Hard as this may seem to believe, back before the election of Barack Hussein Obama — just seven years after 9/11, remember — there was at least one thing sane people on both the Left and the Right agreed upon: freedom of speech and the primacy of the First Amendment. Conservatives were dedicated to the constitution in all its aspects, while liberals at least pretended to enjoy the blessings of free expression, even if they often employed the 1A as a shield with which to protect themselves and their dissention from the consequences of their intentions. Honest men on both sides could not only have reasoned discussions with one another, but actually be friends.
Obama’s elections, in ways which still remain to be understood, changed all that.
It wasn’t an accident, though.
Plus: “Perhaps, later, in the rubble, we can find common ground and begin anew. Not with the New Soviet Man but the rebirth of Western Man, a believer in freedom, a capitalist with a conscience, and a man whose philosophy is not beggar-thy-neighbor, who doesn’t see the world as a zero-sum game, and who only asks to live and let live. But it begins with free speech, or it never begins at all.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE:
American colleges and universities spent the last decade censoring conservatives – canceling events, punishing teachers, etc. – because they said they wanted to ensure their students never felt unsafe. They spent uncountable millions institutionalizing leftwing diversity programs… https://t.co/WxAp0MuwzX
Columbia protesters advocate rapes of Israeli women, calling for "1000 October seventh" and saying “We are Hamas”. In other words “We will do what Hamas did: rape Jewish women.” Can any woman feel safe at Columbia? (1/2)
Imagine what the reaction would be if white racists called for 1000 lynching of Blacks. How is it different if antisemitic racists call for 1000 rapes of Jewish women? (2/2)
Even the left finds the day more than a little glum just now though that’s because the world hasn’t ended yet. Remember—end-of-the-world doomsday scenarios make environmentalists happy, so when the end of the world fails to arrive on schedule, they get the sads.
Like The New Republic, which [asked] this week [in 2022]:
A person could be forgiven for being cynical about Earth Day in 2022. Even ExxonMobil celebrates the holiday. . . ExxonMobil doing Earth Day is a lot like arms and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin co-opting International Women’s Day—a holiday which began as a protest of capitalism and war. . .
Ask Bob Langert about the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and he starts to chuckle. “When we meet the regulators, it’s kind of nice,” says the senior director for social responsibility at the McDonald’s Corporation. “We just got an award from the EPA. When we see the regulators, we always hope it’s because they’re giving us an award.”
* * * * * * * *
The idea of the rich corporate villain gleefully dirtying Mother Earth is powerful and appealing. Children of the 1980s encountered this supervillain in comics, movies, public awareness videos, and science textbooks. Times were good for mandatory recycling, for mandatory emissions reductions, for anything mandatory aimed at restraining corporate polluters.
But in the late ’90s, something peculiar started happening. The men in suits were still middle-aged, round, and white. They were still just as concerned with profit and golf. Very few of them sported tie-dyed attire, aside from the occasional whimsical Jerry Garcia tie. But the men in suits started caring. Or at least acting like they cared. Which, if you ask a spotted owl, is the same thing.
So environmental activists across the nation bought their own ties and started dealing with corporations as almost-equal partners in planet saving. Businesses in turn learned that it’s pretty easy being green.
Meanwhile, live look at how they’re celebrating Earthy Day in North Korea:
UPDATE: Found via Jim Treacher: “Everybody wants to save the earth; no one wants to help mom do the dishes.” — P.J. O’Rourke.
UM…: CNN, record holder for shortest streaming service, wants another shot. “Mark Thompson, who took CNN’s helm in August 2023, over a year after CNN+’s demise, spoke with FT about evolving the company. The publication reported that Thompson is ‘working on plans for a digital subscription streaming service.’ The executive told the publication that a digital subscription, including digital content streaming, is ‘a serious possibility,’ adding, ‘no decisions had been made, but I think it’s quite likely that we’ll end up there.'”
The network that people in increasing numbers choose not to watch for free will earn paying customers on the second attempt in a streaming market that’s gotten so tight that even streaming king Netflix has stopped revealing subscriber numbers.
I don’t see it.
DEAL OF THE DAY: Dyson Vacuums. #CommissionEarned We have one of these and it is amazing, picks up every speck of dust. Great if you have allergies.
With an intention to expand its military capabilities, China terminated the Strategic Support Force and in turn created a new branch called the Information Support Force. This provides China with the ability to bolster its capabilities in several areas including cyber warfare, Xinhua News reported.
It is important to note that Beijing’s now-terminated Strategic Support Force was created more than eight years ago with the aim of enhancing capabilities in space, cyber, political and electronic warfare.
China’s defence ministry maintained that the aerospace and cyber units previously under the Strategic Support Force will now be organizationally parallel to the newly created Information Support Force.
The aerospace unit is expected to improve China’s capability to use space and step up the management of space crises.
