Eric Swalwell and Fang Fang

 There's been something of an outcry over the idea that a US Representative with a seat on House Intelligence Committee has perhaps engaged in sexual hanky panky with a lady that might be an employee of Chinese intelligence. Writers like Thomas Lifson of the American Thinker can come up with all manner of reasons why this kind of behavior might spell the end of the American empire. Really?

Accepting the fact that Swalwell probably doesn't have a Mensa membership card and received his committee spot from fellow Californian Nancy Pelosi as a spoils grant that wasn't based on a merit test, why should we care? Sure, we should recognize the fact that if Swalwell had a germ of intelligence he would have used his international relationship from 2015 as evidence that he was investigating the lady himself. 

But no, we are to believe that any normal male that engages in coitus with a female is highly likely to reveal state secrets in the relaxation of its aftermath. People have read too many silly books  and watched too many James Bond movies.

How do we know that Chicom interrogators aren't even now performing their version of waterboarding on Christine Fang to discover how much she has failed to reveal about the inner workings of Swalwell's mind? In fact, the US intelligence community, all of those acronymal agencies, should regularly publish lists with the name, address and phone number of suspicious Chinese babes that healthy, young American males can seek out for the very purpose of compromising themselves for the country's advantage. Isn't there a chance that they could turn these foreign vixens into intelligence assets with a memorable roll in the hay?

Or is this further evidence, if any is needed, of the feminization of America, where women, even women from the hell on earth that is China, are far more wily than American political figures? 

Wait a minute! I got it backwards. Swalwell is one of a little more than 500 of the most powerful government figures in the country and hence one of the most powerful figures of that kind in the world. A living symbol of white, male privilege. Poor Feng Feng, probably an orphan or maybe a teen-age runaway, has been forced into espionage by the power-mad CCP in its goal of erasing their biggest market from the face of the earth. We should incarcerate Swalwell for being, well, for being who he is, and request that the CCP send Fang Fang back to the US where she can enroll in some sort of diversity course at Cal State Fullerton or Bezerkley.    

How the 2002 Breeder's Cup Foreshadowed the 2020 Election

The US media has dismissed as an impossibility that the 2020 presidential election could have been won through manipulation of computer voting tabulation. Too many people would have to be involved. It couldn't be kept secret. Where's the evidence?

Maybe none of these ink-stained wretches had a Pick-6 ticket on the 2002 Breeder's Cup. The Classic, most important race on the card, was won by 43-1 shot Volponi and the result was that only one valid ticket had been purchased. It could have been cashed for $3.1 million. That's a substantial amount of money but it's really a child's piggy bank stash in comparison to the dough involved in the presidency and its camp followers.

 Like election votes, horse race bet tickets are made all over the country and aggregated at the home track, Arlington Park in Chicago in this case, but by Autotote at its office 

 Authorities immediately smelled a rat, discovered the mechanics of the fraud, and eventually the three conspirators went to the big house. If there had been more involved they would probably never have been discovered. 

 So altering computer outcomes is no big deal. Those who doubt that the Nov. 3 fiasco of democracy couldn't have been decided by fraud have a pre-digital naivete'.

 

Birds of a Feather

Awaiting trial for fraud, Theranos head Elizabeth Holmes sits next to a popular US politician said to be the beneficiary of a massive vote fraud.

 

Conceding The Election

Evidently President Trump must "concede" the election in order for US political life to move on. Why should this be necessary? Is there some place in the Constitution or federal law that says the loser of an election must concede?

 

If a lay-off of employees by a business at a specified time in the near future is announced those employees aren't expected to "concede" their positions. The president remains the president until January 20, 2021, unless he himself personally abdicates in favor of the current vice president or he is removed from office by other means.

 

In more proof, if any is needed, of the hypocrisy and malevolence of the Democratic party there is currently no evidence of an effort to impeach the president, despite the fact that such efforts began before he even took office.    

Elaine's Idle Mind Calls It

Elaine's Idle Mind provides some insight into how it all works:

  The East Coast creates value through laws and restrictions that lead to artificial scarcity. Silicon Valley creates value by disintermediating the rent-seekers. The US economy is just a line of people digging up holes and filling them back in.

From The Shores Of Lake Glimmerglass

 

“Whenever the government of the United States shall break up, it will probably be in consequence of a false direction having been given to public opinion. This is the weak point of our defenses, and the part to which the enemies of the system will direct all their attacks. Opinion can be so perverted as to cause the false to seem true; the enemy, a friend, and the friend, an enemy; the best interests of the nation to appear insignificant, and the trifles of moment; in a word, the right the wrong, the wrong the right. In a country where opinion has sway, to seize upon it, is to seize upon power. As it is a rule of humanity that the upright and well-intentioned are comparatively passive, while the designing, dishonest, and selfish are the most untiring in their efforts, the danger of public opinion’s getting a false direction is four-fold, since few men think for themselves.”

-James Fenimore Cooper

Assignment of Risk

 In the battle against the Covid-19 terror, epidemiologists have advised government figures to require masks and social distancing to prevent its spread and reduce the possibilities of sickness and death among the surrounding population and to protect each individual as well.

 

Since January 1, 2006, 324 people have been the victims of violent homicide in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago. Yet during this time there has been no advisory issued or requirement mandated by public health authorities or government officials that bullet-proof vests be worn by shoppers on West Madison Street. 

