Commentary

Below is a collage of commentaries on current events from a simple engineer’s perspective. The posts apply philosophy, mathematics, and science to assess current problems with an unbiased eye toward solutions. To make things interesting, I include an occasional short story or essay. Note: posts before June 8th are COVID related. After that I wander over a wider array of topics that catch my attention. While I sometimes can’t help myself, I strive to stay away from deep politics, but often, current events are too entangled in that morass to steer completely clean.

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January 2021

January 12: Please Opt Out of Inauguration Day – an open letter to my son living in Washington DC.

November 2020

• November 7: Another Nail In The Coffin Of American Democracy – What does it mean that a comprised Manchurian Candidate is about to become president?

October 2020

• October 31: Trump Wins! Trump Wins! – making my prediction based on an an analysis of the real polling data.

September 2020

• September 30: The Debacle That Was Debate One – one man’s assessment of last night’s first presidential debate.
• September 29: Bold Debate Predictions; Helping Media Pre-Write Their Post-Debate Summaries – A satirical look at how the media is pre-writing their summaries of tonight’s Presidential debate for tomorrow’s news cycle.
• September 19: A Pending Supreme Court Vacancy Is Bad News for President Trump – a review of what the latest Supreme Court vacancy means for President Trump and the nation.
• September 16: Lebron James and His Memphis Bell Moment – Mr. James has been challenged with a profound moral dilemma, how he responds will speak volumes about the true commitment professional athletes have for true social justice.
• September 2: CDC Confirms Dr. Dolin’s COVID Fatality Assertions – The CDC admits that 96% of the fatalities they counted as COVID caused, were from patients who died with COVID rather than from COVID.

August 2020

• August 23: Unintended Consequences – Why the Democrats are desperately driving toward a mail-in election this November.
• August 22: The Medium is the Message – An assessment of virtual political conventions and why they aren’t different or special.
• August 5: Science Minds Matter; President Trump is Coming Around – A review of political and media outlets I routinely reach out to with my science-based assessments.
• August 2: University of Washington Professor Responds to Dr. Dolin’s Critic of Their COVID Model – After a UW Professor complains about my unfair attacks on his university’s COVID model, I respond.

July 2020

• July 31: Dolin COVID Model Outperforms Academic and Government Models; Again – An analysis of the highly inaccurate big-three COVID models versus the always accurate Dolin model for the month of July with August projections.
• July 25: CDC Confirms Dr. Dolin’s Analysis: The Coronavirus Epidemic Is Over – Explaining how the end of an epidemic is determined, and how my bold June 7th declaration has been confirmed by the CDC.
• July 18: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics – An examination of how nefarious politicians, incompetently unethical Doctors, and a willfully complicit media are purposely skewing COVID data.
• July 17: Cutting Off The Nose to Spite the Face – A satirical look at how news departments hurt revenues for their parent companies.
• July 12: Disproving Pandemic Propaganda Through Hypothesis Testing – Analyzing the ability of a cloth facemasks to protect against coronavirus transmission. Reviewing a CDC publication that concludes facemasks do not prevent coronavirus transmission.
• July 2: In The Shadow of Mount Rushmore – What the President speaking at Mount Rushmore means to me.
• July 1: The Inconvenient Truth In Data and Why States Should Not Shutdown – A summary analysis of how the COVID crisis performed in June.

