Saturday, October 31, 2020

Halloween Beach Report

Skye and I left home for the beach around 12:30 PM. It's mostly cloudy and cool today, about 50 F. There was a flock of Eastern Bluebirds on the street adjacent to the boat yard, and in the yard itself. The male:
And the female.
I found this Common Buckeye in the sand dunes in front of the beach. They're one of the last butterflies to disappear in fall; I've even seen one when there was frost on the ground.
A pretty high tide, and a lot of leaf debris meant lousy fossil hunting; we ended up with only six teeth and a crab claw.
A long distance, and a little "heat shimmer" makes the flag hard to read today.
A big boy leaving the Gas Docks. Keep on fracking!

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RIP: Sean Connery

I first saw this at Althouse this morning, "Our nation today mourns one of her best loved sons. Sean was born into a working class Edinburgh family..."

"... and through talent and sheer hard work, became an international film icon and one of the world's most accomplished actors. Sean will be remembered best as James Bond - the classic 007 - but his roles were many and varied. He was a global legend but, first and foremost, a patriotic and proud Scot - his towering presence at the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 showed his love for the country of his birth. Sean was a lifelong advocate of an independent Scotland and those of us who share that belief owe him a great debt of gratitude."

Said Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, quoted in BBC.


You can certainly find many more eulogies to Connery. But for those of use who came of age in the 60s, Sean Connery was the only great James Bond. Sorry Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. I can remember walking 2 miles from my house to see Dr. No at the local Pico Theatre, walking home, and asking my Dad if he thought they would make more James Bond movies. He said "yes" and he was right, as usual. 

And Sean Connery's Bond always got the girl.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Carla Gugino ready at The Other McCain.

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Oh, And Happy Halloween!

 On Facebook, Elle Johnson is celebrating with her traditional 13 Sexy Day of Halloween:

And from his Canadian Cave of Cool, Calvin says You Know A GREAT Vampirella When You See One: https://www.facebook.com/hellyvonvalentine/

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Carla Gugino ready at The Other McCain.

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Russia/Bidengate Today

First a little Russiagate: Matt Vespa at Town Hall, Thread: Was This the Real 2020 Democratic Plan, which got Blown Up with Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Death? Put on the aluminum foil beanie and check out this Twitter thread. I'm beyond surprise. It could be plan B,C,D or E. Chris Farrell at Gatestone asks Will They Really Get Away With It?. Yeah, maybe. Maybe not. From WaPoo, Barr tells friends he would like to remain attorney general in second term if Trump is reelected. I'm OK with it. Barr's a bit of an institutionalist, but I think he really want to put DOJ on the right track. I wish he had forced Durham to get on with it, though. Finally, via the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 10.30.20 (Morning Edition), from Scott Johnson at Power Line, “Anonymous” no more

It turns out that there is a sort of scandal here, though not the one that was advertised at the time. This scandal reveals the Times as a liar serving ulterior purposes, but it has become an old, old story and therefore no scandal at all. It’s just a little comic relief in the old story.

Byron York gives the story narrative form in his Washington Examiner Daily Memo “‘Anonymous’ caper ends in disgrace for writer, New York Times.” Byron concludes: “What was it all about? Getting Trump, of course. The past four years have seen many in the press change their reporting standards and take an unprecedented adversarial stance against the president. It’s no surprise to see it continue right up until election day.”

And onto Biden. Via the Wombat's  In The Mailbox: 10.30.20 (Evening Edition). EBL notes that the Biden Family Now Under FBI Investigation and from Legal Insurrection: DOJ Confirms FBI Opened Criminal Investigation Into Hunter Biden In 2019 – And It’s Still Active. Spencer Neal at WaEx, FBI conducting criminal investigation into Hunter Biden and associates days ahead of 2020 election: Report. ET, Bobulinski Says FBI Lists Him as ‘Material Witness’ Regarding Biden Family. Fox, Democratic congressman tells ex-Hunter Biden associate Bobulinski he’d defend him over ‘partisan hack’ claim TNP, Hunter E-Mails Request ‘Formal Meetings With Dad’ To Secure Billion-Dollar Deals. 

Vicky Taft at PJ Media, BOOM: Hunter's 'Smoking Gun' Email Implicating Joe Biden Just BLEW UP. 
Also from Wombat's In The Mailbox: 10.30.20 (Morning Edition), Weasel Zippers:   Giuliani Describes Contents Of Hunter Biden’s Hard Drive – “Horrible, Pornographic” Pictures Of Young Girls and from Dan Chaitin and Jerry Dunleavy at WaEx, Another Hunter Biden laptop taken into custody during DEA raid: Report
Sources told NBC News that the device belonging to the 50-year-old son of former Vice President Joe Biden, who is now a presidential candidate, was taken into custody by the DEA in February while executing a search warrant in the Massachusetts office of a psychiatrist who was accused of professional misconduct.

That former celebrity psychiatrist, Keith Ablow, saw his medical license suspended after he faced allegations of sexually exploiting patients and illegally diverting prescription drugs. Ablow has denied the allegations and has not been charged with any crime.

The report from NBC on Friday said Hunter Biden was not a target of the search or the investigation, and his lawyer got the laptop back. It remains unclear why the device was there in the first place.

He was so high he left his computer at Dr. Feelgoods?

