Trust

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/20/health/covid-cdc-data.html

It would seem that we placing trust in either the CDC or the mainstream media might not always be the wisest course.

Of course the CDC has excuses for why they withheld data.

Of course the mainstream media has excuses for not investigating further, and digging deeper.

Unfortunately, the deception of the CDC and the failure of the MSM has made the damage caused by the response to COVID worse.  If we can't expect to get all of the information that the CDC has available, then we can't expect leadership to make informed decisions. 

I'm not sure this is a good thing.

 Kathy Griffin, the comedienne who thought beheading Trump was funny, had a strange post on Twitter today,

"4th booster f**kers.  Oh, and CVS gave us EIGHT free Covid tests for getting boosted"

Obviously she's unaware of the irony of needing "EIGHT" tests after your "4th" booster.     Beyond that is she really so stupid as to think that those tests were really "free"?   Or I wondered if she considered that the reason why they had "EIGHT" tests to give away is because the Biden administration produced more tests than were actually needed and they wanted to get rid of tests no one wanted?

One aspect of COVID that's been less discussed is the amount of money thrown at big pharma, with little or no oversight.  No one thinks it's strange when the CEO of Pfizer announces that more boosters are needed, even though it's a conflict of interest.  Clearly the treatments for COVID have been influenced by things other than the "science", we now know that Ivermectin and HCQ are good treatment options.  We now know that we can't trust the numbers that drove the reactions for two years.   But thank God that we have idiots like Griffin who'll uncritically spew propaganda that her followers will accept uncritically and rush to the CVS to get their "free" tests along with boosters #4,5,&6. 

It's Amazing

 It's amazing to watch the woke left respond to the Will Smith/Chris Rock incident last night.     I think that the fact that they're ignoring the fact that it's bizarre for Smith to let jokes about the fact that his wife sleeps with all sorts of guys besides him slide, while a comedian known for "edgy" jokes gets attacked for a joke about her hair.

Obviously, it'd be reported differently if they both weren't black.  Obviously it'd be different if the Oscars didn't have a long and applauded history of making jokes about recipients, many in incredibly bad taste (remember the Weinstein jokes?).    It'd be different if they'd have prevented Smith from accepting an award after his attack.

Mostly what I've taken away from this is that I'm glad I stopped watching this crap years ago, and that the only privileged that really matters is rich/woke privilege. 

"Will Smith didn't want to slap himself for what's he's allowed other men to do with his wife, so he slapped Chris Rock instead.   Through his open marriage to Jada, he's done more to dishonor his wife than a comedian's harmless joke ever could."

Samuel Sey

It's telling that Smith's open marriage (and unorthodox parenting style) have been punchlines for years and he's never responded. 

Polls are Awesome

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10651701/New-poll-shows-52-likely-Democratic-voters-Florida-Dont-Say-Gay-bill.html

 

In a poll of likely Democratic primary voters, commissioned by Floridians for Economic Advancement, 52% of likely Democratic primary voters (the Democratic party base) support the recent bill designed to limit teacher introduced instruction regarding "sexual orientation" to very young school children.   

 That's right, a majority of likely Democrat primary voters (the base of the Damocrat party) support the FL bill.  

 

Strangely enough, I was unable to find any information regarding the Floridians for Economic Advancement PAC, although the list of major donors suggests that it's probably not a right wing PAC.  

2018

 In 2018 Senator Chuck Schumer (D) staged a photo op in front of a gas station demanding that Trump lower gas prices.  The price that had Schumer all worked up, $3.89 a gallon.  

As we see national average gas prices well over $4.00 a gallon, why aren't we seeing Schumer making similar demands (and photo ops) from Biden?

https://www.kiiitv.com/article/news/nation-now/fact-check-whos-to-blame-for-higher-gas-prices/465-bbfbec69-88bd-4f65-9a29-1b5502b03999

Trump

 My mixed feeling about Trump are pretty obvious. But as the dominoes continue to fall and we find out that the media narrative about more and more things Trump was reviled for was false and that Trump wasn't wrong, it does raise questions.   As Manhattan prosecutors quietly fold their tents without charges against Trump,  we also find that the Biden laptop story was wrong (at least the mainstream media narrative was), that Ivermectin is effective against COVID, and that the CDC continues to drop the numbers of COVID deaths and seemingly has stopped reporting them.  

