Archive for the 'Dystopia Watch' Category
The world is rapidly going downhill. Unfortunately, we can’t get off.
2nd November 2021
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1st November 2021
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1st November 2021
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1st November 2021
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Background, ICYMI: An AP reporterette claims she heard a Southwest Airlines pilot say “Let’s Go Brandon” into his cockpit mic. (So far no audio or video has emerged to prove her statement.) She also claims to have done what any other suburban, privileged white woman would do and demanded to speak to the plane’s manager. (Banging on the cockpit door to try and get a statement from the pilot.)
Legit or not, this alleged incident has brought out the full fury and rage of the Democrat left, with one former Deep State Operative/current CNN employee comparing “Let’s Go Brandon” to supporting a terrorist group. Former Clinton administration official Joe Lockhart says it indicates “a broader problem” which one presumes is the fact that a lot of unionized pilots aren’t Democrats. Another Democrat/CNN contributor declares “Let’s Go Brandon” is MAGA code for “Sieg Heil.” (In fairness, they say that about pretty much everything the right does.)
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31st October 2021
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30th October 2021
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30th October 2021
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30th October 2021
Michael Shellenberger.
I am pleased to officially announce that on October 12, 2021, HarperCollins will publish my new book, San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities. At nearly 400 pages, and with 1,100 end notes, the book is equal to Apocalypse Never. It is based on over 200 interviews, including with leading experts, advocates, and elected officials, over the last two years, original data analysis, and a review of the best-available research on crime, drugs, and homelessness. I wrote it because I love San Francisco and am upset and ashamed of what has happened to it and to other progressive cities in the name of progress.
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29th October 2021
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29th October 2021
Scott Johnson at Power Line.
Yesterday morning the White House posted a summary of its so-called Framework of a Spendapalooza bill to be jammed through Congress by Democrats in a reconciliation bill. The White House posted the summary just before President Biden went up to Capitol Hill to meet with the House Democratic caucus.
Biden followed up with one of those 20-minute White House speeches in which he stares vacantly into the teleprompter while he struggles to read the text served up to him. The White House has posted the text of his remarks here. I have posted the video below.
The falsity of the remarks lies somewhere between painful and outrageous. Listening to Biden recite the text is tortuous. If ordered by a court as punishment for a crime, it might violate the Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Not Reconciled: An Update
29th October 2021
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Don’t wear a mask; you must wear a mask. Buy a pulse oximeter. Stock up on Tylenol, vitamin D, Pepcid. Whisper so you don’t spit. Stand six feet from others—no, 10. Wear gloves. Wear two masks! Open the windows. Close the schools. The dizzying madness of COVID, and the reliance on gurulike experts, has been eerily familiar.
I have a pulse oximeter….
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on I Have Been Through This Before
29th October 2021
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29th October 2021
Joel Kotkin.
To some in the Biden Administration, the supply chain crisis can be dismissed as a loss of East Asian-made consumer trinkets that, as Vox tells us, we could all be better off without—or as White House spokesperson Jen Psaki suggested, amounts to little more than “the tragedy of the delayed treadmill.” Yet, in reality, a broken supply chain is hardly a rich man’s problem—global bankers are having their best year ever—but mostly impacts ordinary folks suffering from rising prices for everything from soybeans to natural gas. The crisis is now expected to last for at least a year.
The chaos on the ground level may not much hurt the elites of Manhattan or Palo Alto, but inflation, which is now expected to continue apace for at least the next year, has wiped out wage gains in the U.S., the UK, and Germany. Low-income groups are the most threatened, struggling to pay energy costs, surging rents, and higher food prices. All this is also eroding President Biden’s already weak poll numbers.
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28th October 2021
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28th October 2021
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The cure is worse than the disease, say critics of an emergency plan of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach backed by the Biden administration. If you think port congestion is bad now, just wait for what comes next.
On Wednesday, two days after the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach announced a surprise emergency fee for containers lingering too long at terminals, the National Shippers Advisory Council (NSAC) held its inaugural meeting. NSAC, created to advise the Federal Maritime Commission, is composed of 12 U.S. importers and 12 exporters. Members include heavy hitters like Amazon, Walmart, Target, Office Depot and Ikea.
Council members had a lot to say about the California port fees — none of it good.
Once again, government action, rather than fixing the problem, has merely made it worse.
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28th October 2021
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Digital real estate marketplace Zillow has been hemorrhaging cash in the home-buying arms race in certain markets, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, after the company tweaked its algorithm to jack up the bids it offered on real estate.
