THE MORE THINGS CHANGE the more they stay the same.

BIDEN TOLD SO MANY WHOPPERS LAST NIGHT, Burger King may sue him. Heh.

WUHAN FLU [CORONAVIRUS] UPDATE for September 29, 2020: After being out of town and missing several days, hopefully I'm back on a Tuesday-Friday update schedule again.

Before going further, here are two links from PowerLine that tend to reinforce my profound antipathy toward our Deep State and their HealthScare^TM professional minions. Read them both and I think you'll find three things clear: (1) it's all about power and control; (2) the Deep State isn't about to give it up; and (3) the 'little people' are fed up.

Now on to reporting. This is data from yesterday, since the data for the 29th has not yet been posted (at 8 pm) although it is supposedly posted daily between 5 and 7 pm.

The 'pandemic' remains basically the same. Daily deaths remain in the low-700s, showing that last week's spike has stabilized. Neither of the two sources I use for data are showing consistent data. Revisions are endemic.

Trends, however, are harder to muck with, and they remain positive -- meaning continuing to decline -- albeit at a somewhat slower rate. Global data, which I track but don't post, is continuing its steady decline.

In Georgia, confirmed cases, daily deaths, and hospitalizations remain stable or declining.

THE DATA IS IN: PowerLine revisits COVID-19 in five Upper Midwestern states.

In short, the pandemic is over, except for the desperation of the power-hungry control monsters.

REDISTRIBUTION I CAN SUPPORT: UNC grad students call for administrators’ salaries to be ‘redistributed.’ Although I would prefer to redistribute the administrators themselves -- to the welfare rolls where they belong.

NEWS FROM DE BLASIO'S TIMES SQUARE: No ball drop on New Year's Eve.

Oh, there will be a ball drop, but it may be a wrecking ball on Mayor de Blasio's head....

JOE ROGAN VS. NPR WORLD: NPR world loses. I quit NPR years ago; my son more recently. Read it all to find out why.

And read the comments, too.

WHY I DON'T TRUST THE CLOUD: Widespread reports of 911 system outages.

Or Microsoft. Or Google. Or Facebook.

OF COURSE THERE'S NO VOTER FRAUD:

Biden’s Texas political director implicated in massive mail-in ballot harvesting scheme in Harris County [Houston].

Voter fraud in Ilhan Omar’s district.

It can't be fraud; we've been doing this for ages....

THAT MUST HURT (THE LEFT): Donald Trump gets his THIRD Nobel Prize nomination.

President Barack Obama received a Nobel Peace Prize for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen diplomacy and cooperation between people.” President Donald Trump should receive a Nobel Peace Prize for his extraordinary results at establishing historic diplomacy in the Middle East.

Sadly, it remains unlikely that the Nobel committee will honor Trump’s success in this arena. The Nobel committee is likely to get too stuck on “Orange Man Bad” to reward the orange man’s historic results in the same way it honored Obama’s efforts.

Obviously efforts count; results do not.

I DON'T THINK DR. REDFIELD WILL BE HEAD OF CDC MUCH AFTER NOV 3RD: Trump coronavirus adviser Atlas fires back against Redfield criticisms.

And that's a good thing.

HEH. "It's going to hurt for a long time."

INSANITY WRAP: Too much to summarize easily:

USA Today fact checks the Babylon Bee.

Brian Stelter is dumber and/or more dishonest than you thought.

Meet the black man who’s had enough of BLM.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand needs a timeout.

Portland sure is weird.

And finally, Democrats...

Be sure to follow the Twitter links.

SOMETHING I'VE LONG THOUGHT: Former New Mexico Democratic Governor Bill Richardson is accused of raking in hundreds of thousands in bribes and kickbacks to fund debauched lifestyle.

AFTER ATTENDING A 'BROWN LIVES MATTER' WEDDING, the Diplomad is back home, doing his debate prep....

SORRY, BUT CONGRESS DOESN'T DECIDE. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pelosi-12th-amendment-2020-electionWe, the people, do.

NO, YOU IDIOTS. That’s not how taxes work.

BECAUSE REASONS: Why are Liberals such whiny wusses?

FOUR GRAPHS prove the utter failure of lockdowns and masks.

Read the comments. Amid the chaff, there's an interesting back-and-forth going on.

TWO LUNATIC DEMOCRATS on the Judiciary Committee say they won’t meet with Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.

NOW A third lunatic emerges. At least this one's not on the Judiciary Committee.

AND MORE: 'Norms' are for little people. Democrat senators are not little people. At least they don't seem to think so.

JUST ANOTHER WEEK of on-campus insanity.

IN RESPONSE TO THE ER, ... DEMAND, Chevrolet releases the new 2021 California-compliant horse and buggy.

NEWSOM BANS CARS to prevent people from escaping California.

OF COURSE NOT. Does Joe Biden and his party care about real science?

YES, RUN IN CIRCLES, SCREAM AND SHOUT: Sanders says there ‘will be a number of plans’ to make sure Trump leaves office if he loses election.

It's what they've been doing for 3-1/2 years; by now they should be getting pretty good at it....

AMERICANS HAVE TO START THINKING ABOUT GOING SOMEWHERE ELSE if Trump wins re-election.

I'm thinking about 'going somewhere else' if Trump doesn't win re-election.

MSNBC'S RACHEL MADDOW EXPOSED TO CORONAVIRUS FACTS; remains uninfected.

Unfortunately for the nation, the progressives' stupidity vaccine is highly effective....

PRO-TRUMP CROWD opposes Trump-bashing 'Coronavirus Death Scoreboard'.

We're here to protest for the reopening of our schools, our education system, and the funding of our police.... You don't see the Republicans attacking other people. It's all the liberals who are attacking us, who are attacking our police, saying 'Black Lives Matter' and 'Defund the Police.' If you want to defund the police, who the hell do you think is gonna come to save you when someone is breaking into your apartment?

Opposition in building -- in Democrat strongholds.

FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER H.R. MCMASTER laughs in Wolf Blitzer’s face after ridiculous conspiracy question.

