How the humble gas stove became the latest flash point in the culture wars (Washington P0st)

Study raises questions, political debate over gas stove safety (NBC News)

Illinois bans military-style weapons in win for gun control advocates (The Guardian)

Sheriffs across Illinois push back against bill banning assault weapons (WGN)

Paul Tudor Jones, hedge fund billionaire, wants to do away with ‘ESG’ (CNBC)

Hundreds Call for Resignation of Harvard Kennedy School Dean Accused of Blocking Fellowship Over Israel Criticism (Harvard Crimson)

George Soros Spewed Nearly $21 Billion into Global Politics Since 2000: Report

Oregon Dep. of Education Encourages Schools To Hide Student’s Gender Identity From Parents

Michael Busler: Blame the US Chamber of Commerce for Woke Turn

The U.S. May Finally Breach the Debt Ceiling. Here’s Why That Would Be Very Bad. (N.Y. Times) Very bad for the spend-o-crats.

9 Times Democrats Used a Kitchen Appliance They Want To Ban You From Owning

Progressive Prosecutors Play Coy With Evidence To Sell Plea Deals. Judges Aren’t Happy About It.

Man in Panties Makes Appearance in Arizona Dem’s Government Video Call

GOP Bill Allows Only American Flag Flown Over U.S. Embassies and Consulates

FAA Made Computer System Name Gender-Neutral  No wonder it broke down.

Gov. Hobbs Proposes $40M Toward Illegals Attending Arizona Colleges

MSNBC’s Ruhle Whines GOP Voted to Protect Babies in Botched Abortions

GOP thrusts gas stoves, Biden’s green agenda into the culture wars (Washington Post) That’s like saying the Jews thrust anti-semitism into Nazi politics.

Democrats’ Identification as Liberal Now 54%, a New High (Gallup) If they were telling the truth it would be about 95%.

PBS’s ‘Spectacular’ Smear of U.S. Immigration Policy: ‘A Racist…Discriminatory Journey’

Ban Gas Stoves? Just the Idea Gets Some in Washington Boiling. (N.Y. Times) Nothing to see here, move along, move along….

Right’s new fight: Gas stoves (Axios) Joining the Narrative Media effort to downplay the latest statist trial balloon.

Study claims wealthy blue state is America’s most affordable, beating states thousands are moving to (Fox) And if you believe that one, they’ll tell you another one.

Massachusetts named best state to raise a family (CBS Boston)

‘Fed up’: Newsom pledges millions to clear California homeless encampments (S.F. Gate)

Age-check X-rays risk harming child asylum seekers, government warned (The Guardian)

MRI knee scans for migrants who say that they’re under 18 (The Times)

Pritzker signs Illinois assault weapons ban

Trade unions representing laid-off Keystone XL workers silent after report shows thousands of job losses

Liberal media are trying to protect the feds from the much-needed House weaponization committee (N.Y.  Post)

Some Trans People Are Preparing to Flee the US and Seek Asylum Abroad (Vice)

Crime Concerns Drove Asian Americans Away From New York Democrats (N.Y. Times)

‘Classified Classified’? The View Defends Biden Stealing Documents

Forgery Cases Give Supreme Court Opportunity to Hold Unions Accountable for Shady Tactics

Kevin McCarthy Demotes Schiff, Swalwell, and Omar

‘Man-Made Disaster’: New Oregon Gov. Tackles Housing

Is Defying Parents the Only Ethical Alternative? (The Atlantic) Conor Friedersdorf makes the case for progressive totalitarianism. (Friedersdorf, like David Frum, used to write for National Review until he figured out that the money was better on the other side.)

Oh Gay-be! Harvard University Class Focuses on Gay, Trans, and Queer BABIES

What America’s protectionist turn means for the world (The Economist)

Denver to limit migrants’ stays in emergency shelters to 14 days (NBC)

Colorado ends short-lived program to bus migrants to Chicago and NYC (NBC)

From free college to universal preschool, Pritzker pledges second-term ‘agenda as ambitious and bold as our people are’ (Chicag0 Sun-Times) Not that he’s going to pay for it, of course; the taxpayers of Illinois will be on the hook for his generosity.

Mayor Adams unveils plans to turn NYC offices into 20,000 new apartments (Gothamist) Whether the owners like it or not, of course.

The Supreme Court hears a case this week that endangers workers’ ability to strike (V0x)

U.S. justices appear to back U.S. labor agency oversight of state militias (Reuters)

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler strips troubled city bureau of more programs (Oregon Live)

General practitioners are a big part of Britain’s health-care crisis (The Economist)

Illinois Senate passes assault weapons ban, bill heads back to the House

Hakeem Jeffries gave the speech that Kevin McCarthy should have — but won’t (CNN)

Texas’ population is booming (Axios)

Double or triple immigration fees? Here’s how increases would impact Utahns

America 2023: When even members of Congress don’t have child care (The Hill)

‘Wokeness’ at the Fed Could Easily Create Another Banking Crisis

MSNBC: Bolsonaro in Florida Because It’s Where DeSantis & Trump Are

The Problem With Silent Spring Environmentalism (The New Republic)

Read it.

