On November 13, 2020 at 4:01 pm, Richard Malaby wrote:
Hi Mark, love the Club!
In hindsight, it all seems so easy, doesn't it? Flood states that have obsolete voter rolls with mail-in ballots, allow one set of partisan actors to count the votes while other side is barred from verifying the tally, and accept votes not only after "Election Day" but votes that no one can be certain were completed prior to the deadline. 100% manufactured chaos. Does anyone doubt that if it looked like Biden was on his way to winning, all the election officials went home for the night, and the next day rural votes started trickling in to put Trump over the top, that the media might take pause celebrating the re-election of President Trump? I think what is going on in the media now is what shysters call "the assumptive close."
On November 13, 2020 at 4:01 pm, Mark DeBiasi wrote:
Regarding the disappearance of Ms. Shrier's book from Target, it is time for everyone to step up and only do business with the least woke or non-woke if you are fortunate enough to find such an establishment. You may end up spending more money but in my mind you cannot put a price on freedom of speech.
After it was clear that professional sports was more interested in playing politics than in holding sporting competitions I ceased to follow any professional sports. Imagine what would happen if 70+ Million Trump supporters ceased to become customers of professional sports franchises until the franchises demonstrated political neutrality.
Imagine the impact if all Rush Limbaugh listeners contacted Target to inquire about the book. I urge everyone to stop and think of how they can reduce patronage of any organization with an anti free speech agenda and help send a message that there is a price to be paid in the form of lost business that comes from alienating half the population.
On November 13, 2020 at 4:03 pm, Roy Eappen wrote:
I am very concerned about the continued lockdown . It is killing many people
On November 13, 2020 at 4:05 pm, Charlene Pinkava wrote:
Any recommendations for WW1 history or fiction? Personal favorite?
On November 13, 2020 at 4:06 pm, Anne Pinkava wrote:
Hey Mark!
What do you think of Laurence Fox and his Reclaim Party? He may be late to the game, but he seems to be taking the erosion of British Culture and freedoms seriously. One could even speculate that "Reclaim" caused the Brexit Party to "Reform", but I'd love to hear what you think about it.
On November 13, 2020 at 4:07 pm, The Londoner wrote:
Question from this (ever Greener) and pleasant land: : What do you think of Carrie (not the horror movie.. of course...)???!!!
On November 13, 2020 at 4:08 pm, Emily Greenberg wrote:
Hi Mark! New member as of last week! Yippeeee. The best is yet to come :) Any advice on how I should respond to friends who think I'm a conspiracy theorist because I believe there was indeed election fraud committed (thank you Tucker for the "Dead Folks Who Voted" episode), regardless of whether it affects the final result? Merci! ~ Emily
On November 13, 2020 at 4:09 pm, Steve M wrote:
Greetings Mark,
You had recently expressed reservations about one of President Trump's law firms. And about lawyers in general. Just this morning, President Trump's principal law firm in Pennsylvania has headed for the hills. Would you care to provide us an update on your views regarding the change in lawyering since 1770, when John Adams represented the British soldiers in the Boston massacre?
On November 13, 2020 at 4:11 pm, james jensen wrote:
Hi Mark, Factoring in Jolten Joe's foreign policy record (see Robert Gates), what happens to the Sunni Arab states rapprochement with Israel? Do they fall to Iran's bullying if the U.S. eases sanctions?
On November 13, 2020 at 4:12 pm, Robert wrote:
Mark,
A few brief points:
1) Thanks so much for the Jim Radford song! The melody he used, though, seems to be an old Irish one, Fainne an Lae (the Dawning of the Day), which also appears in On Raglan Road, which his song may even predate. Maybe for one of your detailed song histories?
2) the ages of people like Jim Radford recall someone else on a battlefield at the same age, but on the other side, as it were: Omar Khadr. In the light of all the Jim Radfords, why does Khadr get a pass as a child soldier?