On Biden documents that mysteriously went missing for a while on the way to Tuckah!, WaEx, Tucker Carlson says UPS can't explain how flash drive with Biden documents got separated from package. Nice Deb at AmGreat, UPS Conducting ‘Urgent Investigation’ Into Missing Hunter Biden Docs Shipped By Fox News and At Da Lid, UPDATE: UPS Finds Biden Scandal Docs Gone Missing When Sent To FNC’s Carlson. I'll have to acknowledge that Sundance's theory that the FBI may have intercepted and copied them has some merit.

And is Tuckah! going soft on Hunter? John Sexton at Hot Air, Tucker Carlson: ‘I Never Thought Hunter Biden Was A Bad Person’ 

“There are a lot of documents about Hunter Biden’s personal life that we haven’t brought to you and we’re not going to and we should tell you why,” Carlson said. He continued, “One is the obvious answer. He’s not running for president. And so, to the extent those documents pertain to his dad, of course.

“But Hunter Biden is a fallen man at this point. And I should also say that I knew Hunter Biden fairly well. We lived near each other in Washington for quite some time. I knew his wife, who was an absolutely outstanding person, a good person. I never thought Hunter Biden was a bad person. I thought he had demons but in the time I knew him he kept them mostly under control. At some point he lost control of those demons and the world knows that now. He’s now humiliated and alone.

“It’s probably too strong to say we feel sorry for Hunter Biden but the point is pounding on a man, jumping on, piling on when he’s already down is something that we don’t want to be involved in.”

and at Da Beast, Tucker Carlson Suddenly Says It’s Time to Leave Hunter Biden Alone. I absolutely understand Hunter influence peddling, and it would be another thing if his dad actually discouraged it, and didn't participate. The sex and drug stuff is on him, though. Twitchy, Rick Wilson’s shaming of ‘Trumpworld’ for mocking Hunter Biden’s drug addiction hits an awkward snag

And how is the media malpractice on the Biden Crime Family going? Swimmingly, if today's WaPoo was a typical example. The redoubtable Molly Hemingway at Da Fed, Yes, Media Are Rigging The Election Against Half The Country. Here’s How
1. Refusing to Do Journalism on Joe Biden

On October 14, the New York Post published a story about how Hunter Biden had introduced his father to a top Ukrainian businessman. This contradicted Joe Biden’s oft-repeated claim to have had no knowledge whatsoever about his son’s overseas business affairs.

Hunter Biden was paid handsomely by Burisma, a Ukrainian energy concern, while his father was vice president. Hunter had no business acumen or relevant experience in the energy sector, but was paid millions of dollars by Burisma at the time his father was in charge of U.S. policy toward Ukraine.

The story was sourced to a laptop computer allegedly left by Hunter at a Wilmington computer repair store. Big Tech moved immediately to squash the blockbuster story on both Twitter and Facebook. Twitter has banned the New York Post from tweeting and Facebook publicly announced they were suppressing the story, pending journalistic fact checks.

It’s been more than two weeks since Facebook announced it was suppressing the story pending fact checks. It has not shared who it tasked with the fact checks, and the only journalistic checks on the information have confirmed the story. One of the recipients of an email found on the laptop confirmed it was real, on the record. Government officials said it was not Russian disinformation. No information has come to light to suggest it was Russian disinformation. And last night, the key email in question was verified as legitimate by a cyber expert who was given access to the metadata for the email.

Other media outlets participated in the coordinated effort to squash the story, either by ignoring it completely or by claiming it wasn’t a big deal. Few to no media outlets defended the New York Post.

Partly as a result of the New York Post’s story and partly as a result of a Senate report showcasing Hunter Biden’s questionable overseas financial dealings, a former business associate of Hunter Biden’s named Tony Bobulinski came forward with more details about the Biden family’s problematic overseas relationships.

Armed with reams of documents, texts, emails, messages, and voicemails, Bobulinski said that Joe Biden had lied when he claimed he had no knowledge of Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings. Bobulinski recounted two in-person meetings with Joe Biden. Bobulinski, a retired Navy veteran, would go on to describe how Biden family members and associates plotted to keep Joe’s involvement off the books, and provide paperwork, texts, emails, documents, and audio files to substantiate his claims.

 

Last night, Sinclair’s James Rosen reported that the FBI had opened an investigation into Hunter Biden and his associates last year to investigate allegations of money laundering. The investigation is ongoing, Rosen reported. Bobulinski was interviewed as a “material witness” to the investigation in recent days.

The media blackout of any story that might harm their preferred candidate has extended even to this explosive news. Keep in mind, President Trump was impeached for expressing concern about Hunter Biden’s possible corruption in Ukraine at the same time the FBI was investigating Hunter Biden for money laundering.

There is no question that this story is journalistically significant, and dramatically more substantiated than the Trump-Russia collusion hoax that the media promulgated for years. In that story, the media ran wild with ridiculous and preposterous allegations with no evidence. Here, a family firm CEO with documentation to support his claims has been viewed by a corrupt media as not worthy of spending time on. GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel summarized how bad the propaganda situation is with major media . . . 
Althouse, "Less than a week before Election Day, far-left NBC News created a decoy story to make it seem as though the increasingly credible scandal involving Joe and Hunter Biden has been debunked as a fake document."
Writes John Nolte at Breitbart. I don't usually link to Breitbart, but I found Nolte's piece after I read the NBC News piece and had my own independent reaction and went looking to see if anyone was saying what I thought, which was: What document is this? I'd never heard about it.

