Ike's Farewell Address - A Warning Not Heeded

By way of the comments over at Chris Muir’s Day By Day strip comes this from commenter ‘Interventor’:

The portion of Ike’s [President Dwight D. Eisenhower] Farewell Speech warning of the necessity for a military/industrial complex. But, carefully watched over, is often cited. The portion warning of the growth of the technocrats is rarely quoted.

The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system-ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.

Is that not where we are now?

We have a technical elite who aren’t elected and who believe they are not answerable to the public, telling us who we can and cannot read, listen to, watch, or correspond with. They define what is and is not acceptable speech, regardless of the First Amendment. They have also been trying to tell us how we should live (and I expect that may change to how they will force us to live whether we want to or not). It will reach the point where they do not answer to government, but government will answer to them, assuming we haven’t already reached that point, appearances notwithstanding.

Unless things change, will we soon be living in the world of John Brunner’s The Shockwave Rider where the only free people were the hackers who could rewrite their identities as needed and delete their old ones at will. Or worse, we’ll be living in a real-life version of The Hunger Games.

Thoughts On A Sunday

I will admit to ignoring the kerfuffle taking place in The Swamp because, quite frankly, I don’t care. To listen to the MSM tell it Trump practically had tanks rolling down The Mall. As such, I realized it was unlikely we would hear the truth any time soon, so I have been faithfully ignoring all of the sensationalized news coming out of Washington. (It’s what the media does, regardless of their biases.)

I figured it was better to wait a while to find out what happened after all of the hysteria, speculation, and rumor-mongering faded away and the facts revealed themselves. In the meantime, I am paying more of my attention to what’s going on in the rest of the country, and specifically, New Hampshire, my home state.

==*==

Now that Trump’s term of office is coming to an end, the tech oligarchies are showing their true colors and wiping out free speech, wiping out the accounts of people with whom they disagree, redefining free speech they disagree with as ‘hate speech’, thereby ‘violating’ their terms of service. (In other words, if you post speech they do not agree with they will do away with it, with no appeal possible.) One thing I have to point out is that speech that is truly hateful, eliminationist (“Trump supporters should put up against a wall and shot,” and “They should be sent to prison and if they don’t reform, executed.”), or obvious prevarication is perfectly acceptable to the social media censors because it’s aimed at non-Progressives. (If they didn’t have double standards, they’d have no standards at all.)

Two of those tech oligarchies have gone so far to ban social media apps that don’t censor. Both Apple and Google have banned Parler from their app stores unless they impose the same draconian censorious terms of service as Facebook, Twitter, and the other Progressive social media providers. At least those and others are available via a web browser and do not require an app to use. An app is a convenience but not a requirement to use those alternative social media platforms.

It is time for these social media giants lose their Section 230 protections because they are no longer providers, but publishers. But I doubt that will happen because it gives the Progressives in Congress control over a wide swath of the American people’s speech...unless those social media giants start censoring governmental Progressives. Then and only then will Congress act to remove those protections because only then will they see them as “dangerous to free speech”.

==*==

I have performed a few WiFi upgrades here at The Gulch, restaging an unused 802.11ac wireless router and setting it up as a second WiFi network. I have been moving everything from 2.4GHz to 5GHz because the former is so crowded. Looking at the available 2.4GHz WiFi access points (AP) I can see from The Gulch, I counted 47 different APs. The spectrum plot showed every single channel being used, with a lot of overlap from edge to edge. Looking at the 5GHz WiFi APs in the area I saw three (one of which was mine), so it made sense for me to shift everything at The Gulch over to 5GHz.

5GHz has a number of advantages and a few disadvantages in relation to 2.4GHz. A few of the advantages:

More bandwidth – up to 80MHz/channel on 5GHz versus 20MHz/channel on 2.4GHz – which means higher data rates. This comes in handy when one’s connection to the ‘Net is high speed. (The Gulch enjoys a 250Mbs download/20Mbs upload connection.)

More channels to choose from.

Shorter range which means more 5GHz APs can be located in the same area with lower incidences of interference between the access points.

One of the disadvantages is also on the list as an advantage: Shorter range. Sometimes users need longer range and 2.4GHZ has a longer range than 5GHz, all other things being equal. There can be a trade-off between range and data speed, so it is something that needs to be kept in mind.

But wait! There’s more!

One of the biggest upgrades to WiFi in two decades is being rolled out that will increase users’ options. One of those options is the addition of the 6GHZ band which adds more usable bandwidth for WiFi, in this case over 1200MHz of bandwidth. (The 6GHZ band takes in the upper 200MHz of the 5GHz band which has not been used for WiFi until now.) The two present WiFi bands offer about 400MHz of spectrum total. The new 6GHz band will allow channels of up to 160MHz in bandwidth while the present bands are limited to 20MHz, 40MHz, or 80MHz in bandwidth. This means data rates of up to 9.6Gbs are possible.

