Right-Side-of-Lowell: December 2020

Thursday, December 31, 2020

Vaccinate the Vulnerable

For John, BLUF: Again US Rep Tulsi Gabbard speaks truth to power. Is Power listening? Nothing to see here; just move along.

Parler Post From Tulsi Gabbard—Vaccinate those over 65

Here is the Parler Post:

Tulsi Gabbard
2 hours ago
·
123k
@
TulsiGabbard
I'm calling on every member of Congress & their staff, and all millennials/Gen Xers, to join me in refusing to take the COVID vaccine until after our parents & grandparents can get it. Put our seniors over 65 first. They are the most vulnerable to serious illness or death.

Not all Democrats have become Progressive drones. Rep Tulsi Gabbard is an exception.

Sadly, she did not run for reelection this year. Her vision will be missed in the House Democratic Caucus, even if they don't realize it.

Regards — Cliff

For John, BLUF: This appears to be about COVID-19, but turns out to be about citizens losing faith in Public Health authorities and thus wandering out of bounds. Nothing to see here; just move along.

'Toxic Individualism': Pandemic Politics Driving Health Care Workers From Small Towns

From NPR, "All Things Considered". by Mr frank Morris, December 28, 2020.

Here is the lede plus one:

The virus infecting thousands of Americans a day is also attacking the country's social fabric. The coronavirus has exposed a weakness in many rural communities, where divisive pandemic politics are alienating some of their most critical residents — health care workers.
A wave of departing medical professionals would leave gaping holes in the rural health care system, and small-town economies, triggering a death spiral in some of these areas that may be hard to stop.

This is from NPR, which refused to cover the Hunter Biden imbrogio.♠ So, is NPR again serving the interests of the Deep State (Permanent Bureaucracy and their political allies)? How do we tell?.

I worry about this assult on "individualism". The emphasis on the ability of the individual member of society to rise based on his or her talents and hard work seems to be shifting to an emphasis on everyone rising together, with no one standing out.

We come face to face with the Japanese proverb:

the nail that sticks out gets hammered down

Look for an additional Blog Post on this topic.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

♠ Another institution dismantled by desire to please Tom Perez, here is the Wikipedia page on Mr Hunter Biden, with the China dealings explained away.

Trust

For John, BLUF: Trust is very important for the functioning of a civil society. One can conduct business when there is trust. When there isn't, not so much. Nothing to see here; just move along.

The 10 most important things I’ve learned about trust over my 100 years

Here is the sub-headline:

George P. Shultz is a former U.S. secretary of labor, treasury and state, and was director of the Office of Management and Budget. He is a distinguished fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.

From The Washington Post, by former Cabinet Secretary George P. Shultz, 11 December 2020.

Here is the lede plus one:

Dec. 13 marks my turning 100 years young. I’ve learned much over that time, but looking back, I’m struck that there is one lesson I learned early and then relearned over and over: Trust is the coin of the realm. When trust was in the room, whatever room that was — the family room, the schoolroom, the locker room, the office room, the government room or the military room — good things happened. When trust was not in the room, good things did not happen. Everything else is details.
There are countless examples of how that lesson was brought home to me across the past century, but here are 10 of the most important.

Ten lessons of as much value now as then, and a history over the last century. The nation has moved forward when trust was built.

We should strive to be a high trust society.

Regards — Cliff

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Assault Your Neighbor?

For John, BLUF: I am amazed at the violence being advocated by Progressives, while the research focuses on the Conservatives. Apparently Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is getting under the skin of Progressives. Nothing to see here; just move along.

Here is a Tweet, since unlinked:

From Writer Ed Driscoll, who posted this tweet, plus this accompaniment:

“Rodney Robinson, a social studies teacher in Richmond, Virginia, was named the 2019 National Teacher of the Year on Wednesday by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).”

I am shocked anyone thought that the attack on Senator Rand Paul was a good thing. It is like the Bernie Bro James T. Hodgkinson, and his attempted assassination Of US Representatives Steve Scalise.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

Odysseus Rides Again

For John, BLUF: The reason for knowing the classics of literature is that they help us understand who we are as a People and the paths that lead to democracy or dictatorship. Nothing to see here; just move along.

WHEN THE KING COMES HOME

From According to Hoyt, by Novelist Sarah Hoyt, 29 December 2020.

Here is the lede plus three:

The week after the election, I was very disappointed in an acquaintance that I both like and respect intellectually. As I was saying that if we let this election stand, the republic is gone, he said if our institutions were already corrupt enough to let this stand, the republic has been gone a long time, perhaps our whole life.
I was angry, because well…. Because I prefer people spit out the black pill. Sure, maybe the game is rigged, but as RAH put it, if you don’t bet you can’t win.
As it turns out, we were both right, but mostly wrong.
You see, I’d forgotten — as I’m sure he has too — who the sacred ruler of these United States is.

In a Blog Post, Ms Sarah Hoyt explains how we, the People, are the king of our destiny and how we must work to keep our democracy, our inheritence, handed down from those who went before us. Imperfect as they were, they were on the proper path.

Our fight for our Democracy, our (classic) liberal society, requires a constant engagement over time.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

Monday, December 28, 2020

The Brits and the EU Cut a Deal

For John, BLUF: The report is an overly long Brexit agreement with the European Union, but the guarantees of sovereignty are in there. Nothing to see here; just move along.

The small print of Boris’s Brexit deal makes for reassuring reading

From The Spectator, by barrister Steven Barrett, 27 December 2020.

Here is the lede plus three:

The new UK/EU Treaty is needlessly long and turgid in its prose: this document was not drafted by people who think the law should be understood by all. Close inspection of the small print reveals that none of the details undermine sovereignty. It has been restored and the UK has the power to control its own laws.
To understand what’s happened, consider the last two big treaties. Under the Maastricht Treaty the EU’s ability to control UK law was extended on what came before but was confined to specific areas only. That was called 'spheres of competence'. The 2007 Lisbon Treaty vastly expanded the EU’s power and the idea of restricting EU writ to areas of its competence fell away. Marina Wheeler has written in The Spectator about the Lisbon power grab and its huge implications: it’s worth re-reading for a sense of what Lord Frost was up against. And what he has successfully uprooted.
The Brexit deal takes things back to where they were before Maastricht. The EU is limited now in any meddling to very specific areas indeed. It ends the oddity where because circa seven per cent of UK business trade with the EU, 100 per cent have their laws made by the EU (although that is a bit more blurred in supply chains).
In the small print of the deal, the remnants of failed EU attempts to fetter British sovereignty can be seen. Consider the ‘precautionary approach’. This slides in via footnote 49, disguising itself in footnote 52. But by the time it gets in as actual law (article 1.2 page 179) it’s clear that it has lost the battle; its words have no force. British negotiators seem to have seen to that. As long as one side has a plausible scientific argument, it may do as it likes. There are other failed EU power grabs in the text, none carrying force.

This is good news. I am happy to see Britain free from the Brussels Bureaucracy that runs the European Union. Power to the People.

Maybe now the Brits will be more sympathetic to the Anglo-Phone People in Cameroon.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

Losing our Culture, Losing our Orientation

For John, BLUF: This is about Lawrence Public Schools banning the classic Greek Homeric tale, The Odyssey♠. Nothing to see here; just move along.

Even Homer Gets Mobbed

Here is the sub-headline:

A Massachusetts school has banned ‘The Odyssey.’

From The Wall Street Journal, by Journal Reporter Meghan Cox Gurdon, 27 December 2020.

Here is the lede plus two:

A sustained effort is under way to deny children access to literature. Under the slogan #DisruptTexts, critical-theory ideologues, schoolteachers and Twitter agitators are purging and propagandizing against classic texts—everything from Homer to F. Scott Fitzgerald to Dr. Seuss.
Their ethos holds that children shouldn’t have to read stories written in anything other than the present-day vernacular—especially those “in which racism, sexism, ableism, anti-Semitism, and other forms of hate are the norm,” as young-adult novelist Padma Venkatraman writes in School Library Journal. No author is valuable enough to spare, Ms. Venkatraman instructs: “Absolving Shakespeare of responsibility by mentioning that he lived at a time when hate-ridden sentiments prevailed, risks sending a subliminal message that academic excellence outweighs hateful rhetoric.”
The subtle complexities of literature are being reduced to the crude clanking of “intersectional” power struggles. Thus Seattle English teacher Evin Shinn tweeted in 2018 that he’d “rather die” than teach “The Scarlet Letter,” unless Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel is used to “fight against misogyny and slut-shaming.”

