It’s Friday, May 22nd, 2020…but before we begin, here’s another picture forwarded by The Boss worth far more than a mere thousand words, one which indeed says it all:
Consider this an example of settled political science…as well as established economics.
Until facts are presented which convince us of the contrary, here’s how we assess the relative peril posed by the Wuhan “pandemic”, courtesy of Jeff Foutch:
Power-hungry Progressive politicians intent on destroying The Donald, a cowed citizenry and a pliant press have combined with social media to produce a perfect storm of pusillanimous panic. Thus, in order to meet the insatiable appetite of the constant 24/7 cable news cycle for the sensational, have standard winter storms become “bomb cyclones”, regular summer heatwave been offered as evidence we’ve only years to live and predictable spring floods termed “unprecedented”.
Still, the tyrannical streak exhibited by those in power from the local to federal level (regardless of the efficacy of their actions) is the most disturbing development. The recently retired, and now golfing almost every day G. Trevor forwarded this incredibly prescient quote from Thomas Jefferson, which needs no emphasis from us:
“A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, and to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering. Then begins, indeed, the bellum omnium in omnia*, which some philosophers observing to be so general in this world, have mistaken it for the natural, instead of the abusive state of man. And the fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.“
* War of all things against all things.
Sorta makes one think those old, dead White men knew what the heck they were talking about, which is why Progressives are so intent on overturning the Constitution they ordained and established to protect us.
For more on the utter idiocy which is the Wuhan pandemic panic, we turn to AEI, where Charles Murray (the same Charles Murray attacked at Middlebury College in March of 2017) details what he sees as…
“As I try to cope with the media firehose of information about the pandemic, I am struck by how seldom the accounts foster a sense of perspective. Yes, the pandemic is a big deal in terms of the aggregate number of cases and deaths. But how does its severity vary? Where? To what degree? I took an initial stab at providing that perspective last week, pointing out how radically just one factor, population density, affects coronavirus rates. I’m going to expand on that first step by showing you visually, through maps, how the incidence of reported coronavirus cases is playing out across the nation.
To that end, I have taken advantage of the many health departments around the country that have published coronavirus case numbers by zip code. Using zip codes as the unit of analysis gives us a much more granular look at what’s happening than the numbers for entire cities or counties. In all, I have assembled data based on zip codes for 14 of the largest metropolitan areas in the nation: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami/Fort Lauderdale, San Diego, Washington, Atlanta, San Antonio, St. Louis, and Baltimore. For New York City, I restricted the sample to zip codes in the five boroughs. For the others, I included all the contiguous zip codes in the metropolitan area that had a population density of at least 1,000 per square mile.This post discusses New York City. Part II will consider large cities in general.Part III will describe the situation in small cities and rural areas. I devote an entire essay just to New York City because it soon became obvious that I was not dealing with a collection of 14 cities that I could analyze together, but with 13 cities and the distant outlier that is the Big Apple.
To see why I reached that conclusion, consider the coronavirus rates that demarcate each decile of New York City’s population. For example, the 10 percent of its population who live in zip codes that have the lowest coronavirus rates are people who live in zip codes that have a rate of less than 1.03 percent of the population. (In the metric that is usually reported, it amounts 1,034 reported cases per 100,000 population. I prefer to use percentages of the population instead, because I think “cases per 100,000” unconsciously leads people to overestimate incidence.) Those zip codes constitute the first decile. The second decile consists of zip codes that have a coronavirus rate of 1.03 percent to 1.28 percent. And so on, up to the 10th decile, consisting of zip codes with coronavirus rates of 2.85 percent or higher. I then prepared a map of New York’s zip codes, shown below, so that the lightest orange represents the coronavirus rate for the first decile while the darkest orange represents the rate for the 10th decile.
The maps below use exactly the same definition of coronavirus deciles and color coding, but applied to the six cities that immediately follow New York City in population.
The gap between New York City and the other cities is extraordinary…”
We’ll feature Parts II & III of Murray’s series as they become available. Meanwhile, consider this graphic forwarded by Balls Cotton:
We cannot speak to the precision of the comparisons, but the concept and conclusion are undeniably dead-on balls accurate.
In a related item also courtesy of Balls Cotton, writing at Conservative Review, Daniel Horowitz reveals a…
“We no longer need to rely on unicorn simulation models to predict the threat level of COVID-19. After millions of global cases, we now have reams of hard data. In recent days, two things have become clear: 1) The overall death rate is dramatically inflated with people who died only with COVID-19 – not because of it – especially in nursing homes; 2) Outside nursing homes, the fatality rate is low even for most seniors and shockingly low for younger and healthier people. This destroys politicians’ reasons for pushing the irrevocably harmful actions taken by our government rather than a more strategic and targeted approach…”
We should note many of the dead INSIDE nursing homes are victims of the hopelessly misguided, indeed criminally-negligent policies of blue state governors like Andrew Cuomo. Though anyone getting their news and information from the WaPo would be justifiably confused as to the precise level of responsibility Fredo’s older brother had for many of the deaths…so here’s a hint:
Just to demonstrate gubernatorial ineptitude isn’t limited to Albany, writing at Best of the Web, Jim Freeman notes how Fredo’s older brother Sonny has had company in visiting death upon the aged and infirm, as he reveals…
“Thank goodness Covid-19 isn’t as deadly as many media pundits feared. Given the incomprehensible policy blunders of Minnesota’s state government, its health system might have been completely overwhelmed by now.
