January 28, 2021

#FIGHTFOR$15: $15 Minimum Wage Would ‘Spell a Death Knell for Many Small Restaurants,’ Expert Warns.

DON’T WORRY, JOE HAS A PLAN FOR THAT: From first to sixth: Huawei’s phone business tanks thanks to US sanctions.

HIS POSITION HAS EVOLVED: After Claiming He’s ‘Not a Fan,’ Biden Forms a Commission to PACK the Supreme Court.

GOOD: Scientists jump-start two people’s brains after coma.

CCP JOE: Biden administration delays Chinese military investment ban.

ALL HAIL THE REOPENING!

Given how incredibly political this pandemic has been from the beginning, many people smell a rat. Is it really the case that the reopening of the American economy, particularly in blue states, is so perfectly timed? Do the science and politics really line up so well?

* * * * * * * *

● Washington, D.C. will resume indoor dining.

● Maryland’s governor has decided that the state needs to reopen schools now and no later than March 1.

● Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan says Michigan restaurants can reopen for indoor dining on February 1. Her health adviser decided to resign. Let us hope it is the beginning of many.

● Chicago’s mayor is now demanding an immediate opening of restaurants and bars. Chicago is also threatening teachers unions that they must return to work.

● New York Governor Cuomo has dramatically reversed his rhetorical course and demanded a reopening of the city. More announcements are expected in the coming days.

● California Governor Gavin Newsom, incredibly, has lifted all stay-at-home orders across the state and is permitting dining to open up. Many restaurants have defied orders for months now, and good for them. This new announcement shows that their defiance had an influence.

● Montana’s new governor has lifted some Covid restrictions.

Why, it’s as if: Without Trump to blame, coronavirus turns the corner.

AND CHINA IS PREPARING TO SQUEEZE: The world is dangerously dependent on Taiwan for semiconductors.

QUESTIONS THE PRESS WILL DO ITS BEST TO IGNORE: Nancy Pelosi’s Recent Stock Purchase Raises Ethical and Legal Questions.

ISLAMIST CONVICTED OF BEHEADING U.S. JOURNALIST DANIEL PEARL TO GO FREE, VICTIM’S FAMILY IN ‘SHOCK:’ “Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the release of an Islamist convicted of beheading U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl, a decision that has left his family in ‘complete shock’, lawyers said.”

STOPPED CLOCK:

Indeed.

HMM: High blood pressure often mistaken for menopausal symptoms in women.

HOW’S THAT RETURN TO NORMALCY THING WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? Following Biden’s Lead, Schumer Plans Bypass of GOP to Enact Progressive Agenda.

ROBINHOOD HALTS BUYING OF GAMESTOP AND OTHER HOT STOCKS, INFURIATING USERS:

Robinhood also shut down buying of AMC (AMC), BlackBerry (BB), Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY), Express (EXPR), Koss (KOSS), Naked Brand Corp (NAKD) and Nokia (NOK). Users can only liquidate or close positions.

The GameStop stocks’ run was originally popularized by Reddit forum Wall Street Bets as a value investment.

Throughout social media, angry users reported the inability to buy the stock — only to sell. Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy, who became a popular trader as the pandemic shuttered sports and fans turned to the markets, chimed in as well.

“Either @RobinhoodApp allows free trading like they say they do or they die. It’s really that simple,” Portnoy tweeted. Searches for AMC Entertainment (AMC) on the app also came up blank. (AMC, BlackBerry (BB), Nokia (NOK), and other stocks were among those that have gotten huge boosts from the Reddit forum.)

Past performance is no guarantee of future results: ‘Scumbags:’ This old tweet from Robinhood is coming back to haunt them in a big way:

More here: Robinhood halts trading of GameStop and other heavily shorted stocks as hedge funds suffer.

Robinhood has framed the decision as a way to “help our customers navigate this uncertainty” in its blog post. The Verge meanwhile noted one hedge fund suffering amid the GameStop surge was Melvin Capital Management, which another hedge fund, Citadel, has since bailed out. Citadel’s founder is Ken Griffin, who also founded Citadel Securities, a big investor in Robinhood that also works with TD Ameritrade and Charles Schwab.

