Day 32 of not getting the shot.
Still no side effects!
“……..with a quote from journalist and historian William Shirer, writing from within Nazi Germany in the 30s.
‘ I myself was to experience how easily one is taken in by a lying and censored press and radio in a totalitarian state. Though unlike most Germans I had daily access to foreign newspapers, especially those of London, Paris and Zurich, which arrived the day after publication, and though I listened regularly to the BBC and other foreign broadcasts, my job necessitated the spending of many hours a day in combing the German press, checking the German radio, conferring with Nazi officials and going to party meetings. It was surprising and sometimes consternating to find that notwithstanding the opportunities I had to learn the facts and despite one’s inherent distrust of what one learned from Nazi sources, a steady diet over the years of falsifications and distortions made a certain impression on one’s mind and often misled it. No one who has not lived for years in a totalitarian land can possibly conceive how difficult it is to escape the dread consequences of a regime’s calculated and incessant propaganda. Often in a German home or office or sometimes in casual conversation with a stranger in a restaurant, a beer hall, a café, I would meet with the most outlandish assertions from seemingly educated and intelligent persons. It was obvious that they were parroting some piece of nonsense they had heard on the radio or read in the newspapers. Sometimes one was tempted to say as much, but on such occasions one was met with such a stare of incredulity, such a shock of silence, as if one had blasphemed the Almighty, that one realized how useless it was even to try to make contact with a mind which had become warped and for whom the facts of life had become what Hitler and Goebbels, with their cynical disregard for the truth, said they were.’ ”
What is interesting about the above quote is Shirer’s remark that he too , found the incessant propaganda influencing and affecting him; and he was a guy that hated the Nazis.
Of course, one does not have to live in a totalitarian state to be subjected to a never ending barrage of propaganda.
In earlier posts I have talked about the Sullivan decision having to be revisited. Today in MEANING OF HISTORY is a dissent from Judge Silberman who reviewed Hoover’s file before destroying them. He has had a very distinguished career.
An excellent dissent. The cracks are starting to form, the counter reaction is starting. Now we have to keep the pressure up. The legacy media is making it easy by their continued false stories.
After this Section 230 has to be tackled. I believe that Congress can amend the law to make the meaning clear so the court built interpretation goes up in smoke.
Funny Edward. I’m at six days after my first shot (Moderna) and did not experience much in the way of side effects. They warned me of effects on the first and second days, but I did notice that my energy was relatively low on days 3 and 4. That may or may not be related to the shot.
I was following the tiff between Sen. Rand Paul and A. Fauci two or three days ago, partly over masking theatrics. One of the things that Fauci mentioned near the end of the exchange was a new study showing that older folks are at higher risk of re-infection with COVID-19.
This is the essence of the conclusions: However, while prior infection gave those under the age of 65 years around 80% protection against reinfection, for people aged 65 and older it conferred only 47% protection, indicating that they are more likely to catch COVID-19 again.
That is a little scary, but I’m not entirely convinced that it is a great study. All of it is based on PCR testing. I didn’t see any efforts that the researchers made to exclude people who tested positive but didn’t feel sick in the first exposure. No mention of PCR cycle numbers. They claimed that their PCR false positive rate was 0.02% and the false negative rate was 3%. Hmm, strange. A very low cycle number?
The study compares infection from a first COVID wave in Denmark to infections in a second wave. However, the second wave was about 10 times bigger than the first in terms of numbers of infected people. One might imagine that there could have been more heavy inoculations in the second wave than in the first.
In the study’s discussion they mention other studies have shown overall re-infection immunity to range from 83% to 95%, so their new number is on the low end.
Watching the first couple of hours of the 12 Hours of Sebring, an iconic sports car race. It’s great to see a race where, other than masks still showing (when someone is being interviewed), it looks like a good crowd and lots of early racing action.
Corvette is doing well, at least the #4 car. The C8 model of Corvette is remarkable– a mid engine high performance car with a base price near $60K. Not just remarkable– incredible.
The mid-engine design is the peak of sports car design, not so much because of the weight balance– since front engine cars have a 50/50 balance. The advantage is better braking and acceleration.
I’m not so much a fan of the prototype class– though the FIA’s hypercar (Europe) and the coming DPIh (US) might be interesting if it allows manufacturers to race at a lower cost than the P1 class they’re replacing. Currently only Toyota manufacturer competing as Porsche, Mercedes and Audi dropped out of the class.
For US racing, this new DPIh class will include a hybrid component. I think this is appropriate, since a hybrid solution is the only practical one for transportation in the foreseeable future.
Last night Tucker Carlson introduced the word the Chinese use to describe the woke progressives in the U.S. – Baizuo
“Here’s how Chinese state media describe baizuo,” Tucker began, quoting, “‘They are people who only care about topics such as immigration, minorities, LGBT and the environment, who have no sense of real problems in the real world, who only advocate for peace and equality to satisfy their own feelings of moral superiority and who are so obsessed with political correctness that they tolerate backward Islamic values for the sake of multiculturalism.’”
Wow, the Chinese have nailed it.
Tucker goes on:
“So there you have the Chinese government using Black Lives Matter as a weapon against the United States,” Carlson said, commenting on the exchange. “You have the Chinese lecturing us about human rights. You never thought you would see the day that happened. But the amazing thing is in 2021, it works.”