June 2020

• June 28: The Perilous Plight of Liberal Pigeons and the Peculiarly Absent PETA Protests – A plea to PETA to relocate pigeons in liberal cities who’ve lost their habitat due to rioters tearing down statues.
• June 27: Anarchy’s Unintended Consequence – The silent majority’s quiet awakening to the fact that government no longer works for them.
• June 23: From “Christo et Ecclesiae,” to Elitism: The Rise and Fall of Harvard University – A look at the ridiculous assertions being made by Harvard’s academics.
• June 19: The Sad Saga of How the Medical Profession Transformed into a Business – Retracing a lifetime of medical office visits that mark a steady decline of the once prestigious medical profession.
• June 11: Difference Between a High School Teacher and University Professor – Explaining how engineering students are educated and how that relates to a UCLA economics professor’s suspension.
• June 9: First Hand Look At Fly-Over Country – Appreciating the tranquil countryside roaring to life with green pastures, rivers raging with run-off, and livestock lazily lounging away their spring, and why I could never trade the open sense of freedom I feel in the West for anything offered back East.
• June 7, Day 83: The COVID Crisis Is Cleary Over – Using analytical data and scientific analysis of the words, action, and deeds of politicians, medical professions, the media, and most importantly the American people to conclude the COVID crisis is clearly over.
• June 6, Day 83: To Riot, or Not to Riot: That Is The Question – In order to condone rioting, the medial community reverses itself on COIVD concerns, even suggesting racism causes COVID.
• June 5, Day 82: Attenuation – New study indicates the virus is weakening. Let’s hope that like most Chinese-made products, COVID is poorly engineered with a short useful life.
• June 4, Day 81: Jumping the Shark while Nuking the Fridge – The behavior of politicians and the media are clear indicators we’ve descended even lower into the inferno of the absurd.
• June 3, Day 80: The Curious Case of a Chinese Virus that Causes Blood Disease – Coronaviruses are respiratory but 40% of COVID deaths have been vascular, which is further evidence COVID-19 was man-made to maximize criticality.
• June 2, Day 79: In search of the Illusive Boogeyman – Just as the COVID crisis winds down and rioters seek to bump the pandemic off news cycles, along comes a new coronavirus boogeyman.
• June 1, Day 78: The Newton Correlation – Newton’s laws of motion used to examine the dynamics of riots.

May 2020

• May 31, Day 77: A Hollywood Script That Practically Writes Itself – Assessing performance of the three major COVID models through May and comparing results with the Dolin model.
• May 30, Day 76: The Malicious Malfeasance of MDs – Using the medical profession’s logic for assessing COVID deaths to conclude, COVID saves lives.
• May 29, Day 75: The Politics of Wisdom – Putting President Trump’s decision to let individual states manage the crisis in perspective.
• May 28, Day 74: Free State Walleye – Plotting my strategy to escape the lockdown state of New Mexico and journey through communist controlled Colorado to go walleye fishing in the free state of South Dakota.
• May 27, Day 73: Cogito, Ergo Sum – Applying the philosophy of Descartes to examine how we’ll know the COVID crisis is over.
• May 26, Day 72: Cuomo Concedes I Have Been Right – NY Governor Cuomo admits COVID models used by politicians and media have all been wrong, confirms the Dolin model.
• May 25, Day 71: COVID Casual – Part three of my short story about Tara and Marcos for your Memorial Day enjoyment.
• May 24, Day 70: Tracking on Target – The COVID death rate is currently at it’s lowest 7 day average since the apex. The Dolin model continues tracking on target while media models continue to be orders of magnitude off.
• May 23, Day 69: Die While I’m Living or Live While I’m Dead? – An analysis into why fewer Americans are dying this year than predicted, and why risk is an inherent part of life.
• May 22, Day 68: More Absurdity From the Acutely Unqualified – Breaking down why University of Washington and University of Pennsylvania COVID models are wrong.
• May 21, Day 67: By the Will of the Governed – Could it be argued that both lock-down and free state governors are acting on the will of their citizens?
• May 20, Day 66: Townies versus Tourists – What’s going to happen when city folk flock to small beachfront towns on Memorial Day, where they’re not welcome?
• May 19, Day 65: Let Them Eat Cake – Investigating how fake news miss-characterized the famous quote Marie-Antoinette never spoke, and how lock-down Governors can be so meticulously manipulated.
• May 18, Day 64: Data Is As Data Does – Reassessing yesterday’s analysis in an attempt to find error.
• May 17, Day 63: Cooking the Books – Colorado Governor acknowledges the CDC is over-counting COVID deaths while Russia and China appear to be under-counting. Someone’s cooking the books.
• May 16, Day 62: Warp Speed – Resistance is Futile – Are we being set up for a vaccine placebo; it just may be the only way government can declare the crisis over.
• May 15, Day 61: Crisis of Confidence – Colorado intentionally over-counts COVID deaths while once again, CDC data cannot be trusted.
• May 14, Day 60: The Languishing Lack of Something To Look Forward To – One casualty of COVID is our nation’s collective loss of things to look forward to.
• May 13, Day 59: Fauci’s Fallacy – Why White House counsel Anthony Fauci should be dismissed as an expert.
• May 12, Day 58: Opium of the People – Governor outlaws religion while encouraging lawlessness elsewhere.
• May 11, Day 57: End the Lockdown Hoax – What’s motivating the perpetration of an unnecessary lock-down.
• May 10, Day 56: Catch Our Breath – Choosing to cook rather than blog as signs continue to point toward a June 7th crisis end.
• May 9, Day 55: Saint Petersburg Paradox – Applying Bernoulli’s “Expected Utility Theory” to help end the COVID crisis.
• May 8, Day 54: Reparations – A list of reparations and penalties that must be enacted to restore the Nation with a call to organize.
• May 7, Day 53: Exponential Projection – Using first principles analysis to predict the crisis will be over on June 7th with a death count of 86k, while academic models predict August 8th, with 234k deaths.
• May 6, Day 52: Return of the Gypsy Moth – A prediction of the U.S. COVID death count on August 8th.
• May 5, Day 51: They’re Back! – Applying first principles analysis to assess the latest federal and academic projections.
• May 4, Day 50: Russian Leaders Capitulate – After months of denying there’s a problem, Russia admits to dealing with a high rate of infection and an overwhelmed healthcare system.
• May 3, Day 49: Prom, Police, and Three Fire Trucks – Or as I like to put, just another COVID day in my domicile.
• May 2, Day 48: Commandant‘s Orders – Marshal Law comes to Gallup, New Mexico.
• May 1, Day 47: Underlying Conditions – Meeting Marcos – second half of short story about a chance COVID encounter.

