ROOTING FOR RIOTS: Joel Kotkin: America’s elites want a racial apocalypse: The narrative of racial conflict peddled by politicians, Big Business and progressives threatens social peace.
It does seem that way. But why?
Archive for 2021
April 8, 2021
TREATING PEOPLE LIKE VERMIN: UPenn professor condemns ‘White evangelicals’ as a ‘public health issue.’
IMPRESSIVE. NOW IF THEY’D JUST LAUNCH SERVICE IN MY AREA…: SpaceX launches 60 more Starlink satellites, now at 300 launched in just over one month.
NOTHING SPECIAL IN THE AIR: United Airlines Announces They Will No Longer Hire the Best Pilots.
LAWS FOR THEE, NOT ME: Lynne Patton is nailed for allegedly violating the Hatch Act by speaking at the 2020 Republican National Convention. Six Obama administration officials spoke at the 2012 Democratic National Convention and got …. zilch. This is not equal justice under law.
HMM: China’s Semiconductor Industry: Shell Games All The Way Down.
This is a deep dive into semiconductor manufacturing, and I found it fascinating.
IF DE SANTIS SUED FOR LIBEL, IT WOULD BE A GREAT CHANCE TO OVERRULE ST. AMANT V. THOMPSON: Don’t kid yourself: There will be no consequences for the 60 Minutes hit job on Gov. DeSantis. And while I don’t think there are 5 votes on the court to overrule New York Times v. Sullivan, there might very well be 5 votes to overrule St. Amant, and return to a “reasonable person” standard for actual malice. More on that here.
UPDATE: Yep.
WELL, THAT’S BECAUSE THEY ARE: Joe, Joe, he’s our man: Most see reporters as Biden cheerleaders.
Heck, nowadays most reporters see themselves as Biden cheerleaders.
If you want to see how the liberal mind works look no further than the media. It’s not just how they cover what they cover, it’s what they cover in the first place. Sometimes, they go all in without regard to facts, and sometimes they rush to a story only to find it is not what they’d thought it to be, hoped it to be, and run away just as quickly. When they run away, the story disappears – like it never even happened.
The latest examples of these types of stories involve shootings and an attack at the U.S. Capitol.
Here’s another story likely to vanish “like it never happened:” Fantahun Girma Woldesenbet, Fort Detrick Shooting Suspect: Five Fast Facts You Need to Know.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Infrastructure and the Dems’ Concussed Commie Fever Dream. “With the Democrats it’s all about the feels. Burdensome things like economics, definitions of words, or common sense need never be considered as long as they can tug some heartstrings. They have mastered the politics of emotion in order to shame anyone who disagrees with their outrageous boondoggles.”
SOLAR-POWERED MEANS SLAVE-POWERED: Solar Industry’s Reliance on Chinese Forced Labor Threatens Biden’s Green Economy.
But to be fair, slavery that ended over 150 years ago in the US is a potent political issue. Slavery that is actually happening right now, and that U.S. politicians and corporations are profiting from, is not.
WHAT CBS SHOULD HAVE KNOWN ABOUT PUBLIX: Ellie Reynolds, writing in The Federalist, notes that one of the many things that Floridians appreciate about their Publix grocery stores is that the checkout folks always bag your groceries and offer to help you load them into your car.
It takes a particular sort of cultural arrogance to not recognize the significance of such cultural indicators of civilized commerce and community, arrogance of the sort routinely found among New York-Washington media types, especially those associated with elite programming like, well, “60 Minutes.”
BTW, Reynolds is a Patrick Henry College senior interning at The Federalist. If you love liberty and America, PHC is a place you should know about because it specializes in serving home-schoolers with a superb educational experience.
JOE BATTENFELD: Despite scoffing by liberal media, Trump’s claim of vaccine eligibility by April comes true.
But it would be good if every president was held to the same standard.
The Washington Post story last September alleged that Trump contradicted his own health team which said the general public was unlikely to get the vaccine until the second and third quarters of 2021.
Here’s what Trump said: “Hundreds of millions of doses will be available every month, and we expect to have enough vaccines for every American by April.”
This statement wasn’t far off from reality — in fact, the general public will be able to get vaccines later this month and some states are actually ahead of that timeline.
But because this was Trump and the Post, the headline scoffed that he made the claim “without evidence.”
In fact the Trump administration had already set in motion plans to buy hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine, which would be enough to cover every American. Not sure what evidence the Post was looking for.