It’s the return of what Michael Walsh would call “the Permanent Bipartisan Fusion Party:”

Exit question: “So, is it over?” GameStop Shares Are Collapsing, Pelosi Says “Will Be Reviewing Issue.”

As the “Wu-Tang Financial” account tweets, “The congressional hearings on this GameStop activity gonna be even more boomer cringe than the social media ‘grillings’ where it was so clear our Great Leaders have no clue how most of society functions on the internet.”

UPDATE: It’s pretty rare for the Zodiac Killer and Evita Peron to be on the same page:

BEIJING LAUGHS AT HOW LITTLE MONEY GENERATES SUCH HUGE RETURNS: Biden’s Climate Orders Will Flip America’s National Security on Its Head.

LOVE IN A VACUUM: The Dangers of Masturbating With a Vacuum Cleaner. “Strangely enough, that instance also occurred in Italy… That might say that Italian men really enjoy their vacuum cleaners. It could also simply say that they are willing to admit it.”

Classical reference in headline:

RICHARD FERNANDEZ:

The principal menace of the Narrative keepers is not that they will actually control reality but that they will lose track of it. Records after all, are not made to tell reality where it stands but for reminding us where we are in relationship to the truth. Those would back-edit the world are not strong but weak. They can’t keep their story straight and things keep happening that shouldn’t.

Indeed.

COLORADO: Turnover hits staggering 200% in state office that ensures election integrity. “The departure is part of the ‘turnover and turmoil’ in the office of Secretary of State Jena Griswold. At least seven top aides in the office have now left in two years time, including the five senior officials who departed before the election. This legislative session, the secretary will have her third legislative liaison in as many years, John Magnino, a former official at the State Innovation Exchange, a liberal group.”

DEMS WANT BIDEN TO BE EL JEFE: Issues & Insights always wondered how Trump could be the tyrant and dictator Democrats repeatedly accused him of being even as he did everything he could to reduce the size and power of the federal Leviathan.

Now along comes Joe Biden signing Executive Orders left and right that greatly augment Leviathan. So who is the real authoritarian here?

TOO LATE: Biden’s COVID-19 Response Team: ‘We want to be a step or two ahead.’

YEP: Wall Street giants are calling foul after having been beaten at their own game by a bunch of guys on the internet. It’s hard not to cheer. “Robinhood customers took to Twitter to express their outrage surrounding the decision. Robinhood has made a name for itself through its mission to democratize investing for everyone.”

A user comments: “Robinhood canceled stock orders on #gme #amc #NOK etc…. There should be a class action lawsuit. I thought we had a free market. So Wall Street is OK with me losing hundreds of dollars, so that rich investors can’t be called out on their risks.”

When push comes to shove, the oligarchs display an astonishing solidarity.

DAMON LINKER: The left’s fake Senate majority. “If the goal of McConnell’s gambit was to preserve the filibuster, it must be judged a smashing success. That’s because by forcing the issue right up front, McConnell prompted two Democrats — West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema — to state forthrightly on the record that they have no intention of supporting the elimination of the filibuster, now or in the future. Not only does that mean the left’s plan is dead in the water. It also means that McConnell has already called Schumer’s bluff in advance, preventing him from using the threat of eliminating the filibuster as leverage to persuade Republicans not to use it to slow down or scuttle legislation Democrats favor.”

THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT: The Navy Reportedly Experimented With a ‘Spacetime Modification Weapon.’

According to documents obtained by The War Zone, the US Navy performed experiments on far-fetched technologies including a “spacetime modification weapon” which, researchers claimed internally, could revolutionize power and propulsion systems.

The mysterious technologies were meant to take advantage of the “Pais effect,” patented by American aerospace engineer Salvatore Cezar Pais and which could end up pushing the boundaries of conventional science — if, that is, they are ever proven to actually work.

