AT AMAZON, Bras for Women.
Plus: Sony 4K Ultra HD Blu Ray Player with 4K HDR and Dolby Vision + 6FT HDMI Cable – (UBP-X700).
January 1, 2021
OH, I KNOW THE ANSWER TO THIS ONE: NYT: COVERING THE ELITES, OR COVERING *FOR* THE ELITES?
Plus:
Read the whole thing if you want maximum amusement. But this example raises a deeper question: why do so many liberals feel compelled to embellish or make up stories about themselves? In addition to racial fakery like Rachel Dolezal, which connects to the diversity ideology of the moment at least, you have the fake war heroism of Richard Blumenthal, Brian Williams, and, most spectacularly of all, John Kerry. (And leave aside Hillary Clinton “landing under fire” in Bosnia, and supposedly being named for British explorer Edmund Hillary, even though his fame as a mountaineer didn’t arrive until well after Hillary Rodham was born.)
I suggest there is something about the fundamental nihilism at the heart of modern liberalism—the view that there is no truth, that the “narrative” is the only important thing, that creating your own “reality” is perfectly fine—that compels liberals to lie about themselves.
Also Gary Hart, nee Hartpence, and of course Bill de Blasio, nee Warren Wilhelm.
BRITAIN’S Brexit Triumph.
BIG TECH IS JUST AN ARM OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY — OR MAYBE IT’S THE OTHER WAY:
MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Will Joe Biden take on our alarming China problem?
BLUE ZONES ARE RUN BY GARBAGE PEOPLE: WATCH: Mayor de Blasio dances in Times Square with his wife after shutting down annual New Year’s Eve party.
AS LONG AS THE ELECTRIC STUFF DOESN’T COME FROM LUCAS: This Electric Jaguar XK120 Is a Classic Without Hassle. “This has a twin motor with 516 lb-ft of torque and the equivalent of 375 horsepower. And the brakes, suspension… everything upgraded around that.”
MY MERCEDES SUV CAN ALREADY DO THAT: Teslas May Soon Be Able to Call 911.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: 5.56 NATO vs. .223 Rem.: What’s the Difference? You can shoot .223 in a 5.56, but not the other way around. “It is, and always will be, safe to shoot .223 Rem. ammunition in a chamber marked for 5.56 NATO. Commit that idea to memory, and you’ll never get in trouble. The pressures that a 5.56 NATO cartridge can generate are too high for the .223 Rem. chamber.”
WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Sustained teleportation of quantum information achieved in test.
BECAUSE JOE BIDEN IS PUTTING THE OBAMA-ERA BAND BACK TOGETHER: Why Iran Is Getting the Bomb.
And the Obama-era DNC-MSM groupies will vacuously nod along with whatever they do.
IT’S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!
—Agence France-Presse, June 29, 2017.
I blame Obama:
● President ‘has four years to save Earth.’
—The London Guardian, January 27, 2009.
Which brings us to our current hellscape: “A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a ‘Siberian’ climate by 2020.”
—The London Guardian, February 21, 2004.
K12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Looking Back On A Year Of Mass Homeschooling. “Indeed, there has been an exodus of students from public schools this fall, as many parents select private schools that have been more likely to open for in-person learning, or choose independent homeschooling. NPR reported that public school districts in at least 20 states have seen plummeting numbers of students this fall. In Arizona, public school enrollment is down five percent compared to last year, and in Massachusetts it is down four percent.”
MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Will Joe Biden take on our alarming China problem?
NOT MENTIONED IN THIS STORY: BLACK LIVES MATTER. Violent trend emerges in Knoxville with more shootings in 2020.
KURT SCHLICHTER: My Prediction for 2021 Is Pain.
Related metaphor alert:
Oof pic.twitter.com/mFI3uYMilD
— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) January 1, 2021
THREE GLARING FLAWS PLAGUING THE BIPARTISAN PUSH FOR $2,000 ‘STIMULUS’ CHECKS: Handing out boosted $2,000 COVID ‘stimulus’ checks like candy on Halloween isn’t effective or justified.
I MISSED THIS WHEN IT HAPPENED–DIVERSITY NONSENSE COST TENS OF THOUSANDS OF LIVES!: Moderna Slows Coronavirus Vaccine to Ensure Minority Representation.
