More Lies Is the Answer From The Dems

 It seems clear that the Democrats have decided that their way to regain support after Biden's poll numbers have been crashing is seven words:  Lie, Lie, Lie, Lie, Lie, Lie and Lie.

So far today, Joe Biden gave a speech in which he denounced the Trump plan to cut back Social Security by 2023.  The problem, of course, is that there is no such plan.  Indeed, Trump has promised repeatedly (as he also did in 2016) that he would protect Social Security from any cuts.  Biden is just making it up.  Now it is true that for many decades, the Democrats used to trot out this same lie to use against Republicans, but that stopped around 20 years ago, because no one believed the lie anymore.  Maybe Biden said this because he is still stuck in the past.  Still, in his first foray outside the bunker in many months, one would think that Biden would have more to say than just repeating old obvious lies.

Also today, we got a whopper from Cole Leiter who is Communications Director for the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee.  Leiter, remember, is the guy in charge of communications for all Democrats in Congress.  In any event, Leiter decided to comment on something that the White House Press Secretary said about events in Kenosha.  Leiter said this:

"Not only did Republicans vote overwhelmingly against bipartisan police reform, but they are fueling violence from the White House."

Think about that.  Republicans voted overwhelmingly against bipartisan police reform according to this Democrat in charge of communications.  Of course, the problem is that the Senate never actually got to vote on police reform bills because the Democrats blocked consideration of those bills.  In June, the Senate Republicans tried to bring up bills on police reform under a rule that would have let any senator propose amendments to the measure under consideration.  In other words, any proposal by either a Democrat or a Republican would have been considered.  Democrats objected to taking up that bill.  As a result 60 votes were needed to proceed to considering police reform.  Every Democrat in the Senate voted against considering the police reform bills.  That means not only did Republicans NOT vote against bipartisan police reform, but that it was Democrats who voted unanimously against considering police reform.

Lies don't get much bigger than this one.

It's hard to believe that the best Democrats have is a pack of lies.  How can a party with nothing to offer but lies and violence in the streets hope to govern effectively?

Storm Troopers in Oregon

 Want to look into what really comprises Antifa?  Let's review the guy who is under arrest for killing an unarmed member of a prayer group (and a Trump supporter) during the most recent riot in Portland.

Michael Forest Reinoehl is a 48 year old white male who was identified by his estranged sister to police when she saw the videos and screen shots of the event.  Here's what this guy said about himself on Facebook earlier this summer:

"“I am 100 % ANTIFA all the way! I am willing to fight for my brothers and sisters!” 

“It will be a war and like all wars there will be casualties.” 

It's worth noting that on July 5, Reinoehl was arrested in Portland for carrying a loaded gun in a public place, resisting arrest and interfering with police.  He was released without bail.  Then the charges were dropped by the local prosecutor's office.  When asked, that prosecutor's office had no explanation why the charges were dropped.  Of course, the charges against essentially all of the Antifa thugs were dropped by the prosecutor's office along with the charges against looters, arsonists and others who participated in the Portland riots.  So thanks to the local Democrat prosecutor in Portland, Reinoehl was back on the street where he could allegedly kill another human being in the name of Antifa.

Keep this in mind the next time you hear Biden or some other Democrat try to say they condemn violence.  

More Good News on Corona Virus

 Despite the never ending hysteria pumped out by the media, there's a lot of really good news about COVID 19 in the USA.

First, the number of deaths across the nation fell to 429 yesterday.  That's the lowest level in about two months.  We are back at roughly the lows experienced before the second wave of infections that hit America in early summer.

Second, the number of new cases yesterday was around 35,000.  That is the lowest level since mid-June.

Third, the death rate from new cases of the virus continues to be much lower than it was during the early days of the pandemic.  In April/May, when we were running at about 35,000 new cases per day, there were days as high as 2700 deaths.  Now, after America hit a high of 70,000 new cases per day about a month ago, we have less than 20% the number of deaths in April/May.  There are a few reasons why the deaths from the virus have declined to such a great extent.  Here are the top three:

    a.  In April/May, there were states -- particularly NY -- that were putting infected patients back into nursing homes.  That spread the disease quickly to extremely vulnerable populations and led to thousands of deaths.  Estimates are that there were 11,000 deaths in NY alone due to this.

     b.  Testing has expanded enormously.  As a result, many of the new cases found are ones that would never have been diagnosed in April/May.  People with asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic COVID infections weren't even tested in April.  Most likely, the death rate hasn't declined so much as the number of actual cases discovered through testing has increased.  When we only found the virus in the more severe cases, the death rate per new case was obviously higher.

     c.  There are therapeutic treatments that are more effective than was the case in April/May.  For example, because of better treatments, the percentage of those hospitalized who end up in the ICU has declined greatly from April/May.  Further, the percentage of those in the ICU who end up on ventilators has likewise declined greatly.  Both of these are indicators of more efficacious treatments.

The pandemic has not ended, that is for certain.  The situation in America, however, is much better than one would believe from the hysterical reporting in the media.  For example, right now in Connecticut, there are under 50 people in the hospital statewide due to the virus.  The majority of these patients have been in the hospital for weeks and are on ventilators.  New cases compared to tests given are running at less than 1%.  The virus is still here, but it is extremely close to being totally gone from the state.  In NY, the numbers are proportionally even better than those in CT. 

Democrat Collapse After Biden Hides and They Ignore Riots, Arson and Street Crimes

 In Las Vegas and also in Britain, the bookies will take bets on the presidential election.  These are not like the bogus polls in the mainstream media; there is real money involved with these bets, so the odds makers analyze the status of the election very closely.  The odds also reflect to a certain extent what the many tens of thousands of people betting think will be the outcome.

One month ago, the odds at the main bookmakers were Biden 61% to Trump 39%.  It was the highest score Biden ever achieved.  For the first four months of the year, the Vegas odds favored Trump even though the polls showed Biden ahead.  Then in May, Biden pulled ahead as the virus lockdown caused the economy to crater and also killed tens of thousands of deaths.

In the last month, Biden started to fall and Trump to rise.  This move has accelerated in recent days, and as of this morning, the average odds are back to 50-50.  The polling still shows Biden ahead because it is an average of older and newer polls.  It also shows Biden ahead because many of the pollsters stack their surveys so as to give the Democrats an advantage.  They hope to demoralize the GOP voters.  Those polls, however, no longer are believed by over half of America's voters.  We all remember 2016 when on election day, we were told by the pollsters and the polling analysts like Nate Silver at 538 that Hillary Clinton had a 97% chance of winning while Trump had less than a 3% chance to win.  Even in 2018, there were results like those in Florida where the pollsters put the Democrats 3-5% ahead in the races for governor and senator and the Republicans won both.  

Since the odds don't have the built in bias of the polls, they reflect a much better picture of the race.

One more note:  the odds are 50/50 today, but Trump has all the momentum as Biden is crashing.  It seems that the Democrats convention showed America who the Dems truly are.  No sane American could understand how the Dems could speak for four nights, non-stop and mention racism hundreds of time while remaining totally silent on the riots and street violence raging across the country.  No sane American could understand how the Dems could talk for 12 hours on TV and fail to mention the threat of China (or to mention China in any context.)  Hiding from problems is just not an answer to solving those problems.

Things change in politics, so no one knows what will happen to affect the race in the next month.  If September is anything like August, however, Biden can just stay in his basement.  There's no point in coming out.

Another Day in Pandemic Land

 A few weeks ago, I went to the local UPS Store to ship a package to Texas.  I went for my daughter who was stuck at home.  It made me feel like Larry David.

I went into the UPS store.  It was completely empty except for two employees at a counter in the rear of the place.  I was wearing a mask as required by the big sign on the front door.

I walked back to the counter and the young woman who was there said, "you came down the wrong aisle."

"what?" I replied.

She repeated "You came down the wrong aisle."

I realized that there were two different aisles to get to that counter and I apparently went in the "exit" aisle.  Since there was no one else there, it was not a big deal, so I handed her the package I was shipping.

She gave it back and said, "you'll have to go back to the front and come up the correct aisle."

I responded by saying, "you're kidding, right?"

She made clear she wasn't kidding, so I went back to the front of the store and came back using the "correct" aisle.

She took the package.

She then said, "what's the address?"  I responded that it was written on the label on the package.

She said, "no, what's your address?"

I said that I was shipping the package for my daughter, so I would give her that address.

This news confused her.  She told me to wait and went to confer with the other employee to see if she could take my daughter's address instead of mine.

She came back and told me that it would be ok to use my daughter's address.  What a relief!

I told her my daughter lived on Jefferson parkway.

Her response was "how do you spell that?"  She didn't know how to spell Jefferson.

I said just like Thomas Jefferson, but that only got a confused look.  So I said J E F F E R S O N P A R K W A Y.

She looked annoyed and told me that she could spell parkway.

I couldn't resist, so I said, "congratulations."

Then she asked me for my phone number

I said, "I'll give you my daughter's number."

She looked at the other employee, and he nodded.  She took the number.

We finished up the information and I paid for the shipping.

Then I turned to leave.  I went out the wrong aisle -- on purpose.  She yelled at me, "You're going the wrong way."

I said, "it all depends on your point of view."  And then I left.

