LOUIS FARRAKHAN SMILES: Southern Poverty Law Center Stops Monitoring Black Hate Groups Because of ‘Equity.’
NOT JUST THE MEDIA, THIS IS PERVASIVE ON THE LEFT:
JIM TREACHER: David Hogg’s Pillow Company Is Proceeding Nicely.
Last week I told you about former teen and current gun-grabber David Hogg starting his own pillow company to take down My Pillow founder Mike Lindell. You can almost see the cartoon thought-balloon over Hogg’s adorable little head: “Hey, if a crazy crackhead can become a multimillionaire by making pillows, how tough can it be?” Unfortunately, young Mr. Hogg is quickly discovering exactly how tough it can be. And thanks to the modern miracle of Twitter, we can watch him sink into a pit of disillusioned despair in real-time.
Exhibit A:
Whoops! Hey, how about finding a base of operations first?
California is a prohibitively expensive state for prospective businesses? Weird! Hey, I wonder why that is? Maybe Hogg will figure it out someday.
It gets crazier from them, as Hogg is learning about the business world in real time, and sharing his brilliant discoveries with the rest of the world.
OLD AND BUSTED: “I’m Not a Witch.”
The New Hotness? Lawyer in zoom meeting tells Judge ‘I’m not a cat.’
ROGER SIMON: Moral Narcissism and the Show Trial of Donald Trump.
Allow me to be a tad self-referential because I think, at least to some degree, the answer can be found in my 2016 book,—actually written before Trump won the nomination and with few specific references to him—“I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic If It Hasn’t Already.”
The narcissism I was referring to was not the traditional kind based on the Greek youth Narcissus’ fascination with his own image, but a narcissism of ideas, of “moral” self-description.
I explained it this way: What you proclaim, what you say you believe, is what makes you good, what makes you important—not the actual results of those beliefs, which are irrelevant.
Biden’s recent cancelation of the Keystone pipeline could be described as a purely morally narcissistic act—proclaimed as something significant for the environment when in reality all it does is put people out of work and give comfort to our enemies as America becomes more energy dependent. (Ironically, it also has negative environmental repercussions, forcing the oil to be transported by more risky rail means.)
John Kerry is a moral narcissist par excellence, jetting around endlessly in his carbon-belching private plane to save us all from climate change.
Moral narcissism fits today’s liberals and progressives to a “t,” living millionaire and billionaire lives that make hypocrisy the understatement of all time while disdaining the working class, their needs and values, to a degree that would embarrass Marie Antoinette.
Donald Trump undermined all that. He makes and made plenty of proclamations and certainly loves his private plane(s), but he is all about results.
In fact, he makes a point of delivering on his promises, the exact antithesis of standard operating procedure in Washington, where politicians send us endless emails and texts (almost always asking for money) about what they say they believe or are planning, but almost never about what they have accomplished, as if we don’t and shouldn’t care about that.
It’s the way the game has been played in D.C. for ages, quite comfortable and insular when you think about it, and self-replicating. No wonder Trump is loathed.
SENATE VOTES TO PROCEED WITH TRUMP IMPEACHMENT TRIAL:
The Senate voted 56-44 largely along party lines to declare the impeachment trial of former President Trump constitutional, formally allowing the trial to proceed.
Six Republicans voted with Democrats to approve the constitutionality of the trial: Susan Collins of Maine, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.
As Tyler O’Neil notes at PJ Media, “On Wednesday, the Senate will begin to consider the arguments about the Capitol riot and whether or not Trump ‘incited an insurrection.’ The former president’s arguments against this claim are extremely powerful, and if Democrats conclude that Trump ‘incited an insurrection’ when he called for peace both before and during the riot, Democrats will have to accept responsibility for inciting the Black Lives Matter riots this past summer.”
A MODEL WE SHOULD BE FOLLOWING: High school students could be fully trained plumbers and electricians by age 20.
PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Riot-Inciting Al Sharpton Can’t Imagine Why Anyone Would Call Out Violent Leftists.
DON’T WORRY, JOE HAS A PLAN FOR THAT: Trump Defeats Castro Communists: Cuba Set to Open Up Its Economy.
OUT ON A LIMB: The death of the Republican right has been greatly exaggerated.
As Glenn wrote in November, “For a guy who supposedly lost, Trump sure had a lot of coattails. And for a guy who supposedly won, Biden sure didn’t.”
SPOILER: IT WILL NOT END WITH REMOVAL FROM OFFICE. What to Expect in Trump’s Second Impeachment Trial.
IF FRANCE WORRIES ABOUT OUR LEFT-WARD LUNGE: Boy, things must be even worse than we perpetual pessimists think they are.
SO IT’S NOT JUST COMEDY WHERE TIMING IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. Delaying The Second AstraZeneca Dose Actually Increases Protection, New Data Suggests.
