HMM: Your blood type could predict your risk of having a stroke before age 60, new study suggests. “The study found that people with early stroke were more likely to have blood type A and less likely to have blood type O (the most common blood type)—compared to people with late stroke and people who never had a stroke.”
Archive for 2022
September 1, 2022
CHRISTIAN TOTO: ‘Purple Hearts’ Heals While Biden Stirs Up Hate, Division. “President’s attack on 70 million Trump voters no match for Netflix’s healing hit film.”
THE ADMINISTRATION IS ALL-IN ON CRIMINALIZING OPPOSITION: White House: Trump Supporters Are an ‘Extreme Threat to Our Democracy.’
BANK OF AMERICA MIGHT BE GETTING ITSELF INTO A LAWSUIT: “Bank of America Announces Zero Down Payment, Zero Closing Cost Mortgages for Black and Hispanic First-Time Buyers.” This may be another job for the American Civil Rights Project. (Update: They apparently changed the headline. The original headline was as shown.)
HAPPENS ALL THE TIME: Head of Russian oil giant Lukoil dies after falling from hospital window, reports state media. “The chairman of Russian oil and gas giant Lukoil — which spoke out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — has died after falling out of a hospital window, state news agencies RIA Novosti and TASS reported Thursday.”
MORE FROM THE NEW CIVIL LIBERTIES ALLIANCE: NCLA Suit Uncovers Army of Federal Bureaucrats Coercing Social-Media Companies to Censor Speech. “The New Civil Liberties Alliance, the Attorney General of Missouri, and the Attorney General of Louisiana, have filed a lawsuit that blows the lid off a sprawling federal censorship regime that will shock the conscience of Americans. The joint statement on discovery disputes in the lawsuit, State of Missouri ex rel. Schmitt, et al. v. Joseph R. Biden, Jr., et al., reveals scores of federal officials across at least eleven federal agencies have secretly communicated with social-media platforms to censor and suppress private speech federal officials disfavor. This unlawful enterprise has been wildly successful.”
Remember this as Biden lectures us about the “soul of the nation.”
Also, a reminder: I’m on the advisory board of the NCLA.
HOW IT STARTED:
“We are a city that is a sanctuary city. We have immigrants from all over the world who call Chicago their home. They’ll continue to do that, and we’re going to continue to make sure that this is truly a welcoming community for those immigrants and we want them to come to the city of Chicago.”
—“Chicago Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot Says Immigrants ‘Welcome’ Despite Donald Trump’s Remarks on Sanctuary Cities,” Newsweek, April 13th, 2019.
How it’s going: Texas sends buses of migrants to Chicago for first time, dropped off at train station.
—Fox News, tonight.
Earlier: Sanctuary Cities Seethe as Illegal Immigrants Actually Arrive.
The surest sign that public policies are simply virtue signals is when the messages don’t cost anything. The easiest way to tell when that signal starts to fail is to watch politicians flounder as the costs start to rise and voters demand relief.
It was free—and meaningless—for progressive churches to post banners calling themselves “nuclear free zones” during the Reagan era. Their dwindling congregations loved it. It was free, after George Floyd‘s murder, to post woke catechism signs on your front lawn, proclaiming “In this house, we believe: Black Lives Matter, women’s rights are human rights, no human is illegal” and so on. Maybe the neighbors gave you high-fives. And for years it has been free for deep-blue cities to proclaim themselves “sanctuaries” for illegal immigrants. That’s changing now that voters want some sanctuary for themselves.
Changes like this happen when voters realize the old virtue signals actually entail serious costs—and that they will have to pay them. That is exactly what’s happening in New York City and Washington D.C. now that Texas governor Greg Abbott is sending those cities a few busloads of illegal immigrants from his state.
These progressive bastions were silent when the Biden administration flew planeloads of illegal immigrants to suburban airports in the middle of the night. TV coverage was prohibited, and the arrivals were secretly dispersed. Abbott’s buses, by contrast, arrive downtown greeted by local TV crews. Now you can hear the politicians screech.
