The Problem with Masks

Timothy Birdnow

Wearing these masks is like wearing a blessed crucifix around your neck; it's a symbol you've submitted to the True Faith, and a massive virutue signal. And it makes people feel they are down with the struggle. Actually preventing illness is a minor concern with the authorities promoting this.

NJ Driver Wearing N95 Mask Passes Out Due to Lack of Oxygen, Police Say

When I have to get my eyeball shots the retina doctor puts a mask on me first; it's intended to slow my breathing so I'm not so, uh, jumpy. It works, too. You are trapping more carbon dioxide in the mask and rebreathing it. Good for eyeball shots but not so good for driving.

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Water Monopoly Empire in California

Timothy Birdnow

I've expounded in the past on hydraulic empires. Hydraulic empires (sometimes called water monopoly empires) were civilizations where the emperor had control of the river system. If any province or city bucked his will he cut off the flow of water and that place died. It was especially true in Egypt and the Mesopotamian kingdoms, but also in China. Water is life itself and whoever controls it controls the People.

We can now add electricity and gas to that list. Whoever controls electricity and gas and water is the modern Pharoah.

Which is what makes this so interesting - and dangerous:

[linki=https://nypost.com/2020/03/26/los-angeles-to-shut-off-water-power-of-nonessential-businesses-that-refuse-to-close/?fbclid=IwAR1UzHYIjqqEAFU4-9mBpJ9ghKCNSATsyYcUMLMRJD7SUVwlUFCwIaJGeHc]Los Angeles to Shut Off Water, Power of Non-essential Businesses that Refuse to Close

Seems the liberal Democrats in California are the new Pharoahs.

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No Evidence of CO2 Slowdown

This from Dr. Roy Spencer:

Why the current economic downturn will not show up in the atmospheric CO2 record.

From the article:

The increase in atmospheric CO2 observed since the 1950s is most likely dominated by anthropogenic CO2 emissions, which are twice as large as that needed to explain the observed rise. As I have shown before, a simple CO2 budget model driven by (1) estimates of global yearly anthropogenic CO2 emissions, (2) El Nino and La Nina activity, and (3) a CO2 removal rate that is proportional to how much "extra” CO2 is in the atmosphere compared to a "preferred baseline” CO2 level, yields an excellent fit to yearly CO2 observations at Mauna Loa, Hawaii.

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But those are yearly measurements, and we are now interested in whether the recent global economic slowdown is showing up in the monthly Mauna Loa CO2 data. If we remove the large seasonal variations(driven by the seasonal growth and decay of Northern Hemisphere vegetation), we see no evidence of the economic slowdown through April, 2020.

As can be seen in Fig. 2, there are some pretty large month-to-month jumps and dips around the long-term increase (represented by the dotted line). These are probably natural variations due to fluctuations in the average seasonal variations in vegetation growth and decay, wildfire activity, and El Nino and La Nina activity (which are imperfectly removed in the solid blue line in Fig. 2). Variations in economic activity might also be involved in these fluctuations.

The point is that given the large month-to-month variations in natural CO2 sources and sinks seen in Fig. 2, it would be difficult to see a downturn in the anthropogenic source of CO2 unless it was very large (say, over 50%) and prolonged (say over a year or longer).

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Trump calls for Obama testimony amid unmasking controversy; Graham cool to idea

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Media Malfeasance on Biden Rape Story

This from Steven Kipp:

ABC censors story that would have been wall-to-wall coverage had it been a GOP candidate. (Translation: Stop watching ABC...CBS & NBC had numerous interviews of Biden minus ANY questions on this...if you watch even LOCAL versions of the alphabet stations...turn them off & watch Fox alone).

ABC News Sat on Interview with Biden Accuser for Five Weeks

A Word from Tim:

Reminds me of the way they spiked the Monica Lewinsky story. Matt Drudge made his fame by breaking it while Newsweek refused to run it. Choosing what news to NOT cover is as much censorship as lying or distorting what they do choose to put out.

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Lockdowns Cause Harm

Joe Bastardi directs our attention to this:

There is No Evidence Lockdowns Save Lives. It is Indisputable They Caused Great Harm

William Briggs is a brilliant statistician. He should never be dismissed.

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Apocalypse Canceled

Timothy Birdnow

The Earth is greening - and atmospheric carbon dioxide is the reason, according to climatologist Patrick Michaels.

From Climate Etc.

