Sunday, May 31, 2020

Pie Eyed



From Diagones’ Middle Finger

American politics ...

Injustice


There are millions of injustices in this country every day ... from petty slights to malignant miscarriages. They might never all be rectified ... the black fireman whose brand new bar was recently torched by rioters in Minneapolis ... or the particularly egregious injustice that was General Michael Flynn’s hell. But he is finally, after three years, being remedied. Thus, there is some hope after all. Now let’s work to see that that black bar owner is also made whole ... see: GoFundMe.

The Big Picture


I’m guessing that the riots now in many major US cities have evolved and no longer have everything to do with George Floyd’s murder ... OK, a little bit, at least symbolically ... but these are also uprisings spawned by anger over the virus lockdowns, our huge levels of unemployment, Bernie Sanders not getting the Democrat nomination, the Left realizing that they have a loser in Joe Biden, President Trump once again escaping the Deep State and the media’s drumbeat attempts to take him down ... and a venomous vitriol in the far-left (ANTIFA, Black Lives Matter, etc.) for the US and our institutions.

(Of course, breaking things and lots of free stuff also helps.)

Afterward: See: CNBC Story.

Today’s Posers


Wouldn’t  it be some kind of Devine justice if many of the major-city rioters and looters (ANTIFAs?) came down with COVID-19 because they weren’t social distancing and often had shed their masks? 

And, if they don’t, wouldn’t this prove that most of the arbitrary restrictions imposed by the mayors of these (mostly liberal) cities were therefore proven unnecessary and capricious?

Headlines


Trump threatens to unleash gunfire on Minnesota protesters

Twitter flags Trump tweet on Minneapolis for ‘glorifying violence’

Trump vows to use military on ‘thugs’ ...

Report: Channel migrants ‘threaten to throw their children into water’

Trump says he would shut down Twitter if legally possible

Ted Cruz calls for criminal investigation of Twitter

Chinese state media troll Pompeo over MN ...

Mike Lee: You won’t like it if a Dem can regulate social media

UK to increase Hong Kong visa rights if China pushes security law

Coronavirus live updates: Prescriptions for Trump-touted drug surged, GM restarts most U.S. pickup truck production

War zone Minneapolis ... More chaos, more looting ... Unrest spreads in USA ...

Minneapolis mayor to protesters: Please social distance, wear masks

Saturday, May 30, 2020

48 Years Ago


Back in 1972 Norman Cousins, editor of the World magazine and former editor of the Saturday Review magazine, was a director of Metalanguage Products, a software company I had founded. He then was also agitating for private industry taking over space exploration. I thought this was a rather ambitious vision ... given all the enormoous costs and technology involved in such an endeavor.

Norman Cousins died in 1990 ... but today, 48 years after his initial vision ... his wish has finally been realized by Elon Musk’s private company, SpaceX.

A dream come true, Norman!

Letter to My Grandnephew


Dear xxxx,

I am George Potts, your great uncle. My sister, xxxxxxx, was your mother’s mother. I am a 81 year-old fart who won’t be around a whole lot longer. But you will ... and I would like to leave a few thoughts with you to compensate you for no celebrations surrounding your high school graduation ... and for you to chew on when you look back on this coronavirus pandemic:

- First, this world-wide crisis was possibly an accidental release of the coronavirus from a Chinese virus lab outside Wuhan, China ... but it’s spread throughout the rest of the world seems purposeful by the Chinese Communist party. I suspect you will find out a lot more about this malfeasance on its part ... and the consequences that resulted therefrom. I am reasonably sure the consequences will be enormous. I just wish I could look back with you to see this sea change. If, in the meantime, you have had to learn Mandarin  ... then the bad guys won ... and you should probably burn this missive.

- They say the winners write the history books .. so, if Trump is still viewed as a pariah, you will know that he will be blamed for much of the damage of this pandemic. For what it is worth, from my perspective, I think President Trump performed as well as anyone could have during this crisis. I know, I know that many in this country disagree. But, if my age and experience are worth anything, Trump has been and will be unjustly vilified.

