Second wave falling flat - covid deaths down 82%

 Given all the hype around the much-feared "second-wave," let's take a look at the numbers.

Canada's first wave case numbers peaked on May 3, when the seven day average of new cases hit 1797. The seven day average for daily covid deaths peaked at 175 just four days later, on May 7.

What has changed since the spring? 

Daily covid tests have gone up about five-fold, from approximately ten-twelve thousand per day to 40-60 thousand per day.

The daily new cases have gone up by more than 50%. So far the seven day average in the second wave has peaked on October 28 at 2805 cases.

With testing up 500% and cases up 50%, what has the daily death count done? To this point, the seven day average of daily deaths in this dreaded second wave has peaked at 31, three days ago. That's a drop of over 82% from the peak of the first wave.

But let's lock-r-down anyway, just to be safe...

The steady drip of anti-China warmongering

The Globe and Mail treats us to two Yellow Peril screeds today. On page A3 Robert Fife and Steven Chase display a little faux outrage over the fact that China claims the US and its allies were the aggressors in the Korean war. The reason I suggest their outrage is somewhat inauthentic is because these guys are smart enough to know better. Without the intervention of the US and her allies there would have been no Korean war. China and her people have every right to feel pride in the fact that they helped stymie Uncle Sam's plans for the Korean peninsula. 

Then, on the opinion page, we get a China expert from McGill waxing wise about how important it is to stand with our allies, and poke Xi Jinping in the eye at every opportunity, because that's what the US and her satellites are doing.

Our expert, one Jerome Beaugrand-Champagne, gets right down to the nitty-gritty. PM Fluffy is way too timid around the commies for his liking. He'd like to see us ramp the belligerence to a level that'll get us a pat on the back from Pompeo. Let's recognize Taiwan and send soldiers to defend it!

Sure thing, Jerome - here's your rifle!

What kind of idiocy is this? 

Strangled by Google's algorithms

 Early on in the life of this blog it enjoyed a lovely covid-like growth curve. Since then, unfortunately, Google's algorithms have done a great job "flattening the curve," so to speak.

I suspect I sealed my fate with this post about Seven World Trade Center. Suggesting there was more to 9/11 than the official narrative revealed is heresy, of course. Nine years later I think that post stands the test of time. Why not waterboard Silverstein and Giuliani? It's a harmless enough "interrogation technique" when applied to brown terror suspects. Why should white terror suspects be treated any differently?

There's actually another angle to the Frankel Steel story. Several times during my tenure as an inspector there, I flagged structural columns that had already been approved for shipment but had been fabbed out of the wrong grade of steel, making them substantially weaker than what the design specs called for. It's not unreasonable to assume that some such columns found their way into the building. Could that have contributed to its collapse?

But I digress; back to the algos. Not long after I started the blog, somebody from Before It's News requested permission to post my blog on their site, and it remains there to this day. It's basically a click-bait site and I'm relegated to the "alternative" section, the fringe of the fringe, where you'd think no one would ever find it.

Here's the thing; I routinely get at least two to four times, and frequently more than ten times as many views on any given story on that fringe website than I do at Google-owned Blogger, the biggest blog hosting site on the internet.

How is such a thing even possible?

No more drunken mouse-flinging

We've been enjoying a major mouse infestation here at Falling Downs. I'm more than a little disappointed in Doublewide, the resident mouser. There's other cats were you came from, Catso Fatso. Think about it.

Maybe a week ago I picked up some traps at Home Hardware, or maybe it was TSC. Anyway, we're up to about a dozen of the rodents by now, and I've mastered the art of the one-handed trap-flick that will deliver that dead mouse all the way to the compost pile on the other side of the driveways. I'm not sure dead mice are kosher for compost, but I figure the raccoons will sort that out.

Sunday, for one reason or another, I got a little past my daily quota of Busch Light tallboys. In addition, I had spent several hours pruning pot buds earlier in the day. Your fingers get caked with a layer of resin, which leaves a nice glow. 

Checked the traps before turning in. Yup, another little invader to be pitched. I've done this a dozen times now. I've got it down. I fling the dead rodent while simultaneously opening the trap...