This week Biden made the not-so-bold declaration that all adults will become eligible for the vaccine by April 19. This was actual earlier than Biden had initially predicted — he moved up the timeline.
So when Biden makes a bold prediction that’s leadership. When Trump does it he’s a farce.
Why, it’s as if “maybe the Neanderthals got it right,” as Michael Barone writes.
CHANGE YOU CAN WILL BE REQUIRED TO BELIEVE IN: Putin signs law allowing him to rule Russia until 2036. “The controversial bill would allow Putin to remain in power almost indefinitely. It was recently approved by the lower and upper chambers of the Russian Parliament. The constitutional changes were approved by Russian voters last year. ”
Deeper background: Putin will be eligible for re-re-reelection as the incumbent for an office he never held.
WHEN YOU PACK THE COURT YOU’RE ADMITTING IT’S POLITICAL, SO YES: Justice Breyer says expanding the Supreme Court could erode trust.
Of course, some of the Supreme Court’s own behavior looks pretty political. I’m talking to you, Chief Justice Roberts.
Pack the Court and you give people an excuse to ignore its rulings. Ike sent troops to enforce a Supreme Court order once, but how often is that likely to happen?
NEXT TIME SOMEBODY DENIES THE HOLOCAUST TO YOU: Show them this, from Jeff Dunetz at The Lid.
“SPREADING MISINFORMATION” JUST MEANS “HURTING THE DEMOCRATS’ NARRATIVE.” Why Hasn’t the Mainstream Media Pilloried 60 Minutes for Spreading Misinformation? It’s not about truth or falsity, and it never was.
IMMINENT: Joe Biden To Announce Executive Orders on Gun Control. “Stakeholders have speculated that the president could announce regulations on concealed assault-style firearms; prohibitions on firearm purchases for those convicted of domestic violence against their partners; and federal guidance on home storage safety measures.”
Joe Biden lives in one of the most heavily protected residences in the world, in a city currently (and unprecedentedly) patrolled by 20,000 National Guardsmen.
Politico bills it as “long-awaited executive action” even though Biden has been president for less than three months.
FROM DAVID L. BURKHEAD: The Ships of Elemak.
The kingdom of Aerioch has fallen. Only Kreg and his newfound friends remain. And while the fearsome changeling armies are no more, the task of rebuilding Aerioch remains daunting. They must first escape the land of Chanakra and somehow cross the sea of Elemak.
It is then, when their troubles will really begin.
JOEL KOTKIN: Trust The Science: The Blue State Surge is Real.
For months the conventional wisdom among Democrats, amplified by their obliging claque in the media, was that lockdowns played an essential role in containing COVID-19. The great heroes, in addition to Anthony Fauci, were hardline governors like Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, California’s Gavin Newsom and, most of all, New York’s Andrew Cuomo.
Yet now, more than a year later, the lockdown states—starting with New York and New Jersey—are again leading the nation in coronavirus infections and deaths per capita.
By contrast, some of the states with Republican governors who were routinely castigated for unlocking things and supposedly killing their residents, most notably Florida, Georgia and Texas, did indeed suffer an increase in fatalities last summer. But since then, even after opening their economies, these states continue to suffer fatality rates per capita well below those of the locked-down Northeastern states and about equal to California, which has maintained one of the nation’s strictest lockdowns.
What emerge from these trends are some clear issues with transmission that transcend lockdowns, mask mandates and other punitive measures. However justified, such actions have not addressed the fundamental reasons why some geographies and populations have suffered so much more than others. That’s to say that while the blue state governors aren’t necessarily to blame for the surges their states are experiencing, it’s clear that the economically and personally disruptive measures did not have the expected impact.
What did make a big difference, it turns out, is not so much the severity of lockdowns but pre-existing conditions. The likely cause here can be best identified as “exposure density” brought on by crowded housing, transit, and office environments.
Flashback: Coronavirus Lessons on Density, Mass Transit, and Censorship: They Kill.
Related:
WE DO NOT CONSENT: Biden’s Infrastructure Plan Truly Anything But.
THAT’S BECAUSE IT’S NOT REAL ART: April 10 is Slow Art Day. Establishment Art Can’t Stand Up to Such Scrutiny.
EXCUSE ME? SINCE WHEN WASN’T A BAT’LETH A WEAPON? Cops sued for excessive force after mistaking ‘Star Trek’ memorabilia for weapons.