GROWING THE ANGLOSPHERE: B-1B Makes First US Bomber Visit to India Since 1945.
If Beijing doesn’t like closer Indo-American military ties (and they don’t), they have no one to blame for it but themselves.
I’VE SEEN THIS TV SHOW: Bionic muscles that are stronger, faster, and more efficient.
THAT’S WHAT XI SAID: Kerry bets on setting aside confrontation with China to combat climate change.
WELL, GOOD: New drug target for Ebola, Marburg viruses.
DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Bari Weiss on ‘Spirit Murder,’ Neo-Segregation and Science Denial in American Schools.
The Seattle Public Schools are saying that the education system is committing “spirit murder” against black children. The New York City Public schools are telling white teachers they are guilty of the same. Spirit murdering has even made its way into the new administration: Joe Biden’s Deputy Secretary of Education, Cindy Marten, as superintendent of the San Diego Schools, endorsed the idea, as well as the notion that white teachers should undergo “antiracist therapy.”
In the meantime, David Kirkland, the Vice Dean of Equity at NYU Steinhardt Metro Center has upped the ante, saying that schools are “murdering the bodies of our children.” Watch:
If this is true, the Department of Education should open up an investigation this afternoon. Meantime, I wonder what Michael Steinhardt makes of Kirkland’s claim.The state of California is about to adopt an Ethnic Studies Curriculum based in Critical Race Theory. North Carolina just did that for its K-12 history standards. I could go on.
And that’s just the ideological takeover. The harm that is being done to children — especially poor and minority children — by the refusal of teachers unions to go back into the classroom despite the guidance of the CDC and the promises of Joe Biden is a generational crime.
Read the whole thing.
IT USED TO BE 20%. Study: About half of global wastewater is treated.
STREISAND EFFECT: Psychology Today removes professor’s column calling actor Seth Rogen a hypocrite. Professor Gad Saad’s censored opinion piece now published by three other outlets.
Including the Post Millennial: Gad Saad: The moral hypocrisy of celebrities—the case of Seth Rogen.
I FIND THIS HARD TO BELIEVE, AND TROUBLING IF TRUE: Survey: 3 out of 4 people in U.S. will continue wearing masks after pandemic. “Nearly three out of four people in the United States plan to continue wearing masks in public even after the COVID-19 pandemic ends, according to a survey conducted by Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Four out of five said they also will continue to avoid crowds, and 90% of participants said they will maintain frequent handwashing and sanitizer use after the coronavirus has been contained.”
On the other hand, if people will actually wash their hands now and again, that would be progress.
YOU STAY CLASSY, WAPO: Washington Post criticized for Marty Schottenheimer death headline.
You really have to deliver the goods to get the royal obit treatment at the WaPo: Washington Post faces backlash for headline calling ISIS terrorist ‘austere religious scholar.’
COMPANY TOWNS, DIGITAL EDITION: Tech Companies Could Form Their Own Governments Under a New Nevada Proposal.
GOT WOKE, WENT BROKE: Super Bowl Falls to Lowest TV Viewership in 15 Years. The lede on this Front Office Sports article is a classic:
The puzzling drop in sports TV viewership continues with the Super Bowl falling to its lowest numbers in 15 years.
It’s a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): As America’s Newspaper of Record put it: Conservatives Sit Down For A Relaxing Evening Of Being Insulted By Every Major Corporation In America.
JOEL KOTKIN: Environmentalism Is the New War on the Working Class.
John Kerry, President Joe Biden’s new climate czar, took a private jet to accept an environmental award in Iceland in 2019. “It’s the only choice for somebody like me, who is traveling the world to win this battle,” he unironically told a reporter when asked about it.
If this sounds like a clueless joke, it’s not. President Biden’s chief environmental officer took the least carbon-efficient means of travel known to man because it was “the only choice” he could think of for a member in good standing of the indulged upper classes.
But this is no anomaly when it comes to liberal climate activism; it is a perfect encapsulation of what it has become: a vanity project of the jet set that directly harms working-class interests. And it’s this green agenda that directly threatens the working class that Biden has prioritized as he has taken command of the federal government.
Has he prioritized it? Really?
One thing that’s odd about today’s Gentry Class. They don’t just want to rule over the working class, they actively want to make the working class’s life worse.
HERE WE GO AGAIN: ‘Trying to rewrite history?’ Nikole Hannah-Jones has apparently decided to avoid future charges of hypocrisy by wiping her Twitter slate clean.
She does that periodically rather than admit she screwed up. Flashback to June: Walter Duranty Deletes Twitter Account.
