Read it.

When the authorities let the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct headquarters burn following the death of George Floyd on Memorial Day 2020, all hell broke loose. Thugs from all over the state made their way to the Twin Cities to participate in the orgy of riots, destructions and looting that spread throughout the Twin Cities.

One such participant was Montez Terriel Lee, Jr. Lee came up to the Twin Cities from Rochester to get in on the action on May 28. Equipped with a gasoline can for the occasion, Lee was part of a small group that broke into the Max It Pawn Shop on East Lake Street in Minneapolis. They looted the pawn shop. Lee poured out his gasoline and ignited a fire that consumed the shop.

Videos captured the action. Lee was proud of it. Filmed outside the shop as it burned, Lee commented: “Fuck this place. We’re gonna burn this bitch down.”

Bystanders knew someone had been caught in the fire. Two months later the authorities found Oscar Lee Stewart, Jr. in the charred remains of the pawn shop.

You can read about the Felony Murder Rule here.

A cautionary tale about our times.

It’s not just Maytag. Most ‘name brand’ appliances are crap these days, partly due to government regulations and partly due to the fact that people just make crap these days.

The trouble began very slowly in the ’80s, with a gradual lessening of quality, almost too small to notice. The real problem began with the advent of the Neptune, an over-featured, under-engineered product. There was nothing wrong with Neppies that couldn’t be fixed, but Maytag management of the time took the stance that they were going to make consumers pay for Maytag’s design mistakes. Control boards, wax motors, and boot kits galore were installed at the expense of consumers who had not a damned thing to do with their design. The Neptune became the subject of successful class-action suits, and one of the most prominent subjects for consumer “horror stories” on the Internet. As the word about Neptune got around, Maytag’s formerly enviable reputation got trashed in the process.

When my first wife died and I moved to a new house, I bought Neptunes because I trusted the Maytag brand. Foolish me.

If you can afford it, buy Bosch. If you can’t, you’re pretty much out of luck.

CNN ‘Reliable Sources’ guest says press covering Biden ‘unfairly’ with ‘snarky attitude’

The Unorthodox Weapon We Need to Defend Democracy (Politico) Sounds like a Narrative.

Progressive new Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s practices are almost textbook anti-Democratic: Trey Gowdy

Look around you. The way we live explains why we are increasingly polarized (The Guardian)

Thousands of churches raise alarm about scope of new Canadian ‘conversion therapy’ ban

Canada Officially Outlaws Gay Conversion Therapy (Daily Beast)

Want true equity? California should force parents to give away their children (S.F. Chronicle)

Martin Luther King, Jr. did not give up. Those fighting for democracy must follow his example. (Washington Post) Sounds like a Narrative.

CBS’s Dickerson Interviews Three LIBS to Grade Biden on His First Year in Office

NYTimes Lead Pities Dems: ‘Costly Fight to Overcome GOP Curbs,’ Suppression

Glenn Greenwald Exposes Deep State Effort To Stop Trump Pardoning Edward Snowden And Julian Assange

STUDY: NBC, CBS Bury Phrase ‘Islamic Extremist’ After Synagogue Attack

Dem Megadonor: I Don’t Care About the Uyghurs

Union Pacific Bashes LA’s Social Justice Reform, Threatens To Leave City Amid Soaring Train Thefts

CBS Swoons Over Radical DOJ Official, Ignores Extreme Ideology

Convicted Pedophile Funneled Millions In Foreign Cash Into Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Campaign

CNN Suggests Dems Should Push ‘Voting Rights’ Every 30 Days for Six Months

CBS, NBC Floored by ‘Shocking,’ ‘Unbelievable’ Looting in LA, Refuse to Blame Lefty DA

Don’t Underestimate How Badly The Powerful Need Control Of Online Speech

Great Moments in Media Probity

Read it.

‘‘No group is more dangerous,” growled Theodore Dalrymple in 2014, “than the disgruntled literate.” Two years later, in Ages of Discord, the political scientist Peter Turchin made the same point, stating famously that “one of the most reliable predictors of state collapse and high political instability is elite overproduction”.

The problem, as Dalrymple and Turchin both see it, is that the sharp elbowed bourgeoisie makes often considerable sacrifices to obtain an education, with the aim of then securing employment that affords status and compensation commensurate with that sacrifice. And when there are more sharp elbowed strivers than juicy jobs, the also-rans become restive.

ZMan dispels some illusions.

Marilyn Mosby has been the State’s Attorney for Baltimore since 2015, despite the fact she has been under federal investigation for years. A federal grand jury indicted her last week on two counts of perjury and two counts of making false statements on loan applications for two Florida vacation homes. Mosby applied for loans against her retirement account, exploiting a CARES Act provision for those hurt financially by the Covid-19 panic, despite never having been affected.

These may seem like petty charges, but as is often the case with public corruption investigations, this is the opening gambit in a broader investigation. Mosby’s husband has also been living under a dark cloud for years. He is the current President of the Baltimore City Council. The two of them owe the IRS over $45,000 in back taxes, despite making close to half a million a year from the city. Their lifestyle does not comport with what their financials indicate.

What passes for ‘meritocracy’ is merely Cronyism With Credentials.  As with the old British Civil Service exams, the educational credentials demanded for entry into the Crust bear very little relationship to the skills actually needed to succeed or to govern.

