MARK JUDGE: Addiction Is Counterfeit Worship, Often Driven by Shame. “The shame storm I endured at the hands of those trying to keep Kavanaugh off the court? That had nothing to to with the truth or guilt and innocence. It was simply a lynch mob at work.”

Plus: “The more online shame cycles you observe, the more obvious the pattern becomes: Everyone comes up with a principled-sounding pretext that serves as a barrier against admitting to themselves that, in fact, all they have really done is joined a mob.”

OPEN THREAD: We few, we happy few.

NEW YORK POST: Double Standards Abound at The New York Times.

To be fair, without them it would have no standards at all.

NO SPACE ADMIRALS FOR NOW: U.S. Space Force mostly sticking with Air Force ranks. “The only change the Space Force made is in four categories of Air Force enlisted ranks called ‘airman.’ The equivalent ranks in the Space Force will be ‘specialist.’ All the officers’ ranks stay the same as the Air Force, said the Jan. 29 memo. The new ranks are effective Feb. 1.”

I guess “Spaceman Spiff” would have been more than they could handle.

Since the Space Force was established in December 2019, officials had been internally debating whether to create a new rank structure to set the space branch apart from its parent service, the Air Force.

Discussions ground to a halt in June after the House of Representatives passed an amendment in the National Defense Authorization Act requiring the Space Force to use the Navy’s rank structure.

The use of Navy ranks was proposed by former Navy SEAL Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas). His proposal was nicknamed the “Starfleet amendment” and drew attention after William Shatner wrote an op-ed calling on the Space Force to adopt the Star Trek naval ranks for its officers and enlisted personnel.

The Senate version of the NDAA did not include the provision on naval ranks. In a compromise bill, the House agreed to strike the language. The NDAA directed the secretary of the Air Force to brief committees on the Space Force’s recommended rank structure for officers and enlisted personnel at least 15 days prior to implementation.

A rare defeat for Captain Kirk.

SPREADING MISINFORMATION:

Yeah, there’s plenty of misinformation spread, but only some people are held accountable.

TAMARA KEEL: What gun for a dinosaur?

I GET LOOKED AT BY A DERMATOLOGIST EVERY YEAR: The heated debate over skin cancer screenings, explained. Note, too, that exposure to UV light turns out to be overrated as a source of skin cancer.

GOOD, BECAUSE REMDESIVIR HAS BEEN UNIMPRESSIVE: Plitidepsin found to work better than remdesivir for treating COVID-19.

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Speech and Sedition in 2021.

Most Americans learn in school about flagship political excesses in U.S. history like Joe McCarthy’s 1950s inquisitions, the post-World War I Red Scare and the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. Yet a recent Washington Post opinion piece purports to explain “what the 1798 Sedition Act got right.”

The law banned a wide range of political speech and publication. It was passed by the ruling Federalists to suppress the rival Democratic-Republicans, whom they saw as seditious. The Post piece argues that though their solution was “flawed,” the Federalists had reason to worry about “unregulated freedom of the press.”

We highlight this as one example among many of the emerging appetite for viewpoint suppression among journalists, intellectuals and Democrats in the wake of the Trump Presidency. They increasingly see domestic enemies wherever they look, and are devising ways to use levers of power to restrict, regulate and boycott opposition. It’s an extraordinary and ominous turn in a democracy. . . .

Much of American journalism, which was supposed to revert to its historic role as a check on those in power after Donald Trump left town, is now devoted to shutting down the commercial lifeline of other media. Think of the precedent for the next populist Republican President who might declare pro-choice publications “deadly.”

The trend arrives when one party runs nearly all of Washington and has the loud support of virtually every elite cultural institution and many of the largest corporations. Social-media firms increasingly respond to government pressure in content decisions. With progressives filling out the administrative state, expect politicians and regulators to find new ways to put their thumb on the scale.

There are already calls for the Federal Communications Commission to revive the Fairness Doctrine that enforced speech rules when there were three dominant TV networks. It died in the 1980s. The Axios website complained that “the U.S. government has done next to nothing to regulate misinformation on large tech platforms,” and the founder of the liberal fact-checker Politifact floated “regulations and new laws” to marginalize right-wing media.

It’s clear that their only real objection to McCarthyism was that McCarthy was on the other side.

Related: When Resistance Became Sedition and Sedition Became Resistance.

MEDIA DISHONESTY KILLED THOUSANDS, MAYBE MORE: Roger Simon: How the Hydroxychloroquine Scandal Wrecked America and the World Along With It.

I accuse—in no particular order—Time’s ‘Person of the Year’ nominee and frequent Wuhan, China visitor/collaborator Dr. Anthony Fauci; the Democrat Party (aka the “party of science”) and their nauseating, self-congratulatory leadership; the mainstream media and all their pompous, even more self-congratulatory “ships at sea” from the New York Times to CNN; Dr. Birx and whatever bureaucrat from the CDC was showing his/her face this week; the endless echo chamber in practically every health department in all fifty states; the foreign health departments that largely echoed that echo chamber; Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York (more of him in a moment); Governor Whitmer of Michigan; that atrocious governor of Nevada whose name I can’t remember or bother to look up…. I could go on… all of whom participated in what has emerged to be what is indisputably the greatest national, no, international, health disaster of our time—the Hydroxychloroquine Scandal.

