You couldn’t write a Hollywood script this bad. Democrats believed that they could easily defeat Donald Trump. They assembled a dream team to compete for the nomination. It started to look a lot like an American Idol audition. Joe Biden was included almost as an afterthought. No one considered Joe Biden to be a great candidate, he was just viewed as a less risky option.  It was the none of the above option.

All the other candidates self-destructed. The flavor of the week always turned sour overnight as soon as people listened to what they were saying. The pattern became obvious. Someone appears to have momentum. They become the overnight media sensation. Then voters took a real look at them and say: “seriously?” Each of the candidates quickly evaporated. No one started higher than Kamala Harris, no one crashed sooner.

Suddenly, the DNC realized they were running out of time. They were looking at a brokered convention. The leading candidate was Bernie Sanders who is so far left even liberal democrats feared he could conceivably lose all 50 states.

Something had to be done. Then Joe Biden finally won something, the South Carolina primary. Suddenly all the remaining candidates dropped out giving Joe the clear path to victory. We may never know what promises were required to achieve that outcome, but we can be sure they were BIG promises.. When it finally came down to Joe and Bernie, the never Bernie crowd won the day. Joe Biden is your big winner.

Biden, who had stumbled badly in debates, went into hiding. He was literally hiding out in his basement. When he did surface, he was wearing a mask, with a carefully written script, and a staff determined to avoid questions. Joe still showed a miraculous talent for mucking thing up, but the media did not care.  He literally won because he was the last man standing, and he was barely standing. The media outlet for the DNC, just ignored Joe and focused solely on trashing Trump.

The search was on for a VP. Since very few think Joe is up to the job, this choice really matters. But the double secret society didn’t even pretend they were looking for the most qualified candidate. If that were the standard there would be no explanation for Joe Biden. Then a letter from 100 black leaders was publicly circulated demanding that the VP nomination be given to a black female.  This put Joe between a rock and a hard place. If he didn’t choose a black female, these same people promised to campaign against Joe. Historically black Americans vote about 90% for Democrats. Democrats count on that in every election. When Joe said if you weren’t voting for him you weren’t black, he was telling what he believed to be true. If Joe can’t get 90% of the black voter, he loses, pure and simple.

The problem is that all the black female candidates came with more baggage than the United Terminal at O’Hare after a major snowstorm. The choices ranked from bad, to awful, to terrible, to “are you kidding me?” Ultimately the only choice was Kamala Harris because all the other candidates were so much worse.

But even Kamala knows this was an insult. She knows she was chosen SOLELY because of her race and gender. Not only that, it still took Joe forever to accept her. Now when you are the only girl left at the dance, and the last guy has to make a choice and he sees you sitting there all alone and still hesitates, well that is not a good sign.

So, the DNC is going with the worst possible choice for President who just picked the worst possible choice for VP. Neither won anything, other than surviving while everyone around them self-destructed.

The DNC thinks this ticket will beat Donald Trump. They don’t think the massive crowds he can draw at a moments notice are important. They ignore MAGA hats. They rely on polls that have been wrong on every major election during the 21 Century. They believe because they believe everyone else thinks just like them. This is where they missed something monumental. They don’t think and all and all those people they are putting down understand that. Real people feel zero obligation to agree with people who are not just wrong, they are misinformed and stupid.

Unless Democrats steal this election with mail in voting, the DNC ticket is on the railway to destruction.

TDM

I have always believed that the COVID 19 virus was used as an excuse by the establishment and Democrats to seize power. Many governors enjoyed putting restrictions on everything we do. They reveled in the power. This was intended to cause serious problems in the hope that this would help defeat Donald Trump. It is, of course, unthinkable to wish this level of pain on people for political purposes, but that does not mean it is not true.

I believe when this is all done, there will be an audit that will find the following.

1. The number of cases is grossly overstated. We already know this because people are testing positive one day and negative the next.  Most recent case was the Ohio governor. Another example was Matthew Stafford, QB for the Detroit Lions.
2. The number of deaths is grossly understated.  I personally know of people who had relatives who died, from causes unrelated to COVID 19, that were reported as COVID 19 deaths.
3. There will be no evidence that the general population wearing a mask had any impact on slowing the spread of the disease.
4. There will be no evidence that locking down large parts of the economy had any impact on slowing the disease. It clearly spread anyway.
5. There will be clear evidence that shutting down some businesses, like hair salons, was not based on science, it was arbitrary, did not help prevent the spread of the disease, and destroyed people’s lives unnecessarily.

But the biggest impact of COVID 19 will be that a lot of people, and I do mean a lot, now realize they do not have to work in the office. This will impact New York City more than any place else. New York only has 1% of the U.S. area but 8% of the GDP. At recently as January of this year, if you wanted to be a player in the financial world, you had to work in New York City. But that has changed dramatically during the last six months. Now a high percentage of people who work in New York City are still working, but they are working from home. Many of them have figured out something major. If they can work out of an apartment on the lower east side, they can work anywhere. They do not need to live in New York City to work there anymore. They do not have to pay the high taxes. They do not have to pay the high rent. They do not have to put up with the noise and the traffic. They do not have to put up with the filth and the crime. They do not even have to put up with the weather. They don’t even need to live within commuting distance.

