Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge

Posted on | May 29, 2020 | Comments Off on Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge

by Smitty

He ran through the forest toward the bingo point.
Got to get back to the Moon.

No time to worry about why the mission failed.
Shot through the arm.
No time for pain. Run.
The full moon provided enough light as the clearning emerged.
Glancing leg shot. Dogs barking as they scented his blood.
Green glow of the Transport Potion.
Shot blew off his other arm and he fell beside it.
Losing blood rapidly, he picked it up.
The glow attracted a shot, and the bottle vanished with his hand, showering him in the Oil of Transport, returning him moonward. . .
—
via Darleen

Category: Friday Fiction

Anarchy in Minneapolis: Democrats Celebrate Rioters Who Burned Down City

Posted on | May 29, 2020 | 4 Comments

Anarchy is the worst of evils that can afflict a people. Societies can survive the cruelty of tyrants and the blunders of demogratic governments, but anarchy — the destruction of law — brings about a state of affairs in which no man’s life or property is safe. Minneapolis did not have to go up in flames Thursday night. I watched live, in real time, as authorities surrendered the city to the mob. The mayor seems to be the sort of worthless liberal one typically finds in California, and the media’s role in fomenting this riot was familiar: Endless replaying of video of a racial “incident” on cable news, so that the audience is subjected to the image of George Floyd being suffocated to death over and over and over.

The media don’t do this because they are interested in “social justice”; they do it because they believe that this kind of coverage will help “energize” black voters and thus elect more Democrats. And when, predictably, there is a backlash against this media-driven political narrative — when people reject the intended message — the result is condemned as proof of white racism. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Once you’ve been through a few of these cycles, you cease to be surprised by the irresponsibility of the media who incite violent disorders:

Protests over the police-involved death of George Floyd continued well into the morning Friday after a third night of violence in Minneapolis, while similar disturbances broke out in Louisville and other parts of the country.
Late Thursday, demonstrators set fire to a police precinct building in the Minneapolis neighborhood where Floyd died Monday after he was restrained by a Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on his neck.
Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit bill at a grocery store.
The precinct building had been evacuated by order of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who said he was unwilling to endanger lives to protect the building.
“I understand the importance of a precinct,” he said. “[But] the symbolism of a building cannot outweigh the importance of life, of our officers, or the public. We could not risk serious injury to anyone and we will continue to patrol the third precinct entirely.”
At 4:30 a.m. Friday, protesters and looters still were out on the streets in the neighborhood as several nearby commercial buildings burned unchecked.
Firefighters arrived shortly afterward, accompanied by state police in riot gear, who began to arrest people in the area, including a CNN reporter and crew members.
CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez and three crew members were taken into custody live on the air. The news organization immediately criticized the arrests and called for their release.
CNN President Jeff Zucker later said Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz “deeply apologizes” for the arrests. They were released after about an hour in custody, CNN said.
The unrest also spread to neighboring St. Paul, where protesters looted a Target store and set fire to several businesses along a busy commercial corridor.
Earlier in the night, National Guard troops were deployed in the two cities at Walz’s order.
The governor said he issued the order at the request of local leaders who called on the state government for National Guard resources after “extensive damage to private property” occurred during the protests.

The idea that these criminals were “protesters” or “demonstrators” is an insult to the intelligence of everyone who watched — and the videos were streaming all over Twitter — as thieves and vandals not only destroyed a police precinct station, but looted or damaged some 170 businesses. The media, however, continued promoting the narrative that anyone who condemned the riots was thereby endorsing police brutality. This is what students of logic call the false dilemma fallacy, pretending that there are only two possible alternatives (in this case, being pro-riot or being pro-racism) when many other viewpoints exist.

Something that Andrew Breitbart always said: “Turn the camera around.”