‘Fact-Checkers’ Fall Silent on Biden’s ‘Voting Rights’ Speech Smears

Doctors Demand: First, Do Some Harm to Confused Adolescents, Such as Permanently Sterilizing Them

Train Burglaries in L.A.  California turns into a Turd World state.

The Not-So-Great Train Robbery  California turns into a Turd World state.

Looters Raid Union Pacific Trains In Los Angeles, Searching For Amazon And UPS Packages  California turns into a Turd World state.

‘It’s ugly out there’: Rail thefts leave tracks littered with pilfered packages  California turns into a Turd World state.

Crimefighter exodus: Manhattan prosecutors flee DA office after Bragg takes helm

Manhattan DA Bragg won’t address recall petition pushed by Sliwa, Giuliani

Most Americans believe US democracy ‘at risk of extinction’: poll  Since that’s all they’re reading in the ‘news’.

How Central Planners Corrupted The World

70th Anniversary of NBC’s Today: Where In the World is Matt Lauer?

Gov. Blackface Pardons Perv: Northam Absolves Democrat Jailed for Underage Sex Crimes in Final Act as Governor

RINO ALERT: Romney rips RNC’s stance on presidential debates commission

The Shameful Decline of Scientific American

Kooky Columnist: Parents Must ‘Give Away Their Children’ to Achieve Equity

Read it.

Government-provided health care! Yeah yeah yeah!

The problem is – when Canadians who can afford it get stuck in the Single-Payer Trap, they can come to the U.S. and get treated … if they can afford it.

But if this scheme comes to America – where can we go?

Read it.

Hammer tech.

Read it.

A modified consumer drone was used in a bombing raid on a rival drug cartel in Mexico on Monday. Video from the cartel-operated drone shows several bombs were dropped on a rival camp in a new turf war.

According to the Spanish-language daily newspaper El Pais, the drone was operated by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and bombed a rival cartel in the state of Michoacan. At least one person was injured in the attack. The entire incident was caught on video.

There are two governments in Mexico: The formal government in Mexico City and the narco-state that extends along the border with the U.S.  Back in the Good Old Days the U.S. government would move into that area and straighten it out. Nowadays … not so much.

Los Angeles train thefts: Union Pacific urges DA Gascon to ‘reconsider’ directive dismissing misdemeanors

California Provides Millions in Loans for Illegal Alien Business Owners

Notes on Religion Today

Will Left’s Gender Agenda Fall Flat With Minorities and Working Americans?

Priorities: CNN Spends Almost 3x More on January 6 Hype Than Bad Economic News

Supreme Court Sets Dangerous Precedent Of Letting The American People Make Medical Decisions For Themselves  Babylon Bee.

Everything You Love Is Cancelled Now

California Nightmare: What to Know About Left’s Next Run at Single-Payer Health Care

Labor Leaders Say Illinois Firefighters Can’t Vote To Leave Union

Illinois Public School Advertises ‘After School Satan Club’ to Kids

NY’s Schumer Shows Contempt for His Own State’s Voters

Teen Convicted In Loudoun School Sex Assaults Sentenced, Must Register As Sex Offender

Virginia School Board Members Acknowledged Anti-Asian Bias in Admissions, Texts Show

New York District Attorney Calls for End to Prosecuting Serious Crimes. It’s Every Criminal’s Lucky Day in Gotham.  The people hav emade their choice, and deserve to get it good and hard.

The world’s insatiable appetite for electricity is setting up a climate disaster (CNN)

White House departures send tremors through environmental community (Politico) I’ll bet you didn’t know that there was an ‘environmental community’.

New chief scientist wants NASA to be about climate science, not just space (NBC) Because there’s no way to leverage this job into a lucrative political career if it’s ‘just about space’.

Is California About to “Stumble” in its Fight Against Climate Change?

The World Was Cooler in 2021 Than 2020. That’s Not Good News  (Wired ‘Science’)

“Hansen vs. The World” (Richard Kerr on uncertain climate science in 1989)

Biden-Backed Solar Company Lied About Effectiveness of Solar Modules, Lawsuit Says

Yachts To Be Exempt From EU’s Carbon Pricing Plan

Climate Change Weekly #422: Being a Climate Alarmist Means Never Having to Admit You’re Wrong

Read it.

And about fucking time, too.

Read it.

During the 2016 primary and general election seasons, “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams offered a useful heuristic for understanding America’s partisan and psychological bipolarity on Donald Trump. The two Americas were watching “two different movies”: one featuring a dangerous authoritarian and proto-fascist and the other a brash and plain-talking tribune sticking it to the corrupt uniparty establishment.

The actual phrase Scott uses – and he uses it a lot – is ‘two different movies on the same screen.

I’m sure you’ve all seen this:

Asked what it is, people will say either ‘a vase’ or ‘two faces’. And yet it’s just one thing.

That’s what Scott is talking about.

CNN’s Jake Tapper ignores guest’s comparisons of moderate Democrats to segregationists  As he does.

Former Lincoln Project advisor Tom Nichols mocks Americans concerned about inflation, high gas prices

S.F. police chief slams D.A.’s office for dropping charges against suspect accused of assaulting officers (S.F. Chronicle)

Woman Gives up Child, Sues Sperm Donor She Met Online for Lying About Education, Ethnicity (Newsweek)

This old commercial for SF depicts a wildly different city (S.F. Gate) Thank you, Democrats.

