R.I.P., Ralph K. Winter. A fine man, a fine judge, and an excellent teacher. I had him for three classes at Yale: Antitrust, Corporations/Business Associations, and Evidence. Even though he was teaching while sitting as a Second Circuit judge, he was always prepared and always amusing. Favorite quote: “I’ve been called a fascist because I believe in small government, which shows either a misunderstanding of me or a misunderstanding of fascism.”
Archive for 2020
December 17, 2020
GIVE THANKS: After Weeks Of Holier Than Thou Howling, The ‘Thanksgiving Surge’ Is A No Show.
“We haven’t seen something significant to talk about now,” Illinois Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “We’ll see for sure in this coming week … We’ll keep our fingers crossed that maybe we’re not going to see a big bump.”
Ezike was one of many public health officials who cautioned Americans to skip out on family gatherings, noting that the celebrations could actually be super spreader events, according to the report. The average new detected infections was declining prior to Thanksgiving but rose a bit afterwards. However, it has since been on the decline, according to the Chicago Tribune.
I’m still trying to figure out how curfews are supposed to prevent transmission.
DEFUND HIGHER EDUCATION: Students at University of Oregon Attempt to Remove College Republicans from Campus.
Tulsi Gabbard will retire from Congress at the end of the year. The Hawaii representative is going out with a bang, introducing several bills that show why she is so despised by her establishment Democratic counterparts — and why she could potentially become a very powerful broker in the American political realignment.
Read the whole thing.
WHEN THE PUBLIC HEALTH APPARAT HAS LOST THE TRUST OF HEALTH WORKERS: Majority of Southern California nurses refusing the COVID vaccine.
This is how badly the “experts” have screwed up.
GOOD GRIEF: US Navy investigates potential LCS class-wide design flaw. “Repeated failures in the propulsion train on the Freedom-class littoral combat ships Little Rock and Detroit have raised the specter of a class-wide design flaw that could trigger an expensive reworking of a crucial component on 17 of the Navy’s small surface combatants.”
To understand how insane Governor Walz’s order is, you might need to live in Minnesota. The forecast for December 24, Christmas Eve, shows a high of 10 degrees and a low of 3 degrees. That is Fahrenheit, not Celsius. Christmas Day will be balmy, with a high of 22 and a low of 10, with a chance of snow.
The idea that anyone will have dinner on Christmas or Christmas Eve outdoors under these conditions is a sick joke–a sick joke that is perpetrated by the governor of the State of Minnesota, who glories in his ability to perpetrate such absurdities. Likewise, the idea that it is viable for restaurants to stay in business via outdoor service in Minnesota in December and January is ridiculous.
What we are seeing in Minnesota, and elsewhere around the country, is not a sane approach to public policy, but rather the manifestation of a proto-fascist urge to exercise total control over everyone’s life. In this regard, Tim Walz is certainly among the worst, but he is not alone. The sad reality is that millions of Americans have happily dispensed with just about every known freedom–you can’t leave your house without government permission!–in hopes of avoiding a respiratory virus that is dangerous to the elderly whose health is already severely compromised, but not noticed by most under the age of 70 who contract it. Home of the brave, indeed.
Meanwhile, in California: The French Laundry’s PPP Loans Were 17 Times Higher Than Everyone Else’s. The politically popular restaurant was awarded $2.4 million, while smaller businesses were told that no money was left.
THE LEFT NEEDED IT WHEN THEY WEREN’T IN CONTROL, NOW THEY THINK THEY DON’T: Where Academic Freedom Ends.
December 16, 2020
OPEN THREAD: Make your plans for 2021.
SPLC SCAM CONTINUES: Fact Check: Did KKK-Style ‘Hate Groups’ Receive $4M in PPP Funds?.
GOYA’S EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH CONTINUES TO PAY DIVIDENDS: Steve Schmidt’s new announcement means he’s AOC’s problem now.
Alt Headline: Lincoln Project member fully endorses party of slavery:
But shouldn’t the Lincoln Project be changing their name to make it official, particularly in light of this announcement? San Francisco to rename Abraham Lincoln High School because ‘black lives didn’t matter to him.’
Possible alternatives:
● The Woodrow Wilson Project.
● The Franklin D. Roosevelt Project.
● The Robert C. Byrd Project.
Or for real truth in advertising: The Joe Biden Project.
UPDATE: You can argue over how much money the Lincoln Project set alight, but you can’t argue with the results:
(Updated and bumped.)
