Masks Off... Not So Fast

On May 13th, the CDC, out of the blue, announced that if you have been fully vaccinated you don't have to wear a mask. The CDC continues to ignore the millions of people who have already had Covid-19 and do not need a shot. I absolutely think they should toss in if you have had the virus but heck that's just me... Someone who actually follows the science. 

People who have had the virus and gotten sick should not be getting vaccinated with an emergency use only vaccine. Furthermore, vaccines typically don't kill hundreds as this vaccine clearly has.

Why haven't we heard more about these deaths? 

The narrative that the vaccines side effects and deaths are overstated, just isn't true. The media saying the governments vaccine website is self-reporting and thus unreliable isn't true either. Spend thirty minutes on the VAERS website and you will quickly understand this data can in no way be easily dismissed. 

For example, knowingly filing a false VAERS report is a violation of Federal law (18 U.S. Code § 1001) and is punishable by fine and imprisonment. I know this because it's emphatically stated by the website every time you hit the next key to enter more data. 

Furthermore, healthcare providers are required by law to report to VAERS any adverse event listed in the VAERS "Table of Reportable Events Following Vaccination." 

Follow the media narrative one would have to believe people are risking imprisonment to falsify adverse Covid-19 vaccine reactions and or medical professionals are risking their licences to make false reports. Neither one of these narratives make any sense. Just the effort to complete the online form, coupled with the multiple warnings if fines an imprisonment tells me the mainstream media is lying.

***** Please don't mistake my concern with vaccinating those who have already been sick, are pregnant, are under 30 or are currently feeble as anti vaccination. I'm pro vaccination when the benefits outweigh the risks. I don't know why everyone collectively seemingly has forgotten this vaccine had emergency use only authorization. *****

So, now that our premiere government health agency, who's mission is "To promote health and quality of life by preventing and controlling disease, injury, and disability" has spoken, how will we as a nation respond? Will the vaccinated stop wearing masks 

Do you think "Karen's" will?

Do you think the large "blue" cities will?

Do you think the Speaker of the House will?

No, No and thus far No.

Me? I never thought any government had the right to mandate masks especially outdoors where it made absolutely no sense whatsoever at any time. Furthermore, essentially quarantining the healthy with lock downs was something beyond the scope of our form of government but that didn't even stop blue mayors in red states.

Should government provide information, data and recommendations to the population?

Absolutely. 

Government telling telling businesses to follow new health guidelines? 

You betcha. 

Telling the healthy to stay home? 

What? No!

Creating snitch lines, arresting a mom with excessive force for not wearing a mask while out side practicing social distancing watching her kid play football, hindering the free movement between states? Are you freaking kidding me.

During this pandemic the government sent mixed messages and overstepped it's authority. Be it putting up road blocks at state boarders, shutting down church services while encouraging BLM protests to renewing 30 day emergency orders for 14 months. 

The 15 day nation wide shut down to slow the spread will go down in history as one of the biggest lies in history. Treating the entire nation as one homogeneous locality was beyond dumb.

It would take almost a year for the virus to spread into the heartland of America. By the time the virus made it to the interior the heartland no longer had the patience to continue the mitigation tactics even though it was their turn to experience the pandemic. How many more lives could have been saved had the lockdown been applied as needed, if at all, versus the entire nation all at once?

Maine's Governor is not going to change our masking rules until Monday the 24th. Why wait 11 days? What is wrong with our elected officials? How stupid do you have to be to run for office? I've come to the conclusion that democrat leaders think they are smart but aren't while republicans leaders know they are stupid and quietly surrounded themselves with smart people.

Governor Janet Mills hasn't listened to anyone outside her own advisors thus far so why start now? She has not meet with either party for over a year. She cracked down when it wasn't needed and let up when cracking down was needed. When Maine actually started to have spread she was forced to lift some mitigation rules. She hasn't come close to following the science and Maine has missed out on a once in a lifetime opportunity to expose "Vacationland" to thousands of new people fleeing population centers throughout New England and New York.

Clearly our Governor and her administration are claiming victory over Covid-19. It's so sad to point out that only a few places in the state actually followed her edicts. Her impact was essentially limited to Maine's handful of cities and what she could enforce statewide such as the beyond stupid closures of our beaches, parks and other state run agencies. Now all proven to be the opposite of best practice. Being outside in the sun was pretty much the only proven way to beat this virus.

CDC finally admitted their biggest lie that outside spread was "less than 10%" when in fact they absolutely knew it was one thousand times less and likely we'll below .1% for over a year. My guess it's much lower than .1% outside in the sun and that one lie kept millions of people inside and fearful... Which wasn't healthy.

How many people died because of that lie?

Last but not least... They are pushing vaccinations for kids now. Joe Biden himself is urging children 12 and older be vaccinated.

NO! 

This is still an experimental use only vaccine. We should not be experimenting with our youth.

Lastly, our Governor is lifting the Facemask and social distancing statewide mandate Monday but still requiring kids in school to continue to wear masks for the rest of the year. 

Why? The science science has been clear for over a year that kids aren't at risk of death from this virus. More Maine teens gave committed suicide than died of Covid-19. Covid-19 is less deadly to children than the common flu. As of May 25th no Mainer under 20 has died of Covid-19 and only 23 have been hospitalized as stated by Maine's CDC Communcations Director, Robert Long on May 25, 2021. 

Kids in general aren't getting sick and even though the state says it happens, it's clear they don't spread it at school as much as some assume. Couple this with Maine's teachers being among the very first to get vaccinated and you just have to wonder why we aren't back to normal with our public schools?

Watching kids practice outside sports wearing masks is just sad. Just last week I saw a group of local college kids walking on the sidewalk on a warm sunny day wearing masks. This makes absolutely no sense! I'm fearful that our future generations will not be thinking for themselves.

Note: The requirement to wear masks in airports and aboard aircraft continues... Which also continues to muddle the federal government's guidance. Either the vaccination and natural immunity work or they don't... You can't have it both ways.