From "Watts Up With That"

". . . consider that Voltaire predicted just such an eventuality when he said ‘Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.’ Global warming is the biggest absurdity of the modern era – it can’t happen in theory and hasn’t happened in practice. A big absurdity begets a proportionate atrocity."

US Covid-19 Numbers

On June 3 of this year the total number of deaths attributed to the Covid-19 malady amounted to 107,648, about the SRO capacity of "The Big House" in Ann Arbor, Michigan if the Michigan Wolverines were playing the Ohio State Buckeyes during a pandemic-free season. 

 

As of the morning of August 16, the national death toll had exploded to 172,056. Ergo, in the past 74 days 64,408 Yankees have succumbed to the Wuhan flu. If these dead people could sit upright, they would fill to capacity the seats in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, Oxford, Mississippi, the home gridiron of the Fighting Rebels of Ole Miss, the 62nd largest stadium in the US.

 

Everyone that has perished in the US due to the pandemic could be comfortably seated in just two of the many stadiums in the country. 

Mississippi To Get A New State Flag!

The current state flag of Mississippi, adopted in 1894, will probably lose its official status and be replaced through legislation in a matter of days, although there doesn't seem to be a consensus on what a new flag might look like. At any rate, it won't contain the infamous stars and bars that accompanied Confederate troops in the War Between the States.

Ultimately, what's all this flag mumbo-jumbo about anyway? Flags have been around for a long, long time. Originally, they were used to visually identify military units and ships, both to their own forces and, in some cases to the enemy. Later, as nation states evolved, flags were used to represent entire countries. This was militarily necessary until various forms of electrical and electronic communication were developed. Today, the only real use of flags in a military context are patches sewn on individual soldier's uniforms to identify them under the terms of international law. In any other context flags are anachronistic remnants of another age that are held dear and represent both jingoistic loyalty and a signal to others. Nobody needs a flag for anything.

Flags do provide something of a clue to what was going on in some people's minds at a certain time. For instance, let's examine the Minnesota state flag. 

  Wikiwand

The complex, generally inartistic and crappy flag was originally created in 1893. The state was flagless for 35 anonymous years until one was required for the Chicago World's Fair. Modified since, its most important features are in the very center of the banner. A mounted native American is bounding away, presumably into the sunset, and leaving his home to provide opportunity to an immigrant farmer plowing up the virgin top soil to plant turnips or spuds. Behind him are his musket, powder horn, and axe. Maybe the firearm is there in case a deer wanders by and provides the opportunity for a few meals but it's more likely that the weapon is meant to discourage or dispatch one of the former land holders quitting the country.

Flag-bearing Minnesotans, if they are even aware of the details of their banner, must, by displaying it, celebrate the conquest of the upper Mississippi Valley, the expulsion or death of most of the native population, and its absorption into an organization that allows no members to resign.    

Hunter S. Thompson Talks About The George Floyd Aftermath

The Daily Beast

     "American law enforcement procedures have never been designed to control large groups of citizens in rebellion, but to protect the social structure against specifically criminal acts, or persons. The underlying assumption has always been that the police and the citizenry form a natural alliance against evil and dangerous crooks, who should be arrested on sight and shot if they resist.

There are indications, however, that this 'natural alliance' might be going the way of the Maginot Line. More and more often the police are finding themselves in conflict with whole blocs of the citizenry, none of them criminals in the traditional sense of the word, but many as potentially dangerous--to the police--as any armed felon. This is particularly true in situations involving groups of Negroes and teen-agers. The Watts riot in Los Angeles in 1965 was a classic example of this new alignment. The whole community turned on the police with such a vengeance that the National Guard had to be called in. Yet few of the rioters were criminals--at least not until the riot began. It may be that America is developing a whole new category of essentially social criminals. . . persons who threaten the police and the traditional social structure even when they are breaking no law. . .because they view The Law with contempt and the police with distrust, and this abiding resentment can explode without warning at the slightest provocation."

Hunter S. Thompson, Hell's Angels, Ballantine Books, 1967.

Unlocked Horse Pull

Rural Wisconsinites have taken the pandemic panic with a grain of salt and have decided to get back to normality by embracing a traditional summer activity, the draft horse pulling contest. Horse enthusiasts gathered near the Mecca of the sport, Mondovi, for an afternoon of competition in a contest that predates the internal combustion engines that now propel farm machinery. For a few hours on a beautiful day the bizarre condition of the country could be ignored.

Hometown lady teamster Becky Loomis lines out her team of heavy-weight Belgians on the way to winning their class.

 
Josh Wickham's gorgeous team of perfectly-matched Belgians won the light-weight class.

 
Gentle giants wait their turn to pull the loaded stone boat the required 27'6".

The Wickham team's winning pull. 

NASCAR Bans the Confederate Flag

ESPN Senior Writer Ryan McGee has enpixelated an opinion piece on the sports network's website celebrating NASCAR's banishment of the battle flag of the Confederate states from its property. Of course, this gesture is meant to recognize the evil of slavery, abolished in the US 155 years ago, and to point out that since slavery was an integral part of southern culture, all references to that culture must be eradicated. He neglects to mention some other things.

First, slavery was not only found in the southern colonies, then states, but also in the north. In fact, the transport of enslaved humans from Africa was primarily an activity engaged in by New England-based enterprises. In the 17th century thousands of Irish slaves were also taken from their home island and sent to the New World for unpaid toil for their English colonial masters. After the American Revolution, or, as it might be called, "The Great Treason", the hallowed product of Betsy Ross flew over not just the sainted North but also the slave states. The history of the Stars and Stripes and slavery is far longer than that of the Confederate flag. During most of that period slavery was legal and practiced by many of the most respected figures of that era. Additionally, slavery was common all over the world, as it remains today in many places.