We get to the part about Lawrence, Massachusetts further down in the article:

The demands for censorship appear to be getting results. “Be like Odysseus and embrace the long haul to liberation (and then take the Odyssey out of your curriculum because it’s trash),” tweeted Shea Martin in June. “Hahaha,” replied Heather Levine, an English teacher at Lawrence (Mass.) High School. “Very proud to say we got the Odyssey removed from the curriculum this year!” When I contacted Ms. Levine to confirm this, she replied that she found the inquiry “invasive.” The English Department chairman of Lawrence Public Schools, Richard Gorham, didn’t respond to emails.
“It’s a tragedy that this anti-intellectual movement of canceling the classics is gaining traction among educators and the mainstream publishing industry,” says science-fiction writer Jon Del Arroz, one of the rare industry voices to defend Ms. Cluess. “Erasing the history of great works only limits the ability of children to become literate.”

Since I live just down the 495 Freeway from Lawrence, in Lowell, Massachusettts, I got this EMail from someone out on the Coast:

Cliff,
Did you see the attached article from yesterday’s WSJ? Don’t you live in Lawrence? Is it true that they have removed The Odyssey from the high school reading list?
Did you know about this? If so, why didn’t the citizens burn the high school to the ground? Why didn’t they picket in front of Ms Levine’s and Mr. Gorman’s houses?

Of course I was outraged at being confused with someone living in Lawrence, but we all have to live somewhere. I composed a reply:

NO, I DON’T LIVE IN LAWRENCE!!!
Too bad I am on my iPhone. Otherwise I would put it in red.
Yes, I saw the article. I will bring it up with the lady in charge of Lowell Curriculum the next time I see her, Robin Desmond. Not the infamous Robin DiAngelo. By the way, teachers can be found living all over, from Maine to Connecticut.
I am not advocating burning anything down, but this is a sign that “the long march through the institutions”♥ is resulting in the loss of those Anglo-Saxon values that gave us freedom of thought and action and helped us think our way out of human sacrifice, slavery and genocide.
Just a little while back Lawrence schools “went into receivership” and were taken over by the state. I think DESE gave back control recently.
I am embarrassed that Lawrence is five miles up the 495. Just as I am sure, deep down inside, you are embarrassed by that previously wonderful City, Portland. Local leadership is important. Obviously lacking in both locations.

My concern, as I stated to my interlocator, is that it has taken centuries, maybe millenia, to get to where we are. We are not perfect, but the Anglo-Saxon heritage has gotten us from living in trees and painting ourselves blue♦ to where we have a democracy going and are recognizing each other has humans, worthy of respect. We aren't perfect, but we are on the path. To continue to move forward we need to know from whence we came, thus history and literature are important. Confederate General Robert E Lee is important because he was one of those who showed grace and grew in his understanding of humanity. Do we think we are so smaarth that we can invent a perfect humanity without seeing the path along which we came? That would border on hubris, which the Greek stories help us to understand.

Automobile Magnete Henry Ford said "History is bunk." While Mr Ford was a very bright and practical man, he missed the boat on history. One does not start building the Empire State Building at the 100th floor, So, one does not start building a political and social culture without looking at the hundreds of years of substructure. In the United States we have built up an Anglo-Saxon substrata, with cultural additions from around the world. That substrata builds up what the Romans and Greeks gave us, and our Hebrew forefathers. And all of those came from previous civilizations.

We have overcome some human traditions that turned out to not be congeniel to Democracy. For example, when those of us from Europe came to the Western Hemisphere we stamped out human sacrifice, which I think was a good thing. We learned to overcome our human habit of slavery. Not all at once, but by and large we have eliminated it. And, even today we see signs of genocide here and there, but we recoil at it, even if we can't always stop it.

Regards — Cliff

♠ The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It follows the Greek hero Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his ten year journey after victory in the Trojan War.
♥ Thanks to German Marxist Rudi Dutschke for this phrase explaining how Marxism would overcome the Western Liberal approach.
♦ A characterization I picked up from a Staff Course Classmate from India, who attributed it to his Father, a Sergeant Major in the Indian Army during WWII. Long story, a cultural misunderstanding, for another time.

Taxing Out-of-Staters Working From Home

For John, BLUF: The COVID-19 Pandemic has opened a whole pandora's chest of issues, including tax issues. Nothing to see here; just move along.

Tax lawsuit against state strengthens

Here is the sub-headline:

14 states side with N.H.

From The [Lowell] Sun, by Reporter Sean Philip Cotter, 26 December 2020, although the link goes to the original of the story, in The Boston Herald.

Here is the lede plus three:

States are lining up against Massachusetts and siding with New Hampshire in the lawsuit over the the Bay State’s policy taxing the income of out-of-state residents telecommuting for Bay State companies amid the pandemic.
The Granite State had sued Massachusetts in October in the ongoing income- tax border battle over a temporary rule that imposes the state’s 5% income tax on employees of Massachusetts companies living and working remotely in other states. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and his state sued, asking the U. S. Supreme Court to take up the case after Gov. Charlie Baker extended the pandemicera rule.
New Hampshire continues to petition the Supreme Court to weigh in.
“Massachusetts has radically redefined what constitutes Massachusetts- sourced income in order to tax earnings for work performed entirely outside its borders,” New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon Macdonald fumed earlier this week in the state’s latest submission to the Supreme Court. “This does not maintain the status quo. It upends it,” Macdonald said.

I am sympathetic with New Hampshire, and other states. Yes, when their residents are using Massachusetts roads to commute to work, and have access to Massachusetts Police, Fire, and Medical aid, then they should pay Mass Taxes. However, when their benefits are limited to fire protection for a server in Boston, then their tax liability should not extend to their whole salary. The Police, Fire and Medical aid to which they will turn is in their own state.

Regards — Cliff

Sunday, December 27, 2020

Following Standards

For John, BLUF: This looks like the loss of a life and an expensive aircraft due to not maintaining high standards of performance. Nothing to see here; just move along.

Pilot error, leadership failures and faulty ejection seat led to fatal June F-16 crash at Shaw

From Air Force Times, by Reporter Stephen Losey, 10 Nocember 2020.

Here is the lede plus four:

A cascading series of pilot errors, leadership failures and ejection seat malfunctions combined to cause the fatal crash of an F-16CM Fighting Falcon pilot on a nighttime training flight at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina June 30, according to an investigation released Monday.
The report found that 1st Lt. David Schmitz, who became frustrated after being unable to carry out his first-ever aerial refueling and had to cut his nighttime training flight short, accidentally severely damaged his landing gear during a landing attempt, which was the primary cause of the crash, according to the report, dated Oct. 16.
But the report said that the supervisor of flying substantially contributed to Schmitz’s death by opting not to call a Lockheed Martin hotline that could have advised on a safer course of action, and instead having him try to conduct a cable landing instead of a controlled ejection, the report said.
A series of ejection seat malfunctions kept Schmitz’s parachute from deploying, also contributing to his death, the report said.
And the report criticized Schmitz’s leaders for having him try for his first-ever aerial refueling at night, disregarding Air Force policies that require pilots to first get used to such maneuvers in the daytime.

I am not sure I see a night refueling being inherently more tricky than a day refueling, but most would prefer a daylight refueling, so the Flight Leader (in this case two Instructor Pilots in the flight) can observe and, if need be, provide guidance at the time or discuss it later, in the flight debriefing.

A bothched landing, resulting in damage to the landing gear is a big deal. While I might be happy to land a T-33 in some field, gear up, not the F-16 or the F-4. I would worry about the F-16 being crushed like an empty sode can if it leaves the runway. Ejection seems like a reasonable solution.

However, this time a series of errors resulted in the ejection seat being put into a corner of its success envelope and the odds turned bad. A bad maintenance parts delivery system didn't help.