On November 13, 2020 at 4:13 pm, Gregory Laughton wrote:
My assessment is that if Donald Trump had Ronald Reagan's pleasant and reassuring presentation manner, he would have won the election overwhelmingly. Of those that I could have a civil conversation about politics the past years, all who oppose Trump cited intense dislike of him personally, with little assessment of his actual policy. What do you think?
On November 13, 2020 at 4:14 pm, Maggie from PA wrote:
Ahem. Love the picture of the clubhouse but where is the ladies'lounge?
On November 13, 2020 at 4:15 pm, Victor Selby wrote:
Breezing by the news channels the other day I noticed that so-called "President-Elect" Biden was giving a press "availability" with the news media behind a desk with a crest reading "Office of the President-Elect". As far as I'm aware there is no such thing as the "Office of the President-Elect" - isn't this basically children playing make believe? Somebody actually went to the trouble of creating a crest and sticking it to a desk for a non-existent administrative body? Emblematic of our times?
On November 13, 2020 at 4:17 pm, Michael Cavino wrote:
Mark,
Trump is know for the phrase "You're fired!" So, why has he still not fired Dr. Fauci who changes his positions on precautions for COVID-19 as often as we change underwear?
Thanks!
On November 13, 2020 at 4:19 pm, David Kelley-Wood wrote:
Mark, it seems like the phrase "the free world" is on the verge of going the way of Camelot, in that "once there was" such a thing. At least, that's the way if feels should Trump's legal challenges fail to gain him a second term. Am I being too pessimistic? By the way, will be listening today for the first time from Minnesota, as opposed to from China. Thought I'd do a comparison of totalitarian states.
On November 13, 2020 at 4:20 pm, Ben Poser wrote:
Dear Mark,
My question is deliberately off-topic, though, sadly not too, too far removed from the current electoral shambles. In practice — though not in theory — the moral thesis of Third-World anti-colonialism usually is from the point of view of either seething military-age men or snooty intellectuals who've been radicalized by their Oxbridge days. When you shift the point of view to defenseless women, however, the situation really changes, and you realize that to be a good feminist who supports the most basic of women's rights you have to become a fellow nineteenth-century imperialist a century past one's sell-by date. Anti-colonial lefties didn't realize they were actually parochial, wife-smacking, widow-burning misogynists, and, so, today, we are where we are. This stings deeply two days after the anniversary of the Armistice, where at the going down of the sun on the Empire we have forgotten those who lie in Flanders fields. Do you think there's any hope for these sorts of crucial, consciousness-changing historical realities getting out, especially under a Biden presidency? The fact that the left is factually wrong can't just be forgotten.
Warmest wishes,
— Ben
On November 13, 2020 at 4:23 pm, Bill wrote:
Hi Mark--
What are your thoughts on who will be there to take up Trumpism once the Trump presidency is over? Is there anyone, or does it end with him?
On November 13, 2020 at 4:24 pm, Bryan Hewson wrote:
Hi Mark, pray you & yours are all well as are mine, question:
Do you feel more or less pessimistic now some 9 days since the election
Bryan
Northumberland, UK
On November 13, 2020 at 4:25 pm, Toby Pilling wrote:
Mass postal voting is wide-open to both fraud and manipulation - we Brits could have told Trump that. Why was this not foreseen by the GOP? Good luck getting rid of it - post-WuFlu, the argument you'll hear will all be about the success of the experiment in 'widening participation'. Why no 'conservative' government has got rid of it since Tony Blair introduced it is a mystery to me.
On November 13, 2020 at 4:27 pm, Michelle Dulak wrote:
Mark, what's your estimate of how much of the fraud we see in this election (there's always fraud, but this one is shaping up to be a wowser like 1876) is coordinated, "collusive" if you will, and how much is just freelance dumb-arsery? There are so many streams. It seems to me that the big things, like the midnight ballot dumps in several major cities, need the collusion of at least some ballot-count officials, but things like "dead people" might be an individual initiative.
