Articles of Faith

For all Christians trying to make Big Brother love them and eat them last: Rev. John MacArthur does not care about public health because his church will not do social distancing and masks. 

It turns out when MacArthur's church offered to continue wearing masks and doing social distancing:

Referring to the weekend’s events, MacArthur added “there was a court order that granted this church and this church alone, the right to meet indoors. And the powers of the city were not happy about that – they were going to be asking us to do two things, social distance and [to] wear masks.”

“That was until yesterday when the city – [after] we agreed and [said] ‘look we’ll comply for a few weeks, we are not wanting to be defiant, we will do what is reasonable’ – that was not enough for the city. They went to the appellate court at the last minute on Saturday late, and had that order removed.

Has Anyone Totalled All Votes Cast For U.S. Senators in 2020

There are claims that vast numbers of ballots had only votes for Biden.  How many people voted for U.S. Senators?  Voters tend to skip down ballot offices  more often, but if 5% of voters voted for Biden but not for a U.S. Senator,  it would suggest voter fraud,  and stupid fraud at that.

Never Was Big on Christmas Trees...

They have nothing to do with Jesus.  While I am not a tree hugger, it does seem a waste of perfectly good conifers.   Messy while the needles are falling.  Also, we always bought a tree Christmas Eve because of grad school while the kids were small. 

Today we bought an artificial pre-lit tree.  It was cheap enough that we could buy three real trees for this reusable resource.   It is a very realistic appearance.   Amusingly enough we were watching Home Improvement while Tim and Jill are trying to assemble a Binford tent, with predictable results. 

Why Gun Control is SO IMPORTANT!

 11/29/2020 Philadelphia Inquirer:

The Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office cannot account for more than 200 guns that are supposed to be in its custody, some of them part of the office’s arsenal and others confiscated from people subject to protection-from-abuse orders, according to an investigative report released Wednesday by the City Controller’s Office.

The investigation found serious problems in the Sheriff’s Office with recordkeeping, a lack of policies and procedures for managing guns, and haphazard storage of guns in boxes, barrels, cabinets, and in piles on the floor of the office’s armory, City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart said during a news conference in Center City....

The probe began in November 2019 after the Controller’s Office received a confidential complaint and supporting documentation alleging that 15 long guns — rifles and shotguns — had been missing from the Sheriff’s Office gun inventory since 2016, Rhynhart said.

The complaint also included details of an alleged burglary that the tipster said occurred in February 2019 at a local gun shop and involved three of the Sheriff’s Office guns, she added.

Why do I doubt these guns were sold by the sheriff's department? 

Investigators uncovered numerous deficiencies in the office’s overall handling and storage of weapons that included the commingling of service firearms and confiscated firearms, and the storage of some weapons that were still loaded, the report said.

Remember, only police officers with their extensive training and high degree of responsibility are competent to possess firearms!

 

Interesting Take on the Motivations for Women's Suffrage

 From Dawn Tangan Teele, Forging the Franchise: The Political Origins of the Women's Vote (2020), p. 97:

 

And here is Teele's source, Henry B. Blackwell, What the South can do. How the Southern states can make themselves masters of the situation. To the legislatures of the Southern states ...

 

And Blackwell's argument is presented in full in Elizabeth Cady Stanton, ‎Susan Brownell Anthony, ‎Matilda Joslyn Gage, History of Woman Suffrage, 1861-1876 (1882), 929-931.

Uncertain Provenance But Certainly True

 “Gaslighting – The term originates in the systematic psychological manipulation of a victim by her husband in Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 stage play “Gas Light,” and the film adaptations released in 1940 and 1944. In the story, the husband attempts to convince his wife and others that she is insane by manipulating small elements of their environment and insisting that she is mistaken, remembering things incorrectly, or delusional when she points out these changes.

The play’s title alludes to how the abusive husband slowly dims the gas lights in their home, while pretending nothing has changed, in an effort to make his wife doubt her own perceptions. The wife repeatedly asks her husband to confirm her perceptions about the dimming lights, but in defiance of reality, he keeps insisting that the lights are the same and instead it is she who is going insane.

Today we are living in a perpetual state of gaslighting. The reality that we are being told by the media is at complete odds with what we are seeing with our own two eyes. And when we question the false reality that we are being presented, or we claim that what we see is that actual reality, we are vilified as racist or bigots or just plain crazy

You’re not racist. You’re not crazy. You’re being gaslighted.

New York State has twice as many deaths from Covid-19 than any other state, and New York has accounted for one fifth of all Covid-19 deaths, but we are told that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has handled the pandemic better than any other governor. But if we support policies of Governors whose states had only a fraction of the infections and deaths as New York, we’re called anti-science and want people to die.

So, we ask ourselves, am I crazy? No, you’re being gaslighted.

We see mobs of people looting stores, smashing windows, setting cars on fire and burning down buildings, but we are told that these demonstrations are peaceful protests And when we call this destruction of our cities, riots, we are called racists.

So, we ask ourselves, am I crazy? No, you’re being gaslighted.

We see the major problem destroying many inner-cities is crime; murder, gang violence, drug dealing, drive-by shootings, armed robbery, but we are told that it is not crime, but the police that are the problem in the inner-cities. We are told we must defund the police and remove law enforcement from crime-riddled cities to make them safer But if we advocate for more policing in cities overrun by crime, we are accused of being white supremacists and racists.

So, we ask ourselves, am I crazy? No, you’re being gaslighted.

The United States of America accepts more immigrants than any other country in the world. The vast majority of the immigrants are “people of color”, and these immigrants are enjoying freedom and economic opportunity not available to them in their country of origin, but we are told that the United States is the most racist and oppressive country on the planet, and if we disagree, we are called racist and xenophobic.

So, we ask ourselves, am I crazy? No, you’re being gaslighted.

Capitalist countries are the most prosperous countries in the world.  The standard of living is the highest in capitalist countries. We see more poor people move up the economic ladder to the middle and even the wealthy class through their effort and ability in capitalist countries than any other economic system in the world, but we are told capitalism is an oppressive system designed to keep people down.

So, we ask ourselves, am I crazy? No, you’re being gaslighted.

Communist countries killed over 100 million people in the 20th century. Communist countries strip their citizens of basic human rights, dictate every aspect of their lives, treat their citizens as slaves, and drive their economies into the ground, but we are told that Communism is the fairest, most equitable, freest, and most prosperous economic system in the world.

So, we ask ourselves, am I crazy? No, you’re being gaslighted.

