Month: April 2022

The latest headline out of San Francisco, the location of the headquarters of Twitter:

“Twitter Employees Decide to Outbid Musk for Control of Twitter!”

Most of the present Twitter employees are all in a twitter over the seemingly fait accompli of Elon Musk assuming control of Twitter.

Overheard on the Twitter campus were the following:

“We certainly could not be expected to move to Texas, could we? How could I live if I were a Texan?”

“Is this going to mean that we will actually have to allow conservative posts? How unfair is that?”

“My anxiety level is overflowing. What if Trump is allowed back on the platform? I just couldn’t live with that!”

After consulting with their group psychiatrist, the employees of Twitter have decided to attempt to outbid Elon Musk for control of Twitter. An inside source has said that the employee plan is really quite simple … they are going to elicit a $10 contribution from all of those who voted for Joe Biden in 2020. Since over 70 million voted for Biden, the employees figured that with a measly $10 from each Biden voter, they could accumulate enough to outbid Musk and thus regain control of their beloved company. 

Again, from an inside source, there is one big problem with this plan … namely the three main groups that voted for J.B. in November 2020 will be questionable contributors to their present plan.

First: dead people do not have $10 to give.

Second: Most of those Alzheimer’s patients in nursing homes cannot sign their names; an X will not suffice on the bottom line of a check.

Third: Even in San Francisco, the usual $20 “donation” to the homeless to vote for B is just not going to work in order for them to chip in $10 for the cause!

Back to the drawing board!

4/30/22

In California we have a plethora of Hispanic and Black politicians. In California, we also have a tsunami of educational deficiencies, meaning that a lot of California students go into high school not being able to read, write or do math at a level commensurate with being a freshman in high school. Keep in mind that falling behind starts a lot sooner than eighth grade, and it is cumulative. Falling behind in third grade leads to falling further behind in fourth grade, which leads to falling further behind in fifth grade, etc. In addition my teacher friends emphasize that Covid and online “Zoom school” has made things significantly worse.

How bad is it?

The following is from Lee Ohanian, California on Your Mind, 4/26/22:

“The average eighth-grade Hispanic or Black student in California demonstrates mathematical competency that is below the fourth-grade level and just slightly above the third-grade level. And if you are wondering about the level of mathematical understanding expected of a third-grade student, it includes being able to perform and memorize simple multiplication (e.g., 2 x 11 = 22), and understanding the relationship between fractions that have the number “one” in the numerator, as in knowing that 1/2 is bigger than 1/3.

This gross failure to educate our kids in mathematics, as well as in other technical and scientific fields, has been going on for decades.

Over the years, more kids fall behind, never catching up, and are doomed to an adult life with limited occupational choices, many of which pay poorly. No STEM careers, no finance careers, no accounting or auditing careers. No careers that require the ability to think logically and abstractly, both of which are by-products of mathematics training.”

My question is where are the Hispanic and Black politicians? Where are the Hispanic and Black op-Ed writers? Either they are not aware of what’s going on in the education of the children of their constituents and readers, or they know and don’t care. Hard to say which of these is worse, as both demonstrate incompetence. When will these state politicians and local columnists put on their big-boy/big-girl pants and act like responsible adults?

If past performance is indicative, the answer is that most Hispanic and Black children who live in California are doomed, because the Hispanic and Black politicians will not do what is right! They will not step-up!

4/29/22

When the situation warrants it … lie! Does that sound like Jen Psaki?

That is, in essence what Dr. Kavita Patel, an NBC News medical contributor, says that you should do when flying. 

During a recent interview on MSNBC, Dr. Patel advised airplane passengers to self-enforce the travel mask mandate that a federal judge vacated this  week. (“Self-enforce” sounds surprisingly like that recent video clip of the woman who “demanded’ that the man sitting next to her on a plane be moved to a different seat … that was before she was escorted off of that plane.)

She said, “you should bring extra face masks with you when flying and essentially demand that the people sitting next to you on the plane wear them.” (There’s another ‘demand!’)