Carlson also said that Chinese state media has criticized woke liberals in America because “they advocate inclusiveness and anti-discrimination but cannot tolerate different opinions. Baizuo political opinions are quote ‘so shallow that they tend to maintain social equality by embracing ideologies that run against the basic concept of equality.’ Amazing.”
Yes, amazing. The Chinese have diagnosed the mass hysteria that has taken hold in the U.S. This does not augur well for us.
Is an apple ok as a face mask?
Bryan E
Corvette is doing well, at least the #4 car. The C8 model of Corvette is remarkable– a mid engine high performance car with a base price near $60K. Not just remarkable– incredible.
Talked to an older man that ordered the C8 model Corvette. He had to put $1,500 down payment and on waiting list. He was told maybe up to 6 months before delivery.
J.J,
Tucker Carlson is the Emmanuel Goldstein for followers of wokism. He must be destroyed.
Beginning to shake … perhaps BeeGee withdrawal symptoms? How many weeks has it been since the last Brothers Gibb thread?
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
JimNorCal;
I’m waiting till people beg for the Bee Gees 🙂 . In the meantime, I just put up a music post for the weekend.
The C8 Corvette is out now? I’ve never seen one on the street. As it is I don’t see many C7’s.
Here is a website with photos of a C8 Corvette where GM sliced pieces out it, so you can see into the guts of it. I think I’ve seen the C8 on local streets, but I’m not sure I can easily spot the difference between the C7 and C8.
yikes … the dreaded comment filter has locked me up!
Jack, I’m sure there’s quite a demand for them. It’s a phenomenal car. One of the knocks on the Corvettes has been the cheesy interiors, and I understand they’ve addressed that with this model.
If I were 40 years younger, the C8 would be on my bucket list. If I were 10 years younger, I’d be picking up a low mileage (fairly easy with the Corvette) C5. That was the model that really made the Corvette a world class sports car.
I have a C4, which is a fine car, but the C5 achieved the 50/50 weight balance, added horsepower and made the car much more rigid. It was set up for autocross, which I still do with it occasionally, but the SCCA has put it in a class that it just isn’t competitive in.
The C5 is still a very competitive autocross car, and just plain fun to drive.
TommyJay, the front hood is shorter, but the big change that makes them easy to spot is the scoops behind the doors on the rear panels.
This deep dive into the ever expanding FBI investigation into the Reichstag Fire at Cap Hill on the 6th of January — seeking all and every digital tools, including private snoops, to track down every possible prosecutable target of the evil Trump Insurrection — is from the Rutherford Institute (vis Zerohedge) is my most disturbing read of the week.
And that’s saying something, since the wee has been target rich.
Go and read and tremble.
Vax report: AesopSpouse had a jab Friday morning from HealthOne in Denver, although I don’t know which manufacturer (you would think that’s the sort of thing I should ask..) and only had a little muscle soreness that day. He did stay close to the clinic for an hour just in case — and because it’s next door to Cabela’s.
Mine is scheduled at the closest Kaiser center on Tuesday.
“After this Section 230 has to be tackled. I believe that Congress can amend the law to make the meaning clear so the court built interpretation goes up in smoke.” – Spartacus
Congress can if Congress will.
But do they want to?
Keeping laws flexible and nuanced seems to be their preference.
Maybe we can get some action from Cruz & Co. — but MTG is looking like a better bet these days
These points in Judge Silberman’s bio at Wiki were interesting to me.
His government service includes stints as an attorney in the NLRB’s appellate section, as Solicitor of Labor from 1969 to 1970, and as Undersecretary of Labor from 1970 to 1973. As Solicitor, he was largely responsible for developing the requirement of goals and timetables as an enforcement device for the affirmative action order. He subsequently regretted his stance, writing, “Our use of numerical standards in pursuit of equal opportunity has led to the very quotas guaranteeing equal results that we initially wished to avoid.”[6]
He also led the development of legislation to implement “final offer selection” as a means of resolving labor disputes.[7] As Undersecretary, he repeatedly clashed with Charles “Chuck” Colson and tendered his resignation in order to compel the hiring of a black regional director in New York in 1972.[8]
As Deputy Attorney General of the United States from 1974 to 1975, Silberman was tasked with reviewing J. Edgar Hoover’s secret files, which he has described as “the single worst experience of my long governmental service”.[9] Silberman has stated that “this country – and the Federal Bureau of Investigation – would be well served if [Hoover’s] name were removed from the bureau’s building. It is as if the Defense Department were named for Aaron Burr. Liberals and conservatives should unite to support legislation to accomplish this repudiation of a very sad chapter in American history.”[10]
Silberman also served briefly as Acting Attorney General during the Watergate crisis, an experience he has described as awkward: “We were simultaneously carrying out President Nixon’s agenda and supporting those who were vigorously prosecuting him.”
…
[some of his major controversial opinions]
…
Dissenting vigorously in Tah v. Global Witness Publishing, Inc. Silberman called on the Supreme Court to overturn New York Times v. Sullivan, claimed that the New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal news section are “virtually Democratic Party broadsheets,” and labeled “[n]early all television—network and cable—a Democratic Party trumpet.” His dissent also accused big tech companies of censoring conservatives and warned that “Democratic Party ideological control” of the media may be a prelude to an “authoritarian or dictatorial regime” that constitutes “a threat to a viable democracy”.[34][35] The dissent also accused Twitter of restricting the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story, which reportedly had been rejected for publication by Fox News and viewed with skepticism even in the Post newsroom as it appeared during the closing days of the 2020 presidential campaign.[36][37]
Some of the usual Wiki left-spin on that last sentence, as “accused” doesn’t convey the reality that they did exactly that and the “reportedly” line is pure propaganda, but any twisting in the rest of the bio escaped me.