The most egregious example of gaslighting is the concept of “white fragility”. You spend your life trying to be a good person, trying to treat people fairly and with respect. You disavow racism and bigotry in all its forms. You judge people solely on the content of their character and not by the color of their skin. You don’t discriminate based on race or ethnicity. But you are told you are a racist, not because of something you did or said, but solely because of the color of your skin. You know instinctively that charging someone with racism because of their skin color is itself racist. You know that you are not racist, so you defend yourself and your character, but you are told that your defense of yourself is proof of your racism.

So, we ask ourselves, am I crazy? No, you’re being gaslighted.

Gaslighting has become one of the most pervasive and destructive tactics in American politics. It is the exact opposite of what our political system was meant to be. It deals in lies and psychological coercion, and not the truth and intellectual discourse. If you ever ask yourself if you’re crazy, you are not. Crazy people aren’t sane enough to ask themselves if they’re crazy. So, trust yourself, believe what’s in your heart. Trust your eyes over what you are told.

Never listen to the people who tell you that you are crazy, because you are not, you’re being gaslighted.

Sophocles said: “What people believe prevails over the truth.” And that’s what the media are trying to exploit.

If you have read this far let me say one thing. I did not write the above and I am not sure who the author is.

I sent this to you because you are hopefully smart enough to understand what is being done to you on a daily basis from many directions.  I do not care about your political party affiliation. Just think through what you are being told.  Don’t listen with a deaf ear, or see with a blind eye.  Question everything  —  even things from people who you think you can trust.

Question why you are being told whatever, by whoever.  Question their motives. Question who benefits. Question if there is a hidden agenda behind the propaganda. Question, Question, Question.  Then do your own research, and use some of your own critical thinking skills to get to the truth.  Listen with your heart and with your mind.

Sadly, 95% of the masses don’t even know that they are being gaslighted.  At least now you do.

If this makes sense to you, then forward to your friends who you think might “get it”.

Information Too Dangerous to Share

From a Johns Hopkins University study so widely linked that they took it down  (fortunately the Wayback Machine has it!)

From mid-March to mid-September, U.S. total deaths have reached 1.7 million, of which 200,000, or 12% of total deaths, are COVID-19-related. Instead of looking directly at COVID-19 deaths, Briand focused on total deaths per age group and per cause of death in the U.S. and used this information to shed light on the effects of COVID-19.

She explained that the significance of COVID-19 on U.S. deaths can be fully understood only through comparison to the number of total deaths in the United States. 

After retrieving data on the CDC website, Briand compiled a graph representing percentages of total deaths per age category from early February to early September, which includes the period from before COVID-19 was detected in the U.S. to after infection rates soared.

This comes as a shock to many people. How is it that the data lie so far from our perception? 

To answer that question, Briand shifted her focus to the deaths per causes ranging from 2014 to 2020. There is a sudden increase in deaths in 2020 due to COVID-19. This is no surprise because COVID-19 emerged in the U.S. in early 2020, and thus COVID-19-related deaths increased drastically afterward.

Analysis of deaths per cause in 2018 revealed that the pattern of seasonal increase in the total number of deaths is a result of the rise in deaths by all causes, with the top three being heart disease, respiratory diseases, influenza and pneumonia.

“This is true every year. Every year in the U.S. when we observe the seasonal ups and downs, we have an increase of deaths due to all causes,” Briand pointed out.

When Briand looked at the 2020 data during that seasonal period, COVID-19-related deaths exceeded deaths from heart diseases. This was highly unusual since heart disease has always prevailed as the leading cause of deaths. However, when taking a closer look at the death numbers, she noted something strange. As Briand compared the number of deaths per cause during that period in 2020 to 2018, she noticed that instead of the expected drastic increase across all causes, there was a significant decrease in deaths due to heart disease. Even more surprising, as seen in the graph below, this sudden decline in deaths is observed for all other causes.

I tried to pull the mortality data from CDC, but I cannot find anything newer than 1Q2020.  Did Briand have non-public access?  This CDC report on excess mortality from COVID-19 would mean Briand's claims are all wrong.

However, Briand's claims fit this 8/17/20 Colorado Sun article:

When the new coronavirus first swept through Colorado earlier this year, baffling doctors with its myriad of symptoms and methods of spread, Dr. Brian Stauffer, the head of cardiology at Denver Health, soon began to notice a different kind of pandemic mystery.

People, it seemed, had stopped having heart attacks.

At Denver Health and other large hospitals across the metro area, the number of people showing up with cardiac emergencies dropped significantly as the state imposed increasingly strict measures encouraging people to stay at home to slow the virus’ spread. And this was not unique to Colorado — hospitals across the country and in Europe documented the same phenomenon. Had stay-at-home orders somehow also slowed heart attacks or were people in need of medical help simply not seeking it for fear of COVID-19?

A new study from Stauffer and several Denver Health colleagues offers the first clue to the answer in Colorado. Looking at data on ambulance calls in Denver, they found that, while overall calls for service went down during the stay-at-home period, the number of people dying from cardiac arrests at home shot up.

 

The Time Has Come to Replace Our Laptops With Faster Ones

 The two Lenovos have performed well, but I know my x140e was a bargain priced for students model, and uses an USB ac WiFi--less than ideal when I am on the road. Something blindingly fast would be nice.  Ditto for my wife's slightly newer Lenovo.  I really like my x140e's very compact size, but an internal CD-ROM would be nice (reduce the mating ball of cables on my desk. 

My wife's never goes on the road.  Hers could be a desktop.  I am not sure if the Lenovo dock will work with non-Lenovo laptops or not.  It is just a USB corrector to let me hook up three monitors, and a few USB devices.  (You do not want to see the collection of devices on the USB bridge that plugs into it.)

I have resisted doing this because the prospect of reinstalling dozens of applications was too frightening.  Fortunately there are several apps that do both data and application transfers.

Suggestions?  Apple: no.  Linux I like, but I have yet to see a release that will not drive my wife mad; none have reached Windows ease of use yet.  I also want easy sharing of Word files with my students.  I guess I need to experiment to see if LibreOffice will do this well.  Write works well enough.  Calc and Base are the other big concerns.  Base cannot import Access data base.   Calc imports Excel just fine.

Oh yes.  At least 1TB of disk space, ideally SSD.

Quadcore is obvious.  What numbers should I look for besides more RAM to get maximum speed?

It appears that a gaming laptop with the Ryzen 4800H processor is the hot tip.  These all seem to be 15.6" displays.  My current laptop is a 14" screen and is just perfect for the road.  But I can see why gamers don't want a dinky screen.  (Why anyone considers gaming on a computer a useful activity eludes me.)

Is the Intel i7-8665U a pretty fast CPU compared to the Rhyzen 4800H?  Is there a performance chart?  I do not want a laptop 10% faster.  Here's the table.  AMD's Rhyzen 9 500X looks like the winner.

