Protestant "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God" gets a hearing in Roman Catholic/Jewish dominated National Review

From the story, which draws a straight line from the human equality and freedom in Christ taught in St. Paul's Letter to the Romans right on through St. Augustine and Martin Luther to the American Revolution:

 

In the years leading up to the American Revolution, Jonathan Mayhew preached a widely disseminated sermon justifying rebellion against tyranny. His text was Romans, Chapter 13 — Paul’s instruction to believers to submit to political authorities: 

 

Thus, upon a careful review of the apostle’s reasoning in this passage, it appears that his arguments to enforce submission, are of such a nature, as to conclude only in favor of submission to such rulers as he himself describes, i.e., such as rule for the good of society, which is the only end of their institution. Common tyrants, and public oppressors, are not entitled to obedience from their subjects, by virtue of anything here laid down by the inspired apostle.

 

John Adams, reflecting on the origins of the Revolution years later, cited Mayhew’s sermon as a factor in persuading pious believers of the legitimacy of political resistance. Mayhew may also have persuaded the more secular-minded Ben Franklin, whose proposed motto for the American seal was “rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.”

 

Our Christians never talk this way anymore, unfortunately

 

Military successes, above all others, elevate the minds of a people.

-- Bishop Francis Atterbury (1662-1732)

LOL, my progressive neighbor lady was trying to set me straight on COVID-19 the other day by insisting that the case fatality rate was 3.4%

Which was true . . . way back in March 2020.

She's still using talking points from over a year ago, which she cuts and pastes into her emails.

The lights are on, but no one is home. 

I liked her better not knowing this, alas.

For the US to date the cfr is 1.6% and globally to date it's 2.05%, per Johns Hopkins this morning.

Notice, by the way, the imprecision in the popular press below, which was widespread at the time and even came out of Anthony Fauci's own mouth, mixing up case fatality rate and mortality rate. Mortality rate is usually expressed in deaths/100k/year, case fatality rate as a percentage of cases dying, which fluctuates constantly, obviously.

The cfr has been in steady decline, and consequently the mortality rate for the second year of the pandemic is going to be much lower than for the first year.

You can repeal the 19th Amendment, but you can't repeal the hysteria.

 

The bloodthirsty intersection of liberalism and libertarianism: "I don't care if I'm still spreading coronavirus, I'm vaccinated and won't become seriously ill"

 

Huge COVID-19 outbreak among fully vaccinated Texas prison inmates mirrors huge Provincetown, MA, outbreak among fully vaccinated gay revelers July 4: The vaccinated are spreading the disease

 Story BURIED by AP Obama here (Drudge also buried the story last night, shown below):

NEW YORK — A new study of Texas prison inmates provides more evidence that coronavirus can spread even in groups where most people are vaccinated.

A COVID-19 outbreak at a federal prison in July and August infected 172 male inmates in two prison housing units, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Tuesday.

About 80% of the inmates in the units had been vaccinated. More than 90% of the unvaccinated inmates wound up being infected, as did 70% of the fully vaccinated prisoners.

Severe illness, however, was more common among the unvaccinated. The hospitalization rate was almost 10 times higher for them compared with those who got the shots.

It echoes research into a July outbreak in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where several hundred people were infected -- about three-quarters of whom were fully vaccinated.

Such reports have prompted a renewed push by health officials for even vaccinated people to wear masks and take other precautions. They believe the delta variant, a version of coronavirus that spreads more easily, and possibly waning immunity may be playing a role.

The authors did not identify the prison, but media reports in July detailed a similar-sized outbreak at the federal prison in Texarkana.

Just look at that html:

https://apnews.com/article/business-health-education-florida-pandemics-9aa03a247c10215079cafff898b60ab7

 

 

You know your vaccine is in trouble when its effectiveness among its most vulnerable recipients drops by 22 points in just a couple of months

Especially when they start out not-so-hot to begin with.

