Month: August 2020

During this pandemic most of us a have learned a lot of things, some interesting, some not so interesting. Early on I realized that life could go on without sports. I did miss the NCAA’s March Madness, but I soon realized that life went on without the Sweet Sixteen or the Final Four.

For as long as I can remember, I always went directly to the sport’s section on the newspaper. It didn’t matter whether I had just picked it up from my driveway or just accessed it online. . . . the sport’s page was always first. When I was working, sometimes I would not have time in the morning to read the other parts of the paper, but if knew the score of yesterday’s game and who got the big hit or who scored the winning touchdown, I was happy.

When the virus hit our nation, sports, in general, hit the skids for me. Was there Spring training this year? Actually, I don’t know, and surprisingly, life went on. Was there a pro-football draft? Not a clue, and believe it or not, life went on. I assume that neither the NBA or the NHL had their respective playoffs, but if they did, I missed it, and life went on.

A few years back when the NFL started with the kneeling shenanigans, I stopped watching the NFL. What I learned from that experience was there were a lot better ways to spend my Sundays. I’m pretty sure that the NFL did not miss me, and I didn’t miss the NFL, and life went on. 

These days the NBA is in a bubble somewhere, and I understand that they are playing games. I used to love to watch the NBA playoffs. Many years ago I would never miss a Bulls playoff game. Are the Bulls in the bubble? Are the Bulls still in Chicago? I do not know, and I do not care. Whether they are or they aren’t, my life goes on.

Now that “protests” have made their way into just about all sports, I no longer feel guilty that I haven’t watched ESPN in months. Is there still an ESPN? . . . I do not know, and I do not care.

The other day I heard that some of the fan-less MLB night games were “protest-cancelled”, and then played the following day as part of a double-header. Shucks! It doesn’t matter to me whether I miss a night game or miss a double-header the next day . . . my life still goes on.

I have heard the rumor that there are no sports in heaven. If that is true, and if I make it there, I will not have much adapting to do even though life will no longer be still going on.

I live relatively close to a college campus, and after reading an article in my local “newspaper” today, I feel safer already. In this article I learned that “the  university has hired a private security company “that will be patrolling not only the campus, but also nearby neighborhoods.” I was not aware that there was some sort of crime wave going on in my neighborhood, but I guess that I am glad to have the extra protection of a private security company that began patrolling neighborhoods this past Friday night, and will start doing the same on campus on Monday. Mirabile dictu, I feel safer already.

In addition, my local “newspaper” was out over the weekend, observing what was happening in my neighborhood. What sort of things did this “newspaper” observe between 11:30 p.m. Friday and 2 a.m. Saturday? It was able to observe about 200 bad guys, mostly students. Certainly having additional neighborhood security will be advantageous in stopping potential crime before it occurs, and believe me, I feel safer already.

What kind of crimes are these hooligans committing? Hold your breath . . .

THEY WERE MASKLESS!
THEY WERE NOT SOCIAL DISTANCING!

I find it frightening that there is a private security company in my neighborhood just waiting to catch me without a mask! Horrors! Big Brother is here. . . in my neighborhood! Should I feel safer, or should I feel scared?  

The next logical step is for the university to deputize neighborhood Kens and Karens so that they can make citizen’s arrests. Even those who do not live in my neighborhood should take note, because the university realizes that there are plenty of its students that live down by the beach. Will they hire additional security companies to patrol the beach area – looking to nab more offenders. Perhaps there should be a curfew on all 18-22 year olds, not just in neighborhoods around the campus, or around the beach . . . but in the entire city! Just think how many Kens and Karens would volunteer to be deputized!

Are you still feeling safer??

After reading about what some colleges are doing, I must ask the question: 

“How can those who are supposed to be so smart, be sooo dumb?”

Apparently an increasing number of colleges are shocked that returning students are going to parties! Do these college presidents not understand that these 18-22 year olds are in reality still only 18-22 years old? How could they not foresee that a bunch of 18-22 year olds, who have basically been living at home under the auspices of their parents for months, were going to want to see and interact with some other 18-22 year olds? Should one expect a College Dean to be able to anticipate what a bunch of 18-22 year olds are going to do after they have been in virtual quarantine for months? 

I could go on, but “come on,” even I could have anticipated what a bunch of 18-22 year olds would do when they returned to campus  . . . they were going to party! Apparently these higher-ups at these colleges did not anticipate the obvious. They did not anticipate what a bunch of 18-22 year olds were going to do almost immediately. While living at home they were cautioned that if they went to a party, they could kill gramma. “Well gramma is home, and I am here . . . sooo. paar-tee.”