There are already numerous reports of people deserting New York City. This is so bad that Governor Cuomo noted and offered to serve them a drink. Good luck with that. The same thing is happening here in California. Housing prices in South Lake Tahoe are skyrocketing because people are deserting San Francisco, for the same reason. They aren’t just deserting San Francisco; they are deserting the suburbs. People who don’t want to live in San Francisco, don’t want to commute there either. Covid 19 has taught them something huge. They don’t have to be here anymore.

When you combine that with the skyrocketing homeless crisis, the rapid increase in crime and insane regulations, the problem becomes worse.

We have all seen this before. A town, located on Route 66 prospered, because everyone had to slow down to drive through there. But once an interstate highway was built the town was reduced to an exit sign on the interstate. Those towns still exist, barely, but the economic boom is long gone. We recently drove through such a town. There were pathetic, faded signs, reminding people of the Route 66 glory days. But those days are gone forever. The same thing happened to towns built around the railroad. Now, we don’t even need roads. We don’t have to travel at all. We just need a reliable connection to the internet.

New York will never recover.  Neither will a place like San Francisco. It will be years, perhaps decades, before this changes. It will be that long before people say: hmm…that is a nice place to live. In the meantime, the people who caused all this will, predictably, be the last to figure it out. Democratic Governors and Mayors in blue states have thrived by mismanaging high density population centers. But the rich people, the ones with big jobs, the ones who fund everything, are leaving. Soon they will be managing a nightmare. The income stream will be long gone, the overcrowded poor, most of whom will be dependents, will stay behind. The homeless population will increase.

This has happened to New York before. It always found a way to adjust. But this time, that may not be possible. Previously, no matter how bad it got, people still “needed” to be in New York. New York remained the financial capital of the country. That is no longer true. New York was nice, while it lasted, but it is rapidly becoming so yesterday. Things that previously required a physical presence in New York can now be done from a tent with a generator and a good antenna.

The law of unintended consequences is in full play. COVID 19, was great at giving Democrats the illusion of control. But ultimately it may have just speeded up a death cycle that should have been obvious to anyone paying attention. Regardless of why, one thing is clear. A whole lot of people have already left, and others are prepared to exit stage right.

TDM

Most people have learned about the real risk of having a hangover. In addition to the potential damage from drinking too much and embarrassing oneself, the morning after can be even worse. My favorite story about this concerned a very high-ranking insurance company officer, whose identity has been deleted to protect the obviously guilty. We were in New Orleans for a Risk and Insurance Managers Society Conference. Several of us decided to walk back from Bourbon street to our hotel, which was near the Superdome. On the way we passed a used car lot. There was a 1988 Dodge Charger there on prominent display. This business executive fell madly in love with the car. He went into the dealership, which was open all night. (That should have been a real clue folks). He bought that car on the spot and said he would pick it up later.

The next morning, I had breakfast with this guy. So, I asked him if his wife was excited about the new car. He said, “what car?” I said: “The 1988 Dodge Charger you bought last night.” Blank stare. Then: “I bought a car?” I said: “yes, a beautiful 1988 Dodge Charger. “ Blank stare. Then: “how did I pay for it?” I said: “You wrote out a check.” He started to swear, then asked us to excuse him while he called his bank and transferred the money necessary to prevent the check from bouncing. I later learned that he had the car shipped to Seattle, only to discover that like a lot of things, it looked a lot better when the person checking it out was drunk. He sold it at a big loss.

I knew he had been drinking but had no idea he was that hammered. At first, I thought he was joking, but eventually realized he did buy a car and didn’t remember it.

The entire country is going to have a COVID 19 hangover. Only this will be a lot more serious and expensive than buying a dumb car. When you combine this with the insane reaction to the George Floyd incident, it is a perfect storm. Let me give one example, the San Francisco Giants. They were already in trouble. The team has stunk up the field for the last five years attendance is way down. Last year there were more SF Giants representatives trying to scalp tickets than the real ticket scalpers. In my case one of these smiling young geniuses tried to see me tickets, next to my tickets, for about half of what I paid for my seats. When I point out that as a season ticket holder, I found this to be offensive, they quickly moved on to the next target of opportunity. At the end of the year, I decided, for the first time in 25 years, not to renew my season tickets. I could handle the lousy teams, but previously when I couldn’t go to a game, I could sell my tickets for face value and often a surcharge. Last year I was lucky to get 50 cents on the dollar.

That turned out to be brilliant timing because the baseball season was cancelled. I believe the Giants are still trying to figure out what refund, if any, to give to current season ticket holders. If I still had those tickets I would be beyond furious.

Now they are playing games in front of empty stadiums with cutout figures sitting in seats in key locations, like behind home plate, to create the illusion of an audience. They are even piping in game noise. All the players have masks, and they must wear them unless they are playing the field or batting. This is even though they are playing in an empty stadium surrounded by people who are tested on a regular basis. People, who if they do get sick, tend to recover before they get all the way to first base. Yet the players are whimpering about not feeling safe. It is beyond pathetic.