I’m assuming most of you saw that Kristi Noem decided she doesn’t want to be a Republican president. And yet, she was the Star of CPAC less than a month ago!
I think it was huxley the other day asking about evidence that Covid-19 was not natural in origin.
Sky News Australia has a new interview with the US State Department’s David Asher, who has been investigating the virus origins for nearly a year. He’s worked on Nuclear, chemical, and bio-terror weapons proliferation in a variety of administrations. And he’s never seen a more systematic coverup than at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Asher says that in 2019, there were a few from the Wuhan Institute of Virology who came down with Covid-19 type illness, and who required hospitalisation. Flu doesn’t ordinarily require the hospitalisation of working scientists or lab workers. And in last January, the Pompeo DoS released information confirming this claim.
Asher says that the DNA of the virus itself is composed of bats, pangolin, and mice — something that doesn’t occur in nature and that scientists he’s consulted say make this very unlikely to have been natural in origin.
Finally, Asher asserts that the Wuhan Indtitue may also reveal that China operates a bio weapons program.
Asher: “There’s going to be the need for a huge global investigation, well beyond the WHO”.
He said events and information have arisen which “made us feel the Wuhan Institute was highly probably the source of the COVID epidemic”.
Owning a Corvette was once on my “alternate” bucket list. Then a close friend of mine bought one.
It is, running away, the most uncomfortable car I have ever ridden in – as a passenger. (…as a driver it’s much, much better.) Plus, looking *up* at the tops of the wheels of a semi when you are stuck next to one on the interstate is not very comfortable either.
Too bad for me. At 25 it would have been great. At 66, not so much anymore.
What’s an open thread if not a venue for random thought? It’s not but here goes. Sermon topic was “Power.” Start with Lord Acton, next The Crusades, then The Inquisition, and finally Christians at the January 6th Capitol political theater. How did the sermon end? I don’t know, I walked out.
Well-worth watching. Excellent acting and it’s all done with a light allusive touch — the audience is presumed to be capable of figuring things out on its own without diatribes and thumping didacticism. Back in the day they felt no need to ham up the Victorianism and ladle on the Dickensian hyperreal grit and grime. Also have not yet seen a single out of place black face and do not expect to do so. How far we have fallen!
Roy,
I think a high performance car should be used for what it’s intended.
So I set up my Corvette for autocross and track days. The consequences of that is a very stiff suspension– much stiffer than what might be considered comfortable for a road car. So it’s not all that much fun around town– with all the tar strips and pot holes. It’s OK on the freeway and it’s quite the economy car at 70 mph. I usually average just shy of 30 mpg!
The C4 used frame rails on the outside, so you have to sit across a rather wide sill, and you’re kind of wedged in. The car was definitely designed for skinny people. The next generation, the C5 moved the frame rails inboard, moved the transmission to the rear axle for improved weight distribution, and widened the car 8 inches so the seats fit American posteriors.
About 10 years a bought a dedicated autocross car. It’s highly modified and isn’t street legal, so the Corvette doesn’t get much use. I haven’t had the time to do any track days.
Barry – links read. Rule holds – my comment was just the starting pistol.
I am, actually, waiting to see what the ultimate resolution is.
But the optics for Noem were disastrous.
SWC may even be correct — but that’s not what Noem said out loud.
If she is as good a politician as we need, to win in 2024 – against all the legions of Hell, and I don’t say that lightly — she must do a better job of conveying her real intent to the legislature and public, even if she know disagreement will ensue.
Claiming a “style” objection and then wanting substantive changes doesn’t cut it.
If what’s being said about her objections isn’t true, she needs to prove it.
The main thing was that she blind-sided her supporters, and nobody likes that.
Considering that the governor retweeted the organization’s tweet to announce she would sign the bill, that Gov. Noem sent it back to the legislature came as a shock. APP’s Jon Schweppe, who serves as the director of government affairs, told Townhall that it was “a bunch of malarkey.”
…
Schweppe raised concerns that what Noem is doing is “proposing to gut the bill to such a degree so it would not have any effect at all.” When it comes to Noem’s claims that the emphasis is on “Style and Form,” Schweppe said this kind of veto, outlined in the South Dakota Constitution, is more so designed for typos, slight changes to sentences, and other such revisions. He even called it “unconstitutional” for Noem to claim to use her veto power in that way and that it would be “a misuse of her executive power.”
In response to Noem’s claims that her suggestions were “to address the potential unintended consequences of HB 1217 as originally enrolled,” Schweppe pushed back and emphasized that with such changes, the bill would not have its intended effect. It may be a way for Noem to still claim to support it, he offered.
