Where is the common sense?

Here are five facts:

1.) the overwhelming majority of people do not have any significant risk of dying from COVID-19;

2.) we have a clearly defined population at risk who can be protected with targeted measures: older people and others with underlying conditions;

3.) protecting older, at-risk people eliminates hospital overcrowding;

4.) vital population immunity is prevented by total isolation policies, prolonging the problem; and,

5.) people are dying because other medical care is not getting done due to hypothetical projections.

Complete contact tracing? Why? What good will it do at this stage? From the looks of it contact tracing is commonsensically helpful to prevent a pandemic in its early stage — but we already know many of our population are infected and according to epidemiologist Dr. John Wong we’ve been actually infected since January (ie., the first wave was January, the second wave is now or already happened last April; “Epidemiologist warns of ‘3^rd wave’ of infections,” PDI, May 7).

Complete mass testing? Why? At this stage of the pandemic, what for? If somebody is asymptomatic or having very mild symptoms, as 80-90% of infected likely are, then what’s the point? You can’t isolate everyone or put them in the hospital. So why not focus testing for clinical/diagnostic purposes on those exhibiting severe symptoms? But if Stanford and other studies shows that only around less than 0.01% — 1.7% of those infected need hospitalization and the infection fatality rate (IFR) is between .1-.2% (a University of Washington study declared an IFR of 1.3% but admits their calculation excluded asymptomatic patients) then why lock down everyone, including reasonably healthy people, when the hospital system can focus their attention on the elderly or those with chronic illnesses. . .

https://www.bworldonline.com/thoughts-in-a-triple-lockdown/?

Thousands will die from this pandemic lockdown

"Almost 40% of households earning less than $40,000 per year have someone who lost their job in recent months, according to the Federal Reserve. The Disaster Distress Helpline, a federal crisis hotline, received almost 900% more phone calls in March compared to a year ago. A recent JAMA Psychiatry analysis warned that stay-at-home orders and rising unemployment are a “perfect storm” for higher suicide rates. A California health organization recently estimated that up to 75,000 Americans could die from “despair” as a result of the pandemic, unemployment, and government restrictions."

But Democrats call small business owners "greedy" for not wanting their lives destroyed. https://www.aier.org/article/will-the-political-class-be-held-liable-for-what-theyve-done/?

Is this the future for workers?

“Yesterday I got my oil changed at the dealer. Here is how my car was returned to me. Plus, they brought out a huge spray gun and disinfected the car before and after changing the oil.

When I checked out with the service guy (whom I have come to know fairly well), I did as I always do: I tested him by making breezy comments about the madness of the disinfectant and the plastic coverings in my car. Well, I unraveled a guy who really needed to vent.

He said he had come to hate his job. He told me the wait for service is long because they limit the number of technicians that can be in the shop at one time. Customers can't get timely service; everyone is on a short fuse; and he gets screamed at all day long by customers, in addition to having to deal with cameras set up around the shop making sure the employees are following "strict Covid guidelines." He told me that his temperature is taken several times per day. He said he's exhausted, over-stressed, and miserable. He is typically an upbeat and really great guy.

He showed me one (of many) emails from an irate customer who left the shop after his service and wrote a crazed, angry email to management complaining about someone moving his car without a mask, people touching the outside of his car, etc. He said they get these complaints all day long *in addition* to being berated by every fear-mongered nitwit who walks in the door. In his face I saw a depressed guy, with a wife and small children, who said he is ready to give up.

Now the thing is I’ve had _many_ of these conversations with folks, including my chiropractor and veterinarian. This is only the beginning of life under the boot of a totalitarian-authoritarian-surveillance state. There is much worse to come if the masses keep believing their masters. – KDC”

From Facebook; anonymous

Draft deferments, Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Bill Clinton

Draft deferments were probably not fair, but they were legal and very, very common, especially during the Vietnam when my husband was draft age. The government believed it had a stake in education, marriage and fatherhood. My husband had at least 3 student deferments, then 1 for being a father, and then later, married men were deferred by JFK, so he had that, too. And of course, the biggest deferments were age and sex. Both of my grandfathers, one was 27 and the other 45,  had to sign up for the draft for WWI—the government was getting desperate.  Even in WWI there was talk of drafting women, but it never happened. Haters are gonna hate. Standards for Democrats are always different. Always.