NEW YORK TIMES MELTDOWN PLAYS OUT IN PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP:
The “resignation” of star New York Times science writer Donald McNeil Jr. has sparked a furious back-and-forth among Times staffers, many of whom are outraged over the Gray Lady’s handling of his departure.
The Washington Free Beacon reviewed a series of postings to a Facebook group for current and former Times staffers, where a tense debate is unfolding over McNeil’s exit. One camp argues that his dismissal was justified and another asserts it set a troubling precedent, which the New York Times union should have done more to prevent.
* * * * * * * *
Baquet’s statement in particular came in for scathing criticism in the Facebook discussion. “‘We do not tolerate racist language regardless of intent’ might be the most racist statement I’ve ever read,” said Lawrence De Maria, an award-winning crime and finance reporter. “It demeans ALL races.”
It is also untrue: “Larry Wilmore did not say, ‘You did it, my n***er,’” Hannah-Jones wrote in 2016, referencing the black comedian’s routine at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. There is a “linguistic difference b/w n***er and n***a.”
The Washington Free Beacon asked Hannah-Jones whether intent made a difference in her case. She responded by posting this reporter’s inquiry, including his cell phone number, on Twitter, in direct violation of the website’s terms of service.
To be fair, that’s the Gray Lady’s raison d’etre in 2021.
Presumably, nothing will happen to Hannah-Jones after doxxing another journalist, but as Ed Morrissey writes, “Journalists should have some professional courtesy when fielding inquiries from other media outlets over issues. Even if they don’t want to respond, a simple “no comment” is all that is necessary. Doxxing another reporter over a reportorial inquiry should itself be a firing offense, especially after hearing over the last four years how dangerous their occupation had become under Donald Trump. Would Baquet tolerate that kind of reaction against one of his own reporters? Or would he demand that the person get fired? The New York Times appears afflicted in equal measure by both hypocrisy and entitlement. Both are at levels fatal to its credibility.”
RULE OF LAW OR WHATEVS: Biden prepares rules to limit ICE arrests, deportations. “They’ve abolished ICE without abolishing ICE.”
THE FOLKS AT REASON, WHO MOSTLY OPPOSED TRUMP, ARE SHOCKED: Instead of Lifting Trump’s Tariffs, Biden Is Imposing More of Them.
VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: Biden Calls Up ‘Ordinary American,’ Cringeworthy Conversation Ensues.
Insanity Wrap needs to know: Who the hell needs a script just to have a nice conversation with one of your constituents?
Answer: If we have to tell you, you must have slept through the last year — lucky you.
Before we get to the sordid details, a quick preview of today’s Wrap.
- Progress! From “driving while black” to “walking while Asian” in Los Angeles
- Australia set to outlaw praying for transgenders
- Five million cellphone accounts disappeared from “We’re All Fine Here, Thanks”, China
Bonus Sanity: We had to import some from France, but we found it for you.
So much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.
AND FOR OUR VIP SUPPORTERS: It’s Your God-Given, Constitutionally Protected Right to Believe Crazy Things.
If you’ve been thinking about becoming a member, don’t forget that VODKAPUNDIT discount code.
F.I.R.E. IS ON THE CASE: Professor who spoke at Trump rally ‘exploring all options’ after university suddenly removes him. “The University of Colorado-Boulder dumped a professor who spoke at President Trump’s ‘Save America Rally’ on Jan. 6, claiming the enrollment in his classes was too low. But a civil liberties group believes this was a pretext to remove John Eastman for his viewpoint, specifically his allegations of voter fraud in a speech that lasted less than three minutes.”
I can’t remember a leftist professor being removed simply for speaking at a rally. Perhaps I’m overlooking something.
BLUE CITY BLUES: Facing Deficit, Met Considers Selling Art to Help Pay the Bills.
STALINIST PSYCHIATRY: Law prof says he was forced to undergo lengthy mental examination & drug test after exam question caused students ‘distress.’
They examined the wrong head.
DON’T BE EVIL: Terraria canceled on Stadia after developer gets locked out of his Google accounts. “Andrew Spinks gave the ultimatum early Monday, after getting no response from Google since YouTube locked him out of his account in mid-January. The lockout has also cost Spinks access to apps he’s purchased on Google Stadia, wiped data he stored in Google drive, and terminated a Gmail account he’s used for more than 15 years.”
HERE WE JUST POST EVERYTHING ANY SNOOP MIGHT WANT TO KNOW RIGHT INTO FACEBOOK OR TWITTER: Iran ‘hides spyware in wallpaper, restaurant and games apps.’
NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: Revealed: 104 terrorist border crossings. “Critics laughed at former President Donald Trump when he claimed that terrorists, ‘some real bad ones,’ had crossed the border just as he was selling Congress on paying for a border wall. But it turns out that Trump was correct that in the waves of illegal immigrants pouring over the southern border in the last decade were dozens of terrorists and terror sympathizers.”
