The-Asterisk

Late last night, November 27, 2020, a Pennsylvania state judge ruled to halt certification of the presidential election on the grounds that massive distribution of unsolicited mail-in ballots went against the Pennsylvania constitution, which would require a constitutional amendment to make such a change. This is a HUGE development. Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the US Constitution provides for a Presidential election by saying “Each State Legislature shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors...”. In this case, the legislature spoke, but the legislation went against the state constitution which does not allow this type of mail-in ballot. Here's the rub... there is no court in the land which will desire to throw out the vote or to disenfranchise an entire state's balloting. In Pennsylvania's case, over 7 million votes. Legally, it could be done. If the state is unable to certify the election, the appointment of electors fa...

Well, here we are on the Saturday after the all-important US presidential election of 2020. On Election Day, into the wee hours of the evening, Donald Trump had it walking away. It was in the bag. States which were obviously Trump's (Florida, Georgia, North Carolina) were not called while Arizona was called early on for Biden.  We were told for months that Biden owned this election cycle. The candidate who basically hid from the public for six months was going to preside over a "Blue Wave" where the Democrats would take the Senate and further cement their lead in the House. As recently as November 2, we were told that Biden had leads in swing states from between 8 points and 17 points. As we have seen, even with massive shady ballot counting going on, Biden is leading with the narrowest of margins.  Put aside the fact that Biden is leading in the popular vote by around 4 million ballots. This is totally irrelevant. We elect a president via the Electoral College. Say what ...

I have advocated aggressive testing over the past month, but with the recent developments where practically all states have issued stay-at-home orders, I think it is time to re-calibrate the nation's response. I call on the President and all Governors to initiate mandatory testing of all people age 16-29 to receive a serology test for the COVID-19 antibody effective immediately. This simple blood test will show whether the person tested has had the virus and recovered, or not. For those who have had the virus, the presence of antibodies in their blood indicates that they have developed an immunity to the virus. For all intents and purposes, they are now immune to COVID-19. All who test positive for the antibody will be entered into a national database by SSN. Employers and authorized users will be able to verify immunity. Additionally, the individuals will be issued a nationally recognized picture ID card. This card will certify that they can work and they can gather in grou...

In just over a month's time, this nation has gone from high-flying normalcy to a grim situation which I believe has not yet reached its nadir. The US stock market has lost one third of its value, infections and deaths from the corona-virus have increased and, at the recommendation of Federal and State authorities, massive numbers of business have essentially shut down. At least four states have declared a state of emergency whereby only critical and essential businesses may operate. I expect that many other states will soon follow. That would be a sad and irresponsible move by the governors of those states. The authorities are in a precarious position, wedged between political correctness and the inevitability of "not doing enough, soon enough". I understand this. Mass and instantaneous media makes their decisions much more difficult with pundits, frightened citizens and the toxic Twitterverse questioning their every decision and blaming them for every slip and blunde...

Over the past several weeks, I have been working with on learning Veeam backup solutions. Veeam's approach is a bit different and their nomenclature is much different from other backup products, perhaps owing to their European roots. They also have a confusing licensing structure. Combine the nomenclature differences, the licensing complexities and the myriad of applications it takes to run the product and it creates, to me, a steep learning curve. That said, Veeam is an effective and affordable Enterprise-grade product. I had installed Veeam Backup and Replication on a test server several months ago. After working with it for a while, I abandoned the project ("Squirrel!!!"). I came back to it a couple weeks ago and began my effort by downloading and installing the latest version. When the installation of Veeam Backup and Replication (VBR) neared completion, I got an error. It was a popup on the screen which said " Failed to create database VeeamBackup. Create ...

Let's say that you are a HUUUUUGE ABBA fan. You have been waiting for years for them to get back together and have one more concert. You would give just about anything to see that show. One day you find out that indeed there will be an ABBA reunion concert and that, like buying a new Tesla, the wait is years long, and it will cost you a lot of money with no guarantee that you will even get a ticket. You are depressed. People just don't understand how you feel. You are marginalized. Then you find out that there is a little hack that can get you into the concert quickly and at little cost except for time. Here's the deal: gather up a canned good and make up a great story about how everyone of your friends gave you a hard time about being a hardcore ABBA fan. That's it. Show up at the ticket window, present your can of tuna, tell them your story of woe and you are in. Would you do it? If you really, really wanted to see ABBA, you would. This is a simplification of ...

