Journalists today think of themselves as Democratic Party operatives first and last. So it’s no surprise that they act that way.
Archive for 2022
January 11, 2022
THE DEMOCRATS AREN’T SENDING THEIR BEST TO THE SUPREME COURT: Defending OSHA’s Vaccine Mandate, Sonia Sotomayor Says ‘I’m Not Sure I Understand the Distinction’ Between State and Federal Powers; The justice’s reference to a national “police power” raised some eyebrows. That’s because it’s well established that there is no national police power.
Related: Delicious: WaPo hits Sotomayor with 100,000 Pinocchios. “Naaah, it was only four, but it’s more fun to use Sonia Sotomayor’s math. Glenn Kessler did what the Supreme Court justice apparently didn’t bother to do and checked the actual figures from the CDC, as well as his own common sense. The fact-check delivers the maximum number of Pinocchios, even though it doesn’t address all of Sotomayor’s ignorant questioning last week.”
Also: Legal Experts Ask Justice Sotomayor To Recuse Herself From Case Due To Her Being An Idiot.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: #BareShelvesBiden Trends As Alarming Number Of People Report Empty Stores
WELL, SOMEBODY NEEDS TO: Ezra Klein explains democracy to Democrats. “Ezra Klein’s latest opinion column for the NY Times is titled “Steve Bannon is Onto Something.” What is that Bannon has figured out that Democrats haven’t? Well, if you read the column it’s basically federalism, i.e. the idea that democracy works not just at the federal level but also at the state and local level. Klein’s piece opens with a knock against people who spend a lot of time reading, listening and commenting on political news but not really doing anything of substance. To his credit, he includes himself in that category.”
Plus: “A much simpler way to say all of this would be to just point to Virginia where Democrats lost control of the state because Terry McAuliffe ran a one-note campaign tying his opponent to Trump while simultaneously ignoring the local issue (education) that actually mattered to voters. It turns out that approach didn’t work very well.”
#RESIST: A reader sends this from Lake Elsinore, California:
MEGAN FOX: The Branch Covidians Are Basically the Same as the Heaven’s Gate Cultists (Except Not as Nice). “They want us to stop celebrating holidays, stop socializing with friends and family, and stop having joyful human relationships, and instead opt for the digitizing of our lives onto machines and serving the government unquestioningly.”
A NEW SITE FROM HANNAH COX, BRAD POLUMBO, AND JACK HUNTER: Based Politics.
January 10, 2022
#RESIST: From Pasadena, California.
OPEN THREAD: We’re not goin’ anywhere.
NEW CIVILITY WATCH: LA Times Under Fire For Column on Mocking Deaths of Anti-Vaxxers.
A Los Angeles Times columnist came under fire on Monday for publishing a column celebrating the deaths of those who are anti-vaxx or are opposed to mandates.
The headline of Michael Hiltzik’s column was “Mocking anti-vaxxers’ deaths is ghoulish, yes — but necessary.”
In it, he wrote:
It may be not a little ghoulish to celebrate or exult in the deaths of vaccine opponents. And it may be proper to express sympathy and solicitude to those they leave behind.
But mockery is not necessarily the wrong reaction to those who publicly mocked anti-COVID measures and encouraged others to follow suit before they perished of the disease the dangers of which they belittled.
Nor is it wrong to deny them our sympathy and solicitude, or to make sure it’s known when their deaths are marked that they had stood fast against measures that might have protected others from the fate they succumbed to themselves.
There may be no other way to make sure that the lessons of these teachable moments are heard.
Twitter users blasted Hiltzik.
Note that the article’s URL is “why-shouldnt-we-dance-on-the-graves-of-anti-vaxxers,” suggesting that perhaps an editor toned down Hiltzik’s initial take, and/or the headline was revised before publication. In any case, past performance is no guarantee of future results:
JOY REID: On January 6, I Worried Rioters Would Destroy Black History Museum.
As she watched rioters break into the U.S. Capitol last January 6, MSNBC host Joy Reid has revealed her greatest worry was that the mob would vandalize the Black History Museum, because the protests were “deeply rooted in anti-blackness.”
“I can remember every moment of that day, really, and thinking to myself, ‘My God I hope that these marauding masses of MAGA supporters don’t find the Black History Museum and ransack it.’ That was the first thing that struck me as I saw them, you know, heading toward the Capitol and starting to bash their way in,” said Reid on the anniversary of the disturbance. “For some reason that was the thing that stuck in my head.” She also said a picture of a man holding a Confederate flag inside the U.S. Capitol “disgusts me more than any of the other images” of the January 6 riots.
To be fair, Reid’s concern is understandable: Documentary Exposes How The FBI Tried To Destroy MLK With Wiretaps, Blackmail.
EVERYONE KNOWS YOU CAN DO THINGS DRUNK YOU CAN’T DO SOBER: Physicists crack unsolvable three-body problem using drunkard’s walk. At my law school graduation, one of my friends looked up at his necktie, which was around the neck of a seemingly-inaccessible gargoyle three stories high, and remarked, “Man, I never could have done that sober.”