Biden Skips Trip to Kenosha

 President Trump is going to Kenosha this week to survey the scene of the rioting.  Joe Biden had said that he might be going also, but now his campaign says he will not visit the Wisconsin city.

When Trump goes to Kenosha, he will likely be met by protesters who have been rioting there for days.  Trump will not let these rioters dissuade him.  Indeed, the Secret Service and other federal presence in the city for security for the President will likely force the disruptions in Kenosha off the streets for the entire time the president is there.  The same would have been true if Biden had come to Kenosha since he now gets full Secret Service protection as a major party nominee for president.  Biden, however, couldn't chance the possibility of a demonstration by BLM or Antifa against his coming into the city.  Biden couldn't support the protesters without antagonizing the police and the huge majority of the American people.  (Latest polls put that majority at about 75%)  We Biden to support the police and condemn the violence, he would earn the enmity of the protesters and their supporters (the other 25%) who are all a big part of the Democrats' base.  So Old Joe has once again decided that he is better off in the bunker in Delaware than in taking a stand on an issue of national importance.  Once again, Biden is just a politician and not a leader.

The "News" CBS Style

 I listened to CBS News this morning.  It was an adventure in propaganda.  In 30 seconds, the reporter said the following:

1.  Jacob Blake had been shot seven times in the back.

2.  There was a "riot" in Portland as a caravan of "Trump supporters" confronted BLM "protesters".

3.  A man was shot in Portland last night.  He had received a shotgun blast to the chest.  It was "unknown" if the shooting had anything to do with the riots.

So why is this propaganda?  After all, Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back.  The reason is that there was no context.  As time has gone by, the facts surrounding Blake have come out.  We now know the following:

a.  Blake's ex girlfriend had been threatened by him and was so afraid of him that she obtained a restraining order from the local courts that barred Blake from approaching her.  On the day of the shooting, Blake had come to her house and she had called the police for help.  She told police that Blake was armed.  The police responded to her call.

b.  When the police arrived on the scene, they found Blake outside the girlfriend's house.  He refused to leave and became belligerent.  In order to subdue Blake, the police shot him with a Taser.

c.  When the police went to take Blake away, he struggled and broke free.  He ran to his car and reached inside.  Police - who had been told that Blake was armed -- shot him before he could pull out a gun.  It turned out that there was no gun inside, only a knife.  The reason he was shot "in the back" is because he had turned around to reach into the car.

So, Blake was being removed for violating a court order and for threatening his ex girlfriend.  He resisted arrest.  Police had been told he was armed and he got shot when he appeared to be going for a weapon.  That provides a lot more context than just police shot him seven times in the back.  Does it make the shooting justified?  We don't know; the people making that determination have to consider what the police officers say and what Blake himself has to say.  

And how about the "riot" in Portland when the "Trump supporters" confronted BLM "protesters"?  That's the first time I've hear CBS call anything happening in Portland a "riot" rather than a "protest".  When these same BLM people tried to seal the doors of a police station with concrete and then burn the building down with police inside, that was a "protest" in CBS lingo.  Once there were Trump supporters involved, it became a "riot".  Of course, the Trump supporters drove through Portland in cars festooned with flags and signs while honking horns.  They didn't burn anything.  They didn't loot any stores, They didn't beat up any passersby.  But to CBS, that was "riot".  When BLM commited arson, looting, vandalism, assault and attempted murder, that was a "protest".

And how about the guy who was killed last night in Portland.  CBS just has no knowledge if it was related to the "riot".  But we know that the guy was wearing a distinctive hat that many in the Trump supporter caravan were wearing.  We know that there's video of the guy being shot.  We know that just prior to his being shot, a voice on the video can be heard yelling that this guy had been hassling people all night and then yelling "get him."  Then came the shot that killed him.  That's pretty clear evidence that the fellow was shot in connection with the "riot" by BLM supporters.  CBS, however, which jumps to conclusions on everything else, just can't make the connection.

Look, I don't know everything that happened last night in Portland.  I do know that the CBS News report on the subject was not factual or even close to factual.  It's disgraceful that CBS still calls itself a news organization rather than just propaganda.

Media Lie Of The Day

 It's a new day, so there has to be a new lie from the mainstream media.  Here's the latest one from CNN and CBS under this headline:

Office of the Director of National Intelligence plans to scale back briefings on foreign election interference

Oh no! The Intelligence agencies won't tell Congress about Foreign Interference in the elections, right? That's what it says, but that's not what happened. The Director of National Intelligence told Congress that it would switch from in person briefings to written briefings. And why is that? The intelligence agencies want to cut down on in person briefings due to COVID 19. So all the info will get to Congress in written form, but any chance of spreading the virus will be eliminated.

It's amazing. CBS and CNN push the lie that the intelligence agencies are refusing to brief Congress. Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff run to the microphones to denounce this change. And the whole thing is based upon a total lie.

Welcome back to Washington.

Democrat Comments On the Attacks on People Leaving The White House

 All summer long, there have been riots in American cities.  Portland riots have had the longest run.  Seattle and Minneapolis have gone on and on as well.  Riots in other places have been sporadic.  The commentary from the Democrats (and most of the media) has been non-existent.  Somewhere among the Democrat hierarchy a decision was made to try to ignore the violence, arson, looting and even attempted murder.  These riots were to be called "peaceful protests" even though calling destruction of buildings and cars peaceful is like calling a temperature of 105 degrees cold.  The Democrats and the media, in essence, told their followers what the talking point was regarding the riots: ignore them and say they really don't exist.  

Sadly, the intentional lying about the true nature of what was happening just went on and on.  At the Democrats' convention last week, not one word was said on the subject.  It's amazing to think that the biggest domestic problem in the country right now after the virus was not mentioned despite twelve hours of Democrat politicians talking to the nation.  We didn't even get one "I feel your pain" from any of the speakers.

The Democrats also went further into fantasy land.  The peaceful protests (which existed only in their minds) were all about the "systemic racism" and "evil" of this country.  People looting stores actually has nothing to do with racism or any political position.  Looting is theft.  It is not income redistribution.  It is not socialism.  It is not anything but looting.  But that didn't matter.

In the last two days, the Democrats finally realized that their strategy wasn't working.  Internal poll numbers have shown the Dems that America was revolted by their dishonest non-response to the riots.  Some Dems took halting steps towards opposing the riots.  Biden and Harris said that while the protesters were still the "best of us", violence is not the answer.  Biden then went back into the bunker and Harris gave one of her cackling laughs.  No one was fooled.

As if there wasn't already enough proof that the Dems didn't care one bit about the violence, we got the Dems' non-reaction to what happened in DC after the President's acceptance speech.  There were many people at the White House to attend President Trump's speech.  As some of them left, they were attacked by "protesters".  It turned out that the "protesters" were actually not DC residents but they were people bused into DC for the express purpose of harassing those who attended Trump's speech.  It is not yet clear who paid to bring in these thugs, so I won't speculate.  We do know, though, that people like KY senator Rand Paul and his wife were attacked by a mob.  There were a few police around who tried to protect the senator and his wife.  Fortunately, they were not injured, but they were made to fear for their lives.  Another small group of people who lead the #Walkaway effort (for people to walk away from the Democrats and join the Republicans) were set on by more thugs (or should I call them violent protesters).  The leader of this group is gay.  The "progressive" protesters were so "woke" that they threatened these folks with physical violence and called them "faggots" and other anti-gay slurs.  (Just imagine the reaction if people in MAGA hats had done that to a Democrat gay leader.)  After one of the victims started filming the event on his phone, one of the thugs came up and smashed the phone.

The Democrats' response to these and many other attacks on people leaving the White House has been thunderous silence.  Not a word has been said.  Oh, we all remember how Democrat Maxine Waters told people that they should all do exactly what the thugs did.  Maxine told people to attack Republicans if they were seen in public.  But even one word spoken against attacks on a U.S. senator?--NOPE,

Remember it was only three days ago when Nancy Pelosi labelled Republicans as enemies of the people.  She encouraged these kinds of attacks.  Indeed, for all we know, she financed these attacks.  

There is no way that the Democrats or their figure head doddering Joe Biden could ever lead this nation when they spend their time encouraging one part of the country to attack another part.

Proof Biden and The Dems Have Blown It

 In the last two years, there have been over 50 public polls in the state of Michigan asking if people would support Trump or Biden.  Biden won every one.  In fact, the numbers have been so consistently in Biden's favor that those who predict the election, put Michigan in the "leans Democrat" column.  It's the only state Trump carried in 2016 in that category.  Many are listed as toss ups, but only Michigan was deemed lost to Trump.

Today, after the conventions have ended, a new poll in Michigan was released by Trafalgar.  It shows Trump beating Biden by 47-45 among likely voters.  Maybe the poll is wrong, but in the political world, this is an earthquake, AN EARTHQUAKE!!!  

For two years at least, Michigan and national Democrats have been confident that Trump's razor thin victory in Michigan in 2016 was an aberration that would never be repeated.  And now a respected poll says Trump is ahead by 2%.

It's even more important, because the same poll gives Trump over a quarter of the African American vote.  In 2016, Trump got 8% of the black vote nationwide.  If blacks actually vote for Biden by a margin of only 75% to 25%, it pretty much guarantees that Trump will win in November.  