April 2020

• April 30, Day 46: Underlying Conditions – A short story about going to the home improvement store in the age of COVID – even bloggers need a break.
• April 29, Day 45: Updated Numbers – Trends look good globally, but not nationally. Then again, the CDC needs to justify continued lock-downs.
• April 28, Day 44: Children of Thalidomide – Should we take the COVID cure once its rushed into distribution?
• April 27, Day 43: Herd Immunity – Examining an alternative to quarantine having success in Sweden.
• April 26, Day 42: Up the Down Staircase – For the first time in world history, healthy populations are being isolated as a form of quarantine.
• April 25, Day 41: Gone Fishing – As the nation’s newest “quarantine refuge,” I decide to go fishing to forget the melodrama.
• April 24, Day 40: Opting Out – Open letter to Governors explaining why I’m opting out of quarantine.
• April 23, Day 39: The Story Behind The Story – An examination of what the COVID data is starting to reveal.
• April 22, Day 38: The More Things Change, The More Things Stay The Same – A presentation of current date devoid of comment.
• April 21, Day 37: Making Birthdays Special in the Age of COVID – Trying to find a way to make my daughter’s 18th birthday special.
• April 20, Day 36: If Mommy Is A Commie Then You Gotta Turn Her In – NY Mayor Bill deBlasio encourages New Yorkers to rat out their neighbors.
• April 19, Day 35: History’s Most Consequential Projection. . . that most have never heard of. Casting a new MIT COVID model in the context of history’s most consequential prediction.
• April 18, Day 34: Deduction versus Induction: Fauci, Brix, and the University of Washington either lie or are absurdly incompetent.
• April 17, Day 33: How Do You Choose to Live Your One Precious Life? – Reaction to Governor Cuomo interview on post-COVID future for New Yorkers.
• April 16, Day 32: Follow the Money – Media awakens to three key truths about the COVID crisis, and why American’s will never know the extent of COVID because the numbers are being intentionally inflated.