Google's Suppression of News Will Continue

Google is the world's largest search engine but is it the Ministry of Truth?

Follow the science... We all know someone who got Covid-19 and got very sick, came close to death or maybe even died. We all know people who got sick, got over it and are fine. I bet there are just as many people who got it and never knew they had it. No doubt the virus was serious, but still it turned out to have a death rate a few times more lethal than the flu, NOT a dozen, a hundred or a thousand times my lethal.

Furthermore, it turns out it was virtually impossible to spread outdoors and the government knew this over a year ago. For the most part, Trump rallies, BLM protests and the Sturgis motorcycle rally absolutely proved this to normal Americans. Anyone following the science understood you didn't need a mask while taking rover out for his morning dump.

By my estimate 80 percent of those dying were over the age of 75 and (REPEAT... AND) had at least one serious comorbidity if not two or three. The typical death stuck down unhealthy 80 year-olds like the bubonic plague. Covid-19 was bad but it absolutely wasn't the Spanish Flu. Furthermore, it's becoming more and more obvious that our medical "experts" not only got it wrong in so many different ways, they are now like most government institutions and have become politicized to a degree that their ability to following the science is nearly impossible.

I'm sorry to say getting back to normal is not going to happen for millions of Americans. Nothing we can do or say will allow some of us to get back to normal. Why? Because so many of us were not "normal" to begin with and there is nothing new can do to help the neurotic. The real sad fact is many of those very same people are the "elite" and many are part of the "ruling" class.

By the end of March 20th, 2020 it was so obvious to me, and many others, this wasn't going to kill millions I donated all but two of my N-100 masks to medical professionals and elderly friends. Don't think I'm virtue signaling. I tried to sell them on eBay but eBay banned the selling of masks, even at cost. Thus depriving the country of yet another effective way of getting a critical resource to where it was needed most. That was a huge signal to me that eBay had gone socialist as well.

So many things have been exposed by this pandemic... I hope we learn something and the thousands of lives cut short or tragically lost are not totally in vain.

Note: For more insight to how the National Institute of Health (NIH) became the bastion of Dr.. Anthony Fauci look up "The Yellow Berets".

CDC Finally Says No Mask if Vaccinated

For some reason the CDC, kinda out of the blue, announced yesterday that if you have been fully vaccinated you don't have to wear a mask. I absolutely think they should toss in if you have had the virus but that would indicate a basic understanding of virology.

So, now that our premiere government health agency, who's mission is to prevent and mitigate pandemics and other community spread diseases has issued guidance are you going follow it? Will blue states like Maine? Blue cities in red states like Austin?

My take... For the last few weeks (I'm fully vaccinated) I only put on a mask when asked. When asked I said "I'm sorry, I'm fully vaccinated." as I pulled out a old crumpled up mask from my pocket and put it on acknowledging any business has a right to make their own rules.

At times this would get ackward when management said nothing but customers, typically young people or the elderly would visibly squirm. Few had the balls to come up to me and those that did would get the polite "I'm fully vaccinated, mind your own business." Luckily I wasn't tased and arrested while watching a kids football game.

The Governor of Maine is not going to change rules based on CDC guidance. Are you kidding me? She has already decreed May 24th as Maine's partial opening. She hasn't listened to anyone thus far so why start now? She has not conferred with either party for over a year. She doesn't have a Lt Governor. She cracked down when it wasn't needed and let up when cracking down was warranted. She hasn't come close to following the science and Maine has missed a once in a lifetime opportunity to expose Vacationland to thousands of new people.

My idea of offering free testing and lodging vouchers to out of state visitors wasn't even a passing thought for Governor Janet Mills. Funny, whole counties like Maldive have adopted this strategy. It was such a big duh as to be painful when Maine, one of the least impacted populations in the world, remained and will likely continue to remain locked down and isolated for as long as our Governor desires. At least officially. NEWS FLASH rural Maine has been wide open since last summer. 

PS If you're the one person I know who is shocked at the CDC's 180 and still think you should be wearing masks while walking the dog, then please consider the Fox News experiment. One hour a night for three weeks. Thirty minutes of Brett and Tucker focusing in on interviews of primary sources. If for nothing else you will learn what roughly half of the country has been hearing for almost a year. Fox hasn't cornered the truth but it's very different than the news you're obviously getting.

Outboard Engine Repair Leads to $11,000 Forgivable PPP Loan!

My motor mounts needed replacement and my lower was starting to make metal. So I had the power head checked hoping it was in bad shape, (can you say new motor :-) but the compression numbers were solid. Talked to a legendary retired outboard motor mechanic who had been working for himself for years and it turned out he had a newer freshwater Mercury 115 that had excellent motor mounts and a solid lower but a blown head. 

A match made in heaven?

For just under $2,000 he swapped heads and mounted the new engine.

But wait... We got to talking and he didn't know anything about the PPP loan program or that it had been changed to help guys like him and just extended to May 31st. 

So it was truly a win, win... The SBA (Small Business Association) Schedule C forgivable PPP loan program is officially over at the end of the month but I'm convinced it's going to run out of money before then. So if you know anyone who is self employed and hasn't taken PPP money in the past tell them to check out the SBA Website ASAP!

Update #1: The SBA IRS Form, Schedule "C", self-employed forgivable PPP loan program that was ending May 31st, actually ended May 4th. I was helping 21 small businesses understand the program and process the paperwork. Some had started as far back as the 1st week of March but still didn't seemingly finish in time. My guess is only 5 of the 21 applicants will get funded. 

Update #2: Tuesday, May 18th, shortly after taking off for a long flight South, that proved too long long of a flight for the plane I was flying, I got a text from a local guy I was helping apply for the PPP program since early March. After a long time of him thinking it was over out of the blue the bank called him a few days ago to hurry in and sign papers. He got the money! Oh my gosh I was so happy for him. I then found out two other people, one a long time client and the Rep who over 20 years ago suggested I work for the company I work for now... They both got the PPP money and the timing for them was just absolutely spot on!