But it gets worse than that. The new Giants manager considers himself a social justice warrior, so he knelt while the national anthem was played to nobody. One of the star players stood next to him, with his hand on his shoulder, to show support. I turned off the TV and wrote a letter to senior management at the SF Giants thanking them, as a Vietnam combat vet, for their kind consideration.

George Floyd, the symbol of systemic racism, was a sad situation but not actually racist. He was drunk literally out of his mind on Alcohol, meth amphetamines and heroin. He had serious underlying health conditions and may have died without or without any police being in the area. He was arrested because he was acting weird and was asleep at the wheel of his car. The video shows the police tried to treat him with respect until he became agitated and they had to resort to physical force to restrain him. While one may criticize the police for the way they handled this, there is nothing about this incident that indicates this happened because George Floyd was black. If you doubt that, take this test. Go get tanked up. Fall asleep in your car. Then when police arrive to question you, start swinging at them. See how they respond. The only difference is that if you are white, and the police rough you up, no one will care.

Major businesses are making similar mistakes. Trader Joe’s is changing its name to “Trader”. (“Say it ain’t so, Joe!”) The NBA is painting black lives murals on the floors. The Boston Red Sox just hung a “Black Live Matter” banner on the Green Monster. A Nascar driver freaked out over a garage pull that has been used in racing garages for decades. CNN accepted this as further evidence of systemic racism. The NBA would sell you a shirt that said, “Kill Cops” but not one that said, “Free Hong Kong.” The NFL is re-introducing Colin Kaepernick and there are already organized attempts to disrespect our flag at every opportunity. Some even want to play the black national anthem, unknown even to most African Americans, before every game. “God Bless America” will be replaced by John Lennon’s “Imagine.”

This is insane. So far as I can tell, the only sport that has not become totally anti-American is the National Hockey League, which is populated by a ton of Canadians and has several Canadian teams.

So after losing more than a season because of irrational fear of a virus that isn’t actually very lethal, supposedly really smart people are doubling down on disaster by apologizing for their white privilege and promising to accept responsibility for screwing everything up for everyone else. Frankly, some of these sports may not survive. At best it will take years, if not decades for them to recover. Businesses all over the country has already closed permanently, others will never reopen, and still more will reopen only to discover that they will pay a terrible price for trashing a high percentage of their customers. After COVID 19, no one wants to go anywhere just to be lectured about something else.

The bad news is that the hangover will be worse than anyone imagines. The good news is that this is one case where Darwinian theory works. Survival of the fittest is just as true in the commercial market as it is in nature. The old institutions, poorly run, fueled primarily by tradition, will never recover, but they will be replaced by something else. Something smarter, strong, more efficient and run by people too focused on making money to waste time insulting key customers.

The morning after will be something special.

TDM

We have all seen the recent polls showing Joe Biden leading by 15 points. If the election were held today, Bid would win in a landslide. Right? Do any of you really believe that? Do you believe that an overwhelming majority of Democrats will vote for a senile old man proposing far left ideas that are absolutely insane?  Odds are you do not believe that. You know too many Democrats, and while they may truly hate Donald Trump, I haven’t met anyone who was excited about Joe Biden. So, what is going on here?

The answer quite simply is that the polls are worthless. This is obsolete technology that hasn’t worked in decades. This is not just in the United States. In Britain, the anti-Brexit coalition was sure they had won. They were literally pouring champagne and celebrating. But the next day, when the true results, not exist polls, came in, Brexit won big. Remember all the times we heard that Boris Johnson was hanging on by the skin of his teeth. Well he just won in a historic landslide. The same thing happened here. Every poll thought Hillary would win. Every major network, including FOX, thought Hillary would win. That didn’t change until the actual votes were counted and Trump won Florida big league. He ended up running the table and picking up things along the edge, like Michigan and Wisconsin. None of the polls predicted this. Even the exit polls did not predict this.

Let’s be blunt. There any zero chance that any pollster will get me on the phone long enough to complete one of their silly surveys. I am not exactly alone. Many people no longer have land lines. Most of us have smart phones. Just watch people and observe how they use their smart phone. It is rare to see someone talking on the phone, outside of a business setting. Everyone else is typing madly with their thumbs.  I cannot imagine most of these people putting up with a robo-call phone survey that pops up on their smart phone.

In addition to that, as I have pointed out previously, the polls famously over-sample Democrats. That means even if the process were right the results would still be highly skewed. But the process isn’t right. It doesn’t come close to figuring out how people really think. Polling is just so yesterday.

A far better way to evaluate things is to watch what people do. When Democrats talk about defunding the police, the immediate result is an exponential increase in gun sales. When self-righteous Hollywood A’holes demanded a boycott of GOYA foods, sales went up. I personally know people, including myself, who went out of the way to buy a GOYA food product.

When Joe Biden speaks, there are about three people in the audience and most of them are DNC plants. When Trump speaks people line up for hours. People are wearing MAGA hats and Trump 2020 hats. Have you seen all those Biden 2020 hats? Me neither. In 2008 there were a lot of Obama bumper sticks. I can’t remember seeing the last Biden bumper sticker.