Make the media the story. Expose their tactics. Call out their errors.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

Category: Crime, Media Bias, Racism

In The Mailbox: 05.28.20

Posted on | May 29, 2020 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Drugs Can Be Hazardous To Your Health
EBL: Democrats In Charge – Minneapolis Burning
Twitchy: Kayleigh McEnany Hits CNN’s Jim Acosta With His Own Network’s Fake News After Acosta Asks About Fact-Checking
Louder With Crowder: Zuckerberg Criticizes Twitter For Fact-Checking President Trump
Vox Popoli: Don’t Threaten, Just Do It, also, The Cloud Police

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Ann Coulter – Exhibit A Of Why Women Writers Are Rubbish
American Conservative: Trump’s Trade War With Red China Could Lead To Xi’s Downfall
American Greatness: Rioting, Protesting Continue Over Death of George Floyd
American Thinker: Stock Market Tells The Tale – Trump Set To Win In November, also, Pennsylvania Shows How Democrats Can Steal An Election
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Dirty Rats News
Babalu Blog: Castro Regime Pockets Millions From Slave Doctors Sent To Algeria
BattleSwarm: All Red China’s Lies And The Sad Death Of Hong Kong
Cafe Hayek: Apparently, They Aren’t Really All That Smart
CDR Salamander: Have You Read Your Hopkirk?
Da Tech Guy: Blind Obedience To The Government Has Never Been An American Virtue, also, Maps, Trump, Mitt, Morning Joe, Mueller & Sleepy Joe Under The Fedora
Don Surber: Mueller Shows The FBI Needs Disbanding
First Street Journal: Backstreet Grub! also, A Hoity-Toity College Doesn’t Paper Over Inequality
The Geller Report: Ilhan Omar Tweets Gleefully As Minneapolis Burns, also, Israel Cancels $1.5 Billion Deal With Red China After U.S. Pressure
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day, also, “Good Faith”
Hollywood In Toto: Roger Waters Claims Evangelical Christians Hate The Jews, also, The Battle For America’s Understanding Of Its True Self
JustOneMinute: Free The Net!
Legal Insurrection: Kiss Amy Klobuchar’s Veep Chances Goodbye, also, Trump Signs Social Media Bias Executive Order
The PanAm Post: Red China Threatens “Cold War” Against U.S., also, Iran Sets Up Spy Operations In Venezuela
Power Line: Minneapolis Meltdown, also, Slow Joe Does It Again
Shark Tank: Rep. Gaetz Slams Social Media Companies For “Editorializing”
Shot In The Dark: Hey, DFL – You Do Own This
STUMP: Would Pensions Really Have To Be Cut In State Bankruptcies?
The Political Hat: Rejection Of The Biological Binary – Menses Envy, Gender-Neutral Toys, & “Certain Genders”
This Ain’t Hell: Red China Passes Hong Kong Security Law, also, Valor For Sale
Victory Girls: Fact-Checker Needs Fact-Checking On Twitter
Volokh Conspiracy: 47 USC 230 And The Publisher/Distributor/Platform Distinction
Weasel Zippers: RNC Video – “The ‘Scandal-Free’ Obama/Biden Administration”, also, CNN’s Brooke Baldwin Breaks Down On Air Over Her White Privilege
Mark Steyn: The Supreme Ayatollahs Of Expertistan

Amazon Warehouse Deals

Category: Linkagery

‘Fact-Based Truth’: MSNBC Demonized Ron DeSantis; Where’s the Apology?

Posted on | May 28, 2020 | 3 Comments

Mike Barnicle, Morning Joe, Monday, March 23:

“Joe, if you talk to a lot of experts — I was fortunate enough to spend most of Friday afternoon around one of the greatest hospitals in the world, Brigham and Women’s here in Boston — you find out their view of what they’re looking at and what they’re dealing with every day. And in the case of Governor DeSantis of Florida, he’s going exactly the opposite way from what the experts, the people on the front lines, indicate ought to be done. The first thing we need is the fact-based truth from public officials. That’s what they will tell you. You get it here in Massachusetts from Charlie Baker, you’re getting it from Andrew Cuomo in New York, Gavin Newsom in California, the governors of Illinois and Michigan, and you’re getting fact-based truth.”

So, according to Mike Barnicle, the “experts” were agreed that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was doing the exact opposite of what was needed to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Barnicle specifically contrasted Florida’s governor to the governors of Massachusetts, New York, California, Illinois and Michigan, where “fact-based truth” allegedly prevailed.

