Roger Stone got his sentence commuted

They convicted Roger Stone on some mickey mouse charges, lying to Congress and some other lawyer stuff.  This was not perjury, lying under oath.  Interrogate anyone long enough and sooner or later he will forget what he said weeks ago and tell it differently this time.  Gotcha, lying to Congress, or the FBI.  Far as I am concerned, "lying to" should not be a crime in the first place.  It's a law that prosecutors lobbied Congress to pass to make life easier for themselves.  You cops want to convict someone, get off your duffs, hit the bricks, and find some real evidence, or some witnesses that will testify. 

   Anyhow, I think the president did right by commuting the sentence.  The guy is in his sixties, he isn't going to assault anyone, keeping him in jail is cruel and unusual punishment. 

Lies, Damn Lies and statistics. Corona virus statistics

We hear a lot of ‘em on the TV.  For a scare tactic the newsies tell us that Corona virus cases are going up.  Not a good sign.  They finish off by calling to quarantine every body and shut everything down.  Then a few newsies tell us that Corona virus deaths are going down.  They finish off by calling for re opening stores and restaurants, getting back to work and ending stay at   home orders.  “There are lies, damn lies, and statistics” to quote Mark Twain.  

   The increase in the number of cases is probably because we are testing more.  And the test is pretty trigger happy.  A lot of people don’t have the disease, feel fine, and the test calls them sick.  The medics call these cases (and there are a lot of them) “asymptomatic” a nice buzz word that means “no symptoms”.  And they count them as Corona virus cases.  We could just as easily say the test has shown a false positive and not a Corona virus case.  And we don’t know if the asymptomatic cases are infectious or not.  Nor do we know if the asymptomatic cases will actually come down with a real case of Corona virus after a few weeks.  Anyhow, the number of Corona virus cases reported by the TV newies might be off by who knows how much.

   The number of deaths is perhaps a little more solid.  You need a death certificate and a body in order the say a death has occurred.  I have heard from a number of places that the medics are under great pressure to call every death a Corona virus death because the hospitals get a larger reimbursement for Corona virus deaths than for other causes of death. At any rate the number of deaths is going down.  It might be that Corona virus has already killed the most vulnerable among us and those of us that are left alive are more resistant to it.  In that case we could expect the death rate to fall some more. 

  Corona virus is going to be around for ever.  Unless we want to live hunkered down at home for the rest of our lives, we have to get out of the house, go to work, go out to eat, travel,  go to the beach, all that stuff.  Sooner or later we will encounter Corona virus.  Mostly we will survive.  I hear that once you have Corona virus you are immune to it from then on in.  I have not heard any real studies of this, but it is likely and it is the general belief right now. 

Lay off the statue bashing

The current craze for busting statues is bad.  Even if the statue is of someone who did bad stuff, it is better to leave the statue unmolested and teach about the person so commemorated.  History is past, we cannot change it now.  Knocking down the statues of historical figures erases the history that those people figured in.  For example, the Civil War is an important part of American history; you cannot understand America today unless you know about the Civil War.  And you need to know about the leaders on both sides of the Civil War.  Robert E. Lee was an honorable man, who fought a clean war.  In 1860 Lee was offered command of the Union army.  When Lee thought about leading Union troops against his beloved home state of Virginia, he simply could not do it.  Instead he resigned his Union army commission and joined the Confederacy.  To understand the Civil War, you have to know who Lee was, and what he did. Likewise you have to know who Stonewall Jackson was and what he did.  You don’t have to approve of them, but you do have to know who they were.  If we knock down statues of both men because they fought for the Confederacy, a lot of citizens, who don’t read history books, will be deprived of key bits of history that they would profit from knowing. 

   So if you really think that so-and-so was a no-good-nick, write a paper, write a letter to the editor, write a textbook, write a post on your blog, make a U-tube video, anything. But leave so-and-so’s statue up.  People see the statue and they are more likely to read your pieces explaining why he was bad.  They will at least know the name.   