So, here’s the deal. None of the polls mean anything. They have less merit than the CDC COVID-19 statistics.  What does matter is whether Republicans running for re-election are running toward Trump or away from him. Four years ago, a lot of them were running away. Today only a couple are doing that, the rest are singing his praises. Republicans may not like Trump, but they absolutely despise Democrats. If you’re a Republican, even a Susan Collins type Republican you WANT Trump to campaign for you. Republicans are often slow on the intake, but they have figured this out. Trump is a winner and the people he supports do a lot better than the people he opposes.

This reminds me of a sanitation engineer in Chicago who figured out that Superbowl ratings were highly suspect. He determined the number of people watching the game by measuring the increase in sewage flow during half-time. He figured out that a high percentage of people watching the game would choose half-time to take a dump. We now know that he was right, and although no one publicly admits this, smart broadcasters pay more attention to their sh*t for exactly this reason.

So, when you see the polls showing Biden up by 15 points, remember one thing. Most people don’t participate in this nonsense and this is doing nothing more than giving CNN and the liberal left a false sense of security.

I seldom talk politics with a hard core liberal. The reason is very simple. They don’t listen and there is close to zero chance you can convince them of anything. If you do point out that they believe something demonstrably false, they will only become angry, at you, and write you off as an idiot. It is just not worth my time.

My primary concern at this point is massive voter fraud. I don’t think Joe Biden has a chance if there is a fair election process. But if everything is done by mail and Democrats are sorting the mail, then we have a serious problem. But then I realized something important. While there is no doubt Democrats would like to steal this election, it is far from certain that is possible. There will certainly be voter fraud in places like New York and California. But this election will not be decided in those states. In the states that really count, it will be far more difficult for Democrats to significantly alter results.

Everyone I know is angry. Even Democrats are angry. I believe Trump supporters are already lining up to vote in November. They are as energized as humanly possible. Democrats, on the other hand, are trying and failing to get enthusiastic for a senile old man who can’t even read a teleprompter without mucking things up. Throwing things at police, you betcha. Listening to Joe Biden? Seriously? He has zero personality. There is an old saying, “you can’t be somebody with nobody. Trump is somebody, Biden is nobody.”

In addition, the attempted coup by the Intelligence Agencies and the DOJ is about to go public. Durham is going to deliver his report and he is very likely to be indicting people. Even CNN will have to report on this. If he were going to sugar coat this or whitewash things, he would have already done that. Do not underestimate the impact of this.

Finally, remember that the MSM has no clue regarding how the average person not living in the DC bubble thinks about anything. For this reason, none of their reporting or projections has any merit. People living in a bubble cannot see outside the bubble. But people on the outside, looking in, have no problem seeing them. We got a picture of that tonight. I watched the Giants game, for about two seconds, until I realized the idiotic manager knelt during the national anthem while it was placed to an empty stadium. How stupid can you get? There were literally cut-outs of people put in seats behind home plate, so it looked like there were fans. The players were all wearing masks, although some took them off to play field. The stands were completely empty. It was insane. It was unwatchable. I can’t even imagine who thought this was a good idea.

The same thing is going to happen this fall. Liberals will go into the election filled with confidence, but they will soon find the stadiums are empty and the six people there don’t really care. Then, for the next four years, they will wonder how the U.S. got it so wrong, again.

TDM

In 1925 Adolph Hitler talked about the use of the big lie. He talked about a lie so collosal that no would would believe that someone would have the impudent to distort the truth so infamously. Adolph Hitler used this strategy  to take total control in Germany. The same tactic is being used by the liberal left today to take total control of you.

You are being lied to each and every day. Sadly, the people who claim to be fact checkers are often the worst offenders. Following is a classic example of how factcheck.org claims to have fact checked something, produces a blatantly false and misleading headline, and then documents that the story they are mocking is absolutely accurate.

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/05/outdated-fauci-video-on-face-masks-shared-out-of-context/

The headline:

Outdated Fauci Video on Face Masks Shared Out of Context.

The article confirms what Fauci said. It was in response to question by Dr. Jon LaPook, chief medical correspondent for CBS news.

LaPook, March 8: There’s a lot of confusion among people, and misinformation, surrounding face masks. Can you discuss that?

Fauci: The masks are important for someone who’s infected to prevent them from infecting someone else… Right now in the United States, people should not be walking around with masks.

LaPook: You’re sure of it? Because people are listening really closely to this.

Fauci: …There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask. When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is. And, often, there are unintended consequences — people keep fiddling with the mask and they keep touching their face.

LaPook: And can you get some schmutz, sort of staying inside there?

Fauci: Of course, of course. But, when you think masks, you should think of health care providers needing them and people who are ill. The people who, when you look at the films of foreign countries and you see 85% of the people wearing masks — that’s fine, that’s fine. I’m not against it. If you want to do it, that’s fine.

LaPook: But it can lead to a shortage of masks?

