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Wednesday, November 18. 2020

Look Up! You Can See Entire Solar System This Week

Book: 1620: A Critical Response to the 1619 Project by Peter Wood

South Dakota Nurse: Dying COVID-19 Patients ‘Still Don’t Believe The Virus Is Real’

"Schools Should Be the Last Things We Close, Not the First/Why do we keep asking children to bear the brunt of a lockdown?"

Coronavirus tracked: Massive surge sees US set multiple world records for new daily cases

NYC’s school leaders fail poor children even as they cry about ‘equity’

Bezos Gives $791 million to Climate Activists, Another $9 billion Planned

Why Your Organization Should Not Do Diversity Training

Enough with the Empathy

Taking leave of the socialism of fools - On the echoes of fascism in the critics of Zionism.

Barack Obama bashes America (again)

Columbia Prof Urges Constitutional Amendment 'To Prevent Another Trump'

THIS ELECTION HAS BEEN BAD FOR THE NARRATIVE

Don't Buy the Debunked Dominion Voting Machine Conspiracy Theory. Trump's campaign officials and attorneys are peddling this nonsense with help from credulous Fox News hosts, but their theories don't stand up to scrutiny

Lin Wood on Mark Levin Show: Trump Won a 70% Plus Landslide Election – He Probably Had 400 Electoral Votes

I am a natural skeptic

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 07:04 | Comments (41) | Trackbacks (0)

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HA...why your organization should not do diversity training. JHC if you have to ask you’re too stupid to understand the answer.

#1 DblTap on 2020-11-18 08:00 (Reply)

I would like to see some MF comments on the 'debunked" election fraud theories. I guess it is just a few retards who are out of touch with reality....eh, comrade?

#2 tim ferrell on 2020-11-18 08:08 (Reply)

The Dominion story isn't necessarily about fraud. So Bartiromo talking about Dominion 'switching' votes and the next host talking about a 'lack of fraud' are not mutually exclusive concepts.

Dominion's software is flawed. Several Democrats complained about it several years ago. Saying it didn't flip votes ignores the several KNOWN instances where it did - and was called "human error".

There are many reasons why votes could have flipped and fraud is one. Computer and human error are others. I'd assume - if I worked counting ballots - I could find several other reasons.

Fraud seems the most obvious because of vested interests. But I'm open to hearing other potential reasonings, even some which uphold the current media-anointed status quo, as long as they are reasonable.

For example, it is possible for Benford's Law to have been violated in Wisconsin IF Biden won urban areas handily...and while that's a reasonable assumption, it still requires confirmation.
Or, it's possible that many people ONLY voted for president in battleground states. But if they did, and did so in outlandishly large numbers, as it seems, then those votes should be double-checked for potential tampering and verified.

There can be logical answers to many of the anomalies which occurred, but being open to the concept that people disliking Trump is an option - and a very real one - to drive them to vote has to be on the table in order to get to the bottom of this. But if you presume this you must also be open to the idea that Trump actually won. Neither side seems willing to be open to either possibility, so it seems unreasonable to assume we'll ever get to the bottom of this.

IF Trump succeeds in preventing vote certification and tossing this to the HoR for a vote (where presumably he'd win 26 of 50 state delegations), it wouldn't be a travesty of justice, but it would leave this whole mess open for review and audit - and it would NEED and REQUIRE both.

Then again, it seems some people in our nation are open to the idea of autocratic regimes...take your choice. Both sides seem to have supporters with that proclivity as long as it's "their" guy.

#3 Bulldog on 2020-11-18 08:25 (Reply)

In 2018 the "new" voter machines in our state had a "last minute" computer failure. Last minute being on election day--late in the day. We filed a complaint with our Republican (rhino) AG, who refused to open an investigation. He was obviously hoping to be 'elected' to the upcoming governor's seat--

#3.1 Apple Pie on 2020-11-18 08:33 (Reply)

I know it's easy to be skeptical of things like this.

However, my company gave me a new computer the week we left for covid. It took 3 days of IT coming to get it 'working properly'. When the order came to work from home, it immediately stopped working properly.

I can recount about 100 stories over the last 35 years of work where we tested, tested, tested and over-tested new systems and computers and when we eventually turned them on in production they failed for one reason or another.

They are notoriously glitchy things and it is PRECISELY for that reason that I DO NOT trust them, nor should anyone. Just assuming "it's a computer, it doesn't make mistakes, it only does what it's told" is not 100% accurate.

Glitchy or imperfect software does indeed do what it's told - but if you're not familiar with the single bug in one of the lines that all the testing missed....well...when that bug is suddenly triggered you're going to have a hell of a time.