CDC, Aug 18, 2021:

Two doses of mRNA vaccines were 74.7% effective against infection among nursing home residents early in the vaccination program (March–May 2021). During June–July 2021, when B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant circulation predominated, effectiveness declined significantly to 53.1%. ... This study could not differentiate the independent impact of the Delta variant from other factors, such as potential waning of vaccine-induced immunity. ... nursing home residents were among the earliest groups vaccinated in the United States; thus, if vaccine-induced immunity does wane over time, this decrease in VE might first be observed among nursing home residents.

We've added six earthquakes to this chart since the end of July

 

Wake me when the S&P 500 falls to 1,432

22.7314(63) = 1432

4,545.85 - 68%

LOL, on Sep 17 Jim Cramer got the buy signal from President Biden, three days later (today!) he says sell

Cramer says he ‘just got the buy signal from the president.’ Here’s why and when to buy 

 

Cramer advises investors to sell stocks, says it’s too soon to consider buying the September slide

You have to pay to read that advice by the way.

 

Jim Cramer was once so poor he used to sleep in his car.

Remember that guy who said in early 2020 that the cure must not be worse than the disease?

 

on Feb 3

on Mar 22

 

4,694,251 are dead globally from C19 since then.

The laughs just keep coming: CDC recommends you report your myocarditis problems after C19 vaccination to VAERS!

You know, the same system whose importance the CDC and the entire US medical/big pharma establishment has been trying to undermine all year since it got overwhelmed by citizen reports of adverse events after getting C19 vaccines.

Talk about getting the government runaround.

But no problems, mate. It's not like we are talking about heart muscle death and degeneration here, right fans of the Dallas Criteria? 

You bunch of fucking hypocrites.

 

LOL, can't wait for the La Palma tsunami to ruin everyone's week on the East coast

 

Just to be clear, I'm pro-war

 War is the father of all and the king of all.

LOL, Drudge calls it the "pro-rioter rally", parroting Mediaite verbatim

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Ka-ching, ka-ching.

 

 Pro-Rioter Rally Draws 'Dozens' of Attendees, 'Hundreds' of Cameras...

WATCH: Pro-Rioter ‘Justice for J6’ Rally Draws ‘Dozens’ of Attendees, ‘Hundreds’ of Cameras

 

Inbreeding is much more prevalent today, especially in Asia, North Africa, isolated and island nations, than it was in the prehistoric world

From the study:

... we analyze 1785 ancient individuals from the last 45,000 years, a substantial fraction of the published global human aDNA record. ...

... we find that matings among first-cousins or closer relatives, though widely practiced today in numerous societies, are generally infrequently observed in aDNA data. ...

In contrast to the high abundance of long ROH typical of close kin unions in the present-day individuals, long ROH was uncommon in the ancient individuals, including up to the Middle Ages. Additional data from these regions and others with high levels of long ROH today, such as North Africa as well as Central, South, and West Asia, will help resolve with more precision the origin and spread of these well-studied kinship-based mating systems. Overall, our results show how an ROH-based method can be used to inform understanding of shifts in cultural marriage/mating practices. 

From the story: 

... a new genetic study finds only three percent of prehistoric people were the offspring of cousins. For comparison, researchers say that number is actually ten percent today. 

 

 

Clinton flunky Judge Emmet Sullivan plays the stooge to let Biden appear to be an immigration hawk as record numbers of illegals flood across the southern border with Mexico

 

A federal judge Thursday blocked the Biden administration from exercising a Trump-era policy that allows the U.S. to quickly expel migrants without giving them the chance to apply for asylum.

More. 

And, like clockwork, the Biden administration has appealed the order! See! He's not a total loser!

The Biden administration’s decision to maintain Title 42 was a blow to many immigration advocates and progressive Democrats who had hoped the federal government would choose to put an end to the policy after Thursday’s ruling. 

Story.

FDA committee votes 16-2 AGAINST giving C19 booster shots to the general population at this time

 But the FDA could still decide to pull the trigger anyway.