People were lined up outside the Caldwell District Office where the school board holds their annual and regular board meetings this Monday evening. The majority of the people there were concerned with one specific policy being discussed at this month’s meeting, proposed policy 3281.

The proposed policy is about gender identity and sexual orientation and how the district could make those children feel more comfortable in school by adopting policies that allowed them to use bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice and be addressed by their preferred pronouns.

Parents everywhere are pushing back against Wokeness.

Progressive Rep. Khanna says he agrees with Justice Gorsuch on Title 42 ahead of Biden’s first border visit

Lightfoot bears brunt of criticism at mayoral candidate forum on issues affecting disabled Chicagoans (Chicago Sun-Times) BRAAAAAAAINS!

Former Green Beret warns of extreme narrative pushed into the military and US institutions

The US should break up monopolies – not punish working Americans for rising prices (The Guardian) Robert Reich appears stuck in the 60s.

Why a strong U.S. dollar is bad for ‘the rest of the world’ (CNBC)

How health insurance may have made health care more expensive (CNBC)

America’s public schools are losing students (Axios) Gee, I wonder why?

Feminists Wear Pink to Support Trans Man Who Killed Ex-Girlfriend

Crocs Shoes Silently Scrub Social Media After Drag Sponsorship Criticism

Supreme Court declines to hear another longshot 2020 election fraud challenge (CNN)

At least leftist radicals of the 60s didn’t care if their feelings were hurt

England just made gigabit internet a legal requirement for new homes

Idaho Supreme Court Refuses to ‘Read Fundamental Right to Abortion’ Into State Constitution

Queering the Family Farm: Meet the LGBTQ Midwest Farmers Taking Food Justice Into Their Own Hands

Read it.

The UK’s health service—a source of the nation’s pride for over 75 years—is close to buckling this winter due to an ill-timed confluence of pressures. Various senior health officials are sounding the alarm while preventable deaths are skyrocketing.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS (National Health Services) Confederation, told Sky News on January 2nd that he speaks to NHS leaders “every day and a lot of them, if not most of them, say this is the toughest winter they’ve ever dealt with,” adding his own view that they “cannot go on like this.”

How about that great comprehensive free government-provided health care? Don’t you wish we had a system like that in the U.S.? (We do. It’s called the VA. Ask veterans how that works out for them.)

States target transgender health care in first bills of 2023 (Associated Press)

‘Grotesque’ new Batman story features the Joker becoming pregnant and giving birth to a ‘handsome’ baby

Abby Zwerner hailed a hero after being shot by 6-year-old student (N.Y. Post) Since when does being shot make you a hero?

West Virginia Law Restricting Sports By Biological Sex Is Constitutional: Judge

Biden’s and Democrats’ Historic Awesomeness Cannot Be Denied: Midterms Edition (Real Context News) More accurately, Real Narrative News.

If Republicans do not consider Larry Hogan, it will be their loss (Washington Post) If Republicans start taking advice from the editors of the Washington Post, it will REALLY be their loss.

NYC Subway Crime Spikes 30% Despite Beefed Up Transit Patrols

Great Moments in Law-Abidingness: Chicago Man Carjacks Car to Get to His Car Theft Court Date on Time

Mayors Adams and Lightfoot demand Colorado stop sending migrants  Good luck with that.

John Hinderaker at Power Line.

Liberals love to talk about children, but in many ways, their policies are devastating to the young. Education is near the top of the list: liberals run our public schools, and they are almost uniformly terrible. Schools are run for the benefit of teachers’ unions, administrators and diversity consultants. The kids are just disposable fodder.

John Derbyshire.

Aspiring doctors and lawyers should be admitted to training schools for those professions on the basis of knowledge and intelligence, as measured by competitive examinations, not because they fill out race and sex quotas. Those quotas are bad enough in college humanities departments; in practical professions like medicine, law, and engineering they might be lethal.

This dismantling of the meritocracy, I’m learning, starts much earlier than medical and law school admissions, at any rate in Fairfax County, Virginia. That’s the location of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, “TJ” for short, a selective school currently ranked Number One in U.S. News & World Report’s list of “Best U.S. High Schools.”

…

Of course a student has to know he’s won this award in time to include the fact in his college application. It’s turned out that TJ administrators—the Principal, Ann Bonitatibus [Email her] and the Director of Student Services, Brandon Kosatka[Email him]—have for five years been withholding notification to the students until after their college applications have been filed.

Read it.

National coverage of the TJ story got the attention of Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears and Governor Glenn Youngkin. Youngkin sent a letter on Jan. 3 to Miyares asking him to conduct an investigation into the issue. The next day, on Jan. 4, the attorney general held a press conference at the Korean Community Center in Annandale, announcing he had opened two civil rights investigations, one into the withheld National Merit awards notifications and another into admissions changes to the school. With about 70 percent of students at TJHSST Asian American, Miyares raised the specter of anti-Asian discrimination in both policies.

Apparently merit is ‘waysist’.

