Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Europeans Still Don't Get How Different Trump's Administration Will Be

Europeans Still Don't Get How Different Trump's Administration Will Be

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

European politicians at both the national level and at the European Union are hoping that the second Trump administration will be more "normal" than the first. 

Chances are that the norms of diplomacy will even less restrain it, which is good.

A great example is how European leaders are hoping that along with Trump's inauguration will come some restraint from Elon Musk and other Trump allies. Musk, in particular, has decided to get involved in UK and German politics directly--committing to pouring money into Reform UK and loudly endorsing the AfD in Germany as the country's last hope for salvation. 

Musk's influence goes far beyond the money he can deploy as the world's richest man. In fact, I think the money is secondary to his influence on the political debate by highlighting issues that the Pravda Media chooses to downplay or ignore. Exhibit #1 is how he ignited a firestorm by highlighting the British Rape/'Grooming Gangs' scandal that has been simmering for over a decade. 

Apparently, Number 10 and the Labour Party are hoping that Trump will rein in Musk as the co-chair of DOGE and hence a quasi-representative of the president. 

Once the Trump court leaves Mar-a-Lago for the White House later this month, can Musk really run a freelance foreign policy and keep his place in the kitchen cabinet? Some in Starmer’s inner circle hope not. “He can’t sustain active support for AfD and Reform and be a member of the administration after January 20. He’s in effect declaring war on the main US allies in Europe.”

Starmer’s praetorian guard are investing their hopes in the deep state as well as big tech. They hope Marco Rubio, the incoming secretary of state, Scott Bessent, soon to take control at the Treasury, and Michael Waltz, the national security adviser who met McSweeney and Jonathan Powell, the UK national security adviser, last month, will lay down the law and rein Musk in. On this week’s evidence, it may already be too late.

I don't expect that to happen for a couple of reasons: Musk, like Trump, is irrepressible, and Trump can use Musk as a bad cop and Rubio as a good cop. 

Not to mention, of course, that Musk is right about Britain's political landscape, and Starmer has insulted Trump deeply by appointing an Ambassador who has basically called Trump a fascist. Keir Starmer is getting what he asked for and what he deserves. 

As for Germany and the EU, they not only deserve what they are getting, but unless they change direction, it won't matter at all what Musk, Trump, or anybody else thinks about the current regime. European countries are overrun by hostile migrants, rushing toward economic collapse, are incapable of defending themselves, and are collapsing demographically. 

At least in the United States, we have a history of integrating immigrants given enough time and in reasonably controlled numbers; Europe simply cannot digest any large number of migrants--especially from Muslim countries--and European countries are in demographic decline. 

Neither Trump nor Musk should care about offending the current regimes in Europe--they should poke, prod, and harangue for change. Europe relies on us and shouldn't imagine they can dictate to the United States. 

it may be that Musk and Trump will have a falling out at some point--Trump can be mercurial--but it won't be over his insulting Europeans or messing with their politics. 

Besides, who cares about offending Keir Starmer? He is, politically, a dead man walking. 

https://hotair.com/david-strom/2025/01/03/europeans-still-dont-get-how-different-trumps-administration-will-be-n3798455?utm_source=twdailypmvip&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

Trump Needs To Be Ready For The Gathering Storm Over H1B Visas

Trump Needs To Be Ready For The Gathering Storm Over H1B Visas

Derek Hunter

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Businesses love cheap labor like a fat kid loves cake. The reason we have so many illegal aliens in the United States is we have so many companies willing and wanting to hire them. They aren’t simply hiring them over Americans, they’re hiring them over Americans for much cheaper than they can hire Americans – many times for cash, avoiding taxes. It’s just a simple fact of economics, made much worse by the failures of Joe Biden and his administration to secure the border. But the fight that is brewing just over the horizon is not about illiterate illegal aliens coming to service the physical labor tasks around the houses of rich Democrats; it is about the fight over the legal immigrants these Democrats will not fire for making eye contact or speaking to the: people coming to the United States on a H1B visa.

The American Immigration Council describes an H1B visa as “a temporary (nonimmigrant) visa category that allows employers to petition for highly educated foreign professionals to work in ‘specialty occupations’ that require at least a bachelor’s degree or the equivalent. Jobs in fields such as mathematics, engineering, technology, and medical sciences often qualify. Typically, the initial duration of an H-1B visa classification is three years, which may be extended for a maximum of six years.  Before an employer can file a petition with USCIS, the employer must take steps to ensure that hiring the foreign worker will not harm U.S. workers.”