WE KNEW THEY'RE THUGS, now we find out they're crooks as well.

IMPRIMIS: American sports are letting America down.

POWERLINE'S WEEK IN PICTURES, Witless ... er, Witness Protection Edition is available. Here's my favorite:

Now go see the rest.

SPEAKING OF 'HOLLOW SKULLS': Rihanna rips Kentucky Attorney General over Taylor decision.

GOOD FOR HIM. Trump broadens his attack on critical race theory.

WHERE DID WE MESS UP? We’re raising our daughter gender-neutral, but she only wants pink dresses.

Three guesses.

INVEST IN CRUTCH FUTURES: Democrats take aim at Amy Coney Barrett.

The Democrats will need lots of them after shooting themselves in the feet so many times.

OREGON GOVERNOR finally gets tough on protesters ... conservative protesters.

GOV. RON DESANTIS opens Florida 100% after COVID-19 panic pandemic.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp should follow suit immediately.

HE'S GONNA LOSE. Illinois Governor Pritzker betting on a blue-state bailout from Washington.

He's a multi-billionaire; make him spend his own money on the deficit he created.

ORANGE CAT BAD:

Guess who Russ is voting for when he receives his mail-in ballot?

THE DEMOCRAT PLAN: Delay, delay, delay. Then delay some more.

A PEACEFUL TRANSFER OF POWER?

In 2016? 2017? 2018? 2019? 2020?

DAVID HOROWITZ: The civil war started when Democrats seceded from the Union in 2016.

Agreed.

RI-I-I-GHT: New York City outdoor dining will be 'permanent and year-round'.

Wait until the first blizzard....

I PREFER Trump's America.

COVID MANDATES are about power, not science.

NOT SURPRISED: In Michigan and Pennsylvania, the Democrats plan to cheat.

They'll cheat everywhere they can, but Michigan and Pennsylvania are prime targets.

BOTH AMUSING AND SAD. From the Los Angeles Times: Amy Coney Barrett is qualified for the Supreme Court — but should not be confirmed.

That's the amusing part; their twisting themselves into a malformed pretzel. The sad part is this (posted at the bottom of the article):

Our goal is to create a safe and engaging place for users to connect over interests and passions. In order to improve our community experience, we are temporarily suspending article commenting.

Our goal is to tell you what you should do and think -- without allowing you to respond.

NO, THEY'RE NOT FOLLOWING SCIENCE; they're following 'science'.

ABOUT THAT PEACEFUL TRANSFER-OF-POWER QUESTION: Here's how President Trump should have responded:

I plan to win. If I do lose, I will gracefully allow the transfer to go through as our Constitution has laid out. Something the Obama Administration and Hillary didn’t do. As for a draw – what are the Vegas odds on that happening?

I suspect that if he should lose (he won't), the Democrats will demand that 2016-2020 be canceled.

YOU CAN ALSO THANK BILL MAHER for assuring that Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court.

And a second term for President Trump....

THANK THE DEMOCRATS for the Barrett nomination to the Supreme Court.

ON THE SUPREME COURT NOMINATION: Just who is violating the 'norms' this time?

POWERLINE HAS POSTED TWO GREAT VIDEOS: Watch them both.

The 'Texas Reloaded' video is almost enough to make me miss Texas, but I'd rather Crenshaw was a Georgia congresscritter.

GUESS WHAT? IT'S PROBABLY PERMANENT: K-12 implosion update.

And all the more reason to let force states to let education money follow the child.

NO, THERE'S NO VOTER FRAUD:

ITEM: Three trays of mail, including absentee ballots, found in Wisconsin ditch.

ITEM: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announces 134 felony voter fraud charges in connection with 2018 Democrat primary.

ITEM: Military ballots found in the trash in Pennsylvania—all were Trump votes.

No, nope, none.

THIS IS YOUR 'COMPASSIONATE' DEMOCRAT: "Michael Caputo, a spokesman at the Health and Human Services Department, recently announced a 60-day medical leave from his position. He was diagnosed with cancer last week following surgery. Caputo had been urged to get it checked out by a doctor on the Coronavirus Task Force who had noticed a lump on his throat.... Reports of his diagnosis did not go unnoticed by Nate McMurray, Democratic candidate for Congress in New York’s 27th District, Caputo’s home district."

This was McMurray's response:

"My pity is limited." — @Nate_McMurray on Michael Caputo's cancer diagnosis.

His campaign slogan is "Be Kind. Do Good." pic.twitter.com/KywpHIzRiZ

— Matt Margolis 🇺🇸 (@mattmargolis) September 25, 2020

Read it all.

IS IT TIME for "a whiff of grapeshot?".

Personally, I think so. But I'm willing to go with an armed citizenry if necessary.

IS IT 5 O'CLOCK YET? Amy Coney Barrett holds press conference in Handmaid's Tale costume just to mess with liberals.

Yes, it is America's News of Record.

VICTORY GIRL KIM HIRSCH: Driving voters to join Team Trump.

DON SURBER: Trump supporters are having all the fun.

AMMO GRRRLL: Play it again, Nan. Sometimes reality just won't conform to expectations -- especially progressive expectations.

FIVE THINGS to know about Amy Coney Barrett. And be sure to check out the job listing.

BUT WAS IT A MAIL-IN BALLOT? Super-efficient USPS delivers a letter in Michigan 100 years after it was mailed.

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS when you put idiots in power.

CALIFORNIA EXODUS: Blackouts, wildfires, homelessness, high taxes and far left politics are driving people out of California.

As long as you leave progressive politics behind....

THEY KNEW: New FBI text messages reveal FBI agents on Flynn case bought liability insurance.

VICTORY GIRLS ON LOUISVILLE: Black lies matter.

WUHAN FLU [CORONAVIRUS] UPDATE for September 25, 2020:

The 'pandemic' remains basically stable. Daily deaths remain in the mid-700s, showing that last week's spike has stabilized. I'm still suspicious of reporting, however; the two sites I use for data reporting are still not correlating well.

