Author Archive: Ed Driscoll
March 13, 2022
HISTORY FORGOTTEN: Academics claim Hitler didn’t kill ethnic Germans, use chemical weapons.
While comparing Putin to Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler on MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show,” Stanford University political science professor Michael McFaul — “a leading expert on Russia, American foreign policy, and democratic development around the world” according to his website — claimed that even as evil as the der Führer was, at least he didn’t murder his own people.
Paraphrasing what a Ukrainian commentator had offered, McFaul noted a Russian journalist had said “You know, there’s one difference between Hitler, when he was coming in, and Putin: Hitler didn’t kill ethnic Germans. He didn’t kill German-speaking people.”
Elsewhere, Atlantic Council Senior Fellow and Georgetown University adjunct Anders Åslund took to Twitter to claim Putin “violates every international law there is. Hitler did not use chemical weapons. Putin is preparing to do so.”
Just in case it needs to be noted, Hitler did indeed murder his own people, and one of the ways he did so was with chemical agents.
Note that McFaul “made it worse, suggesting that Jews could not be ‘ethnic Germans.’ [Editor’s note: the tweet was removed, but as they say, the internet is forever. We’ve added a second tweet, too.]”
Jerry Dunleavy has copies of the half-dozen tweets McFaul posted yesterday morning and then later deleted as the Corbynization of the Democratic Party continues apace.
WELCOME BACK CARTER! Drive Slow for America. The key to coping with “Putin’s price hike” is better driving habits.
We love speed.
But as the geopolitical situation deteriorates in Eastern Europe, perhaps we might consider again the righteousness of driving at more reasonable speeds—if only to weather the “Putin price hike,” as the Biden administration has branded the inevitable spiking of gas prices already in progress, and support our national resolve to ban oil and gas imports from Russia. Because in the coming months and maybe even years, slowing down will save you money—potentially, depending on the car you drive and how much you drive it, lots and lots of money.
According to a 2013 study by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which evaluated for speed and efficiency 74 vehicles as disparate as diesel Volkswagens, hybrid Ford Fusions, and the gas-powered Mercury Grand Marquis, a typical U.S.-made car achieves maximum fuel efficiency at a steady speed of 40 to 50 mph. After that, explains John Thomas, the now-retired lead investigator on the study, “the rule of thumb is that you lose about 15 percent gas mileage for every 10 miles per hour you accelerate.” On the open road, where drivers maintain steady speeds of 50 to 80 mph, reducing speed by 10 mph can save 75 cents a gallon on a five-dollar gallon of gas—or 90 cents a gallon on a six-dollar gallon of gas, already the price where I live, in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles.
This varies a lot by the make and model of your car, whether you have a headwind or a tailwind or crosswinds, and countless other variables. But basically, Thomas says, “peak fuel economy is the lowest speed you can go in the highest gear.” It’s where your revolutions-per-minute dial hovers in the lower third, where you can hear your engine purring, but never hear it rev. “It’s actually a little bit nonlinear,” Thomas says. “Efficiency gets worse as you keep going faster.”
—The Atlantic, yesterday.
As Glenn writes in the New York Post: Don’t pretend that high prices and American suffering are a ‘bug’ for the establishment — it’s a historic feature.
And Jeffrey Goldberg’s Atlantic is happy to do their part as Democratic Party operatives with bylines to nudge Americans along whatever path President Klain thinks is best.
WE HAVE POUNCING AND SEIZING!
● “If he doesn’t block Russian oil and gas imports, Biden opens himself to allegations that he’s giving Putin precious breathing room. And the GOP is itching to pounce.”
—Politico Playbook: How gas prices could crush Biden and the Democrats, March 3rd.
● Republicans seize on rising gas prices amid Ukraine conflict.
—The Hill, yesterday.
● “Already battling inflation at a 40-year high, Biden on Tuesday imposed a ban on U.S. imports of Russian oil, adding pressure to crude prices holding near a 14-year peak. The move is likely to drive up U.S. pump prices that have already risen past $4-per-gallon in many places. This stands to pose a political problem for the Democratic president, one Republicans are eager to seize on ahead of November midterm elections in which control of Congress is at stake.”
—Biden’s political strategy on U.S. gas hikes? Blame it on Putin, Reuters, Wednesday.
● “While members of both parties greeted the Russian energy ban, Republicans seized upon it to call for more domestic oil and gas drilling while Democrats said the economy’s sensitivity to petroleum imports underscores the need to shift toward alternative energy sources and electric vehicles.”