“I know this sounds crazy, but if you tell someone next to you on a plane — N95 mask or surgical mask and just say, ‘I’ve got an elderly mother at home. I’ve got a child with cancer at home, please do me a favor.’ Having the people at least closest to you in that row protecting yourself and them can be the best safety,” she continued. (In other words, if necessary, just straight out, lie! ; and then make sure that they do not eat their peanuts or drink their water too slowly!)

If knowing that Dr. Patel was on MSNBC doesn’t tell you all you need to know, she also served in the Obama Administration as director of policy for the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement in the White House, where she played a key role in design of healthcare reform legislation.

Hmmm!

4/28/22

While admittedly I did not know if all of the justices on the Supreme Court had to be lawyers, I assumed that was the case. Well, mea culpa, sorta, as I learned the following from the Supreme Court website:

“The Constitution does not specify qualifications for Justices such as age, education, profession, or native-born citizenship. A Justice does not have to be a lawyer or a law school graduate, but all Justices have been trained in the law. Many of the 18th and 19th century Justices studied law under a mentor because there were few law schools in the country.

(The last Justice to be appointed who did not attend any law school was James F. Byrnes (1941-1942). He did not graduate from high school and taught himself law, passing the bar at the age of 23.)”

All of the nine members of the present Supreme Court are lawyers, and eight of the nine went to either Yale or Harvard Law School. Again I am going to presume that neither Yale nor Harvard teach any biology courses in their law school. Why do I bring up this inane topic? I bring this up because it appears that the Supreme Court is not familiar with a basic. biological topic, namely natural immunity.

In a very recent case involving an Air Force officer who refused to be vaccinated for Covid, the Court refused to take the case on Appeal.

“U.S. Supreme Court this week declined to hear an appeal from an Air Force reserve officer who was removed from the service’s command after he wouldn’t get a COVID-19 vaccine.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Dunn, in a court filing, said he was previously denied a religious exemption and removed from his post because he didn’t want to receive the vaccine.”

Let’s be clear here. I fully understand that in order for any military to run efficiently, everyone must follow orders. If members were allowed to decide which orders to obey and which not to obey, chaos would ensue.

If the Court had allowed for a religious exemption, the flood gates would have been opened to an avalanche of other potential “religious” exemptions, and chaos would win out.

However, in this particular case, Lt. Col. Dunn has already had Covid, and thus it is very very very likely that he has natural immunity, and consequently does not need to be vaccinated.

For those of us who are not biology majors, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 1 is a strain of coronavirus that caused severe acute respiratory syndrome, the respiratory illness responsible for the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak. The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which is at the origin of COVID-19, shares more than 70% genetic similarity with SARS-CoV-1 that was at the origin of 2003 SARS infection. The important point here is that those who had a documented SARS 1 infection still have antibodies for coronavirus 1 almost twenty years later. This is due to natural immunity. Lt. Col. Dunn and all who have had a documented Covid 2 infection, similarly have natural immunity (with a very high probability).

Perhaps if one of the present Supreme Court Justices had been a biology major, he/she could explain the concept of natural immunity to the other eight.

Of course it goes without saying that if the eminent, all knowing Dr. Fauci had addressed natural immunity early on, we would not need a biology major Justice on the Supreme Court, and Lt. Col. Dunn would still be in the Air Force, and thus common sense would have prevailed!

4/27/22

Despite what many of you thought, that is not a misspelling in the title. I assume that most of you remember Ben Carson, former U.S. secretary of the Housing and Urban Development and chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. (BTW: If you have never read his life story, you have missed out … I especially admired his illiterate mother who made her two children do book reports, and then “corrected” them with a red pen even though she had no idea what the reports said! A truly remarkable story for another day.)

Anyway Dr. Ben Carson came to mind because of something I just read in Epoch Times, detailing his take on Covid, the CDC, the NIH, etc.

“What we’ve done is we’ve gotten into a system where we have the media in cahoots with the executive branch, sort of overlooking all the other safeguards that we have in our system,” Carson told The Epoch Times. “And as a result of that, what we’ve done has completely destroyed the trust of the people in the CDC, the NIH, the government health system. It’s going to take a very long time to get that trust back.”

Bravo, Ben!

The neurosurgeon said common sense and scientific data should drive public health policies, including a broad range of treatments for COVID-19 and not just vaccinations.

