JIM TREACHER: Stacey Abrams Drops the Mask.

This week, Stacey Abrams made history: For the first time ever, she actually contributed something useful to society.

Until now, Abrams’ main claim to fame was refusing to admit she lost the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race. She’s gotten a lot of mileage out of that from her fellow Democrats, who hold her up as a martyr and therefore a hero. Now she’s running for governor again, which in her mind is actually a reelection bid.

That was going fine until this happened:

With one indelible image, Stacey Abrams has encapsulated the frustrations of parents across the country. Here’s an obese 48-year-old woman sitting maskless while surrounded by masked children. Abrams is at much higher risk of COVID than those kids are, yet the rules don’t seem to apply to her. She wants to condemn these tykes to a future full of masked faces, even while her ego won’t allow her to cover her own.

Read the whole thing.

While the reduction of masking requirements is in part battlefield preparation for the midterms, it was also likely driven by the growing backlash from voters seeing politicians posing unmasked, particularly with masked kids.

QED: Neo on The Mother “Realignment,” responding to the article on Bari Weiss’s Substack we linked to earlier in the week.

The article features women who previously were mostly liberal Democrats and a NeverTrump Republican. They are mothers activated to new awareness. They haven’t made the transition to Republican (except for one who started out as one), and that doesn’t surprise me. I doubt they ever will, although it’s possible. But they say they’ll vote for whoever helps their kids:

These women don’t really care about The Big Lie or Russiagate or filibuster reform. They could not care less about Big Abstract Theories Of Government. They traffic in hashtags like #TeamReality, #RationalGround and #SmilesMatter. After so many years of endless yammering about conservatives, neoliberals, progressives, alt-righters, the woke, the anti-woke, the only thing they really care about is what works. What is actually happening in the real world. What is being done to their children. And they are willing to vote for whoever can actually bring a return to normal.

I would ask them whether they think all these things are separate. Why is Russiagate and the deceptions involved with it not related to the lies that kept their children at home all this time? Wasn’t one party mainly involved – the party that most of them used to support? The same party that’s trying to get more and more power over their lives by (among other things) ending the filibuster?

True, but baby steps — at least they’re pushing back against the mask obsessives, which apparently is quite an accomplishment for some leftists:

DON’T GET COCKY: Byron York: Are Democrats doomed?

5. The direction of the country. Another poll staple is the question of whether one believes the country is on the right track or whether it has gotten off course. Most of the time, most people believe the country is off course in some way or another. But the number has gotten quite high recently — about two-thirds believe the country is on the wrong track. That points toward change.

The bottom line is that all of these issues look bad for Democrats. And all involve, in one way or another, Joe Biden. “The midterms are about one thing and one thing only,” says a Republican strategist. “And that is a referendum on the incumbent president — end of story.” As long as Biden remains the key factor in the midterm elections, Democratic chances are not good, no matter the spin.

Of course, that’s a prediction for this November at the ballot box. Long term, though: No, the Revolution Isn’t Over. None of the fundamental drivers of “Wokeness” have relented.

20 MINUTES INTO THE FUTURE: Ezra Levant: I think I know how this trucker rebellion is going to end. Hear me out. “To save the U.S. economy from a trucker rebellion, Joe Biden will lift his trucker vaccine mandate. Trudeau will have to follow, though he will be so enraged he’ll probably punch through the drywall.”

Read the whole thing.

TOYOTA AD SAYS KAEPERNICK ANTHEM PROTEST WAS ‘SIGN OF RESPECT TO THE MILITARY:’

A new Toyota commercial featuring Colin Kaepernick claims the former NFL quarterback’s controversial national anthem protest was a “sign of respect to the military.”

The ad, which aired Friday morning on Howard University’s radio station, says Kaepernick’s decision to go “on one knee” during the national anthem “came as a sign of respect to the military” and “changed the world.” The commercial also calls Kaepernick a “two-time Super Bowl quarterback,” which is false. Kaepernick appeared in one Super Bowl, a 34-31 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

“Colin Rand Kaepernick, a two-time Super Bowl quarterback and NFL record holder, first knelt on one knee during the national anthem in 2016 as a sign of respect to the military and a symbol of protest against police shootings,” the Toyota ad says. “He changed the world and sparked a peaceful form of protest that continues around the world.”

The ad also features an audio clip in which Kaepernick himself explains his decision to kneel. He does not mention the military in the clip—instead, he says he kneeled to “bring awareness and make people realize what’s really going on in this country.”

