What was that rate, CDC, what was that rate?

To the tune of the Lynyrd Skynyrd song, "What Was Your Name?"

In other words, while the CDC reports 2.34 million Americans have been infected with the coronavirus, the actual number of infected and recovered people may be closer to 50 million. (CDC Director Robert Redfield told journalists Thursday that the number of cases may be 10 times higher than the earlier 2.34 million.)

Thus, the death rate, which would be 5.2 percent based on that 2.34 million figure, is actually more like one-20th as high — or 0.26 percent.

https://nypost.com/2020/06/25/getting-realistic-about-the-coronavirus-death-rate/

On Sunday a major positive milestone was reached for the first time, coronavirus deaths declined by 90% in this country from the high set on April 21st. That’s an incredibly positive story about our national battle with the virus. Yet, shockingly, it has received almost no media attention. (UPDATE: On Monday deaths were also down 90% from the April 21st peak, meaning there were two straight days this occurred, again, with almost zero media coverage).

That’s indefensible because this is not complicated data to track down. You can see it yourself on this chart here, on April 21st 2,693 people died of the coronavirus. Yesterday 267 died. Putting that number into perspective, an average of 7200 people died on Sunday of something other than the coronavirus and those deaths received almost no media attention at all.

https://outkick.com/media-ignores-90-coronavirus-death-collapse-in-country/

Politicians: Look but don't touch

Yes, let the energy markets ride it out.

https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2020/06/25/get_ready_for_an_american_energy_comeback_497300.html

26 Million Cases

CDC estimates, worth what you paid for them, say 10% of us had the Wuhan Chinese Corona COVID19 disease, most which didn't know it. 

Given that over and over again it has been shown that we don't know Jack Shit about this thing, a little humility would be in order by all parties. 

https://outkick.com/cdc-now-estimates-there-have-been-over-20-million-coronavirus-cases/

Not Enough To Meet Demand

Racism demand exceeds the supply - a great read all the way through including how many noose hoaxes there have been in the last nine years, how the term "racist" has morphed into a do-it-all "I don't like you because you won't validate what I'm saying" term, and how every other ethnic demographic, including those with black skin not born in the USA, "exceeds" the success of whites. 

I am in complete sympathy for the experience of black americans and wish a better experience for each american. Truth still matters. 

https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2020/06/25/nolte-lefts-demand-racism-exceeds-supply/

Prosperity Means Choices

I don't know if this will be a good idea or bad. I do know that absent excessive wealth - far more than the minimum - no one will have time or the inclination to explore these types of options. 

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/06/22/1004218/how-green-sand-could-capture-billions-of-tons-of-carbon-dioxide/?itm_source=parsely-api

Safety Makes Us Safer (from the police)?

"The story only changed when a few criminologists, led by the Manhattan Institute’s George Kelling, and visionary police leaders, like William J. Bratton, began to advocate for community-based policing, including enforcement of quality-of-life offenses, and the deployment of more sophisticated data to target crime hot spots, to bring order back to urban neighborhoods. After Bratton became New York’s police chief under Republican mayor Rudolph Giuliani in 1994, crime started to fall dramatically—including violent felonies, which fell by 70 percent. 

"As crime declined, so did some key indicators of police misconduct. The New York Police Department keeps extensive records on how often officers fire their guns, and the numbers tell a powerful story. In 1991, at the peak of the city’s crime wave under Mayor David Dinkins, officers discharged their guns 307 times. Ten years ago, in a much safer city, police fired their guns fewer than 100 times—and last year, they did so just 52 times, representing a greater than 80 percent decline from 1991."

https://www.city-journal.org/democrats-police-reform

The Yang of the Yin the Police Provide

A hard damned read, but a must read. 

https://www.city-journal.org/reflections-on-race-riots-and-police

Another cut at it ...

These tensions led to amazing contradictions in coverage. For all the extraordinary/inexplicable scenes of police viciousness in recent weeks — and there was a ton of it, ranging from police slashing tires in Minneapolis, to Buffalo officers knocking over an elderly man, to Philadelphia police attacking protesters — there were also 12 deaths in the first nine days of protests, only one at the hands of a police officer (involving a man who may or may not have been aiming a gun at police).

