CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: ‘Real Housewives’ attorney Tom Girardi used cash and clout to forge powerful political connections. “When Joe Biden came to Los Angeles to raise money for his presidential campaign, Tom Girardi filled a dining room at the Jonathan Club with wealthy attorneys. . . . The 2019 breakfast fundraiser at the private downtown club was in many ways the end of an era. By the time Biden was elected last fall, Girardi’s life and legal empire were unraveling. His wealth, once estimated north of $250 million, has vanished and with it his reputation as one of the nation’s most connected and respected lawyers. With Girardi facing bankruptcy, divorce and a criminal investigation, his days as a political insider and power broker appear over. For decades, though, politicians were happy to take his money and put up with his requests for something in return. Along with his family and employees, Girardi contributed more than $7.3 million to candidates.”
Archive for 2021
March 7, 2021
SWITZERLAND APPROVES BURQA BAN. “The proposal was put forward by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) which campaigned with slogans such as ‘Stop extremism’. A leading Swiss Islamic group said it was ‘a dark day’ for Muslims. . . . It is not the first time Islam has figured in a Swiss referendum. In 2009 citizens went against government advice and voted to ban the building of minarets – a proposal also put forward by the SVP which said minarets were a sign of Islamisation.”
THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST: Merrick Garland Doesn’t Seem To Know Much About Anything During Questioning. “These answers conflict with statements Garland made in February, suggesting that there were changes to gun control policy that Biden could make unilaterally without the need for new legislation from Congress. But now he’s saying that he really doesn’t know what, if any limits there are to the President’s powers in that regard. Just as a reminder, this guy has been on the bench on one of the most influential appeals courts in the country for decades and he came very close to making it onto the Supreme Court. And he hasn’t given any thought to the Second Amendment?”
He just doesn’t want us to know what he thinks about it. And because of that, we do know.
OPEN THREAD: How was your weekend?
SPACE: Lawmakers ask Biden administration to keep oversight committees in the loop on space activities. “Reps. Frank Lucas and Brian Babin, who oversee civil and commercial space, expressed concerns about the administration’s push for international regulation of space activities.”
GIVEN THE PERFORMANCE OF THE MODELS SO FAR IN THIS PANDEMIC, I’M UNIMPRESSED: Mathematical model of SARS-CoV-2 UK variant suggests it could be 43–90% more transmissible.
DISPATCHES FROM THE INTERSECTION OF ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY, AND “DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS:” Michael Moore says no to vaccines for Texans, then the woke crowd came for him.
SIRI, WHAT HAPPENS AFTER “DEFUND THE POLICE?” Portland Can Relax. The ‘Enhanced Community Safety Team’ Is On The Job.
MORE THOUGHTS ON Politics and Class in America.
GEORGE KORDA: Here’s a suggestion for city leaders about police departments.
I remember some years ago when I talked to Zenobia Dobson, mother of Zaevion, her complaint was that you never see police in that neighborhood until after something happens, not that police were the source of the problems.
More on Zaevion here.
K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Teachers unions are systemically racist. Here’s why:
Don’t get mad at me for saying it; I don’t make the rules of woke terminology. But under the sweeping definition of “systemic racism” the liberal Left has embraced, teachers unions’ incessant fight to keep schools closed most certainly qualifies.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson defines systemic racism as “systems and structures that have procedures or processes that disadvantages African Americans.” A writer at liberal news outlet Vox said systemic racism is a term “used to talk about all of the policies and practices entrenched in established institutions that harm certain racial groups and help others.”
More broadly, professor Ibram X. Kendi, a celebrated left-wing thinker, argued that racism exists wherever racial disparities do: “When I see racial disparities, I see racism.”
Conservatives don’t and shouldn’t necessarily accept this definition. But it’s entirely fair to hold liberal groups — teachers unions donate huge sums almost exclusively to Democrats — to their own standards. So, let’s apply this definition of “systemic racism” to the teachers unions’ fight to avoid opening schools and maintain failed “distance learning” schemes.
Read the whole thing.
TALENT RETURNED TO GOD: Rush Limbaugh’s Death Certificate Lists Occupation as ‘Greatest Radio Host of All Time.’
(Classical reference in headline.)
WHICH IS A BAD INCENTIVE STRUCTURE: Politicians Turn Problems Into Power.
WITH HER TRACK RECORD, WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Ric Grenell to Newsmax TV: ‘President Susan Rice’ in Charge.
MICHAEL WALSH: On the Left, an Era of Fascist Magical Thinking.
The constant push for fascism from our corrupt, lickspittle media, such as the Los Angeles Times cited above, only exacerbates the situation. Without the media-driven madness surrounding the Wuhan flu, few ever would have noticed it. Without the airy-fairy theory of “global warming,” most sane people would have gone about their lives completely unaffected by the madness of others.
And, really, who would buy an electric car, except as a virtue-signalling status symbol? Only at gunpoint, I suspect.
Read the whole thing.
ANALYSIS: TRUE. There is no measurement at our disposal and no level of gaslighting that will change the fact that Cuomo-led New York was an utter failure. “By any standard, the New York tristate area’s numbers are the worst in the country. By most measures, the numbers are some of the worst in the world. As the New York Times noted in May, New York City seeded the wave of outbreaks across the nation. Some of the carnage was likely unavoidable, but we can attribute the high number of nursing-home deaths, at the very least, to Cuomo’s ineptitude. Yet, even as his state was failing to meet its most serious challenge since 9/11 — it wasn’t until May 6 that cleaners began disinfecting the subway system, for example — Cuomo was busy taking softball questions on national cable news from his obsequious brother, Chris.”
OLD AND BUSTED: Q-Anon.
The New Hotness? Blue-Anon!
UPDATE: …And it’s gone. PJM’s alum Deb Heine notes the words that the Urban Dictionary does allow:
(Updated and bumped.)
OLD-FASHIONED BUT STILL EFFECTIVE: Stoeger Coach Gun: Top-Selling Side-By-Side in 2020.
REALLY? GOING ALL-IN FOR TRANS RIGHTS DIDN’T WIN THEM OVER? NY Times: Democrats Have A Problem Appealing To Latino Men.
IT WOULD BE BETTER IF YOU COULD TRUST THEM: COVID’s Unlikely Offspring: The Rise of Smartwatch as Illness Detector.
SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to products for preventing HIV from anal sex.