Oil Prices, Chuck Schumer and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve

Chuck Schumer and some of his Democrat allies are now calling for relieving our gas price inflation by drawing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves. What the hell is wrong with the thinking of these people?

The Strategic Petroleum Reserves is for just what it says it is, a reserve oil supply to be available in case of some emergency international disruption. What's going on now is self-imposed. We've gone from energy independence to oil mendicants in a few short months of the present administration. The cause is not mysterious. Joe Biden, to fulfill his dream of becoming a noteworthy figure, has taken on the fanatical ideology of "climate change" and from his first day dramatically turned his back on all the energy production policies of the previous administration. So now, instead of producing our own, which was not only a source of national income but also an energy insurance policy for ourselves and our allies, we have gone to begging OPEC and Russia to increase their oil production so as to make up for the loss of our previous domestic supply. Can anyone tell me what sense that makes, even for the apostles of "renewable energy"?

Our leaders want to treat the Strategic Petroleum Reserves as they do the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, as a source of ready money for their social schemes. So now, instead of collecting interest on those funds, our treasury is paying it out. But tapping our Strategic Petroleum Reserves is a much more ominous action which could cripple us badly in a time of real emergency.

The relatively more severe oil crisis of the 1970's with its long gas lines, was resolved almost overnight by removing government oil price controls resulting in a dramatic increase in domestic oil production and a reduction in our dependence on OPEC. There could not have been a better demonstration of government being the problem instead of the solution.

Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer have come face to face with the reality that a decline in fossil fuel supply equates to a big decline in our standard of living, most especially for those of lower income. The government cannot lower prices by printing more dollar bills. Some day in the future we may reach the nirvana of having a source of low cost energy from the sun and the wind or from something else, but for now it's time for good old amiable Joe and his friends to get out of the way.

 

 

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Mr. Biden's Vaccine Mandate is not Really Totally "Scientific".

President Biden and Dr. Fauci are fond of telling us to "follow the science" so let us review the science regarding the issue of the vaccine mandate.

To begin with, the vaccines we have are a dramatic testament to the great capability of our often-reviled pharmaceutical companies as well as to the ingenuity of the businesslike Trump administration. Indeed, the MRNA vaccines were ready for use in July 2020 rather than in December when they were released by the FDA. Were it not for the bureaucratic process they could have been tried and used to great effect in the fragile nursing home patients who made up 40% of the nation's deaths at the time. Ironically, during the presidential campaign, both Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris expressed reluctance to accept the results of Mr. Trump's efforts.

That being said, we now understand from multiple scientific studies that immunity from natural infection is dramatically broader and more prolonged than that from the available vaccines. It appears, also from scientific studies, that at least 15% of the public has had the disease with mild or no illness and without vaccination and probably at least as many of those vaccinated had the virus and recovered before getting the shot. Furthermore, as effective as they are in warding off serious illness, we now understand that the vaccines do not prevent contracting and spreading the virus. Finally, science now tells us, particularly in light of the large animal reservoirs, that this virus is here among us to stay and that we're likely all to be exposed to it. From the public health standpoint, we cannot vaccinate our way out of the problem but presumably as a population will become adapted as we have to the various other coronaviruses in our environment.

All these considerations strongly suggest that the sensible approach to handling the epidemic in our country is to strongly encourage the vaccination of those who are at significant risk of serious illness and leave the rest to their individual discretion. Indeed, this is the opinion of a large number of respected scientists highly knowledgeable in the field.

Mr. Biden thinks differently and favors universal vaccination such that he is, on questionable constitutional grounds, willing to use his authority to force those who do not wish to be vaccinated to do so at the risk of loss of their and their family's livelihood. He tells us that he has lost patience with those who do not accept his line of thinking, suggesting that he looks at his fellow citizens as if they were his subjects. Mr. Biden is our President, with large but temporary and strictly constitutionally restricted powers. He is not our king, and it is not his place to lose patience with us.

 

 

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Did The FDA Procedures Cost Thousands of Lives.

It's beginning to look as if what was called a racist Trumpian conspiracy theory that the pandemic virus was "made in China" rather than a natural occurrence is true after all. Even more disturbing is the idea that a panicky close-mouthed Chinese Communist Party clamped down on the true story and let their problem spread worldwide. For months, the U.S. and the WHO public health establishments reassured us that the man-made conjecture couldn't be true, an opinion echoed vigorously by the major media. To say otherwise was grounds for blackballing by the social networking fact finders. There's a strong taint of political ideology mixed up in this whole mess which allowed the devastation of 2020 to be worse than it could have been. But it's not all China's fault. A big part of death and economic destruction in our country may have been our own damn fault.