This is particularly egregious because apparently Moderna felt the need to ensure sufficient representation of Hispanic Americans. Even if you buy the dubious notion that there is a significant chance that vaccines will have significantly different effects by “race,” what race are Hispanics supposed to be, exactly? The average American Hispanic is about 3/4 European by descent, based on DNA studies. Essentially, then, Moderna allowed tens of thousands of people to die to ensure that “enough” white people who happen to have Spanish-speaking ancestors were included.
Like many stupidities, the very unscientific focus in biomedical research on American racial categories is the product of government policy. Even if you believe in “race” as a biological concept likely to have significant medical salience, our American civil rights/affirmative action categories don’t make any sense in that regard, e.g., putting Caucasian people from India in the same “racial” category as East Asians such as Chinese and Austronesians such as Filipinos. A chapter of my in-progress book on American racial classification (preview here) will discuss this in detail, but a shorter version can be found here. [BTW, if we have any readers with relevant medical/scientific expertise who would be interested in “peer reviewing” my chapter, please let me know.]
Serious question: Why did I only hear about this today? Why wasn’t there mass outrage when this was reported in September?
IN THE MAIL: CookWise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed.
MOST OF THE RACIAL TENSION IN AMERICA IS FOMENTED BY JOURNALISTS: A “POLICE SHOOTING” IN MINNEAPOLIS.
Although, if you actually follow the link, the first thing you see in the Times story is that “[t]he chief said witnesses indicated that the man had fired first.”
It wasn’t a traffic stop, either, contrary to the Times report. It has subsequently been reported that the stop was incident to a firearms investigation.
In any event, a crowd of demonstrators appeared at the scene. They blocked traffic for several blocks and started a bonfire in the middle of the street to keep warm. Authorities pleaded with them not to riot or commit arson. Eventually the crowd dissipated, but that was probably due to the temperature dipping down to an overnight low below ten degrees rather than to the fact that the decedent, a criminal, opened fire on the officers. Rioting is more fun in May and June.
A little while ago, the Minneapolis Police Department released body cam footage of the incident. Here it is. This was no traffic stop. Multiple police vehicles converged on the suspect’s car. He first tried to drive away and then, blocked, started shooting at the officers. They returned fire.
Like I said.
JOSEPH EPSTEIN: The Tyranny of Diversity: Its monomaniacal pursuit undermines other values—true equality among them.
There’s nothing wrong with the idealistic yearning for equality unless it gets in the way of other important goals or goods. The ideal of promised equality under communism, for example, annihilated the ideal of personal liberty. The political philosopher Isaiah Berlin often wrote about the conflict that arises when two good qualities compete. Great goods, Berlin thought, sometimes cannot live together: “We are doomed to choose, and every choice may entail an irreparable loss.” Is diversity, in higher education and in politics, always the right choice?
In contemporary higher education, diversity competes with intellectual authority, based on scholarly and scientific accomplishment. These days, diversity is all but victorious and intellectual authority well in retreat. This leaves no one in a position to set or determine educational standards. University presidents, once educational leaders, now focus on fundraising and public relations. The heads of academic departments tend to accept their jobs not out of a desire for intellectual leadership but to reduce their teaching loads. Because of this want of intellectual authority, universities have now been on the slide for many years. . . .
In the conflict between goods, it is always worth asking who is favored and who loses because of the good chosen. In higher education we have witnessed Harvard, in its desire for diversity, turn away large numbers of highly qualified Asian-American applicants for admission. In contests for awards and prizes, diversity, too, is often the primary factor. A friend recently told me that his grandson won a Marshall Scholarship, all the more remarkable, he noted, since the kid is a white male.
America has always been and remains a diverse country, composed of waves of immigrants seeking opportunities available nowhere else. If some groups have had to struggle to secure these opportunities, they have for the most part successfully done so. Those who oppose them are now rightly regarded as retrograde. Left to their own devices, and once freed of the harness of victim status that many of their leaders wish to bind them in, they are likely to go from strength to strength. Attempts to rig the system in their favor through the artificial arrangements that imposed diversity requires cannot ultimately help them attain the genuine equality that only true accomplishment can bring.
The best way to celebrate diversity, perhaps, is to begin by celebrating diversity of thought.
