Rebane's Ruminations

Biden’s Big Lies - 22aug20 edition

George Rebane

Bumblebrain read little that's new off his teleprompter last Thursday night.  The only policy statement he made was what he’d do to end the C19 epidemic in the US.  His Big Lie was the enumeration of everything that Trump has already done or has under way, save for a federal mandate to impose wearing of masks countrywide.  And the tragedy of the matter is that we have manufactured so many millions of double dummies with our public education system so that most of them out there in television land believe that Bumblebrain actually has some new initiatives that will work.  Now that’s another Big Lie.

Also, did you notice that Bumblebrain, along with his lamestream lackies, never once during the Dem convention brought up the California power blackouts that their Green New Deal policies will impose on the rest of the country once they’re elected and control Congress.  That is a Big Lie that must not be made public, not even telling the country in their news programs that California is suffering blackouts because the Dems’ green policies have eliminated the state’s ability to provide base load capacity when the demand is high, and the wind and sun no longer cooperate.

Biden’s biggest bamboozle is not telling the country what he stands for, and instead letting Kasich give one message while Bernie gives the one that’s 180 out.  RINO Kasich’s message attempted to tell everyone that ol’ Joe isn’t that far left after all, he’s just a moderate with good character traits.  While Comrade Bernie declared total victory on national television telling all that Bumblebrain has signed up for the Full Marxist Monty spelled out in the Green New Deal.  (And notice the complete silence on both the lamestream and during convention about the riots, lootings, burnings, murders, … going on across the country under Democrat leaders.  There’s a real whopper of a Big Lie.)

Finally, we see that Russia and the EU are betting that Biden will win in November.  They are doing nothing to support America in its correct policy to impose UN authorized ‘snap back’ sanctions that were originally contained in the JCPA (the infamous Obama nuclear deal).  The mullahs have violated almost every provision in the horribly drafted agreement that still gives the UN Security Council ample grounds to stop Iran from acquiring and reselling advanced weapon systems and military gear.  But money talks.  Angela and her cronies, along with Vladimir, have some serious bucks at stake here in their sales of guns and grenades to the ragheads.  Iran remains the biggest state sponsor of international terrorism, and our allies don’t give a crap (Vladimir’s position is understood).  This again says that Biden continues clueless on foreign policy, and President Trump is the only one with the courage to call the shots and sanctions on the international stage.

Now these are the real Big Lies told Americans by our country’s anti-American political party.  And no one, not even the local leftwing lackies, will dare address any of these issues for the simple reason that they have no leg to stand on.  On these issues crickets continue as the only working alternative during these election year debates.

Sigfor: A Data Driven Pandemic Response Policy Evaluation Tool

George Rebane

The Covid-19 pandemic has called on hundreds of local jurisdictions to fashion response policies that are suitable for their particular locales and demographics.  In technical note TN2007-1 we introduce Sigfor, a computational tool that policy makers can use for monitoring the effectiveness of the current policy and yield an early prediction of the effectiveness of a policy change.  The tool inputs a continuing stream of mortality data, and forecasts the expected maximum number of deaths and when this number would be reached, given that the current response policy remains unchanged.  The technical note can be downloaded here - Download TN2007-1_Data Driven Pandemic Response Policies

Sandbox - 19aug20

[Please keep Nevada County fire comments under the appropriate topic headings.  gjr]

Wildfire Diary – 18aug20 (updated 20aug20)

George Rebane

1. PG&E turned off power on Hind Tit Road and told us it was part of the 1-2 hour rolling blackouts all across the state. Our blackout has now been rolling along for 17 hours.  Moreover, it was beyond cynical that they decided to turn off power to neighborhoods hurriedly preparing to evacuate from the Jones Bar Fire.  Our power does not come through the fire area, it comes from the other direction.  As I mentioned before, there is no power shortage, the outages we are suffering are politically mandated by the state’s Democrat super-majority who have taken offline natural gas and nuclear power generators.
2. Government incompetence and incapability has been on parade again during this fire. All information outlets, loudly proclaimed and lauded during calmer times, outlets that we’re supposed to access when the fire emergency comes, all of them were dysfunctional.  This in the sense that websites were down, phones weren’t answered, and media outlets not informed, most certainly not in any useful timely manner, of the state and extent of the fire.  County and Cal-fire failed utterly, informing us for hours of a 30 acre fire that was already over 300 acres, and no idea of its progress toward populated areas.  They couldn’t even “confirm” whether a home had burned.  Apparently in an environment of low winds and high humidity, the firefighters are doing a better job in the field than their colleagues sitting in command centers and emergency management offices.  No doubt through no fault of their own, Yubanet and KNCO have been particularly worthless as sources of useful and timely fire information.  And the nation’s useful idiots want government to nationalize our healthcare system??!
3. Memo to county emergency management: have someone in the incident command center, that always has an updated map of the current burn area, draw the fire contours on the map in their pad, timestamp it, and then send it to the webmaster who can post on the advertised fire information sites.  Do this at least hourly.
4. Yesterday afternoon we got multiple notifications, all concurrent and inconsistent, of “evacuation warnings”, “evacuation advisories”, and “evacuation orders”. You could take your pick by just choosing which outlet (website, radio), robocall, or text message you wanted.  After the power had been off for two hours, we had the Jeep and truck packed with some important irreplacables and more immediate necessaries, and evacuated to our daughter’s house in Alta Sierra.  It was a redo of a similar evacuation we did to her house in 1993 (more here).  We all had a laugh about it when we arrived – we now owe her two evacuations to our house. 
5. This morning I caught up on the Democrat doings. They’re still singing lyrics from their tried and true TDS Anthem.  Nothing about policy specifics for their promised Socialist America – the leftwing constituent demands very little information from his politicians, as long as he hears promises of OPM coming his way.  In this regard Bumblebrain Biden is his man.  Biden has called for “an end to the era of shareholder capitalism.”  According to him, it’s “untrue and a farce” that "a company’s primary responsibility is to generate returns for shareholders."  (more here)  As I have pointed out countless times, the progressive has no idea how a functioning economy works.  EVERYWHERE in the world where they have gotten their hands on an economy, it either flushes immediately or immediately starts circling the drain hole. 
6. Then there’s carefully cultured Kamelion Kamala who “when she changes her stands it tends to be politically convenient, slowly acknowledged and poorly explained. There are signals of seeing policy as an external thing, not an outgrowth of one’s own belief structure, and things can change.” She was born into a very liberal, upper-class, educated family, and enjoyed all the privileges that our land could offer.  She is a political powerhouse with few public service accomplishments save some very critical ones about which, perhaps, only Willie Brown knows the particulars. (more here) 
7. Last night we gathered all the potpourri of fire information we could, mixed it with our own considerable experience about such things, and decided to spend the night in our own bed. We arrived in the dark, fired up the generator, and had a restful night listening to the fan we set up in the bedroom.  This morning we got up, checked the web for updates (no joy), listened to KNCO (no joy), and had breakfast.  The neighborhood up here on the ridge is very quiet; every once in a while we can hear an airplane in the distance.  No S-2 bombers in sight, but we’re told that Calfire is getting good use out of 800-gallon, single-engine, converted crop dusters since they can maneuver better in the South Yuba River canyon.  So, we’re still all packed up, with our bags staged by the door, ready to high-tail it out of here once there is some visible evidence to recommend that.  Otherwise, we just check on the fire info outlets that contain little besides yesterday’s newspaper.  At 930am PG&E's bullshit rolling blackout, it don't say nothin' but jes keeps rollin' along.
8. [1313 hrs]  NC Emergency Service Fire Dashboard is over 13 hours old.  I just drove the peripheral roads of the fire and talked to stationed police and firefighting personnel.  No one in the field knows what's happening, the extent of the fire, or even where the incident command center is located.  The closest was a congenial CHP on 49 who opined that it was located in the Helling Library.  Turns out its in the Rood Center as expected.  When you try to call Emergency Service, you get blown off.  The government beat goes on; no one knows and everyone is quite sanguine about the fire.  And PG&E tells me that the dolts working for them are still trying to figure out the "cause" of my "outage".  Apparently the idiots can't determine if it's still their announced "rolling blackouts" or God knows what - power has now been out 22 hours.  And their Lucky Strike extra is that they have no information as to when they might get additional information about my outage.

[20aug20 update]  Last night Jo Ann and I got texted that it was safe to return home, our part of Cement Hill Rd had its evacuation order lifted.  We were hunkered down at our daughter’s house in Alta Sierra, she had been the perfect hostess during our stay and made the sojourn actually fun (save for trying to find out what the Jones fire was doing).  We made numerous trips into town to get more groceries and pick-up some necessaries that we left behind.  During these forays we always stopped in Morgan Ranch at a spot that overlooks our entire ridge to the north, and also provides a view of the fire’s smoke coming up from behind a closer ridge to the northwest from our observation point.