'Streif' at Red State,  Is Jack Dorsey a Pathological Liar or Has He Simply Lost All Control Over Twitter. Embrace the healing power of 'and.' At Da Caller, ‘This Is What Happens In North Korea’: Kayleigh McEnany Condemns Twitter’s Jack Dorsey Over NY Post ‘Censorship’

“The media won’t report on it,” she continued. “Social media will censor it. ‘Delete it or we will censor the fourth largest newspaper in the United States,’ block them from social media. Big tech needs to be handled and the president in the second term will do just that. This is what happens in North Korea, not the United States.”

And Twitter finally backs down, NYPo, How tweet it is: Twitter backs down, unlocks Post’s account. Stacy McCain, After 16 Days of Censorship, Twitter Unlocks the New York Post’s Account. 
Not that this means Twitter is now an honest company — they’re not — but this is a tacit admission of their dishonesty, and I suppose that after the election we’ll learn that Twitter’s censorship was ordered by the executives at behest of the Biden campaign. Meanwhile . . .

Look, I don’t want to give anyone hope that Trump will actually win. My belief is that bleak pessimism is the only rational stance toward this election. However, Democrats are worried sick. . .

Insty, Out of sight, but not out of mind: 

There’s an old sawhorse in media about the “Streisand Effect,” namely, that when someone tries to suppress a story it backfires and gets more attention than it might have without the suppression. There’s a lot about the Hunter Biden story and its suppression that proves this true.

The news that Glenn Greenwald had resigned from The Intercept because management there have joined the open conspiracy among so-called news providers to pretend that there is no substance or legitimacy behind allegations – or even asking questions – about Joe Biden’s involvement and financial interest in his son’s business dealings in Ukraine, Russia or China was stunning. NPR was surprisingly honest about their dishonesty when they “explained” that they would not cover the story because:

“We don’t want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don’t want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions […] And quite frankly, that’s where we ended up, this was a politically driven event, and we decided to treat it that way.”

As has been said repeatedly, they and other legacy media operations’ newfound devotion to media ethics is both amusing and depressing at the same time. These are the same people who had no problem alleging that Justice Kavanaugh was a gang rapist on the say-so of a somewhat mentally frail woman who could produce no documents or corroborating witnesses, could not recount any details and yet, these same publications applied “woke logic” by insisting we “believe all women.”

 Linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup and linkfest. 

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Rule 5 Saturday - Li Bingbing

Somehow, a few days ago, I found myself watching The Meg, the Jason Statham movie about how a Megalodon shark, or two, returns to the Pacific Ocean to raise havoc. The science was as awful as you might expect, but at least it featured Dwight from the office being eaten, and Li Bingbing:
Li Bingbing (Chinese: 李冰冰; born February 27, 1973) is a Chinese actress and singer who rose to fame with her role in Seventeen Years (1999) and since then received critical acclaim for her roles in A World Without Thieves (2004), Waiting Alone (2005), The Knot (2006), The Forbidden Kingdom (2008), The Message (2009), Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010) and Zhong Kui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal (2015). Li has also starred in Hollywood blockbusters Resident Evil: Retribution (2012), Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) and The Meg (2018).

Li Bingbing was born in Wuchang, Heilongjiang. She initially had no intention of becoming an actress and enrolled specifically in a high school for prospective school teachers. However, upon graduation, she discovered her interest in acting and was eventually persuaded by a friend to join the Shanghai Theatre Academy in 1993.
Li Bingbing did not appear at the premiere of Resident Evil: Retribution, raising speculation from reporters that her absence was a demonstration against the escalating dispute between China and Japan over the Senkaku Islands. Li's agent Ji Xiang explained that Li had been informed of the premiere two months before but she was too busy in Beijing to attend at that time. However, Ji did not deny that politics were involved, saying: "We are in line with our government – the Senkaku Islands belong to China. Bingbing will be attending movie premieres held in other places across the world and she skipped the Tokyo leg only."

 

On 24 July 2013, it was reported that Li has a godfather named Wang Lin, a qigong practitioner who claims to be able to conjure up snakes from thin air, cure disease, and retrieve an incinerated banknote intact from an orange. The Beijing News reported that Li Xue, Li's agent, responded that Li went to visit Wang Lin to ask him to cure her mother of her disease. As for the effectiveness of the cure, the agent refused to disclose any more information.

Linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup and linkfest. The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Honor Blackman and FMJRA 2.0: Albedo 0.39 up and running for your digital pleasure.


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Friday, October 30, 2020

I Guess I Have to Ask for My Vote Back

 This convinced me:

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Beach Report 10/20/20

Yesterday was a complete rain out, with the remnants of Hurricane Zeta colliding with a cold front over us, and leaving 3 inches of rain, ending early this morning.
Today is overcast and windy, 25 from the NW and 50 F. Skye is enjoying the cooler weather.
The rough water made it hard to find fossils, we only found 5 between us.