What do I mean by that? Well, from early January until early March of 2020, it was very unclear what was going on even though in retrospect the virus was spreading exponentially. We were getting mixed overly optimistic messages, not only from the politicians of both parties but also from the public health authorities right down to the man in charge, Dr. Fauci. What was missing during this period was testing, which would have allowed us to realize that most cases had either no or insignificant symptoms but could nevertheless spread the germ and were doing so at a rapid rate. What was the problem with testing? Labs all across the country had been able to come up with accurate tests within a couple of weeks after the genome was worked out in early January. But regulations prohibited their use of the tests without FDA approval. The CDC devised a test for the government which proved to be inaccurate and finally, after much arm twisting, the FDA gave emergency approval for outside testing which then ramped up dramatically through private, hospital and state labs. Through all this we missed out on 2 months of accurate information which. as it turns out could have been lifesaving.

Once we got the real picture it was way too late for the standard public health measures of case finding and contact tracing. It appears now, from comparing the outcomes of the disease in the various states, that lockdowns and arbitrary designations of essential and non-essential commerce for the most part caused more harm than good, and that mandated masking and social distancing have been of limited value. What is now clearly saving the day are the dramatically effective vaccines, finally released in December, once again with the FDA being pushed to expedite their approval process.

But hold on, that's not the whole story. The RNA vaccines of Pfizer and Moderna had been prepared, tested in humans and found to induce neutralizing antibodies with no obvious short term serious toxicity as of July 2020. But to get FDA approval the standard procedure was to require Phase 3 testing in larger numbers of healthy people and that's what was done over the subsequent 6 months. Mind you, however, that we were in the height of a rampant pandemic that was mostly benign but lethal for specific groups which had been identified. Could not the vaccines, which appeared to be effective and safe at least in the short term, have been tried not on healthy people, but on willing nursing home and other chronically ill patients for example, for whom the benefit to risk ratio would have been so dramatically favorable? I'm not the only one asking this question.

We've been told so often that our response to the problem should be to "follow the science". But science is not the same thing as authoritative pronouncements from government health agencies or even consensus of scientific experts and hidebound processes. The scientific method involves a hypothesis, a testing of the hypothesis and an analysis of the results. But the testing must be designed to be appropriate to the situation at hand and not simply the following of standardized procedures. And there must be free interchange of ideas with give and take from multiple sources. There is no such thing as "settled science".

In retrospect it appears as if in this pandemic our reliance on centralized control cost thousands of lives. Those who think we would have been better off to rely on the federal bureaucracies to run the show should reconsider.

 

 

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The Trump Vaccines And Not Lockdowns Are Making A Difference In COVID.

Here In the free state of Florida there has been no lockdown of small businesses for some time. Mask wearing has declined markedly, except in church, some supermarkets and medical facilities where they are following CDC dictates. People are shaking hands and hugging again. The community where we reside is essentially back to normal. Nevertheless, COVID cases, deaths and ER visits continue to decline and, compared to the states such as New York and California where there have been stricter regulations, there seems to be no difference in all these virus measurements. Or if anything the numbers slightly favor Florida. In the U.S. overall the daily numbers of cases, deaths and ER visits for COVID continue to decline and, once again, if you survey the various states, they all are pretty much following the same pattern, whether they were "lockdowners" or not.

You find the same lack of lockdown effect when comparing countries. For example, there's little difference in mortality statistics between the Nordic countries, all of which had limited government mandates (for example no mandated mask wearing) and other E.U. countries, which generally had very strict lockdowns. But COVID statistics are now improving in all these countries, so what accounts for that?

Well, all these countries are vaccinating, and what's interesting is that the COVID statistics, cases and deaths, seem to correlate well with each country's success in getting its people vaccinated. The 3 leading countries in this regard are Israel, U.K. and U.S., with the percent of population vaccinated respectively in these countries being roughly 65, 55 and 45. Both Israel and the U.K. have had a dramatic improvement and now have exceptionally low levels of cases and deaths. Each of these three countries have been improving significantly more than the E.U. countries which have been late to the vaccination game but are now doing better.

Some of the improving situation may simply be due to the virus running its course, but of the things humans are doing to fight back it looks as if it's the vaccine rather than lockdowns that is saving the day. And that isn't even taking into account the major adverse economic and health effects of lockdowns which have been destroying lives and causing excess deaths apart from the virus, in particular among younger people and those with lower incomes and social status. In some cases these consequences will extend into the future long after the virus is a memory.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's the vaccine that the usually reviled drug companies developed and which our former President dramatically expedited by skillful financial arrangements, an innovative distribution plan and forceful cutting of bureaucratic red tape. Our new President's primary initial efforts have involved undoing Mr. Trump's actions wherever he can, but he hasn't been foolish enough to interfere with the vaccine production or distribution which he inherited although he's done his best to expropriate the credit for Mr. Trump's achievement.