Moreover, the COVID Tracking Project, from which this graphic is taken, has both changed its format so that the reporting is no longer consistent, and now seems to revise earlier days' data over and over in the following days. I can understand occasional revisions, but not when data a week old is revised over and over. Something's fishy....

But never mind. Trends -- which is what I track -- remain positive, meaning continuing to decline at both sites, and the death rate expressed as a percentage of confirmed cases and total tests performed continues to decline.

In Georgia, confirmed cases, daily deaths, and hospitalizations remain stable or declining.

'MOSTLY PEACEFUL' PROTESTORS RIOTERS supply more in-kind contributions to the Trump campaign.

Heh.

IN EVERY WAY THEY CAN: Here's how Democrats plan to block Trump's SCOTUS pick.

NO MERCY: McConnell dares Biden to mansplain women’s rights to female Supreme Court nominee.

LOUISVILLE RIOTERS arrested after left-wing church offers refuge from police.

Nice of the 'church' to round up the rioters for the police to arrest....

BUT IT'S NOT A RALLY, IT'S A PROTEST! Health officials seek to block Trump rally in Virginia.

BREAKING THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE is key to a successful second term.

After Trump is reelected, he should fire as many as he legally can, and starve the rest. And from the comments:

There are concrete steps that must be taken to bring the Administrative State to heel, if not outright extinction.

One is to outlaw all public employee unions. The rationale for this was blatantly obvious even to FDR in the 1930's. Eliminate defined-benefit retirement programs for all federal employees so they have the same retirement planning obligations borne by the rest of us.

The other is to limit the duration of tenure for all federal employees. This is imperative to prevent the emergence of the "in crowd" informal organizational structures that emerge when people in large organizations enjoy long service. This must apply doubly to the Senior Executive Service (SES), which is near the top of my list for outright elimination. There is little doubt the SES is one of the more "swampy" edifices in the federal bureaucracy. This reform becomes even more important as the move to limit the tenure of members of Congress gains traction, because a term-limited Congress would be even more incompetent to control bureaucracies staffed with entrenched bureaucrats who have rigged the system to suit their convenience. At one time, I thought the military might be exempted from such constraints, but the purposeful politicization and corruption of the senior ranks of the military by the Obama Administration and the Swamp at large has prompted me to think these constraints should apply to all federal employees, including the military.

I would also greatly limit the scope of sovereign immunity to bureaucracies and their functionaries, granting individuals standing to sue, with associated costs to be borne by the government, thus moderating the "Process is the Punishment" model so perniciously rampant nowadays.

The nail in the coffin of the Administrative State would be to outlaw agency rule-making that applies to citizens not in the direct employ of the federal government, and abolishing all Administrative Law functions. A salutary side effect of this would be to oblige Congress to busy itself overseeing the bureaucracy and actually crafting self-actuating legislation instead of gassy platitudes thrown over the transom to be made actionable by un-elected bureaucrats. The overt message would be that if Congress itself is not competent to create such legislation, it has no business holding forth on issues to ostensibly be addressed in a given situation.

And that's just a start. Read it all, including the comments.

SCENES WE’D LIKE TO SEE that the establishment media won’t dare touch.

TRUMP’S NEW COVID-19 ADVISOR cites research showing widespread immunity!

And called out CDC director Robert Redfield as a liar.

Read it all. Carefully. Then read it again.

If the election goes as I hope, Redfield -- and Fauci -- will be (deservedly) kicked out of the Administration and on to the street on November 4th.

BLM HARASSES DINERS AT RESTAURANT IN FLORIDA, which is going to make all the more people feel like they’d crawl over broken glass to get out and vote for Trump.

Broken glass in a sea of coronavirus....

‘MOSTLY PEACEFUL' PROTESTER RIOTER caught on video trying to kill a cop with a bat to the head.

THE BABYLON BEE PREDICTS THE NEWS AGAIN: Fauci renews pandemic for highly anticipated season 2.

BERKELEY, CALILIFORNIA, IS WORKING HARD to become the least livable city in America.

PENNSYLVANIA FEDERAL JUDGE FINALLY STATES THE OBVIOUS: Governors overreacted to the coronavirus 'pandemic'.

YES. YES, HE DID. Did Jerry Nadler have an 'accident' on live television?

WalMart carries Depends for men....

BECAUSE ORANGE MAN BAD: https://news.yahoo.com/adam-schiff-why-colleagues-introducing-130037258.htmlWhy my colleagues and I are introducing the first major democracy reforms since Watergate.

Read the whole thing and try to figure out just what Schitt's Schiff's 'democracy reforms' are.

FLORIDA GOVERNOR RON DESANTIS just made mobbing motorists dangerous.

[O]ne thing that ... really grabs the attention of both sides is the actions now taken against those who decide to block roads and intimidate motorists.

“3rd-degree felony to obstruct traffic during an unpermitted protest, demonstration or violent or disorderly assembly; driver is NOT liable for injury or death caused if fleeing for safety from a mob,” reads the law.

In other words, if you surround a car and begin intimidating the driver or passengers, attempt to gain access to the vehicle, or begin damaging the vehicle, if you do happen to be in front of the car when it speeds off and you get hurt or die, then the driver is not in the least bit of trouble. You go under the wheel while the driver is trying to escape the mob, that’s on you, not the driver.

So I no longer need a cowcatcher for my truck; I can simply run over the rioters.

STATE WITH NO ELECTRICITY orders everyone to drive cars that run on electricity.

Fake but accurate? No, satire. But accurate.

NOT GOOD NEWS FOR DEMOCRATS, I THINK: Gun sales in major swing states up nearly 80% this year.

ANN COULTER IS BACK: Innocent until proven a Trump supporter.

MICHAEL RAMIREZ focuses on the (Supreme) Court Jester.

HUNTER (OF MILLIONS) BIDEN has just become prey.

BETSY DEVOS just dropped another bomb on Princeton's 'systemic racism'.

Good for her.

