Freedom of Speech (Update)

YouTube (Google) has poked this country’s Constitutional hornet nest by taking down a video of two California doctors discussing how we are dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. Basically their message is that we are not just quarantining the sick, we are quarantining the healthy too. This is bass ackwards and it is destroying our economy ... and also resulting in a far greater potential public health catastrophe. See: Banned on YouTube (Updated).

Now, these doctors’ message may be right or it may be wrong ... but a few techie pukes at YouTube do not and should not have the right to shut them down! This is totalitarian oppression of the first order! We are a country of sacred freedoms guaranteed by checks, balances and public debate.

The rise of social media’s power is coming dangerously close to negating our First Amendment freedoms.

Dear readers, don’t let this happen!

Afterward: Thanks to a clever reader, Lutfi, we know have another viewable video of these two California doctors that YouTube censored ... see: The Scoop.

Powerline Pic

Gallows Humor

Q: How do you know for sure you have gotten the Chinese virus?

A: Because two hours later you want to get it again ...


Q: How will we determine if Kim Jong Un is social distancing?

A: If he is six feet under ...


Q: Can COVID-19 be sexually transmitted to Biden?

A: Not if he is wearing rubber gloves ...


Q: How many people will die in the U.S. from the coronacirus?

A: Three fewer than the number of Arkancides ...


Q: How did Prince Charles get the coronavirus?

A: From eating an old bat ...


Q: Is Adam Schiff going to take another shot at President Trump?

A: Of course, only this time he is going to imbleach him ...

Obvious Truth

If you have faith in its published statistics, the safest place to escape contracting the coronavirus ... or dying from it ... is to move to China. — Anon.

Headlines

Mayor Bowser breaks with Trump on D.C.’s coronavirus outlook

Zoom taps Oracle for cloud deal, passing over Amazon, Microsoft

Models: Dire predictions as states reopen ...

Biden: I’d restore W.H.O. to funding

Europe’s canceled summer holiday

Ford to reopen European plants with increases coronavirus safety

Trump promises November election ...

[Sen.] Josh Hawley calls for criminal probe of Amazon

Trump raises his virus death toll projection to up to 70,000 in the U.S.

The US will need to spend trillions more as economy will take to 2022 to fully recover, CNBC says

Deaths double in LA county over last week ...

Joe Biden tells Miami TV he would bring back Obama’s Cuba policy

Reader Contribution

A kind reader, Tom, has forwarder an interview by Bill Maher of Doctor David Katz of Yale University that replicates about 90% of what the two California doctors were saying in their censored coronavirus YouTube video. Of course Maher views it through a liberal lens which makes it permissible. But truth is truth no matter how it is slanted.

I hope those idiots at Google restore the video of the California doctors so you can see more of this truth from the trenches.

Maher is both a genius for having this guy on and an idiot for taking it as an opportunity to once again bash Trump and FoxNews. Unnecessary.

(FYI: Dr. Katz had previously appeared on the Tucker Carlson show of Fox.)

Price Earnings Ratios

“Don’t fight the Fed” — old Wall Street saying

Even before the coronavirus pandemic cut the pins out of the stock market, stock valuations were, by historic standards, inflated. The measure usually used to gauge optimism in the stock market is its price-earnings ratio (PER)... or the multiplier applied to expected corporate earnings to arrive at a price that one is will to pay when buying any stock ... see: Wikipedia Entry.

Back on February 12th (the market high), the PER was around 18x (24x on trailing earnings ... quite high ... but not a historic high which occurred during the depths of the Great Depression) ... but nevertheless bubbly. And, if the Orangeman is right and we run stocks back up to their previous highs ... combined with much lower earnings impacted by the pandemic ... we well might have PERs in nose-bleed territory.

However, dear reader, there is one fact that is often neglected when warnings about high PERs are clamored. And that is that PERs are inversely related to interest rates. Because of discounting calculations, the lower are overall interest rates (now virtually 0%), the higher is the market PER that can be justified. And if and when earnings recover from the current shutdown, the margin of safety will be greater than it would seem.

So, dear reader, enjoy this stock market rally ... UNTIL you see the Fed start pushing interest rates back up again! Then, unless you can guarantee an explosion in earnings, I would expect the stock market goose to stop laying these golden eggs ... Trump bedamned.