“This country stands for freedom, liberty, justice for all,” Kaepernick says in the ad. “And it’s not happening for all right now.”

The activist made clear in 2016 that he kneeled during the anthem to protest police brutality. In an interview at the time, Kaepernick said he would not “stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppressed black people and people of color.”

Audio at link; since Toyota apparently approves of Colin Kaepernick, then I’m sure they’re also OK with this protest as well:  “Toyota will not produce vehicles at their three Ontario plants this week. The Ambassador Bridge is effectively shut down. The Blue Water is slowed. Peace Bridge may shut this weekend. Good jobs may leave Ontario forever.”

GOODER AND HARDER: New Orleans sees record highs in violent crime amidst police shortages.

A CANADIAN REPORTER GETS MORE THAN HE BARGAINED FOR AFTER TRYING TO BAIT A TRUCKER IN OTTAWA (Video).

DISPATCHES FROM THOSE CRAZY TRUMP-SUPPORTING RED STATE NUTS IN, ERR, SWEDEN: ‘It’s over:’ Sweden lifts Covid restrictions and ends mass testing.

GREAT MOMENTS IN COOLLY OBJECTIVE JOURNALISM: CNN anchor admits she’s ‘officially out of ideas’ for ‘what to do about Joe Rogan.’

“Well, I’ll admit, I’m out of ideas for what to do about Joe Rogan,” CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota said on Wednesday. “I’m officially out of ideas.”

“I’m confused by both ‘it’s always been out there, but this is a political hit job.’ ‘It feels good that it’s out, but then also I really need to address this,'” co-anchor Victor Blackwell said, summarizing Rogan’s remarks about the controversies. “I mean, it seems like there are at least three different narratives that are coming here.”

“Listen, I think that he’s saying out loud things that we want people who are caught doing horrible things to say, which is, ‘I’m going to do better, I feel ashamed of this, I’m sorry about this.’ And so I think that all of that is great,” Camerota said. “I think that where there’s the misalignment is that, basically he just said, ‘How dumb are you if you’re taking medical advice from me,’ okay? I posed that same question about Joe Rogan. The people who were taking medical advice from him, how dumb are they? But he has this huge platform that does influence, you know, millions of people. So there’s a misalignment between this sort of personal responsibility and the size of his platform.”

Does CNN do anything other than act as hall monitors for shows with much larger audiences?

JOHN SEXTON: Down the Rabbit Hole: Paul Krugman’s role in the Sarah Palin libel trial (and mine).

I’m not sure what Douthat was reading in 2017 but the “rabbit hole” about the other, similar maps probably traces back to me and that 2010 blog post above. The specific map he’s referring to is the DCCC map above.

In any case, Douthat was correct that the main takeaway here is that there never was a connection between Palin and the shooting. Krugman’s efforts to create one were nevertheless “vivid” for a lot of people on the left. One of those people, it seems, was James Bennet who must have had some memory of Krugman, or someone echoing him, pointing to the map as an incitement before the facts showed otherwise. Somehow, Bennet, and his colleagues who reviewed his draft, never got the message that Krugman was wrong.

Read the whole thing.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Psaki Says Everyone Will Have To Show Proof Of Vaccination Before Receiving Free Crack Pipe.

GOV. PRITZKER UNVEILS PLAN TO LIFT ILLINOIS MASK MANDATE FOR MANY BY FEB. 28. The lifting of the mandate will not apply to schools, however, Pritzker said.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker revealed plans Wednesday to lift Illinois’ indoor mask mandate, with the exception of in schools, by Feb. 28 if state COVID metrics continue to decline.

Noting that the state is “seeing the fastest rate of decline in our COVID-19 hospitalization metrics since the pandemic began,” Pritzker said if trends continue as expected, “then on Monday, Feb. 28, we will lift the indoor mask requirement for the State of Illinois.”

He noted, however, one important caveat.

“I want to be clear: Many local jurisdictions, businesses and organizations have their own mask requirements and other mitigations that must be respected,” he said. “Having stricter mitigations than the state requirements is something that must be adhered to. Doing what’s right in your private business or for your local communities is encouraged. Whether you’re a business, a township, a venue, a place of worship or a city – to name just a few examples – protecting your patrons and visitors is no doubt a high priority. Masks continue to be a very effective way to keep your establishment from experiencing an outbreak or spreading the disease.”