The money quote from McGee's article is this:  It means the most shameful blight on the pages of the history of the United States, and that's no small achievement.

Well, that's an opinion, and a common one at that. Dropping atomic bombs on Japanese teen-age girls walking to school is a contender. Taking over the Republic of Hawaii and making it a US possession might be another. It's actually kind of a long list. But the real top of the list is occupied by the undeniable near genocide and subsequent treatment of the native American population. 

The immediate objective of the European invaders of North America was wealth, gold, fish, fur, timber and property. The fact that these things already belonged to someone else simply meant that they had to be wrestled away by force of numbers and technological superiority. The newcomers also were able to take advantage of fatal diseases for which the native Americans had no immunity or cure. Those few that survived were killed or rounded up and incarcerated in the least hospitable areas of the continent, as official records point out. This policy, which continues to this day, is conveniently ignored by those deploring systemic racism.

It's a most interesting fact that in the aftermath of the War Between the States the victorious Union formed military units made up of newly-freed slaves known as the Buffalo Soldiers. The purpose of these warriors was to resume military duties that had been greatly reduced during the conflict. Those duties were the subjugation and extermination of the plains Indians under the leadership of Gen. Phil Sheridan, statues of whom loom over parks and traffic circles all over the country. Native Americans weren't granted citizenship by the Great White Father until 1924 and later. Once millions of them lived in the new world, now less than 1% of the US population is considered to be of native American ancestry.

On the other hand, descendants of black slaves are the second largest ethnic group in the country, making up almost 13% of the total population. A man of mixed race but considered black has been elected president of the country twice. A substantial number of his administration were also black. Two African-Americans have served on the US Supreme Court.There are currently 55 black members of the US Congress. At this time there are  four members of the US House of Representatives that have native affiliations. 

Keeping Minneapolis Police Safe

The 2nd Precinct police station in Minneapolis. Or is it Fallujah?

Murderer Avoids Long Prison Sentence in Alaska

According to this story in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, a homicidal maniac named Christopher Erin Rogers, Jr., who had been sentenced to 498 years in prison for a variety of crimes in 2010 has died in an Alaskan prison at age 41. The convicted murderer has cheated society of another 488 years of incarceration for his misdeeds.

Perhaps some legal scholar could explain why a prison sentence that's almost 6 1/2 times a normal human life makes any sense. Be that as it may, why should death terminate the punishment phase of this man's violation of the social contract? Since he's been sentenced to 498 years, shouldn't he be held in a cell for that period rather than a short ten years even if he's no longer breathing penitentiary air and eating penitentiary food? We can't be sure that the spirit of Rogers has been extinguished merely because his heart no longer beats. In the cause of justice this monster must remain behind the walls and concertina wire of the Spring Creek Correctional Center for another almost 5 centuries to pay for his sins.

frontiersman.com 

Minnesota Covid-19 Death Scenes

We observe the evidence of the human destruction of the Covid-19 virus in just a small part of the planet.

A Minneapolis funeral home on the afternoon of June 5, 2020.

Another busy Minneapolis funeral home on the same day.

Parking is at a premium at this busy Minneapolis funeral home on June 5.

The chaotic scene of the parking area adjacent to a Minneapolis mortuary on June 5.

Another Minneapolis funeral home is busy with the devastation of the Covid-19 virus.

Frantic activity in front of the once-empty warehouse purchased by the state of Minnesota for temporary storage of Covid-19 fatalities.

Natiional Guard in Action

National Guard assembly area in northeast Minneapolis. Note the concertina wire.

June 3 US Covid-19 Death Tally

Deaths Due to Covid-19 Virus: 107,648

Seating Capacity, Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, MI: 107, 601

The total number of deaths attributed to the Covid-19  virus has finally surpassed the seating capacity of the largest stadium in the US.
 

June 2 US Covid-19 Death Count

June 2 US fatalities due to Covid-19: 106,550

Seating capacity, Beaver Stadium, University Park, PA: 106, 572

 

 

 

June 1 US Covid-19 Fatality Tally

June 1 US deaths due to Covid-19 virus: 105,773 

Seating capacity of Beaver Stadium, University Park, PA: 106,572

  June 1 Pennsylvania deaths attributed to Covid-19 virus: 5,555

May 31 US Covid-19 Death Count

As of the morning of May 31, the number of US Covid-19 fatalities is: 105,173

Seating capacity of Beaver Stadium, University Park, PA: 106,572

 

 

May 30 Covid-19 Death Toll

May 30 US Covid-19 Fatalities: 104,166

 Seating capacity, Beaver Stadium, University Park, PA: 106,572

 

 The Planned Parenthood Federation of America aborted 345,672 babies during the 2018 fiscal year, the organization’s annual report shows.

 

 

May 29 US Covid-19 Fatality Count

May 29 US Total Covid-19 Fatalities: 102,943

Seating capacity, Beaver Stadium, University Park, PA, home of the Penn State Nittany Lions: 106,572

 

 

Minnesota NIYFYs

You're probably familiar with the acronym "NIMBY", that stands for "Not in my back yard", a name for those who wish to maintain stasis in properties near their own. They don't want to see any form of development or change nearby that could possibly affect their own property. They do this through zoning ordinances and city regulations that prohibit certain practices that the NIMBYs find offensive, parked cars, un-mown grass, tree houses, and so on.

