There Is No Alternative

For a long time, I have been writing about Old Joe Biden and about how he is incapable of being president.  Some people don't seem to care about Biden's capabilities; they're fine with Old Joe in the White House just so long as President Trump isn't there any more.  That, however, is both a short sighted and scary view.

Think about it.  In the last month, the USA has ramped up production of masks, ventilators, tests and a whole host of items needed to fight the corona virus.  Trump got that done through private-public partnerships, pressure on companies, organizational efforts, refusal to let delays take hold, and the like.  Trump has also kept the people informed as to what is happening.  The anti-Trump media doesn't like Trump's style, but it's hard to take issue with the truth that Trump is accomplishing things that are critical parts of this fight against the virus.

Now consider what a president Joe Biden would have done.  It's hard to imagine that he would have the energy to devote himself for more than an hour or two a day to dealing with this crisis.  He is also stuck in an ideological hole in which only government action would be considered.  All these private companies would not be using their own genius to bring up production; Washington bureaucrats who know nothing would be issuing orders that would result in slow and inefficient attempts to do what Trump got done quickly.  More important, there is a serious question whether or not Joe Biden could even think his way through this mess.

America cannot have a president who would be incapable of dealing with our present problems.  The Dems have to find a way to dump Biden.  I support Trump, but for the sake of the country, the Dems have to nominate someone who could at least be able to handle this crisis. 

Spinning Nonsense

At his last briefing on the virus, President Trump said that he had learned that some hospitals in New York that are consistently full had gone from using 10-20 thousand face masks per week to using 300 thousand per week.  The President then said that the increase sounded incredible and that local authorities had to investigate what was going on and if face masks were walking out the back door.  Many in the mainstream media portrayed this as an attack by the President on the people working in the hospitals.  They said that in the midst of all the work these folks are doing, the President should not attack them.  Unbelievable!

Think about it.  The idea that someone in New York might be stealing these face masks which are in such short supply in order to make a killing by reselling them is not very surprising.  It sounds tailor made for organized crime.  All it would take is for the crime family to buy off some of the supply personnel in the hospital to siphon off large numbers of masks and send them "out the back door".  Indeed, if this is happening, the people who suffer most as the result are the hospital employees.  These masks are for their protection.  If, by focusing on the dramatic usage of these masks, Trump can stop their theft, then the President is helping the hospital employees, not attacking them.

But even more than who is helped and who is hurt, the issue is whether or not local authorities should look into whether masks and other supplies are being stolen.  Isn't that an activity that we would want to stop if possible?  Will the media now tell us that it is racist or sexist or something else to try to prevent criminal acts that leave hospitals without needed supplies?

I doubt we have ever had a President who has as much knowledge about how things go on many jobs in New York where expensive supplies are stored.  The level of theft on construction jobs, especially public construction jubs in the city is very high.  I know, I work in that field for many decades.  Trump has a lot of first hand experience with this problem as well.

My guess is that over 90% of the open minded people watching the briefing were glad to hear that Trump wanted to make sure that supplies weren't being stolen.  Sure, there are those who hate Trump to such an extent that no matter what he wants to do they think he is wrong.  If he asks for an investigation into possible stolen masks, he is attacking the employees.  Were he not to seek such an investigation, they would say he couldn't manage the situation well.  But I'm not talking about those for whom Trump can do nothing right.  I'm talking about average Americans who understand how the world works.  They get it, and I'm sure they're happy to know that the feds are looking out for all of us.  

Governor "Half" Whitmer

Last week, Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer issued a directive telling doctors in that state that they could not prescribe hydroxychloroquine off label for use fighting the corona virus.  Even though roughly 21% of all US prescriptions are "off label", Whitmer threatened doctors who prescribed this drug with the loss of their medical licenses were they found to issue such a prescription.  The governor obviously didn't care that studies in France had shown the drug to be extremely efficacious in fighting the virus.  Whitmer didn't like the fact that President Trump had touted the possibilities of this drug so she opposed its use.  That, among other things, led President Trump to dub her governor "half" Whitmer.

Well, there's some good news for the people of Michigan (and for all the rest of us as well).  The FDA has now approved the use of the drug to fight the virus.  France has also done the same.  The FDA action means that prescribing the drug to fight the virus is no longer off label.  Whitmer can't keep the people of her state from getting this potential cure if they get sick.

There is still no large scale completed testing on hydroxychloroquine and its ability to fight the virus.  The small scale tests have had good results.  There is a major test underway in New York City and there should be results in the next two weeks.  If the test shows results like the prior French studies, then we may be at the point where the virus can be beaten.  This should NOT be politicized.  Indeed, we should all pray that the results show that the drug works.

Winning the Mask Battelle

A company named Battelle in Ohio has developed a machine that can sterilize an N95 surgical mask so that it can be reused up to 20 times.  Each machine can process 100,000 masks every day.  There has been preliminary approval from the FDA for the process which would alleviate the shortages of masks that have been encountered across the country.  Full approval from the FDA is expected by the end of today.

This is a major step forward towards ending the mask shortages.  If masks can be reused up to 20 times, them 50,000 masks become the equivalent of 1,000,000 masks without reuse.  Once these machines are put around the country, all those mask shortages should end or at least be drastically reduced.

This is great news in the battle to keep doctors and nurses healthy.  It's amazing what a little ingenuity can accomplish.

Maybe It Doesn't Matter But.........

The corona virus was first observed in Wuhan, China.  Wuhan is a massive city with a population of more than 11 million.  By comparison, New York has 8.6 million.  After the virus spread through Wuhan the Chinese authorities locked down the city.  Over 3000 deaths were recorded there.  Now, Wuhan is reporting that in the last week there was only one new case of the virus.

Does anyone believe this?  Can we believe that something like 60,000 cases appeared and the lock down stopped the virus dead in its tracks?  After all, life in the city did not end.  People still had to eat so they needed to get food.  That means either going to a food store or having food delivered.  I don't know how the Chinese handled this, but even with social distancing, getting food to 11 million people had to involve some measure of contact that would allow transmission of the virus, especially since many people who had the virus had no symptoms or extremely mild symptoms.  The measures in Wuhan certainly could have greatly lessened the number of cases, but it seems essentially impossible that there would be no new cases.

These figures can be explained by a variety of possibilities.

1.  The Chinese are lying.  That would not be unusual.  China lies all the time.  For example, Chinese economic statistics are always pumped up to the point that they cannot be relied upon to measure how the Chinese economy is doing.  Of course, if the Chinese are lying, that means that people are continuing to die from the virus in Wuhan, but we are just not hearing of it.  It seems unlikely that such news could be contained, but maybe it just hasn't leaked out yet.

2.  The Chinese have a cure.  Again, this is the sort of explanation that would seem totally impossible to keep under wraps.  Imagine that China has a cure but it is keeping it quiet because it wants to inflict maximum pain on the rest of the world to help China's relative position.  That sounds like the plot to a James Bond movie more than the likely course of conduct for a country the size of China.  If it were found that the Chinese held the cure and kept silent about it, there would likely be a world war against the Chinese.

There are others, but they get more and more fantastic as you go along.

The sad thing is that we cannot trust what China says about the virus.  It's just one more thing that puts us in a bad position in fighting the disease.

A Total Disconnect

Old Joe Biden held a town hall event online about the corona virus two days ago.  He had doctors and nurses and first responders there to speak, but it was mostly Joe, Joe and more Joe.  He's trying to be relevant in the midst of the corona virus crisis.

According to the statistics shown during the Biden Town Hall event, he had fewer than 1000 people watching on line 15 minutes into the event.  Biden's staff had tweeted and emailed their millions of followers about the event.  They got fewer than 1000 views.

The average daily briefing by Trump and his staff on the virus gets an audience of well over ten million according to Nielsen.  Actually, if you look at the numbers for the day of Biden's town hall, Trump got over twenty thousand viewers for each person who tuned in to see Biden.  Simple put, no one is watching Biden or cares what he thinks.

Compare this to the latest polls on the Biden/Trump race for the presidency.  Those polls still have Biden in the lead by something between 3 and 7 percent.

The lack of any audience for Biden and his lead in the polls make no sense.  My guess is that when it comes down to actually voting, Trump will triumph.  There's an old saying, "you can't beat somebody with nobody".  It really seems applicable here.

Getting to Know What's in the Relief Package

There are some things that are unbelievable that happen nevertheless.  As the details of the latest relief bill for the coronavirus impact on the nation get disclosed, some truly bizarre items are getting uncovered.  One such item is that the Democrats insisted that money for buying oil for the national petroleum reserve is blocked.

