21st CENTURY HEADLINES: China is creating “biologically enhanced super soldiers” and has already done “human testing.”
#JOURNALISM: USA Today Is Now Using Liberal College Kids To Censor Media They Dislike. “An alliance between Big Tech and leftist papers to suppress dissent is a deeply sinister thing. The amount of scorn required for this already troubling work to then be outsourced to partisan college kids is incredible.”
PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:
● Shot: Biden, Harris pledge to keep politics out of DOJ.
—The Hill, Thursday.
● Chaser: Kamala Harris: Violent attack on ‘Empire’ star [Jussie Smollett] is ‘attempted modern day lynching.’
—The Hill, January 29, 2019.
MICHAEL BARONE: DEMOCRATS SHOULDN’T BE SURPRISED THAT TRUMP SUPPORTERS AREN’T ROLLING OVER:
In 1960, Richard Nixon chose to observe that norm and not challenge results in multiple states. In 2000, Al Gore contested the results in Florida but conceded after the final court ruling and segued to issue advocacy.
Not so in 2016. In violation of longstanding norms, Obama administration intel and law-enforcement agencies spied on the opposition party campaign. Officials proffered the dodgy Steele dossier before the FISA court without revealing it was paid for by Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
In violation of longstanding norms, Democrats refused to accept the result as legitimate. “I will not accede to this. I will resist,” tweeted liberal think tank head Neera Tanden (President-elect Joe Biden’s choice to head the Office of Management and Budget) five days after the election. Democrats took to calling themselves “the Resistance,” suggesting the Trump administration was morally equivalent to the pro-Hitler Vichy regime in France.
Again and again, leading Democrats — Hillary Clinton, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the late Rep. John Lewis, Joe Biden, Jimmy Carter — called Trump an “illegitimate” president. For three years, Democrats advanced the Russia-collusion hoax without finding or producing any evidence except for the discredited Steele dossier.
Joe McCarthy had the limp excuse that at some point, there were some communists in the State Department. Democrats and their many allies in the news media lacked a similar excuse for propagating the Russia-collusion hoax.
“I learned it from you!”
More (From Ed):
December 5, 2020
OBVIOUSLY, IT’S BECAUSE MEN ARE MORE PUBLIC-SPIRITED AND SELF-SACRIFICING THAN WOMEN: Why Are Fewer Women Than Men Planning to Get a Covid-19 Vaccine?
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AT AMAZON, Bose Wave SoundTouch Music System IV.
MEANWHILE A CHINESE PROBE IS RETURNING SAMPLES FROM THE MOON: Japan is bringing pieces of an asteroid to Earth this weekend.
MICHAEL YON ON MEDIA: Take the handle off the Broadstreet Pump.
GO AHEAD, JUMP! YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LIVE FOR ANYWAY: Coaxing cancer cells to commit suicide.
NOW SHIPPING FROM AMAZON, Joe Pappalardo’s Inferno: The True Story of a B-17 Gunner’s Heroism and the Bloodiest Military Campaign in Aviation History.
HAVE YOU TOLD VAN MORRISON LATELY THAT YOU LOVE HIM? “‘I’m not telling people what to do or think,’ Morrison noted in a statement, ‘the government is doing a great job of that already. It’s about freedom of choice, I believe people should have the right to think for themselves.’ Not everyone, everyone, everyone, everyone agrees.”
WE ALL WANT THINGS: Many Epidemiologists Want Social Distancing and Masks Forever—Even After the Vaccine. “Epidemiologists are free to take whatever precautions they deem necessary in their own lives, of course—as are the rest of us. But for too long, their pessimistic dictates have provided cover for politicians and government employees to make people’s lives miserable.”
MICHAEL BARONE: Democrats are now reaping the whirlwind of their 2016 election ‘Resistance.’ “Democrats who are dismayed that many Americans aren’t meekly accepting the legitimacy of the Biden presidency are in the process of learning a lesson taught a very long time ago. You reap what you sow.”
OPERATION WARP SPEED: TRUMP’S END-RUN AROUND THE FAILURE OF CIVILIAN BUREAUCRACY: New document reveals scope and structure of Operation Warp Speed and underscores vast military involvement. “The military’s extensive involvement in the development and distribution of a vaccine is a departure from pandemics of the past.”
