Archive for 2022

IDAHO, ABORTION, AND CLASSROOM SPEECH: Abortion, Classroom Discussion, and the University of Idaho: Guidance given to faculty about effects of state abortion law raise troubling academic freedom questions.

Fortunately for faculty at the University of Tennessee, the State Legislature recently passed the Campus Free Speech Protection Act, which protects the speech of faculty members and students, preventing this sort of thing. The Board of Trustees added its own resolution. Amusingly, some faculty members and campus activists opposed that law, since they saw it as mostly benefiting deplorables.

LINCOLN BROWN: American Stasi. “So why the seemingly never-ending parade of abuses of power? Why is the government doling out $5,000 worth of punishment for $5.00 ‘crimes?’ As a former Leftist, I think I can shed some light on that.”

WITH A HURRICANE APPROACHING FLORIDA, A FRIEND WRITES: “Hurricane prediction: Whatever happens to Florida between now and November 2024, it’ll be [treated as] the worst disaster response since Katrina and Maria. Literally Hurricane Hitler. Federal response will be reported as having been hamstrung by local ineptitude and corruption.”

PROBABLY: If Legal Education Embraced Pay Transparency, Would Law Professors Emulate Hockey Players And Focus More On Scholarship And Less On Students? “It’s not hard to see how those findings generalize to any business. When people feel undervalued, they prioritize the flashier parts of their jobs that are easier to measure, even at the risk of costing their organizations. This behavioral change reflects a deeply human impulse. We want to be paid well, but we really want to be paid well relative to others. We care less about what we make than what we make in the context of our peers.”

One of Rumsfeld’s Rules is that whatever you measure will improve, so it’s important to measure the right things.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The Drag Queens Hanging Around Kids Are Skeeving Me Out. “I need to know what changed. Was there always this much drag show action around school kids and they were just better at hiding it or did the Dems all go off of their meds at once?”

PROF. JACOBSON: NY Attorney General Letitia James’ War On Trump Is Disgracing The Office. “Tish James campaigned on and conducted her office for the purpose of investigating a political opponent and those around him trying to find a crime. That is Soviet-level prosecutorial abuse where individuals are targeted not to prosecute a crime, but to sift through their lives in the hope of finding a crime.”

BLUE CITY BLUES: Why Thousands Moved Out of Denver This Summer. “A new study finds that thousands of Denver residents moved elsewhere in July and August, landing it in the top ten on a list of U.S. metro areas with the largest population outflow. It’s all part of what researchers see as a national trend in which a growing number of people are abandoning expensive areas for less spendy places to live.”

Also: Denver murders rose in first half of 2022 — unlike most major cities.

CNN SLAMMED INTO A BRICK WALL NAMED JOE ROGAN AND PROMPTLY IMPLODED:

You certainly can’t say the whole thing wasn’t a mess of CNN’s own making. Not only did the network carry the “official” narrative for the Democratic Party over the last couple of years, they also made the mistake of targeting Joe Rogan directly, when the announced that he had used the drug ivermectin to treat Covid late last year.

CNN went on what I can only describe as a blatantly false misinformation campaign, inaccurately accusing Rogan of taking the veterinary form of ivermectin, used to de-worm horses, while plastering their network with both banners and lobotomized talking heads who were happy to prattle on about the network’s take on the situation.

The campaign was especially egregious because CNN was essentially alleging that Rogan was so stupid and such a conspiracy theorist that he would purposely take horse de-wormer instead of just falling in line, adhering to “the science” and sticking to Pfizer-endorsed Covid treatments only.

This hairbrained campaign by CNN was met by a casual threat when Rogan joked about potentially suing the network because of their claims.

Rogan then promptly put the screws to CNN’s on-network doctor, Sanjay Gupta.

“It’s a lie. It’s a lie on a news network. And it’s a lie that’s a willing…that they’re conscious of. It’s not a mistake. They’re unfavorably framing it as veterinary medicine,” Rogan said to Gupta.

