POSTMODERN WARFARE: Hactivists say they hacked Belarus rail system to stop Russian military buildup.
Archive for 2022
January 25, 2022
TO BE FAIR, IT’S ONE OF THE BIG LIES ON CAMPUS: Intersectionality is the big lie on campus, worsening America’s political divide. “There is a theory that commonly informs woke first-year seminar courses, professors’ diversity statements, and the system of oppression found in Critical Race Theory (CRT), anti-racist, queer, and leftist political narratives. The theory is ‘intersectionality.’ But the concept is more than a fashionable term flaunted by academics on syllabi and at conferences. Rather, it is a framework that enables leftist scholars to gaslight ordinary Americans into accepting their false narratives. But these scholars do not follow the intersectional lens that they preach. Their rhetoric around overlapping identities creates a patchwork of allusion and illusion that they couple with moral indignance to evade scrutiny.”
As they said in the 1960s, the issue is never the issue, the issue is always the Revolution.
MAKE THEM PAY: Prof. Gregory Manco Sues St. Joseph’s U, Administrators, And Former Student After Online Mob Attacks. More people should do this. There are often legitimate claims to be made, and the mere threat of a lawsuit will deter a lot of bad conduct.
ANOTHER DEVELOPING CRISIS-BY-DESIGN: Cross-Border Trucking Firms Have Mixed Reactions to New Vax Mandate.
SHOCKER: COVID lockdowns did not reduce deaths, but did reduce employment.
“The economic benefits from more severe actions seem to be related only to reduced COVID cases and not hospitalizations or deaths,” the report from the Georgia Center for Opportunity said.
“The states that put in place more severe restrictions tended to see worse economic outcomes, and did not tend to see better medical outcomes,” SMU Professor Dean Stansel told The College Fix via email.
“Minor changes in the way that a state responds to events like a pandemic could result in hundreds of thousands of people being unable to work and provide,” an article summary said. “While the shutdowns affected all Americans to varying degrees, it’s clear that those most affected were low-income and poor Americans.”
Professor Stansel said these findings are why a targeted approach that would focus on protecting the most vulnerable should have been pursued.
“I think that focusing on protecting the most vulnerable, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach that treated everyone the same despite some being at much greater risk than others, would have done much less harm,” Stansel told The Fix.
MORE: Check out the new cancel culture database
Not every governor had the same lockdown policies as a New York or California, however. “[S]ome states did recognize the problems that severe economic restrictions create and chose to implement less severe restrictions,” the Southern Methodist University economics professor said.
Those that had fewer restrictions, such as Oklahoma and North Dakota, tended to have better economic outcomes but not necessarily worse health results. “Only COVID cases showed a statistically significant association with the severity of governmental actions,” the paper said.
The 510-page report contains a number of graphs and information on the statistical inputs used for the research.
Stansel and his other researchers would like to see government officials take these findings into account in the future.
“Policymakers and governmental authorities need to take this statistical evidence into consideration and be more mindful and cautious when imposing economic restrictions,” the paper said.
Policies should be crafted that “avoid impacting employment more than necessary and …minimize the harm on people’s livelihoods.”
“In practice, the evidence suggests that policies need to be more targeted and allow for more flexibility so business operations and employment may continue as much as possible,” the paper said.
Indeed.
SCIENCE IS ABOUT DISCUSSION, NOT AUTHORITY: Sen. Ron Johnson Hosts “Second Opinion” Panel on America’s Problematic Pandemic Response. “Johnson invited Fauci, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle P. Walensky, Dr. Albert Bourla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pfizer, and other bureaucrats and pharma executives to the panel. None elected to come.”
Related: Team Biden’s plan to ‘ensure scientific integrity’ should start with itself.
HMM: Neil Young calls for his music to be pulled off Spotify over vaccine misinformation. “According to reports, Young wrote, ‘Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines – potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them.'”
He’s talking about Joe Rogan. Pretty sure Spotify would rather do without Neil Young. Interesting to see how some of the rock rebels remain rebels, and others have become Karens.
ADDING A NEW ANGLE ON PENN’S PERSECUTION OF AMY WAX: ‘Red-Handed’ Reveals Chinese Donations to University of Pennsylvania Soared After Biden Center Announcement.
PJ MEDIA VIP ROUNDUP: Don’t forget that VODKAPUNDIT promo code if you’ve been thinking of joining us.
Matt Margolis: 5 People Biden Must Fire to Reset His Presidency. (Only five?)
Rick Moran: Trump Warns Putin ‘No Normal Relationship’ With Future U.S. President Possible If Russia Invades Ukraine. “Graham says Trump told him that ‘Putin is realizing that Biden’s weak, but he doesn’t realize that Biden won’t be around in 2024.'”
Yours Truly: Ranking the Bond Movies: Part 003 (Neither Shaken Nor Stirred). “This lists aren’t meant to be definitive — how could they be? — but to be a fun look back at an iconic series… and maybe engage in some not-too-heated discussion over my worst picks.”
#RESIST: From Bishop, CA. A reader writes: “Most of the Bishop, CA pumps have these. The ones in Mammoth Lakes, CA are scratched off. Lee Vining, CA often has the highest prices in the US. I have not been up there for few weeks, and avoid the gas stations if I can.”
“TOO MANY ASIANS” — BAD IF AMY WAX SAYS IT, BUT BUSINESS AS USUAL FOR IVY LEAGUE ADMISSIONS OFFICES: Ilya Somin: Supreme Court affirmative action cases challenging Harvard, UNC policies are overdue: The Harvard suit features extensive evidence that the school’s admissions system discriminates against Asian American applicants.
If courts stuck closely to the text of the laws they interpret, the case against Harvard would be an easy one for the school to lose. As a private institution, Harvard is not bound by constitutional constraints against racial discrimination (UNC, by contrast, is a public university). But it is subject to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, since it receives federal funds for student financial aid and other purposes. Title VI bars discrimination “on the ground of race, color, or national origin” in any education program receiving federal funds, and it doesn’t exempt well-intentioned racial discrimination in the form of affirmative action.
But the Supreme Court (wrongly, in my view) has long interpreted Title VI to allow racial preferences in situations where the court’s interpretation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment would permit them. And a series of Supreme Court rulings — most notably 2003’s Grutter v. Bollinger and 2016’s Fisher v. University of Texas (often referred to as Fisher II) — have held that racial preferences in higher education admissions are permissible under the 14th Amendment in some situations in which they are used to promote educationally beneficial “diversity,” i.e., ensuring there is a sufficient number of minority students (sometimes called a “critical mass”) so other students are exposed to their distinctive viewpoints.
A racially and ethnically diverse student body, the court concluded in these cases, can potentially benefit students of all races by exposing them to new perspectives and preparing them for careers in an increasingly diverse society. Harvard argues — and lower court rulings in the case agreed — that its race-conscious admissions policy is permissible under these precedents.
The Supreme Court’s standards for acceptable racial preferences are far from clear. Grutter and Fisher are frustratingly ambiguous on such key questions as what qualifies as a “critical mass” of students from a given group that is sufficient to promote diversity, for example, and how much deference courts should give to universities’ educational judgment about the amount and type of diversity they need.
When the court considers the Harvard and UNC cases, it would do well to reject the “diversity” rationale entirely, or at least subject it to much tougher standards of review.
The “diversity” rationale was a transparent effort to rename affirmative action so as to fit within the Powell concurrence in Bakke. It reflects poorly on the Supreme Court that it’s been allowed to continue. But the Gentry Class prizes affirmative action, and the Supreme Court, like all courts, is firmly in the hands of the Gentry Class.
BUT OF COURSE: UN provides money and asylum stories to US-bound migrants.
Using U.S.-supplied funds, the United Nations is helping illegal immigrants with money and tales of woe to get into Mexico and the United States, according to a series of new reports.
In what could be viewed as an end-run around U.S. border rules, the world body is giving illegal immigrants cash cards to pay for stops to the border and providing psychologists to help migrants “recover repressed memories” from back home that could sway U.S. asylum reviewers, according to reports.
Uh huh.
#RESIST: An imaginative use of the Biden “I did that!” sticker from Maui.
IS THE MULTIVERSE THEORY JUST A DODGE? If you follow the Design versus Atheism debates (and who doesn’t, right?), you know about the Multiverse Theory. Dr. Frank Turek points out that not everybody in Atheism camp is convinced about the Multiverse.
BOB MCMANUS: Mayor Adams’ plan to tackle crime is complicated — but it might actually work. “So now we are hearing the first faint hints of a return to common-sense law-enforcement — an acknowledgment that it’s now time to get actual criminals off the street. Or, to quote Adams speaking from City Hall yesterday, ‘We’re going to [target] the trigger-pullers.'”
We can hope. Anything to reverse the harm done to NYC by the shameful DeBlasio administration is worth trying.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: GOP Dreams of Election Victory Revenge Porn Are a Bit Premature. “I would like nothing better than to see every member of that kangaroo court [Jan 6] committee rounded up and sent to wherever it is the United States would use as a gulag (I nominate Sacramento, CA) and left there to rot for having subjected the country their pathetic diaper-filling tantrum. If it were possible though, there are a few thousand dominoes that have to fall in the sequence before that one gets toppled.”
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THEY’RE NOT CONSERVATIVE (YET), BUT THEY’RE GETTING GOP-CURIOUS: They were loyal liberals who never dreamed of voting Republican but the damage done to kids by the Left’s Covid hysteria is driving a wave of moms away from the Democrats, writes BETHANY MANDEL.
Come to the sane side. We have cookies. And sanity.
CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Companies Linked to Putin’s Pipeline Contributed to Schumer Campaign: Senate majority leader blocked sanctions on the Kremlin-backed project.
Affiliates of two European companies that fund Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline contributed to the campaign of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), who Republicans say has blocked sanctions on the Kremlin-backed project.
ENGIE North America and BASF Corporation each gave $2,500 to Schumer in September through their corporate political action committees, according to newly disclosed Federal Election Commission records. ENGIE North America’s parent company and a BASF subsidiary are part of a consortium of five companies that finance Nord Stream 2, which will transport natural gas from Russia to Germany. While President Joe Biden has called the pipeline a geopolitical threat to Europe that helps Russian president Vladimir Putin, last year he waived sanctions on the project.
We keep getting revelations like this.
The chance that much of our leadership will be hauled before people’s tribunals and then sent to the firing squads remains low, but it’s far and away the highest it’s been in my life time.