With Schools Ditching Merit For Diversity, Families Of High Achievers Head For The Door

Oklahoma ‘Millstone Act’ seeks to ban gender-affirming care under age of 26 (The Hill)

Six journalists arrested over footage of South Sudan president wetting himself (The Guardian)

Chevron Doctrine continues to haunt the courts (The Hill)

The Slow Death of Surveillance Capitalism Has Begun (WIRED) There is, of course, no such thing. Just another fairy-tale for the Narrative.

Colbert Says Speaker Fight Is Proof God Exists, Wallace Praises Pelosi

Man Legally Changed Gender to Gain Custody of His Kids. Trans Groups Are Concerned. (Vice)

In Liberal Media, Never Is Heard a Discouraging Word About Hakeem Jeffries, Election Denier

From Gender Gingerbread Persons to ‘Privilege Bingo,’ Feds Squander Millions on Cult of Diversity Training

House Dem Taps Convicted Felon to Advise Senate Campaign

Virginia Dad Slams Soros Prosecutor for Prosecuting Concerned Parents More Harshly Than Murderers

Oregon DOE Advisory Suggests Withholding Students’ Gender Identity from Parents

Diversity Through Obscurity: Applicants Told To Delete Names Of Schools On Their Resumes

For Teachers Unions, Parents & Children Come Last

Media Silent as Latest Twitter Files Expose Flagrant Misconduct in Govt. & Journalism

Read it.

The House Jan. 6 committee, while posting hundreds of records online during its final weeks, included in the cache a spreadsheet containing nearly 2,000 Social Security numbers associated with people visiting the White House in December 2020, including those of three members of former President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, some GOP governors, and several Trump allies.

“Whether it was a careless and sloppy handling of records or a deliberate disregard of decorum, either scenario is a perfunctory and callous display of government and a frightening reminder of the current state in Washington,” former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, whose name and Social Security number were included on the spreadsheet, commented to The Washington Post.

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Life is a beach, they say, and we’re all just playing in the sand. Soon, though, there might not be any sand left. That’s because the world is running out of it.

Running out of sand, you ask, how can that be? After all, 33 percent of Earth is covered in desert, and many of these deserts have copious amounts of sand (not all of them, though). Yes, that’s true, but desert sand, like sea sand, lacks the compressive strength needed to construct houses, skyscrapers, roads, and bridges. In other words, when it comes to the world of construction, both desert sand and sea sand are utterly useless. This is why there is a race to secure the limited amounts of appropriate sand available.

Scarcity breeds desperation and this desperation is particularly palpable in China. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has deployed “pirates” to raid neighboring countries. In truth, the “pirates” have been plundering and pillaging for years. In recent times, however, they have zeroed in on Taiwan, stripping the island of its valuable deposits.

And they can blame it on rising sea levels due to ‘climate change’! Win-win!

NPR.

The application rate for young people seeking technical jobs — like plumbing, building and electrical work — dropped by 49% in 2022 compared to 2020, according to data from online recruiting platform Handshake shared with NPR.

Researchers from Handshake tracked how the number of applications for technical roles vs. the number of job postings has changed over the last two years.

ESG will be a heavy focus for tech leaders in 2023 (CNBC)

The year ahead in ESG: Pledges, politics and biodiversity (GreenBiz)

California’s ban on around 70,000 vehicles takes effect this week (S.F. Gate) You want supply chain problems? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Minimum wage just increased in 23 states and D.C. Here’s how much (NPR)

Would a $20 minimum wage work in Upstate New York? (WRGB)

Country of Immigrants? (The Nation)

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger joins CNN (Axios) I wonder whether he got the traditional 30 pieces of silver as a singing bonus.

LOL: Adam Kinzinger Hired as CNN Senior Political Commentator

Police Failures In Philadelphia Have Made Private Policing More Attractive

First Non-Binary Priest for the Church of England

Ruhle Dismisses U.S. Founding Fathers in Heated Debate with Boebert

2023’s First List of Openly Gay Transgender Nonwhite Accomplishments Ann Coulter keeps score so you don’t have to.

Scotland Police Rename Pedophiles As “Minor Attracted People” at Direction of EU

Soros Doubles Funding to Group Aiming to Pack Supreme Court

Torrent of Taxes Sends New Yorkers Fleeing on Southbound Expressway

‘New Normal’ in Gun Sales: 16.4 Million

Blood Money: NJ Allocates $15 Million To Abortion Provider Upgrades

Propaganda Avalanche: Soros Spreads $131M to Influence Global Media

The View Demands Republicans Capitulate to Democrats in Speaker Vote

Hillary Clinton to Be Columbia University Professor  I am not making this up.

Read it.

Now I feel even better about my decision nearly two years ago to never drink or buy another Coca-Cola or, as far as I know, another Coke-owned product.

A new, quite believable Twitter feed about the beverage company makes it look even more like a cynical, race-baiting, dishonest bully than it already had appeared. About which, more in a moment.

Scott Johnson at Power Line.

I have followed the Twitter Files as posted by Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, Bari Weiss, and David Zweig in a series of Notes on the Twitter Files. Taibbi has now posted a set of capsule summaries of each of the 12 installments posted on Twitter so far at his TK News site on Substack. It is posted here in accessible form. Most of Taibbi’s posts at TK News are behind a paywall. This one is not.