D.C. Statehood not Constitutional

So it would seem roughly half of the country wants Washington D.C to become the 51st state. Those living in D.C. have wanted this for years and it's been a topic at swamp cocktail parties for as long as I've been alive. My vote is to make it smaller and give the rest back to Maryland... Done!

Until recently I didn't know that the concept of the federal district was actually in the constitution. That it would take a constitutional amendment to make D.C. a state, but for some reason that just doesn't matter to the House Democrats who once again voted to make D.C. a state.

As time goes on and I get older I see the same political BS over and over on both sides. Of course, Dems way more than Republicans but it's all just bullshit. I don't understand why D.C. Statehood, with the Senate at 50/50 and the house with a micro slim six vote majority has to be an issue now. Aren't Russian and China ganging up on us? Aren't we fighting a global pandemic? 

Speaking of the pandemic, if the government tells me I have to keep wearing a mask after being vaccinated I'm going to be upset. If they tell me I've got to keep wearing a mask after being vaccinated and the country has reached herd immunity I'm going to loose my shit!

For history buffs, in 1971 Congress voted to erect markers to define the 10 x 10 mile Federal District. The 40 sandstone markers outlining the district were the first monuments created by Congress.

Before anyone votes to set aside one of the first Congressional acts, they really need to research the reasons it was set up in the first place and before the Left says I'm racist for thinking we should leave D.C. alone, I suggest that maybe we consider not taxing the residents of the District.

Better yet, reduce the size of the District to encompass the Supreme Court, Capital and the White House. Make it a little rectangle and give Maryland her land and people back. Maryland would gain one more Congressional seat while either NY or CA would loose one.

PS Instead of totally getting rid of D.C.'s income tax it might be a good test bed for the National Retail Sales Tax.

NASA - Don't Mess with Texas... I Mean Tidal Gauges

I was looking at pictures on my phone and I found these very cool sea level graphs. Years ago, frustrated at climate change and how temperature data was being massaged, normalized, etc... I was looking for something to help me understand what was going with climate change and global warming. I wanted numbers that were much harder to "fudge" or "tweak" than temperatures.

Essentially, I needed data that was harder to "normalize". Specifically I wanted to focus on what C02 was doing to the climate as it increased from 300 PPM to 400 PPM over the last 60 years.

Note: CO2 only really got into the game starting in 1950's. Before then the amount of CO2 added was insignificant which is really not debatable. So warming before the 1950's is natural but additional warming after the 1950's is fair to associate with the 33% increase in CO2 thanks to us humans.

Drum roll... 

My proxy for rising temperatures?

Sea level rise. 

Which, by the way happens to be truly consistent over the centuries thus at least this scientist has conclude the Earth is warming but CO2 is not the driving force as we have been lead to believe by a handful of scientific zelots who proclaim there's a 97% scientific consensus as if that's even a thing. In the history of science consensus has never been awarded the role of arbitrator of truth or the Nobel Prize.

One could reasonably argue that CO2 caused warming is just being delayed or dampened by the mass of the oceans and the warming "signal" will just take time to show up in the data. That's possible as the oceans are a huge reservoir... But are they? 

How much water really is in the oceans?

Have you seen the world's oceans gathered up in a ball? It makes you realize water likely did come from comets and there really isn't that much if it when you actually see it graphically.

In the picture above the big ball is salt water. The much smaller ball is fresh water while the "tiny" ball is potable water. It's possible CO2 is being buffered/trapped by the oceans or the heat itself is being dampened by the oceans. I'm open to all possibilities.

Bottom line... Overall climatic warming and the actual melting of land ice clearly isn't up for debate as the ocean levels have been rising consistently for approximately 450 years.

One good thing about politics these days... It makes talking about climate change much more palatable. Clearly, the climate alarmists have taken a back seat to those screaming the United States is a systemically racist country and we must defund the police. Who would have thought this is where mass media would bring us in 2021?

Below are tidal charts from around the world picked by me with no agenda:

PS Really look at the pics... I wonder if you will see what I saw in one of them. Hint -Earthquake?

Note: Los Angeles 5.65 inches per 100 years, Battery Park New York 11.25 inches per 100 years, Portland Maine 5.56 inches per 100 years, Newport RI 11.25 inches per 100 years. It would seem that the melting of the glaciers, the edge of glaciers and river deltas have a big impact to the rate of ocean level rise. The big take away for me is the slopes off all the graphs I've seen over the yeas are all linear which is the tell tail sign that we have yet to see man's contribution to global warming in this data set. I haven't seen the worlds ocean level broken down to just one number but on average it would seem to be about 8.5 inches per 100 years going back roughly 450 years. My conclusion is the Earth is absolutely warming as we come out of the last glaciation but we are still very much in an ice age as long as the poles and Greenland are covered in ice. 

Was 2020 Voter Turnout 74%?

2020 Election by the Numbers:

Total Votes Cast 158,380,304

Registered Voters *214,317,357

73.9% voter turnout!

That's absolutely incredible and partially the result of millions in Mark Zuckerberg grant dollars being spent to register, vote, collect and cure ballots in predominantly democrat swing state strongholds.

There were 158,380,304 votes cast for President in 2020:

Biden 81,268,564

Trump 74,216,603

Third Parties 2,898,137 

On or about November 3rd, 2020 there were 214,317,357 registered voters which was a whopping 60 million more registered voters than the 2018 midterms.

Registered Voters in America: 

2020 - 214,317,357

2018 - 153,070,000 

2016 - 157,600,000

2014 - 142,170,000

2012 - 153,160,000

2010 - 137,206,000

2008 - 146,310,000

2004 - 142,310,000

2000 - 129,550,000

This unprecedented 60,000,000 increase in registered voters during a pandemic might be why some American's may feel the 2020 election was "different". Furthermore, most Americans don't know the state of Wisconsin was ONE vote away from having their entire Presidential election results tossed.