I THINK THEY'LL GET REVERSED: Ninth Circuit Court overturns death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

EVEN IF MASKS WORK IN THEORY they aren't working in practice.

BIDEN VOTERS reportedly attack home of Trump supporters in Minnesota.

It's time to start shooting back -- literally, not figuratively.

THE REAL RACISTS ARE THE BANNERS: Florida high school bans football team's police flag after critics deem it "openly racist".

FREE COLLEGE, GUARANTEED INCOME: State, local officials steer coronavirus aid money toward liberal priorities.

And yet Congress is still expected to pass another coronavirus relief package.

Dumb. Just plain dumb.

TO MASK OR NOT TO MASK; TO LOCK DOWN OR NOT LOCK DOWN: CDC abruptly removes guidance about airborne coronavirus transmission.

Read the whole thing; then see if you can figure out their guidance: Mask and lock down? Mask and don't lock down? Don't mask but lock down? Don't mask and don't lock down?

In other words, they don't know what the hell they're talking about.

KURT SCHLICHTER has some questions for Joe Biden.

The Biden/Harris/TBD ticket is in real trouble.

NEVER TRUMPERS (also known as stealth Democrats) unhinged over their growing irrelevance.

NEWT GINGRICH PUTS KAMALA HARRIS in a no-win situation with respect Trump's potential Supreme Court nominee.

Gingrich is specifically refering to Amy Coney Barrett as the nominee, but it should be noted that the expected #2 candidate, Barbara Lagoa, is also Catholic...

'COCAINE MITCH' explains the Constitution to Democrats.

HIDIN' WITH BIDEN: Where is Joe's SCOTUS list?

SO EMBEDDED RACISM ISN'T REAL RACISM? Princeton denies that its ‘embedded’ racism violates the Civil Rights Act.

ALYSSA MILANO: They're my cops; you can't have them.

WILL THE UNICORN STAMPEDE BE TO -- OR FROM -- CALIFORNIA? Gavin Newsom: By 2035 all automobiles must be powered by unicorn farts. Read the comments. This one, by one Ron Stanford, particularly stands out:

It would only take three billion dollars to build six Desalination Plants to supply fresh drinking was to all of California's major coastal cities. The Israelis have greatly reduced the price and the energy needed to create such constructs.

No more droughts. No more water rationing. Water your lawns. Make Central California the bread basket of the world again.

A small nuclear reactor, which is much safer and energy efficient than the traditional models, costs about 750 million per. So, for five billion, we could have 6 - 7 nuclear plants.

No more brownouts. No more turning off the A/C when it's hot. Encourage businesses to open in California with the promise of cheap, reliable, energy.

The cost would be around eight billion dollars.

But those weren't built.

What was?

The eight billion dollars were wisely spent squandered on a commuter train from Bakersfield to Mercer. From Nowheresville to East Cow Paddy.

Years overdue, utterly unneeded, and incompetently built (a bridge built for the High Speed Rail slightly faster than average train recently collapsed), it's proven that the current administration can't build train-tracks on flat farmland.

What to do? Nancy Pelosi's nephew wants to create laws that take effect after he's been run out of town on a train-rail retires with a generous pension and the thanks of a grateful state.

He can't be run our of town on a rail; the unicorn fart train has stalled.

Sarah Hoyt has more on California's glorious green future.

NOT YET: Are liberals responsible for the consequences of their death threats?

But it's coming....

VOTE HERE: Michigan mail-in ballots swirling down the toilet.

If you thought Democrats had no sense of humor -- you were right.

LOVE IT: ‘Fuck Cuomo and de Blasio’ mural painted on Brooklyn street.

I understand de Blasio wasn't too happy -- it was painted over in less than 24 hours.

SCOTUS: Mitch McConnell throws down the gauntlet.

MORE CITIES -- AND STATES -- PLEASE: DOJ identifies NYC, Portland, Seattle as violent anarchist jurisdictions in move to revoke Federal funding.

TULSI GABBARD, the last sane Democrat.

WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED? Former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster admits there’s a cabal in the administration working against Trump.

WUHAN FLU [CORONAVIRUS] UPDATE for September 21, 2020:

Basically same old, same old. Deaths are down, mostly because people don't die on weekends, but it's beginning to become clear that last week's spike is just that -- a spike. I'm still suspicious of reporting malfeasance because the two sites I use for data are still not correlating well.

But never mind. Trends remain positive, meaning continuing to decline, and the death rate expressed as a percentage of confirmed cases and total tests performed continues to decline.

In Georgia, confirmed cases, daily deaths, and hospitalizations remain stable or declining.

OF COURSE; THEY'RE LOSING: Liberals question legitimacy of 2020 election.

In military terms, it's called battlefield preparation....

HE'S RIGHT: Majority of Americans think our health care system is broken.

The diagnosis is right; I'm also convinced his proposed solutions are helpful, but woefully incomplete.

WAIT, WHAT? At his last press briefing, Biden claimed 200 million died by the time he stopped talking.

Read the comments; they're hilarious. My favorite: "You'd think that with so many dead, the drive through at Zaxby's wouldn't be so long."

TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME INSANITY: Black man on anti-Trump rampage punches women, including an 84-year-old.

He was arrested, but what are the odds that he'll face anything more than a slap pat on the wrist?

WE BELIEVE we are better than others (or at least wish to appear so).

TRUMP NOMINATES BIDEN FOR SUPREME COURT; forces Democrats to accuse him of sexual assault.

It's the Babylon Bee, but the Democrats are so reflexively anti-Trump I suppose it is plausible.

DEMOCRATS: Nothing is off the table.

Should I be surprised?

ONLY OFF BY A FACTOR OF 1,000: Biden says ‘200 million’ people have died from COVID-19.

Maybe by 3021. Math is not a Democrat strong suit....

THE GOP SENATE damn well better confirm whoever POTUS appoints.

Agreed. And if not, there will be holy hell for the Republican(!?) recalcitrant to pay.

I DIDN'T KNOW CEMETARIES WERE SO DANGEROUS: Chicago postal workers threaten to stop delivering mail after multiple employees shot on the job.