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The Daily Biden Family Crime Family Update . . .

and a bit of Russigate, with some more on "Anonymous" Miles Taylor.  Post Millennial, Donald Trump Jr. correctly predicted NYT's 'Anonymous' author was 'very low-level person' and Donald Trump SLAMS 'Anonymous' writer Miles Taylor: 'He should be prosecuted', and before you think, oh he's just being a blowhard, yes, Miles Taylor should be prosecuted for theft of services. He was paid to work for the President, not against him. And what a nice precedent it would be. Stacy McCain explains why ‘Anonymous’ Miles Taylor Represents Everything American Hate About the GOP:

Miles Taylor is selfish, greedy and dishonest. Hired as a political appointee to a staff position at the Department of Homeland Security, he immediately began working to sabotage the administration that had appointed him, writing an anonymous September 2018 op-ed in the New York Times describing himself as part of the anti-Trump “resistance.” He then expanded that into a 2019 book, scored a job at Google and went on CNN earlier this year to deny he was “Anonymous.”

You cannot trust someone who acts this way, and the fact that Taylor was a Republican, who interned in the Bush administration and later worked on the staff of Texas Rep. Mike McCaul, tells you almost everything you need to know about what is wrong with the Republican Party. If there was one issue that elected Trump, it was his pledge to stop illegal immigration, and yet Taylor is clearly part of the pro-amnesty, open-borders crowd. How did someone like Taylor get hired at Trump’s DHS?

This is what makes people hate Republicans. Democrats are the anti-American party, in favor of surrendering sovereignty to the United Nations and other globalist institutions, while replacing the American population with foreigners. Barack Obama’s father was a Kenyan socialist who hated America; both of Kamala Harris’s parents are immigrants, and she spent most of her youth in Canada. One might expect that the Republicans would represent a pro-America policy, opposed to the Democrats’ anti-American policy, and yet we find that the GOP is staffed by people like Miles Taylor who either don’t understand this issue at all, or else fully embrace the anti-American agenda.

And onto the Biden Crime Family. PM again, Hunter Biden under criminal investigation according to FBI

Ace, Justice Department Official Confirms that the FBI Opened an Investigation Into "Hunter Biden and Associates" in 2019 -- and that that Investigation Remains "Open and Active" today  
I would say "Ha-ha, let the media try to cover this up now," but that would be stupid. They are beyond corrupt. They are brazen because they think they are untouchable.

Zach Evans at NR, FBI Investigating Hunter Biden for Money Laundering: Report

The revelation comes after Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of Hunter Biden, came forward with a trove of documents regarding the Biden family’s dealings with now-defunct Chinese energy firm CEFC. While Joe Biden has denied that he has ever spoken with Hunter regarding the latter’s overseas business dealings, Bobulinski claims the former vice president is lying.

Additionally, Bobulinski told Sinclair that he was interviewed by FBI agents for five hours last Friday and was listed as a “material witness” for the agency.

The interview “was a very cooperative deep dive into all the facts across that time period” during which Bobulinski conducted business with members of the Biden family, Bobulinski said.

Andrew Kerr at Da Caller,  NY Post’s ‘Smoking Gun’ Hunter Biden Email 100% Authentic, Forensic Analysis Concludes and  Here Are All The Times Joe Biden Allegedly Talked With Hunter About His Foreign Business Dealings. Tyler O'Neil, PJ Media, Treading Water: Biden Campaign Dodges on Key Corruption Question as More Evidence Emerges

On Thursday, Biden campaign spokesman Jamal Brown did not deny former Hunter Biden business associate Tony Bobulinski’s claims that he met with Joe Biden in person in 2017. 
TNP, Huffy Hunter Expenses Emails – Biden Claims He Is ‘Managing Director’ At Chinese Military-Linked Firm, Demands Massive Cash Reimbursements. Lawrence Person's BattleSwarm Blog, Hunter Biden, Tony Bobulinski, and the Spy King of China. Breitbart, Media Fail to Ask Joe Biden About Secret Family Business Deal with Chinese Company


Roger Simon at the paywalled ET: Why Biden Will Never Be President for ‘All Americans.’. Fortunately, Insty copies a big chunk. A sub-chunk.
From the moment he took office, the Democrats accused Donald Trump of collusion with Russia, but it was shown, after a lengthy and expensive investigation, they hadn’t an iota of proof.

Indeed, there is a solid argument they knew they had no such evidence in the first place—even tried to manufacture it. This was one of the more repellent, if not the most repellent, political hits in our nation’s history.

With Joe Biden, the reverse is true. There is already a plethora of evidence of economic collusion with China, notably with high level members of their Communist Party, that, coupled with the activities of his son, are stunningly obvious subjects for blackmail and serious coercion.

This evidence has accrued in many forms—emails, texts, documents and the detailed public statements of Tony Bobulinski, the former Biden family business partner, including Bobulinski’s accounts of Joe’s personal involvement via face-to-face meetings about which the former vice president clearly lied.

None of this has been successfully controverted, not even remotely, while the evidence continues to grow on a daily basis, with another even bigger email dump emerging through Peter Schweizer.

And from Lenora at America, the Blog,  Leftists Declare Pedo Hunter Biden's Laptop a Nothinburger and Advise "Love" To "Deal With" Nazi-like Trump Supporters and Biden Family Enmeshment or Worse: What Are Their Actual Relationships With Each Other? "This is an oddly wealthy society family from Delaware who can't keep their paws off each other."