In an italicized note at the conclusion of his summaries Taibbi promises the post will be kept open and updated “as needed.” I take that to mean that Taibbi will add capsule summaries for future Twitter Files installments. Elon Musk — proprietor of the New Twitter and the man without whom we would know none of this — has teased the next installment. It will take up Anthony Fauci.

ZMan totes up the score.

One of the truths of democratic politics is that enemies tend to be forever, while friends tend to be temporary. The reason is politics is personal. When someone does something to harm you in politics, you take it personally. You remember it long after the harm has been forgotten. When someone does you a favor, in contrast, it tends to be transactional, as the person doing the favor is acting from self-interest. Favors are impersonal, while harms are always personal.

This is something Kevin McCarthy is learning right now. His climb to the speaker’s chair has been sidetracked by a small group of malcontents. They oppose him becoming the next Speaker of the House because they do not like him. More important, they think he is a shameless liar, so they do not trust him. The reason they think this is that Kevin McCarthy is a shameless liar. To get where he is he had to knife people in the back, because he has no other qualifications for the job.

It will never be said publicly, but his role in knifing Congressman Steve King in the back, at the behest of the donor class, burned up his capital. If he is willing to work with the New York Times to ruin a Steve King, how can anyone in the caucus be sure he will not do the same trick to them? Politics is a sleazy business, but the reason to be in a party is to have the protection of the party. McCarthy broke an important rule so he is a man with few friends, only money to spread around.

New York becomes 6th state to OK human composting law (Axios)

Nets Ignore Dem Congresswoman’s Racial Slurs Against Staff & Mocking COVID Deaths

Sharp Rise in Children Sickened by Edibles as Pot Becomes More Widely Legal

Illinois Supreme Court Places Controversial Cashless Bail Law On Hold

David French Joins The Times as an Opinion Columnist (N.Y. Times) They know a Useful Idiot when they see one.

Muzzled by DeSantis, Critical Race Theory Professors Cancel Courses or Modify Their Teaching (Pro Publica)

WashPost Front-Pager Decries ‘Misinformation’ on Novel with 4th-Grader Sex Scene

Total Farce: Griner Wins Award That Once Honored Pat Tillman

CNN Tries to Stamp Out GOP Investigations into Bidens, COVID, Fauci

Federal Appeals Court Upholds Florida’s Transgender Bathroom Ban. Now What?

Next Top Gun Movie To Feature First Black Female Tom Cruise  (Babylon Bee)

Maine School Secretly Gender-Transitioned 13-Year-Old Girl

Huffington Post.

During the interview, due to be broadcast on Sunday, Crosbie said: “I have been in difficult situations. I have surgeries, I do face-to-face surgeries where I wear a stab jacket, obviously following the murder of (fellow Conservative lawmaker) David Amess. And I have security protection as well. I think it’s important I have direct contact with my constituents. Unfortunately, this is one of the things I have to do to ensure that I can actually do the job that I was elected to do.”

Lightfoot asks Illinois for millions more to help migrants; state says funding will stop by end of January BRAAAAAAAINS!

The everything bubble has popped, and millennials may not like what happens next. Get ready for the mindset shift of ‘retro capitalism’ (Fortune)

Abortion Survivors Left To Die

Silly PBS Sendoff: NewsHour Anchor Judy Woodruff Puffed as ‘Neutral and Objective’

You Don’t Have To Be A Conspiracy Theorist To Be Worried About The World Economic Forum

Read it.

If you would rather spend your vacation hunting for charging stations, calling customer support to try to get them to reset the charging stations, hunting for places to spend the night when your Ford Lightning runs of out charge and has to be towed, or trying to figure out why a fast charger is only giving you a trickle charge, than attending a car show in Colorado, an electric vehicle is for you!

Read it.

The scam is this: ‘migrants’ row out beyond the territorial limit of the originating country (which is typically quite happy to see them go) and wait. A bleeding-heart NGO ‘rescue vessel’ will then ‘rescue’ them and carry them the rest of the way to Europe, in the sura and certain knowledge that the lily-livered Eurocrat bureaucracy will take them in and offer them ‘asylum’.

The citizens (as opposed to the ruling class) of Italy, Greece, Spain, and France are getting pretty fed up with this system-gaming scheme, as you might imagine.

Meloni’s government will soon force NGO ships flying flags from countries like France, Germany and Norway to accept the migrants they pick up in the Mediterranean Sea.

New York Times.

Whatever happens, he has got
A Congress seat, and they have not.

Seriously: He’s got a guaranteed six-figure job for the next two years, and either he gets re-elected (and stranger things have happened) or he doesn’t; if he doesn’t, he’s got a possible book deal and who knows whatever offers coming through the transom–he’s already demonstrated that he’s as crooked as a dog’s hind leg. If he’s got a thick enough skin, I just don’t see any downside for him.

1 Dead, 9 Hurt in Alabama Shooting Near New Year’s Eve Party  According to Sailer’s Law of Mass Shootings, the high ratio of wounded suggest a non-white perp.

This year was devastating for women’s rights. 2023 may not be better. (MSNBC) From the viewpoint of the Narrative, the right to abortion is the only ‘women’s right’ that matters.