Think about that.  Decades ago, the federal government established a strategic petroleum reserve.  This is an enormous amount of oil stored in special underground tanks for use in a national emergency.  Right now, the reserve is about 77% full.  The price of oil, however, has fallen to a 20 year low in the aftermath of the virus cutting demand and the price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia in the world oil market.  As a result, oil is selling for just over 20 dollars per barrel rather than the more than 60 dollar per barrel price that has been the recent norm.  That makes this a very advantageous time to replenish the reserve with very low cost oil.

The Democrats, however, blocked these purchases.  They denounced the potential purchases as a "bailout for big oil".  Really?  Are they kidding?  Just think about how many times you heard the Dems complaining in the last month that the national stockpile of medical items was too small or not complete.   Now imagine that we suddenly need the oil from the national reserve but that it is only three quarters full.  The Dems won't care that this is their doing; they will castigate the President because the reserve is not full.

The USA will survive fine without filling the reserve.  This was just the appropriate time to buy more oil.  The immense stupidity of the Democrats in blocking this purchase, however, ought not be forgotten.

There Is Other Big News

It's not the virus, but it is still big news.  This morning, the Attorney General announced that the US is bringing charges against Venezuelan dictator Maduro for drug trafficking.  The estimate is that he worked with the cartels to sneak enough cocaine into the USA for thirty million uses.  Put another way, there are probably thousands of people dead from overdoses because of the drugs Maduro got smuggled into the USA.  There is even a 15 million dollar reward for information leading to the capture of Maduro.

I'm not sure where this will go right now.  Once the virus is no longer a threat, however, we may see more action taken against Venezuela that could lead to the end - finally - of the Maduro regime.  That would be a welcome change for the people of that nation.

Senate Passes Relief Bill -- Will House Act Now?

The Senate finally passed the corona virus relief bill.  It goes to the House.  The hope is that the measure will be passed in the House today on a voice vote ASAP and that the President can sign the bill today also.  We will have to wait and see if Pelosi tries this or succumbs to the pressure of her party to "revise" the bill.  If that happens, it will be a disaster from which the Democrats will not recover.  The vote in the Senate was unanimous.  Even House Democrats have to realize that they can't stand in the way.  That's especially true after the new unemployment claims number came in at well over three million for the week -- up from 280,000 last week.

All That Was Missing

Well now Joe Biden has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 1993.  The account is quite graphic.  The woman in question sounds believable.  It presents the Democrats with a quandry.  If we are always to believe the woman, then Old Joe is someone who does not deserve the vote of even one feminist.  On the other hand, if the typical hypocrisy is going to go to work, then Biden as a Democrat will skate on this.

Biden is lucky that this has all surfaced during the corona virus pandemic.  It may get lost in the shuffle.

We will have to wait to see how this plays out.  Will the Democrats' women's groups all demand that Biden withdraw from the race?  Will they ignore their professed positions?  Will they just hide?

Now Bernie Is Blocking The Relief Bill

Bernie Sanders always says he's in favor of "working people".  So how is he showing that?  He's now threatening to block a vote on the emergency relief bill finally agreed upon last night after endless negotiations.  Bernie's answer to a bill that will literally help millions of working people is to threaten to delay it.  Is he kidding?  Does he really think that Americans won't understand what is actually happening?  Does Sanders really think that this sort of grandstanding will help get him back in the presidential contest?

The truth is that if Sanders still had any chance in the presidential race (he doesn't), this latest nonsense totally disqualifies him.

Dems Finally Cave And Stop Blocking The Coronavirus Bill

After being pressure by a relentless public outcry, the Senate Democrats finally caved and reached agreement with GOP senators on a massive bill to help Americans get through the Coronavirus disruptions. It’s about time. Their delay to try to get special unrelated items that would push us to the left was despicable

The final language and passage should be done today unless the Dems try for more delay. Then the House has to vote. Pelosi is supposed to be on board but we will have to see about that. Let’s hope the games have ended. 

Dems Still Blocking Help For Americans

Another day has passed and still the Democrats are blocking help for millions of Americans who are living in fear because their jobs have ended over the virus and they don’t know how they will pay the rent, buy food or pay other bills. The Dems want global warming garbage, grants for opera houses, benefits for union leaders, election law changes and hundreds of billions of dollars that have no relation to fighting the virus. The truth is they don’t care about the average American. How did they ever get into the Senate and House.

These people are truly scum. 

The Inevitable Attack -- Trump Doesn't Care About Old or Sick People

If you watch what the leftwing crazies say on Twitter, you can see the storm rising in response to the President saying yesterday that we have to get the economy back closer to normal by ending national shutdowns and letting businesses reopen.  One trending item on Twitter is #GOPDeathPanels.  There is non-stop criticism of what Trump said.  Basically, the line is that Trump is a heartless plutocrat who only cares about the wealthy.  It's an obvious lie from people who hate the President or the Republicans, but it's a dangerous lie nevertheless.

Here's what was actually said at the briefing yesterday.

1.  We can't stay shut down for many months without destroying much of the economy.

2.  We the economy destroyed in that way, we could see tens of millions of people wiped out.  They would be left penniless in an economy that could not come roaring back.  For example, the family that owned a deli or other small restaurant would not only lose the income from that business but also all of the money it had invested in it.  All the workers who got paid by that business would also be left in the cold.  Small business of all sorts would be wiped away and with them there would be a loss of the capital needed to open replacements.

3.  We need to find a balance so that the country can get back to work quickly.

4.  One thing that has been established during the current shutdown is a testing apparatus that lets us see where the virus concentrations are.  This is the standard public health method for fighting an epidemic.  Now that we have this information and can update it constantly, we can focus containment efforts in those places where the virus is rampant.  For example, in New York City which has about 30% of all cases in the country there need to be a continuing fight against the virus.  In a state with few cases (there are over ten with less than 100), we may be able to relax the way we deal with the virus.

5.  Relaxation of the fight against the virus does not mean letting people die.  Rather, the idea would be something like having the elderly and those with dangerous medical conditions continue to stay home away from possibly catching the virus while the rest of the people went back to more normal life.  There would be continued monitoring of the levels of infection.  If the virus started to explode in a particular location, further local restrictions could be put in place.  On the other hand, if a region showed that it had gotten past the major virus problem, the restrictions could be relaxed.

6.  If Hydroxychloroquine turns out to work as a preventative, then once production can be ramped up, threatened populations could be placed on the drug.

That's hardly a push to let people die so that millionaires will still be able to pay for their yachts -- a favorite line on Twitter.

People need to be honest and realistic.  This is a major war we are fighting.  Spreading panic through lies is totally counterproductive and dangerous.  It has to stop.

Well Now We Know Where Old Joe Is

Earlier today, I wrote about the disappearance of Joe Biden and his refusal to help resolve the crisis negotiations in Congress to get relief for the American people.  Then Old Joe resurface with a speech he gave from his hiding place in Delaware.  Joe read from the teleprompter, but he lost his place.  He couldn't remember what he was supposed to say.  He couldn't find the text on the prompter.  He waved his arm at an aide who was supposed to tell him where he was in the speech but that didn't work.  Then he just cut off the speech and walked off so he could get back on track.

If you haven't seen the video, here's a link to the New York Post article that has the video embedded in it.  https://nypost.com/2020/03/23/joe-biden-stumbles-over-words-during-coronavirus-speech/

Can we really afford to have a president who can't even remember what he is saying during an important speech on an item of great national importance?  I don't think so.

Where is Old Joe?

Last night the Democrats in the Senate blocked the corona virus relief bill that would send money to every American to survive the current mess, send huge sums to hospitals to treat the victims and provide protective clothing and masks for doctors and nurses, save small businesses across the country so that jobs will still be there once this epidemic subsides and much more.  The Democrats are playing politics with the lives of millions of Americas.  It's disgusting.

But here's another important question:  WHERE IS JOE BIDEN?

Old Joe is the presumptive nominee of the Democrats for president.  For the last week, I don't remember his saying anything about how we should deal with the virus.  He's just sitting in Delaware while the Dems in DC block relief for the average Americans and he's saying nothing.

Biden is the leader of the Democrats.  They're telling us he should be president.  Shouldn't he be trying to LEAD?  Shouldn't Biden be bringing the Dems together with the Republicans so the people can be helped?  Has hiding become the new Democrat version of being presidential?

About a week ago, Biden told us that starting today he would hold a daily briefing on the virus just like President Trump.  The first one was announced for this 11 am this morning.  Then it didn't happen. 

Let's be clear.  Joe Biden needs to get the Dems in DC to act properly.  How could he ever expect Americans to vote for him if he can't even get his own party members to let legislation that is desperately needed by millions come to a vote in the Senate.  Is Old Joe so ineffectual that all he can do is sit at home and hide?