Falcon Heights, Minnesota, is generally a quiet suburb north of St. Paul except during the run of the Minnesota State Fair across the street, although it drew national attention as the scene of the police shooting of Philando Castile in the front seat of his car on July 6, 2016.

Now a new acronym is needed for a Falcon Heights prohibition of vegetable gardens in front yards. Let's make it NIYFY, "not in your front yard". Some how the Falcon Heights elites that make up the political class have in the past and the present managed to curtail another use of the private property of others, as this account reveals. 

Thank goodness authorities were able to discover and foil this plan before a portion of their domain was defiled by visible soil, cucumbers, tomatoes, peas, beans and maybe even watermelons, products that everyone knows should only be seen displayed in supermarkets, not in the space between the street and the front stoop. As they state in the article, front lawns are only to be made up of the well-tended artificial grasses engineered to be as uniform as possible or similarly bogus "native" grasses.

It's probably safe to say that at this point in time the average American adult, not to mention child, has never touched a live, unsegmented chicken, a cow or bull, a pig, or other domestic farm animal that was once a common part of everyone's life. Apparently this lack of familiarity is now, at least in Falcon Heights, to extend to elements of the plant world, examples of which are common in every market. It's not enough to prohibit the cultivation of central nervous system depressants like cannibus and weird mushrooms. It's important to restrict the production of food to its proper place, commercial enterprises located far from the valuable home sites of the suburbanites. 

Freedom is a philosophical mainstay of the American worldview but what does it actually mean if a private property owner can't plant some beets on his own land? The word "Islam" is said to be translatable as "submission". That's exactly the same meaning in practice as "democracy", where one submits to the dictates of strangers. In fact, if Mr. Nguyen would carry out his opposition to the tenets of the city his fate would be death, the ultimate submission.

   Even more strange is the fact that the dominant features of the city of Falcon Heights are the wide-open spaces of this little municipality that are owned by the University of Minnesota. Above is part of the agricultural land that the St.Paul campus uses for crop instruction and experiment. The University golf course and driving range are located in Falcon Heights, as is the college women's soccer pitch. It's not as though the locals aren't exposed to agricultural dirt. Nevertheless, the NIYFYs have a great fear of change unregulated by themselves. If they were really concerned about the matter, while still retaining a smidgen of "freedom", they would gather together the neighbors and buy the property of Mr. Nguyen and make it a memorial to lawn care. Instead they use the offices of government to suborn the property rights of another at no expense to themselves.

Suburban garden update. The Falcon Heights City Council voted 3-2 against Mr. Nguyen's front yard garden.

May 28 US Covid-19 Death Toll

May 28 total US fatalities attributed to Covid-19 virus: 101,762

Seating capacity of Bryant-Denny Stadium, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL: 101,821

 

 rateyourseats.com

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, about 1.5 million people were arrested in a given year for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. That means that one out of every 121 licensed drivers were arrested for drunk driving.

May 27 US Covid-19 Fatality Tally

On the morning of May 27 the number of US deaths due to the Covid-19 virus has reached: 100,191

Seating capacity of Bryant-Denny Stadium, Tuscaloosa, AL:  101,821

 rateyourseats.com

 In the U.S. 397,122 children are living without permanent families in the foster care system.

May 26 Covid-19 US Death Count

May 26 US Covid-19 Total Fatalities: 99,462

Seating capacity Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, Austin, TX:   100,119

 

Total number of whitetail deer killed by firearms in 2019 Wisconsin 9-day season: 167,693 

 

 wallpapercave.com

Memorial Day Covid-19 Update

Total US deaths attributed to Covid-19 virus: 98,035

Seating capacity of Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, Austin, TX: 100,119

 

Number of women incarcerated in the US: 231,000

 

 catholic sun

Social Distancing

Social Distancing is the term used to describe the authorities' requirement in the Covid-19 era that people refrain from being within 6 feet (2 meters) of others. Why this term came into use is a mystery. One could be in bed together with Harry and Meghan and the social distance between you and them would still be light years. The actual phrase should instead be Physical Distancing, but that's maybe just a little too grim for pc political lingo.

There is something of a lack in an even more important aspect of this situation, however. The missing piece of the vocabulary is a term for the most important form of distancing, keeping a wide physical berth between yourself and those infected with hyper-gullibility. Because the Covid-19 pandemic is being described by epidemiological computer models, it has a gloss of science about it. 

Computers themselves, and the programs that are run by them, are the product of really bright people. They might not be scientists themselves, more likely technicians of a sort, but what they do is based on science so they're more likely than others to be in touch with reality. Or so we're led to believe. That might not be true.

So an important type of distancing should take the place of Social Distancing. Let's call it Neurological Distancing. Rather than specify a certain distance in feet and inches from a possibly infected person, just stay a far away as possible from fear-mongering language Nazis.

May 24 Covid-19 Report

As the sun rose on a beleaguered nation the fatalities attributed to the Covid-19 virus numbered 97,426.

The seating capacity of the Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, TX is 100,119.

The number of prisoners in the Texas corrections system is about 142,000.

