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Sorry Governor Baker but your latest edicts are tyrannical and not based on science

Posted: November 19, 2020 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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On Monday, November 2 Governor Charlie Baker announced extremely draconian restrictions on all residents of the State of Massachusetts  These totalitarian restrictions were announced because Governor stated that the Coronavirus pandemic is becoming dire. A careful examination of the WCVB daily Massachusetts Covid19 tracker will show that is not accurate. 

The number of positive tests per day, which has now risen to 2000 per day, looks alarming compared to June when it was only around 200 a day. In reality that ten fold increase is not alarming because it is the result of a drastically increased number of daily tests, the vast majority who test positive are asymptomatic.   The number of deaths per day has not shown the same 10 fold increase as the number of positive tests, increasing from a low of 13 to 26 or so.   Hospitalizations have only modestly increased from an average low of 400 to a current rate of 600 per day with intensive care numbers increasing from a low of 70 to a current average of 110.

This WCVB Channel 5 article discusses the draconian new mandates in great detail.  This one mandate is as anti liberty as you can get and not based on science in any way.  As far as I know a virus cannot tell time.

Baker announced an overnight stay at home advisory, resembling a curfew, from 10 p.m. through 5 a.m. It will allow activities such as commuting to or from work, running essential errands and talking a walk.

This next mandate boggles the mind and makes no sense.  Now you will have to wear a mask if  you walk down an empty street with no one around you for miles.

Baker’s orders include a change to the statewide mask order. Under the altered order, masks will be required for anyone in any public space, indoor or outdoor, regardless of the ability to maintain social distancing.

Governor Baker will win the Grinch of the year award with this next mandate.  We usually have a few dozen relatives over forThanksgiving and Christmas Eve.  Governor Baker has no right to dictate what people do in their own homes.  That is tyrannical in the extreme.

Gathering limits at private residences across Massachusetts will be reduced, Baker said. Indoor gatherings at private residences will be reduced from 25 to 10, and outdoor events will be reduced from 50 to 25.

Here is Governor Baker’s rational for this tyrannical mandate.

“Young people need to stop having big house parties, and we’re planning to talk to local officials about how we can work with them to prevent these events going forward. Folks need to postpone or rethink any indoor get-togethers, like big birthday parties, baby showers or watching football or some other big sports event with your neighbors. These are places where COVID spreads, unregulated gatherings, even if they’re small, where people let down their guard, ” Baker said.\

This next mandate makes no sense scientifically because for it to have any effect on the transmission  of Coronavirus the virus would need to be able to tell time.

Restaurants will be required to cease in-person dining by 9:30 p.m., although takeout or delivery of food can continue. Liquor stores and other establishments will be required to cease alcohol sales at 9:30 p.m. Several other categories of recreation and entertainment businesses will also be required to close at 9:30 p.m.

This Federalist article proves that mask mandates are not backed up by science in any way at all yet we are all forced to wear them, even alone in a large public park.

Scientists have long tested the value of masks for the general public. The results are not, on the whole, in favor of masks for general use because there are just too many trade-offs and exceptions. Besides, not all masks are created equal. A clean, properly-fitted N-95 respirator and face shield worn, and never touched while worn, by a trained health professional is one thing. A dirty cloth neck gaiter worn begrudgingly at the gym is quite another.

Even Dr. Anthony Fauci used to admit this. “In the United States, people should not be walking around with masks,” Fauci told “60 Minutes Overtime” back in the spring. “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask. When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better, and it might even block a droplet. But it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is.”

The people of Massachusetts have become such a pathetic bunch of sheeple. Only a small minority are voicing any opposition to these tyrannical restrictions.  They won’t end until enough individuals demand they stop.

The pandemic hit to higher education

Posted: November 17, 2020 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

Higher education is facing a severe crisis of confidence and money.

That’s not bad news. Colleges have become overpriced with tangled bureaucracies that often don’t prepare students for the real world.

I hope that higher education will face the stark economic outlook because the pandemic will force colleges and universities to strip away the fat that has become rampant. 

