“THERE IS A REASON ‘THEY CALL ME THE BIDEN OF BROOKLYN:’” Eric Adams called white NYPD officers ‘crackers’ in 2019 video.
(Classical reference in headline.)
Author Archive: Ed Driscoll
February 5, 2022
RNC MOVES TO CENSURE LIZ CHENEY AND FUND HER PRIMARY OPPONENT: “That message is that we must all hang together or each hang separately. Cheney and Kinzinger believed that their individual consciences were more important to them than the party. Now the party is showing them what they think about their consciences.”
DAVID BARON, CALL YOUR OFFICE: And just like that, liberals hated mountain lions.
The Mountain Lion Foundation sides with the urbanizers, tweeting, “While Woodside abuts and contains mountain lion habitat, a blanket prohibition against adding an additional unit on an already developed parcel anywhere in the town is neither required by the California Endangered Species Act, nor contributing to the protection of mountain lions.”
That tells me the Mountain Lion Foundation is not about mountain lions at all.
Matt Haney, one of the San Francisco Supervisors, tweeted, “The entire wealthy suburb of Woodside is claiming to be a protected mountain lion habitat to skirt state law allowing fourplexes. What shameless ridiculousness.”
Haney’s San Francisco allows people to poop in the street. Woodside doesn’t want that. I hope some Trump-appointed federal judge allows Woodside to stop this urbanization of a habitat for billionaires.
Read the whole thing.
Related: Feral hogs — they’re not just for Texas anymore! The Rampaging Pigs of the San Francisco Bay Area. A proposed California law would make it easier to hunt feral swine, the voracious “super invaders” that are the bane of some East Bay suburbs.
THE GASLIGHTING WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES: White House casts COVID-19 lockdowns as a Trump-era relic.
When asked about a new study suggesting that the negative effects of lockdowns far outweigh any positives, White House press secretary Jen Psaki responded that most of America’s lockdowns occurred during the Trump administration.
The study is a Johns Hopkins meta analysis of lockdowns that found that they are not an effective way of reducing mortality during a pandemic but do cause tremendous societal harm.
“[The study] suggests that lockdowns shouldn’t be a part of a future pandemic response,” a reporter asked Psaki on Friday. “Is that the shared view of the administration?”
Lockdowns were never part of the Biden administration’s plan for combating COVID-19, Psaki responded.
“Most of the lockdowns actually happened under the previous president,” she said. “What our objective has been is conveying that we have the tools we need to keep our country open.”
Psaki did not answer directly when asked if she agreed lockdowns caused more harm than good but reiterated that President Joe Biden is not promoting them.
He was as recently as December: With Scant Information on Omicron, Biden Turned to Travel Ban to Buy Time.
And then there was this classic moment last March: Biden Mocks Texas And Mississippi For Reopening, Dropping Mask Mandates: ‘Neanderthal Thinking.’
As Glenn wrote in the New York Post at the end of last year: We must make public health authorities accountable for their COVID lies.
Early on, public health officials minimized COVID’s dangers, with Anthony Fauci telling people that it was safe to go on cruises. Maybe that was just a mistake. But then Fauci told people not to wear masks because they didn’t help, changing his position within a couple of weeks to become stringently pro-mask. The earlier statement, it turned out, wasn’t based on his scientific opinion but on a desire to reserve masks for health-care workers — a worthy goal, but that doesn’t justify the lying.
Public health officials then pushed lockdowns to the max, telling everyone to stay in their homes and not to gather in even small groups, but after George Floyd’s death they suddenly announced an exception: It was fine to gather in huge groups if you were protesting on behalf of Black Lives Matter.
Racism, they told us, was a “public health” problem, too. That’s doubtful in itself — racism is a behavior, not a disease — but if the threat of COVID was serious enough to shut down the economy and the schools, then that wasn’t the best time to be gathering in groups. After all, sexually transmitted diseases are a public-health problem, but they weren’t issuing quarantine exceptions for people to protest those.
As lefty journalist Glenn Greenwald recently observed, “This was a pivotal moment in the pandemic’s history: For four months, the message was clear and unrelenting: everyone must stay home. Those who leave — even to go to a deserted beach — are reckless sociopaths. It flipped overnight to endorse a mass protest movement liberals liked.”
This is what I mean by lies and political manipulation. People noticed, and the public health establishment’s credibility — already damaged by the mask reversal — collapsed.
Peppermint Psaki does get bonus points for chutzpah considering how locked down Biden himself was in 2020: Biden won White House with ‘put your dumb uncle in the basement’ strategy, new book says.
Additionally, as the Daily Wire noted yesterday, “While on the campaign trail in September 2020, then-candidate Biden also stated that he would be in favor of ‘shutting down’ the country if that’s what his medical team advised: ‘I would shut it down; I would listen to the scientists,’ Biden told ABC’s David Muir in a joint interview with his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, to air Sunday. ‘We’re going to do whatever it takes to save lives.’”
February 4, 2022
BEN RHODES SMILES: Breaking: Biden Lifts Sanctions On Iran’s Nuclear Program.