Pais says the tech could enable a propulsion system that defies gravity, as well as even more eccentric claims. In a January 2020 correspondence with The War Zone, Pais even laid out plans for a “hybrid aerospace-underwater craft” that he claimed was able to “engineer the fabric of our reality at the most fundamental level.”

Maybe that’s what happened to 2020.

WHO KNEW? N.Y. Severely Undercounted Virus Deaths in Nursing Homes, Report Says. The state attorney general, Letitia James, said the Cuomo administration likely omitted thousands of Covid-19 deaths of nursing home residents. “The New York State attorney general accused the Cuomo administration of undercounting coronavirus-related deaths at nursing homes by as much as 50 percent, according to a report released on Thursday.”

The Gray Lady will report no news before its time. But at least their readers are finally seeing this headline. Or as Iowahawk tweets, “Subscribe to the New York Times and get last July’s news today.”

Meanwhile, another Babylon Bee prophesy comes true:

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: POLITICO Goes Full ‘Dr. Strangelove’ in the White House Press Room.

Insanity Wrap needs to know: What would it take to get a reporter to recognize journalism?

Answer: We have no idea, either.

Before we get to the sordid details, a quick preview of today’s Wrap.

  • It’s Main Street Mom’s Basement vs Wall Street
  • RobinHood pegs the ironometer
  • The pen is mightier than the pocket

Bonus Sanity: Kevin Sorbo calls us out on our crazy.

And so much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.

ATTACK THE SYSTEM BEHIND THE DRONES: Drone Swarms Are Getting Too Fast For Humans To Fight, U.S. General Warns.

LIFE IN THE BIDEN YEARS: With Higher Taxes Possible, Here’s What To Do Now.

RADICAL CHIC, FISHER-PRICE DIVISION: Who’s up for an “‘End White Supremacy’ Cute Soft Plush Blanket Swaddle Wrap Receiving Blanket for Infant Or Newborn Baby Blanket?”

It goes great with the Antifa Onesie!

TO BE FAIR, I SUPPOSE THAT’S UNITY OF SOME KIND OR OTHER: To Insults Of U.S. Troops, Biden Administration Adds Forcing Female Soldiers To Shower With Men.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Pitt retaliated against medical professor for warning its race preferences were illegal: lawsuit. Make them pay.

PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD: States Can Reject Critical Race Theory.

President Biden’s reimposition of CRT training in the federal government is shameful. But it need not be the end of the story. Now is the time for governors and state legislators to step up—and to remember that these ideas don’t withstand scrutiny. In a state legislative committee hearing, the argument for colorblindness will always carry the day. As viewed through state and local media—where journalists are more likely to see their jobs as presenting both sides of controversies, rather than advancing the cause of social justice—the case against critical race theory will win hearts and minds.

To fight this battle at the state level is to win it—and to win it is to maintain a country founded on the ideal that all men are created equal. Not to fight this battle is to lose it—and to lose it is to concede that America should be a society that judges people based on the color of their skin, not the content of their character.

Related: “Welcome to Counterweight. We are here to provide you with practical information and expert guidance to resist the imposition of the ideology that calls itself ‘Critical Social Justice’ on your day-to-day life. Our primary focus is on people who find themselves in situations where they need to push back at this ideology in their place of work, university, children’s school or elsewhere and defend their right to their own ethical frameworks for opposing prejudice and discrimination.”

DARK MONEY IS ONLY BAD WHEN REPUBLICANS SPEND IT: Schumer’s Dark Money Group Increased Election Spending by 825% in 2020 Cycle.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Indiana University refers to known terrorist as ‘social activist.’

YOU CAN’T TRUST TECH: Robinhood blocks purchase of GameStop, AMC, and BlackBerry stock. “The company is citing ‘recent volatility’ in the market as the reasoning behind the change.”

In the words of George Carlin, it’s a big club and you ain’t in it. But this is especially awkward for Robinhood, which is acting like a Deputy Sheriff of Nottingham. I assume its status as a cool brand for millennials and Gen Z will take a major hit.