These visas came into existence to fill the void left by the failing American education system. We were not creating enough educated, skilled workers, instead pumping out gender and race studies grievance drones and sociologists to manufacture studies to keep them feeling self-righteous. 

The problem is we never corrected that failure. 

Engineering is hard, medicine requires a lot of work and discipline, etc. American popular culture requires immediate gratification – social media influencers only have to wait a few seconds for the likes and “tips” to come rolling in. Planning for when you’re really old – like 30 – is something people with fewer than a million followers do. 

Rather than address this rot by disallowing federal student loans and grants to study fields with a 3 percent employment rate – fields like gender or race studies, where the only jobs available are teaching other people dumb enough to take those classes or explain to left-wing corporations why they need to defecate on Martin Luther King’s grave by hiring based on the color of an applicant’s skin and not the content of their resume. There aren’t nearly enough of those jobs to go around, relative to how appealing these universities make the profession seem.

Choke off the federal money, and these students can choose a useful field of study or get their fitting for the barista uniform before they pack on the freshman 15. If their parents want to cover the costs, let them. Not everyone can be saved – the world needs cautionary tales too.

Without an effort to create enough high-skilled labor being churned out (and I mean skilled, not simply people with the degree) the H1B will continue to exist. 

But to pretend it is not being exploited by tech companies looking to do what those Democrats who don’t want to pay an American to cut their lawn are doing is ignorant. 

Foreign labor, even skilled labor, is cheaper. Companies throwing their hands up and whining about how they can’t find enough workers is an old, tested trick to get people for less, who can’t bitch about their low wages or they’ll be let go and shipped back home. The H1B visa worker is tethered, essentially owned, by the company that sponsored them. Get fired and they’re gone. 

That incentivizes silence and acceptance of low pay and abuse. 

The truth is there are plenty of people with the education to do the job being graduated, but many lack the skills and drive of foreign workers. That’s a failure of the education system and no one seems interested in addressing it.

It’s being described as “meritocracy,” when in reality it is manipulation. Acknowledge the problem, but do not address it because the problem itself is actually beneficial to the businesses. 

There is a fight brewing that is just now bubbling over top about H1B visas that will get ugly very quickly, if the Trump administration isn’t ready for it. Democrats won’t help, they’ll try to make things worse because that will help them.

The incoming President has to realize he’s already a lame duck. He has a year, at the most, of political capital to push for big changes he campaigned on, then the mid-term campaigning starts. Once that happens, nothing major is going to get done legislatively – that just the nature of the beast. If Republicans hold the House and Senate, or even expand, he gets another year of getting things done before the 2028 cycle starts up. 

Time is of the essence here. Someone in the incoming administration needs to step up and break up this gathering storm between Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, Elon Musk and the rest of MAGA before it gets out of control and derails Trump II.

https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2024/12/29/trump-needs-to-be-ready-for-the-gathering-storm-over-h1b-visas-n2649702?utm_source=thdailyvip&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

Don's Tuesday Column

THE WAY I SEE IT by Don Polson    Red Bluff Daily News 1/07/2024

        Here come some welcome sunny days

For what it’s worth, count this writer among the “no New Year’s resolutions” crowd; priorities and goals don’t change with the turning of a calendar page. They are there for all 12 months, not just January. Can I get an “Amen”? May all tests and procedures bring good news, and may the scale continue its downward trend.

It’s a conundrum to have so much rain pooling in the grassy areas, making mowing impossible; fortunately, nothing has grown high enough to need mowing. Predictably, the weeds and stuff will shoot up while we are in Bend, Oregon, skiing and watching “white” precipitation cover that yard. In May, we’ll find tall foliage and dry ground for the riding mower; it needs a cup holder.

Local employment data must have a caveat; Tehama County’s numbers consign it to the lower tier of state job creation/unemployment data. If we are a reflection of national trends, there are very few full-time jobs being added; non-citizens have an out-sized share of jobs; government and “government-adjacent” (health care- and education-related) jobs exceed the wealth-producing private-sector; and “labor force dropouts” included in the unemployed category means a recession-level jobs situation.

