"Hey, Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!"

https://youtu.be/kx3sOqW5zj4

Looks like the Jooos will have a corona virus vaccine before anyone else. Wonder if Muslim populations will reject treatment?

“Let’s call it pure luck,” Katz said. “We decided to choose coronavirus as a model for our system just as a proof of concept for our technology.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/bds-this-israel-makes-exciting-breakthrough-in-race-for-coronavirus-vaccine

I think I posted this before, but if you happen to know people who are enthused by socialism, show them this.

The fall of the Berlin Wall was indeed a watershed in the collapse of the Soviet Empire, yet one could argue the true death knell came two months before at a small grocery store in Clear Lake, Texas.

https://thefederalist.com/2019/11/13/how-a-russians-grocery-store-trip-in-1989-exposed-the-lie-of-socialism/

That experience mirrored those of MiG-25 defector Viktor Belenko. He was taken to a grocery store, but thought for sure it was a CIA operation. It took a while, and trips to other stores to disabuse him of the notion.

Your Instapundit corona virus morning update:

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/359802/

Well, that's one way to treat a patient.

https://www.ibtimes.sg/north-koreas-first-confirmed-coronavirus-covid-19-patient-shot-dead-report-40042

From Texas and Arkansas - and elsewhere?

"Police are issuing fake warnings of meth tainted with coronavirus. Public health experts say please stop now."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/02/28/coronavirus-meth-police-hoax/

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/boy-with-autism-denied-first-communion-at-catholic-church-that-is-discrimination-mom-says/ar-BB10wj0W?ocid=mailsignout

First paragraphs:

MANALAPAN, N.J. — Nicole and Jimmy LaCugna both grew up with a strong Catholic faith. Each attended religious education as children, married in a Catholic church, and sent their first son, Nicholas, through a faith-based pre-K program.

So when their second son, 8-year-old Anthony, reached second grade last fall, he was on track to receive his first Holy Communion in April.

But just days ago, the couple learned Anthony would not be allowed to receive the sacrament at St. Aloysius in Jackson, the church the family has attended for years.

The reason given by the church: He has autism and is unable to express the contrition the church requires before receiving Communion...

There are so many places to fisk this child, but that would be like dumping a burning box of thermite into a barrel full of fish.

“So apparently Western Michigan University thinks it’s ok for WHITE peoples to sing negro spirituals while the instructor talking bout ‘these songs don’t belong to one race.’ They sure as hell DO,” read the video caption.

...

Furthermore, she asserted that “Negro Spirituals need to be reserved for people of African descent.”

https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=14441

The reason given by the church: He has autism and is unable to express the contrition the church requires before receiving Communion...

Just go find the church that Nancy Pelosi uses. I'm sure that if they give Communion to someone in a grave state of sin, a young boy should be no problem.

RIP

https://www.mainepublic.org/post/renowned-mathematician-and-physicist-freeman-dyson-has-died-age-96

If the paywall stops you, you can read the comments, anyway.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/business/economy/immigration-economy-mulvaney-trump.html

First paragraphs:

Jeanna Smialek and Zolan Kanno-Youngs: “At a private event last week, Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, stated a reality that economists treat as conventional wisdom but that the Trump administration routinely ignores: The United States needs immigration to fuel future economic growth.

“‘We are desperate, desperate for more people,’ Mr. Mulvaney told a crowd in England, according to an audio recording provided to The New York Times. ‘We are running out of people to fuel the economic growth.’ He said the country needed ‘more immigrants’ but wanted them in a ‘legal’ fashion.”

And, on the same page (A18, today) there was an article on all the immigrants, Mexican, South Korean, Polish, etc. - who are LEAVING the U.S.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/us/undocumented-population-study-mexicans.html

No comments at this one.

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/charts/immigrant-population-over-time

Here you go Lenona. Sorry it breaks your Trump anti-immigrant thing. Also, with a labor participation rate of only 63% there are a lot of Americans who aren't working. Though that has started to tick up over the last three years.

IRA, the bishop which Pelosi's church reports to has publicly called for her to be refused communion. I don't know if the church has complied.

There is a difference between immigration and illegal immigration. The first have been granted a work visa of one sort or other.

The second take jobs under the table or commit identity theft to get a job, and/or finagle their way onto welfare rolls. If they can't feed themselves they wouldn't be here for very long, so that isn't the problem.

They are, to borrow a phrase, not paying their fair share. Some amount of responsibility lies with the employers, particularly those paying under the table. They're not extracting Social Security taxes, worker's comp, unemployment insurance and withholding income taxes as applicable. And since they're not covered by worker's comp, if they get injured on the job they go to the emergency room and get treated. For free. But the rest of us get to pay for it, so there's that.

Turns out hiring someone who is allowed by law to work is expensive. And if there isn't adequate incentive to keep employers from doing so, they'll continue.

