Talk about burying the lede

PEACE AND LOVE, BABY

The rioters are prepping for major disruptions around the nation’s cities, but we knew that. Here’s the part that strikes me: the Deep State is geared up to continue its own, ongoing war, one that started even before November 8, 2016.

Another leaked Zoom call viewed by Fox News purportedly showed federal workers, including attorneys and members of the intelligence community, discussing ways to go past street protests and “slow the gears downs” through their bureaucracy should the “election go sideways.” In part, they planned to stack vacation hours and sick days in order to slow down bureaucratic processes.

The video showing clips from that Zoom call remained active on YouTube as of Tuesday morning. 

The documents and video recordings were first obtained by Millie Weaver, founder of the investigative journalist site Millennial Millie.

In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Weaver said the edited clips posted to YouTube were taken from over two-hour long Zoom recordings exposing plots “to exhaust emergency and law enforcement resources.” She said the different names listed as participants on the Zoom calls include federal employees with high-level administrative powers and even former State Department employees with experience related to government insurrections abroad.

The coup continues.

And mind you, though Wolf Blitzer will be dismayed to learn that his predicted white nationalists threatening our cities are actually the usual commie crowd, it’s true, they’ve been planning this for months, regardless of who wins.

A recording purportedly of one training session hosted over Zoom by the “Sunrise Movement” featured Lisa Fithian, who has been described by Mother Jones “as the nation’s best-known protest consultant.”

In the video, Fithian showed a target map displaying all the police stations, key government buildings, media outlets and buildings occupied by “Trump boosters” in the DC area. She discussed “what would it take to surround the White House.”

“We’re facing an administration and a potential coup and a potential insurrection,” Fithian said. “Is there going to be a war? Are people gonna get killed? Like is that on anybody else’s mind? I’m guessing it is. We’re going to see potential fighting all over the country or in some hotspots and we’ve already seen that, so how do we work together across the country to help support each other no matter where we are and to maximize our impact by doing similar things on similar days at similar times?”

Fithian said demonstrators willing to break windows on government buildings should go a step farther and get inside. She told those on the call, “We have to be willing to put our bodies on the line and take on some discomfort and sacrifice risk in order to change things.”

“We are going to be in a crisis but we want to make sure it’s one that we are creating. We want them to be responding to us and us not responding to them. In a situation of a coup or an insurrection or an uprising, whoever’s got the guns, often can win. We should be clear. Trump’s gotta go,” she said, according to the recording of the call posted to the YouTube account SunriseExposed.

The video has since been removed from YouTube for violating community guidelines. 

Various activist groups allegedly coordinated via Zoom calls and at some in-person events for months ahead of Election Day for training sessions targeting anyone from the young street protesters to federal employees “seeking methods of professional civil disobedience.”

The Queen of Mean's palace embarks on its next adventure

521 Round Hill Road has sold for $16.5 million, 25% of its original $65,000,000 2014 asking price. That’s actually a worse performance than this property’s last time around when, listed at $125 million in 2008, it sold for $35 million to these sellers — 28% of ask.

Bill Andruss had this listing and found the buyer, so weep no tears for Bill. Nice job, fella.

(I’ve heard rumors that a private school is moving in, but that’s all I “know” — rumors. We’ll all know soon enough, I’m sure.)

America's Paper of Record makes an important point

The sun will still rise

Gabriel: Election predicted to have no major effect on Eternity.

U.S.—Election Day looms after countless time and money has been spent trying to get people to decide between Donald Trump and Joe Biden and Republicans and Democrats. Surprisingly, predictions are that this election ties for the least important election in all of eternity.

“Neither outcome will have any effect on God’s power,” said the angel Gabriel after getting through his standard “be not afraid” spiel. “It’s all inconsequential in the face of the eternity you should all be striving for. I mean, it's kind of hilarious to watch all of you freaking out about this, but seriously -- chill out.”

Gabriel reminded people that God has watched the rise and fall of countless empires, and whatever the outcome of this one mere election, it will be a part of God’s unalterable plan.

