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Omicron coverage reveals how the establishment, media keep us scared . . . In March 2020, a profile of the typical COVID victim emerged: 80 years old, with approximately three comorbidities, such as heart disease, obesity or diabetes. The young had little to worry about; the survival rate for the vast majority of the population was well over 99 percent. That portrait never significantly changed. The early assessments of COVID have remained valid through today. Omicron should be a cause for celebration, not fear. Its symptoms are mild to nonexistent in the majority of the infected, especially the vaccinated; hospitalization rates are over nine times lower than for previous COVID strains; deaths are negligible. That assessment will only be confirmed as the United States and other Western countries gather their own data on Omicron. Yet the public health establishment and the media are working overtime to gin up Omicron hysteria. The official response to the Omicron variant provides a case study in the deliberate manufacture of fear. New York Post

 

U.S. population growth in 2021 slowest since nation's founding . . . The U.S. population grew just 0.1 percent in 2021, the slowest rate since the nation was founded in the 18th century, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The Census Bureau attributed the slow population growth to the Covid-19 pandemic, though the country has been experiencing low birth rates for several years. Low population growth in recent years has historically been attributed to simultaneously rising death rates of an aging U.S. population and falling declining rates in both births and migration. Politico

 

Life Expectancy in U.S. Declined 1.8 Years in 2020, CDC Says . . . Covid-19 was the nation’s third leading cause of death last year, behind heart disease and cancer, and was the underlying cause in about 351,000 deaths, the new figures show. Increases in mortality from unintentional injuries—which include drug overdoses—as well heart disease, homicide and diabetes also decreased life expectancy. CDC figures released last month show that the U.S. recorded its highest number of drug-overdose deaths in a 12-month period that ended in April. Wall Street Journal
 

Crime Soars as Incarcerations Plummet . . . The nation’s imprisonment numbers are way down, and — shocker — its crime rates way are up. It’s not rocket science: If fewer people are in prison, more people are probably out committing crimes. And these days, fewer people are in prison, so… As a newly released report from the DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Statistics indicates, the number of prisoners under state or federal jurisdiction at year-end of 2020 had decreased by 214,300 from 2019 and by 399,700 from 2009, which was its peak year. Further, the imprisonment rate in 2020 was 358 per 100,000 U.S. residents, its lowest level since 1992.

 

Ah, 1992. Recall what happened back then: Bill Clinton won the presidency, and a crime wave would soon thereafter grip the nation — a crime wave that resulted in the passage of The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, a piece of legislation that included “three-strikes” mandatory life sentences for repeat violent offenders, funding for community policing and prisons, a so-called assault weapons ban, and the Violence Against Women Act. It was a crime bill that Joe Biden was for before he was against. Patriot Post

 

 

Diabetes Skyrockets Amid a Pandemic of Sitting . . . New figures show that global diabetes prevalence has increased by 16 percent in the past two years, with 537 million adults (aged 20–79) now estimated to be living with the chronic condition. Over this same time period, COVID-19 has stopped us from doing some of the things that help prevent and manage diabetes. One of the ways it has done so is by causing an increase in sedentary behavior (sitting down for long periods of time), which was already at dangerous levels pre-COVID-19. Some estimates indicate that the pandemic added an average of three hours to our sitting time each day. Now that the lockdowns have eased in many places, it’s vital that we get moving again—and in the right way—to change this picture. Reducing sitting time is a good starting place to help people with diabetes, pre-diabetes, and other chronic conditions to reach healthier levels of physical activity. Epoch Times

 

 

Latest Durham Filing Reveals New Legal Woes For Clinton Campaign . . . A new filing from Special Counsel John Durham suggests that officials from Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign could be called to testify as part of his probe into the origins of the federal government’s investigation into the Trump campaign. In a document filed on Friday, Durham’s team urges a federal court to determine whether or not lawyers representing Russia analyst Igor Danchenko have a conflict of interest due to the fact that attorneys at their law firm also represent the 2016 “Hillary for America” presidential campaign and a key campaign staffer. The filing was first reported by the Washington Examiner. Daily Caller

 

Biden’s Supreme Court commission frustrated by Constitution . . . After more than six months of meetings and hundreds of pages of report documents, the Constitution has proven too much for President Biden’s commission on the Supreme Court of the United States. In issuing its final report, the commission resembled little more than participants in a high school debate tournament. Few minds were changed, and nothing that came out of the debate had any practical significance in political reality. Mr. Biden may have received exactly what he wanted out of the 34-member Commission of ivory tower academics: vague reform recommendations over a 288-page report that few will read and fewer will have the political courage to undertake. The report is laced with qualifications, and the both-sides-of-the-mouth type of talk one has come to expect of bureaucratic commissions. Still, the Commission quickly pointed out what most of the country already understood: “Court-packing would almost certainly undermine or destroy the Supreme Court’s legitimacy.” Washington Times

 

U.S. Sees Russian Gas Pipeline as Leverage in Ukraine Crisis, but Needs German Help . . . A Russian pipeline carrying natural gas to Germany is emerging as a potential point of leverage for the U.S. to deter Russia from invading Ukraine. It is also a sore spot between Berlin and Washington. The Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is completed but not yet certified for operation, is a key component of German energy plans, a potential source of Russian revenue and, U.S. officials said, a topic of discussions between Washington and Berlin over how to stop Russia’s military pressure on Ukraine. The Biden administration wants to secure assurances that Germany won’t let the pipeline become operational if Moscow invades Ukraine, said a U.S. congressional aide briefed on the discussions. Germany has been less clear. After a meeting of European Union leaders last week that warned Russia of massive but unspecified consequences, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the pipeline is a private project whose certification would be decided in a nonpolitical way. Wall Street Journal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rebekah Koffler

Editor, White House Dossier and Cut to the News

Author of Putin's Playbook: Russia's Secret Plan to Defeat America, out now

 

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