 

May 23 US Covid-19 Update

May 23 fatalities attributed in US to Covid-19 virus: 96,370 

Seating capacity of Darrell K. Royal-Texas Stadium, Austin, TX, home of the Texas Longhorns: 100,119

May 22 US Covid-19 Update

As of dawn, May 22, total US fatalities due to Covid-19:  95,087


For the third consecutive day, all US fatalities due to Covid-19 infection are still less than the seating capacity of Sanford Stadium, Athens, GA, home of the Georgia Bulldogs: 95,723

May 21 Covid-19 Update

US Covid-19 Fatalities: 93,806

University of Georgia Sanford Stadium seating capacity: 95,723

National Spelling Bee Cancelled

The 2020 Scripps National Spelling Bee has been cancelled. Contested since 1925, the Bee is sponsored by the Scripps Corporation of Cincinnati, Ohio and the finals are held somewhere in the Washington, DC area in late May or early June. According to its sponsors, the Bee's purpose is to "help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives". 

About 11 million school children in the eighth grade or under generally take part in the competition. In 2019 eight competitors tied for first place.

 Our purpose is to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives.Our purpose is to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives.

May 20, US Covid-19 Update

Fatalities due to Covid-19 in the US as of May, 20: 92,333

Seating capacity of Sanford Stadium, Athens, GA, home of the University of Georgia Bulldogs football team: 95,723

May 19 Covid-19 virus update

As of this morning, the Covid-19 death toll in the US has reached 90,694.

This number would still be able to find seats in the 90,888 capacity Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA.

May 18 Covid-19 Update

As of the morning of May 18:

Confirmed fatalities attributed to Covid-19: 89,932.

Capacity of the Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA:
90,888

Deaths attributed to Covid-19 last 24 hours:
512

May 15 Covid-19 update

Total US fatalities ascribed to Covid-19:  86,571

Capacity of Jordan-Hare Stadium, Auburn, Alabama: 87,451

Tuesday, May 14, Coronavirus Update

As of this morning, in the USA 84,763 souls have succumbed to the Covid-10 virus. A similar number of Americans could, with room to spare, find seats in Memorial Stadium on the campus of the University of Nebraska in Lincoln,NB, home of the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team.

Isn't it interesting?

The Covid-19 Catastrophe As Of April 27

According to figures from the April 27, 2020 Wall Street Journal:

US Cases: 963,379

US Deaths: 54,810

NFL 2019 Regular Season
Average Weekly Attendance: 1,111,333

Superbowl LIV Attendance: 62,417

FBI Agent Turns Out To Be Bad Cop

It seems to happen fairly regularly. A member of the country's most elite law enforcement institution, or the most elite one that we know about, is actually a career criminal, as we see here. Like all federal employees, this one signed an oath of allegiance to the US and its Constitution.

Also, as usual, a newspaper, whose secondary purpose, after making a profit, is to provide its readers with information, doesn't include a photograph of the alleged felon with the article. Most people would like to know if they sat beside this sleaze on a flight into LA from Chicago or ate dinner next to him at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse or watched him cash a ticket at Santa Anita.

Covid-19 And The Homeless

Last fall a ruckus was raised when several hundred ostensibly homeless people began camping in unoccupied territory near the I-94 and Hiawatha Ave. intersection. The area is part of what has been for years a center of the native American community in Minneapolis and many of the urban campers were natives.

Authorities provided portable toilets for these people but were eventually able to remove them to homeless shelters in other parts of the city, or so it was claimed.

Now, with the Covid-19 virus looming over everyone, people who might have once taken the option of a homeless shelter fear that they or their children would be exposed there to the viral infection. They feel that they are safer camped in these spots where they aren't sleeping next to possibly infected strangers, even though they lack basic sanitation facilities, as described here.

 Camp Quarantine

Law enforcement sources say that they have been directed not to disturb the camp residents.

Franklin Ave. camp

A fence has been installed, apparently to prevent people from entering the areas beneath the I-94 overpass on Cedar Ave. a few blocks north of the camps.

Seventy-three Years Ago Jackie Robinson Made His Dodgers Major League Debut

You can read about it in this Deadspin article by DeArbea Walker. As the first African-American to play in the modern major leagues Robinson was a notable person and his career playing at that level made him a member of the baseball hall of fame.

Sadly, the writer leaves out some important facts in her story while pushing some unrelated nonsense. 

Originally from Georgia, Jackie Robinson attended high school in Pasadena, CA and developed into a spectacular all-around athlete, a four sport letter winner at UCLA and the NCAA champion in the long jump. He spent time coaching and was a player for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro leagues. 

It wasn't possible for Robinson or any other ballplayer, black, white or purple, to simply walk into a baseball clubhouse and become a team member. Then, as now, the club's management had to sign him to a contract and assign him to either the big league club or one of its minor league affiliates. Brooklyn Dodgers president and general manager Branch Rickey believed that it was highly likely that baseball would soon become integrated and wished to sign the prospect that he felt had the best chance to succeed at that level. Robinson was his choice and was assigned to the AAA Montreal Royals. The next season he began his tenure as a star for the Brooklyn Dodgers. If not for Branch Rickey, Robinson may well have languished in the negro leagues like so many others. The Deadspin essay doesn't even mention Branch Rickey, who was the real hero in this affair.

Also forgotten, as usual, were native Americans in Major League Baseball. Nobody can be sure but it's generally agreed that the first native American big leaguer was Louis Sockalexis, a Penobscot from Maine who patrolled the outfield for the Cleveland Spiders from 1897-1899. 

He was followed by one of the all-time diamond greats, Charles Albert "Chief" Bender. The Chief had a 24 year career with four different ball clubs beginning in 1903 and a mound record of 212-127 with a lifetime ERA of 2.46 and 1,711 strikeouts. He pitched three complete games for the Philadelphia Athletics in the 1905 World Series victory over the New York Giants. He was admitted to the Hall of Fame in 1953. 