One of the more ominous movements in both real estate and tech during the current phase of the covid-19 pandemic has corporate house-buying sprees in response to resurgent demand, using predictive algorithms that try to divine the future of the housing market. The aim is generally to flip the homes for a profit, or in some cases convert them to timeshares or rental units, with unknown long-term effects for the housing market. Throughout the summer and fall, Zillow was urgently pursuing these potential buys via an “iBuying” program called Zillow Offers, which advertise homeowners’ offers in as little as a few days.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Zillow’s Flips Are Now Flops
28th October 2021
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As we focus on our own problems in the United States, the Russian war against Ukraine continues. There is also a cold war between a Russian proxy, Belarus, against Poland and Lithuania that involves immigration.
Belarus invites Middle East immigrants to come to Belarus. Belarus then deposits these immigrants on the Polish and Lithuanian borders and tries to force them to cross into Poland and Lithuania. The goal is to destabilize two NATO nations.
Ukraine is not a NATO nation but the United States is selling Ukraine Javelin anti-tank missiles to defend against Russian tanks in the Donbass region of Ukraine. They are also purchasing drones from Turkey, and Turkey plans to allow Ukraine to produce the Bayraktar T2B in Ukraine.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on All Is Not Quiet on the Eastern Front
27th October 2021
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27th October 2021
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27th October 2021
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Evolution. It’s not just for breakfast any more.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Female African Elephants Are Evolving Without Tusks Due to Ivory Poaching
26th October 2021
John Hinderaker at Power Line.
I am proud of the friends we at Power Line have made over the years, but I am also proud that we have made enemies of some truly hateful individuals and organizations. For me, Exhibit A is Education Minnesota, the National Education Association’s affiliate in my state.
Education Minnesota is by far the number one political force in Minnesota. The teachers’ union dominates our state legislature and gets pretty much whatever it wants. Its influence is malign: for decades, it has opposed every effort to reform and improve Minnesota’s public schools, almost always successfully.
UPDATE: Defund the Education “Deep State”
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26th October 2021
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The Times reports that “Under the proposal, people with $1 billion in assets or $100 million in income for three consecutive years would be brought into a new tax system. Initially, they would have to assess the current value of their tradable assets — like cash, stocks and bonds — and their value when they were purchased, then pay a one-time tax on them.”
The Washington Post reports that “The plan would also set up a system for taxing assets that are not easily tradable, such as real estate,” and also that “Billionaires would also be able to take deductions for any annual loss in value of those assets.”
The constitutional challenges that such a plan would face are considerable.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Biden-Wyden Wealth Tax Would Break Campaign Pledge, Run Afoul of Constitution
25th October 2021
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25th October 2021
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The left claims that their most urgent battle is to save democracy, but when it comes to any questioning of the LGBT lobby, they are the ones who sound like authoritarians. The overtones are unmistakable in the “news” coverage promoting “dozens” of employees walking out of Netflix in Los Angeles on Oct. 20 in protest. The target? A popular Dave Chappelle comedy special, “The Closer.”
Tens of thousands of anti-abortion advocates can assemble and be ignored, but assemble two dozen transgender lobbyists and NBC and PBS will treat it as momentous.
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24th October 2021
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24th October 2021
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23rd October 2021
Pranksters have already defaced Trump’s new social network (Washington Post)
Bannon Caught Fleeing U.S. Disguised as Man Who Recently Took Shower (The New Yorker) I don’t care who you are, that’s funny.
Democrats move to finalize new ‘billionaire’ tax proposal, targeting 700 wealthiest Americans as key source of revenue for spending plan (Washington Post) Successful? Well, we’ll punish you for that. (Betcha it neither increases what ‘billionaires’ pay nor provides the money they say it will.)
Lincoln Project files ethics complaint against Abbott (The Hill) Of course they do.
Feeding The Liberal Flock: Glenn Greenwald Exposes The Real Reasons For The Congressional 1/6 Committee
Cancel Culture Takes A Big “L” Matt Taibbi looks at the Dave Chapelle situation.
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23rd October 2021
Taki is delightfully dyspeptic this day.
“The City of London Is Hiding the World’s Stolen Money,” screams a Bagel Times headline, as bogus a message as that caricature of a newspaper’s other captions of an antiwhite, anti-cop, anti-male, and anti-Conservative platform. (“Bid the binary goodbye,” is another pearl.) Not that anyone takes the Bagel Times seriously any longer since it decided that whites are very bad people, and that it will cover only Blacks (capitals for them, lowercase for us). Still, I found it amusing that London is responsible for the shame of the Pandora Papers, when most of the miscreants involved are third-world dictators and Eastern oligarchs.