On November 13, 2020 at 4:29 pm, Drew Weber wrote:
Mark,
The 2020 election has been an embarrassment to the United States whose claim as the gold standard for democracy has been further tarnished. Our Founders stipulated that members of Congress would be elected by the people and the 17th Amendment applied the same to members of the Senate. However, our Founders were wary of having the President and Vice President elected by the people, instead relied on Electors chosen by the individual States to cast votes within the Electoral College. Seems the chaos, if not outright fraud of an election such as ours in 2020 would have been one rationale for the Electoral College. Today, the legislatures of each State would be well within their responsibilities to appoint Electors as they see fit to cast votes for President and Vice President. This would be no less valid than relying on vote tallies that may be wildly disconnected from accurate counts of legal votes. Would certainly cause a commotion to say the least, but maybe it would force discipline in future elections. Wishful thinking?
On November 13, 2020 at 4:31 pm, Laura Rosen Cohen wrote:
Hi Mark, Karol Markovicz of the New York Post said that her Thanksgiving plan is to do exactly what she wants, invite who she pleases and her greeting will be "Come back with a warrant," if the fuzz knocks at her door. She is urging people to do what they want and just start ignoring all the tin pot dictators in America (mostly governors but not limited to them, crappola mayors are in it as well. Here in Ontario Doug Ford is threatening us again with lockdown, in the new colour coded system. Red for Elmo, Yellow for Big Bird, Green for Relish, Purple for One Eye Flying Purple People Eater, etc. Will this ever end?
On November 13, 2020 at 4:33 pm, Matthew Brazil wrote:
Good day Mark! (To answer your question from last week, my last name is pronounced "bruh-zill", like the country.)
Dr. Naomi Wolf, former political advisor for Bill Clinton and Al Gore (looking at her prior work and experiences with sexist and elitist attitudes at Ivy League universities, I can't imagine how she managed to stomach the internal hypocrisy), self-avowed liberal progressive feminist, possessing a Doctor of Philosophy in English literature, tweeted out the following after Biden was projected to win: "If I'd known Biden was open to 'lockdowns' as he now states, which is something historically unprecedented in any pandemic, and a terrifying practice, one that won't ever end because elites love it, I would never have voted for him."
Now, if someone as ostensibly intelligent and as politically involved as her can be so unbelievably lazy (or blinded by Trump animus) as to not realize Biden supported and *wanted* national lockdowns 'if the science supported it' (as he admitted on video), then how in the world can we expect the average detached voter to be any better-informed (as easily swayed they are by rhetoric)?
How do we excise the cancer that is Low Information Voting from the body politic?
On November 13, 2020 at 4:34 pm, Eric Dale wrote:
Hey Mark, and fellow club members. There are Biden advisors talking about a new and stricter national lockdown. Has the US Constitution died of a COVID induced whimper?
On November 13, 2020 at 4:35 pm, oldHampshirePete wrote:
Rush Limbaugh said that the media can't destroy Trump because they didn't make him. Fox, in concert with the other networks, created a narrative with their very early calling of Biden states and late calling of Trump states. Arguably this gave cover to what Maria Bartiromo tweeted about: "-Trump leading in GA, NC, PA, WI, MI & they stop counting before the vote fairy visits overnight...". Assuming he doesn't want a civil war, what do you feel is the main motivation of "The Dirty Digger" to prove Rush wrong?
On November 13, 2020 at 4:36 pm, John Barrett wrote:
Hi Mark,
I've been telling friends that if the Dems take control of the Senate along with the House and the Presidency we'll be California in two years and China in four.
Am I exaggerating?
John Barrett, Dover, NH
On November 13, 2020 at 4:37 pm, Clark Coleman wrote:
Mark:
It used to be that conservatives argued that the media was biased and the liberals claimed that the media was unbiased. A recent poll showed that more than 80% of the public thinks the media is biased. That means a lot of progressives are in agreement with conservatives on media bias. Are Americans finally awakening on at least this one subject?
I think it has been obvious in every election cycle since 2008 that the mainstream media had a favorite in the DEMOCRATIC primary. Hillary was hounded by reporters in 2008: "When are you going to drop out so Obama can concentrate on the November election?" Not exactly "reporting" it seems. Then Bernie got the same treatment in 2016 (ironically in more than one way: The leftist media now favored Hillary, and decided she was the electable one in November). Then Bernie got that treatment again in 2020, as the media latched onto every alternative for at least a week (remember Michael Bloomberg's brief moment in the sun?)