The RNA technology behind vaccines like Moderna’s has been a DARPA priority for years. And, of course, the military has been thinking about how to respond to a biowar attack for a long time; that was the CDC’s original role too (somewhat glossed-over) but now it cares more about eliminating racism and fatty foods.
DISPATCHES FROM THE HOUSE OF STEPHANOPOULOS: ABC’s Stephanopoulos Pushes Georgia Dems Senate Fundraiser– On Air!
More from Ed Morrissey, who asks, “If this was on one of ABC’s entertainment shows, it might still be suspect. However, GMA operates under the aegis of ABC News, just as Nightline, This Week, and World News Tonight do. Since when do news programs promote fundraising for political campaigns and candidates? This certainly looks like a massive in-kind contribution to Democrats. What does ABC News have to say for themselves — and will they report this properly to the IRS?”
I BLAME #ORANGEMANBAD AND THE ANTI-MASK RED STATES FOR THIS SURGE: Amid record COVID-19 surge, Seoul orders businesses to close early.
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: AOC Now Selling ‘Tax The Rich’ Caviar For Just $10,000 A Can.
Earlier: AOC Sells ‘Tax the Rich’ Sweatshirts for the Low Low Price of $58.
STEAL THAT BOOK! Ivy League librarians demand a ‘world without policing.’
Librarians are more dependent than most on social order.
DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: The Librarians Will Save Us. “A group of 13 ‘abolitionist librarians’ from Ivy League universities… is demanding that their colleagues ‘immediately begin the work of divesting from police and prisons.’ […] The group wants Ivy League librarians to ‘explicitly name policing itself as the problem’ and take actions that will lead to the ‘complete abolition of law enforcement.’”
ABC MORPHED INTO THE BABYLON BEE SO SLOWLY, I HARDLY EVEN NOTICED: San Francisco bans smoking inside apartments; pot smoking OK.
SEGREGATION NOW, SEGREGATION TOMORROW, SEGREGATION FOREVER! Black campus leaders silent on UW paying ‘White Fragility’ author more than fellow black keynote speaker.
JOEL KOTKIN: Why Trump’s America will live on.
In their current guise, Democrats today can only offer redistribution of wealth, which itself can come in two forms, each with inherent problems. A traditional socialist approach would hardly be in the interest of the Democratic funders or the non-profit establishment, given it would involve siphoning off the wealth of people like Jeff Bezos, who expended much of his media power, through the Washington Post, opposing Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid. Yet the progressive left continues to push this agenda, notably in big urban centres, a continuing challenge to more oligarch-friendly liberals.
The other alternative would be to turn the middle and working class into future serfs – that is, people increasingly dependent on what Marx called ‘the proletarian alms bag’ (1). This ‘oligarchal socialism’ – backed by many tech oligarchs – would transfer funds, likely from the remaining middle class, to fund a ‘guaranteed annual income’ to keep hoi polloi in subsidised apartments, spending their time in low-wage gig jobs, while they play video games, smoke pot, drink and water their houseplants. It is an approach that allows the oligarchs to continue accumulating the wealth and power they see as their due, while keeping the peasants separate from their pitchforks.
These unattractive alternatives could provide enormous opportunities for Republicans, or more traditional Democrats, if they could overcome the opposition of ‘market fundamentalists’. On the right, as the American Prospect has demonstrated, many conservative think-tanks are financed by Google and other oligopolists. The future could belong not to Trump but to more coherent Republicans like Oren Cass and his American Compass group, who reject ‘let the market rip’ fundamentalism and openly favour working-class interests in terms of healthcare, education, housing, anti-trust policy and energy.
Americans do not want to be either Marxist or oligarchic wards. They generally desire to become more self-sufficient and successful. The attempt to implement a pilot guaranteed-incomes programme in Modesto, California, a hardscrabble Valley town of 300,000, was recently rescinded by a primarily minority electorate, who replaced a progressive Democratic with a black Republican preacher. Like most Americans, most minorities and working-class people still believe in the ‘dream’ even if they believe that it is more difficult to achieve.