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/the-news-media-is-destroying-itself

A magnificent read ... underscores the significance of the first amendment

Like many reporters, Fang has always viewed it as part of his job to ask questions in all directions. He’s written critically of political figures on the center-left, the left, and “obviously on the right,” and his reporting has inspired serious threats in the past. None of those past experiences were as terrifying as this blitz by would-be colleagues, which he described as “jarring,” “deeply isolating,” and “unique in my professional experience.” 

To save his career, Fang had to craft a public apology for “insensitivity to the lived experience of others.” According to one friend of his, it’s been communicated to Fang that his continued employment at The Intercept is contingent upon avoiding comments that may upset colleagues. Lacy to her credit publicly thanked Fang for his statement and expressed willingness to have a conversation; unfortunately, the throng of Intercept co-workers who piled on her initial accusation did not join her in this.

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/the-news-media-is-destroying-itself

Among many great points in this piece, it underscores the essential nature of the first amendment - imagine if politicians could dictate what could or could not be said and issue punishments ....

Models are not reality and are not much better at predicting reality than a human is

Scientific American sought to dismiss such concerns in an April 15 article headlined “Climate Science Deniers Turn to Attacking Coronavirus Models.”While not exactly defending the methodology used in the models, the article said they were wrong “because millions of Americans responded to pleas for social distancing.” It then invoked newer models that would also prove to be wrong – forecasting only 60,000 U.S. deaths; there are now more than 107,000 – before defending the original alarmist numbers with what almost sounds like an argument for the politicization of science from the coronavirus to climate change: “Health experts say the models worked the way they were supposed to -- by providing a glimpse into a dire future that was partially averted because of collective action.”

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2020/06/04/covid_vs_climate_modeling_cloudy_with_a_chance_of_politics_123891.html

It Takes Courage

To speak away from the majority. Thank you Mr. Steele.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/06/08/shelby_steele_al_sharpton_is_asking_what_black_americans_can_get_out_george_floyds_death.html

"White America's live under this accusation that they're racist, they need to prove that they're not racist. In order to prove that you're not racist, you need to take over the fate of black people and say, go with us, we'll engineer you into the future, we'll engineer you into equality.

"Life doesn't work like that. We have to engineer ourselves. Period. There is no other way. It -- unless you can rewrite the rules of the human condition. There is no circumstance in history where people can -- no matter -- no matter how much guilt they have over the oppressive majority, there is no -- there's no indicated -- indication anywhere that you can somehow get them to lift your -- lift you up and get you out of your -- the condition that you're -- it's not a possibility."

Yes, Dr. Sowell, we are at that point

The redoubtable Thomas Sowell also is an inspiration. He tweeted this morsel of clarity yesterday: “Have we reached the ultimate stage of absurdity where some people are held responsible for things that happened before they were born, while other people are not held responsible for what they themselves are doing today?”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/a-new-silent-majority-is-coming_3386854.html

That silent majority ... we'll see

Figure the Odds ...

Fascinating, and hopeful.

https://scholar.harvard.edu/fryer/publications/empirical-analysis-racial-differences-police-use-force

Prayers for the innocent

A heartbreaker, sending a prayer

https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/family-of-injured-metro-officer-says-he-is-paralyzed-tentatively-accepted-to-spine-rehabilitation-center/

Does Poverty Exist in the US?

https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/06/03/some-facts-worth-knowing-n2569839

A recent study by Just Facts, an excellent source of factual information, shows that after accounting for income, charity and noncash welfare benefits such as subsidized health care, housing, food stamps and other assistance programs, "the poorest 20% of Americans consume more goods and services than the national averages for all people in the world's most affluent countries." This includes the majority of countries that are members of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, including its European members. The Just Facts study concludes that if the U.S. "poor" were a nation, then it would be one of the world's richest.

As the Language Changes

Around the year 2003, I realized that the language was changing - the meaning of "racist" had shifted from describing a person that believed race described moral or intellectual superiority. People could be defined as racist by one thoughtless comment. The term also began to mean that the racist person had to be in the power demographic - in other words, a non-power demographic person could say terrible things based on race, but would not be termed a racist. I referred to a dictionary in 2004 or so and surprised even very educated people with the simple fact that even a person that dislikes others based on their race was, until recently, described as a bigot vice a racist. 

If I can make conscientious choices and show care and concern for every human I meet and still be a racist, then ... so what? How is the term any different than saying "you are an asshole"?

I wish there was a reason to believe these mutations of language were about creating a more just way of more good people living together in harmony. I fear that instead these changes are about creating a more centralized and more abusive federal government that will use all kinds of new reasons to create soul and economy crushing laws and turn us all into subjects vice citizens.