I suppose when you see your favorite candidate being targeted by the media, it is no longer a matter of those crazy conservatives claiming media bias. Now it is hitting home.
On November 13, 2020 at 4:39 pm, Peter wrote:
What is your prognosis for America if Kamela Biden is inaugurated in January? Is there a silver lining?
On November 13, 2020 at 4:40 pm, Eric Dale wrote:
It seems we conservatives are always on defense, the latest being the apparent loss of Fox News. Where and when do we go on the offense?
On November 13, 2020 at 4:42 pm, Brian from Minneapolis wrote:
Dear Mark,
We are living in a America where our election is nothing more than an social activity where those who participate in it just get a "I Voted" sticker. At times our lives didn't change much when our side lost but now the stakes are much higher. AOC and other radicals are making lists of Trump supporters that they plan to punish when Biden is in office as just one example of their ambitions. The radicals and globalists are content on having to appease an angry volcano god that requires tributes to show "unity" or else. When are we going to realize that working with the other side is now impossible because they decided anyone who doesn't agree with them as evil? Your thoughts Mark.
On November 13, 2020 at 4:44 pm, Roy Eappen wrote:
Hi Mark I think the dens are actually in bad shape. There will be war in democratic house. Grid lock!!!
On November 13, 2020 at 4:45 pm, Robert Fox wrote:
Do you think Pennsylvania and Georgia may not be able to certify their results because of the mess they created, thus preventing them from casting their respective electoral votes?
On November 13, 2020 at 4:46 pm, Robert Stewart wrote:
One fraudulent vote is a crime. One million is a Democrat landslide.
On November 13, 2020 at 4:47 pm, Mike wrote:
Mark,
If 73 million Democrat voters have dozens of viewpoint-friendly cable channels, four network channels, 98% of newspapers, Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc, and 71 million conservative voters have one cable channel and two newspapers, then isn't "Trump Media" the obvious next move for Donald Trump if he ultimately loses here? Twitter is going to ban him as soon as he leaves office, if not before. This seems like a no-brainer for the president, and could make him his biggest fortune yet, as well as offering him a means to preserve and defend his legacy.
On November 13, 2020 at 4:47 pm, Chris Hall wrote:
Hi Mark,
As a fellow native-born Canadian, you and I are among the few people in the US who cannot rightfully claim to be President-Elect until Dec. 14th. Despite that, I'm intrigued by the video by Dr. Shiva on the data analysis of ballots from four Michigan counties. My home state of Michigan has the interesting distinction that it keeps track of straight ticket ballots versus ballots that had votes for individual candidates. The analysis showed that in three suburban Detroit counties, when the Republican voter percentage reached a threshold of about 25%, the percentage of Trump votes compared to Republican votes started to linearly drop as Republican support increased. Interestingly, Trump support exceeded Republican support in Democrat districts by about 7% to 12%. If one were suspicious, which of course we are not, one might think that software was harvesting Biden votes by switching Trump votes mostly from Republican districts, where the theft would not be as easily noticed. Of course, correlation does not imply causation, but I'm scratching my head to figure out an honest cause. I also note that my home county of Washtenaw managed to achieve a voter registration rate compared to eligible voters of 117%. Now that's Wolverine efficiency for you!
Another oddity on the software front is that it looks like Dominion stores vote counts as floating point real numbers, rather than as long integers. Now the precision of a floating point number is sufficient for any election with fewer than many billions of ballots, but one interesting thing is that if so-called weighting factors are applied to a total, you can tell this by seeing fractional ballot totals. That is, you might have 1376.59 votes at a polling station. If one sees numbers like that in raw voting totals, it's a smoking gun that the number of votes has been "adjusted". Data adjustment is something of which you are very familiar.