Many people objected to this dismissive attitude, noting all the important issues at stake, but Gabriel pointed out that important issues have always been at stake throughout history, and yet God’s power abides no matter what happens in this fallen world.

Experts, though, aren’t sure how much stock to put in Gabriel’s words, noting that he was not wearing an “I Voted” sticker on his heavenly robes.

Or to put it another way …

Stock up now: as soon as Trump mentions this our health authorities will banish it from the shelves

Banned for your own protection

New Study Finds Taking Aspirin Significantly Lowers Risk Of Complications, Death In COVID-19 Patients

A new landmark study at the University of Maryland School of Medicine found that COVID-19 patients taking a daily, low-dose aspirin to protect against cardiovascular disease significantly lowered the risk of death and complications from COVID-19.

The study found that COVID-19 patients taking aspirin were nearly 50% less likely to die in the hospital and much less likely to be admitted to the ICU and put on a ventilator.

Doctors said because the virus increases the risk of blood clots, it makes sense that aspirin would help infected patients.

Politics, science and the CDC: No science please, we're Washingtonians!

“Vote yet? How many times?”

CDC reverses itself, now decides that, like attendance at BLM rallies, voting in person is safe for you and others around you. Even f infected with COVID cooties, and especially if you’re at the polls to vote for Democrats.

Democrats have apparently started to realize that their strategy of scaring their voters into voting by mail, (whatever motivations you ascribe to the strategy) has been backfiring spectacularly and they are making a desperate push to get more voters to the polls on election day.

The Tar Heel state has received eight times as many postal votes as it had by this point in 2016. Despite fears about first-time absentee voters botching their ballots, the share that are rejected has in fact fallen to 1.3%, from 2.6% in 2016. This is probably due in part to campaigns educating supporters on voting by mail, and also to new efforts by the state to process such ballots.

However, these gains have been concentrated among white and richer voters, causing North Carolina’s already large racial gap in rejection rates to widen. In 2016 black voters sent in 10% of postal ballots, but 18% of discarded ones. This year, those shares are 17% and 42%. That hurts Democrats, who rely on black voters’ support.

https://patriotnewsfeed.com/the-data-coming-in-shows-vote-by-mail-has-backfired-on-democrats/

So yesterday our CDC rode to the rescue:

The day you vote

…

Voters have the right to vote, regardless of whether they are sick or in quarantine.

Voters who are sick or in quarantine should take steps to protect poll workers and other voters. This includes wearing a mask, staying at least 6 feet away from others, and washing your hands or using hand sanitizer before and after voting. You should also let poll workers know that you are sick or in quarantine when you arrive at the polling location. Check with local authorities for any additional guidance.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/going-out/voting-tips.html

What were these protectors of the nation’s health saying last week, before the low-voter-turnout among blacks became apparent? Now for something completely different:

When You Can be Around Others After You Had or Likely Had COVID-19

Updated Oct. 27, 2020

If you have or think you might have COVID-19, it is important to stay home and away from other people. Staying away from others helps stop the spread of COVID-19. If you have an emergency warning sign (including trouble breathing), get emergency medical care immediately.

I think or know I had COVID-19, and I had symptoms

You can be around others after:

10 days since symptoms first appeared and

24 hours with no fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and

Other symptoms of COVID-19 are improving*

…. Note that these recommendations do not apply to persons with severe COVID-19 or with severely weakened immune systems (immunocompromised). These persons should follow the guidance below for “I was severely ill with COVID-19 or have a severely weakened immune system (immunocompromised) due to a health condition or medication. When can I be around others?”

I tested positive for COVID-19 but had no symptoms

If you continue to have no symptoms, you can be with others after 10 days have passed since you had a positive viral test for COVID-19. Most people do not require testing to decide when they can be around others; however, if your healthcare provider recommends testing, they will let you know when you can resume being around others based on your test results.

Hmmm. Well, that all sounds a teensy-bit sketchy, but it certainly doesn’t affect my belief that scientists are screwing around with facts concerning our other crisis, global warming. I mean, manipulating data and inventing scare stories in order to achieve a political goal just isn’t something crypto-socialist scientists would do, ever. Right?