I'm not going to go so far as to say that Trump was right about all of these things, but it's increasingly clear that the mainstream media/DFL narratives about these things was wrong.   Yet somehow were supposed to trust the mainstream media/DFL going forward?

Why?

 Bill Gates just purchased a 43 Million dollar beach home (one of multiple large homes Gates owns).

P-BO just purchased a beach house in HI to go along with his beach house in Martha's Vinyard.

One wonders why these folx who are adamant about climate change, and pushing others to limit their "carbon footprint", are in such a rush to buy property that they claim will be under water in the near future?

Maybe one of the reasons normal folks don't take the liberal elites seriously about climate change is that we don't see the elites living out the values they claim to hold.  Mega yachts, private jets, multiple mansions, fleets of cars and trucks, maybe I'll think about dialing back my average suburban lifestyle after these frauds stop with their "Do as I say, not as I do." attitudes and lifestyles. 

End the war now.

 There are multiple countries that have the ability to stop Putin's invasion of Ukraine relatively cheaply, easily, and with minimal loss of additional life.  

.50 BMG in a Barrett. 

Way Back When

Back in the early months of he P-BO administration, I asked (I'm not sure it was an entire post, but it might have been) for anyone to come up with the point in P-BO's administration where he stopped blaming Bush, and started accepting responsibility for conditions in the US.   I don't recall ever getting a direct, specific answer.    Therefore I concluded that there would never be a time when P-BO and his partisans ever accepted that P-BO was actually responsible for the conditions under his administration.

In much the same way, I keep seeing all sorts of folx on line and on social media who's go to response for everything happening in the US and the world is "It's all Trump's fault", or "It's all the GOP's fault".

I guess I'd ask the same question now.  At what point does Biden and his DFL majority in both houses of congress become responsible for their actions or for their failure to act?  

Two final thoughts.

1.  I'm not sure that "It's all Trump's fault" is going to be particularly successful as a rallying cry for a second Biden term.

2.  If Biden and the DFL majorities in congress were elected to govern, and they fail to do so (blaming the GOP for their failures) doesn't that raise questions about their ability to do what they were elected to do?

PS-  If it was the GOP currently behaving like this, I would hold them to the same standard.   I fully support GOP candidates running against ineffective GOP legislators, governors, or presidents.  I am convinced that this culture of blaming others for our own failures (which goes way beyond governance) is an unhealthy attitude for our country to maintain.  

SCOTUS

 I haven't written or talked much about Biden's SCOTUS nominee.     My first thought is that Biden handicapped anyone he chose by announcing that his primary criteria for selection were skin color and gender.   Had he not been pandering, he could have nominated a black woman, without all the hoopla, and avoided some of the push back.   The chances that Biden would nominate anyone that I fully support are very slim.  Having said that, I think that Jackson is about as good as we're likely to get from someone like Biden.  Her answers on questions about 2A and abortion were the only rational answers she could have given, and as long as she doesn't to a major reversal on those she should be OK.   

What I found interesting was her inability to define (or her dodge of defining) "woman".   Given the fact that women are a federally protected class, how could she possibly rule on cases involving women's rights or discrimination against women if she can't define what a woman is?   

Twitter is amused.