It is unlikely such data speeds will be reached during actual usage as the conditions to achieve the theoretical maximum assumes no other users on the frequency and an unobstructed line of sight between the wireless access point and the device, just to name two. But is anyone really going to complain about not reaching the theoretical maximum data speed? Unlikely.

It must be understood that one of the big limiting factors for the effective data speed is going to be the connection speed to the ‘Net. It won’t matter if you have a wireless router and device capable of 9.6Gbs if your connection to the ‘Net is 100Mbs. However, connections to other devices on the same network will be considerably faster.

Devices that can use this new band – wireless routers/access points, laptops, phones, TVs, etc – are expected to become available during the first few months of this year.

==*==

We are already seeing the effects of the creation of the New Soviet Union here in America.

A self-important and thoroughly indoctrinated Progressive 18-year old doxxed her own mother, aunt, and uncle for attending the Trump-inspired rally in Washington DC.

It appears she feels no guilt in turning in her family. She was upset that her mom, once a Democrat, became a Trump supporter. What would one expect from an ignorant, inexperienced, and fully indoctrinated Young Pioneer?

One has to wonder if her creed is “The State is Mother. The State is Father.” It would certainly explain a few things about the little snitch.

==*==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we see Washington going to hell, people are starting to realize it is time for the government to be afraid of the people and not the other way around, and where we’re hoping for more snow.

In Case You Needed Reminding - This Is Socialism

"Crisis" In The Capitol

I borrowed the title for this post from ABC News, though I used scare quotes around the word 'Crisis'.

Why?

Because I have to wonder whether the 'storming' of the Capitol Building was a false flag operation. Out of all the people who gathered to protest outside the Capitol Building and the surrounding area, 99.999%+ of the protesters had absolutely no idea what was transpiring when supposed Trump supporters broke into the building. All it would take is about a half dozen to a dozen outside instigators to motivate on otherwise peaceful protesters to follow them. Then once the action started they would slip away. (The Bolsheviks, Soviets, and the Nazis were famous for pulling stunts like that in order to put a bad spin on their opponents in order to discredit them.)

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been a snowy start for the first weekend of 2021. Not that we got a lot of snow – just under 3 inches – which started Friday night and ended late Saturday, but it was enough snow to cover the roads, roofs, and ground to make it look like winter should. I did have to hovel a little bit, but nothing like I had to after the last storm. If I spent more than 5 minutes clearing the driveway and the front steps I’d be surprised.

The only negative thing about this weekend was that on Monday I have to return to work after a long overdue two week vacation. Getting back into the work mindset is going to take a few days.

I wasn’t the only one from work that took the last two weeks of the year for vacation. A lot of us had taken little, if any vacation time during 2020. Why would we? Where would we go? Most of us were working from home for a good portion of 2020, so what would be the difference if we were working or not? As it is, most of us left vacation time on the books, something we rarely do. I wonder how many other people were in the same position as we?

==*==

Seen over at Powerline:

Does anyone else feel troubled by the fact that name of next this year is literally 2020 won?

==*==

I have seen more than a few comments and memes about politicians issuing lockdowns orders and then violating those same lockdown orders with impunity. They are definitive examples of the “Do as I say, not as I do,” and “Laws are for little people” mindset so many of our ‘betters’ have. We have certainly seen that with the governors of California and New York as well as Mayor Bill DeBlasio in New York City, just to name a few.

What a bunch of jerks.

==*==

Along the same lines is the constant harping about people wearing or not wearing masks. I know I’ve had more than enough of it.

While ‘experts’, many of whom have no expertise when it comes to epidemiology, medicine, or the efficacy of PPE, keep telling us the only way to prevent the spread of Covid-19 is to wash our hands, wear a mask, and sequester ourselves away from everyone else. In most cases, two of the three don’t work very well, if at all.

Have you ever read the label on the side of a box of disposable masks of the type that 99% people are wearing? Here’s what the one in my home says:

These masks help protect against certain particulate contaminants but do not eliminate exposure to the risk of disease or infections.

These masks can reduce exposure to bacterial particulates but are not known to be effective against viruses.

These masks should be disposed of after each use.

Other manufacturers have similar language in their disclaimers. With the exception of N95 masks, none of them will protect against viruses. As has been seen here and there, masks are more of a psychological PPE and don’t do a very good job of protecting healthy against viruses. People also do not dispose of their masks anywhere near often enough, sometimes wearing the same the same mask all day, if not for more than one day. After 20-30 minutes of use the efficacy of the masks starts to fall off until it is almost zero.

==*==

If all of California’s draconian Covid-19 precautions work, then how does Governor “French Laundry” Newsom explain his state’s record number of Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths plaguing it today?

Ambulances waited hours for openings to offload coronavirus patients. Overflow patients were moved to hospital hallways and gift shops, even a cafeteria. Refrigerated trucks were on standby, ready to store the dead.