Today’s Poser

Isn’t it funny how the COVID-19 pandemic has caused Colin Kaepernick, Robert De Niro and Kathy Griffen to scurry, cockroach-like, back into the woodwork?

Headlines

Schumer to introduce legislation to prevent Trump from signing stimulus checks

Supreme Court declines to rule on its first Second Amendment case in over a decade

Update: 1 in 4 NYC residents test positive for [coronavirus] antibodies ...

Nancy Pelosi endorses Joe Biden: ‘The personification of integrity’

5G arsonists turn up in continental Europe

Coronavirus live updates: Poll finds outsized impact in New Jersey, governor warns of ‘Armageddon’

Carnival Cruise bailout draws fire ...

Thousands of Californians flock to beaches despite stay-at-home order

Cuomo eyes construction, manufacturing for regional reopen in New York

Supreme Court suggests it is looking for a way out of Trump financial records case

Tyson: ‘The food supply chain is breaking’ ...

Murder, burglary and theft soar in NYC during coronavirus

Banned on YouTube (Updated)

YouTube (Google) has banned the above very popular video from its official web site. It is a discussion by two California doctors who apparently disagree with much of the COVID-19 orthodoxy ... probably banned because of this dissension.  I post it here not because I agree with it ... I haven’t watched it yet ... I post it here BECAUSE it has been banned. The Masters-of the Universe are getting far too tyrannical.

I’ll watch it tomorrow and maybe comment further then.

Afterward: I’ve watched it ... extremely informative ... three observations:

- these two doctors had pushback on the video ... and they handled it well

- the statistics that the first doctor used were from self-selecting samples ... ergo biased. Since then, antibody studies seem to negate this prior bias.

- if we are going to handle COVID-19 on a scientific and pragmatic basis, we older people are likely fucked ... and don’t buy life insurance stocks ...

After Afterward: For those of you were not quick enough to view this video ... too bad. It has been censored everywhere. George Orwell was right ... we are living in a totalitarian states ... now centered in Silicon Valley. I can’t remember when I have been this pissed off.

Even later: I found another way of viewing some of the original interview ... see: Turn to 23

Reader Contribution

One day a florist went to a barber for a haircut. After the cut, he
asked about his bill, and the barber replied, 'I cannot accept money
from you, I'm doing community service this week.’

The florist was pleased and left the shop.

When the barber went to open his shop the next morning, there was a
'thank you' card and a dozen roses waiting for him at his door.

Later, a cop comes in for a haircut, and when he tries to pay his bill,
the barber again replied, 'I cannot accept money from you, I'm doing
community service this week.’

The cop was happy and left the shop.

The next morning when the barber went to open up, there was a 'thank
you' card and a dozen donuts waiting for him at his door.

Then a Congressman came in for a haircut, and when he went to pay his
bill, the barber again replied, 'I cannot accept money from you. I'm
doing community service this week.’

The Congressman was very happy and left the shop.

The next morning, when the barber went to open up, there were a dozen
Congressmen lined up waiting for a free haircut.

And that, my friends, illustrates the fundamental difference between the
citizens of our country and the politicians who run it.

As Ronald Reagan said: "Both politicians and diapers need to be changed
often and for the same reason.

Thanks Rick ...

Happy Talk

“You got to have a dream. If you don’t have a dream, how you gonna to make a dream come true?” — from “Happy Talk” by Rogers and Hammerstein

CNN’s attack poodle Jim Acosta accused President Trump last week of offering only “happy talk” in his daily coronavirus pressers. In other words, this partisan puke with a press pass was attacking the Orangeman for being optimistic. Golly, what a sin!

If our president can’t offer us hope, who can? (Wasn’t “hope” the flowery centerpiece of our last president’s plywood table? But CNN’s leitmotif was quite different back then!)

Hate

“Everything in moderation.” — Julia Child

Sober dislike is a valid emotion ... but when it slips into white-hot partisan rage spewning invective, subterfuge and irrationality ... then such hate becomes poisonous ... destroying the haters far more than the hated.

Headlines

Colorado governor defends move to reopen

Coronavirus live updates: NY to plan phased reopening after hospitalizations decline for two weeks

U.S. deaths 53, 983 ...

Birx: Trump knows disinfectant ‘not a treatment’

“It bothers me that this is still in the news cycle,’ Birx says on Trump’s disinfectant and light comments

Trump pulls punches and clings to his China trade deal after backlash against Beijing grows

Mnuchin: Bounce-back by election ...