A new paper finds higher than expected CO₂ fertilization inferred from leaf to global observations. The paper predicts that the Earth is going to gain nearly three times as much green matter as was predicted by the IPCC AR5.

Earlier this month, I posted a short piece about an explosive paper on planetary greening that appeared in the journal Global Change Biology. I’ve since mused that it deserves a considerably longer, more contextual post.

The innocuously titled paper, "Higher than expected CO₂fertilization inferred from leaf to global observations”, by Vanessa Haverd (of Australia’s CSIRO) and eight coauthors uses a biophysical model and observed climate to back-calculate global primary productivity (GPP; the net change in standing vegetation per year), and to forward-calculate it using climate model forecasts.

Abstract. "Several lines of evidence point to an increase in the activity of the terrestrial biosphere over recent decades, impacting the global net land carbon sink (NLS) and its control on the growth of atmospheric carbon dioxide (c_a). Global terrestrial gross primary production (GPP)—the rate of carbon fixation by photosynthesis—is estimated to have risen by (31±5)% since 1900, but the relative contributions of different putative drivers to this increase are not well known. Here we identify the rising atmospheric CO₂concentration as the dominant driver. We reconcile leaf‐level and global atmospheric constraints on trends in modeled biospheric activity to reveal a global CO₂fertilization effect on photosynthesis of 30% since 1900, or 47% for a doubling ofc_aabove the pre‐industrial level. Our historic value is nearly twice as high as current estimates (17±4)% that do not use the full range of available constraints. Consequently, under a future low‐emission scenario, we project a land carbon sink (174PgC, 2006–2099) that is 57PgC larger than if a lower CO₂fertilization effect comparable with current estimates is assumed. These findings suggest a larger beneficial role of the land carbon sink in modulating future excess anthropogenic CO₂ consistent with the target of the Paris Agreement to stay below 2°C warming, and underscore the importance of preserving terrestrial carbon sinks.”

The authors go on to predict we will have no more carbon dioxide rise - or little, anyway, and that the planetary warming will remain well within the Paris Accord demands of under 2 degrees C.

Global Warming as a apocalypse appears to have been canceled.

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Burr! It's Getting Hot for NC Senator and Pandemic Profiteer

This from Judson Phillips:

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Masks and President Trump

Timothy Birdnow

The CDC was AGAINST masks until they were for them. Not sure how much stock to put in such notions.Actuall

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Scoldilocks Does Covide

Timothy Birdnow

It's almost impossible to do satire these days. I feel sorry for the writers at The Onion or the Babylon Bee.

Social media storm erupts after CNN puts Greta Thunberg on coronavirus panel: report

An upcoming CNN town hall on thecoronavirus pandemicwill feature 17-year-old Greta Thunberg alongside a panel of medical experts.

The program, "Coronavirus Facts and Fears,” also includes CNN broadcaster Sanjay Gupta, 50, former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, 71 and former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Richard Besser, 60. CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, 52, will host alongside Gupta.

If you need any proof that this thing is highly politicized look no further.

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Here's an interesting theory on what California's Governor is doing

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Churches Burdened with Proof

This from Steven Kipp

So now churches have to prove nothing negative will occur as members meet? (What if food retailers had to operate under such a legal burden?)...Pastors & lay-people, especially in states like CA where rumors are that this will extend all Summer...time to put your beliefs where your mouth is & be willing to be arrested for your faith. If they want to let out 100% of criminals & replace them w/us, so be it!

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80% of Counties Could Reopen

This from Joseph Bast:

If government-imposed restrictions adopted in the name of stopping the spread of the Wuhan virus were lifted only in counties reporting fewer than 6 deaths from the virus to date, 80% of U.S. counties could reopen immediately. Thanks to Trump’s defense of federalism during a public health crisis, the decision must be made by the country’s elected governors, not by the president, congress, Dr. Fauci, or me. Have you written to your governor?If the Media Told the Truth about COVID 19. the Public Would Feel Safe to Work and Play

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While Rome Burns...

Timothy Birdnow

During the impoverishing times of Coronavirus the Europeans are showering illegal aliens with gifts.

From Gatewstone Institute:

European governments are using the coronavirus pandemic to grant mass amnesties to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. While Europe is experiencing an economic shock without precedent, and tens of millions of Europeans have lost their livelihoods, migrants in Europe illegally are being showered with free housing and healthcare.

In Italy, where public debt is forecast to reach 160% of GDP this year, the left-wing coalition government has announced a plan to grant amnestyto at least 600,000 migrants in the country illegally. They would receive residency permits, initially valid for six months, that could be renewed in perpetuity.

