🇺🇸 Open Sesame

Plus, this TV network is banning on-air drinks for New Years' eve…

December 28, 2022

The Flag

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Good morning, and happy Wednesday! Got a few minutes to spare? Watch these 19 viral videos that made us smile this year…

Also, if you fell victim to this week's travel hell, today’s sponsor Faye might be worth another look. They offer affordable travel insurance and fast reimbursement. 

FLAG POLLS

📉 Direction of Country: Right Direction 37, Wrong Track 57 (Rasmussen Reports)

📉 President Biden Job Approval: Approve 47, Disapprove 51 (Rasmussen Reports)

📉 President Biden Job Approval: Approve 39, Disapprove 55 (Reuters/Ipsos)

📉 President Biden Job Approval: Approve 43, Disapprove 54 (POLITICO/Morning Consult)

TRENDING

Left: The Most Absurd Republican Temper Tantrums This Year (Daily Beast)

Left: Merry Christmas! We’re All Being Murdered by Capitalism. (The Intercept)

Left: Have Voters Stopped Punishing Democrats for Eating Kale and Arugula? (Slate)

Right: The GOP’s Moronic House Speakership Fight (The American Spectator)

Right: New York Times gets universally torched over bizarre article sympathetic to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (The Blaze)

Right: New Year’s Resolution: Ignore The Anti-Fun Woke Babies (The Federalist)

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QUICK CLICKS

Title 42 Remains in Place, Tesla Stock Tanking, Home Prices Keep Slipping

US: Supreme Court orders Title 42 border restrictions to remain in place (The Hill)

World: Serbia places security forces on Kosovo border at state of 'full combat readiness' (Sky News)

Business: Tesla’s stock is headed for its worst month, quarter and year on record (CNBC)

Business: Kim Kardashian responds to Balenciaga backlash: 'They're mad if I don't speak out, they're mad if I do' (Fox News)

World: Russian sausage tycoon who criticized Ukraine invasion dies in fall from hotel (NY Post)

Economy: Home Prices Slip for Fourth Month With US Market Slowing (Bloomberg)

US: Time is running short for McCarthy to lock up Speakership (The Hill)

US: Man sentenced to 16 years for plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (NBC News)

Travel: Southwest Airlines flight cancellations continue, with thousands more canceled flights Tuesday (ABC 7 Chicago)

CHINA

Open Sesame

Earlier this week, China announced it will drop its quarantine rule for incoming travelers in early January, as the Asian nation relaxes its strict COVID-19 rules. Meanwhile, the country’s coronavirus case numbers have been on the rise.

From The Flag: Throughout the pandemic, China has maintained one of the world’s most restrictive COVID policies, resulting in numerous lockdowns that harmed the country’s economy. Widespread protests this past fall eventually led to authorities relaxing their “zero COVID” approach. Here's more commentary from both sides.

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Through Deception and Poor Choices, China Has Endangered Us All

  • China has put the world at risk, first by covering up COVID-19, and now by adopting a reckless reopening strategy.

  • A massive COVID wave is now sweeping over China, threatening its own economy, and the global supply chain.

  • It seems protests made an impact in China’s decision to reverse course, bringing on the inevitable spread of COVID.

“China’s Let-It-Rip Covid Reopening” Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Wall Street Journal Opinion: “China put the world in peril with its coverup and slow response… (its) current approach to Covid-19 is creating new risks—in China and beyond. … China will also become a petri dish for new variants, which will inevitably spread globally. Early in the pandemic, China appeared to contain the virus. … But global health is a long game, and China has fallen far behind by making three crucial mistakes. First, the zero-Covid strategy. … If these extreme measures limited Covid deaths in China, they came at a huge cost. … The lockdowns have sown deep and unprecedented public hostility toward the government. … Second, China’s vaccine fiasco. China adopted a conservative approach, pursuing traditional inactivated-virus vaccines rather than novel ones like the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA shots. … Third, letting Covid rip. … Zero Covid was always untenable and had to be ended. But it could have been done responsibly.”

