https://www.wbjournal.com/article/i-495-among-stretches-state-finds-suitable-for-potential-tolls
TLDR: 10 segments of state highways in Massachusetts are 'suitable' for to add pay to drive aka tolls. At the top of the list: [parts of] I-93. The rest of the list [parts of]: I-95, I-495, Route 2, Route 27 and Route 139. They want to copy existing programs from VA and UT. This proposal is still in the report stage.
Commentary: This is on top of the existing state gasoline tax that is supposed to pay for roads. One of the reasons for this is electric cars don't pay the gas tax so governments first pushed hard for electric and hybrid cars without thinking about the lost revenues. Alternative taxes such as on tires, flat vehicle taxes/fees, increased registration fees, have all been proposed. Governor Charlie Baker (RINO-MA) looks to be pulling out of a gas-based carbon tax which is good -- we shouldn't be paying for these programs until after the roads are fixed.
The claimed reason is congestion, but congestion is its own deterrent, it's about the money.
This sort of study tends to be the 'softening.' It's put out there as a trial balloon to see who pushes back, then slides in like a noxious fume. I'd estimate it would happen after the 2022 state elections once everyone is safely reelected.
Most of the above roads aren't in the western part of the state, but it just means Boston gets screwed first then they cry 'fair' to drag the rest of the state highways into 100% pay-to-drive.
Tolls may help repair the roads and keep them in shape, but like other transportation fees, they drive up the cost of anything that needs to be transported and in doing so, add inflation into the economy.
Story Title:
Report: Newly-Elected GOP Rep. Asks to Carry Gun on U.S. Capitol Grounds
Should have read:
Newly-Elected GOP Rep. makes courtesy call on Capitol Police to let them know she will be exercising her 2nd Amendment rights
The reporter, AWR Hawkins usually does a good job on 2A reporting, but he slipped on this one.
TLDR: Newly elected US Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) is based and may carry concealed. The 2017 attack on congressmen at a baseball game is one of the reasons more congressmen are carrying .
Maryland has joined NYC in going down the slippery slope.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) announced the deployment of “high visibility compliance units” ...
TLDR: All hands on deck for Cops in the down town and other areas to enforce lockdown BS. Snitch phone lines.
Commentary: The mood of the law enforcement officers will be hard to gauge. Maybe getting holiday pay, but being kept away from their families. They are supposed to "educate" but no information available in the article as to if this is a written citation or worse or just the verbals. Since the liquor and health boards are involved, businesses will be put at risk for their licenses.
Video of Hogan announcement: https://youtu.be/k5wfwhW_8uM
https://governor.maryland.gov/2020/11/10/governor-hogan-announces-series-of-actions-to-slow-the-spread-of-covid-19/ Hogans' past orders.
Added: The Gov. Doubles down, you have no rights: https://www.lacortenews.com/n/maryland-gov-says-nobody-has-constitutional-right-to-walk-around-without-a-mask
NYC Story Report: NYC will have checkpoints to check your papers, comrades. https://thedonald.win/p/11QS2tMnnE/nyc-comrades-your-papers-and-int/
New York City will have vehicle checkpoints at key bridges and crossings, and will strictly enforce the travel quarantine, Sheriff Joseph Fucito said. The sheriff’s office will conduct spot checks when out-of-state buses drop riders off at the curb
Added: Maryland too: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/11/24/maryland-gov-hogan-announces-deployment-of-high-visibility-coronavirus-compliance-units/
Trump went to Afghanistan and served Thanksgiving Dinner to the troops.
President Trump surprised American soldiers in Afghanistan after meeting with Afghan President Ghani, making an unannounced visit to Bagram Air Field on Thanksgiving Day The President served Turkey to hundreds of troops and expressed his gratitude for their service,
Added: Remember the MSM (Newsweek, Jessica Kwong 11/28/2019 was one of them) made fun of Trump "Tweeting and Playing Golf" on this very Thanksgiving when he was flying into a war zone to make peace. When they MSM doesn't have a story they make it up.
Chinese Communist President Xi Jinping wants travelers to adopt a global QR code system to help determine their health status and travel “permissions” in a post-coronavirus pandemic travel reset...