Look at the attached graph of daily U.S. vaccinations. It shows a steady rise from the moment the vaccines received FDA approval, well before Mr. Biden was inaugurated. There is not the slightest deviation of the vaccination administration curve to suggest any impact of the actions of the present administration. It's noteworthy that since vaccinations reached a peak at the beginning of April there's a significant decline in daily vaccinations as demand has been satisfied. Mr. Biden's target of 70% vaccinated by July 4th, so touted in the major media, is merely a prediction of the natural course of things that were previously set in motion and which he has had almost nothing to do with.

 

 

 

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COMMON SENSE. Systemic Racism and White Privelege -- True or False?

COMMON SENSE:

Many of today's liberals are convinced that our country is pervaded by "systemic racism". They view the statistical economic and health disparities among certain specific minority groups as due to "white privilege". They see the connection as so obvious and incontrovertible that they consider any disagreement as proof of their contentions. They say that those who disagree, although they may be of good will, are unconsciously blind to their attitudes and must be educated to understand them.

But a great many of us do disagree and do not feel the need for our reeducation. Our country has been through times of real conscious legally authorized racial discrimination, as those of us who were alive during that time can attest. The civil rights movement of the 1960's changed all that, and it did so, not just because of the brave efforts of Martin Luther King and his followers, but because the majority of our citizenry was ready for it. Racial discrimination made no sense in a country founded on the principles of individualism and equal rights. Strangely enough the major resistance to the change at that time resided in the very political group that is today focusing so much on racial consciousness.

Three generations later, not just the legal, but the social change in our country has been dramatic. Today, indeed, the MLK admonition to judge individuals by their character and not skin color or some other external quality is overwhelmingly accepted. As one observes our public in every aspect of our lives there is racial and ethnic integration. And it is not so because it is legally mandated. If you're a black family and you wish to live in my neighborhood, which is mostly white, just buy a house and move in. You'll find many friends. If you're a member of a minority group and you want to be a member in my golf club, just join up and pay the dues as others have. We welcome you. And if you called for an appointment to see me in my office when I was still in practice, we definitely didn't ask what color you were.

The idea that the big city ghettos in our country, where crime and social disorganization is rampant, exist because of racism is belied by the fact that so many millions of minorities are out in our communities living happy and productive lives, and many have achieved high status, great wealth and public admiration. In light of these facts the cause of the bad situation in these areas must be other than racial animus but that's a discussion for another time. It's enough to say that, in the minds of those of us who do not accept the "white privelege" concept, promoting the idea that those of various minority groups in our country cannot succeed without special consideration and political militarism is counterproductive. It is felt that these ideas are not only inaccurate but paradoxically are themselves a major contributor to racial discord in our society and are a discouragement to the individuals that they are meant to help.

For those of you who believe differently I would say this. Instead of insisting that everyone in our society be brought to accept your point of view, which is unlikely to succeed, assess whatever portion of your wealth and position you calculate are due to white privelege and donate that amount in time and money to enhancing the education, social structure and economic opportunities in our problematic inner-city areas. That would clearly have a positive effect. For my part I will continue to try to live up to the Christian principle of treating others as I would have them treat me, and hope that they will do the same.

 

 

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Biden's Speech About The Pandemic Was Not Serious; Operation Warp Speed Was!

I watched President Biden's speech on the pandemic last night. He spoke with sympathy of the pain the country has been through and spent a lot of time emphasizing his efforts at vaccination. I think he could have emphasized more the large discrepancy in the distribution of the pain between his coastal constituents who were able to work and educate their children at home and the little guys who had to work in place, or had their businesses locked down or who didn't have good home computer networks. But, fair enough, it's been a problem for all of us in different ways.

His discussion of the vaccination efforts is what concerns me. Once again, he called for us to come together as we did to defeat the enemy in WW2. But how much unity is expressed in talking about the vaccines as if they appeared de novo and, but for his efforts, would lag behind in their administration.

In fact, the development and rollout of our effective vaccines was an outstanding accomplishment of the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed. To my mind this was probably the most successful example of cooperation between government and industry to address a major threat since the mobilization for munitions production in WW2. The development of these generally safe and highly effective vaccines in a previously unheard of 9-month period was a dramatic example of the tremendous skill and capacity of our often-criticized pharmaceutical industry. But it was the can do spirit of a developer controlling the usually overly bureaucratic federal government that made it all possible.