While announcing the new re-organisation, Xi reiterated the Communist Party’s leadership over the army.
Xi’s leadership over the CCP required no reiteration.
NEW IVY LEAGUE RECRUITING COMMERCIAL JUST DROPPED:
ABOUT THAT UKRAINE AID PACKAGE: There is only one Member of the House of Representatives who was born in Ukraine, Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.). She voted against that $95 billion foreign aid package approved by the lower chamber over the weekend. Ben Johnson at the Washington Stand has more.
CHANGE: Tennessee workers at VW plant vote to unionize with UAW. “Nearly three quarters of the workers voted to support the UAW, according to the final results from the National Labor Review Board. Of the 4,326 workers eligible to vote, more than 3,600 casts ballots over the three-day election.”
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Here’s an Idea — You Don’t Have to Like Trump to Vote for Him. “People who still call themselves conservatives and/or Republicans who hate Trump so much that they don’t want to vote for him are letting their feelings get in the way of the continued existence of the Republic. It really is that simple. All one has to do is look at the damage that has been done to this country by the commies who are running what’s left of Joe Biden’s brain.”
Gopinath told a fiscal forum at the IMF and World Bank spring meetings that U.S. deficits are projected to rise for years with one of the world’s steepest curves for debt.
“The high levels of deficits are also supporting growth and demand in the U.S. that have positive spillover to the rest of the world,” Gopinath said. “But along with that growth, you’re getting higher interest rates and a stronger dollar and the second two are creating more complications for the world.”
The IMF’s fiscal monitor estimates that the U.S. deficit for 2024 will reach 6.67% of GDP, rising to 7.06% in 2025 – double the 3.5% in 2015.
Gopinath said that the IMF’s annual “Article IV” review of U.S. economic policies in coming weeks will again recommend that the U.S. raise tax revenues and reform its costly Social Security and Medicare programs for older Americans to bring down deficits.
Or maybe we could try getting spending in line with revenues for a change.
Having covered Yale in 2015, when the social justice-coded position was that a polite email about Halloween costumes ruined the safe space students needed to learn, it's staggering to see the scenes like this from left-activists (not sure if they are students or not), and no… https://t.co/QLfshpgDxN
Heard outside Columbia University last night: "Never forget the 7th of October. That will happen not 1 more time, not 5 more times, not 10, not 100, not 1,000, but 10,000 times! The 7th of October is going to be every day for you" pic.twitter.com/7rYJTwlz4x
Plus: “None of this is actually a response to Israel’s response to 10/7. It started on 10/8, with students and professors proudly standing up and declaring that this is what decolonization looks like and that the Hamas attack was exhilarating. It was the bloodlust that called them; it is about the destruction of our society that they so strongly desire.”
UPDATE:
A lot of Jewish friends, especially those who are finally awake after 10/7, say things like "how is this America?" or "It's so scary that this Jew-hatred is happening everywhere." But it's very much NOT "America" and it absolutely is NOT happening "everywhere." In south Florida,…
Important read. The largest Israeli flag I know of in my county hangs in an Evangelical church. Our extremely vocal and demonstrative enemies want us Jews to believe we’re isolated and endangered. This is false. We actually surrounded by friends. https://t.co/q7lQKMHSaN
UPDATE: A friend writes: “British police arresting lefties of Asian descent for child sex crimes? That’s different. What’s going on in Blighty, are they pulling their heads out of their asses?”
Beats me, but my guess is there’s something political underlying it.
IF ONLY IT REALLY WERE NEWS: The internet is treating this as news: The EEOC is suing Sheetz convenience stores, because Sheetz conducts criminal background checks on its job applicants and then declines to hire the ones who are criminals. The EEOC concedes that Sheetz is not motivated by a desire to exclude African American men, but argues that because a higher percentage of African American men than of white, Hispanic, or Asian men, or of women have criminal records, Sheetz is “discriminating” against African American men within the meaning of Title VII.
In other words, Sheetz is REQUIRED to hire felons even if it doesn’t want to.
Martin Luther King looked forward to the day that his children could be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. Alas, the content of our character (as revealed by our criminal record) is off limits in hiring. But hiring by the color of our skin is considered virtuous. Weren’t we supposed to have made a lot more progress on this by now?
I am so tired of lily-livered Members of Congress who get that deer in the headlights look when you point out how that they could actually stop this nonsense. They don’t even try.
P.S. If you are concerned that felons need jobs or else they will wind up in prison again, I agree that’s a problem. It’s just not a Title VII problem. Members of the 88th Congress would have choked on their lunch if they knew how the EEOC would mistreat employers who just want to avoid hiring felons. The federal government actually has a program under which employers get a tax break for hiring ex-cons. Such a program makes much more sense than the EEOC’s approach, because it is voluntary. Some jobs present fewer temptations than others. Some ex-cons are better bets than others. A tax subsidy allows employers who are in a good position to hire ex-cons to self-select.
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