—Biden warns of higher pump prices as he bans Russian energy, Roll Call, Tuesday.
HOW CAN WE MISS YOU IF YOU WON’T GO AWAY? Jordan Schachtel: Fauci emerges to congratulate himself on COVID response: ‘the success story has been the science.’
As the Biden White House pivots to war in Ukraine, the 50 year government bureaucrat has largely been relegated to local TV and obscure podcasts. His CNBC appearance was his first major network appearance in weeks, and it was not at all featured in any of CNBC’s social media platforms. The interview is only available behind a paywall for CNBC’s Squawk Box show. I’ve pulled the audio from the Squawk Box podcast for the show.
* * * * * * * *
“The one really big success story has been the science,” Fauci declared, adding that the creation of multiple mRNA vaccines should be a cause for celebration.
In applauding a victory for “the science,” Fauci appears to be congratulating himself. He has previously revealed that he believes himself to be the personification of science as a concept.
Flashbacks:
● Johns Hopkins Analysis: ‘Lockdowns Should be Rejected Out of Hand.’
March 12, 2022
REPORT: Rocket attack confirmed in Northern Iraq:
Multiple rockets have targeted Erbil in northern Iraq early on Sunday, the state news agency has reported quoting Erbil’s governor.
More than three explosions were heard but the city airport was not believed to be the target, Deputy Minister Hiwa Afandi said.
Lawk Ghafuri, head of Kurdistan’s Foreign Media Relations, also said more than three explosions were heard, He added that security forces are investigating the incident and updates will be available shortly.
As is consistent with previous attacks instigated by Iranian-backed militia, media channel Sabreen posted videos of the attack moments after its occurrence.
Video here:
BREAKING: Sky News Arabia is reporting that multiple long-range ballistic missiles have been fired targeting the U.S. consulate in Erbil, Iraq.
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 12, 2022
OUT ON A LIMB: Gov. Gavin Newsom: ‘There’s no compassion stepping over people in the streets and sidewalks.’
California’s governor proposed a plan Thursday to offer more services to homeless people with severe mental health and addiction disorders even if that means compelling some into care, a move that many advocates of homeless people oppose as a violation of civil rights.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a press conference that he has no intention of rounding people up and locking them away. Instead, he said his plan would offer a way for people to get court-ordered psychiatric treatment, medication and housing, preferably before thnewsoey are arrested.
Under the plan, which requires approval by the Legislature, all counties would have to set up a mental health branch in civil court and provide comprehensive and community-based treatment to those suffering from debilitating psychosis. People need not be homeless to be evaluated by a court.
But if approved, they would be obligated to accept the care or risk criminal charges, if those are pending, and if not, they would be subject to being held in psychiatric programs involuntarily or lengthier conservatorships in which the court appoints a person to make health decisions for someone who cannot.
“There’s no compassion stepping over people in the streets and sidewalks,” Newsom told reporters at a briefing at a mental health treatment facility in San Jose. “We could hold hands, have a candlelight vigil, talk about the way the world should be, or we could take some damn responsibility to implement our ideals and that’s what we’re doing differently here.”
Good to see California finally going back to the future: We Shut Down State Mental Hospitals. Some People Want to Bring Them Back. Is “mental illness” a fraudulent concept for locking up social deviants? Or does forced treatment free the ill “from the Bastille of their psychosis?”
Related: It’s mental health, stupid: How Team Biden misunderstands homeless crisis.
Helena Kerschner is a 23-year-old detransitioned woman who identified as transgender during her teenage years and was prescribed testosterone shortly after her 18th birthday. After being on testosterone for a year and a half, she realized that transitioning was a misguided way of dealing with her social and emotional struggles. Now, years later, she is interested in exploring the cultural and psychological factors that contribute to the sharp rise in the number of adolescent girls identifying as transgender and choosing to medically transition with hormones and surgeries.
In my efforts to understand the personal factors that led me to identify as transgender and eventually decide to mistakenly transition, I’ve always been struck by the overwhelming role the internet has played in my life.
Online pornography, which studies show most kids are now exposed to by the age of 13, has become virtually inescapable. Faster than we can even measure its impact, this new world of porn is drastically changing how young people form their perceptions of sexuality and adult relationships. It would be foolish to think that it wouldn’t have major consequences. In my own life, I can see how being inundated with pornographic imagery as a young woman, much of it violent, and being repeatedly told that this was normal and even cool led me instinctively to look for an escape from womanhood.