Accidents are usually not the result of one thing going wrong. Rather, they are a chain of events not going right. If just one of those things is found and corrected the accident might be avoided. Driving on a wet surface, withg bald tires, which are under-inflated. Change one thing and you can, perhaps, avoid a hydroplaning accident.

Yes, this points to a failure of leadership at several levels, including the Flight Lead, the Squadron Operations Officer, the Wing Supervisor of Flying and odds and ends of other people. In my mind leadership is not just a top to bottom thing, but also a bottom up thing, All are responsible for speaking up if they see something wrong, As someone commented on line this morning, in a discussion of the problem at West Point with their large Honor Code violation,

“If you walk by something that does not meet the standard, and do not correct it, that becomes the new standard.”

Standards need to be high. Leadership is about helping folks meet those standards. It can be as simple as walking down Merrimak Street and picking up a piece of trash and putting in a trash barrel (it is my City after all) to as hard and complicated as erasing vestiges of racism in our public schools.

Regards — Cliff

Saturday, December 26, 2020

A House Divided

For John, BLUF: "Trump has always been much more a symptom of our Great Divide than a cause of it." Nothing to see here; just move along.

Why Trump supporters are here for good

From The New York Post, by Mr Kevin D. Williamson, 14 November 2020.

Here is the lede plus two:

If people living in Trump country seem like they live in a different world from that inhabited by Silicon Valley executives and the editors of The New York Times, there is a reason for that: They do.
Before the election, I talked to Democratic partisans who were expecting a blue wave that would see Joe Biden winning not only swing states such as Florida but also Republican-leaning states such as Texas, and I talked to Republican partisans who expected Donald Trump to sweep blue states from Virginia to California. Neither of those things happened, of course. The run-up to the election — and, now, the disconnect between town and country over the president’s election-fraud complaints — has contributed to the sense that there are two Americas inhabiting two very different realities.
Some of the snoots living in Blue America sneer that the inhabitants of Red America are ignorant, living in a fantasyland. But in many ways, Red America understands Blue America better than Blue America understands Red America. It doesn’t have much choice: The news media, the entertainment business, technology and social media, and the commanding heights of big business live in Blue America and largely share Blue America’s biases, assumptions and points of view. Some of them are at least a little aware of their ignorance — Dean Baquet, the editor of The New York Times, confessed in 2016: “We don’t get religion. We don’t get the role of religion in people’s lives.” He might have added guns, farming, and much else to the list of things his staff doesn’t get.

This is a month and a half old, but it still holds. The nation is divided into two groups, groups which do not recognize each other.

Well, some do recognize each other. However, they have trouble finding common ground. This is not good. Viewing the other side as either stupid or criminal does not help. Going into the new year we need more empathy.

Even when President Trump moves down to Mar-a-Lago on 21 January the problem will still be with us. We are a nation divided between the Coastal Elites and those in FLyover Nation. And much of the Republican Party leadership is seen by Republicans, as compromised. It will be interesting to watch the Mass GOP elect a Chairman in January. Will it be former State Rep Jim Lyons, reelected, or someone else. A power struggle which I hope will not happen in private, like it was the Massachusetts General Court, pounding out a new law, in Secret

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

Subtle Censoring of the News

For John, BLUF: The more progressive side of Media (in other words, most of it) is trying to show distain for those who think there might have been fraud in the election.♠ Nothing to see here; just move along.

What happened to Maria Bartiromo? The Trump election fraud story has the TV news biz asking

Here is the sub-headline:

When a public company makes news, a chief executive can expect a text or call from Maria Bartiromo.

From MSN, by Reporter Stephen Battaglio, 24 December 2020.

Here is the lede plus two:

The veteran business journalist, now an anchor at Fox News, made her bones by getting sit-downs with the likes of Jamie Diamond or Warren Buffett. Guests would get a handwritten thank-you note afterwards.
She broke ground at CNBC as the first TV reporter on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and became an iconic TV personality worthy of a having a song written about her by punk rocker Joey Ramone.
But lately Bartiromo's former colleagues — many of whom admire her reporting skills and tireless work ethic — are wondering why she allowed her programs to become a vessel for President Trump's last gasp efforts to overturn the election results. CNBC insiders and alumni often exchange texts with tweets or clips of Bartiromo and the question “What happened?”

I read this first in The [Lowell] Sun, but had no URL. Then i found the original LA Times article, but is was from MSN. But, it was the same article.

We have recently switch to Fox Businees News, where Ms Bartirmo is a staple in our watching stable. We think she is great.

However, this seems to be part of a media campaign to shut down those who might be questioning the outcome of the election. There are indications that the Democratic Party, and its activists may have fudged parts of the election. A prime example is the less than steller treatment of poll watchers. Then there is Dominion, the Voting Machine company, with its proprietary software. If you can't check the software then you are being asked to take someone's word for it. "Trust me!" they say.

I think Ms Bartiromo is just taking a broad look at the news, not sweeping parts under the rug. This article says to me she is doing her job.

Regards — Cliff

♠ A more extreme example than this is The Wash Post, which had an opinion piecethis Wednesday last that compared questioning the election to Holocaust denial.

Taxed Enough Already

For John, BLUF: We are being scammed with this regional agreement for a climate tax on gasoline—the Transportation and Climate Initiative. Nothing to see here; just move along.

Baker OKs the TCI

Here is the sub-headline:

Signs up state for higher climate fees

The article is from The [Lowell] Sun, by Reporter Erin Tiernan, 22 December 2020. The Link, however is from The Boston Broadside.

Here is the lede plus four:

Gov. Charlie Baker signed up Bay State taxpayers for a controversial carbon tax initiative praised by climate activists and blasted by businesses and residents concerned an up to 9-cent hike per gallon of gas could hit their bottom line as the state struggles to rebound from the coronavirus pandemic.
The “trailblazing” multistate Transportation and Climate Initiative sets a goal to reduce motor vehicle pollution by at least 26% and generate over $1.8 billion for climate causes in Massachusetts by 2032, Gov. Charlie Baker said in a statement announcing the partnership on Monday.
The cap- and- invest program will set a cap on vehicle emissions and mandate fuel distributors to buy permits for the carbon dioxide they emit — a cost businesses say will be handed down to the drivers at the gas pump.
“The revenue raised by TCI will come from the residents and businesses of participating states, not the fuel companies where the fee is applied,” the New England Convenience Store Owners and Energy Marketers Association said in a statement.
The program will increase the cost of gas somewhere between 5 cents and “an absolute maximum” of 9 cents per gallon — lower than the 17 cent cap the state floated last year, Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Kathleen Theoharides said Monday.

This will not turn out well. Not only will it impact individuals, but it will impact our economy. Stand by to be rammed.

Regards — Cliff

Happy Boxing Day

For John, BLUF: Or, as we say, the Feast of Stephen. Nothing to see here; just move along.

Boxing Day

As you remember, Good King Wenceslas looks out on the Feast of Stephen, when the snow lay round about—unlike here—deep and crisp and even. Over a thousand years ago, before ~~Global Warming~~ Climate Change.

Good King Wenseslas should be a model for all of us.

Regards — Cliff

Friday, December 25, 2020

Saint Nick Finds John Calvin

For John, BLUF: It is scary to think about how life turns on small things. If the Puritans had prevailed then this wouldn't be far from wrong. Nothing to see here; just move along.

Santa Claus Converts To Calvinism, Moves Everybody To Naughty List

From The Babylon Bee, 22 December 2020.

Here is the lede plus one:

NORTH POLE—After a transformative moment reading R.C. Sproul’s What Is Reformed Theology? for the first time earlier this week, legendary Christmas icon Santa Claus reportedly converted to a full-on, five-point Calvinist, and almost immediately moved every single person on the planet to the naughty list, sources confirmed Friday.
“How can I put anyone on the nice list, when every human being is totally depraved from birth?” St. Nick was overheard saying to Mrs. Claus in his office. “No matter what filthy rags of righteousness they bring before the Lord, they are condemned already based on their sin nature.”

And there it is. Progressivism meets Religion.

Either way, we are all sinners, and we can not save ourselves.

In the case of John Calvin, he lost sight of the love of God. Because God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, as it says in John 3:16.