Overall, the number of undergraduates shrank by 4% in the fall, while first-year student counts fell by 16.1%, according to new data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. The tally includes 9.2 million students, from more than half of schools that report data to the Clearinghouse.

Enrollment declined the most at community colleges, off 9.4% overall and 22.7% for first-year students. Enrollment at four-year public colleges and universities fell by 1.4% overall and 13.7% for first-year undergraduates. At private, nonprofit colleges, those declines were 2% and 11.8%, respectively.

The falloff in first-year students may reverberate through the entire undergraduate population for the next few years as students seek alternatives to the high cost of education, such as apprentice and training programs. 

But there’s more. New international students enrolled at U.S. universities online or in person fell by 43%, according to a survey of more than 700 schools. That’s the largest decrease recorded by the Institute of International Education, which has been publishing data on international enrollment since 1954.

International students pay full costs to most institutions, making these individuals crucial to the bottom line. 

The pandemic has forced universities large and small to make deep and possibly lasting cuts to close widening budget shortfalls. By one estimate, the pandemic has cost colleges at least $120 billion, with even Harvard University, despite its $41.9 billion endowment, reporting a $10 million deficit that has prompted belt-tightening.

Even before the pandemic, colleges and universities grappled with years of shrinking state support, declining enrollment, and student concerns with skyrocketing tuition and burdensome debt. 

Throughout the country, colleges and universities have cut back support staff and even tenured faculty members. For example, here in Pennsylvania, the 14 campuses in Pennsylvania’s higher education system have lost roughly a fifth of their enrollment over the past decade. As a result of the declines, including the one during the pandemic, Pennsylvania plans to cut about 200 full-time faculty out of 5,000 systemwide. 

One option to cut additional costs is to learn from the mistakes of moving online earlier this year. Most faculty members have resisted the notion of teaching online, which ultimately can save both students and universities a lot of money. Moreover, higher education could attract more older students who are working full time. 

Although I have a great deal of respect for some administrative staff in higher education, the number of people has grown significantly in recent years. 

In my college at Temple University, I used to know the first names of almost every staff member who worked there. Now there are so many vice deans, assistant deans, and assistant chairs that I know fewer than half of the administrative staff. 

I hope the pandemic has provided an opportunity for higher education to think about the waste that has accrued and to rethink colleges’ and universities’ missions throughout the country.

Report from Louisiana: Governor Wins another Challenge

Posted: November 16, 2020 by Pat Austin in Uncategorized
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By:  Pat Austin

SHREVEPORT – As Covid cases across the nation soar, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards is batting a perfect score so far on legal challenges to his statewide restrictions such as the mask mandate and tough limits on bars and restaurants.

Last week, a Baton Rouge judge sided with the governor in a challenge by House Republicans; Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry filed the petition by 65 of the 68 House Republicans which demanded the restrictions imposed by the governor be lifted:

Sixty-five of 68 House Republicans last month used an obscure 2003 law passed during the SARS pandemic to send a petition to Gov. John Bel Edwards directing him to cancel his virus restrictions. Morvant ruled the law in question violates the state Constitution because it doesn’t involve both chambers of the Legislature, instead allowing the House or Senate to act on their own.…Morvant said the governor’s emergency powers, granted to him by the Legislature, allow him to make decisions that have the force of law. To repeal, enact, or alter a state law, the entire Legislature — including the House and the Senate — must agree.

And so, we remain masked. That being said, Louisiana is not spiking in Covid numbers at the moment as quickly as the rest of the nation, although many feel that is coming. Numbers are rising; both case numbers and hospitalizations.

In a sign of the times, the hearing was held via Zoom; Republican lawmakers had been sharing the Zoom link on social media for days. Apparently the entire state was in the meeting and a couple of people managed to slip through the mute button and join in. The result was hysterical:

Such are the frustrations of high-stakes court hearings set in the year 2020. Morvant and the cadre of attorneys were arguing via the videoconferencing software Zoom, and only lawyers were supposed to have the ability to speak. Apparently, a member of the public had slipped through the cracks and unmuted himself. “Snide comments coming from the peanut gallery,” Morvant clarified, “are not going to be appreciated by this court.”