Story.

After Biden's disgraceful withdrawal from Afghanistan, General Milley's disgraceful check on President Trump, now we learn of the appearance of Federal Reserve corruption

The reputation of major US institutions is headed to hell in a handbasket.

Fed Chief Powell, other officials owned securities central bank bought during Covid pandemic

Dennis Kelleher, CEO of the nonprofit Better Markets, said if some of these Fed actions are not against the rules, the rules need to change.

“To think that such trading is acceptable because it is supposedly allowed by Fed’s current policies only highlights that the Fed’s policies are woefully deficient,” Kelleher told CNBC.

 

Milley's a POS, but so is Trump

 Trump later said he picked Milley to spite Mattis, who has since criticized his former boss. 

More.

I've gotta ask it

Did the CDC release the Sep 10 study the day before the 9/11 anniversary hoping everyone would ignore it?

The 10th was also a Friday, the usual day for the government to publish the bad news while everyone is getting ready for the weekend.

The study is also noteworthy for its "Look! Over there! A deer!" quality, repeatedly framing how  everything "is higher in unvaccinated than vaccinated persons".

And look how that title assiduously avoids using the word "breakthrough", too. 

It's like a whole package of screams shouting "Nothing to see here!"

 

On Sep 10 the CDC admitted that breakthrough cases have more than tripled in June-July compared to April-June, breakthrough hospitalizations and deaths doubled

None dare call it vaccine failure. CDC just calls it lower VE, vaccine effectiveness.

It's buried in paragraph 10:

During April 4–June 19, fully vaccinated persons accounted for 5% of cases, 7% of hospitalizations, and 8% of deaths overall; these percentages were higher during June 20–July 17 (18%, 14%, and 16%, respectively).

Using the reported 37% vaccination coverage for the 13 jurisdictions during April 4–June 19 and an assumption of 90% VE, vaccinated persons would have been expected to account for 6% of cases (close to the 5% observed). With 53% coverage reported during June 20–July 17, vaccinated persons were expected to account for 10% of cases at a constant VE of 90%; the observed 18% would have been expected at a lower VE of 80%.

So as the vaccines wear off, even though you have increased vaccine coverage in the interim, meaning the percentage of the population vaccinated has increased, you get more breakthrough cases, more hospitalizations, and more deaths than you would earlier with less "coverage" because vaccine effectiveness was previously stronger.

In other words, the absence of breakthrough cases early in the mass vaccination effort was simply an illusion, an artifact of not enough time having passed for the VE to decay.

CNN reports the sad story of a 66 year old immunocompromised mother who died of COVID-19 in early September even though she was fully vaccinated in March. She had traveled to Mississippi in July. In her obituary her family blames the unvaccinated in Mississippi for her death.

That's appalling, because waning vaccine effectiveness is to blame, along with her misplaced faith in the vaccines, derived from the 24/7 propaganda sales campaign of the CDC, the federal government and the medical establishment, which have whipped up an hysteria about getting vacccinated to avoid a serious outcome, an outcome which it is increasingly clear this vaccine cannot provide over the long haul.

That's why the booster shot is being teed up.

But the way this is going, you are going to need a booster every few months for the damn thing to do you any good.

And at this point no one knows whether that will be dangerous or not.

But know this. The Powers That Be have heard the objections at the FDA that the most serious side effects to the vaccines come after the second shot. What will happen after a third? A fourth? A fifth? 

They do NOT KNOW.

The vaccines do not make you bullet-proof. The vaccines wear off. And your misplaced faith in them means you can spread the virus asymptomatically, as the July 4 study in Provincetown showed, and eventually you can become more vulnerable to getting COVID-19 yourself.

 

Johns Hopkins: 666k dead of COVID-19 in USA

 

C19 vaccines are working just great in the UK, just great

But while 81.3% of people over 16 have received two vaccine doses, there are currently 8,340 COVID-19 patients in hospital in Britain, compared to just 1,066 a year ago.