Vote as if your stomach depends on it

(A SUPINE) PROFILE IN COURAGE: SLEEPING HER WAY TO THE TOP WITH WILLIE

if the commie wins, you’ll have to endure at least for years of this kind of icky pablum.

The WaPo’s already begun triggering the nation’s gag reflex

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

At some point in Kamala Harris’s life, in January, she may stand on a stage in front of the U.S. Capitol, and she may take the oath of office.

But I can’t stop thinking of all the other points in her life she’ll carry with her.

How someone must have told her, once, to use her keys as a weapon in a parking lot. How something like that shapes you. How it hopefully makes you into a person who never lets anyone walk in the dark alone.

You won't find this article on Facebook

These 12 charts show that mask mandates do nothing to stop the spread of COVID

The Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford University summarized six international studies which “showed that masks alone have no significant effect in interrupting the spread of ILI or influenza in the general population, nor in healthcare workers.” Oxford went on to say that “that despite two decades of pandemic preparedness, there is considerable uncertainty as to the value of wearing masks.” They prophetically warned that this has “left the field wide open for the play of opinions, radical views and political influence.”

A study of health-care workers in more than 1,600 hospitals showed that cloth masks only filtered out 3 percent of particles. An article in the New England Journal of Medicine stated, “[W]earing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection” and that “[T]he desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic.”

There are many other credible studies showing lack of mask efficacy, such as studies published in the National Center for Biotechnology Information, Cambridge University Press, Oxford Clinical Infectious Diseases, and Influenza Journal, just to name a few.

Studies do show masks can help in the case of direct respiratory droplets, which would matter if somebody is coughing, breathing, or sneezing directly on your face. That happens normally in a tight and highly confined space.

But the plentiful evidence we have indicates masks would not meaningfully help with aerosol transmission, where two people are just in the same area, or even the same room. This is because the two people end up breathing the same air, with or without a mask, as visually demonstrated in this video.

Why Don’t Masks Work?

Why don’t masks work on the general public? For one, if you read the fine print on most consumer masks you will see something along the line of “not intended for medical purposes and has not been tested to reduce the transmission of disease.” Masks can work well when they’re fully sealed, properly fitted, changed often, and have a filter designed for virus-sized particles. This represents none of the common masks available on the consumer market, making universal masking much more of a confidence trick than a medical solution.

If we actually wanted effective masks, then manufacturers should be conducting scientific tests evaluating masks specifically for their ability to reduce the spread of coronavirus. The Food and Drug Administration and CDC should be making recommendations on which masks to use and approving masks based on their scientific efficacy rather than promoting the wrapping of any piece of miscellaneous cloth around your face.

Many powerful institutions have too much political capital invested in the mask narrative at this point, so the dogma is perpetuated.

Effective masks, if they exist, should then be distributed to highly vulnerable groups for use only in rare and extenuating circumstances. There would be little point for the population at large to wear masks all the time because while focused protection may be possible, it is not possible to eradicate the virus at this point or stop its spread.

Our universal use of unscientific face coverings is therefore closer to medieval superstition than it is to science, but many powerful institutions have too much political capital invested in the mask narrative at this point, so the dogma is perpetuated. The narrative says that if cases go down it’s because masks succeeded. It says that if cases go up it’s because masks succeeded in preventing more cases. The narrative simply assumes rather than proves that masks work, despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary. [emphasis added]

The narrative further ignores places like Sweden and Georgia, which never required masks in the first place, and it suppresses new scientific evidence if it doesn’t support desired political results, such as data from the world’s only randomized trialinvestigating if masks actually protect from COVID-19. Even a Nobel laureate has been canceled because his COVID charts and data were found to be undesirable.

History does not bode well for times that politics meddles with science. Martin Kulldorff, a professor at Harvard Medical School and a leader in disease surveillance methods and infectious disease outbreaks, describes the current COVID scientific environment this way: “After 300 years, the Age of Enlightenment has ended.”

In the end, it will be the loss of credibility in our scientific institutions, and the unnecessary division they have sowed among us, for which masks will be remembered.