“How can those who are supposed to be do smart, be sooo dumb? “

Wait! Let’s think about this for a second: 

• College costs a lot of money.
•  If colleges are offering only online classes, why would people pay a lot of money for an obviously inferior product?
• Therefore, if a college is offering just online classes, a lot of the students may take the semester off.
• If a lot of students take the semester off . . . bad news for the college’s pocketbook.
• So . . . a potential solution for the college is to say that they are going to have in-person learning, and when the 18-22 year olds come on campus and act like 18-22 year olds, blame them for the anticipated increase in Covid positivity, and then consequently blame them for the change to all on-line classes. 

Perhaps this is just an example of people who are supposed to be smart . . . acting smart!

(In my upcoming novella, The Keneally Chronicles, a college town thinks of a unique way to bring all the students back with 100% in-person learning.)

This is a direct quote from Basement Joe:

“I would shut it down; I would listen to the scientists,” Biden told Muir Friday, alongside his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., during their first joint interview since officially becoming the Democratic Party’s presidential and vice presidential nominees.

Let’s get this straight … he would shut the economy down. 

Now that is an absurd promise to make to voters! Not a winning campaign issue.

In addition he apparently would attempt to mandate that everyone in the country wear masks. Another winning diktat for Karens and Kens, but I do not think that this is a winning campaign issue.

Some of his other campaign promises: 

Raise taxes . . . Not a winning campaign issue.

Get rid of fossil fuels. This at the same time as the blackouts in “green power” California . . . Not a winning campaign issue.

Forgive student loans. The ex-students like it, but not a good campaign issue for the rest of us who will end up paying for their degrees in “environmental psychology!”

My advice to basement Joe: 

“Go for it, Joe. Both myself and President Trump love these “brilliant” ideas.

I suppose that the obvious answer to this question depends on what one is measuring. If one is measuring the number of and the spread of the Wuhan virus infections, then I guess the answer has to be ‘yes.’ After all if people are locked down in their homes, and are not out living their usual lives in the community, then logic would dictate that these individuals are not exposed to others, then therefore there would be less chance of them becoming infected . . . at least for a while.

 Now for me, here is where the difficulty comes in. This difficulty involves a concept that I cannot diagram in a format such as this, but will try to explain. 

First, imagine a triangle with a relatively narrow base and a relatively high peak. Let the area within this triangle represent deaths from Covid. In New York City, for whatever reason, there was an extremely high peaked triangle over a relatively short period of time. Conceptually let’s call the large area contained within this New York triangle … ‘X.’
In other words, X people died in New York during a relatively short period of time. (a high peaked triangle with a relatively narrow base)

Next, let’s consider California. California locked down very early. On March 19 California became the first state to issue stay-at-home orders. At that time Governor Newsom stated that the goal was to “bend the curve”. For the most part, the sheep in California followed his diktat. Now going over five months California continues on some arbitrary partial lockdown strategy with a bunch of, as best I can tell, “made-up” criteria. (“Made-up” meaning that for which no actual data exists.) Going back to my geometric analogy, whereas New York was the high peaked triangle with the relatively narrow base, California is a rectangle that is not extremely tall, but with a long base. (Let’s call the area contained in this rectangle, ‘Y.’  In fact at this point no one knows for how long this rectangle will continue to expand.)

Now that I have made my geometric analogy as clear as I can, here is my postulate:

In the end, the area contained in the triangle (‘X’ or the number of deaths) will be just about the same as the area contained in the rectangle (‘Y’ or the number of deaths) minus those deaths that occurred during the lockdowns that were from other cause, e.g. cancer.

So my question is still the same: “Are lockdowns effective?”

If that question concerns the number of people that will eventually die from the coronavirus, the answer is “no,’ as over the long term the total number of deaths from the virus will be about the same if you have a either a triangle, ‘X’,  or a rectangle, ‘Y.’  In addition, I predict that this postulate will be proven over time, and it may take years to sort this out. (The caveat, however, is that if there is a vaccine next month, then the continued expansion of the rectangle will stop.)

Finally, let’s address and extrapolate this question in another way:

“Are lockdowns effective in destroying an economy and in the process destroying the lives of millions of people?”

Here the answer is, “Yes, without question!”

