A ‘Surge’ of Media-Hyped Fear

Posted on | July 27, 2021 | Comments Off on A ‘Surge’ of Media-Hyped Fear

Two graphics, courtesy of the New York Times. The first shows U.S. COVID-19 deaths dating back to the beginning of the pandemic:

The second graph shows COVID-19 deaths during the past month:

Notice that I’m showing you COVID-19 deaths, not “cases.” Because officials treat a positive test as a “case,” regardless of whether the person has symptoms (let alone severe symptoms requiring hospitalization), the reported number of COVID-19 “cases” is an unreliable barometer of the actual prevalence of the disease. By contrast, dead is dead.

Furthermore, treatment protocols for COVID-19 have advanced considerably over the past 18 months, so that if someone does become infected, doctors are better able to prevent their case from reaching a serious and potentially deadly stage, especially when the patient seeks help early. And, it should be obvious, those most vulnerable to disease were killed in the first year of the pandemic. All of these factors go into explaining why, despite constant hype from the media, we actually are not experiencing a “surge” of COVID-19 deaths.

What the media are doing now is selectively focusing on reports of localized “surges” — Miami, for example — in an effort to convince Americans that (a) there is a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” and therefore (b) we need to return to lockdowns and mandatory masks.

Why? On the one hand, the virus is real and vaccination should be encouraged. But on the other hand, the media hype is unscientific. The current 7-day average of daily COVID-19 deaths (275) is 92% below what it was six months ago, at the peak of the pandemic. Even if there has been a rise in the number of “cases” (defined as positive test results) in the past six weeks, this has not translated to a spike in COVID-19 deaths.

Senior citizens are most at risk for serious complications or death from the coronavirus, but the vast majority of those 65 and older are vaccinated. Most of the COVID-19 “cases” being reported now are among younger patients, very few of whom are likely to die from the disease. You see anecdotal reports in the media about younger people dying of COVID-19, but such cases are not part of a statistically significant trend.

My hunch — and it is only a hunch — is that this “surge” hype is really being driven by the teachers unions, who want to keep schools closed, and are exerting pressure on the Democratic Party who, in turn, are pumping out “surge” propaganda via their media allies. Part of this message is about scapegoating Republicans as responsible for vaccine “resistance,” even though the lowest vaccination rates are among blacks and Hispanics, both of whom are key Democratic Party constituencies.

None of this, of course, is intended as an argument against vaccination. I’m not at high risk, and therefore haven’t gotten the shot yet, and actually suspect that I might have already had a mild case that would make me immune. Furthermore, some friends and family members who have gotten the vaccine tell me the side-effects can make you feel crappy for a day or two. So I’ve avoided getting vaccinated thus far, but I’ve gotten so tired of the incessant nagging from the media that I’m now thinking I should go get the shot because SHUT UP!

Category: Media Bias

In The Mailbox: 07.26.21

Posted on | July 27, 2021 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 07.26.21

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

Under The Same Sky – Princess Anastasia

OVER THE TRANSOM
Bacon Time: Food That You Don’t Put Catsup On
357 Magnum: Mob Randomly Attacks Guy Walking His Dog

EBL: Larry Elder For Governor, also, Jackie Mason, RIP
Twitchy: Apparently The Cleveland Indians Didn’t Do Their Homework Before Changing Their Name
Louder With Crowder: Comedian Explains Free Speech Slowly Enough For Joe Biden To Understand, also, Fauci Whines About Being Criticized, WaPo Reporter Hits Back Hard
Vox Popoli: The Possible Connection, also, Americans Are The Indians Now
Monster Hunter Nation: The Interstate Tour Of Hate Starts This Week!