- In the meantime, all the dislocation and suffering you have experienced and will be experiencing until this Wuhan plague has abated ... all this will be topics for your holding forth with those yet to be born ... your children, grandchildren and, hopefully, even great grandchildren. And, don’t tell anyone, but you are allowed to exaggerate some of this narrative. For sure I won’t tell.

Congratulations on your graduation and I wish you a long, happy and successful life.

Your Greatuncle George

Today’s Poser


Is the widespread George Floyd rioting also a transferred reaction to the coronavirus lockdowns?


Fractured Definition


Abstain — a discoloration of skin covering a stomach muscle

Headlines


Famed Democrat pollster: Warren as VP would lead to Biden victory

Trump to sign executive order aimed at craking down on Facebook and Twitter, vows ‘FAIRNESS’

U.S. deaths from coronavirus surpass 100,000 milestone ...

Report: Fort Leavenworth soldier intervenes, takes out active shooter

2.1 million unemployment claims filed last week, as workers still struggle to get benefits

Coronavirus live updates: Continuing U.S. unemployment claims fall, CVS expanding to 1,000 testing sites

Asymptomatic cases may be more common than suspected ...

President Trump will sign executive order on social media censorship

Violence again rocks Minneapolis after man’s death, 1 killed

Mark Zuckerberg says social networks should not be fact-cheking political speech

TX students set to return to school — next week!

Minneapolis rioters smash charter school storefronts

Friday, May 29, 2020

Muhammad Knew


That the virus was coming ...

Headlines


Trump and Musk unite over Twitter, the moon and sticking it to the establishment

Coronavirus live updates: Vaccine is a ‘2021 event’ former FDA chief says, new cases surge in Latin America

Spike in South Korea virus cases shows perils of reopening ...

Pence: U.S. will not tolerate big tech censorship of conservatives

Fauci says he wears mask as ‘symbol’ of good behavior

Dr. Anthony Fauci says second wave of coronavirus is ‘not inevitable’

Average American has packed on 5 pounds during lockdown ...

Homeless deaths rise in SF during lockdown, but not due to coronavirus

Trump threatens to shutter social media companies over alleged election interference

Top MLB players would lose 80% of their salaries under new coronavirus plan

DOJ drops insider trading probes for 3 Senators ...

Twitter brands Trump’s vote-by-mail post with fact-check, citing CNN

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Eye Opener


The number of registered voters in Los Angeles is 112% of its adult citizen population ... see: Town Hall Story. Does this suggest that all registered voters should be sent mail-in ballots ... and voter fraud would not be an obvious consequence?

Funny Thing


Once again the Orangeman is being vilified. He suggested that Joe Scarborough might have murdered his female intern back in 2001. Funny thing ... when Scarborough was a Republican ... pre-Mika-ing ... it was Michael Moore who was suggesting this very same possibility ... see: Daily Kos Story. Everything is red or blue politics these days ... no?

Afterward ... see also: Don Imus Interview.

Fractured Definition


Partisan — favoring a certain dry Italian cheese

Headlines


Widower of Scarborough staffer asks Twitter to remove Trump’s conspiracy theories

Coronavirus live updates: NYSE trading floor reopens, Gottlieb sees U.S. hospitalizations ticking up

States covering up death counts?

The Mainstream Media are bought, paid for — and doomed!

France clamps down on use of hydroxychlorquine for COVID-19

Home prices gained strength as coronavirus shut down economy in March, S&P Case-Shiller says

American death rate of diagnosed COvID cases 5.9% ...

Farage catches French escorting illegal migrants into U.K. waters again

German government takes controls at Lufthansa with bailout

Twitter refuses to delete Trump’s baseless claims about Joe Scarborough

Cases rising in 18 states ...

Molten: Politico admits Democrats ‘dread’ fast economic recovery


Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Six Word Story


See: Six Word Stories.

Martyred himself: 72 virgins, 72 pieces.

Today’s Poser


Will the Democrats constant use of the phrase “we follow the science” every time they espouse some cockamamie idea, so sully this discipline that it will take decades to recover?