Right now there must be major panic in Wilmington.  I wonder if anyone has had the nerve to go into the basement and tell Joe?

Meanwhile, In The Bunker In Delaware........

 Two days ago, Joe Biden left his bunker and went for another bike ride.  The bad news is that while on the bike, he saw his shadow and that means another six weeks of hiding in the basement for Old Joe.

But Biden can't really hide.  He kind of , sort of spoke out against the ongoing riots in places like Kenosha and Portland and Minneapolis.  He said "violence isn't the answer", but he didn't condemn the rioters.  Indeed, he has said repeatedly that he stands with them in their cause.  I keep waiting to see Joe drive up in a big limo to a Best Buy so that he can go in a loot a 56 inch TV.  (He would, no doubt, need Jill to come along so that someone could actually lift the TV.)

In any event, after the non-condemnation, Joe disappeared back into the bunker again.  It's worth noting, though, that just a few miles from Biden in Newark, Delaware, there was a major hate crime.  A Jewish campus center at the University of Delaware was burned down.  It was arson.  Fortunately, no one was hurt, but the message of the attack was clear.  It's about the same message as the one given by the Black Lives Matter rioters in Kenosha who attacked a local synagogue and, to a lesser extent, a local Catholic church.  Biden, however, ignored this blatant act of anti-Semitism.   After all, he can't criticize the rioters -- excuse me the "peaceful protesters" who he actually called "the best of us" ten days ago (before the polling told him that he had to say something against them.)

Joe's silence isn't accidental.  It tells you who he truly is and what he truly thinks (assuming he can remember what he actually thinks).  

This is CNN

 

NBA Repercussions From the Boycott -- 2

 It seems that the NBA boycott is ending.  That's pretty fast, even in today's culture.

Here's the reason why the boycott is ending.  The TV networks airing the games told the NBA that its failure to go forward with the games was a breach of contract.  The networks said that they would terminate the contracts as a result.  Given the terrible ratings for the games prior to the boycott, there's no way that the league would have gotten anything like the amount due under existing contracts.  In other words, the boycott was going to cost the NBA real money.  That was it; the boycott is ending.

Repercussions From the NBA Shutdown/Boycott

 The NBA and some minor sports like Women's soccer shut down yesterday in protest over the events in Kenosha Wisconsin.  Of course, we really don't know what happened in Kenosha yet as the investigation is still underway.  It doesn't matter; the millionaires who play basketball decided to show their solidarity by refusing to play.

This gives rise to an important question:  does anyone care if the NBA plays or not?  

There are certainly still some people who follow the NBA, but the league has seen its audience fall off in dramatic fashion in recent years.  Here's a key statistic:  in the 2020 playoffs, the NBA TV audience has been off by 30% compared to last year.  And that entire decline came before (right BEFORE) there were any boycotts or cancelled games due to events in Kenosha or elsewhere.

Think about that.  Because of COVID 19, the quantity of sports on TV is way down from normal.  That should increase the NBA audience since viewers who want sports have fewer alternatives.  Instead, the audience has fallen by 30%.  That's the type of audience change that is not just a statistical quirk.  It means that about one viewer in three abandoned the telecasts since last year.

I may be wrong, but I think it is safe to assume that the boycotts will result in the further loss of audience for future telecasts.  The NBA already has no ticket sales due to the virus.  It has no concession sales at the arenas.  It has reduced souvenir sales since it only has online retailing left.  Now, its biggest money maker, TV revenues, are being shaken and look like they are crumbling.  If that TV audience declines further, it is unlikely that the new contracts will bring in anything like the current TV contracts.

One nice thing about all this is that the players who pushed this boycott will get the result of their actions:  salaries in the league will go down (gasp!)  Sure, the owners are extremely wealthy.  Still, there aren't too many who will be happy to operate a team at a big loss.  Expenses like salaries will have to conform to the very much lower revenue stream.

In short, the people who are most likely to care if the NBA plays or not will turn out to be the players.

The Unemployment Numbers

 The weekly unemployment claims came out today.  Last week 1,006,000 people filed new claims for benefits and there were 14.5 million continuing claims.  Media reports lament these results as bad because it is another chance to take a swipe at President Trump.  Actually, these results are quite good.  During the week one month ago, there were 1,430,000 new claims filed and 17 million continuing claims.  That means there were roughly 3 million fewer people on unemployment last week than there were a month ago.  While there's not a complete correlation between those unemployed and the number of jobs created due to people entering or leaving the labor force, it is likely that when we get the monthly employment report for August (coming out in 8 days), it will show something like creation of 3 million jobs.  That's a truly great result.  It's also a good indication that despite the "second wave" partial shutdowns, the economy continues to roar back.

Bravo To The DOJ -- Bust The Coverup In New York

 When the pandemic began, NY Governor Cuomo's administration issued an order to nursing homes in the state that required them to admit patients who were infected with the corona virus.  According to the governor, it a home didn't have the ability or the facilities to safely care for the patient, it didn't have to admit that patient, but that is NOT what the order said.  The order just said the homes had to take the patients with the virus, and that is what the nursing homes did.  As a result of that order, infected patients were put in the majority of the nursing homes across the state, and it spread the virus to the single most vulnerable population in New York.  Estimates are that eleven thousand or more elderly and sick people died in these nursing homes as a result of that order.  It was one of the most negligent and disgusting moves ever made by the state of New York.

After about a month, the virus was shut out of the nursing homes once proper precautions were taken to keep infected patients OUT and put into places designed to contain the virus.  Governor Cuomo of New York, however, wouldn't even admit that the order had been a mistake in the first place.  His order killed 11,000 people but Cuomo denied it all.  Moves were made to have an independent investigation in the state of what had happened, but Cuomo quashed all attempts at investigation.  His strategy was to stonewall and cover up.

Now that strategy is crumbling.  The Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, served a subpoena on New York and three other states seeking information about how the nursing home mess came about.  The DOJ is acting under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, a law that protects the rights of those who cannot easily speak for themselves.

My guess is that there are a lot of very nervous people in the governor's office in Albany.  Cuomo is famous for shifting blame for misdeeds onto those who work for him.  The question in Albany right now must be worrying about who Cuomo is going to pick as the victim for this mess.

Hopefully, DOJ won't fall for the usual Cuomo nonsense.  

The Polls Must Be Brutal

 This afternoon, the Democrat governor of Wisconsin changed his mind and accepted President Trump's offer to send federal officers to Kenosha to help restore order there.  It was a total turnaround by the governor.  Earlier this week, as building burned and stores were looted, the governor REFUSED federal help because the feds might interere with the "peaceful protests".  Really, you can't make this stuff up!  The governor didn't want fed help and in response to a request from the mayor of Kenosha for 750 state troopers, the governor sent only about 200.  Needless to say, it wasn't enough, and last night saw gunfire and shootings in Kenosha.

I wrote earlier about how the riots and the refusal of the Democrat governor to act to stop the violence as well as the refusal of Joe Biden to even criticize the rioters (who he calls peaceful protesters) would hand the state to Donald Trump and the GOP in November.  For some reason, these Dems who live in the bubble of leftist thought actually believed that the majority of Americans were okay with the city being burned down, stores looted and police and others attacked.  Well now the polling must have been done, and clearly, the results must have been brutal for the Democrats.  In one day, the Democrat governor went from refusing federal help and wanting to protect the peaceful protesters (who were anything but peaceful) to accepting indeed requesting federal help and condemning the violent thugs who have looted and burned and attacked the city.  

But it's too late.  Oh, the governor may be able to spin his way out of this mess by the time he has to run for re-election in 2022, but Biden who still has not even spoken about the riots, cannot recover in Wisconsin.  Far too many folks are horrified by the violence and destruction.  Trump has acted while Biden has remained hidden in his basement in Wilmington!  And given the way Biden fails to react, it's unlikely that Biden is suddenly going to come out an condemn the rioters.  His campaign will be too worried that it will alienate the leftist crazies like the Squad and the Twitter mobs.  People, especially in Wisconsin, won't forget that.  (And you can be sure that if they start to forget, Trump and the GOP will remind them.)

Republican Convention -- Night Two

 The Republican Convention ran its second night.  Once again, it was a well done event -- unlike the Democrats' event the previous week.  For me, the best moment came when the President gave a pardon to a former prison inmate who founded an organization to help former prisoners succeed in becoming part of society upon their release.  The story of the this man and his good friend -- the police office who arrested him -- was compelling TV.  So was the video from Nicholas Sandman (about which I wrote last night).  There were strong statements from some speakers, but they were hopeful, not nasty.  It was very well done.

The polls have shown no bounce for Biden after the DNC last week.  That is extraordinary, but these are extraordinary conventions.  Still, if the next two nights are anything like the first two nights, I expect a major bounce for Trump in the polls next week.

Wisconsin: Polls, Violence and the Media

 Last night, there were people shot during a riot in Kenosha.  If I were a reporter for the mainstream media, I would have said that "peaceful protesters" where shot by "armed White men" in Kenosha.  But like so much else these days, there are videos of the event that one can watch online to see -- at least from the perspective of the person taking the video -- what actually happened.  I know, because I watched them.