And then, there is the disingenuous response of the press to this matter. I managed to skip these yesterday, so today it's double stuffed. Tyler O'Neil at PJ, Evidence of Joe Biden Corruption Just Keeps Piling Up, and the Media Refuses to Cover It. Grabien,  Media Titans Subvert Reality About Biden/Ukraine Profiteering  Not to mention China, which I find to be a greater national security threat. But it's a pretty good layout of Hunter and Joe's Ukrainian adventures. Jim Treacher at PJ Media, CNN Refuses to Run Ad Criticizing Biden

CNN has informed the largest outside group supporting President Trump’s reelection that it will not run one of its new ads, saying the ad is false because it warns Democratic nominee Joe Biden will raise taxes on the middle class and implies that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) supports socialist policies.


Jordon Davidson, Da Fed, Twitter, Facebook Confess There Is No Evidence Of Russian Disinformation Behind Hunter Biden Story. Fox, Zuckerberg 'not aware' that Facebook election integrity official worked for Biden. I doubt it. NYPo, Twitter’s continued ban on The Post has no rhyme or reason — only bias and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey falsely tells senators company lifted ban on Post exposé. Ace, Zuckerberg: We Censored the Hunter Biden Story Because an Unnamed Individual at the FBI Told Us to be On the Lookout for Russian Disinformation

Two possibilities:

1. The FBI gave him a general, nonspecific warning about Russian disinformation, and Zuckerberg is just using this as an excuse for his own company's partisan censorship.

2. More chillingly -- the FBI, which was sitting on the laptop for a year and thereby keeping the story bottled-up, took the extra step of poisoning the well and claiming that the story was Russian disinformation to Zuckerberg, to make sure it got censored if it did come out.

If Zuckerberg's telling the truth, it's #2.

 Leah Barkoukis at Town Hall, What Crenshaw Realized About the Democratic Party After Big Tech Hearing That 'Should Terrify Americans'

So they drove one of the last honest liberals in the press out, NYPo, Glenn Greenwald quits The Intercept over ‘censorship’ of Hunter Biden article. 

 A bunch of similar, and overlapping links at JJ Sefton's The Morning Report - 10/30/20 at Ace's.
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Fish Pic Friday - Lacey Loo

 

Lacey Loo, 6th Generation Floridian, Avid Angler, Swordfish Bill Artist, and Yacht Broker. Facebook, Instagram.

Linked at Proof Positive in the weekly Best of the Web* and at The Right Way in the weekly Rule 5 Saturday LinkOrama. The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Honor Blackman up and running for your digital pleasure.

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Thursday, October 29, 2020

Reason #97 Trump Should be Reelected

 Ace, Unexpectedly, National Gross Domestic Product Grows At All Time Record, Doubling Previous Record Set in 1950

A usual rate of growth for a good quarter (annualized) of growth is 3%.

The US economy grew by 33.1% in the third quarter.
U.S. GDP accelerated at a 33.1% annualized pace in the third quarter, the Commerce Department reported.

That was better than the 32% estimate from a Dow Jones economist survey.

A surge in business and residential investment along with stronger consumer activity helped the economy after its worst-ever quarter in Q2.
...
The gain came after a 31.4% plunge in the second quarter and was better than the 32% estimate from economists surveyed by Dow Jones. The previous post-World War II record was the 16.7% burst in the first quarter of 1950.
Meanwhile, Democrats, and NeverTrump Traitors, are pushing Lockdowns Forever for a respiratory illness which, while bad, is only twice as deadly as the flu we get literally every fucking year.
Earlier in the campaign slow Joe was talking about a K shaped recovery, without understanding what he was saying. I think he was trying to say the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, which is stupid.
Well, the "K" means that the rich get richer and everyone else flatlines. Think of the K tipped over on to its back.
but what IS happening could be described as a K shaped recovery as applied to different regions. Leftist shitholes are headed even further down - states that are opening up and allowing growth are not only getting their own natural growth, but also the growth from all of the business in the shithole states that is moving.

Posted by: Tom Servo
Also: the shitholes' primary industries seem to be arson and looting.

And you just can't build a future on that.

Unbelievable: So, as I mentioned above, the 33.1% growth rate is annulalized. That means, the single quarter of growth is multiplied by four to tell you how much we grew if this same rate of growth continued for a year.

This is literally how GDP is always reported -- taking the one quarter rate and multiplying by four to get an annualized figure.

When you read that a quarter's growth rate was 3.2%, that's the annualized figure. The actual number for the growth in just this quarter would be 0.8%.

But this is how it has always been reported.

Except now. Now the Washington Posts decides to, for the first time in history, report the GDP growth rate on a non-annualized basis, to make it look smaller.

However: The 31.4% contraction we saw in the second quarter was also annualized, or multiplied by four. The actual rate of contraction was around 7.5%.

So: Does the Washington Post reduce the second quarter's contraction in a consistent way, to compare apples with apples?

Answer: No, of course not. They claim that the growth this quarter was 7.4%, which of course barely compares to the second quarter's 31.4% contraction.

So it's either dishonesty or innumeracy. But then, it is the WaPoo, and reporters, so both is a reasonable choice too. 

From Sundance at CTH, V-Shaped Recovery Achieved – Third Quarter GDP Growth a Record Breaking 33.1 Percent…


So, this also means the WuFlu recession is over, a recession being defined as a negative GDP growth for two or more consecutive quarters.

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Lousy Weather Good for Chesapeake Bay

 Chesapeake Bay dead zone smaller in 2020 due to summer storms

Experts from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources are reporting that the 2020 dead zone is the second smallest observed in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay since monitoring began in 1985.