IS HE REALLY THIS STUPID? White people owning dogs is racist.

Apparently so.

Here's a hard question for the author: Can white people own black cats? If the answer is 'no', Martha, Tuxedo, and Oreo are going to be pissed. And they have claws....

So does Shadow....

I'M A LITTLE LATE, but here are my favorites from this week's edition of PowerLine's Week in Pictures.

Now go see the rest.

SO WE HAVE TO GIVE UP 'BRUNCH'? Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warns liberals they may have to give this up -– even if they win.

Oh, the sacrifices required to be an idiot....

I WOULDN'T GIVE TRUMP IDEAS FOR HIS SECOND TERM: Democrats threaten to to pack the Supreme Court if Trump nominee gets confirmed.

Not smart, Dumbocrats Democrats.

I JUST HAD THE MISFORTUNE to hear a (thankfully very) short audio clip of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaking. It is a pity that the only penalty for such abject stupidity belongs to Charles Darwin.

MINNEAPOLIS POLICE TO LOCAL RESIDENTS: You're shit outta luck.

As far as a long-term plan I don’t have one. I have lost 30% of my street officers since the end of May. Budget cuts from COVID-19 and an additional 1.5 million from the council in August we have let go 17 CSO’s and canceled a recruit class of 29. A potential Cadet class slated for January of 2021 was also eliminated. It takes about a year to get a police Officer onto the streets with hiring, backgrounds and field training so reinforcements aren’t coming anytime soon. We are doing everything we can with what we have. I hate to see great businesses like yours and the rest of your corridor being victimized and feeling unsafe. Please let me know if you have any more questions.

And even after you get rid of the City Council you elected, it'll take us years to rebuild....

IT DIDN'T TAKE LONG: The Democrats' Supreme Court freakout.

SOON, I'M AFRAID: "So at what point, faced with assassination attempts, do the police go rogue and form their own death squads to neutralize their enemies?"

And my inclination will be to back 'em.

MORE NEWS BEFORE ITS TIME: Biden forgets to put on clothes, media praises his majestic outfit.

RANDOM THOUGHT: 'Nuance' should be banned from the political lexicon. 'Lie' is stronger and more accurate.

PRESIDENT TRUMP on the death of Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Nicely said.

WUHAN FLU [CORONAVIRUS] UPDATE for September 18, 2020:

Hmm. Well, that small spike I noted on Monday is still there on Friday. Partly it's a result of the fact that 'no one dies on a weekend when there's no one to report it' syndrome but the increase is more than just that -- and I've seen enough reporting of government malfeasance in the news (Nashville? Minneapolis?) to suggest that the data I'm seeing in both of the coronavirus web sites I track is being manipulated.

Nevertheless the trends remains good ... projections show deaths continuing to decline, hospitalizations continuing to drop, and the death rate expressed as a percentage of confirmed cases (2.85%) and total tests performed (0.21%) remains low and declining.

Georgia's coronavirus 'pandemic' still appears to be over. Confirmed cases, daily deaths, and hospitalizations remain stable or declining.

ATTORNEY GENERAL BARR speaks truth to power idiots.

BARNEY AND CLYDE: Focus on the little things. Big things will take care of themselves.

YOU DON'T SAY: Riots affect voter preference. (Don't tell the Democrats.)

NOBEL LAUREATE thinks the coronavirus crisis may be over.

He could've said that months ago.

SO WHAT'S NEW? The Washington Post smears Attorney Genaral William Barr.

YES, THEY ARE CRAZY. Media praises Kamala Harris' Timberland boots after trashing same look on Melania Trump.

Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) is real. Obviously TDS is a public health crisis so surely we must call in the CDC (scroll down).

THE DEMOCRATS’ undeserving and uncivil campaign.

HEH. PRINCETON ADMITS TO 'SYSTEMIC RACISM'; the Department of Education takes notice.

Rock, meet hard place....

JUST-LAID-OFF MINNEAPOLIS POLICE OFFICER looks on helplessly as rioters burn down City Council members' homes.

The news before it's news from America's News of Record.

REP. ANDY BIGGS [R-AZ]: use RICO to crack down rioters and their supporters.

THE DIPLOMAD sees good news in the Middle East.

I think the reason I liked Ronald Reagan and like Donald Trump is that neither of them had or has much patience with 'nuance'.

IT'S JUST MONEY, RIGHT? ... RIGHT? George Floyd riots caused record-setting $2 billion in damage.

Wrong. So very, very wrong.

WELCOME TO TENNESSEE: The Daily Wire is leaving Los Angeles for greener pastures. And be sure to come visit us in the north Georgia mountains.

"STOOLIES": A new Republican demographic?

THIS IS YOUR CDC: Is the CDC downplaying the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine to ‘resist’ Trump?

More here.

THE PUSHBACK IS GETTING SERIOUS: Attorney General Bill Barr is reportedly now recommending to prosecutors to charge sedition if it is appropriate.

I'd suggest every politician in a Democrat-run major city be investigated and charged for starters....

NAH: There is no voter fraud. No. Nope. None. Because shut up.

THE MINNEAPOLIS CITY COUNCIL: "Utter, complete, total fools."

And if you click on the James Lileks link, you'll find that wine is racist, sexist, and homophobic....

A 'NEW NORMAL'? Nope. The old normal is good enough.

THE PUSHBACK PUNCHBACK BEGINS: Denver police officer files ethics complaint against anti-cop City Councilwoman.

If you voted for this monster, enjoy your burning bed -- and don't expect me to help extinguish it.

BLM RIOTERS accidentally make case against using social workers to settle domestic disputes.

But I'm sure it would work if the 'social workers' were BLM-certified social justice warriors....

MAYBE THEY COULD STRIKE A DEAL TO SPEND LESS? New Jersey governor, lawmakers strike deal to hike taxes on state's millionaires.

Nah. They're Democrats.

ACTING DHS SECRETARY CHAD WOLF TAKES ON CONGRESSMAN ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Schiff loses. Again.