Presidential Debates for 2020

We will probably have them.  We have done presidential debates on TV ever since Nixon debated Kennedy back in 1960.  The Trump people need to insist on decent moderators.  We have had some really terrible moderators in the past.  Right now, the only moderators that I know of, that are fair, and well educated and smart enough to think up good questions would be Brit Hume, Bret Baier, Victor Davis Hanson, and Glenn Harlan Reynolds (otherwise known as Instapundit).  I personally would be OK with Rush Limbaugh but I can understand the Biden side being reluctant to go with Rush.  I would be OK with Paul Gigot or Daniel Henninger of the Wall St Journal, but again I can understand the Biden side having serious reservations.  And right now I cannot think of anyone else. 

USAF mulls cargo planes for bombers

With money getting short and costs of the, just on paper, long way from flying, new  B21 bomber rising, a study group has suggested loading up cargo planes like the C17 with cruise missiles  They carry the missiles in the cargo bay and they launch them in flight out the cargo bay doors.  Nifty.  The cargo planes are all ready bought and paid for and flying now.  If we need more, they are a LOT cheaper than the B21 will be.  They have the range to get to most places we might care about.  The cruise missiles can reach out maybe 1000 miles.  If we give the cargo planes a bit of ECM and have them fly low they can penetrate all but the toughest air defenses. 

   Only real drawback is that cruise missiles are a lot more expensive than iron bombs.  For example Tomahawks go for $1 mil a shot.  For a short war, the cruise missile carrying cargo planes are effective.  For a long war, the stealthy B21 can get in close enough to drop cheap iron bombs, offsetting the higher cost of the B21 airframe. 

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever,

over such District, (not exceeding 10 Miles square), as may by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance by Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States… 

US Constitution Article I Section 8.

This was an issue back in 1789.  The one lucky state that got the federal capital in its territory, Philadelphia, or Boston or Baltimore or even New York, would gain humongous influence over federal policy and lawmaking.  And benefit from federal tax money getting spent in their state and hotel bills paid by all the federal lobbyists.   To prevent an unseemly squabble and endless bad feelings, and not jeopardize acceptance of the Constitution by having such a clear fighting point in it, the Founders decided to create a new green field federal capital city, not to be part of any existing state, location to be specified later (TBSL). 

Now, in 2020 we have a bunch of DC people whining that they don’t get any votes in Congress.  I don’t feel sorry for them.  The river of federal money pours into DC and gives the city a subway, best museums on the planet, Secret Service and FBI and who knows what else for law enforcement, good paying federal jobs that will not quit, Navy Yards, and the home office of every federal agency that ever was.  In the face of this avalanche of largess, I don’t feel sorry for DC.  And, any DC residents who really really want to have a vote in Congress can jolly well move a couple of miles into Virginia or Maryland and vote from there. 

Now I hear the Democrat US House as passed a bill to make DC a state, with two senators and one representative.  They say that DC has a larger population than several long standing states.  It got them a lot of favorable press from all the Democratic operatives with bylines.  It would give the Democrats two safe senate seats and one safe house seat.  As a matter of pure politics, as a Republican, I am against the idea.  As a matter of process, I think they would have to do a Constitutional amendment to rewrite Article 1 Section 8.  I don’t believe they can change the Constitution with just an ordinary federal law.

  With Corona virus loose in the land, the economy shut down tight, and George Floyd riots every night, does the country have time for this kind of Mickey Mouse legislation from Democrats? 

What is "Qualified Immunity" for police officers???

I hear the phrase.  Police reform bills in Congress mention it.  I never heard the phrase before a couple of weeks ago.  Just what is "qualified immunity"? 

Should the police department be enforcing some law that some people don't like, they ought to vote the mayor out of office, and if they want to bypass the democratic process, they can sue the police department, which has a budget, lawyers on staff, and can defend itself.  It is unfair the sue the individual officers who are merely carrying out department policy.  I'm OK with that.

  I am not OK with offering immunity to cops who kill arrested citizens in handcuffs.  Or other lesser bad stuff. 

  For all the bloviating on TV about institutionalized racism raging across the land, I have not yet heard a clear definition of "qualified immunity".  Could it be that the newsies lack the education needed to explain a legal buzzword?