Keloland.com reported that State Sen. Maggie Sutton had similar concerns about the bill’s effectiveness in that case:
…
As to why Noem would not sign the legislation, Schweppe pointed out she “only listened to the bill’s most fervent opponents” and likely caved to pressures from the Chamber of Commerce and Board of Regents. One of Noem’s stated concerns was:
I am also concerned that the approach House Bill 1217 takes is unrealistic in the context of collegiate athletics. In South Dakota, we are proud of our universities’ athletic programs, and in particular the great strides we have taken to gain national exposure and increase opportunities for our next generation over the past two decades.
Schweppe assured Townhall that there will be pushback forcing Noem to choose between a real veto or signing the bill into law. “Conservatives in the state and Republicans in the legislature do not see this as a legitimate veto,” he said.
If she really is that concerned about the NCAA, she should have made that clear beforehand, not after the bill reached her desk.
That’s what negotiation is for.
From what I can tell, her political instincts are very good.
Here’s hoping that she’ll be able to thread the needle on this one….
In other words, Noem tried to have it both ways and, like is usually the case when one makes such an attempt, she failed. What did she expect to come out of such a rookie mistake?
Jon Schweppe, the direct of policy and government affairs at the American Principles Project, spoke to Townhall when the news came out. On Sunday, he also directed us to a blog post of his, “The Kristi Noem Veto, Explained.” The post focuses on Noem’s political future, with the subheadline reading, “A victim of bad advice, the South Dakota governor is inexplicably destroying her own political career.” His last line emphasizes this point, in that “Whoever advised her on this issue did her a great disservice.”
Schweppe also spoke to Townhall to discuss Noem’s future further. He explained he referred to Noem as a “victim” there, in that he is “trying to leave the door open to praise her if she reversed.” He emphasized that main premise, continuing with “I do think she got bad advice. The buck stops with her of course. But if she owns the mistake and does the right thing, and takes on the institutional power trying to stop this bill, I’m happy to forgive her and call her a champion of women’s sports!”
What Schweppe has emphasized throughout our multiple conversations and in his blog post is that the APP’s sources say Noem is using her “Style and Form” argument in an improper way. He’s referenced how “unconstitutional” and “a misuse of her executive power” as well as an “abuse of [it].” This time he goes further, in that it’s “Not even close” to being constitutional.
…
[Schweppe:]
Republican voters want fighters to lead them into 2024 and beyond. I think it will be challenging for Noem to be seen as a “fighter” if one of her most high profile bouts ends in her capitulating to Amazon and the Chamber of Commerce.
If she wants to run for [p]resident someday, she needs to reverse this decision and instead champion the women’s sports bill. There’s still time for her to do that. And if she does, I’ll be her biggest cheerleader.
There, I read “Compelling Commentary” and the linked article by Daniel Greenfield. And, I thought, “Let’s not give these bozos someone to blame.”
Regarding Noem, it is politics after all and who could wuestiom the motibrd of Schwepe? Using Noem’s actions to boost his group and his name? Not the first rodeo for Noem.
“The ‘Defend Title IX Now’ coalition will look into how the federal law known as Title IX has already helped level the playing field for women in college sports – including funding.
Noem said once several other states join the coalition, the NCAA will most likely not punish the entire group.”
Yeah, well, one the reasons we elected Trump was that he was driving the bandwagon, not waiting for someone else to put it together and then hop on.
It’s a principle or not. If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Noem may not come up in the queue again, so this is for the record.
The best explanation of her back-stabbing, blind-siding kick in the head to her legislature allies is in the Pullman post at the Federalist, where she explains her analogy to Pence (which I won’t go into).
As the saying goes: follow the money.
(Note: Noem claims she consulted with lawyers “for many, many months” — but she never put the legislators in the loop about her concerns, as Pullmann points out.)
[On Tucker Carlson’s show], she also said: “It would put a law on the books that would allow the NCAA to take punitive action against our state. And we’re a small state, Tucker. We’ve had to fight hard to get any tournaments to come to South Dakota. When they took punitive action against us, we would have to litigate, and legal scholars that I have been consulting with for many, many months say that I would very likely lose those litigation efforts.”
It is deliberately misleading to assert the NCAA would retaliate for this bill’s passage when states including Idaho and Mississippi have passed similar laws and their college women still play NCAA sports. As Cleveland explains, Noem is attempting to make the public believe that the NCAA requires participating sports teams to allow transgender athletes, when this is false.
…
Noem repeatedly claimed she was scared of lawsuits brought by the NCAA, parents of daughters forced to compete against transgender boys, and unnamed others over this bill. She attributed this alleged fear to claims from “legal scholars.” Did she consider competing legal opinions, or is this another misdirection? Because other legal experts are publicly disputing Noem’s claims of a lawsuit bonanza and offering free legal aid against such a specter.
By “legal scholars,” does Noem mean her chief of staff, Tony Venhuizen, a lawyer who also sits on the board of the Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce, which listed H.B. 1217 as a “tier 1” priority “of the highest importance” to oppose this legislative session? Or perhaps she means her “top advisor,” Matt McCaulley, a lawyer and lobbyist whose “clients include Sanford Health, which owns Sanford Sports Complex, a Sioux Falls arena that hopes to lure NCAA tourneys”?
Sanford Health also performs transgender treatments on minors, according to testimony before the South Dakota legislature in 2020. It therefore opposed a bill to ban transgender child mutilation last year, testifying and lobbying against it. Its lobbyist, McCaulley, is also getting hundreds of thousands of dollars to advise Noem, in an obvious conflict of interest state lawmakers have voiced concerns about.