For months, California did many of the right things to avoid a catastrophic surge from the pandemic. But by the time Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Dec. 15 that 5,000 body bags were being distributed, it was clear that the nation’s most populous state had entered a new phase of the COVID-19 crisis.

Now infections have been racing out of control for weeks, and California has routinely set new records for infections and deaths. It remains at or near the top of the list of states with the most new cases per capita.

Experts say a variety of factors combined to wipe out the past efforts, which for much of the year held the virus to manageable levels. Cramped housing, travel and Thanksgiving gatherings contributed to the spread, along with the public’s fatigue amid regulations that closed many schools and businesses and encouraged — or required — an isolated lifestyle.

Perhaps all those liberals in California are just not wearing their masks, right? Right! California is basically looking like Italy in March/April.

It has been shown again and again that lockdowns do not work. Better to take extra precautions for the vulnerable population and to isolate the sick. That isn’t what’s been done. It’s been just the opposite and what’s happened is the economy of many states has been damaged, countless small businesses have been destroyed, the mental health of otherwise healthy people has deteriorated, yet the bug has spread like wildfire. The lessons of previous pandemics was forgotten or ignored, either through the arrogance that “We know better than our predecessors because we’re smarter” (we aren’t), or it is human nature kicking us in the nuts by reminding us the same lessons have to be learned again and again. Perhaps it is a bit of both.

In either case, our leaders, experts, and ‘betters’ keep pushing the same responses to Covid-19, even though experience has shown us the more draconian responses don’t work, or worse, some of our experts have been lying to us. (Dr. Fauci, anyone?)

==*==

One other thing to look into relative to the whole Covid-19 debacle that puts it all into perspective: The 1918 Spanish Flu.

As compared to the Spanish Flu, the death toll from Covid-19 is minuscule, particularly on a worldwide per capita basis. But to hear some people tell it, people are dropping dead in the streets and carts are rolling down the streets of our towns and cities as the drivers call out “Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!” (Hyperbole? Yes. But some folks I’ve read on the various forums are claiming it’s almost that bad, but provide no corroborating links to prove their claims.

The world population today is around 7.79 billion. In 1918 it was around 1.9 billion.

To date, Covid-19 has killed around 1.83 million worldwide, or about 0.02% of the world population. The Spanish Flu killed between 17 and 100 million worldwide (estimates differ), or between 0.9% and 5.2% of the world population. Covid-19 has not been nearly as deadly as the Spanish Flu. It’s not even close.

Let’s try to keep it all in perspective, shall we?

==*==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter weather has returned, the new year has begun...sort of, and where Monday is returning all too soon.

Congressional Democrats Have Defective Memories

To hear the Democrats tell it, challenging Electoral College certification is unprecedented and un-American. However, they have chosen to ‘forget’ they have been challenging Electoral College certification for years. It’s amazing just how selective their memories can be when it suits them.

Perhaps they are exercising Alinsky’s rule about “Accusing your opponent of acts that you yourself have been committing.”

Democrats are outraged that Republicans are planning on objecting to the certification of electoral votes. It’s “conspiracy and fantasy,” says Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

“The effort by the sitting President of the United States to overturn the results is patently undemocratic,” the New York Democrat said. “The effort by others to amplify and burnish his ludicrous claims of fraud is equally revolting.”

“This is America. We have elections. We have results. We make arguments based on the fact and reason—not conspiracy and fantasy,” he added.

There’s only one problem with Chucky’s “argument based on fact and reason.” Democrats have been challenging the electoral vote certification for 2 decades.

The last three times a Republican has been elected president — Trump in 2016 and George W. Bush in both 2000 and 2004 — Democrats in the House have brought objections to the electoral votes in states the GOP nominee won. In early 2005 specifically, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., along with Rep. Stephanie Tubbs, D-Ohio, objected to Bush’s 2004 electoral votes in Ohio.

Hmm, seems Chuck forgot about those Democrat challenges. He can’t claim he knew nothing about it because he was in office at the time, after all.

Or maybe he did forget.

He seems to have chosen to forget that he single-handedly caused the failure of Indymac Bank by mouthing off on TV that they were on the verge of failure, even though they were not. (They were having some difficulties but weren’t anywhere near failure...until Chuck released confidential information to the public.) It caused a $3 billion+ run on the bank and the bank then failed. Of course back then Senator Schumer claimed that he did not cause the failure of the bank, even though he did cause it. If anyone else had revealed that confidential information they would have been arrested, charged, and tried for that action. But Chuck got a pass because he’s a senator, and specifically, a Democrat senator. That it caused between $4 billion and $8 billion in losses for the bank and depositors didn’t seem to bother Chuck at all.

To quote the CNBC report, “Why would a New York Senator attack a Pasadena bank, acting as some sort of amateur, self-appointed, long-distance bank examiner?” Because he could.

And so it is that he’s also forgotten the Democrats’ challenges to Electoral College certifications.