In the case of Progressives, they can look back on Karl Marx and Antonio Gramsci.&nsp; That is a grim duo and they want to make people perfect, by taking away their freedom. Between Calvin and Marx, take Calvin. There you would find space to grow.

Merry Christmas!

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Christmas Tree Bill

For John, BLUF: This links to the previous Blog Post, regarding the length of the COVID-19 Relief Bill. Nothing to see here; just move along.

The Only Thing Missing From This Absolute Cluster of a 'COVID Relief' Bill Is $ for Shrimp on a Treadmill. Trump Should Veto It

Here is the sub-headline:

BY VICTORIA TAFT DEC 21, 2020.

Here is the lede plus one:

As feared, the so-called COVID relief bill is another behemoth Christmas tree offering by politicians spending your money on behalf of Uncle Sugar. This allegedly $900 billion bill ostensibly was written to help people wracked by the economic hit of COVID. It’s anything but. It’s another spendulous travesty and should be vetoed by President Trump – before Christmas. Opening the economy while encouraging best health practices is the appropriate response at this point. Congress has thrown $3.3 trillion at the problem during the coronavirus pandemic. It’s time to let the people run their own affairs.
The Washington Post calls it likely “one of the most costly bills” ever considered by any United States Congress.
Ever.
The only thing missing is money for a study of shrimps on a treadmill, a notoriously ridiculous program funded by the infamous Obama-era stimulus bill — a bill that threw money at anything and everything in hopes of jump-starting the U.S. economy after the housing crash of 2008-09.

Read the whole thing to get a picture of the size of the trouble.

I am not sure that President Trump should veto this bill. It has taken much too much time to get to this point. Let's take our lumps and then act to change Congress.

As we leave the 2020 Election behind us, almost, it is time to start thinking about 2022 and the nead to clean house on Capitol Hill. Some Republicans are saying focus local, and that is vitally important, but I am thinking we need to challenge the House of Representatives as well. It is not working for "We the People."

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

COVID Relief Legislation

For John, BLUF: One wonders how many bells and whistles the COVID-19 Stimulus Bill contains. Yes, we need the bill, but over 5,000 pages? Those Congresscritters are playing us. Nothing to see here; just move along.

Congress releases 5,593-page COVID-19 stimulus bill hours before holding votes

From The New York Post, by Reporter Steven Nelson, 21 December 2020.

Here is the lede plus three:

Congressional leaders on Monday released the text of a 5,593-page COVID-19 stimulus package hours before a midnight government funding deadline.
The massive legislation is one of the longest bills ever considered, but is expected to pass swiftly over back-bench grumbles.
The bill contains $600 stimulus checks for most Americans with another $600 per child, a $300 weekly unemployment supplement and $284.4 billion in forgivable small-business Paycheck Protection Program loans.
The stimulus checks are means-tested, with people earning more than $75,000 — or $150,000 per married couple filing jointly — getting less money, and people earning over $95,000 getting nothing.

I know it is newspaper writing, but four paragraphs, each one sentence long, seems strange to me. And the last one is 29 words long, counting each number as a word. That violates what I was taught, which is that sentences should not exceed twenty words. Writing sentences longer than that should be left to the experts, like Shakespheare and James Joyce.

Speaking of too long, a 5,593 page bill, even with wide margins and large type, is way too long. It is especially too long when it is exposed to the public only hours before the vote. Our Federal legislative leaders are treating us like mushrooms. It is something that should raise a cry. But, alas, no.

And it isn't just Capitol Hill. Look at Massachusetts, on Beacon Hill, where the General Court deliberated in private for 100 days to birth its Police Reform Bill. Sure, it is COVID Time, but still, there is the media to disperse the information. Are we too weak to have our legislation debated in public? I think not. I think it is time for a house cleaning on Beacon Hill.

Maybe Vanna Howard, my State Rep Elect, will start the Revolution in January.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

Monday, December 21, 2020

Pandemic Worse Than Winnie the Flu

For John, BLUF: I am being super-cautious about COVID-19, but realize there are other, more serious, killers out there. Nothing to see here; just move along.

Overdose deaths far outpace COVID-19 deaths in San Francisco

From The San Francisco Gate! by Associated Press, 19 December 2020.

Here is the lede plus one:

A record 621 people died of drug overdoses in San Francisco so far this year, a staggering number that far outpaces the 173 deaths from COVID-19 the city has seen thus far.
The crisis fueled by the powerful painkiller fentanyl could have been far worse if it wasn't for the nearly 3,000 times Narcan was used from January to the beginning of November to save someone from the brink of death, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday.

I blame the Republicans. The last Republican Mayor, George Christopher, left office in January 1964. Then what? All Democrats, as Blogger Ed Driscoll points out.

This little data point also suggests there is a lot we don't know about the public health tradeoffs involving COVID-19.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

Sunday, December 20, 2020

Our Educational Heritage

For John, BLUF: As we struggle with COVID-19 we also wrestle with the question of what is the best ways to prepare our children for the future. Specifically, is our two hundred year history of Government schooling the proper answer? Nothing to see here; just move along.

The Myth that Americans Were Poorly Educated before Mass Government Schooling

Here is the sub-headline:

Early America had widespread literacy and a vibrant culture of learning.

From the Fuondation for Economic Education, by Senior Fellow Lawrence W. Reed, 29 April 2020.

Here is the lede plus †hree:

Parents the world over are dealing with massive adjustments in their children’s education that they could not have anticipated just three months ago. To one degree or another, pandemic-induced school closures are creating the “mass homeschooling” that FEE’s senior education fellow Kerry McDonald predicted two months ago. Who knows, with millions of youngsters absent from government school classrooms, maybe education will become as good as it was before the government ever got involved.
“What?” you exclaim! “Wasn’t education lousy or non-existent before government mandated it, provided it, and subsidized it? That’s what my government schoolteachers assured me so it must be true,” you say!
The fact is, at least in early America, education was better and more widespread than most people today realize or were ever told. Sometimes it wasn’t “book learning” but it was functional and built for the world most young people confronted at the time. Even without laptops and swimming pools, and on a fraction of what government schools spend today, Americans were a surprisingly learned people in our first hundred years.
I was reminded a few days ago of the amazing achievements of early American education while reading the enthralling book by bestselling author Stephen Mansfield, Lincoln’s Battle With God: A President’s Struggle With Faith and What It Meant for America. It traces the spiritual journey of America’s 16th president—from fiery atheist to one whose last words to his wife on that tragic evening at Ford’s Theater were a promise to “visit the Holy Land and see those places hallowed by the footsteps of the Savior.”

If you guessed one size doesn't fit all you are probably close to the mark. Different children respond differently to schooling. I wouldn't wish my path on anyone. I think my teachers saw some promise in me, but I kept getting very low grades and passed on probation. In college I had to take several "turn out" exams at the end of the Semester.♠

Today we are trying to squeeze all students into one model. I am not sure this is best for the students or for the school. On the other hand, it might be best for the parents and the school teachers union.

My question is, how do we have a conversation on this?

Regards — Cliff

♠ A "turn out" exam was a comprehensive examination over the semester's course work, which, if you passed, meant your grade was raised from "F" to "D" and you were allowed to move on.

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Strange Women In Cambridge

For John, BLUF: No every encounter with an attractive member of the oposite gender is going to turn out well, if pursued. Nothing to see here; just move along.

The Most Gullible Man in Cambridge

Here is the sub-headline:

A Harvard Law professor who teaches a class on judgment wouldn’t seem like an obvious mark, would he?

From The Cut, by Ms Kera Bolonik, JULY 23, 2019.

Here is the lede:

It was just supposed to have been a quick Saturday-morning errand to buy picture hooks. On March 7, 2015, Harvard Law professor Bruce Hay, then 52, was in Tags Hardware in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near his home, when a young woman with long reddish-brown hair approached him to ask where she could find batteries. It was still very much winter, and, once the woman got his attention, he saw that underneath her dark woolen coat and perfectly tied scarf she was wearing a dress and a chic pair of boots — hardly typical weekend-errand attire in the New England college town. When he directed her to another part of the store, she changed the subject. “By the way, you’re very attractive,” he remembers her saying.