UPDATE: I’m seeing a lot of FB friends who I’m sure voted for Biden talking about how rigged and corrupt the system is as their trades on Robinhood and similar platforms are blocked. This is likely to make the “great reset” a lot more difficult. Also, if a lot of retail investors get the idea that the market is rigged against them — because, you know, they see it happening — that’s going to be a long-term drag on the markets, and on the many people who make their money, one way or another, off of retail investors. As always, of course, the people running the institutions put short-term selfishness ahead of long-term institional health.

IT IS TIME FOR AMERICAN IMPATIENCE WITH CHINA: But of course the Biden Administration has chosen “strategic patience.”

On cue, White House press secretary Jen Psaki has signaled that President Joe Biden’s administration is not prepared to seriously confront the complex and immediate threat communist China poses to American security and world peace.

Read the whole thing.

AS FORETOLD BY THE PROPHECIES AND THE ENTIRE RIGHT-LEANING BLOGOSPHERE: Media May Ignore It, but Biden Presidency Is Already Radical. “The goal for the establishment media isn’t to point out merely that Biden is a sort of American Everyman. It’s to use that supposed normalcy to disguise the fact that his agenda is absolutely abnormal.”

Well, it’s certainly un- and even anti-American, which is nothing new for the Left — only the scale of it under Biden.

STACY MCCAIN: GameStop: The Best Story EVER! Plus:

Not kidding here. Liberals are actually claiming that “Trumpism” is what has caused the GameStop bonanza. The hedge funds got screwed over by “white supremacists,” some liberals are arguing on Twitter.

What does this claim imply? It implies that any challenge to the status quo is illegitimate, that it’s “hate speech” or “terrorism” any time you do something or say something that disrupts the ordinary process by which rich people get richer and powerful people exercise power.

Pretty much. The reaction to GameStop is the most telling aspect of the whole thing.

Related: Charles Payne Explodes on Wall Street ‘Whining’ Over Skyrocketing GameStop Stock: ‘It’s Making Me Sick!’

The way the establishment works is, they win, you lose. Then they say well, that’s just the rules, better luck next time! Then if you actually have better luck next time, they change the rules. Then they tell you the rules are the price we pay for civilization.

MICHAEL BARONE: Biden’s United States of Racial Quotas and Preferences.

THE CHIEF JUSTICE PRESIDES WHEN YOU’RE IMPEACHING A PRESIDENT. YOU’RE NOT IMPEACHING A PRESIDENT, BUT A PRIVATE CITIZEN, WHICH IS ILLEGAL. Senate Dems Wonder: Say, Where Is John Roberts In This Impeachment Trial, Anyway?

Plus: Trump Poll Shows Impeachment Backlash Hitting Cheney.

Endorsing an unfounded and unconstitutional political impeachment is a bad look.

HEH: Promises Kept: Biden Already Delivering Massive Job Losses.

RETURN TO NORMALCY? Biden sparks new immigration surge, many with coronavirus.

Meanwhile he’s adding coronavirus travel restrictions on non-illegals coming to America.

LARRY ELDER: Democrats Want a ‘Return to Civility’; When Did They Practice It?

Larry has the receipts — read the whole thing.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Sycophant Press Can’t Cover for Biden’s Opening Train Wreck. “We’re soon going to need NASA computers to track the number of executive orders issuing forth from the puppet president. It’s no big secret that conservative folks like me aren’t thrilled with any of them. It would seem, however, that Biden may be doing some bipartisan stepping on of the toes.”

MEGYN KELLY: Trump Supporter? “Megyn Kelly came to The Donald’s defense on Saturday in an interview on BBC. She said the media’s hatred of President Trump bears some responsibility for the storming of the Capitol, in which the congressional police force shot and killed an unarmed protester. She told BBC that she has come around on how Donald Trump and his supporters view the media.”

ANALYSIS: TRUE. The GameStop Squeeze Will End Badly. “Even with all this money sloshing around from the Fed, and the way it is propping up Boomer retirement accounts — it really feels like a silly season just before a correction. But what do I know?”