Reuters, here.

 

How much you wanna bet our own anti-Trump CIA fed China the bogus intel of an impending attack?

In mid-October 2020, top Pentagon officials grew concerned about intelligence they'd seen. It showed the Chinese were consuming their own intelligence that had made them concerned about the possibility of a surprise U.S. strike against China, three sources familiar with the situation tell Axios.

More.

Many are hospitalized for COVID-19 in the US, but in no state are more than 28% of beds occupied by C19 patients

 

Trump appointed this traitor to chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who called the Chicoms on the phone in January to promise to warn them if we attacked

 

 

 

“If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise,” Milley said.

More.

Climate Update for KGRR: August 2021

Climate Update for KGRR: August 2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Max T 92, Mean 92

 

Min T 53, Mean 47:

 

Tied for sixth warmest August on record to 1892 by minimum temperature, with five other years ("global warming" is a transient phenomenon of recently moderating lows with 56% of the twenty-five warmest Augusts by minimum temperature on record occurring since 1960; that drops to 48% occurring since 1960 for the thirty-eight warmest Augusts by minimum temperature).

Av T 74.3, Mean 70.3:

 

Ninth warmest August on record by average temperature; the top five warmest Augusts were all before 1960.

 

Rain 2.33, Mean 3.06

 

Cooling Degree Days 295, Mean 190:

 

Ninth warmest August on record by CDD; the top five warmest were all before 1960.

 

CDD to date 800, Mean to date 616:

 

Six of the ten warmest years by total annual CDD (all ten above 963) are all before 1940, with 1921 at 1200 way out front as the hottest on record. Mean CDD for September is 76, so it would take a real scorcher in September 2021 to even hope of cracking the top ten for annual CDD. So far we are at 35 CDD in September.  

So The Lancet has published a paper by the two retiring members of the FDA which says booster shots are not recommended right now

What a hoot.

The paper, the SCIENCE, comes out a week before Biden is expected to announce booster shots.

The scientists in The Lancet review include Marion Gruber, director of the FDA’s Office of Vaccines Research and Review, and deputy director Phil Krause. Both are departing the FDA after they were reportedly frustrated over the ... booster shots. ...

They said there are risks to distributing boosters too soon, including the potential for side effects such as a rare heart inflammation condition known as myocarditis, which is more common after the second dose of mRNA vaccines. ...

wide distribution of boosters is “not appropriate at this stage in the pandemic.” 

More. 

The first six months of the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States have been 38% less deadly than year one and 63% less deadly than the first six months

In the first year to Mar 7, 2021, there were 29.034 million total announced cases and 0.524646 million deaths, for a case fatality rate of 1.80%.

From Mar 7, 2021 to Sep 7, 2021, just past, six months, there were 11.349 million total announced cases and 0.126368 million deaths, for a case fatality rate of 1.11%, 38% less severe.

Compared with the first six months of the pandemic to Sep 7, 2020, the first six months of year two have been even less deadly still.

Through Sep 7, 2020 there had been 6.317 million total announced cases, and 0.189083 million deaths, for a case fatality rate of 2.99%, 2.7 times worse.

All data is from The New York Times.

It's all about control: The lying by doctors, nursing homes and the government is off the charts: 225k on antipsychotics when fewer than 10k should be

They're drugging old people to control them using phony diagnoses of schizophrenia & now they want to vax you forcibly with a brand new technology with barely a one year track record?

This story is the most appalling thing I have read in months, and yet you will trust your doctor and take your shot.

Phony Diagnoses Hide High Rates of Drugging at Nursing Homes :

At least 21% of nursing home residents, about 225,000, are on antipsychotics.

 

There should be only ~7,333 schizophrenics in nursing homes' 1.1 million residents (1:150 in the general population), but the number is up 70% since 2012 despite the fact that all but a fraction of schizophrenia diagnoses occur historically before the age of 40.