All twelve of the author’s charts can be found at the link. Here are two:

Can't say they won't be ready

While some of the rougher crowd is preparing to ransack their cities post-election, win or lose, schools and corporate employers are already looking to provide a soft landing.

In Seattle, naturally, they were way ahead of the game:

Earlier this month, more than 6,400 Amazon workers signed a petition calling for election day to be a paid day off, according to Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, a worker activist group. On October 17, activists showed up near a deserted Amazon campus in downtown Seattle to protest the company's current policy and to register voters. Many questioned the goal, given that Washington elections are done entirely by mail, and that anyone can request an absentee ballot if they are in other states

But that’s Seattle, cupcake city. How are things looking in the heartland? For instance, how will stalwart lawyers-in-training handle a possible setback? Let the past — specifically, 2016 — be our guide.

University of Michigan Law School scheduled an event for this Friday called "Post-Election Self-Care With Food and Play" with "stress-busting self-care activities" including coloring, blowing bubbles, sculpting with Play-Doh and "positive card making."

Cornell University hosted a "cry-in," complete with hot chocolate and tissues for disappointed Hillary Clinton supporters. University of Pennsylvania brought in puppies, kittens and coloring books for therapeutic cuddling. Tufts University held arts and crafts sessions for students.

No word yet, but can anyone doubt that the current crop of infants is no tougher than the class of 2020? Surely administrators are already sanitizing safe rooms and rounding up puppies. Just in case?

D.C. Mayor caves in to teacher's union, schools will remain closed

In-person classes for special-ed, non-English speaking, and homeless children were scheduled to resume, but the teachers won’t go along “out of concern for the children’s safety” [sic].

Elizabeth Davis, the union president, told members to take the day off from interacting with administrators and the school district but not with students. "We do not want the appearance that we are abandoning our students," Davis said. "Stay in touch with students via text messaging, phone calls, emails, or Zoom meetings."

One D.C. resident with children in the school system told the Washington Free Beacon that teachers have not interacted with students, and families are not privy to their teachers' personal contact information. The mother of three also noted that one of her children's teachers did not communicate that they would be absent from online learning ahead of time.

"Throughout this entire effort, parents and teachers have had to partner…. What happened this morning is a slap in the face to families who have done everything they can to side with their teachers," the mother said. "The teachers effectively said, ‘We are going to play politics with your children.'"

Like the teachers in most areas of the country, D.C.’s have been paid for doing no work since last March, and will incur no financial penalty if they stay out another year. We call that an incentive program, though what’s beig incentivized isn’t necessarily what taxpayers were hoping for.

As for that poor schnook of a parent who’s been siding with the teachers and is only now discovering that the educators are playing political games, using the children as pawns, Honey, where have you been the past fifty years?

Side notes: Union President Elizabeth Davis was arrested and charged with D.U.I., reckless driving, and assorted other bad acts stemming from a car crash last year.

Davis blamed a “poor decision”, and “accepted full responsibility for my actions”. She also supports the BDL movement, but I suppose that’s a quibble.

As for those teachers she’s leading in staying home in indolence, they’re doing very well indeed. Highest pay in the country.

The school system said it currently has the highest first-year teacher salary in the country at $53,000 [2017 - now $57,465 ] as well as the fastest path for teachers to earn a six-figure salary.

Wait, wait: I thought the Muslims were being stirred to rage by secularism; where's the AP to explain this?

Looking for a reason? I’ll give you a hint

Terrorists attack synagogue and Jewish centers in Vienna, killing “several”, wounding more.

The perpetrators could be Trump commandos, I suppose, but my money’s on the murders, when caught, turning out to have names like Mohammed, and Abu Bakr Charlie.

(UPDATE: I stand corrected. One of the shooters was in fact named Kujtim Fejzulai, not Mohammed or Abu. FWIW regrets the error. Of interest, perhaps, is that Mr. Fejzulai was sentenced to 22-months in jail back in April 2019 for attempting to join an ISIS branch, but was released after 9 months because he was a juvenile, and what harm can a sweet, 18-year-old puppy do?

I’m not sure how the media will conflate practicing Jews with blasphemous French secularists and blame them both for angering our Muslim friends, but I’m confident that it will.