House Democrat slams Kamala Harris on border: ‘Doesn’t look like she’s very interested in this’

Politico raises eyebrows with evidence-free claim Kamala Harris is victim of coordinated Hispanic radio attack

Biden’s popularity sinking in the White House as unhappy staffers plan post-holiday exit: report

Doocy for the Holidays: Peter, Jen Tangle Over Covid, Crime in Psaki Show Season Finale

“Terrible!”: CNN Turns On Biden, Highlights Horrendous Economic Polling While Making Jimmy Carter Comparisons  Actually, the comparisons make themselves.

Biden Bans Conservatives and Christians from the Military

‘Paging Dan Quayle’! Kamala Complains Her News Treatment Is the Worst of All Veeps

Bring on the dancing nurses

‘Biden Seems Confused’: CNN Openly Questions President’s Cognitive Health After Yet Another Slip Up

Is This Really CNN? Cillizza Gives Biden, Harris ‘Coal’ for Christmas, Praises DeSantis

Santa’s Sleigh Stuck In Line At Long Beach Harbor  Babylon Bee.

Brian Kilmeade Unloads on Kamala: A Lazy Complaint-a-holic  Concur.

PBS Airs Promotional Biden White House Holiday Special (But Never Did Under Trump)  Sometimes it is good to be the king.

What Jim Jordan knows about Trump’s coup attempt — and what he may cover up (Washhington Post) All Trump! All the time!

Federal prosecutors question legal fee arrangement in case against former Trump adviser (CNN) All Trump! All the time!

Joe Manchin has all the power — and a catastrophic lack of imagination (Washington Post)

US conservative parents push for book bans – and unintentionally make reading cool again (The Guardian)

The Obscure Charge Jan. 6 Investigators Are Looking at for Trump (Daily Beast) All Trump! All the time!

Victor Davis Hanson: Please, Stop The ‘Coup’ Porn!

Merry Christmas? Reid Tells Viewers to FEAR the Military, Unvaxxed, GOP ‘Enemies’

WORST OF 2021: The Joy of Hate Award for Joy Reid Rants

Buzzfeed Writer: ‘De-platform’ White Parents

Should Americans ditch their holiday plans? Maybe that’s the wrong question (The Guardian) Few people have more experience with wrong questions than Robert Reich.

Omicron up to 70% less likely to need hospital care (BBC)

Fauci warns Americans not to invite unvaccinated relatives for the holidays

7 Staffers In Top Pentagon Delegation Test Positive For Covid, Despite All Being Vaxxed  That’s some fine ‘vaccine’ ya got there, bubba.

Pregnancy App Censoring COVID Vaccine Discussions

an Francisco Cracks Down On Maskless Shoplifting

Australia’s Chief Pharmacist Says Public Needs To Accept Boosters & Mask Mandates For “Many Years” To Come

70% Of London’s COVID Hospitalisations Diagnosed AFTER Being Admitted For Other Ailments

Christmas Eve Travel Chaos: Hundreds Of Flights Canceled Due To Staffing Shortages

The Collins crock: China edition

Watch: MSNBC ‘Doctor’ Calls For Denying Medical Care To The Unvaccinated

White House Abandons Southern African Travel Ban As Okinawa Outbreak Strains Ties With Japan

This Will Really Ruin Anthony Fauci’s Xmas

Vaccines Do Not Stop COVID-19 Spread As Governments Claim: Legal Advocacy Group

Alarming New Study Finds That Everyone Who Gets COVID Will Die At Some Point

South Africa Eases COVID Restrictions After Omicron Peaks

Media Falsely Reports Texas Man Died From Omicron While Government Officials Refuse To Say

Just in Time for Christmas, NY Times Stirs Up Omicron Panic: ‘Reconsider’ Family Visits

Read it.

It seems that driving a vehicle into pedestrians has become a new Christmas tradition in the last few years. The custom in Europe is to target shoppers in Christmas markets, while Christmas parades are the favored venue in the USA.

The incident in Marseille described below is unusual in two respects: the driver who was targeting pedestrians and other vehicles was a woman, and she embarked on her Christmas revel on the open road.

Oh, and she’s mentally ill. What a surprise!

Muslims are Muslims all year ’round.

Check it out.

For those of you whose educations were deficient.