The Dems Block Corona Virus Relief Package In Senate

It gets lost in the avalanche of other news, but the Democrats in the Senate just blocked the corona virus relief bill there.  Specifically, they refused to end their filibuster of that bill.  Not a single Democrat voted to go ahead to consider the bill which would provide cash to every American, protect hospital staff, prevent small business from going bankrupt and otherwise make sure that once the virus has passed the economy could get moving again.

I'm not going to say much about this.  To me it is proof that the Democrats are trying to make the virus about politics and gaining power rather than helping the American people deal with this crisis.  Sure, it's possible that some senators disagree with the content of the bill.  It's not possible, however, that every single Democrat is against the measure to the extent of blocking it from a vote.  No, that is a political calculation that they can do better in November if they block action now.

Let's make sure that the Dems never again get control of the Senate.  Indeed, every senator who voted to block this bill should be defeated when he or she next runs for office.  Don't forget what they did here.  Lives are literally on the line and the Dems went for political gain rather than helping save people. 

Half a Million

In this day of corona virus being the only news, this may not seem like much, but overnight this site passed half a million views.  That actually doesn't go back to the very beginning, but only for the period for which views are tracked which began when I began running ads on the site.

It's rather amazing to me that so many have read what I've written.  I began writing Connecticut Comments for myself.  It has grown from there. 

Thanks to everyone who visits.

Today's New Biden Slogan

Seen on the internet, the new Biden campaign slogan


"He put the Dem in dementia"

Why Must Someone Be To Blame?

There are two ways to look at the corona virus mess:  we can sit around and try to decide who is to blame for this mess and then try to punish those people or we can work together to try to get through the mess and help people to the greatest extent possible.

For some reason, much of the mainstream media seems focused on finding people to blame, while I believe that most Americans, other than the Twitter mobs, want to find a way to get through this with as little damage as possible.

First consider the media.  For the last week, there have been daily virus briefings held in the White House with the President and his team to provide current information to the American people.  Many in the media have spent time asking over and over about whether or not it is racist to call the virus "the Chinese virus".  Who cares?  The reporters tell us about a heightened risk of attacks on people of Chinese descent due to calling the virus the Chinese virus.  Of course, there haven't been any such attacks because people are smart enough to understand that the virus is the Chinese virus because it came from there.  Americans of Chinese descent had nothing to do with it.  Still we get the endless questions on this point.  The media is also big on questioning about where the tests are or where the masks are.  Even after there are tests everywhere with massive additional quantities coming in production, the media still asks where are the tests.  They're in the field, is the only appropriate answer. 

So what purpose does it serve to waste time trying to blame the government for this.  It's pure idiocy.  It's safe to say that the only time this epidemic could have been stopped was at the very beginning in China.  The Chinese authorities chose to hide details of the outbreak until it was too late to contain it.  So if the media is looking to blame someone, it rightly should be the Communist party of China.  Of course, the media would never do that because it might be called racist. 

Now Joe Biden says he is going to have a daily briefing on the virus starting next week.  That should be fun.  We will get to see an Alzheimic guy talk about what ought to be happening.  My guess is that on many days Biden will forget the name of the virus.  Who knows, he may even call it the Chinese virus (what a racist).

The truth is that fortunately for the USA, the president and his administration are focused on steps to combat the virus and the damage that is being done in this fight.  President Trump has gotten praise for his steps from people who are normally his enemies.  Democrats as anti-Trump as Andrew Coumo of NY, Gavin Newsome of California, and even Ilhan Omar of Minnesota have commended Trump for all that he has been doing.  These people understand that we need to work together to fight the virus and that Trump has been leading the charge. 

Let me put it simply.  We don't need to look for someone to blame.  The morons of the media who are wasting out time with this garbage should just shut up for once.

Bloomberg and the Sham Donation

In the USA we have campaign finance laws that limit how much a person can contribute to a candidate for federal office or to a political party.  The only exception is that an individual can spend his or her own money in unlimited amounts on his or her own campaign.  That's what Michael Bloomberg did before he gave up on his presidential campaign.  Bloomie spent over half a billion dollars running TV ads and hiring staff, etc, on his own campaign.  He took no money from anyone else.  That mega-spending was totally legal.

Now, however, Bloomberg has done something that may be illegal.  He tool the money left in his campaign -- all his own money -- and gave it to the DNC.  That's right, Bloomberg "donated" 18 million bucks to the DNC.  Campaigns are allowed to give left over contribution monies to the national party.  No one, though, ever contemplated that we would have one individual who first shoveled millions into his own campaign only to drop out and transfer the cash to the party.

This contribution is an indirect way of doing something that is a crime under US law.  There ought to be an investigation by the Justice Department into what Bloomberg has done and the government should prosecute him for violation of the law.  Indeed, even if there is no criminal prosecution, the DNC ought to be ordered by a court to return the cash in excess of the individual contribution limits to Bloomberg.

For a party that spent so much time smashing evil billionaires, the Democrats seem to have no problem raking in the cash from those billionaires.  It's just wrong.

What Do The Statistics Mean?

Here are the statistics for the mortality rate for the corona virus figured in the way that is most commonly used, that is the percentage of those diagnosed with the disease who die from it:

France:  31%

Italy:  24%

South Korea:  1.1%

USA:  1.3%

China:  4%

Iran:  7.2%

Germany:  0.3%

UK:  4.4%

Spain:  5.1%

Why is there such a great variance between the nations?  These are not because of small numbers distorting the calculations.  In the UK there are 4500 cases, but in the rest of the countries on the list there are at least 8000 cases in each country.  Italy has over 45,000 cases and China has over 80,000.

There are some obvious differences in how long the outbreak has been serious in each country.  Since the disease takes a while to kill people, the numbers should go up in countries with earlier outbreaks.  That doesn't seem to hold, though.  China was first and it has a 4% mortality rate while South Korea was also one of the earliest outbreaks and it has a very low mortality rate.  The outbreak in Iran hit after the one in South Korea, but Iran has a 7.2% mortality rate.

Another possibility is that the rate depends on the scope of testing.  In the USA over the last two days the number of cases diagnosed has skyrocketed as large scale testing proceeds.  The number of dead, however, while still rising has not been moving up at anything even close to the growth rate in cases.

And why is there such a big difference between France and Germany?  Is it the quality of healthcare?  Is there something genetic about Germans that makes them better able to withstand the virus?

We know that in Italy the vast bulk of the deaths are of people over 80 who have other medical conditions.  There are more of these people in Italy on a percentage basis than there are in Germany, for example.  Still, that doesn't explain the difference between 24% and 0.3% mortality.

The main point here, though , is that the mortality rate in all of these places is actually much lower than the numbers listed above.  Most people who get the virus either don't have symptoms at all or have such mild symptoms that they don't get tested.  One estimate is that fewer than 15% of those infected have serious symptoms.  That would mean that the mortality rate in each country listed above should be divided by about 7 to come closer to the actual rate of mortality among all those infected.  That would put the rate in the USA at the moment at about 0.2% or just slightly worse than the flu.  Because the infections in the USA have come later than those in many other countries, the rate may be too low if calculated in this way.  Still, it should be a comfort to those who are sitting at home avoiding the virus to know that the mortality rate here is actually quite low.

On top of this, it is important to add in that these figures are all for mortality in the total population.  We know, however, that those who are elderly and with other medical problems are the people with the main difficulty in surviving the disease.  In other words, healthy young people should have a mortality rate that is extremely low, probably lower than that for the flu.

Chloroquine, Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromiacin

Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine are two anti-malaria drugs that have been around for a long, long time.  Hydroxychloroquine, also known as Plaquenil, was first introduced in the 1950s.  As discussed in today's corona virus briefing at the White House, these medicines have shown promise in some small studies of treating the virus.

There was a small study done abroad in which dealt with people who tested positive for the virus.  One third got chloroquine and the antibiotic azithromiacin; one third got only chloroquine, and the last group got neither (although all three groups got standard treatments as needed.)  At the end of a week, tests showed the group that got both drugs to be virus free; 70% of those who got only chloroquine were virus free.  All of those who received neither drug still tested positive for the virus.  These are startling numbers.  If they can be duplicated in a large scale trial, then we may have found a way to stop the epidemic without shutting down the country.

This is the reason that the President announced today that the FDA would be testing the efficacy of these drugs in large scale testing across the country. 

It's worth noting that the fact that chloroquine is useful in fighting a corona virus was first noted in 2012.  It was studied in connection with SARS, a disease caused by a different variant of corona virus from COVID 19, which is behind the current wave of diseases.  That's why doctors in South Korea and China first tried using chloroquine about a month ago.

One of the big benefits of these drugs is that they have been in use for such a long time and we know that they do not produce any serious side effects.  Hydroxychloroquine is not only used for malaria but also in the treatment of lupus.  Chloroquine is used in fighting malaria and certain forms of arthritis.  That means huge numbers of people have used these drugs.