Yet another Blue State governor who’s getting a “good news” headline simply by pushing mask mandates down to the local level, and still requiring kids to wear them.

Related: 70% of the Country Thinks It’s Time to Throw Off the Tyranny of the Karens. But The Party of Karens, Get This, Disagrees.

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Beto Backtracks on AR-15 Confiscation: ‘I’m not Interested in Taking Anything From Anyone.’

Hell no, Beto O’Rourke does not want to take your AR-15. At least, not anymore.

The Texas Democrat currently running for governor said he does not want to force Texans to turn in their guns.

“I’m not interested in taking anything from anyone,” O’Rourke told supporters during a campaign stop in Tyler, Texas on Tuesday. “What I want to make sure that we do is defend the Second Amendment.”

That’s literally the opposite of what he told a national audience during a presidential primary debate in 2020.

“Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,” he said in September 2019. “We’re not going to allow it to be used against our fellow Americans anymore.”

O’Rourke doubled down on the pledge throughout his 2019 campaign. He even promised those who did not participate in his mandatory buyback scheme would face severe punishment.

“If someone does not turn in an AR-15, or an AK-47, one of these weapons of war, or brings it out in public and brandishes it in an attempt to intimidate—as we saw in Kent State recently—then that weapon will be taken from them,” Beto told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “If they persist, there will be other consequences from law enforcement.”

Police were unenthused by the idea, though.

Flashback: Beto Suggests Anyone Who Votes for Trump Is a Racist.

That’s some niche campaign Robert O’Rourke is running in Texas.

ATTACKS ON RON DESANTIS OVER FLORIDA’S ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL HAVE NO BASIS IN REALITY:

As a gay conservative myself, I decided to read the actual bill to see what all the outrage was about. As is so often the case, the left-wing shrieking moral outrage and charges of bigotry are wildly overblown and not based in reality. Does the proposed Florida law really “prohibit the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity,” as Twitter’s trending topics put it?

No. It doesn’t.

Quoting from the actual bill text, it simply “prohibit[s] a school district from encouraging classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels.” (Emphasis added.)

The proposed law also specifies encouragement of discussions on these topics cannot be done “in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.” Importantly, this bill does not prohibit students from having these discussions on their own initiative. Discussions of sexuality and gender identity simply can’t be forced by the schools.

Related: Christina Pushaw would like answers from WaPo about their London-based reporter covering Florida & pushing Left’s talking points.

Democracy dies in Old Blighty apparently.

MARJORIE TAYLOR-GREENE ACCUSES PELOSI OF RUNNING ‘GAZPACHO POLICE:’

Gazpacho, of course, is a chilled Spanish soup, made most frequently, though not exclusively, with tomatoes. The Gestapo was the notorious Nazi secret police.

Taylor-Greene no doubt meant to compare the Capitol Hill police to the murderous Nazi secret police, and not to the refreshing soup, though in truth the organization bears little resemblance to either.

And while it pales beside her confusion of Gestapo and gazpacho, I’d note that “Gestapo police” is redundant, like “Luftwaffe Air Force” or “Red Army Army.”

Exit question: How do the Gazpacho Police compare in ruthlessness to the Library Police…

…and the Phone Cops?

JACK SHAFER: How the Right Learned to Love Saul Alinsky.

The only idea gaining bipartisan traction these days is the strategy of storming and occupying some power center.

In Canada, thousands of vaccine-mandate protesting truckers, supported by many of the country’s conservatives, have turned the streets of Ottawa into a monster truck rally, defacing the capital’s monuments, flying the Nazi flag, and bullying soup kitchen operators. The Ottawa showdown, titled “Freedom Convoy,” follows the Jan. 6 blitz on the U.S. Capitol by Trump’s “patriots,” and what now is called that event’s dress rehearsal, the armed storming of Michigan’s state capitol in 2020.

Such turf takeovers have traditionally been the province of the left, not the right. In the 1930s, leftist union organizers took over auto and rubber factories to gain recognition. In the 1950s and 1960s, the civil rights and anti-war movements staged sit-down protests of their own, with the peaceniks famously occupying the office of Columbia University’s president. (Taking over a college president’s office remains a protester favorite.) In 2011 and 2012, anti-capitalist activists from the Occupy Wall Street movement commandeered Manhattan’s streets (“Whose streets? Our streets!”) in their campaign against income inequality. Their methods and message spread across the country and around the world. Following the George Floyd murder, Portland anarchists set fire to a police precinct and essentially took possession of the city’s downtown streets, holding them for months.