Advice from a veteran:

• The key to memorization is repetition.
• The key to memorization is repetition.
• The key to memorization is repetition.
• What I tell you three times is true.
• With respect to verbs, whenever you see ‘mood’ pronounce it ‘mode’ out loud; eventually when you see ‘mood’ you will hear ‘mode’ in your head and the amount of confusion in your life will dramatically decrease. (If I ever find the guy who tagged this aspect of the verb with such a confusing name, I will smite him with a mighty smite.)
• For daily practice, try describing what you are looking at in Latin. If you see a white house, think ‘domus albus’. If you see a car go down the street, think ‘carrus movet’. You’ll be amazed at what this will do for your fluency.
• In addition to Lingua Latina, real from the Vulgate version of the Bible. This has two advantages – (1) You already know the story, so it will be easy to pick up, and (2) Like Koine Greek, Vulgate Latin is simpler in grammar and vocabulary than full-blown Classical literature, similar to the relationship between a newspaper and literary fiction. (If you want to read the actual news in Latin, there is a Finnish site where you can do that.) You can shell out for a print copy (Novum Testamentum Latine) or you can be cheap (like me) and use a Bible study site (I use Blue Letter Bible) for free.
• For learning vocabulary there are a number of free apps that will help you do that, or you can create your own spaced-repetition exercises using Anki Notes or equivalent.

Read it.

With the conviction on manslaughter charges of former police officer Kim Potter we seem to pursuing a pattern in “Blue” prosecutions. By “Blue” I am not just referring to prosecutions of the men and women in blue (although it includes them) but the pressure in Blue states to prosecute and convict persons of crimes when there a perceived political advantage to do so; where the “wrong” person has been injured or killed by what ordinarily would have been seen as a legal, if tragic, shooting

Steve Sailer.

The Industrial Age assumed that the future would be Centralized and have Economies of Scale. Little did they know that progress meant pushing stuff down to the locality.

Read it.

Austria, one of the most repressive European countries during the coronavirus pandemic, has recently overtaken Sweden in terms of total covid mortality, showing that almost all government interventions have been ineffective and unjustified.

Early studies suggest a reduced risk of Covid-19 hospitalization when infected with Omicron compared to Delta

Omicron wave appears milder, but concern remains (BBC)

Omicron variant less severe than delta, early UKstudies suggest (Washington Post)

The latest on the coronavirus pandemic and the Omicron variant (CNN)

Omicron less likely to put you in the hospital, studies say (AP)

While omicron explodes around the world, covid cases in Japan keep plummeting and no one knows exactly why (Washington Post)

24 States Sue Biden Admin Over COVID-19 Mandates For Children, Staff In ‘Head Start’ Education Program

University Of California Fires Director Of Ethics Program for Defying COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

New York Lawmaker Pulls Public Health Detainment Bill, Blames ‘Conspiracy Theorists’

Vaccination and the Contemptible Dr. Fauci

“No Country Can Boost Its Way Out” – WHO Warns Biden Plan Could “Prolong” Pandemic

Sports Anchors Disgusted Unvaxed Kyrie Irving Will Play For Nets Again

Germany Confirms First Omicron Death While Italy Revives Outdoor Mask Mandate

Fauci: If Your Family Member Is Unvaxx’d, Tell Them Not To Show Up

More Than $100 Billion Was Stolen From Pandemic Relief Funds, Secret Service Says

Steve Bannon: “War On The Unvaxx’d Is About To Commence”

Democrats Insist That True Vaccines Haven’t Been Tried Yet  Babylon Bee.

The Big Government COVID-19 Lie

Lab Leak ‘Is Now the Most Likely Origin of Covid’ – MIT Scientist Tells UK MPs

Early district reports crush media’s fears of GOP gerrymandering  Turns out it’s the Democrats who are doing most of the ‘gerrymandering’.

Long before embracing Trump’s false election claims, Rep. Scott Perry promoted groundless theories (Washington Post)

Conservative dark-money group bankrolled almost every major Republican effort in Colorado last year, tax docs show (Colorado Sun)

QAnon-Friendly Event Attendees Are Coming Down Sick—They Think It’s Anthrax (Newsweek)

Far-Right Group Fantasizes They’ve Been Attacked With Anthrax (Daily Beast) There is no right but the far-right.

US army veteran wore wire for FBI to expose KKK members (The Guardian)

Delusional: Hannah-Jones Complains Media Aren’t Biased Enough Against Republicans

Atlantic Writer: ‘Manchin Has Virtually Sealed the Planet’s Fate’

WORST OF 2021: The GOP Wants to Bring Back Jim Crow Award

Former Cop Scores Big Free Speech Win with U.K. Court of Appeal

Facebook Censors Catholic Group for Fighting Abuse of Christian Women

Facebook mistakenly auto-bans Merry Christmas message from Canadian MP

After weeks walking, Mexico migrant caravan splits up on buses headed north (Reuters) The photo op is over. Looks as if the Mexican government is facilitating this new invasion. Of course, nothing will be done about that.