LIKE SO MUCH ELSE, YES: Twitter and Facebook are going to ruin newsletters, aren’t they?
Can’t they please just let us have this one thing?
This was the thought that came to mind last week, when Twitter announced its acquisition of the newsletter platform Revue, and when three sources told The New York Times that Facebook is planning its own newsletter tools for journalists and writers.
For Twitter and Facebook, getting into the newsletter business makes sense. Alongside Google, their platforms have come to dominate the distribution of journalism and online discourse in general, using their news feeds and search results to monetize a never-ending flow of content. With newsletters, a growing number of writers are trying to get off that treadmill and establish a more direct relationship with readers. Some prominent journalists have even quit their staff jobs to make newsletters full-time, and some budding newsrooms now publish primarily to readers’ inboxes.
By offering newsletter tools themselves, companies such as Facebook and Twitter are clearly hoping to pull the flow of information back onto their own platforms.
You will be assimilated.
JOURNALISM IS BY AND FOR MIDDLE-SCHOOL GIRLS NOW: Liberal Media Scream: Reporter decries ‘ex-boyfriend’ abuse from Team Trump.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Impeachment 2.0 Is Dems Giving the Finger to Unity Forever. “The Democrats are getting underway with yet another public exercise of daddy issues, wasting time and taxpayer dollars in what will amount to nothing more than an on camera diaper filling. They get to spend more time complaining about the man who is now developing prime, rent-free real estate in the heads of every Democrat in Congress.”
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Unity is submission.
EMBEDDED RACISM: Biden Justice Department Pick Opposed Enforcing Civil Rights Laws Against Blacks. “As an NAACP lawyer, Kristen Clarke lambasted the Justice Department for bringing a complaint against an African-American party boss in Mississippi who worked to suppress white votes, according to a federal probe. On a separate occasion, a federal oversight commission investigated claims that Clarke worked with allies at the Justice Department to quash the prosecution of the Black Panthers who menaced voters outside a Philadelphia precinct in 2008.”
Unity!
BIDEN’S CIA PICK IS CHINA’S BFF: The Lid’s Jeff Dunetz notes that William J. Burns comes from a think tank that has close ties to the Chinese military, and including significant funding from a well-connected Chinese business tycoon. In any other age, such relationships would be disqualifying for the nation’s chief spook. But c’mon man, China is our friend now, right? Right?
IMMIGRATION REPORT: The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is more or less shut down for a while. Our Chair, Catherine Lhamon, resigned on Inauguration Day to take a position at the White House as Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council for Racial Justice and Equity. Given that Trump had appointed two new commissioners in the last year, that has made our normally eight-member Commission majority conservative (4-3). Nevertheless, since a quorum is five and the progressive caucus is determined not to allow us to conduct a business meeting at which they could be out-voted on something, nothing is likely to happen before Biden fills the vacant seat.
Our state advisory committees are, however, still in business. Recently, our California State Advisory Committee released a report entitled, “Understanding the Impact of Immigration Enforcement on California Children on K-12 Schools.” The interesting thing about this report is that it contains a vigorous dissent from the three conservatives on the committee—Maimon Schwarzschild, Nancy Eisenhart, and Velma Montoya. Here are some comments from the dissent:
“The Committee document dwells largely, if not primarily, on an emotionally inflammatory claim that children are victimized by immigration law enforcement.”
“Regrettably, many of the Committee’s ‘findings and recommendations’ are based on dubious and controversial academic research and exaggerated testimony from politically-motivated advocacy groups—testimony that was challenged by other official and expert testimony as well as by thoughtful and cogent statements at the SAC Community Forum … only to be virtually ignored by the Committee.”
“Nearly 90% of the public comments to the SAC supported consistent and effective enforcement of the immigration laws, and expressed deep concern about the erosion of public order, and of the rule of law itself, from failure to enforce the law, and in particular from ‘sanctuary’ policies which obstruct enforcement of the law.”
This is a new (and healthy) Commission policy to permit state advisory committee members to file dissents that are longer than one page.
DECOUPLING: French constitutional court backs provisions of ‘anti-Huawei law.’ “The French Constitutional Council backed the law’s aim of ‘safeguarding the interests of national defence and security and protecting mobile radio networks from the risks of espionage, piracy and sabotage’.”
RECOUPLING? Cruz blocks vote on Biden Commerce secretary nominee over Huawei concerns. “”I’ll lift the hold when the Biden admin commits to keep the massive Chinese Communist Party spy operation Huawei on the Entity List.”
XI’S GOTTA HAVE IT: Biden Threatens America’s Dominance in Space. “On many fronts, it seems the Biden administration is downplaying the threat to the United States from China — both on Earth and beyond.”