"You don't have to be a biologist to know what a woman is."  Katie Pavlich

"What does this even mean?  The GOP does go a little hard on abortion rights...but you guys have no accepted working definition IS."  Will Reilly

"While I kind of like her, it's worth noting that the person who said that Judge Brown-Jackson would never have been nominated if it weren't for her race and sex was Joe Biden."  Will Reilly

 "The "what is a woman movement" has begun."   Matt Walsh

"If it's unclear what a woman is, how does Biden know he's nominated one?"  Seth Dillon

"But how then did KBJ use the word woman over and over especially when discussing Roe v. Wade?  How can she not define woman but then use the word in a specific legal context?  How can she be a judge when she can't define a basic word?"  Tim Pool

 "In order to have a Supreme Count committed to the rights of all Americans, including women, every justice needs to understand that there is such a thing as a woman, as distinct from a man.   Yet when asked to define the word "woman" Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji-Brown said, "I don't know."   The hypocrisy and absurdity of this is why she was nominated by president Biden in large part because she was a woman."  Tulsi Gabbard

We've gone from "Believe all women.", to "Believe some women" to, "What is a woman." in a very short time. 

I could find more, but work is calling.  

My prediction stands that she'll get more GOP votes that any of Trump's nominees got and possibly more than all three combined.  Because the DFL is not ever blindly partisan about anything.  

It's telling that this intelligent, well educated, well qualified, front hole/birthing person was quite clear that the scientific discipline where the definition of "woman" is to be found is in biology.  It's almost like she's convinced that being a woman is a biological state of being rather than a metaphysical state of mind. 

Where's the money?

 https://www.dotnews.com/2022/violence-boston-leader-arrested-indicted-fraud

 https://www.lawofficer.com/boston-blm-leader-monica-cannon-grant-federally-indicted-fraud/

November

 https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/597987-new-polling-confirms-democrats-left-leaning-policies-are-out-of-touch

 

"The Democratic Party is perceived by voters as being both ineffective and out of touch and, as a result, stands to suffer substantive seat losses in the midterm elections, new polling by Schoen Cooperman Research indicates.  

Indeed, the findings of our survey — which was conducted among likely 2022 midterm election voters — show that the electorate is increasingly pessimistic about the direction in which President Biden and Democrats are steering the country and feel that the party’s priorities do not align with their own."

 "Indeed, a majority of voters (54 percent) — including 56 percent of independents — explicitly say that they want Biden and Democrats to move closer to the center and embrace more moderate policies versus embracing more liberal policies (18 percent) or staying where they are politically (13 percent).  

Most voters (61 percent) also agree that Biden and Democrats are “out of touch with hardworking Americans” and “have been so focused on catering to the far-left wing of the party that they’re ignoring Americans’ day to day concerns” such as “rising prices” and “combatting violent crime.”  

Equally concerning for Democrats, there is a clear sense among the 2022 electorate that the state of the country has deteriorated since Biden became president and that he has not lived up to expectations. 

Biden’s net approval rating is 9 points underwater (54 percent disapprove, 45 percent approve), which marks a 4-point drop since our December poll (51 percent disapprove, 46 percent approve). A plurality of voters (43 percent) also say that Biden has done worse as president than they expected, rather than better (19 percent).  "

"As violent crime surges across the country — a trend that voters are nearly universally concerned about (85 percent) — by a 2-to-1 margin, voters blame Democrats over Republicans for rising crime rates (52 percent to 25 percent). Further, Republicans are trusted over Democrats to reduce crime (49 percent to 34 percent).   

Despite Biden’s more moderate rhetoric on law enforcement and policing lately, most voters still agree that Biden and Democrats are soft on crime (56 percent) and a plurality agree that Democrats in Congress support the radical defund the police movement (46 percent). '

The upcoming elections are going to be interesting.  Historically we would expect the DFL to lose their majority in the Senate, and to lose seats in the house, because that's what the data tells us will happen.  But with this poling data, as well as the previously mentioned polling data that has the DFL losing support from their reliable minority voting blocs, we can't help but wonder if 2022 might end up being a significant swing in the makeup of congress.  

What I personally find interesting is whether or not the DFL will actually admit responsibility for anything that's happened in since Biden's inauguration.    Listening to the DFL leadership, virtually everything that's gone wrong is the fault of Trump, Putin, or someone else.   Hell, Pelosi just tried to peddle the lie that massive government spending and the unchecked borrowing/printing of money has nothing to do with inflation.  Just like Biden's clear intent to put US oil companies out of business has nothing to do with the price of gas.   