Nets Skip Pelosi Opposing Bipartisan Push to End Stock Trading for Congress

Class War is Just Beginning

ABC, CBS, NBC Cheerlead for Election Power Grab By Democrats

Why is so little known about the 1930s coup attempt against FDR? (The Guardian) Perhaps because it never happened? But you can’t hide from The Guardian!

His election loss stunned Democrats. Now he might run for governor. (Politico) Anything to avoid actually having to work for a living.

Southeast Asia’s autocrats have created an alliance against democracy (Washington Post) Who knew they were Republicans?

Indiana Lawmakers Crack Down on Bail Charities After Grisly Murders

Killings of Cops Spiked in 2021

Read it.

I begin to think the Bush-Republicans are actually worse than their Rockefeller-Republican predecessors. The Rockies openly admitted their liberalism; the Bushies spout conservative rhetoric while doing everything they can to advance the Democrat agenda, and make money for themselves in the process. Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney not only eagerly signed onto Nancy Pelosi’s January 6th Inquisition, but she is now apparently leveraging the Committee’s Subpoena Power to harass her primary opponent.

American democracy is under threat. Where’s the bill to defend it? (Houston Chronicle)

California loses $200 million a year to recycling fraud, 5 or 10 cents at a time

Making Manhattan a crook’s paradise

HBO’s ‘Euphoria’ is more than a parent’s worst nightmare. It’s a creative triumph (NPR)

Asian Boss planted deep blue YouTuber and pretended he was a ‘man on the street’

Prominent Chinese Communist Party Members Serve on Board of Yale Beijing Center

NYC Comptroller Has ‘Full Confidence’ in Anti-Israel Activist at Helm of His Press Shop

Journalists EXPLOIT January 6 to Push Dems ‘Voting Rights’ Agenda

Sanders: Dems Have Turned Their Back on the Working Class  So has Socialist Sanders, he just pretends otherwise.

Dome Of Capitol Building Raised To Accommodate Nancy Pelosi’s Eyebrows  Babylon Bee.

Critical Race Theory Program Teaches Disabled Preschoolers That ‘Whiteness Affects Everything’

Black LA residents lack access to guns as wealthy rush to buy firearms amid crime wave: Activists

The Federal Government Wants Racial Qualifications to Be Added to COVID-19 Treatments

Steve draws a lesson from life.

Hell doesn’t exist solely to punish. It also exists to bless the righteous by keeping the depraved out of their sight. When you’re in hell, the people in heaven can’t see you or hear you. They don’t get updates on you. They don’t visit. They never ask God to help you. They don’t think they owe you anything. They don’t remember you existed. You can’t put on a black outfit and a mask and go to heaven to riot for what you think are your rights.

This has to be one of the best things about heaven.

Being a do-it-yourself protestant, Steve’s ideas of Heaven and Hell are pretty far off-base, but one can certainly appreciate where he is coming from.

One of the worst aspect of the Religion of Progressivism is that it anathematizes the concept of charity. Nobody is allowed to feel good about doing something nice for a person less well off; that’s considered a character defect, because it might damage the self-esteem of the recipient. Instead, everybody deserves nice things BY RIGHT and if you have more than somebody else you are a Heretic and a Sinner unless you pass it all out until everyone is equal. This attitude has infected the less-well-off (who are, in many cases, that way because of their own deficiencies) to the point where NO GRATITUDE WILL BE FORTHCOMING for any act of benevolence, merely whining about how it’s So Unfair that X has something that Y doesn’t.

ZMan is delightfully dyspeptic today.

Hollywood figured out a long time ago that they could make a lot of money on a sequel to a popular movie. They could count on attracting most of the original audience without having to think too hard or spend a lot of money. If the sequel was just the original with a couple new twists, then it was easy money. The reboot is a similar concept, except it relies on nostalgia to sell the concept. Fans of the original Star Wars movies could take their kids to the reboot of the franchise.

The general consensus is that the reboot and remake are a sign that Hollywood has run out of creative writers. The wrinkly brains are now in the technical end, making cool graphics and special effects. The writers arrive in a short bus. This cultural dead end where they just keep rebooting prior ideas has reached a point where they are rebooting reboots of reboots now. The only novelty is they are stripping away anything of interest and replacing it with ideology.

Leni Riefenstahl is smiling in her grave.

The same process has been happening with politics. The first little hint of it happened with Bill Clinton who was sold as his generation’s JFK. This played on Baby Boomer nostalgia, which has been powerful juju since the 1980’s. The first genuine political reboot was Obama. He was pitched as the black JFK, which was a foreshadowing of what has been happening in popular culture. Just as the role of JFK was being played by a black guy, everything on TV is now played by nonwhites.

The thing that was interesting about Obama was that despite all the talk about the future, they were obsessed with the past. His signature program, health care, was a re-do of the failed health care fight in the 1990’s. His Russian reset was a rebuke of Reagan’s tough approach to the Soviets. His Iran policy was a re-do of what happened in the late 1970’s under Carter. The Obama years were a series of remakes of old defeats by the Left, but this time they were the winners.

Just as the copy is never as good as the original, Joe Biden’s AlGore is a cheap plastic imitation.

Read it.

