Tamny Strikes Again

The incomparable Tamny! He thinks in such unfamiliar ways it is like a workout to read his stuff - but because the light of clarity is so satisfying, it is always worth the effort.

To which some will say “yes, but,” only to mention all manner of ridiculous (in retrospect, of course) internet companies that went public over twenty years ago. There’s your “bubble,” right? Wrong. Lest readers forget, Amazon’s share price fell into the single digits in 2001 after all too many ridiculed its formerly triple digit valuation. Amazon was once “Amazon.org AMZN -0.9%,” and it was for a time one of the more public faces of an “internet bubble” having “burst.” “.org” for Amazon was a joke about its “non-profit” status. What’s perhaps “obvious” now about good and bad internet companies wasn’t obvious at the time. What’s transformative yet again is a magnet for all sorts of investment that often only becomes understandable well after the fact.
“Yes, but” what about the housing “bubble” in the 2000s? Glad you asked.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johntamny/2021/02/07/a-modest-proposal-to-voluntarily-abolish-the-word-bubble/?sh=378fd9e2710b

Hunter and Joe, Palling Around Like Father and Son

"Hunter Biden joins his father aboard Air Force II for a trip to Beijing, where he briefly introduces the vice president to his Chinese business partner Jonathan Li. Vice President Joe Biden's official trip to Beijing was to quiet security concerns in the region after Chinese aggression in the China Sea. Less than two weeks after the trip, China officially approves an operating license for the BHR investment."

https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/timeline-key-events-hunter-biden-overseas-business

Given what Joe knew of Hunter's problems and businesses, this is indescribably poor judgement or just plain rubbing every citizen's nose in the muck over "the family business." And he got away with it. 

"Hey, I'm the VP, and I'm making millions for my sons and friends overseas - and giving them free transport - and you can't stop and will elect me president anyway." 

His ridiculous claim that he "didn't know anything about" his son's business dealings should have been an insult to every citizen. Were the dems just looking at that thinking "this has to go south" and then saw that it wouldn't and finally pulled in the sails leaving him as the only one? 

I didn't realize it, but things are just exactly like they were in 1968 ...

It is confusing to me why a person would make the argument that nothing has changed since 1968, especially one that lived through the change. They cannot mean that literally, it is just as difficult to be a Black American now as it was then.

I grew up wondering why family and friends would argue about Hank Aaron not legitimately earning the home run record - who cares what the banalities were, he his more home runs and he was the hitter I cheered for as a Braves fan. I never cheered for a segregated Crimson Tide team, by the time I was able to watch, dominant black athletes were a core component of the Tide's success. Hey, I know I was lucky, I saw enough of the slavery hangover but much less than the previous generation. 

Is it still harder to be born a Black American than white? As a generality, of course. I wish I wish I wish there was a way to shift the suffering and poverty and ensure every human could live up to their full potential for growth and love and satisfaction, safe and supported and healthy. As an officer in the US Navy I saw so many Black Americans do just that and it gave me hope and I silently cheered and as they created a good life for themselves. I worked shoulder to shoulder with so many fine humans of so many ethnicities and a broad spectrum of cultural history. I hope that some of my childhood classmates (elementary school in Alabama in the 70s) have done as well. 

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/01/20/an_open_letter_to_stevie_wonder.html

The article points out:

In 2008 America elected – and in 2012 reelected – the nation’s first African American president.

Two months ago, a majority Americans voters cast ballots for a woman whose immigrant parents grew up on opposite sides of the globe under British rule: Donald Harris in Jamaica and Shyamala Gopalan in India. Their daughter, Kamala Harris, takes the oath of office tomorrow as vice president.

Two weeks ago, and for the first time, voters in Georgia sent a black man to the United States Senate. Martin Luther King would have certainly considered that progress: The new senator, Raphael Warnock, is the pastor at Dr. King’s iconic church.

In 2013, Tim Scott was appointed to fill Strom Thurmond’s old Senate seat. The following year, Sen. Scott won election in his own right, having become the first African American senator elected from the Deep South since Reconstruction. He did it by winning more than 60% of the vote.