This shameful distortion of medical science was emblematic of how politics not only crept into the treatment of the CCP virus, it bludgeoned that treatment and resulted in untold thousands, perhaps millions, of deaths while simultaneously making life unbearable for an even greater number across the globe—in fact, for practically everyone.

All of those mentioned above either dismissed or heavily downplayed “hydroxy”—a cheap anti-malarial drug, also used for lupus, that had been around for decades and is known to have minimal side effects—for the treatment of COVID-19.

Why? As most of us are aware, a man they thought an ogre, whom they despised, who knew nothing of science, recommended it—President Donald J. Trump—so it had to be disdained.

And yet hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) apparently did and does work in many instances, if taken early in the illness.

This was known way back in June 2020 when the esteemed British medical journal Lancet retracted its support of a dubious study it had published opposing the use of HCQ.

“We all entered this collaboration to contribute in good faith and at a time of great need during the COVID-19 pandemic. We deeply apologise to you, the editors, and the journal readership for any embarrassment or inconvenience that this may have caused.”

This apology, made eight months ago, was largely ignored by the mainstream media because it didn’t fit their narrative. And, worse yet, it might have benefited the nefarious Trump.

At the same time, many independent doctors were insisting that HCQ was working for them with real patients. They were similarly dismissed by a rabid press that had neither the inclination nor skills to investigate. (Laura Ingraham, to her credit, featured several of these doctors on her cable show.)

Meanwhile, thousands, if not millions, died across the globe who needn’t have.

How many we will never know but it’s a safe assumption a good number could have been spared.

The pervasive use of this drug might not have entirely saved us from COVID, but it could arguably have reduced the pandemic to the level of a bad year of flu.

Whatever the truth, an apposite description for what happened might be outrageous.

And now the equally-esteemed American Journal of Medicine in its January 2021 edition has finally admitted the same thing. HCQ often worked. Immediate administration of the drug while the patient was still at home showed significant benefits, they said.

Where were they during the Year of the Pandemic?

Oh, never mind. Politics is more important.

The lesson of the past year is that politics is apparently more important than any loyalty to professionalism that anyone in our professions might possess. (I took hydroxychloroquine, doxycycline, and zinc when I had Covid, starting early.)

MANY PROMINENT ATTORNEYS AND OTHER FIGURES DONATED TO THE LINCOLN PROJECT. WILL THEY ASK FOR THEIR MONEY BACK? 21 Men Accuse Lincoln Project Co-Founder of Online Harassment. “Many of them described feeling preyed upon by an influential older man in the field in which they wanted to work, and believing they had to engage with his repeated messaging or lose a professional opportunity. Mr. Weaver sent overt sexual solicitations to at least 10 of the men and, in the most explicit messages, offered professional and personal assistance in exchange for sex.”

Gordon Getty and Stephen Mandel gave a million dollars apiece.

Plus: “His solicitations included sending messages to a 14-year-old.”

DON SURBER IS NOT AMUSED: No, Jonah, it’s on you. “As a grown man, I do not seek the approval of those who hate me. I will not accommodate their efforts to ruin me and my country.”

WELL, IF YOU TALK ABOUT IT YOU GET BANNED ON FACEBOOK: The Coup We Are Not Talking About: We can have democracy, or we can have a surveillance society, but we cannot have both.

Overwrought, overwritten, and full of lefty misinformation, but the headline point above is correct.

EVIDENCE? WHAT’S THAT? The Trump ‘Incitement’ Narrative About the Capitol Riot is Falling Apart Before Our Very Eyes. “It should be noted further that allegations of election “fraud” are not incitement. Indeed, the same mainstream media accusing Trump of ‘inciting’ the crowd with fraud allegations accused Donald Trump himself of perpetrating fraud in the 2016 election.”

As far as I can tell, the “incitement” narrative boils down to this: We know Trump’s an awful person, and we know his followers are awful people, so even if he says “peaceful” we know he actually expects them to break into the Capitol because reasons.

XI’S GOTTA HAVE IT: WHO Director Who Covered for China to Be Harvard Commencement Speaker.

OLD AND BUSTED: We Are All Socialists Now.

—The Washington Post, through then-subsidiary publication Newsweek, February 16^th, 2009.

The New Hotness? Opinion: The good guys in the GameStop story? It’s the hedge funds and short sellers.

—The Washington Post, yesterday.

Earlier: GameStop Politics: Democrats’ Hubris And Abusiveness Will Lead To Their Own Short Squeeze. “There’s some political equivalent here. I don’t know what it looks like yet, but there’s only so long the rapid destruction of jobs and the economy and political persecution can continue without the political equivalent of a short squeeze on Democrats.”

