Tuesday, July 28, 2020

It's Silly Season Folks!



Long time reader, part time blogger Tuna here.  Yes, it’s been a couple months or more.  My creative juices have been suppressed by my schedule and an overall desire to just hunker down and try to tune out all that’s happening in the country.  I couldn’t really ignore it, but I did choose to not angrily write about it here.

The Silly Season.  I first heard that term when I was more closely following NASCAR, which has its own definition, but the true meaning from Webster’s tome is:  


For the purposes of NASCAR it has to do with its lack of an off-season.  Unlike other sports that have a long period between seasons, and have deadlines for free agency and trades, the NASCAR “silly season” is a 365-day-a-year cycle where team owners can and do hire or let go drivers at any time.  An additional aspect is the team sponsors often weighing influence – including extra cash – to get the driver they want.

Let me sum up-  the media focusing on illogical activity and cash influencing what happens.  Hmm, is that happening here in the good ole US of A?

I think both those definitions have merit for why I’m calling this particular time in our history the silly season.  First off, we have COVID-19.  I don’t know if the Spanish Flu or Polio grabbed a hold of the world's psyche like this particular coronavirus, but it has definitely grabbed us...by the balls.  The world was shut down for a few weeks, until we learned that 14 Days to Defeat the Virus was nothing more than a well-intentioned slogan.  Then everything was cancelled- from graduations to weddings, surgeries to funerals.  The infection rates continued to climb, as did the rhetoric and criticism of the federal response.  We had a ban on travel from China, which was immediately branded as racist.  And now the same detractors are complaining that we didn’t have a complete travel ban like New Zealand, which has eradicated the virus.  That’s all well and good, but the Kiwis live on an island, have a population barely more than San Diego County, and paid their residents 80% of their salary to stay at home.  We just don’t have the social safety net that NZ and European countries have.

Germany has done pretty well with their numbers too, which why I’ve read that our response pales in comparison to the Teutons. 

Germany has confirmed more than 200,000 cases of Covid-19 and more than 9,000 deaths in a population of more than 83 million. Germany’s mortality rate per 100,000 is among the lowest in Europe. By way of comparison, the U.S., with about four times the population, has had more than 3.8 million cases and 140,000 deaths.      Source
The article where that quote came from is supposedly praising them for acting on the strong leadership exhibited by Angela Merkel, but how we acted at the beginning of this is not much different.  While there are some differences in our responses, some of the positive aspects were done here as well- lock-downs, ramping up additional medical support (beds, MASH-like hospitals, respirators, ventilators, supply chains), listening to expert medical advice (Fauci is mentioned in the article in comparison), use of homemade masks, access to tele-medicine, etc.  We shared negative aspects as well including an N95 mask shortage.  However, they have a far more generous benefit plan for employees who received a larger portion of their salary than our unemployment benefits provide.  They also have a healthier population, had a better ramp up of testing, and a more accepting attitude towards being tracked and told what to do.  I think they also benefit from not having a media that is as vitriolic towards their Prez as we have.  He and the CDC are putting out the same info that the Germans are, but I think they just don't hate the messenger like some Americans do.


While their numbers are to be envied, I still don't know what to believe as far as the numbers go since we are financially incentivizing the diagnosis, and health agencies have admitted to BS COVID-related deaths.  I've also read reports of positive results for people who were never even tested.  My wife was sick early on in this pandemic and through tele-medicine was diagnosed as COVID-presumptive.  The doc wouldn’t order the test until her symptoms became worse or more persistent, which they didn’t, but with that supposed diagnosis, I couldn’t go into the office.  So I took her up to the Naval Hospital for a test, which came back negative.  And the fact that neither me or my daughter got sick led me to believe the Navy’s test was correct.  Her doc quickly ruled that as a false negative.  I only found out later that her office was reimbursed by Tricare at more than twice the rate of a normal illness.  Same thing for all these city and county health departments who are claiming a car accident victim, who happens to have been tested post-mortem for COVID, as a COVID-related death.  Follow the money.  It's skewing the numbers.
 