Another big benefit is that the drugs are generic.  They cost something like 5 cents per tablet.  That would make a thirty day supply cost $1.50, and thirty days is substantially longer than needed if the small study is correct.

There are also claims that the anti-malarials work to prevent infection by the virus.  To me, that means that healthcare workers should be given these drugs to take NOW.  Imagine if we could stop the transmission of the virus to the doctors and nurses while they are treating patients.  It's a huge development.

Let's pray that these meds actually work in a large scale test.  It would be the miracle that we all have been asking for.

Corona Virus Update

One week ago, I listed the tabulation of the corona virus cases in the most affected countries.  Here's the update for what happened over the last week.

Total cases diagnosed:  jumped from 125,891 to 214,894 for an increase of 71%.

Total deaths jumped from 4616 to 8732 world wide for an increase of 89%.

In China, cases went from 81,000 to about 81,500.  That's almost no increase.  Deaths went from just under 3200 to 3241.  That's an increase of 1%.

In Italy, cases jumped from 12,500 to 35,713.  That's almost a tripling of the total in one week.  Deaths went from 827 to 2978.  That's an increase of about 350%.

In Iran, cases went up from 9000 to 17,361.  That's almost a 100% increase.  Deaths jumped from 354 to 1,135.  That's an increase of 320%.

In South Korea 7765 cases a week ago jumped to 8413 today.  That's an increase of just 8%.

Spain went from 2257 to 13,910 cases and 55 to 634 dead.

In the USA, the cases went from 1280 to 7769 and deaths went from 36 to 118.

There are more figures we could list, but these countries tell very different stories.  Why have cases stopped in China and grown so little in South Korea while the cases elsewhere have soared.  The doctors on TV say it is because these countries are further along the curve.  In other words, they got hit earlier and were able to get fully in gear with measures to contain the spread of the virus sooner.  As a result, those measures are working while the other countries haven't yet been able to stop new cases.  Measures in the USA, for example, are probably stopping much of the spread of the virus, but the new cases today were contracted by the patients a week or more ago.  On top of that, testing is much more widespread, so new cases can be uncovered more quickly.  Hopefully in a week from now, the increase in cases will have slowed as it did in China and South Korea.

The problem across the world, though, is a different one that no one is discussing.  The case/death level in Iran is continuing to rise quickly even though Iran was hit a while back with the virus.  It seems as if the measures taken against the virus in Iran are much less than those elsewhere.  What this means is that Iran and possibly other countries will remain a sources of infection even if we get things under control here in the USA.  Imagine what it would be like to have recurring outbreaks like this one that drift in from Iran or elsewhere periodically.  The idea is truly appalling.

Truly Sad News

I have to tell you all some really sad news.  William Weld has dropped out of the Republican presidential race.  That's right.  Weld, who was the Libertarian candidate for vice president in 2016 has given up after Trump got enough delegates yesterday to clinch renomination.  With more than half of the GOP delegates selected, Weld had gotten zero and Trump had received all of them.

If there ever was a waste of time, Weld's campaign was it.  What was he thinking?

The President's News Conference

I just watched today's press conference and briefing from President Trump and his corona virus team.  The news isn't great, but the needed measures seem to be going ahead at rather impressive speed.

While I watched the briefing, I kept picturing how it would be going if Hillary Clinton had won in 2016.  My guess is that not much of what has been done would have been accomplished.  As if to emphasize that thought, I got a tweet from Hillary herself in which she comments on the handling of the virus.  Hillary's focus was on denouncing the use of the term "Chinese virus".  That's all; she's against calling it the "Chinese virus" cause that might be taken as racist.

It's hard to imagine how irrelevant the name of the virus actually is.  I remember the Hong Kong flu some years ago.  Was that racist?  No, it came originally from Hong Kong.  How about MERS?  Remember that?  MERS is the acronym for the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.  It first appeared in 2012 in Arabia.  Some people even call it the camel flu.  Is that racist?  When the Obama administration discussed MERS, were they causing a threat to all the Arab Americans in our country?  Of course not.  (And by the way, MERS is also caused by a corona virus just like COVID 19).

Despite the great many important questions about handling the virus, the President and his team got three questions from the media about using the term Chinese virus.  Don't these reporters have brains?

Despite the virus name nonsense, there was a lot of important information that came to the fore.  For example, there was the first clear explanation I heard that squares the statements that there are plenty of tests available and the constant refrain in some media that no one is being tested.  We learned from the virus team that there are indeed test kits in great numbers around the country now.  Those were distributed first to locations with the most cases.  That means that in the past week, there were test kits in Washington state and New York etc.  The analysis was done county by county.  In other words, people in counties with few cases weren't getting the test kits as quickly as those in hard hit locales.  The goal was to identify as many people as possible with the virus so as to stop the spread.  Now, though, there are test kits across the country.  The problem, however, has been the bottleneck for getting results.  Because of new testing procedures that have been developed in the last few weeks, the number of tests that can be processed each day has risen 100 fold and will continue to go higher.  The testing bottleneck should be resolved.

It's also worth noting that with the end of the slow testing regime, we will see a major spike in cases combined with a fall in the mortality rate.  Over the next two days or so, we will see something like ten days of results released.  That doesn't mean the virus is spreading faster; it only means that the wave of new results will all come almost at once.  Meanwhile, as wider testing discloses many people who have the virus with few or no symptoms, the percentage of the ill who die from the disease should drop.  If 3% of those diagnosed are dying now, and if the number diagnosed suddenly includes huge numbers of people with mild or no symptoms, the percentage of those diagnosed who die will go down.

The President also announced that the border with Canada has been closed.  It won't affect trade or essential travel (undefined), but it will stop casual trips.  This should cut down on the spread of the virus as well.

More detail was given on a huge stimulus package that is being put together.  Trump said there was good bipartisan work involving most (sadly not all) of the Congress and Senate.  No need to comment on this package until the actual details are released.

We have a long way to go in this fight against the virus.  We have to fight it together.  Right now, the best thing we can do is to follow the guidelines to reduce the spread.

Why No Coverage?

In the last week, the US DEA and federal marshalls arrested over 600 members of the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion.  This is the largest coordinated attack on one of the drug cartels ever.  Six hundred drug traffickers in jail.  The operation is called project python and it is the direct result of an executive order issued by President Trump around a month ago.  Trump directed US law enforcement to try to break up the drug cartels.  This is the biggest blow ever to the cartels and it could get a great deal of dangerous drugs off of the streets of the USA.

My guess is that you haven't heard of this.  That would not be surprising since it has gotten almost NO coverage.  I can't find even one article in the mainstream media about the arrests.  I realize that the corona virus is big news and the Democrat primary fight is also in the news.  Nevertheless, a major body blow to the cartels by the US government is something Americans need to hear about.  How can the media be so silent?

I did see a great deal of coverage today discussing whether or not it is appropriate for President Trump to call the virus "the Chinese virus".  This nonsense is covered ad nauseum.  No one will be affected whether Trump calls the disease the Chinese virus, Covid19 or even Mary Louise.  They are just words, and unimportant words at that.  Getting 600 drug dealers and their suppliers off the streets, though, is a big, big deal that could save a lot of lives lost to overdoses.  The media should get their heads on straight and start covering what's important.

The Primary System Falls Apart

So far today we have stories of how the Ohio polls closed at the last minute, how many polling places in Illinois were moved to avoid certain locations that might be dangerous for corona virus without telling voters, and how many polling locations in Florida just didn't open because poll workers didn't show up due to virus fears.  It's not exactly a great record. 

In Ohio, the governor and the state health commissioner decided that the election needed to be delayed.  Strangely, a local court blocked that and the governor had to step in an order the election postponed due to health and safety reasons.  What was that judge thinking?

In Illinois, it seems unforgivable that no one bothered to post signs at the old locations for polling stations that told where the new locations are.  Nearly all of the problem is in Chicago.  Most likely all the voters who don't know where they are supposed to vote will still have their ballots counted.  It is, after all, still Chicago.

In Florida, one has to wonder how all of the poll workers for particular precincts failed to show.  I get that some might stay home, but all of those for particular polls?  It makes no sense.

No matter what the outcome, this is just another cloud that will be over the results tonight.  Biden is likely to win, but if he wants to, Sanders can make quite a big deal out of this incompetence.

Nonsense in San Francisco

The local governments around San Francisco have issued "shelter in place" rules for the city and its main suburbs.  There are over 50,000 homeless people on the streets of SF.  Where do they go?  I don't know for sure, but my guess is that many of these people get food from some sort of community kitchen.  If these are shut down because everyone is ordered to stay home, what do the homeless do?  They can't go to churches; those have been closed.  They can't go to schools or community buildings; those also have been closed. 