Never mind. A newspaper that consistently shades the facts to suit its agenda—even book reviews are assigned to well-known haters of the subject reviewed—is not to be taken seriously, and it’s not, but as I’m traveling and feeling good, I will for the second week running defend the very rich. For starters, it’s only the very rich who are clobbered when investing in Silicon Valley start-ups that go belly-up. Those below a certain net worth are not allowed by law to invest. Mark one for the common man and woman. When a start-up implodes, as most of them do, the very rich take it with their chin up, while the media laugh like hyenas. But the working stiffs are safe by having been excluded from the start.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on The Great Divide
23rd October 2021
Victor Davis Hanson.
Sheer chaos and anarchy on the border? Afghanistan—the most humiliating defeat in recent U.S. military history? A labor-starved supply chain in shambles and holiday shelves emptying out? The worst inflation in 30 years that seems soon ready to match Carter-era levels? Gas hitting $5 a gallon with winter heating fuels soaring? Free-for-all looting in the major cities without consequences? Joe Biden’s policies and Biden himself diving in the polls?
Never in recent American history has any administration birthed such disasters in its first nine months.
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23rd October 2021
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An on-set shooting death has reignited concern about the use of prop guns like the weapon actor Alec Baldwin discharged in the killing of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins while filming a movie in New Mexico.
I think that instead it ought to re-ignite concern about Alec Baldwin. The gun didn’t fire itself.
UPDATE: Alec Baldwin’s Accident John Hinderaker at Power Line.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Prop Guns Spark Debate after Cinematographer’s Death on Set
22nd October 2021
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A hefty set of tusks is usually an advantage for elephants, allowing them to dig for water, strip bark for food and joust with other elephants. But during episodes of intense ivory poaching, those big incisors become a liability.
Now researchers have pinpointed how years of civil war and poaching in Mozambique have led to a greater proportion of elephants that will never develop tusks.
During the conflict from 1977 to 1992, fighters on both sides slaughtered elephants for ivory to finance war efforts. In the region that’s now Gorongosa National Park, around 90% of the elephants were killed.
The survivors were likely to share a key characteristic: half the females were naturally tuskless — they simply never developed tusks — while before the war, less than a fifth lacked tusks.
Well, that’s how evolution works.
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21st October 2021
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21st October 2021
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20th October 2021
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“I’m tired of this sh*t, I’m tired of them ruining these characters,” Eltaeb said, in light of DC’s announcement that Superman would no longer be abiding by the motto of “truth, justice, and the American way,” according to Breitbart.
“I’m finishing out my contract with DC. I’m tired of this sh*t, I’m tired of them ruining these characters; they don’t have a right to do this,” Eltaeb added.
Eltaeb continued on, citing that his grandpa had almost died in World War II, and changing Superman’s motto from the “American way” to a “better tomorrow” is disgraceful to those who fought and died.
“My Grandpa almost died in World War II; we don’t have a right to destroy sh*t that people died for to give us. It’s a bunch of [expletive] nonsense.”
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on DC Comics’ Artist Quits Over Superman Ditching ‘American Way’ Motto
20th October 2021
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20th October 2021
ZMan jerks back the curtain.
If a man had fallen asleep in 1980 and woke up in this age, he would be amazed at many things. We can easily think of the technological stuff like social media, Zoom calls and mobile devices. Then you have the cynical stull like the failure get back to the moon, much less Mars. One less obvious change is the explosion of entertainment and the public obsession with being entertained. Forty years ago, people did not expect to be constantly entertained throughout their day.
One aspect of the saturation of entertainment is how public affairs transformed into something like Vaudeville. People dream up new acts and new characters to play on-line and on television. If the act works, we get a flood of imitators. Once that runs its course, someone cooks up a new way to separate from the rest of the performers and they have their run on the big stage. Politics in this age is pure theater, centered on various acts making claims to certain audiences.
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19th October 2021
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19th October 2021
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19th October 2021
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An examination of hundreds of health departments around the country shows that the nation may be less prepared for the next pandemic than it was for the current one.
The problem is not with ‘the nation’ but with ‘health departments’ that act like the Gestapo at its worst.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Why Public Health Faces a Crisis Across the U.S.
19th October 2021
John Hinderaker at Power Line.
Across the country, parents and concerned citizens are rising up against unresponsive left-wing school boards, most of which have been put in place without much public oversight by far-left teachers’ unions. The movement for reform has now reached as far as San Francisco.
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19th October 2021
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In previous years it was Lampedusa, the Italian island not far from the coast of North Africa, that was the preferred destination for “refugees” who wanted access to the European Union, especially Germany. In 2021, however, the focus has been on Belarus, which has been encouraging migrants to come to Minsk and cross the border into Poland or Lithuania as a geopolitical move against the EU.
