THE SURVEYED HOMELESS PEOPLE AND NOT ONCE IS DRUG OR ALCOHOL MENTIONED And surveys like this are why I can't take the Homeless Industrial Complex (HIC) seriously. I read this article about how homeless people camp out downtown because they feel "safer" and that homeless people who are dispersed are more likely to be the victims of physical or sexual attack, but not mention of drugs or alcohol and the easy access to both downtown. Until the HIC begins to have honest conversations about the problems many homeless people have with drugs, alcohol and mental illness I don't care about what their survey says.

OUR EXCESS DEATHS ARE WAY UP THIS YEAR And The Gazette did a good piece on how we are seeing many more deaths than we would normally expect, and these are NOT Coronavirus deaths, although there may be a connection. From the article (which is paywalled):

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which tracks and publishes the figures, estimates that as of July 25, there have been between 238 and 1,082 non coronavirus deaths above what was statistically expected in the state.

The “excess” deaths are calculated by the CDC using normal mortality patterns applied to each state’s population. Anything above the upper threshold of a 95% confidence interval around the expected deaths is considered “excess.”

It would be normal to expect deaths to be either above or below the 95% confidence interval 5% of the time, or one out of every 20 weeks. But the number of deaths have only been above the expected range, not below, and nine times out of the year’s 30 weeks tracked so far.

People are dying because they are afraid of dying. Not good.

THIS IS AN OUTSTANDING ARTICLE ON AN OUTSTANDING GEORGE ORWELL ESSAY And you should really read both for one reason. George Orwell demonstrates at the end of World War II that human nature is pretty consistent. And not in the good ways. I would recommend you read this article first, and then the original essay here. It's pretty heady stuff but you can handle it. It's outstanding.

HEY, FUN FACT, WE HAVE NO RECORDED CORONAVIRUS DEATHS SINCE AUGUST 6TH And yet, we still have really stupid mandates on restaurants and bars under the guise of "flattening the curve". Seems we've flattened it. And our economy, that's flattened too. Check the data here, and if you're wondering, our cases and hospitalizations have dropped too.

THAT FLEECE NECK GAITER YOU'VE GOT? IT'S WORSE THAN NO MASK AT ALL And if you're just wearing it to comply, you can skip over this, but if you're wearing it thinking you're protecting yourself, read this.

IT'S NOBODIES DANG BUSINESS WHO YOU VOTE FOR And this column makes the case for us to keep it to ourselves. I agree. I'm sick of knowing everything about everyone even crap I don't care about, because we put all of our crap on social media, like it matters. Trust me, it doesn't. And if it does, those people are not people you really want to know.

ONE PROFESSOR MAKES A STAND AGAINST RE EDUCATION And this one happened at a small women's college with a long history. A political science professor decided to push back against ideological "training" designed to help everyone understand how hopelessly racist America is. He said no. We don't know how it ends, but I for one will be watching.

TRUMP'S EXECUTIVE ORDERS HAVE PELOSI AND SCHUMER WANTING TO MAKE A DEAL And I think this is what Trump wanted all along. His EO's, which I think are NOT Constitutional, have forced Pelosi and Schumer back to the negotiating table, according to Trump this morning. This is going to count as a Trump victory, no matter what happens from this point forward.

A HEADLOCK FOR A MARRIAGE PROPOSAL SEEMS LEGIT

Big Al & JoJo