99% OF AMERICA: WHO? Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson Says He’s Running For President. No matter what he says, he’s helping Trump, though. Does he know that, or is he stupid? Either way, factor it into your analysis.
Archive for 2023
April 2, 2023
FACE IT, MEN MAKE BETTER WOMEN:
@its_meseidy Ladies sit back down because the boys are back on top. #isaidwhatisaid ♬ Dude (Looks Like A Lady) – Aerosmith
IT’S NOT ENOUGH TO BE HOT: Finland: Sanna Marin Loses. “Finland’s main conservative party claimed victory in parliamentary elections Sunday in a tight three-way race that saw right-wing populists take second place, leaving Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s Social Democratic Party in third, dashing her hopes for reelection. . . . While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted Finland to seek NATO membership in May 2022, neither the historic decision to abandon the nation’s non-alignment policy nor the war emerged as major campaign issues as there was a large consensus among the parties on membership.”
OPEN THREAD: Enjoy each other’s company.
JEFF DUNETZ IS ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Did Moses Get Cheated On Passover?
Moses endured Pharaoh, the Exodus, and forty years of wandering in a desert-like wilderness with Jews constantly complaining about the food. But on the holiday, remembering the Exodus from slavery— he doesn’t even get offered something to drink! Not even a glass of freaking water (which today he could get without beating up a rock).
But Elijah, Mr. “ride a flaming chariot into heaven,” gets a glass of wine at every Seder, in every Jewish house worldwide.
The last line of the entire Torah begins with, “And there was no other prophet who arose in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.” But the rabbis decided Elijah gets to party during Passover seders.
And guess what? Elijah is rewarded at every bris (ritual circumcision). The child’s parents put out an extra chair– for Elijah! So, while the guy who wouldn’t pray for the Jewish people gets wine on Passover and then bagels and whitefish at every bris. On the other hand, Moses, the prophet like no other who arose in Israel-gets bubkis.
Moses is called Moshe Rabbeinu, which means Moses, the Teacher. Perhaps he can join a teacher’s union and get to take off with full pay during a worldwide tragedy even when it’s over (like the AFT). After all, if anyone deserves union protection to be prevented from being cheated out of recognition, it’s Moses, the screwed prophet.
Read the whole thing.
XI’S GOTTA HAVE IT! Midjourney CEO Says ‘Political Satire In China Is Pretty Not Okay,’ But Apparently Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping Is Pretty Okay.
That’s right: Xi Jinping, one of the most powerful and repressive government officials in the world and most deserving of political skewering and mockery will be one of the few exempt from it, at least where Midjourney is concerned. Some other terms are restricted, though Holz won’t make the list public — “Afghanistan” for example, and now some depictions of arrests after the fake Donald Trump arrest fiasco — but Holz reportedly treats China as a unique case.
His quote about it is a doozy. From The Washington Post:
But the year-old company, run out of San Francisco with only a small collection of advisers and engineers, also has unchecked authority to determine how those powers are used. It allows, for example, users to generate images of President Biden, Vladimir Putin of Russia and other world leaders — but not China’s president, Xi Jinping.
“We just want to minimize drama,” the company’s founder and CEO, David Holz, said last year in a post on the chat service Discord. “Political satire in china is pretty not-okay,” he added, and “the ability for people in China to use this tech is more important than your ability to generate satire.”
He wants you to simultaneously believe that his program is so important that it must do whatever is necessary to remain accessible to people within China, but so unimportant that it doesn’t matter if fundamental political expression about one of the most powerful authoritarians in the world can’t be created on it. It doesn’t add up.
It’s no surprise that a tech CEO would be willing to make trade-offs for the Chinese market. At this point, it’s more surprising if one won’t do so. But Holz’s position is particularly careless and reveals an increasingly serious threat to free expression on and offline today: individual countries’ censorship laws, particularly those of powerful countries like China, are setting global rules sometimes enforced by tech companies anxious to display their compliance. It’s not just Midjourney’s China-based users that can’t satirize Xi Jinping — that rule applies to users everywhere, even in the United States.
Local laws are suddenly not so local anymore, and people like Holz have no qualms about aiding their illiberal international spread.
At the moment, there are workarounds, but how long will they last?
Flashback: 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 was exposed for millions of Americans to see: We’re Not Exporting Our Values to China — We’re Importing Theirs.
