Archive for October, 2021
25th October 2021
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News that the John Wick spin-off TV series The Continental has cast its lead actor has produced an unusual amount of vitriol. Was this because it was not an actor of color, a trans performer or some other member of a minority? No: it was because it was Mel Gibson, the walking bête noire for liberals in Hollywood. As many other outspoken conservative or simply unsavory figures (hello, Kevin Spacey! Greetings, Armie Hammer!) have found their careers curtailed for their antics, Mel Gibson’s continued ability to book high-profile acting roles has driven the sharp-fingered mob of social media into a frenzy of disdain.
I’m not sure that Mel Gibson is right for the John Wick part — he’s always a bit happy-go-lucky in the parts that he plays; can he do semi-autistic as well as Keanu Reeves? I guess we’ll find out.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Mel Gibson Defies the Keyboard Cancelers
25th October 2021
ZMan lays it out.
The paradox of modern liberal democracy is that despite its constant exhortations in favor of inclusion, it systematically excludes most options. It is a tails the rich people win or heads the rest of the people lose. There is no option for the guy making $250K per year to get more of what he wants from government at a better rate. The people not paying income tax do not have an option that promises to do some of things they want at a reasonable cost in taxes to them.
The fact is, most of the people who vote Republican want the government to defend cultural norms so they can live their lives in peace. They don’t mind paying taxes and they do not resent rich people for being rich. The people voting Democrat want the government to do a better job looking after the poor and to provide useful services to the middle-class. The people running both parties hate all of that and spend their time pitting the two sides against one another.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on The Madhouse of Democracy
25th October 2021
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Why are congressional Democrats breaking welfare again?
In March, they transformed the child tax credit into a monthly child allowance — no work conditions attached. If made permanent, as they are now trying to do, it would be the second-largest expansion of the welfare state in U.S. history.
The credit used to increase as low-income parents worked more. The allowance, however, goes to non-working families. Proponents insist that this giveaway won’t substantially affect low-income parents’ interest in working, but a new study has made it clear: Fewer low-income families will work.
Earlier reports have underestimated the effect of eliminating the Child Tax Credit’s pro-work incentives. But researchers at the University of Chicago have found that 1.5 million workers — 2.6% of all working parents — would exit the labor force if the child allowance is made permanent.
Those who are dependent on government are faithful voters for the Party of Free Stuff.
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Work Matters, Despite What Congressional Democrats Think
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.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on ‘Free Speech’ Media Allies With Transgender Tyranny
25th October 2021
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A team of engineers working on Twitter’s own ML Ethics, Transparency and Accountability (META) unit scraped millions of tweets of thousands of elected officials from seven different countries: US, Japan, UK, Canada, Germany, Spain, and France. They tracked how likely these posts made between 1 April 2020 and 15 August 2020 were to be placed in a higher rank in users’ personal Twitter feeds using Twitter’s algorithms.
Tweets posted by politicians from right-wing parties were amplified more than those from left-wing parties in all countries except Germany. The effect was strongest for Canadian and British politics. For example, content from UK Labour MPs was amplified 112 per cent as opposed to the 176 per cent amplification of Conservative MPs’ content; and Canada’s Liberal party politicos were amplified 43 per cent versus 167 per cent for the Canadian Conservative party.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Twitter’s Machine Learning Algorithms Amplify Tweets From Right-Wing Politicians Over Those on the Left
25th October 2021
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Thought for the Day: Tail-Gunner Joe
25th October 2021
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In Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy, Batya Ungar-Sargon, the deputy opinion editor of Newsweek (where, full disclosure, she has published two of my essays), argues that elite left-wing journalists have embraced a race-based view of American inequality and abandoned any sort of class-based analysis. They’ve done this, she explains, because it largely absolves them of having to apologize for their own elite lifestyles. “The fact is,” she writes, “journalism has become a profession of astonishing privilege over the past century, metamorphosing from a blue-collar trade into one of the occupations with the most highly educated workforces in the United States. And along with this status revolution has come the radicalization of the profession on questions of identity, leaving in the dust anything commensurate to a similar concern with economic inequality…”
Posted in Whose turn is it to be the victim? | Comments Off on Bad News—A Review
24th October 2021
Posted in Whose turn is it to be the victim? | Comments Off on Today in Black Privilege
24th October 2021
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Today in Progressive Totalitarianism
24th October 2021
Child Sacrifice in the US
Rural Canadian pastor spends extra night in jail after refusing condition keeping him from church
Austria Makes Life Difficult for the Unvaccinated
Physicians & The Vaccine Tyranny
EcoHealth Throws NIH Under The Bus Over Wuhan Gain-Of-Function Report; Researcher Claims ‘Massive Cover-Up’
Majority Of Maryland Parents Oppose Vaccine Mandates For Students, Teachers, Survey Says
Nunes, Grenell Call on DOJ to Prosecute Dr. Fauci for Wuhan Testimony He belongs to the Crust. The motto of the Crust is: Nobody gets fired, nobody goes to jail.