World’s largest money managers need a better ESG script (Financial Times)

House majority gives Republicans a chance to take on ESG investing (The Hill)

‘Blindsided’ By The City, Ald. Taylor Vows To Fight Mayor’s Plan To Place Migrants In Closed Woodlawn School (Block Club Chicago) BRAAAAAAAINS!

How billionaire Pritzkers became key backers of bail reform, ‘gender affirming’ care (N.Y. Post) Because they didn’t earn any of the money that they inherited, they feel guilty. Guilt+money=Wokeness.

Democratic Socialists push members to recruit family during holidays (N.Y. Post) Oxymoron alert: There is nothing ‘democratic’ about socialism.

Top 10 Conspiracy Theories That Will Be Validated In 2023

Another Bloody Year in ‘Killadelphia’

Alameda County admits tallying error in ranked choice voting

Detroit, Philly, L.A. Among Neediest Cities in U.S.  All run by Democrats. I wonder whether there’s a connection there….

CA high-speed rail is Exhibit A for how America can’t build big things anymore  When something is built to serve a political agenda rather than an actual economic need, it inevitably descends into a machine for extracting taxpayer money into crony pockets.

Why a global recession is inevitable in 2023

Democracy won 2022. Can it keep winning? (Washington Post) In the Narrative Media, ‘democracy’ means ‘Democrat vote fraud’. (I’m surprised E.J. Dionne is still alive.)

Julia Doubleday.

The day after the 2022 Midterms, I heard almost every possible interpretation of the surprising results. The Democrats had done much better than expected and feared, and youth voter turnout was unusually high. On cable news and twitter, data analysts and pundits picked apart dozens of explanations and contributing factors, from the ultimately-flat Crime Wave narrative to the nationwide gratitude for student debt forgiveness. There was, however, one word I didn’t hear on CNN or twitter: COVID-19.

COVID has killed 1.1 million Americans in roughly 1,000 days, or an average of 1,100 Americans dying daily for 2 years and 10 months. Of those 1,100 daily average deaths, 93.2% were among people over the age of 50. Older Americans are well known for the high voter turnout, as well as their conservative bent.

It’s glaringly obvious that an extra 1,000 deaths of individuals over 50 every single day for nearly 3 years would have an effect on the electorate- but not a single analysis even mentioned pandemic deaths. This is frankly, very odd. I’ve worked in campaign data, and political statisticians tend to want to take every possible variable into account; from voters’ shopping preferences, to their racial background, to their likelihood to listen to K-pop, to their hair color and first car model. Yet here we have a very, very large variable, receiving no attention or weight whatsoever.

If ‘permacrisis’ is the word of 2022, what does 2023 have in store for our mental health? (The Guardian)

Permacrisis, Partygate and mini-budget: the Guardian’s breakthrough words of the year (The Guardian)

AOC yet to visit migrant facilities at border under Biden, after high-profile trip during Trump admin (Fox) It’s all about the optics.

Questions loom at CNN after difficult year (The Hill)

This is CNN? Beleaguered network has tumultuous year, marked by high-profile firings, continued ratings woes (Fox)

Yale University ‘happiness professor’ warns capitalism is destroying students with anxiety

Why Are We Spending Millions Housing Illegal Migrants While Americans Go Homeless? (Newsweek)

N.J.’s minimum wage is going up Sunday  Hello, automation!

‘Man of the Year’ Dr. Levine Pushed for Increased Big Tech Censorship

9 Controversial California Laws Taking Effect On Jan. 1

Washington, Colorado, and Oregon: The Next Domestic Outmigration Wave?

Trump-supporting billionaire Home Depot founder says ‘nobody works anymore’ because of ‘socialism’ and the ‘woke people [who] have taken over the world’ (Fortune)

The incredible shrinking NY: New proof that progressives are driving away residents — including millionaires who pay for their goodies (N.Y. Post)

Predictions that global economy is heading for a recession are premature (The Guardian) We’re already in a recession.

Jamie Raskin thinks the Electoral College threatens democracy. He’s right. (MSNBC) In the Narrative Media, ‘democracy’ means ‘Democrat vote fraud’.

Right-Wing Extremists Will Hate This New Government Spending (Daily Beast)

Sen. Bernie Sanders Blasts Southwest’s ‘Corporate Greed’  Really, is there anything more predictable? *YAWN*

California Lawmaker Introduces Bill To Legalize Magic Mushrooms, Other Psychedelics

Judge Keeps Oregon’s Strict Gun Control Measure On Ice

Finland Proposes 30% Windfall Tax On Power Companies

ExxonMobil Launches Legal Challenge Against EU Over Windfall Profit Tax

Democratic Congress was disappointment for immigration activists (The Hill)

Crocs Shoe Brand Sponsors Kids’ Drag Fashion Show

MIT Adopts Free Speech Resolution: “We Cannot Prohibit Speech As Offensive Or Injurious”

Return Your Nobel: Top 4 Worst Paul Krugman Economic Hot Takes of 2022

Judge: NY Ban on Guns in Places of Worship Unconstitutional

Read it.

watches at home as they attempt to stay under criminals’ radar while in public. From Los Angeles to Manhattan to London to Paris, violent high-end watch robberies are rising.

