Archive for 2024

June 15, 2024

GOODER AND HARDER CALIFORNIA: “I hold a million cards in your game of woke victimology poker, and when I leave California maybe you’ve lost your f***ing mind:”

Celebrity fitness trainer Jillian Michaels says she moved away from California because its move to the left got ‘too crazy’ for her.

Michaels moved with her wife DeShanna Marie Minuto and adopted kids Lukensia, 14, and Phoenix, 12, from Los Angeles, where she grew up, to Miami in June 2021.

She previously said the last straw was when her home was broken into by an intruder with ‘duct tape and a video camera’ who was let out of jail due to Covid.

Michaels frequently blames Governor Gavin Newsom for what she doesn’t like about California, and expanded on that theme on Sage Steele’s podcast.

The former reality TV star is the latest in a line of celebrities including Elon Musk and Sean Hannity to move from liberal-leaning states like New York and California to Republican-run ones like Florida and Texas that have no state income tax.

During the interview, Michaels told Steele:

California got too crazy for me. This is my parting line: I grew up here I’m a woman. I’m a gay woman. My mom’s a Jew. My dad’s an Arab. I have a black kid. And believe it or not, my son is half Latin even though he doesn’t look like it.

I hold a million cards in your game of woke victimology poker, and when I leave California maybe you’ve lost your f***ing mind. Just maybe! Like, when you have me running from home, maybe it’s gone waaay too far!

Steele: What was the line?

Michaels:  What was it? Girl there’s not enough time! And you know, I actually take this line from Bill [Maher] and Elon Musk, and they’re like I actually haven’t changed, the world around me is shifting and I haven’t moved.

So, some of these laws that are passing here, are absolutely f***ing mindboggling. In relation to crime, [and] protecting our kids. We’re decriminalizing everything, which arguably I would probably be okay with but we’re not regulating any of it.

So it’s like, okay you’re going to decriminalize sex work, but only so women can legally loiter on the streets. Not to keep them safe, not to have them pay taxes, not to make them, you know, regularly check for STDs, not to take away the pimps out of the equation. If you made that argument to me, I’d be like, well yes, of course! I mean, I could be liberal, I could go there with you, I grew up this way.

But [then] when it’s like what we’re going to do is we’re going to pass a law for LGBTQ rights, so that 24-year-old men can sleep with 14-year-old boys and not have to register as a sex offender, ‘cause it’s just not fair to the gays. I’m like What? What?! I don’t know if you saw that one, I think it was early 2020 when they passed that law. So I was like, if a 24 year old man touches my 14-year-old son, oh, I I will get a gun and take matters into my own hands. Are you f***ing kidding?

At the PJM Mothership, Steve Green adds: You Won’t Believe Who California Is ‘Too Woke’ for Now.

One big way the state had gone too far for Michaels is children being given “off-label cancer drugs to irreparably change their body,” as she put it.

“If my son came to me and said, ‘Mom’ — or my daughter — ‘I think I’m trans’. I’d say okay, you want to dress this way, You want me to call you whatever the heck you want… fine, explore it. I love you… but we’re not changing your body until it’s fully developed. I’m sorry. Conversation’s over.”

According to the Daily Mail, last week Michaels even “enthusiastically celebrated the American College of Pediatricians calling on other medical groups to stop promoting puberty blockers, hormone drugs and gender surgery to children.”

Michaels’ parenting methods and beliefs might not be yours or mine, but there’s no doubt that she’s a caring, protective mom — and that being a good mom was becoming impossible in Gavin Newsom’s California.

Curiously, as Steve writes, “Michaels and her family live happily in Ron DeSantis’s Florida, even though the Mainstream Media assures me that the governor recently signed legislation making it legal there to hunt gays for sport.”

Full interview here:

Related: And speaking of California getting even crazier: L.A. Removes ‘No U-Turn’ Signs Because They Are Homophobic.

In their ever-expanding efforts to wipe out all vestiges of common sense, Los Angeles is removing ‘No U-Turn” signs from a gay neighborhood because, supposedly, they were put up to deter gays from cruising for sex on the streets.

I do not know nor care about the history behind the signs. There is a rational basis for wanting to prevent anybody from cruising for anonymous sex on the streets. Having people walk the streets advertising their availability for sexual encounters in cars is not only disgusting but damaging to the health of any community. Whether they are gay, straight, bi, or goats is hardly the point.

But this is California, which decriminalized street walking and even allowed residential neighborhoods to be taken over by prostitutes advertising their wares on the streets.