It is wrong to hurt a fellow human. It is wrong for a LE professional to hurt the people whom they are charged with protecting. It is wrong to hurt an LE professional. Excepting self defense or defense of others - do not hurt people. The concept is simple, how to actualize it in the world of human frailty is vexing.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/06/03/i-did-not-kill-george-floyd/

this is an effort to establish racial collective guilt for the murderous suffocation of George Floyd. There are two problems with this approach. The first is that collective guilt on the basis of racial origin is always a wicked ideology to pursue. Whether it’s Jews being held collectively guilty of the alleged excesses of ‘rich Jews’ or blacks being collectively punished for the offences of individual black people, such racial extrapolation always leads to prejudice and suffering. There is a twisted irony in the fact that so many commentators and activists who pose as anti-racist are promoting the ideology of collective racial guilt in response to the killing of George Floyd.

What is a Racist?

The word used to me, in my understanding, someone who believes some races are inferior, less valuable, not fully human. Or, more simply, that some races are better suited to rule and some less so, never mind humans rights or the notion that all humans are created equal in rights. 

Now, the word seems to mean "you are not an American with black skin". Or, "you are white". 

This is a complex nuanced topic. I get the influence of the unconscious and the ways that even non-black in the US have unconscious or conscious negative associations with blacks based on distorted facts, inculturation by the dominant class, real and unfortunate experiences or poor parenting. 

It does not seem to be enough to be a person who treats other people well. One could do that and still be called a racist. The basis of the claim could be on some pretty spotty grounds. Taking an action to hurt another person is not a requirement to be termed a racist. One could even amass a life time of kindness to others, say the wrong thing, and all of a sudden be tossed in the pit of boiling racist tar and feathers. 

Life is plenty hard for any of us, essentially all the time. It is harder when the rules are changing this fast and for seemingly arbitrary reasons. 

https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/501857-am-i-racist

I hope he's right about the carriers

I always felt like a pretty fat target on the big deck ships in the area we sailed, but I hope the author is correct.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2020/06/09/claims-of-aircraft-carrier-vulnerability-are-false-but-the-versatility-is-real/#427be58f591a

US Will See Better Days, but China ...

... will run out of cards to play. Guessing the future is a fool's game but I'll always be more bullish on human liberty over goonish centralized planning (not that there's any other kind).

https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2020/05/29/the_chinese_economy_is_reeling_president_trump_is_the_reason_why_494378.html

"How dare you!" (Resist the mob mentality on lockdowns ...)

Overall, Florida has been one of the safest states in the country during this pandemic, confounding all the media “experts,” whose dire predictions for the Sunshine State have failed to materialize. For a couple of weeks in late March, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was incessantly denounced in the media because he was reluctant to issue a statewide “stay-at-home” order. DeSantis’s argument was that the state’s outbreak was largely confined to three counties — Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Broward — on Florida’s southeast coast. Local officials were implementing their own lockdown policies to contain these outbreaks, while state officials were concentrating their efforts on ensuring that Florida’s elderly population was protected from the virus. Given these circumstances, shutting down all “nonessential” business statewide was not necessary, DeSantis argued.

https://spectator.org/experts-wrong-florida-ron-desantis-coronavirus-shutdown-reopening/

This write up was enough to make me wish I could watch it ....

The best hope for the future of the world is that all parts of the world can be brought to property rights and rule of law, which would lead to stable or declining birth rates - at least, that is what has happened in every first world nation so far.

https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2020/05/28/the_green_god_that_failed__almost_494439.html

He got shot? Yes, but he died of SARS-CoV-19

A review of the data by the Olympia-based Freedom Foundation found that of all the deaths attributed to the virus, 5% didn’t list COVID-19 as the cause of death on their death certificates. Another 13% involved people who had at one time tested positive for the disease, but the virus wasn’t “listed on death certificates as either causing or contributing to death.” Five of the state’s “coronavirus deaths” actually died from gunshot wounds. 

Gov. Jay Inslee’s reaction to the Freedom Foundation report was to accuse the group of trafficking in conspiracy theories “from the planet Pluto.”

The Freedom Foundation findings came after Colorado’s public health department was forced to admit that nearly a quarter of those listed as dying from COVID-19 didn’t have the disease listed on their death certificates.

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/05/28/just-how-exaggerated-is-the-covid-19-death-count/