Fauci: Exactly, that’s the point. It could lead to a shortage of masks for the people who really need it

The same article says that the CDC changed its position because of recent studies. But those studies did not actually study face masks at all. Here is what CDC said:

“We now know from recent studies that a significant portion of individuals with coronavirus lack symptoms (‘asymptomatic’) and that even those who eventually develop symptoms (‘pre-symptomatic’) can transmit the virus to others before showing symptoms,” the CDC said in its announcement. “In light of this new evidence, CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies) especially in areas of significant community-based transmission.”

Note that even here the CDC is only recommending masks in places where people cannot social distance. Now we have to wear mask at the same time we are ordered to stay at least six feet away from people. The current CDC guidelines contradict their own analysis.

I have still seen zero evidence that this transmission is impacted at all by wearing a cloth face mask. I haven’t even seen a study evaluating this. This is like noting the weather forecast for tomorrow indicates rain, so everyone should switch from wearing briefs to boxer shorts. This is not just stupid, it is insane.

The only thing that really changed was the desire of the government to do something visible that looked” like they were doing “something” to keep us safe. They also wanted to take control of our lives. So they chose face masks, because they are easy to see and a lot of people will buy the non-scientific argument that face masks actually do something. In addition, they ignored something really important. Fauci said there were unintended consequences, people keep fiddling with the mask and they keep touching their face.

He was and is spot on. People are wearing cloth masks that in some cases are obviously used over and over again. They are wearing bandannas, pretty masks, masks with slogans or my favorite, expensive masks with ventilation knobs designed to make it easier to breathe and which make the mask absolutely worthless.

It is bad enough to be mask shamed by self-righteous people typically wearing anything other than a clean new mask. It is even harder to tolerate when you realize they motivated by deliberately misleading information and making everyone wear a mask is not only ineffective, it is not only stupid, it is actually dangerous for a lot of people.

Lies always hurt someone. Lies told by government official hurt everyone. Lies, backed up by

It is time to be blunt. COVID-19 is a nasty piece of work, but it is not the worst plague in the history of mankind. The real plague is mind numbing irrational fear of COVID 19. We now know that for most people, the recovery is rather quick and complete. The mortality rate is less than 1%. Elderly people with underlying conditions are definitely at much higher risk. What should have been done is a plan of action to protect those most vulnerable and let the disease run its course. It did make sense to develop surge capacity for hospitals and speed up testing. But it never made sense to shut down the entire economy and it certainly does not justify letting the government micromanage every aspect of your life.

Be warned that the liberals are thrilled with the ability to use COVID-19 to impose their will on the American people. That is why we are inundated everyday with reports clearly designed to increase fear and to discourage resistance to abusive government intervention in our lives. Do not think it will stop here. If the government can convince the NFL and MLB to cower in fear, they can dominate EVERYTHING. If COVID-19 ever does go away, the liberal left will just find something else to achieve the same goal. They have already seen how easy it is to manipulate people into doing things that make no sense and that give government complete control over our lives. One would have to be hopelessly naïve to think it will end with COVID-19. The people who are pushing the panic want to control your life. They want to tell you when, where and how you can work. When, where and how your children can be taught. When, where and how you can do simple thinks like dine out, visit a bar or even go to church.

It has already worked brilliantly. We just got back from a trip all over the Western U.S. We visited Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and Arizona before returning to California. Everywhere we went we saw terrified people. People wearing masks while hiking miles from the nearest road in 80 degree weather in the Grand Tetons. Restaurants just outside the Grand Canyon, with three tables of diners in a room that could probably hold 100. We saw numerous signs demanding people stay 6 feet apart. There were security guards at the entrances to stores controlling how many people could even be in the store. If you weren’t wearing a mask, you were sternly told to leave.

Why? Is COVID 19 really that bad? The obvious answer is no. Even if you look at the results everywhere in the world, including countries that bungled this big time, it didn’t come close to justifying this. This is all based on a relentless drumbeat of fear. People are genuinely terrified. Terrified into doing things that are just plain stupid. For example: No competent professional believes that a cloth mask does much to prevent the spread of disease. It is quite simple. If you can breathe through the mask, it isn’t doing much. In addition, in order for this to work at all, everyone would have to put on a new clean unused cloth mask prior to entering any location. If you touch the mask with your hands, it must be discarded. If you put in down anywhere it must be discarded. If you cough or sneeze it must be discarded. It must be properly fitted to your face. It must cover your mouth and your nose. You must never touch it. My favorite are these fancy looking medical grade masks with built in vent holes that make the mask worthless. Then there are those fancy masks with pictures or logos. You know people have been wearing the same mask for weeks. There are even people with bandannas tied around their head. Those are effective only if one is planning on conducting an armed robbery.

Yet not only are people playing the game, they are waxing eloquence and self-righteously about anyone who dares challenge the conventional wisdom. I firmly predict that five or ten years from now, people will look at pictures of everyone wearing masks that accomplish nothing and wonder where we found all the stupid people. There is zero science supporting this. Look at the pictures of the long cone shaped masks people wore in a failed effort to stop the black plague. They didn’t work. I know of no situation where this has ever worked other than in a controlled environment like a hospital or a dental clinic. Trying to get an entire population to wear masks is ridiculous and doomed to failure. There are some silly “tests” where someone sneezes and it is estimated to travel up to six feet. This is offered as proof positive that masks save lives. It is nonsense.