Adam Schiff: 50,000 Americans dead because Trump wasn’t removed

Italy and Spain announce plans to ease coronavirus lockdowns further

More than 5,000 New York pharmacies to give coronavirus tests in bid to screen 40,000 people daily

With Kim Jong Un’s health uncertain, focus shifts to powerful sister Kim Yo ...

[Gov.] Whitmer: ‘Most important thing we can do is vote by mail’

VP Pick

From The Babylon Bee

“I’m proud to announce Hillary Clinton as my running mate.” (With laser dots!)

Analogy

I was searching for an analogy to how our manic middling media scoriated President Trump for his innocent query about using antiseptics to kill coronavirus inside the body. (“For God’s sake, he wants us to drink Lysol!”) My perspicacious wife quickly retorted, “piranhas attacking a prey.”

I think I’ll use it!

Obvious Truth

The comparison is frequently made that the coronavirus mortality rate ... taking account of the multipliers discovered with antibody tests ... approximates that of the seasonal flu (0.1%). What is often forgotten is that vast swaths of our population get a flu shot every year. So, isn’t the coronavirus death rate, on an equivalent basis, really substantially less than the unvaccinated seasonal flu?

Today’s Poser

Would you, dear reader, particularly those of you north of 60, opt for restarting our economy quickly when you know that there is a god chance you are signing your death warrant?

Dialog

Vegetarian: “Do you realize that the meat in your ham sandwich there was once the flesh on the leg of a barnyard pig?”

Carnivore: “Yes, I can picture that ... but it doesn’t make it any less delicious ...”

Headlines

China put pressure on the EU to soften coronavirus disinformation report

Making sense of the stock market just 16% off its high while a pandemic costs 26 million jobs

Coronavirus in California, since Fall?

State Health Commissioner says reopening Virginia ‘will be a two year affair’

New evidence surfaces in Tara Reade allegation against Biden

Coronavirus live updates: ‘21 days of hell’: NY gov on state’s death rate, UK fatalities to 20,000

Nervous Republicans see president sinking, and taking Senate with him ...

Donald Trump does not owe 51 million to Bank of China ...

Belgium to begin relaxing coronavirus restrictions May 4

Congress approves $370 billion more for small businesses —  but money could run out in days

Alarming number of Americans believe vaccine exists and is being withheld ...

Donald Trump does not owe millions to Bank of China

At War? (Part Two)

If you missed it ... see: At War?(Part One).

Now, to the rest of the story ... the more up-to-date events.

Is China now rolling over for the Orangeman? Of course not. They have turned up the heat on all those insidious activities I listed in Part One ... and more. And the “more” gets a little scary.

The further I muse about it, the further I am convinced that China unleashed the COVID-19 virus on itself and the world as a threat and a smokescreen for its other nefarious activities ... see: Xi Jinping.

China had a devastating African Swine Fever epidemic last year ... wiping out a huge portion of its major source of protein. Clearly the United States would not unleash such a scourge on the world ... but does China suspect otherwise ... and could COVID-19 be in retaliation?

And I am close to certain that China will not live up to Phase One of the trade agreement it signed in the White House this past January (knowing that it’s invisible enemy was on the way here.) So, how will President Trump respond to China’s reneging? My bet is on further and larger tariffs on Chinese exports ... maybe even unto iPhones ... and put more restrictions on what can be exported to China.

They say that there are no coincidences in world politics. So was Kim Jong Un’s apparent turning into kimchi coincidental? I suspect not. I don’t think that the US had anything to do with this transformation ... but did China? Perhaps the Rocketman was not being an annoying-enough gadfly to Trump for Xi to allow him any more Swedish call girls?

It seems clear that Trump and COVIS-19 have turned the tide of world public opinion against Xi and China. This makes them much more dangerous! Will they unleash another pandemic on the world? Will they annex more territory (Outer Mongolia, Taiwan)? Will they sell their holdings of US debt (the price is right)? Will they devalue their currency further? Will they crush Hong Kong? Will they cut off the supply of rare-earth minerals? Even, gasp, a kinetic war?

Watch out pilgrims .. we are living in dangerous times!

Ramadan

From Stilton’s Place

Rifle Club

When I was but a lad ... going to George Washington High School in Alexandria,VA in the early 1950s, our school had a rifle club ... and a rifle range in the high school basement. Gasp! How could this be? Didn’t the students shoot each other or turn into terrorists?

