Archive for 2021
February 4, 2021
REFILL THE SWAMP: Biden Asia Czar’s Holdings May Present Conflict of Interest. “President Joe Biden’s Asia czar owns part of a “shadow lobbying firm” that gives strategic advice to corporations doing business in Asia, a position that ethics experts say could create conflicts of interest.”
NEWS YOU CAN USE, AS BIDEN’S ENERGY PROGRAM GOES FORWARD: File:Construction of a Simplified Wood Gas Generator For Fueling Internal Combustion Engines in a Petroleum Emergency.
READINESS: Biden SecDef Issues Military-Wide Stand-Down Order to Fight ‘Extremism.’
If you thought eight years of Obama was bad for readiness and morale, wait until you see what Biden can do in eight weeks.
GOYA’S DECEMBER EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH CONTINUES TO PAY DIVIDENDS: ‘Alexandria Ocasio Smollett’ Trends As Critics Punch Holes In Her Dramatic Cap Hill Story.
VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: Traumatized Climate Activist Greta Thunberg May Face Criminal Investigation.
Insanity Wrap needs to know: When is it is commendable to abuse and manipulate a teenage girl with severe emotional issues?
Answer: For decent people, never. For the Left, when doing so advanced the Party’s interests, comrades.
Before we get to the sordid details, a quick preview of today’s Wrap.
- Meet the social justice doctor who wants to play God during a pandemic
- AOC sics her private mob on the free press
- “Why You Shouldn’t Invade America” [Corrected Edition]
Bonus Sanity: Did Slow Joe accidentally bring a China Hawk on board?
And so much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.
WHY, NO, THE GOP HAS NOT BEEN TAKEN OVER BY Q-ANON: House Democrats, as this post is being typed, are preparing to strip Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) of her committee assignments.
Has to be done, you see, because she represents the radical extremists who control the GOP, who launched a failed coup d’tat on January 6 and who will wreak lethal havoc in every city, town and village across America if Greene isn’t punished.
John Daniel Davidson takes on this fairy tale and subjects it to a thorough dose of reality.
‘THE HORROR!’ CNBC’s Shep Smith shares ‘shocking video’ from Florida market:
Yes, it’s “shocking” to some, but it’s possible to walk up to a Florida restaurant, as I did last month, and be greeted by signs such as this:
And yet:
BLUE CITY BLUES: The Down Side to Life in a Supertall Tower: Leaks, Creaks, Breaks.
The nearly 1,400-foot tower at 432 Park Avenue, briefly the tallest residential building in the world, was the pinnacle of New York’s luxury condo boom half a decade ago, fueled largely by foreign buyers seeking discretion and big returns.
Six years later, residents of the exclusive tower are now at odds with the developers, and each other, making clear that even multimillion-dollar price tags do not guarantee problem-free living. The claims include: millions of dollars of water damage from plumbing and mechanical issues; frequent elevator malfunctions; and walls that creak like the galley of a ship — all of which may be connected to the building’s main selling point: its immense height, according to homeowners, engineers and documents obtained by The New York Times.
Less than a decade after a spate of record-breaking condo towers reached new heights in New York, the first reports of defects and complaints are beginning to emerge, raising concerns that some of the construction methods and materials used have not lived up to the engineering breakthroughs that only recently enabled 1,000-foot-high trophy apartments. Engineers privy to some of the disputes say many of the same issues are occurring quietly in other new towers.
The Taggart Tunnel disaster sequence from Atlas Shrugged comes to mind.
CHARLES LIPSON: Why Israel Leads the World in Vaccinating Its Population. “The country could afford the mass purchases thanks to decades of economic growth, grounded in high-technology, medical research, water conservation, sophisticated weapons development, cybersecurity and more. The growth was spurred by market-oriented public policies, adopted after years of sluggish European-style socialism under Labor governments.”
BLACK HAWK BOARDS A BURKE: A U.S. Army UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter lands on the flight deck aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain. The helicopter crew was conducting deck landing qualification tests. Photo taken January 30 somewhere in the Philippine Sea. This “Dirty Little Secrets” report from 2014 discusses Army helicopter operations from Navy ships. That article expanded on a Naval Air update from 2006 that mentioned “U.S. Navy protests and attempts to keep the soldiers on land.” That attitude conflicts with operational requirements — Pentagon speak for you gotta do what you gotta do and you gotta use what you got. I’d add that operations in the western Pacific’s island chains and in the Indian Ocean demand joint operations.
