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January 2026
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  • States Galore – it’s a’comin’

    George Rebane

    After three weeks into the Biden administration and Democrat congressional majorities, we have all noticed the latest facet of how the evil party operates.  As Bill McGurn observes in the 9feb21 WSJ (here), “Democrats are happy to throw over any rule, custom, or convention that gets in their way.”  In these short weeks the examples of their modus operandi are legion and growing.  The biggest hoax pushed by Biden in his inauguration speech was that he would be “the unifier”.  Well, that turned out to be the biggest load of crap right out the gate.

    These changes reach all the way from the vindictive second impeachment, through partisan ramming through of the humongous $1.9T ‘relief package’, to the butt stupid repeal of and effective EO to successfully fight the country’s other pandemic – our ongoing and tragic opioid addiction.  In the latter case Biden revoked Trump’s waiver of physicians having to get some extraneous training before being able to prescribe buprenorphine – an enormously effective treatment for opioid addiction that has demonstrated itself in several other countries, e.g. France, where it is widely dispensed to addicts.  To reinstate and expand the use of this therapeutic will require navigating a bureaucratic morass while people continue to die. (more here)

    But in addition to violating the Byrd Rule that prevents packing budget ‘reconciliation’ with non-budget items that could not pass on their own merits, and moving toward eliminating the 60-vote filibuster, and eliminating the Electoral College, the biggest Democrat travesty is their intention to ideologically pack not only SCOTUS, but also the Senate.  The latter ploy would be achieved by making Washington DC into our 51st state, guaranteeing the addition of two more perennially progressive leftwing senators.

    What no one seems to understand yet is that this can of worms, once opened, can be enjoyed by both sides.  If politically proven partisan cities can easily be made into states by the party in power, then what will prevent the Republicans from doing the same when they again become top dogs in DC?  Why can they not then pick a city or two in America’s heartland that are reliably Republican, and make them into our newest states?  There must be some Democrat with a 3-digit IQ who has thought of that possibility.

    So, if the Dems go ahead with this, the biggest rule change of all, then they must strongly believe that they are on the cusp of making the United States into a permanent one-party state, as we have long surmised in these pages.  Then today’s visibly burgeoning autocracies in the leftwing controlled federal government, heavily populated states (led, of course, by California), and large urban centers will compliantly meld into the national tyranny that half the country has feared during recent decades.

    And the alternative to one-party tyranny will then be a destabilizing binge of making states galore until the whole thing collapses.

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  • Sandbox – 9feb21

    [OK, what is the Dems’ ‘logic’ in pursuing Trump’s second impeachment trial in the Senate? gjr]

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  • That Which Must Not Be Known

    George Rebane

    In free societies merit and its reward will always seek a commensurate level.

    As we enter the Biden years, America’s Left has a once in a lifetime opportunity to permanently tip the scales and guide the country into the Marxist future they have been seeking since the Bolshevik Revolution a century ago.  Following Lenin’s dictum in educating our young, our Left, in its co-opting of the Democratic Party, has had unfettered control for the last half-century of the country’s public education.  And by all available observables and measurables (e.g. National Center for Educational Statistics) they have now produced an America that in the large reflects what the late Steve Allen referred to as “national dumbth”.  Today merit has been replaced by mediocrity (more here). The best illustration of this is the political behavior of our least well-read neighbors who have shown themselves to be robotically compliant to the state and its corporatist manufactured reality.

    The eternal goal of collectivist autocracies is to evolve humankind into an amalgamated society that will respond reliably to top-down rule.  A major tool for creating such a population has been the successful decoupling of merit and reward in the American mind.  This has been achieved by appeal to the siren songs of ‘social justice’ and ‘equity’, each having malleable and/or implied meanings that are fashioned daily to promote the latest state diktat.

    The demonstrable aspect of the merit/reward principle in determining human behavior has some compelling corollaries –

    1. Merit always has an open market price.
    2. When reward for recognized merit is withheld, the level of delivered merit declines.
    3. When reward for recognized merit is lavished, it invites an increased supply of merit.

    This universal principle is totally counter to collectivist ideologies in general and today’s progressivist narrative in particular.  The command-and-control elites of autocratic governments understand the merit/reward relationship, and use it cynically in shaping public policies designed to hide its teachings.

