WHY DO DEMOCRATS HATE POOR MINORITY CHILDREN? Democrats’ disgraceful war on schools that actually teach poor, minority children.
Archive for 2021
July 27, 2021
MUGGED BY REALITY: Former Sen. Barbara Boxer Assaulted & Robbed In Oakland.
July 26, 2021
WELL, THEY HAVEN’T WON A WAR IN DECADES, SO WHAT’S THERE TO LOSE? The Conservative Case for Cyberbullying America’s Generals.
On July 22, Major General Patrick Donahoe, the Commanding General of Fort Benning, reported from his official Twitter account that he was seeing a “surge” in ICU visits among young soldiers due to Covid. He reported that he would mandate the vaccine if he had the power to do so.
I replied, pointing out that the DOD has lost a total of 26 out of over 2 million personnel in the last year and a half to the virus. In the fourth quarter of 2020, there was a 25 percent surge in suicides across all services. In those three months alone, 26 additional servicemembers took their lives compared to the prior year.
The military’s response to the Coronavirus is almost certainly to blame for the rise. I exited the service in May of 2020, having had plenty of time to witness these policies firsthand. Deployed troops returning home were forced to quarantine for weeks at a time. Masks were required in all public spaces on base. Gyms were shut down. Commanding officers dramatically reduced liberty limits to within only a few miles of base. Those, like me, who were stationed in Camp Pendleton, were prohibited from traveling just 30 minutes south to San Diego during our off hours.
In light of these draconian policies, it is no wonder that troops experienced a surge in psychological illness and suicidal ideation. Turning barracks into prisons is a recipe for problems. Nor did the catastrophic “outbreaks” of Covid materialize. Virtually all servicemembers known to be infected with the virus recover. The handful of Covid related deaths are sad, but they never rose to the level of a crisis. On average, nearly a thousand military personnel die because of training accidents, suicide, and illness every year.
General Donahoe accused me of engaging in “false equivalency” and of downplaying the vaccine, arguing that it was the path to “normalcy.” As the return of mask mandates for both the vaccinated and unvaccinated in cities like Los Angeles attest, this is clearly not true. The real path to normalcy is for military leadership to adjust their risk tolerance. Treating healthy people like biohazards over an illness that has killed two dozen personnel in a force of millions is insane. Those preventative policies have consequences, too; the surge in depression and suicide among the young is real. . . .
He also tweeted at the university where I am a student, Hillsdale College, and told them to “come get your boy” for questioning the military’s quarantine and lockdown policies. General Donahoe, apparently, thinks the private sector is just like the military, where criticism can be stopped, and careers ended, with a mere snap of the fingers. As the thread attracted more attention, one commenter asked the General “how many wars he’d won.” The General responded by accusing the questioner of “shilling for Putin.” When I asked if Putin was the reason America had lost in Afghanistan, the General blocked me.
My interaction with the General serves as a microcosm of the American military’s cultural rot. Here we have a two-star General who spends his days on social media hyping a vaccine for an illness that poses minimal risk to his troops. When pressed on why America can’t win wars and why he embraces policies that treat healthy people like biohazards, his first response is to accuse his critics of treachery and then block them from view.
This is what $693 billion a year buys you: unbridled arrogance from the leaders of a military that can’t win against third world tribesmen armed with small arms and homemade explosives. A significant portion of our military leaders, like General Donahoe, are totally detached from reality. They face no consequences for losing wars or losing troops to preventable suicides. Many of them don’t really command anything at all. They are so ensconced in layers of bureaucrats, staff, operations and logistics shops, briefs, intelligence reports, public affairs officials, and aides that there is usually no danger of the public uncovering their true character, lack of leadership, or empty careers.
Twitter, for all its many flaws, provides a direct line into the thought process and values of the military’s elite class. Too often, the minds of our great and courageous “warriors” are filled with nothing more than anodyne policy statements, automatic deference to other members of the elite expert class, and received wisdom from the mouths of MSNBC hosts. A painful lesson for patriotic citizens, perhaps, but a necessary one.