Besides BIG TECH doing their thing (Read Molly Ball's Time Magazine article "The Secret Bipartisan Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election"), the bulk of the mainstream media being all in for Biden, Hunter Biden's laptop being touted as Russian disinformation and suppressed, Russian bounties on American soldiers in Afghanistan, The Atlantic suckers and losers article, Pfizer waiting just days after the election to announce their "95% effective vaccine" there still seems to be something about the 2020 election that lingers in the collective conscious of America.

Why hasn't the media spent anytime reporting on the record breaking voter turn out? Isn't this a huge story for democracy? Maybe registering 60,000,000 new voters in two years, during a pandemic wasn't possible without Zuckerberg grants that some states have now passed laws preventing.

*** States Banning "Zuckerberg Bucks" ***

The Justice Department spent almost three years investigating Trump and Russian collusion but essentially ignored thousands of sworn affidavits about voter irregularities?

I'm calling for a bipartisan blue ribbon investigation to look into all aspects of potential voter fraud, media suppression, etc... Of the 2020 election for nothing else to show 74 million Trump voters the election was close, but Joe Biden won fair and square.

January 6th, 2022 update:  2020 was the first year that Georgia used ballot drop boxes, mostly in urban areas, allowing absentee ballets to be dropped off as late as 7:00 PM on election night. For example Fulton County had 78,863 ballots deposited in 38 drop boxes over a span of 41 total days, out of nearly 147,000 absentee ballots cast in total. As agreed by the secretary of state the drop boxes were to have 24/7 video surveillance. The actual law/regulation in Georgia requires 24 hour surveillance, illumination and the camera set up in such a way as to see what's going into the Dropbox and yet in many (most?) areas this wasn't done.

Fortunately some geeks found a way to track cellphones and discovered that in one area of Fulton county a few hundred people made multiple ballot drops which clearly violated Georgia's anti ballot harvesting law and if widespread might lead any rational open-minded person, regardless of party affiliation, to question the integrity of the entire election. 

I wonder if the Dem's voter fraud "Big Lie" narrative might one day collapse? There is no doubt millions of American's continue to believe that the election was somehow rigged. I'm one of them, but unlike some who talk about dead people voting, people voting more than once, computers switching votes or ballots being stuffed I'm more interested in Mark Zuckerberg's $420 million in grants. 

How did local election officials in deep blue urban areas of battle ground states use this money to increase voter registration? Exactly how did government officials use this money to get out the vote? How was this money used to get those ballots back aka harvested? How much of this money was spent to call and in some cases to physically visit voters at home to collect missing ballots? Exactly how was Zuckerberg's grant money spent to cure defective ballots dropping the error rate from the historical 3-4% to less than .3%? There are still unanswered questions that aren't even being contemplated. It's time for a bipartisan investigation into 2020 voter integrity.

* Note - I added up each state's registered voters from state websites and it totaled 214,317,357. 

* Note - Update Statista put out data that's obviously wrong and it's still online and wrong as of the November 5th 2024. The data aggregate site www.statista.com shows the number of registered voters in 2020 as 168,310,000. Either I can't add or something isn't right. If you use the actual number of votes cast and Statista's number of registered voters you get a 94.1% turnout which is impossible.

* Update - You can calculate the number of registered voters using the U.S. Census data of registered voter turn out and the actual number of votes cast but a Census graph of "Registered Voters" or just the number of registered voters alludes me to this day.

Statista off by 46 million?

This data is missing D.C.

U.S. Census data is the Gold Standard

* District of Columbia add 517,890

What Do We Really Know About the Capital Riot?

The biggest fear for months prior to the Capital riot was the possibility Trump wasn't going to leave office. He's been gone for weeks and the Capital remains barricaded behind ten foot metal fences topped with razor wire. Why?

Over 74,000,000 million people voted for Trump. Millions of those and others who didn't vote for him would like a bipartisan investigation into voting issues and voting rules being changed, some at the last minute, by officials other than legislative bodies. Why isn't there a single elected democrat that wants to look into this? Nearly every talking head says it's settled. That 60+ court cases have been heard and dismissed. 

If anything the riot at the Capital shows that many Americans believe it's not settled and until something is done to prove the results were on the up and up the distrust of their government and elected officials will likely grow. Using something other than Google try to determine how many 2020 voting cases were actually presented in court and which courts ruled on actual evidence. Nearly all the cases were dismissed for one reason or another not related to the evidence. It's over for Trump but this is not over for millions of American's who still have questions.

The impeachment of the President is overseen by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and requires a sitting President. Chief Justice Roberts correctly interpreted the Constitution and stated that he would not sit through the impeachment trial this February. It's this simple, the Chief Justice justice of the United States is the one and only person who can preside over the impeachment of a President and he is inexcusably absent.

Ponder this:

What if there really was clear, irrefutable evidence that thousands of votes, enough to make a difference, were manipulated. That the contract postal worker who said he drove tens of thousands of votes from New York to Pennsylvanian wasn't lying? Would it make a difference? What is supposed to happen? Do you really think that Pennsylvanian would not certified their vote regardless? I firmly believe there is no way to do anything on a large scale once the vote is counted.

For example, Justice Alito instructed the State of Pennsylvania to set aside all ballots received after election day.  The judge wanted this done just in case those votes were ruled to be cast illegally. Pennsylvania officials just blew him off and processed all votes, even those that were ordered sequestered. What was the repercussion? Absolutely nothing... The train had already left the station. 

So now we impeached a man who is no longer the President who incited an insurrection to overthrow the government of the United States - Patriotically and peacefully of course. Don't get me wrong, I'm so sad that five people died at the Capital but are those dead people any more dead than the 30+ who died over the summer? 

Was the damage to the Capital so much greater than the estimated billion plus in damages across the country last summer? Is breaking out a window in the Capital building, busting up a bench, rummaged through Nancy Pelosi's desk worse than burning thousands of businesses? Destroying two police precincts? Trying to burn down Federal buildings while occupied?

