Someone Needs to Explain the Concept of Private Property to This Guy

 My wife and I were shopping at Winco yesterday, and one guy became quite belligerent about refusing to wear a mask.  "You can't make me!"  Regardless of the county ordinance, Winco can require anyone entering the store to abide by their rules or leave.  Not leaving means trespassing and police arrest.

Something to Pass by Your Friends Who Voted for Biden to Get Their Student Loans Forgiven

12/28/20 College Fix:

President-elect Joe Biden recently said that he is “unlikely” to cancel student loans through executive order.

Speaking to a group of columnists last week, Biden reportedly said “it’s arguable that the president may have the executive power to forgive up to $50,000 in student debt.”

“Well, I think that’s pretty questionable. I’m unsure of that. I’d be unlikely to do that,” Biden said.

Karen Tumulty, a columnist for The Washington Post, wrote on Biden’s comments for a recent op-ed.

“Biden has said he would forgive $10,000 in student debt for all borrowers, and the rest of the debt for those who attended public colleges or historically Black colleges and universities and earn less than $125,000 a year,” CNBC reported in November.

Unlike Trump, politicians regard campaign promises as being what Christina Rossetti called "pie crust promises": easily made, easily broken.

A Red Flag Law Should Have Caught This Guy, But They Don't Care About Crazies With Bombs

 12/29/20 WKRN:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Federal investigators are looking into evidence the Antioch man who detonated a bomb in downtown Nashville Christmas morning had spent time hunting for alien life forms in a nearby state park and was interested in “lizard people,” according to law enforcement sources.

The sources told ABC News that Anthony Quinn Warner, 63, may have been motivated, at least in part, by “paranoia over 5G technology,” but that they also found writings that contained ramblings about assorted conspiracy theories, including the idea of shape-shifting reptilian creatures that appear in human form and attempt world domination.

Federal agencies are working to figure out if the beliefs somehow contributed to Warner detonating a bomb inside of an RV parked near Second Avenue North and Commerce Street around 6:30 a.m. Friday, killing himself, injuring three others and damaging more than 40 buildings.

Do ya think there might be a connection?  Do they shape-shift into Democrats?

Another Nerddom Special

 Making Toilet Paper Moonshine.  He uses an enzyme called cellulase that breaks cellulose into sugars.  The rest of the process is obvious.  Priceless comments:

Moonlight io 2 days ago

i wonder if he knows how to make meth with Sudafed

 sergio tapia 2 days ago

@Moonlight io he can prolly make meth outta oreos

Interesting Film

The Dressmaker, set in a 1950s Australian outback town somewhat like Darwin, the place we visit in Darwin: No Services Available.  Humorous in places with a dark side 

A Lot of Smart People With Time on Their Hands

Extracting potassium metal from bananas. 

Too Weird to Believe

12/28/20 College Fix reports on a threat to sue University of Rhode Island if they do not discriminate based on race:

“Some Black, White and Latino students shall join in another class action lawsuit if the next URI President is not an African-American with an ancestry to slavery,” read the list of demands put out by the Diversity Think Tank at the University of Rhode Island.

The complete list of demands spans 46 different points of contention over nearly 15,000 words.

“And, if anyone reading this asks why the next president of URI must be an African-American but has never questioned why URI has had 128-years of white presidents then you must be a racist,” it states....

“Current recruitment firm for senior leadership must change immediately. Current recruiting firm is using the same racist procedures and embedded discriminatory practices that have produced the same all-White leadership at URI for 128 years,” read the opening of this particular demand.

“All current search committees that have produced the same URI senior leaders for 128 years without a single African-American, Latino, Native American or African-American with an ancestry to slavery must be disbanded with immediate effect.”

If racism is a factor, I would look at the small number of black Ph.D.s over the last 128 years, before assuming racism in search process.

“Even Prof. Louis Fosu, experienced what he characterizes as the refined asphyxiation of Black intellect at URI, after he was informed by the Criminal Justice Department Chair in 2018 that there was nothing he could teach in URI’s all-white Criminal Justice Department,” the grievance states. “The entire URI Criminal Justice department is the epitome of institutional and structural racism at URI and needs a complete overhaul and critical restructuring of curriculum, staff and hiring practices.”

If I applied to teach in my college's Criminal Justice Department, I am quite sure that I would get no classes to teach: my MA is in the wrong field.

Other demands and from the activists include tenure for all Latino and black professors and more scholarships for racial minorities.

Automatic tenure based on race.  Why do I think of the National Socialist Aryanization of German universities?  Amazingly, the University is telling them where to put their proposal.

 

Asymptomatic Infection

 Journal of the AMA.  

Household Transmission of SARS-CoV-2A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Infections are primarily within household.  No surprise.  Infections by "asymptomatic index cases (0.7%; 95% CI, 0%-4.9%)"  Yes statistically indistinguishable from 0.  Don't expect to read this anywhere that has a an audience.