It seems that there were some rather loud "protests" by people, many of whom were armed with guns.  The protesters were clearly NOT peaceful.  They were throwing rocks and other things at police.  They were breaking windows on cars as well.  That is all I could see in the videos, but reports also say they were setting fires.  Police in armored vehicles told the crowd to disperse and were ignored.  They then used tear gas.  That sets the scene.

Next, the "protesters" came upon a gas station where there were a group of heavily armed men guarding the facility.  These were not police.  Nor were they all white.  These crowd confronted the armed men who told them to stay away from the gas station.  Some of the armed "protesters" came forward and stood confronting the guard of the gas station.

The next video shows an armed man running.  He appears to be running from the crowd, but it's hard to tell.  Suddenly, he goes down.  On the video, it looks like he got shot, but one can't tell for certain.  He rolls over, grabs his weapon and fires a few shots.  One cannot see if he hit anyone.

Reports say that three "protesters" were shot.  These reports connect those shot to the guy on the ground who fired back after he fell.

If you read the media, this was an unprovoked attack on the protesters.  If you watch the videos, that is obviously not true.  The guy on the ground clearly was either shot and was firing back in his own defense, or he thought he was about to get beaten and was firing in his own defense, or he was neither shot nor in personal danger and he was shooting at the mob because he was a racist or a white supremacist or someone just looking to stir up further trouble.  There's no way to know for sure at the moment, but it certainly looks from the video like the first alternative (firing back in his own defense) is the reason.  

Once the police catch the guy on the ground, we will know much more.  For example, was he shot?  That would go a long way towards proving that one of the "peaceful protesters" shot him to start the melee.  We need to hear his side of the story.

Meanwhile, all this mess plays out on TV's.  In Wisconsin, it obviously gets maximum coverage; you can be sure that those videos have appeared on local TV all across the state.  Not even media bias could keep these videos off the air.

So what is the reaction to the riots in Kenosha?  The other day, I wrote that these riots are likely moving Wisconsin into the Trump column in November.  Today, a poll came out that ought to make the Democrats with their support of the rioters very nervous.  The poll is of likely Wisconsin voters and was taken during the period immediately after the Democrats convention and just prior to the events in Kenosha.  The poll shows Trump up by 1% over Biden in Wisconsin.

There are other recent polls in Wisconsin that show Biden ahead, but the trend among all polls in that state has been moving in Trump's favor.  We will have to wait for a few weeks to see how the RNC and the events in Kenosha move the voters, but I think that Wisconsin has been lost to Biden in November.

Nicholas Sandman Finally Gets to Speak

 Nick Sandman is a young man who was the victim of a major phony and defamatory attack by the media.  As a high school student, Nick was in Washington for the Right to Life March and then went with his class to visit the Lincoln Memorial.  The students were approached by a Native American professional protester who marched up to Sandman and beat a drum in his face.  Sandman just stood there with a nervous smile on his face.  That Sandman did nothing didn't matter.  In the media he was denounced as a racist who tried to harm the old man beating the drum.  The media didn't speak to Sandman.  The reporters didn't even bother to watch the full video which clearly showed that Sandman had done nothing wrong at all.  Nope, for the media, the narrative was clear.  The kid from Kentucky with the MAGA hat on was a racist trying to harm the poor old Native American victim.  Except it was a lie, a total lie.

Nick Sandman got hit from all sides.  He and his family got death threats.  All manner of other attacks were made on him, but he persevered.  He sued CNN, Newsweek, other networks and media outlets and even some individuals in the media.  To date, he has settled quite a few of those suits.  Rumor is that he did very well in those settlements.

Tonight, he finally got to tell his story.  It was something to watch, more for the strength of character it revealed within Nick that for the actual details.  This is a fine American who was wronged, who fought back against great odds and who won in the end.

The First Night of the Republican Convention

 Last night was the first night of the Republican convention.  I decided to compare the RNC to the DNC of last week.  It wasn't hard.  Let me sum up the comparison in one sentence:  the Democrats spent their first night telling America how bad we are while the Republicans spent their first night telling us how good we basically are and how much better we could become.

Really, during the first night of the DNC we heard about "systemic racism" and the American "original sin" of slavery in annoying repetition.  Actually, that repetition continued for four nights at the DNC.  At the RNC, Nikki Haley told us of her triumph as "a brown woman in a black and white world" that brought her the governorship of South Carolina and then to an ambassador's residence at the UN.  She said that America was not basically racist or she would never have been able to succeed.  Senator Tim Scott told us how he brought his family "from [picking] cotton to Congress in one generation."  He too remarked that such a move would not be possible in a racist country.  In short, the Democrats told minorities that they are all victims of evil America while the Republicans showed those same minorities that the Democrats were wrong and that their success is possible and indeed has happened often.  Democrats presented a dark future while Republicans presented and optimistic future.

It's not surprising that the party out of power would paint things black while the party in power would spout rainbows.  Still, the magnitude of the difference was astounding.  And that presents the big question:  will the average American voter choose dark and depressing or will he or she choose hopeful and cheerful?

Time will deliver a verdict on these conventions.  There was an immediate verdict on social media, however.  On Twitter, there was an avalanche response from left-wing blue checks denouncing one GOP speaker after another in the most snarky, strident and nasty ways possible.  It's a sign that the Republicans were doing very well; the Democrat media had nothing to say about the message, so they took to attacking the messengers. 

Did Trump Just Win Wisconsin Again?

 In 2016, the Democrats and the media were astounded that Donald Trump carried Wisconsin.  The Clinton campaign had been so sure it would win in Wisconsin that it didn't even bother to have Hillary campaign there.  This year, the Dems scheduled their convention for Milwaukee just to show Wisconsin how much they cared about it.  Of course, that convention was cancelled for the doom and gloom fest that happened last week.

Recent polls in the state had Biden up by 4%.  Who knows how accurate that is.  Still, we do know that the race is once again close in this state.  Today, however, Trump may have won Wisconsin.

There are ongoing riots in Kenosha Wisconsin and the unrest is spreading to other parts of the state.  So far, the Democrat governor and the local Democrat mayors have done nothing to stop the looting and arson and vandalism.  This evening, there were even mobs armed with AR-15 semi automatic rifles that were confronting police as the riots continued.  The police, under local command, backed off.  As the rioting continues, so does the refusal of the Democrat candidates to criticize the rioters.

The impetus for the riots is the shooting of a black man by police in Kenosha.  That's why Biden and Harris and the entire Democrat party remain silent about the ongoing riots.  They are afraid that if they denounce the rioters and seek to stop the riots, they will not be "woke" enough.  They will be acting as racists if they prevent this mob from inflicting major hardship on local residents whose property is being destroyed.

The citizens of Wisconsin do not support rioting.  The mob certainly has its supporters, but the average person who votes in the state is not included in that group.  In national polls, support for Black Lives Matters has already fallen big time since the looting, vandalism and arson has continued in many cities.  At the moment, the BLM movement is under water.  In other words, more Americans oppose it than support it.  That's a reverse from early June when the focus was on George Floyd and not on arson in Portland or destruction in Kenosha.  The media has downplayed the riots; they get little coverage on most of the mainstream media.  There is no way that local Wisconsin media will fail to cover local riots, mayhem and arson.  There has been big coverage across the state.  And make no mistake about it, with each broadcast of the riots, Trump gains support and the Democrats lose it.

We will have to wait a week or two to see the full impact of the riots on Wisconsin.  In the polls in two weeks, Trump should be up by 5-10 % over Biden.  Indeed, a few more riots and the election contest will be over.

Delivering For AMERICA???

 Over the weekend, the House held a special session and passed a bill no the Post Office which Nancy Pelosi entitled the "Delivering For America Act."  What a travesty.

The bill gives funds to the Post Office and also limits possible changes to make the system more efficient.  For example, even though the volume of mail being processed each day has declined by about 50% in the last 15 years, the bill bars the Post Office from reducing its sorting facilities to put them in line with the reduced volume.  That reduction in sorting facilities will save hundreds of millions of dollars each year for the USPS and it will not slow mail delivery one bit according to the USPS itself. 

Pelosi and her party know that this bill will never become law.  So why would the Democrats hold an emergency session to pass a bill that they all know will NEVER pass the Senate or be signed by president Trump?  Why indeed?  The answer is that this is just a stunt undertaken for political purposes.

Remember, at this very moment, there are tens of millions of Americans suffering from the refusal of the Democrats to agree on any relief measures for those hit hardest by the virus.  Remember, essentially everyone in Congress agrees to the plan to send another $1200 stimulus check to all but the wealthiest Americans.  Essentially everyone in Congress also agrees that it would be a good idea to pay supplemental unemployment benefits to those who are still without jobs.  President Trump set the amount at $400 (which is less than the $600 previously paid.)  There is disagreement about the amount, but the concept is accepted by a huge majority in Congress.  Surely, with a little bit of give on each side, there could be agreement on the amount.  Pelosi and the Dems, however, won't negotiate on any of this.  They insist on a measure that will include a long list of their favorite items like green energy and changes in the voting laws.  All the Dems would have to do is negotiate in good faith and millions of people would quickly be helped.

The Dems were ready to put on a political show with the Post Office bill, but when it comes to actually helping those in need, the Dems are deaf to the cries for help.  They care about politics, not about people.

It's disgusting.