    (more…)

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  • Facts, Speech, and Reach

    George Rebane

    We are all isolated from ‘facts’ by at least one layer of biased intermediaries.

    In recent editions of our local Union we continue to read its columnists and letter writers who devoutly believe in and repeatedly cite versions of the late Senator Moynihan’s famous dictum – ‘You are free to have your own opinions, but not your own facts.’  In recent years our polarized country has demonstrated countless times that in addition to their own opinions, people now have their own histories, logics, social contracts, ethics, science, sense of justice, equality, equity, lexicons of highly charged terms, and, not least of all, their very own facts – and all of these backed by equally countless online citations.  The NYT acknowledges all this, asking “How do you unite a country in which millions of people have chosen to create their own version of reality?”  All of these realities are proudly on display in their heartfelt and intense communications that promote their own worldviews.  Who among us is the final arbiter of any of these cultural and ideological notions to pronounce that this is truth and that is not?

    (more…)

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  • Sandbox – 2feb21

    [Bumblebrain Biden has proven himself to be everything predicted.  Everything he has touched so far has been or quickly turned to bullpucky for Americans and our nation’s future.  I now challenge readers; who will be the first one to discover something beneficial that he will do in the time to come.  Since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, we will only accept beholders of the conservetarian et al leanings.  gjr]

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  • Dark Days Diary – 1feb21 (updated 3feb21)

    George Rebane

    The latest 2nd Amendment attack is in progress.  HR127 has been introduced in the House (here).  The high hard one starts with, “The Attorney General, through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, shall establish a system for licensing the possession of firearms or ammunition in the United States, and for the registration with the Bureau of each firearm present in the United States.”  From there it gets worse, in Sec (c)(1)(A) the law would require all Americans possessing firearms to have each one registered, each type of ammunition registered, pass a criminal background check, pass a psychological evaluation, successfully complete a training course, and take out a special firearms insurance policy.  This is called constructive abrogation of the 2nd Amendment.  From there it is one short step to subsequent prohibition and “surrendering” of select firearms since their owners and locations will be known by the feds.  Violation of any of the bill’s strictures carry long minimum prison sentences and fines that will leave the overwhelming fraction of Americans destitute.  The total disarming of law-abiding American citizens is the goal.  Criminals, illegal aliens, terrorists, … will not be affected.

    How the Democrats killed thousands of Americans, and many others elsewhere, is now coming to light.  Starting in the spring of 2020, the Dems and their lamestream lackies strongly opposed Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and Ivermectin for use against C19. (example here)  Why?  Because President Trump spoke hopefully about the effectiveness of HCQ as demonstrated in the EU, Africa, and Asia.  The Democrat Death machine would have nothing get in the way of their narrative that the Trump administration was mismanaging the country’s C19 response – high body counts were the gold standard for their allegations.  If thousands had to die in order to keep their election-year imperative a viable issue (they had no other policies to offer) in the daily news, then so be it – it was all for the greater omelet, and more than a few eggs needed to be cracked.  Well, it turns out that these well-established medicines have proven to be huge lifesavers around the world (more here), and now that Biden is in office, even the FDA is putting HCQ on its approval list (here).  HCQ has proven very effective as a therapeutic in the early stages of C19, and Ivermectin is probably the hands down champion cheap drug for both prevention and treatment of C19.  Since the US is seen as the leader in C19 response policies, the death counts, when totaled with other countries similarly delaying the use of these drugs, may number in the millions.  Collectivist politics über alles – historically, whatever they touch is followed by death and desolation.  (There are other news references to this revisionist policy which I'll dig out later.)

    [2feb21 update]  Re the efficacy of politically incorrect medicines like HCQ and Ivermectin for C19 prevention and treatment, we had a routine visit with our physician today and the conversation inevitably turned to the pandemic.  We talked extensively about alternative prophylactics and therapeutics to the anti-viral Remdesivir and the recently developed vaccines.  To make a long story short, our physician and colleagues have for months now been taking a daily dose of HCQ.  He confirmed that almost all we’ve heard about the pandemic and the ‘science’ behind the response policies is utter bullshit.  We will now join him in this regimen and get our first vaccination shot next week.  Our litigious justice system, abetted by the corporatists’ social media and the Democrats’ lamestream, advise against the broad dissemination of this knowledge, but it does not prohibit their practicing ‘Physician, heal thyself!’