MY WEEK BACKING GAMESTOP ON THE STONKS MARKET:

The next day I went straight back in, and since then, the price has quadrupled. It just keeps going up, fueled by hype and the Redditors’ refusal to sell. Yesterday Elon Musk tweeted his support, throwing a lot more fuel on the fire. Already one hedge fund has thrown in the towel, nursing a huge loss. The whole trend has now spread to other stocks which have been shorted.

On WallStreetBets, talk is turning to exit strategies. At some point, they are going to cash in, and when they do, the whole thing will come crashing down. Given the huge gains, it’s amazing none of them have done it already. It makes you wonder: is this really just about greed? Maybe it’s more about the lolz.

And don’t you dare LOL over this story, shouts the Dow Jones-owned MarketWatch: Opinion: Stop laughing about GameStop’s stock mania — no, really.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): CNBC Guest SCORCHES Anchor for Siding With Wall Street Over the Little Guy in Epic Clash Over GameStop’s Meteoric Rise.

GOOD: Intel’s Incoming CEO Gelsinger Lures Back Engineering Talent.

Sunil Shenoy will rejoin Intel as senior vice president of the Design Engineering group effective Feb. 1, the Santa Clara, California-based company said in a statement Wednesday. When he left in 2014, Shenoy was head of Intel’s platform engineering group, a narrower role to the one he’s assuming now.

Glenn Hinton, a former Intel Senior Fellow who led the development of a key chip design, also returned to the company recently in a senior engineering role. Shenoy and Hinton will report to outgoing CEO Bob Swan until the middle of February, and then to Gelsinger who officially rejoins Intel on Feb. 15.

Gelsinger, who previously spent 30 years at Intel, said he’s bringing back the style of management he learned from the founders, notably Andy Grove. Before Swan, Intel had always been run by home-grown executives who were adherents to Grove’s data-driven decision making and direct, sometimes confrontational, internal communication aimed at ensuring problems were never buried.

Intel’s fabrication prowess was half of its secret sauce, but in the last few years the company’s fabs have fallen a generation or more behind Taiwan Semi.

While it’s nice that TSMC is building a new fab in Arizona, for competitive and national security reasons it’s vital that Intel get its mojo back.

And if that sounds paranoid, well… only the paranoid survive.

REALLY, MITT? REALLY? “You know what, I was a big Trump supporter, I was really pulling for Donald Trump, but he lost fair and square.”

Plus: “I’m not seeing the whole transcript, but to really lean into the demonstration of honesty, Romney should acknowledge the dismissals that were for a lack of standing. I’d like to see him engage with what Rand Paul said last Sunday. . . I agree that the time for contesting the election has passed, but I don’t think the way Romney is speaking will convince Trump supporters to give up their belief that something went wrong. Telling them the courts found it laughable, and they should give up and move on is going to make true believers more suspicious. And I’m sure they don’t buy the assertion that Romney was ever ‘a big Trump supporter.'”

Well, that’s because it’s laughably false.

UPDATE: Major correction here. Ann Althouse adds:

ADDED: A reader points out that I probably misinterpreted the quote in what I now can see is an ambiguously written line in the news article:

Romney said elected Republicans need to go on Fox News and say, “You know what, I was a big Trump supporter, I was really pulling for Donald Trump, but he lost fair and square.”
He’s telling other people what they ought to say, not using the word “I” to refer himself.

Yes, that’s very different.

ENTERING THE BOX CANYON: Democratic Senators Recognizing Impeachment Is a Fairy Tale Seek Other Options.

And from Roger Kimball: Impeachment 2.0 is another silly sham.

WELL, NBC: Washington, D.C. Won’t Become a State, But Not for the Reasons NBC Claims.

BURSTING THE MEDIA’S BUBBLE:

D*MN IT BEE!  Political Violence and the Second Amendment.

THERE IS THE REASON WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS:  Political Violence and the Second Amendment.

It ain’t just for the hunting.

IT’S ALSO WRONG FOR THE LEFT TO ATTEMPT TO BE HITLER:  Yes, It Is Wrong To Compare Trump To Hitler.