I have to wonder what color the sky is on the planet Chuck Schumer is from?

What about the rest of the Democrat faithful? Do they also have the same kind of memory issue regarding challenges of Electoral College certification? It appears they do, reading what they’ve said about it all.

Then there’s New Hampshire’s own Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) who says a constitutional mechanism being used by Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Representative Mo Brook “borders on sedition or treason”. Really?

Yet, over a perfectly good and legal mechanism, due to someone willing to stand politically to your Chosen Ones (Dementia Joe and the Powers that will be actually wielded by Commie Kamala), you want Republicans in front of a firing squad...

--snip--

Yeah, just another lying politician where Power is the only thing that matters. And you’ll whatever you have to gain and keep it. Happy New Year. Aren’t you the angry one. Along with Senator Chris Murphy, that unhinged Democrat from CT – why, it’s almost like talking points being passed around freely – and undermining our Republic in a more insidious way. But then again, Power.

BTW, dear, did you say the same thing when then Democrat US Senator Barbara Boxer did the same thing in 2004?

To answer the question: No, she did not. That kind of thing only goes one way.

For My First Post Of 2021

A bit of important advice for the New Year:

The first rule of 2021: No one talks about 2020.

Closing Out 2020 - Home Free Style

It seems only fitting to provide this great rendition of Auld Lang Syne to close out this awful year.

Will This Year Ever End?

Thoughts On A Sunday

I don’t know about you, but I am still recovering from Christmas Day, between the travel and food. I did run some errands on Saturday morning and found I needed to take a brief nap once I was finished, something I’ve never needed to do before.

Not many people seemed to travel on Christmas Day, at least not from what traffic I saw on the highways on my way to and from the WP Sister’s. While traffic was heavier on my way home, it was still lighter than I expected.

It was a subdued Christmas celebration considering how many useless restrictions have been imposed upon the populace.

********************

Just when I thought 2020 couldn’t get any weirder comes this story about exploding packets of Chick-fil-A’s Polynesian sauce.

The popping Polynesian packet problem has been around for a while but came to renewed attention when additional eyewitness claims erupted on a Reddit thread.

I have to concede people have a real nonchalant attitude about it.

"They just explode."

Okay then!

"I guess that's just how it is," spoken like a 27-year veteran of the bomb squad after losing a partner.

Of course, even the greatest condiment catastrophe is only ever going to be so dire. It's less "losing a finger," than, "having to lick a finger."

The risks we must take in search of good fast food!

********************

If the social media giants in the US do not voluntarily stop censoring content their Progressive censors disagree with, is it likely the US government could step in to solve that problem by following the lead of Poland?

Poland is considering a new law that would create a court whose purpose would be to protect social media content from censorship. Such a court would prevent politically motivated censorship from being employed by social media companies like Facebook, Twitter, and others. In the US we have Section 230 that covers these social media companies.

In the US Section, 230 defines them as platforms, not publishers, but we know better. They use force to publish their opinions alongside or in place of yours. They may limit your access to the platform or restrict who sees your ideas based entirely on their ideological preference.

--snip--

If they just wanted to join the conversation, that’s one thing. Hey, you wrote this, I wrote this, let the community work it out amongst themselves. Equal distribution, and let’s have a discussion. But that is not what they do, as you well know. They not only promote their idea at the expense of yours, but they also punish you (Facebook Jail), lock you out, or delete your account.

Read. The. Whole. Thing.

********************

It seems that certain of The Powers That Be in California still believe wealth is a zero-sum game. What else could explain their apparent viewpoint that wealth is being ‘extracted’ from the Bay Area rather than being created through hard work? Could it be delusions about how economies work...or greed?

…[A] moral argument for tech’s responsibility to California, and specifically the Bay Area, has recently been produced. It goes something like this: young ambitious people moved to the state, and struck gold. But rather than “give back” to the land, they’re leaving with resources they “took” from the region…

I take extreme issue with the notion that industry leaders have taken something from the “community,” defined here as the “talent,” the “incubators,” and the “mentors.” This is precisely the opposite of reality. The men and women leaving are the talent, they have started the incubators, they have built the companies, they have funded the startup ecosystem, and they have mentored countless young people. This is the “network.” They are the network. Technology workers do not “extract” value from the region, they are what makes the region valuable.

The Left pushes the idea that wealth is a fixed sum and the only way one person or group of people can become wealthy is to extract it, i.e. steal it from someone else. Their solution: steal it back. Not that their solution includes returning the ‘stolen’ wealth to those from whom it had supposedly been stolen. Instead, it will be confiscated by The State to be used by The State for purposes chosen by The State.

Yeah, that always works out.

********************

And that is the somewhat abbreviated news from Lake Winnipesaukee on this Christmas Holiday, where the snow has been greatly diminished, the after-Christmas sales are in full force, and where 2020 is winding to a close.

Snow Versus Rain - Rain Wins

Well, we had a white Christmas...sort of.