Joe’s an honest politician — he stays bought.
FROM CELIA HAYES: Adelsverein:The Complete Trilogy.
The Adelsverein Trilogy, now combined in a single hardbound edition, is a saga of family and community loyalties, and the challenge of building a new life on the hostile frontier. They came from Germany to Texas in 1847, under the auspices of the “Mainzer Adelsverein” – the society of noblemen of Mainz, who tried to fill a settlement in Texas with German farmers and craftsmen. Christian “Vati” Steinmetz, the clockmaker of Ulm in Bavaria, has brought his sons and daughters: Magda – passionate and courageous, courted by Carl Becker, a young frontiersman with a dangerous past. Her sister Liesel wants nothing more than to be a good wife to her husband Hansi, a stolid and practical farmer called by circumstances to be something greater, in the boom years of the great cattle ranches. Their brothers Friedrich and Johann, have always been close – in the Civil War, one will wear Union blue, the other Confederate grey homespun – but never forget they are brothers. And finally, there is Vati’s adopted daughter Rosalie, whose life ends as it began – in tragedy. But Vati’s family will will survive and ultimately triumph. They will make their mark in Texas, their new land. Adelsverein: It’s about love and loss, joy and grief . . . and the sometimes wrenching process of becoming American.
BUT WHEN IT’S A BIDEN OFFICIAL IT GETS THE SOFT-FOCUS TREATMENT: “Everyone knows what would happen to the reporter caught secretly dating a Trump admin official.”
GOOD ADVICE: Republicans: Stop Fighting Among Yourselves.
Parties that lose tend to go on purity crusades, which is exactly the wrong thing — especially in this case, where the loss, such as it was, was extraordinarily narrow.
AND THIS IS JUST COOL: Meet YInMn, the First New Blue Pigment in Two Centuries.
I DID ONE OF THOSE FREE SHORT STORY THINGS, AGAIN: Magic Mirror.
It’s short and silly and… it happens.
WHEN THEY SAY “ELITE” I HEAR “SNOBS”: New York Review of Books is hookup spot for intellectuals.
TEACH WOMEN THAT SCHOOLS ARE NOT HUNTING GROUNDS FOR THEIR LUST: Florida teacher had sex with female student in classroom.
Good thing most men have been discouraged from teaching, right? (Spit.)
WELL, OF COURSE: Today’s blacklisted American: Chase Bank blacklists Pro-Trump Covfefe Coffee.
Among the brand’s many sins, the most unforgivable one is having a sense of humor!
OF COURSE IT DOES, BECAUSE DOUBLING DOWN ON STUPID IS NEVER ENOUGH: Democrats Pandemic Relief Bill Includes Temporary Obamacare Expansion.
BUT IT’S OKAY, SINCE IT’S IN SERVICE OF THE JUNTA: Jen Psaki mocks reporter when asked about Keystone pipeline job losses.
WE DIDN’T KNOW WHETHER TO LAUGH OR CRY AT JEEP’S ATTEMPT TO SELL TO DEPLORABLES: READ THE ROOM, JEEP!
But Larry Correia’s take definitely made us laugh.
YOU WANT ME TO STICK A SWAB IN THIS TIGER’S WHAT???? Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo tigers test positive for COVID-19.
Also as I understand a papaya also tested positive. Look guys, the tests are not what we’d call reliable. They’re bad enough one wonders if their purpose is to have enough false positives to cause panic.
COVIDIOCY EXACTS ITS PRICE: Rich COVID-19 globetrotters paying price for breaking rules.
THE PROBLEM WITH MOST ART — AND BOOKS — THESE DAYS IS THAT THEY AIM FOR PROPAGANDA: PROPAGANDA VERSUS ART.
February 8, 2021
WHEN YOU REALIZE THEY’RE JUST A DEMOCRATIC PARTY FRONT GROUP IT ALL MAKES SENSE: Karol Markowicz: Feminists are MIA as anti-science school closings brutally slam women.
WHAT ARE THE DEMOCRATS SO AFRAID OF? GOP congressman: ‘We still don’t have answers’ to why National Guard remaining around Capitol.
How can the impeachment trial be fair if the Capitol is ringed with troops controlled by the man who beat Trump in the disputed election? That’s the sort of question we’d be hearing everywhere if the parties were reversed. Intimidation!
THE WAY THINGS ARE GOING, I’LL PROBABLY WIND UP A REFUGEE THERE, GLORYING IN THEIR NEWFOUND EMBRACE OF FREEDOM AND CAPITALISM: Cuba opens up its economy to private businesses.
JOBS? THAT WAS THE OTHER GUY’S PROGRAM, NOT OURS. Jen Psaki mocks reporter when asked about Keystone pipeline job losses.
Related: Dems from oil-producing N.M. grapple with Biden moratorium.