Do we know what killed Officer Brian D. Sicknick? (FYI it wasn't blunt force trauma as reported)

Do we know who shot Ashli Babbitt in the neck? (FYI, it wasn't a cop)

Do we know who the shooter was even working for? (A Senator possibly)

Do we know how many weapons were confiscated post riot? (Zero!)

Do we know who planted the pipe bombs?

Do we know what killed the other three protesters? (trampled, heart attack, stroke)

Do we know why the capital still has a ten foot metal fence around it?

Do we know why 6,000 national guard troops are still in DC?

Do we know why the police were caught off guard by the riot?

Do we know why no one took the FBI riot warnings seriously?

Do we know why Parlor is still shut down?

Do we know if any Antifa and BLM members participated? (Yes but how many)

Should 74 million American's just ignore a gut feeling that something wasn't right with the election? Why not conduct an official investigation into what happened in the handful of states that some believe had irregularities and various claims of voter fraud?

What about those thousands of American's who swore out affidavits testifying they saw something? What about the Atlanta State Farm Arena security video showing Miss Ruby and her daughter removing ballots from under a table to be counted in early morning hours while no one was watching? More recently we witnessed votes being counted behind barriers during the Georgia Senate run off a full month after courts had ruled that wasn't acceptable. 

The Democrats investigated alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election for almost three years with many, to this day, still saying it was rigged by the Russians. No doubt Hillary Clinton says Donald Trump was an illegitimate not withstanding the $40 million dollar investigation that says otherwise. Don't get me started on the Washington Post and New York Times reporters wining the Pulitzer prize for their deeply sourced reporting about Russian collusion that we now know didn't happen. 

If nothing else this shame of an impeachment and the Democrats refusal to even consider any investigation into the 2020 Presidential election as legitimate will ripple through history.  The Washington Post is correct "Democracy Dies in Darkness" which is ironic because I can't think of another paper casting a greater shadow to hide truth than my once favorite news paper the Washington Post. 

Update: For a while millions have known the identity of who shot and killed Ashley Babbitt. All you had to do is search this on pretty much any search engine other than Google and you could find out who, what they looked like and what issues they had in the past. Now it's clear that during a February 25th public House hearing Timothy Blodgett, Deputy House Sergeant At Arms said officer Bryd shot Ashley Babbitt. 

Officer Michael Leroy Bryd was the shooter and his social media has been scrubbed.

Covid-19 in New York... It's Over?

If you look at the number of cases and number of deaths (December 7th New York, John Hopkins) in New York it's obvious that deaths are not aligned with cases anymore. What's going on here? The same thing is happening in New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Covid-19 hit many states hard last Spring and now those states are not experiencing a death rate that justifies more lock downs as cases spike. 

As a nation we could prevent nearly 5,800 cars being hit by trains each year if we ONLY invested in improved railroad crossings and built more bridges. But the cost of this would be too massive to justify the expenditure so it would seem that doing everything to save lives does have a limit. Just like the cost of shutting down businesses in New York has a limit. It's very possible that large cities reliant on mass transit will take years to recover long after the memory of Covid fades.

When it Rains Democrats Don't Vote...

For years the Republican narrative was bad weather on election day was good for the party. Clearly bad weather keeping Democrats from the polls has gone the way of CD's (seems that vinyl records are "cool" again). Mail in voting solves so many problems for the Democrats and I'm not suggesting that it makes it easier to carry out voter fraud which of course it does.

A little research into the Detroit election present and past show that Biden didn't out perform Obama. Furthermore, Obama only got a little over 50% of the registered vote which I thought was really odd. Maybe the old GOP joke that Republicans have to win by 2-3 points to overcome voter fraud isn't based on truth. However, one can't dismiss all the Democrats that have served time in prison or are currently serving time for voter fraud which doesn't fit the medias narrative that voter fraud doesn't exist.

So if you had to really guess what happened in 2020 I think the best answer is the Dems spent their time and resources on a massive get out the mail vote effort. They kept Joe Biden away from the microphone as much as possible and behind closed doors did what they needed to do to bank votes early and often.

Clearly the result was many dead people, those who recently moved and the occasional voter finding out they had already voted. This happened to me once when my EX wife voted and they checked me off as having already voted. This is not voter fraud as far as the Dems are concerned... This might just be, in some areas, business as usual

Normally this type of "extra voting" doesn't turn elections but just like baseball teams who stole signs during the world series, it can have an impact. Think about that... In front of millions teams find ways to cheat. Thinking voter fraud doesn't exist is childish.

Case in point. Minnesota reported a voter turn out over 91%. Before you blow the Viking horn and say way to go Minnesota, please note I'm a Minnesotan and I'm not happy. Not only is a 91% voter turn out statistical impossible, it's a sign of blatant voter fraud and massive voter harvesting. My guess is the Dems were really worried of losing Minnesota and pulled out all the stops to make sure that wasn't going to happen and seriously overachieved... Go Vikings!

Update: The Minnesota turn out number of 91.32% is absolutely false. Other sources are showing 79.9% turn out. I need to go to Minnesota.gov and figure this out. By the way any turn out above 80% is a huge red flag of a rigged election. So awesome that Minnesota is 1/10 of a percentage point below the red flag percentage. Hummmmm

Re-Thinking COVID-19 Mask Policy

Multiple large scale, randomized and blind studies indicate cloth masks, including surgical masks, don't prevent you from getting COVID-19 or any other respiratory virus. Matter of fact, many doctors including famously the US Surgeon General and Dr. Anthony Fauci have explained that masks may be counter productive. That said, on April 3rd, 2020 Dr. Fouci nails US policy on masks (starting at 3:50) which outlines the basic thought about masks that stand to this day. Cloth masks don't protect you but they reduce your ability to spread the virus. Bottom line, according to the "science" if you can't maintain social distancing wear a mask.

So here is the sore spot...

According the the CDC surviving COVID-19 earns you immunity for three months. As of yesterday 11,279,800 Americans have had the virus and yet the media hasn't mentioned they are immune. They are still wearing masks and going about life as if they could infect someone or get infected again and die. Even President Trump said he "might" be immune just weeks after his recovery. This is NUTS. Of course the President was immune and so is everyone who has recovered from COVID-19. 

