EXPOSED: New Orleans Mayor spent obscene amount of taxpayer dollars to fly 1st class. “‘My travel accommodations are a matter of safety, not of luxury,’ The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported. ‘As all women know, our health and safety are often disregarded and we are left to navigate alone. As the mother of a young child whom I live for, I am going to protect myself by any reasonable means in order to ensure I am there to see her grow into the strong woman I am raising her to be. Anyone who wants to question how I protect myself just doesn’t understand the world Black women walk in.’”

THE BOOK ‘DE-EMPHASIZERS’ ARE HORRIFIED THAT BOOKS ARE BEING ‘DE-EMPHASIZED:’

While clumsily written in the pursuit of overbroad objectives outside the remit of constitutionally constrained government, Florida’s legislative command that the cultural tides recede isn’t the Reichstag fire its critics imagine it to be. Nor is this campaign something that conservative cultural revanchists imagined into existence on their own. Rather, the state is reacting to similar maneuvers by cultural forces aligned with the left.

In some Florida school districts, titles that cover themes involving race, sexuality, and LGBTQ identity are not banned—they are still accessible in libraries and online—but they have been labeled with an “advisory notice to parents.” Call it a “trigger warning.” Teachers have been drafted into auditing books for their identitarian content, but the “policy does not apply to textbooks or books in schoolwide libraries.” Indeed, the discretionary nature of this campaign has sincere advocates of literary censorship on the right up in arms. They don’t believe the state’s efforts to cordon off books with sexual and racial thematic elements have gone far enough.

Introducing parental oversight to what books students at various age levels check out of scholastic libraries may strike bibliophiles as obscene. Literary experiences, titillating or otherwise, are a discouragingly rare occurrence among younger adults these days. There is a movement afoot across red states to intervene in young people’s journeys of intellectual exploration, but it only mirrors what the cultural left has busied itself with for years.

“What to do with ‘classic’ books that are also racist and hurtful to students?” School Library Journal’s Marva Hinton asked in 2020. The question was occasioned by the decision from Caldwell-Stone’s organization, the American Library Association, to drop Laura Ingalls Wilder’s name from a literary award. Hinton cited the “dated cultural attitudes” in her Little House books. While being careful to avoid the appearance that that anyone sought to “censor, limit, or deter access” to Wilder’s books, the move and others like it nonetheless branded her books offensive to modern sensibilities.

The same could be said of classics such as To Kill a Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn. It was said, in fact, in Hinton’s piece when the librarians with whom she spoke confessed that “deemphasizing” these books advances modern progressive social objectives. “We do harm if we don’t teach that text in ways that are antiracist,” said one Massachusetts-based Teacher Training Center director. Indeed, according to the “intellectual freedom chair” of the Oregon Association of School Libraries, Miranda Doyle, it is a teacher’s job to make sure “we are choosing books that are not problematic.”

Flashback: Atticus Finch: American literature’s most celebrated rape apologist.

WHY IS THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY SUCH A CESSPIT OF RACISM? Kamala Harris ripped for claiming government’s Hurricane Ian relief will prioritize ‘communities of color.’

LISTEN, SUG, DON’T FORGET TO SAY YOUR PRAYERS: James Lileks asks, “Can you recall any time in which the use of nuclear weapons was described with such . . . I’m trying to find the right word. It’s not indifference. Unconcern? Remoteness? Calmness? I can’t figure out the proper word. Theoretical. Speculative.”

The annexation seems like a bonehead move to us, but it’s one way of declaring victory, I suppose. See, we did it. We denazified them and now the parts we have drained of life and turned into Russian satrapies are reunited. Russia has gained territory for the first time in a long while, hence they are Great. But it also means that the fighting in the area will now be considered an attack on Russia territory, which hasn’t happened since . . . well, you know. So now it’s Great Patriotic War 2: Nuclear Boogaloo, unless of course Putin wants to let an attack on New Russia Although It Was Always Russia You Know go without a devastating response – in which case what are those nukes for, anyway? Wasn’t that always the promise? Don’t worry, Russia is stronk, no one can invade, we have nukes.

And if things really get pear-shaped, Americans, don’t forget to wear your mask when you’re in the fallout shelter:

Here’s a link to the referenced document if you want to see it for yourself.

Flashback: The Unexpected Return of Duck and Cover.

(Classical allusion in headline.)

HOUSTON DOCTOR BASHES TEXAS ABORTION BAN AS ‘WHITE SUPREMACIST AGENDA’ IN CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY.

Margaret Sanger smiles.

OK, GROOMERS: Newsom Signs Bill To Let California Strip Gender-Confused Teens From Parents — Even When They Live In Other States.