As these leaders spend their days scrolling twitter in the twilight of their careers, waiting to secure their pensions and post-retirement defense contractor gigs, they deserve to feel some heat from the people they allegedly serve. Getting “ratio’d” is, for many of them, the worst consequence they’ll ever face for overseeing institutional failure.
Our generals don’t have the record of success that justifies a high-handed attitude. They should be displaying contrition for the blood and treasure lost on their watches instead.
STARLINK UPDATE: My experience has been utterly reliable and boring. It just works. Here’s an excerpt from an email I just got from them:
Since our last update, the Starlink team has been hard at work building the systems and infrastructure to enable growth while continuously improving service quality. Below are some of the highlights:
Space Lasers
As Elon recently mentioned, the Starlink team is preparing to launch upgraded satellites that will include space lasers. Space lasers enable our satellites to transfer data between each other without having to go through a ground station. Once fully deployed, space lasers will make Starlink one of the fastest options available to transfer data around the world.Connecting to the Best Satellite
The team completed roll out of a new feature to all users that enables your Starlink to seamlessly switch to a different satellite in real time if communication with your assigned satellite is interrupted for any reason. There can only be one satellite connected to your Starlink at any time, but this feature will enable choice of the best satellite, resulting in far fewer network disruptions.High Temperature Management
The Starlink team has initiated a series of software improvements that change how your Starlink responds to high temperatures. These improvements will roll out over the next few weeks and should address invalid “Thermal Shutdown” app alerts seen by some customers.
Continuous improvement, baby.
OPEN THREAD: Everybody come together and let’s love one another right now.
FOLLOW THE SCIENCE: Five Times More Children Died By Suicide Than Died From COVID In The UK.
WHY IS THE LEFT SUCH A CESSPIT OF RACISM? Lightfoot says she would ‘absolutely’ exclude white journalists from interviews again.
WHY IS THE LEFT SUCH A CESSPIT OF SEXISM? Joe Biden Snaps at Another Female Reporter.
Joe has been snapping at reporters even before his brain became tapioca. But it’s a bit like being a tough CEO: Why should he take guff from his party’s operatives with bylines? Of course, he’s also lashed at voters as well:
● Biden Snaps At Reporter For Asking About Bombshell New York Post Reports, Does Not Deny.
● Biden calls woman ‘lying dog-faced pony soldier’ at N.H. campaign event.
● How Joe Biden Gets Away With Calling A Voter A Fat, Dumb, Liar.
● Joe Biden and Kamala Harris deploy the Charlottesville hoax to stir up racial pain and anger.
● ‘Classy:’ Joe Biden Snaps At Reporter After Being Asked About Hunter’s Paternity Test.
● Bullying Biden Yells at Fox’s Doocy: ‘Ask the Right Questions!’
● Biden Accused of Sexism After Remarks to Female Moderator.
● Biden Explodes When Confronted On Lying About Charlottesville. Video Proves Biden Wrong.
● Joe Biden Says There Are Three Genders; Grabs Student’s Arm When She Asks ‘What Are They?’
And these classics from the Obama era:
● VP Biden’s Office Apologizes For Locking Reporter In Storage Closet During Fundraiser.
● Vengeance: Biden’s Office Seeks Investigation Into Unfriendly Journalist.
And of course, ground zero, from 1988: Why Joe Biden’s First Campaign for President Collapsed After Just 3 Months.
WHAT COULD GO WRONG? PayPal Teams Up With Left-Leaning Group to Combat ‘Hate’ Funding.
FROM MY COLLEAGUE ALEX LONG: All I Really Need to Know About Defamation Law in the 21st Century I Learned From Watching Hulk Hogan. There’s a lot of interest in revisiting the current libel rules, and should be.
INSERT “POLICE” REFERENCES HERE: The Oldest Confirmed ‘Message in a Bottle’ Contained Some Fascinating Questions.