    [3feb21 update]  More on the Democrat C19 killing machine.  The 3feb21 WSJ reports (here) on corporatist YouTube’s recent censorship of critical lifesaving testimony to the Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs – “(Google's YouTube) censors testimony from physicians on early treatment for Covid-19 patients.”  At that hearing two medical experts gave evidence of the efficacy of alternative medicines in the treatment of C19, one of which was Ivermectin. Dr Pierre Kory reported on the most recently published clinical study of that medicine involving 1,200 healthcare workers, 800 of whom received Ivermectin and 400 received a placebo.  Subsequently, none of the 800 contracted C19 while 58% of the 400 did.  The Democrat-led warpath against Trump has kept America’s healthcare institutions on tenterhooks to do nothing that would draw the wrath of leftwing politicos and their lamestream legions.  As a result, America early on rejected regimens using safe and established medicines that could have saved thousands of lives and mitigated the draconian lockdowns that have destroyed so much of our economy – all to support their drumbeat narrative of Trump’s mishandling the country’s response to the pandemic.

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  • Reliability in Predicting Termination of Minimally Known Processes

    George Rebane

    This mildly technical posting is intended for those concerned with the use of R-G Theory to predict the termination (and continuance) of minimally known processes (MKPs).  As initially posted in these pages and subsequently expanded, I extended Richard Gott’s seminal work that applied the Copernican perspective to calculating the probability of longevity for the human species (here).  R-G Theory now enables such probabilistic calculations for both continuous and discrete event ongoing MKPs known only by their age or lifetime.

    We all run into many MKPs in our daily round.  These range from stock market trends through the arrival of a delivery to successful observations of periodic or repeating events.  The basic question answered is ‘Given only the age or lifetime of an ongoing process, what is the probability that it will terminate in a specified future time interval?’  A classic example used here is, ‘The Old Faithful Geyser has been erupting for 11,000 years, what is the probability that it will cease eruptions in the next year? the next ten years? or even between 13 February 2081 and 22 October 2119?

    The present addition to R-G introduced here involves the calculation of the reliability (or error distribution) of the calculated probabilities, given the assumed/measured uncertainties in the age or longevity of the MKP in question.  The detailed technical dissertation that provides these answers is introduced in ‘R-G Theory Propagation of Error’ (Download R-G Error Prop) which references the technical development in TN2011-2: R-G Error Propagation (Download TN2011-2_R-GerrorPropagation).

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  • ‘Speech and Sedition in 2021’

    George Rebane

    That is the title of the important lead editorial (here) in the 30jan21 WSJ, and very relevant to the ongoing discussions and debates on these pages.  The whole notion of speech-based sedition arose with the Federalists who essentially ran the government of the newly born United States.  The Federalists and their agencies, did not consider themselves as a political party, they simply saw themselves as THE government when they passed the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798.  Therefore, any speech that opposed them or their ideas opposed the government, and was therefore by definition seditious.  The Democrats of today have overwhelmed themselves into the same government positions and the same mindset.

    Today the WaPo again supplies one of the abundant confirmations of this by arguing that the Federalists’ stratagems with such legislation and its enforcements did not go far enough, and was therefore “flawed”.  This is buttressed by Democrats who “increasingly see domestic enemies wherever they look, and are devising ways to use levers of power to restrict, regulate and boycott opposition. It’s an extraordinary and ominous turn in a democracy.”

    (more…)

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  • India Cracks COVID Code (updated 30jan21)

    George Rebane

    For many weeks now we’ve been hearing a lot about the astounding C19 stats coming out of India.  Their rate of confirmed C19 cases is shown in the figure below as compiled by Johns Hopkins University.  And how have they achieved such astounding results?

    C19cases

    The answer lies in the country’s taking a radically different tack for both C19 prevention and therapeutics that emphasizes the use of off-shelf anti-viral and anti-parasitic drugs which have been dunned by our healthcare industry, both private and governmental.  The more complete story is told in ‘India Develops Effective COVID Treatment for Under $3 Per Person While America Remains in Vaccine Frenzy’.  (H/T to reader) The bottom line is that India’s government distributes anti-C19 packets – labelled Ziverdo – based on Ivermectin and Hydrochloroquine (early on touted by President Trump) that cost about $2.65 each.  I have posted on both Ivermectin and HCQ which have yet to receive AMA or FDA approval while big pharma’s expensive vaccines have enjoyed an historical fast track into people’s arms.