Headlines


National Republicans sue California to block mail-ballot election

Trump threatens to move GOP convention over coronavirus restrictions in North Carolina

Trump accuses MSNBC host of murder ... Mika begs Jack: Make it stop!

Chicago mayor launches police raid to shut down black church’s Sunday service

Federal judge strikes down restrictions on Florida felons voting

Oil on track for its best month ever after rebound, but traders say it’s ‘not out of the woods’

Violence erupts as crowds swarm to reopen beaches ...

EU: End of U.S. leadership, rise of China ‘happening before our eyes’

U.S. is ahead of China in vaccine race, former FDA chief says

Coronavirus updates: Japan seeks to end Tokyo’s state of emergency, Trump bans travel from Brazil

Six shot at Daytona Beach ...

Trump calls on Sessions to drop out of Alabama Senate race

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Eye-opener


Only 1.8% of all Americans live in nursing homes or assisted-living facilities ... yet represent 42% of all our coronavirus deaths.

reddit Pic


Different kind of clock ...

LOL

From Diagones’ Middle Finger


US Virus Data


There is some interesting data about what is happening regarding coronavirus in the United States ... see: World Meters and follow this narrative.

Scroll down on this analysis until you see the graph of Daily New Cases and you should see that coronavirus has clearly peaked in the US ... and is declining, albeit slowly. Now, scroll down further and inspect the Daily New Deaths chart. Interestingly, you will see that deaths have not only peaked, but are declining even faster than cases. (Is this why the stock market is going up?)

One would think that daily coronavirus deaths would lag daily cases ... but they appear to be leading. Why might this be?

My only possible explanation is that virus testing in the US is ramping up at such a rate as to cause positive new case results to outpace deaths. Can’t think of any other reason.

Also, kind reader, there is a curious aspect to both these charts ... and that there appears to be harmonics in each ... a sharp drop followed by four or five days of increase ... then repeated again and again to even lower levels. Anyone have any ideas why?

Afterward: And is the coronavirus mutating and decreasing in its mortality profile?


Obvious Truth


Headlines ending in a question mark do not indicate reportage, they denote opinion ... and should be ignored ... and the reporters fired.

Headlines


Trump adviser compares China’s handling of coronavirus to Chernobyl

Coronavirus live updates: Trump suspends travel from Brazil, Spain eases dining restrictions in major cities

‘Up to a dozen’ COVID-19 variants ...

China: On brink of ‘Cold War’with USA

Rick Scott says Bill of Rights trumps all

Main Street Lending Program to offer loans to mid-size companies, Boston Fed President says

Model predicts USA virus free by late September ...

Soros attacks Salvini, says he wants to get Italy out of the EU

Trump ‘has a point’ on WHO, German health minister says

Coronavirus pandemic will drive major changes to nursing home industry

Trump to conduct first nuclear test in decades?

Beijing now claims ‘open’ to identifying virus source ...

Monday, May 25, 2020

Sage Advice


Any time you hear an epidemiologist tell you, with certainty, how the COVID-19 pandemic is going to progress, rather send that Nigerian prince the money he needs to get and share his rightful family inheritance.


Afterward: Same for predictions from a climatologist.

Desperados


When the virus hit the Wild West ...

Imagine


In song, John Lennon imagined a world without belligerence ... without war. Yet, his tragic reward was the very violence he decried. It’s as though he wished the wind to stop blowing ... the lightning to only strike up ... the lion to lie down with the lamb. A nice thought ... but only a thought ... not reality.

The human animal is a carnivore ... thus a killer. It’s a very short step from killing for food ... to killing for pleasure ... to killing for power. We deny all this by believing we’re civilized ... but this is only a patina ... killing has been forever an integral part of living and thus the taking of life is in our DNA ... inescapably.

And yet, men, and now women, have forever matched off to war knowing that they may not come back. Remarkable ... and deserving of somber remembrance.

Please, kind reader, join me in doing this on this Memorial Day.