On November 13, 2020 at 4:48 pm, Elisa Angel wrote:
Re: Lockdowns and the Airline Industry
The quarantines, lockdowns, and sometimes mandatory COVID testing aren't inviting to travelers. People fly because it is convenient and cheap. They can pop over to Cancun for a weekend or pop over to Vegas for a show and gambling, but they can't if everything is closed at their final destinations or if they have to quarantine once they arrive. And imagine getting a false positive if there is a mandatory COVID test. What happens then?
Take a look at the TSA webpage to see the dramatic decrease in passenger travel compared to last year. Just look at November to see how many fewer people are traveling now. Also note how many types of planes are being mothballed and others being taken out of commission entirely. It seems to be by design, and that the airline industry is being sized to fit within that disastrous Green New Deal. So, my rough calculation is that if an airline survives, it will restart at 2/3rds of its pre-lockdown size. And if there are stricter regulations than already proposed, my calculation will have to shrink.
If you look at the news on foreign carriers, they're not faring well either: Virgin Australia filed for bankruptcy; Norwegian is likely going out of business; Etihad is having issues; Avianca is reorganizing, etc., etc.
On November 13, 2020 at 4:49 pm, Walt Trimmer wrote:
POP QUIZ
Which singer replaced Frank Sinatra in the Tommy Dorsey Band in 1941?
On November 13, 2020 at 4:50 pm, Left Coaster wrote:
Dear Mark,
Many retailers have given vast sums to the crooks over at looters and rioters, inc. as well as to their sympathizers and promoters. How does one discern where to spend hard earned dollars without supporting the insupportable? Perhaps I am way out there since tax dollars are routinely used against us. Target has long been off my list but many others should be in the crosshairs even though I am not a big "boycott" believer. Do you have any suggestions about how to make the most impact and uphold our values?
Your insight and wisdom are always appreciated.
LeftCoaster
On November 13, 2020 at 4:51 pm, Owen Morgan wrote:
Boris Johnson's government was elected to deliver a genuine Brexit. Eleven months later, it still isn't clear that he'll deliver that. Meanwhile, he has managed to destroy the British Constitution, tanked the economy and sub-contracted policy-making to some dodgy quacks and now, it turns out, to his mistress. Boris Johnson jumped the gun by sucking up to ga-ga Joe, who is going to make a point of victimising the UK, if his advisers can remind him where the UK is. Short of starting World War Three (or probably Four, since Boris wouldn't even get the number right), or diverting a giant asteroid on to a collision course with Earth, can Johnson get anything else wrong?
On November 13, 2020 at 4:52 pm, The Londoner wrote:
Thanks for wearing the poppy.
Thoughts on the XR stunt at the Cenotaph? (I can guess.....but a good old Steyn rant is fast becoming my guilty pleasure).
I am glad to report from these trenches that "Lockdown 2 : The Revenge" seems to be turning into a bit of a "LINO" (lockdown-in name-only). "Click and Collect" open air bars springing up in various London manors.....Hogarth would be proud. Next public health challenge will come from the tributaries of urine running down the streets (bar owners can't open the loos). Pi** patrol no doubt assembling as I type....
On November 13, 2020 at 4:53 pm, John Lewis wrote:
Considering the positively gleeful way in which target championed single sex bathrooms, in a shop which makes a big deal of selling children's toys FFS, this should surprise no-one.
On November 13, 2020 at 4:54 pm, Wayne Lanham wrote:
I've reached the point where I can see no way to unwind any of this. There just isn't any way to place corporations like Target, Disney, Starbucks, Amazon, etc. back into an "unwoke" state, assuming they were ever in such a state to begin with. And the evil empire of Facebook-Twitter-Google was born woke with the specific objective of making everyone and everything woke.
So what do we do? What course of action is feasible and realistic? Assuming of course that an old fashioned insurrection is off the table because we're all to old and reasonably well off, not to mention most of us probably lack proper training.
Would it be possible to somehow concede half the ground by simply admitting it's lost and then work to salvage and shore up the other half? Is there any way for woke and unwoke economic entities to run parallel to each other? Why can't we have an unwoke discount store? An unwoke coffee shop? Or an unwoke news media? Or even an unwoke social media?