It is like Yellowstone National Park. The National Park Service (NPS) killed all the predators like wolves and grizzly bears. The result was a very unhealthy herd of deer, elk and bison. In a failed attempt to recognize the need for balance, the ecology of the park was at risk of being permanently destroyed. They learned this lesson the hard way at Yellowstone. Wolves have been brought back. So have other predators like Grizzly bears. The government has learned to back off and let the magic of nature work. As a result, Yellowstone is healthy again. The animals are thriving.

We need to understand that we are not God. We suck at micromanaging things like climate and certain diseases. Yes, we do need to work on cures for cancer and vaccinations for diseases like polio and tuberculosis. We did need to kill the mosquitoes to stop yellow fever and malaria. But we can’t focus our entire lives on avoiding one disease that isn’t all that deadly and which would have gone away on its own without our help. Yes, we should have protected the most vulnerable. Yes we should have worked on testing and developing treatment. No, we should not have tried to let the government micromanage our entire existence because of the irrational fear of COVID 19. We should be terrified, not by COVID 19, but rather by how it is being used to take away our freedom. We should be terrified by the thousands if not millions of people who will die, unnecessarily, from other diseases because everyone and everything is distracted by COVID 19.

Far too many people have already let the government take unprecedented control of their lives. It won’t end here. It won’t end with COVID 19. If we do not fight back, now, while we can, the opportunity to regain anything close to the freedom that made this the best nation on earth will be gone forever. We either learn from this now, or we will pay a terrible price in the not too distant future.

TDM

There was a remarkable interview of Attorney General William Barr with Ted Cruz and Michael Knowles. Following is a link to the actual podcast. It is remarkable:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-34-bill-barr-is-honey-badger-ft-attorney-general/id1495601614?i=1000479561748

It is very important to understand why Barr took the job in the first place.

“Because I didn’t want to. And I resisted it for a long time and I suggested other people. But at the end of the day, I saw the department being used as a political weapon in our system. I thought it was injurious to the rule of law and injurious to our important institutions in our country. I thought this idea of resisting a duly elected president of the United States and using every devise to impair his administration was disastrous. And I thought he needed an attorney general and I agreed to do it.”

Michael Knowles asked Barr how politicized the DOJ was when he returned as Attorney General. The response is stunning:

“I think there were many examples of political decisions, but I think one of the things that has perplexed me about this is that we had one of the largest frauds and injustices in American history conducted by the Justice Department and the FBI right in the center of it. And that was turning the law enforcement and intelligence agencies of the government against an opponent’s political campaign.”

That comment should send shock waves through the main stream media. Either Barr is hopelessly corrupt, totally incompetent, or he is right. This simply cannot be ignored. When the Attorney General of the United States says we have one of the largest frauds and injustices in American history, people should start paying attention. When he says the law enforcement and intelligence agencies of the government were turned against an opponent’s political campaign that is an extremely serious charge. It is not a charge that someone like Barr would make unless he was absolutely sure of his facts. It is not the type of comment he would make unless the investigation was already complete. When an Attorney General starts making statements like this, in a public setting, this is a red flag warning that indictments are on the way, sooner rather than later.

Now combine this with the shocking results of the investigation by Special Prosecutor Gerard Carmody. He was appointed by St. Louis Circuit Judge Michael Mullen. If the following report is accurate, Carmody has made a compelling case that should also send shock waves through the main stream media.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/06/exclusive-police-source-woman-framed-former-missouri-gov-eric-greitens-guilty-perjury-bribed-cash-payment/

The case brought against Governor Greitens by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, had already been dismissed, but not before it cost him his reputation and his position as Governor of Missouri. This sure looks like another example of liberal Democrats abusing the legal system against political opponents. If this prosecutor was funded by George Soros, as claimed in this article, then an ugly pattern starts to emerge. One that wise reporters ignore to their peril.

For over three years we have been hammered by the main stream media with constant accusations against Donald Trump. We are told that he is a serial liar, but if you ask for his top ten lies the answer says a lot.

The biggest lie is that Trump says three to five million people voted illegal for Hillary Clinton. This was dismissed as undocumented conspiracy. We were arrogantly told that there is no evidence of wide-spread voter fraud. But that ignores the fact that Democrats in Orange County, CA literally bragged about ballot harvesting, which would be illegal in most other states.

His second biggest lie was bragging about the size of the inauguration crowd. Seriously? A politician lied about the size of a crowd? CRUCIFY HIM!

Trump also bragged about being a successful president. No other politician has bragged about accomplishments. Of course not!

This third biggest lie was saying President Obama tapped his phones during the election. Duh..this looks like Trump actually was right about that.