 

They don't think too highly of Justin Trudeau in Canada's bush: The biggest asshat fuck goof in the country

 

Perhaps more telling is that on 12/4/2020 Biden was spouting Fauci's belief that the combination of vaccines and masking for 100 days after his inauguration would cause a huge decline in infections and deaths

 

Joe Biden Dec 4, 2020 had his "Read My Lips" moment before he was even inaugurated: Neither vaccines nor masks should be mandatory

 

Normie conservatives are OK with vaccine mandates, having invented the last big one after all, as long as they don't apply to them

 

LOL Nancy Pelosi, April 2021: "We cannot require someone to be vaccinated"

 At 1:30 below:

LOL Anthony Fauci, August 18, 2020: "You cannot force someone to take a vaccine"

 Starting at the 20:00 mark.

Can't wait for the CDC to redefine "full vaccination" as "however many boosters we say, that's how many" for the vaccine mandate

 

It's going to be fun to watch all the lemmings sign consent forms for "mandated" vaccines and COVID-19 tests

This is the Obamacare mandate travesty all over again. Once you sign the consent form, you can't say you were forced even though you were.

When you buy health insurance, you enter into a contract, but if you are forced into such a contract by a government mandate, it is no contract. It is invalid. You did not enter into it freely. That's the ancient understanding.

 

But that you did enter into the contract, albeit under duress, means it is too late. Your signature is on the document.

No one has successfully tried the traditional definition of contract before the Supreme Court to invalidate the Obamacare mandate. The court does not respect the old understanding of contract.

I doubt these mandates will be stopped either.

You do not live in a free country.

And the Ann Coulters and redsteezes of the world see no problem with that.

Resistance may cost you something much more significant than a few bucks on your tax return this time.

Watch Nancy Pelosi flip on vaccine mandates in about two seconds

Government unions have already said, Not so fast!

In April Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, said "We cannot require someone to be vaccinated" (at about 1:30 below).

We'll see how long that lasts.

Probably about as long as Joe's promise to get every last American out of Kabul.

 

 

 

The Tyrant has struck

 

Sweeping new vaccine mandates for 100 million Americans

Remember when Trump said the Taliban deal would leave Afghanistan "free from al-Qaida, ISIS"?

None of his supporters want to talk about that stupid load of BS Trump tried to sell.

Trump added Friday evening: “These commitments represent an important step to a lasting peace in a new Afghanistan, free from al-Qaida, ISIS and any other terrorist group that would seek to bring us harm.”

 

 

LOL Katie Hill, is that you?

 

Johns Hopkins: US COVID-19 deaths crossed the 650k mark today

 The 640k mark was crossed on August 31.

In December of last year Anthony Fauci said 50% vaccination would be enough to have an impact on the number of infections

Wrong again.

The United States has added 7 million cases since achieving 50% vaccination with one dose on June 1, and that spike continued strong despite achieving 50% full vaccination on August 14.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's senior official for infectious diseases, predicts the United States could begin to achieve early stages of herd immunity against the deadly coronavirus by late spring or summer. And if that happens, Fauci anticipates, "we could really turn this thing around" toward the end of 2021.

In a wide-ranging interview Tuesday on Morning Edition, NPR's Rachel Martin asked Fauci how many Americans need to receive the vaccine to have an impact on the number of COVID-19 infections.

"I would say 50% would have to get vaccinated before you start to see an impact," Fauci said. "But I would say 75 to 85% would have to get vaccinated if you want to have that blanket of herd immunity."

 

 

 

It's amazing how wrong Anthony Fauci was last November but people still have faith in whatever he says

"Certainly it’s not going to be a pandemic for a lot longer, because I believe the vaccines are going to turn that around,” Fauci said. “Vaccines will help us. What we’ve got to do is just hang on and continue to double down on the public health measures.” ... The public also needs to be prepared for the likelihood that protection against the virus -- whether from vaccines or from fighting off Covid -- will probably only last for a year, perhaps two, he said. That’s based on experience with similar viruses and the growing number of documented cases of people being infected with this coronavirus twice, he said.