The so-called Marshall Plan for Agriculture is the brainchild of Agriculture Minister Teresa Bellanova, who arguesthat the migrants are essential because they are picking crops and caring for the elderly during the coronavirus crisis. Opponents of the measure say that only a small fraction of the undocumented immigrants in Italy are currently working in agriculture or as care-givers for the elderly.

Approximately 100,000 farmhands from Eastern Europe work — legally — in Italy each year, but cannot this year due to coronavirus travel bans. Agriculture trade unions reporta current shortage of 200,000 workers. This figure represents one-third of the number of migrants Bellanova says she would like to legalize.

Former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who now leads the opposition, saidthat he was in favor of temporarily granting work permits for those currently working as farmhands, but that a mass amnesty of hundreds of thousands of migrants cannot be justified. He proposedan alternative plan: unemployed immigrants who are in the country legally and receiving welfare payments should be recruited to work in the fields.

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Herd Immunity and the Shutdown

Timothy Birdnow

I had an e-mail discussion about the folly of shutting down the planetary economy to address the Wuhan Virus. I said:

We have actually worked AGAINST herd immunity by quarantine, social distancing, and the endless sanitizing. These things were originally sold to us as a way to "flatten the curve" meaning stretch the infection rates out so everyone didn't get sick at once and the hospitals could handle it. But now half of the hospitals are empty, even the wards set up for COVID 19. And this has subtly changed from "flatten the curve" to "save lives". But what we are doing won't save lives and was never intended for that purpose. We need herd immunity, which means the young and healthy and strong need to get it, develop immunity, and break the chain of infection. Now we are not just prolonging the inevitable but perhaps guaranteeing it will be worse because we are giving the virus every incentive to mutate. These are STUPID policies! And the deaths from the economic destruction we are witnessing will dwarf the deaths from the virus. One last point; adjusted for population growth this pandemic does not appear to be much worse than the H2N2 pandemic of 1957, or of the H2N2 pandemic of 1968 (in America anyway). We never came close to doing all of this. And it certainly is nowhere near the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918. This isn't smallpox. We have to face it and quit hiding under our beds.


My interlocutor Deborah replied:

Timothy Birdnow herd immunity requires 80-90% infected. Why would we want to sacrifice thousands of lives to achieve that. Looks like 70% of deaths are 65 and older which still means 30% were under which do the math is still a lot of people . And looking at longevity averages a person at 60 would have been robbed of several years of life . We need to better understand why the young otherwise healthy people died and what the new cases of Kawasaki in children is surfacing. This is a complex virus that we still don’t know a lot about and several mutations exist in different parts of the country.


Deborah Edge, I appreciate your point but think your assumptions are wrong on this.

First, this disease appears to have a mortality rate much lower than previously believed, approaching the standard influenza. You seem to be assuming that everyone who gets this will die, like Ebola. In fact the percentage of the population

I also must question your 80-90% rate. Measles have a very high herd immunity rate at 92% but COVID 19 is likely far lower - as low as 50% according to Dr. Justin Lessler, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University.  So we are talking about half of the population getting sick with the illness. That seems like a lot but not if you consider that this will happen anyway - and that most of those who catch this will be asymptomatic or only mildly ill - this makes it a far less onerous thing. We MAY get a vaccine  but we may not either. Are you prepared to keep the world economy shut down for that long a stretch? Do you have any idea how many people will die, and the utter destruction an economic collapse will cause? The Great Depression gave us Hitler and WWII. The shutdown will wind up being worse if it continues much longer.

As of now we don't know what the RO factor is of this disease. It does in fact appear that a lot more people have had it than previously thought, so that number is dropping well lower than the numbers used in the models. And that would make estimates of the mortality rate wildly incorrect.

I would point out Sweden has opted for herd immunity and does not have a mortality rate higher than most of the rest of Europe. And their infection rates are leveling off, meaning they are reaching herd immunity.

I agree; we don't WANT to subject anyone to it, and certainly any death is a tragedy. I am in a high risk group myself, btw. I would probably die from it. But the point is we don't know if we will ever develop a vaccine and the longer this goes on the more likely it is to mutate, precisely as you suggest. I fear we are artificially inducing that mutation by putting pressure on it via all the sanitizing and the mask wearing and whatnot. There are now strong environmental pressures for this thing to evolve into a more lethal disease.