RL Crabb misses by a mile

"The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left." Ecclesiastes 10:2 (NIV)

George Rebane

Our county’s celebrated and beloved political cartoonist and prominent leftwing thought leader, RL ‘Bob’ Crabb, got a twofer in the 15aug20 Union (on the editorial board of which he sits along with the wife of my life).  In addition to his regular weekend cartoon (here), he wrote a major piece titled ‘Whose town is it anyway?’  Bob is a longtime resident of Nevada County and his words go a long way to shaping our community’s understanding of the county’s rich and historic past.  Do not dismiss them lightly.

In today’s column Bob takes on the task of comparing the happenings and attitudes of half a century ago with what is going on in the county today, and what went down on the streets of Nevada City a few days ago.  We then witnessed a protest march of BLM supporters – locals and from sources unknown - sporting a variety of signs emblazoned with what have become common leftwing anti-American sentiments seen for weeks in the country’s cities that host violent riots and demonstrations by contingents of Antifa and BLM cadre and supporters.  In our town, these marching protesters were met by a handful of counter-demonstrators who did not take kindly to having their community being designated as the next target of the Left’s declared foment of revolution.

The counter-demonstrators did not act wisely with their emotional response, during which they tore up some protester signs and pushed back individual protesters.  All in all, the ‘violence’ we saw on Broad Street compared favorably with what is the everyday norm for commuters on the workday subway platforms of New York and Tokyo.  And it didn’t even qualify for comparison with what has been happening nightly in the downtowns of Portland, Seattle, Chicago, New York, … .  But Nevada City is now a hard-left town, and their own were being manhandled in the streets.  This clearly called for a good dose of social justice administered under the prominent flutter of virtue signalling flags.

So the town’s police launched what is undoubtedly their first “complete investigation”, and from the perusal of numerous videos of the dust-up, perpetrating suspects were identified, with the first already arrested and booked into the county jail – more arrests are promised.  The county’s Left continues in the lather of righteous outrage, as witnessed by the number of contributed editorials that surround Bob’s contribution on the newspaper’s op-ed page.  And it is with this background that we dive into Mr Crabb’s literary contribution.

Bob opens with a fine memory lane jaunt recounting the days of yesteryear when the aftermath of the social unrest and riots of 1968 gave rise from the cities to an exodus of hippies, free-thinkers, counter-culturalists, and other various misfits.  They lifted their eyes toward the hills from whence cometh their salvation, dotted with communities which promised the freedom to let them do their own thing, unmolested by those pesky norms of established tradition and nosey cops.  A goodly cohort arrived in Nevada County, and Bob details their somewhat rough reception by the locals while crediting their arrival with all kinds of good things that befell our community in the subsequent years after the dust had settled.

So far so good.  But then our pencil-pushing philosopher attempts to cross one historical bridge too far with his vivid recounting and unfolding attempt to dovetail the ‘then’ with the ‘now’.  He claims that the decades-separated episodes are really birds of a feather, and a reprise of what our community had once before successfully handled, digested, and integrated.  Then he concludes his considerable comparison and counsel with the lament, “So it is disappointing to see history repeat itself on these same streets.”

Not even close – there is nothing here that represents history repeating itself.  Fifty years ago the hippy migrations were strictly a resocialization of urban misfits into kinder climes.  There was neither a national movement underlying it, nor did it include a concerted and much-advertised goal of fomenting a revolution to fundamentally transform America, a revolution which has now successfully co-opted the nation’s established leftwing political party and jerked its leaders into compliant mouthpieces for the movements’ socio-political ideology.

Today’s proto-communist protestors have no desire to quietly integrate into our communities as profit-seeking merchants, service providers, and professionals; or even as workers for capitalist companies competing in minimally regulated open markets.  Today’s rioters and protesters are neo-Marxists, whose limited and jaundiced view of history sees America as a terminally evil country in a world in which socialism has suffered many faulty starts, corrupt capitalist conspiracies, and mistakes by the various leaders of leftwing movements.  All of these are seen as correctible, and will be corrected this time around as we once more unite and march to the strains of the Internationale.  

Scattershots – 14aug20 (updated 20aug20)

George Rebane

Facebook is going to up the ante on their campaign against ‘hate speech’ as if they really know what they’re talking about.  Their current semi-manual process of censoring content is already causing some serious pushback with customers and even customer nations (e.g. India).  There, as here, they run into problems of politicizing their users’ contents, and doing it very inconsistently.  Now we learn that Facebook is going to start applying advanced AI speech recognition software to make sure that we don’t violate the undefined and undulating hate speech principles of that leftwing corporatist giant.  “Advances could help unlock realtime identification of hate speech on Facebook.”  I tell you Martha, pretty soon we ain’t gonna be able to post much beyond pictures of our grandkids without getting it yanked or having someone knocking on our door. (more here)

Who cares to offer their thoughts on or definition of ‘hate speech’ in a manner that would allow third parties to reliably identify it in posted copy?  Nobody?  That's what I thought.

Mail-in election chaos anticipated by tech giants (here).  This in spite of the crap that has been thrown at President Trump for his warnings that the coming election is going to be chaotic at best and rife with fraud at worst.  Now we learn that corporatist giants such as Facebook, Alphabet, Twitter are all girding their loins for the chaos, but not for problems with ballots.  Instead, they will apply themselves to “how the social-media platforms can prevent the spread of misinformation in the days before and after the election, after the U.S. intelligence community warned of foreign interference and President Trump called the vote’s integrity into question.”  So again the question is how to identify ‘misinformation’.  Recall that the lamestream and corporatists have the ability to erase entire topic areas from the national dialogue.  An example is the removal of HCQ as a demonstrated C19 therapeutic.  It continues to be used beneficially in hospitals here and around the world, but because Trump first mentioned it, HCQ can no longer be discussed in the public forum because it will spread egg all over the face of the Faucis to the NYT and WaPo.  HCQ has been eliminated from Newspeak.

Anybody know what’s on the policy platform of the Biden/Harris team?  Go to his website here, and all you get is two tons of bupkus, or more precisely a big fat policy nothing burger.  Besides asking you for money, the only things you get to read are an endless stream of TDS content, and lame pieces like ‘Statement from Joe Biden on the 55^th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act.’  A lot of media outlets are beginning to notice that there’s nothing there, and no one is willing to put up anything that would let the voters compare what the hard-denying, hard-left duo will subject the country to if/when they’re elected.  The reason is clear – they don’t dare, because then the socialist programs of Bernie, AOC, BLM, Antifa, and the rest of the progressive anti-American crowd will be obvious to even the dimmest of their already deficit-burdened constituency.  Best keep everyone focused on the fresh-baked-daily fake news.  The lamestream stands ready to broadcast, and the corporatists are there with their wallets.  Talk about buying a pig in a poke.

[16aug20 update]  Mail-in ballots don’t work corroborated NJ Gov Murphy on FN’s Chris Wallace show.  When asked about the fact that somewhere between 10% and 20% of mail-in ballots are sent to non-existent voters still on the voter rolls, he studiously and immediately ducked the question and gave out a line of bullshit that had nothing to do with that problem.  Things go worse when the subject of the Paterson NJ mail-in fraud came up.  Beyond all belief, the logic-deprived governor claimed that having caught that fraud demonstrates that mail-in voting works.  Somehow Gov Double-dummy was not able to understand that such a discovery demonstrates that mail-in fraud exists, and 2) that there’s a high likelihood that more incidences of fraud were NOT discovered, as opposed to that only one existed and they nailed it.

Kamala Harris was a racist pick, and is now the ‘Sec 8’ candidate on the Dem ticket.  This is admitted by ALL liberal talking heads who celebrate the race-based strength that she contributes to Biden’s chance.  None of them want to discuss her record, either as California’s AG or a US Senator, a record that should contribute some consideration of merit as the reason for her selection.  She’s black and doesn’t have too many black marks on her record are all the qualifications that Democrat constituents desire and need to know.  But if you actually point this out, you’re a racist. Period end of story.