The concept of messenger RNA technology, used by both Pfizer and Moderna, has been around for a few years, but had never been developed for clinical use, among other reasons because of financial risk. Operation Warp Speed, a joint effort of the Trump departments of HHS and DOD, accepted the risk instead, not only giving direct financial support, but guaranteeing purchase of the final product of the drug companies. In addition it also streamlined the usually ponderous workings of the FDA to expedite it's various expert committee meetings.

All this allowed the pharmaceutical companies not to take shortcuts as is commonly assumed but to do their extremely expensive clinical trials expeditiously and to manufacture millions of doses of their vaccines all while the vitally important clinical trials for safety and efficacy were ongoing. Thus they were ready to release millions of doses of their product, with the assistance of the military in distribution, on day one after their approval.

Mr. Biden touted his administration's recent purchase of 100 million vaccine doses. The fact is that the Trump administration guaranteed purchase of hundreds of millions of doses, even before they were proven safe and effective and authorized by the FDA in mid-December. Altogether 200 million doses each of both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were purchased. Mr. Biden promised to deliver 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days, but on the day before he took office 1.2 million doses were administered. In fact the major limiting factor in administering vaccinations thus far has been the capacity of the pharmaceutical companies to produce them, and that in turn due to limitations in workers with the proper skills to do the job.

Take a look at the attached graph which shows vaccinations administered since they were first released in December. What you see is a steady rise over that period without any notable change since January 20th when President Biden was inaugurated.

Ladies and gentlemen, actions speak louder than words.

 

 

 

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Fair and Free Voting.

Common sense:

Multiple changes in voting procedures and serious evidence of voting irregularities in this year's presidential election has caused millions of Americans to suspect that the outcome is in question. House Democrats have now introduced HB1, which has multiple measures which tend to solidify and even worsen those suspicions in future elections.

Let's emphasize that, although liberals contend that there were no significant problems in the election, many millions of their fellow citizens do not agree with them and it is mandatory that their opinion must be taken into account. Without the overwhelming public perception that our elections are free and fair we have no democracy and there is risk that our society will descend into major conflict.

According to our constitution voting procedures are the province of the individual States. Whatever voting procedures are determined by the individual States, it is imperative that three basic principles be maintained: 1. Those who are on the registration lists in the States must be legitimately entitled to vote and procedures must be in place to assure that those registration lists are up to date and accurate, most especially at the time of any election, 2. Iron clad procedures must be in place to assure that those who are voting are actually the registered individual who they say they are, and 3. Voting procedures must be absolutely free from potential tampering and cannot be carried out except under the meaningful observation of all interested parties.

These are clear-cut measures to which any fair-minded person, on whatever political side, should be willing to agree. No congressional law should be passed which tends to contradict any of these principles. Any proposed law which does not advance these principles should be considered to have fraudulent intent and should be overwhelmingly rejected.

 

 

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Biden Breaks Immigration Law

COMMON SENSE

Foreigners who wish to enter the country for a short time require a passport. Those wishing to come temporarily but for a longer period, such as for work or school, require a visa. Foreign nationals who wish to reside here permanently require a green card which they must carry for identification and which entitles them to carry on with no restrictions except for voting rights. Those who wish to obtain voting rights must declare allegiance to the United States and go through the prescribed process for becoming citizens. All these situations are regulated by a large body of immigration law.

In our country today there are unknown millions of individuals who are "undocumented", that is who reside outside the limits of these laws and regulations and so are here illegally. There are thousands more who continue to enter our country without regard to these laws, or who come to a legal point of entry but, pending a determination as to their eligibility, are allowed to remain and do not return for their scheduled adjudication. There are also many thousands more who have been given a legitimate visa but who ignore the regulations governing their activities.

Since Mr. Biden has taken office, he has quickly taken steps to reduce our country's ability to prevent illegal entry, and even to encourage it, as well as to allow increased entry to those whose eligibility is being determined, knowing full well that the majority of such individuals will not comply and will be added to the "undocumented". He has instructed his Department of Justice to ignore the so-called sanctuary cities with are actively working to interfere with immigration law enforcement.

It appears that Mr. Biden and his Democrat allies feel that our immigration laws are unjust or otherwise inappropriate. They sympathize with those who have entered the country illegally and even wish to accommodate and encourage others. However, regardless of his sympathies or possibly political motives, Mr. Biden has sworn to uphold our constitution and enforce our laws, including those regarding immigration, to the best of his ability. If he and his allies are unhappy with our immigration laws and their enforcement, they are free to attempt to change these laws through congressional action. In article 1, section 8 of our founding document Congress was assigned the task of making these immigration laws and regulations. The serious responsibility to enforce them has been assigned to the Dept of Homeland Security which includes the I.C.E. and the Border Patrol.

He cannot disregard our immigration laws or change them by executive order. By his actions he is disobeying his oath of office and is derelict in his duty. If anyone should be impeached, he would be the one.