Bear in mind that most deaths from this disease have been in enclosed environments - cruise ships, nursing homes, etc. In New York the Governor ordered nursing homes to take in COVID patients - something guaranteed to cause this to burn through the sick, elderly population. It should also be pointed out there is a concerted effort to inflate the stats on this disease, to argue for a higher mortality rate. Certainly guidelines have come down to doctors and hospitals to list COVID as cause of death even without the presence of antibody tests. And Medicare has been paying more for a Covid diagnosis.

As Deborah Birx pointed out:

"There are other countries that if you had a pre-existing condition and let's say the virus caused you to go to the ICU and then have a heart or kidney problem -- some countries are recording that as a heart issue or a kidney issue and not a COVID-19 death. Right now ... if someone dies with COVID-19 we are counting that as a COVID-19 death."

Here https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/09/its-difficult-to-grasp-the-projected-deaths-from-covid-19-heres-how-they-compare-to-other-causes-of-death/ is a quick link I found that shows how this is in respect to some other recent diseases. The do put up the numbers from the Spanish flu. They do NOT include the pandemics of 1957 or 68, which would be much more comparable. And I can't see the methodology; was it adjusted for population growth? The two mid-century pandemics are VERY comparable to this one and we did not close up the whole country.

The U.N. is predicting hundreds of thousands of children will die worldwide from the economic downturn. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-children-un/u-n-warns-economic-downturn-could-kill-hundreds-of-thousands-of-children-in-2020-idUSKBN21Y2X7 It is probable that many more adults will die. And given that we now have a worse unemployment rate than during the Great Depression we can expect those numbers to rise.

In the end we definitely want a vaccine, but we may never get one. We cannot wait until one is developed. That is sheer madness.

BTW Unicef is now arguing that six thousand children will die a day due to the virus shutdown. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/may/13/unicef-6000-children-could-die-every-day-due-to-impact-of-coronavirus?fbclid=IwAR2bdV9XP2nx4QxCmdcEOXcoS12kMU153GLZo5iwOWztzUeWlN_KwEqed_0
That means in ten days we will have sixty thousand children die. In three months close to a hundred and eighty thousand. We cannot afford that.

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Stealing Science

Timothy Birdnow

This illustrates exactly how political ideology has taken over science. They simply keep out papers that don't support their positions. Then they say "no credible research opposes this". It's dirty pool. But it's how "science" is distorted these days for political ends.

From Richard Cronin:

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Afghan Terrorists Attack Maternity Ward

Timothy Birdnow

After having cut a deal with the Taliban to start talks about the future of Afghanistan Islamic terrorists launched a vicious campaign of attacks across the country. They invaded a hospital maternity ward. A hundred people had to be evacuated, and fifteen were injured.

My, these are some lovely people.

This is evidence that you have to actually win a war and not talk your way out of it. Trump shouldn't have tried to simply negotiate us out at this point. He should have instead brought the wrath of God down on the terrorists. But it isn't popular these days and it isn't easy and Mr. Trump had his own problems.

And the U.S. needs to get out of there. It's not our country, and even Genghis Khan couldn't really hold it.

It is a largely ungovernable tract.

That said, we need to leave on our own terms. Letting the Islamic State or the Taliban take over only guarantees we will have to come back when they attack us.

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The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - But a Rich Old Dame

Timothy Birdnow

Awsome! Good for Trump!

Trump Signs Executive Order to Support Moon Mining, Tap Asteroid Resources

You know, the Chinese and Russians are both very serious about colonizing and exploiting Lunar resources. We need to be in the game. There are vast resources on the Moon and in the solar system. And we need people living there. Mankind will wither if we are stuck in a settled, civilized, controlled world. People need challenges, need frontiers. And if the worst should happen we need an ark of sorts. I'm very happy to see this.

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Hypocritical Celebrities Ignore Biden's Sexual Harassment

Timothy Birdnow

Celebrities change their stripes on sexual abuse now that Joe Biden is their guy.

From Fox:

NewsBustersfound 95 of the country's high-profile entertainers showed a drastic change in the way they treated Kavanaugh versus the way they treated Biden, the Democrats' presumptive presidential nominee.

Names included in NewsBusters' report included Lady Gaga,Ellen DeGeneresand severalHollywood actresses associated withthe Time's Up organization such as Jessica Chastain, Brie Larson, Natalie Portmanand Julianne Moore, noting how none of them "have offered a word of support" to Reade.

[...]

