SO A WHITE COMMIE STEPPING ON THE MESSAGE OF A BLACK WOMAN IS PRETTY MUCH THE LEFT IN 2020: Cal Cunningham, the former state legislator who defeated a qualified black woman in North Carolina’s Democratic Senate primary, touted the “merits” of communist and Marxist ideology as UNC-Chapel Hill student body president in the 1990s.
Archive for 2020
July 30, 2020
DID NO ONE EVER TEACH OUR TEACHERS THAT THE ONLY CONSTANT IS CHANGE? I’m a teacher headed back to school next month. It’s going to be traumatic. “A teacher mental health crisis is coming. Schools should prepare themselves now.”
WAIT, I THOUGHT THEY WERE A HUGE SUCCESS AND ALL OUR PROBLEMS WERE BECAUSE #ORANGEMANBAD: Hong Kong is ‘on the verge’ of an outbreak that could lead to hospital system’s collapse, chief executive says.
Of course, you expect a place to go to hell when the commies take over.
I REMEMBER WHEN MANDATORY LOYALTY OATHS WERE CONSIDERED UNAMERICAN AND FASCISTIC: Conservative student group threatened with blacklisting for refusing to sign BLM letter.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Never Trumpers Leg-Hump Every Leftist Narrative Just To Make Friends. “In reality, the Never Trump crowd is one of the least principled groups in the history of American politics, which is a truly bottom-feeding feat. They’re all about the money, and they are making piles of it because there is a lot of gold in them thar turncoat hills.”
KING STALLION TACTICAL REFUELING: Marines on the ground deploy a tactical aviation ground refueling system (TAGRS) to support a CH-53K King Stallion. The Pentagon caption is a bit misleading. The King Stallion is the Pentagon’s most powerful helicopter — most powerful and heaviest.
WHO’S HAVING FUN IN 2020? ELON IS HAVING FUN IN 2020. Elon Musk Tweets ‘Billy G Is Not My Lover’ after Bill Gates Called His COVID-19 Comments ‘Outrageous.’
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. Bill Gates used to be weird, but he’s gone all mundane.
Heh.
I’VE NEVER SEEN “SCIENCE” AS POLITICIZED AS THE SCIENCE OVER HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE: Yale epidemiologist: Dr. Fauci running ‘misinformation campaign’ against hydroxychloroquine: Accuses prominent doctor of harboring ‘total anti-science viewpoint.’
WE HAVE TOP MEN ON IT. TOP. MEN.
THE CEASE FIRE THAT WON’T BE: “Now, with the governor of Oregon, a Democrat, agreeing to stop the violence, VP Pence has agreed to remove Customs and Border Protection from Portland. While that seems like a win for the bad guys, this is actually pretty brilliant strategy move by Republicans. It cuts sufficient rope from the spool to allow the governor, and the rioters, to hang themselves. Because, let’s be honest: the rioting won’t stop, it will intensify.”
Read the whole thing.
BLUE ON BLUE: Dem Governor Donates to Ilhan Omar’s Primary Opponent. “Colorado governor Jared Polis sends $1,000 to Omar challenger.”
THEY’LL TELL YOU THAT THEY’RE FACTUALLY WRONG BUT MORALLY CORRECT: Democrats attack GOP lawmakers over coronavirus safety but get the facts wrong.
PROF. JACOBSON: Chicago Tribune’s John Kass will not take a knee to cancel culture.
Good. When newsrooms get up in arms about someone’s opinions, it’s time for turnover in the newsrooms. There are lots of perfectly competent unemployed journalists out there who could keep their mouths shut and do their jobs.
WELL, YES: China Is What Orwell Feared. “Xi Jinping is using artificial intelligence to enhance his government’s totalitarian control — and he’s exporting this technology to regimes around the globe.”
Xi’s pronouncements on AI have a sinister edge. Artificial intelligence has applications in nearly every human domain, from the instant translation of spoken language to early viral-outbreak detection. But Xi also wants to use AI’s awesome analytical powers to push China to the cutting edge of surveillance. He wants to build an all-seeing digital system of social control, patrolled by precog algorithms that identify potential dissenters in real time.
China’s government has a history of using major historical events to introduce and embed surveillance measures. In the run-up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Chinese security services achieved a new level of control over the country’s internet. During China’s coronavirus outbreak, Xi’s government leaned hard on private companies in possession of sensitive personal data. Any emergency data-sharing arrangements made behind closed doors during the pandemic could become permanent.
Related: China’s Plans to Win Control of the Global Order.
Xi Jinping endorsed this explanation for the Soviet collapse in a 2013 address to party cadres. “Why did the Soviet Union disintegrate?” he asked his audience. “An important reason is that in the ideological domain, competition is fierce!” The party leadership is determined to avoid the Soviet mistake. A leaked internal party directive from 2013 describes “the very real threat of Western anti-China forces and their attempt at carrying out westernization” within China. The directive describes the party as being in the midst of an “intense, ideological struggle” for survival. According to the directive, the ideas that threaten China with “major disorder” include concepts such as “separation of powers,” “independent judiciaries,” “universal human rights,” “Western freedom,” “civil society,” “economic liberalism,” “total privatization,” “freedom of the press,” and “free flow of information on the internet.” To allow the Chinese people to contemplate these concepts would “dismantle [our] party’s social foundation” and jeopardize the party’s aim to build a modern, socialist future.
Two excellent pieces, both worth your time.
Hat tip for that second item to Stratechery’s recent piece, The TikTok War, where Ben Thompson reminds us: “China is not simply resisting Western ideals of freedom, but seeking to impose their own.”
FIGHT THE POWER, STICK IT TO THE MAN: Local Officials Buck Virginia Dems’ Gun-Control Push: Counties pledge not to adopt Richmond-backed gun-free zones.
I’m fresh out of unexpectedlies.
FASTER, PLEASE: Gaetz Demands Bezos Get a ‘Divorce from the SPLC.’