MEGAN FOX: Justice Roberts Talks Judicial Accountability But Fails to Acknowledge Huge Nationwide Problem. “Roberts also chalked up the inappropriate judicial behavior as ‘unintentional oversight.’ Maybe that’s because Roberts was recently caught in a similar scandal. The New York Times reported that Roberts failed to recuse himself from a case in which he had more than a $100,000 investment.”
Archive for 2022
January 4, 2022
CANCEL CULTURE IN THE LAW REVIEW WORLD: Emory Law Journal Revokes Acceptance Of Larry Alexander’s Race-Related Essay In Festschrift Honoring Michael Perry; Other Authors Pull Their Essays. Glad to see that a lot of people are fighting back, and I don’t think that Editor-in-Chief Danielle Kerker has enhanced the reputation of the Emory Law journal by taking this politicized and anti-intellectual action.
IT EITHER IS OR SOON WILL BE: We must accept COVID-19 as an endemic disease.
As far as public policy goes, the lethality of COVID-19 is a second-order issue. The more immediate question is whether it is feasible to slow its spread and, if it is, whether there are advantages in doing so.
If we think, for example, that widespread vaccination might heap high a protective rampart, then there are arguments for vaccine passports, possibly even for compulsory inoculation. If we think that the disease can be eliminated, then there are arguments for stringent suppression measures. If we think that dangerous new mutations can be kept out, then there are arguments for border restrictions and quarantines.
But what if none of these things is true? What if COVID-19 is as ineradicable and endemic as influenza? What if it comes and goes seasonally, leaving its victims with a dollop of immunity that wanes over time? What if, like the flu, it regularly mutates, meaning that recovery from one version bestows only partial protection against others? What if it is checked rather than halted by vaccines — again, like flu rather than, say, polio?
If we are dealing with such a disease, a recurrent respiratory virus, then almost all the measures that we have put in place around the world are pointless.
Let me repeat that: Almost all of them are pointless.
They aren’t pointless to the power-hungry elites who established them.
SEEMS FAIR: Georgetown law students demand refund after university moves to remote learning. “Administrators have provided ‘no discernible metric’ for return to normal, students say.”
PJ MEDIA VIP ROUNDUP: Don’t forget that VODKAPUNDIT promo code if you’ve been thinking of joining us.
Matt Margolis: Trans Insanity: Now Babies Are Transphobic? “These are just unhappy people who think that, if they define themselves in some out-of-the-box manner, they’ll be happy.”
AJ Kaufman: 2022: A Busy Year for the Supreme Court. “It’s rare to have this full a plate, since the high court tends to be more reserved in case selection during election years, but 2022 will put the nine justices on the front lines before November’s midterm elections.”
Yours Truly: What the Hell Do I Have to Do to Catch Omicron? “‘Omicron may be world’s ‘natural’ vaccine that finally ends pandemic,’ reported the Daily Mail on New Year’s Eve Day. The story seems to have gotten a bit lost in the celebratory shuffle that 2021 was mercifully coming to a close.”
FIGHT THE POWER, STICK IT TO THE MAN: Why one professor refused to remove his flag.
AB STODDARD: Democrats Face a Brutal Reckoning With Hispanic Voters.
Many Hispanic voters, long a reliable part of the Democratic coalition, have walked away. It is not — yet — a majority of them, but the numbers are dramatic. Biden won 750,000 fewer Hispanic voters in 2020 than Hillary Clinton did in 2016 — in an Electoral College victory he nearly lost by fewer than 45,000 votes in three states. Donald Trump improved his margin with these voters by eight percentage points in four years, according to an analysis by the Democratic firm Catalist — a larger swing than any among white, black or Asian voters.
It gets worse. Biden’s approval ratings are awful across the board, but his support has eroded more among Hispanic voters than with any other racial group. A Pew/Marist poll from December showed his approve/disapprove numbers with Hispanic voters were 33/65, a net -32, while they were 40/56 with whites, a net of -16.
A recent Wall Street Journal poll showed Hispanic voters splitting their support between both parties, with just 37% of them backing Democrats in the House of Representatives if the midterm elections were held today, compared to the 60% they gave Democrats last November. Republicans would also garner 37% if the election were today. While Biden won 63% of Hispanic voters in 2020, this poll showed they would split their support in a 2024 rematch, with 44% for Biden and 43% for Trump.
Don’t get cocky.
CALLING THEM OUT:
DESANTIS ON AOC: "If I had a dollar for every lockdown politician who decided to escape to Florida over the last two years, I'd be a pretty doggone wealthy man."
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) January 3, 2022
Related: Ron DeSantis takes aim at AOC’s maskless Miami brunch as he blasts ‘lockdown politicians’ who call for ‘draconian’ rules in their home states then flee to the freedom of Florida. “His remarks came after Ocasio-Cortez, who has long been an advocate for mask-wearing and repeatedly cited Florida as an example of how not to do things during the coronavirus pandemic, was spotted partying in Miami on Sunday without a face covering altogether as she socialized with actor Billy Porter. DeSantis stated the hypocrisy extends beyond the New York representative, alleging ‘there are probably about a half dozen governors who have restrictions on their people and then were spotted at various points in Florida’.”