North Korea carried out another ballistic missile test off the east coast. This missile was tracked by South Korea as it traveled 700 kilometers, after reaching a max altitude of 60 kilometers. South Korea pointed out that this was the second such test in a week and not the sort of thing North Korea needs to do if they are serious about negotiating a peace deal with the south and obtaining massive foreign aid as a result.

Since Trump is no longer in office, and the same old Establishment cold-warriors are back in charge, they’re reverting to the only thing in their toolbox. Rather understandable.

GOP senator says Trump’s election allegations are unfounded (Politico) Except that’s not what he said.

GOP senator says he would ‘take a hard look’ at another Trump run (The Hill) I should hope so.

Even Canadians fear US democracy could end soon (CNN) Even Canadians! Even Canadians! (Sounds like a theme….) I guess they worry about no longer having a refuge from rampant socialism.

Global spread of autoimmune disease blamed on western diet (The Guardian) If it’s Western, it’s got to be bad!

Christian nurse harassed by hospital for years over cross necklace wins lawsuit

An Alabama family started an antiracist library to promote racial justice and the importance of diversity in reading (CNN) They can’t really be anti-racists – none of them are wearing masks.

What it will take to save American democracy (CNN) Sounds like a theme.

A World War II soldier’s letter to his mother from 1945 has just been delivered to his surviving widow, 76 years after sending it USPS: Making the Soviet Union look efficient for a hundred years.

Is the US really heading for a second civil war?  (The Guardian)

Tapper presses NYC mayor on appointing his brother as NYPD official (CNN) Smells too bad even for CNN.

Messenger: Beer Hall Project aims to counter Jan. 6 disinformation, protect American democracy (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) I am not making this up.

Huh? MSNBC Hypes Canada ‘Intervening’ With ‘Autocratic’ U.S.’s 2024 Election

Welcome to the End of Democracy  Joel Kotkin.

You Know Global Elites Are Triggered When The Propaganda Institutions Collaborate To Refute “Mass Formation Psychosis”

Based on False Assumption, Amazon Still Censoring Book on Transgenderism

NYC police chief deeply troubled by Manhattan DA’s new policies

Mark Zuckerberg is creating a future that looks worse than the world we have now

Video Transcript: CBC Journalist Quits in Protest of Repressive & Politicized Newsroom

Former General Hyped by Media for Warning of Military Coup has Long Record of Political Bias

CNN and Sellers Push Michelle Obama Ad, Decry ‘Level of Malaise’ — Under Democrat Rule

More COVID-19 School Closures Spell End of Teachers Unions Empire

57% of Democrats Want Facebook, Twitter to Censor Posts to ‘Make Sure Some People Are Not Offended’

Former NYPD Commissioner Criticizes New Manhattan DA Over Soros Ties

It’s Time to Amend the Constitution (Politico) First by making amendment easier, then by making it easier for the Uniparty to rule by decree.

Court packing isn’t the only way to reform the Supreme Court (Washington Post) “What steps might a Democratic-controlled Congress take to curb the influence of the court?”

NYC mayor says he supports recently passed legislation allowing 800,000 noncitizens to vote

What the average citizen can do about the demise of US democracy (CNN) Sounds like a theme.

Manhattan DA: ‘I don’t understand the pushback’ to lighter punishment for violent criminals

Newsom, Democrats Go For Californians’ Guns

“I Do Not Want To Have A Vaccination”: NHS Doctor Tells UK Health Secretary On Camera

Dems Panic Over Teachers’ Union Push For Remote Learning As Yet Another Study Shows Academic Suffering  The point of a union is to make sure that union members get the maximum amount of benefit for the minimum amount of work. With results as you see them.

ABC’s ‘This Week’ Uses Jan 6 Anniversary to SMEAR Military As ‘Extremists’

Hedge Fund CIO: We Are Headed Toward A Catastrophic Political Collision – It’s So Obvious But Few People Want To Admit It

Read it.

There is one fundamental thing about driving a car: don’t hurt or kill anyone. There’s a bunch of other things, but that one is key.

A recent update from Tesla has broken a bunch of things that means driving my Tesla is way my dangerous and I’m more likely to get into accident. That’s bad for me and you.

Hammer tech.

Read it.

Yesterday morning I listened to the oral arguments in the case of the Biden administration’s vaccine mandates as enforced by OSHA. It was a demoralizing experience.

I heard some crazy things, such as a claim that “750 million” Americans just got Covid yesterday, and that 100,000 kids with Covid are in the hospital, many on ventilators. The correct number is 3,300 with positive tests, but not necessarily suffering from Covid. I further heard strong claims that the vaccines block disease spread, despite every bit of evidence to the contrary.

It was my first time hearing oral arguments in the Supreme Court. I might have thought that facts on the ground would actually matter to people who are holding the fate of human liberty in their hands. I might have thought that they would be getting their information from somewhere other than their political intuition, mixed with wildly inaccurate claims from bloggers and media pundits.

I have consistently been dismayed by how deeply ignorant people with impressive degrees and glowing résumés can be. Justice Kagan, for example, although having been Dean of the Harvard Law School, has come out with statements that would disgrace a high-school sophomore.