What else is silly about all this?  The news loves to talk endlessly about COVID of course, which is understandable, at least to some extent.  Every news broadcast opens with the current statistics, mainly only the new infections.  Deaths are mentioned, but briefly.  Total people recovered?  Not that I’ve seen.  These stories don’t mention though that asymptomatic are very unlikely to spread the virus; That the young, who are the majority of the newly infected, have a better chance of being struck by lightning or being hit by a car than to die from COVID;  That the overall mortality rate is very low and deaths aren’t climbing in comparison.  The news also had a grand time of pointing out the spiking numbers in the early open (and red) states of Florida, Texas, and Arizona, supposedly tying their rates to their GOP governors and blaming the supposed cuing from Trump.  They completely ignored blue states of NY, NJ, and California who had rates far higher than those others, and whose governors don’t give a damn what Trump says.  The media is fueling our fears.
Finally, it’s election season, and anything goes, as long as it will hurt the opposition.  Journalism used to be referred to as the Fourth Estate, due to its independence from the influence of politics, business, and any other special interest.  Now, that independence has been completely abandoned so any COVID story that can be skewed to make Trump look bad flies freely, with no attempt to cover any other side.  Wouldn't it be nice to see some investigative stories about ANTIFA, their organization, their funding, etc?  How about interviews with police departments or small businesses that are affected by the rioting?  How about asking the BLM organizers if they support the violence, the damage to private businesses, and the looting?  A tally of damages to these cities would be informative.  With regards to COVID, they should compare on the number of heart attack, domestic violence, and suicide victims before the shutdown, and now. 

Before all this started we had a booming economy with the lowest unemployment rate in history for every minority.  The Blexit movement was slowly gaining steam as some in the Black community were waking up to the fact that 30 years of democratic rule had done nothing to improve their schools, their job prospects, their poverty rate, or the black on black crime rate.  Then a career criminal was killed by a white cop in Minneapolis which was just enough to re-stoke the fires of anger and hatred, fanned by the financially backed ANTIFA thugs, and fueled by BLM.  BLM donations go right to the DNC to keep putting liberal politicians in office, the same ones who have done nothing for those Black Lives for decades other than talk a good game and reaffirm their status as a supposed subjugated race.  The Democratic party was on the verge of losing the black vote due to the economy and the truth, but both those were suppressed by COVID and violent protests.  The absolute silence from the left on the violence is possibly going to backfire on them though.  Liberal is one thing, left is another, but the DNC is now a party of lawless communism due to the Defund movement and demands for free everything and every other issue* that ignores the constitution, fairness, and personal responsibility.  Those don’t play well in fly-over country for sure, but not in a lot of the rest of the country as well. 



So we have the perfect storm of COVID and racial tension being politicized, monetized, and sensationalized.  The upcoming election, which is essentially only three months away, puts us squarely in silly season.  I have a prediction on the election, but with google data manipulation (video above) and “Dead Man Walking Voting” I’m not so confident.  If Trump does defeat Biden, I’m sure the silliness will continue as the left will just make up something else to remove him from office.  If somehow the election goes the other way, at least COVID will magically disappear!

*No bail, free college, slavery reparations, disruption of the nuclear family structure, divestment in jails and laws that imprison black criminals, collective ownership of the economy

20 comments:

  1. Interesting take on the situation. My two cents? I thought anyone whose parents were involved in WW2, would be anfa? But my bad. I thought land of the free, would mean, we don't look down, on someone, but give them a hand up. Equality means we help those who are unable to help themselves. Why must we let our freedoms be eroded, and we are not free unless all are free of oppression. I must be taking after my parent, Irish, polish, Ukrainian and American. Stay safe. Wear the mask around others, to keep them safe.

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    1. I agree, oppression isn't freedom. I'm not saying there's no racism, but the "white cops killing unarmed blacks" narrative isn't statistically significant. It's 9. Nine unarmed blacks killed by white cops last year. That's it. Should a black person be pulled over for nothing? Absolutely not, but that racist stop does't have to escalate into anything. I was always taught to be respectful to cops and my elders. I don't know how to stop the fatherless black rate which is probably the biggest factor in the poverty and crime rates within the black community. Prayer, Jesus, and self discipline would be a start.