It's important to remember that SF is the epicenter of "progressive" thought.  Nevertheless, these same people who always claim to care for the downtrodden are quick to abandon tens of thousands of homeless to starvation at the first sign of trouble.

This is unacceptable.

The Democrat Debate

I wonder how many people watched Biden and Sanders debate last night.  It seemed like a waste of time to watch.  I certainly didn't.  In the midst of the corona virus the last thing I needed was something to bring me down further.  This morning, I read the coverage of the debate.  Sounds like I made the correct choice.

The consensus in the media is that Biden won because he seemed rested and strong.  The evidence for that conclusion is that Biden got through the debate without making any major gaffes.  I'm not making that up; no MAJOR gaffes qualifies Old Joe for a victory.  But here are some things Biden said last night.

1.  He committed to ending the use of fracking in the USA.  That will destroy the US oil and gas industries.  Right now, those industries in the USA are being hurt as Saudi Arabia and Russia are fighting for control of the world oil industry.  Fortunately, America is no longer at the mercy of the country that wins that battle.  We are energy independent.  Biden (and Sanders too) want to throw away that energy independence and return to the good old days of gas shortages and price gouging.  One study estimated that the end of fracking would eventually cost the USA over 14 million jobs.  Just think how many people those jobs support.  In the midst of the current economic storm, Biden is still pushing for a program that would raise unemployment to levels last reached in the great recession in 2009 under Obama/Biden.

2.  Biden committed to naming a woman as his vice presidential candidate.  That's sad.  He should have committed to naming the best person for the job.  Then if he picked a woman, she wouldn't be seen as an affirmative action candidate, you know, the one who wasn't the best but who got the job based on her sex.

3.  Biden had nothing interesting to say about the corona virus -- at least nothing interesting that was reported.

For what it is worth, the consensus on Bernie is that he performed exactly the way he usually does.  He was a one track mind on Medicare for All.  He criticized the drug companies for being happy at all the profit opportunities the corona virus was bringing.  Of course, he had no proof for that charge; it was just more of Sanders' typical anti-capitalist braying.  According to the media, Sanders didn't land a glove on Biden.  No surprise there; Sanders never did that with Clinton last time either.  It's not who he is.

So Is China Lying?

The number of cases of corona virus illness in China has stopped growing.  China says that there have been 80,995 people infected.  That only 100 more than 4 days ago.  By contrast, in Italy there are 21,157 cases.  Four days ago there were 12,500 cases.  In Iran the official figures are 12,700 cases now and 9000 four days ago.  In France, it was 2285 four days ago and 4480 today.  The USA's figures are 1280 cases four days ago and 2952 now.  In South Korea the figures were 7765 cases four days ago and 8086 today.  What explains the stopping of the disease in China and the dramatic slowing in Korea?

There are some possibilities. 

1.  Maybe China is not being honest.  Nothing would please the Chinese government more than to be able to point to its "great success" in stopping the disease even if that didn't happen.  But then there's that dramatic slowdown in South Korea as well.  We can rely on the general accuracy of the Korean figures, so it may be that drastic public health measures in that country are working.

2.  Maybe the enforced quarantines in major cities in China have stopped the disease spread.  There are stories that the hospitals put up to house just victims of this disease are closing due to lack of patients.  Maybe it really has stopped spreading due to lack of contact.

The big jumps in places like Italy or the USA are not surprising at this point.  Many of those infected in the USA caught the disease from people who had no idea they were sick in areas where no cases had appeared.  That type of spread is going to take a while to work its way through the population.  The "social distancing" now moving into place will stop new cases that would be appearing in a week or two, not now. 

Korea was hit early by the virus.  It has had counter measures in place for weeks now.  They seem to be working.  That's good news for the world.

Mass Hysteria

I just watched a video on Twitter in which two women were punching each other.  One woman had a shopping cart in which she had 15 large packages of toilet paper.  They looked like 24 rolls each.  The pile was very high above the cart.  The second woman wanted to buy one package but none were left on the shelves.  They were screaming and throwing punches.  Then the store manager came over and threw them out of the store.

This is proof that the virus has caused people to totally go nuts.  What would you do with 360 rolls of toilet paper anyway?  And why would people throw punches over such stuff?  

Doing Not Talking

I just watched the press conference held at the White House at which the President, among other things, announce that he is declaring a national emergency regarding the corona virus.  In a little over a half an hour, President Trump explained what the emergency declaration will allow:  namely, the removal of all sorts of regulations and requirements that have been hindering the response to the virus.  For example, doctors from one state will be able to see patients in another state where the needs are greater despite not being licensed in that second state.  All manner of treatment requirements in hospitals will also be waived so that the facilities can do what they need to do to treat the patients.  The President and the assembled group also outlined an amazing plan for nationwide drive through testing to be located in parking lots at Walgreens, Walmart, Target and CVS locations.  This system will go into effect starting on Sunday and ramp up from there.  There was also much other information and discussion of further steps that are being taken to confront the virus.

The amazing thing about this press conference is that, unlike so much else that comes from Washington, it was an outline of actual things that are being done.  It wasn't a discussion of what could happen.  It wasn't a discussion of plans for the future.  Actual concrete steps were listed.

For many years this nation had a leadership in Washington that moved more and more towards words rather than deeds.  Remember the mantra "words have consequences"?  Leaders like president Obama came to believe that this was true.  For them words were as important and deeds, but that is nonsense.  We are lucky to have a president right now who understands what it means to accomplish things. 

There are going to be more downs in the up and down fight against the virus.  Still, today's press conference was one of the biggest "ups" I've seen come from Washington in decades.

A Good Question

I saw a post at  PowerLine by Steve Hayward about the run on toilet paper at stores in connection with the coronavirus in which he asks a good question:  what does toilet paper have to do with the virus?  There's no obvious answer.  Still, it must be something because the tales of toilet paper disappearing off the shelves has been ongoing for about two weeks now.  People are buying cases of it.  They're also buying bottled water, again cases and cases of it.  Why?  Don't they have water in their homes?  Do they travel with the water so that they can wash their hands every 5 minutes?

Some people are buying medical supplies like thermometers or cold remedies.  Others are buying disinfecting or protective items like masks (which don't work with this virus by the way) or wipes.  These items at least make some sense.  One doesn't need a dozen thermometers, though.  What's the point?

Panic makes people do strange things.

Jen O'Malley Dillon is 2020's Paul Manafort

Joe Biden just announced that he was switching campaign managers.  He named Jen O'Malley Dillon as the new head of the Biden 2020.  For those of you who don't remember hearing of Dillon in the past, she was already the campaign manager of another presidential campaign, that of Beto O'Rourke in 2019.

Think about that.  Biden now seems to have the Dem nomination sewn up.  He's ahead and the states coming up favor him over Sanders in a big way.  So what does Biden do?  He dumps the campaign manager who got him here.  That's fine.  Trump did the same after winning the nomination in 2016.  Trump dropped Lewandowski and replaced him with Manafort who stayed in place through the convention.  Manafort had extensive experience in handling Republican conventions for presidential campaigns while Lewandowski did not.

Still, one has to wonder why Biden would pick someone to lead his campaign who ran the O'Rourke clown show.  O'Rourke stepped into the campaign amid a blitz of highly favorable publicity.  He and his campaign managed to fritter away whatever good will had been accumulated and to move down the trail to oblivion.  Biden's new campaign manager led the way there.

What the hell is Biden thinking?

Corona Crazies

As the nation seems to panic before our eyes, the coronavirus is pretty much where it was the prior day except for in Iran.  In the last 24 hours according to the database maintained by Johns Hopkins, there have been about 2000 new cases worldwide.  That's less than in previous days.  There are also about 100 more deaths worldwide.  More than half of the new cases and three-quarters of the new deaths have come in Iran.  We don't know exactly what is happening in Iran, but reports say that the Islamic republic is not doing much at all to combat the spread of the virus.  There are even reports that the Ayatollah called the virus a blessing.  We really don't know, though, what is true.

Panic and phony stories abound.  Today, I was in a deli at lunch to take out some food.  A woman was telling the deli owner that she had heard that the schools in our town were going to close tomorrow for two weeks because there are 19 students from the high school in the local hospital with coronavirus.  Being incurably nosy, I told her that her information was wrong.  I told her that according to the figures released by the CDC there were only three cases of the virus in Connecticut and that none were in our town.  Then I told her that the virus wouldn't put children into the hospital since it didn't affect kids in a serious way.  She told me that she was sure she was correct since her sister had told her the news.  I left it there since I didn't want to cause a scene.  Still, the idea that an average middle aged woman would believe that there were 19 cases of kids in the hospital when there were really none says a great deal about the level of panic affecting our country.