No, they learned gun safety, how to handle and clean weapons ... and marksmanship ... all Second Amendment qualities we used to cherish. And maybe helpful to those classmates who ended up in Vietnam.

Now, if we are unlucky enough to enter into another war, I doubt if we will be able to defend ourselves quite as well. Unless, of course, such conflicts are virtual ... and on an iPad.

Contact Tracing

There have been close to a million diagnosed cases on COVID-19 in the United States ... and four antibody studies suggest that the real number of those infected might be as much as 14 to 50 times this number.

So, are we going to be able to contact trace at least 14 million Americans and then to the contacts so mentioned (5+)? I kinda doubt it. Just the number of those performing this contact tracing would be in the hundreds of thousands. Hiring and training this small army would take months, if not years.

Is this not just another red herring thrown into this process by those who put their politics ahead of our economy?

At War? (Part One)

Dear reader, I am somewhat reluctant to begin this blog post ... in effect, opening up this frightening can of worms ... but it seems to be writing itself.

Are we at war with China? I am unfortunately concluding that we are. Let’s look at events:

For decades, China has been striving for worldwide hegemony ... by forced technology transfer, by undercutting other nations’ manufacturing with cheap, even slave labor, by spying and espionage on developed nations,, by manipulating its currency, by buying up critical Western assets, by commercial extortions, by infiltrating UN agencies, by bribing Western politicians  (and their relatives), by assembling belligerent nation proxies, by insidious propaganda campaigns, by huge military spending, by territorial expansions ... and on and on.

And until President Trump appeared, the rest of the world was hypnotized under the rubric of “globalism” ... a term invented by those commercial interests that were profiting through China’s expansion. This incredibly stupid world leader was the first to recognize this Sino-threat publicly ... and started pushing back. He imposed tariffs on strategic products that China was dumping on the world. He began the process of putting some of China’s proxy nations in a box. He began using his bully pulpit to point out exactly what China had been doing. He rebuilt America’s and NATO’s military. He gradually increased the scope and size of tariffs on China. He assembled our other trading partners in bulwarks against China. He exposed “global warming” hysteria as just another tool of the globalists. He cut a huge trade deal with China that helped level the playing field ... and on and on.

And he was making a big difference in slowing China’s march to world domination ... remarkable for such an orange-tinted ignoramus! So, what did China do to respond? Tune in next time, dear readers, and you will see much of the rest of the story ...

Headlines

California may test state lawmakers before they return to Sacramento

Coronavirus live update: California launches meal delivery program for seniors, US death toll tops 50,000

CBO predicts 10.1% unemployment — through 2021 ...

“Thank you very much’ — Donald Trump leaves briefing without taking questions

Newsom executive order tests Constitutional bounds — and legislative goodwill

Trump tries to walk back speculation about injecting disinfectants to fight coronavirus

Poll: 48% believe gov’t covering up true number ...

Trump administration bars hedge funds and private equity from rescue loans

Deficit to soar to nearly $4T as economy buckles, CBO says

As working from home becomes more widespread, many say they don’t want to go back

The coming deurbanization of USA?

Peter Schweizer: Hunter Biden still owns ten percent of Chinese firm BHR

More Real Data

Now there is a fourth antibody study ... Miami/Dade ... with results similar to New York’s. Many more people showing that they had been infected with COVID-19 (16x) ... and thus a far lower death rate (just north of 0.1%) ... much more like the seasonal flu ... see: Washington Examiner Story.

So, dear reader, try to readjust your thinking to these real numbers ... if that is now possible.

Pergatory

I am increasingly anxious, having lived in my well-over-a-month-long coronavirus home confinement, that I may be destined for a multi-eon-long pause in purgatory. I think going straight to hell might just be preferable?

Waiting Game

Kim Yo-Jong

Is the tyrannical leader of North Korea seriously ill? President Trump suggests no ... but then China is sending in its best doctors to aid in this possibility.

When  President Trump met Kim Jong Un in the Korean demilitarized zone last year, it was apparent to most that Kim was ill. He barely could walk twenty feet without being short of breath. Now we read that Kim is in critical condition after surgery ... see: Breitbart Story. Although South Korea and China deny that he is gravely ill, it is clear that something is afoot.