LSD. OR MAYBE METH:  Fauci Says Two Masks, CNBC Says Why Not More?

You guys have a better explanation?

SOAP? PEOOPLE ARE BUYING HIS SOAP???  How Winston Churchill became an accidental beauty influencer.

Couldn’t they borrow some of his courage and principles instead?

UNFORTUNATELY, WE CANNOT RETURN THE NEW ADMINISTRATION:  I regret the dumb stuff I bought during the pandemic.

Which is too bad because a) it’s provably illegally installed. b) it arrived broken. c) has a good chance of killing you and everything you love.

GEE, IF ONLY WE HAD A WALL OR SOMETHING:  FDA issues alert on hand sanitizer products from Mexico.

IF THEY AREN’T CAREFUL THERE WILL BE NOBODY LEFT TO TESTIFY:  DC officer Jeffrey Smith commits suicide following Capitol riot.

THIS WAS WRITTEN BY SOMEONE WHO REALLY CAN’T DE-CLOAK:  Dare to Be Petty.

CANCELLING GIANTS:  Today’s blacklisted Americans: Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.

It makes the leftist pygmies think of themselves as being of towering stature.

THE LEFT ALWAYS ACCUSES US OF WHAT THEY DO:  Canceling The Keystone Pipeline And Reducing U.S. Arms Are Biden’s First Two Major Gifts To Russia.

BECAUSE BAI DEN ZHOU IS WHOLLY OWNED BY CHINA:  Press Secretary Dodges on Why Biden Revoked Rule Protecting U.S. Power Grid From China.

SEND BACK PROGRESSIVES:  The United States Should Give Hong Kongers And Uighurs A Ticket To Freedom.

Send them back in exchange, head per head. Our progressives want us to be China, problem solved. And Hong Kongers and Uighurs get to be free, problem solved. We win, they lose.

WE’VE KNOWN FOR SOMETIME THAT ANTE-FA IS WHAT COMES BEFORE FASCISTS:  The Left Keeps Accusing Conservatives of “The Big Lie” – A Term Invented by Hitler As He Prepared to Persecute German Jews.

And I’ll keep believing my lying eyes, thank you so much.

I HOPE THE TIGER EATS THEM:  Dismounting the COVID Tiger.

January 27, 2021

WELL: WHO advisor: COVID-19 pandemic likely started via lab leak: Calls wet market origin story a lie.

A knowledgeable friend on Facebook comments: “This pandemic is not going to be over until People’s Liberation Army officer and bioweapons engineer Zhengli Shi, the DIRECTOR OF DISEASE ENGINEERING at Wuhan Institute of Virology is arrested, tried and executed for crimes against humanity and all of her variants are put into an industrial furnace and burned and the Wuhan Institute of Virology is completely razed and covered over with a concrete dome.”

So, never then.

CRUSH THE LITTLE PEOPLE: Nasdaq CEO Friedman says the exchange will halt trading in a stock if they link unusual activity to social media chatter.

They really do make it easy to see what they’re afraid of.

UPDATE:

Plus, from a friend: “Can we call the GameStop thing what it actually is? A Capital Insurrection.” Heh.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Biden All-Female Communications Team Won’t Tell Nation What’s Wrong, Nation Should Already Know.

NOW THEY TELL US: Hydroxychloroquine may have some use to treat COVID after all, NJ study shows. I took it when I had Covid and my case was mild, for whatever that’s worth.

USUALLY IT’S CONSIDERED BAD FOR AUTHORITIES TO LEAK THE NAME OF AN INFORMANT: Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was an FBI informant.

But let’s be clear: We’re told that the Proud Boys are a white supremacist group. Now we’re also told that they were led by a black, hispanic guy who was actually a government agent?

AID AND COMFORT TO IRAN: Biden Freezes U.S. Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia, UAE. Also, I guess he’s afraid they’ve gotten too friendly to Israel and must be punished.

OPEN THREAD: Get it off your chest.

I HAD TO LEAVE. THEY WERE HAVING FUN WRONG. Opinion: Stop laughing about GameStop’s stock mania — no, really.

