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%?

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 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 - 137,2060,000

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 just 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.

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 242 people made over 5,000 ballot drops which would clearly be in violation of 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 cased 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% to .3%? There are still lots of 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. However, if you go to www.statista.com they show the number of registered voters in 2020 as 168,310,000. Either I can't add or something isn't right. If you used the actual number of votes cast and Statista's registered voters a turn out of 94.1% which is impossible. I thought 60 million new registered voters was impossible but now I'm scratching my head wonder how could a company I trust and use all the time be off by 46 million registered voters?

* District of Columbia 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?