Archive for 2021
September 2, 2021
RUN TO DAYLIGHT: Herschel Walker passes his first test in Georgia’s Senate race.
DISPATCHES FROM MY HOMETOWN: Watch stunning video of a tornado ripping across New Jersey.
Jaw-dropping videos emerged on social media on Wednesday night amid a “historical flood and tornado event” in New Jersey.
As the remnants of Hurricane Ida slammed the Northeast on Wednesday, the National Weather Service confirmed that a “large and destructive tornado was observed over Beverly in Burlington County,” NJ.com reports. Several videos apparently showed a tornado passing over the Burlington-Bristol Bridge, though NJ.com writes it “might not have touched down to become an official tornado.”
Related: At least 21 people killed overnight in NYC, NJ during historic flooding.
More: Amtrak suspends service between Boston and DC over weather.
WHO SHOT ANDY WARHOL? The Virtue Signal Game blog answers that all important question. You can buy the games on sale here.
IT’S COME TO THIS: San Francisco is now literally paying people to not shoot each other.
Yes, this is a real thing that’s happening. Cracking down on crime? That’s racist.
Paying gangbangers $300 a month not to spray bullets at each other? Progress!
A new program in San Francisco will pay people at high risk of shooting someone not to pull the trigger to help alleviate rising gun violence in the city.
The Dream Keeper Fellowship is set to launch in October and pay 10 individuals $300 each month to not be involved in shootings, Sheryl Davis, executive director of the Human Rights Commission, told Newsweek in an interview Tuesday.
That’s nice. Violent men are known to respond to politically-correct programs that think government bureaucracy can erase human ambition and sin.
As Jim Treacher wrote in February when Baltimore Activist Wanted to Pay Criminals Not to Kill People:
I like this idea, obviously. You can catch more flies with a carrot than a stick, or something. But why rely on the government to do it? It should be privatized. It’s up to each of us to make the world a safer place. Here’s what I suggest: Go around your neighborhood and remind everybody that it’s a nice place and it would be a shame if something… happened to it. You never know when somebody’s gonna get shot, do ya? But for a very reasonable price of $1,000 a month, you’ll agree not to shoot anybody. Is that really too much to pay to ensure your family’s safety? Who could refuse such an offer?
Heh, indeed.™
HANDILY: How Joe Rogan defeated Covid. “Turns out I got Covid. We immediately threw the kitchen sink at it. All kinds of adds — monoclonal antibodies, Ivermectin, Z-Pac, Prednisone, everything, and I also got a NAD drip and a vitamin drip and I did that three days in a row and so here we are on Wednesday and I feel great. I only had one bad day. Sunday sucked. But, Monday was better. Tuesday felt better than Monday. And today, I feel good.”
LIVE AT 3:30PM EASTERN: ‘Five O’Clock Somewhere’ with Kruiser, Preston, VodkaPundit.
RECALL: George Soros’ Donations To Fight Newsom Recall Hit $1 Million. “Under state rules, Newsom alone is allowed to raise money in unlimited amounts, while other candidates must adhere to contribution limits.”
IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA:
WHEN YOU’VE LOST THE ATLANTIC…: Australia Traded Away Too Much Liberty.
Intrastate travel within Australia is also severely restricted. And the government of South Australia, one of the country’s six states, developed and is now testing an app as Orwellian as any in the free world to enforce its quarantine rules. People in South Australia will be forced to download an app that combines facial recognition and geolocation. The state will text them at random times, and thereafter they will have 15 minutes to take a picture of their face in the location where they are supposed to be. Should they fail, the local police department will be sent to follow up in person. “We don’t tell them how often or when, on a random basis they have to reply within 15 minutes,” Premier Steven Marshall explained. “I think every South Australian should feel pretty proud that we are the national pilot for the home-based quarantine app.”
Exit question:
MAYBE THIS IS WHAT THEY MEANT BY PUTTING THE GROWNUPS BACK IN CHARGE: Biden Admin Has Lost One-Third of Illegal Alien Kids, Who May Now Be in the Hands of Traffickers.
MORE DRUG TARGETS: Beyond dopamine: New reward circuitry discovered.
IF THEY DO, FIRE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM: Colorado teachers sign pledge to teach Critical Race Theory even if banned in classroom.
RICHARD HANANIA: The roots of wokeness lie in civil rights law.
(I missed this essay when it came out a couple of months ago. But Hanania is right. I am working on an essay that discusses how the Civil Rights Act of 1991, because it made Title VII lawsuits, especially harassment lawsuits, financially rewarding for the the first time, helped create our present Age of Wokeness.)
K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Raunchy Simpsons prank pulled at school board meeting.
An age-old prank was successfully pulled off in a moment that no one saw coming — or even recognized in the moment.
It happened during the latest meeting of Virginia’s Henrico School Board on Aug. 26, led by Chair Roscoe D. Cooper III. As public board meetings go, Cooper invited a pre-submitted list of town residents to speak on current issues affecting their community. As names are called, the person may approach the podium and share their comments.
But this recent meeting included an unusual number of names apparently absent on that day. Cooper announced the names carefully: Phil McCracken, Eileen Dover, Suk Mahdik, Ophelia McCaulk, Don Kedick and Wayne Kuhr.
Had the Cooper perhaps read the list a bit faster, he might have realized the prank afoot.
Lucky for those of us outside the New Bridge Learning Center Auditorium in Richmond last Thursday, the Henrico School Board films their meetings for posterity.
Video here; Don Kedick could not be reached for comment:
FLASHBACK: No American Military Leader Should Ever Say What Lloyd Austin Said. To be fair, it’s become abundantly clear that he’s no sort of military leader at all.
BRAVE VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: NASA plans yearlong Mars simulation to test limits of isolation.
I BLAME LARRY ELDER: State Department to relocated Afghans: For God’s sake, don’t move to California.
SHE’S NOT EVEN GOING TO PRETEND TO CIRCLE BACK TO THAT: Jen Psaki Dodges Question About Damning Leaked Biden Call With Afghan President.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Joe Biden’s call to Afghan prez is impeachable: Devine.
Psst, Nancy Pelosi! Still looking for a phone call worth impeaching a president?
Do I have news for you.
Reuters has a bombshell report about a July phone call between Joe Biden and then-Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani, in which the US president promises military aid in return for lies.
The “perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things aren’t going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban,” says Biden in the July 23 call. “And there’s a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.”
Whether it is true or not.
No, things weren’t going well, three weeks after the US abandoned Bagram Airfield in the dead of night.
Biden’s solution was to create the “perception” that all was fine. He wanted to keep the illusion going long enough to cover his Aug. 31 self-imposed deadline to withdraw US troops and have a victory lap on September 11th, when he would preen as the first president to end the forever war.
“Whether it is true or not” seems like a good summary of the Biden Administration’s approach to, well, everything.
WELL, YES: ‘Everybody screwed up’: Blame game begins over turbulent U.S. exit from Afghanistan.
Current and former officials and lawmakers said there is little appetite for Biden to fire or demote top advisers over the handling of the U.S. withdrawal. The Democratic president, meanwhile, has strongly defended his administration’s actions.
Frustrated and angry, officials at the Pentagon have privately blamed the lack of urgency leading up to the airlift on the State and Homeland Security departments, who in turn have blamed the White House for slow decision-making.
“Finger-pointing is an ugly Washington sport … in this case, fingers could be pointed in all directions and probably be right in each case,” said Dan Fried, a former senior U.S. diplomat now at the Atlantic Council think tank.
A lot of heads need to roll, but I’d be surprised if just one did.