No matter what happens, it'll probably be interesting/amusing. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-hill/

Because polls

 https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/poll-republicans-beat-democrats-among-hispanics-at-27-among-black-voters/

 

" The survey also found Republicans making gains among minority groups. By 9 percentage points, Hispanic voters in the new poll said they would back a Republican candidate for Congress over a Democrat. The two parties had been tied among Hispanic voters in the Journal’s survey in November."

" Democratic margins also eroded among Black voters, who favored a Democrat for Congress by 35 percentage points in the new survey, down from 56 points in November. Support for a Republican candidate rose to 27% among Black voters, up from 12% in November."

 

 https://www.wsj.com/articles/home-of-the-brave-rip-war-poll-democrats-fight-enlist-vietnam-soldiers-invasion-ukraine-patriotism-culture-war-isolationist-military-recruitment-11646929607

 I was listening to an interview with Franz Nicolay the other day talking about the piece he just wrote for Spin Magazine.  He was reporting on how his friends in the music scene in Ukraine were handling the invasion.  At one point he was asked about the contrast between the ethos of most musicians of being anti-establishment was balancing with the defense of Ukraine.  His response was something like, "While the progressive leanings of most musicians would lean toward pacifism, there comes a point when it's necessary to fight for what's important."  (The interview is available on SXM Volume 106, Debatable from earlier this week).    I've always thought that pacifism was never an absolute, it was always a matter of getting to something important enough to set aside your convictions.   Unfortunately, progressives in the US don't have quite as much fortitude as their Ukrainian counterparts.  

 

To be fair, the numbers might change for the positive with actual boots on the ground in the US,  but I kind of think that if they can't tell the pollster they won't run away, they likely won't be more willing to pick up a weapon if faced with an actual invasion. 

Interesting study

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/2674039 

Despite the claims to the contrary, (that there are no irreversible surgeries being performed on children) it appears that there are enough instances of performing double mastectomies on healthy children to warrant a study of it's value and effectiveness.  One presumes that if the study finds that performing elective, major surgery on children is "effective", then we'll be seeing more of this type of surgery.

200 Rappers

https://hiphopcanada.com/200-rappers-who-died-in-2020/ 

How many were murdered by white people?

How many were killed by cops?

How many dies of COVID?

How many died of natural causes?

What is killing 200 black rappers a year?

This is it, this is the post

 Midland, not Moscow.

Corpus Christi, not Caracas

Holy Crap

Good old Secretary Pete,  he of the 6 month disappearing act in the middle of the supply chain crisis, has made quite the comeback recently.

SecPete's advice to those who can't afford the $4.00/gallon gas that Biden's administration has presided over, has his finger on the pulse of those lower income folx most hurt by this rampant inflation.  His advice, "buy an electric car".   Yup, you might not be able to afford gas, but that extra $3-500/ month car payment will be easy to budget for.  Not to mention increased insurance, increased electric bills, and the bill for the infrastructure to charge the damn thing.     Yeah, that average price of $56,000 is no big deal for most people highly impacted by inflation. 

This also ignores the environmental damage that accompany the building of electric cars (but that's all in other countries so it doesn't count), and the fact that they require rare earth minerals which just happen to enrich China.  

Finally, I think that it is important to note that those most negatively impacted by inflation are those at the lower end of the earnings scale.  It's almost like an additional regressive tax burden on those least able to afford it.   But remember, SecPete thinks y'all can afford a $56k EV right now.    

Or, we could look at what Elon Musk has to say about the topic...

Something positive about Biden

 While I agree that this move is more symbolism than substance, I believe that Biden's choice to stop purchasing Russian oil was the correct one.  The optics of funding Putin's regime, while sanctioning all sorts of other things were horrible and Biden really had no choice.

What will be interesting is to see if Biden turns toward domestic sources to make up this shortfall, of if he'll choose to fund a bunch of countries that are as bad, if not worse, than Russia.

Why?