We had almost 39 inches of snow in our town from the storm that hit us a little over a week ago. There was a lot of snow to move, snow to pull off of roofs to prevent ice dams, to move away from vents, to clear from doorways and stairs, and so on.

When the Weather Guys^TM forecast over 2 inches of rainfall that would start during the evening Christmas Eve, the warning also went out to clear snow from roofs because the rain added to 30+ inches of snow would make the snow very heavy and possibly cause collapses. With that warning in mind, I removed as much snow as I could from the roof of my mother’s home as well as two adjoining vacation homes owned by friends of mine.

The rain started as forecast, along with much warmer temperatures (in the 50’s).

Imagine my surprise when upon waking on Christmas morning I found every trace of snow to be gone from the roofs of every home in the neighborhood. By the time the rain ended a good portion of the snow was gone from the ground as well, with only the highly compacted snowbanks remaining. Over 30 inches of snow melted away in a little over 8 hours. Between the 2 inches of rain and 30+ inches of snow melting away, the equivalent of over 5 inches of rain fell over a period of ~20 hours.

It took about 12 hours for 30+ inches of snow to fall, and a week later it took about 8 hours longer than that to make most of it melt away.

Amazing.

Merry Christmas

The Weekend Pundit Family wishes you all a very Merry Christmas!

Points To Ponder - Voting

When I saw this my first thought was “Why?” However, my second thought was “Why not?”

I saw another related suggestion made in Disqus comments about only those citizens with a Concealed Carry Permit should be allowed to vote. There is some logic to it: American citizens need to have background checks in order to exercise their Second Amendment Rights, so why not do likewise for American citizens exercising their Right to Vote? Both are equally important.

Thoughts On A Sunday

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, it was a busy day yesterday.

It started with banking – transferring some money to be used for Christmas shopping from one bank to another, followed by a stop at a local bakery to order some pies for Christmas. Then it was off to the barbershop to get a haircut, then the local gun shop to pick up a couple of Christmas gifts. (Christmas shopping at a gun shop? Of course! Doesn’t everyone do some Christmas shopping at their local gun shop? I know folks around here do.)

From there it was a stop at one of the WP Mom’s favorite local eateries to pick up a gift certificate ordered by one of the WP Sisters for the WP Mom. Then the real work began.

There was snow to remove from not one, not two, but three roofs. The 30+ inches of snow piled on the roofs of many homes during the Nor’easter we experienced this past Thursday and some needed to be removed in order to prevent ice dams from forming as the snow started to melt. (Those of us in northern climes understand the problems of ice dams, so we use roof rakes to pull down some of the snow as a means of lessening the severity of, if not eliminating, ice dams.

I had noticed some incipient ice dams forming on the roofs of two immediate neighbors here and contacted them about me removing the piled snow from their homes. (They are seasonal neighbors so they aren’t around very much during the winter). I got the OK (and thanks since they hadn’t thought about that particular problem) and after finishing working on the roof of our house here at The Gulch, started on the roofs of the two neighbors’ vacation homes.

In the midst of that work I received a call from one neighbor asking me to check the heating system in their home because his remote system was telling him the temperature inside was only 43ºF despite the thermostat being set for 60ºF. A quick investigation proved that to indeed be the case. After a number of phone calls and texts we figured out that the furnace, while it would run, had an issue with the circulation pump. Fortunately the house also had one of those fancy heat-pump systems that could either heat or cool, so I enabled it and after a few hours the temperature inside the house was in the upper 50’s, so frozen pipes weren’t going to be an issue. (I had the foresight to shut off the water at the main valve just in case the worst occurred.)

A repairman has already been contacted and will be (hopefully) be correcting the pump failure some time today.

********************

So now Andrew Yang is suggesting yet another really stupid idea? What a surprise.

First, it was his proposal to give every American aged 18 and above $1000 a month, something that would cost $3 trillion a year to fund and which he never explained how he was going to pay for it.

Now he wants everyone to “have something like a bar code” to prove they’ve been vaccinated. That is certainly an over the top suggestion for something that has been so overblown, oversold, and mishandled by The Powers That Be in places like New York, California, Michigan, Oregon, and Washington. There are certainly historical and religious precedents that would suggest it is a Very Bad Idea^TM. As such, we know it is highly likely the Progressives will love the idea.

********************

There have been some headlines about severe allergic reactions to the Covid-19 vaccine, implying there have never been severe allergic reactions to vaccines in the past. That is untrue, of course. There is always some small percentage of the population that will have bad reactions to vaccines, no matter what kind of vaccine.

With the Covid-19 vaccine having seen six severe allergic reactions out of over 272,000 doses given so far, that works out to approximately 0.002% of all patients receiving the vaccine so far.

What percentage of severe allergic reactions do we see with other vaccines, particularly vaccines that have been in use for decades?

Between 1 in 1000 (0.1%) and 1 in 1,000,000 (0.0001%) for childhood vaccines, depending upon the vaccine received.