Kraken Unleashed

You will have to hit Continue past Twitter's not quite censorship, but well worth it.  Whistleblowers,  expert witnesses (computer science professors), Democratic concerns (last year) about voter fraud, Hugo Chavez.

Here is the Michigan complaint which has some overlap but much that is not.

Amazing Video About the Late Permian Mass Extinction

 It not only expanded my knowledge of basaltic flood eruptions, but also pointed out how vulcanism can cause global warming, and the runaway process of releasing CO2 from the ocean as well as methane hydrates from the ocean floors.  Methane by itself is a strong greenhouse gas, but also oxidizes to CO2.

Happy Thanksgiving

 My wife and I are doing this alone.  Our daughter is hosting a Danish exchange student who is attending face-to-face high school, and our son's fiance teaches face-to-face kindergarten, where older staff are coming down with WuFlu.

Court Victory

 Buckeye Firearms Found., Inc. v. Cincinnati, 2020-Ohio-5422:

 The issue presented in this appeal is whether the city of Cincinnati exceeded its home-rule authority by enacting a municipal ordinance banning the possession and transfer of firearm “trigger activators.” Because the ordinance conflicts with a state law governing an individual’s rights to ownership and possession of firearms, we determine that the municipal ordinance is an invalid exercise of home-rule authority. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

My experience with trigger cranks is that make the most sense for bipod mounted weapons where you have hope of holding the weapon to ground, stable enough to do more than scare the enemy.

Something For Which to Be Thankful

 A friend in the Bay Area tells me he and his wife shared COVID-19 recently.  It was not as bad as flu.  They are much younger than my wife and me.

More Evidence Our ELITES Are Not Well Educated

 Volokh Conspiracy reports:

The University of Maryland School of Public Policy is apparently about to require faculty members to add a statement to their syllabus;...

Land Acknowledgement

We acknowledge that we are gathered on the stolen land of the Piscataway Conoy people and were founded upon the erasures and exploitation of many non-European peoples. You can find more information about the Piscataway Conoy Tribe at http://www.piscatawayconoytribe.com. For more information about the University of Maryland's project for a richer understanding of generations of racialized trauma rooted in the institution visit https://go.umd.edu/SNW.

 This land was ultimately stolen from mammoths and smilodons, who mysteriously disappeared shortly thereafter.

 

I Just Bought a Leupold Sunshade for My Redfield Scope

In case you did not know, Redfield is basically the cheapest Leupold scopes now.  Very nice but not quite as fancy.

I had hoped it would screw into a Bushnell 40mm scope, but no, just a little too large.  Any idea where I might find one?

I might find aluminum tubing a few millimeters thicker than the outside of the scope tube and turn the inside to a couple millimeters larger, so it is a tight slide in place.

Any why a sunshade?  To get sunlight out of your eyes if shooting in the general direction of the Sun, and to make sure the glint from the objective does not disturb someone a way's off.

Another Reminder That the Gun Control Cause is Really About Corrupting Public Officials

 11/23/20 Santa Clara County D.A. press release:

A grand jury has issued two indictments​ charging the Santa Clara County Undersheriff, a previously indicted sheriff’s captain, a local business owner, and the head of Global Security for Apple, Inc. with bribery.

Undersheriff Rick Sung , 48, and Captain James Jensen, 43, are accused of requesting bribes for concealed firearms (CCW) licenses, while insurance broker Harpreet Chadha, 49, and Apple’s Chief Security Officer Thomas Moyer, 50, are accused of offering bribes to get them.

The defendants will be arraigned on January 11, 2021 at the Hall of Justice in San Jose. If convicted, the defendants could receive prison time.

DA Jeff Rosen said: “Undersheriff Sung and Captain Jensen treated CCW licenses as commodities and found willing buyers. Bribe seekers should be reported to the District Attorney’s Office, not rewarded with compliance.”

The two-year investigation by the District Attorney’s Office revealed that Undersheriff Sung, aided by Captain Jensen in one instance, held up the issuance of CCW licenses, refusing to release them until the applicants gave something of value.

Is it clear enough why sheriffs in California have resisted shall issue?

Another Reminder of Why Gun Owners Who Did Not Vote for Trump Should Not Whine the Next Four (or Perhaps 100) Years

 The Treasury is proposing a federal regulation.

Makers of shotguns and hunting rifles have reportedly been debanked in recent years.

Yes, this is to require financial institutions to not discriminate against the gun industry (among several others).

They Needed One More Sign

11/21/20 Press Release Statement from Wauwatosa Mayor Dennis R. McBride:

Yesterday, eight people were shot at Mayfair Mall. Fortunately, all eight have survived and are believed to be recovering. Mayfair Mall is secure but is closed today....

Guns have no place in shopping malls or other places in which crowds of people gather. Mayfair has a strict no-gun policy. If the shooter had complied with that policy, no one would have been hurt yesterday.

They obviously need a "no mass shootings" policy as well.

The Washington Examiner

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-legal-team-shuns-sidney-powell-as-insiders-and-national-security-officials-see-no-evidence-supporting-her-voting-machine-claims

 one of those online "newspapers" that quotes unnamed sources too much for me to take them completely seriously,  but they are definitely not part of the DNC.  It appears that the "Release the Kraken" attorney, Sidney Powell,  is not part of Trump's team, and her claims are not reality based.  Trump's real battle is not Dominion switching votes, although what I blogged a couple days ago, suggests there might be related fraud going on, but persuading the Court that changing counting rules after the election starts, and mail-in voter fraud makes the actual results unknowable in several battleground states.  If the Court rules in his favor, it goes to the House where he wins.

Another Affidavit: From a Dominion Contractor

 Alleges seeing widespread double counting, some apparently because of incompetence. 

MMR As a Protection Against COVID-19

 11/20/20 UPI:

Nov. 20 (UPI) -- The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine appears to offer at least some protection against COVID-19, possibly preventing severe illness from the disease, a study published Friday by the online journal mBio found.

Among 41 people born in the United States who received the shot -- known as the MMR vaccine -- eight had immunity against the new coronavirus or had no symptoms after becoming infected, the researchers said. 

This apparent immunity against severe COVID-19 may have been because of their high levels of antibodies -- or immune cells that fight off infection -- against the mumps, they said.

Seventeen people who received the MMR vaccine but had lower mumps antibody levels developed only mild COVID-19 symptoms, while those with the fewest mumps antibodies after vaccination suffered moderate illness or needed to be hospitalized for treatment.

Antivaxxers drive me crazy, putting their children's lives at risk for reasons that are usually factually incorrect, and often driven by a hostility towards authority figures (including men in white coats).  Vaccination is one of the great godsends of the 18th and 19th centuries.