“CONTEMPT FOR THE CONSTITUTION” SHOULD BE A FELONY AND A TORT WITHOUT ANY GOVERNMENTAL IMMUNITY: Judge: Baton Rouge Violated the First Amendment by Trying To Imprison a Professor for Sharing Body Camera Footage: It was the city that put the footage in the public record in the first place.
TO BE FAIR, THEY DO GET THE FUNNIEST LOOKS WHEN THEY’RE WALKING DOWN THE STREET: Fauci’s NIH Division Spent $205K of Taxpayer Money in One Month to Study Transgender Monkeys.
THE KOWTOW CROWD: Intel CEO Doubles Down on Xinjiang Apology: ‘No Reason to Call Out One Region in Particular.’
Soon after Biden signed the act, Intel said in a supplier letter: “Multiple governments have imposed restrictions on products sourced from the Xinjiang region. Therefore, Intel is required to ensure our supply chain does not use any labor or source goods or services from the Xinjiang region.”
That sparked an uproar in China, including an editorial by the Global Times, a party tabloid, criticizing the move as “arrogant and vicious.” So Intel posted an apology to Chinese social-media platforms on December 23. “We apologize for the trouble caused to our respected Chinese customers, partners, and the public,” the statement read.
Then, earlier this morning, before Gelsinger’s latest comments, the Wall Street Journal reported that Intel removed the entirety of the paragraph on Xinjiang from the supplier letter posted to its website. The language on Xinjiang was taken down sometime between December 23 and today.
The chipmaker’s stance on forced labor in Xinjiang touches on a range of other thorny issues that has put it in congressional crosshairs.
Further thoughts from Ed Morrissey: Intel: On second thought, never mind about China’s genocide.
“Surprised? Don’t be; Intel is hardly the first American-based firm to discover that access to Xi Jinping’s markets is its “core.” However, it’s still worth noting in the context of credibility when it comes to corporate social-justice campaigns.
After all, what’s a little genocide between friends?
* * * * * * * *
Given the sell-outs to Xi by tech giants Google, Microsoft, and Apple and the entire Hollywood industry (among many others), Intel’s moral cowardice is as predictable as it is execrable. Still, it’s worth noting for later context when these same corporations engage in social-cultural lectures on the nature of justice and history in the US. If our corporate sector rewrites history to pander to a genocidal tyrant like Xi, they have zero credibility to scold their American customers over anything.”
Earlier: A Slow Kowtow to China.
Demanding obeisance has a rich history in Chinese culture. In 1793, British envoy Lord George Macartney was charged with opening permanent trade relations with China. The Chinese still clung to the old feudal demand of the kowtow. In the old days, the Chinese believed that the emperor literally ruled the world, which meant foreign rulers were more like vassals. And all vassals must acknowledge the supremacy of the emperor, the Son of Heaven. The problem was that Macartney was essentially a stand-in for the British crown, and he couldn’t in good conscience recognize the emperor as his sovereign.
Kowtowing requires three kneelings and nine prostrations—meaning the supplicant actually lies face down on the floor—in order to demonstrate total inferiority. Macartney agreed to kneel out of respect, but he wouldn’t put his head to the ground nine times.
The Chinese were offended and Britain and China didn’t get the trade deal. I bring up this anecdote for three reasons. First, it’s worth recognizing that the trade deal was in the interests of both countries. Lots of “realists” think that countries do things solely out of raw self-interest. That’s arguably true. But the definition realists use for self-interest is way too narrow. Notions of national pride and honor are also forms of self-interest.
Which brings me to the second reason. America should have some notion of honor. We don’t have a crown, but we do have certain ideas and ideals that we like to claim similar loyalty to. We also like to claim that these ideas and ideals are universal. When we figuratively kowtow to China, we are openly admitting to China that both claims are untrue—or at least negotiable. You can’t claim to believe human rights are universal and inviolable while simultaneously excusing or ignoring the mass violation of human rights that defines China under CCP rule.
Last, none of this is in our interest. It’s not like the Chinese respect us for our groveling. They enjoy watching us bend to their demands and mock our obsequious desire to gain favor as proof of their superior system. They use our self-flagellation over race as a cudgel in their propaganda and diplomacy. Such appeasement only buys greater demands and worse moral and strategic compromises.
* * * * * * * *
I whiggishly believe that one day China will be a free country. And when it is, the Chinese will not look back on America today as a spiritual ally the way those who were slaughtered at Tiananmen Square did. They will see us as a country that sought approval from the regime that persecuted their ancestors for the cheap at any price of Fast and Furious 9 ticket sales.
As Jim Geraghty wrote in October of 2019, when the CCP-NBA connection exposed for millions of Americans to see: We’re Not Exporting Our Values to China — We’re Importing Theirs.
FED VICE CHAIR RICHARD CLARIDA TO STEP DOWN EARLY FOLLOWING SCRUTINY OVER HIS TRADES DURING PANDEMIC:
Clarida’s exit comes amid heightened scrutiny over what he had described as pre-planned portfolio rebalancing on Feb. 27, 2020. However, recent disclosures, first reported by the New York Times, showed that three days earlier, Clarida sold shares in three stock funds that he would repurchase on the 27th.