“Welcome To The Hunger Games”: More Chicago Officers ‘Summoned’ As City Council Mulls Vax Mandate Reversal
Anti-Vax Mandate Demonstrators Attempt to Storm Doors at Brooklyn NBA Arena
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Pandemic Panic – It’s Titanic
24th October 2021
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Today in Witch-Hunt Culture
24th October 2021
Biden widely mocked on social media for bizarre hand gestures
Organized migrant caravan moves toward US, surging past Mexican forces
Biden: Walls for Me But Not for Thee
White House Moving 55K Refugees to US Homes
Trump Slams Response as 2,000 Migrants Continue Walk Through Southern Mexico There really ought to be some pushback on Mexico for allowing this to go on.
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on #BidenRemorse: Today in the Biden-Harris Slow-Motion Train Wreck
24th October 2021
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Hard luck, Madonna, your lovingly assembled rainbow family is no longer the most cutting-edge crew on the showbiz block. If you want to excel as an A-list parent these days, you need a trans child to show off on social media.
Jamie Lee Curtis has revealed that her child, born Thomas, now answers to the name of Ruby. The 62-year-old actress has declared to a waiting world — via People magazine — that the most difficult thing about adjusting to this unforeseen circumstance is calling them by their new name.
Fortunately the kid is adopted and so won’t screw up the succession to the Haden-Gust barony. The heir-presumptive only has daughters, so presumably the title will die with him.
Posted in You can't make this stuff up. | 1 Comment »
24th October 2021
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Oddly enough, despite my captivating, detailed earlier reports, none of you Ricochetti has asked for regular updates on the status of the construction of Black Lives Matter Plaza in DC. So in the true federal government spirit, I will now provide what you apparently don’t want or need and did not request.
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on DC Priorities
24th October 2021
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What happens is that his negatively charged material absorbs hydrogen. When light passes through it, the polarity of the bonds changes to positive, and the hydrogen is released. That’s a much better process than compressing hydrogen to 5,000 psi up to 10,000 psi, as today’s fuel cells need. For example, the Toyota Mirai holds 5.5 kg of hydrogen at that pressure.
This material Plasma Kinetics developed can be used as a disc or as a film that is just one-tenth of a thickness of a human hair. At first, the discs helped the company to explain the technology: hydrogen would be released when the laser hit it as a compact disc would “release music” when the laser reader hit it. However, the nano graphite film proved to be a better means to deal with hydrogen storage.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Plasma Kinetics May Revolutionize Hydrogen Storage For EVs
24th October 2021
Posted in Think about it. | 1 Comment »
23rd October 2021
Are You Ready For ‘The Mother of All Caravans’?
Our Punchline-in-Chief Charlie Cooke does the Biden dance.
Biden’s Afghan Debacle: Questions Future Historians Will Ask
Biden Blames Pandemic on Delay of JFK Records
All Records Shattered After 1.7 Million Illegal Immigrants Arrested At Southern Border
State Department Privately Admits ‘Nearly 400’ Americans Still Stuck In Afghanistan
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on #BidenRemorse: Today in the Biden-Harris Slow-Motion Train Wreck
23rd October 2021
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Today in Progressive Totalitarianism
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.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Today in Witch-Hunt Culture
23rd October 2021
White House details plans to vaccinate 28M children age 5-11 (Associated Press) Who don’t need it, according to The Science.
Arizona AG Seeks Immediate Halt to Federal COVID Vax Mandates
Mutated Strain Of Delta Variant Causing Panic In UK Has Been Found In US
Sweden Suspends Moderna Shot Indefinitely After Vaxxed Patients Develop Crippling Heart Condition
CDC Director Admits “We May Need To Update Our Definition Of ‘Fully Vaccinated'”
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Pandemic Panic – It’s Titanic
23rd October 2021
Posted in Whose turn is it to be the victim? | Comments Off on Today in Black Privilege
23rd October 2021
Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on Today in Global Warming Hysteria
23rd October 2021
David Friedman.
Perhaps we owe thanks to our stone age ancestors for the glaciers not yet having started south.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on A Very Interesting Graph
23rd October 2021
Scott Johnson at Power Line.
night should be a source of disquiet and consternation to anyone who cares about the United States. Fielding what must have been screened questions submitted by a friendly invitation-only audience, Biden required a number of clean-ups in aisle 46 back in the White House.
Dominic Green touches on a few particulars in the Spectator column “Biden builds back in the USSR” (my favorite: he couldn’t remember Kyrsten Sinema’s name). Gordon Chang focuses on China in “Joe Biden’s Taiwan Policy Is Now A Total Disaster” (“If there is anything unclear, it is the situation after the clarifications from Biden administration officials: Press Secretary Jen Psaki, State Department spokesperson Ned Price, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. All of them walked back Biden’s statement to CNN”).
