CHANGE: Patrick AFB in Florida will be first facility renamed under Space Force. “Patrick Air Force Base in Florida will be the first base to be renamed as a Space Force base within the next 30 days, the commander of the 45th Space Wing at Patrick said Friday.”
Archive for 2020
February 11, 2020
WHO’S TROLLING WHO? Trump Tweets Video of Larry David in MAGA Hat.
HOW’S THAT SOUTH CAROLINA FIREWALL HOLDIN’ UP FOR YA? Nearly Half of Biden’s African-American Supporters Have Abandoned Him.
WE’RE FROM THE GOVERNMENT AND WE’RE HERE TO MAKE THINGS WORSE: E-cigarette taxes may drive vape users to traditional smokes, study says.
NO ONE REMEMBERS ROBESPIERRE: Lunatic Stripping ‘Non-Binary’ Socialist Challenging Sen. Susan Collins Gives Away Guillotine T-Shirts
ANALYSIS: How Xi Jinping’s “Controlocracy” Lost Control.
When the true scale of the epidemic finally became, Chinese public opinion reflected a predictable mix of anger, anxiety, and despair. People took to the Internet to vent their rage and frustration. But it did not take long for the state to crack down, severely limiting the ability of journalists and concerned citizens to share information about the crisis.
Then, on February 3, after Xi had chaired the Standing Committee’s second meeting on the epidemic, the CPC’s propaganda apparatus was ordered to “guide public opinion and strengthen information control.” In practice, this means that cutting-edge AI and big-data technologies are being used to monitor the entirety of Chinese public opinion online. The controlocracy is now running at full throttle, with facial-, image-, and voice-recognition algorithms being used to anticipate and suppress any potential criticism of the government, and to squelch all “unofficial” information about the epidemic.
On February 7, Li Wenliang, one of the physician-whistleblowers who tried to sound the alarm about the outbreak, died of coronavirus, which unleashed a firestorm on social media. The Chinese public is already commemorating him as a hero and victim who tried to tell the truth. Millions have taken to social media to express their grief, and to demand an apology from the Chinese government and freedom of expression.
For the first time since coming to power, Xi’s high-tech censorship machine is meeting with intense resistance from millions of Chinese Internet users.
Read the whole thing.
PHONY BIDENMANIA HAS BITTEN THE DUST: Joe Biden Downplays Expectations In New Hampshire As Voting Gets Underway. “As voters head to the polls in the New Hampshire primary, former Vice President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he and his wife, Jill Biden would be fleeing the state for South Carolina as the campaign braces for another poor performance…Healthy campaigns expecting to do well don’t pivot their focus away from the voting state on the day of the election.”
Joe is already conceding that he probably won’t be the last Democrat standing: “I refuse to suggest any Democrat can lose. I think we could run Mickey Mouse against this president and have a shot,” Biden says on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. As Jim Treacher says in reply, “if anybody with a (D) after his or her name can beat Trump, even Mickey Mouse, then… why do the Dems need to pick Joe Biden? If he’s the ‘electability candidate,’ why is he now saying they’re all electable? Didn’t he just undercut his own message?”
UPDATE: Sanders overtakes Biden for first time in Morning Consult poll.
A BILL WHITTLE PODCAST: The Cold War: What We Saw | Two Bombs – Episode 2.
21st CENTURY HEADLINES: “Paradise:” Korean TV Reunites Mother With Late Daughter — In Virtual Reality.
THAT’S GOING TO GENERATE SO MANY CARBON EMISSIONS — HOW DARE YOU! Greta Thunberg to Get Her Own BBC Show.
Related (From Ed): BBC put presenter on a plane to interview Greta Thunberg.
TYLER O’NEIL: The SPLC’s Fall From Grace: How a Civil Rights Group Became a Threat to Free Speech.
Tyler’s been on this story since before it was a story.
OUCH: Leaked Bloomberg audio shows him defending ‘throw them up against the walls’ stop-and-frisk.
“You’ve got to get the guns out of the hands of people that are getting killed.” Um.
GET WOKE, GO BROKE: Birds of Prey Changes Title At Movie Theaters.
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is changing its name to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey on all theater chain sites after a struggle to fly at the box office in its opening weekend. The R-rated DC Comics movie, which had a lesser budget than most other major comic book films from DC or Marvel, opened to only $33.2 million at the domestic box office. Other R-rated comic book films in recent years such as Deadpool and Joker opened to more than $130 million and $90 million, respectively. Birdswas not expected to reach such heights but was projected to earn closer to $50 million in its debut.
Earlier: Seven Reasons Birds of Prey Belly Flopped at the Box Office.
WELL, WHEN THE CHOICE IS BETWEEN ARSENIC OR CYANIDE… Just hours to go, New Hampshire primary voters still can’t make up their minds
WHY CAN’T I JUST EAT MY WAFFLE? Awkward: Liz Warren Interrupts People Eating in a Diner—Who Clearly Want Her to Leave Them Alone.
(Classical reference in headline.)
THE PARTY’S CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO USE A SPREADSHEET: How the Iowa Caucuses Became an Epic Fiasco for Democrats: The problems that beset the Democratic Party’s first state caucus of the presidential race ran far deeper and wider than one bad app. That’s like a butcher not knowing how to use a knife.
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: A Ruth Bader Ginsburg Opinion Helped Trump Beat The Democrats’ Emoluments Lawsuit.
WHAT ARE WE BANNING TODAY?: In Canada, like in America, it’s single-use plastics, like grocery bags and straws. There’s a debate going on at the Toronto Star where they helpfully include the poll question in the middle of the “yes”argument for the question “should we ban them?” – which of course means most people who vote won’t yet have read the “no” argument by my friend Angela Logomasini… So, if you’d like to help even out the discrepancy, you know what to to.
Meanwhile, at the Skeptoid podcast, they point out that banning single-use plastic bags doesn’t make sense even under environmentalist assumptions.
Personal PS: I’ve been away writing a book and had an annoying problem with the Instapundit interface, so haven’t posted much. Expect that to pick up now the book is in editing and the glitch is fixed. With any luck you’ll be sick to death of hearing about The Socialist Temptation by the time it hits the shelves.
ADOPTING THE DISCREDITED BELLESILES THESIS: History prof: Founders’ intent of 2nd Amendment not to guarantee private gun ownership. I lost a lot of respect for the history professoriate during the Bellesiles affair.