Thousands of Haitians Have Been Admitted Into the U.S. This Week, Report Says

ABC Grills Biden on Covid ‘Failure’: ‘How Did You Get It Wrong?’

Biden EPA Mandates New Regulations To Force Electric Vehicle Transition

Biden Emerges as Progressive Government’s Mr. Bad Example

LIE OF THE YEAR: ‘I Will Shut Down The Virus’

Sen. Paul Details $52 Billion Federal “Waste” In Annual ‘Festivus Report’

The Obsession With the Black/White Wealth Gap Protects the Elites

The Daunte Wright NYT Readers Don’t Know!

Racial Differences in Time at Work Not Working

Chesa Boudin: We’re blaming the wrong things for San Francisco retail theft (SFGate)

Alarm as Texas quietly restarts controversial voting program (The Guardian)

Washington Post ripped after reporting on World War II soldier survey: ‘Your grandparents are canceled’

‘Greatest Generation’ survey on race, sex and combat during World War II runs counter to its wholesome image (Washington Post) I.e. they aren’t as Woke as the Post.

10 Illinois firefighters walk off job after man convicted of arson appointed new chief

5 in custody after congresswoman carjacked at FDR Park, vehicle located in Delaware

Democratic congresswoman who sponsored police ‘reform’ bill carjacked in crime-surging Philadelphia

WHO says vaccine booster programs will prolong Covid crisis: ‘No country can boost its way out of the pandemic’ (CNBC) TIME TO PANIC!

Fox News responds to Fauci’s call to fire network host

Air Force Allows Use Of Pronouns In Signatures

Democratic congresswoman carjacked in Philadelphia

ABC & NBC Ignore Carjacking of Congresswoman, CBS Gives Just 24 Seconds

UN Willing To Hire Taliban Guards To Protect Facilities To Tune Of $6 Million

Citing ‘Safety’ Concerns, China Tears Down Statue Commemorating Tiananmen Massacre Victims

FDA Used Incomplete Data To Justify Deregulation of Chemical Abortion Pills, Studies Show  Women who are willing to murder their children for convenience ought to be encouraged not to breed. Think of it as evolution in action.

Woke Corporations Ignore Human Rights Abuses, Lust For Chinese Profits

‘Good starts’ in the climate crisis aren’t cutting it (The Hill)

U.S. can get to 100% clean energy with wind, water, solar and zero nuclear, Stanford professor says

In Mexico, fertilizer used by farmers is fueling climate change (Washington Post)

At last I have good news on the climate crisis: all of us really can do something about it (The Guardian)

Discover Magazine Declares Victory Over Climate Deniers

Claim: Melting of the Antarctic ice sheet could cause multi-meter rise in sea levels by the end of the millennium  Looking forward to it … if it ever really happens.

Germany Burning More Coal, Renewable Energy Share Falling

130 Groups Ask CFTC To Shut Down “Dystopian” Water Futures Market

Britain’s hubristic green commissars can’t see the wood for the trees  Matt Ridley. ‘I can vouch that five days of living in the cold and dark when the nights are more than twice as long as the days does not half remind you of the value of reliable electricity, diesel cars (how else do you charge a phone?) and gas stoves to cook on – all three of which are about to be banned by the eco-commissars.’

Read it.

Suck on it, TSA!

Read it.

Red-necked falconry. Who could ask for anything more?

Read it.

Why is socialism growing more powerful in the United States? Because it directly benefits the gentry class: those running the country and those supporting them. This includes not just the political elite, but also the upper-middle-class, credentialed workers who work white-collar jobs – management and technology. The folks who can work remotely and get all their wants and needs delivered to their door.

…

Some might say I am nuts. The upper-middle class is the group in the highest tax brackets – the ones on which the burden of paying for government falls upon the most heavily. The working class and poor pay little to no income tax. Except part of that burden is s sleight-of-hand illusion. The top 10% of income earners have many ways of sheltering their income from taxes, which are often entered into the tax code in the interest of “fairness.” (An example is the recent attempt to remove ceilings on SALT tax deductions,) But more than that, those high tax rates are how they maintain their position in society. We do not have wealth taxes. Those who “have theirs” do not get what they do have taxed. They only get taxed on their income. As do their potential competitors.