Maybe Trump’s real strategy was to wait Kim out ... sensing that his lifestyle of Swiss cheese and Swedish hookers did not suggest a good long life? Possibly, this strategy is paying off. But the question remains ... what next, if Lil’ Kim disappears?

Will Kim’s little sister, Kim Yo-Jong take over? And, if so, will she be just as despotic as her older brother? If one follows the thinking of American feminists, she will be the dove of peace ... in the image of the Mothers Earth and Theresa.

Looking closely at her face, I am not so sanguine.

Today’s Poser

If opening up America is undermining our public health, how can those who choose not to self-quarantine, joining those essential workers, also not self-quarantining, in going about life ... jeopardize those of us who do follow the guidelines?

Powerline Pic

Disinfectant

Wouldn’t it be hilariously funny if President Trump was onto something with his suggestion of injecting a disinfectant into one’s bloodstream to kill the coronavirus? Now we know that such unconventional thinking has heaped mountains of ridicule on the Orangeman. But let’s think about this possibility a little more ...

We know that Lysol or bleach are unlikely candidates for this injectable disinfectant ... but what about grain alcohol? Alcohol IS a powerful disinfectant ... we use it in sanitary wipes. Even some distillery companies are making these wipes as a patriotic gift.

And we also know that, in very small quantities, alcohol is tolerated in our bloodstream. So, could it be used, injected or ingested, as a way of killing this invisible enemy? Who knows? But one intriguing thing we do know is that COVID-19 has not swept through the West Coast homeless communities like we all expected. And what other infliction permeates these gatherings? Alcoholism!

Now this possibility might be utter hokum ... but wasn’t Trump onto a possible way of taming this monster?  Not that he would ever use it ... being an avowed teetotaler. But many of the rest of us would. Just imagine ... the “four martini cure!”

Headlines

Trump owes tens of millions to the Bank of China — and the loan is due soon

Mortgage bailout balloons by half a million more loans in one week

U.S. deaths 49,694 ...

Cuomo: Need ‘hard look’ at experts, orgs, and ‘international watchdogs’ on coronavirus

Small business loans to restart Monday, Rubio says

Coronavirus live updates: Trump comments ‘dangerous,’ Spain reports lowest new deaths in a month

California sees deadliest day ...

Abrams: Biden VP pick should be a black woman as ‘loyalty payback’

Biden predicts that Trump will try to delay November elections

US core capital goods orders unexpectedly rise in March, while durable goods orders plunge 14.4%

Wealthy getting tests thanks to $1,000 house calls ...

Xi visits reopened city as another goes into lockdown

Proud Grandpa

I haven’t been that close to my granddaughter Sarah as I would have liked. But, seeing this on her Facebook post, made me one proud grandpa. She is the second from the left with her fellow COVID-battling doctors at the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.

Truth over Facts

Massachusetts Statistics

Just heard, on local talk radio, John Hinderaker of the Powerline blog taking about COVID-19 death rates here in Massachusetts ... so I had to go look at the data he was referring to ... here it is: The Models Were Wrong, Does Anyone Care?

Are we in the midst of a mass hysteria being driven by us old farts?

Afterthought: If nobody under the age of 19 has died in Massachusetts, why have we closed all our schools?

Red Cells

No, this blog entry is not about the fellow-traveler groups (red cells) that Bernie Sanders was likely befriending throughout his “Democratic Socialist” life ... it is about hemoglobin ... the red blood cells that carry oxygen in our blood. The thinking is evolving that COVID-19 is starving our bodies of oxygen not so much by what it does to our lungs ... but what it does to our blood. Maybe this is why ventilators have such poor recovery results?

A close friend of my son is a radiologist in Maine ... and he told my son that this new coronavirus theory is circulating in the medical community. And that is that this virus is somehow affecting our red blood cell’s ability to carry oxygen throughout our bodies ... and that is why many so afflicted walk into Emergency Rooms with oxygen levels in their blood as low as 70 ... whereas anything below 93 is considered medically serious.

Now, here is were I, like Trump, get medically loopy. But, nevertheless, some of the following connections are intriguing.

Many blacks in Africa suffer from sickle-cell anemia (less so in the U.S.) ... where their red blood cells are deformed ... which is good and bad. It is bad in that these red cells carry less oxygen ... but it is good in that it helps them combat malaria. Now the malaria parasite does affect red blood cells in their functioning. If COVID-19 does also in a similar way, is this why the anti-malaria drug, hydroxychloquine may be helpful under certain circumstances?