No, they pursue race/gender diversity in order to exclude diversity of thought. It’s not an oversight; it’s the goal.
MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Will Joe Biden take on our alarming China problem?
A NEW YEAR, BUT THE B-52 REMAINS: A BUFF flies a mission somewhere over southwest Asia.
AS I KEEP SAYING, FOR A PARTY THAT SUPPOSEDLY WON BIG, THEY DON’T SEEM VERY HAPPY: Democrats more gloomy than ever, despite Biden’s Electoral College win.
HOW’S THAT LOCKDOWN WORKIN’ FOR YOU? Bodies pile up, patient care falters as COVID-19 devastates L.A. County hospitals.
Related: US COVID case numbers would be on the decline if not for California increases.
Also: Los Angeles Locked Down, Covid Came Anyway. The city’s crisis contradicts the simple narrative that outbreaks are punishment for red-state recklessness. “Los Angeles has endured nine months of a shutdown more extreme than most of the country’s — or the world’s. In the beginning, the city even closed the parks. You still can’t enter the Venice Beach boardwalk except to pick up takeout food. No walks, bike rides or fishing on the pier.”
A HAPPY NEW YEAR CHALLENGE: Thank God, it’s 2021 and 2020 is now behind us. Speaking of new beginnings, HillFaith has a New Year’s Challenge about the first beginning. Are you up for it?
WEIRDLY, IF DEMOCRATS HATED MINORITIES AND WANTED THEM TRAPPED, SAD, AND DEAD, THEY WOULDN’T HAVE TO CHANGE ANY OF THEIR POLICIES: New York City’s Shooting Surge Hit Black and Hispanic Communities Hardest. “The number of shootings increased to 1,493 for the year so far, compared with 754 for the same time in 2019, the data showed. A single shooting could end up with more than one victim, which accounts for the difference in totals between victims and incidents. The Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice said people of color accounted for most of the victims. An analysis of NYPD data by that office showed that 1,440 of 1,495 shooting victims between Jan. 1 to Oct. 1, or 96%, were either Black or Hispanic. During that period, 29 shooting victims were white.”
Entirely missing from this story: Any reference to Black Lives Matter.
HAVE YOU HAD ENOUGH OF 2020? THEN MAKE 2021 COUNT: Mind How You Go. We Can Do This!
2020 MAN OF THE YEAR: Eric Swalwell: Douche gigolo, California congressman.
GOOD. IT IS TIME TO START QUESTIONING THE PSY-OPS. ITS TIME TO START EXPLODING IT ALL OVER. COME WHAT MAY: British Woman Arrested After Filming Empty Hospital Wards While Health Officials Push COVID Panic.
BECAUSE OF COURSE THEY DO. HEY, DO YOU HEAR THAT ALARM CLOCK? Richard Grenell Discusses Ballot Fraud Evidence Local Officials Purposefully Keep Hidden.
We did tell you not to tread on us. Did you fail to understand it? Should we have spoken Mandarin?
OH, THEY DO. THEY JUST THINK THEY CAN IGNORE US. THIS IS AKIN TO DISABLING YOUR ALARM LOCK AND THINKING YOU NEVER HAVE TO GET UP: D’Souza: “GOP establishment should realize Trump supporters demand the election challenge”.
BEHOLD! MY FACE IS SO SHOCKED: New Evidence That the Ancient Climate Was Warmer than Today’s.
US OUT OF THE UN, UN OUT OF THE US: The Middle East Doubles Down on Oil and Gas As the UN Warns of “Climate Emergency”.
I’ll believe their climate emergency when they go after China to change its behavior.
I WANT TO POINT OUT WE’RE FINE: Thousands in Colorado without heat after vandals attack gas system.
BEFORE OR AFTER THEY DEAL WITH THE FAMINE THE LEFT IS CREATING WORLDWIDE? Britain’s new climate plan that could make millions of homes unsellable.
JUST REMEMBER THE NEW YEAR IS PRONOUNCED TWENTY TWENTY WON: The Century Crammed Into a Year Mercifully Ends.
THAN THEY ARE? ABSOLUTELY: Teachers: Should They Be Held To Higher Standards?
OH, LOOK, NEW YEAR SHOCKED FACE: DOJ Researcher Releases Study Indicating Massive Election Fraud in Georgia and Pennsylvania.