Congressman Doug LaMalfa won about 66% of the local vote—congratulations. His slogan about being “one of us” resonates for this writer. Doug is part of the slim congressional Make America Great Again majority; he’ll be part of the federal solution to what has plagued our nation for the last four years.

***

A Los Angeles Times opinion piece, “California ruled with great jobs and boom times. What happened?” by Joel Kotkin (Dec. 26), paints an accurate but disappointing picture of our not-so-fair state’s condition.

“Gov. Gavin Newsom’s constant reminders that California’s economy ‘leads the nation’ as well as being a model for social justice are delusional. To be sure, California has a huge GDP, paced largely by high real estate prices and the stock value of a handful of tech companies, but it is not widely seen as a place for class mobility, and it is slowly ceding its dominance, even in tech-related industries.”

Is this shocking, even surprising, given the literal one-party, Democrat/leftist domination in Sacramento? We are ruled by a political and cultural clique where any “progressive” idea, no matter how loony-tune or out-of-step with the average Californian, finds a warm reception.

California is: 1) banning local efforts to prevent vote fraud by demanding voter ID; 2) eliminating about 100,000 parking spaces throughout the state because they are within 20 feet of a crosswalk; San Francisco alone will lose about 14,000 spaces in a city so short on parking that it can cost $400 to $600 a month to access a parking space;

3) Giving free medical care to illegal residents/migrants; 4) Providing a “payback optional” (if the house is sold) $150,000 loan to those same people illegally residing here—adding to the estimated annual $450 billion cost of illegals to America;

5) Requiring cars (after 2030) to come equipped with the ability to “beep” when traveling 10 miles over the speed limit. As introduced by state Sen. Scott Wiener, the bill would make new vehicles, trucks, and busses incapable of driving more than 10 miles an hour over the speed limit;

6) With Biden’s EPA approval, “California will ban the sale of gas and diesel cars by 2035” (Washingtonexaminer.com, 12/18). “The EPA approved California’s Advanced Clean Cars II rule on Wednesday, which bans new gas vehicle sales after 2035.” It will “set up a clash between the state and the incoming Trump administration.”

7) In yet another “your children are all ours” example, “California is 1st state to ban school rules requiring parents get notified of child’s pronoun change” (AP, 7/15/2024). It’s the diabolical, perverse attitude that children—who can’t get tattoos, use a gun, drink alcohol, vote etc—can decide what “gender” they feel like each day, without a hint to their parents that they are having personal delusions.

8) “California Law Mandating Indoctrination Of Students On Climate Change Goes Into Effect This Year,” by Tristan Justice (Thefederalist.com, 7/4/2024). CA schools have failed to improve basic educational skills, but let’s scare kids over climate hysteria into advocates for “green” ideology and laws.

Finally, 9) “150 California high school students punished for wearing ‘Save Girls’ Sports’ shirts,” Hamilton Porter (Notthebee.com, November). Sophia Lorey posted: “150+ MLK HS students in Riverside, CA wore ‘Save Girls Sports’ shirts after 2 female athletes were compared by admin to wearing ‘swastikas in front of a Jewish student’ for wearing this shirt. There is a male on the girls cross country team. Admin DRESS CODED students, forced students to COVER UP their shirts, & those who didn’t spent several hours in the principal’s office.”

Me: They are administration lunatics, despots running the “woke” asylum called high school, favoring deranged “transsexual” ideology over First Amendment freedom of students.

WATCH: No One Cares About January 6th, and Democrats Just Can't Handle It

WATCH: No One Cares About January 6th, and Democrats Just Can't Handle It

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Another January 6th is upon us, and while the real significance of the day will be the certification of Donald Trump's second term, the press is still desperately trying to make the events of four years ago a predominant narrative. The problem? No one cares. 

Naturally, the same press that has treated January 6th with the same "reverence" as Pearl Harbor and September 11th aren't pleased about that. That brings me to CNN, which kicked off the day with a panel hand-wringing over the American public's disinterest in the subject.

SIDNER: Alyssa, do you think, though, that the right-wing sort of media landscape also played a big role in this because over time, you started seeing people say it wasn't that violent. Donald Trump himself keeps saying it was a day of love...

Alyssa Farah Griffin went on to say she puts the onus on Republican politicians for not hyping January 6th up enough and allowing voters to build "nostalgia" for Trump's time in office. Then S.E. Cupp stepped in to do what Democrats always do when they don't want to admit their position isn't popular: Blame the messaging.

