AND WHERE DO WE GO TO GET OUR CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC BACK? Too little, too late, and not over yet: Pennsylvania voting law change found unconstitutional.
Archive for 2022
January 29, 2022
January 28, 2022
WELL OKAY THEN: Not a Joke, U.S. Govt Takes the Official Position There Is No Food Inflation.
“Those skyrocketing prices you think you see at the grocery store are not real. Those announcements of forecasted price increases by the food producers, well, those are not real either. So sayeth the United States Dept of Agriculture (USDA).”
IT’LL BE DIFFERENT THIS TIME BABY, I’VE REALLY CHANGED: Portland offered to rehire dozens of recently retired police officers, only 2 expressed interest.
Related: Police Departments Are Losing Officers and Struggling to Replace Them.
Columbus, Wis., a city of about 5,500 people between Madison and Milwaukee, lost three members of its nine-person police force last year. Unable to find replacements, Chief Dennis Weiner has taken on extra duties, including working a patrol shift on Thanksgiving Day.
“It has really just been a terrible struggle trying to fill vacancies,” said Mr. Weiner of his efforts since one officer started a painting business, another took a maintenance job at a distribution center, and a third began studying to become an accountant.
Across the country, police chiefs say they are struggling to keep departments fully staffed as resignations increase and hiring gets tougher in a tight labor market. At the same time, officers describe the job as more stressful and less rewarding than it was in the past. As a result, the chiefs say, departments are taking longer to respond to some calls while crimes including homicide are on the rise nationwide. . . .
Some officers say they soured on the job after some police budgets were cut in the midst of “defund the police” movements that were supported by Black Lives Matter protesters. Others said that after high-profile deaths of Black men at the hands of police in recent years, interactions with community members became more confrontational.
John LaValley, a former police officer in Green Bay, Wis., said he was regularly called a Nazi and white supremacist while on patrol and eventually became suicidal. He quit in 2017 and worked for a time as a freight conductor for a railroad.
“I just lost the mental capacity, not only to handle and mitigate the violence that you see, but this perception of constant negativity,” he said.
You don’t have to defund the police, you can just demoralize them.
OPEN THREAD: Mocking those within.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: China presents space plans and priorities in new white paper. “Over the next five years China will seek to develop its space transportation capabilities, test new technologies, embark on exploration missions, modernize space governance, enhance innovation and boost international cooperation. Crewed lunar landings, on-orbit servicing and work on planetary defense are all noted as key areas for research and technical breakthroughs in the coming years, the paper reveals, while also providing a measure of transparency into a largely closed off Chinese space industry.”
WAPO APPLIES CAREFULLY REASONED RHETORIC TO CONVINCE ANTI-VAXXERS TO CHANGE THEIR MINDS. Nahh — just kidding, of course: Washington Post Mocks Massive Canadian Trucker Convoy Protesting Vaccine Mandates, Labels Trucks ‘Fascism.’
On Friday, Michael Adder, the political cartoonist for the Washington Post, mocked the Freedom Convoy of truckers crossing the breadth of Canada and heading for the nation’s capital, Ottawa, to protest against Canada’s vaccine mandate. Adder created a cartoon of numerous trucks, all labeled in capital letters “FASCISM,” adding the hashtags, “fascism” and “supplychain.”
Roughly five hours later, The Post printed an opinion piece attacking the convoy. The author, David Moscrop, wrote, “The movement shares an affinity with Trumpist toxic authoritarianist politics.”
“Time and time again we learn the lesson, or at least come across it, that teaches us that rage-soaked antigovernment types can’t be reasoned with,” Moscrop continued. “This time around, the convoy has produced an incoherent ‘memorandum of understanding’ premised upon a misunderstanding of government and absurd demands. Of course, the memo should be ignored. It’s the product of a temper tantrum.”