Despite major backlash on social media, including from her former "Charmed" co-star Rose McGowan, Milano penned an op-ed trying to explain why she was still supportingBiden, describing herself as "living in the gray as a woman" and noting nuances in her shifted position.

[...]

NewsBusters pointed out tweets made by Bette Midler and Debra Messing, who were outspoken supporters ofKavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford but have since given the cold shoulder to Biden's former Senate staffer.

The study took aim at late-night comedians including Jimmy Kimmel, who has yet to address Reade's claims about Biden but joked that in exchange for Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court, "we get to cut that pesky pe---of his off in front of everyone."

#meetoowas always a political tool. There was never any intention of cleaning up sexual abuse. Rather, it was aimed at destroying Republicans, particularly Trump. The feminists had to keep quiet while the Clintons were running amok. Once Hillary lost they were free to reassert themselves. But it was never about protecting women.

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Kamala Harris Racism and COVID

Timothy Birdnow

Kamala Harris wants race to be the determining factor in who gets pandemic resources.

From the Breitbart article:

Harris said, "The disparities that have long existed based on race are now highlighted so of the things I’m calling for around this pandemic is that we make decisions about where the resources should go based on that issue.”

Race taints everything these days. I just had a knock down with a woman I knew from childhood who eventually said ONLY black lives matter! How do you argue with that? And how do you have a country where people feel that way?

It's astonishing how so many in the black community dismiss their own racism as justifiable but insist on holding their brothers and sisters to strict account.

The article, based on an interview with Samantha Bee, concludes:


That is the Eric Holder charge.

Actually it IS correct, but not for the reason she thinks; it's because the black community doesn't want to have an honest debate on this. They want to hector the white community and have white people bow down to them. And white people are terrified of angering the black community.

This argument I recently had was a case in point. I enraged my friend and her friends by saying Communists have killed more people than the Ku Klux Klan around the world. That factually correct statement got me shouted down, with people saying the Klan was far worse. I said the Klan was indeed terrible and that African Americans may PERCEIVE it as worse but in terms of raw numbers they didn't hold a candle to the Communists. You would think I had advocated lynching.

How do you have a frank and honest conversation about race when you cannot even call out Communists? She said she didn't care about Communists, didn't see them as a threat. I mentioned a boy we went to school with who fled South Vietnam when Saigon fell and had to drink his own urine on a rickety raft in the South China Sea. She simply dismissed that.

This while she and her friends had never once been affected by the Klan, and probably didn't know anyone with direct experience with the Klan. Klan membership has fallen to ridiculously low levels, and rightly so. As I said, the end of that breed will be a day to celebrate.

But she couldn't see the irony of supporting the Democrats who were the fathers of that evil institution. She would only excuse the Democrats with this notion of the "southern strategy" suddenly converting lifelong Democrats to Republicans. It's not true; local elections continued to go for Democrats long after Reagan. Reagan won because of demographic shifts in southern states. A lot of companies moved south because of better taxes and the people who came were businessmen, and they voted Republican. But in the local precincts, in the good old boy towns, they continued to vote for the Democrats and support their local racists.

But so many in the black community simply refuse to listen to that. It's an article of faith, not of reason.

And Kamala Harris just put her finger on exactly why we don't have a conversation about race in this country; nobody wants it. The black community certainly does not.

They would have to admit things they don't want to admit. Like the Democrats have never been their friends. Or that the white community has grievances themselves.

Grievance is the cornerstone of modern black identity. The essence of "blackness" is having been persecuted. It's why there are so many fact hate crimes these days; the persecution has dropped off as black Americans take their place in society. That is not acceptable to some, who try to keep the legacy alive. They remember the heroes of the Civil Rights era and pine for the days of great and noble deeds. So some try to create a false atmosphere of oppression. They talk about microagressions, about fake attacks, about "hunting black people". They have to keep those grievances alive or black culture will die, they fear.

It's not uncommon; we saw that with the gay community after they won the gay marriage issue. They jumped right on board with transgenderism because they didn't want the struggle to end. It was a part of who they thought they were.

And grievance is the cornerstone of all modern Progressive thought. If you aren't aggrieved you aren't anyone in modern thinking. You might as well be a white male.

Until this changes America will be divided and at each-other's throats. I made that point and was reviled for it. (I said the Klan lived rent free in their heads - that didn't sit well at ALL!)

We have to forgive each-other to heal. There are too many people in America these days who not only do not want to forgive but who want to further the bloodshed. In the end, as Benjamin Franklyn said, we must hang together or we will all hang seperately.

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