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on High Anxiety
23rd October 2021
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I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV or in the movies. I am, however, someone who can read, look things up, and understand numbers- and when it comes to the dreaded covid, numbers are all important. And, there’s something you need to understand right up front- your doctor isn’t responsible for your health. Your insurance company isn’t responsible for your health. The government- especially the government- not only isn’t responsible for your health but seems these days to be actively working against it. There is one and only one person responsible for your health- you. Awesome responsibility, isn’t it? Doesn’t apply to children- PARENTS, adults, are responsible for their health Not teachers, not school superintendents or school boards, parents or in some cases legal guardians.
Amen to that.
Posted in Think about it. | 1 Comment »
23rd October 2021
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Words go in and out of fashion all the time. For example, the phrase “the debate over” is fading out in favor of “the conversation around.”
My guess is that the change in prepositions is merely a fad. After all, prepositions in English are somewhat arbitrary, which is why it’s hard for people learning English to remember which preposition to use.
I don’t know whether it is the product of heredity or of environment, but compulsive nattering appears to be the way women relate to the world, especially to other women. This can be tedious for those of us who make a point of not saying anything when we don’t have anything to say, and wishing that other people would have the good grace to do the same, but there it is. I remember going to an SCA event with my late first wife to Tulsa, a four-hour trip from Dallas, and noticing that she didn’t stop talking for more than ten seconds at a time during that entire four-hour trip. It’s a gift; I couldn’t have done that even if I’d tried.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on The Fad Phrase “The Conversation” Reflects the Feminization of Discourse
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
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I am not making this up.
Indiana Jones, call your office….
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on The Whip-Banning Polity That Is Reno
23rd October 2021
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In 2012, he pulled out of a conference in Delhi at which Salman Rushdie was also booked to speak, stating that he “could not even think of participating in any programme that included Salman Rushdie, who has caused immeasurable hurt to Muslims across the globe.” Rushdie responded by pointing out that “30 years ago Imran Khan was a fan at my 1982 Delhi lecture and 100 percent secular. Now my work ‘humiliates’ his ‘faith.’ Which is the real Imran?” He later added: “When Imran was a playboy in London, he was called ‘Im the dim.’ Imran may have been born again. He will have to be judged by this (the new Imran). Those of us who knew the young Imran don’t remember him like this.”
The Bill Clinton of the Middle East?
Posted in Living with Islam. | Comments Off on From Playboy Sports Star to Islamist Politician: The Strange Turn of Imran Khan
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.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on The Ideology Behind Biden’s Disastrous First 9 Months
23rd October 2021
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Thought for the Day
23rd October 2021
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In the following video, a man identified only as Wolfgang records a message to his loved ones from his ICU bed about his medical condition. He is now paralyzed from the neck down a month after receiving an injection of the experimental Johnson & Johnson mRNA medical treatment intended to prevent infection with the Wuhan Coronavirus.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Wolfgang’s Farewell
23rd October 2021
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Sweden as a society is currently run by women, specifically feminist women. The prime minister is male, and numerous members of parliament are males, but important cabinet posts and administrative positions in the bureaucracy are filled by women. Female social workers. Female police chiefs. Female directors of enterprises, both public and private. And the ideology that animates public service and cultural institutions is avowedly feminist.
It is this feminist, feminized ideology that requires Swedes to welcome immigrants and celebrate them. Sweden has no legitimate culture of its own, so Swedes must embrace the multiculturalism that immigrants bring. Even if those culture-enrichers abuse, mutilate, brutalize, rape, and murder women and girls.
By 2050 — in less than thirty years — Sweden will no longer be run by feminists, because there won’t be enough of them left. Oh, there will be plenty of women, but the majority of them will be the property of patriarchal polygamous men who have been welcomed in from the Third World to enrich Swedish culture.
Posted in Living with Islam. | Comments Off on The Death Knell of Sweden
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
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Pandemic Panic – It’s Titanic
22nd October 2021
Outraged North Carolina parent calls out ‘racist’ banner taunting football team’s White privilege
Lawsuit Targets Massachusetts Public School System for Racial Segregation, Censoring Students
Posted in Whose turn is it to be the victim? | Comments Off on Today in Black Privilege
22nd October 2021
Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on Today in Global Warming Hysteria
22nd October 2021
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They’d be fools not to
Posted in Living with Islam. | Comments Off on Report: Israeli Military Training for Attack on Iran
22nd October 2021
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The Utah Supreme Court is the latest stop in EFF’s roving campaign to establish your Fifth Amendment right to refuse to provide your password to law enforcement. Yesterday, along with the ACLU, we filed an amicus brief in State v. Valdez, arguing that the constitutional privilege against self-incrimination prevents the police from forcing suspects to reveal the contents of their minds. That includes revealing a memorized passcode or directly entering the passcode to unlock a device.