From a friend of mine on Facebook:

“Before the virus, I wrote an article that went viral about the truth behind Donald Trump's draft deferments. To sum it up, Trump went to the draft board on two different occasions and took the physical. On three of the draft notices he met the criteria for receiving a student deferment. He was in college and there was no need to draft students because the war in Vietnam was not WWII.

So, the second time he took the physical he received a 4F status. It does not say why on the card, it just says that he is disqualified. Nowhere does it say "bone spurs" and where that information came from was when a reporter asked Trump why did he get disqualified for service, and he said that he didn't know, he thought it was bone spurs.

Now, for those who hate everything about Trump without any real reason, they will call Trump a "draft dodger", which is kind of like charging someone you invited into your house, and fed them dinner, with breaking and entering. Trump didn't "dodge" something that he showed up and took the physical.

The other thing is that the Trump haters like to say that Trump was an athletic guy, and a star athlete, and so he faked bone spurs. However, Trump was totally devoted to his studies. He did not go to parties; he did not drink alcohol and he didn’t even go to the football games.

But that does not stop the Democrats and the left from calling him "Captain Bone spurs" and calling him a draft dodger every chance they get.

OK, but what about Biden?

Biden went through college at the same time, and he also did not go to Vietnam. So, why have there been no comments on Biden’s draft deferments? Trump received four draft deferments. Three were for being in college and the fourth one was for not meeting the physical standards to be in the US military. So basically, Trump was like 75% of the male population then, and 75% of the entire population now.

Bill Clinton is one that actually dodged the draft by going to England during the war, but no one ever mentions him, since he cannot run for president anymore.

So, what about Biden?

Biden had five draft deferments. One more than Trump. Four of the five were for him being in college, but the last one gave Biden a 1Y classification, which means he was not physically fit to be in the military. This would be changed to 4F when the draft rules were changed in 1971. So, he was exactly like Donald Trump.

Now Trump thinks his physical ailment was bone spurs. But what about Biden?

Biden’s physical ailment was for asthma.

Now, Trump did not do any sports or anything physical. Who knows, it may have been due to bone spurs, but Biden excelled at sports. While in High School Biden played on the football team. During the summer he worked as a lifeguard, where he told the story of how he faced down a knife wielding gang member by the name of Corn Pop, by wrapping a chain around his arm. Biden later lied about playing for the University of Delaware football team, but he was trying to show how physically fit and tough he was when he bragged about these things.

Biden never mentions asthma in his book “Promises to Keep”, and continues to regale about how tough he was and how physically fit the young Joe Biden was. So, if that is true, then why did he fail a draft physical?

Senator Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat who also served in Iraq, has called Donald Trump a coward and said his deferment was for the “yellow streak down his back”. Has Senator Duckworth ever said anything at all about Joe Biden, or his draft deferments?

Mayor Pete Buttigieg told ABC’s “This Week” that ““You have somebody who thinks it’s all right to have somebody go in his place into a deadly war and is willing to pretend to be disabled to do it. That is an assault on the honor of this country.” So, does presidential wannabe Buttigieg consider Biden’s deferments an “assault on the honor of this country?”

No, just like the Democrats keeping totally silent about Joe Biden’s sexual assault accusations, while they went out of their way to scream about the really flimsy allegations of Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh, I figure no Democrat will make any comments about Joe Biden’s record.

Oh, and for all of those on Facebook who constantly use the term “Draft Dodger in Chief” or call Trump “Captain Bone spurs”, ask them if they are now going to call Biden “Captain Asthma” and consider him a draft dodger.”

Physicians speak out

A physician speaks out about quarantining the healthy. The destruction of the first amendment freedoms while keeping marijuana shops and abortion clinics open. Liquor stores are essential but your business isn't? Dr. Jeff Barke of California:

https://heavy.com/news/2020/05/dr-jeff-barke-video/?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmU6YYGfyUk What is happening to doctors. Learn what's going on. Dr. Yvette Lozano of Texas.