The markets today tanked in a way that hasn't been seen in many decades.  Organizations like the NHL and the NBA are cancelling their entire business for the foreseeable future.  People are being severely affected.  For example, I know a man who drives an airport limousine every day.  He was told this morning that with the air travel cutbacks due to the disease, he would have no work going forward.  People who work in theaters, restaurants, convention halls, hotels, airlines and many other places are going to pay a major price for the panic.  Hopefully, it will just last a month at most, but there's no way to tell if that will be the case.  The worst thing is that we are doing this to ourselves.

A decade ago, we had the swine flu epidemic.  In the 2009 swine flu pandemic, there were between 700 million and 1.4 billion cases worldwide.  That's right approximately a billion people got the disease.  There were an estimated 150,000 - 575,000 dead worldwide from the disease.  That's a lower mortality rate than from the current corona virus, but it is an immense number nevertheless.  We had something like 20,000 dead in the USA alone.  Do you remember when the NBA and NHL cancelled their seasons due to the swine flu?  Do you recall the stock markets crashing as all travel related companies melted down?  Do you remember non-stop coverage of what President Obama did to fight the swine flu?  Of course not, since it didn't happen.  Obama did basically nothing.  Life went on and the disease spread across the USA since there was -- like now -- no good way to actually stop the spread.  We just didn't let the disease stop us from our daily activities.

The real question we need to ask ourselves is will there be anyone who will avoid death at the hands of the coronavirus as a result of the current panic?  I doubt it.  Everyone needs to move away from panic.  It is not needed and not helpful.

UPDATE:  The governor of CT just announced that there are 6 cases of the virus in CT.  One is a child in another district in Fairfield county -- but not in my town.  That's it.  Six cases; no deaths.  Indeed, no serious cases yet.  So what is the reaction here in Fairfield County?  Every school district has closed all the schools for the rest of this week and all of next.  One child is sick in Stratford and the whole county goes down.  It's public health hysteria run amok.

The Need Not To Panic

I'm watching the market go limit down in the first five minutes against today.  We are stopped for a "circuit breaker" pause.  There is total panic.  It's really something terrible to see.  But it is pretty crazy for so many people to be in full panic mode.  The virus will pass.  Things will get better, and once that improvement starts, it will be extremely rapid. 

People need to calm down.  Panic will only cause destruction.

The Corona Virus as of NOW

Johns Hopkins keeps track of the statistics regarding coronavirus worldwide.

As of tonight, there are 125,891 confirmed cases around the world.  We know that there are actually more because many people infected have symptoms so mild that they don't even suspect that they have the virus.

There have been 4616 people who have died from the virus worldwide.

China remains the main center of the disease accounting for roughly 81,000 cases and over 3200 deaths.

Second is Italy where there have been about 12,500 cases and 827 deaths.

Third is Iran with 9000 cases and 354 dead

South Korea has 7765 cases with 60 deaad.

France has 2285 cases and 48 dead.

Germany has 1966 cases but only 3 dead.

Spain has 2257 cases and 55 dead.

The USA has 1280 cases and 36 dead.  Two thirds of the dead come from one nursing home in Washington near Seattle where the virus unfortunately got spread through the facility and killed many very frail elderly people.

Around the world 68,000 people have been declared cured of the virus.

These numbers are important.  Sadly, there is serious doubt whether the Chinese and Iranians have told the truth about the numbers of sick and dead, and we have no easy way to check these.

One thing we do know for certain.  People who get the disease are contagious before they show symptoms.  This means that the virus is going to continue to spread.  People who are unaware of being infected will spread it.

We also know that the virus doesn't attack the young in a serious way.  There are essentially no deaths for people under 30 and very few only for those under 50.  Basically, the disease is truly dangerous only for those over 80 or with underlying medical problems like diabetes and asthma.  It is a serious threat but not nearly as bad for those over 60.  Even for those over 80, however, roughly 85% of those contracting the disease will survive.

There's so much phony information going around that it is important to know the actual numbers so that they can be put into proper perspective.

So Now It's Biden -- So What?

The storm is essentially over.  Joe Biden has won the Democrat nomination.  Sure, Sanders can keep going, but for what reason?  The next batch of states is going to be good for Biden.  Pretty soon, Old Joe will have a lead that even Sanders has to recognize will mean a sure first ballot win for Biden.

The other day, I wrote about what this will mean in November.  Will Americans actually pick someone clearly suffering from declining mental abilities to lead them?  I don't think so.  To me the more interesting issue is how could the Democrats come to this?

There were almost 30 candidates.  It was as if the Volkswagen Beetle drove up and all thirty got out dressed as clowns.  The campaign went on for more than a year, and in all that time we heard nothing new, nothing to inspire America to move towards the future with hope, nothing worth repeating.  Let me be clear.  I don't mean that no one presented any plans.  Just Elizabeth Warren by herself presented plenty of plans.  I mean not one of these candidates came forward with plans that could actually have a hope of working to improve the lot of the average American.  These were all candidates who focused on anger.  There are billionaires out there; let's punish them.  There are people with good private insurance; let's take it away from them.  There is a rebirth of jobs in the energy industry; let's destroy them.  No matter what the subject that the Dems addressed, there were always big losers resulting from what they had to say.  Sure, they hate the President.  They're still angry that Hillary lost.  But anger and striking out at the "bad" people doesn't win elections.  There has to be a positive vision, not just a negative one. 

Indeed, in many respects, Joe Biden won because he didn't really enumerate a negative plan.  That was because Biden is campaigning on Obama nostalgia and nothing much else that could be described as coherent.  Ask yourself; what is Biden's plan for the economy.  What specifically does he want to do?  If you can answer that; then it must have come to you in a dream because Biden surely didn't tell us.  He's too confused.  What's Biden's plan for healthcare?  The other day he said he wants to raise premiums for those paying under $400 per month and also to put back the individual mandate that fines people who don't have insurance.  We know that can't be his plan.  You can't cut the cost of healthcare by increasing the premiums on those who are subsidized now.  So what did Biden actually mean?  We don't know, but worse, we suspect Biden doesn't know either.  Still, since Biden didn't focus on anger, he was "safe".  He beat the avatar of anger and envy, Bernie Sanders.

I refuse to believe that a decent candidate who was positive could not have won the Democrat primary race.  There just were none who came forward.  It's a true tragedy for the country.

Looks Like It's Over

Tomorrow there will be another bunch of primaries for the Democrats.  If the latest polls are to be believed, it will be a blow out night for Biden and a death knell for Sanders.  The key, of course, is whether the polls will actually be correct.

I know that the Dems have "coalesced" around Biden.  The establishment of the Dem party seems to have managed to stop Sanders.  The question that still puzzles me is the quite simple one-word one:  Why?  Do the Dems really think that Biden can win?  Do they really want a guy who is obviously down the road to senility to be our president?  Is it so important to the establishment to keep control of the Democrats that they are willing to risk inflicting Biden on the USA?

I truly do not understand this.  They could have gotten behind Bloomberg and had an uninteresting billionaire, but someone who arguably could handle the presidency.  They could have chosen Pete Buttigieg and gotten someone who could speak well, whether or not he had any competence.  With Biden, you get neither.  They could have backed Amy Klobuchar who also is well spoken and might make a feasible president.  So why choose the one guy who can't speak for six minutes without screwing up?

Americans are not dumb.  They recognize that Biden does things that no normal presidential candidate would do.  He confuses his wife and his sister.  He can't remember that the election is Super Tuesday rather than Super Thursday.  He can't remember that he is running for president rather than the Senate.  He can't remember what state he is in.  He can't even remember the most well known words of the Declaration of Independence when they are written on a teleprompter right in front of him.  That ignores things like his inability to keep straight whether or not China is a competitor of the USA.  And that also ignores the other problems Biden presents like a family that seems second only to the Clintons in wholesale corruption.  Why are the Dems backing Biden?

There is still a long time until the election.  President Trump still has to navigate the ship of state through this coronavirus mess.  Right now, at what is likely the height of the panic over the disease, Trump could stumble and damage his support across the country.  Many other things could happen between now and November that could alter the outcome.  Still, the best thing that Trump will have going for himself is that he isn't Biden.  No rational person could actually select Biden to be president.

So, someone has to tell me why the Dems have chosen Biden.

Does Hunter Coordinate With His Dad?