This unsurprisingly leads me to Chick-fil-A and Fox News, which both started their corporate lives decidedly unwoke. Both were highly successful precisely because they were unwoke. Yet they both turned, with Fox News turning more so than Chick-fil-A, and also recently suffering more because of it.
So after all that, the question is basically this. Is there any way to carve out an economic niche for the unwoke half of the country, and would that even be an effective strategy? Surely the economic might of some 72 million voters and likely some half the country's income can be wielded in a way that makes a difference. They can't fire us all.
On November 13, 2020 at 4:55 pm, AlyM wrote:
How can Big Tech/Social be stopped? They've become the moral arbiters of America, aggressively censoring opinions and ideas on their "public" platforms that conflict with their socio-political ideology. They are brazen in their attempts to silence critics of the Left, secure in the knowledge that their actions are not in violation of the Constitution.
Why should new technology be exempt from upholding the right of free speech, and a case can be made for Freedom of Assembly, as the internet has become the public square, these days both by necessity and design. As for lack of published content in the traditional sense, they are nonetheless exerting editorial control through censorship of those they don't agree with.
Can't a legal argument be made on these grounds? After all, SCOTUS reversed long-standing commerce laws in order to tax internet sellers that use virtual marketplaces like eBay and Amazon to conduct business, acknowledging that new technology requires a re-examination of established tenets of the law, including the Constitution.
On November 13, 2020 at 4:56 pm, Steven Payne wrote:
Hey Mark, any truth to the rumor that you'll be taking the place of Alex Trebek as host of "Jeopardy!"?
On November 13, 2020 at 4:57 pm, Carolinan wrote:
I don't know what an honest vote count would say; I do know that [boldface] Trump will not be permitted to win [end boldface].
On November 13, 2020 at 4:58 pm, Elisa Angel wrote:
Re: lockdowns
Because many lockdown orders limit how many people can sit inside a restaurant, restaurants are seating people outside. I have seen it online in other cities, and I have seen it with my own eyes in Washington DC. Some of this outdoor seating is covered with tents and hence no longer outdoor seating. The streets themselves are filthy. How is any of this more hygienic than simply seating people indoors? And it's cold here already. It can't be comfortable sitting out on the filthy street, eating off filthy tables (the table around here are stacked with the chairs and left out overnight in all kinds of weather), and eating cold food (the food can't arrive hot being carried through 50 or 60 degree weather.)
Around here, many restaurants have not survived. The furniture and equipment has been moved out, and there are signs saying things like "Closed Permanently" on many. One sign I photographed said, "Goodbye. We're now closed. Like, forever closed. Thank you for sharing your meals with us. When we started our journey, we wanted to bring you some of the best French Cuisine using the best ingredients we could find. We are happy to have brought a little piece of that dream to you." These restaurants have been destroyed or crippled by lockdowns that are based on the lie that the government is protecting us from COVID19. If you look at the government health department pages, you will see that hospitals are not overrun, and there aren't many dying with or from COVID19.
On November 13, 2020 at 4:59 pm, Diane M Calabrese wrote:
Dark winter? Deference to the absurd, group think, etc....It's all building exponentially now. The idea that Trump is anything other than just a normal, flawed human being with good intentions in wanting opportunity for everyone to be free and productive (like most of us, hopefully) is ridiculous. Two important pieces of evidence follow. (Can you think of others?)
Keighley Mcenany, Sarah Sanders and Ronna McDaniel possess sharp intellects and an ability to speak extemporaneously the likes of which most of us can only dream. How could any prospective voter have reflected on their roles and fret about Trump not respecting women. And what does respect mean anyway? Nothing is more disappointing than to observe successful producers and actresses such as Fran Drescher and Sarah Bullock, who snagged Trump for cameos back in the day, and (to my knowledge) have never come forward to say a good word about him. Why not?
And, there's the seeing the best in everyone. By thinking everyone genuinely wants to work together, a person can get in a lot of trouble. Trump actually trusts. Others deceive. (The Syria story today is an example.)