 

It's amazing how substances which cause myocarditis (C19 vaccines) and heart attacks (marijuana) in the young aren't outlawed in the United States

Young adult cannabis consumers nearly twice as likely to suffer from a heart attack, research shows

Joe Biden's Jul 23 phone call with Afghan President Ghani shows him unfit to be Commander in Chief, but not for the reason being trotted out

Everyone on the right is fixated on Joe Biden encouraging Ghani to paint a rosier picture to the press about the progress of the war in exchange for "aid".

In other words, Joe was trying to bribe Ghani to lie. The scenario is very reminiscent of VP Joe Biden's intimidation of the Ukrainians involving his threat to withhold US aid unless they fired a prosecutor who was looking into the Ukrainian activities of Biden's son, Hunter.

But this framing is a diversion, and a misrepresentation.

The call, to the extent Reuters has reported on it, shows Ghani reciting a litany of woe to Joe Biden about how catastrophe is imminent.

In what world does it make sense for Joe to respond to that with the offer of "aid" to a man who is clearly convinced that the end is nigh? Ghani was reciting that litany because everything was falling apart precisely because of the American pull-out. Just three weeks prior the US pulled out of Bagram in the dead of night Jul 2, from which point everything began to cascade out of control.

Ghani had to find what he was hearing from Biden incredible, in particular the promise of "continued close air support".

But close air support had already been withdrawn from Jul 2. It wasn't "continuing". It had already ended weeks prior. That was the problem, AND BIDEN DIDN'T KNOW IT. And even if he once knew it because his generals and advisers told him, HE FORGOT IT. Biden is behaving in the call as if he has resources at his command which are no longer there.

Imagine being Ghani having to deal with such unreality coming out of the mouth of the American president.

By the time of the call, Jul 23, the US withdrawal was already more than 95% complete according to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Mark Milley, as reported by CNBC on Jul 21:

At the Pentagon on Wednesday, the nation’s highest military officer told reporters that the U.S. has completed more than 95% of the herculean task of withdrawing from Afghanistan.

“The sheer volume of movement involved in this operation has been extraordinary,” said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, adding that the U.S. conducted more than 980 airlifts of cargo in less than three months.

“Furthermore, all the military operating bases, outside of Kabul, have been fully transferred to the Afghan Ministry of Defense and the Afghan security forces.”

Joe Biden was in no position to act as Commander in Chief in Afghanistan on Jul 23 because there was nothing left to command. In truth, he hasn't been fit since before the election, during which he campaigned from the safety of a bunker, protected by the media in the tank for him.

His unfitness for the duties of the office is self-evident to anyone paying attention day to day, except that everyone pretends not to see.

They just smile and pass.

But Ghani didn't pretend. He prepared himself an out. That's why he escaped and is alive today and living in the UAE.

Joe Biden, on the other hand, is living in la la land.

LOL, "I became an economist and public intellectual to get back at all the rednecks who bullied me as a kid"

 

US COVID-19 hospitalizations in the worst states, CA, TX, FL, have flattened the curve or otherwise turned lower

 California is in blue in the graphs, Texas in pink, and Florida in green. New York, the most devastated state at the beginning of the pandemic, is shown in gray for reference.

Hysterical media reports about hospital problems do not reflect the overall reality. At the worst in New York the percent of hospital beds taken by C19 patients was about 36% and neither California nor Florida got that bad this time or last. Texas is an also-ran.

When things get serious hospitals simply have to stop elective procedures and devote more resources to the pandemic. They hate doing that because it's not PROFITABLE. Counting as many deaths as possible as C19 deaths to get federal reimbursements hardly comes close to making up for that.

That's what all the caterwauling in the press is really about.

If keeping you healthy were really the aim of government and the medical establishment, THEY WOULDN'T MAKE ANY MONEY AT IT.