What took the right so long to discover the politics of occupation? Do they not get cable television or something? Perhaps they’ve been too hung up on good manners and property rights to knock down the door of power and hijack it? And what does it mean that some righties have now decided that rushing the barricades, breaking windows, and intimidating the state is a fruitful political technique?

I’ll take “Headlines from 2009” for $500, Alex.

DAVID THOMPSON: He Just Wouldn’t Stop Banging On. “Those of you who keep track of these things will know that today is this blog’s fifteenth birthday. I started doing… this, whatever it is, on the same day that the original iPhone was announced, back when the Blackberry Curve was a desirable thing, and 200 million people had a MySpace account. After close to sixteen million pageviews, it seems I’ve joined the ranks of the Old Guard, at least as measured in internet years. Happily, I have moisturiser.”

JAMES LILEKS’ WEDNESDAY REVIEW OF MODERN THOUGHT:

Who’s responsible for the culture wars? The right, of course. Everything was proceeding as it should, climbing the staircase of enlightenment, everything getting better and better on our way to the best of all possible worlds. Then the ogres appeared, their brows thick and knotted, their mien dull and perturbed, and they set about to fight with the angels on the staircase. They knew not why, only that they were not angels, and felt ashamed at their own rude forms and incoherent grunts.

NPR interviewed a fellow who wrote a book on this, and I was interested in his take. These excerpts also draw from this. He said:

I think there was a specific set of circumstances in the early 1970s, where the culture wars sprung up, because finally the evangelical right felt galvanized into doing something.

And what was that? What did they do? What was that specific set?

Did anything happen in “the early 1970s” that might have produced a cultural flashpoint to which religious might might be drawn?

Read the whole thing.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Leftists Deeply Afraid Things Could Go Back To Normal.

Just look at the New York Times, which as mask mandates wind down, are reverting to their Luxury Beliefs from the Before Times: “Anxiety Over Climate Changes Lands on the Therapist’s Couch.” (Link safe; goes to NewsBusters.)

WHY IS THE LEFT SUCH A CESSPIT OF RACISM? Project Veritas Exposes ESPN’s Ugly Racist Reality.

DEPEND UPON IT, SIR; WHEN A MAN KNOWS THE MIDTERMS ARE IN NOVEMBER, IT CONCENTRATES HIS MIND WONDERFULLY: Fauci says ‘full-blown pandemic phase’ of COVID-19 coming to end.

Actually, it came to an end in the summer of 2020: Fauci resists Republican effort to turn testimony against protesters.

● After telling GOP to downsize convention due to COVID-19, N.C. governor marches in crowded protest.

● NJ governor admits COVID-19 double standard, says recent protests are different from business owners’ complaints.

● De Blasio: Large Group Protests Are Acceptable, Religious Observances Are Not.

● NPR: Dozens of public health and disease experts have signed an open letter in support of the nationwide anti-racism protests. “White supremacy is a lethal public health issue that predates and contributes to COVID-19,” they wrote.

● ‘Did I miss the memo?’: Hospital workers in full PPE applaud George Floyd protesters as they march past.

Related: Fauci, AIDS, and the Anti-Gay Backlash.

THIS IS CNN: At CNN Corporate Grief Counseling Session, Alisyn Camarota Talks About Zucker’s Firing As If It’s Caused Her Psychological Trauma, and Tater Begs Warners Honcho Jason Kilar to Provide CNN “Talent” With Emotional Healing.

How bad is it? It’s so bad that Soledad O’Earpiece is making fun of CNN “talent” for being weak and “pathetic.”

The left has never been the political movement of grit, resilience, self-reliance, and mental health. That’s the right.

The left has always been the political movement of neuroses, hysteria, insecurity, cloying need for validation, emotional fragility, and childlike temper-tantrums and outbursts of pure psychopathic hatred when frustrated.

That’s what makes the left the left. Leftist — Marxism — is best understood not as an actual politics but as a twisted self-help program for broken people, giving bent, bitter, sick individuals an external collection of boogeymen to redirect and focus their self-loathing at.

In other news from CNN: Chris Cuomo wants as much as $60 million from CNN amid Jeff Zucker exit.

Chris Cuomo isn’t backing down in his battle with CNN following the ouster of his boss Jeff Zucker — the anchor intends to demand as much as a $60 million settlement, according to sources.