 

 

 

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Wuhan Virus (Covid 19) Statistics and Data

Interesting statistics and new data about Wuhan virus (Covid).

 

Vaccination rates in various countries: Israel highest by far with almost 50% of their population. UAE next with about 25%. U.K. next at a bit ovew 10%. Next in order is U.S. at a bit over 7%, about 3 times higher than any of the other Western European countries.

 

Case fatality rate (deaths among actual significant symptomatic cases rather than just positive tests) in U.S. 1.7%, about 50-100% lower than any of the Western European countries.

Cases in both the U.S. and Florida are now trending down fairly rapidly since peaking on 1/8/21. Deaths in both places are stabilized but usually follow cases by 2-4 weeks. Also Emergency Room visits for Covid symptoms in both places are dropping rapidly since peaking around 1/3/21.

 

As far as that renegade Sweden which defied the lockdown trend: as of the 2^nd week in January the percent of those tested for antibodies in Sweden was reported to be 40%. This probably underestimates the percent of the population that is immune since antibodies after infection tend to wane, but immune cells retain a memory of the infection. Cases in Sweden are now dropping rapidly after their peak on 12/23 (when the second wave was present in Europe) and daily deaths are back down to the single digits.

 

Both Moderna and Pfizer indicate their studies show effectiveness of their vaccines to new Covid variants.

 

A new study reveals that colchicine, a cheap anti-gout drug used for decades, given early on to Covid patients reduces hospitalization by 20% and deaths by 45%.

 

A report of initial phase 3 studies for the Regeneron antibiotic cocktail (given to then President Trump under emergency use authorization with apparent dramatic results) appears to be 100% effective in preventing symptomatic infection when given to individuals with significant exposure to Covid. 

 

 

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What Did In Donald Trump

So now it's said and done. Joe Biden is our new President. He's the new target in the shooting gallery. I'd like to give my perspective on what happened. Mr. Trump lost his election for one reason, and one reason only. And it wasn't cheating, although cheating certainly went on in a much bigger dose than it usually does in our elections. No, my friends, had things gone on as they were at the beginning of 2020, Mr. Trump, with his continuing economic and foreign policy success, would have won a second term in a landslide just as big as did Nixon and Reagan, large enough to overcome any amount of under the table shenanigans.

 

What did him in was the Wuhan virus. Wherever it came from, it spread like wildfire and was a killer, mostly of the old and frail and those with chronic illness, but even for the young and healthy it was a crapshoot and occasionally severe or even lethal. The idea that he bungled the job and was responsible for all the death and economic consequences is total baloney. All you have to do is look at the situation in all the other westernized countries to see that the pandemic was a problem for everybody, whatever the nature of their health care or political systems. All the furor over universal mask wearing and lockdowns has limited scientific support of effectiveness and of course doesn't affect the survival of the virus which is ready waiting in the wings. The irony is that the one fundamentally helpful thing in this battle, other than the natural immunity of the population, was Mr. Trump's dramatically effective shepherding of the production of multiple highly effective vaccines in record time through all the economic and bureaucratic impediments. The claim that the vaccine distribution is flawed is nonsense. The problem at the present time is that demand is far outstripping supply which frustrates our impatient society.

 

Presidents don't fare well when big bad things are happening under their watch, regardless of who or what is responsible. Look at other one term presidents. Hoover was probably the most highly qualified of any of our presidents but happened to be hit by a massive and sustained economic downturn. Jimmy Carter, who I though was a pretty upright guy, was done in by ongoing stagflation. George Bush senior, who was riding high after operation Desert Shield got kicked out by a fickle public when there was an economic downturn.

 

Without going into the controversial issue of Mr. Trump's personal style I think the Democrat's perception that he lost because the general public hated him and his policies as much as they did is way off base. Donald Trump was not any of the long list of "ists" and "isms" that they called him. He couldn't care less about your race or nationality or sexual proclivities or gender as long as you performed and finished the job on time and under budget. That qualification applied to everyone in his line of sight, including big time corporate executives, multistar generals, and certified conservative think-tankers.

The Democrat's misunderstanding of the situation will come back to bite them. The public is not going to be particularly happy with high gas prices, return to the need for imported energy, loss of manufacturing and construction jobs, renewed outflow of capital to foreign countries, unrestrained illegal immigration, disruption of Medicare, subordination of American interests and resurgence of the world's bad actors possibly requiring military intervention. And so much more.

 

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Unity. The New Fascism

Joe Biden is now calling for an end to our previous division and a new era of unity. This does not seem to be in the cards. He and his party hated Mr. Trump, called him an illegitimate president and made constant attempts to remove him from power during his administration from start to finish (and beyond). The millions who agreed with his policies were held in contempt, and were accused of giving their support through ignorance, malevolence, or greed. And now Mr. Biden is rushing headlong to put in place a full-blown liberal agenda regardless of their desires.