CREEPY PORN LAWYER UPDATE: Michael Avenatti convicted of stealing $300K from Stormy Daniels.
Flashback: Why the media wants you to forget about Michael Avenatti.
THE BANNINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES: Disturbing: Twitter Purges Conservative Education Publication and Staff Amid Teachers’ Union Pressure Campaign.
Twitter has some serious explaining to do. On Thursday, the social media platform suspended the account of the conservative education publication Chalkboard Review.
It also suspended the individual accounts of several staff members. In all cases, these suspensions came out of left field and Twitter provided no warning or reason for the removals, according to Chalkboard Review Executive Director Tony Kinnett.
The publication was founded in 2020 and publishes content focused on education policy. Its articles and viewpoints often come from a conservative or libertarian point of view. Chalkboard Review has argued in favor of school choice, criticized public schools, called for transparency, highlighted outlandish examples of educators-gone-woke, and fought back against the teaching of Critical Race Theory in schools.
However, Chalkboard Review also publishes counterarguments and lots of rather uncontroversial content. Indeed, the last article the account had tweeted before its suspension was ominously entitled “5 Books to Inspire Teachers.”
We still don’t know why Twitter has purged the publication and several of its personnel. It could be a mistake by the tech giant. Yet that seems far-fetched given the fact that it was not one account, but four, that were banned. What’s more, the suspensions took place hours apart throughout the day on Thursday.
Kinnett pointed out that the surprising crackdown comes amid a push from teachers’ unions and other establishment education interests to silence dissident voices critiquing them.
Abandoning the decentralized Blogosphere for the walled gardens of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube was a huge mistake, particularly for conservatives. Somebody should write a book about the reasons why.
THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Clueless Newsom Shocked at California’s ‘Third World’ Conditions.
During a photo-op recently at a stretch of Union Pacific railroad tracks in Los Angeles, Gov. Gavin Newsom expressed shock at the accumulated garbage: busted-open cargo containers, looted packages, cardboard boxes, and acres of trash. “I’m asking myself, what the hell is going on? We look like a third-world country,” he said.
Newsom vows to never leave the French Laundry again.
WE’VE DESCENDED INTO SOME SORT OF BIZARRE HELL-WORLD IN WHICH AL SHARPTON(!) IS A VOICE OF SANITY: ‘You Cannot Normalize What They’re Doing In China:’ Al Sharpton Hits Back At Pelosi Over Olympics Warning.
THE GUILD PROTECTS ITS OWN: Why isn’t MSNBC covering the Jeff Zucker scandal?
On the other side of the spectrum, MSNBC did not mention the name “Jeff Zucker” once in the twenty-four hours since the announcement of his resignation, according to a SnapStream search of the network.
MSNBC is not shy when it comes to mentioning Fox News on-air and has been regularly covering Tucker Carlson, devoting entire segments to the top-rated Fox host’s influence in the Republican Party. Zucker was the CEO of NBC Universal from 2007 to 2010, the then-parent company of MSNBC.
However, MSNBC’s lack of coverage may simply be due to the fact that the Zucker story, according to their editorial calculus, has no national political implications.
Flashback: Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw Defend Dan Rather, Who Sees Effort to “Smear” Him.
Just think of the media as Democratic Party operatives with bylines, and it all makes sense.
Evergreen:
THERE’S A ZUCKER BORN EVERY MINUTE: Inside the explosive meeting with CNN stars angry over Jeff Zucker’s resignation: Jake Tapper called Chris Cuomo a ‘terrorist,’ Jim Acosta said network would now become ‘Fox News Light’ and Kaitlan Collins unleashed fury on WarnerMedia CEO.
And the Zucker cult isn’t just confined to the CNN bullpen: It Sure Seems Like the January 6th Committee Was Colluding With Jeff Zucker.
February 3, 2022
THERE’S A ZUCKER BORN EVERY MINUTE: CNN Employees Continue to Push Back on the Fall of Jeff Zucker.
On Wednesday evening, members of CNN’s Washington bureau met with Jason Kilar, CEO of parent company WarnerMedia, who made the decision that Zucker could not remain with the company due to his failure to disclose a romantic relationship with Allison Gollust, CNN’s communications and marketing chief—also Zucker’s long-running colleague and closest confidante. Toward the end of the meeting, in which prominent CNN journalists went hard at Kilar over Zucker’s resignation, special correspondent Jamie Gangel spoke up. “The first calls I got this morning were from four members of the January 6 committee, who felt devastated for our democracy, because Jeff was not going to be around to make sure that CNN is able to do its job,” she said (later clarifying to colleagues that she meant to say four congresspeople, including one member of the committee).
Under Zucker, CNN took the notion of being Democratic Party operatives with bylines seriously: “Zucker ensured that the network spotlighted Andrew Cuomo and his brother during the pandemic and ignored an ever-worsening conflict of interest; he ignored similar allegations of a conflict of interest around Don Lemon informing Jussie Smollett that he was under police investigation; he brought back legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin after the slam-dunk firing offense of masturbating during a Zoom call; he enabled Brian Stelter to turn a show called Reliable Sources into a showcase of spectacularly unreliable reporting and groveling for administration approval; and he allowed prima-donna Acosta to try to turn himself into the story, time and time again.”