Turn New Mexico red!
CONVICTION IS LOOKING UNLIKELY: Sen. Tim Scott: Trump is ‘simply not guilty’ on impeachment.
JUST A REMINDER: I get paid based on ad revenue now, so if you wouldn’t mind whitelisting InstaPundit if you run an ad blocker that would be great. Or some people hit the PayPal donation button, which is also great.
UPDATE: Sheesh, reading some of these comments I wonder why I even bother with this place. Then again, that’s probably the aim.
NEW YORK TIMES: Publishers Banning Conservatives Isn’t Blacklisting Because They Can Self-Publish.
Hachette, you may remember, is the publisher that put out In Defense of Looting, which combined antisemitism, hostility toward Asians, with support for looting. No one seems to have been fired for that one so we can assume that some kinds of hate, incitement, and false narratives are still okay.
But the perfect New York Times paragraph comes most of the way down.
Thomas Spence, the president of the conservative publisher Regnery, said he regarded the shift by the Big Five (soon to be four, when Penguin Random House completes its acquisition of Simon & Schuster) as a “form of blacklisting.”
Ben Smith however offers this tremendous act of journalism.
“But when that word was used in 1950s Hollywood, the movie studios could silence a writer, director or actor because they exercised near total control over production and distribution. The New York publishers don’t have that power anymore. High-profile authors provide more marketing on social media than any publisher can dream of, and the largely values-neutral Amazon is the main distribution channel for most books. Donald Trump Jr. self-published his second book.”
Seriously. It’s not blacklisting because… you can self-publish.
Pathetic. Contemptible. Neither seem to do this justice. It’s the sort of thing that a Communist apparatchik would have offered up to an American journalist asking about the persecution of some blacklisted writer. Now it’s the sort of contemptible apologia for its blacklists that the New York Times offers up in the very same article in which it promotes and celebrates the blacklist.
As Victor Davis Hanson wrote yesterday, “The Left’s 1960s dream is America’s 2021 nightmare:”
To advocate burning or destroying a book is not some nightmare from Fahrenheit 451, but a woke way to “stop the hate.”
A new Orwellian phrase is “free speech is not free reach”—as leftists become the intellectual inheritors of the racists of the open-housing fights of the 1950s and 1960. The old racist boilerplate of apartment owners and realtors was “You can live anywhere you want, just not here.” The new hate mantra of Silicon Valley cartels is, “You can tweet or socially post anywhere you like—if you can manage to find a place.”
Surveillance and spying are now good. How else to ferret out “right-wingers,” “white supremacists,” and “insurrectionists”?
So the FBI and CIA have transmogrified into heroic agencies run by stalwart social activist fighters like John Brennan, the old Gus Hall supporter, James Clapper, James Comey, and Andrew McCabe. They cut to the quick to achieve social justice, without the messy give and take of Congress, or that albatross, the relic Constitution.
What a wonderful world they have created: Eavesdropping on the national security advisor, forging FISA documents, spying on American citizens, aiding one presidential candidate by surveilling another.
Finally, they can use their skills and surveillance to investigate and hound the “right” enemies, for the “right” causes.” The CIA and FBI always secretly wished to be beloved by the Left. Now they are deified.
Presumably, since their columnists can still self-publish, the New York Times has no problem with this development: New App Allows Twitter Users to Block All NY Times Reporters With One Click.
I’m not in the business of censorship, so I’m very uncomfortable with this app, but given the tenor of the times (okay, pun slightly intended), I can’t say I’m at all surprised at its development.
NAZIS MAYBE, BUT REPUBLICANS OR NRA MEMBERS? DOUBTFUL. Would the ACLU Still Defend Nazis’ Right To March in Skokie?
REPORT: The “Florida COVID-19 Whistleblower” Saga Is a Big Lie.
NPR describes [Rebekah] Jones as a “top scientist” leading Florida’s pandemic response. In fact, Jones has held three jobs in her field; all three have ended in her being terminated and criminally charged. She has a Master’s in geography from Louisiana State University, where she worked until she was fired. She was arrested in 2016 while, reportedly, trespassing on campus and attempting to steal computer equipment from her former workplace. She then lectured at Florida State University (FSU) and began researching tropical storms for a dissertation, but never earned a Ph.D. as she was suspended and fired in 2018 after her former student accused her of sexual cyberharassment. Before her termination from the DoH, she was a geographic information systems manager, overseeing the COVID-19 web portal.
It’s therefore misleading to imply Jones has specialized knowledge of infectious disease. Florida’s top Democratic official calls her “Dr. Rebekah Jones,” but Jones is no doctor. Nor is she an epidemiologist, virologist, statistician, or public health professional; the DoH has a highly qualified team of those. A technical manager, Jones didn’t have the authority or expertise to decide unilaterally how to visualize data. But when experts disagreed with her, she assumed they were wrong—or deliberately deceiving the public.