 

It Must Be a Response to "White Privilege"

 11/16/20 FBI:

 Today the FBI released Hate Crime Statistics, 2019, the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program’s latest compilation about bias-motivated incidents throughout the nation. The 2019 data, submitted by 15,588 law enforcement agencies, provide information about the offenses, victims, offenders, and locations of hate crimes....

Known Offenders

• In the UCR Program, the term known offender does not imply that the suspect’s identity is known; rather, the term indicates that some aspect of the suspect was identified, thus distinguishing the suspect from an unknown offender. Law enforcement agencies specify the number of offenders and, when possible, the race of the offender or offenders as a group. Beginning in 2013, law enforcement began reporting whether suspects were juveniles or adults, as well as the suspect’s ethnicity when possible.
  • Of the 6,406 known offenders, 52.5% were white, and 23.9% were Black or African American. Other races accounted for the remaining known offenders: 1.1% were American Indian or Alaska Native, 0.9% were Asian, 0.3% were Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and 6.6% were of a group of multiple races. The race was unknown for 14.6%.
  • Of the 5,443 known offenders for whom ethnicity was reported, 33.1% were Not Hispanic or Latino, 10% were Hispanic or Latino, and 1.9% were in a group of multiple ethnicities. Ethnicity was unknown for 55.0% of these offenders.
  • Of the 5,599 known offenders for whom ages were known, 84.6% were 18 years of age or older.

• •  Today the FBI released Hate Crime Statistics, 2019, the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program’s latest compilation about bias-motivated incidents throughout the nation. The 2019 data, submitted by 15,588 law enforcement agencies, provide information about the offenses, victims, offenders, and locations of hate crimes....

    Known Offenders

    • In the UCR Program, the term known offender does not imply that the suspect’s identity is known; rather, the term indicates that some aspect of the suspect was identified, thus distinguishing the suspect from an unknown offender. Law enforcement agencies specify the number of offenders and, when possible, the race of the offender or offenders as a group. Beginning in 2013, law enforcement began reporting whether suspects were juveniles or adults, as well as the suspect’s ethnicity when possible.
      • Of the 6,406 known offenders, 52.5% were white, and 23.9% were Black or African American. Other races accounted for the remaining known offenders: 1.1% were American Indian or Alaska Native, 0.9% were Asian, 0.3% were Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and 6.6% were of a group of multiple races. The race was unknown for 14.6%.
      • Of the 5,443 known offenders for whom ethnicity was reported, 33.1% were Not Hispanic or Latino, 10% were Hispanic or Latino, and 1.9% were in a group of multiple ethnicities. Ethnicity was unknown for 55.0% of these offenders.
      • Of the 5,599 known offenders for whom ages were known, 84.6% were 18 years of age or older.

Blacks are 13.4% of Americans.  So, almost twice as likely to be hate criminals.

 

A Friend's Interesting Experience With Voter Fraud

You can help!  A friend lives in California.  They use Dominion voting machines.  His wife is a permanent resident.  He went online to verify that his vote was counted.  With name, address, and birth date, he could see that his ballot was received about 2 1/2 weeks before the election, and was processed the way you expect: sent to the ballot counting center and counted before Election Day.  No surprises.

Then he checked his wife.  She was shown registered in 2006, which she has no memory of doing, because she was not a citizen.  (Perhaps created from from DMV license information.)  The sequence of arrival and transmission to the ballot counting center was identical to his.  But her vote was not counted until the day after Election Day, when it was likely needed to improve Biden's vote totals.  Several friends did similar checks and found "problems."  One moved to New York and registered there.  Their California voter registration shows up on that date--and it shows they voted in California; they actually voted in New York.

So do your part: see if you know someone who is old enough but ineligible to vote (non-citizen, felony conviction, back child support payments in some states).  Have them interrogate their local voting database to see if they are registered to vote, and if they voted, and on what day.  Take screenshots.)  This might be the evidence of widespread voter fraud we need.

Don't Be Stupid

A church we attend had outdoor seating, so there was limited exposure risk. Then the weather got too cold to sit outside, so wait until spring.  But they had a wedding and two of those involved now have COVID-19.  One guy is a car mechanic,  and when he unexpectedly collapsed at work, a co-worker caught him before he hit the ground.  Some of those at the wedding then flew home.

Gov. Little has largely exempted worship services from gathering bans.  I agree with his decision,  but that does not mean you need to be stupid.   At least do not be Emperor Newsom of California. 

Another Sign You Are Becoming Antique

My wife and I are watching Miami Vice.  This was a pretty groundbreaking show for its time, but it has aged well.  (Okay, maybe not the Big Hair the women have.) But it was sometimes brutally honest about its villains.  I remember a leftist to absurdity professor I had at Sonoma State who was upset that the bad guys were often black or Hispanic, because we all know that Miami drug dealers were all WASPs.

It also brings back memories of simpler (but poorer) time when I had, it seems unlimited energy and perfect health, when a several mile trek through a forest seemed like a neat idea, not an allergy-induced asthma. 

Cool Gadget

 Nominally this is a portable food scale accurate to 0.1 grams.  A handloader many years ago showed me that weighing all your cartridges to group them according to weight improves accuracy.  Yes the ones with heavier bullets might have less powder in them, but overall, if you have 20 cartridges within .1 grams of each other, they are likely close enough in propellant and bullet weight to produce awesome repeatability.   Repeated weighs of the same object never varied more than .2 grams, which is darn light.  And $11.99, delivered in three days!

Link updated!

Cause and Effect

 Proponents of anthropogenic global warming insist that man's use of fossil fuels is dangerously warming the world.  But is causing B, or B causing A?  This graph shows CO2 and temperature changes over the last 400,000 years:

You will notice that the temperature sometimes rises before the CO2 levels.  Why?  As this website at Columbia explains:

The primary source of carbon/CO2 is outgassing from the Earth's interior at midocean ridges, hotspot volcanoes, and subduction-related volcanic arcs. Much of the CO2 released at subduction zones is derived from the metamorphism of carbonate rocks subducting with the ocean crust. Much of the overall outgassing CO2, expecially as midocean ridges and hotpot volcanoes, was stored in the mantle when the Earth formed. Some of the outgassed carbon remains as CO2 in the atmosphere, some is dissolved in the oceans, some carbon is held as biomass in living or dead and decaying organisms, and some is bound in carbonate rocks. Carbon is removed into long term storage by burial of sedimentary strata, especially coal and black shales that store organic carbon from undecayed biomass and carbonate rocks like limestone (calcium carbonate).

How much is tied up in carbonate rocks?  I believe that I have read that there is 40x more CO2 in carbonate rocks than in the atmosphere.  If that seems unlikely, think of all the limestone visible on the surface, under the ocean where it is being subducted, as well as chalk, also a carbonate.  From Cal State Los Angeles:

Limestone, a sedimentary rock which contains silica, and composed largely of the mineral calcite. It is also 10% of the total volume of all sedimentary rocks, and many marine organisms live on it. Limestone, CaCO2, is a type of sedimentary rock making up 10% of all sedimentary rocks on earth.

 CO2 is also dissolved in seawater, a lot of it:

Of the three places where carbon is stored—atmosphere, oceans, and land biosphere—approximately 93 percent of the CO ₂ is found in the oceans. The atmosphere, at about 750 petagrams of carbon (a petagram [Pg] is 10 ¹⁵ grams), has the smallest amount of carbon.

Again, from Columbia:

If CO2 concentration increases in the atmosphere because of an increased rate of outgassing, global temperature will rise. Rising temperature and more dissolved CO2 will lead to increased weathering of crustal rocks as a result of faster reaction rates (temperature effect) and greater acidity. Enhanced weathering will use up the excess CO2 thereby cooling the climate.

 So rising temperatures warms up seawater and:

Solubility of a gas in water tends to decrease with increasing temperature, and solubility of a gas in an organic solvent tends to increase with increasing temperature.

So temperatures rise, CO2 comes out of the oceans and ends up in the atmosphere.  A warming world will have more CO2 in the atmosphere, but rising temperatures is likely the cause not the result.

Merciful Abbreviation

 One of the first 14th Amendment cases: THE BUTCHERS' BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION OF NEW ORLEANS v. THE CRESCENT CITY LIVE-STOCK LANDING AND SLAUGHTER-HOUSE COMPANY.  PAUL ESTEBEN, L. RUCH, J.P. ROUEDE, W. MAYLIE, S. FIRMBERG, B. BEAUBAY, WILLIAM FAGAN, J.D. BRODERICK, N SEIBEL, M. LANNES, J. GITZINGER, J.P. AYCOCK, D. VERGES, THE LIVE-STOCK DEALERS' AND BUTCHERS' ASSOCIATION OF NEW ORLEANS, AND CHARLES CAVAROC v. THE STATE OF LOUISIANA, ex rel. S. BELDEN, ATTORNEY-GENERAL THE BUTCHERS' BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION OF NEW ORLEANS v. THE CRESCENT CITY LIVE-STOCK LANDING AND SLAUGHTER-HOUSE COMPANY mercifully abbreviated to The Slaughter-House Cases (1873).

I Have Not Read the Decision, But the Title Alone Started Me Laughing

 PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, Plaintiff, v. MILWAUKEE 3/8" CORDLESS DRILL et al., Defendants. (W.D.Mich. 2011)

Let me explain that when an inanimate object is confiscated (often for being a prohibited item), the suit is against the object.  Medieval Europeans sometimes "executed" trees if someone fell from the tree and died.

The Next Time Someone Complains That D.C. v. Heller (2003) Violated Stare Decisis

 Here is "Table of Supreme Court Decisions Overruled by Subsequent Decisions."

A Reminder That the Internet is Not a Particularly Accurate Source

 I was looking for when Congress passed the 14th Amendment to be ratified by the States.  This source tells us:

Passed by Congress June 13, 1866, 

and also:

On June 16, 1866, the House Joint Resolution proposing the 14th amendment to the Constitution was submitted to the states.

But looking at the pages dated June 16 in the Congressional Globe, 39th Cong., 1st sess., 3207-3221, it does not seem to be there.

"House Joint Resolution proposing the 14th amendment to the Constitution was submitted to the states." is there on June 13, pp. 3148-9.

Affidavits Alleging Voter Fraud

 About halfway down in this complaint.  Either this attorney who was appointed a ballot challenger is making this up (perjury, a felony) or there was massive fraud in Detroit.  And it was on the third page of Google search.  I guess that I should be glad it was there at all.

Here is one of the opposing affidavits.  It claims that some of the observers did not understand the process.

Looking for a Telescope as a Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa Gift?

 I purchased this Meade 80mm refractor as a starting telescope for my grandkids, who have shown some interest.

I have not used it for astronomy yet (continual cloud cover), but for terrestrial use it is very satisfying. Images are sharp even with the shortest and therefore most powerful eyepiece. The instructions are aimed at an adult or a very smart tween (this describes my granddaughter), and they are very clear although I was almost done putting it together before I needed them. The alt-azimuth mount is among the simplest and most intuitive that I have seen. Other reviewers have been disappointed by plastic knobs. Were I feeling ambitious, I would machine replacements of aluminum. But at this price, it is fine.

The weak point on all introductory telescopes are the eyepieces. This is no exception. The eyepieces are sharp and clear, but dropping some of my higher end orthoscopic eyepieces in shows that the included eyepieces are not quite as sharp, and are definitely narrower apparent field. If this is a first telescope for a budding astronomer, or just a first telescope for you, they are just fine. I will report back with Moon photographs when the sky clears.

A nice touch was that the diagonal has a sheet of glass protecting the mirror from dirt. Among the most annoying issues with diagonals is how hard it is to clean them when they get dirt on them. 

Clear night last night.  The Moon was glorious at 15x, and 44x.  Saturn's rings were just barely visible at 67x.  Jupiter's big satellites were visible at 15x and at 44x, my wife could see cloud bands.  (My eyesight even corrected is not as good as hers.)  At 67x, chromatic aberration (purple and green edges) were an annoyance on Jupiter.  On a bright object this problem with an f/5 achromat is unavoidable.  That's why apochromats sell at 4x-6x the price.

IF the Court Overturns the Pennsylvania Results Forcing the Election into The House

 The whining from the Left will be, "The Supreme Court is ignoring the will of the People."  To which we respond, Roe v. Wade (1973), Lawrence v. Texas (2003), Obergefell v. Hodges (2015).  If you object to a majority of nine justices telling you the results of an election, why is it okay for them to overturn so many other expressions of popular will?  If they raise D.C. v. Heller (2008), just reply, "You set the precedent for this."

More Rare Voter Fraud

 11/17/20 Los Angeles County District Attorney:

Two men have been charged in a 41-count criminal complaint for allegedly submitting thousands of fraudulent voter registration applications on behalf of homeless people, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced today.

They caught it!  There must be no other cases.