FANG FANG MITCH IS NOT A TRAITOR. HE’S ON THE OTHER SIDE: Does Mitch McConnell Want to Lose the Senate?
YEAH. AND EVERY YEAR WE’LL HOLD A MEMORIAL FOR FLU VICTIMS? BAH. LAUGH THEM OUT OF PUBLIC LIFE! Memorial for Covid in Biden Inauguration Plans.
Our founding fathers gained your liberty during a small pox epidemic. Lefties ain’t Americans.
GOING INTO 2021 IN MY MOLON LABE T-SHIRT, MIDDLE FINGERS ALOFT AND THIS ONE GOES OUT TO ALL THE COMMIES AND SOSHES IN MEDIA, ENTERTAINMENT, NEWS, POLITICS, AND OUR SO CALLED TECH LORDS:
You thought I/we’d lay down and die? Ah! Molon Labe…. come and get it. Maybe you made the mistake of messing with Americans?
December 31, 2020
ENDING 2020 ON A HIGH NOTE: In a Last-Minute Reversal, HHS Voids FDA Fees on Distillers Who Produced Emergency Hand Sanitizer.
GET WOKE, GO BROKE: One last disaster in 2020: ‘Wonder Woman 1984.’ Message: “Ronald Reagan bad!”
THE WORLD’S TERRIBLE RULING CLASS: Ontario finance minister touted ‘sacrifices’ while vacationing in St. Barts during lockdown.
ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Why Do We Eat Black-Eyed Peas on New Year’s Day?
KURT SCHLICHTER: My Prediction for 2021 is Pain.
HOUSING ACTIVISTS CHECK IN, REFUSE TO LEAVE OR PAY: Jeff Dunetz and The Lid report they paid for 16 rooms the first night, which was Christmas Eve, then refused to leave. They are still in the Fife, Washington, Travelodge, and they aren’t paying for the rooms or damages. The activists are with the Tacoma Housing Now group and are demanding that local government pay all of their expenses.
SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Study: As pot rules relax, more U.S. teens driving while stoned.
THE BIDEN ILLEGITIMACY:
AT AMAZON, Carhartt Men’s Fleece Neck Gaiter, Black.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: 14 Great Pocket Pistols for Personal Defense.
NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: Poll Observer Claims ‘Statistically Impossible’ Number of Military Ballots in Georgia County Went for Biden.
JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR: Dave Portnoy.
Portnoy wasn’t done. The 2016 Free Beacon Man of the Year established The Barstool Fund to raise money for small business owners. In less than two weeks, the fund brought in more than $8.7 million, and helped save dozens of small businesses from financial ruin. Portnoy’s FaceTime calls with grateful business owners provided the heartwarming content so many of us craved in these difficult times.
Portnoy has offered to go on any network to talk about his efforts, but thus far only Fox News has put him on the air. CNN has better things to do, apparently, like keeping track of Trump’s golfing schedule.
“I didn’t think I’d be the guy doing it,” Portnoy told Tucker Carlson after launching the fund. “I’d rather be sitting on a beach, betting on horses, drinking, but nobody else is going to do it. We have this big platform, so we’re going to try to help as many small businesses as we can.”
For all the awards journalists keep giving themselves, few have ever done anything to deserve one.
Until now.
For perhaps the first time in human history, a media personality has made a positive contribution to society by improving the lives of working people who don’t have time to follow politics obsessively on Twitter.
I’m so old, I can (just barely) remember a time before journalists inverted Chicago Evening Post columnist Finley Peter Dunne’s 1893 notion that “The job of the newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED: When There Wasn’t Enough Hand Sanitizer, Distilleries Stepped Up. Now They’re Facing $14,060 FDA Fees. Distilleries just learned that to cap off a brutal year, the FDA is charging them a fee normally reserved for drug manufacturing facilities.
CRUSHING THE NARRATIVE: Organic, non-organic meats have similar greenhouse gas impacts.
GOING LIVE IN FIVE… FOUR… THREE… VIP Gold Live Chat with Kruiser, Preston, VodkaPundit.
Cold drinks. Hot takes. Your questions.
HE LOST (HALF THE AUDIENCE) ON JEOPARDY, BABY: Wannabe Jeopardy! Host Ken Jennings Is A Brett Kavanaugh Rape Truther Who Hates Republicans.