“Why would you say that when you’re talking about a drug that’s been given out to billions and billions of people? Why would they lie and say that’s horse de-wormer?”

“They shouldn’t have said that,” Gupta was forced to uncomfortably admit.

“They shouldn’t have done that,” Gupta says again.

“It’s defamatory!” Rogan replies. “Six days after infection I was back at the gym.”

The Mortal Kombat-style “FINISH HIM” moment came when Rogan asked:

“You’re working for a news organization. If they’re lying about a comedian taking horse medication, what are they telling us about Russia? What are they telling us about Syria?

The aftermath of the situation resulted in tremendous embarrassment for the news network, whose viewership at the time paled in comparison to that of Rogan’s.

It was a true comeuppance for CNN and it was long overdue.

The following day though, having failed to learn their lesson, CNN was right back at it, including Gupta: CNN’s Effort to Clean up the Gupta Train Wreck Interview Proves Joe Rogan’s Point.

“Listen, I think it’s also very important, I know it’s in large part a tongue-in-cheek interview because it’s Joe Rogan and there’s lots — you’re jockeying back and forth. But he did say something about Ivermectin that I think wasn’t actually correct about CNN and lying. Okay? Ivermectin is a drug that is commonly used as a horse de-wormer. So, it is not a lie to say that the drug is used as a horse de-wormer. I think that’s important. And it is not approved for COVID. Correct?” Lemon asked.

“That’s right. That’s correct,” Gupta replied. “It is not approved for COVID. And you’re right, I mean, the FDA even put out a statement, saying, you know, basically reminding people — it was a strange sort of message from the FDA, but that said, ‘You’re not a horse, you’re not a cow, stop taking this stuff,’ is essentially what they said, referring to Ivermectin.”

“When Joe got sick, he took Ivermectin. He also took monoclonal antibodies, which is an infusion of these antibodies. So, he took both those things. It’s very likely it was the monoclonal antibodies that made him feel better so quickly,” Gupta added.

* * * * * * * *

Yes, it’s true that ivermectin has not been approved by the FDA for COVID, but it’s been approved for other uses. It’s common for doctors to prescribe medicines for off-label use, which is how some doctors are prescribing it for COVID.

Lemon also painted a very different picture of the interview than what actually happened, telling Gupta “you held your own, though. It was very good” — when the interview was demonstrably awful for Gupta’s reputation and CNN.

But that’s the problem with CNN in a nutshell, and it’s the point that Rogan was making. They don’t care about the truth; it’s all about narrative. Rogan had previously speculated on whether he would have to sue to get them to be honest. I wonder what he’s going to think about this spin, especially after he so eviscerated Gupta. They may have just invited that action.

Despite Chris Licht’s paying lip service to reforming his badly tarnished opinion network, that may prove to be impossible. QED, this recent headline: ‘They enriched us.’ Migrants’ 44-hour visit leaves indelible mark on Martha’s Vineyard.

21ST CENTURY IMPERIALISM AIN’T CHEAP: China Reins In Its Belt and Road Program, $1 Trillion Later.

A slowing global economy, combined with rising interest rates and higher inflation, have left countries struggling to repay their debts to China. Tens of billions of dollars of loans have gone sour, and numerous development projects have stalled. Western leaders have criticized China’s lending practices, which some have labeled “debt-trap diplomacy,” embarrassing Beijing. Many economists and investors have said the country’s lending practices have contributed to debt crises in places like Sri Lanka and Zambia.

After nearly a decade of pressing Chinese banks to be generous with loans, Chinese policy makers are discussing a more conservative program, dubbed Belt and Road 2.0 in internal discussions, that would more rigorously evaluate new projects for financing, the people involved said. They have also become open to accepting some losses on loans and renegotiating debt, something they had been previously unwilling to do.

Chinese President Xi Jinping once called the initiative “a project of the century,” but the overhaul exposes limits to his vision to reshape the global order. At a November meeting with senior officials, Mr. Xi noted that the international environment for Belt and Road was becoming “increasingly complex,” and stressed the need to strengthen risk controls and expand cooperation, according to state-media reports of the meeting.