It's been just over a week since Old Joe Biden came back from the political dead to become the supposed front runner for the Democrats nomination.  So what happened at almost the same moment?  If you guessed that Hunter Biden made it back to the news for another mess that he could have avoided, you would be right.  According to news reports, Hunter Biden failed to file information that a court in Arkansas had order him to disclose to the mother of his latest child.  The mother, of course, is a stripper whose child Hunter fathered.  At first, Hunter denied even knowing the mother, but after DNA testing showed that he was the father, he admitted that the child is his.  Then Hunter claimed he was broke and couldn't pay child support for his own child.  Then it became public that Hunter owns a mansion in California worth at least 2.5 million dollars and that he has made many millions in the last few years -- even beyond the millions that Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma paid him for doing nothing.  To get to the bottom of what Hunter's true assets and income are, the court ordered him to file a disclosure statement and unredacted copies of his tax returns for the last few years.  Biden didn't comply but the judge gave him and extension.  Now that extension has run out.  And, of course, Hunter has once again failed to comply with the court order.

It's important to understand that there is nothing difficult about Hunter Biden complying with this order.  All he needs to know is what was on his tax returns for the last three years and what his current assets and liabilities are.  In other words, what does he own and what does he owe.  Pretty much  anyone could do this rather quickly unless they had very complicated holdings in things like real estate or small businesses.  Biden says he has nothing, so it can't take long to summarize that.  Of course, the problem is that the summary would have to be submitted under oath.

The mother of the child said over the weekend that she will now seek to have the court hold Hunter in contempt. (Again, probably 50% of America already holds Hunter in contempt so it isn't a big deal to imagine the court doing it.)

Joe Biden had managed with his wins on Super Tuesday to push the Hunter Biden story into the background.  Now here's Hunter pushing it back forward.  What a jerk.  Every time something good happens for Joe, Hunter comes along to screw it up.  Do you think they coordinate?

Once Again, The DNC Rigs the System

The other day, former chair of the DNC Donna Brazile pretended to be outraged that the chair of the Republican party had said that the Dems were rigging the primary system once again.  Brazile was speaking on Fox News (where she is a contributor) and told McDaniel (the RNC chair) to "go to hell" and screamed that the DNC had never rigged the system and she wouldn't stand by an let the Republicans lie about it.  It was both bizarre and particularly funny since Brazile is the person who in 2016 slipped Hillary Clinton and advance copy of questions for her debate against Bernie Sanders on CNN.  Brazile, herself, had rigged the game in 2016 but now she was outraged in her denial.

In 2020, though, there's no question that the system keeps being rigged by the DNC.  The latest came when the DNC changed the rules for who could be in the next debates.  Until the latest change, all a candidate needed to make the debates was to have won a delegate to the convention.  Under that rule (which has been in place for more than a year), Tulsi Gabbard should be in the next debate.  But the DNC was not going to allow that.  The debate had to be between Biden and Sanders.  The idea of a young energetic woman on the stage with the elderly candidates might not make the Sunshine Boys look too good.  So the DNC changed the rules and got Gabbard off the debate stage.  Under the new rules, a candidate needs to have 20% of the delegates to get on the stage.

Look, Gabbard has no chance to be the nominee.  We all know that.  But fair is fair and the rules are the rules.  Why should the Democrat establishment be able to change the rules in the middle of the process just to favor their favorite codger?

No amount of screaming by liar Donna Brazile is going to alter the truth.  The DNC is back to rigging the primary system once again.  It sucks.

New Tag Line for Biden

I just saw on the internet that in his next round of TV ads, Joe Biden is going to end with the statement, "I'm Joe Biden and I forget this messeage."

What A Difference A Week Makes

How do the Democrats keep things straight.  A week ago there were eight candidates.  Five dropped out and now there are two plus Tulsi Gabbard who the DNC just blocked from being in the next debate after she met the rules and qualified.  One of the two is Joe Biden who a week ago was just broke and just about dead in the primaries.  The other is Bernie Sanders who was an unstoppable force who was taking down the Democrats but now is a previously unstoppable force who is now just an elderly crank according to much of the Democrat media.

It's worth making a list of some of the eternal truths of a week ago that are no longer true.

One week ago                                                                Today

1. Biden called a woman a "lying dog faced                  1.  Shh....
pony soldier.

2.  Biden's son Hunter was the poster boy for               2.  Shh.....
corruption by those with connections

3.  Elizabeth Warren proclaimed she was in it until      3.  Warren is a victim
                                                                                             because she's a woman.
the convention no matter what.

4.  The Democrats celebrate diversity                            4.  The Democrats idea of
                                                                                             diversity is that one
                                                                                             candidate is an old
                                                                                            white guy millionaire who
                                                                                            is 77 while the other is
                                                                                            an old white guy millionaire
                                                                                            who is only 78



The list could go on, but the point is that we are in completely new territory for the Democrats.  The basic story of the party changed but the media and the Dems won't admit it.  The rest of us remember, however.  It has been quite a week.

Biden Blows It Big Time -- So What Else Is New?

Joe Biden decided it was time to address health care so he could contrast himself to Bernie Sanders' Medicare for All plan.  Biden gave a speech in which he announced that his plan would include reinstating the Individual Mandate, raising health insurance premiums for those paying less than $400 per month and some other things.  Biden wasn't answering a question, so it seems unlikely that he slipped up.  Still, these points seem really bizarre items to push.

Let's start with the individual mandate.  That's the part of Obamacare that made it a requirement for every American to have health insurance or else to pay a fine that today would be around $2000.  The individual mandate was the single most unpopular part of Obamacare according to polls on the subject.  President Trump and the Republicans repealed the individual mandate as part of the Republican tax cut legislation in 2017.  There is essentially no one who has missed it.  Indeed, when the mandate was originally passed, the Democrats said that the mandate was needed in order to make insurance more widespread and to bring down premiums.  The repeal of the mandate, however, has not led to a decline in the number of people with insurance or to a rise in premiums.  In other words, the mandate didn't do what Obama/Biden said it should, but Old Joe wants to bring it back anyway.

Biden also said he wants to raise premiums for those currently paying less than $400 per month.  So Biden's method for making healthcare more affordable is to raise the cost of insurance?  I can't believe he meant to say that, but with Biden you never know.

Biden has only pulled ahead of Sanders in the last week.  Now he appears to be trying to fall behind again.  A few more speeches like the one today on healthcare and he may achieve his goal.

The Atlantic Figures It Out -- Democrats Penalized Warren For Her Competence

There are delusions, there are also big DELUSIONS and then there are the sort of delusions that can only be pushed by a true believer leftist who just "knows" the truth.  This last type is on display in The Atlantic in an article that "explains" why senator Warren was unsuccessful in her bid for the Democrat nomination for president.  According to the article, she was just too damn competent.  Primary voters couldn't stand seeing a woman who so clearly knew what she was doing.

This has to be the funniest explanation for failure in many years; Warren was too successful and smart to succeed with the Democrat voters.  I guess the obvious corollary is that Democrat voters stick with failure; that must be why Biden has done well of late.

Here's a quote about Warren from the article:   

When I hear her talk, I want to slap her, even when I agree with her.”

To me that sounds like a comment on Warren's personality, not her competence, but what do I know.  I'm not a Democrat primary voter.

For the last four years, we've heard from the Democrats and much of the media that the people who support the Republicans and the President are rubes, anti-intellectual, and deplorables who don't have the education or intelligence to understand why non-existent or failed Democrat policies are just better than successful Republican ones.  The left just "knew" it was better than the rest of us.  Now we're hearing that the Democrats are also rubes, anti-intellectual morons who can't stand the idea of a competent candidate actually being president.  The strident left is sure it is superior and it "knows" that because everyone else -- Democrat or Republican -- is human garbage who can't stand a competent candidate.

Now that is truly the mother of all delusions.

Now This Makes Sense

In the next two weeks, roughly another quarter of the delegates to the Democrat convention will be chosen.  The biggest prize during this time is Florida which by itself accounts for about 6% of the total number of delegates.  Florida is also a big, big problem for Bernie Sanders.

Joe Biden has held the lead in Florida through most of the polling for the last year.  About three weeks ago, Biden was ahead by 9%.  Then two things happened.  First, Bernie Sanders praised the "good" things that Fidel Castro did in Cuba like running an adult literacy program while he was imprisoning or executing tens of thousands.  That's about the dumbest political move one can make in Florida which is home to an enormous Cuban community.  Bernie was given chances by the media to "clarify" his comments, but he repeated them three times.  Bernie really has admiration for Castro and his regime in Cuba.  Since those statements were made, Sanders has lost about a quarter of his support in Florida.

The second thing that happened is, of course, that all the other candidates dropped out aside from Biden.  According to the polls, none of that support went to Sanders.  To be fair, Warren just dropped out today, so we don't know for certain where her voters will go, but it doesn't much matter.  Biden is now ahead by 47% in a poll released today.  Sanders doesn't even get the minimum of 15% he needs to get statewide delegates.  Biden could get over 95% of the delegates from Florida.  That would give Biden an insurmountable lead in the nomination race.

