K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: DC Public Schools offers guidance on ‘decolonizing’ Thanksgiving.
Author Archive: Ed Driscoll
November 25, 2021
November 24, 2021
OCEANIA HAS NEVER BEEN AT WAR WITH EASTASIA: The Wikipedia page titled “Mass Killings Under Communist Regimes” is being considered for deletion.
Live view of the airbrushing, already in progress:
SONGS THAT CHANGED MUSIC: The Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams” (Video).
And: Waukesha suspect Darrell Brooks is a convicted sex offender.
Earlier: Waukesha killer Darrell Brooks’ enablers.
UPDATE: From Michael Rameriez:
Note that the DNC-MSM aren’t the only ones airbrushing Brooks’ apparent crime: Wikipedia users try to change Waukesha ‘parade car rampage’ entry to ‘parade incident.’
(Updated and bumped.)
HOW CABLE NEWS RUINED THANKSGIVING:
Edmund Burke once rebuked the French, “Your legislators seem to have taken their opinions of all professions, ranks and offices from the declamations and buffooneries of satirists.” This is our problem as well. Caricatures are supposed to be the province of comedians, who use them to simplify and spoof. And once upon a time they were, which is why the genesis of modern cable news is the aforementioned Jon Stewart. It was Stewart who pioneered the art of clipping Fox News videos out of context and milking them for attention. Now everyone else on cable is ripping off his act.
And I do mean everyone. Tune in to MSNBC right now and you very well might find Stephanie Ruhle responding to Laura Ingraham responding to Chris Cuomo responding to Sean Hannity responding to Rachel Maddow responding to Fox and Friends responding to Don Lemon responding to the ghost of Walter Winchell responding to Skeletor. It’s like a Narcissus infinity mirror. There are simply too many of these drama merchants to trace their complaints all the way on down. Which perhaps is the point: outrage rarely sprouts from deep roots.
As for poor Uncle Mortimer, the truth about him is that he isn’t a caricature. He probably has some interesting lived experience, a couple stories to tell, a sense of humor. Maybe he once met JFK. Maybe he dreams of one day selling his wood carvings on Etsy. Instead, what we get are his political opinions, the most boring thing about him. This year, let’s not turn dinner into another doomed revival of Crossfire; let’s restore that most ancient and venerable of maxims: “no politics or religion at the table.”
While I can certainly understand someone having a “pox on all your houses” opinion, there is one significant difference between the three channels; I don’t think Fox News is running too many of these segments this week: MSNBC: Thanksgiving’s About White Settlers Who Brought ‘Genocide and Violence.’
In any case, America’s Newspaper of Record strikes a sensitive, healing tone this week: Black, White Americans Join Hands Around Common Cause Of Launching Journalists Into The Sun.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM AXIOS! The Thanksgiving bouncers.
No one really wants this job, but millions of households may need their own Thanksgiving bouncer. The cover charge is a negative COVID test, done ahead of arrival or outside the front door.
Why it matters: Normalizing rapid tests is a practical way to help extended families feel a little more normal around the holiday dinner table.
● You may have relatives who aren’t vaccinated (or won’t say) — or babies or immunocompromised guests who are vulnerable to breakthrough infections.
How it works: If you’re hosting, let your guests know ahead of their arrival that you’ll be testing everyone at the door for their own safety. If you’re a guest who’s anxious about attending without testing, talk to your host now about their plans and how you can help.
● Depending on your budget, you might offer to pick up the tab for everyone’s tests, or hosts might ask guests to pay for their own.
● At-home antigen tests cost around $25 for a box of two.
● Alternatively, guests who have gotten a PCR test within a couple of days prior could bring evidence of their negative results. PCR rapid tests can be obtained same-day but are generally much more expensive.
Who on earth is going to do this? I can’t imagine even my most leftist in-laws administering COVID tests for guests who drop by for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.
UPDATE: Axios isn’t alone: CBS guest suggests Thanksgiving ‘hors d’oeuvres in the garage’ while waiting for COVID rapid test results. “Fox News contributor Tammy Bruce weighed in, saying opinions like Tamour’s will keep Americans in a constant state of fear. ‘All this does is reinforce the idea that you should be afraid to even be with your own family. In your own home,’ Bruce said. ‘This is insane. Yes it’s cult-like but it really has many more features of mass hysteria.’”
(Updated and bumped.)
DAVID BROOKS, MASTER OF READING THE ROOM:
David Brooks, do you remember him?
Once again he’s back pontificating about his incredible insight into a movement he knows nothing about. A cousin of mine sent me the following link: With the following comment, “Eye Opening”. David Brooks is frightened: “The Terrifying Future of the American Right — What I saw at the National Conservatism Conference”.
Mr. Brooks attended the conference and in his own words:
When I came down to Florida for the National Conservatism Conference, I was a little concerned I’d get heckled in the hallways, or be subjected to the verbal abuse I occasionally get from Trump supporters. Judging by their rhetoric, after all, these are the fire-breathers, the hard-liners, the intellectual sharp edge of the American right.But everyone was charming! I hung around the bar watching football each night, saw old conservative friends, and met lots of new ones, and I enjoyed them all.
What were you expecting, child rapists hitting you with a skateboard, a “smurf” with blue hair and 49 piercings, confused by how many genders there are? Granted before Twitter ousted me I would Tweet you with smarmy remarks. However, if I ever had the chance to meet you in person, I would address you properly and leave it at that.
* * * * * * * *
Mr. Brooks was never a Conservative, nor will he ever be. For such an enlightened man he certainly lacks any inquisitiveness or any true observational skills, for example:
The NatCons are wrong to think there is a unified thing called “the left” that hates America. This is just the apocalyptic menace many of them had to invent in order to justify their decision to vote for Donald Trump.
I guess I must be having hallucinations when Antifa and BLM are burning the cities of Portland, Kenosha and Seattle for example. I must be nuts to think that the majority of bannings, timeouts and the like on Social Media Platforms are for those right of center. Often we hear from the Keepers of The Gate, “It was a mistake”. The Left are never caught up in the Mistake excuse.
In 1997, as a warm-up to his 2000 book Bobos in Paradise, David Brooks wrote an article on Burlington, Vermont for the Weekly Standard (remember that?) called “The Rise of the Latte Town:”
One of the striking things about Burlington is that it is relatively apolitical. The bookstores carry some titles on politics, but the current-affairs sections tend to be tucked away in the back. I saw but three political bumper stickers during the week I was there, two that read “Bernie” for the local socialist congressman, Bernie Sanders, and one, on a pickup truck on the out-skirts of town, that read “Rush.” Bulletin boards are everywhere, but most of the fliers advertise rock bands, not rallies. One of the books featured in the most fashionable of the local bookstores was called Fifty-four Ways to Help the Homeless. Only one of them is government- related — No. 52, “Write your congressperson” — while the rest are various forms of local and direct action individuals can take, such as volunteering at soup kitchens.
That denizens of that “relatively apolitical” town would quickly become very politicized just three years later, beginning with the Florida recount and the election of George W. Bush.
In September of 2011, Daniel Henninger of the Wall Street Journal wrote, “This Sunday’s 10th anniversary commemorations will evoke some semblance of the unity then in the face of an enemy attack on U.S. soil. But make no mistake: It’s gone.” What happened?, asked Henninger: “For activist and professional Democrats, the most ignominious day in their collective political lives occurred a year earlier—the Florida presidential recount. The 2000 election ended only when the Supreme Court resolved it in favor of George Bush. Republican and independent voters moved on, but many Democrats never did; they were now being governed by an illegitimate president. The chances that any Bush policies would retain their support were minimal, with or without 9/11.”
And that was certainly the case with Burlington, VT, as well.
SOCIALIST SUNK: Centrist Dems sink Biden’s nominee for top bank regulator.
Five Democratic senators have told the White House they won’t support Saule Omarova to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, effectively killing her nomination for the powerful bank-regulator position.
* * * * * * * *
Omarova tried to salvage her candidacy during a hearing last week, where Republicans savaged her for her previous academic writings about how community banks should be regulated.
● Her nomination, reflected in an ugly hearing in which Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) questioned whether he should call the native of the former Soviet Union “professor” or “comrade,” became a proxy battle.
Headlines like this didn’t help Omarova’s case: Biden Comptroller pick Saule Omarova refuses to turn over Moscow State University thesis on Marxism.
Not to mention:
● “Omarova has endorsed radical proposals for government control and regulation of the banking sector. In a paper entitled The People’s Ledger, she argues for a ‘systematic democratization of finance’ where citizens have government bank accounts with the Federal Reserve that ‘fully replace—rather than compete with— private bank deposits.’ Omarova openly admits that her ‘proposed reform will effectively ‘end banking’ as we know it.’”
● Study: Nets Silent on Radical Biden Nominee: Praised Soviet Union, Wants to Destroy Oil, Gas.
This may be the most radical Biden nominee you’ve never heard of. On Thursday, Saule Omarova is set to face Senate hearings to head Comptroller of the Currency, a branch of the Treasury Department. Who is this woman? She appears enchanted with Soviet Russia, and “wants” to bankrupt industries. And ABC, CBS and NBC haven’t said a word about her.
The Cornell University law professor back in February appeared at a “social wealth seminar” and said this: “What I’m thinking about primarily is primarily the coal industry and the oil and gas industry. A lot of the smaller players in that industry are going to probably go bankrupt in short order. At least we want them to go bankrupt if we want to tackle climate change, right?”
But that’s only the start. Back in 2019, she praised the old USSR, a regime that murdered tens of millions of people, because they didn’t have a “gender pay gap.”
Also on Omarova’s mind: “Omarova has endorsed radical proposals for government control and regulation of the banking sector. In a paper entitled The People’s Ledger, she argues for a ‘systematic democratization of finance’ where citizens have government bank accounts with the Federal Reserve that ‘fully replace—rather than compete with— private bank deposits.’ Omarova openly admits that her ‘proposed reform will effectively ‘end banking’ as we know it.’”
● Biden Nom Saule Omarova Stole Hundreds of Dollars of Merchandise from a T.J. Maxx.
PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Days after explaining Rittenhouse ban and “criminal” policy, GoFundMe allows fundraiser for Darrell Brooks, suspect in parade massacre.
DISPATCHES FROM THE INTERSECTION OF THE K-12 IMPLOSION AND WEIMAR AMERICA: Here’s A Picture Of The Loudoun Rapist The Superintendent Claimed Was Not ‘Gender-Fluid.’
WHEN THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION LOSES GOOGLE…: Several hundred Google employees sign manifesto against widened Covid vaccine mandate.
As Jim Treacher asks, “Who knew Google was such a hive of Trump voters?“
THE BEATLES: GET BACK REVIEW: Peter Jackson Just Won’t Let It Be.
They are given about three weeks at Twickenham Film Studios by Denis O’Dell, producer of “The Magic Christian,” the film in which Ringo Starr would appear opposite Peter Sellers. Both the facility and Mr. Starr have to be returned to O’Dell by month’s end, when shooting is to start on his film. The Beatles have only a vague idea of what they’re doing—there’s no concept for the TV show, no plausible venue for the performance, and the songs have yet to be written. The atmosphere isn’t quite fraught, but the schedule is crazy.
As plans collapse, the TV special is abandoned and the grandiose concert becomes the free lunchtime gig in London. Mr. Lindsay-Hogg is heard to say he doesn’t know what his film—they’ve decided to make a film—is going to be about. He can’t see it, but Mr. Jackson—with more than a half-century of hindsight, 60 hours of film and 150 of audio to draw on—can, very clearly. It’s not the story of “Let It Be.” It’s the most Beatle-maniacal epic imaginable, partly because it renders so naked the band’s creative process, and presents their personalities so deeply: Mr. McCartney is the dominant force, his patronizing attitude toward Harrison prompting the latter to quit the band for a few days midfilm; Mr. McCartney then pulls himself back, to admirable effect. Lennon, with Ms. Ono ever at his side or his feet, is not the abrasive or sarcastic character he presented in, say, “A Hard Day’s Night” but is sweet, funny, deferential to his longtime/no-longer songwriting partner (though everyone collaborates on everything). Mr. Starr is everyone’s friend. (The series’ three episodes—at 157, 173 and 138 minutes, respectively—roll out Thursday, Friday and Saturday.)
The portrait we get, of the most influential musical group of the 20th century, is not candid—they always know they’re being filmed, act up accordingly and often avoid the hard work of their own songs by defaulting to rockabilly and blues-based numbers from their youth. (Their early days playing Hamburg, West Germany, are evoked numerous times, as is their manager Brian Epstein, whose death in late 1967 left them with no “discipline,” as one Beatle says.) What a viewer might have trouble keeping in mind is that when the Beatles talk about the old days, they’re talking about only five or six years earlier.
As a lifelong Beatles obsessive (QED) I’m looking forward to Get Back’s debut tomorrow. And hopefully its being bundled on Blu-Ray, right about this time next year, with a restored version of Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s original Let It Be.
QUESTION ASKED: Was 1980 the worst automotive year ever?
Quick, what’s the worst year in American automotive history?
Recent bias might lead you to select 2008, when an unprecedented modern financial crisis slammed the overall economy and led to a government bailout of GM and Chrysler (those carmakers received $80 billion after taking a 40 percent nosedive in sales and having some 3 million jobs at risk). But the near-death experience yielded vehicles and automakers more closely aligned to consumers’ needs and desires.
Arguments could be made that 1929 proved far worse, as the stock market crash and the Great Depression that followed drove many automakers out of business. But that period also yielded some of the finest cars ever produced, ones with names like Marmon, Duesenberg, Pierce-Arrow, Stutz, and many others. Or perhaps it was 1957, when the last of the independent automakers, Nash and Hudson, disappeared from the market, and Packard was gasping its final breath as a poorly disguised Studebaker, a company that would disappear a decade later.
No, it’s 1980. With the arrival of the second OPEC Oil Embargo the year before, a recession took hold of the country. Sales of US-made cars came in at 6.58 million units, down 20 percent from 1979, as import automakers claimed a 26.1 percent market share, up from 21.2 percent in 1979. Ford lost a record $1.5 billion as domestic sales plunged 33 percent and worldwide sales declined 29 percent. Chrysler, having lost $2 billion in the past year and a half, was in such bad shape that banks wouldn’t lend it money. Instead, Congress did, providing a $1.5 billion loan guaranteed by the federal government. Even General Motors was hit by a $763 million loss, the company’s first since 1921.
But bad numbers alone don’t earn 1980 the title of ‘Worst Automotive Year Ever.’ Having to engineer cars with new technology for the first time in decades, the Big Three struggled to meet the unprecedented demand for small fuel-efficient cars. And in the face of profits and market share declining, Detroit responded by, frankly, fielding some of the worst cars it has ever produced.
Read on for the horrors of the 1980 model year including — trigger warning — the Chevy Citation:
ROGER SIMON: Two Excellent COVID Books for Christmas?… Why Not?
What honest person can deny that the U.S. and global responses to COVID-19—dubbed here for some time the Chinese Communist Party virus—have been an unholy mess?
Vaccines/no vaccines, lockdowns/no lockdowns, masks/no masks, social distancing/no social distancing, school/no school—it’s hard to see there has been any difference. As Alex Berenson, a man who has justifiably raised his reputation by being canceled by various Big Tech gangsters, often puts it, in the end, “a virus gonna virus.”
It’s almost as if no one had done anything it all would have been the same—or better.
That’s the conclusion—with certain caveats—that I came to after reading two extremely informative and timely books regarding the pandemic that are being published almost simultaneously on or about Dec 1.
They also ratified something I admittedly already believed—big government is the enemy of the people. Or, as Ronald Reagan famously quipped: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”
Read the whole thing.
HOLIDAY WISHES FROM THE ATLANTIC! Deprogram your relatives this Thanksgiving:
Some people (like my friend Tom Nichols) think that you should spend your Thanksgiving playing nice, pretending that your cousin doesn’t follow QAnon and that your uncle doesn’t believe the election was stolen and also that the Cyber Ninjas are a bunch of cucks for not uncovering voter fraud. Tom believes that Thanksgiving is a time for harmony and niceties and gratitude. I love Tom, but he’s completely wrong.
Spending a holiday sitting around, pretending your crazy relatives aren’t crazy, is one of America’s time-honored traditions. In normal times, you could be the dog in the house-fire meme declaring, “This is fine” while taking a sip of doggy coffee, but we are not in normal times.
Last Thanksgiving, many of us didn’t see our families, because the pandemic was raging. Now, 773,000 dead Americans later, we have vaccines and boosters. And while the unvaccinated are still dying at a pretty rapid clip, we are finally able to more safely get together with our parents and grandparents and weird cousins and uncles.
This is your chance to deprogram them. Facebook knows its algorithm radicalizes users. This is your chance to tell your aunt that maybe the news she gets from it isn’t all that reliable. And that maybe the MAGA news network is not giving her unbiased news, either.
Or to put it another way:
UPDATE: Past performance is no guarantee of future results: “What the FBI Had on Grandpa” — also from Molly Jong-Fast, earlier this year.
(Updated and bumped. The last link via Dan McLaughlin, who tweets, “Life comes at you fast.”)
Rhetoric that demonizes law-abiding gun owners is necessary to the Democratic Party agenda of absolving themselves and their constituents of responsibility. Nothing that goes wrong in Philadelphia — or Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit, St. Louis, etc. — is the fault of the people directly involved, because those people vote Democrat. The voters who elect Democrats must be held blameless for their problems, and the blame must be transferred to scapegoats — which is why phrases like “white privilege” and “systemic racism” have entered the political lexicon.
Read the whole thing.
MICHAEL WALSH: Real Americans Not Being Fooled Anymore.
And for how much longer are real Americans going to stand by as COVID-masked gangs empty out everything from the corner drug store to Louis Vuitton and Nordstrom? The Democrats’ goal of decriminalizing underclass violent crime is now reaching its apogee, and even the least political among us have begun to notice.
Well, the Democrats have been begging for a major reduction in force at least since 1860. The question is, who should lead the Republicans?
Former president Trump has all but declared he’s running again—but three years is an infinity in politics, and Trump can only play coy for so long. As memory of him fades, and the nation’s hunger for leadership increases, all eyes will be on DeSantis and his re-election campaign next year. A decisive win will cement the current shadow president of the U.S. front-runner status as Americans look to the future.
All the GOP has to do is nominate someone of relative youth and vigor, who’s not afraid of entrenched Washington, who treats the media with the contempt they so richly deserve, and who’s proven himself in an executive capacity.
Someone, in other words, exactly like DeSantis, who can also tap a plausible vice-presidential candidate with D.C. experience. Someone with military experience as well, and someone who’s already publicly eviscerated Harris on the national stage. A mixed-race woman who checks all the intersectional boxes. Someone exactly like Tulsi Gabbard.
And before you say that it can never happen, because Gabbard’s a Democrat—so was Donald Trump.
Read the whole thing.
AS DEEP THROAT NEVER SAID, FOLLOW THE MONEY: Three Foreign Billionaires Finance the Dem Dark Money Machine.
OH, TO BE IN ENGLAND: Marks & Spencer offers pronoun badges to staff.
HYPOCRISY: Kamala Harris Slammed Trump for Refilling Oil Reserves that Joe Biden Just Drained.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s hypocrisy was on display Tuesday as President Joe Biden raided oil reserves despite her having slammed then-President Donald Trump in 2020 for refilling them.
“Absolutely unacceptable that Trump is prioritizing bailing out Big Oil companies while dragging his feet to support millions of unemployed people, workers, small businesses, and state and local governments,” Harris tweeted in 2020 during the pandemic.
Trump refilled the oil reserves during the pandemic when prices were three times less than Tuesday’s prices of $3.403, according to the AAA. The low prices were threatening American producers’ ability to compete with the deep pockets of OPEC, which have no interest in competing with American oil producers.
Not surprisingly though: Backfire: Oil Prices Soar as Market Rejects Biden Administration’s Strategic Reserve Ploy.
November 23, 2021
BUILD BACK BRANDON: Biden Energy Sec. Granholm admits she does not know U.S. oil consumption rate when pressed by reporter.
To be fair, the title of “energy secretary” is a bit of a misnomer when it comes to Granholm:
● Nightmare Fuel: Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm sings the praises of banning gasoline in music video that should’ve been left in the ground. “It’s like they don’t understand the clothes, the shoes, the sunglasses the, the synthetic fibers are all derived from oil. And the electric [sic] used to power the camera the editing machine etc all from oil.”
● “Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm laughs when asked about Biden’s plans to bring gas prices down. ‘Ha ha ha. That is hilarious!’”
● Biden’s Energy Sec. Suggests Climate Change Caused Florida Building Collapse.
● Granholm’s Green Energy Millions. “On Wednesday, Granholm confirmed she earned a $1.6 million profit on her shares of Proterra amid a firestorm over her financial ties to an electric vehicle company repeatedly promoted by the Biden administration. In selling off her shares, Granholm was able to defer paying capital gains taxes on the $1.6 million sale because cabinet officials are not penalized with the tax on assets they are required to sell as a condition of joining the administration. The Biden administration is seeking to raise the capital gains tax on America’s wealthiest families.”
● Granholm Taunts Americans Facing Lines at Pump Due to Attack.
UPDATE NEWSPEAK DICTIONARIES ACCORDINGLY: Colorado Officials Vote To Drop ‘Sex Offender’ Term Because Of Its ‘Negative Impact’ — On Sex Offenders.