The severe allergic reaction is even smaller among adults, and even then they need to be broken down between reactions to the vaccines themselves and those related to the non-vaccine elements within the vaccine solutions.

Since those receiving the Covid-19 are primarily adults, are the severe allergic reactions seen above average? Yes.

Has anyone died from those severe allergic reactions? No. Whether talking about the Covid-19 vaccine or other vaccines, it is very rare for anyone with severe allergic reactions from a vaccination to die from it.

If Covid-19 is as deadly as everyone claiming that it is such, then the risk from the Covid-19 vaccine is even smaller.

********************

I really can’t anything to this.

China Joe’s Climate Crisis (scam) Plan Comes Into Focus Or Something.

I’m truly looking forward to these climate activists caterwauling that all the rules and regs are supposed to apply to Someone Else, to That Guy, not themselves, because they have a family to scoot around, and the cheapest Tesla just doesn’t work, plus, seriously, for not much more they got a big ol’ Odyssey, Pilot, Highlander, or Sienna with DVD and stuff. All while Biden, Granholm, McCarthy, etc, run around in fossil fueled limos and private jets.

It always ‘someone else’ who will have to make major changes in their lives, perhaps even losing their livelihoods, homes, and maybe even families in order to let those climate scammers ‘prove’ they are doing something to ‘fix’ a climate they have absolutely no control over, do not understand, and have such a poor record of predicting what will happen with their seriously flawed and useless climate ‘models’. Yet all of their actions are based upon those bogus models and unproven (and unfalsifiable) hypotheses.

********************

I figured I’d close out on a high note, so I present something only regular tool users will get right away. The rest of you may take a little longer to figure it out.

(H/T Powerline)

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we’re still digging out from Thursday’s Nor’easter, trying to finish up our Christmas shopping, and getting psyched up for Christmas Day.

Real Twilight Zone Stuff

It was very busy day today, but I won’t cover today’s activities in this post. They will wait until tomorrow.

Instead, I am going to embed this interesting video I came across that proves Rod Serling was ahead of his time.



I still catch Twilight Zone episodes when I can. It’s hard to believe the original series aired for only 5 seasons.

New York And California Versus Florida - A Covid-19 Comparison

The present situation in Covid-19 America brings to mind this quote from the original Star Wars:

“The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.” - Princess Leia

And so it is with California and New York in comparison to Florida.

It seems that the tighter Gavin Newsom in California, Andrew Cuomo in New York, and Bill DeBlasio in New York City tighten their grip on their states/city in their efforts to ‘contain’ Covid-19 using methods – lockdowns and business restrictions/shutdowns - that have been proven not to stop the spread while spreading misery, physical, emotional, and economic, among their constituents, the more people, businesses, and municipalities are defying the edicts, refusing to bow down to their destructive mandates. These groups are “slipping through their fingers”. The more these tacit dictators throw at their constituents, the more those constituents proclaim “Oh hell no!”

Now look at Florida, a state where Ron DeSantis has done just the opposite, loosening the state’s grip and refusing to lock down his state or slap heavy limitations on businesses.

Some might think that as a result that Florida would be seeing Covid-19 cases and deaths in much higher numbers than New York (Florida has a bigger population than New York and a much higher percentage of Florida’s population are in the most vulnerable demographic – the elderly). But just the opposite is true. Then if you compare Florida to California the differences are even more striking, with Florida still showing much lower Covid-19 numbers than California, even on a per capita basis.

Another striking difference between New York, California, and Florida?

Both New York’s and California’s economies in trouble, businesses are closing or relocating, and so are the people living there. Florida’s economy, on the other hand, has recovered and seen a growth in both population and economic activity.

So which approach seems to be working on both a epidemiological and economic basis?

Hint: It isn’t the draconian lockdowns and heavy economic restrictions.

First Big Snow Of The Season

Four to six inches of snow in our area, they said.

A quick hitting storm that will be in and out in about 10 hours, they said.

After almost 15 hours of heavy snow we had about 30 inches of snowfall.

Thirty. Inches.

At around 11AM there was over two feet of snow here in The Gulch, as you can see from this picture of the trusty RAM 1500 4x4:

By 2PM the snow tapered off and we had 30 inches on the ground.

It was so bad that Debpool (the new blog moniker for Deb because she keeps coming back from adversity again and again, just like Deadpool, but without the loss of appendages or other body parts), couldn’t even make it out of her garage, let alone to work. Her driveway wasn’t plowed, her road wasn’t plowed, nor was the road leading to her road.

She called me a little past 2PM asking for a ride to work since there was no way she was going to be able to make it to work under the circumstances, so I logged off from work and started digging out the trusty RAM 1500 just enough so I could get it out of the driveway. An hour later (yes, an hour) and I was on my way to pick her up. About an hour-and-a-half later and I was dropping her off at work, a trip that usually takes about 25 minutes.