And thus began a long and bumpy ride. A ride that damaged his relationship with his ex-wife and involved him in court action. But, mostly it involved him with someone who just doesn't seem all that mentally stable. It is fairly long, for an article. Read it to see how sane your own life seems.

And here is a follow-up story, mentioning more people who have had encounters like that of Professor Hay.

Regards — Cliff

Communicating Clearly

For John, BLUF: The inability of the Bureaucrats of the Federal Governmen to communicate well is a problem. Either they don't wish to communcate or they did very poorly in school. Nothing to see here; just move along.

The Hack

Here is the sub-headline:

How to write about attacking the United States: The Cosmopolitan Globalists' Guide to Style

From the Claire Berlinski Substack, by the Cosmopolitan Globalists, 18 Decembewr 2020.

Here is the lede plus one:

The Cosmopolitan Globalists, we have grandly announced, will not chase breaking news. It breaks, we shrug.
But the Cosmopolitan Globalists have done nothing useful today because we can’t take our eyes off the breaking news. It’s best we be honest about this. And we don’t know what it means any more than you do.
Is Russia about to invade a NATO country?
We don’t know.
What does “a grave risk to government and private networks” entail?
We don’t know.
How secure is the American nuclear deterrent?
We don’t know.
Who now controls American nuclear weapons?
We don’t know.
But one thing we do know: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency can’t go in there without an editor.

Then begins the writing lesson. An important one. For example, while I like the expression "Supply Chain", it may not convey information to a lot of readers. To me it is the line of actions from the clerk writing a requisition to the delivery of the item needed, and maybe on to the payment of the bill. All needed to keep parts flowing so things get done. But, what does it mean to Joe Bagadonuts? I don't think we can be sure.

I recommend the book Plain Words. One thing I remember is that a sentence shouldn't exceed 20 words. It takes a very good writer to write an intelligible sentence over 20 words. Good advice.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

Friday, December 18, 2020

New Local House Speaker

For John, BLUF: General Court House Speaker Robert DeLeo looks to be stepping over the side, to be replaced by Representative Ron Mariano. Which raises the question of if this is a forshadowing of events in DC. Nothing to see here; just move along.

DeLeo looks to exit as the sheeple graze toward Mariano

Here is the sub-headline:

Autocracy reigns in the Massachusetts House — that freshman class of 2020 won’t know what hit ’em.

From The Boston Globe, by Columnist Rachelle G. Cohen, 17 December 2020.

Here is the lede plus two:

Good politicians, smart politicians, know when to exit. And Bob DeLeo — however old-school he may be — is a smart politician.
He’s had a good run — 12 years as Massachusetts House speaker and, unlike three of his predecessors, he was never convicted of a felony by the feds. (Although he was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the wide-ranging case involving the state’s probation department.) Around here, that’s actually groundbreaking. So it makes sense to leave while his reputation is intact and with a few rather progressive bills, like the Roe Act and police reform, he can claim credit for.
I reported more than six weeks ago that DeLeo, 70, was telling a few close associates that this pandemic-plagued year has been particularly grueling and that he’s tired and wants out. Word like that has a way of getting around, and entities — like Northeastern University, to pick a name out of the blue — with a sharp eye for the picking politically powerful allies to bring into the fold, often respond.

I thought it was only Republicans who used the term Sheeple. One lives and learns.

As a Republican in our Commonwealth of Massachusetts I almost feel as though my views don't count, given the overwhelming majority of Democrats in the General Court. That said, I admit that I have received a respectful hearing by Reps David Nangle and Tom Golden, and Rep Elect Vanna Howard. The same goes for former State Senator Eileen Donoghue and current State Senator Ed Kennedy. And throw in that State Rep from up North, Colleen Garry. And where is the 18th Middlesex district Rep Rady Mom, who never comes on the show?♠ So good wishes to each of them this holiday and into the future.

As for the perspective new Speaker, Rep Ron Mariano of Quincy, I wish him the best of luck and hope he runs a more open shop. It was depressing to read in The Sun that this year the Legislature ran a half dozen bills in secret conference committees for 100 days before quickly voting approval. Was that 100 days as in a little over 14 weeks, or was that workdays, and so 20 weeks, or General Court Weeks, making it like 25 weeks? Whichever way it was, it was too long in secret and not long enough out in the open, for the People to observe. Maybe it will be better next year.

Hat tip to the MASSter List.

Regards — Cliff

♠ That would be City Life Show, a local Lowell and environs morning talk show on Channel 8 on LTC (or on the internet at LTC.org).

Electric Cars Will Require Investment

For John, BLUF: One wonders if the Eco-friendly have costed out their ideas? Nothing to see here; just move along.

Musk: Electric Cars Will Require a Lot More Electric Power Than We Currently Have

From PJ Media, by Mr Bryan Preston, 1 December 2020.

Here is the lede plus several:

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says we’ll need more electricity to power cars like his. A lot more.
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Tuesday that electricity consumption will double if the world’s car fleets are electrified, increasing the need to expand nuclear, solar, geothermal and wind energy generating sources.
Increasing the availability of sustainable energy is a major challenge as cars move from combustion engines to battery-driven electric motors, a shift which will take two decades, Musk said in a talk hosted by Berlin-based publisher Axel Springer.
There’s no unicorn energy source or free lunch. Currently, electric cars are primarily powered by coal, natural gas, and nuclear. Those are the sources we use to generate electricity, after all, according to the Energy Information Agency. Renewables are growing but still account for less than 20% of U.S. electricity.
There’s no free lunch when it comes to renewable energy sources, which may not even be all that renewable. Wind and sun are free, but the means of generating power from them are not.

I, for one, like the use of nuclear power. While it requires care in setting up, it is a reliable and consistent source of power, and it is relatively ecofriendly.

As for the rush toward electric cars, I am hoping that we have a more indepth conversation about the future, and consider the long term, the unintended, consequences.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Moving On

For John, BLUF: All the time we spend moping about is time we are not spending getting ready for 2022. Nothing to see here; just move along.

THEY STOLE IT FAIR AND SQUARE

From Power Line Blog, by Mr Steven Hayward, 15 December 2020.

Here is the lede plus two:

My goodness, Scott certainly stirred up our readership yesterday with his “limp noodle” confession about the election. At the risk of annoying many readers further, I’ll offer my observations on the matter which lead to my conclusion about why, and, more importantly, how to move on from here. In rank order of provocation:
• The Democrats stole the election fair and square. Of course I don’t mean that literally; what I mean is that the election was effectively stolen months ago before any ballots were cast when legislatures (and sometimes governors and state courts such Pennsylvania) changed the voting rules to allow expanded mail-in voting, and the cascade of related vulnerabilities that followed. Republican legislatures that went along with these COVID-induced panic changes were foolish if not derelict in their duty. And the Trump campaign was negligent in not fighting against this months ago. President Trump was correct to warn about this outcome. Why wasn’t his campaign better organized to resist this months ago? (I know they did file a few lawsuits, a few of which had some effect, but it wasn’t enough.) I suspect the long-rumored campaign infighting and attention to other things distracted Trump’s senior campaign managers from paying sufficient attention to this.
• Fraud is very easy in our election system. Remember that our elections are run by part-timers, amateurs, and volunteers on the county level in America—and we have over 3,000 counties. In such a diffuse system it is easy to conjure up a few dozen votes here, a few hundred votes there. Or worse. It is at once a glory of self-government in America that we actually conduct our elections in this decentralized way involving tens of thousands of citizen volunteers. It is also astounding that we use such a vulnerable and chaotic system to choose our president.

And on it goes for several more bullet poins. Well worth the read.

So, I think this is a better way forward than the one proposed by Lt Gen Thomas G McInerney. Folks, we have work to do before Nov 2022. In the meantime, we have Joe Biden as our President. Better than Senator Kamala Harris.

It is a new adventure. Buy new chaps and pretend it is your first rodeo.

Like it or not, unless the Trump Lawyers are granted a miracle, it is President Joe Biden. He will be MY President. I think that is the way Immigrant, General, Senator, Ambassador and Cabinet Secretary Carl Schurz would have put it. He of “My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

CNN Loses the Bubble

For John, BLUF: Actually, I am not sure CNN knows there is a bubble.. Nothing to see here; just move along.

How QAnon's lies are hijacking the national conversation

From CNN, by Reporters Rob Kuznia, Curt Devine and Drew Griffin, 15 December 2020.

Here is the lede plus one:

It started with a Tweet from a QAnon supporter at 2:09 in the morning: #SubpoenaObama.
Though devoid of context, the cryptic message made sense to anyone in tune with the groundless conspiracy theory that the Obama administration -- prior to leaving office in 2017 -- had taken active measures to undermine the incoming Trump presidency.

Are these three Reporters living in some time capsule, sealed in 2016? By now all but the most partisan Democrats, and, apparently, news media, know that the Trump campaign, and Administration, faced a "hostile work environment". From Carter Page to LTG Michael Flynn, to the President himself, under Impeachment, the land mines laid before Inauguration were signs of an Obama Administraition and Deep State resisting the President. Sure, the President plowed through it, up until 3 November, but it was still there.

I am not a follower of QAnon. However, neither am I a follower of CNN. Neither is reliable. Sadly, each has its followers.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

Monday, December 14, 2020

Parallels in History

For John, BLUF: A Hanakkuh story for today. We need to keep the faith, both religiously and Constitutionally. Nothing to see here; just move along.

Hellenized David French Attacks Christians

From The Victory Girls, by Blogger Darleen Click, 13 December 2020 .

Here is the lede plus one:

It’s not like we haven’t been here before with the Convenient Christian David French, lifting his eyebrow and expressing his horror over the more passionately demonstrative members of his claimed brethren. However, in his latest broadside, French asserts certain Christians (and Trump) are threats to America.
This is a grievous and dangerous time for American Christianity. The frenzy and the fury of the post-election period has laid bare the sheer idolatry and fanaticism of Christian Trumpism. (snip)
There is no other way to say this. A significant movement of American Christians—encouraged by the president himself—is now directly threatening the rule of law, the Constitution, and the peace and unity of the American republic.
French has been freaked out by the literally peaceful marches in D.C. yesterday

A little fartther down we get the tie to the season and the lesson:

David isn’t so much an observant Christian as he is as “Hellenized” as were a faction of Jews in 165 BCE when the Maccabees had had enough and revolted against assimilation – what is celebrated today as Hanukkah.

The Jericho March in Washington on this Saturday last was an expression of that other part of America's unhappiness with our recent election. Yes, the intelligensia did not like the march.♠

Those of us who voted for President Trump's reelection are going through the Kübler-Ross five stages of grief.♥ While we are being told to grow up and accept it, the example of Democrats over the last four years is not helpful. Exhibit Number One is, of course, Ms Stacey Abrams. Exhibit Two is Ms Hillary Clinton. Are folks like Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell. With recent revelations, Mr Swalwell's inability to move on becomes even more comic.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

♠ Here Mr Rod Dreher refutes his immediate critics.
♥ I am claiming I have moved to Stage 5, Acceptance, but I suspect I am faking it until I make it.

Sunday, December 13, 2020

Men Making Choices

For John, BLUF: Men are making individually rational choices, but those choices are culturally bad. We are acting like the Japanese or a number of other societies. Nothing to see here; just move along.

8 Reasons Straight Men Don’t Want To Get Married

From The Huffingtn Post, by Dr Helen Smith, 20 August 2013.

Here is the lede plus one:

It seems that fewer and fewer people in general are getting married these days, and even fewer men seem interested. Men no longer see marriage as being as important as they did even 15 years ago. “According to Pew Research Center, the share of women ages eighteen to thirty-four that say having a successful marriage is one of the most important things in their lives rose nine percentage points since 1997—from 28 percent to 37%. For men, the opposite occurred. The share voicing this opinion dropped, from 35 percent to 29 percent.” Why?
In the course of researching my new book, Men On Strike:§nbsp; Why Men Are Boycotting Marriage, Fatherhood, and the American Dream - And Why It Matters, I talked with men all over America about why they’re avoiding marriage. It turns out that the problem isn’t that men are immature, or lazy. Instead, they’re responding rationally to the incentives in today’s society. Here are some of the answers I found.

These are the reasons listed:

You’ll lose respect.
You’ll lose out on sex.
You’ll lose friends.
You’ll lose space.
You could lose your kids, and your money.
You’ll lose in court.
You’ll lose your freedom.
Single life is better than ever.

This was 2013 and it isn't any different today. While it may be a better society for those living it today, it is not a better society for the long term. Out of wedlock birth rates alone tell us this.

Brookings Institution tells us:

Since 1970, out-of-wedlock birth rates have soared. In 1965, 24 percent of black infants and 3.1 percent of white infants were born to single mothers. By 1990 the rates had risen to 64 percent for black infants, 18 percent for whites.

This is not sustainable.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

Saturday, December 12, 2020

Overturning Elections, the Pelosi Way

For John, BLUF: It isn't just Republicans who are contesting the outcomes of elections. Nothing to see here; just move along.

Now Who’s Contesting Elections?

Here is the sub-headline:

The Democratic House could overturn results in Iowa and New York

From The Wall Street Journal, by The Editorial Board, 4 December 2020.

Here is the lede plus six:

Donald Trump’s campaign against the 2020 Presidential outcome undermines political legitimacy, but no side is blameless in America’s partisan election escalation. Witness the new Democratic effort to overturn the election result in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District—which could be emulated in New York’s 22nd if Republicans win there too.
Iowa’s state elections board on Monday certified Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks’s victory in the 2nd district, flipping a seat currently held by a Democrat. But her opponent, Rita Hart, is dusting off a 1969 federal statute to have the House of Representatives pick the winner. That means Democrats in Washington could overrule Iowa voters to seat a co-partisan and grow their majority.
The Iowa race was decided by six votes. The counting went on for weeks as 24 counties canvassed and recanvassed over 390,000 ballots, and lawyers from both sides haggled with election officials over machine counting, ballot qualifications and voter intent.
Normally this exhaustive process would end matters. Not this year. Ms. Hart’s campaign said it will bypass an Iowa court appeal and ask the Committee on House Administration to intervene. The House has final say on its Members’ elections and the Supreme Court has held that courts can’t intervene in those decisions under the Constitution’s Article I.
That means the count in Iowa’s 2nd District will become a political fight rather than a legal one. House Democrats in 1985 took advantage of the same process to reverse Indiana’s state certification of a Republican winner in a Congressional race. They refused to seat either candidate in January, and in May declared the Democrat the winner after their recount excluded 32 absentee votes.
That was a polarizing moment in House history and it hasn’t been done since. But this is a year of breaking precedents, and the Democrats are well-equipped for the fight. Marc Elias, the Democratic election lawyer, helped use the courts to engineer changes to voting rules ahead of the 2020 election that benefited Democrats. Politico reports that his firm, Perkins Coie, is representing Ms. Hart. Given the sympathetic audience they are likely to enjoy in the House, Ms. Hart’s lawyers want to throw enough doubt on the outcome to give Democrats political cover to overturn the result.
Perkins Coie is also in New York’s 22nd district upstate, where Democrat Anthony Brindisi is down by 12 votes in the preliminary final count to Republican Claudia Tenney. They want a judge to review county election board decisions on disputed ballots. Ms. Tenney’s lawyers warn in a court filing of “the perils of trying to recreate a Board’s findings in the absence of appropriate Board notations,” and ask the judge to put the race to an end.

And on it goes.

Haven't we heard the name Perkins Coie before? Ah, the Steele Dossier. Which is rubbish and a blight on the reputation of the FBI. Where is a John Durham when you need one?

When will the People get involved? By that I mean at the Polls, in 2022.

Regards — Cliff

Self-Confused

For John, BLUF: The apparent lack of internal integrity on the part of the Media is something to behold. Nothing to see here; just move along.

You Have to See This NBC Hunter Biden Subheadline to Believe It. It's Real and It's Really That Awful.

From PJ Media, by Bryan Preston, 11 December 2020.

Here is an excerpt:

NBC has stirred itself to write about Hunter Biden’s investigation. Here’s its hot take.
Eddie Zipperer
@EddieZipperer ·
Dec 11 This @NBCNews drop head is absolutely stunning:

I am not sure what NBC is trying to say. Are they saying that the Trump Campaign made it up in the Summer, and lucked out in that it was true? Or are they saying that the Trump Campaign was clairevoynt?

If the Trump Campaign was correct about Mr Hunter Biden, what else might they be correct about? Voter fraud? Dominion? Other?

One thing fore sure is that the drones at NBC appear to not have a nose for news and thus missed a big story. The alternative explanation, that they were in the tank for the Democrtic Ticket, is enough to get them banned by viewers for life.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

Friday, December 11, 2020

The Trump Agenda Won

For John, BLUF: As we look at the outcome of the November Election we see that Republican policies and ideas did well, but President Trump did not break out. His 73 Million votes is not to be sneezed at, but it wasn't enough. Nothing to see here; just move along.

In a Blind Test, California Votes for Trump: Ballot Results Show Californians Conservative on Issues

From The Reform Club, by Blogger Tim Kowal, 15 November 2020.

Here is the lede plus †wo:

I live in California, and the politics of people here confuse me. But now, I do not feel so bad. Because the recent election results confirm that I was on to something: Californians are confused. While rejecting Trump, they support Trump's policies. While voting for Biden, they don't seem to support any of his policies.
Obviously, Californians voted Democrat in the presidential race, with over 63% voting Biden. But a vote for Biden tells us nothing about what Californians believe, because Biden told us nothing about what Biden believes. All it tells us when someone votes Democrat is that that person consumes a lot of legacy media.
But you can get a sense what California voters believe by taking a look at how they voted on ballot initiatives. The nice thing about a ballot initiative is it does not have any orange hair. A ballot initiative does not have a Twitter account. A ballot initiative does not have a race or ethnicity, or a gender identity, or a sexual orientation, or an intersectionality profile. Alec Baldwin can't force his lips into the shape of a ballot initiative and make witless caricatures of them on Saturday Night Live.

I voted in California for thirty years and enjoyed voting on the ballot initiatives, from funding prisons to limiting taxes. It took more time, but was worth it. I miss it now that I vote in Massachusetts.

If you wish to see what the Blogger means about Californians being conservative, read the whole Blog Post. You will see it all laid out.

My Brother Lance commented "Republicans everywhere made great strides at lower levels. The problem is Trump". In our Post Game analysis that must be a consideration.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

Introducing Our Next President

For John, BLUF: This post is designed to explore the out edges of what is possible in the next two months. It is not a prediction, but rather a scenario for exploring possibilities. Nothing to see here; just move along.

After Peru’s New President Resigns, Lawmakers Search for New Leader

Here is the sub-headline:

Sunday resignation adds fuel to a political crisis that started with a surprise impeachment of previous president

From The Wall Street Journal, by Reporters Ryan Dube and Juan Forero, 15 November 2020.

Here is the lede plus two:

Peru was without a president Sunday night, after its latest leader resigned just six days after taking power and lawmakers were unable to agree on a new head of state to end a constitutional crisis that exposed deep popular anger over corruption in the country’s political class.
A country that before the coronavirus pandemic was considered a shining economic star, Peru is now flailing in uncharted waters. There is no president at the helm, and a fractured and deeply unpopular congress is trying to decide who should lead the country while people protest in the streets. With two presidents gone in less than a week—Martín Vizcarra was impeached Monday and then Manuel Merino, who engineered his predecessor’s ouster, resigned Sunday—Peru has been teetering with anarchy.
On Sunday night, the same lawmakers whose impeachment of Mr. Vizcarra touched off six days of protests were debating who among them would be chosen to replace Mr. Merino, who had no vice president. They had at one point been considering a left-wing lawmaker, Rocio Silva, who had broken with most lawmakers to vote against impeachment. Media reports said the lawmakers also were considering members of the centrist Purple Party, which overwhelmingly opposed removing Mr. Vizcarra.

Yes, this is so last month. Also, Pewru doesn't have the Constitutionally mandated path of Preasidential success we have. But, yet, we seem to be slipping into a bit of a succession crisis.

Look at what is happening. The media, from NPR to Twitter suppressed the Hunter Biden story. Now it is out in the open.

Why?

My guess is they♠ no longer need Mr Biden, and like Vice President Spiro T Agnew, he will be given a chance to go quietly, clearing the way for Sen Kamala Harris.♥

And, did anyone catch Michael Savage saying, on NewsMax that it is over? (My Wife has abandoned Fox and moved to NewsMax. I still try †o catch Tucker.)

It is, after all, 2020, and all things are possible. Here is hoping she learned some things from Willie Brown, a very smart Assembly Speaker and San Francisco Mayor.

Hat tip to Kermit's Key West Key Lime Shoppe.

Regards — Cliff

♠ Who are they? Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and Tom Perez. Besides, while Joe Biden is a China fan, Nancy Pelosi is for Taiwan.
♥ If ~~Senator~~ President Harris should Not make it until we have a new Vice President, then Speaker Pelosi is ready to step up.

Monday, December 7, 2020

If We Don't Believe the Witnesses, Then it is All Good, Right?

For John, BLUF: There is no proof of Voter Fraud because local State Legislators are claiming the witnessess are all lying. Nothing to see here; just move along.

Michigan Hearing Witnesses Hammer Unhinged Democrats Who Were Accusing Them Of Lying (Video)

Here is the sub-headline:

I signed something saying that if I’m wrong I can go to prison. Did you?

From The Lid Blog, by Writer Rusty Weiss, 6 Dec 2020.

Here is the lede plus three:

Hima Kolanagireddy, one of the testifying witnesses to alleged election fraud before a Michigan House Oversight Committee hearing, dropped the hammer on an unhinged Democrat lawmaker who accused her and other witnesses of being liars. Other witnesses joined in on the fun with their own smack-down of unhinged Democrats.
Democrat State Rep. Cynthia Johnson, the Minority Vice-Chair on the committee, interrupted proceedings during Kolanagireddy’s testimony to call into question the entire hearing and demand the witnesses be placed under oath.
“You’re allowing people to come in here and lie!” Johnson shouted at Committee Chair, Republican Matt Hall. “And I know they’re lying!”
Chairman Hall responded, “You’re out of order. I’ve indulged you, and we’re going to move on.”

The Democrats are saying that witnesses to fraud are lying. I guess that works. If the witnesses are lying, then there is no fraud. On the other hand, why would they lie? What is the record, over the years, of people lying to State Legislators about voter fraud?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

Elections of the Near Future

For John, BLUF: If certain slogans adhere to you, they can determine how others view you, such as "Defund the Police". Nothing to see here; just move along.

Democrats should dump ‘defund the police’ slogan, new poll finds

From The New York Post, by Reporter Jon Levine, 5 December 2020.

Here is the lede plus one:

Democrats should stop pressing “defund the police” and other hot-button social issues if they want to stay competitive in 2022, according to new research from longtime Democratic pollster Douglas Schoen.
“The data says to me that if the Democrats go the progressive route they can lose the House and the Senate overwhelmingly in 2022,” Schoen told The Post. “The incoming Biden administration has to understand that unless they take a moderate path, that is a likely potential outcome for the Democrats.”

On today's City Life Show the Producer, Mr John McDonough, assured me that Mr Joe Biden would bring us all together as President. I have heard Candidate Biden say that, but I am also looking at his proposed Cabinet Picks and the comments of the outriders and I am not sure the Democratic Party as a whole is ready to go along. I hope I am wrong.

Of one thing I am sure, Mr Doug Schoen is correct. Baring wide spread use of voter fraud,♠ the Democratic Party will suffer losses in Congress in the 2022 Elections if they continue to use some of the slogans they have been using this year A majority of adults in this country don't wish to see the police defunded.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

♠ I am particularly concerned about electronic voting where the company providing the software treats it as proprietary and doesn't allow it to be examined for bad coding or wrong coding.

Sunday, December 6, 2020

Some Stimulus Coming

For John, BLUF: It appears the Speaker of the House held off on extending relief benefits so as to not benefit President Trump, but is now willing to cut a short term deal, to look good. Nothing to see here; just move along.

Pelosi jousts with reporters over reversal on slimmed-down Covid relief package

Here is the sub-headline:

‘I don’t want Republicans to think it’s a dream come true,’ speaker said of a smaller coronavirus bill. ‘It’s not’

From The Independent (UK), by Bureau Chief John T. Bennett, 4 December 2020.