Those potential competitors are the ones to whom high marginal tax rates are targeted. These are the Horatio Algers of American society. Those that arrive in this country penniless and through hard work, intelligent choices, and a little luck, build a business and amass wealth. But making money takes capital. High tax rates slow the accumulation of capital. Until capital grows to a critical mass, it is difficult to take the risks associated with starting a business unless you are willing to gamble everything on a low-odds effort. High tax rates ensure most of those who could potentially enter the top ten percent age out by the time they get there.

As I have been saying for years.

Read it.

More than you ever wanted to know about adhesive tape.

• What is Adhesive Tape?
• A Brief History of Tape
• How Adhesive Tape is Made
• What Makes Tape Stick
• Advantages of Pressure Sensitive Tape
• Why Tape Is Better Than Glue
• Choosing the Right Tape
• What Conditions Make Tape Fail?
• How To Test Tape
• How To Understand An Adhesive Tape Spec Sheet
• What is Adhesion Value, Exactly?
• Tensile Force vs. Shear Force
• Release Liners: What Are They and Why Do You Need Them?
• Why Adhesive Tape is a Universal Tool

Read it.

To combat desertification – a worldwide problem caused by, among other things, over-farming, mining, and climate change – Mazyar Etehadi from the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation has proposed a small autonomous robot that is intended to live full-time in the desert planting trees.

A graduation project from Mazyar Etehadi, the “A’seedbot” is a small autonomous robot that inhabits the desert to cultivate its landscape.

David Friedman.

Tesla has been working for years on self-driving cars. A simpler project with a smaller but still significant market would be a self-driving wheelchair. The idea occurred to me talking with a woman whose husband suffered a serious stroke a few years ago, leaving him with a functional mind but imperfect control over his body. A motorized wheelchair would let him move around, but his vision is too unreliable to make that safe. If he could just tell his wheelchair to take him to the home office, or the dining room, or …

Read it.

A recently published paper explains how “concept creep” in the field of psychology has reshaped many aspects of modern society.

Whine, little snowflake/Quiver, quiver….

Read it.

The Genetic Lottery is not the only book published this summer to tackle controversial topics in biology.

…

Ask the average person whether intelligence is encoded in DNA and they’ll most likely say that yes, to some extent it is. As Harden points out, it is interesting that academics — some of the people most likely to be beneficiaries of an unequal distribution of genetic propensity to learn — are the ones most likely to deny that inequality. People dislike being asked to “check their privilege”. This must be especially true when that “privilege” is something that has attracted praise since earliest childhood, and something one has built one’s identity around.

Read it.

Apple’s AirTags are again making headlines for being involved in a stalking incident. According to a report from local news outlet WGRZ, officers from the West Seneca Police Department in New York are warning that AirTags have been involved in a pair of alleged stalking cases over the last month…

In the first instance, which occurred last month, a woman went to the West Seneca Police Department after her iPhone presented a notification about an AirTag found moving with her. In this situation, officers found an AirTag “under the bumper of the woman’s vehicle.”

…

In the second instance this week, a different woman received the same notification on her iPhone. She then went to the police department, but officers were unable to locate an AirTag.

Steve Sailer.

When white people pretend to belong to a Fashionable Minority, ‘Native American’ is a favorite because it’s easy to do.

Read it.

A former Princeton historian is suing the Ivy League school, accusing officials of urging him to study in Iran in the wake of the nuclear deal and then leaving him to “rot” in a notorious torture prison after he was arrested on bogus espionage charges.

Xiyue Wang alleges Princeton sent him to Iran to study for his doctorate in early 2016 but did little to help free him after his arrest months later on charges of spying for the United States. Wang was arrested in Iran on Aug. 7, 2016, and sentenced to 10 years in the regime’s Evin Prison, where Iran holds its political prisoners. He was freed in December 2019 in a prisoner exchange with the United States.

Read it.

“I got a lotta problems with you people, and now you’re going to hear about it!”
-Frank Costanza, Seinfeld

On December 23, we’re pulling out the ol’ aluminum pole to celebrate Festivus, a holiday made up by a TV sitcom. In that spirit, we have once again gathered a list of TV grievances to air as well as a feat of strength and a few Festivus miracles. Join us as we recount all the ways Hollywood has disappointed us this past year.

Read it.

The conflict between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas goes back decades. But earlier this year, an 11-day conflict between the two brought the eyes of the world back to the Middle East, where Hamas has resorted to using children in its campaign to destroy Israel.

“Hamas uses human shields on a regular basis,” terrorism expert Jonathan Schanzer says. “They actually send kids to the border fence with Israel and militants hide behind them.”

Read it.