More from Ace: “According to a source [close] to Cuomo, ‘Zucker and Gollust even advised Andrew what to say — how to respond and particularly how to hit back at [President Donald] Trump to make it more compelling TV.’”
Janice Dean adds, “Wow. So Zucker and his girlfriend were the ones behind the jokey interviews while thousands of seniors were dying. They thought the Cuomo brothers Comedy hour was better TV than actually reporting news during a once in a lifetime pandemic. They both should be FIRED.“
GOOD LUCK NEW YORK — YOU’RE GOING TO NEED IT: “‘The president is here because he knows what the American people want: Justice, safety and prosperity,’ Adams said, adding he shared the sentiment. There is a reason ‘they call me the Biden of Brooklyn’ [Mayor Eric Adams] said, pledging to stand ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with the president.”
IT’S COME TO THIS: Pelosi Warns Olympic Athletes against Protesting China at Beijing Games.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned U.S. Olympic athletes on Thursday against protesting China’s human rights abuses while at the Beijing games, noting the high risk of retaliation from the regime.
“Make no mistake — our athletes should participate,” Pelosi said before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. “They’ve trained, they’re disciplined, they’ve dreamed, they’ve aspired, they’ve worked hard. But this year we must celebrate them from home as they compete in China.”
Her comments were first reported by the Washington Examiner.
“I would say to our athletes: You’re there to compete. Do not risk incurring the anger of the Chinese government because they are ruthless,” she added. “I know there is a temptation on the part of some to speak out while they are there. I respect that, but I also worry about what the Chinese government might do to their reputations and to their families.”
That’s what Xi said.
QUESTION ASKED AND (POSSIBLY) ANSWERED: Is it over for Boris Johnson?
Throughout his political career, Boris Johnson has defied all odds. He has been defeated, written off, mocked. At one stage, he left the House of Commons completely. Yet no matter how down-and-out he has looked, how bleak his prospects have appeared, he has always managed to recover. His party chose him as leader partly for this ability to pull off the seemingly impossible. Yet now the British prime minister faces the gravest peril of his premiership. For the first time, his fate is out of his hands.
His excuse for attending a drinks party in the garden of No. 10 Downing Street after passing such restrictive lockdown laws is that he “believed implicitly that this was a work event” — even though his private secretary had convened the event via a mass email asking staff to “bring your own booze.” The No. 10 garden, Johnson said, is an extension of the office, so it was all work. As he spoke at Prime Minister’s Questions, Tory Members of Parliament sat silently behind him — glad for once to be wearing their masks.
These MPs are anxious not only about the general public’s fury, but about the rage in their own Conservative Associations. The prime minister’s approval rating — hitherto his great strength — is falling fast and is now almost as low as Theresa May’s towards the end of her premiership. When prime ministers lose popularity, they seldom regain it. The latest accusations are more damaging because they come after a string of events that raise serious questions about the direction of the Johnson government. What was striking about the Tory rebellion against vaccine passports, for instance, was how many of the rebels had backed Johnson in the 2019 leadership contest. He has alienated allies and his enemies are lying in wait. Where, if anywhere, does he go from here?
This headline does not portend good news for Boris: Four senior aides to Boris Johnson quit amid ‘Partygate’ scandal.
TRUCKERS GETTING RESULTS: Ontario needs to ‘reassess the value’ of COVID-19 vaccine passport system, top doctor says.
Related: Ron Paul: We Are All Canadian Truckers Now!
NEWS YOU CAN ABUSE: Nine Responses You Should Use When The Mask Police Come For You.
BURIED LEDE: AP JOURNALIST COMMITS REAL JOURNALISM. AP’s Matt Lee Grills State Dept. Spox on Russia/Ukraine: An Accusation Is Not Evidence, “I Remember WMDs In Iraq” (Video).
THE GASLIGHTING WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES: Biden Repeats False Attack on the Second Amendment That Even the Washington Post Debunked.
“[Banning assault weapons] doesn’t violate anybody’s Second Amendment rights,” he said. “There is no amendment that is absolute.”
Then Biden got into historical analysis that was… interesting.
“When the amendment was passed it didn’t say anybody can own a gun and any kind of weapon,” Biden claimed. “You couldn’t buy a cannon when this amendment was passed, so there’s no reason you should be able to buy certain assault weapons.”
This bizarre aside is more than a non sequitur. It’s actually false. As Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler noted in September 2021:
* * * * * * * *Individuals who were given these waivers and owned warships obviously also obtained cannons for use in battle. We have no idea where [Biden] conjured up this notion about a ban on cannon ownership in the early days of the Republic, but he needs to stop making this claim.”
Narrator voice: He (and his speechwriters) will not. They know it’s a lie — and don’t care.