The sad news from the Land of 10,000 Lakes (and nearly 50,000 state employees) is that Minnesota has been implementing the disastrous Covid-19 strategy made famous by New York’s Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The essence of the plan is to forcefully reduce the income of people at low risk, while simultaneously increasing the chances of virus exposure for those at high risk.
Chris Serres reports in the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Early in the pandemic, the Minnesota Department of Health turned to nursing homes and other long-term care facilities to relieve the burden on hospitals that were at risk of being overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients. Minnesota hospitals have since discharged dozens of infected patients to nursing homes, including facilities that have undergone large and deadly outbreaks of the disease, state records show…
One such facility, North Ridge Health and Rehab in New Hope, has accepted 42 patients from hospitals and other long-term care facilities since mid-April even as the coronavirus has raged through its 320-bed nursing home, killing 48 of its patients and infecting scores more.
It’s almost beyond belief that governors like Minnesota’s Tim Walz and New York’s Mr. Cuomo would impose impoverishing lockdowns that restrict so much of everyday life—while systematically endangering the elderly who bear by far the greatest risk…”
“Apparently Minnesota’s governor is really impressed with the progress being made by his entire team. Over at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Christopher Magan reports:
The administration of Democratic Gov. Tim Walz will go ahead and implement pay raises in July for thousands of state workers over the objections of Republicans who control the state Senate…
Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-Nisswa, said Tuesday implementing the raises would be “tone deaf” because “there are 12 unemployed Minnesotans for every state employee who would receive a raise this July.”…”
“Tone deaf” is far too kind a description of such an obvious political payoff, but it will be up to the voters of Minnesota to make him appreciate just how far.
While the WSJ’s Kim Strassel makes a good argument why Bill Barr was correct in seeming to rule out criminal charges against Groper Joe and the Dark Lord, courtesy again of Balls Cotton, we’re intrigued by the thoughts of Rayn Random writing at American Thinker as to…
A friend, who thinks politically as we do here, phoned this morning after just hearing Barr’s comments doubting that Obama or Biden would be criminally prosecuted. We both would love to see it, but consider how destructive the Dems’ legal efforts to get Trump to testify so they could prosecute him have been for the past three years, and then imagine what could happen if the precedent were set to prosecute future presidents of either party. Such a spectacle would draw worldwide attention and obliterate everything else our country needed to be doing that would have more impact on our country’s, and even the world’s, future.
If there were a trial, it would go on for years, and that wouldn’t even include all the appeals. No matter how it concluded, whether it were an acquittal, a partial conviction, a hung jury, or a jury nullification, it would still be argued for decades. Either way, Obama would be a hero to millions throughout the world, and he could go on another anti-American world tour as a victim of an unfair justice system. The ones who actually did the crimes at his direction would be brushed aside in the frenzy and even forgotten.
But it appears that A.G. Barr and Michael Horowitz are leaving nothing undiscovered and fully intend to proceed with criminal prosecutions. If those who did the crimes under Obama’s orders and direction have to hire hugely expensive attorneys, perhaps even sell their homes, as General Flynn had to do, they will be angry, very angry at Obama’s getting a pass. They will tell all on each other and on him.
Obama will be helpless to stop it. He will not be able to deny anything in the courtroom, and more truth will come out than if he himself were on trial.He will have to watch his own destruction.
Even if we don’t necessarily believe the underlings will turn on their Dear Misleader.
Here’s the juice: we can easily see George Soros or other Progressive patrons covering their legal costs, and wouldn’t be surprised if a sympathetic jury or judge prevents them ever seeing the inside of a prison. Welcome to America’s two-tiered justice system.
Since we’re on the subject of double standards, writing at The Washington Free Beacon, Andrew Stiles asks us to..
“Media outlets are furiously investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s dinner parties with politicians, business leaders, and celebrities. They note that some “officials” have “raised concerns” about the “elite taxpayer-funded dinners.”
…The media’s reporting on Pompeo’s fancy dinners with elite attendees has, for some reason, been slightly different than the media’s reporting on the fancy dinners President Barack Obama regularly hosted during his second term.
“At Dinner Tables, a Restless Obama Finds an Intellectual Escape,” read the New York Times headline in July 2014. The article describes a series of late-night dinner gatherings with business leaders and celebrities that offered “a glimpse into a president who prefers intellectuals to politicians, and into the rarefied company Mr. Obama may keep after he leaves the White House.”
…Obama was president, of course, while Pompeo is merely the secretary of state. Perhaps that explains the difference in coverage. Or maybe Pompeo’s guests weren’t as fashionable.What else could explain it?“
Which brings us, appropriately enough, to The Lighter Side:
By the way, does Pelosi’s incorrect depiction of The Donald make accurate assessments of Nancy‘s rather haggard appearance fair game…
…as well as make it open season on other malformed…
…mutants?!?
Then there’s these two memes from Balls Cotton…
…and another from Ed Hickey:
We can personally vouch for the veracity of all three!
Finally, we’ll call it a day with an update on the Satilla Shores shooting, with life once again imitates art as the WSJ reports on the latest example of egregious government overreach in response to the perverse pressure of identity politics:
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