THE OCCUPYING JUNTA LIKES TO THANK THE GOVERNORS AND MAYORS WHO HELPED THEM:  Your Tax Dollars Are Bailing Out San Francisco and New York in the Name of COVID Relief.

YEAH. WE’RE WAY PAST THAT:  “They’re a Private Company.”

DOES HE HAVE TO BE A ZOMBIE?  We need a zombie Molière to write “Tartuffe 2021”.

WELL, OBAMA HAS THE MIERDAS TOUCH:  The emmerdization thesis.

DEAR LORD:  Newsom Starts His Presidential Campaign.

Guys, we need to get our voting rights back. He’s not only malevolent. He’s dumber than a box of rocks.

THIS IS MY SHOCKED FACE:  Cuomo Order Meant Disabled COVID Patients Died.

WE NEED TO KICK OFF OUR CHINESE-PUPPET GOVERNMENT AND GET IN THE RACE:  China and Russia sign partnership agreement for lunar exploration.

I SUSPECT MOSTLY IN NAME:  Nicaragua forms space agency,

Unless of course it’s some way to funnel international money into the country.

THEY’RE COMING FOR ALL OF US:  Today’s blacklisted Americans: Conservative student journalism conference shut down by city of Alexandria, Virginia.

If we let them.

LET THE PUBLIC DECIDE: The Real Answer To ‘Problematic’ Film Representations.

Stop letting neurotics shame and silence creators.

FIGHT THE POWER: Tucker Carlson Opens Up a Can on the NY Times Over Reporter ‘Controversy’, Leaves No Stone Unturned.

More on this here.

NOW OUT AND DOING WELL: The Deep Rig: How Election Fraud Cost Donald J. Trump the White House, By a Man Who did not Vote for Him. Barnes & Noble version in nook is here.

THE DEAD HAND OF STATE CONTROL: Federal COVID-19 Bailout Prohibits States From Cutting Taxes: The measure could also make it illegal for states to create new tax credit programs, such as those used for expanding school choice.

OPEN THREAD: Don’t disappoint me.

RIP: The Man Who Invented The Cassette Tape Has Died; Lou Ottens Was 94.

THE CALIFORNICATION OF AMERICA:

California’s lawmakers have been trying to “fix” this terminally [AB5] flawed bill ever since it passed, but that’s of no consequence to the social engineers who make up the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives. This week, the House once again passed a labor-reform law crafted in 2020 that seems to have been modeled on AB5, and its effects would be just as disastrous if it were to become law.

The Protect the Right to Organize (PRO) Act would impose the so-called “ABC Test” on all employers. It reserves independent-contractor status only for those doing work that they control, and that they are incorporated to perform, and that falls outside the scope of a contracting firm’s normal business. Advocates insist they’re just trying to extend National Labor Relations Act protections to all workers, but the law would effectively impose AB5’s restrictions on independent contractors and eliminate a freelancer’s competitive advantage across state lines.

Earlier: Biden just endorsed a law that endangers 57 million jobs.

YESTERDAY’S ANTIMATTER POST garnered some interest, so here’s a reply from Jim Bennett: “Actually, as I recall, the big problem was not using the antimatter in this fashion, but obtaining it in sufficient quantity. We can only produce it now in laboratory quantities. Of course, that’s what they told General Groves about enriched uranium in 1942.”

Heh. Indeed. And here’s a report from the 1988 Rand conference on anti-proton propulsion.

JUST LIKE TRUMP, THE DISSIDENTS ARE BEING LOCKED OUT OF TWITTER: Russia slows down Twitter in latest social media clampdown. “The move marks the latest efforts to limit social media platforms often used by opposition figures in the country.”

Everywhere, the oligarchs fear the voice of the people.

TWO WEEKS WAS OKAY, TWO MONTHS WAS CRAZY, LONGER WAS UTTERLY INSANE: Jay Bhattacharya, Stanford Doctor, Calls Lockdowns the ‘Biggest Public Health Mistake We’ve Ever Made.’

BRYAN PRESTON: Court Case Accuses Panda Express of Subjecting Employees to ‘Cult-Like’ Training That Forces Them to Strip With Co-Workers.

In the past few weeks, we’ve learned that Coke and UnderArmour subjected employees to bizarre, woke training that told them to “try to be less white.” One might think that that’s as bad as corporate training could get.

Panda Express in California asks corporate America to hold its beer.

The Boston Herald reports that a former employee is suing Panda Express for degrading training:

A former employee of a Panda Express in Santa Clarita alleges she was required to strip down to her underwear and hug a partially clad co-worker during a “cult-like ritual” at a 2019 training seminar sponsored by the company as a prerequisite to promotion.