Headlines


Reports: UK to cut Huawei’s involvement in 5G

New York coronavirus fatalities fall to lowest level since March

24 states still have uncontrolled spread ...

Gov. Wolf: Pennsylvania cannot return to normal without ‘foolproof’ vaccine

Grenell moving to declassify Flynn-Kislyak transcripts

Coronavirus live updates: National park’s could be this summer’s go-to vacation spots

Los Angeles turns hot spot ...

Poll: More voters trust Trump over Biden on economic recovery

Trump ordered states to open churches. Can he do that?

Trump administration warms up to sending out more virus relief money

Massive fire erupts at San Fran’s iconic Fisherman’s Wharf

Audio resurfaces of Klobuchar suggesting husband took hydroxychloroquine

Letter to Trump


Mr. President,

I know that it is against your very nature, but you don’t need to attack Biden any more in your campaign to get re-elected next November ... not for his perviness, not for his dementia, not for his corruption, not for his bone-headed foreign-policy mistakes ... not even for son Hunter. May I suggest you let him keep digging the hole he is is in. It’s already so deep, it is unlikely he can climb out before the walls cave in.

Sincerely,
A Voter

Sunday, May 24, 2020

Six Word Stories


Got a spam comment on an old blog post ... see: Six Word Stories. Inspired me to write another one:

Used rowing machine ... got into USC.

Quotable Quote


“Americans are thinking, there are some good members of Congress but we can’t figure out what they are good for. Others are thinking, how did these morons make it through the birth canal.” — John N. Kennedy, Louisiana Senator


Today’s Poser


Kind liberal readers: How many additional coronavirus deaths would be tolerable during a possible second pandemic wave this Fall ... if this meant that Trump would not get re-elected?


(Poser inspired by NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s similar question on how many deaths are acceptable to get the economy back growing.)

Today’s Poser

L.A. Mayor Garcetti and public health officials

Is it at all possible that some local politicians and public health officials are using lockdowns and other draconian unconstitutional restrictions to cover for the fact that they are lazy and/or incapable ... and do not want to do the hard work of targeted testing, hot spot identification, effective isolation, contact tracing, virus spread analysis, medical resource allocation and effective communication?


(This is clearly the case with de Blasio in NYC.)

Headlines


Pompeo blasts Beijing’s national security bill as ‘death knell’ for Hong Kong ‘s autonomy

Trump administration warms up to sending out more virus relief money

Little sense of shared grief as fatalities near 100,000 ...

Biden: ‘No one should be going to jail for drug crime, period‘

Biden: ‘If you have a problem figuring out if you are for me or Trump, then you ain’t black’

Coronavirus updates: Midwest virus spreads, Biden says he would make vaccine free for everyone

Hydroxychloroquine shows no benefit, raises death risk ...

Wallace: No record of  ‘serious fraud’ from mail-in voting

Issa sues California over November mail-ballot election

Dr. Anthony Fauci says staying closed for too long could cause ‘irreparable damage’

67,000 released so far under coronavirus jailbreak ...

McConnell: After impeachment, Pelosi not in position to lecture us


Saturday, May 23, 2020

Pig in a Poke


Many liberal Americans have rationalized next voting for Biden, a man one step out of the Memory Unit at the rest home, by saying, “he will have good people around him.” I don’t know, but isn’t this a lot like buying a pig in a poke?


Quotable Quote


President Trump is a hard dog to keep on the porch. He's not a porch dog; he's a running dog. He likes to do things his way. — John N. Kennedy, Senator Louisiana

Headlines


Former TV star Lori Loughlin, husband to plead guilty in college admissions scandal

Coronavirus live updates: New airport screening procedures, Starbucks sales improve in U.S., China

California: Most deaths in day ...

Local report faults state of Michigan for poor oversight of failed dams

Active shooter ‘neutralized’ at Texas Navy base

Jobless claims total 2.4 million, still elevated levels but a declining pace from previous weeks

Vaccine chief has vast ties to drug industry, posing possible conflicts ...