CUPP: Yeah, Joe Biden made a lot of mistakes, messaging was one. Telling people that the economy was great and the migrant crisis wasn't real, and their cities were safe. Those were mistakes, and he let his ego get in the way. 

However, there's one thing he didn't do. He never encouraged his supporters to go and march on the Capitol, to go and break the system, to go and break democracy, to go and break the law just so he could stay in power. His legacy isn't going to be great or as great as I imagined he wanted it to be leaving office, but that's one ding he will not have.

I've got some good news for Cupp. Donald Trump didn't do those things either. While he did encourage his supporters to peacefully protest at the Capitol, he did not tell them to "go and break the system" nor to "go and break democracy" while violating the law. Years of investigations, including by the Democrat-led January 6th committee, never produced an ounce of evidence that the incoming president planned for a riot to break out. 

Next up was Jim Acosta, who did exactly what you'd expect. 

ACOSTA: Regaining power and reigniting fears. In just hours, Congress will meet to certify President-Elect Donald Trump's 2024 election win four years to the day after a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol, smashing windows and doors, brutally attacking police officers, and shocking the nation.

Nothing is more emblematic of the bubble the press resides in than the idea that Americans are "fearful" of Trump's return to office. If that were true, he wouldn't have been elected to a second term. The truth is that most people just care about the economy and the safety of their communities. People like Acosta may have the luxury of continuing with the dramatics over something that happened four years ago, but the rest of the country has moved on, and justifiably so. 

Democrats don't want to accept that, though.

No, there would not have been another "bloodbath" had Harris won because there was never a bloodbath in the first place. The only person whose death has ever been definitively and directly linked to January 6th was Ashli Babbitt, and she was a Trump supporter shot by police. 


SEE: Shocking and Disgusting Revelations Emerge About the USCP Officer Who Killed Ashli Babbitt


It's also completely untrue to say that Democrats respect elections. Many of them voted against certifying the 2016 and 2004 elections, and that's just this century. The history of the Democratic Party denying elections goes back much further. 

But again, the bigger point here is that no one cares. Americans want cheaper groceries and to be able to buy a house. They aren't prioritizing the virtue-signaling of left-wingers in Washington over their own well-being. That shouldn't shock anyone, though it seems to be mind-blowing for the mainstream press and Democrat politicians.

https://redstate.com/bonchie/2025/01/06/no-one-cares-about-january-6th-and-the-democrats-and-the-press-are-in-mourning-over-it-n2183999?utm_source=breakingemail&utm_medium=email

OPINION: Matthew Whitaker Is The Key To Peace and Defeating ‘The Blob’

OPINION: Matthew Whitaker Is The Key To Peace and Defeating ‘The Blob’

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

With another $5.9B of taxpayer dollars given to Ukraine for the purpose of inflicting carnage on a world superpower, the probability of nuclear war just got a tick higher. The aid undoubtedly means the prospect of a ceasefire will dwindle but peace is still on the horizon.

The return of President Donald Trump to the Oval Office and world stage signals more than just a return to the normalcy of a President actually in command of his own foreign policy vision. It signifies a return of the war between American populists who preach “no more foreign wars” and legacy servants of the foreign policy “blob” who think they’ve earned the ability to guide American interests abroad.

Disciples from each faction clashed often during President Trump’s first term and many acolytes of the blob like John Bolton enjoyed a direct ear to the Commander-in-Chief. Underscoring the tension was the resignation of another blob acolyte, Trump’s Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, who quit because he disagreed with withdrawing troops from Syria. 
 
When examining President Trump’s second Administration it’s obvious that the warhawks and neocons have been shut out from influencing policy from high-ranking perches. Leaving both Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo out of the cabinet was the first indication but nothing exemplifies Team Trump’s pivot away from blob influence more than the selection of incoming NATO Ambassador Matthew Whitaker.  He’s a newcomer to the international arena, but that’s exactly why he’s in a prime position to defeat the blob en route to helping America avert a broader confrontation with Russia.

What is “the Blob?”

Defining the blob isn’t easy because it’s just as structureless and amorphous as it sounds. But through identifying who the blob isit becomes clearer how the Ukraine-Russia conflict determines the direction of its power and credibility. 