Perhaps one of the most famous ballplayers of the twentieth century and one of the country's greatest all-around athletes was born in what is now Oklahoma in 1887.  Jim Thorpe, a Sac and Fox, is remembered most for his exploits in the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden and his spectacular college and professional football career. Less well known is his time spent in Major League Baseball in the years 1913-1919. 

Other native Americans have since spent time in The Show but they, and the African-American players that began playing in 1947 had an advantage that these three did not. Sockalexis, Bender and Thorpe, despite being born in the US, were not US citizens. Native Americans, with some exceptions, were not granted citizenship until passage of the The Indian Citizen Act in 1924. 

  Chief Bender                    Lakepowelllife.com

The Covid-19 Statistics

According to the CDC, these are the numbers for deaths in the US for 2017:

Total deaths:             2,813,503
Death rate:      863.8 per 100,000
Life expectancy:       78.6 years
Infant mortality:    5.79 deaths per 1000 live    births


Number of deaths from leading causes of death:

Heart Disease:   647,467
Cancer:     599,108
Accidents:   169,936
Chronic lower respiratory diseases:  160,201
Stroke:       146,383
Alzheimer's disease:    121,404
Diabetes:      83,564
Influenza and pneumonia:   55,672
Nephritis:        50,633
Suicide:       47,173

As of April 11, 2020:

Deaths attributed to Covid-19 virus:  20,000

The New York Times has published information that indicates that on day 30 of the emergence of the pandemic in the US there have been 16,108 deaths, with the rate of deaths doubling every five days. If that fatality rate, about 5000 in the last 5 day period, should continue to rise at that level, on June 25, 2020 there will have been an additional 337,800,000 deaths in the US attributed to the Covid-19 virus.

 
 

Minnesota Covid-19

According to Bring Me The News:

 
Minnesota's COVID-19 confirmed death toll has risen to 64, with 7 more deaths announced on Saturday.
It means that the number of deaths from COVID-19 in Minnesota has increased by 64 percent since Wednesday, when there were 39 deaths confirmed.
Of the latest deaths, 3 were in Hennepin County and 1 in Ramsey County, one in Winona County, with Nicollet and Wright counties also registering their first COVID-19 deaths. All deaths were patients in their 80s and 90s.

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 Minnesota Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm clarified this week that all of Minnesota's COVID-19 fatalities have been confirmed with testing. If deaths are only listed as "suspected" or "probable" of having been caused by COVID-19, they aren't included in the death count.

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 The age range for confirmed cases has been as young as 4 months old to 104 years old, with a median age of 52, while the average age of persons who have died from the disease is 88.

Who Are The Covid-19 Victims?

Dump truck loads of numbers, statistics and percentages are meant to impress us with the magnitude of the Covid-19 pandemic. Media outlets are dedicated to revealing the rate of infection, hospital admissions and, most of all, deaths caused by this strange affliction. "Models", which make use of these numbers, are being used by government officials to guide their approach to arresting Covid-19, whatever it actually is. The effort is often described as "a war".

When there's a genuine war, with explosive devices designed to dispense death and destruction, names of the victims are published in the media. In all wars in which the US has had a presence, including current adventures abroad, military fatalities have been made public, identifying those paying the ultimate price, their home and survivors and usually a short obituary. This is in addition to any other ordinary obituary. A monument was constructed in Washington, DC honoring those that died in the Viet Nam affair. The name of every individual is engraved in the Viet Nam Memorial Wall.

In the case of the Covid-19 War, despite its incredibly detailed coverage by the media, with tables, graphs, charts, photos, etc. the identities and stories of the fallen, except for the very notable, haven't been published.

At some point, the victims of fatal traffic accidents are identified in the press, as well those killed in criminal activity, construction and industrial accidents, plane and train crashes, etc. In the case of the Covid-19 pandemic fatalities have remained for the most part anonymous.

If indeed this situation is one of such communal danger that state governors, after accepting the conclusions of authorities who have analyzed their own models, can halt virtually any social and economic activity they wish, their citizens should be made aware of exactly who among them have died of the disease and its complete parameters. In fact, listings of fatalities by name and address in papers of record and on news casts should be made a legal requirement, if we are to believe the seriousness of this situation. 

Preston Brooks Falls To Corona Virus

It's a little late notice but Southern hero Preston Smith Brooks has fallen to what seems to be the effects of Corona virus or something very similar. His death occurred on January 27, 1857 in Washington, D.C. and he was buried in his home of Edgefield, South Carolina.

Brooks was most famous for defending the honor of his cousin, South Carolina senator Andrew Butler, after Butler was libeled on the Senate floor by Massachusetts neo-Puritan senator Charles Sumner. Brooks administered a beating to Sumner with a cane that resulted in Sumner suffering perhaps the first recorded American case of PTSD. Evidently it required him to spend the next three years touring Europe to get his faculties back in order.

The notoriety occasioned by the affair caused Brooks to resign his office but in a special election he was re-elected and died before the following congressional term could begin. He was said to have died as the result of the croup, which has all the identifying characteristics of what we now call Covid-19 virus. Perhaps he neglected to wear his mask.

No one can know, even now, if Brooks mauling of Sumner was a significant factor in bringing about the War Between the States. It's quite certain, however, that the fulminations of Sumner were the proximate cause of the Senate confrontation and were indeed one more step in that direction.

Spanish Influenza, 1918

Is The Bicycle Coming Back?

