Fearmongering or scaremongering is a form of manipulation which causes fear by using exaggerated rumors of impending danger.

On a recent visit to social media, I noticed the following graphic posted from covidactnow.org:

I was wondering how this could be since Florida had been decreasing in cases, even from the same website as show in the following graphic:

Full disclosure Florida page for October 25, 2021 is Florida (FL) - COVID Vaccine & Risk Tracker - Covid Act Now.pdf.

Please note the admonishment at the bottom. Florida’s cases are decreasing as shown in the graphs above the “Vulnerability is very high” statement, yet someone in charge of this data still asserts Floridians are very highly vulnerable. Maybe they have not gotten around to changing it, or maybe they have computer models to figure out how “Communities with higher vulnerability have pre-existing economic, social, and physical conditions that may make it hard to respond to and recover from a COVID outbreak.” Don’t we feel safe.

Circling back around, the initial intent of the graphic posted to social media appears to be fearmongering. Making it seem as though the one of the Florida counties has no ICU beds, the poster envisioned (I suppose) striking a blow to the unjabbed masses, providing yet another reason to acquiesce to the Biden administration’s demand for 100% coverage. However, does the poster even know anything about Lafayette County, Florida? The second smallest county out of 67 in Florida. Does it even have a hospital with an ICU so the ‘data not available’ is actually ‘no such feature.’

I had to look at the data for Lafayette County, Florida to see what I was missing.

Then something else popped out, there was 37.3 cases per 100,000 in Lafayette County, Florida last week. Figuring the 8,400 folks that live in Lafayette county must be going though hell with people dropping dead in the streets may be a legitimate concern. Except for the little note that reads Lafayette county averaged 3 new cases a day over the previous week, I would think we should send in medical teams. After all, if the daily new cases are expressed as a percentage it would be ([3/8400]*100) = 0.0357%. (This doesn’t add up to the provided 37.3 except if you change the 8400 to 8040.)

When these statistics are reported to the public, some of the data might seem extreme when examined. For instance, Miami-Dade county has a population of 2,700,000 showing 11 new cases per 100K day, but the actual new cases are 298 per day. This percentage looks like 11/100K = 0.00011% for the daily rate of new cases in Miami-Dade county. I think they should add another column to the table shown above to indicate the mortality rate over the past week. Then it might give a better idea as to the real threat posed to the public – for instance there were zero COVID deaths in the past week in Lafayette county and 15.4 deaths per seven day average for Miami-Dade or about 5.2% mortality.

Don’t be fooled by the shiny stuff or quoted figures until you dig a little deeper.

I saw a meme on social media about the supposed link between what happened in the US Capitol in 1954 vs. 2021.

The author of the meme indicates all the Capitol protesters from 2021 should be punished with sentences from 50-75 years. Obviously a death sentence for anyone over 30.

But the meme lies.
In 1954, the Puerto Rican nationalists did not storm the capital. They casually walked to the visitor’s gallery and watched the immigration debate. They said the Lord’s Prayer together, unfurled the Puerto Rico flag, and then the four of them stood up and opened fire with semi-automatic weapons wounding five representatives. (1954 United States Capital Shooting-wikipedia)

In 2021, citizens charged through the doors of the Capitol and walked around. Some of the people committed acts of vandalism and others stole property; however the majority of people just walked around. Certainly, justice must be served on lawbreakers, but this is meme is suggesting an over-the-top extreme punishment, especially when the four Puerto Rican nationalists had their sentence commuted by President Jimmy Carter after 25 years.

Should every person who stepped foot in the Capitol on January 6th be treated in the same manner as people who actually pulled out guns and shot people? If President Carter believed the sentence was too harsh (and commuted their sentences,) why would today’s Democrats advocate for the same harsh sentences?

And what should be done to the lawbreakers that planned and carried out nightly riots during the summer of 2020? People were threatened, beaten and killed. Businesses were looted and torched. Government buildings were attacked and damaged and yet there is no cry for justice for months of rioting, vandalism, and looting. There is no commission to investigate those who planned and organized these riots and mayhem.

Unequal justice is not justice. Everyone is supposed to be equal under the law, but obviously some are ‘more equal.’

ANTIFA is a political movement with supposedly decentralized leadership working with autonomous groups to effect political change in the United States. Wikipedia describes them as a “left-wing, anti-fascist and anti-racist political movement.” Unfortunately, the fascists they are against are anyone who disagrees with them. Their both peaceful and violent protest demonstrations are attempts to silence their opponents which is just a form of fascism. They are against the free flow of ideas and open discussions – it is either their way or they will show up to shut you up. First, they were against conservatives and demonized them as fascists, next the movement expanded to be anti-racist as well. I guess they wanted to be up-to-date with all their Social Justice Warrior and Woke comrades.

The ‘first’ Anti-Fascists named themselves “Antifaschistische Aktion“ and was started by members of the Communist Party of Germany funded by Moscow’s Comintern. After Hitler’s seizure of power in 1933, they were forced underground.

World War II veterans were not ANTIFA
“World War II veterans were ANTIFA because they fought Fascism” is a logical fallacy. World War II veterans fought for freedom and to liberate Europe and Asia from power hungry megalomaniacs; they did not support the ideals of the Communist Party of Germany/ANTIFA. To associate World War II veterans with ANTIFA is insulting to their contribution to World War II.