Science and the Constitution

To quote President Woodrow Wilson:

The government of the United States was constructed upon the Whig theory of political dynamics, which was a sort of unconscious copy of the Newtonian theory of the universe.^[1] In our own day, whenever we discuss the structure or development of anything, whether in nature or in society, we consciously follow Mr. Darwin;^[2] but before Mr. Darwin, they followed Newton. Some single law, like the law of gravitation, swung each system of thought and gave it its principle of unity. Every sun, every planet, every free body in the spaces of the heavens, the world itself, is kept in its place and reined to its course by the attraction of bodies that swing with equal order and precision about it, themselves governed by the nice poise and balance of forces which give the whole system of the universe its symmetry and perfect adjustment. The Whigs had tried to give England a similar constitution. They had had no wish to destroy the throne, no conscious desire to reduce the king to a mere figurehead but had intended only to surround and offset him with a system of constitutional checks and balances which should regulate his otherwise arbitrary course and make it at least always calculable.

Rules Are For Little People

11/13/20 San Francisco Chronicle:

Newsom attended French Laundry party with more households than California advises during pandemic

Why us Deplorables hate the Left. 

Just Sent to the Speaker of the House of Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsyvania

This is a way forward from what is certainly the grossest vote fraud in American history. U.S. Constitution  Art II, Sec. 1, directs that: "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector."  In the absence of a clearly honest vote for President, a majority of the legislature enjoys the unqualified authority to selects its state's electors.  This section does not obligate the legislature to follow any statutory provisions already in  place.  This might seem politically risky, but I assume that any Republicans in either body of legislature represent districts where nearly every registered Republican and more than a few registered Democrats voted for Trump.  The Electoral College's indirect system for election was an expression of concern by the Framers of an unqualified person of charm obtaining the presidency by winning the popular vote.  Even more so does it make sense as a firewall between blatant voter fraud and the Presidency. 

Remember When Black Congressmen Were ONLY Democrats?

11/10/20 Deseret News:

SALT LAKE CITY — Republican Burgess Owens saw his lead increase to 1,780 votes over Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams Tuesday in Utah’s 4th Congressional District race as ballots continue to be tabulated a week after the largely by-mail election.

The race remains too close to call, with Owens, a former NFL player, author and frequent Fox News guest, ahead of the first-term congressman, 47.6% to 47.1%, in the district made up of portions of Salt Lake, Utah, Sanpete and Juab counties.

And the picture shows he is of the African-American persuasion.

I Have Had This Jaguar XF 5 Years Now, And I Am Still Making Pleasant Discoveries

I have long wanted a way to transport one of my longish rifle cases to the range instead on the back seat.   There is a way to store skis that goes from trunk through back seat, but it is all the way through; there is effectively a diaper that keeps the snow and water from ending up on the backseat.  So today, "When all else fails, read the instructions!" There are a couple latches in the trunk that let you lower the rear seat.   Now I have a way to put my over long rifle case in from the trunk.

Reason to Suspect Fraud in Philly Ballot Counting

DoJ announces guilty plea by Judge of Elections in Philadelphia for 2014-16 election fraud:

"During his guilty plea hearing, DeMuro admitted that an unnamed political consultant gave DeMuro directions and paid him money to illegally add votes for certain Democratic candidates. These candidates were individuals running for judicial office whose campaigns had hired the consultant, as well as other candidates for various federal, state, and local elective offices who were preferred by this consultant for a variety of reasons."

What Can President Biden Do Without a Senate Majority

 He could issue an executive order requiring all AWs to be turned in.  But in the same way that federal judges blocked Trump executive orders (which often do terrible things to the rights of the people; see Executive Order 9066), I suspect at least a few Trump appointees to the bench will block enforcement until the Supreme Court hears and likely overturns it.

Why the Polls Keep Showing Huge Democrat Victories Where the Wins Are So Tiny

 From unherd.com:

Far from learning from the mistakes of 2016, the polling industry seemed to have got things worse. Whether conducted by private or public firms, at the national or local, presidential or senatorial, levels, polls were off by wide margins. The Five Thirty-Eight final poll of polls put Biden ahead by 8.4 points, but the actual difference in popular vote is likely to be closer to 3-4 points. In some close state races, the error was even greater.

Why did they get it so wrong? Pollsters typically receive low response rates to calls, which leads them to undercount key demographics. To get around this, they typically weight for key categories like race, education or gender. If they get too few Latinos or whites without degrees, they adjust their numbers to match the actual electorate.

But most attitudes vary far more within a group like university graduates, than between graduates and non-graduates. So even if you have the correct share of graduates and non-graduates, you might be selecting the more liberal-minded among them. For example, in the 2019 American National Election Study pilot survey, education level predicts less than 1% of the variation in whether a white person voted for Trump in 2016. By contrast, their feelings towards illegal immigrants on a 0-100 thermometer predicts over 30% of the variation. Moreover, immigration views pick out Trump from Clinton voters better within the university-educated white population than among high school-educated whites. Unless pollsters weight for attitudes and psychology – which is tricky because these positions can be caused by candidate support – they miss much of the action.

Grinding HSS Tools

If you don't machine, or are already way advanced past me, you can skip this.

 I have read lots of stuff about how to grind cutting tools for lathes, and I have never quite managed to produce a particularly useful tool from an HSS blank, or even successfully reshaped an existing HSS cutting tool.  This video by This Old Tony does a spe4ctacular job of explaining why each grinding operation is needed.  I fancy that I now can do this.

Even if you are not terribly interested in machining, This Old Tony is riotously funny.

Unless Trump's People Can Produce Clear Evidence of Fraud, Biden Has Won (Heaven Help Us)

 The remaining provisional votes are not enough.  I still find it hard to believe that a guy whose rallies looked like random collections of by-standers beat someone whose rallies were utterly huge.  Congress needs to create some system to make sure that we can have more confidence in the counting system for next time. 

1. Run the election machines and voting software before the election with known (to the people inserting votes) inputs and verify the outputs match.  

2. Guarantee that all hand processing of mail-in ballots are examined by at least three persons.

3. Require secretaries of state hand over registration lists for crossmatching with Social Security Death list.

Any other ideas?

Curiously RealClearPolitics is now showing Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina as still in play.  Trump is still in the lead in North Carolina with 97% of the vote counted.  The others show Biden with small leads and 1-3% uncounted ballots.  There is no data listed for Alaska.  The Alaska Secretary of State shows Trump with a commanding lead and 100% of votes counted.  Admittedly Alaska is not big on electoral votes.

Interesting Quirk of Constitution, Art. 2

Who decides what electors are sent to the Electoral College?  U.S. Constitution, Art. II, sec. 1, cl. 2:

Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.

 I suspect that state law specifies that electors are chosen based on popular vote.  If Republicans had enough votes, they could rewrite the law in emergency session and select the electors as they chose.  Michigan has a Republican majority in both houses but not veto-proof.  Are there any states with Republican supermajorities that are in play?  Could the legislature simply override the existing law and appoint who it wants without revising the statute?  The provision above is not specific as to how it is done.  