Joe Biden is not calling for a unity in which there is serious consideration of the other party's ideas or a seeking of compromise positions. No indeed. It is a unity in which his party's ideas are the correct ones and that all are to be united for their furtherance. For this type of unity all dissent is to be squelched and those who have differing ideas are to be reeducated.

This scenario puts me in mind of the leader of the Italian people during the 1930's, Benito Mussolini. Mussolini was a socialist at heart, a devotee of Karl Marx, but broke from the party when he favored Italy's involvement in the subsequent world war. He suffered a brutal end at the hands of his people. Nevertheless, during his heyday, his governing concepts made him the darling of progressives around the world who admired his political stance. His idea was that the Italians were too individualistic and needed a strong central government, with him and his party as the leader. All facets of their society, businesses large and small, the media, the entertainers, and all the citizens were to work together for the good of the whole. He undertook a host of reform projects, and famously made the Italian trains run on time. Although seductive in theory the problem with his philosophy of central control was that such an arrangement could not tolerate dissent. Opposing voices in the media were shut down. Dissident politicians from other parties were removed and replaced. The police and military were realigned. Young thugs were recruited to enforce his movement among the public.

He used as a symbol of his movement the ancient Roman idea of bundling sticks together with thongs to use as axe handles or blunt instruments. His idea was that the individual sticks could be easily broken but bundled together they had great strength. The Romans called these devices "fasces", so he named his new progressive idea "fascismo". In English "fascism".

 

 

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Who Is The Threat To Our Republic?

Ms Pelosi's impeachment charge is that Mr. Trump incited rioting in the U.S. Capital and is therefore a threat to the republic.

For the moment let's put aside the fact that this threat was known by the federal authorities weeks in advance so that better preparations should have been made for the event. And let's put aside the fact that the invasion by the hooligans began to occur before Mr. Trump's purported incitement. And let's put aside the fact that Mr. Trump in his speech to his supporters in no way called for anything but peaceful protest. And let's put aside the fact that Mr. Trump's political opponents excused and even gave their support to violence in many of our major cities which caused far greater destruction of life and property for months on end.

Let's for the moment put all this aside and accept the idea that Mr. Trump shared some of the responsibility for the recent troubles in the seat of our government. Mr. Biden has recently declared his intent to immediately reverse Mr. Trump's policies to improve our country's energy production. If he succeeds in returning our country from a net energy exporter to one which must depend on authoritarian adversaries for the energy needs that are required for the health and well-being of our citizens, then he will have proved to be an infinitely greater threat to our republic than Mr. Trump could even hope to be.

 

 

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New Caravan A'coming

Mr. Biden has now announced to the world that those who come to our country without regard for our immigration laws, such as they are, are welcome. Almost immediately a caravan of several thousand have accepted his invitation. This will not be the last one. It will be interesting to see how he does with the situation.

Our country has decided to throw the door open to a trial of full on "progressive" policies. For the sake of my family and friends I wish him the best. However, I think the result is going to be like lenient parents who have decided that they need a vacation in Vegas and leave their teenage kids at home with the car keys. God help us, and I mean that seriously.

 

 

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The 2020 Election. Fraud or Not?

I watched Brit Hume on Fox the night before last opining that the claims of election fraud were "balderdash". Brit is a very thoughtful and long experienced political observer whose opinion I highly regard. That said, however, it seems to me that individual judgment on this matter is generally highly dependent on one's regard for Mr. Trump.  So, Democrats, anti-Trump Republicans and the major media state that the election was free and fair, in particular noting that multiple court proceedings have ruled against the Trump supporters. It's an open and shut case they say and to claim otherwise is almost traitorous.

 Trump supporters aren't so sure. His opponent's hatred for him is unmatched, certainly in any of the 12 previous administrations that I have observed during my lifetime, and there is the sense that they feel it is justified to be rid of him at any cost. And the large push for mail in voting in the swing states, which in size exceeds by three times previous years, and the dramatic swing in his fortunes as these began to be counted have raised suspicions, although admittedly suspicions are not hard evidence.

 The truth of the matter makes a difference. If the election truly turned on subterfuge, then it's hard to argue that Mr. Trump's encouragement of his supporters to strongly protest is unjustified. However, Mr. Trump's opponents have derided the idea that there is viable evidence of a fraudulent election and hold that those who make the claim are conspiracy theorists and somewhat of a threat to the republic. They insist that the President who promotes such ideas should be condemned and impeached.

