NEVER LET A PANDEMIC GO TO WASTE. The Great Reset: If Only It Were Just a Conspiracy.

Fair enough, not least because the Great Reset is, in essence, corporatist, not communist. The participation of companies of the type that Sixsmith mentions is, in reality, the participation of certain members of their senior management, using shareholder funds for purposes that have nothing to do with the bottom line and everything to do with the wielding of power within a system akin to a concert, with the state — if not necessarily the government — acting as the conductor.

In the course of an article on the Great Reset I wrote last month, I described corporatism as:

[A] hydra-headed ideology with origins in the premodern, and a very mixed past — sometimes benignly (it influenced the formation of West Germany’s social market economy) and sometimes not (it was an important element in pre-war fascist theory.) The different forms corporatism has taken make it tricky to define with precision, but they share a common core: the conviction that society should be organized by and for its principal interest groups — let’s call them “stakeholders” — intermediated by, and ultimately subordinate to, the state. The individual does not get a look in.

Recently, one expression of corporatism, “stakeholder capitalism,” has won strong support on both sides of the Atlantic. This might be expected in Europe, but that it has been taken up by the Business Roundtable and many leading firms in the U.S. — allegedly a bastion of both free enterprise and democracy — is depressing. Looked at optimistically, the BRT and its C-suite cheerleaders are useful idiots. Looked at realistically, they are part of a managerial class grubbing for the power that flows from other people’s money.

Stakeholder capitalism rests on the notion that a company’s management owes a duty to more than its shareholders. It’s something that Klaus Schwab, the WEF’s founder and executive chairman, has been advocating for a long time. A key feature of the Great Reset is the idea that stakeholder capitalism should, one way or another, be adopted.

That would reduce a company’s shareholders to just another category of “stakeholder,” effectively transferring the power that capital should confer away from its owners and into the hands of those who administer it. They are then accountable to, well, it’s not quite clear whom. It’s not difficult to grasp why so many corporate bosses are enthused by stakeholder capitalism.

You may not be interested in the Gleichschaltung, but the Gleichschaltung is interested in you.

(Found via Kate of Small Dead Animals, who writes, “I’ll believe there’s no conspiracy when the people who say there’s no conspiracy stop acting like conspirators.”

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: ‘Historically strange’ spike in incomplete Nevada voter files, casinos as ‘home.’

PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD: Carter Page Sues DOJ, FBI, James Comey, And Others Behind Crossfire Hurricane FISA Abuse.

In an eight-count complaint filed Friday in the D.C. District Court, Carter Page seeks damages of no less than $75 million from the U.S. government, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and individuals responsible for obtaining four illegal Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act orders against Page.

Page’s 59-page complaint lists as defendants a veritable “Who’s Who” of the SpyGate scandal, including former FBI Director James Comey, Assistant Director Andrew McCabe, and the disgraced team of Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. Also singled out were Kevin Clinessmith, who earlier this year pleaded guilty to falsifying an email to hide Page’s past service as a source to the CIA, and FBI Agents Joe Pientka, Stephen Somma, and Brian Auten, with additional defendants identified merely as John Doe 1 – 10 and Jane Doe 1 – 10.

Just in case they thought this stuff would go away after the election.

MATTHEW CONTINETTI: Natan Sharansky and the Meaning of Freedom.

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Former Cuomo aide Alexis Grenell in The Nation on The Collapse of the Cuomosexual.

The whole thing was already very Through the Looking Glass before the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced on Friday that they were awarding the governor an Emmy for his “television shows with characters, plot lines, and stories of success and failure.” Next he’ll be playing himself in an Aaron Sorkin movie, taking three points off the back end. Aside from having just barely survived the delusion that elevated a reality TV character to the presidency, we’re now giving a real-life governor an entertainment award for doing his actual job. Where does that leave governors like Michigan’s Gretchen Witmer, who also gave press briefings, but didn’t take a bow—and got death threats instead?

There’s something genuinely depressing about seeing the son of a man who refused a seat on the Supreme Court so eager to be flattered by Ben Stiller. It’s almost hard to remember how he ridiculed two-time Emmy Award–winner Cynthia Nixon back in 2018 for being an unqualified celebrity.

Turns out he just wanted to trade places all along.

As Jeff Dunetz adds, “It turns out that Alexis Grenell, a Democratic Party consultant, has got Andrew Cuomo down to a ‘T.’ He doesn’t act like a politician. He acts like an absolute ruler—a tyrannical one.”

Which is why, you’re gonna need much more Cuomosexual Conversion Therapy:

But in the last few days, more New Yorkers have enrolled in Cuomosexual Conversion Therapy. Their two major sticking points? Vaccines and schools.

