Archive for 2020
August 22, 2020
GOOD NEWS FROM MY NECK OF THE WOODS: Knoxville, other cities seeing largest declines in COVID-19 rates, health officials say. We seem to be on the backside of the pandemic curve, though the reopening of both UT and the public schools this week may produce a spike.
ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Dems get Green Party kicked off ballot after pressuring petition-signers; ‘voter suppression’ alleged.
FLORIDA BUG: Genetically Modified Mosquitoes To Be Released In Florida Keys.
What could go wrong?
SNEAK PREVIEW OF NEXT WEEK’S GOP CONVENTION:
● The Democrats Ignored the Riots, but Republicans Won’t.
● China disappears at the DNC. The country that caused the COVID outbreak got just one mention.
Something tells me that latter topic will also be discussed:
UPDATE: The Sleight-of-Hand Convention: Biden’s speech was affecting, but the Democrats were awfully vague about what they plan to do if he wins.
No doubt, the possible coming intersection of Weimar and Venezuela will be widely discussed next week as well.
(Updated and bumped.)
WITH DNC IN MIND, CITY BANS CARRYING URINE, FECES: Portland’s Rioters Weaponize Waste as the Violence Keeps Escalating.
(Classical reference in headline.)
DISPATCHES FROM THE MEMORY HOLE: Illegal immigrant hailed at Democrats’ Convention deported under Clinton, re-arrested under Obama.
I THINK YOU COULD FIND MORE DOCTORS CHAMPIONING RESULTS WITH HCQ: Study: Remdesivir doesn’t boost outcomes in moderate pneumonia from COVID-19.
SEEN ON FACEBOOK:
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Famed Archaeology Professor Fired After Photos Surface Of Him Wearing Nazi Uniform.
JAKE AUCHINCLOSS AND INCENDIARY RHETORIC: ‘We can’t burn their book, but they can burn our flag?’
In no way did Auchincloss advocate ‘burning the Qur’an’. But the faux-outrage serves a purpose beyond damaging a political opponent. It allows those expressing it to avoid addressing what is in fact an entirely valid question, one to which the voters of Massachusetts deserve an answer: why is it acceptable for people to burn the American flag but not the Qur’an?
Since they are clearly not going to get such an answer from Auchincloss — who immediately issued the standard groveling apology, tweeting that ‘as a white man, I recognize that I need to interrogate my own privilege’ — perhaps they might consider the observation made at the time by Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. In an interview with Larry King, Breyer, an Army veteran, recalled how the sight of the American flag being burned during the Vietnam War triggered ‘a physical reaction of repulsion’ in him. Yet such are the burdens of living in a free society. ‘We protect expression that we hate,’ he said. ‘You can think what you want.’ That is the message our leaders should send to the Muslim world the next time a citizen exercises his or her Constitutional rights in a way most of us find abhorrent.
And how refreshing it would have been for Auchincloss to tell his critics that, not only was the question he asked a legitimate one 10 years ago, but that their responses prove why it’s even more relevant today.
Forget it Jake — it’s Massachusetts.
TO BE FAIR, VEGANS REALLY ARE THE WORST: Dear White Vegans, Stop Appropriating Food. “Veganism is going through its own racial reckoning that’s a long time coming, considering white vegan influencers have appropriated traditional foods forever.”
Personally, speaking as someone with Neanderthal and Denisovan blood, I want the rest of y’all to stop appropriating my people’s tradition of grilled meats.
CHARLES LIPSON: Joe Biden offers platitudes, not policies.
What was missing? Three important things. Biden made no mention of
What policies he would implement or how they differed from Trump’s; he simply offered vague picture of a happier, more prosperous future;
Riots and looting in major cities; he ignored them entirely; the closest he came was saying that, during his administration, America would finally rid itself of ‘systemic racism’; he included a sweet vignette of talking to George Floyd’s young daughter, who said her father had changed the world; but there was no mention of the chaos in Portland, Seattle, Chicago, New York, and other cities, which may have begun with Floyd’s killing but is now divorced from it;
Any international threats and challenges, or how he would deal with them differently from Trump, aside from saying he would not ‘cozy up to dictators’. He never mentioned Russia, Iran, North Korea, or terrorism. His one glancing mention of China was that his administration would not depend on them for medical supplies, a policy Trump is already pursuing.
The absence of any policy ideas was striking, especially because so many commentators expected them. The whole convention, they noted, had been devoted to attacking Trump, which left Biden was free to explain what he would do in office and how his policies would make the country better. He didn’t do that. He hardly tried. He simply promised everyone the Christmas presents they were wishing for — and then only in the vaguest terms.
To be completely fair, it was also badly delivered.
VIRTUAL DNC WAS A REAL RATINGS FLOP: If it was a pilot, nobody would be talking about a first-season contract.
WHY ARE OUR UNIVERSITIES SUCH CESSPITS OF ANTI-SEMITISM? Three Jewish student government leaders at USC forced out by leftist activists in span of two months.