Back when U.S. Senators were picked by the legislature and not the people (before 1913), they had unlimited discretion on this matter, and no statute directed their decisions.  This led to the 1859 Indiana "Bogus Senators" situation, where one party refused to show up in the state senate so that there was no quorum; the majority party picked two U.S. Senators anyway and they were seated.  Perhaps a majority of the legislature could simply choose Trump electors, and ignore any existing statute?

Prayer Request

From Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann AND SHARED WITH HER PERMISSION:

In the aftermath of the election, what is going on in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, and Nevada is nothing short of wicked.
Just tonight Arizona was moved from the “blue” column to the “white” toss-up column. Our prayers are availing much! It is now up to the Body of Christ to step up.

WHAT IF we mobilize a mighty intercessory prayer army to storm the gates of heaven on behalf of the voters of these states? If God has chosen to pronounce judgment on our nation and let it fall under the weight of its own wicked devices, then so be it. I can rest in Him knowing that I left it all on the battlefield.

The prayer strategy is simple. Join us in praying through the prayer petitions below. Then, forward this email to at least 10 friends who are prayerfully concerned about this nation and the integrity of our electoral system. The original distribution was to 20 prayer warriors. In only 6 generations of forwarding this letter, it has the potential to reach 20 million prayer warriors!
And this is the confidence we have toward Him, that if we seek anything according to His will, He hears us. (1 John 5:4)

Will You Join Us in Praying Over these FIVE STRATEGIC PRAYER POINTS and forwarding this email to at least 10 other people who are prayerfully concerned about our nation?

PRAYER POINT ONE: Expose and hold accountable those who practice the seven things God hates and He says are detestable to Him: According to Proverbs 6:16-17, There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to Him:
1. haughty eyes 2. a lying tongue 3. hands that shed innocent blood 4. a heart that devises wicked plans 5. feet that are quick to rush into evil 6. a false witness who pours out lies 7. a person who stirs up conflict in the community. Heavenly Father, we humbly ask that in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, and Nevada please silence every lying tongue and convict the hearts of those who devise wicked plans intended to invalidate and nullify the expressed will of the voters. Stop those who would be quick to rush into evil. Expose and silence every false witness who utters lies and operates in deceit. Thwart the efforts of every person who attempts to stir conflict within their community.         

PRAYER POINT TWO: Expose all wickedness intended to steal, kill and destroy the electoral process in these battleground states. Heavenly Father, we humbly ask that in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, and Nevada that you "reveal deep and hidden things. You know what lies in darkness. Light dwells with You.” (Daniel 2:22) Please bring to light and expose every lie, deceit, deception, misrepresentation and illegal act intended to “steal, kill and destroy" the electoral process and the expressed will of the citizens and these states. (John 10:10).

PRAYER POINT THREE: Frustrate those who seek to steal, kill, and destroy electoral integrity and authentic, accurate vote counts in these battleground states. Heavenly Father, please, “Frustrate the plotting of the shrewd so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise or attain success." May no weapon formed intended to steal, kill and destroy the authentic, accurate vote count and expressed will of the people in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, and Nevada "be allowed to prosper." (Isaiah 54:17).

PRAYER POINT FOUR:  Frustrate and thwart the plans of those who attempt to sabotage the state’s election laws and subvert the expressed will of the people. Heavenly Father, please “Capture the wise by their own shrewdness and quickly thwart the advice of the cunning” (Job 5:12) whose intention is to sabotage and subvert state and federal election law and the expressed will of the people in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, and Nevada. "Hold them guilty O LORD, by their own devices let them fall.” (Psalm 5:10)

PRAYER POINT FIVE: Psalm 5 for protection and favor for President Trump. Heavenly Father, please “Give ear to President’ Trump’s words, O LORD, consider President Trump’s groaning. Heed the sound of his cry for help, His King and His God. For to You does he pray. In the morning O LORD, you will hear his voice; in the morning he will order his prayer to you and eagerly watch. For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; no evil dwells with You. The boastful shall stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity. Destroy those who speak falsehood You abhor the man of bloodshed and deceit. But as for President Trump by Your abundant lovingkindness he will enter Your house. At your holy temple he will bow in reverence for you. Lord, please lead President Trump in Your righteousness because of his foes. Make his way straight before him. There is nothing reliable in what they say; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue. Hold them guilty, O God, by their own devices let them fall! In the multitude of their transgressions thrust them out for they are rebellious against You. But let President Trump take refuge in You and be glad. Let him ever sing for joy. May you shelter him. May he who loves Your name exult in You. Bless President Trump, O LORD. Surround him with favor as with a shield. “Heavenly Father, please give supernatural wisdom, strength and discernment to the President and his advisors regarding how to navigate the road ahead. In the Mighty Name of Jesus We Pray, Amen.

Thank you so much for praying!
 

Noisy Z-Axis

For some time,  I have had intermittent problems with the Z axis.  It would make horrible noises and not move,  or very reluctantly move.  I assumed that running it without sufficient lubricant on the lead screw was the cause.   I feared that something nasty was going on in there.   I rewrote several of my programs to give me more control over there Z axis feed rate.   I finally reached Rhee's punt that I could nor ignore it anymore.

The good news is that I when I finally removed the stepper motor, I could see that the set screw that locks the motor shaft to the coupler that drives the lead screw was not in its hole.  That or worked at low speed was probably mostly friction between motor shaft and coupler.   After hunting around in an awkward position inside a black motor mount I finally found the black 10-32 x 1/4" set screw.  The hole was slightly cross-threaded, so I rapped it, screwed it in and everything works like new!

Ever Since DrudgeReport Sold, It Has Become a Leftist News Aggregator

 I hope Matt's reputed sale price of $50 million got him a nice home from which he will be loaded onto a train bound for re-education camp in Ely, Nevada.  In the meantime, the much harder to remember how to spell Bongino Report seems to be his successor.  I found this link to Legal Insurrection's article about Justice Alioto's temporary order:

Until today, this Court was not informed that the guidance issued on October 28, which had an important bearing on the question whether to order special treatment of the ballots in question, had been modified. The application received today also informs the Court that neither the applicant nor the Secretary has been able to verify that all boards are complying with the Secretary’s guidance, which, it is alleged, is not legally binding on them.

Apparently, local election boards did not think state law applied to them.