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  2. This entire thing is part of the continuing effort by left wing elements in this country to discredit the results of the 2016 elections. There are elements in the Federal government who are guilty of sedition in their attempts to overthrow the duly elected government of the United States. The left is promising more of the same provided they don't get their way in this election. Joe Biden is a pathetic tool of powerful and wealthy forces whose sole wish is to turn this country into what they figure will be a socialist paradise. Which doesn't exist anywhere. Socialism works until you run out of other peoples' money. What we are seeing in the cities controlled by the left is what socialism really looks like. It doesn't work, it never has worked. This virus thingee, I wish the powers that be would stop lying to us and/or hiding/obfuscating the data. In the state of Rhode Island we are told how many cases there are per county, but not how many deaths per county. They say it's a "privacy issue." Nope, it's something else.

    We may be in for a long, hard time unless this situation is brought under control, and soon.

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    1. Definitely. Never let a crisis go to waste. Remember that mantra? I don't know if the left created this crisis, but they are perpetuating it.

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    2. Never let a crisis go to waste even if we have to manufacture it.....motto of the progs/socialists/Commies. Good post Tuna.

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  3. Hey Tuna;

    The media is succeeding in scaring people and scared people do stupid things, that is the problem. On top you have agitators fueling hate and discontent on the fires stoking up rage against "the other guy" and us regular people are wondering "what the hell is going on because we are seeing all our institutions under attack and we are getting pissed whereas the leftist see violence as a knob to turn up or down as needed to push for desired result, we on the right side of the spectrum see it as a switch and if this continues, we will flip the switch and it will not be pretty. Personally I want it to settle down, but the idgits won't back down and they will force the issue until the regular Americans get involved.

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    1. Those riots and military-like takedowns used to be reserved for 3rd World dictatorships, but due to ANTIFA, Soros, and the violent left, we're seeing it here. They know it won't help the cause, but they don't care. They just want to watch the world burn.

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  4. Do black minority people that fit an age profile get pulled over or stopped for questioning at a far higher percentage than anyone else, especially whites?

    Yes. Yes they do. For one simple reason. Black Males (and now Females) between the ages of 14 (it's gone down from 16) to 32 years old commit 50% of the crime in America. And 85% of the violent crime. And most of the assaults on law enforcement.

    So... What do people want cops to do? Play Kabuki Theater like TSA where the TSA's one mission is to ensure terrorists not blow up or hijack another plane, yet they are not allowed to profile for the most likely candidates, in fact, they aren't allowed to handle a certain group of people who belong to a certain religion even though the males (and now females) of that religion (especially those who don't smell Euro-level of cleanliness and who are... 15 - 32 years of age) because of profiling or some other bullscat reason, instead the TSA is busy frisking little girls, grannies, old military men and conservative Jews (beause Hasidic airline terrorism is a thing or something...) while young men (and now women) of obvious middle east origin and of a certain religion and of a certain sect of a religion waltz through the screenings with no problem.

    Yeah.

    Hey, novel idea. Want cops to stop stopping black people? How about black people, especially black males (and now females) between the ages of 14 and 32. Stop riding while smoking ganja. Stop driving with an open container. Stop driving while transporting illegal drugs and illegal guns. Stop doing or selling illegal drugs or guns. Stop the robbing. Stop the raping (of white women because of hatred of whites though it's not a hate crime to rape a white because why?) Stop the assaults and murders of whiteys because of non-hate crime hatred of a skin color. Stop the assaults and murders over shoes and drugs and guns and other stupid reasons of other blacks (usually male, but now females too, between the ages of 14 and 32.) Quit killing one's own people for the sin of wanting to learn so they can escape being killed because they're male (and now female) between the ages of 14 and 32.

    Seriously. Ifn Black Lives really Mattered, the first thing Black Lives Mattered would be to line up every black male (and now female) between the ages of 14 and 32 and slap them silly until they (the b/m and now b/f between 14-32 yoa) decided to get off the drugs, go to school or trade school or the military or the foreign legion or something and break the endless cycle of violence against other blacks and whites.

    Just watch a season or so of "The First 48" or the now cancelled and probably lost forever of "Live PD" and you'll see the same thing over and over and over and over again.