Albert Camus

". . . they commissioned journalists to write up forecasts, and, in this respect at least, the journalists proved themselves equal to their prototypes of earlier ages.

Some of these prophetic writings were actually serialized in our newspapers and read with as much avidity as the love stories that had occupied these columns in the piping times of health. Some predictions were based on far-fetched arithmetical calculations, involving the figures of the year, the total of deaths, and the number of months the plague had so far lasted. Others made comparisons with the great pestilences of former times, drew parallels (which the forecasters called 'constants'), and claimed to deduce conclusions bearing on the present calamity. But our most popular prophets were undoubtedly those who in an apocalyptic jargon had announced sequenced of events, any one of which might be construed as applicable to the present state of affairs and was abstruse enough to admit of almost any interpretation. Thus Nostradamus and St. Odilia were consulted daily, and always with happy results. Indeed, the one thing these prophecies had in common was that, ultimately, all were reassuring. Unfortunately, though the plague was not.

The Plague, Albert Camus.

Van Gogh Painting Stolen

Known as "Parish Garden In Nuenen, Spring", this Vincent Van Gogh painting from 1884, on loan from the Groninger Museum in Groninger, the Netherlands to the Singer Laren Museum in Laren, Netherlands, was stolen in a brazen robbery early on Monday morning, March 30. The only art work taken in the heist, no one is sure about its value, although earlier this year one of his other works was sold for E15 million.

 'Paysanne devant une chaumière' , purchased at an estate sale in 1967 for $5 was sold for E15 million on March 7.

Changing A Street Name

St. Patrick's Day has come and gone, generally ignored because of the pandemic in even St. Paul, Minnesota, where its celebration has been a significant event for many years. The large and exuberant Irish Catholic population, and their friends, delight in a day and night of Hibernian food, drink and horseplay. 

A growing world-wide pandemic put a damper on the festivities this year but it hasn't erased questions about the Irish in St. Paul and Minnesota.

There are 13 Roman Catholic parishes in St. Paul and throughout the state about 22% of the population follows that faith. Of course, not all Catholics are Irish and not all Irish are Catholics but there is a considerable correspondence. What makes this a matter of interest is the St. Paul street called Cromwell Ave.

According to the Ramsey County Historical Society, Cromwell Ave. is named for the Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland, Oliver Cromwell.

  Cromwell, a born-again Puritan, was the organizer of the Parliamentarians'  New Model Army, the most significant factor in the defeat of the royalists in the War of the Three Kingdoms during the period 1648-1650. Later he led the English forces in the continuing subjugation of Ireland, which included massacres at Wexford and Drogheda, and the enslavement of thousands of  Irish who were sent to the West Indies. His life was devoted to exterminating Catholics in general and Irish Catholics in particular. 

Cromwell became the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth in 1653 and served in that position until his death in 1658. In 1660, heir to the throne of the United Kingdom, Stuart Charles II returned to the country, inspiring the most joyous celebration there before or since.  Cromwell's body was exhumed and beheaded and his head displayed on a pike outside Westminster Hall for 18 years.

While Protestant English historians are inclined to treat Cromwell's memory with a certain amount of respect, he remains, after 362 years, perhaps the most hated figure in Irish history. If it's appropriate to cart away memorial statues of Confederate generals from public spaces and remove a reference to John C. Calhoun from a small lake in Minneapolis, it's just as valid to erase the name of a human monster from a short stretch of pavement in a city with a large Catholic and Irish presence. After all, no one has suggested that a St. Paul street be named Hitler Parkway. 

Worried About Exposure To Covid-19?

If crowds and the possible exposure to any communicable disease are a concern there's one very safe place, Mariucci Arena, the home of the University of Minnesota hockey Gophers during an NCAA D-I hockey game.

 Mariucci Arena, Minneapolis, 14 minutes before puck drop in a game between the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the quarter finals of the BigG conference hockey tournament, March 7, 2020.

An arena that holds over 10,000 spectators drew a passionate crowd of 2,182 to watch two of the premier hockey programs in the country battle it out. At the same time a game between conference rivals St. Cloud State and University of Minnesota-Duluth gathered in 6597 fans on Lake Superior, 2167 watched the Soo Lakers play Bemidji State in that wide-spot in the road up north and 3,417 Minnesotans with time on their hands witnessed the pummeling of the Alaska-Anchorage Sea Wolves by the Mankato State hockey Mavericks on the banks of the Minnesota River. 

Chances are that many of the failures of people to gather in crowds will now be blamed on the Wuhan flu. Small crowds at sporting events, trade shows, plays and movies and retailers will be attributed to fear of the disease. While this is likely to be a factor of some size in all of them it's also likely that will be an easy excuse for owners and managers to explain failures with other, contributing causes. The escalation of ticket prices to ball games, plays and movies; bad teams and unexciting play; poor selection of products; inept customer service contribute to sparse crowds as well. Covin-19 will be management's excuse for profit destruction, however. 

Post script: All NCAA winter and spring sports events have been cancelled. No conference or national hockey or basketball tournaments and the baseball season had also ended. Interestingly, the governing body of intercollegiate sports is attempting to figure out a way to indemnify the athletes, perhaps by extending eligibility. Maybe this makes sense in a sordid way for D-I athletes, who are essentially free minor leagues for professional sports. It makes less sense in the case of D-III sports. Very few D-III athletes move on to professional careers at anything but the lowest levels. If they could, they would already be D-I participants. D-III sports are programs designed to attract tuition-paying students that wish to extend their youthful passion for sports as long as possible in a recognized format. While this experience may further their goals in leadership, teamwork, etc., it really doesn't have much to do with their educational experience. College sports at all levels need to examine their priorities and role in society.