The blob is a wide spectrum of professionals from academics, think-tank researchers, and legacy media figures on one end, and agency bureaucrats, career emissaries, and military-industrial complex figureheads on the other. Both Democrats and Republicans belong to it, as long as they stand in support of more spending, more militarism abroad, and more influence for figures in the dynasty diplomatic network.

With the tragedy of a terrorist attack on American soil in New Orleans still fresh, it’s hard to dismiss other flashpoints for violence around the world, which are equally as important. Especially since many of President Trump’s advisers will spend their time competing with the will of the foreign policy establishment to achieve peace but none underscore the prominence of the blob more than the situation in Ukraine which makes Whitaker’s role at NATO crucial. Ukraine created a moment for these dynasty figures and they pounced.

The world was set on fire when Putin finally formally recognized two pro-Russian regions of Ukraine increasing tensions with Kiev resulting in Russian boots on the ground. From that point forward, news of a Russian invasion dominated the news cycle, and journalists, celebrities, and politicians alike adopted Ukrainian colors like a trendy sports team (with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as mascot).

There's something wrong with that per se; after all, Putin is a well-known villain. But this was the opening foreign policy elites needed.

Public consensus is required for the blob to operationalize its hawkish wishes but the blob had more than just consensus, they had an empty vessel in Biden in control of U.S. diplomatic engagements.

With non-interventionists and prudent but cautious “America First” operators well out of sight in D.C., the Cold War mentality returned.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stood near Russia in neighboring Poland alongside Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and declared America was intent on seeing the Kremlin “weakened” by its conflict with its other neighbor Ukraine. Suddenly think tanks like the Center for Strategic International Studies and the Brookings Institution became relevant again. The latter routinely hosted roundtables promoting the war as a “transformational moment.”

Make no mistake, the blob’s hawkish ideas are predictable and will lead to further war. If you think the notion that America must rid foreign nations of despotic tyrants died out during the Iraq war you’re sorely mistaken. Look no further than a recent Op-Ed from Senator Mitch McConnell in Foreign Affairs as proof of that. In that piece, he disparages the America First Doctrine as a “retreat” from the world stage. He spent much of the article railing against “isolationist conservatives” who believe in the concept of America as a “fortress.” But if you think McConnell himself typed or even dictated those words you’re, again, sorely mistaken. McConnell’s article in Foreign Affairs is just another mirage from the blob meant to affirm their own beliefs.

The blob sees many problems in the world but they have few rational solutions that also don’t stir up more problems.

They want more provocations throughout the globe including in Ukraine because conflict is impulsive to the blob. Every escalating action or statement from high-ranking politicians or diplomats serves as a way to test the waters of consensus for further escalations.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said NATO was being “too polite” to Russia back in the summer.

But politeness wasn’t a concern a few weeks ago after a Russian General was killed in an explosive attack in Moscow. The brutality of the killing brought back memories of another unconventional Ukrainian assassination, the car bombing that killed the daughter of a Putin policy advisor. The attacks have drawn criticism from President Trump’s selection for Envoy to Ukraine Retired General Keith Kellogg who called the actions “contrary to the rules of warfare,” but Whitaker himself has yet to weigh in. The new U.S. Ambassador to NATO surely wouldn’t condone such actions and that’s what makes him so critical. Those brutal killings wouldn’t have happened under Whitaker’s tenure. 

Whitaker can tackle the Blob

The blob doesn’t lash out against proponents of the America First doctrine because they don’t see the rationality of their argument, they lash out because populist thinking severely limits their power.

Tasking an outsider like Whitaker with the vital responsibility of imposing America’s upcoming policy shift on NATO relations was the first step in ending the blob's persistent influence over the Eastern Bloc conflict.

The blob demands that everyone behave as irrationally as them, but Whitaker won’t. 

Whitaker didn’t spend decades of his career on the foreign policy circuit being conditioned to think that lack of impulse control was some type of Western diplomatic morality.

Everyone in Whitaker’s orbit says he’s a likable guy. He has a classic prosecutor’s mentality and he was one of the top scholars at his Alma Mater the University of Iowa where he played football. He started law school during his final season, no easy task considering that this was before athletes had endless academic resources. He’s risen to the top not because he’s an academic blue-blood but because his likability pairs nicely with a sharp assertive demeanor.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow blasted Whitaker as inexperienced for the role on account of his lack of military, diplomatic, and foreign business ties but that’s exactly why he’s the right man for the job. He’s a skillful lawyer who’s uncompromised and a person proven capable of facilitating a result.