Well, where are we now, more than two months later? How did Barnicle’s “expert” opinion fare? Here are the per-capita coronavirus death rates (deaths per million residents) for these states:

New York ………………………. 1,519
Massachusetts ………………… 950
Michigan ………………………… 534
Illinois ……………………………. 400
Florida …………………………… 108
California ……………………….. 100

So, Florida’s death rate has been 93% lower than New York, 89% lower than Massachusetts, 80% lower than Michigan, 73% lower than Illinois. The only state named by Barnicle that has done better than Florida in terms of its COVID-19 death rate is California. Given that Barnicle is such a proponent of “fact-based truth,” doesn’t it seem to you that the viewers of MSNBC deserve an explanation of why he got this so wrong?

Keep in mind that on March 23, when Barnicle was busy smearing Ron DeSantis and the MSNBC chyron declared that Florida’s coronavirus cases had passed the 1,000 mark, Massachusetts had only 777 known cases. Two weeks later, however, the situation had reversed, with Massachusetts reporting 15,202 cases on April 7, when Florida had 14,707 cases. Now? Massachusetts has 94,220 cases and 6,547 deaths, compared to 52,634 cases and 2,320 deaths in Florida — almost twice as many cases, and nearly three times as many deaths, despite the fact that Florida’s population (21.5 million) is more than three times larger than the population of Massachusetts (6.9 million).

(Hat-tip: David Rutz, Washington Free Beacon.)

Category: Florida, Health Care, Massachusetts, MSNBC

In The Mailbox: 05.27.20

Posted on | May 27, 2020 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

OVER THE TRANSOM
Ninety Miles From Tyranny: The 90 Miles Mystery Box, Episode #998
357 Magnum: Crime In Chicago Must Be Under Control
Red Pilled Jew: Wednesday Whittle
EBL: Escape From New York
Twitchy: Planned Parenthood Execs Admit On Video They Sold Aborted Baby Parts For Profit
Louder With Crowder: Jimmy Fallon Surrenders His Testicles
Vox Popoli: Minneapolis Celebrates Diversity, also, Red China Brings Silicon Valley To Heel

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Is There Life After Cats? also, Media Scum
American Conservative: The Conservative Case For The USPS
American Greatness: Former Mueller Prosecutor Weissmann Now Fundraising For Joe Biden
American Power: Class Differences In Education
American Thinker: Reopen America Now!
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Hump Day News
Babalu Blog: Gov. DeSantis Appoints John Couriel To Florida Supreme Court
BattleSwarm: 21% Growth In Q3?
Cafe Hayek: “Stimulus, Mackey, & Krugman”
Da Tech Guy: The Late Steven Den Beste On Trump (Accidentally), also, COVID Incompetence
Don Surber: Biden Looks Ridiculous
First Street Journal: Kentuckians Hang Gov. Andy Beshear In Effigy
The Geller Report: Iranian 13-Year-Old Girl Beheaded By Father In “Honor Killing”, also, USPS Mail Carrier Charged With Fraud After Tampering With Vote-By-Mail Requests
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, also, A Similarity & A Difference
Hollywood In Toto: Adam Carolla Blasts “Indoctrination Into Fear”, also, One And Done – Five Remarkable One-Season Wonders
Legal Insurrection: Twitter Fact-Checks Trump’s Mail-In Ballot Tweet, Gets Fact-Checked Right Back, also, NM Gov. Lujan Grisham Breaks Own Lockdown Rules To Go Buy Jewelry
Michelle Malkin: HR 6666 And Beyond – Who’s Cashing In On Contact Tracing?
The PanAm Post: Maduro Send Iranian Oil To Cuba Before Refilling Venezuelan Gas Stations
Power Line: “Americans Don’t Get Ruled”, also, Andrew Cuomo Killed Grandma & The New York Economy
Shark Tank: Charlie Crist Called Out For Supporting Illegal Alien Bailout
Shot In The Dark: Dense
STUMP: More Reactions To State Bankruptcy & Bailouts
This Ain’t Hell: Patrick Mahomes’ Foundation To Provide Scholarships For SEAL Kids, also, RIP, Old Girl
Victory Girls: Pelosi Proxy Power Play Challenged In Court
Volokh Conspiracy: Twitter’s Speech Isn’t Stifling Free Speech
Weasel Zippers: Jerry Nadler, 2004 – “Paper Ballots Are Extremely Susceptible To Fraud”, also, Andrew Cuomo Blames Nursing Homes For Following His Orders, Accepting COVID-19 Patients
Megan McArdle: Conservatives Who refuse To Wear Masks Undercut “Personal Responsibility” Claims
Mark Steyn: Moments Of Normalcy, also, The Wuhan Armada