It has been said that Americans perfected, if not invented, the concept of guerrilla warfare. During the War for American Independence in the 1770s and 1780s, Americans who wanted to be free of British rule were outgunned, outmanned and had no professional standing army, so they did what they could. They attacked the British any way possible. While the British played by the rules of war and civilized conduct, the American patriots used hidden snipers to pick off unsuspecting Redcoats and they blew up British outposts with homemade bombs. Today we call that asymmetrical warfare but it is the same thing. A big, strong entity being harassed and worn down by a small, nimble and dedicated force to the point where the big, strong entity either attacks with all they have or they just give up and go home. What does this have to do with trade? We hear politicians and commentators from both sides of the aisle saying that trade should not be used as a weapon. Really? Should our judicial sys...

Stephen Curry has changed basketball. Forever. The "three-point shooter" has turned the NBA championship process on its ear. He did it by doing nothing wrong. He played by the rules. But he and the Golden State Warriors completely changed the dynamic of the game. Michael Jordan. Need I say more? MJ made it OK to make bucketloads of cash, endorsing products while making more bucketloads of cash from the team. This guy could dunk the ball from the foul line! He scored like a banshee and his likeness was EVERYWHERE. Cereal boxes, shoes, billboards, hats, TV, movies, EVERYWHERE. Even today, after 15 years of retirement, everyone knows who belongs to the number 23. Michael. To say Allen Iverson broke the mold is to be unfair to molds. The Newport News native rocked the NBA like no other player besides Dennis Rodman. His cornrows, massive tats and uncharacteristic off-court style brought a swagger to basketball which exists to this day. At 6' 0", he made up for his l...

For those who have not voted yet in the US midterm elections, this is for you. I truly believe that if the Democrats take control of the House this week, the nation will become embroiled in two years of utter chaos, pitting the House against the Senate, the House against the President and causing the Supreme Court to weigh in which will then cause the House to go against the Supreme Court. The radical Democrat blood-lust will be unleashed and we will literally have two years of weeping and gnashing of teeth. TV will become unwatchable. It will be an uncivil war of words and deeds which could devolve into an actual shooting war if things go too far. Making matters worse, nothing will be accomplished in Washington. You may say "Well, that's a good thing" but the Chinese, the Russians and the Iranians will not stop what they are doing and a weak and distracted America is not good for ANY modern, Western-leaning, law-abiding government or nation. For those of you with ...

In today's Wall Street Journal is an opinion piece entitled "How to Make Highways and Airports Pay" . I apologize about the WSJ paywall if you are not a subscriber, but the gist of the article is that federal and state localities should adopt a feature called Asset Recycling which allows the government to lease assets such as highways, bridges, tunnels and airports to private consortiums and they, in turn, charge consumers to use the asset. The government then takes the money it gets from the private businesses and invests that money into other meaningful projects. Problem #1 is that money which the government receives is virtually NEVER sequestered for use only as intended. Problem #2 is that while private concerns can usually get things done cheaper than government, there is that pesky problem of profit. The management company needs to show a profit for all of the out years and a 75 year lease can be a long run to fund. I think there is a place for privatization wit...

A view of Kennett Square, Pa. “Mexicans are leaving, and that’s bad news for everyone,” an employer said. Credit Craig Warga/Bloomberg, via Getty Images A recent New York Times article about how immigrants are leaving small town America underscores the ripple effect of any immigration policy changes. The author continually uses the word "immigrant" to describe the individuals who are abandoning these rural towns. I can only assume that he is referring to undocumented aliens and not green card-holding guest workers. I actually feel sorry for these people, I truly do. The United States has done a gigantic head fake to these Mexicans and Central Americans. Since Reagan's 1986 amnesty program legalized approximately 3 million illegal immigrants, the US policy has been "talk loudly and carry a small stick". For two decades, the border remained porous and enforcement of labor and hiring laws was lax to non-existent. The past decade has seen increased enforcem...