Finally, the biggest lie, Trump said it started to rain during his inauguration but it ended quickly. Watch for yourself. Here is the full video of his inauguration. Does this look like a downpour to you? It had been raining off and on all day. If it rained during his inauguration, it sure doesn’t look that way in this video:

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=video+of+trump%27s+inaugaration+speech&docid=608046018932704247&mid=6B70864892FFFF84295C6B70864892FFFF84295C&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

A lot of people are wearing ponchos, but during the speech a lot of people are not even wearing hats or holding umbrellas. Yet, the main stream media viewed this as the crime of the century. Partly because they were literally praying that it would rain on Trump’s campaign. When that didn’t actually happen, they just pretended it did anyway.

Soon, and very soon, hard cold facts are going to come out and none of them support the narrative we have heard for the last three and one half years from the main stream media. Instead we are going to see overwhelming evidence, not against Trump, but against those who were willing to destroy him, without regard to the facts and without regard to the impact on the country.

Unless Willaim Barr is hopelessly delusional, a lot of people who naively thought they were above the law are about to learn that the opposite is true, Barr None. The only real question is whether Democrats or their fawning supporters will even notice and if they do notice, will they care?

TDM

The self-righteous hate-filled bigots in San Francisco toppled and defaced a statue honoring Francis Scott Key. They also tore down a statute of General Ulysses S. Grant and Father Juniper Serra.  Naturally, the liberal leaders in San Francisco were supportive.

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/nation-world/national/article243696912.html

Mayor London Breed said she understands:

“the very real pain in this country rooted in our history of slavery and oppression, especially against African-Americans and Indigenous people.” She did have one minor complaint:
“Every dollar we spend cleaning up this vandalism takes funding away from actually supporting our community, including our African American Community.”

Apparently, none of these people realized that General Grant was a major factor in freeing all those slaves. But they also ignored a few facts about Francis Scott Key. Yes, he did own slaves. But there is a lot more to the story.

http://www.wondersandmarvels.com/2014/07/a-friend-of-men-of-color-francis-scott-key-slavery.html

Even though he came from a large slaving owning family, he was an early opponent of slave trafficking. By all accounts, he treated his slaves fairly and freed several of them during his lifetime. He also had a reputation for providing free legal advice to impoverished free blacks and slaves in Washington.

But in June 1842, Francis Scott Key did something remarkable. William Costin died. He was a respected leader of the free African American community in Washington, D.C.  There were more than 70 carriages filled with people who trailed his casket to the cemetery. Some of the people in those carriages were white. But following this was a long line of men on horseback, all of them black, with one exception. That exception was Francis Scott Key.

I doubt that many people in the angry mob that tore down his statue knew any of this. Francis Scott Key, like everyone else, was far from perfect. He lived during a time when racial prejudice was a reality in the United States. But it was people like Francis Scott Key that were an important factor in ending slavery and at least attempting to be part of the solution.

Sadly, facts do not matter to an angry mob. This represents a lot of things, but justice for anyone is not on the list. In addition, I couldn’t help but notice that all the anger is directed at everyone else but themselves. There is racial prejudice in this country, but it is a lot better than it used to be. Other people have experienced extreme prejudice with very different results. One could argue that few were treated worse than Chinese immigrants to the U.S. They were the men who built our railroads and often died in the process. They also were treated as subhuman. If anyone had a right to be bitter and angry, they were near the top of the list. But, instead of focusing on what was being done to them, they focused on lifting themselves up. Today, Asian Americans are at least equal in personal wealth to white Americans. They didn’t do this by blaming everything on white people, although they would certainly have been justified in doing exactly that. They were too busy working on what they could do themselves to build a better future for them and their children.

Francis Scott Key was originally opposed to the War of 1812. But while on a British ship, watching the bombardment of Ft. M’Henry he was inspired by the “Star Spangled Banner” and he saw clearly what it meant. He realized that preserving the land of the free and the home of the brave required courage and sacrifice.

O say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

It is too bad that those filled with media fueled rage can’t see this at all. They also don’t realize that in toppling statues of men like Ulysses S. Grant and Francis Scott Key, they are not building bridges to a better future, they are instead fueling the exact type of racial prejudice they pretend to oppose. I greatly fear that while screaming the need for racial tolerance, they will ultimately achieve the exact opposite. It is really this simple. If you keep telling white people that you blame all your problems on them because of the color of their skin, at some point they are going to agree with you. It is important to realize that this can have no other result than an increase in racial prejudice.

We are starting to see a lot of things clearly now. We are seeing that all the violence and racial discount is happening in major cities run by Democrats. If Democratic policies were so marvelous at helping minorities, how did this happen?  We are seeing criminals elevated to saint hood, because they were killed by police, with little or no regard for police killed by criminals. We are seeing a Democratic Party and its supporters in the MSM promoting ludicrous conspiracy theories about Donald Trump while refusing to consider the blatant abuse of power by Barrack Obama and the mind-boggling corruption of Joe Biden. They would have us seriously consider electing someone showing serious signs of dementia to be Commander in Chief of the greatest military in the history of mankind.

Oh, say can you see? I sure can see, and my hunch is that a lot of other people are seeing the same things.

