"The delta wave of COVID-19 appears now to be done with Florida, which has the lowest infection rate over the last week among all states in the union."
Of course the rest of the article is doom and gloom.
Sunday, October 31, 2021
Public Health Requires It!
I was reading the Supreme Court decision Buck v. Bell (1927) and I found the infamous quote from the great progressive, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. It includes this interesting explanation of from where the authority for mandatory sterilization comes;
"The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes. Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11. Three generations of imbeciles are enough."
Friday, October 29, 2021
African-Americans in World War II
A documentary about African-Americans in the Navy during World War II.
So much to be proud of. That many returned home to hatred is a very dark part of our past.
Let us remember that when called on by our nation, they answered the call with heroism and courage. Do not let the race haters today blind you to the fact that our brothers are every bit as much American as everyone else here.
Another Film That Starts Out So Strong That is Worth Watching
On YouTube: The Great Debaters. The opening sequence intercutting a black college where a professor explains the importance of what they are doing to educate the black race with a drunken brawl of poor blacks is a courageous opening for a film about blacks striving to be the equals of whites through education and hard work.
Disturbing: Died From COVID?
It is a few months old. 2/19/21 Daily Mail:
That night, the GP who had seen Dad the day before and was called to certify his death kindly telephoned to express his condolences. He told me that, apart from the chestiness, Dad seemed 'well cared for'.
Then I asked what he had put as the cause of death.
'Covid-19,' he replied.
When I challenged this, he explained that it was because there had been deaths from Covid on the dementia floor . . . so they consider it reasonable to assume . . .
'But Doctor,' I protested, 'an assumption isn't a diagnosis.'
He sounded sympathetic but uncomfortable, as he acknowledged my point and assured me that all Dad's underlying health conditions were also recorded. But as the secondary cause of death.
I do not blame that perfectly decent and sympathetic GP — he was just doing his job. But my deep disquiet became worse.
For when I registered Dad's death by telephone (as you have to these days), the registrar told me there had been very many other cases like ours where 'the deceased' had not tested positive for Covid, yet it was recorded as the cause of death.
They agreed that, yes, it must distort the national figures — 'and yet the strangest thing is that every winter we record countless deaths from flu, and this winter there have been none. Not one!'
So, I asked, did the registrar wonder if deaths from flu were being misdiagnosed and lumped together with Covid deaths? The answer was a puzzled 'Yes'.
The funeral director said the same thing, saying they had lost count of the number of families upset by the same issue.
Anecdotal evidence, but with all the similar reports from the last year or so of deaths here in the U.S. clearly not caused by COVID, it makes you wonder.
Thursday, October 28, 2021
A Series Definitely Worth Missing
Amazon Original The Underground Railroad. At first, I thought this was magical realism, a literary style that I hate. Why did I think that? The runaway slave goes down through a hatch to an actual subterranean Railroad. (I hope no high school teacher is seeking his woke credentials assigning this.)
Then it gets weirder or someone is trying for the Oscar in anachronistic set design and chronological confusion. The first stop is in a South Carolina town where there are postbellum streetlights and dresses, sweet little Southern ladies teaching these runaways to read, encouraging them into the medical profession, and sterilizing them in the name of eugenics. It seems like a confusion of the well-intentioned efforts by white Northerners on the Union-occupied South Carolina Sea Islands (see Willie Lee Rose's Rehearsal for Reconstruction) food processed with Margaret Sanger and Buck v. Bell (1924). Just weird.
Next stop is a North Carolina so intent on racial purity that every black, slave or free, is hung along the roads, Spartacus style. North Carolina was actually one of the friendlier slave states to free blacks.
The next episodes had no clear point except to remind you that fine acting and cinematography are no substitute for a comprehensible plot
Corporate America is Going Full Racist
10/28/21 City-Journal:
"AT&T Corporation has created a racial reeducation program that promotes the idea that “American racism is a uniquely white trait” and boosts left-wing causes such as “reparations,” “defund police,” and “trans activism.”
Think I. G. Farben and Krupp. Race war is coming. These idiots think that promoting hatred of white people is a path to more power. It may empower white racists which I think is the goal.
More Evidence That We Are Battling a Derangement
10/22/21 Crimson, the Harvard student paper:
To students, teachers, peers, and the Harvard community: This is my official farewell to the pre-medical track here at Harvard. I hope it finds you well.
While this isn’t just another story about the toxicity of pre-med culture, getting weeded out, or leaving my academic path for some earth-shattering love of another aspiration, it is a story of how white supremacy lives and breathes in each of our bodies, spreading between each of us — body to body — like contagion. It is a story of trying to mitigate chronic pain to create the possibility for genuine healing and recovery. A story of a great act of resistance: a Black woman choosing herself.