Until that quintessentially American spark is squelched entirely, the disruptive process brought on by Trump will not go away, but simply evolve and even expand. The question will be whether a more sober, less nativist, and focused populism will emerge from the wreckage or be replaced by something more troubling.
Trump’s America will live on, because Trump’s greatest achievement has been exposing the rot and corruption of our ruling class.
FIGHT THE POWER, STICK IT TO THE MAN: Judge revives free speech lawsuit against UT-Austin.
JOINT MILITARY MISSION IN THE CARIBBEAN SEA: A U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter takes off from the flight deck of the amphibious dock landing ship USS Comstock. The U.S. Southern Command forces were engaged in Hurricane Iota relief efforts in Central America. Photo taken November 27.
I’M GLAD HE’S DEAD: ‘Israel has tape of slain Iran nuke chief talking about building five warheads.’
BIG AND BEAUTIFUL: Border wall construction to continue past Inauguration Day. “Thanks to congressional funding rules, the construction of President Trump’s border wall will continue into next year, no matter what the final outcome of the Electoral College election is.”
SHAGGY DOG STORY:
Related: Did Biden Just Say the Quiet Part Out Loud? “Like I told Barack, if I reach something where there’s a fundamental disagreement [with Harris] we have based on a moral principle, I’ll develop some disease and say I have to resign.”
Trunalimunumaprzure!
FOREIGN INFLUENCE: Biden Taps Former Chinese Tech Mogul For Trade Transition.
GRAY LADY DITCHES 1619 PROJECT FOR 1984 PROJECT: Goodbye, U.S.D.A., Hello, Department of Food and Well-Being.
The secretary of agriculture should lead the fight against corporations that have created a toxic food environment and support groups building healthful alternatives. The secretary should champion unity among farmers, rural people and urban advocates for racial and economic justice against the common enemy of consolidation and concentration of wealth. And the secretary should use the department’s vaunted research and extension capacity to support a food system that can rebuild rural economies, regenerate ecological capital, mitigate climate change and provide nourishing food for all.
While we’re at it, we might as well change the department’s name from its archaic, misleading misnomer to something that reflects the country’s needs: a Department of Food and Well Being.
What’s wrong with calling it the Ministry of Love?
IT’S GOOD TO BE IN THE NOMENKLATURA:
Watch this video of an LA bar owner that perfectly crystallizes the absurdity of California’s absurd and ridiculous shutdown rules. pic.twitter.com/EHPw38OijN
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) December 5, 2020
“Same thing in NYC, where studio audiences are allowed for SNL but Broadway and restaurants suffer,” Joe Concha of The Hill adds.
More: Gov. Gavin Newsom sidesteps questions on whether data supports new business closures.
KINSLEY GAFFE: Pelosi: I’m happy to cut a COVID-19 relief deal now that Trump lost the election. “This is an admission from Pelosi that she held up any relief to undermine Trump in the election. Under the circumstances, it’s disgusting, and this stench should stick to Pelosi just as the nuclear option and the Romney smear stenches stick to Harry Reid. Republicans should remind voters of this every day between now and the midterms, and it should be running as an ad in Georgia before the weekend is up. Shameful.”
AIRBRUSH ALERT: Wikipedia Page for New Biden COVID Czar Got a Good Scrubbing.
FIGHT THE POWER, STICK IT TO THE MAN: Artist Sues To Prevent Vermont Law School From Painting Over Underground Railroad Murals That Black Students Call Racist.
December 4, 2020
SORRY, I’M UNMOVED. FBI lawyer who lied to surveil Trump aide asks judge to spare him from prison. “Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith’s legal team is pleading with a judge not to send him to prison for lying to secure surveillance orders against President Trump’s 2016 campaign adviser Carter Page. . . . US District Judge James Boasberg is expected to hand down Clinesmith’s sentence on Thursday.”
JOHN HINDERAKER: Mask Jacobinism Runs Rampant.
21ST CENTURY MOON RACE: China’s Chang’e 5 probe lifts off from moon carrying lunar samples.
DEVELOPING: Trump Pulls American Troops Out of Somalia.
