Author Archive: Ed Driscoll
March 1, 2022
THE MASKING WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES: D.C. Schools Maintain Indoor Mask Mandate in Defiance of CDC Guidance.
COMING TO UKRAINE: THERMOBARIC WEAPONS? “Fears have risen over the use of thermobaric weapons by Russia after the Ukrainian ambassador to the US said a vacuum bomb – another term for the weapon – had been used during the invasion. The use of such weapons, which suck in oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion, has yet to be independently confirmed, though footage from Ukraine has shown thermobaric rocket launchers on Russia’s TOS-1 vehicles. Dr Marcus Hellyer, senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said while it was not clear if they had been deployed yet by Russia in Ukraine, it was only ‘a matter of time.’”
FELICITY ACE CARGO SHIP SINKS IN ATLANTIC OCEAN: “The sinking of the Felicity Ace comes nearly two weeks after a fire broke out in the ship’s cargo area. Reporting has indicated Felicity Ace was carrying around 4,000 vehicles, including some luxury brands like Porsches, Bentleys, and Lamborghinis, along with VW and Audis. The value of the cargo has been estimated to be over $400 million.”
February 28, 2022
ROGER SIMON: Trump Rocks the House to End the Best CPAC in the Worst of Times.
Who says we don’t live in an age of miracles?
Former President Donald Trump was scheduled to begin his wrap-up speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) 2022 at 7 p.m. on Feb. 26, and he actually began at 7:10 (I checked my watch with incredulity).
But, in truth, it wasn’t the age of miracles.
It was the age of Biden, which meant rampant inflation with endless supply-chain woes everywhere, insane COVID-19 mandates with masked children, the Afghanistan debacle, and now Russian President Vladimir Putin flirting with World War III in Ukraine. (As I type this, Putin has raised his nuclear arsenal to “special combat readiness.” God help us!)
No wonder Trump was in a hurry.
And he delivered what was, at least to me, one of the best CPAC wrap-ups ever—I’ve been to maybe a half-dozen over the years—and one of his best speeches overall.
This is no doubt in part because of the gravity of the current situation. Trump himself called it ”the most chaotic world since WWII.”
He’s not wrong: Russia Warns Nations of ‘Consequences’ for Sending Weapons to Ukraine and Wonders if Germany Was Ever “De-Nazified.”
‘GIFT TO REPUBLICANS:’ Schumer Allows Vote on Dead on Arrival Abortion Bill. Nearly entire Dem caucus votes for bill that would allow termination of full-term pregnancy. “The final vote to advance the bill was 46 to 48, with Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) as the lone Democrat to vote in opposition. The bill passed in the House in September with support from all but one Democrat, Rep. Henry Cuellar (Texas).”
I HOPE HE’S RIGHT: Why Russia is highly unlikely to use nuclear weapons.
15 DAYS TO SLOW THE SPREAD: Public Health Erred on the Side of Catastrophe.
Lockdowns and other mandates weren’t the exclusive driver of many of the various harms I’ve described; general fear of the virus also contributed to some of them. However, it should also be noted that public health officials—and media that overwhelmingly emphasized negative stories—whipped up a level of fear that led people to overstate the level of danger actually posed by the virus.
There’s one more way in which characterizing lockdowns and other mandates as “erring on the side of caution” plays a psychological trick: Since the phrase is embedded with the notion of good intentions, it conditions citizens to be forgiving of the bureaucrats and politicians who imposed them.
Note, however, that in most everyday usage of “erring on the side of caution,” the choice to “err” is made voluntarily by individuals who bear the consequences of their own decisions—or by others, like an airplane pilot or a surgeon, to whom we’ve voluntarily and unmistakably granted control of our well-being.
The grim impacts of lockdowns and other mandates, however, were coercively imposed on society, to say nothing of the fact that so many of the edicts represented gross usurpations of power and violations of human rights.
On top of all that, the edicts were reinforced by Orwellian censorship and ostracism leveled at those who dared raise questions that have now proven valid.
So make no mistake: Overreaching public health officials and politicians—and the journalists-in-name-only who served as their mindless, unquestioning megaphones—have fully earned our withering condemnation. Indeed, holding them accountable is essential to sparing ourselves and future generations from repeating this dystopian chapter of human history.
With an suddenly mask-optional State of the Union speech coming up tomorrow, read the whole thing.
Exit question:
IF YOU LIKE YOUR PLAN, YOU CAN KEEP YOUR PLAN:
Can’t say I blame him for waiting until the end of his presidency, considering what he was repeatedly saying in its first half:
PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE: Biden Claims Republicans Are Trying to Keep Black Americans’ Votes ‘From Even Counting.’
President Biden on Monday claimed Republicans are trying to figure out how to keep black Americans’ votes “from even counting” during a Black History Month event as the White House*.
“We’re protecting our country’s threshold liberty, the sacred right to vote, which I’ve never seen as under such attack,” Biden said. “You know, it’s always made it harder for blacks to vote but this is trying to be able to figure out how to keep the black vote, when it occurs, from even counting.”