    Black on black violence. And mostly the occasional white person who gets whacked or attacked (other than domestic violence, which is a problem but not as bad of a problem amongst whites as it is amongst blacks) is a white female who is whacked or attacked by a black. No, I am not being racist. I am being truthful. 18.5 years working for a PD and you get whacked or attacked if you are doing something illegal and usually it involves blacks as the attackers. Normal ordinary Fred and Ethel do not get whacked or attacked if they are doing normal ordinary things in a normal and ordinary place, normally (some deviation occurs, which flogs the media to a frenzy, because MURDER and MAYHEM in normal and ordinary wherever is so statistically deviant that it stands out and makes good media frenzy. Try reporting on the 30 shootings a day in Chicago amongst a certain minority population and see how much media frenzy you can generate. Yawn. It's just another day in Chicago...

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    1. Your point about the TSA is valid. Years ago, (2008 or so?) I had to attend a class at the DHS National Training Facility which is located inside of an undisclosed location somewhere on the border between Maryland and Pennsylvania. The course is inside of a secure facility. When you checked in, you were given an ID card from DHS that you had to wear in a visible location at all times while at the facility.

      When I went to ply home at the conclusion of the class, I flew out of BWI. When I went to go through the TSA checkpoint, I was randomly selected for additional screening. Keep in mind that I was wearing a photo ID card that read "Department of Homeland Security" around my neck on a lanyard that had DHS and the DHS logo embroidered into it. Right after I was pulled out of line, three people in full Arab garb, complete with Pizza Hut tablecloth hats, went through the checkpoint.

      I pointed this out to the TSA agent as they were checking my shoes for explosive residue, and he said, "Well, the terrorists know that, so to avoid giving them a pattern to follow when avoiding suspicion, we make sure selection is random." I replied that they didn't need to change their behavior or appearance if TSA was going to insist on not searching people who were obvious Arabs. He then told me not to be a racist.

      Useless.

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    2. It's scary what TSA doesn't actually do. And even scarier what they do do. If people paid attention, there would be heads on pikes...

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  5. And, let's see. George Floyd. Committed a felony passing funny money, was carrying a handful of drugs (which was a felony.) Swallowed the drugs to destroy the evidence (which was a felony.) Resisted the cops when they were going to handcuff him (either, depending on the level of resistance, a misdemeanor or a felony. Subtle clue, calling in two more cops? FELONY.) So... right away, let's see.... Convicted multiple violent felon on probation is caught committing 4 felonies right off the bat.

    And then, the drugs he swallowed to destroy, and the drugs in his system (hey, another Felony,) being Fentanyl (in a lethal dosage,) methamphetamine (in an almost lethal dosage,) Cannabis and alcohol, interact with a diseased heart (from drug use) and he has a DRT heart moment right there while standing up.

    Yet it's the cop leaning on him to stop him resisting who's at fault?

    Cluebus. My dad had a DRT heart moment. Sat up in bed. Called my mom's name. Stood up. Walked out of the room. Collapsed. Pronounced dead. Autopsy showed he 'died' when he sat up, just his body and mind kept going after his heart basically exploded.

    No chance for either Gorgeous George or my dad, if they were in the best cardiac unit with the best surgeons standing by, to survive. D. R. T. Do not pass Pearly Gates. Do not collect a new heart or a heart catheterization or shunt or any other thingamabob like a pace maker or built in defibrilator. They are walking dead.

    Want George to be alive? Go back in time and get him off the drugs before they damaged the heart. And then make sure he ate right and lived right and then one day when he's 63 or so he'll sit up, call his partner's name and DRT.

    So sick of the canonization of Floyd. Or that jerk in Atlanta. Scumbags committing scumbaggy things and die. Good riddance to bad trash.

    SICK OF IT. Pick better causes. Pick better martyrs (they do exist, really.) And for Pete's SAKE, Clean up your own darned back yard before storming mine!

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    1. Beans, I appreciate that perspective. We're all afraid of getting doxed, cancelled, or otherwise attacked for not toning down our actual thoughts regarding the causative factors behind the current issues. Now the cops are being left without tasers, mace, tear gas, etc. to stop criminal behavior so the only thing they have left is lethal force.