“[Hydroxychloroquine] was roundly criticized by our government officials. So was ivermectin and some other therapeutics that work perfectly fine

in other parts of the world. Why would they work in other parts of the world and not work here?” said Carson. “Why is it, in Western Africa, there’s almost no COVID? Because they take hydroxychloroquine as an anti-malarial. Why in southern India is there almost no COVID? Because they take ivermectin. Maybe they’re not taking it specifically for COVID, but look at the results.”

Bravo, Dr. C!

Carson said he would have liked to see therapeutics developed alongside vaccination for adults who wanted to voluntarily get them, but said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had a rule that prevented the rushed development of vaccines if early treatment was available.

“We also had an FDA rule that said, we cannot issue an emergency use authorization for the vaccine if you have another effective therapy,” said Carson. “Well, of course, you have to say those [therapeutics] aren’t effective so you can do it. You know, that doesn’t make any sense. Why not be able to travel down several avenues simultaneously to find the most effective means of taking care of our population?”

Hmmm. Could this have the real reason why prescribing Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin became taboo?

What if we had someone in charge who used common sense like Dr. Carson? Instead we were stuck with Dr. Fauci, an old man who used zero common sense. 

Oh, what might have Ben!

4/26/22

Sometimes when I read about some things that certain politicians are proposing, I wonder, “Which planet are they from?”

The most recent example comes from Rhode Island where Democratic state Sen. Sam Bell proposed an extreme vaccine mandate bill that would double the state income tax on unvaccinated residents and fine parents of unvaccinated children. When I read this, I wondered, “which planet is Sen. Bell from”?

From BlazeMedia:

“Bell’s vaccine mandate would require every state resident who is at least 16 years old and is eligible to take a COVID-19 vaccine to get immunized. Minors under 16 would also be required to be immunized, and their parents or legal guardians would be responsible for ensuring compliance with the mandate.”

And it gets worse. Again from BlazeMedia:

“Unvaccinated residents would be fined $50 monthly for noncompliance and “shall owe twice the amount of personal income taxes” levied by the state. Vaccinated parents of unvaccinated children would be forced to pay the fine and have their income taxes doubled.”

At this point, if I lived in Rhode Island, I would be looking up towards to sky, especially at night to see if I could identify “which planet Bell came from?”

“The bill would also require employers to mandate vaccination for in-person work in the state and would impose a fine of $5,000 for every violation.”

Perhaps Sen. Bell is both deaf and blind or has been recently been off visiting Planet X, as he seemingly doesn’t recall that President Joe Biden’s administration implemented a federal vaccine mandate on employers with more than 100 employees via executive order last year, but the mandate was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Bell’s legislation was referred to the state Senate Heath and Human Services committee after it was introduced, and there has been no action on it since. 

But Bell isn’t giving up and he cited a Boston Globe report on a survey that found Rhode Island ranks No. 6 in the nation for residents who support a universal COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Thus Rhode Island is behind other stalwart backers of interplanetary travel … Washington,D.C. Massachusetts, Hawaii, Maryland, and of course, California. 

Sen. Bell is arguing for Democratic Gov. Daniel McKee to support his bill.

Now I am not familiar with Gov. McKee, nonetheless I hope I am not forced to question whether or not he has had any recent inter-planetary travel!

4/25/22

As per my Sunday tradition this piece is about someone we can admire, respect, and look up to.

Twenty-two year old Malik Willis’s future in football is looking bright, with possibilities of making the NFL as a quarterback seeming more a reality. He is a graduating senior from Liberty University which is a private Evangelical university in Lynchburg, Virginia. Does a QB from an a basically unknown university have a chance to make the NFL?

His achievements on the field in 2021 at Liberty include: completing 61.1 percent of his passes for 2,857 yards and 27 touchdowns; as well as rushing for 878 yards for 13 more touchdowns in his 13 starts, CBS Sports reported.

From the Epoch Times:

Last month Willis was at the 2022 NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis, where he received perks at the event, including a suitcase full of Nike gear. When he noticed the woman on the roadside, he decided to pay forward some of his good fortune.

“I walked past her on the way to the Nike suite and I chopped it up with them and I walked out with a suitcase and whatnot,” he told CBS.