There was widespread optimism when Pfizer-BionTECH and Moderna announced success rates of over 90 percent for their COVID-19 vaccines. For the first time in months it seemed as though there was hope for America. Enter Andy-Vaxxer Cuomo, using his platform as governor to undermine public trust in the FDA’s potential authorization of vaccine which we will all need to take. ‘We can’t let this vaccination plan go forward the way that Trump and his administration is designing it,’ he said last week, with all the scientific expertise of an Instagram wellness blogger. ‘I’m pushing hard to make sure that we have a process in place to check what the FDA says before people start getting the vaccine in New York.’

People were happy to put up with Cuomo’s pettiness when he was moving his daughter’s boyfriend to the Canadian border, or deploying the State Liquor Authority to target bars that mocked his dumb food rule by serving ‘Cuomo pizza’. But the prospect that his tussling with Trump might delay the climax of the COVID carnage has given many pause for thought.

The governor compounded his misstep with another display of logger-headed machismo posturing this week, clashing with Mayor Bill de Blasio over school closures. The mayor, after dithering for days, introduced an arbitrary 3 percent positivity rate to re-close NYC’s public schools. The governor contradicted this, saying at a Wednesday press conference that schools could remain open as the positivity rate was only 2.5 percent. A Wall Street Journal reporter expressed confusion on behalf of parents — and Cuomo, acting as hard as a pierced nipple in winter, snapped:

The delivery of Cuomosexual deprogramming tools should be prioritized so that Emmy Award voters receive theirs first:

JUSTICE IS COMING: Carter Page Takes Comey, McCabe, Strzok to Court in $75M Obamagate Lawsuit.

JUSTIN TRUDEAU IS NOT THE SHARPEST KNIFE IN THE DRAWER: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s attempt to call out the Conservative Party for promoting misinformation about COVID-19 stumbled tonight when PMO staff sent out a draft statement that itself contained misinformation.

OPEN THREAD: The turkey is left over, but the comments are fresh!

ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE: Jupiter’s ocean moon Europa may spout water plumes from its icy crust.

SPACE: SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket will have its first big high-altitude test next week, says Elon Musk.

YEP: “Georgia Republicans need a record turnout in January to put Perdue and Loeffler beyond the margin of error, beyond the margin of lawyer, and beyond the margin of sewer…”
– Mark Steyn now on Tucker Carlson Tonight

RULES ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE (CONT’D): Windsor mayor breaks COVID restrictions at restaurant, just hours after urging zero tolerance.

FIGHT THE POWER: Eric Clapton joins Van Morrison’s anti-lockdown campaign with new song, ‘Stand and Deliver.’

Music legend Eric Clapton is joining Van Morrison’s efforts to reopen the live music industry amid the coronavirus pandemic by releasing a new anti-lockdown song called, “Stand and Deliver.”

The song, which was written by Mr. Morrison and performed by Mr. Clapton, will debut Dec. 4 and the proceeds will go toward Mr. Morrison’s Lockdown Financial Hardship Fund, which supports U.K. musicians who are facing financial hardship because of widespread government restrictions on live music, Variety reported. . . .

“I’m not telling people what to do or think, the government is doing a great job of that already,” Mr. Morrison said at the time. “It’s about freedom of choice, I believe people should have the right to think for themselves.”

The lockdown backlash will be big, and will cross ordinary political divides. Politicians are insufficiently concerned.

WELL: United Airlines flying Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Charter flights. “United Airlines will be allowed to carry five times the amount of dry ice normally permitted on board to keep the vaccine at the necessary cold temperature.”

HMM: Hydrogen-producing algae may fuel alternative energy economy.

AT AMAZON, Shop Amazon Warehouse Deals – Deep Discounts on Open-box and Used Products.

Plus, Shop Amazon Outlet – Clearance, Markdowns and Overstock Deals.

FOR SOMEONE WHO SUPPOSEDLY LOST, TRUMP SURE HAS COATTAILS, AND FOR SOMEONE WHO SUPPOSEDLY WON, BIDEN SURE DOESN’T:

STOCK CHARACTERS MEET THE STOCK MARKET CRASH: The Third Season of Babylon Berlin on Netflix.

Dispatches from the Börse Belt, my latest over at Ed Driscoll.com.

(Bumped.)

HMM: Pennsylvania GOP Legislature Will Seek to Reclaim Power to Appoint Electors: State Senator.

TRUST THE SCIENCE? Johns Hopkins Study Saying COVID-19 Has ‘Relatively No Effect on Deaths’ in U.S. Deleted After Publication.

Was it because it was wrong? Was there a scientific error that slipped past the reviewers? Nope. Johns Hopkins tweeted that it was because “the article was being used to support false and dangerous inaccuracies about the impact of the pandemic.”

It’s true, but we deleted it because it’s useful to people we disagree with isn’t science.

HERD IMMUNITY, HERE WE COME! Australian study suggests true COVID-19 infection rate is 6.2 times higher than official tallies.

AT AMAZON, Black Friday Deals Galore.

GOOD CALL: AstraZeneca says its vaccine needs ‘additional study.’