The New Red Scare

The Princeton U president writes in The Atlantic magazine:

The United States is home to the best collection of research universities in the world. Those universities have contributed tremendously to America’s prosperity, health, and security. They are magnets for outstanding talent from throughout the country and around the world.

The Trump administration’s recent attack on Columbia University puts all of that at risk, presenting the greatest threat to American universities since the Red Scare of the 1950s. Every American should be concerned.

The rise of the American research university in the 20th century depended on many factors, including two crucial turning points. The first, at the start of the century, was the development of strong principles of academic freedom that allowed people and ideas to be judged by scholarly standards, not according to the whims or interests of powerful trustees, donors, or political officials.

This is the same college that fired a tenured classics professor because he denounced a student group, the Black Justice League, as “a small local terrorist organization”. Or maybe it was because he married one of his former students, it is hard to tell. At any rate, Princeton has already sold out its academic freedom.

Columbia and Harvard sold out even worse.

So why is he so upset? The Trump administration demands that recipients of federal funds do not racially discriminate, support free speech, and stop harassing Jews.

These colleges get a lot of federal money, with not much accountability to what taxpayers want. I think that they will have to face some cutbacks. Princeton is extremely rich, and does not need any federal money.

The Red Scare of the 1950s primarily affected professors who advocated Communism at a time that Communist countries were doing horrible things and were enemies of the USA. I am in favor of free speech, but the Commies were terrible and did not deserve taxdollar support.

Toddler Expelled for Transphobia

The London Daily Mail reports:

A toddler has been kicked out of nursery after being accused of transphobia, new figures reveal.

The child, aged either three or four, was suspended for 'abuse against sexual orientation and gender identity', data from the Department for Education shows.

The offences took place in the 2022-23 academic year at a state school, according to The Telegraph.

Statistics indicate 94 pupils at similar primary institutions were suspended or permanently excluded for transphobia or homophobia in the same year. ...

Sally and Nigel Rowe, whose sons attended a Church of England school, said they received a letter from the headteacher and chair of governors which declared pupils could be designated the term if they showed 'an inability to believe a transgender person is actually a ''real'' female or male.'

Most Christians do not believe in transgenderism.

French Lawfare Wrecks Election

CNN reports:

French far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen has been banned from running for political office for five years after being found guilty of embezzling European Union funds, in a politically explosive ruling that has shattered her hopes of winning the presidency in 2027. ...

The court’s presiding judge, Bénédicte de Perthuis, said Le Pen’s actions amounted to a “serious and lasting attack on the rules of democratic life in Europe, but especially in France.” She said Le Pen’s immediate ban on standing for office was tied to “democratic public unrest” that would result from the election of a person convicted of embezzlement.

Le Pen slammed the ruling as a purely “political decision” during an appearance on French TV station TF1 on Monday evening.

Those judge comments make it obvious that the decision was political. The purpose was to keep her from winning the next election. The EU could have withdrawn the money, if it did not like how she was spending it.

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Le Pen’s conviction was a “very big deal.”

“She was banned from running for five years and she’s the leading candidate — that sounds like this country,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.

Also like Romania and Brazil, where lawfare blocked right-wing candidates.

Nothing in the article justifies calling her "far-right". She is more center-right, and does not advocate anything radical.

Canada Pays for Man to have Vagina and Penis

From Canada news, last year:

K.S. appealed OHIP’s decision to Ontario’s Health Services Appeal and Review Board, arguing that forcing her to have her penis removed would invalidate her identity and be akin to an illegal act of conversion therapy.

He won the appeal. The surgery is not done in Canada, so he will go to Texas for it, and Canada will pay.

When Airline Pilots Suffer Mental Illness

Today's NY Times podcast is about male homosexual airline pilots who cover up mental illnesses because they would be considered dangerous:

When he wasn't crying, he slept.

I've got to find a therapist, he told himself. And he did. Quickly, if that therapist didn't write down depression, Merritt would be okay. He could still fly planes, keep his job, as long as he wasn't diagnosed with a mental illness.

After several sessions, The therapist gently suggested that he might need medication.

Merritt adamantly refused.

The therapist never raised the subject again.

Merritt's husband, also an airline pilot, hoped he would break out of this funk.

It says that the FAA started allowing pilots with diagnosed depression, in some cases.

Covid was Widespread by Early Dec. 2019

There has been some reassessment of the covid-19 pandemic. I thought that it started in Wuhan China in Dec. 2019, and in the USA in Jan-Feb. 2020. Actually, it was earlier.