So Los Angeles is removing (some) U-Turn signs for homophobia, and Oakland is removing (some) traffic lights and replacing them with stop signs because the homeless are stealing the copper wire that powers them and/or tapping into their electricity supplies. Hey, remember that Welcome Wagon program we mentioned periodically from time to time? Might politicians in red states want to jump-start that idea again sometime soon?

Posted at 8:45 am by Ed Driscoll on Jun 15th, 2024

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN: Watch: IDF uses trebuchet to launch flaming projectile at Hezbollah.

The Israeli military has used a medieval-style trebuchet to lob incendiaries across the northern border into Lebanon.

A video that first emerged on social media on Thursday appeared to show Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers loading the wooden siege engine with flaming projectiles and launching them into Lebanese plantations.

The military responded that the use of the contraption was “a local initiative and not a tool that is widely used”, reported Israeli state broadcaster KAN News.

The ancient artillery weapon was used during the Middle Ages in sieges of castles and other fortified locations.

In this case, the device may have been used to clear dense vegetation in the border area which could help the army prevent terrorists infiltrating Israel, suggested Emanuel Fabian, the Times of Israel military correspondent, who initially posted the video.

Or perhaps, there is a simpler reason:

Posted at 8:14 am by Ed Driscoll on Jun 15th, 2024

SCIENCE MARCHES ON:

Posted at 7:30 am by Glenn Reynolds on Jun 15th, 2024

OUT ON A LIMB: Time to retire the ‘far right’ slur.

As the EU establishment struggles to make sense of last week’s revolt in the European elections, one thing is clear: our outdated vocabulary is not up to the task of describing today’s political landscape.

Gains for France’s National Rally, Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) have been described as a ‘far-right surge’ in newspapers and TV reports, not just across Europe but around the world. Even before the election results came in, labels like far right and extreme right were bouncing off commentators’ keyboards. All agree that the far right is on the rise and ordinary people need to worry. This is Europe’s ‘Trump moment’, explained Politico. Some go further. Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is described as ‘neo-fascist’, while academics calmly ask if the AfD is the new Nazi Party. ‘Fascism has arrived’, declared French author Emilia Roig when the election results became clear. Yet with almost a quarter of Europe’s voters having backed a party branded ‘far right’, it is worth asking how accurate this label is and what purpose it now serves.

As Jonah Goldberg wrote in 2014, “This is a very old story:”

Joseph Stalin championed the idea that all of his political opponents should be dubbed fascists, including many of his fellow Bolsheviks, such as Leon Trotsky (whom Stalin had assassinated), and much of the Red Army’s officer corps (whom he had executed), and countless Ukrainians (whom he had liquidated). Stalin insisted that even mentioning the man-made – i.e., Stalin-made — Ukranian famine was evidence you were an agent of the Nazis.

Under Stalin’s “theory of social fascism,” any socialist, social-democratic, or progressive group or party not loyal to him had to be called fascist. Hence, for a while Moscow insisted that FDR and even Norman Thomas (head of the Socialist Party of America) were fascists.

Ultimately, Communist propagandists and their allied intellectuals would reflexively blame fascism for everything, regardless of the facts. That’s what prompted George Orwell to remark that “the word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies ‘something not desirable.’”

Elsewhere in Europe, Jonathan Tobin proffers “Notes from the safest place in Europe for Jews:”

As I discovered in conversations with both liberal and Orthodox Jews, as well as non-Jews, the Jewish community in Budapest feels safe in a way that is not the case in London, Paris or Berlin. When you visit Hungary, no one tells you not to wear kippahs or Jewish stars in public. Orthodox Jews are not an uncommon sight on the streets of the Hungarian capital and act as if they have no fear of being attacked for their beliefs.

Meanwhile, the Hungarian government is easily the Jewish state’s best friend in Europe. As knowledgeable sources have made clear to me, Budapest is Jerusalem’s only reliable ally within the European Union, always ready to disrupt the E.U. Commission’s quest for consensus on behalf of its consistent anti-Israel agenda, sometimes displaying more willingness to fight supporters of the Palestinians than the Israelis themselves.

Speaking of those who hate Jews: The far right is not what threatens Europe most.

Voters have eyes and ears, they are aware of what has unfolded in Europe in recent months. It is not far-right students calling for the destruction of Israel; it was not members from Marine Le Pen’s party who were questioned by police on charges of “apology for [Hamas] terrorism;” it was not a right-wing Spanish member who tweeted soon after the October 7 attack: “Today and always with Palestine;” it was not a right -wing mayor in Brussels trying to prevent democratically elected politicians speaking at a conference because he objected to their views; it was not a Swedish right-wing member who recently attended a conference linked with Hamas.

Europe does indeed feel like it might be returning to “the darkest pages of our history;” but it’s not the right which is responsible for many of the most troubling recent events: it is a toxic alliance of elements of the progressive left and their Islamist allies.