A temper tantrum, eh? Flashback:
To hear the big news media tell it, Nov. 8 was Armageddon, Doomsday and the end of civilization as we’ve known it. And there has been no let-up in the three weeks since the election.
ABC’s Peter Jennings slandered the voters, comparing them to toddlers throwing a fit. “It’s clear that anger controls the child and not the other way around,” said the Canadian-born Jennings in a radio commentary. “The voters had a temper tantrum. . . . The nation can’t be run by an angry 2-year-old.”
Why do liberals such as Jennings refuse to believe it was their failed ideas — not voter anger — that did them in?
—Cal Thomas, “The Big News Media’s Temper Tantrum,” the Orlando Sentinel, November 27th, 1994.
It’s also fascinating that a newspaper that is always looking to spread socialism nationally can’t define what “fascism” actually means. But then as George Orwell wrote in 1946’s “Politics and the English Language:”
The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies ‘something not desirable’. The words democracy, socialism, freedom, patriotic, realistic, justice, have each of them several different meanings which cannot be reconciled with one another. In the case of a word like democracy, not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides. It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it: consequently the defenders of every kind of régime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using that word if it were tied down to any one meaning. Words of this kind are often used in a consciously dishonest way. That is, the person who uses them has his own private definition, but allows his hearer to think he means something quite different. Statements like Marshal Pétain was a true patriot, The Soviet press is the freest in the world, The Catholic Church is opposed to persecution, are almost always made with intent to deceive. Other words used in variable meanings, in most cases more or less dishonestly, are: class, totalitarian, science, progressive, reactionary, bourgeois, equality.
And that was 60 years before the woke-ification of everything. For updates on the Canadian convoy, drop by Small Dead Animals.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): In today’s Newspeak, when the government combines with corporations to run people’s lives and censor the opposition, that’s “our democracy.” When the people complain about this, that’s “fascism.”
VITAMIN D UPDATE: Vitamin D supplements may help ward off autoimmune diseases.
THAT’S BECAUSE DEMOCRATS EXPECT TO LOSE ONE: Suddenly it’s no longer ‘deeply dangerous’ to talk about rigged elections.
TIM BLAIR: BBC turns CCP.
By its own admission, the BBC has been deleting entire sketches from comedy series that are 50, 60, or 70 years old, many of which can be heard only with the BBC’s permission. Are we simply to assume that the public supports this development? And, if so, are we permitted to wonder why the BBC was not open about it?
And what about the poor bastards at the BBC dutifully combing through the archives to remove ancient wrongthink? They’re real-life Winston Smiths:
The “process of continuous alteration” in which Smith was engaged, Orwell wrote in 1984, “applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound-tracks, cartoons, photographs – to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance,” such that “day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date.”
What better description could one find of what the BBC is now doing to its canon?
As a well-known BBC comic duo asked in a sketch (that’s still online, at least for now) about a titanic battle between national and international socialists, “Are we the baddies?”
https://youtu.be/hn1VxaMEjRU
FASTER, PLEASE: Tumors dramatically shrink with new approach to cell therapy.
SHE SOMEHOW JUST BECAME EVEN MORE ATTRACTIVE: Marvel Star Evangeline Lilly Targeted for Cancellation Over Anti-Mandate Post.
AT THIS POINT, THAT MAKES SOME SENSE, I GUESS: ATF to Treat Imports from Hong Kong the same as China.
COMING SOON FROM ALEX EPSTEIN: Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas–Not Less.
SCOTUS DUDE TO LOOK LIKE A LADY? Did You Notice This About Biden’s Tweet About His SCOTUS Pick?
TODAY MARKS 36 Years Since The Challenger Explosion.
FIGHT THE POWER: Stellantis Makes Decision on Vaccine, Truckers Head to Ottawa.
While the automaker had previously been working up to companywide vaccine mandates, it pushed back its vaccine deadline for early January. This week, Stellantis confirmed that it will be abandoning the scheme entirely after suggesting that the existing compliance rates were sufficient. Though something tells me that executives have become aware of the swelling pushback against COVID restrictions and became concerned with the optics.
