What is a “militia?”

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The 10 Key Campaigns of the American Revolution by editor Edward Lengel and a collection of contributing authors is a delightful description of key fights in the battle for American liberty and freedom.

A side discussion in the text is pertinent to the ongoing debate over the Second Amendment.

The book explains every free male in the colonies from the age of 16 up to 60 was required to report annually for training as a part of the militia.

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Some tidbits from the American Revolution.

Re-enactment of Battle of Monmouth. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

The American Revolution is a delight to study. A few tidbits from Edward Lengel and the contributing authors in The 10 Key Campaigns of the American Revolution are relevant to this blog. Some fun stuff:

  • Perseverance in face of ongoing reversals.
  • Paying Continental soldiers in specie, that means silver.

Next post will discuss What is a “militia?”

Perseverance in face of ongoing reversals.

Author points out George Washington had more losses in battle than wins. In spite of that he led the patriot forces to victory over the greatest world power of the time.

An overarching feature that shows throughout the book is perseverance in face of trials, tribulations, and battlefield defeats.

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Excess deaths – More people are dying that expected based on historical average. Why?

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Reports are now surfacing there are far more people dying then we would expect now the pandemic is mostly behind us. This discussion will bring up merely two articles calling attention to this issue.

First article points out there are excess deaths after the pandemic has wound down. Second article points out there were excess deaths in California during the pandemic.

I suggest we need to look at government policies during the pandemic as the driving force behind the excess deaths.

Normally, one can look at the five-year average of deaths and make an estimate of the number of people who will die this year.  It is called “excess deaths” when the actual deaths are above the five-year average.

Three years after the start of the pandemic there are significant excess deaths in countries with believable statistics available.

9/2/22 – Next Big Future – Unknown Cause of 1 Million Excess Deaths per Year – Article from last September points out there are widespread excess deaths, even after allowing for Covid deaths.

Article says there were 18% excess deaths in the first two years of the pandemic. Now that the deaths from Covid have dropped, the overall death rate should be back to the historical average.

Yet that is not what is happening.

Author points out that England and Wales were showing 1000 excess deaths weekly in 14 of the previous 15 weeks. None of those are from Covid.

Excess deaths are running in the 10% up to 20% level around the world.

Excess death rates are 8% in the US and 20% in Brazil.

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About that 95% effective vaccine… (part 1)



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The Covid vaccination is 95% effective against infection.

That is what we were told by every public health official and media outlet in order to persuade us to get the shots.

95%.

It has been so effective we should get a booster. And another booster. And now there is a brand new fifth booster, because the previous four worked so well.

This is the first in a series of posts explaining the effectiveness statements were not only false, but were known to be false at the time.

We start with a survey of how incredibly effective the vaccine has been in 2022:

CDC director

10/31/22 – Center for Disease Control – Update on CDC Director and COVID-19 – I cannot describe this more lastingly than merely quoting the straight line offered by the CDC press release:

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Relocation to North Dakota.

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In June of this year, I moved my accounting firm to Williston, North Dakota. 

My wife and I have been wanting to be near our son and his family. So the simple reason for the move is “chasing the grandkids.” It is also good to be out of California, with increasing congestion, skyrocketing cost of living, and deteriorating economy.

With the wonders of technology, I will be able to serve my clients just as easily from Williston, North Dakota as from Alta Loma, California. Only visible change on the website will be the mailing address.

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Preliminary list of people who owe us apologies for the damage they caused. First round of admissions to overcounting Covid deaths.

Counting Covid deaths using CDC methodology. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Now that Covid infection rates have collapsed in the United States, our political and public health ‘leaders’ are backtracking on the steps they took which caused so much damage.

Before they take credit for a virus variant running its course and fading away, we need to be pay attention to all those who caused trauma by their actions and who had their thumb on the scales when quantifying the impact of the virus.

Articles for your consideration today:

  • CDC “accidentally” overcounted Covid deaths.
  • Massachusetts overcounted Covid deaths by including deaths from any cause whatsoever if a person had an infection diagnosis within 60 days prior to death.
  • An incomplete list of people and organizations who owe us profuse apologies for the damage they have caused.

3/18/22 – Reuters – CDC reports fewer COVID-19 pediatric deaths after data correction – CDC reduced their tally of deaths caused by Covid by 72,277. This includes 416 pediatric fatalities.

That is a 24% drop in the number of children they count as having died because of Covid. With the revised tally of 966,575 deaths in total that means they reduced the total count by 7.5%.

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Response to attack on integrity of missile launch crews and reliability of our ICBM force.

Minuteman II on static display at March Air Base Museum. Photo by James Ulvog.

On 3/10/22, Mr. Cole Smith attacked the integrity of U.S. Air Force officers pulling alert across the northern plain states as they monitor their ICBMs and maintain readiness to launch in the horrible event the President were to make the decision to do so.

He also attacked the safety and reliability of the missiles and warheads with an unsupported claim that

“…there have been more near-misses than the world knows.”

(Why is this discussion cross-posted from my other blog, Outrun Change? The only way we have so much political freedom, economic freedom, and religious freedom is that on the international stage, we have a powerful military to defend and protect those freedoms. This power pointedly relies heavily on nuclear weapons. On the national stage, our freedoms are defended and protected by the First and Second amendments to the Constitution. The Second Amendment is particularly relevant to guard the First.)

His support for attacking crew integrity is citation of a drug-incident involving 11 officers in 2013 and a test-cheating scandal involving 34 officers. Those are old reports (I won’t bother looking up date of the cheating incident) and well know to all.

Support for the more near-misses claim is an accident at Little Rock Air Force Base back in 1980. 

Um, that was 42 years ago.

The incident involved a Titan II ICBM. The Titans were liquid fueled. They have long since been retired with the last one pulled off alert in 1987.

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