence in Chicago Has Killed 23 Times More Black/Brown Youth Than COVID

Previously on SBPDL : Courtesy Of Record Rates Of Black On Black Homicides , St. Louis Has More Murders In 2020 Than COVID-19 Deaths ... For those counting at home , all of those youth in Chicago killed by gun violence have been non-white .
And all of those who pulled the trigger tragically ending these young non-white lives were non-white themselves .
But Black Lives Matter , right ?
Gun Violence Has Killed 23 Times More Chicago Youth Than COVID , Zero Hedge , December 5 , 2020 Chicago youth are at far higher risk of dying from gun @ @ @ @ @ @ @ That ’ s been the case since the start of the pandemic .
As of December 1 , four Chicago youth have died from COVID but over 90 have died from gun violence .
That ’ s 23 children dead from gun violence for every COVID death .
The numbers are far worse than they were five months ago when Wirepoints laid out the facts about reopening Chicago Public Schools to in-class learning .
One of the more revealing points we covered was that the virus was far less a threat to Chicago @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Cook County Medical Examiner showed 3 children had died from COVID-19 between Mar .
1 and Jul 22 .
In comparison , over 46 had already died of gun violence .
It ’ s hard for us to know just how many fewer youth would have died from gun violence if CPS had opened up months ago , but we ’ d venture to guess it would have been fewer .
With more experts agreeing that schools are not a COVID-spreading threat , and the negative impacts of keeping students out of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ proceed with its reopening plans with all speed .
The country doesn ’ t need COVID-19 shutdowns , but a true conversation about gun crime/gun violence and race .
Because gun control means protecting black lives , if we work to keep legal and illegal guns out of the hands of black and brown people .
If black lives matter , it means being honest about who/whom is responsible for all those dead black and brown Chicago youth .
And it ’ s far more than who have passed away from COVID-19…

Previously on SBPDL: Courtesy Of Record Rates Of Black On Black Homicides, St. Louis Has More Murders In 2020 Than COVID-19 Deaths...
For those counting at home, all of those youth in Chicago killed by gun violence have been non-white. And all of those who pulled the trigger tragically ending these young non-white lives were non-white themselves. But Black Lives Matter, right?
Gun Violence Has Killed 23 Times More Chicago Youth Than COVID, Zero Hedge, December 5, 2020 Chicago youth are at far higher risk of dying from gun violence than they are from COVID-19. That’s been the case since the start of the pandemic. As of December 1, four Chicago youth have died from COVID but over 90 have died from gun violence. That’s 23 children dead from gun violence for every COVID death. The numbers are far worse than they were five months ago when Wirepoints laid out the facts about reopening Chicago Public Schools to in-class learning. One of the more revealing points we covered was that the virus was far less a threat to Chicago children than gun violence. Data from the Cook County Medical Examiner showed 3 children had died from COVID-19 between Mar. 1 and Jul 22. In comparison, over 46 had already died of gun violence. It’s hard for us to know just how many fewer youth would have died from gun violence if CPS had opened up months ago, but we’d venture to guess it would have been fewer. With more experts agreeing that schools are not a COVID-spreading threat, and the negative impacts of keeping students out of school on the rise, CPS should proceed with its reopening plans with all speed.
Insanity.
The country doesn’t need COVID-19 shutdowns, but a true conversation about gun crime/gun violence and race. Because gun control means protecting black lives, if we work to keep legal and illegal guns out of the hands of black and brown people. If black lives matter, it means being honest about who/whom is responsible for all those dead black and brown Chicago youth.
It’s not white people.
And it’s far more than who have passed away from COVID-19…
[Comment at Unz.com]


vdare--2020-12-06--Both Pfizer and Moderna Could Have Announced Their Vaccines' Efficacy Before the Election, Which Lik

Both Pfizer and Moderna Could Have Announced Their Vaccines' Efficacy Before the Election, Which Likely Would Have Meant a Trump Victory

As I reported back in my November 11th column in Taki ’ s Magazine , Pfizer shut down lab processing of its world-historical vaccine clinical trial from late October until the day after the election to avoid having to follow its published protocol on when to assess its results .
Now , what I gleaned from a close reading of StatNewshas been confirmed by a New York Times article : Politics , Science and the Remarkable Race for a Coronavirus Vaccine The furious race to develop a coronavirus vaccine played out against a presidential election , between a pharmaceutical giant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stakes as high as they could get .
… In a double-blind clinical trial , the gold standard for testing new medicines or vaccines , neither the company nor the participants know who receives vaccines and who gets placebos .
Only an independent review board has access to that information .
The protocols for the trials lay out under what conditions the board can look at the results .
Pfizer ’ s trial protocol was the most aggressive of all six vaccine candidates , allowing for a check of interim results once 32 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ published protocol called for interim analyses when the number of cases across the two arms reached 32 , 62 , 92 , and 120 , with a final analysis after 164 cases ( see pp .
102-104 ) .
Pfizer wound up blowing off its first two called-for analyses without disclosing their change of plans to investors , causing some stock analysts to issue cautionary reports .
But that ’ s conflating Pfizer ’ s announcement of efficacy vs. the FDA ’ s approval of safety , which are two different issues .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the spectacular efficacy of its vaccine on the morning of Monday , November 9th , even though it did not yet have the required 2 months of safety data to officially apply for FDA approval until the second half of November ( and the FDA meeting won ’ t be until Thursday , December 10 ) .
But Pfizer laid out the precise math it would follow in declaring whether the vaccine was likely to meet the FDA ’ s 50 % efficacy hurdle or should be declared futile : In other words @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Election Day , but didn ’ t want to have to announce its results , so it shut down its lab work on the world ’ s most important project .
That approval came on Nov. 3 , Election Day , or the day after .
The delay later enraged Mr. Trump , who claimed it was part of a conspiracy to damage his chance at re-election .
Dr. Bourla said he turned a blind eye to the Election Day deadline .
“ Before , people were saying it ’ s too soon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ election , “ people are saying , ‘ Oh , it ’ s too late.
’ ” Once Pfizer resumed processing test swabs on Nov. 4 , it quickly became apparent that the infection rate had skyrocketed , as it had nationwide and in other countries .
With 94 Covid-19 cases , the company asked the data monitoring board to reveal the results .
In other words , during its lab shutdown , Pfizer blew past both its first three disclosed interim analyses ( 32 , 62 , 92 ) .
On Sunday @ @ @ @ @ @ @ called the Pfizer CEO with the results of the blind trial : With only 4 COVID cases in the vaccine arm out of the first 94 cases blowing away the third interim analysis ’ s threshold of no more than 25 cases in the vaccine arm out of the first 92 cases overall , we know that Pfizer ’ s vaccine would have been declared efficacious in either the second interim analysis ( 62 cases overall with no more than 15 in the vaccine arm ) or the first interim analysis ( 32 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the vaccine arm ) .
Even if all 4 vaccine arm cases were among the first 32 , that still would be better than Pfizer ’ s published threshold of efficacy .
So , almost certainly Pfizer should have announced the efficacy of its vaccine by , at latest , early on Monday November 2 , using either the first ( 32 case ) or , possibly , the second ( 62 case ) interim analysis .
That evening , Pfizer officials informed a key F.D.A .
official of its news , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Biden ’ s team was alerted to the development that night .
But in a sign of the suspicions that mark the Trump administration , the president ’ s top health officials did not learn of the news until the next morning , when it became public .
Mr. Trump ’ s anger about the timing has not abated .
In a news conference on Friday , he suggested Pfizer and other drugmakers had taken revenge on him for pushing drug price controls .
“ They were going to come out in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it because of what I ’ m doing , ” he grumbled .
“ They waited and waited and waited.
” Obviously , Trump is right .
On the other hand , if Trump really were the authoritarian strongman his haters claim he is and his fanboys hope he is , he would have done something about this , such as , at minimum , dispatch his SEC to warn Pfizer that if they don ’ t disclose results according to their published protocol , they will be sued .
But that ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ NYT also implies that the similar Moderna vaccine , which was announced to be extremely efficacious on November 16 , 13 days after the election , would also have been announced to be efficacious in late October or , at least , the day before the election if the Trump Administration weren ’ t so politically correct : The call was tense , the message discouraging .
Moncef Slaoui , the head of the Trump administration ’ s effort to quickly produce a vaccine for the coronavirus , was on the phone at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the upstart biotech firm Moderna that it had to slow the final stage of testing its vaccine in humans .
Moderna ’ s chief executive , Stéphane Bancel , a French biochemical engineer , recognized the implication .
In the race to quell the pandemic , he said , “ every day mattered.
” Now his company , which had yet to bring a single product to market , faced a delay of up to three weeks .
Pfizer , the global pharmaceutical giant that was busy testing a similar vaccine candidate and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ take the obvious lead .
“ It was the hardest decision I made this year , ” Mr. Bancel said .
Moderna ’ s problem seemed fitting for late summer 2020 , when the United States was reeling from not just a pandemic but unrest over racial injustice .
Dr. Slaoui informed Mr. Bancel that Moderna had not recruited enough minority candidates into its vaccine trials .
White people are more likely to volunteer for scientific research .
I was in the consumer packaged goods marketing research business from 1982-2000 .
We put @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by relying on white women ’ s urge to help out .
Nonwhites tend to have a perfectly rational but socially dysfunctional “ What ’ s in it for me ?
” attitude toward scientific research .
“ A delay of up to three weeks : ” If Moderna had been allowed to announce three weeks earlier that would have been October 26 .
Two weeks earlier would have been the Monday before Election Tuesday .
Would it have made a difference if the stock market boomed the day before the election because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
If the news had flipped 1 out of 300 votes , that would have been enough to flip Georgia ( 0.24 % Biden Advantage : 16 Electoral Votes ) , Arizona ( 0.31 % : 11 ) , and Wisconsin ( 0.63 % : 10 ) .
That would have caused a 269-269 tie in the Electoral College .
The addition of Washington D.C. ’ s 3 Electoral Votes due to the XXIII Amendment caused the Electoral College to have an even number of votes , which means you can have ties @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then goes to the House of Representatives , where each state in the new Congress votes as a delegation .
Because the GOP is stronger in small states , Trump likely would have won in the House .
So , yeah , Trump probably would have been re-elected if he ’ d made Pfizer follow its published protocol or let Moderna carry out its clinical trial on the kind of people who want to volunteer for clinical trials .
But Trump failed at those tasks .