TRUMP'S “AMATEUR” DIPLOMACY shows that establishment's “experts” ... aren’t.

COAL MINERS and the genesis of my white privilege.

HEH: CNN (finally!) learning how to report the news.

FIRST THINGS The suicide of the liberals. It happened before; it appears to be happening again.

A long post, but worthy of a full read.

ENJOY YOUR JUST DESERTS: Minneapolis City Council that pushed to dismantle police now irate at rising crime.

Have another serving of humble pie.

STOP THE STUPIDITY: Moderate Democrats turning on Pelosi over COVID bill impasse.

They can't; they're progressives.

THIS LADY just made my day.

PAYBACK TIME? Senate committee approves subpoenas for Comey, Brennan, Clapper and more in Russia origins review.

HORRORS! (for Democrats): Up to nine additional nations could join peace deal with Israel, including Saudi Arabia.

MAKE ANDREW CUOMO AND GAVIN NEWSOM the 'Queens' of their respective states.

IF MASKS WORK, why don't they actually work?

More.

THEY SHOULD HAVE TAKEN THEIR OWN ADVICE: Scientific American shows its true colors.

Neither 'Scientific' nor 'American'.

BUT, BUT ... SCIENCE! State hailed as progressive hub of technological innovation can't figure out how to keep the lights on.

SUSPENDED FOR SHOWING RESPECT (And patriotism): Sons of cop police officer, firefighter carry flags onto field at 9/11 game, get suspended.

Sanity finally prevailed, but this is indicative of the rot (and cowardice, or both) that pervades our schools.

THE LEFT'S MORAL COMPASS ISN'T BROKEN ... it's nonexistent.

AN AMERICAN MIND ESSAY: The bigotry of social justice.

Lengthy, but a very worthwhile read.

CNN, BIDEN CAMPAIGN more concerned about large WH crowd than historic Mideast deal.

Trump envy on full (foul?) display.

THE TIDE IS TURNING:

Oregon drivers stopped at gunpoint by groups protecting wildfire ravaged properties from looters.

Lancaster protesters held on whopping $1 million bail each after alleged riots.

It's about time. Hell, it's way past time....

WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED? Vindman says Trump is Putin's 'useful idiot', considers himself a 'never-Trumper'.

Vindman is also Trump's 'useless idiot', which explains why he's no longer employed in the Administration...

Byron York has more on the useless idiot.

THE DEEP STATE is alive and well in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Defund it. Kill it. Start over.

BECAUSE CHEATING ISN'T WORKING. Democrats are trying to threaten their way into power.

DEMENTIA? Anonymous Biden ex-staffer makes claim.

Like the author, my inclination is to give short shrift to anything anonymous, but my lying eyes tell me that this one needs to be paid attention.

MOTHER EARTH speaks to Nancy Pelosi.

THE GREAT AND POWERFUL Wizard of Oz Joe Biden.

ATTACKS ON TRUMP? You ain't seen nothing yet!

CALL THEM 'LUNATICS' INSTEAD. Stop calling leftists 'Liberals'.

IT'S SCIENCE! Governor Newsom orders all trees to wear masks to prevent spread of wildfires.

THOMAS SOWELL: "Activism is a way for useless people to feel important...."

Click on the link to read the rest; then skim through the comments.

KURT SCHLICHTER:

[F]ar be it from me to stop the blue bubble-dwelling cultural elite from selecting “You dumb Jesus people don’t appreciate why pedophilia is no big deal” as their hill to die on. As long as they die on some hill I’m not too picky about which one, but if they want to choose the one that’s even going to creep out a lot of the Democrat Party’s voters, go for it.

Read it all.

DEREK HUNTER: So.Much.Stupid.

As long as there are Democrats there will never be a shortage of stupid.

"FROM K-12 TO HIGHER ED, America’s education system has been not merely ineffectual, but actively destructive. It’s time for a wholesale revamping. Or replacement."

Read the whole post, then follow the link. Related: More academic disgraces.

THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU GET OUT OVER YOUR SKIS: Bob Woodward claims he did not realize Trump was referring to the U.S. when they discussed COVID-19 in interviews for book.

You crash -- often spectacularly.

HARVARD PROFESSOR claims states use ‘stand your ground laws’ to ‘outsource its violence.’

As if colleges and universities don't use BLM and Antifa to outsource theirs....

IF THEY HAVEN'T ALREADY, THEY SHOULD: Trump officials interfered with CDC reports on Covid-19.

Here's why, from my personal Wayback Machine:

The CDC site is nearly worthless. Mostly hype and nonsense; very little useful data. [March 14th]

Before going on to data analysis, let me suggest avoiding the CDC website unless you enjoy self-congratulatory pious posturing to show the peons how erudite the 'experts' are. Get rid of the goo and drivel and there's nothing left on the screen to read. [March 19th]

HERE'S A QUESTION that needs answering. With all the angst about coronavirus, I went to the preening popinjay (CDC) website for some statistics on seasonal flu.... [April 4th]

Note that all these observations were at the very onset of the coronavirus outbreak. The Trump administration, to its credit, is recognizing that the CDC is nothing more than a Deep State organization of pompous preening popinjays demanding to remain in power.

THE DAILY CALLER: Wildfires, land management, and 'climate change'.

THE DIPLOMAD finds a pretty good old-style war movie.

I'd rather see it in an 'old-style' movie theater, but ... COVID-19.

FAUCI SPILLS THE BEANS: A vaccine won’t end COVID-19 restrictions.

Of course not. In the Deep State it's all about control.

BABYLON BEE: Democrats reveal they have planted dynamite all around nation and will blow it up if Biden isn't elected.

I'd say "Please don't give them ideas" but it may already be too late....

CRICKETS.

Thank you, Michael Ramirez.

MORE AMMUNITION FOR THE CHARTER SCHOOL MOVEMENT: New York school under fire for cartoon comparing cops to KKK and slave owners.

Let parents decide where they want their kids to go to school and make the money follow.