Multiple sources tell Page Six that Cuomo, who was fired in December for helping his brother fend off sexual harassment allegations, is ready to dig his heels in by claiming that Zucker not only knew about his dealings with the governor — but that the network boss had his own inappropriate dealings with Andrew.

And he is prepared to demand not the $18 million left on his contract, but as much as $60 million.

“He wants Megyn Kelly money,” we’re told.

A fellow could feel reborn with that amount of dosh — and it wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened to Fredo…

XI JINPING AND PUTIN ARE LICKING THEIR CHOPS READING HEADLINES LIKE THIS: With world on edge, Army unveils climate change priorities.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Bay Area calls on homeowners to help house homeless residents.

As the Bay Area continues to struggle under the weight of its homelessness crisis, officials and nonprofits are asking local residents to do more than hand out meals or donate spare change. They’re asking them to open up their homes.

Nearly 30,000 people are unhoused in the five-county Bay Area, and there isn’t nearly enough room in the region’s existing affordable housing developments. To fill the gaps, service providers increasingly are recruiting private landlords to take in homeless tenants. Some property owners are renting out entire units in exchange for agreements that the government or a nonprofit will cover the rent. Others are offering up spare bedrooms in their homes – sometimes in exchange for a small stipend, and sometimes as a purely charitable act.

But it’s hard to find owners willing to take a chance on someone down on their luck. At least one program recently ended because of a lack of landlord interest.

“This is something that someone can do when they just feel that despair of ‘oh my gosh, I just can’t stand seeing these poor people on the streets near my home,’ ” said Christi Carpenter, executive director of East Bay nonprofit Safe Time, which places unhoused college students and families in spare bedrooms for between one and six months. Since 2017, the group has made more than 60 placements.

Richmond Mayor Tom Butt recently partnered with the Rotary Club to match unhoused people with local landlords. The small program will be funded entirely by private donations and landlords will get one year’s rent in advance. The number of people Butt can house depends on donations and volunteer interest, but he already has two more landlords lined up.

“There are a lot of people out there who want to do something meaningful to try to alleviate the homelessness problem,” Butt said.

And maybe that’s part of the problem — “Despite its spending more money per capita on homelessness than any comparable city, [San Francisco’s] homeless problem is worse than any comparable city’s,” SF Weekly noted a decade ago, stumbling into the Fox Butterfield effect.

REVENGE OF THE COVID MOMS:

Maud Maron hates the whole you-gotta-show-your-vaccine-passport-to-get-into-a-restaurant thing, and she thinks masking indoors is atrocious, but this is bright blue New York City, so fine. It’s just, “when Kathy Hochul”—the governor—“gets on the screen, talking about how she wants to protect us and keep the masks in schools, she doesn’t have a f**king mask on her face, and I’m so sick of politicians who take the mask off their face to tell me to put the mask on my children—like how dare you?” Anyway, that’s why she’s running for Congress.

We’re having tea around her kitchen island in her apartment in Soho. It’s big. There’s a ping pong table, a foosball table, a swing bolted into a wooden beam. A bright red, toddler-sized race car. A tattered copy of “Romeo and Juliet.” Speech-therapy exercises are tacked to the wall. Her husband, who’s Argentinian, runs a private-equity shop. “When you shut down my kids’ schools and impose devastating mental health effects on them—I don’t forgive anyone who did that,” Maron says.

After a beat or two, she adds: “This is the year that parents say, ‘You’re either with us or against us.’”

Speaking of Hochul and masked kids: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul decides to EXTEND the state’s mask mandate for schools.

IF IT WASN’T FOR DOUBLE-STANDARDS, THE LEFT WOULD HAVE NO STANDARDS AT ALL:

Shot: The Department of Homeland Security Just Smeared Americans Who Question Government on COVID, Elections as a ‘Terrorism Threat.’

—Hannah Cox, Based Politics, today.

Chaser: Biden To Set Free Would-Be 9/11 Hijacker. “Mohammed al-Qahtani, who planned to hijack planes on Sept. 11, 2001, for al Qaeda but was denied entry into the United States, will be transferred to Saudi Arabia following the Biden administration’s decision late last week to set him free. He is scheduled to be flown to Saudi Arabia and placed in a ‘custodial rehabilitation and mental health care program for extremists.’”

—Adam Kredo, the Washington Free Beacon, yesterday.