Amazon Warehouse Deals

Category: Linkagery

U.S. Coronavirus Daily Deaths Have Decreased 43% in the Past Four Weeks

Posted on | May 27, 2020 | 1 Comment

Since peaking April 21, the daily number of U.S. deaths from COVID-19 have decreased from an average of more than 2,000 per day to fewer than 1,200. This decrease has been mainly due to sharp reductions in the rate of death in the two hardest-hit states of New York and New Jersey.

During the week of April 20-26, there were 14,511 coronavirus deaths in the United States, a daily average of 2,073. During the week of May 18-24, there were 8,315 deaths, an average of 1,188 daily. During this period, the combined total of COVID-19 deaths in New York and New Jersey declined from 5,713 (April 20-26) to 1,639 (May 18-24), a 71% reduction. These two states have the highest per-capita coronavirus death rates in the country, and have accounted for 40% of all U.S. deaths from the disease during the course of the pandemic. The declining death rates in New York and New Jersey, however, mean that during last week their combined deaths were just 20% of the U.S. total.

As Professor Glenn Reynolds pointed out, data about the pandemic has been interpreted to reflect negatively on Republican-controlled states. Whereas the daily death rate in districts with Democrat representatives in Congress have declined sharply from an April peak, the rate in Republican areas — which has always been much lower — has “remained relatively steady,” according to a Pew Research analysis. Yet the fact is, despite this trend, the rate in Democrat districts is still nearly three times higher than in GOP districts. The huge spike of deaths in New York and New Jersey in March and April is the remarkable anomaly in the data, rather than the low, but “relatively steady,” death rates elsewhere.

Category: Health Care, New Jersey, New York

COVID-19: The ‘Experts’ Are Clueless

Posted on | May 27, 2020 | 2 Comments

As states began reopening their economies a month ago — led by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — the media’s favorite “experts” predicted doom. We were told to expect a deadly “surge” of new cases, a “second wave” of COVID-19 infections.

And then . . . it didn’t happen.

The per-capita death rate in Georgia remains 88% lower than New York’s; Florida’s rate is 93% lower and Texas is 96% lower. In Florida last week, there were 264 coronavirus deaths, an average 38 deaths daily, which is about half of what they were averaging two weeks ago. In Texas, 151 of 254 counties have never reported a single COVID-19 death. While Georgia reported an increase last week in the number of identified infections, officials say that reflects greatly increased testing, and the daily number of reported COVID-19 deaths in Georgia has continued trending downward after peaking at 55 on April 16.

The media don’t want to accept the reality that has become apparent, namely that this disease will never become as prevalent in the rest of America as it has been in New York and New Jersey, which combined have 40% of all U.S. coronavirus deaths. The specific conditions that gave rise to the epidemic outbreak in March and April — when the New York/New Jersey region was racking up hundreds of deaths daily, week after week — simply do not exist in Texas or Florida, and are not going to exist in the future. “Experts” have been reluctant to admit this:

A coronavirus model that has been cited by the White House now projects that fewer people will die in the United States by August.
In a Tuesday update, the model revised its forecast to 132,000 deaths — which is 11,000 fewer than it projected a week ago.
Built by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, the model is one of more than a dozen highlighted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on its website. An ensemble forecast from the CDC, which relies on multiple models, projects that US deaths will exceed 110,000 by June 13. . . .
As states began reopening, IHME upped its forecast for the number of US deaths, based in part on cell phone mobility data that showed people moving around more. But the institute began revising its projections downwards last week, saying an expected increase in infections had not yet occurred.
Dr. Christopher Murray, the IHME director, said that might have been because of behavioral changes such as mask wearing. The institute has since described its plan for gathering data on how many Americans wear masks. It’s not clear what drove down the model’s projections on Tuesday, however.

Oh, now it’s the Magic Mask™ excuse. When are these people going to admit they simply don’t know what they’re talking about and never did?