I took an inorganic chemistry exam the same day that a grand jury failed to charge two police officers with the murder of Breonna Taylor. That day, my body inhaled molecules of white supremacy as they seeped out of my computer from that proctored Zoom room. They entered my bloodstream and catalyzed a metabolism that would allow for the invasion of my body by a violently infectious life form. A chronic pain, caused by the perpetuation of lethally unjust practices and compounded by the silence and avoidance between myself and my educators when it comes to Black women’s lives, would make its way through and onto neighboring cells within my physical being. The presence of the germ of white supremacy would cause a steric hindrance within me, slowing down and even preventing the reactions of learning and healing that I desperately needed for myself and from others in that moment. The exam began, and I haven’t been able to show up mentally or emotionally in a science class since.
"molecules of white supremacy as they seeped out of my computer": I think this means she failed the exam.
Letter I Am Going to Send to Trump
Suggestions?
Clayton E. Cramer
October 28, 2021
Dear President Trump:
Yes, I think the election was stolen from you, but
that is not the reason for this letter.
I voted for you in 2016 and 2020 and contributed to your 2020 campaign. The subject of this letter is: even though
you were running against Hilary Clinton, I had some misgivings about voting for
you. In 2020, I was one of those “broken-glass
Trump voters”; you did so much for America and
kept your campaign promises that I would have crawled across broken glass to
vote for you.
Unfortunately a number of my family members (and I
suspect millions of other Americans), even those who voted for you in 2016,
will likely not vote for you in 2024
if you get the nomination. The reason is
gentleness. This is one of the fruits of the Holy
Spirit. “But the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things
there is no law.” [Galatians 5:22-23] Having
claimed yourself as a Christian, gentleness is something that you should
exhibit.
Aside from the spiritual dimension, gentleness is a powerful
election strategy for getting many voters who are shying away from you, and who
likely shied away from you in 2020; this had disastrous results for America. The disaster is far from over; like many
other Americans, I can see this leading to a bloody civil war.
My suspicion is that your brash, brusque, and abrasive
public persona is a combination of growing up in New York City, where “You get
in my face, I get in your face,” perhaps enhanced by your time on The Apprentice, and the vile accusations
that you were a Russian agent. Accusing a
patriot of being an agent for an enemy nation would drive almost any of us to
fury. Responding to meanness with
meanness does not play well to most Americans; it also made your enemies in the
media feel even more justified in their calumnies.
Think about President Reagan and the many false accusations
made against him starting with the supposed October, 1980 negotiations with
Iran. His responses were so mild and
good-natured that the Democrats called him the “Teflon President”; none of the
mud they threw at him would stick, and he won re-election. He did this with a similar, although less powerful
economic recovery than your Administration created. Reagan also made extensive use of humor to defang
his enemies.
Think about President Bush: While his policy mistakes attempting
nation-building in Afghanistan and Iraq were among America’s most costly
mistakes, his response to ferocious attacks, such as the picture of him as
BusHitler, was gentle. He generally
ignored them. At the time, I was
frustrated by his seeming willingness to accept this abuse without a more
vigorous response, but in retrospect, like Reagan, his gentleness was such an
endearing property that he easily won re-election. Remember how gently President Bush responded
to the angry Iraqi who threw a shoe at him in a press conference in Iraq.
Respond to policy attack with policy defense. Respond to personal attacks with simple
denials and a statement of contrary evidence.
As part of encouraging gentleness think of this observation from Harvard
Business Review:
Someone sends you an email message or a text, and you’re unsure how to respond. It’s about a complex negotiation, or a politically sensitive situation. Or maybe it’s just from a person who unnerves you.
For a moment, you pause. But for most of us, most of the time, that pause doesn’t last long. Instead we react, feeling the need to immediately craft a response. And often we then hit “send” without fully thinking.
Antisocial media is one of the big sources of polarization
in America and that is intentionally so; anger means more tweets from twits and
more likes and dislikes on Facebook. Consider
making only the most limited and thoughtful use of antisocial media, if at all.
Please don’t lose the 2024 election. Yes, it is hard to imagine President Biden
(or more likely President Harris) beating you.
But America will not survive another four years of this madness. Model all the gifts of the Holy Spirit: but
for you especially, gentleness.
Very Truly Yours,
Clayton E. Cramer
Wednesday, October 27, 2021
Bad News/Good News
10/26/21 NPR reports overflowing ERs, but few have COVID-19:
"Months of treatment delays have exacerbated chronic conditions and worsened symptoms. Doctors and nurses say the severity of illness ranges widely and includes abdominal pain, respiratory problems, blood clots, heart conditions and suicide attempts, among others."
So you cannot blame the unvaccinated. If anything blame the enormous amount of backlogged medical care.
The vaccinations seem to be doing what was not expected. People are still getting infected but breakthrough infections are far less severe.