In Valdez, the defendant was charged with kidnapping his ex-girlfriend after arranging a meeting under false pretenses. During his arrest, police found a cell phone in Valdez’s pocket that they wanted to search for evidence that he set up the meeting, but Valdez refused to tell them the passcode. Unlike many other cases raising these issues, however, the police didn’t bother seeking a court order to compel Valdez to reveal his passcode. Instead, during trial, the prosecution offered testimony and argument about his refusal. The defense argued that this violated the defendant’s Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, which also prevents the state from commenting on his silence. The court of appeals agreed, and now the state has appealed to the Utah Supreme Court.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Police Can’t Demand You Reveal Your Phone Passcode and Then Tell a Jury You Refused
22nd October 2021
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Thought for the Day
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.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Why No Tusks? Poaching Tips Scales of Elephant Evolution
21st October 2021
Posted in Whose turn is it to be the victim? | Comments Off on Today in Black Privilege
21st October 2021
What Liz Cheney just said about January 6 is *really* important (CNN) If, of course, you support The Narrative.
Two people could save US democracy (CNN) And they are, of course, Democrats.
Please, Everyone, a Moment of Silence for These Antivax Cops Who Ragequit Their Jobs (Gizmodo) Not just ‘quit’ but ‘ragequit’, so you’ll know the correct thought.
Army Kicks Out Hitler Mustache-Wearing Solider Who Allegedly Breached Capitol, Says Report (Daily Beast) It must be a great disappointment to the Daily Beast that Trump doesn’t wear a Hitler Stache.
Professor Dorian Abbot: I was canceled for basing admissions on merit
Trump faces new criminal investigation into New York golf club (Washington Post)
Trump broke the suburbs for the GOP. The rebuilding could start in Virginia. (Politico) As if anyone at Politico knew anything about suburbs.
Twitter Mob Comes for Dave Chappelle. It’s Time to Realize They Aren’t As Powerful As They Think.
Joe Scarborough: On Voting Rights, GOP Like George Wallace ‘In Schoolhouse Door’ George Wallace was, at the time, a Democrat.
Trump’s new social media site collapses after trolls flood it before launch
Kooky Tom Friedman on Cooper Show: Cruz, Hawley Seek to ‘Burn Down the Country’
Posted in The Hunt for Heretics and Sinners | Comments Off on Today in Witch-Hunt Culture
21st October 2021
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Today in Progressive Totalitarianism
21st October 2021
Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on Today in Global Warming Hysteria
21st October 2021
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Today in the Biden-Harris Slow-Motion Train Wreck
21st October 2021
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Pandemic Panic – It’s Titanic
21st October 2021
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Just days after entering his financial assets into a blind trust to sidestep ethics questions over his failure to disclose stock transactions in a timely manner, New Jersey Democrat Tom Malinowski revealed 86 new financial transactions worth up to $1.97 million that he failed to disclose when he originally made them.
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Malinowski Reveals Millions of Dollars in Undisclosed Stock Trades
21st October 2021
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Western Maryland state lawmakers have sent letters to officials in West Virginia, asking them to “consider adding us as constituent counties to the State of West Virginia.”
“We believe this arrangement may be mutually beneficial for both states and for our local constituencies,” the lawmakers wrote in the letters, which were sent earlier this month and released publicly on Thursday. The letter was signed by five Republican lawmakers who represent Maryland’s three westernmost counties: Garrett, Allegany and Washington.
It wasn’t immediately clear exactly what legal steps would need to be accomplished in order to make such a switch, but there would likely be many hurdles ahead.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Western Maryland Lawmakers Ask West Virginia Officials to ‘Consider Adding Us’ to Their State
21st October 2021
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Gov. Mike Parson escalated his war with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Wednesday when his political operation published a video doubling down on his attack against a reporter who informed the state that a state website revealed teacher Social Security numbers.
The video is produced by Uniting Missouri, a political action committee created by Parson supporters to back his 2020 election campaign. The PAC continues to raise and spend large sums of money to promote Parson’s political agenda. It operates without direct input from Parson on its activities.
“The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is purely playing politics,” the ad states. “Exploiting personal information is a squalid excuse for journalism.”
The ad comes less than a week after Parson’s widely criticized demand for an investigation and prosecution of the reporter who discovered the security flaw in a state website, along with “all those involved.” Parson read a statement calling the reporter “a hacker” to reporters gathered outside his Missouri Capitol office last Thursday, then left without taking questions.
No good deed goes unpunished.
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Parson Doubles Down on Push to Prosecute Reporter Who Found Security Flaw in State Site