Think of it as ‘anticipatory reparations’. (You know, for all the money that rich people have been stealing from poor people all these years.)

Bloomberg reported London’s Metropolitan Police Service recorded a staggering 60% jump in knife-point robberies. In Paris, an entire police task force has been assigned to investigate luxury watch theft.

Wow, those gun-control laws really work. Oh, wait….

Read it.

How about that government-provided health care? Don’t you wish we had a system like that in this country?

(Actually, we do: It’s called the VA, and it totally sucks. Ask anybody.)

Why restaurant chains are investing in robots and what it means for workers (CNBC) Can you say ‘minimum wage’? Can you say ‘Union label’? I’m sure you can.

2022: The Year ESG Fell to Earth (Real Clear Energy)

State lawsuits defend abortion access with religious freedom (Associated Press) What religion requires abortions?

5 things to know for Dec. 28: Immigration, Snowstorm, Southwest, Trump’s taxes, Gas (CNN) Get your Narrative! Right here!

Red States Texas, Florida Crush Blue New York, California, & Illinois When It Comes To 2022 Population Growth

Transgender Guidelines May “Destroy” Women’s Sports, According To Female Olympians

The Great Re-Sort: New, National Survey Indicates Political Migration Will Soar

Stanford University’s Anti-‘American’ Wokeness

2022 Man of the Year: Judge James Ho

New York Gov Frees 11-Year-Old Boy’s Killer

Read it.

While the campaign to create a health care “public option”—a government health plan designed to compete against private health insurance—may have waned in Washington, D.C., this left-wing project is very much alive in some states.

Following in Washington state’s footsteps, the Colorado and Nevada legislatures have recently passed laws creating state-based “public option” health care programs.

Read it.

The Bail Project, an organization with the stated goal of bail reform, has discontinued its chapter in Las Vegas after coming under scrutiny for posting bail for a criminal who ended up shooting a restaurant worker.

The point of bail is to release a person from incarceration so that they can go about their daily routine while ensuring that they don’t run away. It presumes that the bailee is at least arguably not a flight risk and not a danger to society, and can either put up bail, afford to arrange bail from a bondsman, or have friends/family who will stand surety for him (or her). This is, of course, ‘discriminatory’ in the eyes of the Wokerati; hence the Soros push to elect prosecutors who will waive bail or put up bail for people who otherwise not be able to get bail (such as being an habitual criminal).

In November 2021, Rashawn Gaston-Anderson was arrested for pandering and carrying a concealed weapon. A day after being released, he was arrested again for theft and burglary. In December 2021, The Bail Project posted a $3,000 bond and got him out. Six days later, Gaston-Anderson opened fire at a restaurant worker in Chinatown, shooting the victim Chengyan Wang a total of 11 times.

I don’t think we need to wonder about the ethnicity of ‘Rashawn Gaston-Anderson’, or that of his victim.

Read it.

The following article and interview concern the work of a German pathologist who — despite the political headwinds blowing against anyone who attempts an honest evaluation of the effects of the experimental mRNA treatments intended to mitigate the effects of infection with the Wuhan Coronavirus — has conducted autopsies and analyzed the results for people who died after “vaccination”.

Adam Smith would have recognised the monsters of modern capitalism (The Guardian) In the Narrative Media, ‘capitalism’ means anything other than socialism.

‘A threat to unity’: anger over push to make Hindi national language of India (The Guardian) India actually ought to be about eight or nine separate countries.

Europe’s ‘anti-hate’ laws and arrests a warning for free speech in US (N.Y. Post)

These states tried an Obamacare public option. It hasn’t worked as planned. (Politico)

‘This makes my brain hurt’: Connecticut used disaster aid to rebuild million-dollar homes (Politico)

Texas Lawmakers Plan to Further Decimate Abortion Rights in Upcoming Legislative Session (The Intercept)

Republicans see little resistance from the business lobby after ‘anti-woke’ attacks (Politico)

Students Speak Out On Anti-White, Anti-Christian, Anti-American Culture At Florida University

Impoverished Canadians Seek Euthanasia As A Solution While Trudeau Vacations In Jamaica

For Teachers Unions, Parents and Children Come Last

Bankman-Fried, Michael Lewis Collaborating on Book  Of course they are.

NYC Mayor Declares “Big Brother Is Protecting You”

Larger squad? How the Hill’s newest progressives plan to wield power. (Politico)

How Expansive Welfare Benefits Can Make Being on Dole More Lucrative Than Working

Comic Book Fans Shun Superheroes’ Woke Makeovers

TV News’s Immigration Coverage Is Just Blatant Open Borders Activism

European Union Anticipates Continued Uptick in Asylum Seekers   “Here we are! We want to live in your country! Give us money!”

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I spent a little time in Oxford during my recent vacation, and a day or two later Mark Steyn told me that the City of Oxford had adopted an ordinance that penalizes driving more than 15 minutes from your home. This seemed hard to believe, but in fact, it is true.

Sir Oswald Moseley died too soon. If he could have just stuck around a bit more, he would have found himself in as fascist a Britain as he could ever have dreamed.