A Democrat’s definition of “greed,” is a female owned business that has brought joy to northern Illinois

The other day I told you about Beth George who has had a small resort within the White Pines State park in northern Illinois for 30 years. She was going bankrupt because of her Governor's orders. https://www.illinoispolicy.org/story/beth-george-white-pines-resort/ Apparently her going out of business sale was interrupted by the park police so she couldn't even return the down payments of the brides who had planned to use her venue!

But the most ridiculous thing is today I received an e-mail from a Democrat who commented on her "greed" for having a restaurant, gift shop, cabins, theater and wedding venue. SMH. Only a Democrat could call the joy and pleasure people have received from her small seasonal business and the payroll for her 45 employees, GREED.

The great divide

Why is the divide over opening or not opening falling along party lines, conservative vs. liberal, red state vs. blue?

First of all, it's Trump. Whatever he advises, the left and the Trump haters will fight. They oppose anything that looks like recovery because he will look good.

It's also class. Many more white color and government workers have kept their jobs but they really don't employ people. The risk takers and entrepreneurs tend to be Republicans--they actually employ people and are small businessmen. They are the ones who have borrowed from their parents or taken a 2nd mortgage to start up a business. Also farmers and blue/pink color workers are more suspicious of government control of their lives and livelihood.

Third. The news is out how the Obama administration tried to undermine/destroy the incoming Trump administration. That's political terrorism and the best way to keep that mum is to keep the focus on something else. Pump up the fear.

Fourth. Academics, upper management and entertainers do not mind waiting it out--they have resources, they know how to get around the rules, they've got treadmills in their remodeled basement and can sneak that Hispanic housekeeper and Asian immigrant hair stylist in the back door (because they certainly don't live in their neighborhood). They just love those TV commercials with the cute kids putting puzzles together with dad in his jammies with sappy music and ridiculous slogans--they may even own the marketing company being paid to make them!

Fifth. Not all Republicans are pro-life, but they haven't carved the initials of death into their political platform for 3 decades, for several generations of voters. In short, their moral compass is different. They are happier, more positive, more likely to be people who live their faith, more likely to be married and have families, and respect life at all ages including the unborn and the very elderly. They know without reading an academic paper or the Wall Street Journal that the longer the economy is closed the more people will die of a multitude of problems than Covid19 would ever touch.

A good word for today

1 Peter 5:6-11 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

A little pill is more important than the worst scandal in our history

Leftist/progressive/ Democrat reporters are more concerned that our President is taking a safe, FDA approved medication for Covid19 than they are that our last president was head of a coup to bring down our current president. The Clinton campaign paid for a fictional report that was used to spy on her political opponent, Donald J. Trump and his campaign. Perhaps hundreds of Obama officials were involved and they worked hand in hand with the media and launched an investigation that named Trump and his security advisor Michael Flynn as targets in an attempt to block disclosure of the investigation from the elected President. The impeachment failed and the Department of Justice is now looking at indictments against those deep state operatives in the failed coup attempt.

And now to divert your attention, you'll see House Democrats launch another investigation into how he handled a "novel" SARS epidemic, because their other coup attempt didn't work.

The equal opportunity crook

I can see why white liberals have become so defensive.

1) Their president who was supposed to absolve them and the country of all past sins of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination and bloated ineffective social programs designed and run by their own party failed. He set out to make race relations worse, didn't improve conditions for minorities except in politics--becoming his own Tammany Hall for blacks, didn’t end the war he had opposed, and he dealt a death blow to a health system already struggling, creating massive mergers wiping out small practitioners.

2) An outsider of both parties was able to bring in a brief golden age of freedom and opportunity for those shut out for decades--a man so crude and buffoon-like he actually conducted business on social media and fired people he had appointed. A man who could stare down the Europeans and Asians and demand respect from their frat club United Nations and European Union.

And now the final blow.

3) The man who made white liberals swoon with suave good looks, stellar "character" and fluid speeches has been found to be a crook of the magnitude we've never seen before in our history.

He’ll be called stupid either way

The Fox News panel tonight seemed puzzled that President Trump would bring up that he's been taking Hydroxychloroquine, Z-pack and Zinc for a week or so, but not mention the progress in a vaccine that sounds promising. It just upsets people. After all this time, they don't know he baits the reporters to get more publicity? Besides, they've already called him stupid and naïve about getting a vaccine quickly so why not use the other story that they disbelieve and call stupid. It really makes no difference.