As I reported back in my November 11th column in Taki’s Magazine, Pfizer shut down lab processing of its world-historical vaccine clinical trial from late October until the day after the election to avoid having to follow its published protocol on when to assess its results. Now, what I gleaned from a close reading of StatNews has been confirmed by a New York Times article:
Politics, Science and the Remarkable Race for a Coronavirus Vaccine The furious race to develop a coronavirus vaccine played out against a presidential election, between a pharmaceutical giant and a biotech upstart, with the stakes as high as they could get. By Sharon LaFraniere, Katie Thomas, Noah Weiland, David Gelles, Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Denise Grady
Published Nov. 21, 2020
Updated Nov. 30, 2020 … In a double-blind clinical trial, the gold standard for testing new medicines or vaccines, neither the company nor the participants know who receives vaccines and who gets placebos. Only an independent review board has access to that information. The protocols for the trials lay out under what conditions the board can look at the results. Pfizer’s trial protocol was the most aggressive of all six vaccine candidates, allowing for a check of interim results once 32 participants developed Covid-19.
Pfizer’s published protocol called for interim analyses when the number of cases across the two arms reached 32, 62, 92, and 120, with a final analysis after 164 cases (see pp. 102-104.)
Pfizer wound up blowing off its first two called-for analyses without disclosing their change of plans to investors, causing some stock analysts to issue cautionary reports.
It was a lower benchmark than Moderna and the other companies had adopted and F.D.A. regulators warned Pfizer they were highly unlikely to issue an emergency use authorization for a coronavirus vaccine based on such a small data set.
But that’s conflating Pfizer’s announcement of efficacy vs. the FDA’s approval of safety, which are two different issues. As it turned out, Pfizer announced the spectacular efficacy of its vaccine on the morning of Monday, November 9th, even though it did not yet have the required 2 months of safety data to officially apply for FDA approval until the second half of November (and the FDA meeting won’t be until Thursday, December 10).
Outside experts criticized Pfizer for allowing itself to peek at the data too early and too often.
But Pfizer laid out the precise math it would follow in declaring whether the vaccine was likely to meet the FDA’s 50% efficacy hurdle or should be declared futile:
Pfizer decided it should drop that first benchmark and asked the F.D.A. to approve a new protocol on Oct. 29, effectively dashing Mr. Trump’s hopes of an announcement before Election Day. The company also stopped processing test results from trial participants while it worked with the F.D.A.
That’s the smoking gun.
Protocol changes are discouraged once data is available, and Pfizer did not want to cross the benchmark before it got verbal approval to drop it.
In other words, Pfizer crossed its published benchmark before Election Day, but didn’t want to have to announce its results, so it shut down its lab work on the world’s most important project.
That approval came on Nov. 3, Election Day, or the day after. The delay later enraged Mr. Trump, who claimed it was part of a conspiracy to damage his chance at re-election. Dr. Bourla said he turned a blind eye to the Election Day deadline. “Before, people were saying it’s too soon,” he said. After the election, “people are saying, ‘Oh, it’s too late.’” Once Pfizer resumed processing test swabs on Nov. 4, it quickly became apparent that the infection rate had skyrocketed, as it had nationwide and in other countries. With 94 Covid-19 cases, the company asked the data monitoring board to reveal the results.
In other words, during its lab shutdown, Pfizer blew past both its first three disclosed interim analyses (32, 62, 92).
On Sunday, November 8th, the independent board called the Pfizer CEO with the results of the blind trial:
Then everyone was ushered from the room except Dr. Bourla and Pfizer’s general counsel, Doug Lankler, so the two men could hear a breakdown of the data that showed the vaccine was more than 95 percent effective. Of 94 people who had gotten sick, they were told, 90 were in the placebo group and only four were in the vaccine group.
With only 4 COVID cases in the vaccine arm out of the first 94 cases blowing away the third interim analysis’s threshold of no more than 25 cases in the vaccine arm out of the first 92 cases overall, we know that Pfizer’s vaccine would have been declared efficacious in either the second interim analysis (62 cases overall with no more than 15 in the vaccine arm) or the first interim analysis (32 cases overall with no more than 6 in the vaccine arm). Even if all 4 vaccine arm cases were among the first 32, that still would be better than Pfizer’s published threshold of efficacy.
So, almost certainly Pfizer should have announced the efficacy of its vaccine by, at latest, early on Monday November 2, using either the first (32 case) or, possibly, the second (62 case) interim analysis.
That evening, Pfizer officials informed a key F.D.A. official of its news, along with a short list of others. Biden’s team was alerted to the development that night. But in a sign of the suspicions that mark the Trump administration, the president’s top health officials did not learn of the news until the next morning, when it became public. Mr. Trump’s anger about the timing has not abated. In a news conference on Friday, he suggested Pfizer and other drugmakers had taken revenge on him for pushing drug price controls. “They were going to come out in October, but they decided to delay it because of what I’m doing,” he grumbled. “They waited and waited and waited.”
Obviously, Trump is right.
On the other hand, if Trump really were the authoritarian strongman his haters claim he is and his fanboys hope he is, he would have done something about this, such as, at minimum, dispatch his SEC to warn Pfizer that if they don’t disclose results according to their published protocol, they will be sued.
But that’s not who Trump is.
The NYT also implies that the similar Moderna vaccine, which was announced to be extremely efficacious on November 16, 13 days after the election, would also have been announced to be efficacious in late October or, at least, the day before the election if the Trump Administration weren’t so politically correct:
The call was tense, the message discouraging. Moncef Slaoui, the head of the Trump administration’s effort to quickly produce a vaccine for the coronavirus, was on the phone at 6 p.m. on Aug. 25 to tell the upstart biotech firm Moderna that it had to slow the final stage of testing its vaccine in humans. Moderna’s chief executive, Stéphane Bancel, a French biochemical engineer, recognized the implication. In the race to quell the pandemic, he said, “every day mattered.” Now his company, which had yet to bring a single product to market, faced a delay of up to three weeks. Pfizer, the global pharmaceutical giant that was busy testing a similar vaccine candidate and promising initial results by October, would take the obvious lead. “It was the hardest decision I made this year,” Mr. Bancel said. Moderna’s problem seemed fitting for late summer 2020, when the United States was reeling from not just a pandemic but unrest over racial injustice. Dr. Slaoui informed Mr. Bancel that Moderna had not recruited enough minority candidates into its vaccine trials.
White people are more likely to volunteer for scientific research. I was in the consumer packaged goods marketing research business from 1982-2000. We put together a remarkably scientific panel of consumers by relying on white women’s urge to help out.
If it could not prove its vaccine worked well for Black and Hispanic Americans, who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, it would not make it over the finish line.
Nonwhites tend to have a perfectly rational but socially dysfunctional “What’s in it for me?” attitude toward scientific research.
Both companies ultimately completed the crucial stages of their human trials this month and reported spectacular initial results, vaccines that appear to be about 95 percent effective against a virus that has killed 1.3 million people, a quarter million of them in the United States.
“A delay of up to three weeks”: If Moderna had been allowed to announce three weeks earlier that would have been October 26. Two weeks earlier would have been the Monday before Election Tuesday.
Would it have made a difference if the stock market boomed the day before the election because of the great news about the vaccine?
If the news had flipped 1 out of 300 votes, that would have been enough to flip Georgia (0.24% Biden Advantage: 16 Electoral Votes), Arizona (0.31% : 11), and Wisconsin (0.63%: 10). That would have caused a 269-269 tie in the Electoral College. The addition of Washington D.C.’s 3 Electoral Votes due to the XXIII Amendment caused the Electoral College to have an even number of votes, which means you can have ties.
A tie in the Electoral College then goes to the House of Representatives, where each state in the new Congress votes as a delegation. Because the GOP is stronger in small states, Trump likely would have won in the House.
So, yeah, Trump probably would have been re-elected if he’d made Pfizer follow its published protocol or let Moderna carry out its clinical trial on the kind of people who want to volunteer for clinical trials.
But Trump failed at those tasks.
[Comment at Unz.com]