Commentary: There are enough scared people that this could look like a good idea. It can't be fought that way, it'll have to be fought as a constitutional [Individual States and Federal] issue. A lot of the current emergency legislation may come out of the past. Some of this may have been shot down in the courts but some not, and in other cases, the laws rewritten to be constitutional.
But first, Stop the Steal.
TLDR: All Youtube Videos will have ads. If you don't have 1000 subs and 4000 watch hours you are ineligible to get paid for this. If you do qualify, they are changing legal way they pay you to royalties, which means in some cases, they may be requesting your tax information & PII for withholding.
Story Link: https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/20/youtube_ad_payments/
Commentary: If you are a small creator, you're screwed. If you are a consumer, you're not screwed yet, but it seems these ads drop randomly into the video, interrupting the flow.
Since they will be more advertiser based, assume that 'advertiser' friendly' may be emphasized more and may lead to more deplatforming, screwing both viewers and creators.
There are a number of excellent content creators who are 100% Patreon supported. These creators have ads turned off because they don't need them and don't want their viewers to have to see them or to have their viewers see ads that contradict the video content. [Example, a tool review video suggests a particular product has flaws, but the keywords trigger an ad from the manufacturer]
This change may also cost them their independence if creator's content can no longer tell it like it is, and now have to be 'advertiser friendly.' At the least, can we expect "This content is disputed" tags? Eventually it will result in video takedowns of non-political, non-infringing content.
I'm sure creators are going to provide 'feedback' to YT, so probably no TDW action required, but be aware that youtube may be getting less useful as a platform.
A niqab covers the face and is worn by some Muslim women to comply with their religious laws in other countries or as tradition when there is religious freedom, such as in the US.
Muslims are not required to wear a St. Christopher's medallion or a cross or other similar Christian item. They are not required to wear Jewish clothing such as a yarmulke.
As a Christian, it infringes on your rights when you are forced to comply with another religion's belief. If you are male, a niqab forces you to cross dress as well.
Agnostics are being forced to choose one religion and Atheists are being forced into religious garb by the state.
These may not be strong arguments. When the State is upset, they tend to stomp all over peoples' rights, even those enumerated in the Bill of Rights or your State Constitution. I still can't find the "except when we are really scared" clause.
Even weak arguments can help move in the right direction. If you want to wear a mask, go ahead. But if not, in addition to health exemptions you now have a 1st Amendment argument to go along with that.
Part of a series.
https://thedonald.win/p/11Q8q9oZ0d/the-great-demasking-a-first-step/
TLDR: Tests not good enough. Stay home, Wear the niqab.
https://www.wbap.com/news/alan-dershowitz-to-newsmax-tv-path-to-270-may-be-scotus-or-house/
[Can't find the original NewsMax or other link]
TLDR: The Trump Campaign needs to get 37 EV or more disqualified to move the election to the US House. This would be done by disqualifying those EVs that were the fruit of illegal actions.
In this story or another, Dershowitz seemed to think the lack of time would prevent Trump from being able to claiming these EVs. [They would just move to the 'middle']
Supplemental Notes: PA is 20 EV, GA is 16 EV WI is 10 EV MI is 16 EV, AZ is 11 EV.
Caveat: Dershowitz has said he's not part of the Trump Campaign, as a result, he's a smart observer looking in from the outside.
https://www.eatliver.com/creepy-uncle-joe-sniffing-hair/
Some already seen here, some that may be new.
A collection of about 20 photos of Creepy Joe sniffin' all ages, all races and all genders. Hillary too.
Karen Jones, 55, was arrested and bonded out at $1500 for threatening to shoot the Florida Govenor and both Florida US Senators.
She claims it was a joke. I guess she forgot to add "...in Minecraft"
TLDR: Ratings bad compared to last year and they no longer have the election coverage to blame.
https://www.lacortenews.com/n/new-york-gov-cuomo-will-get-a-raise-in-2021
Will get +$25K, for a total of $250K/yr and highest paid governor in the states. Newsom will probably throw a tandrum.
In other news, New York has a $63 billion budget deficit and Cuomo has asked the federal government for more money.