The 23-year-old woman is suing Panda Restaurant Group, headquartered in Rosemead, and Alive Seminars and Coaching Academy in Pico Rivera for sexual battery, a hostile work environment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

This could cross from a civil case over into sexual assault. The Herald doesn’t name the plaintiff in the suit for that reason.

We need a complete and total shutdown of corporate training until we can figure out what the hell is going on.

DON’T TRUST CHINA, CHINA IS ASSHOLE: China Urges W.H.O. to Let It Run Global ‘Vaccine Passport’ System.

HMM: Higher pollen count may increase risk for COVID-19, study says. Some doctors in my area have been speculating that the high pollen levels here may account for the relative non-severity of cases in the region. But of course, reducing the immune response might both make you more likely to catch it, and also less likely to get the deadly immune overreaction we see in severe cases.

#JOURNALISM: Compare the same reporter’s tweet with a statement from Joe Biden that’s been up for almost 5 hours longer.

Plus: “Meanwhile, as you think about the importance of Twitter, take this into account: ‘Parler Blocked on Apple’s App Store After Capitol Riot Review.'”

THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND’S LASTING VICTORY:

By the time I came of age and started reading about the New Left, nearly all of Haut California assumed that the whole ordeal was behind us—an interesting subject for KQED documentaries but otherwise confined to the past. At that time, the state’s former conservative Republican governor was president of the United States. He would be succeeded by his own vice president, who would in turn be succeeded by a “New” (read: centrist) Democrat. “The Sixties,” or at least their most radical aspects, were well and truly behind us.

* * * * * * * *

Nordlinger’s piece is historical, so it might seem unfair to judge it by its failure to look the present (and future) squarely in the face. But when the past bears so directly on the here-and-now, I don’t see how the criticism can reasonably be avoided.

A telling fact Nordlinger does not mention is that the biological son of one of the villains of his story, Kathy Boudin, and the adopted son of two others, Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, is now the elected District Attorney of San Francisco County. It may be reserved to God to visit the sins of the fathers unto the sons, but what of those sons who, like Michael Corleone, enthusiastically embrace the family business—and then expand it into the corridors of power à la Damien Thorn?

Chesa Boudin differs from his parents, biological and adoptive, in one respect only: rather than fighting the system to inflict harm, create chaos, and do evil, he puts the system to work toward those ends. It’s not just that Boudin works to make everyday life more awful by refusing to enforce what he dismisses as mere “quality of life” (e.g., open drug use and public defecation) and “victimless” (e.g., burglary and auto theft) crimes, so that San Francisco now has the highest property crime rates and arguably the worst quality of life of any big city in the nation. Boudin is also against using the powers of his office to go after what even he is forced to admit are non-trivial offenses.

On his second day in office, the brand new radical-chic DA fired his seven most-experienced prosecutors because they were too good at their jobs. Two weeks later, he ordered his office never again to request cash bail for any offense, guaranteeing that dangerous criminals would roam the streets and that many would never face trial for their crimes. Earlier this year, a parolee plowed a stolen car into two pedestrians, killing both. The “driver”—Troy Ramon McAllister—had been arrested by the SFPD five times in the prior eight months, only to be released without charges on Boudin’s orders every single time.

As Boudin has redefined his role, it is no longer to convict criminals but to further “social justice.” He favors babying the violent with so-called “restorative justice.” It’s unclear what, exactly, “restorative justice” entails; it’s easier to say what it’s not: punishment or deterrence. Early in Boudin’s tenure, after two (nonwhite) young men assaulted an elderly man (also nonwhite) who was collecting cans to recycle, the SFPD did its job and arrested the assailants. The DA, though, declined to press charges. This pattern has since been repeated enough times—including, most recently, the homicide of an 84-year-old—that local media and the intelligentsia realize they can no longer ignore it. And so, to cope, they blame … “white supremacy” and Trump.

Read the whole thing.

Related: In Tinseltown, a Glimmer of Hope on Law and Order. “A recently launched effort to recall Los Angeles district attorney George Gascón might represent the first encouraging sign for opponents of the ‘progressive-prosecutor’ movement in American cities—among the most consequential developments in criminal-justice policy in recent years. From Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Boston to Chicago, St. Louis, and Dallas, cities have handed the job of representing victims and holding criminals accountable to self-styled ‘reformers’ and former defense attorneys who campaigned on promises to restructure our nation’s criminal-justice system.”

AND THE HITS JUST KEEP ON COMING: Gov. Cuomo allegedly reached under aide’s blouse and groped her: report.

UPDATE: America’s Newspaper of Record puts the above headline and Cuomo’s earlier #metoo headlines into sharp perspective: 10,000th Victim Comes Forward To Accuse Cuomo Of Inappropriately Killing Her Grandma.