TDM

I have always had pathetic vision. In grade school my parents took me to a stock car race. They were shocked to realize I could not see the numbers on the cars. They also learned I couldn’t read what the teacher was writing on the blackboard. I got my first pair of glasses. I still remember the first time I put on those classes and walked outside. Holly crap, trees have leaves on them. For the first time, I actually saw things. It brought everything into focus. Sometimes things looked a lot better while wearing my glasses. But somethings the glasses allowed me to see things that were not beautiful. They were, in fact, ugly. That is the whole point of 2020 vision. You see things for yourself and it changes your perspective of everything.

2020 has been a really bad terrible year, but it is also a year that is providing 2020 vision to a lot of people. Nearly every major metropolitan area in the United States is and had been controlled by Democrats for decades. All those racist cities are run by Democrats. All those racist police departments report to Democrats. All those terrible inner-city schools are in cities run by Democrats. All those cities ravaged economically by irrational lockdowns are run by Democrats. Every major metropolitan area is in serious trouble.

George Floyd is now an international hero. He is an important symbol of police brutality. But there is a lot more to the story: You can read this for yourself:

https://thecourierdaily.com/george-floyd-criminal-past-record-arrest/20177/

George Floyd should have been treated fairly by the police. Everyone deserves that. But it is insane to assume that everything that happened to him was because police were racist. It is even more insane to assume that this is proof of systemic racial profiling and abuse of power by police all over the United States. Insane, but repeated over and over again by the main stream media. While we all agree that police should avoid profiling people just because of the color of their skin, nothing about this case suggests they did that.

Rather than reporting objectively the news media is fanning the flames of outrage by pretending George Floyd is the symbol of all that is good and righteous and police the symbol of all that is evil and despicable. Since the truth is well documented the media either ignores this because they are afraid to tell the truth or ignores it because they want to encourage outrage. Either way they have done enormous harm to race relations in this country. A lot of people really believe George Floyd is a symbol of racist police practices. That will increase, not decrease the potential for similar incidents. Others realize that the main stream media is simply lying to us, again. They are appalled at the blatant and irresponsible attacks on police.

A lot of people, who aren’t participating in silly and potentially violent protests, are buying guns for self-defense. Blacks and other minorities see it too. They are all too familiar with people like George Floyd and what happens if police are not available to deal with him. Most victims of black criminals are black. They know first-hand what happens if you call 9-11 and no one responds. The media is oblivious to this, but a lot of black people are getting 2020 vision too.

Finally, a lot of Republicans are getting 2020 vision. Prior to now a lot of Republicans did not want to believe that the Obama administration really did abuse power. They could not bring themselves to believe that people would shred the constitution in order to destroy Donald Trump. They did not want to believe that there really was a conspiracy to remove Trump from office. But so many documented facts have been released that they can no longer ignore this. Not only are they aware of the reality of this, they are aware of the seriousness of this. That changes EVERYTHING.

A lot of people got 2020 vision and no one should underestimate the significance of that.

TDM

I have zero sympathy for Derek Chauvin. I also have little sympathy for his fellow police officers who stood by and watched this happen. However, a lot of people in their zeal to punish him are potentially making it more difficult to see real justice done. Ironically, this is all too similar to the Jim Crow days when a black man in the South literally risked being lynched by an angry mob. That wasn’t justice then and this isn’t justice now. Angry mobs are incapable of justice.

Derek Chauvin has been tried and convicted in the press. I can’t begin to count the number of news anchors who have arrogantly pronounced him guilty of murder. I have also heard politicians do that and some protesters were demanding his arrest for first degree murder as a condition of ending the protests. Many “experts” are explaining why the video alone is enough to justify a conviction for first degree murder.

Derek Chauvin, like everyone else in this country, regardless of what the crime they allegedly committed is entitled to a fair trial. It is quite simple. The rule of law requires a fair trial, even for people we despise. It requires a fair trial even for people who appear to be obviously guilty. It requires a fair trial even when the suspect was anything but fair to his or her victim(s). That is the way the system works. That is the way the system must work. It is the rule of law that protects all of us.

What should have happened is a quick but thorough investigation. The evidence should have been suppressed, like it is on most criminal investigations. That is to protect the integrity of the investigation. It is also to increase the odds of a fair trial and a conviction.

In this case a video of this went viral generating nationwide outrage. If the intent was to hold Chauvin accountable, it may instead make it nearly impossible to give him a fair trial. Can you imagine being a judge asked to give Derek Chauvin a fair trial? How would that happen? How would you ever find 12 people who don’t know everything about this case, who have not seen that video, who have not heard him declared guilty over and over again. Who, exactly, could we find to be on such a jury that would be remotely capable of looking at the evidence objectively, without prejudging the outcome?

In addition the widespread public release of information will be used by skilled trial attorneys hired to put on his defense. It is a big mistake to underestimate these people. We can be sure of one thing; the evidence put on during the trial will not resemble the story being told in the main stream media.

Shouting is a poor substitute for the rule of law. Similar pre-trial publicity and public outrage was at least one factor in why the police involved in the Rodney King arrest were acquitted. That acquittal, predictably, resulted in more outrage and more violence.

No justice, no peace. Sounds good, unless you really do want justice.

TDM