California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new law Thursday night to strip rights away from parents who protest their children’s blind pursuit of destructive surgeries sold to confused minors as “gender affirmation.”

Under Senate Bill 107 introduced by San Francisco-area State Sen. Scott Wiener, California will now become a “refuge” for trans-identifying minors who seek irreversible medical treatment for gender dysphoria. The legislation was supposedly aimed at blocking red states from enforcing laws barring extreme treatments for underage victims, and instead invited those minors to seek surgeries in California.

“In California we believe in equality and acceptance. We believe that no one should be prosecuted or persecuted for getting the care they need — including gender-affirming care,” Newsom said upon signing the bill into law. “Parents know what’s best for their kids, and they should be able to make decisions around the health of their children without fear. We must take a stand for parental choice.”

Except the bill undermines parental choice by empowering the state to strip custody from those who refuse to support their children’s demand for “gender-affirming care,” a euphemism used to describe something that is neither gender-affirming nor caring. Such procedures could range from puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to surgeries leaving a child’s genitals permanently altered. The bill extends California’s reach beyond its borders, enabling minors in other states to pursue treatment on the West Coast away from parental oversight.

What could go wrong?

THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: Cat 5 Bidenstorm Edition.

ROGER SIMON: Are Tennessee (and Many Other) Public Libraries ‘Grooming’ Our Children?

Twenty-four books were put on display at the library’s front desk, the very first thing anyone would see should they enter, whether they are age 5 or 55. In other words, they were clearly the library’s featured books.

Some of the titles were “This Book Is Gay,” “Beyond the Gender Binary,” “Out!,” “Rainbow Revolutionaries,” “Were I Not a Girl,” and so forth. Others hid behind the completely overt, with titles such as “And Tango Makes Three,” although the essence was the same.

As the author of 13 books—and working on my 14th—I am quite aware of the value of library and bookstore placement. Indeed, publishers pay bookstores to have their books out front for a reason.

Unfortunately, in the case of the Maury County main branch, every one of the 24 books on prominent display was a children’s book—at a height that would easily attract a child—replete with “friendly” hearts, and containing highly sexualized content tilting strongly gay.

The sexualization of many of these children’s books was extreme. Some gave actual Kinsey-type advice on erogenous zones, evidently for young teenagers or even 12-year-olds—almost all of that boy-on-boy or girl-on-girl.

“Grooming” anyone?

Flashback: Whether We Say It or Not, Our Culture Provides Cover for Groomers.

GERARD VAN DER LEUN: Okay, Okay! Enough Ian Already! Unleash the Marias!

Already being front-loaded at near hurricane strength into the barrels of media bluster and blather will be the endless “Maria” stories aimed at denigrating and damaging Governor DeSantis. Within the next three days, the flood-sodden Maria stories will be pumped out of a hundred media outlets to be immediately replicated by ten thousand Twitterbots in an intense round of retweeting autofellatio.  The aptly named headlines will all be a variation of “Papertowel DeSantis! Worse Than Trump!” Marias will come swarming out of the low-lying poor Florida neighborhoods like Bill Burr’s “epidemic of gold-digging whores.”

Once upon a time I had an intimate relationship in which I learned in pillow talk what went on in story conferences at the New York clone of NPR. In these Sancta Sanctorum meetings, one was often asked if the morning story line-up could be juiced up with a “Maria Story.”

The “Maria Story”  was a handcrafted piece of journalistic lying through dramaturgy. The assigned journalist –who knew what was expected of him– visited one of his minority harems of (mostly) women who excelled at projecting a quiet dignity shining through their grave situation. These “assets” as it were had mastered the art of faking sincerity so the rest came easy; especially the standard “Maria Story” situation. This situation could be of the every suffering Maria who was turned back at the Rio Grande after attempting to swim across while pushing her paraplegic autistic daughter on a reed raft. Handmaid.

Since this was news from the days of morning NPR radio throbbing in the background of liberal kitchens across the land the only limit to the imagery was that of the “reporter’s” imagination and the sound engineer’s library of effects. And you didn’t have to look your best, as those who have met Terry Gross will attest.

Time to dust off the Katrina playbook, which the DNC-MSM can easily update to the catastrophe du jour:

● Chuck Todd: Coronavirus Can Be to Trump Like Iran Hostages Were to Carter.

● ‘She’s actually smiling:’ MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace and guest discuss coronavirus that could become ‘Trump’s Katrina.’