Biden’s comment comes one month after Senate Democrats failed to pass both their “voting rights” legislation and a rules change to the filibuster.
Shortly before that vote failed last month, Biden came under fire for comparing opponents of the legislation to racists and segregationists.
“So I ask every elected official in America, how do you want to be remembered?” Biden said during his speech advocating a suspension of filibuster rules to pass voting legislation in January. “Do you want to be on the side of Dr. King or George Wallace**? Do you want to be on the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be on the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?”
Funny, just three weeks ago, as UPI reported at the time: Biden calls for unity at 70th National Prayer Breakfast.
President Joe Biden used his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday morning to call for unity and for those of opposing parties to learn more about one another personally.
The annual prayer breakfast brought together lawmakers from both parties and various faiths. Biden, acknowledging a time of great division in the country, said he recalled the times where Congressional members ate lunch together and spent downtime together.
“Unity doesn’t mean we have to agree on everything, but unity is where enough of us believe in a core of basic things,” Biden said, according to The Hill newspaper. “The common good, the general welfare. A faith in the United States of America.”
Biden said he believed that connecting on a personal basis allows politicians to see one another in a different light.
“I just think that when you learn that another man or woman, you fly on a [congressional delegation] and you learn that they have a kid with a problem with alcoholism***, you learn that they have a daughter who has breast cancer. It’s hard to dislike the person,” Biden said.
“And so one of the things I pray for, and I mean it, is we sort of getting back to the place … that we really know each other.”
* Flashback to 2012: Biden: Romney’s approach to financial regulation will ‘put y’all back in chains.’
But since Obama brought it up, it’s worth noting that the only person in modern American politics to have repeatedly praised Wallace and other segregationists is Joe Biden. It was Biden who bragged that in 1973 Wallace considered him “one of the outstanding young politicians of America.” It was Biden who wrote in 1975 that the “Democratic Party could stand a liberal George Wallace.” It was Biden who in 1981 told a black witness in the Senate that “sometimes even George Wallace is right.” It was Biden who, while campaigning for the presidency in Alabama in 1987, claimed that he’d been the recipient of an award from Wallace in 1973 (it probably wasn’t true; but what a thing to brag about!), and then boasted that Delaware was “on the South’s side in the Civil War.”
“Biden was also buddies with J. William Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and a segregationist and anti-Semite who would later become a mentor to the Clintons.”
And another fellow Democrat, Robert Byrd: Herschel Walker says ‘Democrats do not like America’ and slams media for not grilling Joe Biden over his friendship with former KKK member-turned senator Robert Byrd.
*** Is Joe in his current state not aware of the substance abuse issues his own son has written about?
OLD AND BUSTED: Critical Race Theory.
The New Hotness? ‘The grift is everywhere:’ Nikole Hannah-Jones will deliver a keynote speech at national veterinary conference about … Critical Breed Theory, maybe?
Related: 1619 Project Author Doesn’t Know Geology Either. Helping Ukraine is Racist, Europe isn’t a Continent.
THE UKRAINE INVASION IS THE FIRST SOCIAL MEDIA WAR — And Volodymyr Zelensky is its star:
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has been particularly adept at using social media to his advantage, posting videos of himself and members of his cabinet on the street in front of structures. The clips have a casual gravitas to them — like a guy out on the town with the boys — and make Zelensky instantly relatable, especially in contrast to Vladimir Putin sitting at a twenty-foot long surfboard table, or Justin Trudeau issuing decrees from a hidden bunker in Ottawa.
The reason for this is fairly simple: Zelensky has a background in media and entertainment. He knows how to use these formats better than world leaders twice his age: better than Putin or even the current White House occupant. Zelensky came of age during the social media renaissance and knows he can reach a larger audience straight from his Twitter feed or YouTube channel. Cable news dinosaurs like Brian Stelter will never understand this.
In the new digital age, wars will be fought not only on the ground or with drones but on Twitter. Old dog news journalists still praising the television can get on board, or get left behind.
For a guy whose resume includes dubbing Paddington Bear for the Ukrainian film market, so far, Zelensky appears to be doing amazingly well against Russia.
AS H.L. MENCKEN SAID, “DEMOCRACY IS THE THEORY THAT THE COMMON PEOPLE KNOW WHAT THEY WANT, AND DESERVE TO GET IT GOOD AND HARD:” Kamala Harris: ‘Elections Matter … In This Case, They Got What They Asked For.’
DISPATCHES FROM THE INTERSECTION OF THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE AND THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY: University of Maryland’s Anti-Semitism Task Force Chief Has History of Anti-Semitic Statements. Diversity officer said Israel was engaged in ‘ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestine.’
ZELENSKIY CALLS ON EU TO GRANT UKRAINE EU MEMBERSHIP IMMEDIATELY:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whose country is facing a massive unprovoked invasion from neighboring Russia, has called on the European Union to grant Ukraine membership under a special procedure immediately.