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: All The Gear And No Idea
American Conservative: President Biden, Keep Red China Away From American Farmland
American Greatness: Why Not Award Ashli Babbitt’s Killer The Medal Of Honor? also, The Red Chinese Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
American Power: My High School Taught Me Critical Race Theory Six Years Ago & Tried To Reeducate Me When I Fought Back
American Thinker: Traveling The Quiet Road To Tyranny, also, Pride & The Fall Of Dr. Fauci
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: U.S. Joined By 21 Nations In Condemning Cuban Dictatorship – No West European Or G7 Nations Among Them
BattleSwarm: Something Resembling A Texas Gubernatorial Race? also, Reminder – Significant Parts Of Russia Are Still Primitive Crapholes
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted American, also, Russians Detach Pirs Module, Anticipating Arrival Of Nauka
Cafe Hayek: The Essential UCLA School Of Economics, also, David French On Structural Racism
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday, also, Midrats Summer Melee
Da Tech Guy: The Biden Regime Has Officially Instituted A Ministry Of Truth, also, Thoughts About Msgr. Burrill Under The Fedora
Don Surber: Can We 25th Amendment Kamala? also, Destroy Sports, Destroy America
First Street Journal: No Jail Term Will Ever Be Long Enough, also, We Can’t Have A Solar Park There!
Fred On Everything: A Sadistic Foreign Policy
The Geller Report: Democrats On Seeing Election Integrity Laws In 18 States – “We’re F*****d”, also, Video Of Hunter Biden Smoking Crack And Whining About Rehab To Dead Bro’s Wife Emerges
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, also, Significant Unrest
Hollywood In Toto: South Park‘s Trey Parker – “We’re Still Waiting To Be Canceled”, also, Tomorrow War Is A Missed Opportunity, Full Stop
The Lid: Jackie Mason, 1928-2021 – RIP
Legal Insurrection: Big Tech Expanding Joint Database On Domestic Groups, Focused On “Far-Right” Extremists, also, Hillsdale College Counters 1619 Project With “1775 Curriculum”
Nebraska Energy Observer: Random Observations, also, American Notes & The Feast Day of The Magdalene
Outkick: American Optimism About The Future Plummets, also, Big 12 Moves To Third Stage Of Grief – Bargaining With OU, Texas
Power Line: Gaining Depth On Gain of Function – Fauci Flops, also, The Telos Of Leftist Racial Ideology
Shark Tank: Rubio Remains Optimistic For Cuba – Calls For End Of Communist Regime
Shot In The Dark: The Boon That Keeps On Doggling
STUMP: Mortality With Meep
The Political Hat: Dallas Justice Now – Imagine Premier Universities Empty Of White People
This Ain’t Hell: Man Ticketed For Flying Old Glory In Front Of His Business, also, The Redemption Of Gus Grissom
Transterrestrial Musings: The Auto Chip Shortage, also, A Cautionary Tale?
Victory Girls: Durkan Attempts To Re-Imagine Policing In Seattle, also, Adam Kinzinger “Humbly” Joins January 6 Inquisition
Volokh Conspiracy: How To Reform The Olympics
Weasel Zippers: Fleeing Texas Democrat – “Rural Cops” Are After Us! also, PayPal Looks To Ban Transactions “That Fund Hate”
The Federalist: Liz Cheney – The Most Unpopular Republican In The Country, also, How H.R. 4 Would Let Leftist Extremists At DOJ Control The Nation’s Elections
Mark Steyn: Painting By Six-Figure Numbers, also, Weimar, He’s Making Eyes At You

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Category: Linkagery

Forget ‘De-funding Police,’ AOC Now Wants to Abolish the Prison System

Posted on | July 26, 2021 | Comments Off on Forget ‘De-funding Police,’ AOC Now Wants to Abolish the Prison System

She wants to turn loose all the rapists and murderers:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said she wants to “abolish” the U.S. carceral system during a campaign event for Ohio congressional candidate Nina Turner on Saturday.
“I want to abolish our carceral system that’s designed to trap Black and Brown men,” the democratic socialist told a rally of Turner supporters in Cleveland. “I want justice. I want peace, and I want prosperity. That’s what I want.”
Ocasio-Cortez was in Cleveland for a canvassing event supporting Turner, a progressive former state senator and co-chair of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign.
Turner is looking to represent Ohio’s 11th Congressional District — a seat vacated by former U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge when she became secretary of Housing and Urban Development in March.
Ocasio-Cortez on Saturday characterized Turner’s fight as one between grassroots and corporate politics.
“This isn’t about Nina versus any opponent; this is about the people versus big money,” the congresswoman said, WJW reported.
“This is a deep blue seat. It’s a deep blue seat,” she reportedly said. “Districts like Ohio’s 11th should be leading the country on issues. They are opportunities, they are very rare opportunities, very rare districts like this one that can take and be visionary.”
Local Democratic Party chairwoman Shontel Brown, a moderate, is Turner’s biggest opponent in the crowded Democratic primary that takes place Aug. 3.
“The contrast in this race could not be clearer,” Brown’s campaign said in response to Ocasio-Cortez’s comments, WJW reported. “Shontel Brown is the only candidate who from day one can work with the Biden administration and our house majority to deliver good-paying jobs, affordable healthcare, and affordable prescription drugs to northeast Ohio.”