There’s presently a 45-mile long (claimed) convoy of U.S. and Canadian truckers that are headed for Ottawa to protest government mandates and drumming up support along the way. Believed to be the largest organized grouping of motor vehicles in human history, the “Freedom Convoy” left Vancouver earlier in the week to give the Canadian capital a piece of its mind about what’s been going on over the last two years. While focused on undoing government mandates in the general sense, its primary target is new rules that require every trucker crossing the U.S.-Canadian border to be fully vaccinated or face a mandatory 14-day quarantine period.
The group has numerous social media accounts, with the biggest showing 300,000 supporters on Facebook, and has managed to raise $5.5 million (Canadian) from 70,000 donations on GoFundMe. Though accessing the money might be difficult, as GoFundMe opted to freeze the money after citing allegedly suspicious activity. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has also called the group a “fringe minority” holding “unacceptable views.” Meanwhile, Ottawa’s police chief is telling locals to stay home and avoid the protest when it comes into town this weekend.
“Let me be very clear: we are prepared to investigate, arrest if necessary, charge and prosecute anyone who acts violently or breaks the law in the demonstrations, or in association with the demonstrations,” Chief Peter Sloly said Friday morning. “We have the capability and commitment to pursue investigations and prosecutions well after the demonstrations have ended.”
Police also said they were monitoring “inappropriate and threatening language on social media related to this event” and that there would be consequences for people who engaged in criminal conduct.
Similar warnings have been issued in cities across the world over as lockdown protests have become increasingly common. European cities routinely saw tens of thousands of people marching in opposition to government mandates throughout the latter half of 2021. The same has been true in Australia, Canada, and the United States with legacy media frequently framing protestors as political extremists.
Truckers have refuted those accusations.
“I’m here [in Ontario] today so we can get our freedom back from Mr. Trudeau who is running our country not very appropriately. I’m a vaccinated truck driver, I cross the border weekly. I don’t have a problem with the vaccine, but I have a problem because we should have the right to choose what we want to do and not lose our jobs over it,” Marie Weir told local outlet Orilla Matters on Thursday. “If you don’t get vaccinated you can’t cross the border. There’s nurses, doctors, PSWs, everybody – if you’re not vaccinated you lose your job. Where’s our economy going to go? It’s not fair to you and I.”
While I cannot pretend to know what’s in the heart of every individual protestor, the Freedom Convoy has been explicit in stating that it’s really only interested in a return to normalcy. Organizers have said that vaccine mandates are creating disastrous problems with supply chains and would continue to even if compliance was universal. Though their keystone argument is that the Canadian government has overstepped its bounds and needs to revoke any-and-all mandates pertaining to the pandemic. Truckers also got some impromptu support from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who praised them over social media.
The governing class needs to see enough pushback to make it less aggressive in the future.
THIS IS MORE LIKE THE 21ST CENTURY I WAS HOPING FOR: Boom plans to make its supersonic passenger planes in North Carolina. The location isn’t far from the HondaJet factory I toured for Popular Mechanics some years ago.
MOSTLY PEACEFUL FELONS: Biden’s DOJ Thinks BLM Criminals Deserve Lesser Sentences.
THE SWEDES’ TRACK RECORD ON COVID HAS BEEN GOOD: Sweden decides against recommending COVID vaccines for kids aged 5-12. And the case for vaccinating kids that age is rather weak. Most of it is wine-mom-competition in bragging about their kids’ status.
JOANNE JACOBS: Do parents have a right to know what’s taught? “Democrats are opposing transparency laws, saying legislation would have a chilling effect on teachers’ ability to deal with controversial topics and ideas.”
THEY CERTAINLY LOOK THE PART: New scientific paper claims octopuses are actually aliens from outer space. However, I require more convincing.