Read the whole thing.
OKAY, GROOMER: Disney Severely Miscalculated — and Republicans Shouldn’t Forgive and Forget.
The consternation over the Parental Rights in Education bill, passed by the legislature in Florida, continues apace. As RedState reported, the falsehoods being perpetrated about the bill are mind-numbing, including the idea that it bans saying the word “gay,” when that term is not even mentioned in the text.
Of course, because major corporations think being woke is profitable, Disney decided to jump into the fray, denouncing the legislation. Gov. Ron DeSantis responded by essentially telling them to go jump in a lake. Now, Disney Corp. has retaliated by pausing all political donations, of which about 80 percent in Florida supposedly went to Republicans.
That the false “Don’t Say Gay” moniker continues to be used by the mainstream media as a factual label in regards to this bill is an astonishing breach of journalistic ethics, but I digress. Water is indeed wet.
As to Disney, I think they’ve severely miscalculated here. There was no widespread backlash regarding this bill among its employees. That was a completely manufactured narrative pushed mainly by CNN, which corroborated its claim of a supposed outcry by citing two social media posts. Further, the bill does not even do what its most vocal opponents claim. Disney could have easily remained neutral, pointed out what the bill actually says, and kept its relationship with Florida Republicans intact.
Instead, they wired up that bridge and blew it to smithereens. And for what? To make a woke mob that can never be appeased happy for a brief moment? Now, what happens the next time Disney wants another tax cut or legal carve-out from the state? All those friendly GOP faces aren’t going to be there, and DeSantis has made it clear he will not be brought to heel by private companies trying to throw their weight around.
Further, Disney now has to explain to normal parents, of which many of their customers are, why they are against a bill that simply stops teachers from sexually indoctrinating small children. Who was more likely to go to Disney World? A young, Florida couple with children they want to protect or your average, purple-haired woke warrior? In other words, from a financial standpoint, Disney’s move to go to war with DeSantis and the Parental Rights in Education bill was incredibly stupid.
No to mention having to explain Disney’s hypocrisy regarding China: Disney Defends Mulan Filming Near [Uighur] Internment Camps In China.
And then there’s the Shanghai Disneyland itself:
Earlier: Florida’s ‘don’t Say Gay’ Bill Plays Into DeSantis’s Hands. “In refusing to kowtow to Democratic histrionics — which DeSantis has been doing since early in the pandemic — the governor adopted a signature rhetorical move of his own: he set the political frame and never bended to faux emotionality or backtracked once committed to a position. DeSantis understands that if you don’t fall for Democrats’ emotional blackmail, eventually they’ll have to defend the inconvenient facts. If they scream ‘don’t say gay,’ you counter with ‘are you okay with a random teacher talking to little kids about sexuality?’ and let them attempt to sell that line to normal Americans. As a Floridian, it’s been fascinating to watch DeSantis become a smooth political operator ready for primetime.”
THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE: Angry Biden Shouts, ‘I’m Sick of This Stuff,’ Lashes Out at Those Who Blame Him for Inflation.
Fortunately though, Kamala feels America’s pain. Or not:
This is real.
Unedited.
Actually happened.
pic.twitter.com/VKMjKQnI2s— Rising serpent 🇺🇸 (@rising_serpent) March 11, 2022
STAR TREK: PICARD SERVES UP SOME EPIC CHEESE: If you’ve already seen it, or you’re okay with spoilers, a recap of the second season’s second episode can be found here: Picard Is Just Diving Right Into Some Classic Star Trek Good and Evil.
But I wonder if one element of the plot was inspired by Jeri Ryan’s own real-life history: The Woman Who Changed the World.
OKAY, GROOMER: Chasten Buttigieg Leads Kids in Pledge to the Gay Flag.
A guest on MSNBC was torched by critics making a comparison between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Adolf Hitler, providing a more favorable view of the Nazi dictator.
Appearing on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” former U.S. Ambassador to Russia [under President Obama — Ed] and Stanford University Professor Michael McFaul highlighted “interesting” remarks a commentator made on Ukrainian television about “how horrific” the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has been.
But he also targeted disabled people, which included ethnic Germans. About 70,000 disabled Austrians and Germans were killed in “Operation T4” between 1941 and 1940, per the museum. His programs also involved medical experimentation on disabled citizens — which led to the creation of the Nuremberg Code. Other targets included gay people, alcoholics, and political rivals.
