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July 3rd, 2020
Editor’s Note: Happy Independence Day, as this is the last edition prior to America’s birthday. At least to those who celebrate, as it appears some large number of Americans don’t, no longer believing in American exceptionalism or the American dream. Troubling times.
Quote of the Week: “The plurality ultimately cast aside this jurisdictional barrier to conclude that Louisiana’s law is unconstitutional under our precedents. But those decisions created the right to abortion out of whole cloth, without a shred of support from the Constitution’s text. Our abortion precedents are grievously wrong and should be overruled.”
- Justice Clarence Thomas, June Medical Services v. Russo
Quote of the Week: “A state need not subsidize private education. But once a state decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious.”
- Chief Justice John Roberts, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue
Factoid of the Week: On July 1st, the national death toll from COVID-19 was 645, the lowest since March 29th.
In This Issue:
- Scare Tactics;
- Polls;
- The First Minnesota.
SCARE TACTICS
Clearly, science and medicine have been corrupted by politics, politics of the liberal kind.
For years, science scams have plagued the American psyche, propagated by a liberal media, all in the service of enhancing government control of our lives.
Overpopulation, global cooling, global warming, acid rain, AIDS, COVID, all these “issues” have been used in recent decades to scare Americans into surrendering freedoms and liberties for the supposed security government can offer against these natural boogiemen.
The “experts” all told us that these issues were an existential threat to humankind unless drastic, immediate action was taken.
None of it turned out to be true.
Regarding COVID, the “experts” have been proven wrong by orders of magnitude.
The latest scare tactic is that positive test numbers are “exploding” and thus proof that the pandemic is out of control and America is in need of more martial law.
The reality is that while positive test numbers are rising, so are the numbers being tested. We always knew that, yet we read of hysteric headlines day after day.
The infection rate remains low, which is one important metric in assessing the lethality of COVID and thus very helpful in considering the tradeoffs inherent in shutting down the country.
More importantly, the death rate from COVID continues to fall, both nationally and here in Minnesota.
But these statistics are ignored, which is right out of the liberal play book.
Liberal policy makers cite dubious statistics to justify the need for government overreach.
Once those policies are in place and subsequent data show that the original estimates were way overblown, the statistics are ignored.
Remember the Minnesota COVID model? You know, the one thrown together by a couple of U of M grad students over a weekend? The one that hasn’t been updated in weeks? The one that has been way, way off? The one used to justify COVID martial law?
We haven’t heard about the model in a long, long, time because the model served its purpose. It was essentially a propaganda tool to justify a political outcome.
The model no longer serves the political purpose, so its been retired, so to speak.
Have you heard anything lately regarding the other models that were so wrong, including the infamous London model?
It’s really no different than other “models” like the one that inspired the Watchdog back in 2005.
Back then, the “experts” and their models purported to show that Northstar commuter rail was the best option to increase mobility in the Highway 10 corridor and showed impressive ridership numbers that any rational person would question.
Once the project got built, the ridership numbers (of course) were way off and the train was the boondoggle many thought it would be. No matter, the project got built, it runs today, and no one questions the models and the assumptions.
This is a tried and true strategy out of the liberal play book. It was here before COVID. It will stay here so long as the Left can gain power from it. And after it is no longer useful, the strategy will again be applied to another “crisis.”
POLLS
Have you figured out another old but trusty stratagem from the Left? The one called a “suppression” poll?
A suppression poll is one that shows the Republican candidate losing badly to the Democrat candidate, in order to demoralize the Republican candidate’s supporters?
It’s designed to steer volunteers, donors, and voters away from the GOP.
Want some evidence of these polls?
You bet.
2016: Nate Silver’s vaunted 538 Poll had Clinton the overwhelming favorite over Trump.
The poll had Clinton winning states like Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Georgia.
But 538 wasn’t the only one. Most polls were wrong as heck.
2016: On October 25th, the Star Tribune’s Minnesota poll had Clinton beating Trump by 8 points. Clinton ended up winning by 1.5 points.
1980: Polls have Carter beating Reagan. Reagan won.
1988: Summer polls have George H.W. Bush down to Dukakis by an average of 19 points. Bush wins in November.
1990: On the Saturday before the election, Detroit’s liberal newspaper had Republican John Engler losing to incumbent Democratic Gov. James Blanchard by 19 points. Three days later, Engler won by more than 17,000 votes.
1994: Polls show House GOP with very little chance to take control for the first time in generations. It happened, as Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America carries the day.
For over 30 years, polls have gotten it wrong and it just gets worse. The evidence shows that believing political polling is about as realistic as believing in Santa Claus or UFOs.
Don’t believe the polls. They aren’t designed to inform or educate.
THE FIRST MINNESOTA
Since all history is in danger of being erased, it is time for some good news and a history lesson, as this week also features that anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, one of the most pivotal and costly battles in American history.
Many Minnesotans don’t know the key role one of our own volunteer infantry regiments played in the battle.
From the regiment’s Wikipedia page, read on and celebrate these true heroes:
The 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment mustered for a three-year term (1861-1864) in the Union Army at the outset of the American Civil War when the prevailing enlistment period was three months. During offensive movements, it sustained high percentages of casualties at the Battles of First Bull Run (20%) and Antietam (28%) and a catastrophic 82% at the Battle of Gettysburg. It is most noted for its service on the second day at Gettysburg.
At a pivotal moment in the 1863 struggle at Gettysburg, Major General Winfield Scott Hancock, commander of II Corps, ordered the First Minnesota to charge into a situation where it would be outnumbered by at least 5 to 1. The general’s purpose was to buy minutes of delay with human lives, and one survivor spoke afterward that he expected the advance to result in “death or wounds to [every single one of the attackers].” The regiment fully and instantly obeyed the order, suffering at least 82% casualties among those making the attack; this action contributed significantly to the preservation of a key Union defensive position on the heights of Cemetery Ridge.
When given the opportunity to speak about the regiment after the war, both General Hancock and U.S. President Calvin Coolidge were unrestrained in their praise. Hancock placed its heroism highest in the known annals of war and ascribed unsurpassed gallantry to the famed attack. Emphasizing the critical nature of the circumstances on July 2 at Gettysburg, President Coolidge considered, “Colonel Colvill and those eight companies of the First Minnesota are entitled to rank as the saviors of their country.
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