Cleveland is in the top five cities with the highest homicide rates — higher than either Chicago or Philadelphia — and 12 people were shot in Cleveland over the weekend. Now imagine if AOC gets her way and we “abolish our carceral system.” A coast-to-coast wave of violent crime.

Electing a dangerous nutcase like Nina Turner to Congress — and Turner must be a lunatic, or else AOC wouldn’t endorse her — will only serve to further strengthen the GOP’s grip on Ohio. Twelve of the state’s 16 House seats are held by Republicans, and in the past two presidential elections, Donald Trump won 80 of Ohio’s 88 counties.

Category: Crime, Democrats

The #1 Cause of Anti-Semitism

Posted on | July 26, 2021 | Comments Off on The #1 Cause of Anti-Semitism

If the Anti-Defamation League wants to do something to suppress anti-Semitism in this country, they would encourage Chuck Schumer to retire or, failing that, tell him to stop insulting Americans:

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer berated 74 million Trump voters, saying at an event with Roosevelt Island and Upper East Side community leaders in New York that they voted for a “despicable,” “racist,” and “vile” man.
“How could 74 million people vote for such a despicable human being as Donald Trump?” Schumer asked in the video. “I don’t care if you’re a liberal or a conservative, Democrat or Republican, he is a vile man.”
“He is dishonest, divisive. That’s what he loves to do. Just divide and have people fighting with each other. He’s a racist,” Schumer claimed. “And he always appeals to the dark side of human nature.”

Everything that Schumer said about Trump is twice as true of Schumer, who is and always has been one of the most dishonest and divisive people in American politics. The fact that New Yorkers would elect such a vicious scumbag to the Senate is a stain upon the reputation of New York. And if anyone ever asks, “What is causing a rise in anti-Semitism?” we need only point to Schumer as the primary cause. As much as I loathe Jew-haters, it is difficult to blame them, whenever I think of Schumer, who is the living example of a cartoon stereotype. “Vile” and “despicable,” indeed!

Category: Democrats

Rule 5 Sunday: Bunny Girl Senpai

Posted on | July 25, 2021 | Comments Off on Rule 5 Sunday: Bunny Girl Senpai

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Mai Sakurajima, the leading lady of the series Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, is a former child actress and model who’s walked out on her promising career so she can finish high school – but after starting in mid-year, it’s too late for her to join any of the social circles in her school, and she’s effectively invisible until Sakuta Azusagawa sees her wandering the school library in a bunny girl costume. Here Mai is portrayed by Redditor r/FineSensitiveProduce alongside a pic of the original.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Ninety Miles From Tyranny: Hot Pick of the Late Night, The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #1421, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns.

Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Misery Index Friday, and the Saturday Gingermageddon.

EBL: Il Trovatore, Cosmic Sin, La Fille du Regiment, Les Contes d’Hoffman, Les Pecheurs de Perles, War of the Worlds, Cavalleria Rusticana & Il Pagliacci, Le Nozze de Figaro, Nina Simone, and Un Ballo In Maschera.

A View From The Beach: Another Sci-Fi Cutie – Jewel Staite, Fish Pic Friday – Hooked on Michelle, Remember, They Hate You and Think You’re Stupid Hicks, Unexpectedly, Bay Crabs in Trouble, Prices Rise, Thursday Tanlines, The Wednesday Wetness, Virginia Blues Have the Blues, “Tush”, No Love for Love at TPUSA, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Enjoy that Barbeque!, Palm Sunday, and That Wasn’t a Mugging, It was an “Interaction”.

Brian Noggle: Inara Or Kaylee?

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Shop Sex & Sensuality Gifts

Category: Rule 5

‘There’s Always a Reason’

Posted on | July 25, 2021 | Comments Off on ‘There’s Always a Reason’

Among the cardinal principles of military science is unity of command — the man in charge is the man in charge, and bad things happen when command is divided. If we think about the Civil War, for example, the Union effort struggled until Lincoln put U.S. Grant in charge. Before the spring campaign of 1864 opened, Grant and Sherman met to coordinate their planned offensives, east and west, and it was this coordination, made possible by Grant’s authority as overall commander, that finally broke the South’s resistance. We can also consider the problems experienced by Germany in World War II as exemplifying this principle in reverse. Hitler constantly interfered in the dispositions of his generals, and in the defending against the Allied invasion of 1944, the Germans had a divided command in France, with Rommel in charge of the immediate beach defenses, but with Rundstedt in overall command of the theater. Rommel knew that the crucial point was to stop the Allies on the beaches, and wished to bring in the armored reserve for that purpose at Normand, but Rundstedt — under the absurd belief that the Normandy invasion was a feint — refused to release the tanks Rommel needed.