    Ziverdo kits are available from multiple sources (here) for those wishing to lay in an extra layer of protection against C19.  Ziverdo is reported effective both as a prophylactic and a therapeutic as demonstrated by the available hospitalization and mortality stats.

    One reason why the lamestream does not publicize this news is that early on President Trump was in favor of existing bio-chemical medicines to fight C19, an approach that did not comport with the Left’s making the pandemic as bad as possible during the 2020 election year.  Why outlets like FN have not picked up on this is a puzzle to me.  Yet one more item to add to the evidence for the ongoing global fraud. (more here)  Perhaps readers have better insights.

    [30jan21 update]  Apparently Congress and the federal government has been fully apprised of India’s major response to C19 with it dispensing of millions of Ziverdo kits to be used as both a prophylactic and a therapeutic.  In our media we have heard nothing of this; how come?  Here is a report of recent testimony to the Senate’s Homeland Security Committee, and here another study recommending use of Ivermectin.  Everyone’s lips seemed to be securely sealed.  (H/T to reader)

    For more information on the Ziverdo kits and their recommended usage, here is the website of one of its purveyors.

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  • Dark Days Diary – 28jan21 (updated 30jan21)

    George Rebane

    Quietech in Grass Valley is a very capable local computer service store owned and run by Melissa Hannebrink.  The Rebanes have been satisfied customers since Melissa’s retired father established the business.  This morning Melissa sent her customers an email that begins with, “I am writing you today with a very heavy heart. As I have shared with some of you, here at Quietech we have endured daily abuse over the past 10 months. By enforcing basic COVID guidelines, there are some who feel their rights are being infringed upon. In addition, we have some who walk through our doors and are so disappointed to find that they aren’t next in line, or that they can’t have their device fixed on-the-spot, that they have full-blown tantrums. These unfulfillable expectations, in addition to the pressures of COVID, seem to be creating the perfect storm for abuse, shockingly even from some of our longest-standing clients. This morning, we had an incident that went too far. We decided to temporarily close to regroup, although the last thing we want is to close our doors and stop helping those in our community who need us.”  As the country sinks into its woke-powered autocracy, we will be reminded more frequently than ever that a gossamer thin veil separates civilization from barbarians at the gate.

    Welcome to the After-Trump Era.  Victor Davis Hanson explains the matter to us in his latest commentary.  There he points out, “During the Trump Age, the president was supposedly responsible for every death from COVID-19. Now, the media report that career scientists and health administrators in the federal government, especially at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were largely to blame for past slow testing, and were tardy and lax in apprising the nation of the infectious threat. … In the new age, expect the media and government to suddenly resent any pushback against a sitting president. Questions about the Biden family’s past multimillion-dollar influence-peddling overseas or Biden’s cognitive ability can no longer be asked. … None will compare the recurring violence of Antifa or Black Lives Matter to that of Islamic terrorists. None will compare Biden, who dismissed Antifa as a mere “idea,” to Mussolini or the Nazis. Any retired officer who smears the president, we will be reminded, would violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice. … The media, Silicon Valley, Wall Street, Hollywood, top retired military brass, corporate America, universities, and professional sports are all recalibrating the truth for our Year One. … In about a month, they will have it down. And soon, we won’t even be able to tell the old reality from the new.”

    [29jan21 update] Danny Pearl’s killer is set free by Pakistani courts (more here and here).  Pearl, WSJ’s South Asia bureau chief, was kidnapped and beheaded in 2002.  Danny’s parents, who have been fighting the Pakistani justice system for almost twenty years, stated “Today’s decision is a complete travesty of justice” that “puts in danger journalists everywhere, we urge the U.S. government to take all necessary actions under the law to correct this injustice.”  RR has covered this Islamist travesty in previous posts here and here.

    [30jan21 update]  Ms Hannebrink has surprisingly taken exception to my above Quietech entry.  Her remarks with my reply may be found @1058am in the comment stream.  I find it remarkable that she seems to think that I ascribed a political leaning to her remarks, especially when I explicitly declined to do so.

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14 comments on States Galore – it’s a’comin’