“McCaulley is also the managing partner of Redstone Law Firm in Sioux Falls, which has been hired to provide outside legal counsel to the Noem administration,” noted in-state outlet Capital Journal shortly before Noem reversed her position on this bill.
Venhuizen is a former partner in McCaulley’s firm who left to work for Noem. Are these the legal advisors she’s talking about?
Even if NCAA is more than one of Noem’s intended fall guys for her refusal to sign this bill, the NCAA is not elected to control South Dakota laws. Noem and the state legislature are. South Dakotans don’t elect Kristi Noem to tell them she can’t sign laws their representatives want because some unelected leaders of private sports and business organizations insist their state indulge sexual insanity.
… If “legal scholars” have told her these terrible things about the bill’s consequences “for many, many months,” why did she pledge to sign just two weeks ago? She didn’t find these kinds of claims persuasive for “many, many months,” but now suddenly does? Why?
…
It seems pertinent to note that Noem has not been a reliable ally of vulnerable women threatened by transgender politics. On July 13, 2020, the Noem administration okayed placing male prisoners in women’s prisons if the male claimed to be female.
That’s bad enough, but there’s more. As Jon Schweppe of the American Principles Project notes of the 2020 attempt to ban transgender child mutilation in South Dakota, Noem kept quiet on the bill publicly but did “tell one media outlet that she had ‘concerns.’ (Sources within the state have told my organization that she effectively killed it.)”
…
Noem says if the legislature doesn’t pass her preferred version of this bill, she will call them into special session. But the legislature already passed the version of the bill they want, and if Noem had objections, like every other governor she could have made them known during the normal bill process. That is how passing a bill works — when governors actually want a bill they’re willing to sign.
There are lots of allegations in there, especially by Schweppe, which should be tested in fairness to Noem, but the professional vitae of prominent people is something it’s hard to get wrong (unless you are the NYT or WaPo, in which case it’s an editorial requirement).
My major problem was originally about the suddenness of her about-face, which does not bode well for her political future with a party base that already is fed up with bait-and-switch Congresses and Presidents. If she had concerns about the NCAA, she had plenty of time to bring those up and let the legislators debate and choose their preference for action, with negotiation on her part rather than fiat.
That was before I read anything about her advisors’ conflicts of interest, which are hers as well if they swayed her decision to change course for their benefit.
These two posts cover the rest of the waterfront on conservative disillusionment with our erstwhile First Female Republican President.
While Noem understandably prefers to avoid facing the economic brunt of a showdown with the NCAA, if she led, others would follow. That is what conservatives want. That is what they demand. Name names. Expose the threats. Stand firm and beckon others to the battle against the NCAA and woke corporate America. Truly lead the coalition.
If the NCAA retaliates, publicly call on Texas and Florida—two athletic powerhouses—to decline to host tournaments. Ask religious colleges and universities (most of which have in force a similar sex-based rule for athletic competition) to do so too. We may not be able to win against the NCAA in court, but we don’t need to. Governors like Noem just need to lead.
If Noem isn’t up for the task, or if she believes her duty to her South Dakota constituents demands she put their monetary interests first, fine. But don’t wave the white flag of surrender and tell me you’re merely waving to your coalition to join you.
Jon Schweppe, Director of Policy and Government Affairs at American Principles Project, joins Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky to break down South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s decision to issue a “style and form” veto against a bill seeking to protect women’s sports.
“This whole thing is ultimately a cover for vetoing on behalf of Amazon and the Chamber,” Schweppe explained. “That’s what everything here is and that’s what’s so disingenuous about it. I would just prefer that she admits she’s a squish, but she’s not gonna do that.”
Schweppe said Noem is gaslighting conservatives and insisting “that we’re the ones that are trying to hurt women’s sports by protecting women’s sports.”
Will Noem eventually sign the bill? Yes, but it will be “weaker,” Schweppe said. Even worse, he explained, is that the governor blew an opportunity to take the lead on a conservative agenda item that many voters care about.
“For women’s sports it’s pretty, pretty clear where people are at,” Schweppe said. “It’s an opportunity for us to draw a line in the sand, get all these states, ‘build a coalition,’ as the governor loves to say that she’s trying to do. We are. What we’re trying to do is get all these states to sign on to this, and then build off of that.”
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Day 32 of not getting the shot.
Still no side effects!
“……..with a quote from journalist and historian William Shirer, writing from within Nazi Germany in the 30s.
‘ I myself was to experience how easily one is taken in by a lying and censored press and radio in a totalitarian state. Though unlike most Germans I had daily access to foreign newspapers, especially those of London, Paris and Zurich, which arrived the day after publication, and though I listened regularly to the BBC and other foreign broadcasts, my job necessitated the spending of many hours a day in combing the German press, checking the German radio, conferring with Nazi officials and going to party meetings. It was surprising and sometimes consternating to find that notwithstanding the opportunities I had to learn the facts and despite one’s inherent distrust of what one learned from Nazi sources, a steady diet over the years of falsifications and distortions made a certain impression on one’s mind and often misled it. No one who has not lived for years in a totalitarian land can possibly conceive how difficult it is to escape the dread consequences of a regime’s calculated and incessant propaganda. Often in a German home or office or sometimes in casual conversation with a stranger in a restaurant, a beer hall, a café, I would meet with the most outlandish assertions from seemingly educated and intelligent persons. It was obvious that they were parroting some piece of nonsense they had heard on the radio or read in the newspapers. Sometimes one was tempted to say as much, but on such occasions one was met with such a stare of incredulity, such a shock of silence, as if one had blasphemed the Almighty, that one realized how useless it was even to try to make contact with a mind which had become warped and for whom the facts of life had become what Hitler and Goebbels, with their cynical disregard for the truth, said they were.’ ”
What is interesting about the above quote is Shirer’s remark that he too , found the incessant propaganda influencing and affecting him; and he was a guy that hated the Nazis.