Hitler’s actions, particularly his invasion of Poland, triggered World War II. An estimated 5.5 million German soldiers and between 6.6 and 8.8 million German civilians were killed during that conflict, per the museum.
“I think people need to remember that we’re talking about cities like Kharkiv and Mariupol and Kyiv, there are large populations there, you know, up to a third and sometimes as much to a half that are Russian speakers and are ethnic Russians. And yet Putin doesn’t seem to care about that. He slaughters the very people he said he has come to liberate,” McFaul said.
The comments were then shared by the Maddow Blog, tweeting, “One difference between Putin and Hitler is that Hitler didn’t kill ethnic Germans, German-speaking people. Putin slaughters the very people he said he has come to liberate.”
The clip went viral with critics taking McFaul to the woodshed for his fact-challenged commentary.
And was subsequently deleted by MSNBC:
Or to put it another way:
QUESTION ASKED: Could Putin Attack Britain? New video by war historian Mark Felton:
HERE’S A HEADLINE THAT WILL MAKE PUTIN TREMBLE:
I hope this ends better than the last time the White House got involved with a “TikTok Star:”
Related: The Ukraine invasion is the first social media war.
More: WWW: World War Woke. Tweets don’t beat tanks.
Flashback: ‘Adults,’ ‘Progress,’ and Disaster.
OLD AND BUSTED: The 1619 Project.
The New Hotness? The 1917 Project! Russians Wanted the Soviet Union Back. They Got It. “Sure, Moscow hasn’t secured any of its strategic objectives in Ukraine, and Russia is sure to emerge from this conflict an isolated and diminished global power wholly dependent on rogue states for its survival. But Putin has the visuals he wanted. Today, the flag of the Soviet Union once again adorns tanks rolling into Europe, and the 1945 victory banner flies over Ukraine. The sound of dissent arising from the streets is muted amid the terrified screams of the brutalized and oppressed. The market has been tamed, and the Russian people have been rendered placid and governable once more. This is the ‘greatness’ Russians supposedly longed for. Now they have it.”
THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTINUES APACE: Israel ‘shouldn’t exist as a Jewish state,’ Amnesty USA director tells Democratic group.
Following Amnesty International’s recent report that accused Israel of “apartheid” in its treatment of Palestinians, the group’s USA director appeared to go a step further on Wednesday, suggesting to a Women’s National Democratic Club audience that the bulk of American Jews do not want Israel to be a Jewish state, but rather “a safe Jewish space” based on “core Jewish values.”
Paul O’Brien said one of Amnesty’s goals in publishing the report, which was roundly criticized by Israeli and American officials, is to “collectively change the conversation” on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “It needs to start first and foremost with the Jewish community,” O’Brien, who is not Jewish, said.
The Amnesty official rejected a 2020 survey conducted by the Ruderman Family Foundation that found that eight in 10 Jewish Americans identify as “pro-Israel,” and two-thirds feel emotionally “attached” or “very attached” to the Jewish state.
“I actually don’t believe that to be true,” O’Brien said regarding those figures. “I believe my gut tells me that what Jewish people in this country want is to know that there’s a sanctuary that is a safe and sustainable place that the Jews, the Jewish people can call home.”
Flashback: Amnesty Pulls Aleksei Navalny’s ‘Prisoner Of Conscience’ Status Over ‘Hate Speech.’
Amnesty International has reportedly withdrawn its recent designation of Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny’s as a “prisoner of conscience” over his alleged advocacy of violence and discrimination and comments that included hate speech.
Aleksandr Artemyev, the rights watchdog’s media manager for Russia and Eurasia, confirmed the decision to Mediazona on February 23 after the news was first reported by U.S. journalist Aaron Mate.
RFE/RL was unable to independently confirm the reports.
Artemyev wrote that Amnesty, which named Navalny a prisoner of conscience after his arrest in Moscow in January, decided to retract the designation “in light of new information” stemming from “old videos and social media posts in which Navalny made controversial pronouncements.”
The comments attributed to Navalny in the mid-2000s were not specified, but Artemyev said they were made as Navalny’s activism and challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin was gaining momentum and that their reemergence “appears to be another tactic to delegitimize Navalny’s work and criticism and to weaken public outcry about his detention.”