TLDR: don't get excited about individual curfews. They are probably not legally binding, but be careful, because the guy with the gun may not know that.
Disclaimer: IANAL and no references in this post, but are available out on the internet.
- Most Curfew laws tend to be aimed at those underage.
- Underage curfew laws haven't been challenged in the SCOTUS.
- The Underage usually have less rights legally recognized.
- The Underage can protest a curfew, after the curfew hour with 1st Amendment protection.
- Curfews on the entire population have to be narrowly tailored to support a specific state interest. Curfews during civil unrest [Rodney King riots] a Hurricane or other extremely severe weather event finite in length, breadth and area are allowed. The Chinese flu doesn't seem to fit this in many ways. The wuflu "orders" issued also don't match up with length, breadth or area when it comes to things like "essential businesses".
- Curfew laws generally originate in the state legislatures. Regulations and Orders can originate elsewhere and may or may not exceed legal authority. The Executive branch carries out law enforcement.
Read your states "Curfew" "Order" very carefully. In Massachusetts they are 'asking' individuals because they do not have the authority to order individuals to stay home after 10pm.
This may be the case in other states. You need the language in the government order, not what the media reported. You may need to go find the law that enables the government to do this. At least around here, they cite it with a page of "Whereas" in each order.
Caveats
- If it's illegal for them to legally sanction you for this may not stop them. For each chief or sheriff that has told their governor they won't enforce, there could be another on the other side that will, even if they are not allowed to. Having the phone number of a lawyer could be useful.
- If the curfew order is illegal, you may suffer before the government is told to get stuffed, and with courts closed, this could hang over your head for a while before it goes away. Just because they are wrong, doesn't mean they won't use the force at their hands. They can also us the opportunity to charge other 'crimes'.
- Businesses aren't people. They are hostages to their licenses and not all can afford ignore the threat of force of government.
On a story about who Biden would pick for his conspiracy, the Biden transition website was listed among the "news" sources covering the event.
https://www.ien.com/home/news/21203151/michigan-governor-seeks-shutdown-of-great-lakes-oil-pipeline
Whitmer took legal action last Friday to shut down an oil pipeline that has been running since 1953. The Michigan AG, Dana Nessel, is also involved.
The basis of Whitless's action is a few facts and a lot of "OMG, this bad thing might happen"
Added: Breitbart now carrying the story: https://www.breitbart.com/health/2020/11/16/as-california-braces-for-curfew-some-lawmakers-gather-in-maui-hawaii/
Added: LaCorte now carrying the story: https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2020/11/16/california-lawmakers-head-to-maui-with-lobbyists-despite-pandemic-travel-warnings-1336605
At a time when California is supposed to be closed down, unnamed Legislators from California, Texas, and Washington and going to hang in Hawaii at 4 day conference sponsored by the Independent Voter Project. Might be worth watching the Airport or Hotel, the Fairmont Kea Lani in Maui, to figure out who.
IVP Conference Info https://ivn.us/posts/annual-maui-conference-yields-frank-policy-discussion-of-california-politics Can't find a date.
[Had to use the Faux News Link, the SFO Chronicle link in the FN story is to a different story]
The "one million kids with wuflu" cross the chyron today.
TLDR: 4 million times the number of age groups in a subpopulation is number of people in that group. With a raw headline number and the population size, you can extract a rate, which often provides more accurate telling of the tale.
Lesson below: How to do very quick math to debunk this while you are in the middle of a conversation.
In rough numbers 4 million kids are born each year in the USA. It's a little more, but close enough. [1].
It drops a little by year 1, some kids don't make it their first year, but even with this, the 4 million number is more or less steady until you get to age 65. It's close enough for rough in-your-head calculation.
"Kids." If you take the difference between 17 years old and new born, I get 18 years of kids, since we are starting at zero. Start-End+1. to get the count. Other common groups are "School Age kids 5-17 or 5-18. Sometimes 5-22 when someone is screwing with the numbers.) "Teens" would be 19-13+1 or 7 years.
4 million times count is the population size.