I don't know if the church has complied.

I thought that was in San Fran. I was thinking of her church in DC. But I'm sure plenty of Democrats attend the church/are in the diocese in question. I would point out those politicians and ask why they're not confronted with their very public positions that are contrary to Church teaching.

But if that's too incendiary, they could quote some random Jewish carpenter

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

Corona virus two-fer.

https://www.breitbart.com/health/2020/02/28/pollak-5-reasons-to-stop-freaking-out-about-coronavirus/

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/359760/

Jeanna Smialek and Zolan Kanno-Youngs: “At a private event last week, Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, stated a reality that economists treat as conventional wisdom but that the Trump administration routinely ignores: The United States needs immigration to fuel future economic growth.

“‘We are desperate, desperate for more people,’ Mr. Mulvaney told a crowd in England, according to an audio recording provided to The New York Times. ‘We are running out of people to fuel the economic growth.’ He said the country needed ‘more immigrants’ but wanted them in a ‘legal’ fashion.”

~ lenona at February 28, 2020 10:24 AM

Mulvaney's statement contradicts Smialek's and Young's. We need more legal immigrants does not ignore the economic reality of the need for more immigrants.

Assimilation is a key factor in immigrants fueling economic growth. Assimilation brings economic and social mobility, as well as geographic mobility. Assimilation does not happen overnight. Keeping immigration to a level at which we can assimilate the immigrants is sound policy.

We should do everything we can to speed up the assimilation process, but you can't get a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.

Warm bodies are not enough to fuel economic growth. A compatible skill set is also required. Sometimes that skill set is just being able to show up on time and learn. Other times, it means more advanced skills. But an uneducated peasant farmer is not likely to have an in-demand skill set that will land a job in an advanced economy and enable him to add to the economic growth impetus - no matter how easy Mike Bloomberg thinks farming is.

Learning English is important, but not vital anymore. Being willing (and able) to shed the old ways and superstitions is, however, vital.

You are right IRA. That is the bishop in San Fran. I have not heard anything about churches or bishops in DC.

Today on NPR their talking heads wanted all of us to be aware that the Trump administration isn't infallible.

Apparently they were unhappy that Pence and Trump were talking about the coronavirus instead of some guy from the CDC I've never heard of. After I heard that zinger I had to turn the radio off. I was laughing so hard a second line like that would have sent me off the road. The poor guy who said it was so serious it was a perfect deadpan delivery.

> Wonder if Muslim populations
> will reject treatment?

Everybody, let's all agree right now that Jenny McCarthy will not be invited to participate.

(I love that I typed in "vaccine playboy bunny" and duckduckgo totally knew who I meant.)

DIY continues to grow.

Coronavirus Live Thread. 6.

Free Republic, whatever its distant virtues, sucks garden hose in this context.

Worse that useless.

Feel good story of the evening.

Mulvaney's statement contradicts Smialek's and Young's.
_____________________________________

Where exactly did they contradict Mulvaney, in their article?

If Trump has said that we NEED more legal immigrants (as opposed to grudgingly accepting them), he hasn't said it very often; I don't remember the last time he did.

I'm sorry that I can't copy and paste the entire article.

Ben, I don't understand what you're trying to say either. Looking at the chart, it's clear that for the last 170 years, the highest percentage for immigrants was 15%, and the last time it was that high was in 1910, even though the number of immigrants has skyrocketed since 1970. Since most immigrants don't tend to have even lower birthrates than Americans (even though the birthrate has gone down in Mexico, according to the same articles I posted), Mulvaney's statement suggests that even the current number of legal, skilled immigrants doesn't make up for the low birthrate here.

Not to mention that politicians have a love-hate relationship with the poor and uneducated, whether they're legal citizens or not. (Who wants to pay $5 for an orange that isn't even organic? How many men really want to risk their lives in the armed forces?)

So if they really care about the employment rate of American citizens, you'd think they'd do more to address the problems of those who can't afford college and/or those whose jobs will likely get lost to automation.

Btw, does that 63% refer to ALL Americans, or just American adults?

Also, it's common knowledge that even immigrants from countries with very high birthrates tend to have fewer children, once they move to the U.S., than they would have had at home.

Finally, to reiterate something I said a while back, with regard to the economy and the low birth rate, it makes no sense for politicians to complain about couples who don't reproduce, while ALSO complaining about people who do. (Maybe Mulvaney realizes this?)

That is, middle-class couples might want children but refuse to have them because many simply can't afford to keep living in a safe neighborhood unless they stay childless, and plenty of very poor people have children because reproduction is the only positive element in their lives - not necessarily because they can't get birth control. (But the shortage of good BC in some communities certainly doesn't help.)

Bottom line: If we can't make it easier for middle-class couples to have children, the least we can do is make sure that poor, out-of-wedlock children have a solid elementary education, one way or another. Why treat them as disposable?