AGREED. ME TOO.

FIRE FANATICISM: "The massive wildfires raging in the west right now are proof that the climate change debate is over."

Ri-i-ight....

DON'T BELIEVE YOUR LYING EYES: It's all about the narrative, dammit!

P.J. O'ROURKE: Millennials, socialism, and Ding Dongs.

Don't vote for Ding Dongs....

I'M NOT PARTICULARLY A FAN OF AMAZON, but they're making the right decision.

And speaking of 'hanging from lampposts', I have a backhoe and my neighbor has extra lampposts....

YES, OUR GOVERNMENT MANDARINS AND THEIR APPARATCHIKS ARE INCOMPETENT: Sweden's coronavirus herd immunity plan vindicated.

WUHAN FLU [CORONAVIRUS] UPDATE for September 14, 2020 (note scale change):

It's over. It's really, really over. I've been noting over the last couple of days the mainstream media hyperventilating "OMG! Deaths are spiking! Lockdown! Lockdown!" And yes, on Friday I did note a small spike in daily deaths, but it was an anomoly, not a trend.

The news remains good ... 7- and 14- day smoothed data shows deaths continuing to decline. Hospitalizations continue to drop, and the death rate expressed as a percentage of confirmed cases (2.87%) and total tests performed (0.21%) remains low and declining.

As I noted above for the U.S. as a whole, the coronavirus 'pandemic' in Georgia is over and done. Confirmed cases have now dropped to 1/3 the July peak, daily deaths by a half, and hospitalizations remain down by half.

CONGRESSIONAL LEAKERS (like Adam Schiff) need to be investigated, prosecuted, and jailed.

IF THERE IS NO FREEDOM OF RELIGION (Judge allows LA county to shut down church), then why is the Church of Critical Race Theory is allowed to continue unabated?

The question is self-answering.

SHE SHOULD SWITCH PARTIES: Tulsi Gabbard breaks from the Democrat pack and comes out against Netflix for its movie 'Cuties'.

I'm actually of two minds here -- Gabbard (and I've been watching her) is clearly closer to Republican orthodoxy than to that of the current Democrat party; on the other hand, the Democrats desperately need some part of their membership to remain sane.

A BRIEF LESSON in 'woke' math.

CNN PRESIDENT JEFF ZUCKER: "You cannot be elected president of the United States without CNN."

I dunno; Trump was in fact elected. It's hard to believe that MSM leaders are "cruder, dumber, and more corrupt" than I think since my confidence in them is only fractionally above absolute zero.

Read it all.

WELL, WELL, ANTIFA HAS A DIVERSITY PROBLEM: "Six Karens and Zippy the Pinhead. And all as honkie as me.”

Actually I think it's 5 Karens and 2 Zippys ... but it's hard to tell from the photos.

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, NEXT YEAR'S FIRE SEASON COULD BE RATHER MILD: The northern California wildfire is now the largest in the state's history.

HMM. DID JOE BIDEN accidentally show his super-secret teleprompter for 'spontaneous' interviews?

It also looks like TOTUS is readying for the campaign trail again....

INTENTIONALLY ACCIDENTAL: How accidental can you get?

END THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE -- because Trump is evil.

WHO'D HAVE THUNK IT? The COVID-19 pandemic keeps proving deadly to liberty.

Restore freedom when the pandemic is over? In your dreams. It will be done forcibly or not at all.

SUDDENLY THEY CARE ABOUT THE FLAG ... because suddenly we don't care about the NFL.

SYSTEMIC RACISM? Think again.

Read it all.

FROM THIS WEEK'S EDITION of PowerLine's Week in Pictures, here's my favorite:

Now go see the rest.

BAHRAIN: A triumph of greed over hatred.

Remember Osama bin Laden's 'strong horse' theory? Guess who's now the strong horse.

WALL STREET CEOs give de Blasio an ultimatum. They'd be better off just saying "See ya."

CAN'T FAULT HIM FOR TRYING, I GUESS. THEY WANTED TO BURN IT ALL DOWN. Left-wing agitator arrested for starting wildfires in Washington.

IT GOES TO SHOW YOU ... SOMETHING, I GUESS: 'Transsexual Satanist anarchist' wins GOP nomination for sheriff in New Hampshire.

Mostly that people are oblivious to what's around them until hit upside the head with a 2x4.

YES, THEY DID: Environmentalists destroyed California's forests.

Hell, I recognized the problem -- and of course, the solution -- way, way back in 1995 when we first moved to California. That was 25 years ago, and nothing -- nothing! -- has been done since (well, except to bitch and demand the federal government pay 'disaster' relief).

Extra points if you go to this video to see how a forest is properly managed.

FALLING LEAVES, 2020: Week One. This week starts my annual series of 'leaf watching' as winter approaches. Here are some photos from today. First, my standard 'from the deck' view:

Here are several from around the pond. We've had a lot of rain this year, so the vegetation is quite thick.

And finally a couple from around the house. You can see from the first picture where I was able to clear the vegetation last year -- surprisingly it remained fairly clear.

This last picture is looking down the (steep!) hill from the lower terrace. The undergrowth is ridiculously thick, and it's far too steep to clear using a brush cutter so this year I'm going to try chemical means. There's actually a very pretty creek down there below the pond dam and I'd kinda like to see it.

More next week.

WHITE [FORMER] PROFESSOR MASQUERADING AS BLACK called neighbor 'white trash'. Perhaps she should have looked in a mirror....

Update: Was Jessica Krug a worse professor because she turned out to be White? I think the answer is that idiocy is color-blind.

AMERICAN SPECTATOR: Why Biden will withdraw from the debates. If he doesn't, it'll be a TKO after the first round.

WELL, YES: People trust the media less that Trump on COVID.

Absolute zero (-459.67 degrees fahrenheit) isn't low enough to fully express my contempt for the mainstream media.

THE BIDEN MESSAGE: vote for me or there will be more riots and anarchy.

It's a very simple message -- and 100% accurate, I'm afraid.