And find myself flat on my back, ten feet from the porch. Worse yet, the trap was still in my hand, and the mouse was still in the trap. I had somehow flung myself, instead of flinging the rodent. As I was lying there, wondering if anything was broken, and enjoying my view of the night sky, the Farm Manager stepped out to enquire whether I needed assistance.

Well, you know how that goes. Once you say yes to the assistance, you've given up the moral high ground.

So I declined the offer, and salvaged my integrity, if not my pride, by getting back on the porch under my own power. 

No more drunken mouse-flinging.

Forget Biden-Trump; watch Macron-Erdogan instead

I've been predicting the imminent demise of the wily Erdogan for about nine years now. I'll be right eventually.

I thought he was a goner in 2016, but apparently Putin saved his ass that time around. He's less likely to be as brotherly next time, what with Erdogan mucking up his various efforts in Syria, Libya, and now Nagorno- Karabakh.

Meanwhile, Sultan-in-waiting Fethullah Gulen hopes his handlers at Foggy Bottom give him another chance. While Turkey is indeed a NATO member, it's likely that those handlers are well aware that it would be a far more reliable (read pliable) ally under a President Gulen.

Enter NATO member Macron, a man with enough arrogance, chutzpah, and self-regard to give Erdogan a run for his money. Macron has troubles aplenty himself; Yellow Vests, Black Death, and a six-million strong Islamist underclass seething with resentments.

 One of the most cherished values of the NATO nations is freedom of speech. In France this freedom is held in especially high regard when it comes to freedom to mock the religion of that aforementioned seething underclass. This has bubbled into the open once again due largely to the folks at Charlie Hebdo reprinting their infamous cartoons of The Prophet to mark the trial of the crazed fanatics who shot up their offices when they were originally published.

This has given Erdogan the opening to pose as the guardian of Islam world-wide. For better or worse, his message is sure to gain traction in the banlieues. How far will white France go to defend its right to mock the religion of its non-white underclass?

There you have it. In this corner, NATO member France. In that corner, NATO member Turkey...

Something's got to give eventually!

Idiots to the left of me, idiots to the right...

Watching the idiocy unfold next door is a downright sobering experience. I had no idea so many people are so stupid.

From the putative left of the spectrum, there's absolutely relentless braying and howling over how Trump is ushering in a Christian-fascist-white-supremacist dictatorship.

From the other side, they're shitting their pants at the prospect of Biden, that's Joe Biden, senator from Mastercard, ushering in a socialist-communist dystopia.

Really? 

What I'm seeing is a lot of business-as-usual. The only thing that's changed is the technology. Thanks to social media, it's become way too easy to weaponize millions of morons.

There's no danger of Biden leading America to socialism, and the country will remain the fascist but secular oligarchy it's always been, regardless of who wins.

Globe and Mail advises parents to install trampolines on condo balconies for their children

There's a lot of hysterical nonsense in today's Globe and Mail, most of which concerns the US election, "the most consequential since 1864," according to contributor and New Yorker stalwart Adam Gopnik. 

What's so consequential about it? 

Whether Trump or Biden prevails on Nov. 3, the American people can be assured of remaining the only modern society without public heath-care. They can be assured of the continued emaciation of the middle and working classes. Income inequality will continue to rage out of control. Military spending will continue to rise, employment precarity will increase, and the homeless crisis will get worse.

In short, the world will continue to be a bed of roses for the billionaires and their minions, while the rest of us double down on the fight for the hind teat.

So why do Gopnik and the other never-Trumpers featured in the Globe's opinion section find this election so important? Because it's the last best chance to turn back the clock to the pre-Trump golden age of the American Empire, when the USA unambiguously led the Nations of Virtue in the battle for freedom and human rights against the forces of darkness; China, Iran, Russia, and the handful of failed states who bob in their wake.

In other words, they're pining for the good old days; Hiroshima, Korea, Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria... the glory days when American might determined what was right.

Yessiree, it would be tough to top the foolishness in the opinion pages, but Mathew Hague pulls it off on page p3. The sub-head of his story, on coping with kids in your condo apartment in the time of covid, caught my eye; "climbing walls in bedrooms, foldaway desks with chalkboard, and trampolines on balconies... how some are making the most of their condos for their kids."

I'm not always a big fan of "expert opinion," but I'm willing to bet that 100% of pediatricians would not recommend putting a trampoline on your high-rise balcony for your children.

In this case, I'm with the experts.