vdare--2020-12-04--A Member Of The Historical American Nation (And Possible MAYFLOWER Descendant) Cheers On VDARE's Eff

A Member Of The Historical American Nation (And Possible MAYFLOWER Descendant) Cheers On VDARE's Efforts

Re : Tell Us Your Stories !
We Are Not A Nation Of Immigrants .
Honoring 400 Years Of The Mayflower Compact From : Allen in Massachusetts [ Email him ] This year 's quadricentennial celebration of the landing in Massachusetts has been sadly interrupted by the pandemic , and marred by disparagement from America-haters and graffiti artists .
For me , those disruptions have only heighted my appreciation and reverence for the Pilgrims ' primary role in America 's founding .
Growing up , I learned about the Pilgrims , their courage , aspirations and struggles , and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years , I feel a stronger personal connection than I ever did before .
That is partly because , these past few years , I have spent a lot of time studying my family genealogy .
I believe my wife and I both have Mayflower ancestors .
The proof I have collected so far still leaves some uncertainty .
So I 'll keep working to fill the gaps with more genealogy research .
Actually my primary focus in family history has been to trace my ancestry just back to the Revolutionary War era @ @ @ @ @ @ @ born in America .
My proof was good enough for me to join the Sons of the American Revolution .
Farther back than the Revolution , the records run out for most lines in my ancestry .
But one line goes back to New England , and the records indicate a Mayflower ancestor as a strong possibility .
Besides strengthening my own personal connection to the Pilgrims , I feel a keen kinship to other Americans , from all walks of life , who are foundational Americans , like me .
And I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of more recent vintage -- people like Matthew Richer .
I see them as extended family , and give thanks that they have joined as part of the Historic American Nation .
For 2021 , I hope all of America will mark the quadricentennial of the First Thanksgiving , as we recall the trials and first harvest of the Pilgrims .
The Pilgrims did not completely succeed with their vision of a `` city on a hill '' .
Their quest continued with later generations , and continues with us .
We too @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ways .

Re: Tell Us Your Stories! We Are Not A Nation Of Immigrants. Honoring 400 Years Of The Mayflower Compact
From: Allen in Massachusetts [Email him]
This year's quadricentennial celebration of the landing in Massachusetts has been sadly interrupted by the pandemic, and marred by disparagement from America-haters and graffiti artists. For me, those disruptions have only heighted my appreciation and reverence for the Pilgrims' primary role in America's founding.
Growing up, I learned about the Pilgrims, their courage, aspirations and struggles, and the first Thanksgiving. But in my retirement years, I feel a stronger personal connection than I ever did before. That is partly because, these past few years, I have spent a lot of time studying my family genealogy.
I believe my wife and I both have Mayflower ancestors. The proof I have collected so far still leaves some uncertainty. So I'll keep working to fill the gaps with more genealogy research.
Actually my primary focus in family history has been to trace my ancestry just back to the Revolutionary War era. All my ancestors since 1776 were born in America. My proof was good enough for me to join the Sons of the American Revolution. Farther back than the Revolution, the records run out for most lines in my ancestry. But one line goes back to New England, and the records indicate a Mayflower ancestor as a strong possibility.
Besides strengthening my own personal connection to the Pilgrims, I feel a keen kinship to other Americans, from all walks of life, who are foundational Americans, like me. And I feel the same way about well-assimilated Americans of more recent vintage--people like Matthew Richer. I see them as extended family, and give thanks that they have joined as part of the Historic American Nation.
For 2021, I hope all of America will mark the quadricentennial of the First Thanksgiving, as we recall the trials and first harvest of the Pilgrims. The Pilgrims did not completely succeed with their vision of a "city on a hill". Their quest continued with later generations, and continues with us. We too, are Pilgrims, in our various ways.


vdare--2020-12-06--Evolutionary Anthropologist Recommends We Knock Off This 'Race' Stuff

Earlier : Fads and Fallacies In The Name Of `` Race Does Not Exist '' Over at Quillette , in @ @ @ @ @ the Dark Side of Identity , [ November 22 , 2020 ] evolutionary anthropologist Robert @ @ @ @ @ we 'll never get rid of `` us versus them '' mentalities because they 're @ @ @ @ @ Nicely put , though it 's curious to hear an evolutionary anthropologist use terms like @ @ @ @ @ `` evil '' .
Does nature know `` evil '' ?
He also makes the @ @ @ @ @ '' Trump supporters have violence in mind when they protest what they see as massive @ @ @ @ @ .
If only .
White conservatives remain pretty securely locked down these days -- and @ @ @ @ @ down .
Lynch winds up by discouraging us from emphasizing our racial identities as if @ @ @ @ @ that .
I think it 's the other way around .
The `` luxury '' @ @ @ @ @ shared belief .
The foundational reality is politics based on immutable characteristics .

Earlier: Fads and Fallacies In The Name Of "Race Does Not Exist"
Over at Quillette, in Kin, Tribes, and the Dark Side of Identity, [November 22, 2020] evolutionary anthropologist Robert Lynch makes the case that we'll never get rid of "us versus them" mentalities because they're burned into our DNA.
He says:
"The benefits that come from forming groups are hard to overestimate. It is not an exaggeration to say that this capacity, which allows us to build communities and cooperate, under-girds our entire civilization. But there is a dark side, too. Hostility towards out-groups is intimately tied to our ability to cooperate and make sacrifices for one another and these traits are likely to have evolved together. In other words, what has allowed human beings to flourish is also integral to some of our most morally repugnant behaviors, including slavery and genocide. The pressing issue for contemporary liberal democracies, therefore, is finding ways to curb the dark side of our parochial nature while still reaping the benefits of large-scale cooperation."
Nicely put, though it's curious to hear an evolutionary anthropologist use terms like "dark side" and "evil". Does nature know "evil"?
He also makes the weird suggestion that "tribal" Trump supporters have violence in mind when they protest what they see as massive fraud and a stolen election. If only. White conservatives remain pretty securely locked down these days -- and I mean, literally locked down.
Lynch winds up by discouraging us from emphasizing our racial identities as if we somehow have control over that.
He concludes:
"A politics based on membership in a particular religious, racial, or social group rather than broader groupings of people with the same political views was a dubious luxury that our species can simply no longer afford."
I think it's the other way around. The "luxury" is the politics based on shared belief. The foundational reality is politics based on immutable characteristics.