“I felt bad,” he added. “And I was just like, ‘Shoot, I don’t have no money, but I can give you a couple of shirts.’”

A video, taken unbeknownst to Willis, demonstrated that a spirit of sportsmanship is something you carry everywhere, on and off the field.

The video was posted on Twitter where it went viral, and several Twitter users chimed in and hailed the good deed.

“Someone raised this young man the right way,” commented Rex Chapman.

“I just felt like I had to do that,” Willis said. “I mean, I’m at a position right now where I’m not worried about much of anything except getting better. So, if I can help her out any way, I felt like I had to.”

Kudos to Malik Willis!

Hopefully he will catch on with some NFL team.

4/24/22

Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly warned that the United States is facing a potential “humanitarian crisis” after visiting the southern border this week.

From the Washington Examiner on 4/17:

“Kelly, a Democrat facing a tough reelection battle this fall, is one of five Democratic senators who oppose the Biden administration’s decision to halt Title 42, the pandemic-era order that allowed authorities to expel migrants without first hearing asylum claims in the name of public health. Speaking to Fox News in an interview Friday, the Arizona Democrat reiterated his concerns that the White House was lifting Title 42 without a plan to handle an expected surge in illegal border crossings.”

To me common sense would dictate that anybody with any smarts would have a contingency plan unless that person was a dunderhead.

Admittedly “dunderhead” may not be the best word, but more on that later.

Another Democrat came out criticizing J.B. on his disjointed non-border policy. From the Washington Examiner on 4/18:

“Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat, crossed party lines Monday and blasted President Joe Bidenfor his lacking border policy.

Cuellar said, ‘You can’t say we have a pandemic or a public health issue here but then say everything is fine at the border and then lift the Title 42, which is a health order,’ Cuellar said. ‘You just can’t have both.’”

So here we have another Democratic Congressman calling J.B.’s border policies boneheaded, and by inference calling J.B. a “bonehead” … again admittedly “bonehead” may not be the best word, but what are some other options?

From Merriam-Webster:

“There are a great number of words for “stupid” or “stupid person” ending in -headed or head. A partial list includes the following: airhead, beefheaded, beetleheaded, blockhead, bonehead, bullhead, bubblehead, buffle-headed, butthead, chucklehead, deadhead, fathead, flathead, hammerhead, heavy-headed, idleheaded, ironhead, jolt-headed, jughead, knucklehead, loggerheaded, lunkhead, meathead, muddlehead, pinhead, pinheaded, ramhead, saphead, sheepheaded, sheepshead, thickhead, and wooden-headed.”

While Archie Bunker would probably refer to Mr. Biden as “a meathead,” my personal favorite for describing J.B. comes down to either “blockhead” or “jughead,” possibly because of the alliteration … “Biden the blockhead,” or “Joe the jughead.”

What about you. What’s yours?

4/23/22

Yesterday I read an article by Matt Rosenberg  on Imprimis, which is a supplement from Hillsdale College. 

I can tell by the confused looks on your faces that some ‘splainin’ is in order. 

First! Hillsdale College is a private conservative liberal arts college in Hillsdale, Michigan which is about halfway between Lansing, MI and Fort Wayne, IN. Imprimis is sent out monthly, free for the asking upon request, and typically contains conservative points of view, typically by good writers or speakers.

Matt Rosenberg is a native Chicagoan who drove a taxi prior to becoming a journalist and an author. (FYI: I am also a native Chicagoan who drove a taxi and subsequently became an author … the big difference between myself and Mr. Rosenberg is that he is a good writer.)

The title on this latest Imprimis piece is “Spiraling Violence in Chicago: Causes and Solutions.”  

For those of you not aware, the crime scene in Chicago is out of control. In the previous year the number of murders in Chicago rose 55%. Chicago’s new murder high is 797, the highest number in 25 years. The city’s 3561 shooting incidents in 2021 were up 63% compared to 2019. Expressway shootings and carjackings were also dramatically higher.

The reason I chose to write about this topic is because what’s happening in Chicago is similar to what is also happening in other big cities across the country, and I would surmise that the causes are basically the same.