Gaius Sallustius Crispus, Conspiracy of Catiline,

But when, by perseverance and integrity, the republic had increased its power; when mighty princes had been vanquished in war; when barbarous tribes and populous states had been reduced to subjection; when Carthage, the rival of Rome’s dominion, had been utterly destroyed, and sea and land lay everywhere open to her sway, Fortune then began to exercise her tyranny, and to introduce universal innovation. To those who had easily endured toils, dangers, and doubtful and difficult circumstances, ease and wealth, the objects of desire to others, became a burden and a trouble. At first the love of money, and then that of power, began to prevail, and these became, as it were, the sources of every evil. For avarice subverted honesty, integrity, and other honorable principles, and, in their stead, inculcated pride, inhumanity, contempt of religion, and general venality. Ambition prompted many to become deceitful; to keep one thing concealed in the breast, and another ready on the tongue; to estimate friendships and enmities, not by their worth, but according to interest; and to carry rather a specious countenance than an honest heart. These vices at first advanced but slowly, and were sometimes restrained by correction; but afterwards, when their infection had spread like a pestilence, the state was entirely changed, and the government, from being the most equitable and praiseworthy, became rapacious and insupportable. 

Chapter 10, Conspiracy of Catiline, 
literally translated by the Rev. John Selby Watson.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 329 & 331 Pearl Street (1867).

Confucious Institutes . . . .platforms for Chinese government propaganda.

The University of Arizona has become the latest American educational entity to follow the dictates of the Department of Defense and terminate its relationship with the Chinese Confucius Institute. At one time almost 100 US universities had affiliations with the Confucius Institute but lawmakers feel that these relationships are a way for the godless Commies to disseminate their ideological propaganda to naive Americans whose only interest is learning Chinese language and culture.

The legislative and military analysis of the situation is probably correct, in that academia at all levels, much of the political spectrum and the media complex are all competitors for the same mentalities as the Chinese socialists. It's a Bolshevik/Menshevik sort of thing. The totalitarians don't want any competition from even their own close relatives.

The US itself has never been shy about spreading its own ideas globally via physical presence. The Peace Corps is an example. Over 235,000 American Peace Corps volunteers have spent their two year stint in 141 countries since the organization's inception in 1962. In the first 25 years of its existence 21 countries expelled the Peace Corps. Now the US has withdrawn the Peace Corps from China.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty sends US propaganda over the airwaves daily to 23 countries in 25 languages.

As with other aspects of nation-state coercion, the DoD uses the distribution of taxpayer funds as a carrot-on-a-stick to state educational institutions to gain their compliance in matters of ideology. It would be nice to believe that US citizens, receiving mandatory education in US government-approved schools with approved curricula, would be able to make their own decisions in regard to Chinese political theory while studying Chinese language and culture.  

A Government Goal, According To Ayn Rand

“Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with.”

Supremes Say Mexican Family Can't Sue US Border Patrol Agent

According to this story in the Wall Street Journal, the US Supreme Court has rejected a suit brought by the family of a Mexican teen-ager shot to death by a US Border Patrol agent in 2010. The victim, Sergio Hernandez, was on the Mexican side of the border in Ciudad Juarez, while the agent, Jesus Mesa, Jr., was on the US side in El Paso.

The decision wasn't based on the facts of the incident but because "A cross-border shooting claim has foreign relations and national security implications", according to Justice Alito. He said it was a matter best settled diplomatically between the US and Mexican governments, not in the courts.

If this be the case, it brings to mind some other incidents with citizens of other countries, for instance the Russian hackers that have been indicted by the US for effecting the election of Donald Trump in 2016 and the Chinese computer infantrymen that roiled the waters of credit giant Equifax in 2017. Neither of these countries allows extradition of their citizens to the US so they are unlikely to see the inside of a Yankee courtroom.  

The US is now attempting to extradite Julian Assange, an Australian/Ecuadorian, from his cell in Belmarsh, England. The US wants to prosecute him for assisting in the publication of classified information illegally released by US soldier Chelsea Manning.

The US and Mexico have an extradition treaty. There is a possibility that the survivors of Mr. Hernandez could convince the Mexican government that an attempt to extradite the agent involved might be successful and worth attempting. One wonders what the response of the US government would be. After all, the Russian and Chinese hackers, and Julian Assange, haven't killed anyone.

Face Masks And Arificial Intelligence

The Covid-19 virus that has become a world health concern has pushed along some other trends such as the replacement of filthy, infected currency with digital money and the wearing of face masks. In reality, face masks were already frequently seen among Asians in America even before the Wuhan flu emerged.

What some people will quickly realize, especially the realistically paranoid, is that wearing a face mask for ostensible health reasons has a possible beneficial side effect. That would be the likelihood that a good face mask might foil AI facial recognition technology without alerting law enforcement. In fact, there's no doubt there are some masked souls in China sporting these protective devices for just that reason. 

Further more, as these masks are increasingly donned to prevent the spread of disease they will become items of fashion, like other clothes and accessories. Masks adorned with sequins and other decorations are probably already in use somewhere among the millions in the People's Republic. 

 

In fact, the use of face masks may be the only effective way of foiling the efforts of Clearview AI's attempt to spread facial recognition technology across the world. Some of these might help.