Markets dropped on Feb. 24 amid worries that the spreading coronavirus could cause substantial economic damage. On Feb. 26, Fed policymakers huddled to discuss what policy moves they might take to combat what eventually would become a full-blown pandemic.
Within weeks, the Fed would cut its benchmark interest rate to zero and institute an unprecedented array of lending and liquidity programs to help the economy and financial markets function.
Clarida’s announcement did not mention anything about the controversy, which has been a focal point of Fed criticism from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and some other lawmakers. Two regional Fed presidents, Eric Rosengren of Boston and Robert Kaplan of Dallas, both resigned following questions over their trading activities.
I BELIEVE IT: This Study on Teenager Sleep Impacts Has Once Again Proven School Should Start Later.
Not just teenagers. When the Insta-Daughter started online school, my sleep improved a lot. Remember, public schools aren’t run for the benefit of students, or parents.
K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Six sources of Chicago Teachers Union power.
For those Illinoisans looking to hold their elected officials accountable, here are six ways lawmakers are complicit in the CTU’s accumulation of immense power:
1. The CTU is empowered by some of the most union-friendly collective bargaining laws in the country. Illinois lawmakers not only make it compulsory for governments to bargain with the public sector unions over a host of issues, not just pay, but they also make teacher strikes legal – one of just 13 states to do so (See Appendix 1). That’s in sharp contrast to states like North Carolina, which ban collective bargaining with teacher unions altogether.
The CTU gained even more bargaining powers just last year when Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed HB2275 into law, expanding the number of employment issues that can be negotiated by the union.
2. The CTU is emboldened by its long history of striking. The union has a long history of successful strikes and walkouts: 1969, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 2012, 2016*, 2019, 2021*, 2022* (See Appendix 2). *walkouts
Read the whole thing.
LET’S GO BRANDON: Billionaire supermarket CEO warns of potential meat, egg shortage as omicron disrupts US supply chain.
The recent impact of omicron on the U.S. supply chain has caused grocery prices to increase and could soon impact the supply of meat and eggs, according to billionaire Gristedes CEO John Catsimatidis.
“Omicron is taking its toll at different levels of the supply chain, whether it’s the warehouses, whether it’s the selectors, the drivers the loaders – and as they call in sick there are interruptions in the system,” Catsimatidis told Todd Piro during an appearance on “Fox & Friends First.”
Catsimatidis went on to say that many of these interruptions will continue over the next 6 weeks as the COVID-19 variant impacts the labor market. The United Refining Company owner added that the Northeast in particular is seeing the price of various products, including eggs, poultry, and beef, go up because of low supply and high demand.
Related: Supply-Chain Issues Leave New Homes Without Garage Doors and Gutters.
Builders are scrambling to find new suppliers, stock up on building products and use substitute materials. Some are scouring retail big-box stores for products they can’t find through the normal supply channels.
That was the case with builder Epcon Communities in Dublin, Ohio, which bought metal shower grab bars online because they weren’t available through its typical commercial suppliers, said Stew Walker, Epcon’s vice president of construction. The company’s electrical subcontractor resorted to buying electrical boxes in hardware stores, he said.
“From one week to the next, the only thing we know is that we’re going to get notified of something else that is unavailable,” Mr. Walker said.
Epcon sold some homes last year without gutters and downspouts, then installed those features after buyers had already moved in, Mr. Walker said.
AOC TELLS ME THIS JUST MEANS THAT FAREED ZAKARIA JUST WANTS TO MAKE LOVE TO HIM: Liberal Media Scream: CNN goes full Nazi on Trump.
This week’s Liberal Media Scream highlights the latest anti-Trump screed from CNN by alarmist Fareed Zakaria in a special about the dangers to U.S. democracy that former President Donald Trump and his followers pose.
In his special, aired Sunday and scheduled again for tonight, he moves quickly to raise the Nazi Germany comparison, and that of madman Adolf Hitler, with the 45th president, who is eyeing a 2024 bid to get his job back.
If Trump “wins the nomination and it’s a close election, we will almost certainly face a constitutional crisis,” Zakaria said in urging Republicans to join more level-headed Democrats to “save American democracy.”
They really can’t quit the Bad Orange Man, despite the fact that they’re treading water obsessing on him: The Ratings Are in for CNN’s January 6th Obsession—and Hoo Boy. “Even during the supposed highlight of the night, the two-hour special from the Capitol, CNN trailed Fox News big time. For further context, CNN’s ratings were down some 90 percent in primetime compared to the previous January 6th. Ironically, Bret Baier’s hard-hitting interview with Liz Cheney on Fox News dwarfed anything CNN did all day, and Tucker Carlson, as usual, was the highest-rated show of the night.”
I PREDICT THAT POLITICS WILL CONTROL: Medicare officials consider covering Alzheimer’s drug Adulhelm.
#FIGHTFORFIFTEEN: These 84 Places in America Are Raising Their Minimum Wages to Ring in the New Year. The consequences will be felt by families already struggling with crippling inflation and a faltering recovery.