I got back to The Gulch around 5:30PM and started digging out the rest of the driveway so I could pull back in to the driveway...and of course one of the plow crews showed up and completed the last 10% of the driveway I hadn’t cleared yet. But at least it was cleared.

Tomorrow I get to break out the roof rake and pull almost 3 feet of snow from the roof...and shovel some more.

Welcome to winter in New Hampshire.

At least we're going to have a White Christmas this year!

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s yet another Sunday here in Coronavirus America.

The decrees are flying off of governors’ desks to shut down normal activities, cause more damage to the economy, isolate families, and generate fear, panic, and doubt...amongst the media, and disdain and mistrust for government by in increasing amount of the American people.

We’ve seen study after study showing that lockdowns don’t work, yet our state and local government figures insist on decreeing lockdowns again. It is literally insane as defined by Einstein: Doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results this time. Lockdowns didn’t work the previous “x” times, so why would they work this time? If the answer is “Because”, then we can safely ignore those decrees.

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Something has been bothering me about some of the legal actions being taken by states, particularly my home state, regarding violations of state Covid-19 guidelines by businesses and individuals.

As such, I have to ask this question: How is it that guidelines can possibly be defined as having the power of laws or regulations? In every place I have looked, both online and offline, guidelines in law are defined as:

A guideline is a statement or plan by which to determine a course of action. A guideline aims to streamline particular processes according to a set routine or sound practice. By definition, following a guideline is never mandatory.

Guidelines are neither laws or regulations. As such, how can anyone be fined or otherwise penalized for violating a state Covid-19 guideline? So far I haven’t been able to find out what enables our state to do that.

I think someone in our state capitol needs to dig out a legal dictionary and look up the meaning of “guideline”.

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Now that YouTube has been deleting videos that do not meet their increasingly Progressive restrictions, or demonetizing or suspending accounts of content providers with whom their censors disagree, more people are abandoning it for Bit Chute.

Will it replace YouTube? For some folks it is the only place they can post video content that doesn’t meet YouTube’s ever changing and broadening content restrictions. I figure it’s only a matter of time before YouTube will only allow Progressive socialist and communist content which means the amount of ‘acceptable’ videos will dwindle.

Could it be YouTube will censor itself right out of existence? It wouldn’t surprise me if that happened. They would only have themselves to blame.

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Now that the DNC-MSM doesn’t have to cover for the Bidens, stories about Hunter Biden’s shady business deals and corrupt business practices, unreported income, unpaid income taxes, ties to Chinese Communist Party members and agents, and an ever growing list of unethical, immoral, and illegal actions involving him, his dad Joe, and even Kamala Harris have been coming to light. When even nominally Democrat Party organs like the New York Times and the Washington Post are pretending to be just now noticing these indiscretions, you know it’s bad.

Is it possible these ‘indiscretions’ will be used as leverage to remove Joe Biden from office and make Kamala Harris the first Communist President of the United States? Or if she is also tied into these ‘indiscretions’ so she too will be booted from office, is this a setup by Nancy Pelosi to move from Speaker of the House to the White House?

If nothing else, the next year is going to be ‘interesting’ in the old Chinese Curse definition of ‘interesting’.

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I am dismayed that Joe Biden will be tying America’s economic hands by bringing is back into the Paris Accords fold. I am not sure he can force us to do so considering President Obama’s signing the accords was never ratified by the US Senate, something that is required for any treaty or international agreement of such scope. Then again, Obama really didn’t care because of his “I won” attitude that led him to believe he could ignore the Constitutional constraints upon his office with impunity.

It seems Joe Biden believes he too can ignore the lack of Senate ratification and use the unfair and biased Paris Accords to destroy the American economy while giving China and India a pass. This despite the US having done more than any other nation in the world in reducing CO2 emissions, and air pollution in general.

Why would we agree to institute draconian environmental regulations and measures that will do little to “save the Earth” but will profoundly and negatively affect the US economy when our foreign competitors can continue to pour gigatons of CO2 and not be required to clean up their emissions? Oh, and then there’s the trillions of dollars in climate ‘reparations’ we’ll be obligated to pay to any nation that thinks that they need bribes...er...financial incentives to think about reducing their CO2 emissions.

The Paris Accords are a con game, a so-called long con to make the US pay for our economic competitors sins while making it impossible for our economy to survive.

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This could be the literal “End Of The World As We Know It”!

What is ‘this’?

Pepperidge Farm has announced that there is a strong possibility “that a cookie shortage could arrive this holiday season.”

This could be the end of everything…RUN AWAY!

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And that’s the slightly abbreviated news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where thoughts are increasingly turning to Christmas, holiday shopping is nowhere near peak, and where we might have some plowable amounts of snow later this week.

Saving The Republic

This came by way of Chris Muir in the comments at Day By Day, and it gave me pause as I pondered the points it brought up regarding saving the Republic from those who have worked so hard to destroyit and replace it with a non-fictional Panem.