Which dovetails nicely with this quote from Mickey Kaus in 2005: “In short, Katrina gives them a way to talk about Iraq without talking about Iraq. No wonder Gwen Ifill smiles the ‘inner smile.’”

Just think of the media as Democratic Party operatives with bylines, and it all makes sense.

NOT ONLY IS THE PAST STRANGER THAN WE THINK, IT IS STRANGER THAN WE CAN THINK: The Swastika in Cowtown: Before a Good Symbol Went Bad.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: NHDem Chair Buckley: Schools Must Keep Secrets or Parents Will ‘Beat Their Children to Death.’

The reaction from New Hampshire Republicans was immediate.

“The Biden administration labeled parents as ‘domestic terrorists,’ and now the chair of the New Hampshire Democrat Party is claiming Granite State parents beat their kids to death,” said Leavitt. “The Democrats’ hatred for parents who simply want to be involved in their children’s education is disgusting. It’s rooted in the fact that Democrats like Chris Pappas are funded by powerful teachers unions who want total control over our public education system. While Pappas continues to side with Joe Biden and radical bureaucrats, I will continue to stand with Granite State mothers and fathers.”

“I think Ray Buckley’s comments are reprehensible and an insult to parents,” said Bob Burns, the GOP candidate challenging Rep. Annie Kuster, who voted with Pappas to kill the parental notification bill. “Education in New Hampshire is and should remain local, and parents should have oversight into their child’s education.”

“Parents have a right to know what’s going on in and outside the classroom,” said the NHGOP via Twitter. “This is disgusting. Your NH House Dems voted for this!”

Earlier: Youngkin’s midterm advice to GOP: It’s the “kitchen-table issues,” stupid.

GREAT MOMENTS IN SELF-AWARENESS: Biden renews vow to bring ‘decency’ back to politics despite slamming ‘MAGA Republicans.’

During an event at the White House Friday, President Joe Biden said one of the reasons he ran for the nation’s highest office was to “bring back some decency and honor” to politics, particularly related to how “we talk about one another, the way we deal with one another,” even though he labeled “MAGA Republicans” an extremist threat just a month ago.

“When I ran, I said one of the reasons I was running was to restore the soul of America. Bring back some decency and honor in the way we talk about one another, the way we deal with one another,” Biden said during an event celebrating the Jewish new year.

Sounds like a great idea — when will Biden start to implement it?

YOUNG ADULT SITE VOX.COM DEPLOYS THE LAW OF MERITED IMPOSSIBILITY: What’s so scary about a transgender child?

Rod Dreher’s “Law of Merited Impossibility” states: “‘It will never happen, and when it does, you bigots will deserve it.’”

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: School officials texted Oakland shooting victims to not cooperate with police investigation: Sources. “Another disturbing headline about the shooting in Oakland comes from the ABC7 I-Team, law enforcement sources tell us school officials have sent text messages to shooting victims, instructing them not to cooperate with police. We’re hearing it’s a pattern, and some parents at the school are worried that a lack of action by school officials after previous incidents may have led to this escalation in violence. Law enforcement sources tell the I-Team, Oakland police investigators have obtained text messages from the shooting victims’ phones in which Rudsdale school officials tell them not to cooperate with police.“

ADAMS AFTER DARK: Mayor Adams close to deal for Norwegian Cruise ship to house migrants in NYC waters.

Mayor Eric Adams is finalizing a deal with the Norwegian Cruise Line to house migrants on one of its massive cruise ships and dock it at Staten Island’s Homeport, The Post has learned.

Adams wants to lease the luxury liner for at least six months and use it to house and process migrants before they enter the city’s shelter system, a source familiar with the matter said.

The migrants would be allowed to come and go while staying on the ship, the source said.

Preliminary estimates show the plan will be “cheaper” than erecting another tent city similar to the one the city plans to open in the Bronx at the Orchard Beach parking lot, the source said.

Once again, life imitates Saturday Night Live’s classic “Dukakis After Dark” Sketch, when painter Leroy Neimann, played by Kevin Nealon, tells Jon Lovitz’s dejected Dukakis that his latest painting is titled, “‘What Might Have Been.’ It shows the nuclear aircraft carrier Nimitz after its conversion into a floating shelter for the homeless.”

JIM TREACHER: Lawyer Who Firebombed Cop Car for George Floyd Doesn’t Want to Be in Jail Anymore.

We’ve all been there: It’s Friday night, you’ve had one too many vodka shots, a black guy in a city 1,000 miles away just got killed by the cops, you’re sad and angry about a bunch of other stuff, and…

Well, okay. So maybe. Possibly. Perhaps… you firebombed one little police car. Out of all the law enforcement vehicles in the entire world, maybe one of them caught on fire because of your actions. Not 100. Not 10. Not even two. Just one single solitary teensy-weensy cop car.