Medicare Advantage Plans Must Be Very Profitable
Because 65 is coming up quickly (when most people become eligible for Medicare), I am getting 3-5 calls a day from East Indian spammers trying to sell their Medicare Advantage plan. Because I retired on disability, I am already on Medicare. I am very happy with my Medicare Advantage plan from Blue Cross. The amount of calls says that there must be enough money to getting sign-ups to hire these telemarketers. Or is this just an attempt at identity theft?
The Special Small Print Exception
We still do not know why the mass shooter at Boise Town Square Mall went on his rampage but this gives a hint. 10/26/21 Associated Press:
[redacted] was known to Boise police from previous reports of disorderly conduct or trespassing, Lee said.
“We have had contact with him in the past. We did not have any reason to arrest him,” he said.
[redacted] never worked at the mall, but was frequently there and had previously been contacted by security guards for disorderly behavior, Lee said.
You would think in Idaho someone would have returned fire. But Boise Town Square Mall wants a wholesome family atmosphere. Their code of conduct includes:
- No firearms or illegal weapons
And in very small print:
unless you are a mentally ill killer
Compare to the Clackamas Mall shooting:
7/24/14 KGW reported that a concealed handgun licensee drew on that shooter, who then committed suicide.
Bullied into Whiteness
10/26/21 The College Fix quoting a UC Berkeley professor:
Leonardo, in his talk, cited the book “Learning to Be White: Money, Race and God in America,” which argues that “child abuse, ethnic conflicts, class exploitation, poor self-esteem, and a general feeling of self-contempt … are the wages of whiteness,” according to its description.
“Whites learn to be white,” Leonardo said, adding that the book’s author, Thandeka, argues “whites are not born white. They have to become white.”
“They were born human,” he said. “Little by little, they have to be abused into becoming white humans. This abuse is sometimes physical … such as being bullied into whiteness.”
“But also it’s psychological and cultural,” he added.
This physical, psychological and cultural abuse can come from parents and guardians, but it also “extends to the white nationhood as a caretaker” and the “white social system,” Leonardo said during his talk.
If it were not for guilt-ridden privileged whites, would anyone taker this crap seriously?
Great. Now I am a victim, too.
Most Crimes Committed in a Single Concealed Weapon Bribery Scheme?
The former chief of a tribal police department in southern California has pleaded guilty to selling $300,000 worth of badges to wealthy Los Angeles residents so they could get concealed weapons permits.
Anthony Reyes Vazquez, 49, admitted he and other officers of the Manzanita Tribal Police Department recruited dozens of affluent Agelenos to join a “VIP Group,” issuing them badges that gave them certain law enforcement privileges but didn’t require them to perform any police work.
VIP for a fee
To join the force, the VIP members were required to pay fees ranging from $5,000 to $100,000, prosecutors said. Many of the members had no or little law enforcement background and many never visited the reservation at all, prosecutors said.
In exchange for paying the fee, the members would be given a badge which purportedly granted them the right to carry a concealed weapon, prosecutors said. Investigators declined to identify the members of the VIP group....
The police department served the Manzanita Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, whose reservation is about 70 miles east of San Diego, near the U.S. border with Mexico. Prosecutors, however, say the police force was not recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs or the state of California, so its officers didn’t have the authority to enforce federal or state law, on or off the Manzanita reservation.
A message left at the headquarters of the Manzanita police was not immediately returned. The phone at the tribal office rang unanswered.
In all, prosecutors say Vazquez, who is not a registered member of the tribe, pocketed around $300,000 in donations from the VIP group, in addition to reimbursing himself $2,000 a month in travel expenses from his home in Camarillo, over 200 miles away from the reservation.
Prosecutors said Vazquez did not disclose to the tribe that he was selling membership to the reservation’s police department. He pleaded guilty Monday to stealing $300,000 from the tribe. ...
As part of his plea, Vazquez also admitted that he had a felony drug conviction in 1992 which barred him from possessing a firearm, meaning he illegally owned 24 guns while serving as the tribe’s chief of police.
Tuesday, October 26, 2021
Pure Scientific Research
This article describes how some chemists figured out how to extract rare earth metals from coal ash, making it environmentally cleaner as it did so. Less dependent on China and a way to dispose of pollution.
A Sure Sign That They Have Something to Hide
10/26/21 Yahoo News:
Parents of Loudoun County public school students have been asked to sign a type of nondisclosure agreement to view a curriculum connected to a group known to push critical race theory.
The NDA is required to be signed by parents who want to review the “Second Step” curriculum. Parents are required to acknowledge that the presentation of the material is “not a public event” and that “copying, broadcast or recording of any kind is prohibited.”
Monday, October 25, 2021
I Am Not Sure If This Will Be a Good Movie (Occupation)
But it starts with the audio of President Reagan talking about how war is the greatest enemy of the aspirations of mankind.
Actually pretty good. Red Dawn, Mate. I have seen enough of these Aussie fighting back invader films now to figure that they are really terrified of the Chinese. The AUKUS deal makes great sense. It must have been in the works before Biden.