SPACE: NASA will buy moon dirt from these 4 companies. “”We think it’s very important to establish the precedent that private-sector entities can extract, can take these resources, and NASA can purchase and utilize them to fuel not only NASA’s activities but a whole new dynamic era of public and private development in exploration on the moon and then, eventually, to Mars.”
NEWS YOU CAN USE: How to make the healthiest coffee. French presses, percolators, and espresso machines need not apply.
I was happy to discover that K-cups contain filters.
VIA TONI AIRAKSINEN ON FACEBOOOK:
So, Uber yesterday implored the CDC to consider their drivers as “essential” and thus deserving of early COVID-19 vaccination, just as the CDC plans to provide vaccination to the elderly and healthcare workers first.
No doubt, Uber’s request is driven by profit motive.
Uniquely, Uber has a generous sick-leave policy. Drivers who test positive for COVID get up to 14 days of paid leave. And their compensation is based on an average of how much they’ve earned in the prior three months.
So, Uber nabbing early access for COVID vaccines for their drivers translates into fewer compensation claims, thus less costs for Uber. That’s assuming the vaccine works and won’t kill you, of course.
But let’s look at this a different way.
Due to our cultural impetus to honor first responders, we’ve placed workers on a flimsy public-health and moral hierarchy. Doctors are at the top (even if said doctor is working completely by telehealth), while our grocery store clerks, baristas, and delivery drivers are at the bottom.
Do they get the vaccine first too?
Our cultural zeitgeist — driven by media’s bias towards the educated upper-class — has forgotten about these workers. This is the forgotten front-line. Your bodega guy. Semi-truck drivers. Cooks. Waitresses. Sex workers. Moving crews. Warehouse stockers.
Will these people also be considered “essential?” This is no more of a public health concern than a moral issue of whose lives we consider valuable to society.
Or what about the “invisible workers” — home cleaners, hotel crew, nannies, and the sanitation workers who arrive to grab your trash and leave before dawn?
“All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”
And I know what you’re going to say… “but the young don’t get sick, they don’t need the vaccine!” Well, that’s mostly true. But that retort completely overlooks the possibility that these younger workers might be more likely to silently spread the virus.
“But healthcare workers come into contact with the sick exponentially more often!” That’s also true.
It’ll be fascinating to see how vaccine distribution pans out.
Does a CNA who already has to wear 3x layers of PPE while working a three hour shift twice a week get the vaccine before a poultry-plant worker who is given only one mask a week in a windowless slaughterhouse?
For the record, I have mixed feeling about Uber drivers considered essential for this purpose. As a weekly user of Uber since I landed in NYC, drivers since March have always rolled down their windows to increase ventilation. They already have significant PPE.
Those such as cooks, sex workers or your bodega guy often don’t have adaquete PPE. It’s my hope that eventually society will realize that who is considered “essential” shouldn’t be contingent on their socioeconomic status, but their risk-factors for both contracting and spreading the virus.
Remember, at the start of the pandemic, free food and care packages were sent to nurses and doctors. But how many of us thought about our neighbors who grease the wheels (sometimes literally) of our society?
Well, plenty of us did, but not among the technocrats or the media.
NOW SHIPPING FROM AMAZON, Joe Pappalardo’s Inferno: The True Story of a B-17 Gunner’s Heroism and the Bloodiest Military Campaign in Aviation History.
YOU KNOW TRUMP’S FOREIGN POLICY HAS BEEN A SUCCESS BECAUSE IT GETS SO LITTLE MEDIA ATTENTION:
IF IT MOVES, REGULATE IT: Apparently “stablecoins” (cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, but pegged to the dollar) threaten minorities? All anything like this will do is drive innovation offshore, as it’s hard to think of anything less bound by borders than cryptocurrency.
(BTW, if you like news about law/policy affecting crypto, feel free to let me know in the comments – lots of interesting stuff in that whole area these days.)
DON’T TRUST CHINA. CHINA IS ASSHOLE. Gordon Chang: China Engaged in ‘an Act of War’ by Enflaming Antifa Riots in the U.S.
WELL, TO BE FAIR, HE HAD A LOT OF HELP FROM THE PRESS: Trump Won His Other Campaign — to Destroy Media Credibility.
GTT: Tesla CEO Elon Musk has told friends and associates he plans to move to Texas.
