Month: January 2021

Birth of a Lie

Dave Davis Commentary, COVID-19, Policy, Uncategorized

Recently, I wrote of Biden’s proposed Covid-19 solutions to problems already well on their way to being solved or were inflicted on us by Biden’s allies, the teacher’s unions, and the educational establishment. President Biden means with the help of his media allies to claim he defeated the virus. A Big lie is in the making.

It helps to see exactly where we were on Inauguration Day. The facts are, the virus has passed its apogee and is receding. Vaccine distribution is already on the pace to exceed 100 million doses in his first hundred days. The charts from 1/20 from Johns Hopkins and numbers from the CDC serve as base points.

As you can see, cases, hospitalizations, deaths, and test positivity on Inauguration Day are all heading down. The results were with record-high testing. I think the highs in these areas have passed, and we have seen the worst of the epidemic. It may be the result of mask-wearing and distancing being widespread. Johns Hopkins’ Dr. Marty Makary points to the beginning of herd immunity. Remember, we get this state when a significant percentage of the populace has had the virus, is vaccinated, or some combination of the two. While only 15 million are vaccinated, some have estimated up to a third of us have had the virus. Some people may have T-Cell immunity. The combination makes even this easy spreader’s job harder. The downtrends will only get more pronounced as people are vaccinated.

I predicted by 1/20, 15 million people inoculated. The total doses administered on that day were over one million. As forecasted, this rate meets Biden’s 100 million doses by the end of his first hundred days. With the infrastructure already in place to deliver a million shots a day, our delivery ability will only expand. Every day more inoculation locations are coming online. The only thing that might hold us back from far surpassing this goal is the vaccines’ timely delivery.

People might forget that Operation Warp Speed wasn’t about just the two vaccines we presently have. The Trump administration also invested in others. The AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine is already vaccinating millions in the U.K. and Europe. Mid-April approval in the U.S.is expected. However, overseas success could speed up the timetable. Because it needs less special handling, it’s easier to distribute.

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Il Duce Would Understand

Dave Davis Commentary, Policy, Uncategorized

Lucky me, I downloaded Parler to see what it was all about, and it disappeared. It seems they violated the terms of service of the “Big Tech” companies it relied on for its business. Apple, Google, and Amazon claimed Parler allowed violent content on its platform. Without the ability to acquire new users and web services, it was simply out of business.  

On the surface, this seems to be well within private businesses’ right to run their firms as they feel fit. As one with libertarian tendencies, I would generally agree they don’t have to give the free-speech protections of the first amendment to employees or those who do business. Still, it seemed the prohibitions almost always adversely affected those on the right. Similar content on the left never gets the same reaction. The measures inflicted by the Big Tech companies align with the goals of the Democrats. It just doesn’t seem right.  

It turns out all this might not be legal. Vivek Ramaswamy & Jed Rubinfeld, in a recent  Wall Street Journal OP-ED, pointed out, the government can’t induce or conspire with a private entity to do something Constitutionally prohibited from doing itself. I’m not a constitutional lawyer, but reading through the cases they cited, I wouldn’t want to defend big tech in front of a supreme court with six conservatives. Some of those Justices went through various degrees of “cancelling” by the Democrats. They might match Democratic control of the Presidency and both Congress houses with Big Tech’s lopsided actions in their favor. These actions are occurring while leading Democrats are proposing anti-trust measures. This picture looks terrible.

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Aftermath

Dave Davis Commentary, COVID-19, Policy, The Future Party, Uncategorized

When Donald Trump became President in 2017, I expressed my concern for the Republican Party. On January 30, 2017, in a post, “And then the Republicans,” I questioned whether the Republican leaders in Congress could work with Trump. I asked, “This sets up a clash between Trump and the congressional leaders. Do the conservative leader’s tame Trump, so he obediently signs on to their program, or does he use his followers to bully Congress into submission?” For almost all four years, to my surprise, Trump and the leadership worked relatively well together. The fact the Democrats came down with a severe case of “Trump Derangement Syndrome ruled out any relationship with them. Democratic cries of Russian collusion will lead to impeachment precluded the Democrats and left only the Republicans. The GOP-Trump partnership resulted in a mass of conservative judges, tax reform, a strengthened military, and regulation reduction. The economy did well by a more significant swath of people.

This marriage of convenience was exposed during and after the election. When it looked as if the President would lose, he attacked mail-in voting. He told his supporters to avoid it in favor of in-person voting instead of using the pre-election time to getting their supporters to vote early. This stance hurt Republican early efforts. Even if you plan to vote on election day, something could come up preventing it. This is especially true in this time of COVID-19. In this close election, this proved to be foolish. The President seemed to want an excuse for losing while the party tried to win up and down the ballot. The alliance was fraying.

After he appeared to lose, Trump attacked the outcome. As I’ve written earlier, a close look at an election where widespread first time mail-in voting was done was certainly warranted. We needed to be assured the election results were correct. A wave of recounts and court rulings confirming they were followed. Even Bill Barr, the Attorney General, failed to find fraud that would’ve changed the result. Yet, Trump refused to accept the outcome. Worse, he attacked fellow Republicans. In GOP controlled states of Arizona and, more fatally, Georgia, President viciously attacked the Governor and Secretary of State of his own party. With two crucial Senate seats to decide the Senate’s control on January 5, a total Republican effort was needed to win.

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Words For Me, But Not For Thee

Dave Davis Commentary, Uncategorized

New year’s week is the time of year when it is traditional to look at the upcoming year. Because of the great importance of the Georgia Senate elections, it seems prudent to wait until we see the outcome. If the Republicans win one or both, Mitch McConnell will be a significant force. With the master legislative leader in charge of the Senate, getting much of anything done in Washington will need his approval. Joe and Mitch will share Capital leadership. A GOP loss of both Senate seats would allow President Biden and the Democrats much more leeway to enact their program. Predictions and comments are best to put off till after Jan. 5. 

I’ll take this time to discuss something that recently came to my attention. Perhaps, you’ve read or heard of a New York Times story about a young girl tossed off the Tennessee cheerleading squad and forced out of the University. All because as a 15yr. Old, she posted a three-second video waving a paper and saying, “I got my learners permit N-word.” Years later, when she entered the University, a former classmate posted the clip all over the internet. The bi-racial young man said he did it “to teach her a lesson.”

Using racial or ethnic epithets are cruel and inflicts pain. I don’t find Jews being called “Slavers” by Louis Farrakhan exchanging pleasantries. This kind of thing has no place in a civilized society. Good manners avoid hurt feelings. But does it apply in this situation?

The high-school freshman posting the video wasn’t using the F-word out of meanness or cruelty. She was using it in a happy announcement of her learner’s permit. Where did she ever get the idea the F-word was in any way upbeat?

It may come as a surprise to some that white kids are big consumers of Rap music. Rap musicians wouldn’t be making near as much if they only appealed to minorities. A lot of white kids think Rap is with it, maybe a little subversive. Rap is all about the words, and the F-word is prominent in the music. If you think rap is cool, it’s because you believe the lyrics are cool.  

Can you think of any music where you could have your life destroyed simply by uttering some of its lyrics? Maybe in a totalitarian state, an anti-government song could get you in trouble, but a single word?

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