• April 15, Day 31: What Would Actuaries Say – Even with COIVID deaths, the U. S. is on track for a normal year for the number of people who die from something.
• April 14, Day 30: Mythical Apex Day – Plots show apex reached days ago. Federal and academic models missed both the apex date and the projected number of deaths. Open letter to my fellow South Dakotan’s concerning their statewide clinical trial of Chloroquine Hydrochloride.
• April 13, Day 29: Occam’s Razor Applied to the Apex – Director of CDC incorrectly says virus continuing to expand while Occam’s Razor is used to validate the Dolin model. Where are the “experts” and their due diligence?
• April 12, Day 28: What Trusted Experts are Missing – CDC data indicates both the global and national death rates are contracting. Why do experts continue to disregard CDC data?
• April 11, Day 27: Open Letter to the Media – Worried things are being sensationalized, I attempt to get my analysis into the conversation as a lone voice of reason.
• April 10, Day 26: The Modeling Malpractice of Fauci/Brix, Persuasion Entertainers, and the Media – Federal and academic models continue to sensationalize the crisis. U of Washington admits I was right. Fauci/Brix are over-reporting COVID deaths and the US. Media is complicit.
• April 9, Day 25: Difference Without Distinction – Trump and Cuomo are converging to the same decision but from different perspectives. Why are Army special forces not allowed to take Chlorquine Hydochloride. A look at the “pre-existing condition” demographic.
• April 8, Day 24: The Mea Culpa of Grocery Day – What it’s like to go to the grocery store in the era of COVID and do we have workers to harvest our produce?
• April 7, Day 23: Facts Do Not Cease to Exist Because They Are Ignored – The math behind federal and academic pandemic models is not adding up. The US death rate has peaked as the death rate contracts, how are experts missing this?
• April 6, Day 22: Old Otowi Bridge – Escaping quarantine for a motorcycle ride to assess the surrealness of the whole thing.
• April 5, Day 21: Zinc, Quercetin, and a Curious Minded Engineer – History of quinine based drugs and controversy surrounding Chlorquine Hydochloride. Foods in nature that work the same.
• April 4, Day 20: Fundamental Law of Numerical Methods – Why federal and academic pandemic models are wrong. Losing confidence in Drs. Fauci and Brix.
• April 3, Day 19: Critical Care Nurse – Chance encounter with a COVID nurse while escaping quarantine for a dirt bike ride in the wilderness – his assessment of our medical readiness.
• April 2, Day 18: Could President Trump Be Right? – Trump is right to assert China under-reports, but wrong to predict the US will experience 250k deaths by April 14th.
• April 1, Day 17: Earthquakes, Gypsy Moths, and Trump’s Dire Prediction – Federal and academic models are peer reviewed using a simple exponential equation.

March 2020

• March 31, Day 16: Darwin Would Agree – COVID virus not mutating like natural viruses do, maybe that’s the motivation for media models to over-estimate projected deaths and governments to over-sensationalize.
• March 30, Day 15: Do The Math – Radio Free China reports 48K deaths in China while the PRC states the number is 2.5k. If China’s death rate matched Italy’s, the PRC death toll would be closer to 256k.
• March 29, Day 14: Hug a Nurse – When It’s Okay to Hug Again – Difference between medial doctors and nurses. China under-report. US death rate escalates while global death rates flatten. How my daughter is coping.
• March 28, Day 13: Marshal Law – So It Begins – Rhode Island rounds up out-of-staters as state governments following the script we predicted 10 years ago when I was part of the Avian Flu Pandemic modeling team.
• March 27, Day 12: Building Toward our Perfect Crescendo – members of media seem to be using my data.
• March 26, Day 11: Crisis of Conscience – Government Overreach and will I, or should I, comply. What will the police do?
• March 25, Day 10: Governor’s Audition – seems a lot of governors are eager to become the most draconian, and Virus Statistics – comparing this pandemic to others in the past.
• March 24, Day 9: It’s Has to be Man Made – COVID virus not behaving like a natural virus.
• March 23, Day 8: Taking Stock – So it begins, assessing the situation at the start of what will become an arduous odyssey.