Some people blame China for not acting more promptly. But they acted much more quickly than the USA. The virus was widespread in California in Dec. 2019, and the health authorities did nothing.

Here is what is known. It appears that the virus was already out of control in California by Dec. 1, 2019.

The first proven case of COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, is traced back to November 17, 2019, according to a retrospective analysis of medical records in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. This finding comes from a report by the South China Morning Post on March 13, 2020, which cited unpublished Chinese government data. The case involved a 55-year-old individual who exhibited symptoms consistent with COVID-19, though it wasn’t identified as such at the time due to the novel nature of the virus.

Key Details:

• Initial Identification: The virus wasn’t recognized until a cluster of pneumonia cases of unknown origin emerged in late December 2019. On December 31, 2019, Chinese authorities reported this cluster to the World Health Organization (WHO), linking many cases to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan.
• Confirmation: The earliest confirmed case with a known onset date is often cited as December 1, 2019, from a study published in The Lancet (January 24, 2020), based on a patient who fell ill without direct market exposure. However, the November 17 case predates this, identified later through contact tracing and symptom analysis.
• Genetic Evidence: Subsequent genomic studies (e.g., from Nature, November 2020) suggest the virus may have been circulating in humans as early as mid-November 2019, aligning with the November 17 case as the earliest documented instance.

Why "Proven" Matters:

• Earlier suspected cases exist (e.g., anecdotal reports from October 2019 or claims of imported cases), but they lack definitive lab confirmation (e.g., PCR testing or sequencing) or official documentation. The November 17 case is the earliest with evidence from Chinese health records, though it wasn’t lab-confirmed until later.

Timeline Context:

• November 17, 2019: First symptomatic case (retrospectively identified).
• December 8–31, 2019: Cluster grows; Wuhan doctors like Dr. Li Wenliang raise alarms.
• January 11, 2020: China publicly shares the SARS-CoV-2 genome, confirming the new coronavirus.

So, based on available evidence, November 17, 2019, marks the first proven case of COVID-19. Let me know if you’d like more details on the science or early spread!

Based on retrospective evidence, the first case of COVID-19 in the United States is believed to have occurred as early as December 13–16, 2019, according to a study conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This finding comes from analyzing archived blood samples collected from American Red Cross donors.

Key Evidence:

• Study Details: Published in Clinical Infectious Diseases on November 30, 2020, the CDC study examined 7,389 blood samples donated between December 13, 2019, and January 17, 2020, from nine states (California, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin).
• Findings:
  • 106 samples tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, indicating prior infection.
  • The earliest positive samples were from December 13–16, 2019, in California, Oregon, and Washington—weeks before the first officially recognized U.S. case.
  • Specifically:
    • California: December 13–16, 2019
    • Oregon: December 15–16, 2019
    • Washington: December 15–16, 2019
• Methodology: The samples were tested for IgG and IgM antibodies, which typically appear 1–3 weeks after infection. This suggests infections could have occurred as early as late November or early December 2019, though the exact onset is uncertain due to antibody development timelines.

Context:

• Official First Case: The first confirmed U.S. case was announced on January 21, 2020, involving a 35-year-old man in Snohomish County, Washington, who had returned from Wuhan, China, on January 15 and tested positive via PCR on January 20 (reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, March 5, 2020).
• Retrospective Insight: The CDC study indicates community transmission was likely occurring in the U.S. before this, undetected due to limited testing and awareness of the virus at the time. These early cases were not diagnosed contemporaneously because COVID-19 wasn’t yet identified as a circulating pathogen in the U.S.

Limitations:

• No Symptom Data: Blood donation records don’t include symptom onset dates, so the exact timing of illness is inferred.
• Possible False Positives: While the antibody tests were specific to SARS-CoV-2, cross-reactivity with other coronaviruses was a concern, though the study used multiple assays to minimize this.
• Travel vs. Local Spread: It’s unclear whether these early cases were imported (e.g., from China) or represented local transmission.

Earlier Claims:

• Some anecdotal reports (e.g., a California death certificate listing COVID-19 from February 6, 2020, later backdated via autopsy to late January) and wastewater studies (e.g., Santa Clara County detecting viral RNA from mid-January 2020) suggest early presence, but the CDC’s December 2019 antibody evidence is the earliest robust retrospective data.

Conclusion:

Based on retrospective serological evidence, the first cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. likely date to December 13–16, 2019, in western states. This predates the officially recognized January 21, 2020, case by over a month, highlighting how the virus was silently spreading before detection systems were in place. Let me know if you’d like more on the study or its implications!