Archive for 2019
November 13, 2019
AT AMAZON, COUNTDOWN TO BLACK FRIDAY.
NOT NEARLY AS MUCH AS WE’D LIKE: How Effective Are Flu Shots? “Here’s the thing: The efficacy of the shot varies drastically from year to year, ranging from 10% to 60%. It all depends on whether the vaccine ends up aligning with the strains of the virus that appear.” 60% as a best-case scenario isn’t great. But there’s also this: “The vaccine can decrease the length of having the flu, decrease the risk of complications and the severity of the flu, and decreases the risk of spreading it to others.”
WOW: Sub That 80 Americans Died on Found After 75 Years. “Tim Taylor, who runs a project dedicated to finding the 52 US submarines lost in action during World War II, says his team has found the USS Grayback off Okinawa, the New York Times reports. The sub, which sank more than a dozen Japanese ships and rescued a group of downed American airmen, left Pearl Harbor on Jan. 28, 1944, for its 10th combat mission and never returned. Japanese records translated after the war said a plane had hit the sub with a 500-pound bomb and gave the latitude and longitude. But last year, Yutaka Iwasaki, a Japanese researcher who works with Taylor’s team, discovered that one digit had been mistranslated.”
WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Artificial intelligence uses electrocardiograms to predict arrhythmia.
Surprisingly, McDaniel reports that opposition to the hearings among Democrats is up 6 points. Could it be that there are still some sane members left in the Democratic Party who see this spectacle for what it is? Regardless of what new information is learned, no matter how favorably it may reflect on President Trump, there are a large number of Democrats who will not be swayed. Most Democrats hate Trump so much that, even though they’re well aware of how unfairly he’s been treated, they’re willing to go along with anything that will remove him from office. A six point shift doesn’t seem like much, but even a small move can swing an election.
This shift also makes sense in light of the recent rally data released by Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, which I posted about here. He reported that 27% of those who attended Trump’s Tupelo, MS rally on November 1st identified themselves as Democrats. At an October 17th rally held in Dallas, TX, 21.4% identified as Democrats. These figures are stunning.
It would be interesting to see the RNC’s internal polling numbers for independent voters. If a small number of Democrats are willing to see the truth, there’s an even greater likelihood that independents who are on the fence will be persuadable.
What’s a party to do when its most enthusiastic and reliable voters are also its most intolerant and short-sighted?
Whatever the crazies tell them to do, apparently.
BLUE ON BLUE: Politico challenges Politico’s reporting on Ukraine’s 2016 pro-Hillary efforts.
The newsgroup reports that there is “no evidence” to support the idea that Ukraine worked hand-in-hand with the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign to torpedo then-GOP nominee Donald Trump.
“According to Giuliani,” Politico notes, “Ukrainian officials conspired with the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee to help boost the Democratic nominee’s campaign and damage Trump’s candidacy. No evidence has emerged to support that idea [emphasis added].
This comes as a bit of a surprise considering reporters Ken Vogel and David Stern reported for Politico in 2017 that “Ukrainian government officials tried to help Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump by publicly questioning his fitness for office.”
2 + 2 = 5 when the Party requires it to.
TOYOTA 86 HAKONE EDITION PRICED, DOESN’T COST A MOUNTAIN OF MONEY.
It looks sharp, but it may just be the nostalgia of the metallic British racing green paint color, which is reminiscent of an early 1970s Hot Wheels color.
THREE KEY QUESTIONS DEMOCRATS WILL NEVER ANSWER ON IMPEACHMENT: In his opening statement today, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the top GOPer on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), laid down a three-cornered challenge to impeachment-crazed Democrats.
NAVY UFO WITNESSES FINALLY SPEAK OUT.
MICHAEL VAN DER GALIEN: Mark Levin Unleashes on Faux Conservatives: ‘We’re Not Going to Surrender to Ann Coulter!’
DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE IN A NUTSHELL: A Denver Business Is Fined For Not Picking Up Other People’s Poop.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, FAKE NEWS EDITION: The Rolling Stone campus rape hoax turns five: Lessons from the journalism scandal that rocked the nation. “The story immediately went viral and resulted in a swift suspension of all campus Greek life at UVA, touched off a national debate about the alleged campus rape epidemic, and raised the specter of a callous, dismissive university administration that cared little for victims of horrific sexual assault. It was also a hoax.”
Related: Questions raised on role Obama White House played in UVA rape hoax.
CHANGE: Submarine Community Can’t Meet Demand From Female Sailors.
Master Chief John Perryman, the force master chief for the submarine force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, and Master Chief Kevin Scarff, the force master chief for the submarine force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, detailed some of the staffing challenges facing the Navy’s submarine community during the annual Naval Submarine League Symposium on Friday.
“We are having to turn women away from the submarine force,” Perryman said. “We don’t have enough billets for female officers. We have much higher demand than we have billets for, and the same thing is true at the recruiting command for enlisted females.”
Clearly, in order to address this iniquity, we need to build more attack subs.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: UChicago, on the defense, says students won’t have to pay full $100k sticker price. Sure, our price is high, but we make up for it with price discrimination!
WE HAD A FULL-ON NATIONAL PANIC AFTER FEWER VAPING DEATHS THAN THIS: After nine deaths, USC tries to quell rumors and prevent triggering students.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Climate Loons Finally Out Themselves as a Religious Cult. “Climate Church theology is the only religion taught in American public schools. The proselytizing is working. The indoctrination mills are spewing out kids who are in the throes of despair because they’ve been taught that their futures will be full of pointless misery, all because their parents used the wrong kind of lightbulbs.”
VENOM OVER FLOWING DESERT SAND: Saudi Arabia’s Empty Quarter? No,a USMC UH-1Y Venom helicopter on an exercise near Brawley, California. Marine Venoms do a lot of training over desert terrain. Here’s an April exercise near Yuma. Well, a lot of U.S. military training areas are in our deserts. As a wizened fellow (who knew his maps) once pontificated, “Bay, roughly a quarter of these United States is hard a** desert. For some reason the mainstream media doesn’t know that…wait, it’s flyover desert…never mind. Gimme a sec, dammit. I gotta kick Fort Irwin off my boots.” Fort Irwin? Here’s a USAF A-10 conducting an “austere” landing at Irwin. This photo shows you why Army and Marine tankers love A-10s. More Irwin: An Abrams with a counter-mine kit prepares to attack opposing forces and a dusty Bradley crew scans the desert. Last but not least, another Marine sand photo, this time beach sand, not desert. An LCAC with the USS Bataan Amphibious Ready Group comes ashore during a landing exercise.