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18th October 2021
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18th October 2021
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Several years ago, while perusing material for my favorite department of “The American Spectator,” the Current Wisdom, I came across an obvious lie perpetrated by Terry McAuliffe, this season’s Democratic candidate for governor of Virginia. It was a pretty bold lie, too, and he was quite proud of it as you will see.
The Current Wisdom is a department of “The American Spectator” that includes quotations that are obviously foolish but rarely out-and-out lies. This time the quote in question was an out-and-out lie. It was also quite foolish, but more to the point it was a lie, and it was perpetrated by the future governor of the great state of Virginia who now hopes to serve yet again. His opponent is Glenn Youngkin, and he better be on his toes with this Democratic opponent who seems to be getting desperate in his race with Youngkin.
On page 58 of his 2007 memoir, “What A Party! My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators and Other Wild Animals,” McAuliffe wrote that in past issues, “The American Spectator” published articles “alleging” that Bill Clinton “ordered the murder of political opponents.” I very politely asked him during a chance encounter in the green room of MSNBC where I might find the errant quote or quotes. Which issue was it in? I then followed up with a letter to Terry. (And I think I might call him Terry. After all, he ended our correspondence calling me Bob.) Remember, I edit “The American Spectator,” and if any of our aggressive young editors are pulling a fast one on me, I would want to know. Moreover, murder is a crime even in Arkansas.
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18th October 2021
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A top California union boss with ties to prominent Democrats may still wage considerable influence in the state even after she was arrested on charges of embezzlement and tax fraud.
Alma Hernández stepped down as executive director of SEIU California last week after she and her husband were charged with multiple counts of fraud. But Hernández, under whose direction the union donated to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D.) and then-senator Kamala Harris, is still listed on the board for three state governing bodies, including the executive council for the California Labor Convention.
Look for … the Union label….
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18th October 2021
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Among the injured, one is hospitalized in critical condition and six suffered non-life-threatening wounds, Louisiana State Police Master Trooper Michael Reichardt said.
According to Sailer’s Law of Mass Shootings, the large number of wounded and lack of fatalities suggests that the perp(s) were POCs.
In connection with the first shooting, Louisiana State Police have charged Jatavious Carroll, 18, with one count of second degree murder, one count of attempted second degree murder, and possessing a firearm on school property, according to NBC affiliate KTVE.
Introducing Jatavious Carroll:
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Grambling State Cancels Classes After Second Fatal Shooting
18th October 2021
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Damascus has accused Israel of killing a former member of Syria’s parliament with a sniper firing from across the border in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Medhat al-Saleh was gunned down in Ain al-Tinah, a Syrian village that overlooks Majdal Shams, a town on the Israeli side of the Golan. Al-Saleh was a Syrian Druze who was born on the Israeli side of the border.
After being jailed multiple times by Israeli authorities, including a 12-year sentence, al-Saleh moved to Syria and was elected to parliament in 1998.
I suppose they think the Israelis ought to have used a car bomb in the middle of a busy street, the way the Arabs do it. Really, there’s no pleasing some people.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Israel Accused Of Killing Syrian Official With Sniper From Across Golan Border
17th October 2021
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17th October 2021
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I’m going to pick on Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg since his “parental leave” during a period of tremendous challenges to the United States transportation systems has recently brought up his claim to being a parent.
We know virtually nothing about the two babies Pete Buttigieg and Chasten Glezman “brought home” in August. Where did they come from? How were they created? Did Mr. Buttigieg and Mr. Glezman procure one or two women with wombs in which to grow babies for their own pleasure? If you think I’m a conspiracy theorist, then please point me to specific information that the actions of Mr. Buttigieg Mr. Glezman are something other than selfish actions by privileged men.
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16th October 2021
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16th October 2021
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Want proof that the Biden administration is really the second incarnation of the Carter administration? We have runaway inflation, Americans trapped overseas, a member of the first family who tried to do business with Libya and a president begging the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC Plus) to increase oil production. It’s like the 1970s all over again.
Gas prices have risen $1 a gallon since Joe Biden’s election, while crude oil prices have doubled since November to $83 per barrel — and some analysts predict they could rise by another $10 before the end of the year. Natural gas prices have shot up more than 150 percent in the same period, which means winter heating bills for the half of American homes that use natural gas are projected to be 30 percent higher than last year — 49 percent higher in the Midwest.
This is the result of deliberate policy choices. Biden has made clear his intention to tax and regulate the fossil fuel industry out of existence. During the 2020 campaign, he declared, “I guarantee you. We’re going to end fossil fuel.”
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