(Classical reference in headline.)

JOHN KERRY, REPORTING FOR DOODY: John Kerry’s family still owns private jet as he leads climate fight, FAA records indicate.

OCEANIA NEWSWEEK HAS NEVER BEEN AT WAR WITH TOM COTTON: An Ever-Changing Past.

IT WILL CONTINUE UNTIL ONLY THE IDEAS OF THOSE IN POWER CAN BE SPOKEN: Now the supporters of cancel culture are being cancelled. “Some of the left-wing architects and cheerleaders of contemporary censorship, including Britain’s Socialist Workers Party, which has backed the No Platform policy for decades, are now being No Platformed themselves. ‘This is a disgrace!’, they cry, which would be funny if censorship were not so serious. These people helped to build the infrastructure of modern censorship, with its determination to crush ‘hate speech’ and ‘offensive’ views, and now they’re shocked to find themselves falling victim to it? Have they not read any history books at all?”

No. No, they haven’t.

YOU CAN’T TRUST TECH PEOPLE: “Discord did us dirty and I am not impressed with them destroying our community.”

CHANGE: Space Force officially ends launch partnerships with Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman. “The plan from day one was to discontinue the LSAs with companies that did not win a National Security Space Launch procurement contract. Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman lost to ULA and SpaceX, which were selected in August 2020.”

JEFF DUNETZ: On Holocaust Remembrance Day: Silence About Antisemitism Allowing People To Forget.

Related: Is it wrong to compare Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler on Holocaust Remembrance Day? Retired Philadelphia Inquirer editor says no.

Exit quote: “It’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. I would say, have a little decency, but our media is full of morally bankrupt individuals. Hence, how headlines like this take shape.

SOMEONE SET UP US THE BOMB: How GameStop, Bernie Madoff, and Dave Portnoy Have Mets Fans Panicked.

RIP: Cloris Leachman, Emmy and Oscar Winner, Dies at 94.

I WAS ASSURED IT WAS HARMLESS BY ALL THE BEST PEOPLE: Long-term study reveals harm in regular cannabis use.

EUGENE VOLOKH: May N.Y. Businesses Fire Employees for Using Parler and Gab?

JIM TREACHER: When Will Biden Apologize for Accusing the Capitol Police of Racism?

The Capitol riot was a complete outrage, and I fully support holding to account every single person who played a role in it. That includes convicting Donald Trump in the Senate for inciting that riot, although it’ll never happen because the Republicans don’t have the spine for it. They want everyone to just forget it ever happened, just like every other criminal wants everyone to forget about their crimes. They’re only looking out for their own miserable hides, and they don’t care about the cops who paid the price in blood.

But that doesn’t mean President Biden should get away with smearing the very Capitol Police who kept that riot from becoming an even bigger disaster. They kept an angry mob from killing the vice president of the United States, after his own boss called him out in front of that mob. Those officers put their bodies on the line to defend the ideals that have held this country together for hundreds of years. It’s absolutely shameful to smear them as racists, and if Biden had any brains left in that shrunken apple on top of his shoulders, he’d apologize to them.

Read the whole thing.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Jen Psaki On GameStop Stock Surge: ‘We Have The First Female Treasury Secretary.’

At her daily White House press conference Wednesday afternoon, Psaki responded to questions over whether the administration might get involved in the ongoing stock surge by noting that they’d just hired Janet Yellen as Treasury Secretary.

“Is the White House concerned about the stock market activity we’re seeing around GameStop and now some other stocks as well?” one reporter asked Psaki. “Have there been any conversations with the SEC about how to proceed?”

“Well, I’m also happy to repeat that we have the first female Treasury secretary and a team that’s surrounding her and often questions about markets,” Psaki replied.

She continued by noting that the White House would send reporters to the Treasury for comment, “but our team is, of course, our economic team, including Secretary Yellen and others, are monitoring the situation.”

When asked about the steep stock Dow decline, Psaki responded with a confusing excuse.