It’s being tested on health care workers as a preventive method. It’s not a cure.  If it doesn’t work, it’s no different than the bazillion vitamin supplements that have never been tested—at least this one has been on the market for 70 years.

Graduation Day

The Crew Cuts were a Canadian boys group popular when I was a teen.  Today I was trying to get the cd player in my clock radio to work, and pulled their disc from a Lakeside appearance a few years back. It worked after some button experimenting. Graduation Day wasn't their hit (it was Four Freshmen), but it came on. It was a 50s do-wap collection. Made me sort of sad for all the graduates who didn't get their big day.

With Mom in the dining room at 4 S. Hannah.  She was 45 and I was 17.

Dr. John Ioannidis

https://youtu.be/T-saAuXaPok

Many more have been infected by the virus than originally thought which actually lowers drastically the death rate figures. We have data now (April 30) that shows we need rational steps, not panic. The frail and elderly still need to be careful--but that was always the case with flu and pneumonia. Suicides go up with unemployment; so does domestic violence. Heart attacks and other health problems have increased There are tradeoffs for the drastic measures we have taken.

It makes you wonder what is motivating the governors of Illinois, Michigan and California and a few others. Politics? Money? Power?

From the beginning, Dr. Ioannidis has been urging caution, saying we don’t have enough data on this virus.  Now there is much more, and still the governors are making bad decisions.  Now, it is no longer ignorance but something more serious.

Not 1984, but 2020

“To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again: and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself -- that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word 'doublethink' involved the use of doublethink.”

― George Orwell, 1984

The Flynn unmasking

The names of private U.S. citizens caught on tape by U.S. intelligence are supposed to be “masked” so their privacy is protected. So why did 39 Obama officials ask for Flynn's unmasking? Some of the unmasking requests began BEFORE the conversation with the Russian ambassador. What did he know about Obama that had to be stopped cold? Flynn had served as Obama’s Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) from July 2012 to August 2014 when he was “forced out.”

Debra Heine (PJ Media) back in 2018 explained:

"Obama already despised Flynn. But his hate likely turned to fear when his former DIA decided to throw his support behind Donald J. Trump, another boat-rocker who had a real chance of winning. Obama made a point after the 2016 election of advising Trump not to hire Flynn. But Trump didn’t listen.

Next thing Flynn knew, government spies were listening in on his innocuous phone conversations with Kislyak, his name was unmasked by someone in the Obama administration, and the contents of the call were leaked to the Washington Post (which remains the only serious crime to have emerged in the Russia investigation)."

What do you think of Obama’s character now?

Story from the Wall St. Journal--other major sources are mum and shaking in their boots as the growing illegal behavior of Obama's gang is revealed. And my question about Flynn has always been why shouldn't an incoming Trump official talk to a Russian ambassador or any ambassador? Obama had been ridiculing Russia's power--what had happened in the 4 years since he'd down graded them in public on TV?

"When news stories appeared in early 2017 about Michael Flynn’s conversation with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., these columns wondered how Mr. Flynn’s call was so widely known. The names of private U.S. citizens caught on tape by U.S. intelligence are supposed to be “masked” so their privacy is protected. 

Well, now we know. GOP Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson on Wednesday released a declassified list of Obama Administration officials who in their waning days in power “unmasked” the conversations of Mr. Flynn, who was set to become President Trump’s National Security Adviser. It seems everyone but the night janitor wanted to know who Mr. Flynn was talking to. 

A stunning THIRTY NINE separate officials snooped on Mr. Flynn’s conversations with foreign actors, lodging nearly 50 unmasking demands between Nov. 30, 2016 and Jan. 12, 2017. Our sources say the nearly dozen redacted names on the list are likely intelligence types—who might have a legitimate interest in knowing who their foreign targets were speaking to in the U.S. But most of the rest are partisan officials who had no business SPYING on their successors. 

The list includes then White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, then Vice President Joe Biden, and then Secretary of Treasury Jacob Lew. Ambassador to the U.N. and Obama confidante Samantha Power made no fewer than SEVEN requests, though she told Congress she had no recollection of unmasking Mr. Flynn. 