Football is like warfare — either the coach is in charge, or he’s not. If the ownership and management interfere in the coach’s plans, this undermines his authority, and a good coach will not tolerate such a situation. You could ask Nick Saban about this. In 2003, Saban took LSU to the National Championship, and a year later, he was signed to be head coach of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, a team that hadn’t accomplished much of anything since Don Shula’s heyday in the 1970s. They had gone 4-12 in 2004, but in Saban’s first year, they went 9-7 — a significant improvement. The next season, they sank to 6-10, and Saban knew what the Dolphins needed, namely a quarterback. He had one in mind, too:

Nick Saban’s NFL head coaching career lasted all of two seasons but the former Miami Dolphins head coach might have stuck around longer if team doctors didn’t fail Drew Brees for his physical. . . .
“Look when the Miami Dolphins were going to sign Drew Brees, Drew was coming to Miami when I was the coach there. He was going to be the quarterback. That’s all we needed,” Saban said at the Texas High School Coaches Association’s annual convention on Tuesday, via 247sports.
“We just went 9-7 and all we needed was a quarterback to be a playoff team. We were going to sign Drew Brees as a free agent. Dr. (James) Andrews operated on him and I went to Birmingham to see Dr. Andrews, and he said it’ll be fine. Our doctors failed him on the physical. (Drew) was there to sign with us.”
Saban went on to say that he actually told Brees’ agent at the time that he would wait three days before breaking the news so that a deal with the New Orleans Saints could happen. It was at that point that Saban decided it was time to leave the NFL.
“So, I decided right then when that happened that we don’t have a quarterback in the NFL, we’re not going to win. I’m getting out of here. I’m not staying here. I’m not going to be responsible for this,” he said.
“That doctor didn’t know his a– from a handful of sand. Drew Brees plays 15 more years, wins a Super Bowl, goes to nine Pro Bowls. And we didn’t take him in Miami, where he wanted to go. Some things you can’t control. When we left there nobody understood why. Well, that was why. There’s always a reason.”

See? They hired him as a coach, but they didn’t trust his judgment. What kind of madness is this? Nick Saban doesn’t know quarterbacks?

Miami’s loss was Alabama’s gain. Roll Tide.

Category: Football

Liberalism as Organized Ignorance

Posted on | July 25, 2021 | Comments Off on Liberalism as Organized Ignorance

Because I watch a lot of police videos, the YouTube algorithm is always recommending more, the same way it’s always recommending more “how to play” guitar videos for classic rock songs. So in between watching breakdowns of guitar riffs (e.g., “Spirit in the Sky”) Saturday night, I watched a June press conference where police in San Jose, California, explained the shooting of Demetrius Stanley, 31. Watch:

What led to this shooting is that undercover officers were conducting surveillance of Stanley, who was wanted on a warrant related to a March armed robbery that stemmed from a road-rage incident where Stanley pointed a laser-sighted 9mm pistol at a teenager. Stanley was arrested and released on bond for that incident, but then police discovered that, because of a previous domestic violence conviction, Stanley was legally prohibited from possessing firearms. So an arrest warrant was issued for the gun charge, and officers were conducting surveillance to confirm Stanley’s whereabouts. Video clearly showed what happened — Stanley walks out on the street with a pistol, notices someone sitting in an SUV, opens the door of the vehicle and points the pistol at the driver, and is shot in response. The cop had no alternative.

Anyone who watched that briefing would understand why this happened, but the usual suspects didn’t wait to learn the facts:

Protesters are demanding justice for a man who was shot and killed by San Jose police officers on Monday night.
Dozens of people marched on the Guadalupe Freeway to police headquarters Tuesday evening. They chanted the name of Demetrius Stanley.

“Demanding justice,” as if the simple fact that the slain suspect was black was somehow conclusive proof that an injustice had occurred. Indeed, the niece of the slain man invoked history as justification:

With over 300 people, protesters were able to take the nearby Highway 87, blocking traffic for several minutes, on the way to the police station. Protesters chanted, “No justice! No peace! No racist police!” “Black lives matter!” and “Say his name! Demetrius Stanley!” as they made their message heard to other San Jose locals. . . .
After the chanting subsided, speeches were given by Demetrius’ family, including his niece, Nia Stanley, who said Demetrius was her “best friend.” She states, “I would like the bastards who killed my uncle, my best friend, the only reason that I stayed in this state, to bring their coward faces out so I can see the men who allowed my uncle to bleed and die on the street I called home for so long! But they will not do that, because they’re cowards. They hide behind guns! They hide behind bulletproof vests! They hide behind a badge and a title! They are nothing!” . . .
She called on protesters, “In the name of Demetrius, my uncle, I ask that we never stop fighting. Fighting for all the thousands of Black lives that have been lost, that have been taken by the ones who do nothing but support this system that has kept us under since we were brought here on ships! They will pay, even if it means that I fight for the rest of my life, they will pay.”