Pittsburgh vows to clean up rolls with 1.6K dead registered voters

USS Theodore Roosevelt gets underway after nearly 2 months battling coronavirus

More than half of small businesses are looking to have PPP loans forgiven, survey says

Quarter million dead by August, Second lockdown poses grave risks ...

Joe Biden forget ‘coronavirus,’ claims he doled out ‘$84 billion’

Friday, May 22, 2020

Fractured Definition


Locomotive — a court pleading of insanity.


Oops!

From daily timewaster blog




For the want of a nail ...

Newest Key Comparisons


I guess I’ll be doing this post every week for a while.

It is difficult to compare the various country, and now state coronavirus statistics ... since they are so far apart in the big tables. So, once again,  I have taken some time to put together some of the critical measures (Tests per million, Cases per million and Deaths per million) for some key countries (USA, Sweden, Norway, Italy, South Korea, Germany) .... and states (California, Massachusetts, New York and Florida) one week after my first comparison. Here are the numbers as of May 22, 2020 ... see: Latest Data for verification. (If you check after 5/22/2020, the numbers will change.)

                   Tests  per million
USA                        40,768
Sweden                   20,798
Norway                  41,178
Italy                        53,635
South Korea           15,653
Germany                 42,923

California               36,742
Massachusetts       72,758
New York               80,066
Florida                    37,973

                   Cases per million
USA                         4,904
Sweden                    3,251
Norway                    1,534
Italy                          3,770
South Korea                217
Germany                  2,139

California                  2,239
Massachusetts         13,070
New York                18,832
Florida                      2,266

                 Deaths  per million
USA                           291
Sweden                      389
Norway                       43
Italy                           537
South Korea                 5
Germany                     89

California                     92
Massachusetts            892
New York                 1,485
Florida                        100

Do you believe the numbers for South Korea? Actually, the more I inspect numbers, the more I am certain the politics and nationalism are infecting most results. This, of course, makes dealing with this pandemic very problematic ... unfortunately.

As another metric here is an interesting comparison. (I forgot where I found it.) I think it is a little dated and does not reconciled it with the above numbers ... but looks close:

Brought to Heel


SloJoe Biden has pledged not to pardon Trump were he to beat the odds and get elected president next fall. Interesting!  On the other hand, AG Barr has contemporaniously indicated that it is very unlikely that either Obama or Biden will be hauled before the docks in what Trump has dubbed “Obamagate.” In other words, even if our previous administration was up to their eyeballs in trying to overthrow their follow-ons, because of a vague notion of preserving a semblance of peaceful transition of power,  the previous villanous top conspirators will skate.

Now, I understand the logic of Barr’s stance ... and am not surprised at Biden’s petty campaign grandstanding ... but there needs some sober reflection on this giving a pass to previous presidents and vice presidents from any criminal prosecutions. I tend to think that Biden’s stance makes more sense ... but let’s be frank ... if Obama and Biden  were involved in subterfuge against Trump and the Trump administration, they should be prosecuted and appropriately punished.

Why do I feel this way?

If justice is not served, then as we have repeatedly seen, the next offense is even more audacious ... and I think that the Obama miscreants crossed a threshold of tolerance. Barr is wrong. Even if their crimes implicate the top dogs, the previous administration needs to be brought to heel.

The Dems have already telegraphed that, if Biden were to win, they will try to prosecute Trump. Turnaround is fair play.

Headlines


Across the country, local officials defy state leaders on reopening

Coronavirus live updates: CDC releases guidelines to reopen, swing-state voters divided on risk

US virus deaths projected to top 113,000 by mid-June ...

UK bans menthol cigarettes under EU directive

Trump misstates Michigan mail-in ballot policy, threatens federal funding

New York City mayor says number of kids getting vaccinated down more than 60%

New outbreak: Churches forced to reclose ...

New Black Panther party launches boycott of ‘Chinese merchants’

Oregon high court keeps state virus restrictions in place

Pompeo abruptly ends press briefing after questions about State Department IG firing

ACLU warns against fever-screening tools ...

California offers $500 each in coronavirus relief to illegal aliens