Matthew Whitaker can help President Trump re-order NATO starting by first by turning down the temperature and second by hounding both parties toward peace. America is who moves the chess pieces on NATO’s board. The fact that the U.S. is by and large the most significant financier of NATO affairs accounting for 68 percent of all spending in 2023 certainly has something to do with that.

When former NATO Ambassador Julianne Smith spoke to a blob infestation known as the Defense Writers Group back in June, she dismissed Americans who questioned the need to pump billions into NATO and Ukraine to counterbalance Russia as “18-to-25-year-olds” who don’t understand the value of the 75-year alliance. Not only is Matthew Whitaker 55 years old, but so is Global Risk Researcher Ian Bremmer, who cautioned that Putin remains in a stronger position in its “battle of the wills” against the West and nothing absent from WW3 can prevent parts of Ukraine from being “partitioned” off to Russia. The blob seems intent on bringing us to WW3, but first, they’re headed on a collision course toward a stiff former blocking Tight End named Matthew George Whitaker.

Guest commentator R.C. Maxwell is a writer, political consultant, and Turning Point Action Manager who also serves as Communications Director of the O’Keefe Media Group.

https://redstate.com/redstate-guest-editorial/2025/01/02/matthew-whitaker-is-the-key-to-peace-and-defeating-the-blob-n2183841?utm_source=rsmorningbriefingvip&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

Monday, January 6, 2025

Covidiocy and Cancer

Covidiocy and Cancer

by John Hinderaker in CoronavirusTrump administration

One of the worst aspects of the covid fiasco of 2020 was the shutting down of “nonessential” or “elective” medical care. Worldwide, many thousands of checkups, routine procedures and so on were foregone, with consequences that will unfold over the coming decades.

The World Health Organization has undertaken a study to find out how many cancer cases were “missed” during the covid epidemic, mostly because of shutdowns. The Telegraph relates the results:

Nearly a quarter of all new cancer cases may have been missed during the Covid pandemic, a World Health Organisation (WHO) study has found.

Researchers said lockdown restrictions and pressures on healthcare systems saw diagnoses of the disease drop by 23 per cent globally, suggesting it was not identified in around one million people.

A million cases of cancer that were not diagnosed in timely fashion, and in many cases remain undiagnosed today. WHO’s study was an analysis of “more than 240 different studies, providing the first comprehensive worldwide assessment of the impact of Covid on cancer care.” Here are the details:

The researchers found there had been a 23 per cent drop in the number of cancer diagnoses made after spring 2020, a 39 per cent decline in cancer screening, a 24 per cent drop in diagnostic procedures and a 28 per cent reduction in treatments.

The bottom line is a million cancer cases that were not timely identified. And this is a WHO study: if there is any group that is not anxious to reflect badly on governments’ covid decisions, it is WHO, which largely drove those decisions.

The Telegraph adds some data specific to Great Britain:

A previous study by the University of Oxford found there had been a “substantial impact” on cancer screening and diagnoses in the UK in 2020 and 2021 caused by the pandemic. It estimated that 18,000 breast, 13,000 colorectal, 10,000 lung, and 21,000 prostate cancer diagnoses were missed from March 2020 to December 2021.

The shutdowns that governments foolishly implemented as a result of the covid scare have had horrific consequences, and those consequences will continue to be felt for decades to come. Some of the negative fallout is quantifiable, like missed cancer diagnoses. Other consequences, like the impact on young people of missing a year or more of school, are harder to quantify but likely, in the long run, more devastating.

If there is a silver lining in this story, it lies in the fact that pretty much everyone now recognizes that the shutdowns, mask mandates and other voodoo medicine of the era of covid hysteria were worse than a mistake. They were particularly unforgivable, because they were contrary to many decades of public health experience, and contrary to the public health guidance that existed in various agencies as of 2020–guidance that was promptly overruled when covid hysteria took hold in certain quarters.

Happily, a new day has dawned. There is every prospect that federal policy, at least, will return to the conventional wisdom that grew out of centuries of public health experience. This return to normalcy is exemplified by Donald Trump’s nomination of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a leading voice of common sense, as Director of the National Institutes of Health, where he will be well positioned to lead resistance to whatever pseudo-science may spring up in response to the next global epidemic.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/01/covidiocy-and-cancer.php