FOLLOW THE SCIENCE! AVOID EYE CONTACT!
BECAUSE IT’S A MADE UP THREAT TO JUSTIFY PERSECUTING AND SUPPRESSING THEIR POLITICAL OPPONENTS:
If it’s true they are saying anti-government right-wing groups or domestic extremist groups are THE greatest threat to national security, which is what Biden and the intelligence community are saying . . . greater than ISIS or al Qaeda or China or Russia, why do they need to manufacture a plot — and put in people’s heads — the idea let’s go kidnap Governor Whitmer? There should be tons of plots that they are detecting? That leads to the question people on your network and others have asked to the horror of the liberal sector of the corporate media, which is: What did the FBI know about the planning of the January 6 attack? How embedded were they in these groups? Because what happens is when these kinds of attacks happen, the FBI and the security state seize on them to say See? there are grave dangers, we need more money, more power, more surveillance authorities in order to keep you safe. And so if they are the ones driving it, it leads to the question of what those motives are.
I think I know the answer to that question.
HANGING AROUND AFGHANISTAN CAN ONLY TURN BAD. Did Haiti not teach us anything?
As Jon Gabriel tweets, “This history lesson serves as another reminder that Woodrow Wilson was the Worst President Ever.“
DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Dear Rich White Parents: Keep Your Kids Out Of Ivy League Schools To Make Room For POC — OR ELSE!
HMM: Among effective antihypertensive drugs, less popular choice is slightly safer. “Our study shows that ARBs are associated with fewer side effects than ACE inhibitors. The study focused on first-time users of these drugs. If you’re just starting drug therapy for hypertension, you might consider trying an ARB first. If you’re already taking an ACE inhibitor and you’re not having any side effects, there is nothing that we found that would indicate a need for a change.”
WE JUST GOT PROOF THAT UBER HAS SAVED THOUSANDS OF LIVES:
A study by two economists at the University of California, Berkeley examined the impact that Uber, specifically, has had on alcohol-related traffic deaths and total traffic deaths in the US. They sought to investigate a simple question. By providing people with a safe, convenient, and relatively inexpensive alternative means of transportation, would Uber reduce drunk driving and traffic deaths?
According to their findings, the answer is a resounding yes.
Uber has reduced alcohol-related traffic fatalities by 6.1 percent, the study finds, which equates to roughly 214 lives in 2019. Similarly, Uber reduced overall traffic deaths by 4 percent, likely by reducing other forms of dangerous driving such as driving while very tired. This equates to 494 lives saved in 2019. (And that’s just Uber: To understand the full life-saving impact of ride-sharing technology, we would have to factor in competitors like Lyft, too).
They work extremely well, so naturally California and the Biden administration are trying to shut Uber and Lyft down:
● Biden’s Labor Secretary Just Threatened Independent Contractors.
● With PRO Act, Congress Readies National Version of California’s AB5 Fiasco.
GOOD AND HARD: LA County Gas Prices Highest Since 2012.
Flashback: Aren’t California’s High Gas Prices What The Left Have Wanted?
Well, it’s a start, as Steven Chu, former President Obama’s then-incoming energy secretary, told the Wall Street Journal in the fall of 2008: “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.”
So is it fair to ask if Biden is on the payroll of Putin? As Walter Russell Mead wrote in 2017:
If Trump were the Manchurian candidate that people keep wanting to believe that he is, here are some of the things he’d be doing:
Limiting fracking as much as he possibly could
Blocking oil and gas pipelines
Opening negotiations for major nuclear arms reductions
Cutting U.S. military spending
Trying to tamp down tensions with Russia’s ally Iran.
“Yep,” Glenn added in late 2019. “You know who did do these things? Obama. You know who supports these things now? Democrats.”
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): If it turns out like the other war on terror, right-wing militias will be seizing Washington, DC while Democrats chopper out under cover of darkness.
WELL, SOME ARE CERTAINLY TRYING TO PROVOKE ONE: Are Americans Preparing For a Second Civil War?