Ma’am, you were not “brought here on ships,” and the circumstances of your ancestors’ arrival are not what got your uncle shot dead by cops. While I am unfamiliar with police procedures in, say, Sierra Leone or Ghana, I think it reasonable to conclude that a suspect who pointed a pistol at police officer in Freetown or Accra would also get shot, just the same as anywhere in the United States. Cops carry guns for a reason, after all, and they are not trained to lose gunfights. But the shooting of Demetrius Stanley didn’t happen just anywhere, it happened in San Jose.

San Jose isn’t Alabama or Mississippi. You can talk all you want about “the system” and slave ships, but San Jose was never part of that. There were no cotton plantations in Santa Clara County, and I’m doubtful the KKK ever had much influence there. As for the current demographics of San Jose, the city’s population is less than 30% non-Hispanic white, 33% Hispanic, 32% Asian, 16% “other,” and about 3% black.

Even if we did not know the specific details of Demetrius Stanley’s death, does it make sense to jump to the conclusion that racism explains this shooting? Is San Jose a bastion of right-wing Trump voters upholding “systemic racism”? Let us consult Wikipedia:

In the California State Senate, San Jose is split between the 10th, 15th, and 17th districts, represented by Democrat Bob Wieckowski, Democrat Dave Cortese, and Democrat John Laird respectively.
In the California State Assembly, San Jose is split between the 25th, 27th, 28th, and 29th districts, represented by Democrat Alex Lee, Democrat Ash Kalra, Democrat Evan Low, and Democrat Mark Stone, respectively.
Federally, San Jose is split between California’s 17th, 18th, and 19th congressional districts, represented by Democrat Ro Khanna, Democrat Anna Eshoo, and Democrat Zoe Lofgren, respectively.

All of San Jose’s elected representatives are Democrats. The governor of California is a Democrat, as are both of the state’s U.S. Senators. In the 2020 election, Joe Biden got nearly 64% of the vote in California, and almost 73% of the vote in Santa Clara County. There may be more liberal places in American than San Jose, but certainly the city is not a reactionary stronghold of white supremacy.

Who was it, by the way, who pushed for the law that made it illegal for anyone with a domestic violence conviction to possess firearms?

Oh, that’s right — it was liberals!

It was liberals who pushed for the federal Violence Against Women Act in Congress, just as it was liberals in California who pushed for their state law against domestic violence perpetrators owning guns.

Notice that Demetrius Stanley’s niece didn’t mention any of this? She also didn’t mention that the pistol her uncle pointed at the cop was an illegal “ghost” gun and that, furthermore, the pistol had a high-capacity magazine illegal under California law. As a conservative, I oppose laws banning high-capacity magazines, just as I oppose VAWA. America was getting along just fine before such laws were enacted and, if you study social trends, there’s not much reason to think the country is getting better, generally, nor that places dominated by liberals are a shining beacon of opportunity for black people (or anyone else, for that matter).

So the people “demanding justice” are damned fools. Every time a case like this comes to public attention, you’ll always find some intellectuals on TV talking about “root causes.” Well, I don’t have a Ph.D. and I’m not on the faculty of any Ivy League university, but in examining the death of Demetrius Stanley, I cannot avoid the conclusion that if there was any “root cause” for this situation, it was liberalism. And yet here, as in every other situation, you find that the failure of liberal policies always leads to liberals demanding more liberalism.

Turn on the TV and watch the parade of idiots marching and chanting. Ignorance is always dangerous, but is usually scattered amongst the population in a random and haphazard way. The genius of liberalism is that liberals attract all the ignorant people, and organize them for political action, in many cases constituting an effective majority.

Is anyone surprised that liberalism has deadly consequences? Only fools are surprised. And these are the kind of fools who voted for Joe Biden.

Category: California, Crime

FMJRA 2.0: Camouflage

Posted on | July 25, 2021 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Camouflage

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Turns out there’s three songs with this title: the original by Stan Ridgway (probably better known as the lead singer of Wall of Voodoo), a cover by Sabaton, and a completely different song by Brad Paisley, which was funny enough to make me pull off the road at the Ranger station because I was laughing so hard.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.