Matt Taibbi.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney visited the House of Representatives yesterday. He and his daughter Liz were the only two Republicans present at a moment of silence commemorating the events of last January 6th. It was a touching scene, which perfectly described why the surviving anti-Trump Uniparty of the political mainstream is at least as much of a threat to democracy as the “insurrectionists” they never stop wailing about.

In a story entitled “Dick Cheney returns to the House and receives a warm welcome .?.?. from Democrats,” the Washington Post wrote that “Democrats put aside their fierce and lasting policy divides with the Cheneys to thank them for condemning the attack and Trump’s continued effort to undermine the 2020 presidential election results with his false claims of fraud.”

The Cheneys now qualify for the proglodyte Strange New Respect award.

(News writing has become a pre-fab profession, like assembling IKEA furniture. All you need is an Allen wrench and a list of the latest clichés. “Trump’s efforts to undermine the 2020 election” has replaced “Trump’s efforts to coordinate with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” and “Trump’s false claims of fraud” has replaced “Trump’s false claims of ‘fake news.’” Part of the significance of January 6th is that it updated popular propaganda stock, which had grown stale.)

True dat.

Steve is delightfully dyspeptic today.

It’s sort of remarkable that the human race didn’t start using plastic as its default material for trash bags until I was out of diapers. In patent law, one of the requirements for a new patent is that the invention must be “nonobvious,” and that means it’s not obvious to “one skilled in the art.” The use of plastic for trash bags should have been obvious to everyone, not just bag manufacturers. Plastic bags already existed. For some reason, the little wires in people’s heads didn’t touch, and we were deprived of a great boon for a disgracefully long time.

Read it.

Perhaps the Governor of Illinois can expect something a little more morbid than empty cash registers dumped on his lawn in the near future.

Read it.

A video has gone viral on Reddit of the Las Vegas Loop, an underground express transportation tunnel designed and built by Elon Musk’s The Boring Company to help alleviate traffic congestion on convention streets, showing everything the tunnel promised not to do: cause traffic jams. 

Hammer tech.

Finally, Bloomberg Admits Renewables Mania Caused Energy Shortages

‘Don’t Look Up’: Hollywood’s primer on climate denial illustrates 5 myths that fuel rejection of science (The Conversation)

Separate climate bill not being seriously considered in Senate, despite Manchin’s support of the measures (CNN) All Trump! All the time!

Could Being Cold Actually Be Good for You? (Wired)

How researchers can help fight climate change in 2022 and beyond (Nature) Just make sure that The Science follows The Narrative.

Scientists explore Thwaites, Antarctica’s ‘doomsday’ glacier (AP)

In coastal areas, rising seas can also mean failing septic tanks (NPR) Call me when real estate prices in Malibu and Martha’s Vinyard start falling.

Europe Sleepwalked Into An Energy Crisis That Could Last Years

Austrian Climate Researchers Excited About Manipulating the Minds of Children

How Explosives, a Robot, and a Sled Expose a Doomsday Glacier  (Wired ‘Science’)

Cambridge University is Pushing for Tyranny in the Name of Climate Change

Read it.

Wind and solar energy are notoriously unreliable sources of electricity, with the best wind turbines producing electricity a little over 40 percent of the time, and solar panels faring even worse. Where I live, solar panels work around 18 percent of the time, and the electricity they produce is so faint that when they are covered by snow in the winter–I know, it’s a shock, but that happens in Minnesota and other northern states–they aren’t worth shoveling off.

Can anything save wind and solar energy from irrelevance? If you ask a liberal that question, his answer will be: batteries! Batteries that will store electricity when wind turbines and solar panels actually work, and discharge that electricity the rest of the time. Do batteries approaching such a scale actually exist? Well, no. It’s a concept.

Read it.

American mythology promises upward mobility, and college can provide an important first step up the class ladder. With the rise of the “knowledge economy” and the decline of industrial jobs and unions, some insisted that education is the answer to economic displacement. If you can’t earn a stable, living wage as a steelworker, go to college and become a nurse or a computer programmer. And if you didn’t make that choice, it’s your own fault that you’re struggling. After all, college was affordable, accessible, and varied. You could commute to campus, take evening classes, cover tuition with loans and grants, and work part-time or even full-time while you completed the degree that would transform your life.

Of course, higher ed doesn’t quite live up to this vision, especially in recent decades. Rising tuition, largely due to drastic declines in public funding for higher education, has made college less affordable, while precarious employment and uncertain job hours make juggling work and school difficult. The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice has documented many of the economic obstacles students face today, especially food insecurity and homelessness.

The pandemic has exacerbated these challenges, as enrollment figures make clear.

Read it.

Real Clear Investigations has a handy article and chart that compares January 6th Insurrection™ that was worse than Pearl Harbor, 9-11, and the cancellation of “Firefly” combined, to the “mostly peaceful” riots by Democrat surrogates during the summer of 2020 that were “the voice of the unheard.”

Risk democracy will come to an end in 2024: Election law expert shares huge concern (CNN) In the Narrative Media, ‘democrcy’ means ‘Democrat vote fraud’.

Is US democracy in danger? (Washington Post) Sounds like a theme.

The bigger lie threatening US democracy (CNN) Sounds like a theme.

The ‘Big Lie’ Continues To Threaten Democracy (NPR) Sounds like a theme.

Chicago store robbed of $50K in merchandise 24 hours after appearing on local news profile  Bet they won’t do THAT again.