That’s “Gone To Texas,” as people used to say it in the old days.
ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Yes, You Can Put Synthetic Oil in a Classic or Just Plain Old Car.
THE NEW UNTOUCHABLES: Seattle contemplates exempting any citizen who suffers from poverty, homelessness, addiction, or mental illness from prosecution for so-called “crimes of poverty.”
WHY NOT TAKE A BREAK FROM THE SERIOUS NEWS FOR A FEW MINUTES? Florida Man Friday: Kentucky Mayor One-Ups Florida Man, Joins Harold & Kumar at White Castle.
THE GROWING ANTI-BIG TECH ALLIANCE: 40 States Joining Antitrust Lawsuit To Break-Up Facebook.
I HOPE SO: Can we make bones heal faster?
THANKS TO BREXIT: The U.K. was able to put the Covid vaccine on a fast track for approval, because it is no longer controlled by Europe.
MICROBIOME NEWS: Gut microbiome disturbances linked to major depressive disorder.
AT AMAZON, Bose Wave SoundTouch Music System IV.
FASTER, PLEASE: NASA chooses 4 firms for first private lunar sample collection.
CALIFORNIA IS FINALLY REACHING PROGRESSIVE NIRVANA, WHERE EVERYTHING NOT COMPULSORY IS FORBIDDEN: Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti bans non-essential walking, and no we didn’t think he could do that either.
THIS MUST BE WHY POLITICIANS LIKE IT SO MUCH: Pandemic could be golden time for narcissists, study suggests.
LOL, “DEPOLITICIZE” THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: Biden wrestles with politics in effort to depoliticize the Justice Department. Remember, when Democratic apparatchiks in government pursue Democrats’ agendas, they’re “nonpartisan professional public servants.” When anything else happens, it’s “politicized justice.”
LOCKDOWNS TODAY, LOCKDOWNS TOMORROW, LOCKDOWNS FOREVER! Biden says Fauci will be chief medical adviser.
EVERYTHING WITH THE LEFT IS PROJECTION:
Background: Mark Judge: Why Candace Owens Is Grossed Out by Harry Styles. Meh, I’m just bored by him. A man in a dress was norm-shattering back when I was being toilet trained. Now it’s just a tedious rehash. Styles didn’t do it because it was “brave.” If it were brave, he wouldn’t be the one doing it.
I love the Blade Runner reference, though.
K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: TEA Withdrawal Statistics Show Record Number of Students Leaving Public Schools.
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Elliot Page Retroactively Awarded 17 Oscars For Amazingly Convincing Portrayals Of Women.
GOVERNOR GRINCH: Gavin ‘French Laundry’ Newsom Imposes Draconian Lockdown … Just in Time for Christmas.
Bravely, Newsom will surely not allow any such restrictions to impact his holiday celebrations.
HEAD CLOWN AT THE PUBLIC HEALTH CLOWN SHOW: Dr. Anthony Fauci Apologizes for Suggesting U.K. Rushed Vaccine Decision.
ANALYSIS: TRUE. Joel Kotkin: The Real Fascist Threat Was Never Trump – It’s Corporate Power. “We cannot hope to have a functional democracy when property and information are controlled by a small number of companies tightly allied with political power.”
IN THE MAIL: Backlash: How China’s Aggression Has Backfired.
MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ critics show they still despise ‘deplorables.’
VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: It’s Simple — If They Can Loot and Riot, You Can Celebrate Christmas.
Insanity Wrap needs to know: How many members of the White House press corps did Kayleigh McEnany just send to the burn unit?
Answer: All of them.
Before we get to the sordid details, a quick preview of today’s Wrap.
- Don’t let the delivery grinch steal Christmas
- Stolen valor: Hillary and Chelsea getting richer off of actual gutsy women
- The funniest bit of 5G paranoia ever
And so much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.
ROGER SIMON: To Vote or Not to Vote…in Georgia. “As for whether I would vote in Georgia—academic in my case—yes, in the end, of course I would. But I might pretend I wasn’t going to for a while, just to keep certain people’s feet to the fire.”
MY EYES! ZE GOGGLES DO NOTHING! Project Veritas Strips CNN Naked.
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