Do yourself a favor. Stay healthy and starve THE BEASTS.

Breakthrough deaths in Southern Nevada Aug 11-19 were 52% of the total

 

During that same period of time (August 11th – August 19th), the SNHD’s total COVID Deaths (those of both vaccinated and unvaccinated), rose from 4936 to 5032, or 96 deaths.  Of the total deaths, 50 of them were fully vaccinated, meaning 52% of the deaths were fully vaccinated patients.  As previously discussed, only 46% of the county is vaccinated, showing that vaccinated people were more likely to die from a COVID-19 infection from this sample than were the unvaccinated.  At 52%, a 6 point swing isn’t drastic enough to justify saying the vaccine is more dangerous than being unvaccinated, but the narrative that the vaccine makes it so you are less likely to die from COVID-19 doesn’t hold water in this case.

More.

The pandemic of the vaccinated.

You stupid people taking the horse medicine just need to stop, right now, do you hear me?

 

Breakthrough cases in the news: 300 undergrads at Duke, Gene Simmons of KISS, Chicago Cubs team manager and its president, Reba McEntire and her boyf, boxer Oscar De La Hoya

 Meanwhile . . .

Fully Vaccinated 35-Year-Old Dies of COVID While Waiting for Last-Ditch Treatment

Joe Biden is on vacation this weekend while Americans cower in fear trapped in Kabul and Louisianans swelter in heat without electric power

 

LOL, they'd been trying for a year

 

Finally found the right hole, I guess.

Full time jobs as a percentage of population now average 48.3% through August 2021

 Full time as a percentage of population rose to 49.18 in August after peaking in July, as is typical, at 49.28.

The measure ebbs after summer and flows in the spring, mirrored by a peak oscillation in usually part-time employment in the winter, which is a much smaller part of the population, historically averaging 27+ million in the years before the latest catastrophe.

The 48.3% average to date in 2021 is one full point ahead of the average for 2020 at 47.3%, but remains far off the 2019 average at 50.4%, which itself hardly represented a return to what was normal before the Great Financial Crisis.

Full time work never recovered after GFC I, which exposed the hollowed out character of the US economy after decades of out-sourcing, off-shoring, and mass low-wage immigration.

 

The absolute number of nuclear warheads matters but their hard-target kill capability matters more, and we don't have it against the Chicoms

All presidents since Reagan/Bush have failed to prioritize US hard-target kill capability, including Trump, so our enemies both in Russia and China have been compensating for that.

Eroding the certainty of destruction erodes deterrence.

The Chicoms haven't been emphasizing concrete manufacturing just to build vacant buildings and roads to nowhere.

Mark B. Schneider:

In 1985, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General John Vessey briefed President Ronald Reagan about the need for improved hard-target kill capability, including the need for 100 MX (Peacekeeper) ICBMs. We actually got 50. Of the three U.S. hard target capable systems created by the Reagan administration, two (the Peacekeeper ICBM and the Advanced Cruise Missile) were eliminated by the George W. Bush administration. This left only the high-yield WW-88 Trident warheads. Reportedly, the U.S. produced only 400 of the high-yield WW-88 warheads for the Trident II missile. Obviously, they can’t all be used against Chinese silos even if one makes a number of best-case assumptions. Moreover, it is not clear that the 1990 accuracy of the Trident II will be adequate if the Chinese are building silos based upon the new 30,000 psi super concrete now commercially available. The 1970 accuracy of a Minuteman III, while a great achievement in 1970, is hardly the same today against really hard targets. Unfortunately, the Minuteman III life extension program did not aim to upgrade the accuracy of the Minuteman.[8] It is not comparable to the Peacekeeper. There are plenty of important targets, including hard targets, the Minuteman III can cover, but super hard targets are not among them.