After she was fired from the DoH for a pattern of insubordination, Jones claimed that Deputy Secretary for Health Shamarial Roberson had asked her to “manipulate data to mislead the public” about the safety of reopening rural counties. According to Dr. Roberson, this is “patently false.” Emails show a state epidemiologist told Jones to temporarily disable data export from the dashboard to verify dates against other official sources. The data was aggregated from local public health authorities in 67 counties; it couldn’t be falsified or hidden. In other words, Jones is no “whistleblower.” She’s a conspiracy theorist.
In amplifying Jones’ story, the media has all but ignored Dr. Roberson, who has impressive experience in epidemiology and a doctorate in public health. As a Black woman from a disadvantaged background, she has risen to the forefront of Florida’s pandemic response. Dr. Roberson deserves the recognition the media has lavished on her ex-employee. But according to The Narrative, serving in a conservative administration disqualifies her.
Exit quote: What distinguishes ‘whistleblowers’ from ‘disgruntled ex-employees’ is credibility, and here Jones has a problem.
THE HUMILIATING ART OF THE WOKE APOLOGY:
It’s never a handful of people who are offended but entire institutions and categories of people, evidently always rocked to their cores.
Donald McNeil, whose work on the coronavirus has gained renown during the pandemic, made it sound as though science coverage at the Times, and perhaps the paper itself, would be hard-pressed to recover from his innocent use of the n-word:
“My lapse of judgment has hurt my colleagues in Science, the hundreds of people who trusted me to work with them closely during this pandemic, the team at ‘The Daily’ that turned to me during this frightening year, and the whole institution, which put its confidence in me and expected better.
“So for offending my colleagues — and for anything I’ve done to hurt The Times, which is an institution I love and whose mission I believe in and try to serve — I am sorry. I let you all down.”
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees criticized kneeling last year, then quickly buckled under the resulting criticism. “I would like to apologize to my friends, teammates, the City of New Orleans, the black community, NFL community and anyone I hurt with my comments yesterday,” he said, leaving no one out. “In speaking with some of you, it breaks my heart to know the pain I have caused.”
The Poetry Foundation made a fairly typical statement of support for racial justice after the killing of George Floyd and then, when critics wrote a letter of condemnation for the supposed offenses embedded in the statement, the Foundation apologized — to pretty much everyone imaginable.
The show trial-like tone of the “woke apology” stands in sharp contrast to the Trump-era style of never apologizing for anything, in order to “own the cons/libs.” A CNN article from 2018 is headlined, “Donald Trump is not sorry. Ever.” For better or worse, for politicians, it’s a style that spreading:
● Ocasio-Cortez Says She ‘Will Not Apologize’ For Cruz ‘Trying To Get Me Killed’ Remarks.
● Marjorie Taylor Greene refuses to apologize while addressing House.
● Nancy Pelosi calls salon visit a ‘setup,’ refuses to apologize.
We’re at quite an inflection point in our culture when those who have been cancelled grovel, while politicians and celebrities who have erred refuse to. Of course, the speed of today’s media plays a part. Why apologize for a scandal that the media will likely forget about 15 minutes later?
AN UNCONSTITUTIONAL ARREST FOR REFUSING TO SHOW ID TO THE COPS.
YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: The Three Worst Things About That Terrible Jeep Super Bowl Ad.
How could a major corporation not see how propagandistic it comes off to suggest that when Republicans win a national election, that’s divisive, but when Democrats win one, that’s unifying? The corporate-approved approach is to paper over disagreement while Democrats hold power while amplifying a full-on #Resistance when Republicans are in power.
Jeep sales will not heal the fabric of the country. Jeep ads can’t even help toward that goal so long as they are using dishonest and manipulative partisan framing in service of car sales.
Read the whole thing. Springsteen’s ad will alienate Jeep with red state car buyers*, but it will place its creator in the pole position to win a Clio. Apparently, that’s far more important for Jeep. Or as America’s Newspaper of Record put it: Conservatives Sit Down For A Relaxing Evening Of Being Insulted By Every Major Corporation In America.
* And many buyers who belong to the party that preaches tolerance for diversity, since they consider the 75 million or so people who voted for Trump to be various shades of evil. (Just ask leading LA Times columnists.)
IT’S SURPRISING HOW MANY LOOK BETTER IN THE OLDER VERSION: 45+ Pics of Celebrities Hanging Out With Their Younger Selves.