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    2. There really should be no rioting, protesting or claims of righteous shootings before 48 hours. Seriously, the truth comes out, one way or another, within 36-48 hours, after autopsies, body cams, cell-phone videos all get analyzed and the truth comes out.

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  6. As to the Covidiocracy, the CDC, NIH, DR. Fauci et al are complicit in the politicizing of a somewhat potentially dangerous flu-bug in order to trash and thrash a sitting president.

    Prove me wrong.

    Seriously. If you don't believe this, all this Doom Porn and such, wasn't aimed at Trump, then why did the Donks and the politico-medical world not notice the Covidiocracy until after Impeachment failed and went down like Yamamoto's plane? Even though President Trump started taking measures before the impeachment trial, way before.

    Tired of this. All of it. Dem mayors and governors are the cause of most of the Covidiocratic deaths, to the point of murder. Deaths in Florida? Most of them in Dem-controlled Miami-Dade-Broward amongst Dem people from Dem strongholds up north killed by Dem mayors and county commissioners just like up north in New York (city and state.) Rest of Florida? Deaths are statistically insignificant.

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    1. Pretty much the same hear in Texas, Beans. Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin numerically drive up the death count, but they have more people. However, per capita, where the rates should be similar, the final four are still leading the pack. And yes all are run by the party whose symbol is the Jackass!

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    2. Yup. Take Alachua County and Gainesville, Please! We had Covidiocracy hit us early and hard because of Chicom family members bugging out to stay with their Chicom students attending the University of F(Beijing) in Gainesville, after many Chicom students went home and came back for the Thanksgiving break and Winter (formerly Christmas) break. Seriously, 5-6 people jammed in a 1 rented bedroom of a 4 bedroom apartment with shared living spaces (something that is big here, you rent your room and get no choice as to the other three room renters. Brilliant, absolutely Brilliant idea...)

      But... do we have the deaths we should associate with said Chicoms full of the Wuhan Whoohooos? Nope. Because, at first sign of non-symptomatic flu, they all went to the doctors and urgent care centers and got basic treatment and were told to go home and hide and be safe and don't darken the doors of medical institutions unless one was coughing up a lung or something serious.

      So... Deaths statistically insignificant. In Gainesville, with a HUGE Chicom Student population. With a huge nursing home population. With a huge homeless population. And a huge government-sponsored poor people population. And with Donks in charge everywhere. But nobody was ordered to go infect said at-risk groups like in New York (city and state) or in the Miami-Dade-Broward area that is ruled by... New York democrats.

      So... Our governor, who is hands-down the best governor since "JEB!" (who was a good governor, did no harm, screamed for fed help when big storms approached, you know, good governor stuff) and is actually probably one of the best governors in the US of A at this time, has basically told the M-D-B area to suck it and that they've skewed Florida's averages bigly, so clean up your (M-D-B) own darned mess.

      Even Rat-World and Whorlando (for the slobbering way they pander to King Rat) who should have been stacking bodies like an ebola morgue in Africa, haven't seen the percentages of deaths vs active cases that NY, NJ, MI, PA, MN,... have seen.

      Nor the bedroom/retirement communities that also include in the purchase price a nice room in an end-care facility (like The Villages and other places) where you would expect croaking to occur - because old people yada yada - haven't seen statistically higher deaths per active cases, keeping pretty much in line with the more rural and more populous counties and cities, except for Miami-Dade-Broward (keeps coming back to them, doesn't it? Super-Donk enclaves only reach high numbers of shuffling-off-the-mortal-coil patients when actual sick active Covid cases are shoved into nursing homes.

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  7. As we used to say, "Stronger letter to follow."

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    1. I'm not sure that's possible D4. I think Tuna put a hundred rounds right through the bulls eye.

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    2. Oh, trust me. Stronger letter could follow. But then this wouldn't be the Chant, but some other blog, due to the stronger letter following.

      Tuna did an excellent job of staying within the parameters while using said parameters to smash everything like Gallagher's Sledge-o-Matic.

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    3. Yeah Beans, I was trying to be factual with a touch of sarcasm and even-keeled ranting. I said enough and got a nosebleed because my soapbox was so high, so no letter to follow. At least not soon. Thanks Juvat, I've been practicing.

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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