Kim Jung Un -- Update -- The Saga Continues

 It's like the plot of a bad movie.  Reports this morning are that Kim Jung Un is alive but that he has been in a coma for about six months.  His recent public appearances have been faked according to a South Korean former government official.

I expect that by tomorrow the media will report that Kim was abducted by aliens and that he is being used as the subject on their fiendish experiments unless Superman can rescue him with the help of the Justice League.

Kim Jung Un Has Died Again

 In the first year of Saturday Night Live, there was a continuing gag that the show had on its Weekend Update.  The gag was about the Generalisimo Francisco Franco, the dictator who ruled Spain from the late 1930s until his death in 1975.  Each week the Weekend Update anchor would report that Franco was still dead.  Like many SNL gags, it wasn't really very funny, but they ran with it for an entire season.

Today, we have the equivalent with reports in certain papers that Kim Jung Un has died or, at least, is in a coma.  This is not the first time this year that Kim's death has been reported.  All the previous reports were wrong.  There's no way to know yet if this latest news is correct or not.

It would be nice if the death of Kim would lead to the overthrow of the North Korean regime, but that is probably too much to hope for.  Right now, absent regime change, Kim's sister is his likely replacement.  Who knows?  Maybe she's not crazy like Kim. 

Ignoring Reality

 What is the reality of the corona virus and its effect on people?  I don't mean how the virus affects individuals, but rather how has it hit a large population.  It's worth looking at the numbers for Pennsylvania to see the result.  PA has been hit by the virus, especially early on in the pandemic, but things there never got crazy bad like they did in neighboring NY or NJ.  Still, there have been 129,000 cases in PA since the start of the pandemic.  Of those people infected, 7576 have died.

Let's take a look at just who it was that was killed by the virus.  

First of all, more than half of those passing away from the virus were residents of long term care facilities like nursing homes.  

Second, even for those people who were not in nursing homes, the vast bulk of those who died were quite elderly.  The total number of people dying at age 90 or higher was twice the number of deaths among people 60 or younger.  That's extraordinary since the number of people under 60 are 74% of the population of the state while those over 90 constitute less than 2% of the population.  Even more astounding, the median age of those who have died was over 82.

Third, among the young, the number of deaths is tiny. To date, seven people under 30 in PA have died from the virus.  Only 151 between the ages of 30 and 50 have died with the virus.

Fourth, the numbers of deaths have fallen off dramatically as have the numbers of cases. There were only 18 new deaths reported yesterday compared to the average daily toll of 44 since the start of the pandemic.

Think about what this means.  

Let's start with schools.  In many locations, the schools are being taught on the internet, something that no one believes is an adequate substitute for in person instruction.  My local school system has ordered all instruction to be remote until October at a minimum.  We already know that the number of school age children who died from the virus in the entire state thus far is two, and it's unclear from public data if these children had other serious medical problems.  Obviously, for kids with major medical problems, it would make sense for them to get special protections.  But for the average school child, there seems to be no reason to force those kids to stay home.  Remember, for most kids who have to stay home, it means that a parent also has to stay home, something which can place a severe financial hardship on the family.

Some people argue that letting the kids go to school will mean that they can get the virus and then spread it to their parents.  Of course, if you look at the figures for people 20-50 in PA, you find hardly any of them were killed by the virus either.  Certainly, any number of deaths is not a good thing, but shutting down the state's economy or burdening the parents with the need for all day child care because there is an infinitesimal chance of dire consequences due to the virus makes no sense.  Every day, every one of us faces the risk of death.  Car accidents, diseases, and all manner of other things -- even lighting strikes--are part of life.  No one can be totally safe.

Of course, the elderly people or those with serious medical conditions already are at risk from the virus.  They need to be protected.  The way to do that, however, is not to keep the state shut down or to keep the schools closed.  No, the best protection is targeted measures designed to protect the most vulnerable.  Remember, early in the pandemic there were particular problems in nursing homes (especially in NY where Cuomo issued his crazy order to force homes to take infected patients.).  Measures are now in place to reduce that risk.  As a result, the numbers of deaths in nursing homes have fallen in dramatic fashion.  That is something that can be expanded to all high risk groups.

There is no valid reason to keep schools closed.  There is no valid reason to keep restaurants closed.  There is no valid reason for the bulk of the restrictions that have been imposed on the American people.

Violence and more Violence

 There was another big riot in Portland yesterday.  It took place down by the government buildings and resulted in federal officers clearing the crowd away from those buildings.  The Portland police (controlled by the local Democrat mayor) did little to stop the melee.  They made no arrests even though this was a major brawl.

Joe Biden immediately issued a statement denouncing violence and calling upon Americans to act in a civil fashion towards each other and to settle differences through discussion and debate rather than through violence ....oh wait!  Biden did no such thing.

For the 83rd day in a row, Biden remained silent as riots, looting, arson and assault (not to mention sporadic killing) hit one or more major cities governed -- in each case -- by Democrats.  The man who wants to be our leader has not bothered even once to condemn the violence.

Let's be clear:  it's not that Biden agrees with the supposed goals of the rioters, looters and other thugs.  He could agree with those goals but denounce the rioters method of using violence, theft, arson and intimidation to get what they want, but he hasn't.  This past week the Democrats held their convention and broadcast twelve hours of prime time speeches and videos.  In all that speechifying, not a single speaker mentioned these riots.  Think about that; not only was Biden silent about the riots, so was every single speaker from Kamala Harris to the convicted murderer/rapist (who spoke about prisoners' rights).

This is totally unacceptable.  Our country is under assault by violent groups that claim the mantle of "fighting racism" or "fighting fascism" while they destroy businesses and lives and steal billions of dollars of goods.  This is the sort of behavior that brings on a tremendous backlash from the rest of us.

This past week local black leaders in Portland condemned the riots and the appropriation by the rioters of the Black Lives Matter slogan.  These local African American community leaders denounce the rioters as doing great harm to their community.  The leaders called for calm and an end to violence.  It couldn't have been easy for these community leaders to stand up and denounce people who purport to be seeking to end racism.  But the community leaders understand something that Biden and his fellow Democrats seem to miss:  violence to push a political view is unAmerican; it is counter-productive; it is just wrong.

Yesterday, Biden announced that he would shut down the country again if "scientists" told him to do so.  That would destroy our economy.  Biden's silence on the continuing violence in these riots shows that he would shut down law enforcement if strident leftists told him to do so (because the is clearly what he is already doing by remaining silent.) So Biden gets us no economy and no law enforcement.

Years ago Biden said he opposed the integration of America's schools because adding black students to white schools would turn those schools into "racial jungles" -- Biden's words, not mine.  It's pretty clear that putting Biden into the White House would turn America into a poverty stricken lawless jungle.

What Do Masks Do And What Don't They Do?

 As the misinformation flows about COVID 19 and the various means for dealing with it, certain false stories have been circulating which really need to be clarified.  Here's a big question:

What is the purpose of wearing masks and how effective are the masks at stopping the spread of the disease?

Answer:  The reason to wear a mask when in close proximity to other people is to prevent yourself from spreading the virus to others if you are infected.  The purpose is NOT to prevent you from catching the virus.  In fact, the reason that the doctors originally said masks should not be worn was that the medical community thought that by wearing these masks, people would be more likely to touch their faces and more likely to get the virus.  Once it became clear that there were a large number of people who got infected but who also had no symptoms, the wearing of masks was encouraged because the use of a mask by an asymptomatic person carrying the virus would limit the ability of that sick person to spread droplets of virus-carrying saliva in the air by coughs or sneezes.  

The use of masks is not extremely effective in stopping the spread of the virus.  The results are still better than they would be if no one wore a mask, but the masks do not come close to stopping the spread.

It is important to keep in mind that the masks we are discussing are not the N95 masks worn by healthcare professionals.  Those masks do protect the wearer from getting infected through the mouth or nose.  It is not feasible, however, for everyone to wear that sort of mask. 

The wearing of masks has somehow been elevated to some sort of religious experience by people who claim to be listening to the "science".  They say things, however, that indicate that they don't have a clue about what the actual science has to say about masks.  Here's a good example:  recently Herman Cain passed away after being infected with the virus.  The mask posse rushed onto social media to point out that Cain had gone to a Trump rally in Tulsa Oklahoma an didn't wear a mask there.  About two weeks later, Cain got sick.  The fanatics screamed that Cain caught the virus by failing to wear a mask.  That was completely false.  The point of wearing the mask would be to prevent Cain from infecting others. The mask protects them, not Cain.  

Proof Biden Can't Lead

 Tomorrow, Joe Biden is going to be interviewed on ABC by David Muir.  The network released excerpts of the interview in an effort to boost the audience.  In one, Joe Biden proves that he can't be president.  Biden says that if recommended by scientists, he would "shut down" the country to stop the corona virus.