OUR CORRUPT INSTITUTIONS: Mollie Hemingway: When People Claim The Election Was Rigged, They Include Big Tech And Big Media.
GREAT MOMENTS IN GASLIGHTING: Poll: 60 percent approve of Biden’s job as president-elect.
THEY HAVE LEARNED NOTHING AND FORGOTTEN NOTHING: Disgraced fake newsman Dan Rather gets journalism awards named in his honor.
No one does more harm to journalism than people in journalism.
The Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin unveiled this week two awards honoring disgraced former CBS News anchor Dan Rather.
“The Dan Rather Medals for News and Guts honor the process of journalism as much as the end product,” the organization announced Wednesday. “They will be awarded to professional and collegiate journalists who go the extra yard — overcoming obstacles like stonewalling and harassment — to get the story that tells truth to power.”
A spokesperson for the Moody College of Communication confirmed in a response to the Washington Examiner that the awards are, in fact, real and that they are not part of an elaborate joke.
“The Medals are named for Dan Rather, the legendary reporter and anchor who went far afield from his Texan roots but never forgot his humble beginnings,” the announcement continues. “He has been an ardent supporter of the School of Journalism and Media, inspiring and advocating for our majors. He is a permanent member of the Moody College of Communication’s Advisory Council, where he has been instrumental in its extraordinary development.”
It adds, “The School and the College sponsor the Dan Rather Medals for News and Guts to further his goal of supporting and defending bravery and excellence in journalism in the face of overwhelming odds. While journalism and journalists have long been under constant fire from the powerful, recognizing those who show ‘News and Guts’ has never been more important than it is today. … These medals in his name, to be presented to professional and college journalists, honor that effort.”
Adding insult to injury, the school then quotes Rather himself, who once said, “News organizations and teams within those organizations have to have the guts and the backbone to dig into stories that people in power don’t want the public to know.”
Absent from the college’s announcement is any mention of why Rather has not anchored a serious news desk since 2004. It knows why. The college simply would rather not talk about the thing that destroyed his career; the thing for which Rather is completely unrepentant. For those who don’t remember, he alleged falsely during the 2004 U.S. presidential election that then-President George W. Bush had gone “AWOL” for much of his tenure in the National Guard. Rather’s supposed “bombshell” story, for which he lost his job at CBS, was based entirely on forged documents.
When Kevin Williamson was hired and then nearly-immediately fired in 2018 by the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg after his crybully staffers melted down, Williamson reminded Goldberg that the Atlantic had always welcomed controversial authors, and specifically mentioned the late polemicist Christopher Hitchens. To which Goldberg replied, “Yes. But Hitchens was in the family. You are not.”
When you’re in the DNC-MSM’s family, you can get away with anything. Just ask Dan Rather, in a May 2001 exchange with Bill O’Reilly that foreshadowed Rather’s downfall three and a half years later:
DEMOCRATS’ GOVERNANCE PLAYS A MAJOR ROLE: The most dangerous cities in America, ranked. Weirdly, that isn’t discussed in this CBS News feature.
CHINA IS THE DEMOCRATS’ PARTNER: China is forcing hundreds of thousands of Uighurs and other minorities into hard, manual labour in the vast cotton fields of its western region of Xinjiang, according to new research seen by the BBC. Like usual for the Democrats’ partners, China is literally forcing people to pick cotton.
AND THAT’S JUST MICHIGAN: A New Warning That International Pandemic Responses Are Eroding Freedom.
THERE MUST BE A LEGAL PHRASE FOR 100% BULLSHIT: As Ed Driscoll first raised here, Democratic Mayor of Chicago’s Lori Lightfoot actually directed her personally-appointed city lawyers to block CBS’ Chicago TV station from airing police body cam footage of them arresting and cuffing the wrong woman.
FFS, how can this woman say she believes “Black Lives Matter” when she tries to suppress footage showing potential police misconduct or incompetence? How can any Democrat say they support her and the idea of BLM? She was rightly laughed out of court. Worth noting:
“This isn’t the first time CPD attempted to shield body camera video from public view. Last year, police denied CBS 2’s FOIA request for video that would show how officers handcuffed 8-year-old Royal Wilson during a bad raid. The department said it would be “unduly burdensome” for police to collect, review and redact 16 hours of video.”
Next time some simpleton tells you all Democrats are good and all conservatives are evil, show them this and ask them to explain it. Then ask them if there should be a federal law denying federal funding to any department who does not release body cam footage to the public within, say 3 or 5 hours.