Does that mean you should go to jail? For, like, years?

Josh Christenson, Washington Free Beacon:

A left-wing lawyer who pleaded guilty to firebombing a police cruiser is asking for a commutation of her sentence, pointing to the fact that she was inebriated at the time of the offense and coping with “unprocessed trauma,” according to court filings.

Attorneys for Urooj Rahman argue the self-described human-rights activist was “numb, disassociated, and inebriated” when she threw a Molotov cocktail into a New York City police car during the George Floyd riots in May 2020. Lawyers say Rahman was also reeling from her many “abusive partnership relationships” and processing “early trauma” from being taunted as a Muslim after 9/11.

I haven’t watched every episode of Perry Mason, but I definitely missed the one where he railed against the system and shouted, “I hope they burn everything down. Need to burn all police stations down and probably the courts too. This sh** won’t ever stop unless we f***in’ take it all down. The only way they hear us is through violence.”

THE LEFT IS FURIOUS WITH KYRSTEN SINEMA AGAIN (BUT SHE’S RIGHT):

“Kyrsten Sinema sold us all out.”

“Kyrsten Sinema facilitates fascism!”

“Parents: make sure to give your children all the attention they need, so they don’t grow up to be Kyrsten Sinema.”

Social media posts like this targeting Senator Kyrsten Sinema accrued hundreds of thousands of likes and shares this week.

What did the maverick Arizona Democrat do to prompt this unhinged outrage? Simply take a stand for the filibuster, part of our system of checks and balances that keeps us free, a position that until quite recently was uncontroversial even among Democrats.

“The danger of eliminating the 60-vote threshold is that the Senate becomes the House,” Sinema said at an event earlier in the week. “And I remind everyone, I left the House and ran for the Senate for a reason.”

The senator made a compelling case for maintaining the Senate filibuster, which requires 60-votes to pass legislation instead of a bare majority, 50 votes.

“When Republicans are in control, they pass a little bit of crazy legislation,” she argued. “When Democrats are in control, they pass a little bit of crazy legislation. And the job of the Senate is to cool that passion.”

In sharp contrast: The Humiliation of Joe Manchin.

GREAT MOMENTS IN #METOO: “Traumatized” by Kavanaugh, #MeToo Snowflake Journalista Runs to Al Franken.

As part of her promotional tour, Lithwick did an extended interview with her old friend … Al Franken. Franken, a former Saturday Night Live writer and personality, resigned from the Senate in 2017 among accusations of sexual misconduct. There were eight accusations in total, including Leeann Tweeden, a radio news anchor, who says Franken groped and forcibly kissed her during a USO tour in 2006, before the former comedian was a senator. Tweeded says Franken “aggressively stuck his tongue in my mouth” when the pair rehearsed a skit that featured a kiss. A photo emerged showing Franken looking at a camera while pretending to grab Tweeden’s breasts as she was sleeping.

Imagine if such a photo showing me or Brett doing something similar ever came out.

Imagine Dahlia’s trauma.

Read the whole thing.

MARK JUDGE: Unserious Moonlight.  A review of Moonage Daydream. (Written and directed by Brett Morgen, PG-13, 135 minutes, in theaters.) David Bowie was the glorious product of a classical Western education, but a new documentary traffics in clichés.

How fascinating, penetrating, and wonderful “Moorage [sic—Ed] Daydream” might have been had Brett Morgen slowed down and taken the time to examine the books that made Bowie Bowie. Rather than the usual narrative of the kid who discovers the Beats and goes on to embrace revolutionary politics, it may have shown David Bowie as the glorious product of a classical Western education.

Read the whole thing. I saw Moonage Daydream (in a surprisingly empty theater) this past weekend in Fort Worth. Deafening soundtrack, albeit with a good use of surround sound, and overall, very far removed from the typical A&E Biography sort of documentary. If you’re not familiar with the broad overview of Bowie’s history, you may emerge completely baffled by its seriously trippy style. But between the imagery and Bowie’s narration, I thought it did a good job of getting into the Thin White Duke’s mindset at the various points in his career, even if, as Judge writes, it could have been so much more.

GREAT MOMENTS IN PROJECTION: Salon: first they come for the transgenders, then they will come for you.

Then they accuse us of being violent. Even “silence is violence.” They fake hate crimes every day to prove how awful Americans are too. Here’s their current rant:

Violence is central to fascism. It forms its origin myths and is one of the primary ways that fascism asserts itself. The power to engage in acts of violence against designated enemies with near-total impunity is one of the main reasons people join fascist movements. As history makes obvious, once fascists take control of a society they maintain and expand their power through violence.