vdare--2020-12-06--NYT: Too Many Whites Might Get Vaccine

NYT: Too Many Whites Might Get Vaccine

From the New York Times news section , an article in which it gradually becomes apparent that the only value conceivable in 2020 is : Would this policy benefit blacks more than whites ?
If so , good .
The Elderly vs .
Essential Workers : Who Should Get the Coronavirus Vaccine First ?
The C.D.C .
will soon decide which group to recommend next , and the debate over the trade-offs is growing heated .
Ultimately , states will determine whom to include .
With the coronavirus pandemic surging and initial vaccine supplies limited , the United States faces @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s immunization program focus in the early months on the elderly and people with serious medical conditions , who are dying of the virus at the highest rates , or on essential workers , an expansive category encompassing Americans who have borne the greatest risk of infection ?
Health care workers and the frailest of the elderly — residents of long-term-care facilities — will almost certainly get the first shots , under guidelines the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued on Thursday .
But with vaccination expected to start this month @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health officials about who goes next , and lobbying from outside groups to be included , is growing more urgent .
It ’ s a question increasingly guided by concerns over the inequities laid bare by the pandemic , from disproportionately high rates of infection and death among poor people and people of color to disparate access to testing , child care and technology for online schooling .
… Ultimately , the choice comes down to whether preventing death or curbing the spread of the virus and returning to some semblance of normalcy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your goal is to maximize the preservation of human life , then you would bias the vaccine toward older Americans , ” Dr. Scott Gottlieb , the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner , said recently .
“ If your goal is to reduce the rate of infection , then you would prioritize essential workers .
So it depends what impact you ’ re trying to achieve.
” One problem is that while we know the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines reduce cases of infection by 95 % and severe cases by about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t yet know how much the vaccines reduce infectiousness .
The trade-off between the two is muddied by the fact that the definition of “ essential workers ” used by the C.D.C .
comprises nearly 70 percent of the American work force , sweeping in not just grocery store clerks and emergency responders , but tugboat operators , exterminators and nuclear energy workers .
Some labor economists and public health officials consider the category overbroad and say it should be narrowed to only those who interact in person with the public .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ all voting members of the committee indicated support for putting essential workers ahead of people 65 and older and those with high-risk health conditions .
Historically , the committee relied on scientific evidence to inform its decisions .
But now the members are weighing social justice concerns as well , noted Lisa A. Prosser , a professor of health policy and decision sciences at the University of Michigan .
“ To me the issue of ethics is very significant , very important for this country , ” Dr. Peter Szilagyi , a committee @ @ @ @ @ @ @ University of California , Los Angeles , said at the time , “ and clearly favors the essential worker group because of the high proportion of minority , low-income and low-education workers among essential workers.
” That position runs counter to frameworks proposed by the World Health Organization , the National Academies of Sciences , Engineering , and Medicine , and many countries , which say that reducing deaths should be the unequivocal priority and that older and sicker people should thus go before the workers , a view shared by many in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ultimately , the decision will be up to governors and state and local health officials .
They are not required to follow C.D.C .
guidelines , though historically they have done so .
…There are about 90 million essential workers nationwide , as defined by a division of the Department of Homeland Security that compiled a roster of jobs that help maintain critical infrastructure during a pandemic .
That list is long , and because there won ’ t be enough doses to reach everyone at first , states are preparing to make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plan , for example , puts prison guards and food processing workers ahead of teachers and grocery employees .
Nevada ’ s prioritizes education and public transit workers over those in retail and food processing .
The place with the fewest essential workers is Washington D.C. At this early point , many state plans put at least some people who are older and live independently , or people who have medical conditions , ahead of most essential workers , though that could change after the C.D.C .
committee makes a formal recommendation on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ priority is being hotly debated is teaching .
The C.D.C .
includes educators as essential workers .
But not everyone agrees with that designation .
Marc Lipsitch , an infectious-disease epidemiologist at Harvard ’ s T.H .
Chan School of Public Health , argued that teachers should not be included as essential workers , if a central goal of the committee is to reduce health inequities .
“ Teachers have middle-class salaries , are very often white , and they have college degrees , ” he said .
“ Of course they should @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not among the most mistreated of workers.
” Elise Gould , a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute , disagreed .
Teachers not only ensure that children don ’ t fall further behind in their education , she said , but are also critical to the work force at large .
“ When you talk about disproportionate impact and you ’ re concerned about people getting back into the labor force , many are mothers , and they will have a harder time if their children don ’ t have a reliable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ And if you think generally about people who have jobs where they can ’ t telework , they are disproportionately Black and brown .
They ’ ll have more of a challenge when child care is an issue.
” … The essential workers on the federal list make up nearly 70 percent of the American labor force , the researchers said , compared with 42 percent for the frontline workers .
Women made up 39 percent of frontline workers and , in certain occupations , far more .
Frontline workers ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their wages — on average , just under $ 22 an hour .
The proportion of Black and Hispanic workers is higher than in the broader category of essential workers .
Moreover , vaccine trial results so far show only that the shots can protect the individuals who receive them .
The trials have not yet demonstrated that a vaccinated person would not infect others .
Though scientists believe that is likely to be the case , it has yet to be proved .
Does anybody have a plan for figuring this out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania , said that it is reasonable to put essential workers ahead of older adults , given their risks , and that they are disproportionately minorities .
“ Older populations are whiter , ” Dr. Schmidt said .
“ Society is structured in a way that enables them to live longer .
Instead of giving additional health benefits to those who already had more of them , we can start to level the playing field a bit.
” But to protect older people more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ C.D.C .
committee to also integrate the agency ’ s own “ social vulnerability index.
” The index includes 15 measures derived from the census , such as overcrowded housing , lack of vehicle access and poverty , to determine how urgently a community needs health support , with the goal of reducing inequities .
In a new analysis of the states ’ preliminary vaccine plans , Dr. Schmidt found that at least 18 states intended to apply the index .
Tennessee , for one , has indicated that it will reserve some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Still , some people believe it is wrong to give racial and socioeconomic equity more weight than who is most likely to die .
…

From the New York Times news section, an article in which it gradually becomes apparent that the only value conceivable in 2020 is: Would this policy benefit blacks more than whites? If so, good.
The Elderly vs. Essential Workers: Who Should Get the Coronavirus Vaccine First? The C.D.C. will soon decide which group to recommend next, and the debate over the trade-offs is growing heated. Ultimately, states will determine whom to include. By Abby Goodnough and Jan Hoffman
Dec. 5, 2020 With the coronavirus pandemic surging and initial vaccine supplies limited, the United States faces a hard choice: Should the country’s immunization program focus in the early months on the elderly and people with serious medical conditions, who are dying of the virus at the highest rates, or on essential workers, an expansive category encompassing Americans who have borne the greatest risk of infection? Health care workers and the frailest of the elderly — residents of long-term-care facilities — will almost certainly get the first shots, under guidelines the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued on Thursday. But with vaccination expected to start this month, the debate among federal and state health officials about who goes next, and lobbying from outside groups to be included, is growing more urgent. It’s a question increasingly guided by concerns over the inequities laid bare by the pandemic, from disproportionately high rates of infection and death among poor people and people of color to disparate access to testing, child care and technology for online schooling. … Ultimately, the choice comes down to whether preventing death or curbing the spread of the virus and returning to some semblance of normalcy is the highest priority. “If your goal is to maximize the preservation of human life, then you would bias the vaccine toward older Americans,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, said recently. “If your goal is to reduce the rate of infection, then you would prioritize essential workers. So it depends what impact you’re trying to achieve.”
One problem is that while we know the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines reduce cases of infection by 95% and severe cases by about the same or more, we don’t yet know how much the vaccines reduce infectiousness.
The trade-off between the two is muddied by the fact that the definition of “essential workers” used by the C.D.C. comprises nearly 70 percent of the American work force, sweeping in not just grocery store clerks and emergency responders, but tugboat operators, exterminators and nuclear energy workers. Some labor economists and public health officials consider the category overbroad and say it should be narrowed to only those who interact in person with the public. … In a meeting last month, all voting members of the committee indicated support for putting essential workers ahead of people 65 and older and those with high-risk health conditions. Historically, the committee relied on scientific evidence to inform its decisions. But now the members are weighing social justice concerns as well, noted Lisa A. Prosser, a professor of health policy and decision sciences at the University of Michigan. “To me the issue of ethics is very significant, very important for this country,” Dr. Peter Szilagyi, a committee member and a pediatrics professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said at the time, “and clearly favors the essential worker group because of the high proportion of minority, low-income and low-education workers among essential workers.” That position runs counter to frameworks proposed by the World Health Organization, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and many countries, which say that reducing deaths should be the unequivocal priority and that older and sicker people should thus go before the workers, a view shared by many in public health and medicine. … But ultimately, the decision will be up to governors and state and local health officials. They are not required to follow C.D.C. guidelines, though historically they have done so. …There are about 90 million essential workers nationwide, as defined by a division of the Department of Homeland Security that compiled a roster of jobs that help maintain critical infrastructure during a pandemic. That list is long, and because there won’t be enough doses to reach everyone at first, states are preparing to make tough decisions: Louisiana’s preliminary plan, for example, puts prison guards and food processing workers ahead of teachers and grocery employees. Nevada’s prioritizes education and public transit workers over those in retail and food processing.
The place with the fewest essential workers is Washington D.C.
At this early point, many state plans put at least some people who are older and live independently, or people who have medical conditions, ahead of most essential workers, though that could change after the C.D.C. committee makes a formal recommendation on the next phase. One occupation whose priority is being hotly debated is teaching. The C.D.C. includes educators as essential workers. But not everyone agrees with that designation. Marc Lipsitch, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, argued that teachers should not be included as essential workers, if a central goal of the committee is to reduce health inequities. “Teachers have middle-class salaries, are very often white, and they have college degrees,” he said. “Of course they should be treated better, but they are not among the most mistreated of workers.” Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, disagreed. Teachers not only ensure that children don’t fall further behind in their education, she said, but are also critical to the work force at large. “When you talk about disproportionate impact and you’re concerned about people getting back into the labor force, many are mothers, and they will have a harder time if their children don’t have a reliable place to go,” she said. “And if you think generally about people who have jobs where they can’t telework, they are disproportionately Black and brown. They’ll have more of a challenge when child care is an issue.” … The essential workers on the federal list make up nearly 70 percent of the American labor force, the researchers said, compared with 42 percent for the frontline workers. Women made up 39 percent of frontline workers and, in certain occupations, far more. Frontline workers’ education levels are lower, as are their wages — on average, just under $22 an hour. The proportion of Black and Hispanic workers is higher than in the broader category of essential workers. Moreover, vaccine trial results so far show only that the shots can protect the individuals who receive them. The trials have not yet demonstrated that a vaccinated person would not infect others. Though scientists believe that is likely to be the case, it has yet to be proved.
Does anybody have a plan for figuring this out?


vdare--2020-12-06--Trump's Rally Shows He Commands GOP Base—And Immigration Matters, Whatever Establishment Thinks

Previously : Karl Rove Is Back !
And Just Might Lose Georgia For GOP If Senate Candidates Don ’ t Campaign Against Biden ’ s Threatened Amnesty In his first post-election rally on Saturday in Valdosta GA , President Trump tried his best to please his base and the GOP Congressional Establishment as well .
It ’ s tricky , because the two sides diverge .
The crowd ordered another serving of 2016 ’ s red meat ; Trump delivered with an attack on the Democrats and Biden ’ s plan to open the borders , Democrat opposition to Law @ @ @ @ @ @ @ embrace of the Marxist Antifa and Black Lives Matter movements .
Pleasing the Establishment , he also focused on the U.S. Senate runoffs and why Republicans must vote for candidates Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue .
But judging from the angry enthusiasm for him , Karl Rove and the GOP/ GAP had better take note : The base wants another four years of Orange Man Bad and America First .
The party will lose that base if it continues business as usual .
Critical to VDARE.com readers , Trump did mention immigration , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Democrats get a Senate majority , Trump continued , they will “ free criminal aliens and MS-13 gang members , ” and “ install Sanctuary Cities all across the country.
” And Trump wisely reminded his massive audience what America First means .
The “ trillions and trillions of dollars ” spent “ rebuilding other foreign nations , fighting foreign wars , and defending foreign borders ” could , he said , be better spent at home .
“ We want to defend our border , ” he said .
And if we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ showing an advertisement , Democrats will turn illegal aliens into new Democrat voters , and “ you wo n't ever win another election as a Republican.
” In his second reference to legal immigration , Trump discussed chain migration .
He said immigration should be merit-based : “ We want people to come into our country , you see that by the vote I got , but we want people to come in legally and through merit .
Through merit , where they can help us.
” Trump hasn ’ t discussed merit-based @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he didn ’ t mention it at all during the campaign .
And while the way he framed it wasn ’ t ideal—no , we really don ’ t want “ people to come into our country ” — at least he didn ’ t say , as he has before , that we want more immigrants .
Unfortunately , Trump did not say whether he would veto the Indian Overclass Importation Bill just slipped through the GOP-controlled Senate—with no objection from Loeffler or Perdue .
Even more unfortunately , and inexplicably , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his modest but real immigration victories .
He ignored his temporary immigration moratorium , although it will expire in January .
If Biden scraps it , foreigners could take more than 500,000 American jobs in an economy that ’ s still under siege from the Chinese Virus and the lockdowns .
He didn ’ t stress his other Executive Actions , which have reduced immigration dramatically .
Nor did he specifically hang Amnesty around Biden ’ s neck—a real missed opportunity : Biden himself has said a “ Path To Citizenship ” is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ GAP should be pounding the message that Amnesty will not happen in a GOP-controlled Senate .
That aside , a bright spot on Saturday was Trump ’ s tying the Democrats to BLM , Antifa , and lawlessness in general .
He showed an RNC ad that depicted Antifa goons beating Trump supporters after the Million MAGA March .
“ Those people got attacked viciously by the scum from ANTIFA , ” Trump said .
“ [ Jon ] Ossoff and [ Raphael ] Warnock are the two most extreme far left liberal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ country , ” he said of Perdue and Loeffler ’ s opponents .
Both are soft on crime , he said , and would end cash bail .
“ [ Warnock ’ s ] declared ‘ open up the jails , ’ free the violent criminals and prey on Georgia , families , children , ” Trump said .
Another great moment : Trump defended the Historic American Nation and its heroes and heritage .
He wants to keep military bases named after Confederate generals : Trump even discussed Big Tech censorship and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ free speech.
” He urged the crowd to push their senators to eliminate Section 230 , which protects Big Tech Social Media from the same liabilities as publishers .
As for GOP runoff candidates , Trump offered kudos to Perdue for being “ a tremendous leader on pro-American immigration reform like nobody else.
” ( Perdue was a sponsor of the RAISE Act , which would have reduced legal immigration ) .
The president defined “ pro-American immigration reform ” as supporting the wall , backing the emergency declaration funding border security , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cities and Chain Migration , and protect [ ing ] American jobs.
” In praising Loeffler , Trump oddly didn ’ t mention her stance on immigration ( A+ from Numbers USA ) .
But on the same day as the rally , Loeffler and Perdue were quoted as saying they would “ never ” support Biden ’ s Amnesty [ Georgia Sens .
David Perdue , Kelly Loeffler Vow ‘ Never ’ to Support Amnesty for Illegal Aliens , by John Binder , Breitbart , December 5 , 2020 ] .
Maybe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ !
Trump did observe , and rightly so and to Loeffler ’ s credit , that she “ stood up to the Marxists and introduced legislation to protect our brave men and women in blue and she was threatened all over the place.
” It does take some nerve to a Republican these days , even a weak one .
You never know when a BLM-Antifa goon squad will accost you on the sidewalk .
Those highlights aside , the tension between the Establishment and Trump ’ s base was notable .
While @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy did a “ great job ” during the election , he skewered Georgia ’ s two top officials as far as the runoff goes : Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger .
As reported last week , their effort to stop Abrams and her Leftist gang from stealing the runoff have been less than stellar .
“ You must go vote and vote early starting December 14th , ” Trump warned .
“ You have to do it .
They cheated and they rigged @ @ @ @ @ @ @ still win it .
We will still win it .
We ’ ll still win it .
And they ’ re going to try and rig this election too.
” “ Stop the steal !
Stop the steal !
Stop the steal ” the crowd chanted repeatedly .
Minutes later , when Trump hammered Kemp and Raffensperger as weak sisters in the fight for honest vote , the chant began again .
When Perdue rose to speak , the crowd drowned him out .
“ Fight for Trump !
” the boisterous Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ obviously more concerned about the voter fraud on November 3 than the voter fraud that might well defeat Perdue and Loeffler .
GOP elites , of course , knit their eyebrows about losing the Senate if Trump and his supporters continue fighting over an election Biden supposedly won .
But this much is clear .
The Americans who showed up in Valdosta don ’ t care about GOP elites .
They want Trump and his agenda .
And even if Trump isn ’ t ready or willing to jettison the Establishment , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vaguely Churchillian lines about the Historic American Nation , which clearly implying it is an organic entity , not a Proposition : We stand on the shoulders of American heroes who crossed the oceans , settled a continent , tamed the wilderness , laid down the railroads , raised up the great skyscrapers , won two world wars , defeated fascism and communism , and made America into the single greatest nation in the history of the world .
...
Proud citizens like you helped build this country , and together we are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to drain the Washington swamp and reclaim America ’ s destiny has just begun .
We will not bend .
We will not break .
We will not yield .
We will never give in .
We will never give up and we will never back down .
We will never , ever surrender because we are Americans and our hearts bleed red , white , and blue .
Many Republicans warn that they risk losing the Senate if Trump and his supporters continue to fight out the presidential election .
They want @ @ @ @ @ @ @ everything on keeping the Senate .
But the base—as demonstrated by their rally responses—doesn ’ t want this .
They want Trump and his agenda to stay .
Trump himself isn ’ t ready to dispense with the Establishment , but his base may be .
The GOP can only win in January with Trump at the helm .
Without him , they would certainly lose .
This may be a preview of what we will see in the future if Trump leaves office .
He may not be the commander-in-chief of America @ @ @ @ @ @ @ commander-in-chief of the Republican Party .
Washington Watcher II [ Email him ] is an anonymous DC insider .

washingtonwatcherii@protonmail.com (Washington  Watcher II)

Previously: Karl Rove Is Back! And Just Might Lose Georgia For GOP If Senate Candidates Don’t Campaign Against Biden’s Threatened Amnesty
In his first post-election rally on Saturday in Valdosta GA, President Trump tried his best to please his base and the GOP Congressional Establishment as well. It’s tricky, because the two sides diverge. The crowd ordered another serving of 2016’s red meat; Trump delivered with an attack on the Democrats and Biden’s plan to open the borders, Democrat opposition to Law and Order and the party’s embrace of the Marxist Antifa and Black Lives Matter movements. Pleasing the Establishment, he also focused on the U.S. Senate runoffs and why Republicans must vote for candidates Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. But judging from the angry enthusiasm for him, Karl Rove and the GOP/ GAP had better take note: The base wants another four years of Orange Man Bad and America First. The party will lose that base if it continues business as usual.
Critical to VDARE.com readers, Trump did mention immigration, albeit not quite enough:
[Democrats] will impose total open borders so that people can pour into our country and they will give them free healthcare, free welfare, and the right to vote in your elections. You won’t ever win another election as a Republic. They even want to take down the wall. The wall, I won on the wall too. We won on a lot of things. “Take down the wall,” I heard him say it the other day. “We will take down the wall.” [Donald Trump Georgia Rally Transcript Before Senate Runoff Elections December 5, Rev.com, December 6, 2020]
If the Democrats get a Senate majority, Trump continued, they will “free criminal aliens and MS-13 gang members,” and “install Sanctuary Cities all across the country.”
And Trump wisely reminded his massive audience what America First means. The “trillions and trillions of dollars” spent “rebuilding other foreign nations, fighting foreign wars, and defending foreign borders” could, he said, be better spent at home.
“We want to defend our border,” he said. And if we don’t, Trump explained by showing an advertisement, Democrats will turn illegal aliens into new Democrat voters, and “you won't ever win another election as a Republican.”
In his second reference to legal immigration, Trump discussed chain migration. He said immigration should be merit-based: “We want people to come into our country, you see that by the vote I got, but we want people to come in legally and through merit. Through merit, where they can help us.”
Trump hasn’t discussed merit-based immigration in quite some time, and he didn’t mention it at all during the campaign. And while the way he framed it wasn’t ideal—no, we really don’t want “people to come into our country”— at least he didn’t say, as he has before, that we want more immigrants.
Unfortunately, Trump did not say whether he would veto the Indian Overclass Importation Bill just slipped through the GOP-controlled Senate—with no objection from Loeffler or Perdue.
Even more unfortunately, and inexplicably, Trump missed the chance to bring up his modest but real immigration victories. He ignored his temporary immigration moratorium, although it will expire in January. If Biden scraps it, foreigners could take more than 500,000 American jobs in an economy that’s still under siege from the Chinese Virus and the lockdowns. He didn’t stress his other Executive Actions, which have reduced immigration dramatically. Nor did he specifically hang Amnesty around Biden’s neck—a real missed opportunity: Biden himself has said a “Path To Citizenship” is his top legislative priority. The GOP/ GAP should be pounding the message that Amnesty will not happen in a GOP-controlled Senate.
That aside, a bright spot on Saturday was Trump’s tying the Democrats to BLM, Antifa, and lawlessness in general. He showed an RNC ad that depicted Antifa goons beating Trump supporters after the Million MAGA March. “Those people got attacked viciously by the scum from ANTIFA,” Trump said.
“[Jon] Ossoff and [Raphael] Warnock are the two most extreme far left liberal Senate candidates in the history of our country,” he said of Perdue and Loeffler’s opponents. Both are soft on crime, he said, and would end cash bail. “[Warnock’s] declared ‘open up the jails,’ free the violent criminals and prey on Georgia, families, children,” Trump said.
Another great moment: Trump defended the Historic American Nation and its heroes and heritage. He wants to keep military bases named after Confederate generals:
They put in the Elizabeth Pocahontas Warren clause, where they have the right to take all the names of our past warriors, heroes in some cases, many cases, some turned out to be heroes in disguise, perhaps, but they want to take the names off and they have the right to desecrate, to take down, to destroy, to demolish places in our national parks that we don’t want demolished.
Trump even discussed Big Tech censorship and how the Left wants to “cancel free speech.” He urged the crowd to push their senators to eliminate Section 230, which protects Big Tech Social Media from the same liabilities as publishers.
As for GOP runoff candidates, Trump offered kudos to Perdue for being “a tremendous leader on pro-American immigration reform like nobody else.” (Perdue was a sponsor of the RAISE Act, which would have reduced legal immigration). The president defined “pro-American immigration reform” as supporting the wall, backing the emergency declaration funding border security, “shut[ting] down Sanctuary Cities and Chain Migration, and protect[ing] American jobs.”
In praising Loeffler, Trump oddly didn’t mention her stance on immigration (A+ from Numbers USA). But on the same day as the rally, Loeffler and Perdue were quoted as saying they would “never” support Biden’s Amnesty [Georgia Sens. David Perdue, Kelly Loeffler Vow ‘Never’ to Support Amnesty for Illegal Aliens, by John Binder, Breitbart, December 5, 2020]. Maybe they do get what Trump voters want!
Trump did observe, and rightly so and to Loeffler’s credit, that she “stood up to the Marxists and introduced legislation to protect our brave men and women in blue and she was threatened all over the place.”
It does take some nerve to a Republican these days, even a weak one. You never know when a BLM-Antifa goon squad will accost you on the sidewalk.
Those highlights aside, the tension between the Establishment and Trump’s base was notable. While Trump said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy did a “great job” during the election, he skewered Georgia’s two top officials as far as the runoff goes: Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. As I reported last week, their effort to stop Abrams and her Leftist gang from stealing the runoff have been less than stellar.
“You must go vote and vote early starting December 14th,” Trump warned. “You have to do it. They cheated and they rigged our presidential election, but we will still win it. We will still win it. We’ll still win it. And they’re going to try and rig this election too.”
“Stop the steal! Stop the steal! Stop the steal” the crowd chanted repeatedly.
Minutes later, when Trump hammered Kemp and Raffensperger as weak sisters in the fight for honest vote, the chant began again.
Let me tell you, this election was rigged and we can’t let it happen to two of the greatest, most respected people in Washington. We can’t let it happen again. Can’t let it happen. ... Your governor could stop it very easily if he knew what the hell he was doing. He could stop it very easily. Hundreds of thousands of illegal votes were cast in each state. … For whatever reason, your secretary of state and your governor are afraid of Stacey Abrams.
When Perdue rose to speak, the crowd drowned him out. “Fight for Trump!” the boisterous Trump supporters shouted. The GOP base is obviously more concerned about the voter fraud on November 3 than the voter fraud that might well defeat Perdue and Loeffler.
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GOP elites, of course, knit their eyebrows about losing the Senate if Trump and his supporters continue fighting over an election Biden supposedly won.
But this much is clear. The Americans who showed up in Valdosta don’t care about GOP elites. They want Trump and his agenda. And even if Trump isn’t ready or willing to jettison the Establishment, the base is.
Trump finished with these vaguely Churchillian lines about the Historic American Nation, which clearly implying it is an organic entity, not a Proposition:
We stand on the shoulders of American heroes who crossed the oceans, settled a continent, tamed the wilderness, laid down the railroads, raised up the great skyscrapers, won two world wars, defeated fascism and communism, and made America into the single greatest nation in the history of the world. ... Proud citizens like you helped build this country, and together we are taking back our country. Our fight to drain the Washington swamp and reclaim America’s destiny has just begun. We will not bend. We will not break. We will not yield. We will never give in. We will never give up and we will never back down. We will never, ever surrender because we are Americans and our hearts bleed red, white, and blue.
Many Republicans warn that they risk losing the Senate if Trump and his supporters continue to fight out the presidential election. They want the party to move on and focus everything on keeping the Senate.
But the base—as demonstrated by their rally responses—doesn’t want this. They want Trump and his agenda to stay. Trump himself isn’t ready to dispense with the Establishment, but his base may be. The GOP can only win in January with Trump at the helm. Without him, they would certainly lose.
This may be a preview of what we will see in the future if Trump leaves office. He may not be the commander-in-chief of America, but it looks like he will commander-in-chief of the Republican Party.
Washington Watcher II [Email him] is an anonymous DC insider.


