EVEN IN EUROPE: 'Political elite' never cared about 'regular people'.

YOU'LL NEED A BIGGER BLOG: Stupid things stupid liberals did this week.

"THE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION REGIME has been hopelessly corrupt for 50 years, and in its current iteration, fueled by Critical Race Theory, it is not just corrupt but incredibly destructive."

IS STUPIDITY the key to understanding Democrats today?

It certainly helps....

COLIN KAEPERNICK compares NFL Draft process and training camp to slavery.

Slavery is involuntary, Colin. That's why it's called slavery.

DEMOCRAT POLITICIANS PROFIT from forcing COVID tests on cops AND firefighters.

RI-I-IGHT: Terry McAuliffe claims that critical race theory isn't taught in Virginia schools.

In fact, it appears that he was the instigator when he last served as Governor.

FALLING LEAVES 2021, Week 8.

The weather's been a bit yucky this week, so with that said, here's the usual view of our pond from the back deck:

The pond is mostly visible now, as is the ridge on the other side. Leaves on the deciduous trees mostly gone, the yellows turning brown and the reds falling to the ground.

Here's the fire pit/barn. Again, it's mostly leafless with the remaining leaves turning and falling.

The large pond below our house is turning out to be magnificent this year. Because it's below the prevailing winds, the leaves have turned and not yet been blown down.

This picture was taken from the road at the entrance of the subdivision. Somewhat protected from the winds, the smaller trees are hanging in there and maintaining their colors. The larger trees, though, are bare.

Here's the small pond at the dam where the road crosses. Like the previous picture, the foliage is pretty well protected from the winds, so there's still lots of color to be seen.

And finally a picture of the tree outside our kitchen window. Shielded from the wind by the house itself, the leaves have yet to fall.The yellow was brilliant earlier in the week, but it's beginning to turn as it gets colder.

Until next week....

MSNBC host Joy Reid is clearly in need of institutionalization....

WE CAN'T HAVE OUR FUTURE VOTERS KEPT OUT. Mayorkas admits 'Remain in Mexico' policy works but administration launches second attempt to end it.

KAMALA HARRIS WARNS VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS: What happens in this election may determine what happens in 2022 and 2024.

I'm still optimistic on all three.

STARSHIP: Still not understood.

This one is a long read, but worthy if you want to understand the rationale underlying the design.

THAT'S WHY I PAY MORE ATTENTION TO THE DAILY MAIL THAN I DO TO THE NEW YORK TIMES: Trust of US media in ‘free fall,’ lowest in world.

ILHAN OMAR: It's that 'dysfunctional' police we canceled that's the cause of the rising crime rate.

UNREWRITTEN HISTORY IS NOT THEIR STRONG SUIT: FiveThirtyEight says the Second Amendment didn’t protect your right to own a gun until 2008.

Try telling that to my father....

IN WISCONSIN: Election laws not just broken but 'shattered' during 2020 election.

And thanks to the Deep State (both sides), nothing has or will be done.

You're welcome.

LET IT BURN: NYFD Shutters 26 firehouses over vaccine mandate.

Let's Go Brandon!

SO THE DEEP STATE RIGHT IS FIGHTING THE DEEP STATE LEFT FOR THE RIGHT TO LOSE AN ELECTION? The Lincoln Project roasted as 'deranged hacks' for orchestrating viral hoax to smear Youngkin.

SCARY HALLOWEEN COSTUMES from Mallard Fillmore and Prickly City.

THE GOOD EGG: A laminar flow -- an aerodynamic advantage that increases efficiency in flight by minimizing drag -- concept development aircraft.

It's certainly an interesting technology. The question still to be answered is whether it can be scaled up to a commercially viable size.

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE:

I've been tracking the coronavirus pandemic on a more-or-less daily basis since March of 2020. The pandemic waxes and wanes but what's interesting (to me) is to note how the media coverage has changed since the inauguration of Biden administration.

Here's some data, taken from the Coronavirus Website, created by a then high school student. While I obviously can't vouch for the accuracy of the data, it is the longest-running of the coronavirus trackers I've seen and remarkably consistent in its data. Here's a quick summary, from when I started tracking in March of 2020 through today (October 30,2021). I've divided the data by administrations:

Trump administration (3/14/2020 - 1/21/2021): 419,603 deaths, divided by 10 for an average monthly rate of 41,960.

Biden administration (1/21/2021 - 10/30/2021): 346,434 deaths, divided by 9 for an average monthly rate of 38,493.

You may have seen media touting the death rate in 2021 higher than 2020. That is true if you take 12/31/2020 as the cutoff date, but I used 1/21/2021 (the date the administration changed hands) and that point was essentially during the peak as shown in the chart below.

As I mentioned above, what interests me is not so much the data itself as the way it's been covered in the media. If you think back, COVID deaths were the media's top priority during the Trump administration, with the number of deaths touted daily

Not so today. Under the Biden administration, it's mask and vaccination mandates that are de rigueur in the media coverage.

Why? Well it's pretty obvious that even with introduction of vaccines (which predates the Biden administration, by the way) the average number of deaths per day hasn't declined; in fact, there has been a very slight, almost negligible uptick in the long-term trend line (not shown in the above chart).

So masks and vaccinations have to be the media's metric of choice, and since they're not convincing, mandates are required.

The gist of all this is that America (and the world) has moved on. Coronavirus is a fact of life and we're going to have to live with it and move on with living.

The Biden administration should be as smart as the American people.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Stolen from PowerLine's Week in Pictures.