• For one, the Communist Party of Germany/ANTIFA considered all the other parties in Germany’s political system to be fascists, not just the political machine under the direction of Adolf Hitler. Those brave men and women from America fought as citizens of the United States, regardless of the political affiliation.
• Secondly, none of the American veterans went to war because they were solely against Fascists – they went in ships and planes to liberate our allies.

Anyone who is against Fascism is NOT ANTIFA
“Anyone who is against fascism is ANTIFA” is a logical fallacy.
I am against fascism and I will never be a member of ANTIFA, nor will I participate in their actions. I am only one example, but there are plenty of folks that feel the same way so as to render the statement false.

Of course there are no membership cards. Their plan is to copy the underground organizational model with decentralized leadership and independent cells forming action groups to avoid prosecution for the illegal acts they commit.

Anyone can’t be ANTIFA
“Anyone can be ANTIFA” is another logical fallacy. There are already lists drawn up with their ideological opponents, none of them can be members unless they start their own cells.

Everyone should NOT be ANTIFA
“Everyone should be ANTIFA” is still another logical fallacy and implies Groupthink or that ‘everyone’ believe the same as ANTIFA – if you don’t believe the same, you are a fascist.

Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome.

This is a Communist inspired meme glossing over the radical aspects of ANTIFA while appealing to Social Justice Warriors and the Woke folks to help them embrace ANTIFA as new virtue signalling to prove their moral superiority.

The constant refrain citing ANTIFA as a non-threatening, disorganized group of dysfunctional characters is a charade. Who pays these folks to spend weeks and months protesting every night, all night? Who drops off and hides the assortment of materials used later in the evening to pelt law enforcement and break store windows or the incendiary devices used to burn down business?
Why are these folks allowed to continue their violence and destruction?

What I do not understand are these memes posting historical atrocities as if they are not taught in school.
Is that an admission they didn’t pay attention in class and forgot?

Did they just now develop a conscience and experience the same thoughts as the millions who did pay attention?
Are these virtue-signalling memes their way to catch up?

On top of all that they try to imply the atrocities are still happening and nothing has changed.
They must have slept through those classes as well.

Recently on social media I read posts and comments that attempted to obfuscate the truth concerning the attack on the civil liberties of former President Donald Trump’s lawyer. The third lawyer connected to Donald Trump to have their personal communications seized under a federal search warrant by FBI agents was Rudy Giuliani on April 28, 2021.

In the interview below, Mr. Giuliani retells the story of the agents pounding on his door early in the morning and showing a search warrant for ‘all electronics.’ Almost all the electronic devices were confiscated, including someone else’s cell phone. Before the agents left without picking up all the electronic devices, Giuliani indicated they were leaving two hard drives (which are ‘electronic devices.’) When told the hard drives were copies of the hard drive from Hunter Biden’s laptop left in a repair shop, the agents refused to take them. Did I mention Mr. Giuliani had also offered to freely provide the information prior to the execution of the search warrant?

So, the comments on social media indicated Rudy Giuliani was muddle-headed because he used the term ‘laptop’ when referring to the hard drives. Everything could be dismissed, because obviously Mr. Giuliani didn’t know what he was taking about; just forget about the whole thing. If those comments allow some people to dismiss the whole affair and not listen to what Mr. Giuliani had to say, then the comments were invoked to obfuscate the truth.

First, as an electrical engineer, a copy of the hard drive of any laptop is essentially the laptop it was copied from. The only difference would be the firmware used for the processor, but all the data from the original laptop would be present if used on another laptop (or desktop computer.) Therefore to refer to a copy of a laptop hard drive as the laptop itself isn’t muddleheaded; it is an accurate description when speaking of the information.

Does the obfuscation have anything to do with the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop? Do the videos on the laptop (and the copied hard drives) showing the President’s son engaged in illegal activities have anything to do with it? The contents of the laptop were revealed in 2020 before the election; however the mainstream media decided it was ‘Russian disinformation’ and refused to cover the story – until Joseph Biden had been elected President of the United States. Now the videos filmed by and showing the President’s son smoking crack cocaine and having sex with underage girls are no longer of concern. There are no charges against Hunter Biden for molesting his niece or his use of illegal drugs; it must be a ‘conspiracy theory.’

On the other hand, former Federal prosecutor and New York Mayor (America’s Mayor,) is subjected to ridicule in the media for suggesting the information on the laptop was real. He relates in the interview that while he was defending President Donald Trump from impeachment, the Justice Department accessed his personal data stored in the cloud about the case. The disparity between the treatment accorded Rudy Giuliani and what is supposed to be normal is enormous. Actually, Mr. Giuliani isn’t the only victim. The thought police are out there everyday attempting to silence information and ideas contrary to their worldview and expectations. Remember when some folks decided to start taking down and cancelling Trump supporters for having a different opinion on who they wished to be President?

So, Hunter Biden gets a free ride from molesting his niece (the President’s granddaughter) and smoking crack cocaine while an honorable man is persecuted and reviled.

And I didn’t even mention the billions of dollars Hunter Biden was paid by the Chinese government.