vdare--2020-12-07--Soros-Funded L.A. District Attorney Legalizes Trespassing and Resisting Arrest

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Earlier: Never Ever Mention That George Soros Is Funding Anti-Cop Candidates for District Attorney, Not Even on Fox News
NEW: L.A. County DA George Gascon has issued a directive to prosecutors that the following misdemeanors will be declined for prosecution, with exemptions.
-Trespassing
-Disturbing the peace
-Driving without license
-Prostitution
-Resisting arrest
Details/exemptions below @FOXLA pic.twitter.com/uVsIC4Dg43 — Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) December 8, 2020
Los Angeles County has been a haven of moderate crime rates in recent years, in part due to black lady district attorney Jackie Lacey not liking crime or criminals.
But all good things must come to an end, so she was defeated in November by the Soros-funded pro-crime white man George Gascon.
Grand Theft Auto: Los Santos, here we come…
[Comment at Unz.com]


vdare--2020-12-07--Charles Blow In The NYT: Blacks Tend to be Anti-Vaxxers, White Men at Fault

Earlier, by Jared Taylor: The Truth About Tuskegee
From the New York Times opinion page, some more of the Current Year’s now traditional antiquarianism on race:
How Black People Learned Not to Trust
Concerns about vaccination are unfortunate, but they have historical roots. By Charles M. Blow
Opinion Columnist Dec. 6, 2020 It would appear that the people in American hit hardest by Covid-19 — Black people — are also the group most leery about the prospects of a vaccine.
That’s the conventional wisdom, but it appears that Hispanics have more than caught up with blacks. From the CDC:
My vague impression is that urban blacks (and some rural blacks in Georgia) got hit hard in last spring’s first wave, but most journalists haven’t updated their assumptions since then. The second wave in summer smashed sunbelt Latinos, and the current fall third wave that began in the Dakotas is hitting whites and Latinos hard.
… But that same report contained the following: “Black Americans continue to stand out as less inclined to get vaccinated than other racial and ethnic groups: 42 percent would do so, compared with 63 percent of Hispanic and 61 percent of white adults.” The unfortunate American fact is that Black people in this country have been well-trained, over centuries, to distrust both the government and the medical establishment on the issue of health care. Furthermore, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains: “In 1932, the Public Health Service, working with the Tuskegee Institute, began a study to record the natural history of syphilis in hopes of justifying treatment programs for blacks. It was called the ‘Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.’ ” Hundreds of Black men were told they were being treated for syphilis, but they were not. They were being observed to see how the disease would progress. The men suffered under this experiment for 40 years. I hope that America can overcome Black people’s trepidations about this vaccine, but it is impossible to say that that trepidation doesn’t have historical merit.
Also, Emmett Till was either up to date on his vaccinations or not up to date on his vaccinations, which, in either case, proves that white men are bad.
And redlining.
Occam’s Razor, on the other hand, would suggest that anti-vaxx ideation is more common among people who aren’t really as smart as they think they are: blacks, with their combination of higher average self-esteem and lower average IQ, are well represented in those ranks.
The longer the pandemic drags on due to the lack of courage of anti-vaxxers, the more time for elites to carry out the various bad ideas they are entertaining under the justification of The Great Reset.
[Comment at Unz.com]


vdare--2020-12-07--Patrick J. Buchanan: What Biden's First 100 Days Might Look Like

Earlier: Biden Plans Massive Immigration Treason In His First 100 Days. But Patriots Can Fight Back
The Biden-Harris administration will confront "a pandemic, an economic crisis, calls for racial justice and climate change. The team being assembled will meet these challenges on Day One."
So declares the transition team of Joe Biden, to echo what he's defined as the lead items on his presidential agenda. And if this is his agenda, then how our presumed 46th president will proceed suggests itself.
The COVID-19 pandemic is now close to its apex, with a million new cases and a death toll in excess of 10,000 each week. We appear to be near the crest of the "second wave."
Biden's emphasis, as he has signaled, will be on slowing down the spread of the virus by universal masking and locking up and shutting down sectors of the American economy.
Yet, even as the worst of the pandemic appears directly ahead in December and January, the last six weeks of Donald Trump's presidency, the light at the end of the tunnel may be sighted within Biden's first 100 days.
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which have proven 90-95% effective against the virus, begin to come on line this month. By the end of Biden's first 100 days, May 1, the beneficial effect of scores of millions of vaccinations should be visible to all, and the pandemic should be seen as irretrievably receding.
At least, that is the hope and expectation. And the media would naturally attribute the new dawn not to the triumph of Trump's Operation Warp Speed but to the new president.
Biden's response to the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will almost surely be along the lines of what Congress is now debating, contingent upon whether Mitch McConnell is prepared to accept what comes over from the House.
A trillion-dollar package seems baked in the cake, as the country would not long tolerate congressional inaction if the pandemic were still raging through the population as it is today.
As for racial inequality, the pandemic has exposed, deepened and widened it. The surge in shootings and killings in major cities during the pandemic is hitting the Black communities hardest.
The decline in test scores at schools where kids have been kept away from formal classes since March is most pronounced among minorities. Black and Hispanic workers in service industries are a disproportionate share of the victims of the pandemic.
If half a century of social progress after the civil rights revolution of the '60s and eight years of the first Black president have failed to reduce racial disparities in income, wealth, employment and incarcerations, does anyone believe Joe Biden has the solution?
As for climate change, John Kerry, the new climate czar, will begin his tenure after a year of the deepest reductions in carbon emissions in recorded history.
By Dec. 31, U.S. carbon emissions will have fallen 9% from the end of 2019. Emissions from cars and aircraft fell 4% in 2020, from power 2.8%, and from industry .6%. On the flip side, forest fires reduced the 9% cut in carbon emissions by fully one-third.
Yet, it is in foreign policy where the traps appear.
The drawdown in U.S. troops in Afghanistan, to 2,500 by Jan. 15, will leave us with the smallest contingent since the U.S. plunged into that country to remake it more in our image in 2001.
And the troop drawdown comes at a time when the Taliban control the largest swath of Afghan territory since being overthrow 19 years ago. The possibility of a collapse in Kabul, chaos ensuing and the country disintegrating early in a Biden presidency cannot be ruled out.
Would Biden be willing to preside over an American defeat similar to that in Vietnam in 1975?
But the truly formidable challenge for a President Biden will be China, which is not the China of 2016 that Vice President Biden recalls.
While the U.S. refuses to recognize China's claims to disputed islets in the East and the South China Seas and has committed itself to defend the Japanese and Philippine claims, Beijing has not backed away from its claims and, indeed, has grown increasingly bellicose in making them.
The U.S. has also been thickening ties to Taiwan.
Yet, what many Americans see as a democratic island of 25 million whose defense is a moral obligation and strategic necessity, China sees as a breakaway province, and signals in every way that it would fight a war rather than let Taiwan go.
These issues are likely to be decided in this decade. And it is hard to see how the U.S., 7,000 miles away, with a slowly shrinking share of the world's economic and military power, would prevail indefinitely over a China that has the advantages of proximity and population, and whose power is steadily rising in relative terms to that of the United States.
COPYRIGHT 2020 CREATORS.COM
Patrick J. Buchanan needs no introduction to VDARE.COM readers; his books State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America, and Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025? are available from Amazon.com. Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of “The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose From Defeat to Create the New Majority.
His latest book, published May, 2018, is “Nixon’s White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever.”
See Peter Brimelow’s review: “Wheel And Fight”—Pat Buchanan’s Nixon Book Provides Road Map For Trump.