What the January 6 report means for the future of democracy (CNN) Sounds like a theme.

What does it mean to take a public health approach to reducing gun violence? (Philadelphia Enquirer) Twisting language in service to a political agenda for a start.

Hispanic figures reportedly push back on use of ‘Latinx’: Appeases ‘white rich progressives’

Transgender Activists Strategize to Overcome GOP Wins With ‘Race-Class-Gender Narrative’

Could the US be heading towards civil war?

MSNBC: Election Integrity Laws Are Causing A Jan 6th Every Single Day!

COVID Passport Microchip Developer Says Chipping Of Humans Happening “Whether We Like It Or Not”

Hammon Gives UP On NBA Head Job, Takes Her Whine to WokeNBA

Wall-to-Wall: Media Plan AVALANCHE of Jan. 6 Anniversary Coverage  Sounds like a theme.

ALERT: Hillary Clinton Is Spreading Lies on Social Media  Not really news, but a useful reminder.

Remember When Latino Media Revered Insurrectionists? We Do.

Kevin Roche.

Love to see what the incandescent Marvin Gaye would make of these times. We are hitting a new fever pitch of tension and craziness. Schools are doing virtual or remote “learning”; parents are at their wit’s end on how they are supposed to cope with children at home and work. Children continue to be deprived of a real education, are being terrified for no reason, forced to hide their faces behind masks, being vaccinated against a virus which is a non-existent threat to them. People are getting tested for having cold symptoms and are isolating and quarantining pointlessly. We are pushing people past the breaking point.

So here is the question. How long are you going to take this crap? When are you going to tell the politicians and the public health experts and the teachers’ unions and all the others who won’t let go of their obsession with this epidemic that enough is enough. How many children have to literally go crazy or commit suicide or overdose on drugs? How many lives ruined is enough for the teachers’ union? It is clear these people have no principles, no shame, no courage, no convictions, only politics and self-interest.

Read it.

The true agenda of what has become known as the “transgender movement” is to abolish sex, according to author and self-declared feminist Kara Dansky.

Dansky, author of the new book “The Abolition of Sex: How the ‘Transgender’ Agenda Harms Women and Girls,” not only takes issue with the objective to destroy the concept of sex, but also with the use of the term “transgender.”

The term “transgender” was invented, but the “word has no coherent meaning whatsoever,” Dansky says, adding that “every single person on the face of the planet, all 8 billion of us, are either female or male, and that’s it.”

American Dream elusive as ever for migrants crossing the US-Mexico border

How Biden could have prepped for Omicron (Politico)

“Business Is Very Good” – Let’s Go Brandon Store Chain Expands As Biden’s Approval Rating Plunges

3rd Chinese Scientist Pleads Guilty To Stealing Trade Secrets From Drug Maker GlaxoSmithKline

If American democracy is going to survive, the media must make this crucial shift (Washington Post)

Jan. 6 anniversary: Washington Post media columnist urges more ‘pro-democracy’ coverage ‘before it’s too late’

How a Liberal Foundation Bankrolled Abortion Pills in the Name of Population Control

Beverly Hills Residents Panic-Buy Guns Amid Crime-Wave  And hire professionals to use them, I trust. I shudder to think of a Kardashian with a gun.

STUDY: Nets Buried Biden’s Disastrous Polling in December

Governments Admit Using ‘Mass Formation Psychosis’ As Tool of Population Control

Fox’s ‘The Cleaning Lady’: Illegal Immigrant Aids Crime Boss to Prevent Deportation

New York Prosecutor Drops Sex Crime Charges Against Andrew Cuomo  Welcome to the Crust! Nobody gets fired, nobody goes to jail!

NY Mag Sells ‘Price Controls’ to Fight Inflation

Andrew Cuomo Skates On Breast-Fondling Case After Albany DA Drops Sexual Assault Charges

Cuomo won’t be charged by New York for undercounting nursing home deaths  Welcome to the Crust! Nobody gets fired,  nobody goes to jail!

Politico Revels in Democrat Plan to Politicize January 6 Anniversary to Federalize Elections

Veteran Journo Resigns From CBC, Pens Scathing Indictment Of Canadian Narrative-Shaping Industry

DNC Staffers Unionize With Major Democratic Party Donor

ZMan, who is not fluent in French.

One of the iron laws of the universe is that whatever the America Left is warning about is usually something they are plotting. Alternatively, whatever they are accusing others of doing is something they have already done. The Russian collusion stuff is the most recent example of this. They accused Trump of plotting with a foreign government, the Russians, but we learned it was official Washington all mobbed up with the Ukrainians, Chinese and anyone else with extra cash.

Of course, for the last year the ruling class has been yammering about the insurrection and the ongoing threat to “our” democracy. Meanwhile, they have been dragging people off to secret dungeons, harassing citizens for their politics, throwing people off social media and all the things we associate with a thug regime. Go back further and they spent four years claiming the 2016 election was rigged and then committed massive election fraud in the 2020 election.

This is how you can discern the future in regime rhetoric. Regime-ology, like Kremlinology in the Cold War, is becoming a skill in this age. You read the regime organs like the Washington Post or New York Times not for the literal content, but for the esoteric content, the stuff between the lines. In order to be prepared for what they will do next, we have all been forced to be Straussian. Of course, we also have the opposite rule of liberalism to guide us.

