THE TABLE IS ALWAYS SET AT THE CANNIBAL FEAST: The Revolution Turns On Itself: Portland ‘Wall of Moms’ Accused of ‘Anti-Blackness’.
Archive for 2020
July 31, 2020
GOOD. DON’T GIVE THE CULTURE KILLERS AN INCH: Trader Joe’s Mans the Ramparts After All.
WHEN REAL PROTEST WORKS: YouTube Throws In the Towel.
THE MAGNIFICENT LASER POINTER IS ON AGAIN: Trump Tweets Election Day Delay And Blew Minds.
FROM IAIN MURRAY: The Socialist Temptation.
Socialism is tempting, seductive, alluring. It comes in many forms and speaks in many different ways. It appeals to people who value fairness, who value freedom, and who value security. It comes in many varieties, sometimes clothing itself in the dress of nationalism, sometimes in the garb of environmentalism. Yet there is one single, unifying feature – subjugation of the individual to the collective. While Americans have always been skeptical of socialism, even in the progressive and New Deal eras, that is beginning to change. Large numbers of Americans now express admiration for socialism, and similar numbers are critical of the free enterprise system. The problem is particularly acute among America’s young people. This is not the first time we have been here. In 1977, when America was deep in an economic malaise, Ronald Reagan gave a speech in which he wondered, “Whatever happened to free enterprise?” Noting that the free enterprise system “for 200 years made us the light of the world,” he warned that freedom is “never more than one generation away from extinction.” He took the lead in preserving it for the previous generation. It is time for this generation to take up the torch. Reagan framed the defense of freedom as first and foremost a communications challenge. Today, a field of study known as cultural cognition theory understands that our political choices are guided by certain values. Americans generally fall into one of three value groups, valuing fairness (egalitarians), freedom (libertarians), and security (conservatives) respectively. The Socialist Temptation is an attempt to meet the modern version of the communications challenge posed by Ronald Reagan. There are reasons why socialism appeals to each of these value groups. The Socialist Temptation tackles these reasons head on and responds with a vigorous case for free enterprise as better matching American values.
*A note here: Despite all the complaints about Amazon I’ve not encountered a real problem with a book (as in most problems have another explanation than bias.) But this link to this book was impossible to share on FB. It just wouldn’t. And when I searched for Iain’s name to link the book here, I got a lot of Iains, but not Iain Murray until I typed the full title AND his name in. It’s probably just some bizarre glitch, but I admit it’s enough to make me think of Twitter’s shadow banning. And hey, in 2020 one can’t be paranoid or cynical enough. – SAH*
July 30, 2020
FROM TONIGHT’S OPEN THREAD: “Oh, guess what the WNBA returns to play tonight. Though they can’t play in front of fans. Which is how they used to play, so it’s all normal.”
Harsh, but fair.
DON SURBER: Even CNN sees Trump winning. Nice blog post, kid. Don’t get cocky. And if you care about this election, put your money and your time where they’ll do the most good.
UNEXPECTEDLY: Large majority of Americans blame China for global spread of COVID-19, survey finds.
But they’re going to vote for one its lapdogs?
Earlier: China Is On The Ballot In 2020.
IS THERE NOTHING TRUMP CAN’T DO? Seattle Mayor Again Blames Trump After Rioters Blew Open a Police Station Using a Van Full of Explosives.
OPEN THREAD: You can’t be sure, ’til you open up the door, open up the door.
PEACEFUL PROTEST INTENSIFIES: Seattle Mayor Again Blames Trump After Rioters Blew Open a Police Station Using a Van Full of Explosives.
BECAUSE DUH: Why NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance will use nuclear power to keep itself warm. “Some NASA missions to Mars have run on solar energy, of course — the InSight lander currently operating on the Red Planet bears solar panels, as did the twin Spirit and Opportunity rovers earlier this century. But Opportunity is a mascot for the weaknesses of solar energy at Mars, since the rover’s end came when a massive global dust storm blocked it from tapping into the sun’s light. Run a rover on nuclear power and you don’t have to worry about that scenario. So for the Perseverance rover, NASA turned to plutonium in a system called a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG), which should be able to power the spacecraft for about 14 years.”
Cheaper than an extension cord, too.
UNEXPECTEDLY: Seattle has fallen to woke racism.
As revealed by journalist Christopher Rufo, the course, titled, ‘Internalized Racial Superiority for White People’, will be taught in segregated ‘whites only’ training groups. According to the social-justice creed, only white people can be racist – and all of them are privileged and racist.
Staff are expected to go through various humiliating exercises, including ‘processing white feelings’ of ‘sadness’, ‘shame’ and ‘confusion’ (don’t black people ever feel those emotions?), considering their ‘relationships with white supremacy’, describing their own ‘white silence’ and ‘white fragility’, and noting the supposedly internalised white values of racism, among them ‘objectivity’, ‘perfectionism’ and ‘comfort’ (also unique to whites according to woke types – and therefore bad).
Employees will also be called on to share an incident in the recent past when they have ‘caused harm’ to a person of colour – because they must have done it at some point, surely?
DON’T EXPECT A LOT OF NEWS COVERAGE: ‘Big Tech Is Out to Get Conservatives,’ Jim Jordan Warns. He Gave 15 Examples.
THAT’S WHAT XI SAID: Dianne Feinstein: China Is ‘Growing Into a Respectable Nation.’
CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Grand jury indicts Tennessee state senator on theft charges. “A Tennessee state senator was indicted Thursday on dozens of counts of stealing more than $600,000 in federal funds received by a health care school she directed and using the money to pay for personal items and expenses. A federal grand jury in Memphis handed down the indictment against Democratic state Sen. Katrina Robinson, one day after the U.S. attorney’s office unsealed a criminal complaint alleging she used grant money earmarked for health care worker training to pay for her wedding and honeymoon, home improvements, a Jeep Renegade for her daughter, her children’s snow cone business, a campaign event, legal fees for her divorce, and other things.”
THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTINUES APACE: 2020 Democratic Platform Continues Anti-Israel Themes First Pushed By Obama in 2012.
BRING BACK CYCLAMATES: Science unclear on whether artificial sweeteners are healthful.
TIME FOR SOME ANTITRUST ENFORCEMENT: Big Tech told Congress there’s loads of competition. This chart says otherwise.
YOU CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON OBAMA TO BE MEAN, SANCTIMONIOUS, AND DIVISIVE. His 2004 DNC speech promised different, but it was a lie from the get-go.
UPDATE: A friend on Facebook comments: “Who has the gumption to remind this man that George Wallace was a Democrat? Wallace even won five — count ’em FIVE — Democratic primaries in 1972.”