Back in 2003, the late Steven Den Beste compared the ACLU with Amnesty International, after the latter forgot its original mission (remember those “to freedom!” ads that ran on MTV in the 1980s?) over how its members (read: fundraisers) viewed the Iraq War:
It’s not going too far to say that many of Amnesty International’s members have approximately as strongly negative of feelings now about America and George Bush as the ACLU’s members had about the Nazis when the ACLU defended them in Skokie.
The ACLU made the principled decision and weathered the downturn in contributions. When condemnation of Iraq didn’t make AI look as if it was aligning with America, Amnesty International was willing to try to shine a spotlight on the abuses there. But now AI has suddenly gone silent. The abuses against the citizens of Iraq have not stopped; indeed they’ve gotten worse. In addition to ongoing violent repression of Iraq’s civilian population, various Iraqi military and para-military units have been directly violating the Geneva Convention by, for instance, abusing the white flag of truce, and by using protected humanitarian facilities to hold military equipment, and by using “human shields” in combat, and by directly firing at refugees, and in numerous other ways.
And what we’re seeing is that AI seems unwilling to make more than oblique mention of these things, while at the same time explicitly condemning the US for what are at best minor transgressions by comparison. Why is it more important to strongly focus attention on “censorship” while ignoring mass slaughter of refugees?
In retrospect, Conquest’s second law of politics (“Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing”) dictates that it was only a matter of time before the ACLU would similarly lose the thread.
KAROL MARKOWICZ: Get rid of masks on planes.
Airlines have to fight back. They must be losing money, at minimum from families with small kids who can’t tolerate a face covering and so are not traveling. When a two-year-old has been yanked off an airplane for not complying with masking, that only happens in America and it only happens because our CDC is demented enough to recommend masking toddlers. Not a single other health agency in the world does this. It’s long past the time to stop listening to them and move on toward normalcy.
Read the whole thing.
A TRILLION HERE AND A TRILLION THERE, AND SOONER OR LATER YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT REAL MONEY: The House Just Passed a $1.5 TRILLION Spending Bill. Almost Nobody Actually Read It.
Why bother? As Nancy says, you have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it.
March 11, 2022
TEN MILLION HERE, TEN MILLION THERE, AND PRETTY SOON YOU’RE TALKING REAL MONEY: Federal Government Wasted $10 Million on COVID Tests That Didn’t Work, Watchdog Reveals.
March 10, 2022
FLORIDA’S ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL PLAYS INTO DESANTIS’S HANDS:
In refusing to kowtow to Democratic histrionics — which DeSantis has been doing since early in the pandemic — the governor adopted a signature rhetorical move of his own: he set the political frame and never bended to faux emotionality or backtracked once committed to a position. DeSantis understands that if you don’t fall for Democrats’ emotional blackmail, eventually they’ll have to defend the inconvenient facts. If they scream “don’t say gay,” you counter with “are you okay with a random teacher talking to little kids about sexuality?” and let them attempt to sell that line to normal Americans.
As a Floridian, it’s been fascinating to watch DeSantis become a smooth political operator ready for primetime. In the early days of the pandemic, he was an inexperienced newcomer in search of an identity and governance style. Yet he proved to be up to the challenge, and the ensuing pandemic years honed his burgeoning political personality. He was quicker than most when it came to removing unnecessary pandemic restrictions, but he held his frame — the first time — when pro-lockdown Democrats called him genocidal.
Next, he was forceful in getting kids back to in-person learning, and when faced with histrionics yet again, he never gave in to the screams of “Deathsantis.” But now that the pandemic is in the rearview mirror and DeSantis is looking toward a possible presidential run, he needs more than just popular pandemic policies and an immovable frame — he needs to round out his political platform.
Lately, one gets the sense that DeSantis’s maneuvering in Florida has less to do with the state and more to do with the DeSantis doctrine; the fact that Florida is now the “free state of Florida” and buzzing with newcomers is incidental to the larger project at hand. Which is to say that Florida Democrats have played right into his hands with the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Read the whole thing.
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Cruel: Jussie Smollett Will Be Forced To Share A Jail Cell With His Attacker.’
I eagerly await USA Today’s fact-check of this headline.
Related:
#JussieDidntKillHimself https://t.co/bKO9yhu4qH
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 11, 2022
NEWS FROM FOOTBALL’S OFFSEASON: MLB lockout ends as MLBPA, owners reach CBA agreement: Five takeaways with baseball set to return.