More Evidence of Death Inflation

Washington's Freedom Foundation has been asking the Washington State Department of Health to clarify how their COVID-19 death counts are calculated.  The question:

3. What is the source of death counts reported on the DOH COVID-19 dashboard?

The answer:

Deaths are reported initially through EDRS. These deaths are linked to positive COVID cases in WDRS through name and date of birth. Any individual who has a positive COVID-19 test and subsequentlydies is counted on the dashboards.

This is consistent with the experiences of coroners in other states seeing gunshot and traffic accident deaths reported as COVID-19 deaths because they tested positive at some point in time. 

This does not make it a hoax, but at least 13% of Washington State's COVID-19 deaths seem not to be COVID-19 deaths.  This inflation of the numbers makes a lot of people invoke falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, even if they do not know Latin.

A Math Problem

 For

I want a formula that computes distance from chord to circle for any arbitrary point along chord.  I have been beating myself up all morning with what little algebra and trig remains trying to figure this out.  Sagitta is easy for the center of the chord, but what about at other points?

Slovakia

Not a nation about which I often blog.  12/4/20 New York Magazine interviews Harvard epidemiologist about how Slovakia cut their infection rate in half by retesting everyone in the country over four weekends and focusing on those who were infected. 

We could probably do that here,  bur so many people either think it is a hoax, or behave American (they want me to do it? I do not care even if I benefit).

 

This CDC report suggests failure. 

12/7/20 Guardian says it worked:

Mass testing for Covid brought down the infection rate in Slovakia by about 60% in one week, say UK researchers – but in combination with tough quarantine rules and other measures that are not being implemented in Liverpool or elsewhere in the UK.

Slovakia guaranteed high take-up of the rapid tests by requiring employers not to allow people to work without a certificate to prove they had tested negative. Anybody who got a positive result had to go into quarantine with their family, but their full salary was paid for the 10 days of isolation.

Bipod

 Looking for bipods for a QD swivel rifle and AR-15 pattern rifle (no Picatinny rail).  Amazon has both Harris and Magpul bipods (I assume American made).  I suspect the Magpul is pretty decent quality.  I know Harris bipods are just awesome, but a bit more expensive.  Curiously cheap what appears to be a copy of the Harris is CVLife, which I am sure must be ChiCom made, but made of carbon fiber, so really light.

Magpul, Harris, UTG (all USA made): experience?

Interesting Article About COVID-19 Misinformation

Northeastern University study found that misinformation most common among young people and blacks:

Minorities and younger people are more susceptible to fake news and misinformation about COVID-19, and younger generations are also more likely to believe false claims they receive on closed messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger,...

Have Any of You Received the COVID19 Vaccine Yet?

While it appears that it would be a personal win for most people,  it appears public health authorities will not authorize a free society until most are vaccinated. 

Sanity in Britain

12/15/20 BBC article about British government scrapping unconscious bias training and encouraging other public sector employers to do likewise. Why it does nor change biases and provokes backlash.   Some of the crap that I have seen would make me very angry if I were insecure or worried about being able to get another job.   As faster as I can tell much of the unconscious bias out there is imaginary.   Of course,  when I started working there was still conscious bias and sometimes there was not an effort to hide it. 

I was an employment agent for a few years.  The Human Relations Manager at one government contractor asked me to help her find a new job so she could blow the whistle on the Engineering Manager who told her not to bring her any resumes of blacks or Mexicans,  and that women were good for only two things: filling and I think tough can guess the other f-word.  (Saying this to a woman tells me that this guy was nor going to have a good time with EEOC after she was out the door.  It was very nice to find her a new job,  make a few thousand dollars, help sink this creep. 

Yes,  I saw a lot of government ordered racism, too, often so silly and offensive that it seemed as though the KKK was running EEOC.  In a few cases, it clearly injured the minorities it was "helping."

Interesting Article About 2004 Election Fraud Claims

Politico.  Leftists concerned about widespread voter machine fraud, who as much as they hate Trump think our system needs reform.   GOPe will not go for it.  Perhaps initiative process?

I Am Sure You Are Aware of the National Socialist Film Comparing Jews to Teeming Rats

 

12/18/20 Washington Post

All of the state attorneys general and U.S. Congress members who collaborated with President Trump in his attempt to subvert the Constitution and stay in office.

This is going to end with trains to re-education camps and a lot of gunfire.

Always Fun Reading Supreme Court Decisions

 Shapiro v. Thompson (1969) struck down State laws that imposed a residency requirement to collect welfare based on the "right to travel interstate" and the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause:

 We have no occasion to ascribe the source of this right to travel interstate to a particular constitutional provision. It suffices that, as MR. JUSTICE STEWART said for the Court in United States v. Guest, 383 U. S. 745, 757-758 (1966):

"The constitutional right to travel from one State to another . . . occupies a position fundamental to the concept of our Federal Union. It is a right that has been firmly established and repeatedly recognized.