“It is a good reminder that the stock market is not the only measure of the health of our economy,” she said, “and it does not reflect how working and middle-class families are doing.”

The GameStop stock surge, of course, appears to be built on the day-to-day financial dealings of non-professional traders.

Psaki will no doubt “circle back” to GameStop at a later press conference.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. GameStop rally is warning that market bubbles have gone mad.

GameStop is a video game retailer that has been priced at about $3 to $10 a share for much of the year. But in the past few days, individual investors have driven the share price above $300.

Many of these buyers are using Robinhood, an app that lets anyone trade stocks without a commission. Because of the pandemic, people have plenty of time on their hands, and are looking to make cash, and it’s fueled a spectacular rise in individual day trading.

Why are they buying ­GameStop? Well, some of the commentators on ­“WallStreetBets,” the Reddit ­message board driving the frenzy, believe it’s a good company.

But mostly they’re out to hurt the big guys.

Hedge funds love shorting stocks, a trading technique where you make money when stock prices go down. Companies often go belly up amid short selling “bear raids.” That’s why small investors hate hedge funds so much.

When word spread among Robinhood traders that GameStop was heavily shorted by the big guys, the tables were turned into a bull raid. They drove up the price, and all those bets that GameStop would decline in value failed. A “short squeeze” was on at a level sophisticated market players hadn’t seen in years.

At least one big hedge fund, Melvin Capital, needed a bailout as prices of GameStop spiked a gazillion percent in a matter of days. My trading sources say there will likely be other big players seeking money to stay alive.

Delicious, right? For those who think — not unwarrantedly — that the market is rigged against them, the Robinhood revolt is a wonderful bit of schadenfreude.

But nothing has changed about GameStop’s business. It’s still primarily a brick-and-mortar retailer in an electronic world. It’s certainly not worth $300 a share. So while Robinhood buyers who got in early made a good bit of money — at least on paper — the bubble will eventually burst, and the shares will likely fall back to earth again.

The problem is that GameStop isn’t the only stock this is happening to. Blackberry, makers of the handheld device you no longer use, and AMC, owners of movie theaters you no longer go to, are also looking like Apple on steroids.

Iowahawk has seen the future, and knows how this will end:

Old and busted: partying like it’s 1999.

The new hotness? Partying like it’s 1985!

Related: Discord bans the r/WallStreetBets server.

More: Hot take: What’s the overlap between the Nazis trading GameStop stocks and the ones who stormed the Capitol?

Glad to see that blue checks are getting their takes on Wall Street from the latest season of Babylon Berlin.

Earlier: The Gamestop ($GME) Saga.

BILL KRISTOL is just pathetic now.

I DON’T SEE DRIVE-THROUGH TESTING USING THIS APPROACH: COVID Anal Swabs for Beijing Residents More Accurate, Says Chinese Expert.

THE BILL OF RIGHTS IS AN OBJECTION TO GOVERNMENTAL AUTHORITY: Biden DHS Issues Domestic Terror Alert Warning of ‘Objections’ to ‘Governmental Authority.’

CHURCHILL SMILES: Afternoon nap could boost mental agility, study says.

FAVORITES OF THE RULING CLASS: FAT CRIMINALS? Howie Carr: Fat chance! Obese cons in line for early release in new bill.

SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Study: Children who use touchscreens more easily distracted than peers.

IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA: Move over granny; press, politicians jump vaccine line.

My folks have gone without the greatest joy of their lives, time with family. And the caretakers they need to come to their home have been severely limited. If family shouldn’t visit them then certainly strangers shouldn’t. Their quality of life has suffered.

As I write this neither of my parents have been able to get a COVID vaccine. And not for lack for constantly trying.

My son who has Down syndrome and an underlying heart condition — he required open heart surgery at 3 weeks old — hasn’t received a vaccine.

So, who has had access to a vaccine? Our state legislators. Yep. State legislators can jump in front of the most vulnerable people in the state including the elderly and handicapped.

So much for a “citizen” legislature. All people are equal. But some are more equal than others.

Read the whole thing.

InstaPundit is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.