 What about the evidence? There's far too much to detail, so let's take a few examples, presented in a hearing before a small sub-committee of Georgia state legislators in December, that I took the trouble to watch.

Georgia votes were counted in a large arena on machines which could count up to 3000 ballots per hour. Unbeknownst to those in the room there was video surveillance. Around 10PM press and GOP observers were told that ballot handling was suspended until the morning. After they had left, 4 workers remained to count ballots unobserved by press or poll watchers. Many ballots were brought out in large containers which for reasons not clear were stored under a table. Workers were observed on the video repeatedly taking large stacks of these ballots, running them through the counting machine, then recounting the same ballots a second and then a third time.

 There was sworn testimony of 3 impartial data experts who examined the voting data, noted many irregularities and who concluded there was strong evidence of fraud. They noted, for example, large numbers of suddenly deleted Trump votes in 3 different Democrat leaning counties, and in one instance there was a deletion of 12,571 votes for Mr. Trump at the time that the exact same amount was suddenly added to Mr. Biden. They testified that the voting machines could be programmed to make such changes.

 Claims have been made that Dominion voting machines could not be connected to outside sources. At the hearing, a computer expert testified that his group was able to hack into the machine network wirelessly and that they were into the system at the moment of his testimony.

 What are we to think of these things and a great many others? Are we simply to accept the word of the media, who despise Mr. Trump, and the Georgia election officials that all was on the up and up? Perhaps there are benign explanations. But can't we, for example, at least have direct testimony of the election workers as to why they acted as they did rather than second hand media explanations. And can't we have an actual demonstration of the capacity to hack into the voting machines? After the 2016 elections there was a prolonged investigation of the charge, on very limited evidence, that Mr. Trump and Putin had collaborated to simply influence voters by fallacious Facebook posts, but not to actually alter votes. In this far more serious charge shouldn't we have an open presentation of the evidence and a serious investigation into the actual complaints, rather than a rejection of a hearing by courts based on procedural considerations. That is what was being sought by the Congressmen who were prepared to object to electors, and who are now being pilloried as traitors. Don't we deserve that much? Or are we willing to reject the suspicions of millions of our citizens out of hand and maintain the bitter divide that's making our country into a world spectacle.

 

 

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Amazon Is Now Political - It Needs Competition

It's very hard for retailers to compete with Amazon since they had such a head start in online retailing. But now that hard left Jeff Bezos has turned the selling of server space into a speech squelching enterprise, it's time for those of us Amazon addicts to try what avenues there are to at least cut back on the habit.

Of course, you can drive around to your local stores, and I'll now try to do a bit more of that. But retailers generally are at a loss to find a way to get an online presence and service anywhere near what Amazon offers.

I've heard that Amazon is facing a bit of unrest from its merchants. They're charging them a lot, minimizing their brand identity and even selling Amazon brand competing products. They might be ripe for some sort of competing service which gives merchants a better deal.

Meanwhile I searched around today and found that Walmart's online presence isn't bad. It's not nearly as good as Amazon but is serviceable. They offer free delivery for orders over $35, and also an Amazon Prime – like subscription service that they call Walmart+ which gets you free delivery on selected products regardless of the price. They also offer a credit card that gets you 5% back on all products ordered through their website. The site is at least good enough to compare prices before blind usage of the Amazon route.

Unfortunately, Walmart has just recently joined all the virtue signaling big businesses who are suspending political contributions to those congressmen who dared to follow their own judgement in the matter of accepting the presidential electors. They seem a little tentative in explaining their decision however, perhaps in concern over the opinions of their "smelly" customers.

Anyway, maybe those of us good guys should give some thought to rooting for the underdog, at least just to promote good old American free enterprise competition.

 

 

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More On The Capital Riots.

Facebook is filled today with liberal angst over yesterday's Capital riots, and they are justified. I am angry about the incident myself, even more than the liberals. I'm angry not only because the action itself was an outrage, but because it was a stupid, foolish thing to do. These rioters, who allowed their passion to replace their reason, have done irreparable harm to the cause they are aggrieved about and have nullified the actions of hundreds of thousands of others who were there to peacefully but forcefully demonstrate that they will not accept a stolen election. They have also sabotaged the support of millions of their fellow citizens and have given grist to the mill of those who characterize justified suspicions about the integrity of the recent elections as a fantasy.

 

They have done as much disservice to their cause as did the thugs who burned and pillaged major cities over the summer for months and turned an initially overwhelming sympathy for the manner of George Floyd's death to one of general support for the police who do the often difficult job of protecting our lives and property.