Even before the discovery of the new Chinese silos, a case could be made from a targeting standpoint for a strategic nuclear force of 2,700-3,000 nuclear warheads. There is a great difference between target coverage (assigning a warhead to a target) and damage expectancy (the probability of target destruction). Claims by Minimum Deterrence advocates, such as the Global Zero "Commission" report that a small nuclear force can do effective counterforce targeting are bogus. Regarding China, the report’s targeting plan involved “(85 warheads including 2-on-1 strikes against every missile silo), leadership command posts (33 warheads), war-supporting industry (136 warheads).” With the new Chinese silos, this targeting approach would require almost 1,000 warheads. Moreover, the approach itself is flawed because it ignores the Underground Great Wall, which protects the Chinese mobile ICBM force, the Chinese Navy and Air Force, and the large Chinese force of nuclear-capable theater-range missiles. The Global Zero report also assigned two warheads against every Russian silo. The report talked about target coverage, not damage expectancy, because its recommended force structure would likely have performed very badly against the facilities it targeted.

Against the very deep hard, and deeply targets (HDBTs) [sic; should read "very hard deeply-buried targets] there is essentially zero chance that they can be destroyed with a single U.S. nuclear warhead. The 2018 U.S. Nuclear Posture Review only partially reversed the Obama administration’s decision to eliminate the two most effective U.S. bombs against HDBTs, the B61 Mod 11 and B-83. These bombs will be retained longer than planned but not be life extended. Once again, numbers matter, and we no longer have the numbers. Conventional weapons have little and declining capability against HDBTs.[9] As one report stated, “One GBUJ-57A/B [Massive Ordnance Penetrator] can only penetrate 8 meters of 10,000 psi rock or concrete. This could drop to 2 meters of 30,000 psi material.” 

More.

While America has been bogged down in Afghanistan, China has been building nukes

 From Bill Gertz:

China is building a third missile field that will hold more than 100 new DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missiles, The Washington Times has learned.

Construction of a silo array for DF-41s was identified from satellite imagery by U.S. intelligence agencies in the past several weeks and appears equal in size to two other new Chinese missile fields recently identified, according to Pentagon officials familiar with intelligence reports on the strategic development.

Adm. Charles Richard, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, said Thursday that the first two missile fields being built are part of China‘s “explosive” expansion of nuclear forces. ...

Analysts at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California, first told The Washington Post in June that commercial satellite photos had revealed the construction of scores of silos near Yumen in China‘s Gansu province for the new missiles. Some missile sites were placed underneath a 230-foot cover in an attempt to conceal the silos from the prying eyes of satellite spies.

Last month, the Federation of American Scientists discovered the second DF-41 field some 240 miles northwest of Yumen near the city of Hami in Xinjiang Province. Xinjiang is also the location of China‘s active nuclear testing site, which the Pentagon said recently had begun increased operations after years of limited, irregular activity.

Mark Schneider, a former Pentagon nuclear policymaker, said the discovery of a new missile field is significant and indicates that Beijing’s ICBM force will soon be more powerful than U.S. nuclear forces were at the height of the Cold War.

“It is now beyond any reasonable doubt that China is going for large-scale strategic nuclear superiority over the U.S.,” said Mr. Schneider, now with the National Institute for Public Policy. “The new silos will give China the ability to deploy thousands of strategic nuclear warheads on DF-41 ICBMs.”

Mr. Schneider said he believes the main motivation for the large buildup is that Beijing is planning some type of military action in the next few years and hopes to deter a U.S. military response to action against one of China‘s neighbors, such as Taiwan. ...

Until the discovery of the DF-41 silos, China‘s land-based, silo-deployed ICBM force consisted of around 20 DF-5 ICBMs.

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US COVID-19 deaths surged in Aug vs. Jul, but deaths for the five months Apr-Aug 2021 are down a whopping 50% vs. Apr-Aug 2020

 Deaths Apr-Aug 2020 were 179k, but fewer than 89k in 2021 for the same months.

And every one of those months in 2021 was lower than its corresponding month in 2020.

We'll be happy to see that be the case also in September.