It is easy to condemn such unstudied speculations ... but it often is such out-of-the-box thinking that presages breakthroughs. Let’s keep our dialog and minds open, OK?

Lysol

Squinty Joe and the Meat Puppet Mika were on a tear this morning accusing President Trump of telling Americans to inject Lysol into their bodies to help cure COVID-19 infections. Above is what actually transpired in yesterday’s presser. Clearly, the Orangeman is too loose with his language in this public posit (a question better asked in private) ... but then again, so are those who are saying he wants Americans to inject Lysol into their bodies.

A Conundrum

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo indicated that preliminary results of statewide random testing of residents showed that roughly 2.9 million residents or 13.9% showed evidence of COVID-19 antibodies (21% in New York City) ... see: AP Story. So far the number of diagnosed cases in the state are over 262,000 ... which suggests that the key multiplier in New York is slightly more than 11x. The multiplier in LA was estimated at 55x ... and that in Sant Clara at between 48x and 82x ... see: Antibody Study.

The interesting conundrum about these statistics is the dichotomy between the East Coast and the West Coast ... the West Coast having fewer cases on a percentage basis ... but higher multipliers between the symptomatic and asymptomatic cases ... and the East Coast, just the opposite (so far).

The most obvious possible resolutions to this conundrum are fourfold (or combinations thereof):

- COVID-19 actually infected the West Coast late last year ... before it was recognized as such ... producing all those there with antibodies. These infections have not been counted in the current numbers.

- There are different strains of coronavirus on the East And West Coasts

- The data collection processes are flawed ... either sloppy ... or purposefully biased

- On the West Coast, personal cars are the transportation of choice ... on the East Coast, it is often unsanitary public transportation


Do you have other ideas? To stay up to date with this “invisible enemy” see: Latest Data.

Quotable Quote

“Fuck” is a word only enhanced by its rarity. — Anon.

Headlines

Trump says he told Navy to ‘destroy’ Iranian boats harassing U.S. ships

Trump and Biden are deadlocked in six key 2020 election states, CNBC/Change Research poll finds

USA: Virus kills 45,236, doubling in a little over a week ...

Northham: Protesters ‘so selfish’ for endangering healthcare workers

2019 was Europe’s warmest year ever recorded

Coronavirus live updates: Accuracy of coronavirus antibody tests questioned, Delta burning $100 million a day

HYDRO-DON’T: No benefit from malaria drug ...

Scalise: Sickening to watch Pelosi use small-business aid as leverage

McConnell slams breaks on next round of coronavirus aid

Kudlow voices support for shielding companies from coronavirus -related lawsuits

California cases rising ... NJ deaths hit high ...

Indonesia to ban Ramadan celebrations

Dillinger

Many coronavirus testing advocates claim that the objective of such testing should be around 1% positives ... to show that there is sufficient testing coverage. Currently, the country is running at about 18% positives ... meaning we might have to expand testing by a factor of at least 5x or even higher. Is this ambitious objective sensible ... or counter-intuitive?

Although Congress just appropriated enough money ($25 billion) to test everyone in the United States once, this still might not be enough ... particularly when many people may need to be tested repeatedly.

It would seem to this observer that giving a test to someone where the results are 99% negative is a tremendous waste of resources that should be reserved for those of a higher probability of a positive result ... those with one or more symptoms. This is particularly questionable when a person with a negative test may catch COVID-19 the very next day ... and perhaps we could save the taxpayer say $20 billion?

What did John Dillinger say? “I rob banks because that is where the money is.”

Quotable Quote

“They may not agree with everything he says, but voters see clarity in Biden,” — Mika Brzezinski

Obvious Truth

President Trump faces an impossible task — saving tens of thousands of American lives from the coronavirus ... yet keeping his country from falling into a depression ... while, at the same time, being second-guessed and hectored by the political and media jackals on the left. If the Orangeman can pull off this minor miracle, he may not only deserve re-election but perhaps even sainthood.

Obvious Truth

Understanding is the leftover carcass after the ravenous ignoramuses have devoured the meat. — Anon.