". . . [T]he right finds no explicit mention in the Constitution. The reason, it has been suggested, is that a right so elementary was conceived from the beginning to be a necessary concomitant of the stronger Union the Constitution created. In any event, freedom to travel throughout the United States has long been recognized as a basic right under the Constitution."

Yes, to quote Indiana Jones, "I'm making it up as I go along."  But at least it was funny in that context.

People That Aren't Wearing Masks

 They are obviously listening to experts from earlier this year.  3/2/20 Business Insider:

• 
  

US Surgeon General Jerome Adams said Monday, March 2 that wearing face masks could actually increase a person's risk of contracting COVID-19, echoing remarks he made on Saturday that called for people to "stop buying masks."


In a similar stance, Vice President Mike Pence, the head of the US coronavirus task force, said on Saturday, February 29 that the "average American" does not need to "go out and buy" a mask to protect themselves from coronavirus.

The reason was to reserve the supply for front line health care workers:

• Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, says he doesn't regret advising Americans against wearing masks early on in the COVID-19 pandemic.
• In an interview with CBS News anchor Norah O'Donnell published in InStyle, Fauci defended his credibility and decision-making in response to recent attempts from the White House to undermine and sideline him. 
• "I don't regret anything I said then because in the context of the time in which I said it, it was correct. We were told in our task force meetings that we have a serious problem with the lack of PPEs," he said. 

The war on day 50 always looks different from the war on day 2, but unsurprisingly, people who are already skeptical of the official news media need little provocation to decide that those sources are lying when they see constantly changing recommendations and reports, along with Gov. French Laundry and San Francisco Mayor French Laundry ignoring their own Draconian rules.

But a Lot of Those Are White, So It Does Not Matter

12/18/20 UPI:

The number of U.S. drug overdose deaths reached a record high as the coronavirus pandemic held the country in its grip last spring, new government data shows.

For the 12 months ending in May, more than 81,000 people died from an overdose. That is the highest number ever recorded during a 12-month period, scientists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said....

"We are at a dangerous crossroads in the pandemic with so many people in economic distress, many of whom are isolated with substance abuse disorder, depression and anxiety -- and compounded with job losses and lack of economic support," Glatter noted. "We must do more to support such individuals who are at high risk for overdose."

From what I know of their culture (some of it through my late brother-in-law), if they have jobs at all, they are in the service sector, so as far as our masters are concerned, they don't matter.

Proving Once Again That Orwell Was Right

 College Fix shows a list of words and phrases that IT at the University of Michigan are not to use, supplied by the Words Matter Task Force.  Some are silly, but I can understand why wokesters are concerned: whitelist, blacklist (how will I ever teach 20th century American history?), "black-and-white thinking," "crack the whip."  "Brown bag" is now "lunch and learn" but that's not even a valid replacement.  These wokesters do not know enough to realize that a "brown bag lunch" is not only not Hispanic, but implies nothing about learning.  But "picnic"?  What have I missed on this?  Do people of color and constantly changing self-identity not picnic?

The Ammunition Shortage

 American Rifleman about the severe ammunition shortage:

Consider this a public service announcement of sorts regarding the current ammunition scarcity. I’ve spoken to the top three manufacturers, and if you were/are having difficulty finding ammunition, it’s not because they aren't trying to keep up with demand.

Each one of them reports that they have produced record amounts of ammunition this year. I include Hornady now within that big three, at least until the Remington facility in Arkansas is back up to speed. Just so you know, the Remington plant was perhaps the third or fourth largest ammunition plant in the United States. But more on that in just a moment.

Demand actually was on the upswing before the year 2020 even began. Then the dumpster fire that is 2020 wrought havoc on both gun and ammunition availability. This is a pure demand-driven issue. The government guys who may or may not be in black helicopters are not interested in small rifle primers or .22 Long Rifle. Good luck finding either on the shelf.

I have been through several of these stockpiling binges.  It has always been a question of what fails first: floor joists, or credit card limits?  The good news is that when the civil war starts, we will not run out of ammo.

More Evidence That GOPe Needs Nuking

And from orbit.

The Arizona legislature is looking into allegations of voter fraud in Maricopa County.  They subpoenaed the voting machines and ballots for audit.  The county elections board told the legislature NO.  All local governments are creations of the state government in every State (with a few odd exceptions for cities with home rule exemptions in the State constitution).

12/18/20 KTAR:

PHOENIX (AP) — The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted Friday to fight a sweeping subpoena issued by the state Senate seeking a raft of data and copies of all mail-in ballots cast in the Nov. 3 election that saw Democrat Joe Biden win the majority of votes in the county.