According to Rosenberg the causes of out of control crime in Chicago are many. Here are a few from his Imprimis article:

• a sub-genre of hip-hop music called “Chicago Drill,” in which rival gangs call each other out in Chicago Drill raps, and bullets often fly as a result.
• Extremely insufficient punishment, a lot of which is due to State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s prosecutors approving felony charges in only a small percent of those arrested.
• Easy probation as criminal Justice has morphed into what prosecutors describe as “social Justice.” Under Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans’ direction, suspects charged with felony gun violations and overt violent felonies are often released on no-cash or low-cash bail.

Thus far no big surprises as corruption has subtlely infiltrated into our Justice system.

What can be done?

Some potential solutions according to Rosenberg:

• Stop releasing people charged with violent felony crimes
• Reapportion the budget to build and operate more courtrooms
• Repeal legislation that will outlaw most cash bail by 2023
• Employ smarter policing tactics, including more foot patrols
• Stop making excuses for what alderman Ray Lopez called “the borderline collapse of the family unit in many neighborhoods.”Political leaders need to stop walking on eggshells when it comes to talking about the breakdown of the nuclear family in low income black communities. Young men need fathers, and without fathers, they flounder. In Chicago more than 80% of all black women who gave birth between 1999 and 2009 were single. Among Latinos this number is 55%, while that number in whites and Asians is dramatically lower. Broken homes are directly correlated to violent crime. Neighborhoods with the highest incidence of single mothers have the highest rate of murders.
• Improve failing public schools by either facilitating more charter schools or by facilitating school vouchers.

Increasing violent crimes is a major reason for the exodus of Chicago’s black population, down one-third since 1980, and it also explains why tourists and suburbanites are shunning the city.

Again, no big surprises here, but as long as the Democrats are in charge in both Cook County and in the State of Illinois, it is a fair bet that nothing will change!

4/22/22

I read a lot of articles, but I have to tell you that one specific line attracted me to this 4/7/22 piece titled, “The Ukrainian Conflict: Misconceptions and Deceptions” in the American Freedom News. This piece was partially about some of the unforeseen consequences that we will see as a result of this war. As I was skimming the part about the shortages that will soon occur, my eyes were drawn to one specific sentence which read as follows:

“Meanwhile the ignorant and deranged Biden – who wouldn’t know a semiconductor from a railroad conductor – has threatened to cut off exports of both semiconductors and sophisticated machinery to Russia.”

Whether or not Joe Biden is ignorant and deranged is irrelevant, as it was the trope using “semiconductor” and “railroad conductor” that attracted my attention and cracked me up. Personally, I know what a train conductor is and what he does, but a semiconductor … not so much. Nonetheless, I can tell the difference between the two.

From the same article:

“A further calamity involving semiconductors and other hi-tech manufacturing is waiting in the wings as a result of the Ukrainian situation. Much of the development and manufacturing capacity of high-tech products located in the former USSR was based in Ukraine. Today, that country plays an important role in the global manufacturing supply chains both in terms of finished products and intermediate manufacturing as is the case in supplying parts to German auto manufacturers and other key industries in Western Europe. Many of the components used to make semiconductors are seriously endangered by the Ukrainian crisis. Volkswagen has already said the Ukrainian conflict could force it to halt production which could result in the furlough of 8,000 workers. There are very few products of any complexity today that do not contain semiconductors. A typical new car now has over 1,400 semiconductors. Any disruption in the semiconductor supply chain will hurt every supply chain in the world.”

“One of the key processes in creating semiconductors involves the etching of minute circuits upon silicon wafers by precision lasers powered with a processed form of neon gas. Ninety percent (90%) of this processed neon gas comes from – you guessed it! – Russia and Ukraine. Over 65% of it is produced by just one company in Odessa, Ukraine. In essence, if the US and EU embargo semiconductor exports to Russia, Russia will seize control of the area involved and retaliate by stopping the export of this essential gas. This would cripple semiconductor production internationally and bring the production of consumer goods including durables, cars, and electronics to a halt shutting down a large part of the global economy!”

Scary to say to the  least!

Actually the far reaching and pervasive importance that semiconductors play in our society is amazing.

To say that I learned an incredible amount about semiconductors from this piece would be an understatement, however, even before I read it, in contradistinction to J.B., I was able to distinguish a semiconductor from a railroad conductor!

4/21/22