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Looking for answers about how the brain works amid age-related hearing loss, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers discovered that old mice were less capable than young mice of “turning off” certain actively firing brain cells in the midst of ambient noise. The result, they say, creates a “fuzzy” sound stage that makes it difficult for the brain to focus on one type of sound — such as spoken words — and filter out surrounding “noise.”

Scientists have long linked inevitable age-related hearing loss to hair cells in the inner ear that become damaged or destroyed over time.

But the Johns Hopkins researchers say their new studies, described on December 7 in The Journal of Neuroscience, indicate that the brain has much to do with the condition, and it may be possible to treat such hearing loss by re-training the brain to tamp down the wildly firing neurons.

NYC’s Trendiest Communities Rocked by Thieves, NYPD Stats Indicate (Newsmax)

Top school principal hides students’ academic awards in name of ‘equity’ (N.Y. Post)

9 breakthroughs this year that gave us hope for the future (Vox)

How San Antonio became a hub for migrants (Politico) Not hard to tell: Democrat city government.

Brexit has cracked Britain’s economic foundations (CNN)

The woke university implosion — and what comes next (N.Y. Post)

New California laws in 2023 include a fur ban, new state holidays (S.F. Gate)

Here’s what new California labor laws mean for you in 2023, from minimum wage to family leave (Sacramento Bee)

ESG’s Perverse, Narrow, Fraudulent Ethical Principles

The German Constitutional Court: Over a Decade of Barking Without Biting

CNN Historian Touts ‘Hero’ Gavin Newsom, Pleads for Climate Action

Global Warming? It’s Snowing In Miami At Packers-Dolphins Game

Holiday Traditions in the Forest Revive Spiritual Relationships with Nature, and Heal Planetary Wounds (Inside Climate News) I am not making this up.

Subpoenaed Fossil Fuel Documents Reveal an Industry Stuck in the Past (The Intercept) They say that like it was a bad thing.

Can geoengineering fix the climate? Hundreds of scientists say not so fast (The Guardian)

COP15 was a success — here’s what needs to happen next (Al Jezeera)

2022: the year rewilding went mainstream – and a biodiversity deal gave the world hope (The Guardian)

In the End, Solar Power Opponents Prevail in Williamsport, Ohio (Inside Climate News)

‘It was a set-up, we were fooled’: the coal mine that ate an Indian village (The Guardian)

Scientists uncover another reason for melting of Antarctic glaciers – study (The Jerusalem Post)

Here’s how government can fight climate change and achieve energy independence (Fox)

The World Made a Biodiversity Pact, And Of Course We Aren’t Part of It (Mother Jones)

Svalbard reindeer thrive as they shift diet towards ‘popsicle-like’ grasses (The Guardian)

Extinction crisis puts 1 million species on the brink (Reuters)

Japan to begin extracting rare earth metals from seabed in 2024

Europe’s New Carbon Tariff Won’t Help the Climate (Washington Post)

Steel industry united in opposing bloc’s carbon border levy (EuracTV)

Statement by UN Development Programme Administrator Achim Steiner on the outcome of COP15 (UNDP)

What the Extinction Crisis Took From the World in 2022 (The Nation)

Brazil’s Lula promises no deforestation but challenges loom (Associated Press)

Saving salmon: Chinook return to California’s far north — with a lot of human help (S.F. Chronicle)

EU’s emissions continue to fall despite return to coal (The Guardian)

‘I was just blown away’: State report shows climate change will take massive toll on Mass. without urgent action (Boston Globe) But ‘urgent action’ never happens, and neither does the threatened ‘massive toll’.

Watch: Youth activists from around the world meet at COP15 biodiversity summit (Euronews)

The Eco-Dictatorship Coming Your Way

Global Decarbonization: Negative Agricultural Impacts

The 12 Days of Global Warming

Guess What: Electricity Isn’t Free

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in 2010, cursive was omitted from the new national Common Core standards for K–12 education. The students in my class, and their peers, were then somewhere in elementary school. Handwriting instruction had already been declining as laptops and tablets and lessons in “keyboarding” assumed an ever more prominent place in the classroom. Most of my students remembered getting no more than a year or so of somewhat desultory cursive training, which was often pushed aside by a growing emphasis on “teaching to the test.” Now in college, they represent the vanguard of a cursiveless world.

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In 1941 James Burnham published The Managerial Revolution to explain the fundamental transformation of society around the world. While it appeared that communism, fascism, and liberal democracy were competing for supremacy on the world stage, Burnham noted that these systems shared a common trait of empowering highly-specialized managers who operate a network of large bureaucracies with the goal of standardizing and planning their societies from the top down. This dynamic was easier to observe in the hard totalitarian states where official state organs dictated social and economic behavior. The tight grip of the managers in those societies drove them to collapse, but in the liberal West managers used a gradual approach that proved more resilient.