Why are Republicans fighting an investigation of this? They say they will allow an audit after all the election suits are over.  They clearly want Beijing Biden in the White House.  GOPe is as much a captive of fascism as the fascist wing of the Democratic Party.

This is going to get ugly.  Civil War 2 is coming. 

Startling Demographic Discovery

 I am preparing the equal protection section of my 14th Amendment class.  I have long known that the average black Americans is younger than white Americans.  This Pew Research analysis of Census Bureau data is pretty startling:

There were more 27-year-olds in the United States than people of any other age in 2018. But for white Americans, the most common age was 58, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data.

In the histogram above, which shows the total number of Americans of each age last year, non-Hispanic whites tend to skew toward the older end of the spectrum (more to the right), while racial and ethnic minority groups – who include everyone except single-race non-Hispanic whites – skew younger (more to the left).

The most common age was 11 for Hispanics, 27 for blacks and 29 for Asians as of last July, the latest estimates available. Americans of two or more races were by far the youngest racial or ethnic group in the Census Bureau data, with a most common age of just 3 years old. Among all racial and ethnic minorities, the most common age was 27.

It's Bad, But This is More Evidence of Inflated Numbers

 12/15/20 CBS Denver:

GRAND COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) – The Grand County coroner is calling attention to the way the state health department is classifying some deaths. The coroner, Brenda Bock, says two of their five deaths related to COVID-19 were people who died of gunshot wounds.

Bock says because they tested positive for COVID-19 within the past 30 days, they were classified as “deaths among cases.”

Vitamin D and Sunlight

 

American Journal of Infection Control

Volume 48, Issue 9, September 2020, Pages 1042-1044

 

Highlights

•

A significant correlation was found between latitude and COVID-19 fatalities.

•

Countries closer to the equator have lower COVID-19 fatality rates than those that are further from the equator.

•

UV radiation from sunlight increases with proximity to the equator.

•

Insufficient sunlight on skin exposure contributes to vitamin D deficiency.

•

Reported vitamin D deficiency in COVID-19 fatalities may be UV related.

An additional interesting item arguing for more Vitamin D and sunlight:

Lower risks for cancer have been found in countries with higher levels of sunlight exposure.11, 12, 13 One study compared cancers in sunny countries with lower latitudes with less sunny countries with higher latitudes and concluded “that vitamin D production in the skin decreased the risk of several solid cancers (especially stomach, colorectal, liver and gallbladder, pancreas, lung, female breast, prostate, bladder and kidney cancers).”¹³ Significantly lower rates of prostate cancer was found in men whose birth place and longest place of residence was in southern states of the United States, leading the authors to conclude that “residential sunlight exposure reduces the risk of prostate cancer.”¹⁴ Deaths from prostate cancer in America were compared with sunlight UVB exposure and the results were highly significant r = −0.0001), meaning that men who received more sunlight were less likely to die from prostate cancer.¹²

The high mortality rate for African-Americans from COVID-19 is therefore unsurprising. From Journal of Nutrition:

Vitamin D insufficiency is more prevalent among African Americans (blacks) than other Americans and, in North America, most young, healthy blacks do not achieve optimal 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations at any time of year. This is primarily due to the fact that pigmentation reduces vitamin D production in the skin. Also, from about puberty and onward, median vitamin D intakes of American blacks are below recommended intakes in every age group, with or without the inclusion of vitamin D from supplements.

 

People Who Hate Trump More Than Slavery

Voted in the guy who promised to cooperate with China. BBC.

Why Do People Believe These Bizarre Conspiracy Theories About COVID-19?

 It is all a hoax.  There are tracking devices in the vaccine.  All the witnesses to voter fraud are perjuring themselves.

Gee, could four years of wild conspiracy theories (Russian collusion with Trump to steal the 2016 election sourced from the Clinton campaign; the short-lived Ukraine scandal; Kavanaugh was a rapist and all those men from back then were liars; the women with whom he had worked who gave him glowing testimonials: all liars).

A whole movement that spent the last 50 years whining that the FBI was a political hit squad going after antiwar activists and the Black Panthers for political reasons (and they did), that the NSA was tapping phones for improper reasons, and the CIA was a bunch of torturers overturning democratic governments (and they did, including the one closest to home).  Now all these organizations can be trusted?

Please: Democrats, consider what you made respectable thinking.

Devastating Forensic Analysis of Voting Machine Fraud

This is in Antrim County, Michigan,  but likely a problem everywhere.   The election was stolen. 

Worth Reading

San Mateo County public health officer saying what any sane person would say: changing behavior is about education not issuing orders:

• I’m not sure we know what we’re doing. (Please don’t misinterpret this sentence. The science and public health principles around disease transmission interruption – no gathering, mask wearing, social distancing, etc. – are clear. I’m referring to how to get you, the community, to change your behavior). I look at surrounding counties who have been much more restrictive than I have been, and wonder what it’s bought them. Now, some of them, are in a worse spot than we are. Does an unbalanced approach on restrictions make things worse? Maybe, maybe not. But I think there is a more likely explanation. When I look at the trend data, the Bay Area seems to mostly move as a region, and it seems to me to be pretty independent of individual Health Officers’ actions. 
• The SAH order will make it more difficult for schools to open or to stay open. It is a very hard needle to thread to message that everyone must stay at home by strict order, but it’s ok for kids to go to school. I continue to strongly believe our schools need to be open. The adverse effects for some of our kids will likely last for generations. Schools have procedures to open safely even during a surge as evidenced by data. My earlier stated positions from June remain the same. 
  

Surely a hard, enforced, SAH order will certainly drive down transmission rates. But what we have before us is a symbolic gesture, it appears to be style over substance, without any hint of enforcement, and I simply don’t believe it will do much good. I think people should stay at home, avoid all non-essential activities, wear masks, and not gather with anyone outside their households. I’ve been saying this for about 10 months now. If you didn’t listen to my (and many others) entreaties before, I don’t think you’ll likely change your behavior based on a new order. I appreciate that some of you think I (or the government) have magical abilities to change everyone’s behavior, but I assure you, I (we) do not.

Being in the purple tier, the State has already put significant restrictions on businesses and the public space in San Mateo County. I am aware of no data that some of the business activities on which even greater restrictions are being put into place with this new order are the major drivers of transmission. In fact, I think these greater restrictions are likely to drive more activity indoors, a much riskier endeavor. While I don’t have scientific evidence to support this, I also believe these greater restrictions will result in more job loss, more hunger, more despair and desperation (the structure of our economy is, for the most part, if you don’t work, you don’t eat or have a roof over your head), and more death from causes other than COVID. And I wonder, are these premature deaths any less worrisome than COVID deaths?...

Someone With a Threading Attachment For Your Lathe?

 I need to cut an external thread to screw into what appears to be an M40x0.5 thread.  My Bushnell scope seems like it would accept such a thread.  The ID seems to be 40.64mm, and I can measure 5mm of thread with about ten turns.  Yes, I am trying to get a 5" long sunshade and not having much luck finding one off the shelf.

14th Amendment Deniers

 I was searching for ratification date and I was surprised to see a lot of websites devoted to proving it was not ratified.  I am not going to link to them.  Many say President Johnson did not sign it.  Amendments go directly from Congress to the States.

How is Your Church Handling COVID?

I know a lot of you are Christians of various denominations.   The church we have been attending has shown pretty severe lack of concern.   Neither pastor nor his wife ever wear masks, at church or elsewhere.   A wedding a few weeks ago has so far infected 1/3 of those involved.   At least one was in the ICU for a while (not a high risk person).  A couple of older members have died in nursing homes.  It is unclear where the exposure happened.

So what is your church doing?

Hoarding in Times of Crisis

 12/12/20 Seattle Times:

It had been months since the state sent any personal protective equipment.

The residents of Dorothy Schlimme’s long-term care homes, many of whom are frail, as well as staff, have been wearing blue disposable face masks she bought from Costco.

She would’ve liked some of Washington’s huge stockpile of N95 masks, which filter 95% of airborne particles, but hardly any of them made it to providers. By mid-November the stockpile had grown to more than 30 million N95s.

This week, however, 150 of the state’s N95 masks arrived for her three Auburn homes, free of charge.

“All the help we can get from the state government is welcome,” Schlimme said. “We’re basically opening our hands.”

Washington officials have been distributing millions of N95 masks over the past month to prisons, long-term care providers, county emergency managers and others. The change comes after pleas from advocates and a November Seattle Times report that spotlighted the state’s extensive surplus.

 Washington State has a bit more than seven million people.  How many did they expect to need?

The Supreme Court Rejected Texas' Appeal

 It is going to be an ugly four years as journalists concerned about government wrongdoing go to sleep so that Biden's wealthy cronies resume exporting jobs to China and increasing the economic power of the next likely military enemy of the U.S.  I wish the Republican majorities in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, and Michigan had pursued efforts to prevent vote fraud, but the Never Trumpers remain in positions of power.  I wonder how much economic destruction Biden will cause before working Democrats realize what a mistake they made.

Interesting Article About Labor Unions and Race

 I was reading decisions concerning the use of the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause and affirmative action for my spring semester 14th Amendment class.  (This will be online; if really interested, there may be time to apply to College of Western Idaho and enroll.)  Richmond v. JA Croson Co.(1989) involved an attempt to ameliorate past wrongs:

On April 11, 1983, the Richmond City Council adopted the Minority Business Utilization Plan (the Plan). The Plan required prime contractors to whom the city awarded construction contracts to subcontract at least 30% of the dollar amount of the contract to one or more Minority Business Enterprises (MBE's). Ordinance No. 83-69-59, codified in Richmond, Va., City Code, § 12-156(a) (1985). The 30% set-aside 478*478 did not apply to city contracts awarded to minority-owned prime contractors.

Adding to the problem, there was no clear evidence that the disparity in minority owned construction contractors in the Richmond area was because of past discrimination.  Curiously, there is some evidence that this shortage might have been the result of governmental action:

The Davis-Bacon Act, passed by Congress in 1931, requires private contractors to pay "prevailing wages" to employees on all federally funded construction projects over $2000. Most often, the "prevailing wage" corresponds directly to the union wage. This is especially true in urban areas, where union membership tends to be higher.

The Davis-Bacon Act covers a significant portion of the projects undertaken by the construction industry. Approximately 20 percent of all construction projects in the U.S. are covered by the Act, affecting more than 25 percent of all construction workers in the nation at any given time.

The Act was passed with the specific intent of preventing non-unionized black and immigrant laborers from competing with unionized white workers for scarce jobs during the Depression. This invidious law continues to have devastating discriminatory effects, as minorities tend to be vastly underrepresented in highly unionized skilled trades, and over-represented in the pool of unskilled workers who would benefit,if the prevailing wage laws were abolished.

The advantage given to union labor certainly contributed to reduced opportunities for black workers.  This 1959 Commentary article details how labor union discrimination played a part in the battle for equal rights in the 1950s:

The removal of the sanction of law from racial segregation has sharply posed the issue of the Negro’s status in virtually every area of American life. As much as the public schools, religious organizations, and business firms, the labor movement is on trial today. For labor’s democratic ideals are in serious conflict with a tradition of racial discrimination in the unions that is currently very much alive.

To some degree, union discrimination simply reflects the racial and religious prejudices among union members—prejudices that many unionists share with other prejudiced persons. Thus recently in the North, groups of white workers participated in violence against Negroes at Trumbull Park in Chicago and at Levittown, Pennsylvania. And in the South, workers have given considerable support to the White Citizens Councils and other groups seeking to perpetuate segregated institutions....

The Negro had established his first beachheads in industry during World War I, but most AFL unions still practiced a rigorous exclusionist policy throughout the 1920’s. In some instances still, Negroes were able to enter industry only when employers hired them as strikebreakers.² In other industries, predominantly those employing mass production methods, the Negro was able to gain a modest foothold because the craft-proud AFL would not organize them. But the limited gains of the Negroes in the 20’s were destroyed during the Depression, largely because the AFL had not extended union protection to the Negro in the earlier period. As late as 1933, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, with 35,000 members, had almost half the total number of Negro members in the AFL.

Now the Davis-Bacon Act impacted workers, not contractors.  But what is the usual path to being a construction contractor?  I suspect most contractors at some point swung a hammer, laid bricks, or poured concrete.

Texas v. Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin

 It is here.  It seems pretty devastating.  If the Court does not hear this, we will certainly find out which justices have embarrassing pictures in the Epstein archive.

It Sounds Like Biden is Serious About Unifying Americans, But Not How He Thinks

 12/9/20 Washington Examiner:

Joe Biden plans to move quickly against guns, adding the issue to his list of first executive orders, according to his top policy aide.

Stef Feldman, the national policy director of Biden's presidential campaign, included the Democrat’s gun plan in a list of initial executive actions set to be unleashed after Inauguration Day....

While he calls his plan one aimed at ending “gun violence,” most of Biden’s ideas amount to limiting what people can buy or have. For example, he wants to end the sale of AR-15-style firearms (the most popular in the nation), regulate those that people already have, and limit the size of magazines those guns use.

Almost half the voters already think Beijing Biden cheated and now he wants to end sales and limit magazine size?  President Biden, you and what army?  There are at least 20 million AK and AR pattern rifles in America, and vast numbers of Americans with handguns that came with 17 round magazines.  Any attempts at confiscation will result in at least .1% of those 20 million surrendering their guns one bullet at a time.  All of us know at least one fellow gun owner who is going to go over the top on this.  Most will likely die under the combined force of a federal LEO SWAT team, but if even 10% of that .1% of 20 million end up killing a federal LEO, 20,000 LEOs will not go home, and many of the others will start to think HARD about the legality of their orders and whether their pensions are worth leaving widows and orphans.  

In response to a few well-publicized raids, federal buildings will become free fire zones.  Five riflemen (all working independently) with .308 and bigger will easily shut down a federal building from 500 meters away.  I suspect any federal employees not already Zooming to work will stop showing up to work.  I can hardly wait for Biden to explain why Trump sending federal LEOs into Portland was tyranny, but calling out the Army is not.

Friends of a Friend Have Already Received COVID-19 Vaccine As Part of Trials

 Both reported headaches and muscle aches for a day or two but nothing that could not be managed with Tylenol.  The sooner most people are vaccinated, the sooner the Demofascists will just expose themselves as the authoritarian thugs they are, and the sooner we can get the economy back to work.  I have reservations for a European cruise next spring.  Let's not stop that from happening.

Glad to See This Tracking Device in Vaccine Crazy is Not Just America

 5/29/20 BBC:

First up, a conspiracy theory about vaccines that has spanned the globe.

It claims that the coronavirus pandemic is a cover for a plan to implant trackable microchips and that the Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is behind it....

The head of the Russian Communist party this week said that so-called "globalists" supported "a covert mass chip implantation which they may in time resort to under the pretext of a mandatory vaccination against coronavirus".

He didn't mention Mr Gates by name but in the US, Roger Stone, a former adviser to Donald Trump, said Bill Gates and others were using the virus for "microchipping people so we can tell 'whether you've been tested'."

A new YouGov poll of 1,640 people suggests that 28% of Americans believe that Bill Gates wants to use vaccines to implant microchips in people - with the figure rising to 44% among Republicans.

Rumours took hold in March when Mr Gates said in an interview that eventually "we will have some digital certificates" which would be used to show who'd recovered, been tested and ultimately who received a vaccine. He made no mention of microchips.

That response led to one widely shared article, under the headline: "Bill Gates will use microchip implants to fight coronavirus".

The article makes reference to a study, funded by The Gates Foundation, into a technology that could store someone's vaccine records in a special ink administered at the same time as an injection.

However, the technology is not a microchip and is more like an invisible tattoo. It has not been rolled out yet, would not allow people to be tracked and personal information would not be entered into a database, says Ana Jaklenec, a scientist involved in the study....

Conspiracy theories about Bill Gates have reached the Italian Parliament, where an independent MP called for Bill Gates to be referred to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

5/27/20 Slate:

If you’re worried about location tracking, look no further than your cellphone. Phones are bona fide tracking devices; people use their GPS functions all the time to find their friends or map their routes. There are serious, worrisome privacy violations that can come from companies collecting and sharing your GPS data, yet we willingly give up that information daily. As Slate’s politics editor Tom Scocca puts it: “Bill Gates doesn’t have to implant a tracker in you because Steve Jobs got you to buy one yourself.”

 

 

Texas Does Everything Big

I have not read the complaint,  but Texas is suing the battleground fraud states for diluting Texas' electoral votes by failing to follow their own procedures.   I can immediately see use of the one man, one vote use of the equal protection clause to argue that the unlawful votes have diminished the lawful votes of Texans.  Because the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction on any suits between states, there is no need to appeal up the chain.  I just hope the 6 conservatives on the Court have enough courage.

Malwarebytes

I have used the free version for some time to find and remove malware.  It is a little awkward to remember to run it periodically.  Because my wife's is especially prone to this (why, oh why does anyone put malware in song lyrics webpages) I thought I would buy the Premium version that intercepts stuff as it comes in.  My PC started to hang.   Even Ctl Alt Del did nothing.   I found that if I caught it just after it started,  and removed Malwarebytes before it had a chance to start some ugly process in background, it worked again.  So i installed the free version which had the same version number.  I should have noticed that.   Same behavior.   When searching for information on this,  I found others having the same problem.   I think that I have two days later,  restored my system.  Windows System Restore is slow but it is way better than reinstalling.  Make sure you create system restore points when everything is working.

Annoying Driver Problem

My wife's laptop has suffered intermittent WiFi disconnects ever since we moved.  She hates to "bother me" with problems until she gets RIP roaring mad.  While trying to figure out the problem, I noticed the Broadcom AC drivers were out of date.  Since we use ac band with the new router,  I think I found it.  To be sure I wrote a batch file that pings google.com, verifies that the ERRORLEVEL is 0 and loops.  If ERRORLEVEL is >0 (meaning the WiFi is now disconnected) it stops with a Fail message.  I will run it all night.

The intermittent disconnect is gone and the highest data rate is now reporting 60MB/sec. instead of the promised 50.

Why Californians Are Coming Here

10/21/20 Idaho Statesman has an interview with an Hispanic lady explaining that she brought her family here because she no longer felt safe being a Trump supporter in Sacramento.

They may be driving up real estate prices,  but they are not turning the state blue.  

That's the native Idahoans most of whom have never lived under Blue government. 

Sing Along with the Bee Gees: "Tragedy"

12/1/2020 Slate warns that the whole progressive agenda is in danger because Trump's appointees to the Court look unfavorably on the delegation of executive power doctrine, which allows Congress to pass laws without identifying precisely what needs to be fixed and telling the "experts" to make the rules. 

Just think!  Congress might have to think out the details and be responsible for what they do!  You can see why there is progressive panic!

Paranoia Runs Deep, Into Your Life It Will Creep

I was told by someone who visited two different doctors recently that a number of patients have said they will not get the COVID-19 vaccine because of the tracker in it.  