How many stories have you read about people getting COVID-19 again after recovery? The first reinfection in the United States was reported on October 12th. A young Nevada man had a touch of the bug in April and later got it again. Study of his case showed that he caught two distinct strains of the virus. Clearly the media is looking for examples of reinfection. Why? Because it's bad. It's scary and it's very rare... Think shark attack... Thus it's BIG NEWS.

Until such time you read STORY after STORY of people getting COVID-19 again you can safely conclude you can't get it again (yes there will always be outliers... shark attacks) for at least 7 months and counting. 

Why 7 months? 

April 14th with 3,778 deaths appears to be the United States COVID-19 peak and until hundreds of those infected in April pop positive again you can rest assured they are still immune.

People are waiting for the vaccine which looks like it will be 90 to 95 percent effective in order to return to normal life whereas recovering from COVID-19 seems to be 100% effective for seven months or more. Ponder that and lets all follow Dr. Fauci's advice with a twist. Masks should be worn by those without immunity or vaccination when you can't maintain six feet separation.

Lycoming Engine Cold Weather Pre-Heat

Being from Minnesota I've done my fair share of really cold, snow crunching (think below zero) winter flying and I've learned that preheating your engine makes life much easier.

It's that time of year again and many pilots will consider using preheat when the temp drops below freezing... This has always seemed odd to me so I did a little research.

Turns out some Lycoming models do need preheat below 20 degrees but for the vast majority of Lycoming engines the critical outside temp that requires preheat is 10 degrees not 32 degrees. My vote is we only preheat when temps are below 20 degrees.

In my research I came across a few good points to remember during your cold weather preflight and I've included the link if you're interested in brushing up on Lycoming cold weather ops.

Lycoming Cold Weather Opps

"If flight is planned for bad weather, the preflight inspection should include observation of the relief opening in the engine breather tube so that any freezing of moisture at the end of the breather will not result in a loss of engine oil. 

Once on board the aircraft, check the fuel-selector valve for freedom of movement. It may be frozen fast (this has happened), and you’d better find out while still on the ground.

Most of the time, we think of starting any engine as a very simple process. Just engage the starter, and listen for the engine to start purring. Unfortunately, when the weather turns cold, it is not always that simple. When dealing with a reciprocating aircraft engine, it may be essential to get a start on the first try in order to avoid icing over the spark plugs and making an immediate start impossible. In order to achieve a start on the first try, there are a number of factors to be considered. Those factors will be discussed in the following paragraphs."

Just tossing this out to the universe.

PS Did you know a fully charged battery will not freeze until -76 degrees Fahrenheit but a fully discharged battery will become a block of ice at 32 degrees?

Fake News - Trump Wins?

It was 1983 and my high school yearbook was being finished. My best friend was our class president and valedictorian (later graduated top Engineer of his class at Notre Dame) but for some reason the yearbook committee goofed and listed me as class president. For the record I wasn't my class president I was student body president and worked with the entire student council.

So clearly anyone researching my life would concluded my bio was wrong and that I had exaggerated my past. Let me be clear (drink) I really had fun being involved with my high school and class and we did some pretty neat things. Being asked to address my graduating class as Student Body President (I wasn't my class president) was one of the highlights of my life... A highlight that few of my classmates even remember which is something that humbles me to this day.

Today Americans by the millions will wait in line to vote even after roughly 90,000,000 Americans have already voted. I support our absentee voting system but massive early voting is not what our founding fathers wanted.

Let me be clear (drink) I absolutely believe and have placed bets that Trump will win and more importantly drive the nail in the coffin of our fake news society. If Trump wins how can anyone again believe polls or the press?

The press emphatically argues the following states are in play:

Arizona, Texas, Iowa, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio and Northern Maine. What happens when Trump wins all of these States? What if most are not even close?

The close states will be Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. During this election cycle my ultimate BS meter will peg out if Trump actually wins Minnesota or Nevada.

So if Trump looses I'm going to scratch my head and wish Biden all my best. If he wins I'm going to brace for days, if not weeks of unrest and another four years of fake news. So let me be clear (drink) no matter what happens today Trump looses and so do we... Thank you fake news!

Voter Suppression is Real...

In 2018 Stacy Abrams lost her bid to become Georgia's Govenor by roughy 55,000 votes with the largest black turnout in the states history. The results, while close were not contested and yet this election is used as a prime example of voter suppression?

How can any rational person conclude the Georgia Govenors race was stolen via voter suppresssion? I have a theory. When the Left accuses conservatives of doing something in reality they are the ones doing exactly what they accuse.

This is a well-known psychological phenomenon known as projection. "Projection refers to unconsciously taking unwanted emotions or traits you don't like about yourself and attributing them to someone else. A common example is a cheating spouse who suspects their partner is being unfaithful."

I rarely do this but I'm going to toss out something I can't prove other than with common sense. As of late, all polls show Joe Biden with an ever growing lead over President Trump. It looks really bad or good depending on which side of the fence you sit. Now ask yourself have polls been wrong in the past?

Of course they have. That's a big duh. Now ask yourself when was the last time they were wrong in favor of Republicans?

It's likely the last wrong poll that favored the Republicans was Dewey's loss to Eisenhower. So what do polls have to do with voter suppression?

Polls impact fundraising. Low polling numbers equal fewer dollars, voter enthusiasm, etc... High polling numbers helps rally supporters of candidates who may not deserve support.

Push polls have been used to manipulate elections for decades and in many cases they are part of the dirty politics that both sides use.

So the next time you see poll data remember to ask yourself when was the last time the polls got a national election wrong in favor of the Republicans? Go Dewey!

Black Lives Matter (BLM)

The BLM website and their stated goals didn't make sense when I wrote this but it's clear their mission is not about saving black lives. If it was, then handguns and black on black shootings would be the focus.