Mr. Flynn was unmasked by at least four U.S. ambassadors, six Treasury officials, and people connected to the Energy and Justice departments and NATO, among others. Then FBI Director James Comey, then CIA Director John Brennan and then Director of National Intelligence James Clapper also made the list. This means they had access to the transcripts of any phone conversations Mr. Flynn had with foreign sources as he prepared to take power. 

The media cordon sanitaire that protects Democrats will say this is no big deal because unmasking is routine and legal. But if the masking rule means nothing in practice, why pretend it exists?" . . .

Maybe because pretending to have character (something they say Trump doesn't have) is all the Democrats know about character?

. . . "The dates of the unmaskings raise further questions. The FBI’s interest in Mr. Flynn was supposedly triggered by conversations starting Dec. 29, 2016. Yet Mr. Flynn was first unmasked a month earlier—shortly after Mr. Trump named him security adviser."

This was definitely "get Flynn" and crush him. What was the Obama parade of lackeys and toadies so afraid of?

Doing church during the shutdown

After listening to 2 great sermons by Lutheran pastor Gemechis Buba, we went down to the river (Griggs Reservoir), enjoyed a brunch of McDonald's sausage biscuits and coffee, listened to the choir of birds, geese and passing cars, observed all the joggers, walkers, families and boaters, and came home. Everyone was parking with "social distancing," with 2 empty parking places between each car.

https://vimeo.com/113330866?fbclid=IwAR1Q9Uz3BUA9Id5zUR4hxuGNdJ9H6f3Oz4ee-EXYvbP87PZ7xAQ-RfI3C8g  5 years ago on end times

https://www.facebook.com/DrGemechis/videos/261108571918907/  Mother's day sermon

Enjoying coffee and a walk at Griggs

Lots of boats in the water

Why did the chicken cross the road—an internet story with no attribution

Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?

DONALD TRUMP: I've been told by many sources, good sources - they're very good sources - that the chicken crossed the road. All the Fake News wants to do is write nasty things about the road, but it's a really good road. It's a beautiful road. Everyone knows how beautiful it is.

JOE BIDEN: Why did the chicken do the...thing in the...you know the rest.

SARAH PALIN: The chicken crossed the road because, gosh-darn it, he's a maverick!

BARACK OBAMA: Let me be perfectly clear, if the chickens like their eggs they can keep their eggs. No chicken will be required to cross the road to surrender her eggs. Period.

AOC: Chickens should not be forced to lay eggs! This is because of corporate greed! Eggs should be able to lay themselves.

HILLARY CLINTON: What difference at this point does it make why the chicken crossed the road.

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road or not. The chicken is either with us or against us. There is no middle ground here.

DICK CHENEY: Where's my gun?

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with that chicken.

AL GORE: I invented the chicken.

JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

AL SHARPTON: Why are all the chickens white?

DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on this side of the road before it goes after the problem on the other side of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he is acting by not taking on his current problems before adding any new problems.

OPRAH: Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross the road so badly. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a NEW CAR so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

ANDERSON COOPER: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

NANCY GRACE: That chicken crossed the road because he's guilty! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART: No one called me to warn me which way the chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain, alone.

GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough for us.

BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish it's lifelong dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?

-------------------------------------------

I’ve seen several versions; many have left out Trump and Biden but John McCain is in it.

Covid19 vs Pneumonia

Between Feb. 1 and May 9, 2020

60,299 people have died of Covid19

and

81,318 have died of pneumonia

National Center for Health Statistics, CDC

Storage by Mary Oliver, a poem

A good friend knew I was sorting and pitching things (some back to retirement) while moving back into my office after Phil's death, and she gave me this poem. I know many of you need this, so I'm passing it along.

"When I moved from one house to another there were many things I had no room for. What does one do? I rented a storage space. And filled it. Years passed. Occasionally I went there and looked in, but nothing happened, not a single twinge of the heart. As I grew older the things I cared about grew fewer, but were more important. So one day I undid the lock and called the trash man. He took everything. I felt like the little donkey when his burden is finally lifted. Things! Burn them, burn them! Make a beautiful fire! More room in your heart for love, for the trees! For the birds who own nothing-the reason they can fly."

I know there are several layers of meaning--like holding on to other trash such as regrets, anger, irritations, failures, etc.--but for now I'll just keep it at boxes of paper and photographs and old letters.