THE GREATEST HOLLYWOOD MEMOIR EVER WRITTEN:

Lowe never made it as far as Cruise, but he was right there beside dozens of figures who helped define our culture. Through his stepfather he was invited onto the set, in 1976, to watch an effects sequence from a movie he was told was going to be some sort of “Western in space” — Star Wars. He rode a plane — Flight 77 from Dulles to LAX — with the 9/11 terrorists who used that trip as a dry run two weeks before they hijacked the same flight. Less momentous, he once saw Chris Farley eat two giant porterhouse steaks for dinner, placing an entire pat of butter on each bite. One of the first friends Lowe made when, as an adolescent, his mom moved them from Ohio to Malibu (then peopled by middle-class hippies and surfers) was Emilio Estevez, whose dad was off in the Philippines shooting a Vietnam movie. Lowe first met Emilio’s dad, Martin Sheen, on a Halloween night when the old man jumped out of the bushes, Captain Willard–like, in full camouflage gear, brandishing a baseball bat and issuing crazy threats. It was pure coincidence that Sheen would later be hired to play the president beside Lowe on The West Wing.

That show had a cultural impact, just as Lowe’s early efforts did. He points out that The Outsiders (1983) not only kicked off a new genre of all-teen movies after a decade in which young people were largely relegated to background parts but provided a raft of new male pinups to star in them: Matt Dillon (who was already somewhat established) plus then-unknowns C. Thomas Howell, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio, Estevez, Cruise, and Lowe. Proud of his efforts in that film (even though his climactic scene at the very end was simply cut out), Lowe nevertheless has a knack for undercutting showbiz hype with dry wit. And he’s well aware of how fortunate he has been. Auditioning for Class, Lowe had to win the part over another hopeful:

My competition is an actor who is one of those guys who gets white-hot overnight and is in the mix on a number of big films. He has everyone in Hollywood talking, and I just hope he doesn’t get this one. His name is Raphael Sbarge.

But I haven’t gotten to the most important aspect of the book: how Lowe learned to be a man, a husband, a father — a person as opposed to a celebrity. He was presented with more temptations than most of us can imagine, allowed himself to be led down a path of self-destruction that proved irresistible to many of his contemporaries, then found a way back. Once a pretty boy/party boy, he became a grounded family man of deep commitment and contentment, a process that required a personality overhaul. That story is worth a column in itself, so I’ll get to it in a follow-up piece.

Read the whole thing.

HIJACKING THE CLOWN CAR:

If America is a clown country, the ruling class on Wall Street, along with their ruling class friends in Washington, are driving the clown car.

Enter Reddit.

You might have noticed that the suits are very upset this week. That’s because anonymous Redditors, while presumably brushing the Cheeto dust off their laptop keyboards, decided to do a little bit of stock speculation.

They had no fancy tools, no quantitative analysis, no Bloomberg terminals, and they’re certainly not members of the elite class who are entitled to engage in such sophisticated business.

What they did have was unbridled rage and disdain for the drivers of the clown car, and when they found a way to exploit them, they hijacked the clown car for themselves and took it for an epic joyride.

Reddit realized that a billionaire member of the Wall Street ruling class had a massive short position on GameStop stock—position that was coming due on Friday—and they decided to stick it to him. They bought thousands of shares of the fledgling stock, driving the price per share up approximately a gazillion percent.

That was bad news for Mr. Moneybags. It was, and perhaps still is, going to cost his fund, Melvin Capital, billions of dollars to cover his short position.

It was great news for the newly-minted Reddit stock speculators. As more and more people bought, the price of the stock increased. Regular people were making cash hand over fist, and sharing “Wolf of Wall Street” memes on Twitter. The peasant class’ revolt against their rulers was both lucrative and fun.

But if there’s anything the ruling class hates, it’s losing money—especially to a bunch of unwashed punks who were laughing in their faces while they sent Melvin Capital hurtling towards bankruptcy. In an instant, the rightful owners of the clown car demanded it back.

Read the whole thing.

Related: Can’t stop the signal: Silver price surges as GameStop traders move into precious metals.

THAT’S DIFFERENT BECAUSE SHUT UP:

Related:

YEP.

METAPHOR ALERT: A huge piece of California’s Highway 1 near Big Sur collapsed into the ocean.

KING SOLOMON-ERA ROYAL PURPLE CLOTH FOUND: In Southern Israel, carbon-dated to around 1,000 BC, which puts it in the time of King Solomon.

HOW IT STARTED: Defunding the police: Oakland, Berkeley could be test cases for Bay Area, nation.

—The San Francisco Chronicle, July 21^st, 2020.

How it’s going: Shootings in Oakland soar as cuts to Police Department take hold.

—The San Francisco Chronicle, today.

I’M THINKING, I’M THINKING: “One of these trucks could jump over your house, and one of them could power it during a blackout. Which would you rather have?”

WUHAN CORONAVIRUS SUPPLY CHAIN LESSONS: Food export restrictions by a few countries could skyrocket global food crop prices.

The paper is here.