Yes, it's possible and maybe even probable that some fraud or interference took place. It takes place to some degree in every election (Biden's chief of staff admitted as much several years ago). There are plenty of examples of it occurring in real life.

But we're in uncharted waters now. Doctoring results in one or two states is a completely different thing than attempting it in up to 9...and generating tens of thousands of votes.
It would take a massive amount of work to coordinate and pull that off and not have anyone talking about the role they played...more than I suspect anyone is capable of.

But glitchy software? I'd believe that all day long.

#3.1.1 Bulldog on 2020-11-18 08:43 (Reply)

If I were looking to distinguish a software glitch from human meddling, then I would start with an examination for statistical anomalies that seem to result from human constructs. I would think a glitch potentially affecting all machines could not explain profoundly different voting tally profiles that radically shift across county lines, where the voting districts are under different political control but the demographics are not profoundly different. There are 5 states showing this kind of thing, specifically in Democrat districts known for irregularities.

I think we should abolish electronic voting of all kinds. Any kind of election protocol that involves people moving around with thumb drives carrying votes, stuck in their pocket: That has to be the biggest chain-of-custody red flag known to Voting. And I keep hearing it mentioned in the context of vote-counting irregularities in this election, in multiple states.

#3.1.1.1 Aggie on 2020-11-18 09:29 (Reply)

Take it from a guy who's been writing debugging software for years, the kinds of glitches alleged are incredibly sensitive to both initial state and the path taken through the code. Fixing a bug that hits every use of function is a trivial task, shouldn't get past bench testing by the developer, and so I would be very surprised to see a uniform problem across multiple voting sites. Counties side-by-side are likely to have different numbers of precincts, different numbers of candidates in various races, different ballot questions, and so on. A bug might surface in one ballot configuration but not affect many more.

In general, I'm with you, Aggie, and also something of a curmudgeon. Computer interfaces have gone downhill steadily since Bill Gate's unholy spawn supplanted the command line. Computers should not be directly collecting votes. Period.

#3.1.1.1.1 Christopher B on 2020-11-18 10:18 (Reply)

QUOTE:

It would take a massive amount of work to coordinate and pull that off and not have anyone talking about the role they played...more than I suspect anyone is capable of.

Ordinarily, I would agree with that statement, but the last four years have shown me that there is literally nothing these people will not do to retain power. When multiple players, at the very top of various departments - FBI, DOJ, State, FISA court - are wiling to lie and produce false documents, in order to destroy a dully elected President, why would you think they are not willing to rig multiple voting machines? Rigging the vote, is probably childsplay to these people.

#3.1.1.2 B. Hammer on 2020-11-18 10:41 (Reply)

Could not agree with you more. They will not stop until they succeed even if they take the country down with them.

#3.1.1.2.1 JC on 2020-11-18 11:24 (Reply)

How do you feel about the the Venezuelan provenance, left tilting developer/ownership lineage, sworn affidavits, etc?

#3.1.1.3 Louie Miller on 2020-11-18 12:35 (Reply)

I'm concerned about patterns of votes in different counting timeframes. I expect the mail-in ballots to show different statistics from the early voting in person and the election-day in person. I don't expect to see drastic differences in mail-in ballots depending on which part of the post-election-day counting process they're examined in. If a ton of "Biden-only" ballots come in only during a particular period, that's a big red flag.

#3.2 Texan99 on 2020-11-18 09:24 (Reply)

I'm not sure I agree. Biden voters were more likely to vote early AND more likely to vote by mail-in.

Of course, my personal feeling is if real fraud took place it was with mail-in votes. As I've pointed out a friend in NYC voted in NYC by mail but his ballot in NJ was delivered to his parents' house....even though he hadn't lived there for 10 years. MI was particularly bad in this regard - sending ballots to all and sundry.

I joked with my friend that he could've voted twice...and he probably could have and likely gotten away with it. Nobody expected NJ to be a close state and it wasn't. So who would check for 10,000 more extra Biden votes?

But in states with less than 2% differentials...a whole new issue is at play. Because that's where scattershot mail-in votes would suddenly be 'interesting'.
That's why things like ballots with only presidential votes - those should be reviewed VERY closely.