I know microelectronics is getting smaller and smaller, but through a hypodermic needle? What antisocial media started this?

What Language is This Spam?

 I am sure it isn't a Nigerian prince!

Bol by som rád, keby ste mi umožnili prostredníctvom tohto média požiadať o vašu spoluprácu a zabezpečiť si príležitosť investovať s vami vo vašej krajine.

Progressivism Through the Ages

 I was preparing my 14th Amendment class for the spring semester and I was looking for a reputable source concerning Sweden's mandatory sterilization laws (1934-74).  I found this 8/29/1997 Washington Post article:

The victims were young and mostly female, judged to be rebellious or promiscuous, of low intelligence or perhaps of mixed blood. One was a young woman whose priest believed she had not learned her confirmation lessons well enough, another who couldn't read a blackboard because she did not have eyeglasses and was deemed to be retarded.

In the eyes of Swedish authorities, they were misfits in a forward-looking nation, and for that they paid a terrible price: sterilization at the hands of the state, often against their will. From 1934 to 1974, 62,000 Swedes were sterilized as part of a national program grounded in the science of racial biology and carried out by officials who believed they were helping to build a progressive, enlightened welfare state.

8/29/1997 Associated Press:

Like Sweden and many other European countries, Denmark began its sterilization program in the grip of enthusiasm for eugenics, the belief in improving the human race by controlling breeding.

The theory was founded by Sir Francis Galton of Britain in the 1880s. It acquired popularity in the early half of the 20th century, when many nations, including the United States, sterilized people declared insane.

``In Denmark, eugenics was considered an obvious solution to huge social problems,″ Koch said.

The forced sterilization program in Denmark mainly was directed at people who were mentally handicapped, Koch said.

 

Concept: Hokey. Result: Entertaining

 It was a free sci-fi movie on YouTube, so I started it while on the treadmill.  The Enterprise task force is sunk off North Korea.  Someone has mastered stealth technology for a surface ship and a directed EMP.  They are using it to attack U.S. and South Korean targets.  Who are the obvious bad guys?  

Pretty much all of our supposedly EMP-hardened electronics on which our modern armed forces rely no longer works, including our fly-by-wire aircraft.  

Fortunately, the USS Iowa is on a world farewell cruise, headed to a final berth as a museum.  Curators are busy returning it to World War II technology.  EMP?  What's that?  

So why is it sci-fi?  Someone is trying to start World War III to take over the smoldering ashes.  Really great fun, and nice use of file footage and it appears some video games okay simulation of an Iowa-class battleship.

Interesting TV

 My wife and I were watching a history series: The Story of Europe.  The narrator reached France just before things became ugly.  A small number of people at the top living ostentatiously luxurious lives, looting the starving peasants, while convinced of their right to do so.  Both of us immediately recognized the parallels.  A small number of billionaires and decamillionaires and hectamillionaires living large, while the Deplorables often are just getting by, many of whom in their despair are destroying themselves with meth and alcohol.  This increasingly blatant election theft may be setting us up for something as bloody and ugly as the French Revolution, especially if Biden and Beto try to attempt a gun grab as a step to greater tyranny.

Then we watched a marvelously done BBC production of Les Miserables (there is no singing, except the Marseilles).  It captures the desperation of post-Napoleonic French peasantry.  The 1830 Revolutionaries are portrayed as a mix of idealistic college boys, oppressed peasants and workers, and common criminals.

 You are doubtless aware of the famous Delacroix painting commemorating it:

 

 

Watching their street battles with the French Army at the barricades brought to mind several points that may be relevant if things get ugly.

 

1. The larger your group, the more chance that a Javert (the evil policeman chasing the reformed, even virtuous ex-con Jean Valjean) will infiltrate.  Lone wolves are by far the most secure method of operations.

2. Not every ally will be people you would want over for dinner.

3. People you would not expect (even wealthy people who you might expect to be on the other side) may surprise you, in a good way.  I suspect that I am at the low end of the demographic of the average Biden contributor.  People with aspirations for a private jet (or at least a timeshared private jet) but unlikely to get there.

4. Direct confrontation with regular Army is not likely to be successful.  The 1830 Revolutionaries are expecting much of the French Army to change sides.  In America, I would expect National Guard troops to do so; they have been held in contempt by regulars in the Middle Eastern wars, and many are more civilian Deplorables than regulars.  I do think in a real, civil war, many regulars may suddenly lose their accuracy of fire and some may retreat from the field having conveniently left rifles, magazines, grenades behind.

5. Much of armed resistance are likely to be older people with only a few years left, for whom death in battle for a great cause may seem pretty good compared to the evils that old age (70s, 80s, and 90s) visit upon us.  An interesting quirk of the Constitutional definition of treason:

The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted.

As I understand that, even if you are convicted of treason, or declared a traitor posthumously, your estate can still be inherited.

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.