CHRISTIAN TOTO: Why Are Reporters Covering for Hilaria Baldwin’s Epic Con? “The Identity Politics mob is suddenly standing down. Here’s the real reason why.”
‘TIS THE SEASON: Arkansas doctor wipes away cancer patients’ bills totaling $650,000.
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: 2020 Rated Worst Year Ever, Provided You Never Lived At Any Other Time In History.
MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Oregon Mayor Leads the Charge to Open Businesses on Jan 1, Despite Lockdowns.
THAT’LL PLAY WELL: New US dietary guidelines: No candy, cake for kids under 2.
OLD AND BUSTED: Tax the Rich.
The New Hotness? Tax the poor! Thursday is the last day before new Oregon tobacco tax hikes cigarette prices $2 per pack.
As Reason magazine notes, “Cigarette taxes hurt the poor. Cigarette taxes are extremely regressive. The poor pay a larger chunk of their income to the tax than the wealthy. This is further exacerbated by the fact that low-income, low-education and minority populations all smoke more than high-income, high-education and white populations, and by a good bit. Nearly a third of people below the poverty line smoke, while only 18% of those at or above the poverty line do. A tax on cigarettes is therefore paid mostly by society’s poorest individuals.”
OH, YEAH? JUST WATCH HIM DO IT WITH A BIG ASSIST FROM THE PRESS: Warnock Can’t Dismiss ‘Traumatizing and Disturbing’ Camp Abuse Story.
BECAUSE IT’S ESSENTIALLY TOTALITARIAN: Why cancel culture can target anyone. “The end game of cancel culture isn’t just to humiliate and punish the offender but to intimidate and ultimately silence any dissenting voices including those calling for some measure of mercy.”
THE RETROACTIVE ENDORSEMENT OF BARACK OBAMA WAS THE POINT OF NO RETURN, ASSUMING THERE HAD EVER BEEN ONE: 2020 Is The Year NeverTrump Finally Admitted They’re NeverRepublican.
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: What Will Historians Make of Our Annus Horribilis?
Yet amid the death, destruction and dissension, history will show that America did not fall apart.
In remarkable fashion, researchers created a viable and safe COVID-19 vaccine in less than a year — a feat earlier described as impossible by experts.
The nation went into recession but avoided the forecasted depression. This was partly because America in early 2020 was booming by historical standards, and partly because the Trump administration and Congress quickly infused some $4 trillion of liquidity into the inert economy.
For all the charges and counter-charges of voter fraud and Trump being a sore loser, President-elect Joe Biden will eventually take office. And Donald Trump will leave it.
No one disputes that the 2020 campaign and election were abnormal. Whether they were unfair or illegitimate will likely be readjudicated in the 2022 midterm and 2024 presidential elections. By then, the people will have had time to digest the bizarre events of the annus horribilis — and with their votes make the necessary compensations.
For all of America’s troubles, the world abroad was worse. China eerily bragged that it reacted best to its own virus — even as its global popularity crashed. Europe did little better in combatting the pandemic and saw its economy in even worse shape.
More importantly, as the year ended, there was a patch of blue sky amid the storm clouds.
The Middle East may be on the verge of a historic recalibrated peace. The world is now pushing back against Chinese mercantilism. The southern border is mostly secure. The flood of illegal immigration has ebbed to a trickle. The strategies that sparked a three-year economic boom need only be reapplied in 2021.
Amid death and destruction, perhaps one day historians will conclude that what could not kill off America in 2020 only made it stronger.
As coronavirus vaccines roll out, it will be fascinating to watch which crises the Biden administration manufactures, to generate the left’s all-important moral equivalent of war mindset.
VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: California Tumbles Into the Sea.
Insanity Wrap needs to know: Are you ready for the Great Tech Worker Reverse Migration out of California?
Answer: You’d better be, because it sure looks like it’s coming.
Before we get to the sordid details, a quick preview of today’s Wrap.
- Portland police forced to dial 911 for assistance
- FDA makes distillers pay up for helping out
- Andrew Cuomo graciously allows a few thousand Bills fans to attend playoff game, takes a seat for himself
Bonus Sanity: Sorry, couldn’t find any today.
And so much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.
IN THE MAIL: Battles that Changed History.
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