SRA (Stop Resisting Arrest) is what we should be teaching all of our children. This is what we should drill into our young black men if we really cared about blacks dying at the hands of police. Regardless of how you look at it Statistically cops killing blacks is NOT an issue while resisting arrest absolutely is the problem and even then the narrative that white cops are killing black men is just not correct. Not even a little bit correct.

In a country of 330,000,000 million the number of black men killed by white cops, while NOT resisting arrest is as close to zero as you can statistically get. Don't believe me? The data is available. The reality is most cops never "pull" their weapon let alone discharge it and cops don't get into their "shop" and go look for trouble.

Before you march. Before your pick up a brick and toss it at a plate glass window. Before you loot neighborhood businesses. Before you set them on fire. Before you toss a Molotov cocktail at a police cruiser or worse... Before you pull down the statues of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses S. Grant, Col. Hans Christian Heg, etc, etc... Spend 30 minutes looking up the data.

Making excuses for bad actors, those high on drugs, drunk, hoodlums that feel they must resist arrest or saying blacks have a reason to fear the men and women in blue is literally killing our fellow Americans of all colors but mostly the efforts to save black lives ends up getting more black men arrested, injured and killed. It's so predictable that it's sad.

Cops rarely kill anyone. The chance of being killed while cooperating with the police is as close to zero as you can get in a country as large as the United States. Take a moment to Google and read this PDF: "Department of Justice use of force by police overview of national and local data"

PS If you happen to get beat up by the police and you were not resisting arrest there is a good chance you could sue and win a lot of cash for you and your family but it's really hard to sue if the cop's body camera shows you beating their ass.

The Ocean is Rising... Not So Fast

I absolutely love Maine's coastline. If you haven't had a chance to spend time in Maine you have missed out on one of the wonders of the planet. Maine's coast is special for many reasons. From rock formations out west that date back 1.5 billion years to recent glacial events of the last 12-14 thousand years that pushed rocks weighing tons miles rounding them off into easily recognized glacial erratics... Maine's coast is exceptional.

A few years ago I blogged about a University of Maine study conducted for the Maine geological survey that concluded from 1930 to 1992 sea level rise in Portland Maine averaged about 2.2 mm per year.

Almost 30 years after that study it's clear the studies predictions are off... Way off. The study concluded the actual increase was 2.2 mm per year. It also showed a low EPA estimate of 4.2 mm and a high of 29 mm per year.

The same tide gage today doesn't show the expected increase in level or the increase in rate. From 1912 to 2018 the average increase seemingly slowed to 1.88 mm per year.

Since the data goes back to 1900 the only reason for using 1930 and 1912 as your starting point is to find the maximum increase by cherry picking data. The problem with cherry picking data is eventually the data will simply speak for it's self.

The papers author's were: Joseph Kelly, Steven M. Dickson and Daniel Belknap.

National Retail Sales Tax (NRST) Experiment

Could the federal government conduct an income tax experiment?

States without a state income tax (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming) are arguably out preforming income taxed states so why not eliminate their federal income tax as well and see what happens?

The lost federal revenue could be replaced by a national sales tax piggy backed on the state sales tax.

But that would be regressive!

Yep, but the National Retail Sales Tax (NRST) experiment in conjunction with a "basic income" rebate would eliminate the NRST's regressivity.

If a seven states experiment is a bridge too far how about picking just one state? I would suggest Washington.

Who's Threatening the Constitution

In the U.S. the Spanish Flu infected about a quarter of the population of 105 million and killed between 500,000 to 850,000. It strangly targeted the young as well as the elderly.

When COVID-19 deaths started in the United States I fully supported the initial two week shelter in place because we didn't know if this virus was going to be the next Spanish Flu and kill millions of Americans.

We saw it slam Italy and thought oh crap that could happen here. We are just now coming up with scientific theories of why "Italy" didn't happen in the U.S. ranging from Italy got the full strength "L" strain to the adverse impact of Italy's Lombardy region having some of the worst air quality in Europe resulting in compromised lungs which COVID-19 could easily attack.

However, when it became abundantly clear the death rate was at least a factor of ten lower for the United States and the bulk of victims were elderly WITH pre-existing conditions and children seemed to be immune, I raised the BS flag.

April 15th was my turning point. I began reaching out to Governor Mills in every way I could as the numbers kept coming in not at all inline with predictions. Yet our Govenor barely changed anything.

Her efforts to close down Maine and Maine businesses where not helpful and absolutely unconstitutional. You can't tell Maine business not to take reservations from non-residents.

To show case she's playing politics, our Govenor ordered the entire state to start wearing face masks as of May 1st? If masked are necessary why would you wait so long? Mask wearing in Maine became just another form of virtue signaling as our unemployment rate climbed and business began to worry how they could survive the Summer without tourists.

Good friends, clients, family members, etc... Have strong feelings about COVID-19. I don't share those "feelings" not because I'm insensitive. I don't share them because they are not backed up by numbers. The numbers are in, the facts are known, the media has hyped the living hell out of this and their shenanigans have been exposed over and over but few care as long as the narrative damages the Orange Man.

Pointing out that Maine COVID-19 deaths in 2020 are going to be fewer than Maine's 2017 flu deaths is seen as uncaring when in reality it's just the numbers and unless we do things differently our Govenor's policies will end up killing more people than COVID-19.

Pointing out city after city across the United States added thousands and thousands of hospital beds of which only a tiny percentage were ever used is true but not politically correct. Making it clear that New York never needed 10,000 let alone 40,000 ventilators isn't uncaring. It's now clear this virus for the normally healthy is just a little more deadly than the seasonal flu with one big difference... Statistically it's NOT fatal to children.

Yes we all have heard the stories of children dying and strange lung issues but the stats are in and children don't die from COVID-19 and we are now learning they are not walking around infecting people.

Let's just say common sense has once again fought it's way to the surface. Go figure that this virus is not some super bug. It's acting like a virus. It's lethality is decreasing (viral attenuation) with each generation. It's dying off as the weather warms. It's killing the old and feeble and it's now being politicized.