#3.2.1 Bulldog on 2020-11-18 09:33 (Reply)

Dem Senators Klobuchar, Wyden, and Warren, plus Rep Pocan complained to Dominion as recently as December 2019, alleging many of the same concerns being raised by Republicans now.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/democratic-senators-warned-of-potential-vote-switching-by-dominion-voting-machines-prior-to-2020-election/ar-BB1aZAYf

#3.3 Christopher B on 2020-11-18 09:48 (Reply)

The Unbearable Smugness of EMPATHY, actually faux empathy.
I must have missed the Political -Media Complex's empathy for Working America, you know those people who aren't interested in hand outs, subsidies or gaming the system but aspire to be self sufficient, productive and contributing. This empathy must not be maudlin enough or lacks sufficient pay off for their fatuous self regard. They reject even being accountable to the Working Middle, that's when they are not exhibiting outright malice toward Working America. Remember they were willing to crash the economy and do untolled damage to working America, and even minority business owners, while many of their peeps were insulated from the consequences. They do not wish Middle America well, at alll, in any way.

#4 Exasperated on 2020-11-18 08:29 (Reply)

Note that this comment is not about whether HCQ had any detectable effect on covid, that's a separate issue. It is about the willingness to sacrifice the potential, that it helped, for ideological reasons: I had a conversation with someone, a typical Biden voter, who was insistent and outraged that Trump was making, he claimed, billions off of HCQ, and he really believed that’s why Trump, despite knowing it was risky and harmful, deliberately publicized HCQ anyway. It was spitting into the wind to correct the record. It didn’t matter that HCQ was approved by the FDA in the 50s, that it is generic, hence minimal profits, that it was distributed to millions world wide for 70 years, frequently available over the counter…...... What alarmed me the most was the unconscionable and cavalier dismissal. IF, HCQ worked,... it would be a Godsend to the 3rd world millions who didn’t have access to Western medicine, in that it was CHEAP, easily distributed, and didn’t require special handling (refrigeration), specialized personnel, or specialized equipment to dispense (IV bag), was sanitary, and, I repeat, CHEAP. Talk about empathy; these people are Creepy, no?

#4.1 Anonymous on 2020-11-18 09:03 (Reply)

Between Uganda(54 million people+/-) and Nigeria(200 million people +/-), they have about 1350 deaths.
And a multi-generational HCQ intake history, due to their being highly malaria.
What was done vis a vis HCQ and Trump is murder, pure and simple. The Left, and their minions in the media conspired to deprive the American people, and people globally the opportunity to live.
No less so than if I withheld an inhaler from an asthmatic.
And they should be treated, charged and shunned as such by any and all who have any shred of decency or respect for the rule of law.

#4.1.1 NJ Mike (Link) on 2020-11-18 10:44 (Reply)

Take L Wood's claims with a grain of salt, actually a carton of salt. He is not universally respected by the legal community. There have been rumblings that he is a grandstanding crank and less than transparent over dispersal of monies, for which he had a fiduciary responsibility.

#5 Anonymous on 2020-11-18 08:40 (Reply)

The biggest threat to public health during the COVID crisis is reporting like this from the Huffington Post. Deplorables on their death bed, clinging to their election Hate, refusing to believe in the cleansing virus - can there be anything more worthy of our ridicule? Couldn't be anything like fear driving their disbelief that they've been laid low, so quickly. We're better off when these people kick off...

I read about the Sturgis rally, all the admonishing stories, and then read a few weeks later that there were maybe a couple of hundred COVID cases arising from the 10s of thousands or rally attenders, not all of them traceable back to the rally. COVID hotspot, as per the predictions? Or just another Fake News thriller? No followup stories.

Not to mention all of the 'non-mentions' of COVID-connecting rioting/protesting/looting/property destruction events over the past 6 months where the social distancing is a full-contact sport.

It seems to me that if COVID is to be defeated then the people in charge of the message would have a vested interest in ensuring a consistent message - one with useful information on the groups requiring special protections, as well as the groups that have little to worry about, as well as the key warning signs that "..you might be misinterpreting your group if you have these early symptoms". You know - useful stuff like that, that people can use to structure their lives and get on with it. Instead we get stories about the soon-to-be-released Joe Biden virus vaccine. You heard it here, first.

#6 Aggie on 2020-11-18 09:10 (Reply)

Family members who are physicians confirm what the nurse is talking about. They were there. You weren't. The dying, and you, are in total denial.

Here's the study. 70 pages and lots of big words so you'll probably have some trouble understanding it.

http://ftp.iza.org/dp13670.pdf

#6.1 Henry Jackson on 2020-11-18 11:18 (Reply)

Had it this past week and recovering very nicely thank you for asking. Now go away back to your treehouse, you sneering sanctimonious boy.

