Publisher’s Positions
Do They Think We Are Stupid?
Four and a half years after the fact, and in some instances longer, the New York Times is coming to grips with what many of us have known as fact. Zeynep Tufekci, a Times columnist and professor of sociology at Princeton, published a column on March 16 proclaiming, “We Were Badly Misled About the Event That Changed Our Lives.” Tufekci’s column stated the scientific community long thought it likely COVID-19 began in a Wuhan laboratory, yet “hid or understated crucial facts” in an effort to deliberately mislead the American public about the lab’s “terrifyingly lax” or nonexistent safety precautions.
“We have since learned, however, that to promote the appearance of consensus, some officials and scientists hid or understated crucial facts, misled at least one reporter, orchestrated campaigns of supposedly independent voices and even compared notes about how to hide their communications in order to keep the public from hearing the whole story,” Tufekci acknowledged.
Most readers remember not so long ago an admission like that would have been labeled a “conspiracy theory.”
Way To Go, Wisconsin
Largely overlooked by the corporate media was the fact that the people of Wisconsin voted to make the requirement of a photo ID to vote part of their state constitution. 63% of the electorate in Wisconsin voted for the measure, meaning it had both Republicans and Democrats in voting for it. Fully 36 states now have some kind of voter identification requirement in their laws.
Yet Washington Democrats were in a tizzy over the SAVE Act (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act), which would require proof of citizenship rather than simply checking a box and swearing you are a citizen. Only one form of proof is required, such as a government-issued ID, birth certificate, a passport and several other forms of identification. Democrats in Washington have squalled that would pose problems for those women who don’t use their maiden names to vote any longer. Congresswoman Laura Friedman shrieked it was a “modern-day poll tax, targeting American women and low-income Americans.” Bull. It would be more accurate to describe the virtual slave labor used in China to make everything from socks to satellites as a modern-day form of slavery. Congresswoman Friedman hasn’t been outspoken in opposing letting biological men play women’s and girls’ sports, so her concern for her fellow womankind seems spotty at best.
Congresswoman Lauren Boebert told her Democrat colleagues, “Bless my colleagues’ hearts on the other side of the aisle, using women as a ‘gotcha’ for voting. I’ve never had to bring my birth certificate to prove that I was a registered voter. I have an ID that has a different name than my birth certificate.
“Since we’re using women as bait here, in the next round of debates they can explain to us exactly what a woman is.”
Of course, that is apparently a daunting task for many Democrats; one who could not, Ketanji Brown Jackson, now sits on the US Supreme Court.
While Democrats cry their little hearts out about “voter suppression,” it’s just another issue where they are on the opposite side of not only logic and common sense, but also the great majority of the American people. A recent Gallup poll found 84% of Americans favor requiring a photo ID to be able to vote.
208 Democrats in the US House of Representatives voted against curtailing illegal aliens’ voting in our elections. The right to vote is and should be one of the most cherished rights of those who are citizens.
Democrats are finding themselves defending some mighty strange notions these days, including why they don’t wish to see violent noncitizen gang members deported. Maybe they hope they can stay here and vote.
There Oughta Be a Law
In terms of tariffs and trade, something you are not likely to hear from the corporate media is the United States’ increasing reliance on China for the continued good health of average Americans. The US accounts for fully 40% of the global pharmaceutical market. China plays an outsized role in supplying APIs, a key and active ingredient in drugs, both name-brand and generic, which are used in a very large number of prescriptions used in America. Some of the most common drugs used on a daily basis by Americans, like antibiotics, acetaminophen and ibuprofen, come from – either directly or indirectly – from China. COVID provided a stern warning to the United States, both in terms of Americans being increasingly dependent upon medicines and medical supplies from an ostensibly unfriendly foreign power. How many of us recall that masks had to be ordered from China because companies in the US weren’t making enough of them? The COVID pandemic also showed us the fragility of our supply chain and its importance. Remember the lack of formula for babies? In 2023 alone, our country suffered a $139.5 billion deficit in pharmaceuticals. That same year, the US imported roughly $176.7 billion worth of pharmaceutical products.
The United States should not be dependent on any other country in the world for pharmaceuticals, especially a country that is hostile to America. It is a matter of national security as well as protecting the people of our country. There oughta be a law that at least 90% of our pharmaceuticals are manufactured right here in the USA.