[17aug20 update]  Green Power Blackouts are now the new norm during hot weather since California has converted almost 40% of its power generation to extremely expensive, unreliable solar and wind – 60% mandated by 2030.  Having rejected natural gas and nuclear, these power outages are totally manmade by ideologically-blinded, ignorant Democrats.  Their stated objective remains countering preventable manmade global warming (PMGW), and unstated objective is still Agenda21 – concentrate humanity in ‘stack & pack’ cities.  Since the state’s electorate is now made up of more than half double dummies, there is no hope for change.  (more here)

(Reminder to readers that I don't like to use 'climate change' as the ambiguous and political catch-all label for the more precise PMGW, which is what everyone is actually talking about, and the policies against which are causing all the havoc in our economy and the reduction of freedoms in our daily lives.  Climate has always been changing, and continues to do so now.  Real science is divided on its direction, causes, preventability, and impacts.  Leftwing consensus science is not.)

The recent rise NYC crime rates under idiot mayor DeBlasio is “suspected” by, some but not all, “elected officials and criminologists” to be caused by NYPD’s new enforced policy of fewer arrests for criminal acts.  “NYPD officials, politicians and criminologists debate whether a link exists between fewer detentions and more homicides and shootings.”  Ya think??!  (more here)

Today the nationwide TDS epidemic goes on steroids.  The Democratic National Convention launches its online version tonight 6-8pm PDT with a stunning array of speakers ranging from former RINO Kasich, through Michelle and Cuomo, to comrade Bernie himself. (more here)  The number of Big Lies told to the American public for two hours every night will be uncountable.  Readers recall RR’s definition of ‘Big Lie’ as one that actually impacts how Americans behave and plan their lives, as opposed to the bravura and bombast that Trump regularly spews (and Democrats count).

Another Big Lie du jour by the Left is that mail-in balloting will present no problems since the USPS regularly delivers millions of SS checks by mail.  But even that is wrong since the overwhelming share of SS payments are direct deposits to recipients’ bank accounts.  And even these residual mailings are presenting a big problem to today’s USPS as announced very publicly by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who warns states of their totally insane schedule of distribution and reception of mail-in ballot.  It seems that most states (led by guess which party) do not understand the means and methods of USPS mail handling and delivery.  Everything from multi-year cost cutting, including eliminating/reducing overtime, to pandemic increased mailings of parcels and packages has placed the USPS in an already over-stressed condition as it anticipates the mail-in ballots surge.  The TDS Dems, of course, will expand their Big Lie by blaming the whole thing on President Trump.  (more here)

[20aug20 update]  Even Bumblebrain Biden's colors don't run true.  Take a look at his red, white, and 'blue' backgrounds and logos.  There is no such barfy turquoise-tinged blue in the American tri-color.  His new socialist tri-color makes an intended statement that they will no longer be like the rest of us.  These are the colors of a new age that seeks to difference itself from what has been a longstanding American tradition in all its dimensions and shades.

Oi weh! – A new pain index

George Rebane

Due to my bride’s unfortunate fall that shattered her elbow and required urgent and complex orthopedic surgery to put the pieces back together, there has been a lot of talk about pain with the attending surgeon, medical techs, and physical therapists.  Everyone one was interested in the magnitude or intensity of the pain.  And today the only way to extract that from a patient is to ask them to assess their pain level on a scale of one to ten, a scale which no one knows how to anchor, calibrate, or even claim whether it is normative.  In clinical lingo something is normative if a large cohort of people in a ‘similar’ situation agree, here in assigning the same pain number to the same intensity of pain.  As you would expect, no one knows; yet they still keep asking and dutifully writing down that number from one to ten.

After noodling on the problem that I’ve had an opportunity to witness numerous times recently, I have come up with an alternative scale that should at least be more normative and therefore useful to the attending medicos.  My approach is based on behaviorism and requires the patient to relate the level of pain to either ongoing (chronic), planned, or executed behaviors.  Here is a first cut at it.

Level 0 – No pain, or that the former episodes of pain have ceased.

Level 1 – Chronic pain or pain episodes continue, but are inconsequential in that the patient does not think about the pain before acting, during/after which act only a mild discomfort is noticed that is not intense enough to make it memorable.

Level 2 – Pain that causes patient to become conscious of it or anticipate it before the act, but at an intensity that induces no hesitation to act and suffer the resulting pain.  The episode remains memorable.

Level 3 – Chronic or anticipated pain at intensity that causes patient to consider delaying the pain-causing act.  The episode remains memorable.

Level 4 – Chronic or anticipated pain at intensity that causes patient to contemplate how to entirely avoid the pain-causing act.  After the act, the episode definitely remains memorable.

Level 5 – Pain at an intensity that causes patient to consider changing after-act plans, but most likely will not actually bring about such a plan change.  The act creates/reinforces a very memorable episode.

Level 6 - Pain at an intensity that causes patient to either avoid act or definitely change after-act plans.  Previous completion of the act created/reinforced a very memorable episode, that made it unlikely that the act would be repeated without some mediation to reduce the pain’s intensity.

Level 7 – Chronic or anticipated pain at intensity such the contemplated act will definitely not be undertaken without some known mediating effect or agent to reduce the pain to an acceptable intensity.  At this level, such prophylaxes and their former absence are vividly remembered during the next precursor to the act.

Level 8 – Chronic or anticipated pain that is/was suffered with attempted analgesics which are/were ineffective.  The sensation/memory of this pain summarily prevents the patient taking/repeating the action since there is no known way to reduce the pain to a level at which the act may again be contemplated.  Suffering is intense and ongoing, causing the patient to essentially avoid all activities.

Thoughts?

Ruminations – 11aug20 (updated 13aug20)

George Rebane

Countering imported BLM demonstrators.  Given that BLM has shown its true colors as a political ‘black lives don’t matter’ movement created to transform the country into a socialist state, and demonstrating their violent methods in other towns and cities, I suppose it’s not surprising that people in Nevada County are turning out to defend home and hearth from imported 'protesters', no matter how many like-minded local leftists join them.

‘Mayhem Continues, Protest Narrative Crumbles’  The lamestream media has done it damnest to foist the Big Lie that the country’s riots, burnings, shootings, lootings, … are just “peaceful protests” of people seeking “social justice” in the wake of George Floyd’s death.  None of them admit to the existential evidence generated nightly across the land, and none of them admit to the greater political purpose of a socialist revolution to which the various factions of rioters readily admit and publish.  And this selective blindness is dutifully aped by our local leftwing loonies as demonstrated in these pages and elsewhere.  (more here)

‘Fighting Back Against the Woke Corporation’  The country’s mega-corporatists are doing their best to sell rope to our socialist cum communist revolutionaries in Congress and the streets.  Today their size is such that “Corporate power can enforce cultural conformity—through marketing, through lobbying, through firing.”  Is this not the perfect time for some unwoke, say retailer like Walmart, to make the big move against the market dominance of Amazon?  Just advertise that you are not woke and that you are a capitalist corporation which makes its profits by putting the interests of its customers (not the list of “stakeholders”) first.  For millions of us it will then quickly become the go-to place for online shopping as it builds up its SKU inventory. (more here)

[Update]  The NC BOS defeated the most recent version of the draconian covid ‘urgency ordinance’ at the end of a very lengthy meeting late this afternoon.  The best the proponents could do was to reduce – yes, reduce – the fines for violating the mask, gathering, and dining-in provisions to $500, $2,500, and $5,000 for the first three offenses.  The heroes of the session were Supervisors Ed Scofield and Susan Hoek with their no votes.  If covid ever becomes an ‘urgent matter’ in Nevada County, the BOS can always revisit such an ordinance.  In the interval, let’s respect the common sense of our residents who are well aware of the pandemic’s dangers.

[12aug20 update]  'Black' is a categorical political identity.  Kamala is advertised by the lamestream as being ‘black’.  Her ancestry is way more complex than that, and returns us to the question of how much Negroid blood qualifies one as black or African-American. (more here) In legal terms she’s classified as black if that’s how she wants it.  But what fraction of Negroid ancestry should our society demand before accepting such a politically beneficial de juris racial classification?  (more here) We answered that question for Elizabeth Warren’s Indian ancestry.  Today the answer is ‘whatever works’.

AP News suckers our local Union again.  AP (All Propaganda) is an unabashedly leftwing fake news outfit that still manages to bamboozle the news editors of most of the country’s newspapers.  The latest piece – ‘Virus surge make the United States weak link in global economic recovery’ - that appears in the 12aug20 Union is utter editorial bullshit passed off as news copy.  At best it should appear on the newspapers’ op-ed pages.  But the fact that it passes off as news goes a long way to explain why today’s Americans have such a low opinion of journalists and journalism.  Did any of them ever take a critical thinking course in journalism school?  (The article on Union’s page A6 could not be found on the AP site, nor on the Union’s website.  It looks like a piece of fluff propaganda passed down to small town newspapers that need to fill some real estate in their print editions, and are not that alert or savvy about what qualifies as real news.  You can read it if you look in the print edition on their website – try here.)

[13aug20 update]  President Trump is finally putting some balance into his C19 ‘science team’ with the invitation to a couple of physician scientists who are part of the cohort of thousands of such professionals that has a markedly different take on what our proper response policies should be for this highly politicized pandemic.  Perhaps there now will be some meaningful backroom discussions between Fauci et al and the newcomers.  (more here and here.  H/T to reader.)

Civil Authority Unbridled

[Rev Dan Prout is a Nevada County Christian minister of the evangelical persuasion, and a friend.  He sent this thoughtful piece to a circle of his friends and congregants.  It addresses an important viewpoint shared by many concerned Christians in the land, myself included, and a call to stand for what we believe.  I post it as received.  gjr]

Rev. Dan Prout

One of Jesus’ most famous statements is, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s.” The verse has been often referenced when talking about separation of Church and State. Jesus was applying a very subtle but important concept regarding societal authority. It is a concept and distinction largely lost in America today.

It is in our day, today, that we again see civil authority competing for power over everyday life and living. Jesus demonstrated in one sentence that there are two realms of authority simultaneously governing community life. In one statement, he affirmed the legitimate role of civil government while maintaining the religious, moral authority of God and godliness. These twin authorities are to govern in concert, their proper exercise providing a safe and blessed life experience, “that our lives may be quiet and peaceful” as the Apostle Paul put it.

All political issues are based in social issues. All social issues are based in values. All values come from religious precepts. It is, therefore, impossible to separate political matters from faith matters. The laws of a society are based inescapably in moral law. The first written law of the Bible, the Ten Commandments, demonstrates this point. Every one of the Ten – from Worship No Other Gods to Do Not Covet Your Neighbors Goods – establishes boundaries for one’s personal relationships both with God and with one’s neighbors. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and goodness represent the biblical law for our behavior, all standards for our relationships. These qualities are so universally accepted that Paul says there is no law against such things. (Galatians 5:12)

The purpose of Law, as Frederic Bastiat, the French philosopher, points out is not to guarantee justice but rather to prevent injustice. Understanding this reality, the Founders, in developing the U.S. Constitution, worked to bind the reach of government misbehavior by decentralizing powers. They leaned heavily upon the principles of the Bible which call individuals to personally restrain themselves from wrong doing and they expected the generations to follow to do the same. The strength of a nation’s social fabric is directly dependent on the level of individual liberty. Individual liberty is directly dependent on virtuous morality. A nation with liberty unbridled from strong virtue will fail. Daniel Webster wrote in 1823,“If the power of the gospel is not felt throughout the length and breadth of this land, anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness will reign without mitigation or end.” His words spoken nearly 200 years ago have an inescapably prophetic accuracy for our present social and spiritual condition, and, as predicted, we have a government gone astray.

Civil authority must be informed and restrained by moral authority. It is the role of the Church to be bold enough to advise and even correct civil authority when it goes astray. Dr. Martin Luther King rightly observed, “The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state. It must be the guide and critic of the state and never its tool.”

The problem today is not that government and its leaders have lost their way; that is to be expected in the absence of vigorous moral argument. Rather, it is the Church, its leaders and its people, which has become complacent and ineffective in providing clear moral guidance in the society. To its great discredit, the Church has expected that civil authority can well function without the tangible presence of moral virtue. To its discredit, the Church has failed to bring preserving, moral salt to society, relegating the nation’s inhabitants to a hopeless life amidst moral and cultural decay.

Let us heed the admonition of Russian historian and philosopher Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn spoken at Harvard University, “A decline in courage may be the most striking feature that an outside observer notices in the West today.” It is time to stand.

A Batscat Challenge

George Rebane

Led by local leftwing intellectual legend Mr Steven Frisch, the readers and yours truly have been labeled “batshit crazy” in comment streams here and leftwing blogs elsewhere for doubting or debating the science behind major public issues like preventable manmade global warming, Covid-19 response policies, and even the effect of taxes on economic behavior.  While making these hubristic accusations, they totally ignore the actual batshit crazy policies and proposals constantly issuing from the country’s putrid progressive pundits and politicians highlighted by such intellectual compositions such as the Green New Deal, Medicare for All, Common Core curriculum, the BLM and Antifa manifestos, America’s new revisionist history a la Zinn and the 1619 Project, and … the list goes on indefinitely.

Today the Left has elevated their batshit crazy propositions onto steroid levels with their claims that STEM studies are really expressions of white supremacy and racist.  More and more leftwing academicians are hoisting their true intellectual colors with such statements as from Brooklyn College Professor of Math Education Laurie Rubel who claims that math is an expression of “white supremacist patriarchy” and, joined by other pinhead peers, to insist that “math should be reevaluated because it was primarily developed by white men.” (more here)

Instead of hiding behind their beloved and well-practiced Alinsky Angle with which the socialists loudly accuse their political opposites of doing exactly what they have done and continue to do, I challenge these socialist sages to step up and publicly defend their ideas with similar dedication and depth that we of the conservetarian leanings here employ in our apologetics.  After many years in these pages, we are still looking for something besides baseless ad hominems from their side.  Where is their defense of, say, the Green New Deal, or the joys of socialism, or that ‘2+2=4’ is racist, or … .  (also see comment stream of the last Sandbox and at Bob Crabb's)

So here’s a thesis to debate – ‘It is proposed that dedicated Democrats, following in the footsteps of their political leaders and notable academics, are in various forms intellectually disabled or delinquent (aka batshit crazy).’  No one should hold their breath that this challenge will be answered.

Doing it to ourselves – why? (updated 12aug20)

[The Nevada County Board of Supervisors will again vote on Item 26 this coming Tuesday.  Item 26 involves the passage of an "urgency ordinance" that will levy draconian fines on NC residents and businesses for violating any of the decrees and diktats regarding Covid-19 passed by higher up government jurisdictions, and piles on a passel of additional ones in the form of a county ordinance (here) to which we who live here will be subjected.  None of this local government overreach and virtue signalling is necessary since we are all aware of the Covid-19 infection dangers and know how to mitigate the risk - our stats demonstrate.  We don’t need our local pols to establish a legion of STASI-like plain clothes snitches who will cite innocent infractions with fines of thousands of dollars.  We don’t have to do it to ourselves.  Write to your supervisor about opposing Item 26 on the agenda.  My sweetie-pie Jo Ann is doing her part, so I asked if I could publish some of the drafts of letters and emails she is sending to the Supes and senior county staff members.  Hopefully, some of these will inspire you to drop them a line.  gjr]

Jo Ann Rebane

BOS Agenda, Tues. 8/11/20, item 26 – live public meeting             

Consideration of item 26, the urgency enforcement ordinance should be held during a live public meeting.  As a board you previously sat through not hours, but DAYS of public comment on the Marijuana Urgency Ordinance.  The public needs to personally express their comments and personally see and hear your reactions thereto on this version of the urgency enforcement ordinance.  Surely you can figure out a way to let the public address your board in person while maintaining social distancing and other covid precautions. 

BOS Agenda, Tues. 8/11/20, item 26 – OPPOSE

I oppose the revised and current version of item 26, urgency covid enforcement ordinance.  This version is draconian.  It encourages the public to “snitch” or “tattle-tale” on individuals, businesses and commercial enterprises to cause code enforcers to levy excessive and confiscatory fines.  There is enough acrimony in this county already.  Don’t stir up more divisiveness.

BOS Agenda, Tues. 8/11/20, item 26 – OPPOSE

I oppose agenda item 26 for the express OVERREACH which makes it unlawful for any individual, business or commercial enterprise to do anything contrary to orders of ANY governmental body, agency or individual at any level in California.  It is impossible for the public to know all those rules, regulations, edicts, and orders.  Send this draft to the waste can.

BOS Agenda, Tues. 8/11/20, item 26 – OPPOSE

I urge you to oppose agenda item 26.  This county and its businesses, including restaurants did everything the governor required under the initial order in March.  This county qualified for special opening status and re-opened carefully.  Restaurants and others invested heavily in costly infrastructure and what did they get – another shut-down.  This county continues to qualify for the special relaxed opening status but the governor’s recent order doesn’t recognize this.  We comply and he punishes us.  Does one size fit all counties? 

BOS Agenda, Tues. 8/11/20, item 26 – OPPOSE

I urge you to oppose agenda item 26.  The Nevada County Board of Supervisors should be fighting the governor not our local businesses.  Scrap the urgency ordinance and fight for our county’s businesses and not against them.

BOS Agenda, Tues. 8/11/20, item 26 – OPPOSE

Please oppose agenda item 26.  I urge the board of supervisors to petition/urge/lobby the governor to rescind the statewide “close all restaurants” order.  Nevada County is one of the “open” counties (but how can we tell?).  There is not one case of covid emanating from a restaurant here,  our hospitals are not impacted, and this county has done everything it was required to do to move to the current phase of opening. 

BOS Agenda, Tues. 8/11/20, item 26 – OPPOSE

That the governor threatens to withhold recovery funds feels like blackmail for an offense that wasn’t committed.  Arbitrary, capricious, politically motivated, and wrong-headed. 

I would rather see the BOS stand up for the community and its businesses than to enact a punitive urgency ordinance.  You, Supervisors and the city councils should be doing all in your power to NOT lose another business (tax payer).   

Address comments by email for this BOS item in this format:

To: bdofsupervisors@co.nevada.ca.us, bos.publiccomment@co.nevada.ca.us
Cc: Dan Miller <dan.miller@co.nevada.ca.us>, Heidi.Hall@co.nevada.ca.us, Sue.Hoek@co.nevada.ca.us, Scofield Ed <ed.scofield@co.nevada.ca.us>, Anderson Richard <richard.anderson@co.nevada.ca.us>
Subject: BOS Agenda, Tues. 8/11, Item 26

[11aug20 update gjr]  Mercifully, the ‘urgency ordinance’ with its revised, yet still draconian, fines was defeated yesterday by the BOS, thanks to Supervisors Scofield and Hoek.  Why Supervisor Dan Miller pulled a ‘John Roberts’ on us is still a mystery, or is it?  His suggestion that the fines be “reduced by half” to (seatbelts please) $500, $1,000, $2,500 for the first three offenses defined by ordinance was jaw-dropping.  And it begs an answer to ‘why are we doing this to ourselves?’

Well, the answer may have been in front of us all these years, and is still there – Nevada County remains anti-growth and anti-business.  Under this policy the county has struggled for decades to collect enough tax revenues to barely make ends meet, and with the ongoing and insane ‘greening’ of government, it is clear that taxes from our remaining businesses and residents will not cut it.  So, the answer to the shortfall now in progress is a quiet but still visible shift to increase punitive revenues with a marked step-up in collecting fines and fees from code violations.  This tack is exactly the socialist counter to policies required for our county’s long overdue economic growth.  In the 12aug20 Union Michael Taylor expands on all this in his ‘Nevada County is ramping up enforcement to generate revenue’, and it most certainly explains away Dan Miller’s vote.

Sandbox – 7aug20

[What no one talks about is the blatant fact that Joe Biden is now America’s Manchurian candidate as his platform has migrated from ‘bipartisan civility’ to hard left socialism.  That ol’ Bumblebrain is the ‘safe alternative’ to Trump and will bring the country back on even keel is perhaps the biggest lie that the Dems and their lamestream are foisting on Americans.  Joe has made a bait and switch pact with the devil, and is now our proto-communist candidate a la Bernie and AOC, having publicly accepted and promised to implement their respective policy prescriptions.  And no one knows or even cares about it, as the Hate Trump campaign outshouts all else.  (more here) gjr]

The Blessings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

George Rebane

Three-quarters of a century ago today, the first atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima (6aug45), followed three days later by another one on Nagasaki (9aug45).  At that time WW2 had raged for six years having killed almost 85 million people.  The planned invasion of Japan’s home islands in November 1945 would have extended the war for another two years with the Japanese – who, including women and children, were exhorted to fight to the death – to suffer another 5-10 million dead, and another 1.7-4 million allied casualties including 400,000-800,000 American dead.  Instead, the two atom bombings took somewhere between 130,000 and 225,000 Japanese killed, and ended the war less than a week later.  Nuclear physicist and former Los Alamos National Laboratory exec John Hopkins gives a more detailed accounting here.

Not enough credit has been given to President Truman for authorizing the bombings.  Truman had just learned of the Manhattan Project in June 1945, a couple of months after FDR’s death in April.  Given the bevy of pro/con arguments he had to consider in the midst of war and early days as President (after being kept in the dark and on the sidelines since being sworn in as VP), his decision to drop the bombs was heroic, for no one knew how the country and history would respond to such a justified slaughter of civilians.

Americans and the people of the world have been of two minds about the morality and ethics of that particular act that launched the Atomic Age.  The ‘America as an evil imperialist country’ contingent has argued from the start that dropping the bombs was a terminally immoral act and confirmed that the United States at its core is an evil nation.  This narrative has been delivered by the Left, here and abroad, in various forms and amplified into curricula taught to young Americans for over three generations.  The anti-American argument always starts with and remains focused on the human toll from the viewpoint of the victims (example here).  Once that emotional hook is set in the uneducated and lightly read, the expansion of the apologetic into the international socio-political landscape follows naturally, and another tranche of young leftwingers go into the world with an almost indelible rejection of anything that derives from what may be gathered under the ideology of the Right.

Those of us who have experienced war first hand, and subsequently expanded our horizons of critical thought are able to see the enormously greater good that Hiroshima and Nagasaki delivered to humankind.  Not only did these holocausts result in the immediate saving of millions of lives, but the unbelievable power of the bombs and resulting devastation in one act have stopped global conflicts between major powers that would have claimed more untold millions of lives.  And in that process we came to call the Cold War, one of the world’s two threatening communist tyrannies quietly collapsed, as the world continued to enjoy the peace of the bomb’s ‘mutually assured destruction’.

I harbor no expectation that any of these humanitarian accountings will change liberal minds, and let them see these highly localized tragedies of long ago as the greater blessing they have been to the world’s billions.  The resulting global Pax Americana, interrupted by the inevitable ‘brushfire wars’, may also, and perhaps more accurately, be called the Pax Atomica.  And if we do a rigorous examination of the underlying morality of such a global mercy killing, I believe that most of us will find these war-ending events of long ago to have satisfied the most rigorous demands that define ethical behavior.  The dead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not die in vain.

Absentee vs Mail-in Voting (updated 28aug20)

George Rebane

[This is the addended transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 5 August 2020.]

There has been a lot of confusion about voting by mail in the media lately; mostly purposeful with the aim of promoting a political narrative.  I would bet a good hunk of the ranch that many KVMR listeners are unaware of some very important details on what has now come to be the latest national election dust-up.

To start, let’s distinguish between two very different kinds of voting by mail – the first is absentee voting and the second is called mail-in voting.  Absentee voting has been successfully practiced for decades, and there have been relatively few problems of voter fraud or ballot mishandling with this kind of voting by mail.  In absentee voting the voter requests a ballot from the local election officials by providing appropriate information about him- or herself in the application for an absentee ballot.  The election workers vet the applicant by checking the active voter roll for the applicant’s jurisdiction to confirm that such and such a person is registered, and in which party for primaries, with a matching signature, and does indeed live at the applicant’s address.  It’s all very simple and easy to obtain a ballot, mark it, and return it in an envelope that requires the US Postal Service to cancel and date it.  Efficient processes for doing all this have been in place for generations.

However, in the newly proposed mail-in process, each state automatically sends out an unsolicited ballot to everyone who is on the so-called active voter rolls, and many states even send out unrequested ballots to people listed on the inactive voter rolls.  In almost all states these voter rolls are abysmally out-of-date, incomplete, and contain thousands of duplicates and those having moved or deceased.  In mail-in voting there is no process to vet the voter for accuracy and currency of information.  Depending on local voting policies, ballots are mailed all over the state to be received by whoever currently lives at the address.  By law the USPS is not supposed to forward a mail-in ballot if the addressee no longer lives there.  But the USPS often ignores this and forwards it anyway.  Then the ballot goes to only God knows who.

Shifting from the Fourth to the Fifth

George Rebane

Let me get this straight, led by Rep Schiff, the Dems are taking the DHS to task for doing its job in developing and providing intelligence on today’s anti-American rioters, their enablers, and their propagandists.  WaPo, the arch-leftwing lamestream outlet, presents one of its totally misleading reports on what’s happening in the land, and how the DHS relieved Brian Murphy, the head of its Office of Intelligence & Analysis, for compiling intelligence on the country’s coordinating rioters and journalists who published reports on confidential DHS documents to subvert and interfere with its security operations.

All this is part and parcel of efforts by the leading lamestream outlets to support continuing civil strife by undermining and managing public opinion against federal officials working to restore order in cities where local authorities promote looting, burning, and general mayhem by taking their police off the streets under the guise of protecting the civil rights of “peaceful protesters”.  (Today’s crime stats speak for themselves.)  WaPo, instead, tells its readers that “DHS has been under mounting scrutiny from lawmakers and civil liberties groups over its use of federal law enforcement officers to quell protests in Portland and in light of President Trump’s threat to deploy federal personnel to other cities that he asserts are being overrun by violent criminals.” (more here)

What the demonic Dems and their propagandist media count on is the short memory or just plain ignorance of the general public in consuming these breathless reports of the DHS doing its mandated job.  For over four years the Democratic leadership fabricated bought-and-paid-for ‘evidence’ against President Trump, his staff, and election campaign in an administration wide effort that we now know was launched and coordinated from the Oval Office.  Readers of these pages know the litany of charges that were sequentially brought by Democrat controlled and colluding Justice Department officials (the AG and FBI Director) and House committees that launched an unending series of investigations, including one requiring a special prosecutor, and finally ending with a disgraceful trumped-up partisan impeachment.

All of these came to naught, failing to find a shred of evidence of criminality or wrongdoing.  And ALL these enterprises involved government acting in its most cynical manner, employing extra-constitutional methods to destroy an administration and reverse the 2016 election’s outcome.  And how did our mainstream media comport itself during these subterfuges and kabuki performances?  Over the years they behaved as obedient lackeys of the Democratic National Committee, publishing article after article that bent the truth ranging from partisan innuendo to blatant Big Lies (latest examples here).

Today the beat goes on unabated.  The barefaced propagandists continue their daily manufacture of ‘news’ that widens the ideological chasm in America, having already brought it to a state in which neighbors, who formerly understood and tolerated each other’s political leanings, can no longer stomach their proximity.  Our ability to meet at non-partisan social occasions is fast disappearing, as everyone, first and foremost, frames the other as a compatriot or someone working to undermine our country’s future.  And as has happened many times during the upheavals of the last century, the afflicted country’s Fourth Estate has always been complicit as it morphed into its Fifth Column.

E Pluribus Unum – Still? Really? (updated 2aug20)

George Rebane

‘There are more things that unite Americans than drive them apart.’  This shibboleth, or one in a similar vein, is often heard when conversation-lite turns to the polarization now visible everywhere in our land.  Unfortunately, these conversations don’t go much deeper than the participants sagely nodding their heads before abandoning the topic and hurriedly shifting to more comfortable topics.  Such tactics have always been eschewed in these pages, so let’s take an inventory of the things that unite and separate us.  Readers, as always, are invited to augment my inventory with edits and additions of their own.

The things that unite us –

1. We’re all Homo sapiens;
2. We co-habit within the same borders;
3. We drive mostly same kind of cars;
4. We eat mostly same foods;
5. We breathe the same air;
6. We dress similarly;
7. We enjoy same sports (mostly);
8. We vote in the same elections;
9. We use the same currency.

The things that divide us –

1. Language
2. History
3. Organization of society/economy (capitalist, collectivist, elitist, …)
4. Governance (role of nation-state, democracy, …)
5. Rights and Privileges (the armed citizen, Bastiat triangle of rights, voting, …)
6. Free speech
7. State of the nation (racist, imperialist, shining city on a hill, …)
8. Role of government (guarantor of freedoms, national security, economic security, …)
9. Role of education (trained/competitive workforce, common history and traditions, social contract, …)
10. Role of media (news, sports, entertainment, maintain common culture and currency, …)
11. America’s future (sovereignty, globalism)
12. Nature of Man (sexual diversity, gender identification, …)
13. Values (family, parenting, traditions, risk tolerance, …)
14. Ethics (racism, discrimination, equality, prejudice, …)
15. Individual Responsibility
16. National Sovereignty
17. Religion
18. Understanding of science
19. Awareness of current events
20. Patriotism (role of sacrosanct national totems, willing to defend, …)
21. Foreign Policy (world hegemon)
22. Logical thinking
23. National security (military, borders)
24. Private property (ownership, disposition, heritance, housing, …)
25. Wealth and Income (taxes, merit, enforced equality, …)

The only way that I can see healing such a devastating ideological breach is through education.  That requires the replacement of legions of incompetent socialist union shills with qualified teachers.  Even then it would take at least two generations to repair the damage.  And that is not going to happen.  So, given the Democrats’ most recent Great Leap Leftward, there is no palpable or plausible means that this polarization will cease, and we again become a more cohesive and unified people who can peacefully and productively live in one land.

Ergo, common ground between the two sides has long disappeared in the rearview mirror, and only two possible futures remain for Americans to determine their own path forward – the Left wins and forcefully subjugates the remaining Right (for we will not go quietly into that dark night), or the Right is able to convince the Left that we need to negotiate a Great Divide on the North American continent.  What then remains to be seen is how/whether the people of Canada and/or Mexico want to figure into the new North American order.

[I expand on each of the points which divide us in a downloadable pdf - Download E Pluribus Unum]

[2aug20 update]  This 8-minute video - 'The Deadliest Virus in the World' - explains in more graphic detail the historical crossroads at which we again find ourselves.

Ruminations – 30jul20 (updated 5aug20)

Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks.  Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away, poor fools.  And their grandchildren are once more slaves. - D.H. Lawrence

George Rebane

‘America’s Summer of Cultural Suicide’ from Victor Davis Hansen is another voice that corroborates the sentiments of these pages.  With what we used to call the ‘silent majority’ practicing ever more persistent forms of quietude as our woke progressives rampage to transform the country, the chances for any return to normalcy have faded and now range between slim and none.

The Left’s desperate spinning of the country’s violent riots as “peaceful protests” has now become a staple in their stable of pre-election Big Lies.  When shown dated videos of mayhem on our city streets to counter their lies, they and their lamestream lackeys double down by calling the reporting of existential evidence as just rightwing Republican “narrative”.  The Left is confident in the effectiveness of such outrageous denials because they know their constituents are either ignorant or only lap up lamestream outlets, as we confirm in our comment streams.

Nevada County’s “Urgency Ordinance” to fine the bejeezus out of business and people who violate the notched-up version of Gov Newsom’s latest C19 diktats was tabled by the BoS for rewrite and clarification.  Now that everyone seems to be playing by the latest version of the lockdown rules, is there still any reason to prescribe fines at the draconian levels in the ordinance’s first go-around – in short, why do it to ourselves?  And the question still begs, ‘Why can’t an already informed populace in a remote rural county with low incidence of the pandemic not be allowed to take their own risks in following the guidance to wear masks, social distance, and not congregate in big gatherings where there is a higher chance of getting infected?’

'Stupid on Steroids' is how Bob Crabb has branded me and all conservatives for the above sentiments.

Mystery seeds from China.  "The U.S. Department of Agriculture said consumers in at least 22 U.S. states and several other countries had received unsolicited packages of seeds. Canada, the U.K. and Australia all are investigating the matter."  One of the Rebane clan in the county received such a seed package this week.

[31jul20 update]  Congressional Republicans are coming across to this commentator as somewhere between double dummies and dreadfully incompetent.  My general lament about today’s Republican Party (here) didn’t go into specifics, so I’ll highlight a couple of pieces of evidence here.  Thankfully retiring Rep James Sensenbrenner’s (R-WI) performance yesterday as the ranking member of the House Antitrust Subcommittee was a travesty (here).  As shown on FN’s 30jul20 news, every point he made was lame, and he phrased every question as a wrongway, unrevealing puffball to the tech execs.  He made a perfect Republican doppelganger of Democrat double dummies like Rep Hank Johnson (D-GA) who showed concern that Guam would tip over if we added additional military personnel to our base there (here).

Meanwhile, the ongoing Republican incompetence in the Senate is highlighted by WSJ’s Kim Strassel (here) – “As Congress spent another tortuous week nonnegotiating a fifth virus-relief bill, it finally dawned on Republicans that they are being played for fools. Democrats don’t want a bill; they want to win an election. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi—who may go down as one of Washington’s greatest cynics—knew exactly what she was doing in May, when she cooked up the $3 trillion monstrosity known as the Heroes Act. If the GOP said no to her outlandish demands, Democrats would brand them as uncaring, unable to lead, unworthy of controlling Washington. If instead she bludgeoned them into swallowing her spendathon, Democrats would wave the win as proof they should control Washington. Heads Democrats win; tails Republicans lose.”  There are indications that McConnell and his caucus are finally having an epiphany as to the requirement for the Repubs to present a plan that robustly contrasts their approach with that of the Dems.  About f*&!ing time.

[1aug20 update] Rep John Lewis RIP.  As readers have come to expect, my take on the life and times of John Lewis runs counter to the national paeans raised in his honor and remembrance.  The historical record shows that he was indeed a courageous and self-sacrificing civil rights leader in the early 1960s, as he helped launch the landmark integration and voting acts of 1964 and 1965.  But then in the remainder of his public career, he reverted to join and then lead the other cynical Congress critters who went on to pass bill after bill that served to destroy the black family, deny education to their young, and create enduring murderous ghettos in our inner cities.  In these, residents mistakenly placed their last vestiges of hope on government largess, which did nothing but install an attitude of ingrained victimhood that kept them in place as they continued to vote for their calculating political ‘benefactors’, who perennially promised a better life that they had no intention of delivering.  Nevertheless, history will be kinder to John Lewis than this politically incorrect, socially unjust, yet factually accurate remembrance.

[2aug20 update]  Another nail in journalism’s coffin.  WSJ’s Paul Gigot joined all the lamestream journalists in reporting that the economy shrank 32.9% during the 2^nd quarter.  That’s like the GDP dropping almost a third in three months.  Notice they didn’t say it dropped at the annual rate of 32.9% during the 2^nd quarter, which is in fact what happened.  For the numerate out there, they tap a few calculator keys and quickly determine that the GDP actually shrank only 7.4% last quarter, and were it to repeat that for the next three quarters, then and only then would an annual drop of 32.9% come to pass.  The average Joe and Josephine on the corner don’t have a clue, and their takeaway is that Trump is mismanaging the economy so badly that it loses a third of its value in three months.  Journalists compete for the bottom of the barrel with politicians, public school teachers, and lawyers in the minds of the diminishing number of Americans who still pay attention.

The newest Big Lie from Democrats is convincing the already confused Joe and Josephine that all mail-in ballots are alike, and that since we have had absentee voting with mail-ins for years with no problems, expanding to all voting via mail-ins will follow suit opposed only by Republicans who want to reduce the minority vote.  Again, nothing is further from the truth.  County registrars mailing a mail-in ballot to all on their voter rolls are already causing reams of problems where such practices have been tried (and all of these in Democrat jurisdictions).  Almost all voter rolls across the country are woefully out of date, containing names of people moved, people dead, and people not qualified to vote – e.g. California has over 500,000 of these non-voters on the state’s active voter rolls.  On the other hand, absentee ballots are only sent to people who request them with appropriate vetting information.  Democrats love all the creative things that can be done with blanket mail-in votes.

[5aug20 update]  Insurrection Act of 1807.  OK boys and girls, here’s the skinny on sending in the feds, including the military and National Guard, to quell rioting in cities.  The act has been invoked numerous times by presidents since it was passed – last time by Bush1 in 1992 against the LA riots.  To pull the trigger on the full use of the act, the president needs to “publish a proclamation ordering the insurgents to disperse.”  Which in effect President Trump has done numerous times.  Check it out here.  (H/T to an astute reader who sent me the link.)

The Dilemma of a Disillusioned and Disaffected Republican (updated 31jul20)

George Rebane

To some questions a silent answer speaks volumes.

Say that someone is a longtime Republican who, after much thought, has come to believe that –

1. The national Republican Party (RP) is no longer a viable custodian, communicator, or champion of conservative and classical liberal values.
2. The RP is in full ideological retreat with one or another of its politicians succumbing daily to the demands of the radical Left and the Democrat Party.
3. The few remaining and widely accessible champions of the Right are found on radio, cable news, and the internet. Other conservative/libertarian media outlets and rightwing institutions are mostly echo chambers preaching to their choirs.
4. Rank and file conservatives are reserved, avoid public notice, and appear to be waiting for the arrival of a ‘man on a white horse’ to lead them. Donald Trump has shown himself not up to that task, even though his policies, as opposed to his mouth, have on the whole been quietly welcomed by Republicans.
5. Democrats at all levels have increasingly shown themselves to be virulently anti-American, now hell bent on transforming our republic into an anti-capitalist, command/control autocracy. Today their three generations of carefully public-schooled constituents – illiterate in history, governance, and the language – will expectantly follow their voluble demogauges anywhere.
6. Locally Republicans are almost invisible, reticent to show their colors in public, and they don’t support fellow Republicans who do champion conservative values in the public square – when attacked by Democrats and socialists, these are abandoned to swing in the virulent winds of the Left.
7. The Nevada County RP leadership is also reticent, having political imaginations firmly in the furrow of the same ol’ same ol’, while expecting a different outcome.
8. The California RP has published no realistic plan for its resurgence to again become a viable political entity in the state.
9. Does not know of anyone with a plan for California RP’s resurgence, nor does he know of anyone who knows anyone who claims to have such a plan.
10. The RP can still be revived if it can attract a courageous, communicative, and competent leadership, from some of their current back benchers.
11. Nevertheless, the now fallow RP remains on the political landscape as the only realistic opponent of Democrats today bent on establishing a socialist America.

The alternatives available to him include –

1. Do nothing.
2. Quietly re-register as an Independent.
3. Quietly re-register as a ‘Decline-to-State’ (remaining Republican)
4. Quietly re-register as a Libertarian
5. Volubly re-register as an Independent
6. Volubly re-register as a Libertarian.
7. …?

This grim outlook on the Republican Party is shared by most of my conservetarian friends and acquaintances.  For that reason I sent these thoughts to a well-known congressman with whom I have enjoyed years of exchanging ideas during visits, with emails, and through telephone conversations.  I was seeking his own observations on the matter, and also his counsel to such party members and supporters.  To date our other conversations continue, but on this his response has been the sound of silence.

[31jul20 update]  Some examples of my frustration with today’s Grand Old Party are posted in today’s update to the 30jul20 ‘Ruminations’.

Sandbox - 27jul20

[Does everyone know what Nevada County Supes are planning to vote on tomorrow?  Heidi Hall (District1) plans to introduce Urgency Ordinance Measure 37 that would impose draconian fines on local residents for not wearing a mask, even while social distancing.  This is the latest of the power-mad disease infecting political pinheads across the country.  Write your supervisor or be there.  gjr]

Election2020 – Electoral College Predictor

George Rebane

Something is possible when it can happen with non-zero probability; something is probable when the chance of its happening will impact a decision.

One of our commenters pointed me to 270towin.com, a website that presents a map-based tool to predict the Electoral College (EC) votes which will determine our next president.  They show how the states are going to vote given various pundit assessments and polling results.  The site also lets you assign to each state whether and to what degree it will vote Republican or Democrat.  The degrees shown for each party are – Safe, Likely, Leans, Tilt, and Toss-up.  You can also add ‘Tilt’ to the spectrum.  Assigning such degrees to each state allows the site’s visitor to come up with his own prognostication.

The problem with 270towin is that its algorithm to compute the total EC votes for each candidate is not revealed.  To overcome this shortcoming and make the EC predictor more useful and transparent, I constructed a rigorous one in the spreadsheet form shown below (click on image to enlarge).

This has the trending categories shown along with their 1 thru 9 trend numbers that identify each one uniquely.  As per convention, the blue numbers are to be input by the user, the black numbers are calculated by formulas (keep you mitts off of them).  All the 538 EC votes are shown for the states and DC.  Inputting your own trend numbers will recalculate the expected number of EC votes each side will get along with their underlying probability distribution.  This permits some math to be applied to compute the actual probabilities of each side winning the EC vote – i.e. getting more than the needed 270 required to win.

And here’s the good part.  In my model, the win probabilities that quantify each trend category are shown and can be changed by the user.  Mine are 0.51, 0.55, … shown in blue under the Republican side and replicated in black on the Democrat side.  If you don’t like my picks for each of the indicated trending categories, then substitute your own, and fill in the trend numbers for all the states and DC.

The model outputs are shown in the yellow block, and consist of the expected number of Dem and Repub votes along with the probabilities that the Dems and Repubs get at least the needed 270 votes to win.  The trend numbers shown were the current ‘consensus’ assignments from 270towin, and with my assigned probabilities, a Democrat win is practically a certainty.  I will put in my own trend numbers as time goes by, and so can you.  You can download the spreadsheet here – Download ElectCollege2020

I will publish your assessments if you send me an image of the relevant cells as shown above – put your own name and date YYMMDD in the cell under the copyright notice.  Have fun.

And despite today's bad EC numbers, here is a little Lucky Strike Extra for all of you without TDS.

Letters from the Revolution – 24jul20 (updated 26jul20)

George Rebane

No one’s interests, objectives, values, … will exactly match yours.  The best you can ever do is support those with whom you share the most in common.

Kudos to our local restaurants Old Town Café, Sergio’s, and Friar Tucks for remaining open and in business despite Gov Newsom’s unconstitutional diktats and the compliantly cringing Nevada County Environmental Health Department’s threats to close and fine them.  The poster on their doors says it all.

[update] ‘News Media Becomes Fluent in Newspeak’ observes Gerard Baker in the 20jul20 WSJ.  He cites Orwell’s “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength”, and writes, Part of George Orwell’s genius lay in his insight that manipulation of language was essential to the revolutionary project. If you can command popular compliance with a lexicon that reorders—or even inverts—the widely understood meaning of political terms, you can remake society as much as you can with any law, mandate or act of force. Thought is constrained by the limits of language, and so language becomes a vital tool for placing limits on thought.”  Baker apparently is not aware of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis of which Orwell undoubtedly was.  S-W makes the strong claim that one can only think thoughts that can be expressed in the language(s) one knows.  The Left quickly became the leading practitioner of this facet of human cognition, and has applied it worldwide where it has come to control the institutions of education, news media, and entertainment.

[26jul20 update]  Democrat Big Lies just continue washing over the country.  The latest is from Dem big city mayors who tell their know-nothings that the president’s sending federal forces into their cities to enforce federal laws, which the mayors refuse to do, is unconstitutional.  As former AG Michael Mulkasey patiently made clear on FN, the truth is exactly the opposite.  The Constitution requires the president to send in federal LE forces wherever they are needed in the country in order to enforce federal laws – e.g. secure and defend federal property.  Another longstanding Dem whopper is the ongoing charge that Trump has mishandled the federal C19 response, which ‘mishandling’ no one seems to be able to define.  So, when Bumblebrain was asked on MSNBC what the correct response should be when he is president, he stuttered through his ‘six point plan’ containing items each one of which had already been initiated by President Trump and is already in operation.  The liberal interviewer was either too ignorant to call Biden on his purloined ‘plan’, or didn’t want to tell her audience that Bumblebrain had blown another one.

 

The Reliability Roulette of Testing (updated)

George Rebane

[This is the addended transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 21 July 2020.]

It’s again time to bring up testing for the Covid-19 virus.  Let me start by saying that testing has shown no value in formulating reasonable pandemic response policies by public officials.  It has become an election year political football, a game played by both parties and all our healthcare institutions starting with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.  And there’s a lot more to be said to support such a strong and wide-reaching assertion.

Scattershots – 22jul20

George Rebane

Our indigenous North American natives (aka Indians) may not have politically clean hands after all.  Now that it’s OK to go back in history to any desired time in order to dredge up the iniquities of our forefathers (and mothers), we have discovered that the most recent arrivals before the white man probably were not very nice to the people who were here before them.  “For most of the 20th Century, archaeologists were convinced that big-game hunters known as the Clovis people, identified by the fluted flint spear points they made, were the first Americans, arriving about 12,000 to 13,000 years ago. More recent finds from Oregon to Chile, though, showed that other groups had arrived 16,000 years ago or more.”  So is it not now time to start tearing down the history of our redskins, so we can proceed to a clean sweep of all the bad that preceded this fundamentally transformed age of purity in thought and deed? (more here and here)

More later.

The communists try again … (updated 17jul20)

George Rebane

From The Patriarch, David Nasaw’s mega-biography of the life and times of Joseph P. Kennedy, we read –

The Depression, as Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., noted in the first volume of his The Age of Roosevelt, offered “radicalism its long awaited chance.”  The unemployed, underemployed, dispossessed, and hungry were not sitting idly by waiting for prosperity to return.  Many were too numbed, too crushed, to protest, but a small and vocal minority were not.  The Socialist and Communist parties more than doubled their tiny memberships and exploded in visibility.  Communist Party organizers were actively operating in city neighborhoods from Harlem to Detroit, in the coal fields of Pennsylvania an Kentucky, and the River Rouge plant in Dearborn, among tenants and sharecroppers in the South and migrant workers in California, and outside and inside closed and closing mills and factories in the Northeast.  Their argument was simple: capitalism had failed and needed to be replaced.

In the 1930s FDR’s big government nostrums kept the country in a depression so deep and enduring that it took the greatest war in history to bring us out of it (aided through Truman’s fortuitous rejection of the post-war return to FDR’s alphabet soup agencies) and reject communism.  What is it going to take this time in today's Democrat-promoted recession as their socialists/communists again marshal their forces in the streets and in the ballot boxes?

[17jul20 update]

Scattershots – 15jul20 (updated 19jul20)

George Rebane

Putin’s favorite party is the Democrats by far.  As they lavish their baseless stream of Big Lies on America’s electorate about Trump’s Russia collusion, for which there is absolutely no evidence after years of investigations cum witchunts, the truth again is the Alinsky opposite.  Since they can’t do it through legislation, the Left continues to stifle the production, transport, and distribution of America’s fossil energy through legacy regulations and litigation.  This has made America’s sale of natural gas to Europe uncompetitive with what Putin can deliver through its expanded Baltic pipelines to countries like Germany et al.  (more here)  There is no doubt that Putin, Xi, and the Iranian ragheads (e.g. recipients of pallets of cash) favor our demonic Dems over any Republican.  Besides crippling our country’s lead as the world’s energy producer, our progressives continue to do everything they can to weaken our ability to project power as the world’s white hat hegemon.  And you ain’t seen nothin’ yet until they really rule the roost in Washington.  Our Left has given new meaning to colluding with despots.

[16jul20 update] In ‘The Politics of Hydroxychloroquine’ Allysia Finley presents an update of results from the clinical applications and testing of HCQ.  The bottom line of it is that HCQ has very large domain of beneficial use in fighting the corona virus where it saves lives and greatly reduces the morbidity of the disease.  Finley correctly argues that the physician, taking this information into account, should determine its use on a per-patient basis.  However, almost all of these results are still suppressed in the lamestream media (we recall that the socialists’ utility for fighting the pandemic is to maximize mortality while suppressing economic recovery).  Not only that, but much of the politically motivated anti-HCQ reporting continues to be fraudulent – ‘fake news’ is too mild of an appellation for murderous journalism.  HCQ is overwhelmingly safe when applied according to its standard of care, and has been for decades.  Banning it has been part and parcel of the TDS toolkit for defeating Trump in November.  Since the end has always justified the means – being a socialist means never having to say you’re sorry.

A rational liberal answers.  I asked a longtime friend, who has been drifting leftward over the years and purposely limits his intake to overwhelmingly lamestream outlets, to comment on the video of Rep Ilhan Abdullahi Omar (D-MN) with the question “How do you interpret her remarks and her goals for America?”  His answer sheds a lot of light on how far we have drifted apart, and by no means is he alone in the ranks of the thinking Left who view themselves as mid-roaders. 

I’m not overwhelmed by carefully extracted snippets from the most radical edge of the Democratic Party. She and her opinions couldn’t get elected in 90% of the other Democratically held districts, so I don’t consider her a spokesperson for the Party. Additionally, she didn’t propose a Government-controlled, centrally planned economy, the abolition of private property, pro-Communism, or any of the other things that are attributed to the radical left by conservatives. I believe that the present system is not cost-effective from an income distribution perspective. I think the economy would be stronger and more robust if more of the income were in the hands of the lower 50%. They have to spend all their money, so it goes directly into the consumer portion of the economy. Most of that is spent on food and shelter and would directly help the Agriculture industry overcome the shortfalls that have resulted from the Tariff War with China. The challenge, of course, is the choice of mechanism for broader income distribution. The problem is the conservatives either don’t see income disparity as a national problem or are convinced that the cure would be worse than the disease. I don’t believe wanting to fix it makes one a Communist.

[17jul20 update]  Opening schools this fall.  I have no idea why our politicos are making this into a cause celebre.  Every day confirms that there is no ‘settled science’ on the C19 virus or its prophylactics and prescriptions.  Rebane Doctrine gives kudos to President Trump for using his bully pulpit to push for school attendance for a number of good reasons.  Local school districts have the final word, and should do their best to max the hours kids will spend in classrooms.  But all the controversy would come to an end if we adopt the public policy that honors the wishes of the parents (what a concept!).  Let the parents be the final arbiters on whether and how their children will attend school.  Problem solved.  (Also fight those evil politicians who want to take school choice away from parents, and support those who work to expand school choice across our land.)

The liberals really do fear Trump the dictator.  I want to share another bagatelle from correspondence with my longtime buddy who claims to be a mid-roader (and member of No Labels) and writes – “It is my humble opinion that President Trump with his need for total control, his egomania that everything revolves around him, his penchant for punishing any foe or less-than-loyal friend has established the most invasive Central Government the US has seen in a long time. He has threatened to defund schools if they don't open fully in the Fall, attacked (both verbally and legally) States and Cities that offend him, sent members of Federal Law Enforcement Teams into cities (DC and Portland) without uniform markings in plain vehicles to seize citizens without a shred of due process.”