I know it's easy to get sucked into the Orange Man bad story line, but I'm not going to worry about that for now. He has been repeatedly accused of being the most dangerous President to our democracy in history. I argue the clear and present danger to our Democracy is not "Don the Con" but the Govenors who have taken this "emergency" to far and continue to shred the Constitution and Declaration of Independence that every service member and elected official has repeatedly sworn an oath to support and defend against all enemies both foreign and domestic.

Does the oath really mean so little? People risked everything to fight for our freedom. People gave their lives earning and preserving this freedom. We owe it to them and our children to remember this. "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Ben Franklin

Brigadier General Samuel McCobb

Maine's COVID-19 Deaths Reach 78

One would think with so few deaths (significantly below that of the flu) Maine would be one of the States open for business. Wrong! It's not about deaths. It's not about science. Honestly, I have no idea what Govenor Janet Mills is thinking.

For starters, Maine's private campgrounds (State run are still closed until June 1st) opened up "early" two days ago but they still can't accept reservations from out of state guests. The thought is Maine doesn't want our infected southern neighbors bringing the virus here.

Good idea right? Wrong, it's absolutely unconstitutional. How can a Govenor not understand this is beyond me. A state can't close it's borders, commerical enterprise, etc... to other states.

The vast majority of deaths in Maine have been and will likely continue to be elderly with pre-existing conditions. Statistically if you're younger than 50, with no pre-existingd medical conditions COVID-19 is less deadly than the flu. Why isn't this the national headline. For children (yes there have been reports of kids getting a strange respiratory disease) the death rate is as close to zero as you can get.

Unless we are worried Boston and NYC are going to ship us their nursing home populations, are death rate is not going to increase.

Govenor, acknowledge this pandemic is NO different than pandemics of the past. That the Constitution isn't suspended for something our founders lived with and that your emergency powers ran out about two months ago. Your continued violation of the Constitution and the rights of Mainers must stop now.

Publish Maine's detail death statistics, protect our elderly and provide free testing for those visiting Maine at our boarders. If you continue this path you will bring the state to its economic collapse.

“We are in the midst of one of the greatest public health crises this world has seen in more than a century," Gov. Janet Mills said. "This virus will continue to sicken people across our state; our cases will only grow, and more people will die. I say this to be direct, to be as honest with you as I can. Because saving lives will depend on us.”

PS I'm in Boston right now and frankly it's shocking. These people are walking their dogs wearing masks. Jogging wearing masks. Biking wearing masks. Going to the beach (not crowded) wearing masks. They think they are woke but the reality is they are stupid leftist lemmings who can't think for themselves.

On April 2nd Maine's stay at home order went into effect.

To Mask or Not to Mask...

On Friday, May 1st, 2020 the Govenor of Maine ordered all Mainers wear a covering in public settings where physical distancing is difficult to maintain. Why wait so long? What changed?

Masks are required in grocery stores, retail stores, health care facilities, and pharmacies. Outside you need a covering when waiting for takeout, visiting a playground, or are in a busy parking lot.

So this is my take... The virus is bad but we did what the experts told us and absolutely flattened the curve. The actual numbers are coming in and it does look like the shelter in place precautions taken AT THE ONSET of the pandemic were warranted which makes me happy. Not that roughly 120,000 people are going to die but that we didn't turn off the economy for the flu which in a bad year kills 60,000.

So here we are... The numbers are in and this is going to be about twice as bad as a bad flu year. Please remember, the vast majority of those deaths are in nursing homes where the very old have underlying conditions. Why our political leaders didn't protect them is a whole other topic that will be debated for years.

So what do we do now?

For starters, realize Bangor, Maine is not NYC. If a county has zero deaths at this point, it should be business as usual. Let businesses figure out what they need to do to be safe and make their customers safe.

Last month I brought my boat to a guy who repairs motors out in the middle of nowhere. He was wearing a mask and made me wear a mask. Why? He had an underlying condition... That's how it should work.

Giving up our rights willy-nilly, and no kidding here that's what's going on, is unacceptable. It's not crazy for some to say our founding fathers and all the men and women who have died defending our rights since didn't think the Constitution and Bill of Rights could be put on "hold" for anything, let alone a virus that is killing 1 out if 10,000 healthy people.

So there really are two camps. One that thinks this is bad but our rights can't be suspended and those who think this is bad and we must follow what our elected officials tell us and those not doing so deserve to be fined and jailed.

Regarding masks... I still think they have become a political statement but I will stop thinking and wear mine when asked.

Update: Post holds true with the exception of the number of deaths. I think we are now closing in on 680,000 for the country. However to be fair I was going by Maine's numbers which as it turns out with the exception of no kids dying the total deaths have been just over twice as great as a bad flu year.

Open Letter to Senator Troy D. Jackson on COVID-19

Dear Senator Troy Jackson,

Please understand I'm writing because Govenor Mills is not responding to calls, emails, letters or faxes. Also I know you're from potato country and I want you to know my wife and I buy Maine potatoes, regardless of price.

Sir, I can't imagine how you must be going crazy knowing that Govenor Mills is not planning to fully open the State by Memorial Day... I've been told folks can't even book rooms for any time this year. Clearly the Govenor is not listening to either party now.

One thing you can do is demand the governor publish a generic list of those who have died. It should show where people actually died (some have died in Florida, etc...), how old they were and what underlying conditions they had if any. By my calculations, ten healthy Mainers have perished thus far. Yes I said ten. All of this sucks but people die and we all deserve to know where Maine's "hotspots" are.

Bottom line... We should not be closing down Maine for the tourist season. We should be advertising that Maine is open, Maine is healthy and Maine is offering free testing for out of state folks who are coming to Summer in Maine. 

Sincerely,

Dave Beemer

Bath, Maine

1st Letter to Govenor Mills, April 15th

2nd Letter to Govenor Mills, April 29th

Note: Maine is one of five States that does not have a lieutenant governor. In Maine the president of the Senate serves that role.

President of Maine's Senate, The Honorable Troy D. Jackson