 Why do old, white,  liberal, men, think that they are qualified to make such broad sweeping statements about what black people should want, do, or support?   Phil Vischer probably just needs to shut up at this point when it comes to criticizing black men for not being black enough. 

Woops

 Jen Psaki- "The only way to protect the US over the long term is to become energy independent.  That is why the President is so focused on deploying clean energy technologies that don't require fossil fuels bough and sold of the open market, which will always be vulnerable to bad actors."

1.  Unfortunately the vast majority of our already declining economy is dependent on fossil fuels.  It seems like we'd be wanting to help the "supply chain", not make it worse.

2.  How about if we focus on developing the fossil fuel resources that don't relay on other countries?

3.  How about if we acknowledge that there is zero chance that the US can have all of our energy needs supplied by "clean energy technologies" in the near/mid future.

"Biden's advisors are discussing a possible visit to Saudi Arabia this spring to help repair relations and convince the Kingdom to pump more oil."

Excellent plan.  By all means lets put more of our energy needs in the hands of a regime that has a horrible record on human rights, oppresses all sorts of protected classes, and that is a hotbed of the Wahhabi sect of Islam.  That's definitely the best option. 

I realize that the Keystone pipeline isn't a magic bullet, and that US producers can't immediately start pumping oil out of US soil fast enough to put a quick stop the our current crisis.  But we can stop buying Russian oil, start prioritizing US production and US producers, and take other steps to solve our energy crisis long term.   Supporting dictators and despots just seems like the wrong strategy to me.  

In a related note, it looks like fertilizer prices are going up taking crop prices along with them.   Again, maybe it'd be a better idea to be more self sufficient, rather than to rely on countries that aren't aligned with the US.    I suspect that this is one more instance of the US outsourcing the production of products that are bad for the environment to other countries, which leaves us vulnerable to this exact scenario.   

The Biden inflation (tax on the poor) just keeps getting worse. 

Net Zero

https://www.cpr.org/2022/02/09/marshall-fire-louisvilles-green-building-codes/ 

One of my friends posted about this earlier today.  The city of Louisville CO is requiring that the homes destroyed in the fires from late last year be rebuilt to it's new building code which requires  net zero impact.   The reality that is being faced, by people who suffered a terrible tragedy and lost everything, is that it's significantly more expensive to build net zero, and most insurance policies aren't going to cover the extra expense.     The reality of net zero is that it's not construction techniques, it's a lifestyle.  It's absolutely ridiculous for a city government to impose a lifestyle on it's citizens, as a result of a tragedy beyond their control.   The reality is that you can achieve the same functional performance of a net zero house, without all the expensive add ons, pretty easily.  The notion that this city can force people to spend money beyond what is necessary to rebuild their homes, on private property, seems draconian and callous to say the least.   I guess this is what we get for putting folx who are committed to their personal vision of what's best for others in charge of a city.    Having said that, two thoughts.

1.  I have no problem with a city choosing to set absurdly ridiculous building codes for genuinely new construction.  This allows people the choice of whether or not to buy property in the city knowing about the idiotic building codes.  If people are stupid enough to play along with this idiocy, then let them make that informed choice by themselves.  But to force people to adhere to an arbitrary standard that won't significantly impact anything after having their homes destroyed, is heartless and cruel.

2.  If Louisville wanted to pay the people who's homes were destroyed a sum equal to the full market value of their houses, taking into account the current real estate market, and allowing them to move somewhere else I'd be OK with that.  It's going to put a huge tax burden on the rest of the residents, but it seems like a reasonable way not to burden those who suffered with additional difficulties.

As a note.  I've built multiple single family homes that have easily achieved LEED certification, and that have performed as well as LEED certified, but that were not put through the process.  I was also involved in a net zero home, and the conclusion of all involved was that it's not a particularly cost effective way to build and that the benefits aren't worth the investments.  As I said before, the only way to get value from a net zero home is for those who live there to be 100% committed to lifestyle changes.  This just looks like one more example of left wing government gone amok.