 

One thing liberals should observe about the response to this incident from their conservative friends is that they are not going to see an attempt at whitewashing. You're not going to hear conservatives hold that the protest was "mostly peaceful" and that the actions of the rioters were excusable because of the righteousness of their anger. You'll not see any DeBlasio's, or for that matter any Mitt Romneys, marching with them in unison. 

As for the President: although he was taken by surprise and his initial response was restrained, today he stated clearly, unlike the response of Mrs. Pelosi to the George Floyd hoodlums, that those who committed these crimes must be identified and prosecuted with the penalty being a prison term. You are not going to see any reluctance to decisively use whatever force is necessary to put a stop to any further such activities.

 

On the other hand, don't be fooled into thinking that this incident will be the end of the issue of the banana republic type activities surrounding the recent election. Those of us who are concerned about this profoundly serious matter cannot be ignored. It must be investigated at least as much as was the far less serious charge of Russians influencing the voters. 

 

 

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The Capital Riots and Mr. Trump's Response

The Pro-Trump rioters cannot be excused because they think their cause is just. We cannot be like the left who excused much more savage and sustained rioting for reasons they approved of. The riots of the summer were characterized by the major media as mostly peaceful. But even though the hundreds of thousands who marched in Washington today were mostly peaceful, we cannot accept that rationale.

The rioters today were involved in criminal, destructive and threatening activity. They should be identified and prosecuted. But more than that they are just dumb. They, as were the rioters in the summer, are doing major harm to the cause in which they believe.

Their motivating issue is not Donald Trump, although he is the present rallying point. They, like millions of others of us, are disgusted with the liberal agenda which seems to be carrying our country away from its founding principles of individual freedom and self-reliance and toward central control by an ever-increasing oligarchy. They were exhilarated by the return to those basic values represented by Mr. Trump's election. And now they are incensed by strong evidence that all of this has been lost by corruption of the voting process.

Mr. Trump has advised his supporters to disband and at the same time holds to his belief that his loss was fraudulent. This seems to give a mixed message. I believe that he can reconcile the apparent contradiction and has the opportunity to solidify his leadership position by two actions. First, he must change the issue from his election which seems ever more to be a lost cause regardless of the likelihood of fraud and return the focus to Make America Great Again. And then follow the great model of Martin Luther King who fought for a righteous cause and led great protests for change but demanded that his followers follow the path of non-violent civil disobedience. For those liberals who I am sure will take great offense to equating the two issues, my point is that the technique was not only the right thing to do, but in the end was extremely effective.

Let's see if he can rise to the occasion

 

 

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Georgia Election Could Help Settle The Cheating Question

The upcoming Georgia election could be something of a surrogate for an investigation of the Presidential election. The result is highly consequential so both sides will be trying their hardest. If it is conducted fairly and honestly the variance from the previous result would be an indicator of the true voter sentiment.

 

That's a big "if". Mail-in voting has a risk for voter fraud. Every other advanced country which presumes to hold fair elections minimizes the practice. That cat's out of the bag in Georgia, where 6 times the usual number was cast in November, the preponderance counted for Biden, which is said to be the reverse of the usual situation. That's the source of much of the cheating reported by Republicans, along with unsupervised vote counting. Critics have noted thousands of illegally cast ballots as well as a dramatically lower percentage of ballot rejections. But there was also complaints of inappropriate counting activities and unrestricted ability to manipulate the voting machine data.

 

In the coming Georgia election, the legitimacy of mail in votes must be iron-clad. There must be a clear-cut determination, acceptable to all, that every mail-in vote is from a legal voter, that there is acceptable signature verification that the mailer is the actual voter, and that any potential rejections due to voter ballot error are adjudicated directly with the voter to everyone's satisfaction. If this takes time, so be it. They asked for it.

 

There must be absolute freedom of political pole watchers to view the handling of each ballot in a meaningful way, that is, close up and personal. There must be no ballot handling or counting performed when observers are not present. Optimally the procedures should be continuous until completed. There must be strict custody control of the ballots from the point of reception to the point of actual opening. Any disputed ballots must be kept aside until all controversies are settled. There must be a video record of the entire process.

 

There must be absolute certainty that voting machines cannot be connected wirelessly to an outside source. There must be strict control of chain of custody of any USB drives. The contents of USB drives, computer programs and data in voting machines must be accessible at all times to appropriate examiners.

 

In short all must be on the up and up. Republicans were caught napping in the Presidential election despite preliminary warning signs. They now know what to look for and if they stumble again, then shame on them. Democrats should want these precautions to be strictly followed as well and should actively assist in seeing that they are carried out.

 

If all these things are done, and the outcome is the same, it will not be absolute assurance since other states are involved, but it will go a long way to tamping down a serious controversy that threatens to pull our nation apart even more. If the outcome is different and Republicans win by larger margins, then the Dems have some splainin' to do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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