#6.1.1 Aggie on 2020-11-18 12:24 (Reply)

Gee, and now it looks like the nurse's story is imploding. Like, maybe there isn't an epidemic of denialism after all. Who would have thought? Not CNN or the HuffPo.

https://www.wired.com/story/are-covid-patients-gasping-it-isnt-real-as-they-die/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=onsite-share&utm_brand=wired&utm_social-type=earned

Another BS Huffington Post, then. BS is as BS does, eh Henry-Hugh?

#6.1.2 Aggie on 2020-11-20 18:30 (Reply)

re South Dakota Nurse: Dying COVID-19 Patients ‘Still Don’t Believe The Virus Is Real’

If the story is true, it just shows that if the media turns over enough rocks they can find one story that fits their narrative.

Apparently the nurse is a partisan Democrat as evidenced by her numerous posts on social media.

Keep that in mind as you read the story.

#7 feeblemind on 2020-11-18 09:40 (Reply)

It's often anecdotal data but people have an amazing ability to deny what's happening with their body. Stories abound of women giving birth who claim to not know they were pregnant. Cancer patients, including my mother-in-law, are regularly reported to reject the diagnosis.

I'm tired of these stories written as if these phenomenon are unique to COVID. I'm sure you could find people who died of influenza or pneumonia that strenuously objected to the idea that they were in mortal danger from the disease but nobody goes looking for such stories since they don't fit the narrative.

#7.1 Christopher B on 2020-11-18 10:01 (Reply)

The only thing not real is her ridiculous story. A couple patients asking about the full range of possible causes of their symptoms has become something sinister in her cable news-addled mind. Trump/Noem derangement syndrome all the way.

#7.2 itsatax on 2020-11-18 10:06 (Reply)

U.S. sets multiple corona virus records.

This is the same trick that the pro-global warming people use. Wait for it, somewhere some record will be broken and there you go absolute proof that they are right and you are wrong.

The U.S. is 10th worldwide in deaths per million population. Not first, not second, etc. But you would think that the U.S. (because of Trump of course) is worse. Additionally, many countries have histories of misreporting of health data while even more countries have no clue why their citizens die. In most of Africa you can die from any cause and no one but your family will even know you died never mind the cause of death.

#8 OneGuy on 2020-11-18 10:38 (Reply)

What part of this is not true?

QUOTE:

The US reported more than 140,000 new Covid-19 cases for the second day in a row on Thursday, as the country set a new daily record nearly every day this week.

There have now been more than 1 million new coronavirus infections in just the last 10 days, as the latest surge pushes the total figure towards 11 million.

This week, Texas became the first state to pass 1 million cases

#8.1 Henry Jackson on 2020-11-18 11:22 (Reply)

Exactly!!! Take a simple fact and blow it up as if it were some unbelievable fact. You hit the nail on the head. That is how the wool is pulled over your eyes. It is technically called a data dredge. That is you look at tons of statistical data throwing out anything that doesn't agree with your bias or worse refutes it and then you find something/anything that seems to support your bias and you claim it is a great and meaningful discovery. See! even YOU, a lowly troll, can understand this scam

#8.1.1 OneGuy on 2020-11-18 12:41 (Reply)

You don't have to take this personally.

Are those stats true or not?

Don't evade the question.

#8.1.1.1 Henry Jackson on 2020-11-18 13:47 (Reply)

Absolutely right just as I live in the Mountains and it is November 18th and it is sunny and warm which absolutely proves AGW is true. If on the other hand tomorrow it turns cold and snows a foot deep I will search for some other place with weather that confirms my bias. You know how this is played becuase you are playing it. And if you deny it you are a lying dog faced pony soldier.

#8.1.1.1.1 OneGuy on 2020-11-18 16:40 (Reply)

Nobody said any of this wasn't true.

There's literally no way for the cumulative number of reported positive tests/cases to go down. What's the point of reporting Texas passed a million cases? Is that good or bad, relative to what benchmark? What would be the circumstances that would cause them to have more or fewer cases? What reference are you using for that judgement?

#8.1.2 Christopher B on 2020-11-18 13:22 (Reply)

Yes, that's what "cumulative" means.

The R0 number is well above 1.0 and rising so the disease is spreading rapidly. Hospitalizations are rising to critical levels, again, where "critical" means "overwhelmed." They are rising because of covid, not because of season flu or heart attacks or diabetes.

Serious question: unless you think covid is nothing to worry about, at what number or data point does this pandemic becomes significant to you?

#8.1.2.1 Henry Jackson on 2020-11-18 14:05 (Reply)

"so the disease is spreading rapidly"

DUH! That's what viruses do. That's what they have always done. That is what this one will do. DUH!!!