Think about that.  Our economy is still reeling from the first shutdown last spring.  That shutdown succeeded in putting tens of millions out of work, in reducing the GDP by roughly 35%, and in pushing millions of small (and large) businesses to close for good.  While the economy is coming back now, it is still quite fragile.  Whole sectors of the economy are sitting on the knife edge of bankruptcy.  Earlier this week, we learned that roughly a quarter of all hotels across the country are in arrears on their mortgages.  They need to get back to higher occupancy soon or they will fail.  A second shutdown would surely put at least something like half of all hotels out of business.  And then there are the airlines.  They are in existence right now because of government subsidies to keep them going.  A second shutdown will send every one into bankruptcy.  How about restaurants?  Many are operating with outdoor seating in the Summer.  In two months, that will end in much of the nation as cold weather returns.  It may be delightful to eat dinner outdoors in a cool summer evening, but not so much during a cold November night.  If the restaurants don't get more relief fast, hundreds of thousands more will close for good.  How about hair salons, barbershops, nail salons, gyms, massage therapists, and the like.  All these personal service industries (and the millions who work in them) will lose their jobs were there a  second shutdown.

Let's put it this way.  The first shutdown destroyed millions of jobs.  Those who worked in the financially weaker businesses got swept away by the disastrous tidal wave of the virus closures.  It was a terrible blow to the nation.  And here's the kicker -- it didn't get rid of the virus.  Indeed, no one -- and that includes the "scientists" -- ever said that a shutdown would get rid of the virus.  That first shutdown was supposed to "bend the curve".  In other words, that shutdown was supposed to keep America's hospitals from getting overrun with virus cases, and that is just what it did.  No one who needed a hospital bed was ever denied one.  No one who needed a ventilator was ever denied one.  It was rough going in certain hospitals (mostly in the New York City area), but the country got through it.  And now, the hospitals are handling things fine.  The number of people in hospital is slightly above half of what it was at the max, and we are still near the recent peak of the so-called second wave.  We got through that second wave without a wholesale shutdown and THE HOSPITALS WERE FINE.

It's clear that Joe Biden hasn't been listening to the "scientists".  If he had, he would know the actual reason for the shutdown was to bend the curve, i.e., to protect the hospitals and not to get rid of the virus.  Joe should also understand pretty well that a second shutdown would not just damage our economy but would destroy it.  A second shutdown would bring a long term depression to this nation.  The hotel, airline, restaurant, personal service, movie, theme park, cruise line, and many other industries just don't have the assets to go through another shutdown without being destroyed.  Okay, maybe the Democrats and Joe don't care about those who own these companies.  Millions of small business owners would see their life's work wiped away and fall into poverty, but maybe Joe doesn't care.  But tens of millions of people employed in these companies would also be wiped out.  Whole cities would be pushed into massive poverty.  Think of places like Las Vegas or Orlando, cities that depend primarily on tourism.  If all the casino, hotel, restaurant, show biz, and personal service employees in Vegas were to lose their jobs, we would see a huge metro area suddenly turn into a massive homeless camp.  Nevada doesn't have the resources to support all these people.  Now multiply that by a hundred to consider the impact on the USA.  A second shutdown would be Armageddon for America.  It would be suicide by poor policy.  And this is what Joe Biden says he would do if scientists recommended it.

America doesn't need a president who doesn't understand the basic needs of the American people.  We don't need a president who won't make hard choices.  Biden doesn't seem to understand the economic realities.

And one last note for those of you who are think that a shutdown would "save lives".  That not only wrong, it's not even close to correct.  Shutdowns do NOT stop the virus.  For that we need either herd immunity or a vaccine.  Even then, there will still be some cases.  A second shutdown, though, WILL CAUSE deaths.  If you've missed the figures, you should learn that suicides during the shutdown spiked really high.  According to surveys, 25% of all young adults considered suicide during the last four months.  During the shutdown, drug and alcohol abuse spiked big time as well.  Those sitting at home were unable to refrain from drugs and alcohol; they didn't have to be sober for work, so they used.  They were feeling down, and perhaps suicidal, so they used.  This is now a long term problem to overcome, and it will lead to countless deaths from overdoses.  And let's not forget the families that lost their homes, had too little to eat, had to miss medical treatments, and the like.  You can be sure that there will be many tens of thousands who die from that.  And this is all just a small taste of what a second shutdown that Joe Biden supports would do.

Basically, Joe Biden just said that he would destroy America if "scientists" told him to do so.  Where is his common sense?  Where is his understanding of his actions?  How could this fool possibly be president?

The Ratings for Biden and the DNC

 The ratings are in for night 4 of the Democrats' convention.  The six network ratings (ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN and FNC) were down about 25% from where they were in 2016 when Hillary gave her acceptance speech.  Only a little over 21 million people watched.  Some pundits try to make this seem not so bad by pointing out that there were people who live streamed the convention.  While there may be a few people who watched the convention on their phones or computers, I really doubt that it was all that many.  And for what it is worth, the big draw of the night was a live eviction on Big Brother on CBS.

Once again, the lack of enthusiasm for Biden came to the fore.  Normally, the nominee's speech on the last night of the convention is the big TV draw.  Biden didn't even increase the audience over the small crowd that Kamala Harris attracked the prior night.

By contrast, yesterday, President Trump went to Old Forge PA, a town near Biden's birthplace of Scranton PA.  Old Forge has a population of just over 8000 people.  Trump drew a huge crowd that was more than the entire population of the town.

Where is This News About the Virus?

 Did you know that the second wave of the virus was different than the first?  Did you ever even hear that discussed in the media?  I doubt it.  

Let me explain:  

1.  There were two "waves" of infection in the USA.  The first hit in March and continued into April.  We got to the point where there were like 35,000 new cases reported each day, and then the case numbers declined until a point in June.  The second wave hit as the numbers of new cases took a big jump starting in June and continuing into about mid-July.  In that wave, the daily number of new cases went from about 20,000 up to 70,000.  Since then the daily new case numbers have fallen to about 40,000.

2.  So what is the big difference between the two waves?  It's this: the same virus hitting the same country is resulting in many, many fewer deaths.  During the height of the first wave, we were seeing 2500 deaths per day.  During the second wave, twice as many cases resulted in a peak of only 1400 deaths per day (which is now down to about 1000 per day).  So the mortality per case for the second wave is about a quarter of what it was during the first wave.

How can it be that the same virus hitting the same population resulted in such a lower death rate?  There are four possible explanations:

1. It isn't the same virus; it mutated.  That could cause the virus to be less lethal, but the scientists and doctors working on vaccines have confirmed that there has been no mutation of this sort.

2.  During the first wave, fools like NY governor Cuomo ordered sick people taken in as patients in nursing homes that were ill equipped to handle them with the result that the virus spread quickly to all the patients in the homes.  Cuomo caused about 11,000 extra unnecessary deaths in NY.  During the second wave, no governors made such egregious errors.  That is part of the answer, but it is far from enough to account for the full story.

3.  Treatment of the virus has improved.  That's certainly part of the equation as well.  Hospitals and doctors know better how to deal with the virus and some new treatments have been developed.  The date shows though that this doesn't explain the big difference between the two waves.  The number of people hospitalized each day during the second wave never made it as high as it did during the first wave.  In other words, 35,000 new cases per day during the first wave generated more hospitalizations that 70,000 cases per day during the second wave.  Obviously, this isn't affected by better hospital treatments.

4.  There were many, many more tests.  During the first wave, daily testing hit about 40,000 per day in March rising to just over 100,000 per day in April.  During the second wave, daily testing was in excess of  700,000 tests per day.  All those tests found huge numbers of people with no or very few symptoms of the virus.  In other words, the big numbers of new cases consisted in great part of people who wouldn't have even been diagnosed during the first wave.

If you assume that the death rate from the virus would have been reduced by 30% during the second wave due to better treatments and the absence of moronic moves like Governor Cuomo's order on nursing homes, you can use the adjusted number of deaths to compare the actual severity of the second wave to the first.  That calculation tells us that the first wave was about 75% more severe than the the second wave.  That's right, the huge second wave was just over half as serious as the first.

In July, President Trump told the nation that the reason for the big uptick in cases was that there were so many more tests being done.  The media laughed at him and said he was ignoring the "science".  Now the data shows that Trump was right and the media was wrong.  Trump was only telling us what the government scientists had themselves concluded. And now, when all the data shows the actual reality, we don't get the true story.

Wow, Gaffe Free

 Did you watch Joe Biden give his speech last night?  Were you impressed?  He didn't make any big mistakes.  He didn't fall down from exhaustion.  He seemed alert.  To many, that was a "victory", and given the last five months of Biden hiding in his basement, it's not surprising that they think that.

Now for the first real question:  did Biden make you think he could be president?  I sure didn't think so.  I kept waiting for Biden to tell us what he would do if he got the office.  I don't mean generalities or old chestmuts like he would build infrastructure.  We hear the infrastructure rant every four years.  Remember when Obama-Biden told us about all those shovel ready jobs that they were going to build?  They talked about it, but all we got was nothing.  Trump talks about infrastructure too and proposed a plan to do it, but Pelosi and House Democrats weren't interested.  Trump got projects like stalled pipelines built because he didn't need help from the Dems, but there remains much to do.  Anyway, back to Biden, I also don't mean generalities like being tough on China.  Biden actually said he would be tough on Beijing.  This is the guy who earlier THIS YEAR said China was even a competitor of the USA.  This is a guy who gave the Chinese everything they wanted -- including millions of American jobs -- when he ran part of the Obama foreign policy regarding China.  This is NOT the guy who is going to be tough on China.

So again, what would Biden do as president?  Would he follow the moves outlined in the Democrats' platform?  Would he end oil and gas drilling in the USA like the platform says?  He said he would again THIS YEAR even though it would cost millions more American jobs.  Would Biden give free medical care to all illegal aliens like the platform says?  American citizens have to pay huge amounts for health insurance, but illegals will get it for free?  Will Biden increase taxes by four billion dollars like the platform says (even though the amount will likely be higher)?  He has said many times that he will do just that, and a tax hike of that magnitude will deliver a huge blow to an economy that is still recovering from the virus shutdown.  We would have a "recovery" like Obama's where everything stagnated for eight years with particularly the middle class and the poor doing worse while only the wealthy prospered.

Biden didn't really tell us what he would do.  He didn't have any real goal for the nation except that he wouldn't be Trump.  That's not enough.  That's not even close to enough.

Hopefully, Biden is not about to go back into the bunker.  Maybe now he will use the next ten weeks to make an actual case for his being president.  I doubt it, but hey, you never know.

History in the Making???????????????

 Think for a moment.  How many times today did you see an article that proclaimed that Kamala Harris "made history" at last night's convention?  It seems to be the description of choice when talking about Harris' speech.  Sounds great, doesn't it?  Harris made history!!!!!

When you read the article, however, you find that the history Harris made was by being the first black woman to be a VP candidate.  She didn't say anything historic.  She didn't do anything historic.  Nope, she just was the first, so that's historic.

It sure seems that when it comes to describing something as "historic", the media is setting the bar really, really low.

Minnesota Polls Show Tie

 The state with the longest string of supporting Democrats in the entire country is Minnesota.  The last Republican to carry Minnesota in a presidential race was Richard Nixon in 1972.  Today, the Trafalgar polling group released a Minnesota poll of likely voters that showed each of Biden and Trump with 47%.  That's amazing.  Normally one would think that if Biden loses Minnesota, he will almost certainly lose the election.  This year, however, that may not be the case.  Minnesota is where George Floyd died while in police custody.  The initial riots were all in Minneapolis and Minnesota is not the sort of place that takes kindly to rioters.  On top of that, the police took a big hit after Floyd died even though that death was at most the work of one officer, not all police.  If I had to speculate, this poll is the result of many Minnesotans reacting negatively to the Democrats' support for (or at least failure to denounce) the rioters.

If this change in Minnesota is also seen in other places hard hit by the riots, we could see Wisconsin, Oregon and Washington move towards supporting the Republicans.  That's roughly 40 electoral votes that could get locked in for Trump.  Most likely that would keep Trump in the Oval Office.

In 2016, Trump won by breaking the "blue wall" of Democrat states.  If he wins these four states in 2020, the blue wall will be nothing more than rubble.

Live -- No Really, LIVE!!! -- Sure, We Believe That

 Tonight, Joe Biden is going to accept the nomination of the Democrat Party live (cough, cough) on TV.  Apparently, the Dems think that most Americans are so gullible that they will believe that nonsense.  Biden is supposed to speak for about 40 minutes while standing at a lectern.  Word is that the last time Biden was able to stand and speak coherently -- even reading from a teleprompter -- for longer than five minutes was in February.

I find it amusing that the Dems are claiming that the speech is not pre-recorded.  If you care so little for your sanity that you decide to watch tonight, be sure to look for a shot at some time in the last two minutes of the speech where the camera cuts away to something other than Old Joe.  That will be where they mesh the live shot of Joe together with the taped segment that starts the speech.  It should be like 38 minutes of tape, recorded after multiple takes for each segment, and 2 minutes of live speech, mostly thank you and good night.

On another note, after multiple segments of the Democrats removed "one nation under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance delivered by Zoom at their caucuses, will Biden end his speech with the traditional "God Bless America" line?  It's bizarre to think that by asking for a divine blessing for our nation, Biden might be alienating a big segment of his party, but that clearly is the case.  Will Biden risk alienating millions of people by snubbing the Lord, or will he risk alienating millions of left wing crazies by mentioning that?

Brave New World -- Aggressive Panhandling

 The New York Post has a video on their website of a retired NY police sergeant being beaten by two guys who are in their early 20's.  The former cop had just exited a convenience store in Manhattan, spoke to the two guys and then got savagely beaten and robbed.  A security camera caught the whole incident on video.

The key to the story is not the incident, but the "new" response.  Police caught the perps who inflicted this outrage on the retired cop.  They gave them desk appearance tickets for "aggresive panhandling".  That's it.  No charge for assault.  No charge for robbery.  Nothing that might result in actual jail time for these thugs.  Just a desk appearance ticket.  Want to bet on whether or not these thugs actually show up when their cases come up?

They used to say, "don't do the crime if you don't want to do the time."  The new phrase in New York should be "don't do the crime if you don't want to have to rip up the desk appearance ticket."

New Unemployment Claims and Continuing Claims

 The weekly report on unemployment claims released this morning was mixed.  New claims rose to 1.1 million from just under 1 million.  Continuing claims, however fell about 600,000 to the mid 14 million number.  That means that slightly more people sought unemployment compensation for the first time last week which most likely came from people working in businesses that were shut back down or restricted after the second rise in virus cases that peaked a month ago.  It also means that the total number of unemployed American workers fell by a large number last week as continuing claims dropped by a lot.

Since last week was the one which the August employment report will use as its basis, we will likely see a big number of new job creations reported for the month.  It should be in the region of 2 million jobs created.  The unemployment rate should also drop below 10% for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.

One note is worth mentioning.  This was the first week since the $600 per week federal supplement to unemployment ended.  After Congress couldn't agree on an extension, President Trump issued and executive order to authorize $400 payments.  That requires states, however, to apply for the funds for this supplement.  Only 11 states have done so to date, and one (SD) has said it doesn't need the money.  For some reason, none of the big states with Democrat governors have asked for the cash.  

More Good News On Virus Doesn't Go Viral

 In the last four weeks, the number of new cases each day of COVID 19 infections have fallen in the USA by about 40%.  The number of people in the hospital due to the virus has dropped big time as well.  In fact, when we had the early summer spike in new cases, the hospitalizations never rose as much.  That is because many of the new cases were asymptomatic or low symptom cases caught due to the avalanche of new testing.  In New York City yesterday, the percentage of tests that came back positive was less than one quarter of one percent.  That means only 1 test out of 400 showed a viral infection.  That's less than the margin of error.  In other words, if one tested 400 people who were not infected, there would still be a few whose tests would come back with false positive readings.  It may be that essentially no one tested positive in New York City.  (Of course, there can be false negatives as well, so we really don't know.)  On top of this, in all the states where there was a big increase in cases in early summer, the declines in cases and hospitalizations have been dramatic.  For example, in Texas, there is almost a 50% decline in the number of folks in the hospital due to COVID.

All this is great news.  If the trends continue (and we will just have to wait and see on that), we could be getting to the point where the big outbreak in the USA is coming to an end.  The USA which for a long time had more cases than any other country, is now third after India and Brazil in the number of daily new cases (and we have many multiples of the numbers of tests).  Other countries are also moving close to the numbers in the USA.  

So if there's all this great news, why isn't there more coverage of it?  If you watch the news, the latest big story was about how results of COVID tests are too slow in being reported.  Supposedly, people are waiting more than 4 days to get results.  That too turned out to be a lie.  The two biggest labs doing tests (Labcorp and Quest) reported that high priority tests (those for people with serious symptoms) have a one day turn around time.  They further said that the other tests were being reported back, on average, after two days.  Then there are hundreds of thousands of tests done on the machinges that give results in 15 minutes or less.  While the initial four day wait claim got big coverage, the actual facts were hardly covered at all.  And why is there no big celebration in the media of the huge decline in people suffering from the virus in the hospital?  Shouldn't the fears of the American people be dealt with by telling them the truth.

The answer is that the media wants people to be frightened.  That lets them (and their Democrat allies) blame President Trump for the virus.  How many times have Biden or Cuomo or Schumer or Pelosi told us that Trump had no strategy for testing?  The USA went from having the capacity to do a few hundred tests each day to actually doing over eight hundred thousand tests each day, but that means nothing to these fear mongers.  People with symptoms basically get their test results within a day while the rest get them in two days on average, but the fear mongers falsely claim it takes four days in order to keep people fearful.

A pandemic is not a political opportunity.  America deserves the truth not phony stories designed to stir up fear.

What was Missing from Last Night's Democrat Convention

 Watch This!!

Two Florida Surprises

 The primary in Florida was today and there were two races worth mentioning.  Laura Loomer won a five way battle for the GOP nomination in one congressional district.  If you don't know her, I suggest you try reading her Twitter feed.  It says it all.

The second race of note is that Scott Israel lost his attempted comeback as sheriff of Broward County.  Israel was sheriff during the Parkland High School massacre and his totally failed and dishonest role in that mess led governor DeSantis to remove him from office.  Thankfully, the voters would not let him come back.

Stifling a Yawn - the Democrats' Convention part II

 Earlier today, I wrote about how the first night of the Democrats' convention was uncommonly boring and that no one other than a true believer could sit through the whole thing.  Now the ratings are out and they confirm my judgment.  Ratings for the first night of the convention are down by about 50% from where they were four years ago.  There was no contest in 2016; Hillary had it wrapped up.  There was no contest in 2020; Biden has it wrapped up.  Still, the fall off in viewing is staggering.  Total viewership on NBC, CBS and ABC combined was under six million people.

Tonight, there may be a further fall off in viewers.  Why watch some minor Democrats and a has been like Bill Clinton make a speech?  

Recent Polling And What It Shows

 The "experts" and the pundits are busy analyzing the election polls.  As you would expect, the expert analysis depends more on what party the expert supports than on what the numbers show.  There are two trends in recent polling, though, that are clear.

The first trend is that the pick of Kamala Harris by Biden was a dud.  Biden chose Harris ten days ago.  Normally, the selection of a VP gives a surge of coverage and a bounce in the polls.  Even VP picks like Sarah Palin who ultimately hurt their ticket give an initial boost.  Harris provided no boost at all to the Biden numbers.  In fact, Biden's numbers got weaker after he chose Harris.

The decline in Biden's numbers is the second trend of late.  There is a discernible narrowing of Biden's lead in the nation polls as well as in many state polls.  No, Trump has not pulled away.  Nor has support of Biden collapsed.  There is, however, a trend that is showing.  Indeed, if one averages all of the battleground state polls one finds that Trump is running better in 2020 at this point than he did in 2016 against Hillary.  That improvement in 2020 is just about 1%.

Stifling A Yawn -- The Democrats' Convention Night One

 Last night, the Democrats broadcast night one of their convention.  It was boring beyond belief.  Sure, they trotted out a pre-recorded speech by Michelle Obama as the big moment of the night.  It was nostalgic to see the former first lady, but her speech was recorded so long ago that she didn't even mention Kamala Harris who had not yet been chosen when Obama spoke.  Beyond that, we got endless pablum about "we the people" and about how terrible Trump is.  The Dems didn't bother to mention antifa or Black Lives Matter and the chaos they have brought to cities across the nation; clearly, there needed to be a plan for that and instead we got silence.  They had Andrew Cuomo speak about his great "success" in dealing with the corona virus.  Cuomo is the governor who crazily ordered nursing homes to accept patients infected with the virus even though most nursing homes had no ability to cope with that scourge.  The resulting mess was horrendous as the corona virus spread through these facilities and killed over 11,000 elderly New Yorkers.  Some success!  It was more like murder than success.

The truth didn't matter, though, to the Democrats.  They went on and on about things that never happened.  They took credit for things that they had opposed.  They castigated Trump for things with which he was not involved.  There's no point in chronicling them.  There will be more to come in the rest of the convention.

I don't know what the ratings for last night's gab fest were.  I have to assume that they were low.  Maybe folks tuned in to see Michelle, but I find it hard to believe that anyone who is not a true believer in the Democrats' cause could have stuck with this hot mess for the whole time.

Let’s Freak Out in CT

 The State government in CT is increasingly refusing to drop unnecessary restrictions due to the virus. Governor Lamont is pushing panic and more panic. But here’s the key: as of today, there are only 42 people left in the hospital with the virus in CT. There are less than 1% of those tested in the state testing positive for virus. That’s less than the rate of false results from these tests in other words, shutting down the whole state is continuing without any real reason to do so   Millions must suffer according to the governor  But no one will be saved  Of course it sounds good politically  

We need an intelligent governor    

It’s not the case that the virus is totally gone in CT. It is however, a rate so low that there’s no point in all the restrictions that keep increasing.

Yet Another Biden Lie

 The Biden Lie of the Day is out.  It turns out that Biden didn't meet his wife on a blind date in 1975.  Actually, he had an affair with her while she was still married to her first husband years earlier.  The whole story is described in detail by Jill's first husband in news reports, including the part where Jill and her first husband worked closely with Biden on his first senate campaign as well as the part where Jill actually took care of Joe's kids Hunter and Beau on occasion in the early 70's.  Obviously, if they knew each other well enough for Jill to take care of Biden's kids, he didn't first meet her on a blind date years later.

Like so much else with Biden's "history", the story of how he met his wife is bogus.  It's like his claim to have been at the top of his law school class  when he actually was in the bottom 10%.  It's like his claim that his family were coal miners (no that was British Labor leader Neil Kinnock).  It's like his claim that he called for drastic action to curtail the corona virus before Trump did anything (No, when Trump stopped travel into the country from China, Biden denounced it as a racist move that would not work.  When Trump shut down entry from infected countries in Europe, Biden again said Trump was overreacting with xenophobia.)  It's like Biden's claim that if you don't vote for him "you aint black".  (No, Biden spend his first years in DC fighting against school integration, saying that adding blacks to white schools would "turn them into racial jungles".  Biden also worked closely with segregationist Southern Democrat senators to slow walk civil rights for blacks.  In the 1990's he spearheaded the move to increase penalties on criminals in a way that targeted the black community.)

How many lies must Biden tell before everyone realizes what a liar he is?

More Mail In Nonsense From the Democrats

 The newest manufactured outrage from the Democrats and the media is that the Post Office is being dismantled so that there can't be mail in voting next November.  It's all a plot by President Trump and the Postmaster General who contributed to the Trump Campaign in 2016.  It's laughable.

The Dems scream that the Post Office is removing collection boxes.  Oh my!! The post office says that every year it removes boxes that no longer are in heavy use.  The USPS adds, however, that NO BOXES WILL BE REMOVED BETWEEN NOW AND ELECTION DAY.  The Dems and the media don't care; they are still screaming about the box removal that isn't happening.  Maybe they will tell us how normal adjustments to mail collection boxes in December will affect people mailing ballots in November.

The Dems also scream that the Post Office is removing some sorting machines.  Again, Oh my!!  The post office says that while it is planning to remove some machines to keep its facilities in line with the declining level of mail being sorted, NONE OF THE MACHINES WILL BE REMOVED BEFORE THE ELECTION.  Again, perhaps the Dems or someone in the media will explain how removing sorting machines in 2021 will affect people mailing in ballots in November.

But that's not all.  The Dems are also screaming that these changes at the Post Office will delay seniors from getting their social security checks.  Here's how the Washington Post described it.  "  Democrats also warn that slowed postal delivery is delaying ...Social Security checks for the elderly."

Keep in mind that no Social Security checks have been mailed to anyone since 2013.  Social Security is distributed by either direct deposit or by adding funds to debit cards that the recipients already have.  If checks mailed in 2013 haven't made it to the seniors yet, it's pretty safe that they are never coming.

Simply put, the Democrats have no idea what they are talking about.  That doesn't matter; they are still screaming about it.  Pelosi even called Congress back into session to vote on a bill regarding the post office that will never pass.

Think about that for a moment.  Pelosi had no problem letting Congress adjourn when literally millions of people were in dire need of help because of the pandemic.  For the Dems, they prefer NOT making a deal that would help people so that they can blame President Trump for it.  When they think they have an issue that could be used to bludgeon the President, like this bogus post office nonsense, they rush back to Washington to vote on a bill that they KNOW cannot pass.

Disappearing Post Office Collection Boxes

 Oh the horror of it all.  Over the last 20 years, half of all the mail collection boxes in the country have been removed.  In the last two days, we learned that this removal happened because Donald Trump wants to suppress the vote in 2020.  Amazing, isn't it, how Trump got the box removal started in 2000 just to deal with the voting by mail issue in 2020.

Sure, that's idiotic.  Even so, you'd be surprised at how many in the mainstream media and the Democrat party and their fellow travelers are saying stuff like this today.  We've also heard that removal of unneeded sorting machines over the last two years was also done to suppress the vote.  That too is idiotic.

My favorite comment today, though, came from a fellow who first said that he knew that the Post Office has to cut costs and that taking steps to cut costs would slow the delivery of some mail, but that it was intolerable that such steps have been continued during the pandemic.  After all, some people needed medicines that come by mail.  That's so dumb, it made me laugh just thinking about it.  Imagine, some person might order medicine which was expected to come in 2-4 days but only get it in 3-5 days.  If the medicine is so important, why would the person ordering it wait until the last moment to place that order?  And why does the virus make it intolerable to cut costs at the post office?  

Stats On The Virus -- Reality

 If you listen to the media, the virus is getting worse and worse.  They peddle fear with endless scare tactics.  Actually, things are much better.  Here are a few facts:

1.  The number of new cases has declined by about 30% each day during the last four weeks.

2.  The number of people in the hospital due to the virus has declined by about 25% during the last four weeks.

3.  Not surprisingly, the number of deaths each day has also been declining.  Because there is a lag in deaths after new cases and hospitalizations, the decline in deaths has been less than that for the other two categories.

4.  Treatment of the virus has been more successful than in the early days of the pandemic.  Thus, the states with the more recent case spikes have much lower death rates than those which got hit early.  In California, Texas and Florida the combined death rate has been such that 1.8% of those infected have died.  In New York, New Jersey and Illinois (which got hit hard early in the pandemic) the death rate saw 7.0% of those infected die.  Some of this is due to the foolish orders by NY governor Cuomo to force nursing homes to admit patients infected with the virus, but the main difference is that treatment is now much better.

5.  Even now, new treatment options are being developed.  A new treatment which is based upon plasma from those recovered from the virus was tested in Israel with the results being released this past week.  About 85% of severely ill people given the treatment have recovered.  In the past, the recovery rate for such patients absent this new treatment was less than 25%.