I used to like Steele and Ungar . I really did. Michael Steel e, the former Republican LT Governor of the People's Republic of Maryland and former RNC Chairman would go toe-to-toe with Rick Ungar , former writer and producer and senior political contributor to Forbes.com . Their back and forth on issues was entertaining. Rick would take the liberal side but not as a mouth-breathing, obnoxious goody two-shoes and Michael would take the moderate conservative side. It was Point-Counterpoint all over again. Their guests ran the gamut and each one of them would probe from their own perspective. It worked and I liked it. That all changed with Donald Trump. Yes, that seems to be a theme these days, but with Steele and Ungar, it has ruined the chemistry. Rick has not changed his point of view but his constant putting down of the President (I wouldn't call it bashing of the MSNBC-sort of bashing) wears thin soon enough. Michael, however, has totally been turned. He came out as...

What about both? Technology-wise, the future is bright as the sun. Socially and morally, not so much. Friends, this is it. This is what the world is and what it is becoming. Those of us who are north of 60 years of age do not matter any more. Period. The liberal basis of our nation is just waiting us out. It may take another 20 years but soon enough, we will all be dead or incapacitated. The left ALWAYS plays the long game. The right ALWAYS plays the short game (see: Rand Paul and all of the Republicans who are bailing out of office this year.) The nation is changing. We have our retirement and out medical benefits so the left want us to just STFU. They (the left and their younger cohort) will own it soon enough. Sure, there will always be some conservative folks, but by and large, what we know as "normal" is now abnormal. Guns, sex, morality, child raising, everything is changed and it probably won't go back. Trump's election mashed the brake on the liberal avalan...

" President Trump announces steel and aluminum tariffs " the headlines scream. " Trade War Imminent " Right now, China is pushing back on Trump like a scorned child. "Oh, yeah, well I can do THIS, see?" China has always fought dirty and has gotten away with it for so long. How can one fight this? They are kind of like the Mafia aren't they? Everyone just lives with it. Russia poisons a former spy in England, gets rebuked by the international diplomatic community and then pushes back by expelling Western diplomats as if the Russians are the aggrieved party. Ballsy, eh? Concerning China and North Korea, I wonder who is teaching who? They hack our industries, they hack our defense complex, they steal our shit and then build an almost exact replica. Same with the damned Russians. They want to splash in the same pool with the civilized world all the while they are pissing in the water and breaking into your locker while you are basking in the su...

" Stare decisis ". That is all we hear from liberals when they question Supreme Court nominees. " Will you adhere to stare decisis? " is their prime litmus test for anyone destined for the high court. Stare decisis is defined as "the legal principle of determining points in litigation according to precedent." In other words, when your favored opinion has been previously decided by appeal, it should remain supreme and unchallenged. Liberals realize that many of the decisions on which their entire way of governing is based comes down to sometimes dodgy interpretation of the law by like-minded justices decades ago. Losing the bedrock decisions, due to a second look or non-adherence to stare decisis causes all subsequent laws and decisions to become suspect and ungrounded. For them, this just cannot happen. In 2010, Arizona passed a law, S.B. 1070 which gave local law enforcement additional powers to enforce national immigration law (since the Feds,...

I have never thought much about the nuts and bolts of trade. I have conflated "free" trade with "fair" trade. Recent "events" have caused me to realize that free trade is anything goes. Kind of like free love. As with free love, there are usually regrets (by at least one party). Fair trade means what it says, a fair way of doing business. One country adds a 2.5% tariff on imported vehicles and their trading partner puts a 20% or a 50% tariff (tax) on the vehicles they import from their partner. Is that fair? The US freely allows this to happen to themselves. I am not sure if it is guilt or what, but we certainly have been taken advantage of. I can see Trump's point. We (the US) do not put much of a tariff on anything (check this out: https://hts.usitc.gov/current ) There are 99 chapters to this document and if you take the time to look, you can see that it is extremely rare for an import tariff to exceed 5% let alone 10%.Th...