vdare--2020-12-07--Black Pastor Says Record Gun Violence in St. Petersburg Black Community Caused By White Racism

Gun violence, drug involvement and criminality… all problems plaguing the black community in St. Petersburg. And all these problems black pastor Kenneth Irby [Tweet him] attributes white racism/systemic racism because black people in 21st America can’t be expected to have moral agency.
There’s no clear pattern to several shootings in St. Petersburg in the last month, including Wednesday night’s killing by police of a man wanted in connection to a murder.
But one thing is clear: the economic downturn caused by the pandemic is hitting minorities hard.
The Rev. Kenny Irby is pastor of the Historic Bethel AME Church and is St. Petersburg’s Community Intervention Director, focusing on the city’s young African American residents. The violence, he says, may be provoked by systemic racism experienced by the Black community.
“It creates levels of stress that clinical psychologists and sociologists would definitely tell you, yes, there is exponential stress in our homes, and people are much more on edge,” Irby said. “Now, going back to the actual cases of the murders that have happened recently, I’m not so sure you can make that connection, though.
“The unrest we are experiencing in the southern segment of St. Petersburg — though long in the making — structural racism greatly impacts marginalized people in disproportionate ways,” Irby continued. “Gun violence, drug involvement and criminality are the the effects of hopelessness and poverty.”
In November, there were seven shooting incidents in St. Petersburg that left three people dead and injured several others.
On Wednesday afternoon, a suspect in a child abuse case was fatally shot, one police officer suffered a gunshot wound, and another was injured after the man fired several rounds at detectives outside a St. Petersburg convenience store.
That suspect, 20-year-old Dominique Harris, also was wanted for questioning in connection with a September homicide.
Irby says he sees a disconnect between these tragedies and real consequences.
“Here’s the reality: the young people have to understand that there’s no reset button,” he said. “They see this kind of firearm usage and violence and they press restart and the game starts over. But in real life, there’s no restart.”
St. Petersburg officials asked for calm during a news conference Thursday after the latest in a series of gun violence in the city.
St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway said the department is going to continue to build bridges with the city’s black community.
“We ask for everyone to continue to remain calm, wait for the facts to come up as involved in this shooting, so that the state attorney’s office and the sheriff’s office task force can conclude their criminal investigation and the St. Pete Police Department can do the review of policy in regards to the shooting,” Hollloway said.
While St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman praised “the officers’ bravery” during the news conference, he said he was “saddened by the loss of a man’s life.”
“On days like (Wednesday), it doesn’t matter what we’ve accomplished, how safe St. Pete is, how improved the relationship is between the police department and our community, or how much we’ve done to create opportunities for young people,” Kriseman said. “Nobody wants to hear about progress when one person is in the hospital and another is in the morgue.”
City council member Lisa Wheeler-Bowman has called for a Saturday rally to highlight the economic and social troubles plaguing the Midtown area.
The rally will be held at noon to highlight the economic and social troubles plaguing the Midtown area. “Enough is Enough” will be held near the latest shooting scene, at the corner of 34th Street South and 18th Avenue South.


vdare--2020-12-07--A Talk Radio Listener Says GOP Senate Candidates In GA Are Awful, Not Hitting Immigration Issue At A

A Talk Radio Listener Says GOP Senate Candidates In GA Are Awful, Not Hitting Immigration Issue At All

From: A Talk Radio Listener [Email him]
I just heard a report on the GA debates by a conservative news analyst from Atlanta on the Brian Kilmeade Show. Perdue didn't show up for his debate , giving Ossoff an hour of free time to answer softball questions.
In the contested debate, both candidates were awful, but Kelly Loeffler was worse. She looked horrible, as stiff as a board, failed to answer questions, and kept repeating a few bland, memorized phrases. Warnoclk looked much better on TV than Loeffler, but he also failed to answer questions and lied. However, Loeffler failed to go after him.
Kilmeade noted that he couldn't understand why Kemp appointed Loeffler instead of Congressman Doug Collins, who he said is an excellent speaker.
James Fulford writes: The Loeffler appointment in 2019 was a case of Kemp " : The Loeffler appointment in 2019 was a case of Kemp " defying " Trump, who wanted Collins. Loeffler is a female candidate, and as Washington Watcher II put it.
See McSally Debacle Discrediting GOP’s Women Strategy—Just Campaign On Immigration Moratorium! and Big Surprise—Insider Trading Senators Burr (NC) And Loeffler (GA) Both Immigration Wimps.
For the record, Washington Watcher II watched the Loeffler-Warnock debate, and saw no reference to immigration.


vdare--2020-12-08--RIP To An American (and West Virginian!) Hero: General Chuck Yeager

An American hero and a West Virginia legend, General Chuck Yeager was the first man to break the sound barrier. Immortalized in Tom Wolfe's book (and the resulting movie) "The Right Stuff," Chuck Yeager is one of those people America just can't produce anymore. One of the greatest pilots in American history, he defied death countless times, set the foundation for the American conquest of space, and was still writing books about outdoor adventures at an age when most other men have retired to the couch.
For those of us of a certain generation, we first learned about Chuck Yeager playing the old computer game "Chuck Yeager's Air Combat." Of course, it looks absolutely primitive now, but I still smile when I think of myself as a child, shooting down Communist fighter jets over Vietnam with a pixelated Chuck Yeager telling me to "fire chaff!" (Zoomers will never understand.)
When I think of the archetypal American, I think of Chuck Yeager. I encourage all those out there to not only read and watch The Right Stuff, but to check out Yeager's books about his adventures in the sky and in the wild. They don't make him like this anymore.
And, of course, it's doubly tragic because American wouldn't allow a man like Yeager today. Politically incorrect, physically brave, the complete opposite of a victim, he (like Charles Lindbergh) was the new American ideal after the West was won. The new frontier was air, and then space. Yeager was America at its best.
Today, America doesn't dream such dreams. The hostile and foreign ruling class that has its boot on our neck only seeks to tear down, not build up. The closest we have to someone who is conquering space today is Elon Musk, who, it should be noted, is an expatriate from South Africa. Perhaps it is fitting that SpaceX is scheduled for a launch today.
And General Yeager certainly represented that noble, pioneering spirt that defines VDARE.com's new home in wild, wonderful West Virginia .
Godspeed, General. America, and the world, is lesser without you.