2022: Former White House Official and U.S. Army Vet Jumps Into Crucial Pennsylvania Race. “David McCormick stepped down from his role as executive officer at Bridgewater Associates Monday to run for the open Keystone State seat that will be vacated by retiring Sen. Pat Toomey.”
FOR A WHILE IT WAS CRUMBLING SLOWLY, NOW IT’S ALL AT ONCE: Joel Kotkin: Trouble in paradise: The crumbling California model.
TO BE FAIR, THAT’S BECAUSE HE’S AWFUL: Biden disapproval hits new high as voters give him bad grades on economy, new CNBC/Change poll says. “Frustrations over the economy are the main culprit behind Biden’s flagging popularity as nearly every demographic declared it their No. 1 issue.”
But his disapproval is only at a new high so far.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: US Manufacturing Slides To Weakest Since Dec 2020, New Orders Tumble.
READY TO ROLL THE DICE ON THE NEW YEAR? Speaking of it being 2022 and all, Justin Brierley of UnBelievable does some rolling of the dice and a little calculating of the odds and concludes the little white squares with the funny black dots point to the existence of you know Who!
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Dems’ Love Affair With Backstabber Liz Cheney Will Sink Them. “There’s the most bizarre part of this entire charade: Republican Liz Cheney has become the face of this witch hunt for the Democrats. I have to pay attention to the news at least five days a week and almost every social media post or news story about this big anniversary is accompanied by a picture of Cheney. She is presently the most useful to them in their stable of Republican useful idiots (Sorry, Ana Navarro!) and they’re getting their money’s worth out of her.”
COVID: The reality they invent to feed the power they crave.
Indeed, this intentional bad faith was clear to me as early as March of 2020, not because I then knew anything about the serial treacheries of characters like Anthony Fauci, Robert Redfield and Christian Drosten—I didn’t—but because I had spent much of the last quarter-century studying the pedagogy of nationhood; that is, the processes and mechanisms by which society’s sign-making elites seek to create and deploy new and embracing notions of “reality” among the general populaces nominally beholden to their power.
The first dead giveaway, as it usually is with such culture-planning operations, was the rigid lexical uniformity, and uncanny simultaneity of media messaging, especially in regard to the long-term historical significance of what is taking place.
No one with a modicum of proper intellectual restraint, or insight into the often serpentine routes of history, would ever deign to make prognostications about the dawn of a “new normal” in the midst of a crisis. That is, of course, unless he or she had a clear interest in establishing a narrative that through its early and frequent repetition, would effectively foreclose in all but the most hardy and self-confident thinkers the desire to pursue other interpretive possibilities.
The second was the absurdly open-ended nature of the new “war” in which—whether we agreed to it or not—we were now all said to be immersed.
It’s the moral equivalent of war all the time with these people, except when we’re actually at war.
FIRE THEM AND GO TO VOUCHERS: Chicago Teachers Prepare To Strike Over Return to Classroom. No profession has done more to demonstrate a combination of selfishness and replaceability during the pandemic than public school teachers.
ARE YOU READY FOR SOME GOOD NEWS? Issues & Insights takes a look at the latest Covid data and notices something VIP that isn’t being reported much elsewhere. So, no more fear porn, okay Mainstream Media???
THE HOPELESSLY POLITICIZED ABA SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM THE ACCREDITATION PROCESS ENTIRELY: ABA Proposes Changes To Diversity And Inclusion Accreditation Standard.
INFLATION IS THEFT: Pressure grows on Boris Johnson over energy bills: Prime Minister is urged to treat soaring prices as an ’emergency’ and act now to solve the cost of living crisis. “He is under growing pressure from his backbenchers to scrap the green taxes that make up a quarter of electricity bills and cost households as much as £200 a year. He is also facing demands to honour a Brexit campaign pledge to scrap VAT on fuel – knocking another £60 off annual bills.”
Related:
BIDEN: "[My wife's friend] was sayin’ ‘do you realize it’s over 5 dollars for a pound of hamburger meat?!’ 5 dollars. Well this is partly, you know, the pound of beef today costs 5 bucks compared to less than 4 bucks before the pandemic.” pic.twitter.com/lsni8p98Uk
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) January 3, 2022
WITH GOOD REASON: Poll: Media trust took a serious beating in 2021.
NEVER MIND, LIZ, WHAT THE VOTERS MIGHT ACTUALLY WANT: Liz Cheney Reveals the True Purpose of the J6 Committee. “I can tell you that the single most important thing, though, is to ensure that Donald Trump is not the Republican nominee and that he certainly is not anywhere close to the Oval Office ever again.”
THERE’S A REMEDY FOR THIS: Los Angeles homicides hit 15-year high.
Can you say constitutional carry? Sure. I knew you could.