THE HILLS ARE ALIVE with the sound of music. Er, were alive.

NEVER-TRUMPERS need a lesson in basic mathematics.

But ... but they're all college graduates, where they learned that 2+2 is whatever you need.

And if you're a fan of modern higher education

let this marinate for a while....

ANTIRACISM AT CORNELL: Everything old is new again.

TEXAS GOV. GREG ABBOTT: defund cities that defund the police. Make them spend their own money on their progressive fantasies.

Hint: Don't.Mess.With.Texas.Governors.

YOU HAVE TO BE FREAKIN' KIDDING! Fauci: Americans can go to theaters once a vaccine has existed for 'almost a year'.

More proof -- if any is needed -- that this idiot needs to be retired forthwith.

FOLLOW BARACK'S ADVICE AND VOTE -- Republican.

IF TRUMP TOUTS IT, IT MUST BE EVIL: A tale of two COVID treatments.

QUIETLY, SO NO ONE PAYS ATTENTION: LA County Health Director says that schools will stay closed till ‘after the election.’

And after the election, when Trump wins?

AN EXCELLENT QUESTION:

Any answers? Anyone?

THE WASHINGTON POST'S BOB WOODWARD explains why he didn't alert Americans about the severity of the coronavirus pandemic months earlier: It was a public health crisis, but not a public public health crisis....

A READING LIST for Americans on the crisis in civil rights:

“Suitable for use by students and educators seeking material for curricula in the social sciences, criminology, and ethnic studies, the list relies heavily on exemplary but lesser-known scholarship that draws on America’s heritage of individual rights, equality under the law, free markets, and freedom of opportunity. In addition, this resource is designed to be special value for civic and business leaders, policymakers, journalists, and the general public.”

The lists are here.

AMMO GRRRLL experiences language fatigue.

RI-I-I-IGHT: Robert Mueller's team accidentally wiped dozens of cell phone before records were logged.

CONSISTENTLY WRONG? AT LEAST HE'S CONSISTENT. Joe Biden did not have the guts to get Osama bin Laden.

The comments on this post are worthy of a read-through.

THE LIGHTBRINGER THREATENS AMERICA: Climate change is coming back -- unless you vote Democrat.

WITH AN ELECTION IN THE OFFING? Democrats block Republican COVID relief package. Well, why not?

AUBURN PROFESSORS show support for campus police by buying them 70 lunches.

It was only 3 professors buying, but it's a start. Read the comments.

A LEFTOVER FROM 9/11: Janice Dean remembers NYC firefighters lost on 9/11 from her husband's firehouse.

I regret having missed that yesterday.

I WOULDN'T BE TOO HARD ON THE CIVILIAN PILOTS. The military is trained -- and equipped -- for these types of missions.

RANDOM THOUGHT: Has anyone considered simply quarantining all cities of, say, five hundred thousand or more so the rest of us can get back to living normally?

PRO SPORTS AND POLITICS: Not a good mix.

Also: Get woke, go broke. And good riddance.

HE NEEDS MORE LESSONS IN TAP DANCING: Biden advisor melts down during Fox News interview.

Or to bring his own teleprompter....

TO HELL WITH IT: “the entire Rochester Police Department’s command staff has announced their retirement.”

Continue scrolling down for a Leftist idiocy tour....

A COVID VACCINE? Don’t hold your breath.

The bottom line ... is that a vaccine may or may not be proved effective someday, but it is more important, for now, to focus on treatments that can forestall the catastrophic immune reactions that can actually cause death in a COVID patient. Meanwhile, I think our governments should lift lockdowns and get all of us back to normal. Quite a few people will catch COVID, and a few of those will also die. Of those who die after catching COVID, an unknown percentage will actually die on account of COVID. This is nothing new in human history: diseases can kill people. Fortunately, this particular virus kills very few who are not already on, or close to, their death beds. We should be grateful for that, and should get our lives back to normal. Now.

It's time.

OF COURSE THEY ARE. Are Democrats hiding the truth about COVID?

It's all about control ... and November 3rd.

SO TELL ME IT'S NOT BECAUSE OF TINPOT DICTATORS: Coronavirus in one state.

NOVEMBER 4TH PREDICTION:

Just not for Democrats....

PELOSI ON WILDFIRES IN CALIFORNIA AND WEST: "Mother Earth is angry."

Yeah, well the Democrats won't clean her house, so Mother Earth has to do it herself.

CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: Dining out may increase risk of contracting COVID-19. Yeah, and living longer may increase the risk of death.

BLUE-COLLAR WORKERS: You have a pretty good reason to vote for Trump again, this time with a stamp of approval from Joe Biden.

WUHAN FLU [CORONAVIRUS] UPDATE for September 11, 2020. This is Friday's data, but held off because I wanted to keep my 9/11 posts focused on the twin towers attack.

The news mostly remains good ... the 7- and 14- day smoothed data continues to decline, but the last three days have been a bit worrisome with deaths rising a bit to the near 1,000/day. The next few days should determine whether it's a trend or an anomaly.

As I already noted, the coronavirus 'pandemic' in Georgia is over. Confirmed cases have dropped by over half, daily deaths by over a third, and hospitalizations by half.

REGULAR BLOGGING resumes on Saturday.

THE DIPLOMAD: 9/11 finale.

SEPTEMBER 11TH: We said we’d never forget, but we did. I didn't. And won't.

19 YEARS AGO and America hasn’t been the same since. Spend a few extra minutes and scroll through the reminder posts.

SUSAN STAMPER BROWN: Let's never forget September 11, 2001.

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 through the eyes of a child.

UNITED WE STAND: The greatest first pitch in history. (Scroll to the bottom; there are two video segments).

NINETEEN YEARS AGO TODAY, WE SAID “NEVER FORGET,” but we mostly have. Read the comments as well.

IT'S 9/11. Many have forgotten.

I'm not one of them.

Fox News remembers, too. They're replayed the events of 9/11 without commercial earlier this morning. MSNBC's Morning Joe was busily snarking about President Trump's campaign visit yesterday.