SOMEWHAT RELATED: A handy guide to soldier slang and Pentagonese.
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: In Effort To Shake Off Abuse Allegations, Marilyn Manson Runs For Office As A Democrat.
HMM: Josh Hawley proposes “preemptive” ban on Big Tech mergers. “Hawley’s idea mirrors a recommendation made last fall by Democrats on the House antitrust subcommittee, suggesting there could be bipartisan support.”
FIGHT THE POWER, STICK IT TO THE MAN: University of Illinois settles speech code lawsuit before Supreme Court can review case.
CURTAILING INSTITUTIONAL RACISM: Tulane gave ‘priority’ to ‘Black’ and ‘People of Color’ job applicants. It doesn’t anymore.
A recent listing for a teaching-assistant position at Tulane University appeared to prioritize certain applicants explicitly on the basis of their race or ethnicity.
The job description for “Teaching Assistant for ‘The Arts and Social Impact’” originally stated that “priority will be given to BIPOC applicants.” The acronym “BIPOC” refers to “Black, Indigenous, (and) People of Color.”
When contacted by Campus Reform, Tulane University backtracked and removed the language stating that priority for the position “will be given to BIPOC applicants.”
The Executive Director of Public Relations for Tulane University, Michael Strecker, told Campus Reform, “We have removed the phrase from the advertisement for the teaching assistant position you referenced below.”
“As an Equal Opportunity Employer, Tulane University does not discriminate on the basis of protected classifications (such as race, color, or any other classification protected by applicable law) in its programs, activities, or employment.”
The description states that the job is intended for “somebody who has interest in arts practices, community organizing/engagement, education, policy, and activism.”
Next question: Why does this position exist at all?
NOTHING SAYS FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY LIKE A MINISTRY OF TRUTH HEADED BY A “REALITY CZAR.” Liberalism’s Ministry of Truth: Academics and the progressive press mull state media controls.
The academic establishment and progressive press want you to know two things: First, conservative claims of social-media bias are bogus. As Silicon Valley firms police content, their decisions are, miraculously, wholly uninfluenced by ideological preference.
Second, there is an urgent need for a much wider crackdown on political speech, perhaps led by the Biden Administration and requiring the creation of new government agencies. In other words, all that conservative suppression that’s, er, not happening? We need more of it.
New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights released a brief this week that is being amplified in the press entitled, “False Accusation: The Unfounded Claim that Social Media Companies Censor Conservatives.” It argues that “some conservatives believe their content is suppressed on partisan grounds when, in fact, it’s being singled out because it violates neutral platform rules.”
That is sometimes true, but the report doesn’t remotely prove that it always is. What about when Twitter and Facebook tried to suppress a New York Post story about Hunter Biden before the 2020 election? Even the report concedes that “the question of whether social media companies harbor an anti-conservative bias can’t be answered conclusively.”
That doesn’t stop the authors from unabashedly asserting that “the claim of anti-conservative animus is itself a form of disinformation.” It is perpetuated partly because “it appeals to the same conspiratorial mindset that has fostered the QAnon movement.”
Got it? Anyone who argues social-media moderation has a progressive slant is spreading disinformation, and possibly drawn to a bizarre cult. And remember that disinformation is against the rules—which, once again, are neutral.
Among the solutions to the non-problem of progressive bias is, naturally, government control. The NYU report recommends that “the federal government . . . press Facebook, Google, and Twitter to improve content policies” and “cooperate with these companies” on enforcement. This political suppression—er, neutral government-backed content policy—“could be enforced by a new Digital Regulatory Agency.”
Since we’re devising new entities for speech control, the New York Times offers another idea. Experts recommend “that the Biden administration put together a cross-agency task force to tackle disinformation and domestic extremism, which would be led by something like a ‘reality czar,’” the beacon of progressive tolerance avers.
1984 wasn’t supposed to be an instruction manual, you know.
SINCE WE’RE BARELY ALLOWED TO GO OUT TO DRINK, THIS SEEMS LIKE A SAFE BET: Uber is betting $1.1 billion on alcohol deliveries.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Can Ron DeSantis Teach Media Relations to Weak Republicans? “That’s precisely what the Republican party needs — leaders who don’t fall for the false promise of respect from the mainstream media. It was bad enough before Trump won in 2016. The MSM hacks would dangle carrots for witless Republicans. If the Republicans in question did what they were told — like back stab other Republicans — they’d be treated slightly less awfully in the press. As soon as their service was no longer required, it was back to crap treatment as usual.”