“Our goal is to be with all Europeans and, most importantly, to be equal. I’m sure that’s fair. I am sure we deserve it,” he said in a video speech shared on social media.
“Europeans are witnessing how our soldiers are fighting not only for our country, but for all of Europe, for peace, for peace for all, for all the countries of the European Union, Zelenskiy said.
“Ukrainians have shown to the world who we are, while Russia has showed what it has turned into…Every crime, every shelling by the occupier only unites us more,” Zelenskiy added.
Too soon for #Uxit hashtags?
JIM TREACHER: SNL Finally Realizes Russia Is No Joke.
If you want me to pick sides, I’m rooting for the underdog in this fight. Ukraine has been invaded by a bully, it pisses me off, and it’s nice to see this volley in the war for American hearts and minds. The whole world is watching, and Putin has lost the messaging war before he’s even taken over the country he’s invading.
It’s just galling to see it from the same people who gave us this:
And the audience in 2008 said: “Ha ha ha! Those dumb Republicans, thinking they know anything about Russia. Remember Russia? They used to be the bad guys, but not anymore. And they’ll never be the bad guys again, once we elect Obama!”
None of them are asking why this is happening now, instead of four years ago. It never even occurred to them. Or if it did, they know better to give voice to it.
It’s nice to see them come around, I guess. It would just be nice if they could admit we were right about the Russkies all along.
The hollow virtue signaling is its own reward for them, of course. As a great man once said, “SNL has become a show only for journos.” The press loves this stuff, and none of them will bother asking themselves why their political party is the one that keeps screwing everything up and making such empty gestures necessary.
I suspect executive producer Lorne Michaels is thrilled that his creation has ultimately become the equivalent of state-run TV, carefully toeing the Democratic Party’s line. But as one of his first writers noted decades ago, “You can only be avant-garde for so long before you become garde.”
I’M SENSING A PATTERN HERE FROM BIG TECH:
● GoFundMe’s $10M shutdown of Canadian truckers shows it’s time to rein in Big Tech.
Earlier, from Roger Simon: GoFundMe and How the Left Came to Despise the Working Class.
UPDATE: Exposing Donations to Political Causes Can Chill Free Speech. Two lessons from the Canadian truckers’ protest.
DISPATCHES FROM THE HOUSE OF STEPHANOPOULOS: Stephanopoulos Pleads With Tom Cotton to Denounce Trump for Saying ‘Putin Is Smart’ and ‘America Is Stupid.’
As Jim Treacher notes:
TO BE FAIR, WE ALL DO: Taiwan Deserves Better Than A Joe Biden Presidency.
I HAVE MIXED EMOTIONS ABOUT THIS HEADLINE: In Dramatic Shift, Germany Begins Military Rearmament.
Also, another massive pivot from uber-green Deutschland: Nuclear, coal, LNG: ‘no taboos’ in Germany’s energy about-face.
IT’S COME TO THIS: Federal Government Warns Americans to Mask, Social Distance While Sheltering From Nuclear Explosions.
With US-Russia tensions rapidly rising amid Vladimir Putin’s horrific invasion of Ukraine, the prospect of large-scale nuclear war has reentered the public consciousness for the first time since the end of the Cold War. Indeed, Putin just put additional nuclear forces on “special combat readiness,” although this is almost certainly just saber-rattling and not indicative of any imminent action.
After this significant, if probably mostly symbolic, escalation, nuclear explosion advisory materials from FEMA’s emergency preparedness website, Ready.gov, circulated online over the weekend because of their… erm, interesting priorities.
The FEMA website contains some useful information about nuclear explosions and how Americans should shelter if warned one may be imminent. However, it then goes on to chide us about remembering to social distance and mask while hiding from pending oblivion or radioactive fallout.
Yes, seriously.
Here’s one choice passage:
“Get inside the nearest building to avoid radiation. Brick or concrete are best. Go to the basement or middle of the building. Stay away from the outer walls and roof. Try to maintain a distance of at least six feet between yourself and people who are not part of your household. If possible, wear a mask if you’re sheltering with people who are not a part of your household.”
As Stanley Kubrick told an interviewer about his 1964 film Dr. Strangelove, “I started work on the screenplay with every intention of making the film a serious treatment of the problem of accidental nuclear war. As I kept trying to imagine the way in which things would really happen, ideas kept coming to me which I would discard because they were so ludicrous. I kept saying to myself: ‘I can’t do this. People will laugh.’ But after a month or so I began to realize that all the things I was throwing out were the things which were most truthful.”
No need to imagine Dr. Strangelove set in the era of COVID — FEMA did it for us.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Flashback: The Unexpected Return of Duck and Cover.
THE HOTTEST OF HOT TAKES, COURTESY OF A NEW YORK TIMES PULITZER WINNER: Nikole Hannah-Jones: ‘What if I told you Europe is not a continent by definition…’