Headlines

Tracking the virus may require 300,000 workers. We’re nowhere close

Coronavirus live updates: McDonald’s gives away meals to frontlines, Hertz to lay off 10,000 workers

Iowa sends National Guard troops to meat plants ...

Rashida Tlaib: ‘Corporate greed is the disease us country’

Trump pledges financial aid to oil industry

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently had surgery, could be incapacitated, US officials say

Study: Virus has mutated into 30 different strains ...

Joe Biden: I’d pick Michelle Obama for VP ‘in a heartbeat’

Farm workers to be immune to Trump’s immigration ban

March home sales drop as sellers take properties off the market — and the coming months look worse

Second night of riots in Paris ...

About 4% of L.A. county residents have coronavirus antibodies

Maher vs. Crenshaw

Kind reader, watch “Comedian” Bill Maher engaged in his favorite pastime ... attacking President Trump with DNC talking points ... this time over his handling of the coronavirus outbreak ... while Congressman Dan Crenshaw calmly lays out the countering timeline facts ... and makes Maher crawl back into his hate hole.

Midweek Powerline Pic

Obvious Truth

Congress appropriating $25 billion for coronavirus testing is obviously gross overkill. This represents about $75 per person for everyone in the United States ... man, woman, child and otherwise. If you, kind reader, don’t think that there will be gigantic graft and waste associated with this Christmas tree ornament, you would believe Nancy Pelosi doesn’t relish ice cream.

Today’s Poser

How come the public sector has not been impacted by coronavirus layoffs? Do states and cities not have to shed non-essential workers ... adjusting to lower (tax) revenue ... just like the private sector?

Headlines

WHO head warns worst of the virus is still ahead

Coronavirus updates: New York begins antibody testing, public anger grows in Spain over death counts

Fauci warns USA needs to TRIPLE testing ...

Thousands defy coronavirus isolation order to attend Muslim cleric’s funeral

Facebook shuts down anti-quarantine protests at states’ request

Cannabis companies pay federal taxes but are shut out of small business loans

Oil price lowest in history ... Plunges 70% in day ...

Dick Morris: Biden Dem nomination ‘like a suicide march’

Gunman kills at least 16, including officer, in Nova Scotia

After a crazy 12 months, the S&P 500 is about back to where it started

Billionaire Branson begs for bailout ...

Report: 450,000 illegal immigrants are getting college degrees

Self Unaware

See: daily timewaster blog. Makes me want to heave ... 

Antibody Study

Another antibody study (in Los Angeles) has been released that suggests that actual COVID-19 infections might be as much as 55 times higher than the diagnosed cases. This agrees with the recent Stanford study in Santa Clara that put the multiplier at between 48x and 82x ... see: Herd Immunity.

Now, New York State is performing its own antibody tests this week and, if its results also agree with these asymptomatic multipliers, we might not only be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but, at least on the major East Coast and Midwest areas of the US, we might be achieving herd immunity ... meaning we are almost out of the tunnel.

Let’s look at where I live ... Massachusetts. As of today, diagnosed cases here total almost 40,000. Multiplying this by 55 suggests we might have as many as 2.2 million diagnosed and undiagnosed cases. The current population of the Bay State is 6.98 million ... meaning that the overall infection rate here might be 38% ... obviously much higher in and around Boston.

Again, the high end of herd immunity approximations is 90% ... which means that the number of cases in major East Coast and Midwest metropolitan areas might be rapidly approaching herd immunity ... and that mortality rates here might be almost the same as the seasonal flu (0.1%) ... much lower than previously thought. The major delta seems to be the much more rapid speed of COVID-19 infections in cities with higher personal proximity particularly in public transportation systems.

I suspect we will know better soon.

Trump Got it Wrong

Yesterday at his coronavirus presser, Trump was asked about the price of oil going negative. Trump indicated that the was due to a “short squeeze” for the April-delivery future contracts on light-sweet Texas crude oil. Hold on pilgrim! A short squeeze occurs when short sellers have to scramble to buy, in this case oil, to cover what they previously sold ... and the price therefore soars.

In this case the price plummeted to as much as a negative $37 per barrel. So it was the short sellers who had the whip hand. They required other sellers to pay them $37 to take a barrel of oil off their hands. So the short sellers were the squeezers ... not the squeezed.

Is this innocent mistake another Trump lie?

Today’s Poser

Why, in 2018, was ballot harvesting illegal in North Carolina ... yet permitted in California?