Here is the lede plus three:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended dropping her insistence on a $2trn coronavirus relief package, jousting with reporters about this week endorsing a bipartisan proposal that is half that size.
“Perhaps you missed what I said earlier: Joe Biden pledged to crush the virus,” she snapped at a reporter, saying unlike Donald Trump, the president-elect wants to pass an even larger economic stimulus package after he takes office next month.
In her telling, embracing a $900m package introduced this week by a group of Democrats and Republicans is a reflection of new realities – and incoming Democratic chief executive and coming coronavirus vaccines.
“Don’t characterize what we did … as a mistake,” Ms Pelosi said of her months-long holding out for the kind of $2trn measure her chamber passed earlier this year but was blocked by the White House and Senate Republicans. “It was a decision, and it’s taken us to a place we can do the right thing. … I’m very proud of where we are.”

The Speaker of the House is a cynical politician. In the mean time regular folks suffer. Legislatures keep their jobs and income, but workers in many places lose their job to lockdons, with no aid coming to them.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

Some Never Give Up

For John, BLUF: Andrew Weismann, a man who has been in the wrong for as long as I have known the name. Nothing to see here; just move along.

Andrew Weisman[n] Tells Biden to Prosecute Trump

From United Patriot News.

Here is the lede plus two:

Far-left prosecutor Andrew Weissmann tells former Vice President Joe Biden to prosecute President Donald Trump if Biden succeeds in becoming the president.
Weissmann’s comments came from an op-ed that he wrote in the New York Times where he stated that the Department of Justice “should investigate Mr. Trump and, if warranted, prosecute him for potential federal crimes.”
“Mr. Trump’s criminal exposure is clear,” he claimed, adding that there is “ample evidence to support a charge that Mr. Trump obstructed justice” in the bogus Mueller investigation.

I am not vouching for the source, but the story is perrenial Democrat. President Trump offended them by winning and must be taken down. These are folks with no historicd perspective. People with no long term vision of what it takes to allow the People to pick their Government. Folks with no sense of give and take.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

Understanding Liberalism

For John, BLUF: Language is important for conveying ideas, and thus precise language is useful for communication. Nothing to see here; just move along.

You keep using the word “liberal:” it doesn’t mean what you think it means

From Sarah A Downey Blog on Medium, by Ms Sarah A. Downey, 16 November 2020.

Here is the lede plus four:

If you think “liberal” and all the variations of “left” mean the same thing, let this be your wakeup call.
Many things described as “liberal” today mean the opposite of what was historically true and what many people expect, and this disconnect is likely contributing to some of heightened frustration we’re seeing in political arguments in 2020.
Be careful when using the word “liberal” if you care about clear language. Starting in roughly 2013, “liberal” veered sharply from its roots. It’s confusing, so much so that you’ll hear the word “illiberal” used to describe these contradictions (or “far/alt left,” or simply “not liberal”), while people sometimes use “classic liberal” to differentiate that they’re talking about basic enlightenment values.
What are classic liberal values? They emerged from the age of enlightenment and include civil rights, free speech, free markets, separation of church and state, a balance of government powers, capitalism, freedom of religion, limited government, freedom of the press, and human rights. The US constitution was founded explicitly on liberal principles.
Thus it’s possible, even approaching common, for moderates and Republicans to be more liberal than Democrats.

The way I see it. I definitely don't see it as being equated with the Democratic Party.

I also think the terms "Left" and "Right" are out of date. We need new terms. The French Revolution is over, at least in the United States.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

Saturday, December 5, 2020

Alternative Explanations

For John, BLUF: Yes, I worry about vote fraud and I especially worry about voting machines with proprietary software. But there are also other explanations.♠ Nothing to see here; just move along.

The Real Kraken: What Really Happened to Donald Trump in the 2020 Election

From PJ Mediaby, Mr J Christian Adams, 2 December 2020.

Here is the lede plus ten:

Eric Holder was a big loser on election night. He was the guy raising tens of millions of dollars to make America safe for Democratic redistricting. A red wave turned Holder’s dreams into dust in state legislative races. State legislatures are where the redistricting action is, and the GOP flipped three chambers red, gaining 192 state house seats and 40 state senate seats nationwide.
Republicans now control both House and Senate chambers in 31 states. The country is a huge swath of red legislative control with Democrats largely confined to the cultural monoliths on the Pacific coast and urban Northeast.
The red wave extended to the United States House of Representatives, where for now, Republicans have gained nine seats.
But this wasn’t supposed to happen. The president isn’t supposed to lose when all the Republicans are winning.
Something’s fishy.
Indeed, something profoundly fishy happened in the 2020 election, but it wasn’t the Kraken or Venezuelan communists running remote software when they can’t even make the red lights work in their own country. Those shiny objects will play out with time and examination of evidence.
What happened in 2020 is something more fundamental and profound. What happened in 2020 is cultural and systemic, and sadly, generally legal. Until Republicans, and more importantly Trump supporters, understand what happened to them this year, it will happen again.
Two things happened in 2020. First, COVID led to a dismantling of state election integrity laws by everyone except the one body with the constitutional prerogative to change the rules of electing the president – the state legislatures.
Second, the Center for Technology and Civic Life happened.
If you are focused on goblins in the voting machines but don’t know anything about the CTCL and what they did to defeat Donald Trump, it’s time to up your game.
The Center for Technology and Civic Life and allied groups are responsible for building an urban get-out-the-vote-machine of the sort that Democrats could only dream up on a bender fueled by jugs of Merlot and all the legalized pot they could smoke.

Then he explains it.

And a very convincing argument it is. With enough money local election efforts in Democratic strongholds became powerful get out the vote machines and then got out the vote.

Election Offices in cities like Philadelphia, Detroit, Minniapolist and Atlanta are basically part of the Democratic machine. They just made sure all the citizen who could did indeed vote. Mail out ballots and ballot harvesting. Not designed to ensure the integrity of the vote, but, backed by activist judges, designed to create as many ballots as possible.

I just hope that over the next two years state and national legislators turn to and give us a renewed voting system which the vast majority of us can have faith in, one that enfranchises all those eligible and does not disenfranchise or diminish the vote of all legitimate voters.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

♠ The very idea that voting software would be "proprietary" and thus not subject to examination and qualification by local government agencies (Verification and Validation, followed by Accreditation) is disgusting and anti-American.

2020 is like 2016, Reversed

For John, BLUF: The hypocrisy is strong in the Democrats. Nothing to see here; just move along.

Democrats are now reaping the whirlwind of their 2016 election ‘Resistance’

From The New York Post, by Columnist Michael Barone, 4 December 2020.

Here is the lede plus one:

“My sense is that if Trump wins, Hillary supporters will be sad,” left-wing writer Sally Kohn tweeted the day of the 2016 election. “If Hillary wins, Trump supporters will be angry. Important difference.” Kohn turned out to be wrong about her own side that year, which angrily set about delegitimizing Donald Trump’s victory. She was wrong, too, in her apparent assumption — shared by shop owners who boarded up their windows — that Trump supporters would react as violently to his defeat as the Black Lives Matter movement reacted to a death in Minneapolis.
Which is not to say President Trump and many of his supporters are responding gracefully to their candidate’s failure to repeat his 2016 feat of winning the presidency by a margin of 77,736 votes in three crucial states (Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania). They are not consoled that Joe Biden’s margin of victory in this year’s three crucial states (Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin) was an even smaller 43,809 votes.

There is more to the article than these two paragraphs. After surveying the numbers, the writer goes on to look at reactions in 2016. Twice, in twao adjacent paragraphs he writes "in violation of longstanding norms" to talk about how Democrats♠ acted in 2016.

Yes, the Democrats are reaping what they sowed in 2016 and 2017. It is to their advantage that they hold the House of Representatives going into 2021. Will they be so lucky in 2023?♥ If the Democrats don't clean up their act there could be interesting hearings in 2023 and 2024.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards — Cliff

♠ And, I would add, the established bureaucracy.
♥ While one can steal an election on the margin, if the voting is overwhelming for the other side then stealing will be obvious to the casual observer, and that is a bad look for the theives.