Archive for 2022
October 12, 2022
PRIME DEAL: Cordless Vacuum Cleaner. #CommissionEarned
COMMUNISTS RUIN EVERYTHING: Russia And China Don’t Give A Damn About Soft Power.
It turns out that an era of good feelings constitutes a substantial asset to diplomacy.
Professor Nye declares that soft power emanates “primarily from three sources: its culture; its political values, such as democracy and human rights (when it upholds them); and its policies (when they are seen as legitimate because they are framed with an awareness of others’ interests).” If so, Moscow and Beijing stand on flimsy ground. Run Nye’s checklist. Culture is all the twin despotisms have going for them. Their political values and policies amount to tyranny at home and aggression abroad. Now there’s a banner to which others will flock!
Threatening to ravage your neighbors—or in Russia’s case, actually doing so—holds scant appeal beyond kindred hives of scum and villainy. Nor does trying to overthrow a largely beneficent world order kindle fellow-feeling.
Moreover, even the cultural factor is suspect. You could grant China and Russia a certain quotient of cultural charm, I suppose. But whatever cachet they enjoy derives from times before communism, not from recent or contemporary achievements. Invoking the distant past thus highlights how culturally barren Marxism-Leninism has left two venerable civilizations. Russians can summon Peter the Great, Pushkin, or other cultural figures of immortal luster. Russian history is replete with them. China can conjure up Confucius or the Ming Dynasty voyager Zheng He, two icons of antiquity touted at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and other forums.
But these titans lived long ago. What has either country done since going communist that helps its leadership woo others? Not much according to Nye’s indices. Small wonder they fare so poorly in foreign eyes.
Russian culture — music, literature, food, dance — once rivaled the best of any other nation. If that seems like it was a long time ago, that’s because it was.
JOEL KOTKIN: The Revenge of the Material Economy: “America’s narrow escape last week from a major rail-worker strike brought home an important truth: people who make and ship real things – let’s call them material workers – now hold the whip hand over our supposedly ‘post-industrial’ economy. Firms trading non-tangibles – currency, bits and bots – may still hoard the most cash. But when it comes to eating, staying warm and, for many, making a living, the material economy is what matters most.”
Plus: “The green script has changed slightly over the years in response. It used to warn that scarcity was on its way unless we made radical changes, whereas now it calls for us to create scarcity deliberately. Today, no one talks about ‘peak oil’. Instead, you hear calls to keep fossil fuels in the ground, where they cannot be used. Another difference between the 1970s and now is that the impetus for Net Zero policies comes not only from green activists and politicians, but also from the financial regime imposed by ‘woke’ capitalists, who have gone to great efforts to deprive fossil fuels of investment.”
Making ordinary people’s lives worse is not a side-effect of a desired policy. It is the policy.
I HAD BEEN ASSURED THAT THIS KIND OF THING WAS A MYTH: Planned Parenthood Accused of Trying to Register Dead People to Vote in Texas.
THE SELF-PROCLAIMED ELITES WANT US TO FREEZE IN THE DARK WHILE EATING BUGS: Big Brother Says No to Gas Furnaces.
OH, SORRY, WAIT. NOT ALL. THERE’S ALSO PROJECTION: Stochastic Terrorism – A game of rhetorical asymmetry.
Like an IMAX they project.
ALL THEY GOT IS LIES: 3 Myths Debunked: Animal Agriculture’s Real Impact on the Environment.
I FIND IT HARD TO BELIEVE THAT TAYLOR LORENZ WOULD ‘BULLY’ ANYONE JUST TO GET A STORY: Taylor Lorenz, NY Times ‘maliciously destroyed’ TikTok talent agent’s business: suit.
Other things I find it hard to believe:
That Wuflu came from China.
That Dr. Fauci is a fraud.
That inflation is not our friend
That parents who oppose CRT are not terrorists.
That Santa doesn’t pay his elves a living wage.
That we can’t extract energy from unicorn farts.
Oh, wait, that’s not me. That’s the average democrat. My bad.
NYC’S RISING SUBWAY CRIME MOCKS CNN: CNN commentator Errol Louis appears to mock concerns about rising NYC subway crime.
IF AT ALL POSSIBLE, WHEREVER YOU ARE, VOTE AGAINST A DEMOCRAT: Voting in Arizona in 2022.
BEHOLD, MY OH, SO SHOCKED FACE: Recall Gascón Committee Taking L.A. County Registrar to Court, Claiming Petition Signatures Improperly Invalidated.
ABOUT TIME SOMEONE TOOK THEM TO THE WOODSHED: Kerch bridge collapse and Puttanesca response; British Medical Journal takes FB/Meta to the woodshed for “incompetent medical fact-checking”.
A VERY COLD WINTER: Iran’s Anti-Regime Protests Hit Oil Sector as Workers Join Demonstrations.
THE PANIC IS OVER, AND THE MORE WE REMEMBER THE GREATER THE CHANCE OF A RECKONING: CDC Quietly Ending Daily COVID-19 Reports.
IT’S TIME TO MAKE PLANS: Ring The Bell
I LAUGHED SO HARD I HAD AN ASTHMA ATTACK: Biden Admin: Born Male, Register For Draft.
WELL, I THINK IT WILL COMFORT UKRAINIAN TEACHERS TO KNOW EVEN IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR THEY’RE MORE EFFECTIVE THAN OUR POOR EXCUSE FOR TEACHERS*: Randi Weingarten Takes Trip to Ukraine.
*I was going to say “our idiots” but there is nothing the idiots have done to deserve comparison.
I STILL DON’T TRUST YOU IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM: Tulsi Gabbard Issues Blistering Smackdown Of Democrat “Elite Cabal”.
SOMETHING IS ROTTEN: In the Chauvin appeal.
October 11, 2022
IT WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN EVENTUALLY: Sen. Chris Murphy channels Trump, experiences intellectual clarity for first time ever.
OF COURSE: Durham probe: FBI offered Christopher Steele $1 million to corroborate Trump allegations in dossier. “Auten also said that the FBI had no corroboration of allegations in the dossier but nevertheless took that information and inserted it into the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to surveil former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.”
OPEN THREAD: Do what you can.