“Our state needs to be open,” the unidentified man said.

“If we were in open court, I would hold you in contempt and have you removed,” Morvant said, becoming agitated. “If you say anything else in this Zoom hearing, I will have you removed.”

The man kept speaking. Morvant made good on his promise. “Have that person removed,” he said. A staffer obliged.

As Morvant was taking up a series of procedural moves in the middle of the hearing, a strange noise emanated from the Zoom meeting, stopping everyone in their tracks.

“I don’t know what that was,” said Liz Murrill, Landry’s top deputy.

“I don’t either,” Morvant replied. “I wasn’t the one that invited the entire state to participate.”

Sign of the times.

As the holidays approach and numbers continue to climb, we are expecting more restrictions from our esteemed Governor and rumors about school closings are epic. I don’t want to speculate on that right now…I’ll wait and see. I feel like that’ll be coming down soon enough.

Pat Austin blogs at And So it Goes in Shreveport and is the author of Cane River Bohemia: Cammie Henry and her Circle at Melrose Plantation. Follow her on Instagram @patbecker25 and Twitter @paustin110.

“Mr. Ness, everybody knows where the booze is. The problem isn’t finding it, the problem is who wants to cross Capone.”

Posted: November 16, 2020 by datechguy in blogs, elections, entertainment, media, News/opinion, Uncategorized
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King Arnulf: Now, I know what some of you must be thinking… the day has come…. we’re all going down, etc. etc. But let’s get away from the fantasy and look at the FACTS. FACT ONE – The threat of total destruction has kept the peace for one thousand years. FACT TWO – The chances of it failing now are therefore one in three hundred and sixty-five thousand. FACT THREE…[by this time the water is up to people’s knees, and several have crowded onto the lower steps to avoid getting wet.] FACT THREE – Our safety regulations are the most rigorous in the world. We are all nice to each other, we never rub each other up the wrong way or contradict each other, do we?

Crowd: [As the building sink and fall] No.

Citizen: We… er… do seem to be going down quite fast, Your Majesty – not trying to contradict you, course.

King Arnulf: No, of course you’re not, citizen. But let’s stick to the facts. There has NEVER been a safer, more certain way of keeping the peace. So whatever’s happening, you can rest assured, Hy-Brasil is NOT sinking. Repeat, NOT sinking.

Erik the Viking 1989

There is one dynamic that is playing on in the challenge to the Democrat Magic Ballots that deserves more attention.

I’ve already talked about the uphill climb the President has legally here. But it’s the mountain that the Democrat / Left / Media has to conquer is a higher one that is forcing them into absurdity at best and violence and intimidation at worst.

You see people who know statistics and elections know what happened. People who have followed Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee and Atlanta know what shenanigans have gone on in the past and continue to go on. this is no secret to anybody even remotely connected to these cities and states.

After all if the case for the existence of vote fraud is weak you (and remember Trump has to win in 3 or 5 states ) you don’t target people’s lawyers to withdraw and particularly not entire firms. You don’t censor people, particularly low level people for tweeting out charts and you don’t slap warning labels on a former UN Ambassador and governor for stating simple direct facts. And you certainly don’t falsely claim that a whistle blower has recanted when he has not.

In fact the Democrat / Tech / Media left has apparently gone all in on the idea that there is no such thing as election fraud but that any who dare suggest so must be punished.

Donald Trump is playing Elliot Ness, he is attempting to expose and stop the corruption that people have known has been going on for decades in these cites and prove that is was enough to overturn the results of an election. He will have to have a strong case, there is a reason why Al Capone was convinced of Tax Evasion rather than bootlegging and conspiracy.

The Media / Democrat / Tech left is not satisfied with those advantages. They have they have decided to go all out to prove that there is no fraud PERIOD. It’s like telling people in Chicago in the 20’s and 30’s to declare in public that Al Capone isn’t a gangster and to punish anyone who doesn’t say so.

I think this is a mountain beyond them and even if they manage to win their cases this is a moment that has within it the seeds of their destruction.

Cue Sean Connery:

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