SUPER-SPREADING SANCTIMONY AT THE SUPER BOWL:
Andrew Cuomo’s hometown paper took a similarly sanctimonious tone. ‘In Tampa, Super Bowl Celebrations Bring Superspreader concerns’, a New York Times headline screamed this morning. Back when Biden won, the paper’s super-spreader concerns were curiously absent: ‘A Rollicking NYC Celebration for Biden’s Win, Well Into the Night’.
So what’s behind the open and naked double-standards being pushed in both corporate and social media? There isn’t some grand diabolical strategy. It’s pretty simple actually. They are allowed to flaunt the rules and change how COVID affects a population based on the social causes they and political lines they espouse — and you aren’t. It is that simple. COVID-19 doesn’t affect racial protests or Democratic victories. It will however kill everyone who attends a football game or has a private gathering in their home.
No one is denying this is a deadly virus worth taking seriously; therein lies the problem with politicized public health experts who wag their fingers at people trying to get out and enjoy an event, but who explain away mass gatherings in the name of social justice. The virus doesn’t care why crowds have gathered. It spreads indiscriminately.
So does hypocrisy. If you are a public person with a byline, or an activist or a politician who ignores COVID in favor of your cause, you deserve to be ridiculed while lecturing others — you deserve to be ignored. Enjoy the parade, Tampa Bay.
Flashbacks:
● Fauci resists Republican effort to turn testimony against protesters.
● Fauci: There will ‘almost certainly’ be an uptick in COVID-19 cases after Thanksgiving travel.
● Media Pushes Narrative that BLM Protests Did Not Contribute to Spike in Coronavirus Cases.
● “The great theme of the Trump years, the one historians will note a century from now, was the failure of America’s expert class. The people who were supposed to know what they were talking about, didn’t.”
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Why food sticks to nonstick frying pans.
YEP. Bruce Springsteen sells out with pablum. I wonder if Jeep dealers are hearing complaints from customers.
ANTI-TRUMPERS: TRUMP IS A THREAT TO THE CONSTITUTION!
ALSO ANTI-TRUMPERS: Donald Trump should be convicted unanimously by secret ballot. This piece accusing Trump of “hiding behind the Constitution,” is by Doug Kmiec, once a well-known conservative pro-life law professor, who shilled for Obama and was rewarded with an ambassadorship.
JOHN ROSENBERG: “Equity”?
As Rosenberg points out, Lani Guinier (Bill Clinton’s ill-fated nominee to head DOJ’s Civil Rights Division) was a reasonably respectable academic. Like many academics, she had succumbed to the desire to say something completely novel. That’s how you get ahead in academia. The problem with novel ideas, however, especially in overcrowded fields like law, is that they are usually novel only because they are silly ideas. So it was with Guinier’s cumulative voting idea. It was silly and entirely unsuited to the real world. On the other hand, I had a conversation with Guinier years ago and found her to be quite insightful on some of the issues facing legal education.
Biden’s nomination of Kristen Clarke for the Civil Rights Division is a different thing. She is literally a racist.
Related (From Ed): ‘Neo-Racism’ in the Justice Department. “Will Clarke enforce civil rights law, or does she share the ideological commitments of what John McWhorter has called neo-racism, which rejects color-blindness in favor of destructive racialism? Expressing regret for one’s youthful radicalism is expected for a nominee facing a potentially tough Senate confirmation process. But what Ms. Clarke has shown with her behavior as a lawyer and an activist is that she is an untrustworthy champion of American civil rights.”
THE TRUTH IS, IT SUCKS: The Truth Behind The Great Ammo Crisis.
The simple explanation is that demand exceeded the supply, then continued to exceed the supply. But to understand how that happened you have to go a little deeper. According to Jason Vanderbrink, President of Federal, CCI, Speer and Remington, before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was considerable excess capacity in the ammunition market.
Manufacturers could make more than they could sell, so supply was abundant and prices were low. You could order a case of 9 mm off the Internet for $200. Manufacturers were prepared for an uptick in sales that normally accompanies a presidential election, but the excess capacity would have been enough to cover that.
2020 had other ideas. The first was the COVID-19 pandemic. Then a summer of civil unrest that sometimes turned violent. A hotly contested presidential election, and then the party of gun control having control of both houses of Congress and the Presidency.
Any single one of those would have spiked demand, but all these factors happening in rapid succession was more than the market could bear. Partly because the NSSF estimates that 7 million new gun owners entered the market in 2020. As Vanderbrink pointed out, if those 7 million new gun owners each bought 100 rounds of ammo, that’s 700 million rounds that the market needs to produce.
To put that in context, the entire commercial market in 2018 made approximately 8 billion rounds. An 8.75 increase in demand wouldn’t shut everything down, but when it’s added on top of the demand created by all the other factors, it becomes too much.
I took my boys to the range on Saturday, and was relieved to find the ammo shelves weren’t totally bare. The handgun selection wasn’t great, either.
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