Of course, one does not have to live in a totalitarian state to be subjected to a never ending barrage of propaganda.
In earlier posts I have talked about the Sullivan decision having to be revisited. Today in MEANING OF HISTORY is a dissent from Judge Silberman who reviewed Hoover’s file before destroying them. He has had a very distinguished career.
An excellent dissent. The cracks are starting to form, the counter reaction is starting. Now we have to keep the pressure up. The legacy media is making it easy by their continued false stories.
https://meaninginhistory.blogspot.com/2021/03/laurence-silbermans-blast-at-judicial.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Silberman
After this Section 230 has to be tackled. I believe that Congress can amend the law to make the meaning clear so the court built interpretation goes up in smoke.
Funny Edward. I’m at six days after my first shot (Moderna) and did not experience much in the way of side effects. They warned me of effects on the first and second days, but I did notice that my energy was relatively low on days 3 and 4. That may or may not be related to the shot.
I was following the tiff between Sen. Rand Paul and A. Fauci two or three days ago, partly over masking theatrics. One of the things that Fauci mentioned near the end of the exchange was a new study showing that older folks are at higher risk of re-infection with COVID-19.
Here is a decent account of this Danish study.
Here is the med. journal article in the Lancet.
This is the essence of the conclusions:
However, while prior infection gave those under the age of 65 years around 80% protection against reinfection, for people aged 65 and older it conferred only 47% protection, indicating that they are more likely to catch COVID-19 again.
That is a little scary, but I’m not entirely convinced that it is a great study. All of it is based on PCR testing. I didn’t see any efforts that the researchers made to exclude people who tested positive but didn’t feel sick in the first exposure. No mention of PCR cycle numbers. They claimed that their PCR false positive rate was 0.02% and the false negative rate was 3%. Hmm, strange. A very low cycle number?
The study compares infection from a first COVID wave in Denmark to infections in a second wave. However, the second wave was about 10 times bigger than the first in terms of numbers of infected people. One might imagine that there could have been more heavy inoculations in the second wave than in the first.
In the study’s discussion they mention other studies have shown overall re-infection immunity to range from 83% to 95%, so their new number is on the low end.
Watching the first couple of hours of the 12 Hours of Sebring, an iconic sports car race. It’s great to see a race where, other than masks still showing (when someone is being interviewed), it looks like a good crowd and lots of early racing action.
Corvette is doing well, at least the #4 car. The C8 model of Corvette is remarkable– a mid engine high performance car with a base price near $60K. Not just remarkable– incredible.
The mid-engine design is the peak of sports car design, not so much because of the weight balance– since front engine cars have a 50/50 balance. The advantage is better braking and acceleration.
I’m not so much a fan of the prototype class– though the FIA’s hypercar (Europe) and the coming DPIh (US) might be interesting if it allows manufacturers to race at a lower cost than the P1 class they’re replacing. Currently only Toyota manufacturer competing as Porsche, Mercedes and Audi dropped out of the class.
For US racing, this new DPIh class will include a hybrid component. I think this is appropriate, since a hybrid solution is the only practical one for transportation in the foreseeable future.
Lady Blue …
https://youtu.be/IDYcARlKsMM
Last night Tucker Carlson introduced the word the Chinese use to describe the woke progressives in the U.S. – Baizuo
“Here’s how Chinese state media describe baizuo,” Tucker began, quoting, “‘They are people who only care about topics such as immigration, minorities, LGBT and the environment, who have no sense of real problems in the real world, who only advocate for peace and equality to satisfy their own feelings of moral superiority and who are so obsessed with political correctness that they tolerate backward Islamic values for the sake of multiculturalism.’”
Wow, the Chinese have nailed it.
Tucker goes on:
“So there you have the Chinese government using Black Lives Matter as a weapon against the United States,” Carlson said, commenting on the exchange. “You have the Chinese lecturing us about human rights. You never thought you would see the day that happened. But the amazing thing is in 2021, it works.”
Carlson also said that Chinese state media has criticized woke liberals in America because “they advocate inclusiveness and anti-discrimination but cannot tolerate different opinions. Baizuo political opinions are quote ‘so shallow that they tend to maintain social equality by embracing ideologies that run against the basic concept of equality.’ Amazing.”
Yes, amazing. The Chinese have diagnosed the mass hysteria that has taken hold in the U.S. This does not augur well for us.
Is an apple ok as a face mask?
Bryan E
Talked to an older man that ordered the C8 model Corvette. He had to put $1,500 down payment and on waiting list. He was told maybe up to 6 months before delivery.
J.J,
Tucker Carlson is the Emmanuel Goldstein for followers of wokism. He must be destroyed.