“How Xi’s Covid catastrophe put the global economy at risk” Matt Oliver, The Daily Telegraph: “Smoke billows round the clock from the chimneys of Beijing’s crematoriums, as hearses queue outside and body bags pile up… the city’s hospital wards are overflowing with severely ill patients and pharmacies have sold out of cough medicines. In state-controlled media, there is little sense of this unfolding catastrophe. But to experts around the world - and anyone with eyes of their own - it is clear China is gripped by a devastating new wave of the coronavirus. … In addition to the brutal human toll, the virus risks crippling the world's second largest economy just as it was attempting to reopen. As ports shut down because of sickness, supply chains seize up and millions of consumers panic, the implications are dire - both for China and the West, which buys so many of its goods.”

One more opinion piece from the Right: China’s battle with Omicron is just beginning Cindy Yu, The Spectator

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

An Irresponsible Reopening

  • There’s a high probability that China’s reopening will lead to new variants of COVID-19, which will threaten other nations.

  • China's abrupt change of course has left their own people, and the world, out to dry.

  • Although data is unreliable, lagging vaccination numbers could lead to a 60% infection rate in China.

“China's new covid nightmare could become a global catastrophe” Editorial Board, Washington Post: “China has troubled days ahead. Among those 60 years and older, only about 69 percent have received booster shots, and the uptake is even less among those over 80 years old. They are extremely vulnerable to omicron, and reports from China have indicated that a surge of deaths has already started, with crematoriums working around the clock. Mathematical models predict 1 million or more deaths early next year. China’s government has announced a plan to accelerate vaccination campaigns for the elderly, who have been hesitant to get the shots. For a long while, China has grossly underreported deaths due to covid and probably will continue to do so. One danger is that China’s outbreak will generate new variants that threaten the rest of the world. It is impossible to predict, but previous variants with a transmission edge have spread rather quickly.”

"China's COVID-19 policy has failed" Rodion Ebbighausen, DW: "The extent to which people had suffered under the Communist Party's coercive safety measures became clear when thousands of workers fled Foxconn's production halls as soon as a positive case was reported in November. They hoped to escape weeks or even months of isolation. ... What remains surprising and incomprehensible is how the Chinese state, which prides itself on its technocratic administration, has reacted. Virtually overnight, the COVID restrictions were lifted and the testing regimen was abolished — shifting the policies from one extreme to another. If the Communist Party had ever cared about the safety of its citizens, it would have fostered a transitional period, initiated a comprehensive vaccination campaign, and strengthened the health care system. But none of that happened. ... Once forced into isolation by the regime, the Chinese people are now being left alone once again."

One more opinion piece from the Left: China is on the brink of its first major Covid surge. How it copes will affect us all Devi Sridhar, The Guardian

FLAG THIS

2 in 3 Believe COVID Came from Chinese Lab, Want Fauci To Testify

Polling from earlier this month shows 68% of US voters consider it likely that COVID-19 originated in a Chinese laboratory, with 48% of them believing it is very likely. Just 2 in 10 don’t believe the virus came from a lab.

The same survey determined more than two-thirds of all respondents believe that the chief medical advisor to the president, Dr. Anthony Fauci, should testify under oath in front of a congressional investigation (Rasmussen Reports).

Do you think it's time for China to reopen to the world?

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FLAG FINDS

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WATERCOOLER

John C. Calhoun Resigns, Top Travel Spots for 2023, Making the Most of Bad Gifts

On This Day in 1832: Citing political differences with President Andrew Jackson, and a desire to fill a vacant Senate seat in South Carolina, John C. Calhoun becomes the first vice president in US history to resign the office.

Today I Learned that when the set of James Cameron’s Titanic was submerged during filming, the Grand Staircase dislodged and floated; supporting the unconfirmed theory that the missing original staircase dislodged and floated away during the real sinking.

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