Related: Weaker Demand for Chinese Goods Spells Shipping Boom’s End.

Xi thought he could build a high-tech empire across some of the world’s most backwards lands, and get American consumers to pay for it.

On this other hand, squandering a trillion dollars on a flawed, technocratic vision would make him a piker in the Biden Administration.

CNBC: Wharton’s Siegel says Jerome Powell owes ‘the American people an apology’ for poor Fed policy.

Wharton Business School professor Jeremy Siegel criticized the Federal Reserve and its chairman, Jerome Powell, on Monday, saying the U.S. central bank is moving too aggressively to fight inflation and will hurt American workers in the process.

Siegel said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that persistently high inflation in 2022 is due in large part to mistakes made by the Fed in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, which caused economic shutdowns around the world and big drops in global markets, and that the Fed’s pivot to fast rate hikes would cause more economic damage.

“Honestly, I think Chairman Powell should offer the American people an apology for such poor monetary policy that he has pursued, and the Fed has pursued, over the past few years,” Siegel said.

The comments come after another 0.75 percentage point hike from the Fed last week, which brought the central bank’s target range for its benchmark interest rate to 3%-3.25%. Projections from Fed policymakers at the recent meeting showed that the rate could jump well above 4% in coming months.

Siegel said the Fed is “talking way too tough” and should be more worried about causing a recession than focusing on lagged inflation data. He also said the Fed is being inconsistent with how it uses some pieces of economic data.

CTL-F “President” and “Biden” return zero results in the article, unexpectedly.

Earlier: The Fed Raises Interest Rates by 0.75%; The Propaganda Media Pretends It’s The Fed That’s Choking the Economy, Rather Than Biden’s Toxic Profligacy That Forced The Fed to Impose Higher Interest Rates.

PJ MEDIA VIP ROUNDUP: Don’t forget that VODKAPUNDIT promo code if you’ve been thinking of joining us.

Matt Margolis: The Left’s Flirtation With Homophobia. “The truth is that making homophobic jokes about Republicans is a Democrat pastime.”

Stacey Lennox: Are More Americans Waking Up to the Horrors of ‘Gender-Affirming Care’? “In reality, the only thing this irreversible experimentation on children affirms is the delusions of mentally ill adults like Parker Malloy.”

Yours Truly: An Insurgency: Just What Russia Needs Right Now. “Where does it all end? Nobody knows, but if Moscow looks weak and the republics feel pushed around, it doesn’t end well.”

POLICE STATE UPDATE: Serious questions surround FBI raid on pro-life advocate.

Related: FBI misled judge who signed warrant for Beverly Hills seizure of $86 million in cash.

Plus: Just the News’ John Solomon reports that an FBI Agent has told the federal whistleblower office in Washington, D.C. that the bureau’s leadership is falsifying evidence against J6 defendants, inflating Domestic Extremist Violence (DEV) data and grossly misusing SWAT teams to make misdemeanor arrests.

“Special Agent Stephen M. Friend, who works for the FBI in Florida and serves as a SWAT team member, told the main federal whistleblower office in Washington he had an ‘exemplary’ work record since he joined the bureau in 2014 and even won awards but was suspended in recent days after he began raising concerns about the FBI’s and DOJ’s conduct in the Jan. 6 investigation

“‘I believed the investigations were inconsistent with FBI procedure and resulted in the violation of citizens’ Sixth and Eighth Amendment rights,’ Friend wrote. ‘I added that many of my colleagues expressed similar concerns to me but had not vocalized their objections to FBI Executive Management,” Solomon quotes Friend.

One wonders if a new FBI Director might not be among the growing list of whistleblowers from within the bureau who are coming forward to Republicans Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Rep. James Comer of Kentucky and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.

Related: Majority see FBI as Biden’s ‘personal Gestapo’ after Trump raid.