Beginning to shake … perhaps BeeGee withdrawal symptoms? How many weeks has it been since the last Brothers Gibb thread?
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
JimNorCal;
I’m waiting till people beg for the Bee Gees 🙂 . In the meantime, I just put up a music post for the weekend.
The C8 Corvette is out now? I’ve never seen one on the street. As it is I don’t see many C7’s.
Here is a website with photos of a C8 Corvette where GM sliced pieces out it, so you can see into the guts of it. I think I’ve seen the C8 on local streets, but I’m not sure I can easily spot the difference between the C7 and C8.
yikes … the dreaded comment filter has locked me up!
Jack, I’m sure there’s quite a demand for them. It’s a phenomenal car. One of the knocks on the Corvettes has been the cheesy interiors, and I understand they’ve addressed that with this model.
If I were 40 years younger, the C8 would be on my bucket list. If I were 10 years younger, I’d be picking up a low mileage (fairly easy with the Corvette) C5. That was the model that really made the Corvette a world class sports car.
I have a C4, which is a fine car, but the C5 achieved the 50/50 weight balance, added horsepower and made the car much more rigid. It was set up for autocross, which I still do with it occasionally, but the SCCA has put it in a class that it just isn’t competitive in.
The C5 is still a very competitive autocross car, and just plain fun to drive.
TommyJay, the front hood is shorter, but the big change that makes them easy to spot is the scoops behind the doors on the rear panels.
This deep dive into the ever expanding FBI investigation into the Reichstag Fire at Cap Hill on the 6th of January — seeking all and every digital tools, including private snoops, to track down every possible prosecutable target of the evil Trump Insurrection — is from the Rutherford Institute (vis Zerohedge) is my most disturbing read of the week.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/digital-trails-how-fbi-identifying-tracking-rounding-dissidents
And that’s saying something, since the wee has been target rich.
Go and read and tremble.
Vax report: AesopSpouse had a jab Friday morning from HealthOne in Denver, although I don’t know which manufacturer (you would think that’s the sort of thing I should ask..) and only had a little muscle soreness that day. He did stay close to the clinic for an hour just in case — and because it’s next door to Cabela’s.
Mine is scheduled at the closest Kaiser center on Tuesday.
huxley, if you drop by tonight – some more on our discussion of Maureen and Hayley, and a story about American Country Music overseas (but NOT in Ireland).
https://www.thenewneo.com/2021/03/17/open-thread-3-17-21/#comment-2547127
“After this Section 230 has to be tackled. I believe that Congress can amend the law to make the meaning clear so the court built interpretation goes up in smoke.” – Spartacus
Congress can if Congress will.
But do they want to?
Keeping laws flexible and nuanced seems to be their preference.
Maybe we can get some action from Cruz & Co. — but MTG is looking like a better bet these days
These points in Judge Silberman’s bio at Wiki were interesting to me.
Some of the usual Wiki left-spin on that last sentence, as “accused” doesn’t convey the reality that they did exactly that and the “reportedly” line is pure propaganda, but any twisting in the rest of the bio escaped me.
I’m assuming most of you saw that Kristi Noem decided she doesn’t want to be a Republican president. And yet, she was the Star of CPAC less than a month ago!
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/rebeccadowns/2021/03/19/gov-krisi-noem-veto-n2586577
“Gov. Kristi Noem ‘Misusing Her Executive Power’ in Sending Back Bill Banning Trans Athletes from Women Sports”
AF,
Whatever happened to the “three-day rule”…?
Note the following:
1.
https://twitter.com/BrandonHathaw12/status/1373324788618256385
2.
https://twitter.com/govkristinoem/status/1373008569352794114
+…
https://twitter.com/shipwreckedcrew/status/1373461187833163777
I think it was huxley the other day asking about evidence that Covid-19 was not natural in origin.
Sky News Australia has a new interview with the US State Department’s David Asher, who has been investigating the virus origins for nearly a year. He’s worked on Nuclear, chemical, and bio-terror weapons proliferation in a variety of administrations. And he’s never seen a more systematic coverup than at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Asher says that in 2019, there were a few from the Wuhan Institute of Virology who came down with Covid-19 type illness, and who required hospitalisation. Flu doesn’t ordinarily require the hospitalisation of working scientists or lab workers. And in last January, the Pompeo DoS released information confirming this claim.
Asher says that the DNA of the virus itself is composed of bats, pangolin, and mice — something that doesn’t occur in nature and that scientists he’s consulted say make this very unlikely to have been natural in origin.
Finally, Asher asserts that the Wuhan Indtitue may also reveal that China operates a bio weapons program.
Strong stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBq-LV3Jm1M
Asher: “There’s going to be the need for a huge global investigation, well beyond the WHO”.
He said events and information have arisen which “made us feel the Wuhan Institute was highly probably the source of the COVID epidemic”.
Owning a Corvette was once on my “alternate” bucket list. Then a close friend of mine bought one.
It is, running away, the most uncomfortable car I have ever ridden in – as a passenger. (…as a driver it’s much, much better.) Plus, looking *up* at the tops of the wheels of a semi when you are stuck next to one on the interstate is not very comfortable either.
Too bad for me. At 25 it would have been great. At 66, not so much anymore.