The lighter touch of the managerial class in the liberal democracies allowed their citizens to believe they had escaped the fate of nations that had grown too top-heavy. Comforting notions of the free market and social tolerance made American citizens feel victorious as the last remnants of the Soviet Union collapsed under the rot of hard totalitarianism, and the soft managerial elite that dominated the West was thus able to bring more aspects of society under its control. Government agencies, corporations, media outlets, and educational institutions increasingly seemed to act with one voice and one agenda, instead of behaving as the separate self-interested actors described by classical liberalism. With an incredible degree of coordination, our elite institutions demonstrated their ability to impose widespread pandemic lockdowns, vaccination protocols, and to rewrite election law on the fly with scarcely any significant protest.

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Twitter was staffed by craven functionaries eager to please contacts and former colleagues in the national security state…

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I haven’t paid much attention to the January 6, 2021, demonstration in Washington because it was not one of the 50 worst U.S. riots in the 12 months that bracketed it. It wasn’t even the most destructive riot, or the second most destructive, in Washington during that time.

If you want to see a destructive riot, come to Minneapolis. But none of the Minneapolis rioters were arrested, held in solitary confinement for a year or more, and ultimately tried and sentenced for…not actually being violent. Because their riot was approved by the Democratic Party.

What was really notable about the January 6 event was not that a few hundred partisans (plus an unknown number of FBI agents) were sufficiently exercised about the election to besiege the Capitol. What was notable was the astonishing failure of security that let them in. At one entrance, Capitol guards opened the doors and apparently welcomed a large number of protesters, who entered the building, staying between the velvet rope lines, taking selfies. I think that is how most of the protesters who entered the Capitol got there. At least one criminal defendant has been acquitted on the ground that he had every reason to believe he was being invited into the building as a tourist.

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On December 13, the school board of Chesapeake, Virginia postponed voting on whether to authorize the establishment of an “After School Satan Club” at a local elementary school. Parents describing themselves “at their wits’ end” over the idea protested the proposed vote. The proposal emanated from the Satanic Temple, a group of political activists who identify themselves as a religious sect and portray After School Satan Clubs as a counterpart to fundamentalist Christian Good News Clubs, which they maintain constitute an unconstitutional effort by the “Religious Right” to infiltrate public education and erode the separation of church and state. Lawyers representing the Satan Club said the school must provide space for the club because of its affiliation with religion, protected by the First Amendment.

According to June Everett, “campaign director” for the proposed club and an “ordained minister” in the Temple, the club, far from worshiping the devil and espousing evil, “is intended to foster creativity and promote empathy,” and attempts to establish a “constructive and positive alternative” to other religious after-school clubs. She reports having first been drawn to the Temple five years ago after her first-grade son was “traumatized” on the playground by classmates who taunted him for not attending the Good News Club, and warned that he would burn in hell if he didn’t accept Christ as his savior.

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At the end of November, the BBC, our nation’s very own 5th column and bastion of national self-hatred, announced with glee that “Jamaica is considering whether to seek compensation from a wealthy Conservative MP for his family’s historical role in slavery” – a role from 400 years ago.

For those who have been hiding incommunicado in a covid bunker for some time and thus unaware, the treasure hunt called “Black Lives Matter” has given birth to a new form of the game called “reparations lotto” in which greedy, black people who have never been slaves try to sue rich white people who have never owned any.

Big welfare handouts mean folks who stay home are living high on the hog off your tax dollars (Fox)

Think America is a ‘Christian nation’? George Washington didn’t. (Washington Post) As if Jennifer Rubin knew her butt from a hole in the ground about George Washington.

The Anti-Abortion Myth Haunting the Pro-Choice Movement (The Nation) Gaslighting for the Narrative.

Protect the Abortion Rights of People in Prison Too (MS Magazine)

California county first in US to pass law banning criminal background checks for housing (The Guardian) Time to leave.

This Bay Area county just became the nation’s first to prohibit criminal background checks on tenants (S.F. Chronicle)

We can’t afford to carry on without a national public health system (Seattle Times) We have a national public health system. It’s just not run by and paid for by the government. For that, you have to go to the train-wrecks like the V.A. system in the U.S. or the NHS in Britain. There’s a reason Canadians come to the U.S. for critical health care.

San Francisco businesses demand full tax refund from city for coping with area ‘controlled by drug dealers’

Burglar Who Broke Into Robert De Niro’s NYC Home Had Rap Sheet With Two Dozen Arrests This Year Alone  When progressive prosecutors practice ‘catch & release’, this is what you get.

Federal Government Leaves Border Hospital With $20 Million Bill for ‘Free’ Health Care to Illegal Aliens

3 Princeton DEI staff members resign, alleging lack of support (The Princetonian)

NPR, New York Times Explore ‘Beautiful Issues’ of Teenage Gender Confusion

Bill would give New York the nation’s best-paid legislature (Associated Press) After all, they’re doing such a tremendous job.

REPORT: George Soros Dumped $35 Million into Anti-Police Groups and Causes in 2021

BOLD-FACED LIE: Gun Control Groups Twist Heritage Foundation Data Out of Recognition in Court Documents

Electoral Count Act, Re-Written by Democrat Campaign Lawyer Marc Elias, Imposes Judicial Supremacy to Override States

Huh? AOC Claims Abortion Is A Jewish Sacrament

The Left’s Big Pitch: Embrace a Worse Life in the Name of Equality

Philadelphia Hits 500 Homicides For Second Year In A Row