From 2001-2005, Colin Powell served as the first African American secretary of state. He was succeeded by Condoleezza Rice, the first female African American secretary of state.

Michelle Obama has held the title of “the most admired woman in America” for three years in row. Oprah Winfrey has been on the list for 33 consecutive years.

Two decades ago, Robert Johnson, the CEO of Black Entertainment Television, became the first black billionaire.

Will They Get Better?

"Then Democrats voted to impeach President Trump. Again. When they last impeached him almost exactly a year ago — just in time to distract the White House, Congress and the nation from the looming coronavirus pandemic — the grounds were, to say the least, thin. It was notable that Democrats didn’t even bring up impeachment at their convention, and it stayed below the radar during the presidential campaign. After allegedly being a matter of earthshattering importance, it was like it never happened."

"But now they have impeached Trump — a week before he was scheduled to leave office anyway. And this time, the claim was even thinner: that a speech in which Trump called for peaceful protests was somehow “incitement” of events on Capitol Hill and elsewhere, some of which apparently took place before the speech was delivered. When Democrats spent a year promoting and excusing violent riots against the police, we were told that it was “mostly peaceful” protest, even when police stations and state capitols were seized, and when rioters tried to burn down federal courthouses. When Trump called for peaceful protest, we’re told he was advocating violence. Byron York calls this “the crazy impeachment,” and he’s right."

https://nypost.com/2021/01/19/gaining-power-hasnt-made-the-left-any-less-insane/

I hope they regain sanity. 

But if they don't we'll see the socialist experiment tried here in greater doses and perhaps it will be harmful enough, fast enough, to convince the average folk they were right all along - socialism punishes as much or more than it helps. 

I've been doing my best to ignore all the insanity, I'm probably still in denial that the end of Trump was even worse than the beginning of Trump. Stunned that GA voted for two crazies to give power to dementia J. 

But the world will turn, and it's a good time to become a stronger, better, more ethical, more potent human with the most possible capacity to regulate your emotions and focus. 

Celebrities Are Superfluous

Meanwhile, it’s the non-famous heroes who resonate: The frontline workers and health-care providers New Yorkers cheered for every night at 7. The wealthy Secret Santa profiled by CBS News who anonymously mailed $1,000 cash to 100 carefully chosen essential workers in need. Nathan Apodaca, the Idaho potato warehouse worker longboarding and lip-syncing to Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” while sipping an Ocean Spray, giving us all a lift.

 https://nypost.com/2021/01/02/2020-taught-us-one-good-thing-celebrities-are-meaningless/

Don't Just Do Something, Stand There

Inaction kills, incorrect action kills, there's no easy path. Hind sight shows that government intrusions on liberty were not effective and therefore not justified. 

The government's responses (i.e., the severity index and the containment and health index) are strongly correlated with the second factorial axis (Figures 2, 4). The death rate from Covid-19 is not correlated with this axis. Therefore, the death rate appears not to be linked with the responses of governments.

The third axis shows a relationship between Covid-19 mortality and longitude as well as obesity and sedentarity (Figures 4, 5). American countries have a higher obesity rate and a higher Covid-19 mortality rate; Asian countries have lower obesity rates and lower Covid-19 mortality rates.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2020.604339/full

Herd Immunity On the Horizon?

Experts estimate that about two-thirds of the population need to have neutralizing antibodies in order to reach herd immunity. Two-thirds of the 325 million people in the United States is about 218 million people. You can get antibodies that neutralize the virus in one of two ways: taking an effective vaccine, which is only being starting to be administered, or having been infected with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. About 19 million people in the U.S. have had confirmed cases of COVID. But confirmed cases may be the tip of the iceberg. Although estimates vary, the Centers for Disease Control believes that about eight people have been infected for each one person with a documented case. If we multiply the 19 million known cases by 8, it is possible that about 152 million people are already immune. Yet, the proportion of people who have been infected and the rate of new cases varies significantly by state.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/12/30/some_states_may_be_well_on_their_way_to_herd_immunity_144936.html

The author continues on to propose several states where the infection rates exceed 50%, and in which the rate of spread seems to be reduced.