In their 2020 Chesapeake Bay Dead Zone Report Card, researchers from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science also reported that throughout the entire Bay this year’s dead zone was smaller than most recorded in the past 35 years (80%).
. . .
In June 2020, researchers from the Chesapeake Bay Program, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, University of Michigan and U.S. Geological Survey forecasted that the Bay would see a slightly smaller than average dead zone this year, due to reduced spring rainfall and less nutrient-rich runoff flowing into the Bay from the watershed.

In the short-term, experts believe that several factors, including more average river flows and unseasonably cool temperatures in May and September contributed to the smaller dead zone.

Over the long-term, the continued implementation of nutrient and sediment reduction strategies put in place by the six states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed (Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia) and the District of Columbia are continuing to help decrease pollution in the Bay and reduce the size of the dead zone.

Strong winds from Hurricane Isaias in August helped to mix the waters of the Bay, reducing the dead zone; hypoxia returned in September but quickly dissipated due to cooler temperatures and windy conditions.

This year’s dead zone started later and ended earlier than it has in the past several years.

Additionally, no anoxic areas were noted in the mainstem of the Bay this year.

It's been true at least since I arrived in the Chesapeake Bay region (1985) that the interannual variation in the hypoxia problem in Chesapeake Bay can be accounted for by weather events, and thus, ascribing any improvement due to the Chesapeake Bay Diet, and other clean up efforts is tenuous at best.

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New Maryland Oyster Regulations Controversial

Chesapeake Bay Mag, Maryland Oyster Fishery Proposal Controversial

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is considering a change to the state policy on opening oyster beds for wild harvesting.

DNR is asking for public feedback on the plan it presented at the Oct. 12 Oyster Advisory Commission. The proposal establishes criteria to create new Public Shellfish Fishery Areas (PSFAs) or expand existing public fishery areas in places with five or more oysters per square meter of bottom. DNR explains that when PSFAs were established in 2009, a process was put in place to declassify PSFAs in the event of an aquaculture lease. But there was no process to add additional public shellfish fishing areas.

DNR portrays the proposal as simply closing a gap and fulfilling the intent of the law from 2009. The creation of new PSFAs would be good news for watermen who depend on their wild oyster haul, which is a fraction of what oystermen used to pull in. But it doesn’t come without controversy. Environmental groups believe allowing new PSFAs would open a dangerous door when it comes to oyster restoration.

When a public shellfish fishery area is established, the bottom can no longer be used for oyster restoration or oyster farming. The proposal could prevent reef restoration and aquaculture in large portions of Maryland’s Bay by keeping them exclusively for commercial harvesting, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) argues.

 

CBF says the proposal doesn’t just close a gap and fulfill the intent of the law, it’s actually a “major change in oyster management that undermines the spirit of the law.” The foundation is asking DNR to table the proposal entirely.

CBF Maryland Fisheries Scientist Allison Colden said in a statement:
“This proposal undermines the process put in place by the legislature to implement actions to increase the oyster population and end overfishing. It appears to be a one-sided proposal to increase the oyster harvest at the expense of restoration and aquaculture efforts that are helping to bring Maryland’s oysters back. Making more of Maryland’s Bay bottom off-limits to restoration and aquaculture makes no sense as oyster populations are wallowing at historic lows. The state must balance the interests of the fishery with the environmental and social benefits more oysters could provide, instead of reserving the remaining oysters in Maryland waters for harvest.”
One issue DNR points out is that the current regulations grant an aquaculture lease-holder exclusive access to harvest wild oysters from their leased bottom, even before they begin to farm oysters.

Why not? The shit from the farmed oysters would likely smother the wild oysters on the bottom. 

DNR’s proposal would include a mechanism to “preclude leaseholders from harvesting and selling wild oysters from newly acquired leases until they have invested in planting the lease area and complied with the active use requirements for at least one year.”

DNR says this could deter anyone who is motivated to pursue a lease site just to harvest and sell off existing wild oysters.

This does strike me as a small step backwards, not unexpected in the Hogan administration, which has traditionally been friendly to the watermen (which has also been true in the administrations of Democrat governors).

All of this would be irrelevant in a Fritz administration, in which harvesting wild oysters would be banned for 5-10 year, while we monitor to determine if wild oysters are still capable of widespread success in the modern Chesapeake Bay. If so, great. Open fishing on a truly sustainable plan, with an eye to keeping the populations growing. If not, explore importing other oysters (eg ariakensis) which might succeed. 

If we had adopted my plan when I first proposed it, we would be near the end of the 10 year hiatus.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Honor Blackman  up and running for your digital pleasure.

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A Big Heap of Biden Family Scandal

 So how is our great, but underreported scandal going today? Roger L. Simon at ET, Why Hunter Biden Really Does Matter … Big Time, behind the paywall. From Emily Jashinsky at Da Fed, With Biden Corruption, Democrats Are Once Again Reaping The Consequences Of Their Gentle Primary. I guess we'll see. 

Henry Rodgers at Da Caller, Senate Committee Successfully Verifies All Bobulinski Materials Reviewed To Date , most unlike the Steele dossier. Capt. Ed at Hot Air, RCI: Senate Committee Investigating Hunter Biden For FARA Violations. The original from Paul Sperry, Senate Panel Investigating Hunter Biden’s Failure to Register as Foreign Agent. Well, fair enough. It was good enough to convict Paul Manafort. 