Read it.

What is the greatest danger in 2022? Global warming? Inflation? The pandemic? A major war? My answer is the tyranny of the thought police — because, without the ability to engage in free thought and discussion, solutions to the other problems are unlikely to be found.
The tyranny of the thought police caused the impoverishment and loss of basic liberties of billions of people who were — and many still are — under the yoke of communist leaders for decades. It is a basic characteristic of mankind to try to control the speech and thoughts of others. Those who voluntarily sign on to religious orders or organizations such as the communist party agree to abide by the group’s rules. If people have a choice as to what to believe and say, and when they find themselves in disagreement with the other members or leadership of the group, and if they can voluntarily resign, there is no problem.
But what happens if people find themselves as members of a group without their free consent, and the penalties for disagreement or withdrawal are severe? When Martin Luther expressed his very public disagreement with the Catholic hierarchy, in part, by nailing 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany, in 1517, he set in motion what would become the Reformation, whose unintended effect was a series of civil wars which ultimately claimed the lives of a third of the population in some parts of Europe.

Popular Supreme Court a threat to democracy? Liberals panic over latest poll

New voting maps, and a new day, for Virginia (Washington Post) Out with gerrymandering, which is what Republicans do! Let’s do this new process, which is Democrat gerrymandering in a Clever Plastic Disguise!

There’s a new tax rule for US small business owners. What to make of it? (The Guardian) More IRS snooping, although the Guardian won’t actually come out and say it.

After 8 long years of misery, de Blasio tried to inflict still more pain on NYC

The debacle of defunding the police is coming home to roost

The American polity is cracked, and might collapse. Canada must prepare  Yup – no more U.S. to leech off of.

Public University Offers Professors Cash To Go Woke

6 in 10 Americans say U.S. democracy is in crisis as ‘The Big Lie’ takes root

On CNN, Conservative Brutally Mocks Vain AOC Claiming Republican Critics Want to ‘Date Her’ She dates herself … to 1917.

CNN’s 2022 Resolution: Make Everything an Attack on Democracy

Heroes of Liberty Editor Says Facebook BANNED Advertising for Patriotic Kids Book Publisher

Here Comes the Stacey Abrams Media Rebrand

Tur Fears ‘Next Election Won’t Be Fair,’ Hopes for 2024 ‘Contingency Plan’

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Increasingly, I’ve been alarmed at the number of people in my own circle who wear their symbols of fear: the mask. They are all smart women, rational under most life circumstances, but refuse to let go of wearing their masks. It is like a comfort blanket, even an amulet, that will protect them from the evil forces of COVID. No matter how much information they receive on the minimal protection that masks provide, they persist. My biggest concern is that these people are living in a hyper condition of fear, and they don’t even recognize it. It’s also interesting that they will sacrifice wearing their masks in certain circumstances. I wanted to explore whether prolonging the donning of masks, which could be practiced for the foreseeable future, might have a permanent negative effect on their well-being. The news does not suggest a bright future.

Read it.

The sudden spread of carjackings has cast a net of fear over the Twin Cities. The Star Tribune explored it in the page-one story yesterday by David Chanen: “Carjackings sweep through Twin Cities communities.” Subhead: “Police struggle to keep with the latest crime trend.” In the paper’s hard copy, the headline asked: “Who is stealing so many vehicles?” It answered in the subhead: “Carjacking surge is blamed on armed teens who seize, ditch cars for a quick thrill.”

Chanen purports to be interested in the perpetrators’ demographics. The carjackers are identified as teenage boys. So far as I have been able to tell from video and from the few who have been apprehended so far, the perpetrators have been black. Yet Chanen studiously avoids any mention of race. It is taboo in this context — more taboo than public reference to sex in Victorian England. I wrote our friend Howard Root to ask if he noticed the omission of race from Chanen’s story and, if so, what he made of it.

California and New York are examples of crazy people being governed by socialists. Minnesota is an example of normal people being governed by socialists. In neither case is the result very pretty.

Time to leave. Plenty of room here in Texas. I hear Florida is real nice.

Retired general warns the U.S. military could lead a coup after the 2024 election (NPR)

Prepare for Military Coup After 2024 Election, Ex-General Warns (Newsweek)

Americans seeking to renounce their citizenship are stuck with it for now

Jonah Goldberg Blames ‘Elites,’ By Which He Means, Everyone But Himself

New Year, But SAME OLD Press: Here’s What the Media Will Do in 2022

NPR LIES In Promoting Brennan Center as ‘Nonpartisan Think Tank’ for Democracy  As they do.

COVID Antiviral Pills Cause Life-Threatening Reactions When Used With Many Common Meds: FDA

Vaccine Scientist Dr. Malone Talks With Joe Rogan About Twitter Ban

Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid-19 despite strict measures  Fine ‘vaccines’ ya got there, bubba.

Unvaccinated Man Feeling Left Out As All His Vaccinated Friends Have COVID Babylon Bee.

Opinion: Most evangelical objections to vaccines have nothing to do with Christianity (Washington Post) Yeah, the WaPo is my go-to source of information on Christianity.

Where Parents Can Get Help with Climate Anxiety  (Wired ‘Science’) Try Hare Krishna.