The culmination of the RNC on night #4 was the acceptance speech by President Trump. However, this was not a typical Trump speech, mainly because he stuck to what was on the teleprompter. There was very little of the expected Trump spontaneity. There was very little of his usual fire. He hit Joe Biden with effective flurries of punches … supposedly he mentioned Biden by name forty-one times. Trump’s speech was too long (70 minutes), and I blame the speech writers for that. On the other hand DJT did touch on a lot of his achievements over the last four years, and because he has accomplished so much, detailing his achievements took a lot of time. The media is going to rag on him for using the White House as a backdrop, the absolutely spectacular fireworks, and the lack of spatial distancing and masks in the crowd.

To sum it up, I would have preferred a rough and tumble, non-choreographed Trump campaign speech, but I suppose that it was appropriate for him to look presidential in front of a national audience.

In my opinion the night was carried again by the multiple short speeches given by non-politicians. Dana White, president of UFC, gave a feisty speech, but his feistiness and enthusiasm was one-uped by Rudi Giuliani, who at times was close to apoplectic. One of Rudi’s good lines was: “Don’t let the Democrats do to the U.S, what they have done to New York City.” Giuliani closed with: “… make America safe again.” Ben Carson, Alice Marie Johnson (freed from jail after 21 years by DJT), Pat Lynch (NYC Police union leaders), and Senator Tom Cotton(R,AK) all gave commendable speeches, but to me, there was a tie for the most effective speeches between the following two:

One by Ann Dorn, whose retired husband after forty years in law enforcement was murdered in cold blood by rioters in St. Louis while trying to protect a friend’s business, and one by Carl and Marsha Mueller whose daughter Kayla was captured, tortured, raped innumerable times, and eventually murdered by ISIS while Biden was Obama’s VP. This narrative by Kayla Mueller’s  father and mother threw a spear through the concept that Joe Biden has any feelings. It was brutal. Biden and Obama were portrayed as unfeeling and uncaring politicians. Their telling of the story almost made me cry, and if independent voters were watching night #4, this dual speech was poison for the concept of a “compassionate Joe Biden.”

As I have related I thought that the stars of RNC #1 and  RNC #2 were the little guys,and not the politicians who spoke. On night #3 my “best of the day” award goes to Jack Brewer, a life-long Democrat and ex pro football player, who supports President Trump. He initially related fighting with skinheads while growing up in his Texas hometown. “I know what racism looks like. I’ve seen it first hand. In America it has no resemblance to President Trump.” He then spoke about how the media refuses to acknowledge what Trump has done for the black community, and MSM is attempting to confuse the minds of our innocent children.

One of Mr. Brewer’s great lines was, “For the sake of our children, policies must take priority over personalities.”

He then referenced how both Biden and Harris have been directly responsible for locking up countless black men. In contradistinction, he praised Trump’s First Step Act.

He came down hard on BLM as being opposed to the nuclear family.

BTW: Did I forget to mention that Jack Brewer is a member of Black Voices for Trump.

Obviously the RNC is going out of its way to appeal to black voters, and Jack Brewer was a big step in the right direction.

Kentucky is famous for number of things, including the Kentucky Derby, Louisville basketball, Mammoth Cave National Park, and let’s not forget the Colonel and Kentucky Fried Chicken. However on 8/27 those who watched the Republican National Convention were treated to two future Kentucky stars, Daniel Cameron and Nick Sandmann. Both are young. One is black the other is white. One is a very good speaker, and  the other is fair. Both gave very good speeches during the RNC.

Daniel Cameron is the Attorney General of Kentucky. His main message to Mr. Biden was that blacks have minds of their own and he vehemently disagreed with Biden’s “if you don’t vote for me, you ain’t black.”

Nick Sandmann  is the Covington Catholic H.S. teenager who was vilified by the MSM, because he wore a MAGA hat and had attended an anti-abortion rally in Washington, D.C. (Mr. Sandmann is now considerably more affluent because of big time lawsuit settlements against CNN and WaPo.) He told his own story and warned against the dangers of “cancel culture” He concluded his remarks with, “While much more must be done, I look forward to the day that the media returns to providing balanced, responsible and accountable news coverage. I know President Trump hopes for that too.” 

Both of these speeches are short, and well worth watching on You-tube.

I have been watching the RNC on Fox for the last two nights. I anticipated a heavyweight fight, the DNC vs the RNC . . . but that’s not what I got. Yes, there were some big punches thrown, but, in my opinion, it will turn out to be the small but incessant jabs that won this fight. 