The man who was shot dead in France last month as he set fire to a synagogue was an Algerian; and the man jailed for life last week for killing a pensioner in Hartlepool, “for the people of Gaza,” was a Moroccan.

It is Islamofascism that frightens many Europeans today: teachers murdered because they showed images of the Prophet; girls beaten unconscious because they don’t wear a headscarf; men stabbed to death because of their sexuality or because they drank alcohol.

Meanwhile in America, Brandon Morse writes: Congratulations, You’re Far Right…and So Is Your Democrat Friend.

The radicalism, in particular, is so bad that even moderate Democrats have thrown their hands up in disgust at what their party has become. They’re all Ronald Reagan now, grumbling that they never left the party, the party left them, and it wasn’t a slow drift either. The Democrat Party, and indeed the mainstream left, slammed down the pedal and sprayed gravel and smoke all over everyone as it sped to its extremist positions.

You now have Democrats proclaiming they’ll be voting for Donald Trump in November as they angrily curse the Democrat Party for being what it is.

To hear the left tell it, however, they never changed. Democrats claim they represent all that is good and lovely in the world. They stand for “love,” and “equality,” and “inclusion,” and common sense this and fairness that.

Terms and conditions apply. Many will enter, few will win.

Zooming out, however, we can see what the political spectrum has turned into thanks to the left’s radically leftward shift. Everything that isn’t them is now “far-right.” You can see this phrase used constantly in the media when discussing anything that looks to the right of their extremist sentiments.

The Rabbit Hole on X had a very useful infographic that I think sums up the modern political dynamic very well.

Exit question: Conquest’s Third Law states “The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.” Does that explain all of the crybullies throwing soup at treasured artwork and glueing themselves to roads?

In other words: Why greens were the biggest losers in the EU elections. “The reason why European voters have turned away from the green agenda over the past five years is not hard to fathom. It’s because during that time the impoverishing, immiserating reality of Net Zero has really started to hit home. The EU’s much trumpeted Green Deal, committing member states to various decarbonising rules and targets, has started to feel less like ‘a man on the moon moment’ and more like a boot on Europe’s neck.”

Posted at 7:14 am by Ed Driscoll on Jun 15th, 2024

I MEAN, IT’S TRUE, ISN’T IT?

These guys ought to be afraid to show their faces in public after this betrayal of the people.

Posted at 7:00 am by Glenn Reynolds on Jun 15th, 2024

June 14, 2024

OPEN THREAD: For you and me, we understood.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds on Jun 14th, 2024

WELL, THIS DOESN’T INSPIRE CONFIDENCE: Spy Chief to Join OpenAI Board. “OpenAI on Thursday announced its newest board member: Paul M. Nakasone, a retired U.S. Army general and former director of the National Security Agency. Nakasone was the longest-serving leader of the U.S. Cyber Command and chief of the Central Security Service.”

Posted at 7:43 pm by Glenn Reynolds on Jun 14th, 2024

WELL, BEING A REPUBLICAN AND WINNING AN ELECTION, BUT YOU CAN’T SAY THAT OUT LOUD: Democrat Left Speechless When Asked to Name Trump’s Crimes. “Democrat Debbie Dingell had absolutely no answer for Maria Bartiromo during a live interview in which the Fox Business Host asked fairly simple questions.”

UPDATE: Related:

Posted at 3:05 pm by Glenn Reynolds on Jun 14th, 2024

IT’S A BIG DEAL FOR ADMINISTRATIVE LAW AS WELL AS FOR GUN RIGHTS: What Today’s Ruling in Cargill Means for the 2A and Other Gun-Related Cases. “In an opinion by the ever-reliable Justice Clarence Thomas, the Supreme Court drop-kicked the ATF’s reinterpretation of the National Firearms Act, tossing it on the ash heap of history.”

More: In NCLA’s Bump-Stock Ban Case, U.S. Supreme Court Rules ATF Cannot Alter a Statute’s Meaning. “Today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in the New Civil Liberties Alliance case of Garland v. Cargill that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ unilateral bump-stock ban conflicts with the federal statute defining ‘machineguns.’ ATF’s regulatory ban, which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit shot down early last year, reversed the agency’s own long-standing recognition that bump-stock-equipped firearms are not machine guns. NCLA commends the high court for permanently setting ATF’s ban aside, safeguarding the rights of our client Michael Cargill and hundreds of thousands of other Americans to be free from laws written by executive branch bureaucrats instead of elected members of Congress.”

Reminder/disclosure: I’m on the NCLA’s Board of Advisors.

Posted at 3:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds on Jun 14th, 2024
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