But from Henry Rodgers, Da Caller, Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson Won’t Call Tony Bobulinski To Testify Before Election

“Senator Johnson has always wanted the truth to come out, and through media interviews and the troves of information Mr. Bobulinski provided to the committee, that truth is coming out day by day. Our staff is working tirelessly to continue verifying the information and using it to piece together a bigger picture about the Biden family’s significant conflicts of interest,” a Johnson spokesperson told the Daily Caller.

“Senator Johnson appreciates Mr. Bobulinski’s forthrightness regarding his first-hand account of the Biden family’s business dealings,” the Johnson spokesperson continued.
And from Roger Kimball: Tony Bobulinski and implausible deniability. He is a no-nonsense, forthright guy who is angry and determined to clear his name:
Bobulinski appeared on the scene as a complainant only because Adam Schiff decided to go on the record disparaging him as a Russian agent or source of Russian disinformation. As a patriotic American, Bobulinski objected and demand a retraction. No retraction was forthcoming, so he went to the press. ‘People were accusing my family of treason after I served this country and defended this country,’ he said. ‘I feel I have a patriotic duty to this country and to every American citizen.’
Most of the press, being wholly owned subsidiaries of the Democratic National Committee, violently disparaged his revelations where they did not studiously ignore them. As of early this morning, a search for ‘Bobulinski’ on the CNN site produced a search-not-found result. How odd!
As of the time of this post, Bobulinski’s name still produces no results in CNN’s search engine:

Ace, Tony Bobulinski Reveals That Biden Family Plan to Cover Up "The Chairman's" Role in Taking Foreign Bribes: "Plausible Deniability" "The corporate propaganda outlets are still refusing to even mention the story."  ET, Exclusive: Hunter Biden, CCP-Tied Billionaire Had Close Relationship, Texts Reveal. Matt Vespa at Town Hall brings Oh, We Have More Damning Calls Between Biden Whistleblower and Joe’s Family Operatives and Biden Whistleblower: The Biden Family Is Compromised

The Tennessee Star has some trenchant Commentary on the New Revelations on the Biden Family Scandal; October’s Surprise Part Two and Counting

It is hard to keep up with the Biden Family Scandal (yes, it’s worthy of a title) because more information unfolds daily. Joe Biden is counting the hours, no minutes, until this election is over. For every moment that passes and the Democrat media, in lock step with Democrat Big Tech, censors, Joe is hoping few will learn that the Biden family got millions of dollars from foreign entities and even foreign governments by using Joe’s position as Vice President of the United States.

Put another way: The Biden family used, exploited and abused the Office of the Vice Presidency to enrich the Biden family by millions and millions of dollars. Biden ducks and denies, but all the hair-splitting in the world and all of the carefully crafted wording by his campaign spinners and surrogates doesn’t negate that. . . .

 They say oftentimes the cover up is worse than the crime.  Not sure here though.  The American people are smart.  This mere sampling of the depths of the Biden Family Scandal is instructive.  Imagine if the media did its job.  Marvel how much the American people would learn if Big Tech didn’t behave like a fascist regime.  Indeed, the American people are well-poised to understand all of this.

Let’s be clear.  The Biden Family Scandal isn’t election season rhetoric.  This is an extremely serious matter involving potential violations of multiple laws (SEC, IRS, FCPA, FARA to name a few) and abuse of power that reach the highest levels of public office straight into the people’s house, the White House.

There is no way Joe Biden should be anywhere near the Oval Office, ever.  Voting for this man is a vote for Kamala Harris because she will be the first to boot him out, ironically using the Biden Family Scandal as the pretext.   That she is the most radical member of the U.S. Senate according to the nonpartisan GovTrack (yes, she surpasses Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren) says it all.

But a funny thing happened on the way to Fox News, PM, WATCH: Tucker Carlson reveals damning Hunter Biden documents have suddenly vanished

Fox News' Tucker Carlson reported on Wednesday that a trove of Hunter Biden documents vanished while they were being delivered to him. His producer sent these damning documents from the Fox News studio in Manhattan, using a very popular shipping service.

Carlson states he never received the package as the company informed him it was emptied along the way. A comprehensive investigation is under way, but it is believed someone opened the package and took the documents contained within it. These documents still remain unfound.


Virginia Kruter at Da Caller, ‘Baffled And Deeply Bothered By This’: Tucker Carlson Says ‘Damning’ Hunter Biden Documents ‘Vanished’, Twitchy, Tucker Carlson says Hunter Biden documents disappeared en route from New York to Los Angeles, Mary Chastain at LI, Tucker Carlson: Damning Hunter Biden Documents Suddenly Vanished, and then some good news from LI's Mike LaChance, EXCLUSIVE: FOX News Has Copies of ‘Damning’ Biden Family Documents Removed From Shipping Package

And, not shockingly, Sundance at CTH has a slightly conspiratorial notion of what might have happened. Unfortunately, he has a bad habit of being right a lot of the time: Tucker Carlson: Bobulinski Documents Intercepted and Removed From Overnight Package….
I review this story from a position that I cannot fully explain. However, I have personal experience -recent experience- with a similar and rather unusual situation that cannot be explained by any method other than DHS surveillance. So here’s what I think took place.

The package, likely a Fed-X delivery, was intercepted by FBI agents using mechanisms for tracking and surveillance that open targeting through portals connected to DHS.