Making it Official

Elizabeth Warren has made it official.  She is suspending her presidential campaign.  The move was inevitable after she got almost no delegates out of the 1200 picked on Tuesday.  Warren had no chance left for the nomination.  She was just going to continue to embarrass herself if she had stayed in the race.

I'm sorry to see her go.  I would have like to have seen Warren stay in.  There would be a certain joy to watch her come in third in state after state after state.  Warren deserves the total rejection of the Democrat party.

Remember, despite her phony Indian identity, Warren had pulled ahead in all the polls last fall.  Then she managed single-handedly to destroy her own credibility.  She came forward with a very detailed plan for Medicare for All.  When it got a lot of criticism, Warren just retreated.  She announced that the plan wouldn't go into effect for four years.  Then she pulled back further and said it was just a model for the future.  American saw that this was a woman who hadn't thought through her own plan.  She just took a political stab and then ran away when her mistake was uncovered.

Still, all things considered, it will be nice not to have to see or hear from Warren after today. 

Where is This Going?

Will Joe Biden really be the Democrats' nominee?  Cam that really happen?  It's amazing.

1.  Biden has obviously lost it.  In just the last two months Biden has
     a.  forgotten what state he was in;
     b.  introduced his wife as his sister;
     c.  told a crowd he was running for the Senate rather than the presidency;
     d.  forgotten Barack Obama's name;
     e.  quoted the most famous line of the Declaration of Independence only to forget it mid-quote.

2.  Biden has obviously incorrect views on many points.
     a.  He has repeatedly said that China is not a real economic competitor for the USA.  He has also said that China is a real competitor.
     b.  Biden said that he would sacrifice a huge number of American jobs in order to fight climate change.  Of course, the jobs he would sacrifice wouldn't be his own.
     c.  Biden says that he would raise taxes in a major way.  He hasn't said what he would do with the new money or how he would deal with the economic slowdown that would result from the tax increase.
     d.  Biden wants to ban fracking and any drilling for oil or gas on federal land.  This would raise prices for home heating, gasoline, electricity, and chemicals and plastics.  It would also once again force the USA to rely on countries in the Middle East for our energy needs.  Oh, and it wouldn't help combat climate change even to a minor extent.
   
3.  Even forgetting his current decline, Biden has been wrong on basically every major foreign policy issue of the last 40 years.

I can't believe the Democrats are choosing Biden.  I know they have no one else, but I still just don't believe it.  What will they say when Biden disintegrates during the rest of the campaign?

What is Taking So Long?

The Democrats are at it again.  Just as was the case in Iowa, they can't seem to finish counting the votes from Super Tuesday.  About a quarter of the delegates being awarded by the Super Tuesday states are still not determined.  Just in California there are 145 undetermined delegates two days after the vote.  Remember, this was a primary.  There were no crazy rules like some of the caucuses where people had to vote for first and second and even third places.  The three states with the biggest undetermined number of delegates are California, Texas and Colorado.  California and Colorado went strongly to Bernie Sanders.  Texas was extremely close between Sanders and Biden.  If those numbers hold up in the final tallies, Bernie may well pick up enough delegates to move back ahead of Biden in the totals.  That's not, however, the story that the media is telling.  In the mainstream media, Biden has moved out ahead and may "finish off" Bernie in Michigan in the next primary.  Of course, the same people who have Biden finishing off Sanders also had Biden out of the race just ten days ago.

The Warren Piece

The news just broke that Elizabeth Warren's campaign is "consulting" with the Sanders campaign to see how they can "work together".

Translation:  Elizabeth Warren doesn't want to give up despite getting trounced worse than Mike Bloomberg in yesterday's voting.  Warren is holding out for a promise from Bernie that she can be his running mate or at least Secretary of State or the equivalent before she suspends her campaign and endorses Bernie.

Warren didn't win even one contest (Bloomberg won American Samoa).  Warren came in third, THIRD!!!, in her own state of Massachusetts.  She was fourth out of four in ten states and third in four (including Massachusetts).  Warren is a terrible campaigner and has been ever since the days when she barely squeaked into office against a Republican opponent in Massachusetts.  Think how bad a candidate has to be to lose as a Democrat in MA.

It will help Sanders if Warren drops out and endorses him.  It will doom his run for the presidency if he names her his VP candidate.  Bernie is already angry; he has the angry vote sewn up.  What good does it do him to add an angry woman to the ticket, especially one who makes clear to everyone that she thinks she is always the smartest person in any room.

Maybe Warren would like to be the ambassador to Peru.  Yeh, Bernie can give her that.  Problem solved.

Unrivaled Idiocy At Work -- Fracking Edition

I just got an "update" report from my state representative, a guy named Stephen Meskers.  It was only two pages long, but those two pages were crammed with things that make clear why it is that Connecticut is in trouble.

Meskers started by pointing to his wonderful environmental record.  He proudly announced that he supported a bill that banned "fracking" in the state.  Fracking is a process that enables the extraction of oil and natural gas from shale.  Its introduction across America has led this country to regaining the position of the world's biggest producer of oil and gas.  We are no longer dependent on middle eastern countries to supply us.  We are a net exporter.

It's important to understand that there are absolutely no oil or gas deposits of any sort in Connecticut.  The bill Meskers mentions is nothing but virtue signaling by the CT Democrats.  Supposedly, stopping fracking will stop climate change (although that makes no sense.)

But consider what the introduction of fracking has done.

1.  It has created over 1 million jobs across America.
2.  It has moved the price of natural gas down from more than $5 to less than $2.  If, like most of us, you heat your house with natural gas, just think what you saved this winter due to the lower price for natural gas.  Since most electric plants now also use the abundant natural gas, just think how much your electric bill is lower due to fracking.
3.  Fracking has also greatly lowered gasoline prices.  How much more would you spend at the gas pump if fracking were actually banned nationwide?

And now let's consider global warming.  The Democrats don't call for the ban on the importation of gas or oil.  Cars would still burn gasoline for the most part.  Homes heated with natural gas would just use imported gas.  Well guess what?  Whatever emissions come from burning oil or gas don't change when the oil and gas are imported.

So, banning fracking does no good, but it does major harm to the average American.  Why is this moron Meskers so proud of his position?  It is unrivaled idiocy at work.

Disbar Chuck Schumer - 2

Following up on my prior post (Disbar Chuck Schumer), I want to explain what Schumer was talking about when he threatened violence against two Supreme Court justices if they voted the wrong way on a pending case.  Since I first posted about this, I received multiple inquiries asking what Schumer was talking about.

The media paints the case pending before the Court as being about "a woman's right to choose."  It isn't.  What is being considered is a Louisiana statute that requires doctors who are performing an abortion someplace other than in a hospital to have admitting privileges at a hospital located within thirty miles from where the procedure is being done.  In that way, if something goes wrong during the procedure, the woman can be brought immediately to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment.

Think about that.

A woman in LA could go to a hospital for an abortion.  She could go to a clinic where the doctors have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.  This does not bar abortions; it simply makes them safer for the mother.

The truth is that Schumer's attack is just part of the abortion hysteria unleashed on this country.  Any limitation of any sort put on abortion is treated as if it is the end of the world by these crazy fanatics.  And that makes Schumer's comments worse.  He knows that a woman's right to choose is NOT the issue, but it doesn't matter to him.  Instead he stirs up anger and hysteria in the crowd and threatens the court.

Schumer needs to go.  The Senate should expel him.

Disbar Chuck Schumer

Senator Chuck Schumer is a lawyer.  This afternoon, he threatened two Supreme Court Justices by name with violence if they rule the "wrong way" on the abortion case that was argued today before SCOTUS.  Schumer said,

“I want to tell you Gorsuch. I want to tell you Kavanugh. You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price! You won't know what hit you"


Schumer should be disbarred.  His law license should be removed.  It is completely unacceptable to threaten a judge in this way.  It may be a crime, but I'll leave it to others to discuss that.  It may be the basis for Schumer to be expelled from the Senate, but again, that is for others to determine.  And given that Schumer is the leader of the Senate Dems, it is highly unlikely that the Senate would ever be able to act against him.  There is no doubt, however, that what Schumer said and did today is a major breach of his obligations as a lawyer.

I know that the New York legal authorities won't disbar Schumer.  That doesn't provide a justification for this, however.  Schumer just hit a new low for him, and that means it's really, really low.

UPDATE:  Since Schumer issued his threats against the justices, Chief Justice Roberts released a statement calling Schumer's remarks "inappropriate and dangerous".  Good.  the Chief Justice ought to step forward when a political thug like Schumer starts threatening federal judges of any level.  Schumer can criticize any judge.  He can criticize any decision.  That's his right.  He cannot, however, threaten the judges with violence if they don't rule the way he wants.