Pam Bondi, a former Florida Attorney General, landed multiple body punches to Joe Biden. She reviewed a lot of the skullduggery with Ukraine and China that benefited Biden’s family. It was a brutal attack that most assuredly will not be mentioned in the morning liberal newspapers or on CNN/MSNBC. 

A woman who used to be a big shot at Planned Parenthood described what actually happens at an abortion . . . gruesome. The granddaughter of Billy Graham describes the attacks on religious freedom that occurred under the Obama-Biden regime … point-scoring body blows.

However, I believe the National Convention fight, after only the second night of the RNC’s presentation has been decided by the multiple and for the most part, quite effective jabs from ordinary citizens who described the good stuff that had happened to them because of things done over the last four years by President Trump. This was indeed a masterful strategy . . . multiple jabs coming from all sides, including the lobster fisherman from Maine, the dairy farmer from northern Wisconsin, the Democratic Mayor of a small town in the iron-ore range of Minnesota, the worker at an automobile plant in Ohio . . . a plant that President Trump saved, a police officer in New Mexico who adopted the baby of a drug addict mother, a single mother whose son was able to go to a charter school, a child with muscular dystrophy who was able to receive an experimental drug thanks to the President, et cetera,et cetera.

Nick Sandman was impressive. I am sure you remember the now 19 year old high-schooler from a Catholic high school in Kentucky, who was maligned by the liberal media because he was wearing a MAGA hat at an anti-abortion rally in Washington, D.C. 

To close, Melania Trump delivered a very good speech. There was no viciousness in either her tone or her words as she championed for children and those effected by drug addiction. Her speech came at the end on Tuesday night, and it was the final blow for Joe.

The winner by TKO . . . the RNC!

For those not attuned to the heart jargon, AMIs and STEMIs are types of heart attacks.

STEMIs around the world have decreased – in San Diego there has been a 30-40% decrease. In some cities, centers are reporting up to 50% decrease.

Different theories abound. For instance:

While the stress of COVID and unemployment is high there is this paradox and the population at large might have less stress ?

Whereas in San Diego there have been many patients who come in with a delayed presentation MI. Having symptoms for days and then come in with CHF or shock.

The following is from the Colorado Sun on 8 17/20:

Dr. Brian Stauffer, the head of cardiology at Denver Health, soon began to notice a different kind of pandemic mystery.

People, it seemed, had stopped having heart attacks.

Stauffer and his colleagues found that the number of people in Denver who died of cardiac arrests at home in the two weeks following the statewide stay-at-home order was greater than the total number of people who died of COVID-19 in the city during that time.

Colorado, like many other states, has seen a rise in deaths during the time of COVID-19 that is above and beyond what can be explained just by documented deaths due to the virus or by population growth. April, for instance, was likely the deadliest month in Colorado history. While coronavirus has killed more than 1,700 people in Colorado this year, deaths due to cancer, heart disease and drug overdose are also on the rise.

In many parts of the world doctors are pointing to a very real probability that lockdown orders are leading to people dying from other serious maladies as a result of avoiding hospitals. Heart attacks in particular are now looked at as a cause of death greater than the coronavirus itself.

From ‘tctMD/ the heart beat’( an international cardiac journal) in April, 2020:

“From Milan to Madrid to Massachusetts, everyone is asking: as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, where have all the STEMIs gone.”

“In Milan, Italy, one hospital reports STEMI cases (heart attacks) plunged by 70 percent. In Spain, the drop has been 40 percent, with estimates in Madrid being as high as an 80 percent drop in cases. At one hospital in Madrid they are averaging three-to-four heart cases a week, when those are usually their daily admission rates. This regards only heart condition cases, with one doctor stating they are barely seeing any admissions for other serious conditions. A cardiologist in Boston detailed that he went a week without seeing a single heart case come in, something he has never experienced prior in 13 years of attending.”

Is this another example of another one of the “unforeseen consequences” of something that no one has had any experience with in the past. Here I am referring to lockdowns. “Let’s lockdown everybody and create a sense of general panic … oops, people aren’t coming to the hospital and are dying at home. Oh well!” 

 Ark you words: These heart issues are just the tip of the unforeseen-consequences-of-lockdowns iceberg. A rational society locks down those who are at risk, but  Dr. Fauci apparently thinks that  it is a good idea to lock down everybody so that the curve can be flattened. While I am sure that the esteemed Dr. Fauci is aware of the ancillary damage that his policies are causing, I have to hear him comment on this.

“Earth to Dr. Fauci . . . Come in, please!”

8/25/20