As an outcome of the U.S. Patriot Act, the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security has an agreement in place with mail shipping companies, public/private services, that essentially allows them a portal to track all in-state and interstate mail deliveries.

The FBI has access to this data network in the same way the FBI has access to federal transportation records. Just like when you book a flight and DHS portals are open that allow FBI to track your movements domestically. This type of portal is also accessed in private company transportation like Uber, Lyft etc. DHS, and as a consequence the FBI, can easily track your whereabouts.

Without much hesitation I will bet the FBI was monitoring the communication of Bobulinski, and by extension the entire Tucker Carlson production network. Once the shipment was known to be taking place, the DHS portals are opened; the package is tracked; and the FBI moves in to intercept the delivery.

The transport company doesn’t need to be participating because they are essentially unneeded. Their system network is connected to the FBI.

And even more fun links at the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 10.28.20  and at JJ Sefton's The Morning Report - 10/29/20

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A Small Dollop of Russiagate

Much like yesterday, at tad of Russiagate and a ton of Biden Crime Family antics. I'll deal with the Bidens in subsequent post. From Politico, FBI agents urge Biden and Trump not to fire Christopher Wray "Democrats, as well as many Republicans, on Capitol Hill have largely endorsed Wray as a straight-shooting, apolitical and effective leader of the FBI." I'm sure the ones who were deeply involved in the misuse of the FBI to go after Trump appreciate the cover that Wray has provided. WaPoo has the story too: FBI association calls on Trump, Biden to keep Wray as director. Oh, it's an association? Remembering O’Sullivan’s Law:

O’Sullivan’s Law states that any organization or enterprise that is not expressly right wing will become left wing over time. The law is named after British journalist John O’Sullivan.

The only other news, that I'm grouping loosely under the Russiagate banner is the revelation that the 'famous' "Anonymous" who wrote the NYT op-ed saying that he and many other high level members of the administration were opposed to Trump and were trying to subvert his goals, has finally outed himself. He turns out to have been Miles Taylor, who's highest title was Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Homeland Security. Not so high level. When asked by Anderson Cooper on CNN if he was "Anonymous" he denied it, and let Victoria Coates take the rap in the press.  TNP, Famed ‘Anonymous’ Trump Official Is Actually Junior Staffer Who Never Worked W/ POTUS

The former Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Homeland Security from 2017 to 2019 claims to be “Anonymous” – the author of a 2018 article “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.”

“I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations,” he wrote for The New York Times.

Now, however, Taylor is stepping forward as the author of the piece. Taylor recently made headlines for publicly endorsing Biden for President, as part of a Republican Voters Against Trump-backed effort.

Taylor has also appeared on several Lincoln Project videos.

The article garnered considerable traction in establishment circles, bolstering mainstream media’s claims about President Trump as an incompetent leader. Taylor’s claims, however, are undermined by the fact he was a junior staffer in the administration who never worked directly with President Trump.

John Sexton at Hot Air, Former Homeland Security Official Outs Himself As ‘Anonymous’ (Update: Will Remain As CNN Contributor),  AllahPundit at Hot Air, Trump: I Was Worried This “Anonymous” Sleazebag Might Be Hope Hicks Or Jared Kushner, Ace, Former "Senior Administration Official" (According to the Media) Who Penned Anti-Trump Diatribe As "Anonymous" Reveals Himself... and It's.. a Nobody

When this mid-level bureaucrat first wrote his screed in the New York Times, Trump suggested it was a mid-level bureaucrat.

CNN's Chris Cillizza said no way it's a mid-level bureaucrat, Trump You Demon Liar, because the New York Times would never publish a mid-level bureaucrat and claim he was a "senior administration official."

So is CNN going to retract and correct now? Will it admit the New York Times straight-up lies?

Sundance at CTH, Another Lie Exposed – Anonymous Source for NYT Op-Ed Revealed as Low Level Policy Advisor for Dept. of Homeland Security…

Miles Taylor was a low level policy advisor within the Department of Homeland Security when he wrote the op-ed for The NY Times; he later became spokesman for DHS under Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. A DHS “policy advisor” is a long way from a “Senior Administration Official…. and even the far-left loons are now left rolling their eyes at the revelation.

The Anonymous op-ed, and the resistance claims constructed therein by the newspaper, was a complete snow-job by the New York Times in an effort to intentionally frame a false narrative against the Trump administration.

Knowing the truth of their false presentation is now stark and admitted, what does that say about all of the New York Times reporting using anonymous sources? 
And the delightful Molly Hemingway at Da Fed demolishes him and the NYT in New York Times’ Miles Taylor Op-Ed Shows Everything Wrong With Anonymous Sources. A small quote, but read it all!
So Taylor was neither a senior administration official nor a principled conservative. The only thing that is really known about him is that he is capable and willing of lying, as he did on air when asked by Anderson Cooper if he was “anonymous.”

If The New York Times was willing to lie about how high-level its anonymous source was for their very high-profile September 2018 information operation, imagine the lies they’re willing to tell about all the other anonymous sources they use.

If the New York Times is willing to deceive readers about how high this author’s perch was, imagine how much other papers and media outlets are willing to lie in support of their anti-Trump narratives.Every time you read in an outlandish Big Media narrative that an anonymous source is “senior,” interpret it as “junior.” And if the reporters don’t even bother with that level of characterization, assume it’s someone they met on the street.
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