Unvaccinated workers who lose jobs ineligible for unemployment benefits (Canada)

COVID, Ivermectin, And ‘Mass Formation Psychosis’: Dr. Robert Malone Gives Blistering Interview To Joe Rogan

“His Skin Was Burning”: Melbourne Man Sets Himself On Fire Screaming About Vaccine Mandates  Pushback against Australia’s descent into fascism.

Omicron Is Creating An Unnecessary Media Hysteria Over Positive Case Numbers…Again

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Because their status has been ratified by a supposedly objective standard, and because they think they’ve received what they truly deserve, the meritocratic elite is “no longer weakened by self-doubt and self-criticism.” Equating worth with credentialed intelligence, and convinced by the impeccable testing regimen of their own existential preeminence, they reckon that “their social inferiors are inferiors in other ways as well.” Dismissing the commoners as incorrigible rubes, they neither possess nor seek to cultivate “sympathy with the people whom they govern.” Hoarding their advantages for their children, the cognoscenti become as tenaciously entrenched as any earlier caste of patricians.

Welcome to the Crust.

Some of the “populist” movements of our day exhibit the morbid symptoms of a general crisis of meritocracy: Brexit, Trumpism, the gilets jaunes in France, irascible and deadly skepticism about scientific responses to the COVID pandemic, the metastasis of bizarre and grisly conspiracy theories such as QAnon.

Persons disquieted with meritocracy look for an alternative and inevitably gravitate toward socialism, which promises a solution in the form of universal equality and winds up delivering merely another corrupt hierarchy, this time with a stultifying sauce of ideology on top.

Bonus points: Count up how many times this article uses the term ‘capitalism’ incorrectly.

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A new year is almost upon us, which means a number of milestones and new changes in the pop culture landscape. Among them is the updates to the United States public domain, which often gets new intellectual properties due to the specifics of the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998. The current rules will allow for works from 1926 to enter the public domain after a 96-year extension in 2022 — and that will include some significant names. Among them is A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh short story collection, and all of the characters within them (except for Tigger, who wasn’t introduced until 1928 and will be under copyright until 2024). Once Winnie the Pooh enter the public domain, it can legally be shared, performed, reused, repurposed, or sampled without permission or additional cost.

This only applies to the original works, and not to the subsequent adaptations and merchandise, which allows for Disney’s incarnation of Winnie the Pooh to still be held under trademark by Disney.

The 2022 crop of public domains additions will also include Felix Saten’s Bambi, a Life in the Woods, Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Dorothy Parker’s Enough Rope, Langston Hughes’ The Weary Blues, T. E. Lawrence’s The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Kahlil Gibran’s Sand and Foam, Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Aykroyd, Edna Ferber’s Showboat, William Faulker’s Soldier’s Play, Willa Cather’s My Mortal Enemy, D. H. Lawrence’s The Plumed Serpent and H. L. Mencken’s Notes on Democracy.

Unless, of course, the forces of The Great Mouse get another copyright extension passed.

(KA-CHING!)

The biggest news story of 2021? Our imperiled democracy (CNN) When the Narrative Media use the term ‘democracy’, it means ‘Democrat vote fraud’.

San Francisco father of murdered 6-year-old says DA’s policies led to ‘no accountability’

1619 Project’s Nikole Hannah-Jones claims Americans are taught ‘the history of a country that does not exist’

Nancy Pelosi scoops up call options for Google, Disney, Roblox stocks

Portland Antifa rioter charged with assaulting police has case dismissed after 30 hours community service Compare treatment of the Jan. 6 ‘Capital rioters’.

Judge says she doesn’t understand how Vos could have so few records regarding Wisconsin’s election review  The term ‘cover-up’ comes immediately to mind.

Here’s Why California Is Losing Population for the First Time (Daily Beast)

Pursuit of parolee with arrest warrants out brings lockdown in East Bay town

“Journalism Is Not Sedition”: US & Taiwan Blast China’s Crackdown On Hong Kong Free Media  Better get used to it. Communists are communists.

“Pure Insanity”: San Francisco Residents Reflect On Surge In Crime

Smash And Grab Robbers Steal $1.5 Million From Luxury Palm Beach Hand Bag Shop

Men Keep Smashing Women’s Records

Follow Home Robberies

The APA No Longer Represents Good Science or Clinical Practice

Happy New Year! Check Out the Top 10 Worst Liberal TV Scenes of 2021

The Biggest Junk Science Of 2021

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Over the last year, a growing number of progressives and liberals have pointed to police killings of unarmed black men, rising carbon emissions and extreme weather events, and the killing of trans people as proof that the United States has failed to take action on racism, climate change, and transphobia. Others have pointed to the war on drugs, the criminalization of homelessness, and mass incarceration as evidence that little has changed in the U.S. over the last 30 years.

Read it.

Experts have presented several dietary culprits as possible explanations for the rapidly rising rates of chronic disease in industrialized nations, including sugar and saturated fat. However, one commonly consumed food found in the diets of millions has received surprisingly little attention—industrial seed oils.

Contrary to what we’ve been told, industrial seed oils such as soybean, canola, and corn oils are not “heart healthy” or otherwise beneficial for our bodies and brains; in fact, plenty of research indicates that these oils are making us sick. Read on to learn about the history of the industrial seed oil industry, the adverse health effects of consuming these oils, and what dietary fats you should eat instead.

Sometimes the old ways are best.