Psychologist Goes Looking for Racism in College Students and is Disappointed

 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2020-75139-001

Discrimination has persisted in our society despite steady improvements in explicit attitudes toward marginalized social groups. The most common explanation for this apparent paradox is that due to implicit biases, most individuals behave in slightly discriminatory ways outside of their own awareness (the dispersed discrimination account). Another explanation holds that a numerical minority of individuals who are moderately or highly biased are responsible for most observed discriminatory behaviors (the concentrated discrimination account). We tested these 2 accounts against each other in a series of studies at a large, public university (total N = 16,600). In 4 large-scale surveys, students from marginalized groups reported that they generally felt welcome and respected on campus (albeit less so than nonmarginalized students) and that a numerical minority of their peers (around 20%) engage in subtle or explicit forms of discrimination. In 5 field experiments with 8 different samples, we manipulated the social group membership of trained confederates and measured the behaviors of naïve bystanders. The results showed that between 5% and 20% of the participants treated the confederates belonging to marginalized groups more negatively than nonmarginalized confederates. Our findings are inconsistent with the dispersed discrimination account but support the concentrated discrimination account. The Pareto principle states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Our results suggest that the Pareto principle also applies to discrimination, at least at the large, public university where the studies were conducted. We discuss implications for prodiversity initiatives. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

Something That I Never Would Have Thought Possible

 What is Newcomb-Benford's Law?

Benford's law, also called the Newcomb–Benford law, the law of anomalous numbers, or the first-digit law, is an observation about the frequency distribution of leading digits in many real-life sets of numerical data. The law states that in many naturally occurring collections of numbers, the leading digit is likely to be small.^[1] For example, in sets that obey the law, the number 1 appears as the leading significant digit about 30% of the time, while 9 appears as the leading significant digit less than 5% of the time. If the digits were distributed uniformly, they would each occur about 11.1% of the time.^[2] Benford's law also makes predictions about the distribution of second digits, third digits, digit combinations, and so on.

This page lets you test the law against various data sets.

4/1/2017 Journal of Accountancy shows how to use this to look for fraud. (I suspect that if you look at total monthly sales, and the first digit is distributed in the 11.1% distribution, you may want to dig a bit deeper into the books.) So what?  Here is a collection of data using Newcomb-Benton Law to analyze precinct returns.  While many conform to the rule, others are suspicious.  The red lines are expected frequencies:

When you are making up numbers out of your head, you do not even think of Newcomb-Benton Law, and so you produce results that satisfy your inner Democrat, but do not map well to the real world.

Interesting Twist on Alien: Fifth Passenger (2018)

 At first, you think it is a well-done rip-off of Alien, but there is an unexpected twist.

just in case Trump doesn't pull a rabbit out of his hat

There are 66 vacant federal judgeships with 41 nominees.  I would hope that Trump and the Federalist Society would have the Senate fill all 66 judgeships before President Harris gets the chance.

Idaho Legislature

From Idaho Educational News:

Republicans will add two seats to their supermajority in the Idaho Legislature when the 2021 session begins in January.

Two GOP challengers defeated incumbent Democrats with, according to complete but unofficial election results with all 44 counties reporting Wednesday.

That moves the balance of power in the Idaho House to 58 Republicans and 12 Democrats.

Heading into Election Day, Democrats controlled 14 seats in the House.

I guess those nasty Californians are not turning the state blue, but redder.

Trump Still in Running

 Arizona Secy of State reports Biden at 50.7%, and Trump at 47.93%.

Michigan SOS: Trump, 51.07%, Biden at 47.35%.

Pennsylvania SOS: Trump, 50.82%, Biden, 48.03%.

Unless there are lot of votes still on the way from the graveyards, Trump will likely win Penn. and Mich. and beat Biden.  Am I reading these right?

RealClearPolitics shows 197 electoral votes still tossups.  That's still enough for Trump to win.

The stock market rocketed up today, largely on the promised Blue Wave barely producing a ripple.

CNN is pretty much admitting the Democrats failed in their attempt to take the Senate.

If there is any risk of Democratic control of the Senate, the lame-duck Congress needs to confirm Federalist Society picks for those 25 empty seats immediately, skipping the committee process.

Trump is now behind in Michigan, still behind in Arizona, still ahead in Pennsylvania.

A Number of Other Victories

Fox News reports that Susan Collins was re- elected in Maine with the Democrat conceding.   Yes, she was a squish,  but her vote for Kavanaugh was courage in a leftist state like Maine.  And any obstacle to Sen. Schumer controlling the Senate is a win. 

Voter Fraud Or Unbelievable Coincidences?

Gateway Pundit reports on the overnight arrival of 100,000 Biden votes in Wisconsin. 

It's Not Over Yet, But I Am Still Disappointed

 Those who voted Libertarian instead of for Trump seem likely to have helped elect the most anti-Libertarian President in my lifetime, and the least mentally competent.  I was expecting a Trump landslide, based on the enthusiasm gap, but lots of mail-in ballots probably reflect Democrats who do not normally get out much.

Trump is also hated at levels that I do not fully understand.  He's brash, and responded to claims of treason in ways that are perfectly understandable, but seem to turn a lot of people off.  The next Republican nominee will not be Trump, at least in style and demeanor.  Of course, another generation of kids will have been raised to hate capitalism and America, so it's still a question what happens.  The good news is that I will likely have passed before the trains start loading my kind for transport to the Nevada re-education camps.

Politics is Only Part of the Problem

 The alienation and division are symptomatic of a deeper spiritual decline in America.  As John Adams observed when addressing the Massachusetts Militia:

We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition,  Revenge or Galantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Much of the panic the Left is both experiencing and promoting around COVID-19 is like that around AIDS.  People terrified of death will do anything to avoid confronting their own mortality.   Deaths comes for us all; we need to face that with either hope: "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord," or an acceptance that the party does not go on forever. (This should not be a hard decision; if in doubt consider Pascal's Wager.)  The unrelenting rage about AIDS came from the belief that they would be young, sexually active, and beautiful forever.  AIDS ravaged its victims' looks, made many impotent (although not before infecting hundreds to thousands of others), and ended the lives of many men barely adults.  

There are strong parallels; the Left is terrified of death, because they either do not know the grace and eternal life that Jesus promises, or they reject it because it is contrary to their pride, or desire to avoid confronting:

¹⁸ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. ²⁵ They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

²⁶ Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷ In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

²⁸ Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. ³² Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Having Raised the Science Knowledge Issue...

Let me recommend this article about the recent sampling of near Earth asteroid Bennu.

Another Article of Faith

Idahoans are poorly educated and anti-science.   This list of educational achievement by state shows Idaho is #20 in high school graduation rates.

I have no easy way to measure hostility towards science.  But:

"And political party groups are roughly similar in their overall levels of science knowledge, although conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats tend to score higher on the scale than do their more moderate counterparts."