What’s an open thread if not a venue for random thought? It’s not but here goes. Sermon topic was “Power.” Start with Lord Acton, next The Crusades, then The Inquisition, and finally Christians at the January 6th Capitol political theater. How did the sermon end? I don’t know, I walked out.
Here’s Power Himself.
https://youtu.be/4rR95ru9dB8
Why isn’t this stadium full of Russians cowering at home in their face diapers? Informed minds want to know!
Trollope Fans:
Started binge-watching the 1974 BBC Pallisers Series on EvilTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTFzSjwdczQ
Well-worth watching. Excellent acting and it’s all done with a light allusive touch — the audience is presumed to be capable of figuring things out on its own without diatribes and thumping didacticism. Back in the day they felt no need to ham up the Victorianism and ladle on the Dickensian hyperreal grit and grime. Also have not yet seen a single out of place black face and do not expect to do so. How far we have fallen!
Roy,
I think a high performance car should be used for what it’s intended.
So I set up my Corvette for autocross and track days. The consequences of that is a very stiff suspension– much stiffer than what might be considered comfortable for a road car. So it’s not all that much fun around town– with all the tar strips and pot holes. It’s OK on the freeway and it’s quite the economy car at 70 mph. I usually average just shy of 30 mpg!
The C4 used frame rails on the outside, so you have to sit across a rather wide sill, and you’re kind of wedged in. The car was definitely designed for skinny people. The next generation, the C5 moved the frame rails inboard, moved the transmission to the rear axle for improved weight distribution, and widened the car 8 inches so the seats fit American posteriors.
About 10 years a bought a dedicated autocross car. It’s highly modified and isn’t street legal, so the Corvette doesn’t get much use. I haven’t had the time to do any track days.
Barry – links read. Rule holds – my comment was just the starting pistol.
I am, actually, waiting to see what the ultimate resolution is.
But the optics for Noem were disastrous.
SWC may even be correct — but that’s not what Noem said out loud.
If she is as good a politician as we need, to win in 2024 – against all the legions of Hell, and I don’t say that lightly — she must do a better job of conveying her real intent to the legislature and public, even if she know disagreement will ensue.
Claiming a “style” objection and then wanting substantive changes doesn’t cut it.
If what’s being said about her objections isn’t true, she needs to prove it.
The main thing was that she blind-sided her supporters, and nobody likes that.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/rebeccadowns/2021/03/19/gov-krisi-noem-veto-n2586577
If she really is that concerned about the NCAA, she should have made that clear beforehand, not after the bill reached her desk.
That’s what negotiation is for.
From what I can tell, her political instincts are very good.
Here’s hoping that she’ll be able to thread the needle on this one….
Barry – well, the 3 days are up this evening….
Downs says the base is still willing to forgive her.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/rebeccadowns/2021/03/21/kristi-noem-analysis-n2586603
Spartacus, thank you very much for linking
https://meaninginhistory.blogspot.com
There, I read “Compelling Commentary” and the linked article by Daniel Greenfield. And, I thought, “Let’s not give these bozos someone to blame.”
Regarding Noem, it is politics after all and who could wuestiom the motibrd of Schwepe? Using Noem’s actions to boost his group and his name? Not the first rodeo for Noem.
question and motives
smart phone tiny keyboard and device reboot!
Continued developments…
https://justthenews.com/government/state-houses/gov-noem-creates-national-coalition-protect-womens-sports-college
“The ‘Defend Title IX Now’ coalition will look into how the federal law known as Title IX has already helped level the playing field for women in college sports – including funding.
Noem said once several other states join the coalition, the NCAA will most likely not punish the entire group.”
Yeah, well, one the reasons we elected Trump was that he was driving the bandwagon, not waiting for someone else to put it together and then hop on.
It’s a principle or not. If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Noem may not come up in the queue again, so this is for the record.
The best explanation of her back-stabbing, blind-siding kick in the head to her legislature allies is in the Pullman post at the Federalist, where she explains her analogy to Pence (which I won’t go into).
As the saying goes: follow the money.
(Note: Noem claims she consulted with lawyers “for many, many months” — but she never put the legislators in the loop about her concerns, as Pullmann points out.)
https://thefederalist.com/2021/03/24/kristi-noem-running-the-mike-pence-play-to-help-leftists-control-the-culture/
There are lots of allegations in there, especially by Schweppe, which should be tested in fairness to Noem, but the professional vitae of prominent people is something it’s hard to get wrong (unless you are the NYT or WaPo, in which case it’s an editorial requirement).
My major problem was originally about the suddenness of her about-face, which does not bode well for her political future with a party base that already is fed up with bait-and-switch Congresses and Presidents. If she had concerns about the NCAA, she had plenty of time to bring those up and let the legislators debate and choose their preference for action, with negotiation on her part rather than fiat.
That was before I read anything about her advisors’ conflicts of interest, which are hers as well if they swayed her decision to change course for their benefit.
These two posts cover the rest of the waterfront on conservative disillusionment with our erstwhile First Female Republican President.
https://thefederalist.com/2021/03/26/the-worst-thing-about-kristi-noems-sports-capitulation-is-her-lies/
(by Margot Cleveland, so it’s very lawyerly, and doesn’t mention the staffer connections)
The substance of the two posts, combined.
https://thefederalist.com/2021/03/25/podcast-what-on-earth-happened-with-gov-kristi-noem/