ALVIN BRAGG HAS HIS PRIORITIES: ‘New York City is a Joke:’ Manhattan Prosecutors Charge Victim of Assault With Attempted Murder.
“Let me get this straight – the suspected thief shot the victim, who wrestled the gun away and shot the guy who just shot him, and…they’re charging THE VICTIM with attempted murder and unlawful possession of a firearm?” Wrote Heritage Foundation Senior Legal Fellow Amy Swearer. “New York City is a joke.”
As Tom Cotton wrote in 2021: Recall, Remove & Replace Every Last Soros Prosecutor.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: McDonald’s reportedly temporarily shuts its U.S. offices and prepares layoff notices.
Burger chain McDonald’s is temporarily closing its U.S. offices this week as it prepares to inform corporate employees about its layoffs as part of a broader company restructuring, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
In an internal email last week to U.S. employees and some international staff, McDonald’s asked them to work from home from Monday through Wednesday so it can deliver staffing decisions virtually, the report said. It is unclear how many employees will be laid off.
A lot of low-level employees are eventually going to get replaced by Chat Mickey D’s: Have It Your Way! McDonald’s first fully automated restaurant —with no human contact in Fort Worth.
SLEEP HYGIENE IS UNDERRATED: A Bad Night’s Sleep Can Ruin Your Work Day. Here’s What You Can Do About It.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Pandemic pounds push 10,000 U.S. Army soldiers into obesity.
OLD AND BUSTED: “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”
The New Hotness? Washington Post Tells on Itself in Hit Piece on Conservatives Allegedly ‘Exploiting’ Nashville Mass Shooting.
Sooo… three days ago it was okay for the Washington Post to exploit the victims of the shooting by portraying the area’s Congressional representative as tacitly complicit in their deaths, but now it’s wrong for the right to allegedly be “exploiting” the trans identify of the Nashville shooter (even though it was the media who made the biggest fuss about Hale’s pronoun status early on while fretting over “misgendering” her)?
Apparently so:
Remember, when they do it, it’s always (D)ifferent. Always.
The Journolist was certainly hopping last week: USA Today Victim Switcharoo: ‘Far-Right Rhetoric Against Trans Community.’
SPACE: SpaceX launches Tranche 0 mission sending 10 satellites into orbit. ” SpaceX launched 10 Space Development Agency satellites into orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California Sunday in the Tranche 0 mission. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off on a cloudy day at about 10:29 p.m. EST, marking the 22nd launch by SpaceX this year and 221st all time.”
JUSTIN TRUDEAU’S battle against a free Internet.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: The Cheapest 300hp Cars You Can Buy.
GOOD GUY WITH A GUN: Armed Bystander Helps Las Vegas Mall Cops Corral a Knife-Wielding Thief.
READER FAVORITE: Carhartt Men’s 6 Inch Waterproof Wedge Soft Toe Work Boot. #CommissionEarned
WELL, THAT’S USUALLY WHERE IT COMES FROM: Large Typhoid Outbreak Traced to Contaminated Drinking Water.
UNPACKING CONSCIOUSNESS: Researchers use brain scans to understand how we experience and remember our daily surroundings.
ROCKY THE FLYING SQUIRREL VOICE: “AGAIN? THAT TRICK NEVER WORKS!” Watchdog: Britain facing ‘make-or-break moment’ to build climate change resilience.
THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS: New York Times Loses Twitter Verification Badge.
TABLET: The Hoax of the Century.
Tablet’s Jacob Siegel has written a lengthy and fascinating account of what he calls the hoax of the century. Matt Taibbi, whose work on the Twitter Files is mentioned near to opening of Siegel’s story calls it the “Grand Opus on the Anti-Disinformation Complex.”
It’s impossible to summarize an article of over 10,000 words but think of this as a kind of grand unifying theory of roughly the last decade of our domestic politics. It attempts to tie together everything from the 2016 election to the Russia collusion story to the push against internet so-called disinformation by government entities with the cooperation of giant social media companies. This is big government as big influencer.
Read the whole thing.
PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:
Shot: [Mayor London] Breed’s New Budget Defunds Police by $120 Million to Cut $1.5 Billion Deficit.
—SFist, July 31st, 2021.
—Slay News, yesterday.