In an era when the Republican Party, the “conservative” movement and the larger white right have de facto embraced fascism, political violence is a constant threat — and the “culture war” may no longer be largely rhetorical or categorical. Indeed, the struggle over cultural issues are a principal battlefield in the current struggle for American democracy.

Yep, America’s cities were burnt down in 2020 by White Supremacists, Crisis Pregnancy Centers are getting vandalized at the instigation of Ron DeSantis, and conservative mayors and governors have opened the doors of prisons and invited flash mobs to ransack stores. Right wing violence is rampant. Even exhibit #1 of right wing “violence”–January 6th riot–was mostly selfies and walking around the Capitol. The only person who died was shot in the back by a Capitol Police officer, although the president keeps lying and saying 5 people were killed. When Biden opens his mouth nothing but lies and made up words come out, it seems.

To be fair, Salon has been declaring Republicans to be fascists while begging for socialism to be nationalized for quite some time.

ROGER KIMBALL: Joe Biden and the Sovietization of America.

But what has been true of Joe Biden from before his administration began continues to be true. It is not he who was the architect of his performance, from the imperial stage set, of which Albert Speer would have been proud, to his hectoring attack on “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans [who] represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic.”

MANDELA BARNES: “I really could not care less about a 2nd Amendment ‘right.'”

Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, a classic millennial, loves social media.

Indeed, Barnes — a Democrat challenging Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron  Johnson — has tweeted more than 18,400 times since joining Twitter a decade ago, an average of nearly five tweets a day.

“I would probably say I spend too much time online,” Barnes, 35, said in a February 2021 interview. “I can be reading too, but I spend a little too much time online.”

But what’s he saying on Twitter?

* * * * * * * *

Barnes asked in November 2016 if the presidential election had been “rigged.”* Months later, the first-term Democrat declared Donald Trump, then president, a “Russian spy.” More recently, he dismissed the notion that George Washington was one of the country’s top presidents.

Barnes once said he “really could not care less about a 2nd Amendment ‘right’” to bear arms. He also criticized House GOP Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana for not changing his position on gun control after being shot in the hip during practice for the Congressional Baseball Game in 2017.

“Taking one for the team,” Barnes wrote even as Scalise was using crutches and a scooter to get around the Capitol. “I question how people vote against self interest but this is next level. He literally almost died on this hill.”

When people tell you who they are, believe them.

* I eagerly await Joe Biden denouncing this classic case of election denial, which fellow Democrat Mark Warner declared was the moral equivalent of terrorism on the anniversary of 9/11.

NO, THIS ISN’T A BABYLON BEE HEADLINE: Wife of Top Biden Aide Named Ambassador for Plants and Animals. “Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday announced that Monica Medina, wife of White House chief of staff Ron Klain, will serve as U.S. Special Envoy for Biodiversity and Water Resources. According to the Washington Post, which initially declined to note that Medina is married to Klain, the decision to promote her to the newly established role of ‘diplomat for plants and animals’ is one that ‘underscores the Biden’s administration’s desire’ to fight climate change.”

MUST-FLEE TV: “Was anyone asking for a five-part docuseries about the Lincoln Project? Whether you want one or not, Showtime unveiled the trailer yesterday. So fine, let’s talk about the Lincoln Project — its scandals, its bad decisions, its hypocrisy, how it embodies a lot of what it denounces, how it deserves no credit for Joe Biden’s 2020 victory, and how it is most useful as a cautionary tale for other ambitious minds in politics.”

Somehow I’m not holding my breath that the documentary makers will tackle this moment:

AND AGAIN: YouTube Demonetizes TK News Content. “A brief note to subscribers about YouTube’s decision to demonetize TK material, saying Matt Orfalea’s factual video “isn’t suitable for all advertisers,” Matt Taibbi writes:

Today we’re releasing a video Matt Orfalea has been working on, showing years of audio and video clips, tweets, and headlines in which Democratic Party politicians and media figures describe Donald Trump’s presidency as illegitimate. Before it was even published on this site, Matt received the above notice.

I’d like to thank YouTube for making our point. The material in this video does not promote the idea that any election was stolen or illegitimate. On the contrary, it shows a great mass of comments from Democratic partisans and pundits who themselves make that claim, about the 2016 election. Those comments were not censored or suppressed when made the first time around, by the likes of Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Karine Jean-Pierre, Adam Schiff, Rob Reiner, Tom Arnold, and Chris Hayes, among many others.

Here’s the video in question: