SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIORS TACTICS EXPLAINED: Peter Boghossian offers a handy reference chart. HT: Thom McKee, The Daily Gouge.

SO NICE OF NEWSOM TO RELEASE HIS POLITICAL PRISONERS: That would be the entire state of California, according to Issues & Insights, which also notes these fascinating datapoints:

“Seven-day moving averages of infection rates peaked at 114 cases per 100,000 in California, but only 82 in Florida and 79 in Texas, states that had far fewer restrictions and mandates, and reopened much earlier than California. Deaths peaked at 1.72 per 100,000 in California, 1.21 in Texas, and 0.86 in Florida.”

Next question: Why are the politicians, public health “experts” and mainstream media buffoons so totally, absolutely determined to get every human being on God’s green earth vaccinated for this particular virus? At the present rate, soon we will be told unborn babies must be vaccinated, too.

Could it be that the virus really was engineered in a lab somewhere and at some point in the near future everybody who got the vaccine will suddenly shut up and stop yammering about things such as individual liberty, the Constitution and political accountability?

Asking for a friend.

HOW BIDEN’S BUDDIES LOBBY FOR RUSSIA’S PIPELINE: The Washington Free Beacon’s Chuck Ross and Adam Kredo pull the curtains back on how His Fraudulency’s lobbyist buddies do their thing for Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline without having to register as foreign lobbyists. It’s a profitable gig, too.

FILIBUSTER SAFE, HILL STAFFERS SURVEY SAYS: Roll Call’s reporting is reliably shaped by liberal assumptions, but there is often valuable and/or insightful news in its regular Capitol Insiders Survey of Hill staffers. Consider this, for example:

“Not a single Democratic aide thought senators would eliminate the legislative filibuster, and just 28 percent of them said they thought the Senate would weaken it, while 59 percent said the Senate would preserve it. Meanwhile, Republicans are confident Manchin will stand his ground, with 84 percent expecting the filibuster rule will remain.”

Lots of other interesting tidbits of insight here, too.

GOP MUST THINK IN A NEW (Old) WAY ABOUT ANTI-TRUST: Mike Davis, chief of the upstart Internet Accountability Project (IAP) is now on Substack and offers a bracing analysis of why Republicans need to wake up to reality about Big Tech and monopoly:

“The path forward for Republicans is to think about Big Tech and antitrust in the same way we increasingly think about China: our old operating modes with respect to both were driven by economic theories that did not pan out. In the early 1990s, we were reliably informed by neoliberal economists, including the Chicago School, that if China were allowed to engage in free trade and join multilateral organizations that the country would gradually democratize and embrace America as the world’s only superpower.

“We know now that this theory missed the mark by a wide margin. Instead of democratizing, China became a surveillance state (thanks in large part to the U.S. internet). Contrary to the Chicago School theory, China never engaged in free or fair trade. Three million jobs shipped from the U.S. to China over the past twenty years — and our children get defective toys and contaminated baby formula.

“It took President Trump to wake us from our China slumber before it was too late. Similarly, the Chicago School economic theory applied in Big Tech markets has suffered a similar fate.

“We were told by the Chicago School [‘modern anti-trust] experts that market power in these markets would be fleeting because entry barriers were low and someone would eventually build a better mousetrap. We were also informed by these experts that Big Tech markets—in which many services are provided for free—defied application of the consumer-welfare standard.

“Therefore, there could be no ‘harm,’ as narrowly defined by the Chicago School, to consumers in Big Tech markets. We got that one wrong too, making it time to move on.”

Definitely a Must-Read.

PAY RAISES COMING FOR HILL STAFFERS: Prospects are growing that Congress, or at least the House of Representatives will reverse a decade-long trend and authorize more funds to improve compensation for personal and committee aides.

Conservatives and libertarians who are properly predisposed against any sentence containing the words “government” and “more” should think twice before opposing better pay for Hill aides. The Founders wisely made Congress the “first branch,” with all of the constitutional perogatives needed to win any battle with either of the other two branches.

But Congress under Democrats and Republicans for the past 50 years has steadily ceded its powers, especially in the regulatory fields, to the executive branch and the courts. The result has been more unaccountable bureaucrats and judges.

It will do no good, however, to pull that power back if Congress doesn’t ensure it has sufficient staff to do the tremendous amount of day-to-day work required to do effective oversight. At least voters can toss the rascals in Congress out when they don’t do their jobs properly.

IT’S FRIDAY, SO EXPLAIN THIS: Lots of ancient authors wrote about Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Jesus and Alexander the Great. So why only reject what they wrote about Jesus? It’s an important question these days because flawed historiographies contributes to flawed worldviews, as seen in the 1619 Project.

G7 AND OUR COGNITIVELY CHALLENGED PRESIDENT: Issues & Insights reports the Brits are having trouble believing His Fraudulency is actually representing the United States.

MAY I CROW FOR JUST A MINUTE: Guess who is the single fastest-growing U.S. news site? The Epoch Times, according to the Press-Gazette, which is a UK-based media industry publication. They don’t sound too happy about it, but the data is there. Check out the tremendous growth for Newsmax, too.

CHEERS FOR VIRGINIA JUDGE PLOWMAN: Focus on the Family President Jim Daly lauds Loudoun County (VA) teacher Tanner Cross for standing up against Cancel Culture by refusing to call boys girls and girls boys. But Daly also points out the judge who just ruled for Cross and against the local Cancelista brigade running the public school system deserves praise. Expect an unflattering profile of Plowman in the Washington Post any day now.

UH, NO, SEX IS NOT ‘ASSIGNED:’ It shouldn’t have to be said, but in the present age many things that ought not have to be said, must be, over and over and over. The Colson Center’s Joseph Backholm offers three solid reasons to reject the myth at the heart of the transgendering madness.

BIDEN IS REFILLING THE BUREAUCRATIC SWAMP: President Donald Trump’s executive order making it easier to fire incompetent bureaucrats was a major step toward accountability in the federal career civil service.

Now, according to James Sherk of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), His Fraudulency, by repealing Trump’s order, is putting the bureaucrats back in charge. Is this significant for everyday Americans? You bet it is and Sherk aptly explains why:

“With a protected bureaucracy, Americans can vote for whatever policies they want — but they only get them if the bureaucracy agrees. Trump ran on draining the swamp. Biden is now refilling it.”

Sherk is exactly right. I saw this up close and personal during my years in Reagan era serving as a political appointee at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) under Director Donald Devine.

Devine’s “Political Management of the Bureaucracy: A Guide to Reform and Control” ought to be required reading for every individual in the next Republican presidency. Trump might still be in the Oval Office if he had understood the absolute necessity for a GOP chief executive to control the bureaucrats.

CRT WAS BORN AT HARVARD: That probably comes as no shocker to many Instapundit readers, but Kenny Xu provides the details of how Critical Race Theory (CRT) was born in Cambridge as “Critical Legal Studies.”

And, oh by the way, if you are puzzled by how CRT has swept through corporate boardrooms, Xu has the explanation: “Critical race theory gained steam at Harvard Law, and married into the managerial attitudes of its neighbor Harvard Business School, which sought to eliminate inefficiencies in human relations by grouping and managing.”

BILLIONAIRE BEHIND ‘BILLIONAIRES BUYING ELECTIONS’ SPOTS: His name is Hans Wyss, he’s a Swiss national who made a fortune in the U.S. and he is likely second only to George Soros in the funding he has provided to those tearing down this country. Alana Goodman at the Washington Free Beacon shines some much-needed light in a very dark corner of American politics.

DISNEY TURNS FAIRY TALE ON ITS HEAD: Libby Emmons, writing for The Federalist, takes apart the latest illustration of why the company bearing Walt Disney’s name would make him retch were he around to see it.

UPDATE: For all you aspiring copy-desk tyrants (old-school newsroomese), please note that “retch” is now in place. You guys are a tough room! :-)

‘THEY WILL BEHEAD US:’ There are an estimated 18,000 Afghans who helped the U.S. military, mostly as translators, but also in providing intelligence about Taliban movements and plans, who know they will be killed if they remain there after American forces are gone, according to Just The News’ Susan Katz Keating. The clock is ticking, much faster than the State Department bureaucrats are working to get these people and their dependents out.

BABYLON BEE’S DEMAND LETTER TO NEW YORK TIMES: This one is a beaut!

CRITICAL RACE THEORY IS OPPOSITE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT: Writing in Quillette, Kenny Xu and Christian Watson decisively shut down the claim of Critical Race Theory proponents like the ABA that the ideology is the next logical development from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Quite the opposite, they argue for starters, because:

“The civil rights movement was based on a hopeful and optimistic vision of modern Americans turning the country’s ideals into reality. CRT, on the other hand, presents a dystopian vision in which ubiquitous bigotry and oppression defines America’s national soul. Far from being heir to the civil rights legacy, Critical Race Theory is in many ways its opposite.”

Definitely worth a close read.

AOC PREFERS HER GRANNY TO BE POOR: You may have heard Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) bewailing her grandmother’s squalid living conditions in Puerto Rico. Conservative journalist Matt Walsh did and he organized a fund-raising appeal that generated $100,000 to help AOC’s granny. Can you guess why she rejected it?

Nothing is more important than the narrative. Nothing. Nothing at all.

(Bumped.)

BLACK PASTOR/ACADEMIC DEAN DISSECTS CRT: Voddie Baucham sees a looming catastrophe for evangelicals specifically (and America more generally) due to the pervasive and poisonous influence of Critical Race Theory (CRT).

This short video lays out the four basic CRT tenets, and Baucham does a devastating deep dive on the ideology in a new book, “Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism Looming Catastrophe.” Baucham and Christopher Rufo are the Alpha and Omega of the case against CRT.

AUTHOR NOTE: My mis-spelling of Baucham’s last name has been corrected. Thanks to the several folks who, kindly, pointed it out to me.

BOOKMARK THIS ONE: You may not be familiar with Kash Patel, but much of what is known today about the origins and motives of Russiagate are known because of his investigative efforts working for then-House Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA).

Patel is also a former federal prosecutor, chief of staff to the acting Secretary of Defense and a National Security Council counter-terrorism expert. He’s even been the guy with the nuclear football accompanying the President.

Now Patel sits down each week for “Kash’s Corner” on Epoch Times TV to talk with host Jan Jekielek about what’s happening and why on the national and world scenes. The first edition is full of Patel’s fascinating and informed insights about the Israel-Hamas conflict and the politicalization of the national security community.

Just to cite one enticing example, did you know two days before January 6, President Donald Trump authorized the deployment of 20,000 National Guard troops to protect the Capitol if requested by the Secretary of Defense? Or that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser sent a letter to DOD refusing to request such troops?

STARTING SOMETHING NEW ON HILLFAITH: It’s called “Explain This:” and it will be regular quick-hits on major issues in the debate on Christianity. All comments appreciated, positive and critical alike, here and on HillFaith. Snark and insults, not so much.

For those wondering why I post these items here, it’s because politics is downstream from culture, which in turn is downstream from science, which is itself downstream from metaphysics and religion.  But it’s all finally of a piece and all of these elements deserve deep discussion, conflicting opinions and reasoned analyses.

NOW THAT THE TRUTH ABOUT FAUCI IS COMING OUT: Issues & Insights provides a handy roundup of the recent revelations that both demonstrate the federal government’s highest paid employee has a tenuous relationship with truth-telling and that his former commander-in-chief was right-on about him.

VANITY FAIR (OF ALL PLACES!) JUST BLEW UP THE COVID COVERUP: And this is just the summary:

“A months long Vanity Fair investigation, interviews with more than 40 people, and a review of hundreds of pages of U.S. government documents, including internal memos, meeting minutes, and email correspondence, found that conflicts of interest, stemming in part from large government grants supporting controversial virology research, hampered the U.S. investigation into COVID-19’s origin at every step. In one State Department meeting, officials seeking to demand transparency from the Chinese government say they were explicitly told by colleagues not to explore the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s gain-of-function research, because it would bring unwelcome attention to U.S. government funding of it.”

ANGRY ABOUT BIG TECH CENSORSHIP: Real Clear Politics’ Susan Crabtree reports on a group of Big Tech execs who share your anger. (BTW, I’ve worked with Susan over the years and she is a great journalist).