#8.1.2.1.1 Anon on 2020-11-18 16:42 (Reply)

Reflecting on Elon Musk's alleged experience with testing. I'd count a death, tested positive for Wuhan, without discernible comorbidities, as half a death. I'd guess that 140,000 "cases" are really 70,000 genuinely positive tests, but not "cases." IMO, even hospitalizations are not probative, as when there are lots of beds open, more people are liable to be admitted for "an abundance of caution."

#8.2 Ted on 2020-11-18 12:49 (Reply)

If you want to play that game - and that is all it is - then you have to double back the other way and add in the cases of Covid that couldn't be called that because the state does not allow it to be written as cause of death without a positive test.

#8.2.1 Assistant Village Idiot on 2020-11-18 18:47 (Reply)

Weighted ballots are perfectly legal in certain elections - such as shareholder meetings, where number of shares owned or proxies received are used as factors.

So, commercial vote counting software all come with these features.

Whether these features were activated in the presidential election where it is one man, one vote is the question.

Dr. Shiva of MIT, showed that in his race for Senate, the weighted ballot feature switched votes to his opponent. He handily won the county that still hand counted.

He explains the number crunching at: https://www.youtube.com /watch?v=umNbSvqozwQ

{remove extra space}.

Apologies if this has been brought up before.

#9 Adriane on 2020-11-18 10:40 (Reply)

Dr. Shiva chose to not exercise his right as a candidate to request a manual recount in his Senate election. Most of MA uses paper ballots optically scanned. I've been involved in several recounts. The differences between the recounted totals and the machine totals is usually a handful of ballots. That difference is most likely due to the standard in a recount being discerning voter intent as opposed to correctly following instructions on marking your ballot for the machine tabulation.

#9.1 Larry on 2020-11-18 13:21 (Reply)

Arguing from distaste for Newspeak in all avatars, while "woke" dictionaries redefine "sexual preference" as pejorative, "fascist" has been, IMO, equated wrongly with brutal and totalitarian. Were WW2 fascist states brutal and totalitarian? Of course. However, a state can be "fascist", and democratic. Just as former President Obama appointed "czars" to harness cabinet departments, FDR's wheat boards, steel boards, etc. controlled the economy. The Fascia or bundle should imply that all facets and factions of the polity work towards mutual goals, with a mechanism, not necessarily a dictator, to resolve conflict.

#10 Ted on 2020-11-18 12:35 (Reply)

Re: Don't Buy the Debunked Dominion Voting Machine Conspiracy Theory...

Time was when read Reason pretty regularly. I even had a subscription at one time. I've never been so glad to have ignored them now for a couple of decades. What a dopey article!

With a statement like this:

QUOTE:

Furthermore, Dominion Voting Systems has told the Associated Press that they have no evidence of "any vote switching or alleged software issues with our voting systems."

There you have it! Dominion Voting Systems says there's nothing to it so the attacks on them MUST be illegitimate!

I guess the fine folks at Reason magazine didn't think there were any problems with elections in Venezuela since the first Hugo Chavez election!

#11 mudbug on 2020-11-18 12:48 (Reply)

Columbia Prof Urges Constitutional Amendment 'To Prevent Another Trump'

Stupid title, but some good ideas.

1. Disclose income tax returns prior to election. tax returns can be disclosed in certain types of litigation already, so I think the benefits of disclosure outweigh the privacy concerns.

2. Attorney general under joint authority of president and congress. Bad idea, this means the AG will effectively be under the control of neither.

3. Limits on presidential pardons. I like it.

original op-ed piece:
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-11-13/democrats-should-amend-the-constitution-to-prevent-another-trump

#12 Henry Jackson on 2020-11-18 14:23 (Reply)

The Dominion story is kinda interesting. The Reason article fails to acknowledge the very real event these stories are based on, which is dishonest in my opinion.

But it does seem like it was human error. The software wasn't updated when it should have been.

Here's the PJ Media story on it.

All the other machines in use should be checked to make sure they were all updated properly. But if so, that would seem to be the end of it.

#13 Thomas Doubting (Link) on 2020-11-18 14:42 (Reply)

Use only Paper Ballots with optical scanners, collect the tallies, preserve the paper ballots, no computers involved whatsoever.

Those "denying" the statistical impossibilities coming to light, as well as the issues with Dominion and apparent fraud in both precinct and state level, are going to have a good long time to face their own intransigence at accepting the truth of things.

#14 Alan Robertson on 2020-11-19 12:26 (Reply)

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Wednesday, November 18. 2020

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