America is now gauging who needs to stay and who must go. We know that a large portion of our population has conspired to steal an election, lie about it, and to set in motion the political forces that will disenfranchise and subjugate us, meaning those who want the preservation of traditional America.

Donald Trump came about when America was long dead, having committed suicide in the 1860s then turned on itself again in the 1930s and 1960s, finally finishing the job in the 1990s, creating such a mess that a Bush interlude nearly saved it, then deciding instead to race back into the void.

Normal people have for decades been accustomed to the situation getting worse year after year, but being unable to do anything about it, since we now have a permanent swing vote of diversity that favors socialist-style policies and rejects Republicans.

In addition, that coalition adds the pop culture people, who are generally lost youth from broken families seeking revenge on the culture that birthed them, since they fully hate it. These people have only a will to destroy, dominate, and humiliate others. They are out for revenge.

We are learning in this cycle of history that our enemy is not government per se, but that government is one of many forms that collective will to compromise in order to achieve unity takes, and that this causes the same cycle that Communism, Fascism, and National Socialism did.

That cycle leads to a death spiral as more bureaucracy leads to fewer options and higher costs, at which point wealth cannot concentrate, precedent restricts decision, regulations make everything more slowly, and bloat consumes the system while driving out the productive.

We saw that malaise destroy the Soviet Union which had a totalitarian government that was so hide-bound in bureaucratic and ideological inertia that its economy finally collapsed, and with it, the Soviet Union itself.

We see that same malaise increasingly affecting the EU, not yet a totalitarian state though it is headed that way with an unelected and unaccountable Parliament and rapidly expanding bureaucracy. It’s one reason the UK broke away via Brexit. The UK became increasingly disenchanted with increasing tax levies, increasingly draconian bureaucratic red tape, and always increasing government interference in economic activity and local laws.

We have seen the same thing happening here at the state level and increasingly, the federal level. Some of the federal creep was staunched by President Trump, issuing a EO that for every new regulation, two regulations were to be repealed. I expect that will cease once President Harris...er...Biden takes office.

At the state level we have seen more economically stifling laws, regulations, and taxes being levied, and continuous attacks on free speech, free association, religion, education, political activities, property rights, gun rights, parental rights, and a whole host of other things that are part and parcel of American culture and history. To see the effects of those crushing actions one only needs to look at states like Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and - surprise surprise - California to see the economic and societal decline that has been taking place at the behest of our self-anointed ‘betters’, all for “our own good”. If it was truly for our own good, then can anyone explain why so many people and businesses are fleeing those nascent socialist ‘utopias’? Could it possibly be because the folks who see what is going decided to get out before it was too late?

Even in conservative Red states we’re seeing some of the same damaging activities taking place as our supposed betters work to undermine them, too.

If we who see what is happening do nothing and capitulate to the Progressives, the America we know may be irreparably damaged and will fade away to a shadow of its former self, those rights we hold so dear will be wiped away one by one until they are gone. The American people will become the New Serfs to the Progressive Political Elite, or to use more colloquial and politically correct language, the American proletariat will need to bow to the will of the Politburo, intelligentsia, and nomenklatura or end up as nothing but a zek in one of the gulags.

Some of you out there may think I have fallen into a state of paranoia, but what I am doing is looking back through history to see how things like this have happened in the past and see many of the same factors appearing this time, too. The fall of the American Republic will be just like people or businesses falling into bankruptcy: First, a little at a time. Then all at once.

It has happened before. It will happen again if we let it. Let’s not.

Points To Ponder

Received via e-mail from a friend:

“The only mystery in life is why the kamikaze pilots wore helmets.” – Al McGuire

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.” – Albert Einstein

“War is God’s way of teaching Americans geography.” – Ambrose Bierce

“It would be nice to spend billions on schools and roads, but right now that money is desperately needed for political ads.” – Andy Borowitz

“At every party there are two kinds of people – those who want to go home and those who don’t. The trouble is, they are usually married to each other.” – Ann Landers

“My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I’m right.” – Ashleigh Brilliant

“Have you noticed that all the people in favor of birth control are already born?” – Benny Hill

“The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us.” – Bill Watterson

“As a child my family’s menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it.” – Buddy Hackett

“My favorite machine at the gym is the vending machine.” – Caroline Rhea

“All right everyone, line up alphabetically according to your height.” – Casey Stengel

“Never under any circumstances take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.” – Dave Barry

“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” – Edward Abbey

“How many people here have telekinetic powers? Raise my hand.” – Emo Philips

“If you live to be one hundred, you’ve got it made. Very few people die past that age.” – George Burns

“Trouble knocked at the door, but, hearing laughter, hurried away.” – Benjamin Franklin

My favorite must be Einstein’s observation about stupidity and genius. We see that every single day. Our political elite certainly show an overabundance of the former and nary a bit of the latter.