Perhaps unintentional, likely not, Chinese-Australians are part of the resistance.
Final battle sequence a bit too long and cliched. The ending is too idealistic. Exterminate the Grays is the only solution
Dreary Days
This Pacific cyclone that is soaking California has been giving us rain in Idaho. Worse, the skies are gray. No astrophotography. I realize that for many fellow Americans, this is just part of fall and winter. But I grew up in Santa Monica three blocks from the beach, where gray days ended about 1:00 PM. Even a few miles inland (in what my father called the "banana belt"), mornings were often clear. If only 20 million conservatives could move to California, take over the state, and make it like 1965.
Sunday, October 24, 2021
Hopeful and Encouraging History
Who was the first black American with an MD?
"He was the first African American to hold a medical degree and graduated at the top in his class at the University of Glasgow in Scotland."
He completed his MD in 1837. He was born a slave. Pretending that the barriers to advancement for blacks today are holding them back makes you wonder how a slave in antebellum America made it.
How Turbulent is the Air?
I am not using this video because of a hair in the eyepiece, but watch the motion:
Saturday, October 23, 2021
Stop the Tearing Out of Living Hearts From POWs? You Fascist!
8/13/21 Guardian (and part of why I like this raving leftwing paper) covers the increasing pushback from the Mexican tribes who the Aztecs were disassembling and eating. (After open chest surgery at top of pyramid, the body was rolled down the steps for grilling.)
You can see why progressives are on the 100% failure at open heart surgery crowd. They love death, except for savages.
Today's Jab
Flu vaccine. Last winter had low flu deaths and likely low infections because everyone was distancing, masking, and hand washing. I expect COVID-19 probably got some older people before they could get flu.
The injection hurt more than the COVID-19 booster last week but 6 hours later I no longer feel it.
Bad Tactics
I am reading Flavius Josephus' history of the Jews. He describes one battle where a brave man thought Antiochus was riding one of the elephants so he killed every soldier around the elephant, then went under the elephant and stabbed it. The elephant immediately fell and crushed this courageous but not terribly forward thinking guy.
Friday, October 22, 2021
Video From the 17.5" Reflector I Took in July
After RegiStax:
After GIMP:
2000mm f/4.5, prime focus, ISO 3200 (I think).
The New, More Moderate Taliban
An Afghan volleyball player on the girls’ national team was beheaded by the Taliban — with gruesome photos of her severed head posted on social media, according to her coach.
Mahjabin Hakimi, one of the best players in the Kabul Municipality Volleyball Club, was slaughtered in the capital city of Kabul as troops searched for female sports players, her coach told the Persian Independent.
And yes, it appears her crime was women's sports:
“The Taliban asked our players’ families to not allow their girls to do sport, otherwise they will be faced with unexpected violence,” Fayazi said.
“They even burned their sports equipment to save themselves and their families. They didn’t want them to keep anything related to sport. They are scared,” she said.
You can see why Canada is considering foreign aid.
Thursday, October 21, 2021
I Think He Can Afford the 6% Broker's Commission
This article at realtor.com tells us that Elon Musk is selling his home in Hillsborough for just under $32 million. Apparently he is using a realtor this time instead of for sale by owner. Look, you do not get rich by wasting money but I am sure the time he would spend negotiating a sale could be better spent, like figuring out how to get the price of the Tesla Model below $30,000.
My New Telescope Eyepiece Case Arrived
Unlike the Pelican, it has latches on both the front and sides.
To my pleasure, the precut foam seems to be 0.5" size making for a more efficient use when making holes for both 2" and 1.25" eyepieces.
My first thought when I saw the size was to return it and go down a size. But I have gobs of accessories that are just out loose right now: camera adapters and suchlike that will now have a proper home where they will not get lost. (I thought they I had misplaced the Pentax T-ring adapter and bought a new one only to rediscover it recently.) Now everything will be lost in one place!
This is Getting Easier and Easier
I created a Gibbous Moon wavelet file with the settings that seem to do the best job. The video:
After RegiStax:
After using GIMP:
Interesting, but unsurprising is that removing noise in GIMP makes the JPG smaller. This is really not surprising if you think about how discrete wavelet transform works in JPG.
Neatly enough, PIPP (for MOV to uncompressed AVI), RegiStax, and GIMP are all free. We used to have a saying in software engineering that "free university software was too expensive to use." Only RegiStax leaves something to be desired in user interface subtleties, and with enough head to wall action, I figured it out.
Flippancy When Writing About Mass Murder is Generally Inappropriate...
There are times when the victims are gangsters and some details just scream for it.
Chicago, Ill. (1930)
04/20/1930: Person unknown walked into the Blue Hour
speakeasy. He then shot to death three
of Al Capone’s allies. This being Easter,
one of the victims was holding a knife in one hand and a “plaster bust of a
saint” in the other.
Category: public
Suicide: no
Cause: gang
Weapon: firearm[1]
Lifetime of Pistol Flints
Pistols were not generally lawful to carry they claim. I found an ad offering 50,000 pistol flints for sale. How many uses did you get from a flint.
This Is Disturbing
9/30/21 European Journal of Epidemiology:
At the country-level, there appears to be no discernable relationship between percentage of population fully vaccinated and new COVID-19 cases in the last 7 days (Fig. 1). In fact, the trend line suggests a marginally positive association such that countries with higher percentage of population fully vaccinated have higher COVID-19 cases per 1 million people. Notably, Israel with over 60% of their population fully vaccinated had the highest COVID-19 cases per 1 million people in the last 7 days. The lack of a meaningful association between percentage population fully vaccinated and new COVID-19 cases is further exemplified, for instance, by comparison of Iceland and Portugal. Both countries have over 75% of their population fully vaccinated and have more COVID-19 cases per 1 million people than countries such as Vietnam and South Africa that have around 10% of their population fully vaccinated.
Did vaccinating increase opportunities for mutation?
This explanation of why viruses mutate explains it well. If you get one variant, replication errors can produce a different strain. The vaccine against one strain is of some value against genetically similar variants both for infection and severity of illness but the rate of total infections is not likely to drop.
Still, get vaccinated. You might still get delta variant but less likely to end up in the ICU. The sooner this virus runs out of receptive hosts in which to mutate, the better.
Wednesday, October 20, 2021
I Think I Am Getting the Hang of This
The original video file:
After stacking:
Use GIMP for unsharp mask:
By the way, this is why I need to buy a rip-snorting i9 with 64GB of RAM. Registax gobbles cycles like you cannot believe.
I Did My First Deposition Today
The case is Baird v. Bonta (E.D.Cal.) challenging California's ban on open carry. The deputy attorney-general tries to get contradictory or nonsensical answers out of you on the questions raised in your expert statement. Our attorney thought I did very well. It sure did not feel that way at the time.
Prof. Cornell tries to blame concealed carry regulation on cheap and reliable handguns, by which he clearly means Colt. So I mentioned that the storm of concealed carry laws predate any commercial success. Cal.'s attorney asks if I was aware of a sudden increase in supply of handguns at the beginning of the 19th century. I was not, but I asked him, "why was this coming about if carrying of guns was not generally allowed?"
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Songs That Just Overwhelm Me Their Emotional Power
Elvis Presley's Kentucky Rain. Why did she run? At least I am pretty sure she wasn't a hound dog.
Dell Optiplex No Longer Boots
This is the CNC control PC. It does not even get to the boot screen. I bought it used because I needed a parallel port PC. (The USB to parallel port converters do not work with LinuxCNC.) Who knows how many cycles it ran before me. Any suggestions? No beeping.
Dust is a possible cause.
Yes, vacuuming out the PC solved both the boot problem and the CNC controller going berserk problems.
Yes, I Solved the Focus Issue
As it came out of the camera:
ISO 100 1/1th sec., 25mm eyepiece projection.
After unsharp mask and some contrast/brightness adjustment in GIMP:
Too short an exposure?
1/100th sec.
Monday, October 18, 2021
Saturday, October 16, 2021
Tonight's Astrophotography
Pictures will have to wait. I was so tired that I almost fell off the ladder. And one of the plastic hinges on the eyepiece case failed, fortunately in a non-catastriphic mode.
But I put some duct tape on the concrete earlier pointed true north. Even without the polar alignment, tracking was dead perfect. I will probably replace it with phosphorescent paint tomorrow .
I believe the videos and pictures will come out very useful. I managed to figure out how to get the video back to ISO 100, not 3200. The dial on the front that rolls down that menu is very slow. I just was not waiting long enough for change.
The Live View not giving crisp images may be my glasses. Taking them off provided much crisper images almost like an eyepiece and an eye. The viewfinder diopter adjustment is for my corrected vision and may do a better job of showing me real focus. I will know tomorrow.
One other issue: the tube needs to rotate about 35 degrees in the rings that hold it to the mount so that it do not need to get on a ladder.
I will likely buy a Pelican case as a replacement. American made and amazingly solid. The 1" pluckable foam may be a nuisance because most of the eyepieces are 1.25" OD, so I may have do some scissor work to make cubes that create a tight fit. The 2" eyepieces are easy. I have a few odd sized and shaped items that will sit loosely in graves in the foam.
Friday, October 15, 2021
Tuckered Out
I finally used the new mount under the stars this evening. I still need to set the safety limits which are really just telling the computer not to go beyond points where the scope might contact the tripod, which I am pretty sure cannot happen from this evening's work.
I cropped that crater in the upper left.
I still have to figure out to use the polar alignment scope. I started out with a not even close north alignment. Polaris was still invisible. At first it was too dark to find my compass then I realized that the motors have such a strong magnetic field that north has no real meaning this close to the mount. In daylight I will paint a phosphorescent line to north.
Even about 20 degrees off north the mount was tracking the Moon well enough to do some photography. It will be tomorrow before I have the energy to see what I got. It is still a bit of work getting used to the Gemini 2 hand controller and its myriad options. I made the telescope shed a bit more organized so that it does threaten to become a telescope traffic accident in there.
That 8" f/7 does spectacular images. Prime focus: 1/160th, ISO 100; 1414mm f/4.5.
The video for some reason was filming as ISO 3200, producing nothing useful. Trying to figure out ISO setting for video in the dark was nearly impossible.
The Jooos Control the Weather!
Remember when one of the DC politicians claimed Jews (or at least one Jewish family at the heart of all good anti-Semitic libels) controlled the weather? 10/14/21 New York Post:
WASHINGTON — City Councilman Trayon White is running for mayor of the nation’s capital despite facing accusations of anti-Semitism for praising Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan — and for saying that the Jewish Rothschild family controls the weather.
White represents DC’s Ward 8, the former home of Marion Barry, who won a third term as mayor in 1994 despite spending six months in prison after a crack-cocaine sting in which he exclaimed, “Bitch set me up.”
“I’m running,” he wrote on Instagram. “Join me.” He confirmed his plans to local journalists.
White, 37, recently rankled local Democrats by being the lone vote against a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for city council members and their staffs.
The councilman faced intense criticism in 2018 for saying he was concerned about “climate manipulation” by a prominent Jewish banking family.
“DC keep talking about, ‘We’re a resilient city.’ And that’s a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man,” White said.
Is that the best DC Democrats can do?
Two Days in a Row Below 202 Pounds!
My BMI is almost into the Normal range. I am so pleased. Where's that pizza?
Thursday, October 14, 2021
The Masses Are Revolting
Positively deplorable.
"American Airlines cancels 230 flights, delays 600+… Sickout is spreading…"
It is not just Southwest.
"Affluent White Vanity That Is Wokeism"
10/13/21 KTTH:
"A Seattle elementary school canceled Halloween activities over concerns about student equity and inclusion. Specifically, Seattle Public Schools says Black males do not celebrate and, more generally, students of color feel marginalized by the holiday. One parent, however, thinks this is an “exercise in affluent white vanity that is wokeism."
Black students don't go trick or treating? I could have sworn African-Americans were like other Americans. Are they abnormal, or to be PC, "holiday deviant."
Some Christians (myself among them) find Halloween distasteful because it is pagan in origin and unhealthily focused on dark images. I am also upset how what used to be a juvenile activity has become an adult (but not terribly mature adult) past time.
This is not to say that there cannot be some fun doing costume party. At one company, a guy did a great job with a suit that was hobo hand me down on one side and proper attire on the other. He was shaved and properly groomed on one side and unshaven and scruffy on the other. It was cleverly done and not from a costume store.
My Wife, Daughter, and Son-in-Law Were Preparing for Our Church's New More Contemporary Worship Service...
Nice group of people there but we are very close to the youngest couple there and Carter was President when my wife and I Wed. Near the end of practice whoever was on percussion hit one particular instrument and in unison "More Cowbell!"
The Dakota Lithium Battery Charger Arrived
Not surprisingly, the 12.8V the SLA chargers provided was soon above 13V. Of course equilibrium sets in and getting from the 14.4V output of the charger to that voltage in the battery will take a while.
I was watching a video explaining why electric vehicles are having trouble making sense. The first 100 miles you add is fast; the next hundred is much slower because you approach equilibrium and current goes in more slowly.
Could you have two sets of batteries, like a spare gas tank, so both charge at the same time and speed, and switchover when the first pack runs out?
I Think That I Finally Figured Out Registax
I stacked 165 frames from an AVI.
Then I fiddled with contrast and brightness in Irfanview:
Then I did an unsharp mask in GIMP:
This is on my list of things to do from a creative category of my writing: do excellent astrophotography and sell it.
The 14th Century Visited: A Mass Arrowing
KONGSBERG, Norway — A man armed with a bow and arrows killed five people and injured two others Wednesday in the Norwegian town of Kongsberg, authorities said.
Police identified the attacker as Espen Andersen Braathen, a 37-year-old Danish citizen, who was arrested Wednesday night. They said he used the bow and arrow and possibly other weapons to randomly target people at a supermarket and other locations in Kongsberg, a town of about 26,000 where he lived, before he was seized by police on the street.
Police said they believe he acted alone.
“The whole act appears to be an act of terror,” said Hans Sverre Sjoevold, head of Norway’s domestic intelligence service, known as the PST.
Bow control. Now.
The good news: full auto crossbow.
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Obscure Question
I cannot figure this out from the Social Security website.
Mr. A collects Social Security income of X. Mrs. A collects SS income of Y. Mr. A passes. It appears that Mrs. A gets somewhere between 71.5% and 100% of Mr. A's check of $X. Because X is > than Y, she does not get Y anymore.
Do I have that right?
BabylonBee Does it Again
Walgreen's is closing more stores in the Bay Area because California voters made shoplifting legal. Now:
SAN FRANCISCO, CA—A hot new Silicon Valley startup allows you to send someone to loot stores in San Francisco and other Democrat-controlled cities with no laws against looting. You can loot from the comfort of your home with just a few simple steps on the app.
"Want to loot a bunch of stuff from Walgreens, but don't want to turn off your Netflix show? Try LootDash!" said LootDash CEO Dirk Hendersen. "Our professional LootDashers are ready and waiting to go steal some stuff from whatever stores you want. Just remember to be generous with your tips!"
LootDash offers a full selection of stores, from pharmacies and big-box retailers to local mom-and-pop businesses. You can even sort the results by race so you know you're looting a white-owned store and not harming a black-owned business with your LootDash order.
The Most Troubling Hunter Biden Story Yet
EXCLUSIVE: Joe Biden could become embroiled in the FBI's probe into Hunter's finances, experts say: Emails reveal they SHARED bank accounts, paid each other's bills and the president may have even have funded his son's 2018 drug and prostitution binge
- Emails from Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop, obtained by DailyMail.com, reveal Joe and Hunter shared bank accounts and paid each other's bills
- The president have may have inadvertently funded his son's 2018 drug and prostitution binge
- Emails between Hunter and Eric Schwerin, his business partner at consultancy Rosemont Seneca, show Schwerin was working on Joe's taxes
- The claim raises serious questions about whether funds from the joint accounts were used for Hunter's May 2018 week-long bender with a prostitute
- Last December, Hunter admitted in a public statement that he was under federal investigation over his tax affairs
- A former federal prosecutor tells DailyMail.com that if money was flowing between Hunter and his father, that could make Joe a target of the probe
- The FBI and IRS probe is reportedly also looking into Hunter's foreign business relationships and the potential for money laundering chargesNow
If only there was a way to get American news coverage. Although I suspect most Biden voters would just say, "No mean tweets."
Can the Social Compact Be Restored?
The social compact theory derives from the idea that the state of nature is so unpleasant that we willingly give up some of our rights to live under the rule of law. That rule of law is not unlimited; the laws must be adopted with the consent of the governed and equally applied. The Bill of Rights and structures such as separation of powers are two mechanisms for guaranteeing that 51% will not oppress the other 49% (and that is a best case scenario; it is often 15% who are rich and influential telling the other 85% how to live).
The current COVID-19 crisis is building on the existing shattering of the social compact. For several decades, a minority that fancies themselves smarter and more rational than the masses, have been striking down the social compact by ordering the majority to give up the writing of our laws. Because this destruction of the social compact started out disfranchising a racist majority in some states who were using democracy to violate rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, it was pretty easy for both the elites and even much of the masses to say, "Okay. These creeps deserved to be disempowered."
In the last few years, as the elites chose to overturn laws far removed from race (transgender bathrooms, abortion on demand), just to remind us that what we believe is narrow-minded and backward, there has been an unsurprising rebellion, of which President Trump's 2016 victory was an example.
Today, that notion that the social compact can be ignored if we do not like it has come full circle. The elites insisted "My body, my choice," and shockingly enough, many Americans are saying that about vaccination. Much of our elite has demonstrated that they feel no need to obey the masking, vaccination, and social distancing rules they insist we follow.
If you want people to take the social compact of giving up some rights for the common good, you need to honor the social compact so that most Americans do not feel that they are ignored.
"They Are Murdering My Friend in Here"
CBS News had a gloomy report on the stress that idaho nurses are suffering from COVID-19 care. One picture showed protesters at St. Alphonso claiming the title above. What is driving this? Do they think the hospital is slowly killing people? Or is there some more complex logic at work? (The aliens are hungry?)
At least Idaho protesters are not doing violently lethal protests like in Europe. See 3/23/21 New York Times.
UPDATE: It appears that a video from last year, a doctor raised the question of whether the ventilators were doing more good than harm. He indicated that he was spreading his knowledge on this. If this remains a problem, I am not finding it.
Please get vaccinated. The risks are pretty low. I really want this madness to end so the left loses excuses to control lives.
Tuesday, October 12, 2021
What is the World Coming To?
PBS documentary about how China's cover up turned a local crisis into a world tragedy.
I am about half way through it. I am hoping that the average PBS viewer who thought Trump was a racist for calling it the Wuhan flu and xenophobic for shutting off travel from China is having a hard time dealing with this. But no mean tweets!
Second Crop
In spite of the sudden cold weather and the shorter nights, the second crop of California poppies and roses is appearing.
Curious Cult
Chicago, Ill. (1929)
09/25/1929: “The gun battle stripped secrecy from the Moorish Science Temple of America and the World, a cult in which Mohammedan titles, voo dooism [sic], Confucianism, Buddhism and “'jungle magic' were intermixed strangely.” Police forced entry to the temple to rescue a cult leader “who had been kidnaped [sic] by other leaders of the cult.” The members of the cult used guns to resist, killing two police officers and a relative of the victim, and wounding another officer. “Negroes, attracted by the gunfire, crowded the streets and 350 police men were sent to disperse them. More than one hundred shots were fired.”
Category: public
Suicide: no
Cause: resisting arrest
Weapon: firearms[1]
Do I Have Any Readers Near Kew, England?
There is a translation inconsistency in the printed Statutes of the Realm, which makes me think the Norman French armez (chain mail) might have been misread by the editor of Statutes of the Realm as armes (plural of arm or weapon). The difference matters slightly in current cases headed to the Supreme Court.
Monday, October 11, 2021
CRT Article of Faith: Blacks Are Picked On By Police
The high rates of arrest, conviction, and imprisonment of black people, are part of systemic racism.
Race and Ethnicity of Violent Crime Offenders and Arrestees, 2018 compares race of offenders from Uniform Crime Reports and victim reports from NCVS to see if police charge blacks disproportionately to their involvement in violent crimes. The answer is that Hispanics seem to be disproportionately arrested but white and black offenders are charged at rates comparable to victim reporting. Table 3.
Sunday, October 10, 2021
Is the Great Airline Strike of 2021 Starting?
A little background. A strike by railroad workers in 1877 grew into a national rebellion as National Guardsmen in some cases refused to fire on strikers and sometimes actually joined them. For a while railroads effectively stopped. More here.
Rumors are floating about that the cancelation of a big part of Southwest Airlines flights is because the airline ordered all pilots to be vaccinated and many walked out along with some air traffic controllers.
What is really happening? 10/10/21 CNN reports that Southwest canceled more than 1000 flights.
"Flight delays and cancellations occurred for a few hours Friday afternoon due to widespread severe weather, military training and limited staffing in one area of the Jacksonville Air Route Traffic Control Center," the FAA said."
Hmm. While Biden has authority to order the ATCs to vaccinate, if Southwest is ordering vaccination it is their decision. Biden has issued a press release ordering employers to require vaccination, but press releases are not legally binding. Congress might have the authority similar to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which involved interstate commerce and applied to businesses larger than 100 employees, but not by executive order.
We may seeing the start of serious resistance, something more important than foul epithets directed at President Biden. National Guardsmen: remember the Nuremberg Principle. There is no obligation to obey unlawful orders such as opening fire on peaceful protesters. Quite the opposite: there is an obligation to arrest those giving such unlawful orders.
This is not the Holocaust, but the Democrats may be about to discover that "I was only following orders" may not work this time.
Centrally controlled societies like Red China operate on orders from the top. People in free societies need persuasion, not orders.
It appears Amtrak is starting as well.
Think Very Carefully About This
A University of Virginia poll found that 59% of Biden voters and 77% of Trump voters would like the other states to secede. See Table 3. Two ex-Americas would be much weaker in foreign affairs than even the currently senile-led nation. Would either nation go to war with China to guarantee either Taiwanese or Japanese sovereignty? What about Alaskan sovereignty?
Any division will leave the two coasts of Blue State America separated by a likely angry Red States of America, or perhaps like an angry couple, the separation might bring the anger down.. Who gets the aircraft carriers and submarines? Building new ports for our half of the fleet on the Gulf of Mexico would be expensive.
Who gets the ICBMs? They are all in Red State America. Do we let Blue State America have visitation rights?
Exporting and importing everything through the Southern ports would seriously impair Pacific trade, although we could perhaps make a trade for air and rail transport through the Red States of America.
Do we start from where we are now to clean up the existing case law, or simply declare every decision from Roe v. Wade (1973) invalid? The lawyers will make a fortune.
"Empty" Hospitals
The paranoids are running around claiming that there is no crisis; hospitals are not overflowing with COVID cases. Before you pass such a claim on, ask the person making this claim to walk the floors of these "empty" hospitals. Discreetly photograph the empty rooms. (If they are empty, there is no privacy issue for patients.) Then provide those pictures.
The Biden Administration gets enormous benefit from these lunatic claims. Too many people that I know have either been hospitalized or are working extended shifts in hospitals to let this pass. Put up or shut up.
Do You Have Kids in Public Schools?
What is the situation about discipline and behavior? Do kids generally make an effort to learn and treat teachers with respect? Do teachers have talk extraordinarily loud to overwhelm students who are talking to each other instead of listening?
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