Lightfoot’s reaction to her bluff being called will be fun to watch.
UPDATE: And here we go! Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot blasts migrant buses from Texas as ‘racist.’
Chicago’s progressive mayor insists she welcomes being the latest Democratic destination for busloads of border crossers, as she accused Texas Gov. Greg Abbott of being “racist” and the Trump administration of “human cruelty.”
Does she know who the current president is?
(Updated and bumped.)
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Finger-Pointing Federal Reserve Admits They Can’t Tame Inflation, Blames Congress. “Here’s what that Federal Reserve paper doesn’t say: If Congress is the husband who’s drunk on spending, then the Fed is the codependent wife driving him safely home from the bar each night.”
GOODER AND HARDER, COLORADO: Thousands of Xcel customers locked out of thermostats during ‘energy emergency.’ “Xcel confirmed to Contact Denver7 that 22,000 customers who had signed up for the Colorado AC Rewards program were locked out of their smart thermostats for hours on Tuesday. ‘It’s a voluntary program. Let’s remember that this is something that customers choose to be a part of based on the incentives,’ said Emmett Romine, vice president of customer solutions and innovation at Xcel. Customers receive a $100 credit for enrolling in the program and $25 annually, but Romine said customers also agree to give up some control to save energy and money and make the system more reliable. ‘So, it helps everybody for people to participate in these programs. It is a bit uncomfortable for a short period of time, but it’s very, very helpful,’ said Romine.”
CHINA: Taiwan Shoots Down Drone Off Chinese Coast For The First Time. “Taiwan is warning that its military won’t hesitate to exercise right of self-defense and to counter-attack in the event of Chinese forces entering its territory.”
DEAL OF THE DAY: Portable Neck Fan. #CommissionEarned
DAN MORENOFF OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS PROJECT: “Breaking Up the ESG Investing Giants.”
V’GER AWAKENS: NASA has solved the mystery of Voyager 1’s strange data transmissions. “The agency today said it has found the source of the garbled information: a zombie computer that should not have been used to relay telemetry data.”
A BLOW AGAINST BIGOTRY AND SEGREGATION: After attempting racially segregated Welcome Week events, UC San Diego edits event page to include students of all races .
MAYBE NOT BORN THAT WAY AFTER ALL: Remember when the orthodox thinking was that a person is simply born gay and there is nothing to be done about it? Maybe so … or maybe so for some people … but it is interesting that 15.9% of Generation Z students (born 1997-2002) identified at LGBT as of 2020. Meanwhile Baby Boomers were at 2% and Generation Xers were at 3.8%
DIVERSITY PROBLEM: Only 9 percent of law professors are conservative, study finds.
I think we need a higher education sector that looks like America.
SHUT UP, THEY EXPLAINED: Biden’s White House Colluded With Big Tech To Gag Covid Dissenters Like Alex Berenson.
Documents Berenson obtained during the discovery phase of the lawsuit he filed against Twitter illustrate how the government actively works to shut down free speech on issues of public interest. Berenson’s criticisms of the Covid vaccines, which he claimed were ineffective and possibly harmful, came exactly at the time when the federal government, as well as many states and cities, were using every available coercive means at their disposal to force Americans to take them. As such, his speech was deemed extremist and needed to be suppressed to save lives during the pandemic.
While President Biden blithely labels his political opponents as “semi-fascists,” it is he who has been playing the part of a fascist by using powerful corporations to stifle opposition. And thus, Berenson’s Twitter ban must be acknowledged as a rank injustice.
At the time of his ban, support for vaccine mandates had become both official public health policy and a sign of left-wing virtue. Berenson’s journalism was thusly treated as dissident advocacy and considered not merely irresponsible but beyond the pale.
There’s no more pretending that the social media giants don’t act as arms of the federal government.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: How Long Can America Survive a Rogue Department of Justice? “The DOJ has most definitely gone rogue, being spurred on by the revenge obsession of its head.”