Going back to the chryon, "Kids" as 0-17 would be 18 times 4 million or 72 million. One Meeeeeeellion is a very large scary number. One kid in 72 is a lot less frightening. Even if you want to argue about 17 years old, the rate only changes a little to one in 68.
2A: Leaving the flu behind, the other time 'kids' get involved tends to be stories about gun control that throw wild numbers around. X number of kids/teens/children/etc [insert-some-verb-ing] from guns.
You get a statement: "15,000 teens are murdered by handguns every year." Working the math out, it would be out of 28 million teens. But as a percent it's a tiny number [2]. The 15,000 number incidentally, was complete made up crap. It's about 250% higher than the total annual number of handgun murders across all age groups, but rattled off, it can sound plausible. Some stories have twisted the numbers worse, into the millions. Others could 18 and 19 yr olds as kids too, as it bloats the "kid" statistics by including 2 years of adults.
Homework: look at https://www.aftermath.com/content/accidental-shooting-deaths-statistics/ [3] go find the numbers that don't fit and where the numbers are stretched.
Back to the Wuflu. Below the age of 55 are 56 age groups, or 224 million people and below 65 it's 265 million. Above 65, the 4 million rule of thumb starts to break down a little, but given the wuflu effects older people more severely and younger people less so,, those are still some quick numbers you can calculate in your head with outrageous numbers are tossed in front of you.
Other Note: Take half if you are in a conversation about boys or girls, or men or women. Sometimes only one gender gets dragged into a numerically bad headline.
[1] Web search for us population pyramid.
[2] One is too many and zero, sorry to say, is not going to happen anytime soon.
[3] I did a search for gun deaths and grabbed this page from the results, at random.
Added: See also https://thedonald.win/p/11Q8qFUG1u/wisconsin-elections-commission-s/c/ here on TDW.
Updated: According to Lacorte, Trump will spend $3M for a partial recount of WI. https://www.lacortenews.com/n/trump-campaign-spends-3m-to-file-for-recount-in-key-wisconsin-counties As of the story, the money had been wired, the legal paperwork was pending
TLDR: Trump has to file by Wednesday 5pm, the date after the last certification. The recount could the next day be done no later than Dec. 1. $7.9 million is an estimate, 4 years ago one party was told $3.5M and it cost $2M.
Trump has request this and to pay for it, because the final WI results are looking to be 0.6% with 68/72 of counties certified. A free recount could have happened if it was 0.25 percent difference or less.
"Trump could also be refunded some of the cost if the estimate is too high. He could also decide to pursue a recount only in some counties, which would also reduce costs."
It may be worth watching Wales over the next 30 days.
Wales came out of their 'Firebreak" 17 day lock down a week ago and went to 'lighter' regulations. They are different culture and cannot be compared 1:1 with the US or even England. Their population is 3 million. Over the next few weeks, It be worth checking to see if they accomplished anything other than more economic damage. Anecdotal evidence suggests really bad things happened economically, but wuflu graphs get updated daily and economies less often.
When searching the Web, "Circuit Breaker lock down" is also a term used. One other goal of these type of lock downs is not to stop the spread, but instead to let the bureaucracy catch up, as well as 'being easier to sell' to the public.
Perverse Result: After being under almost total house confinement for 17 days, the Welsh jammed into their local stores and restaurants, glad to see other people, at least according to one report.
"Circuit Breaker" and "Fire Break" shutdowns have been discussed by other governments, Wales is just the most recent to do it.
https://coronaviruscymru.wales/graphs
This lock down ended on November 9th, it'll be at least 2-4 weeks to see if they stay flat or nothing really changed.
Caveats:
The graphs do not cover the exact same time periods.
There aren't obvious definitions on what is a wuflu caused death vs 'died of another cause and had wuflu antibodies'.
The site with the graphs may not be an official government website. There is a "buy me a coffee" link on the web site.
Is it time to spell this out and bring the "Socialist" part to the forefront?
The full name of Nazi translated to the English language is "National Socialist German Workers' Party".
The full name makes the Socialism part obvious.
It should be easy enough to create a text replacement "Nazi" -> "Nazi (National Socialist German Workers' Party)" so it just happens.
Alternatively: National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi) on first use for more formal writing, then just Nazi's after that.