So, you got a cold. It happens around this time every year, to almost everyone. You got the sniffles, your head is a little foggy, you have an occasional sneeze, there’s some persistent phlegm lingering in the back of your throat. It’s mildly annoying, and you’re reminded this is bound to happen at least once every winter, and life goes on as normal but with a few more tissues in your pocket. Give it three days, a week max. Maybe you take some over-the-counter medicine, have chicken soup for lunch, sleep next to a humidifier. Upon greeting friends or coworkers, you politely decline a handshake or hug. “Sorry, I’ve got a cold,” you tell them — and they appreciate your consideration. “Oh, I just got over that,” one might say, “something’s going around.” No one panics, no one cares, you’re still invited to the party, you can still go to dinner, you still go to the office.

That’s Omicron. To date, one person in the US has died with Omicron, and, note, that’s with Omicron, not from. “With” not “from” is how the germ fetishists in media, government and medicine came up with that apocalyptic number of 800,000 Covid-19 deaths in the US, reached this month. That number means nothing to anyone who’s been following the science, and is critical of the news. We knew back in 2020 that Covid-19 was about as lethal as a particularly nasty strain of flu, albeit this one was made by the Chinese in a lab, and the actual death toll was probably around 100,000, also on par with a very bad flu season.

Read it.

While Austria is cracking down on the unvaxed, illegal migrants continue to pour across the country’s borders. In contrast to ethnic Austrians, the invaders don’t need to show vaccine passports in order to gain access to their host country’s goodies.

Democrats riled by Spanish-language radio attacks on Kamala Harris (Politico)

Pelosi interrupted by heckler who shouted, ‘Let’s go, Brandon’

CBS Avoids Criticism of Biden Testing Flop

FLOP: CNN’s New Poll Shows It Failed to Spin Economic Coverage in Biden’s Favor

Biden Admin Ignores Law To Sanction Hamas and Hezbollah for Civilian Shield Use, Lawmakers Say

Biden Admin Extends Moratorium On Student Loan Payments Through May 1

Biden doesn’t follow the science, he cherry picks it But you knew that.

San Francisco’s far-left DA criticizes mayor’s proposed crime crackdown

From Packing To Sacking, Democrats Pledge Politics “By Any Means Necessary”

Sen. Cotton: Recall, Remove, & Replace Every Last Soros Prosecutor

“Our Industry Is Collapsing”: California Pot Companies Beg Newsom To Stop Taxing Them Into Insolvency

What’s Driving Media Becoming Woke? Money

Illinois High-Speed Rail Goes 55.7 MPH!

Schumer, Who Accused Trump of Russian Collusion, is Getting Paid by Putin

Princeton Took Millions From CCP-Linked School, Think Tank Head

NYT Gives Oxygen to FAKE NEWS About ‘Officers on Horseback Using Reins as Whips’

Ontario Court Declares the Ontario Math Proficiency Test Unconstitutional  I’ll bet you didn’t know that a math test could be unconstitutional.

California Dems Sip Champagne, Violate State Mask Mandate While Celebrating Successful Gerrymander

Political Party That Encouraged People To Commit Crimes Surprised At All The People Committing Crimes  Babylon Bee.

Ethical? NY Times Columnist Tom Friedman Gushes Over Groups That He’s Funding

Buying Influence: How China manipulates Facebook and Twitter

Escape From LA: More Container Business Flees To East Coast  Government regulations + Union cronyism = No Christmas for you.

China propaganda arm broadcasts in D.C.

Un-Woke: John Cleese Ends BBC Interview Over ‘Dishonesty, Deception, Tone’

How Activist Teachers Recruit Kids

CNN’s S.E. Cupp ‘Nauseous’ Over Trump’s 1/6 Plans, Doubts the GOP Will ‘See Jesus’  Everyone who works at CNN will eventually see Jesus, but I don’t think that they will enjoy the experience.

Millions of Angry, Armed Americans Stand Ready to Seize Power If Trump Loses in 2024 (Newsweek)

Trump’s relocation of the Bureau of Land Management was part of a familiar Republican playbook (The Hill)

The hidden, ugly truth behind Joe Manchin’s stance on BBB’s climate provisions (Washington Post)

Five big questions about Trump and the riot (BBC)

Donald Trump Supporters Targeted the Capitol: ‘Bring Guns. It’s Now or Never’ (Newsweek) And yet none of them did. The only person shot was Ashlii Babbett. How to they explain that? They don’t even try.

Trump’s GOP Has Five Simple Tricks for Promoting Antisemitism (Daily Beast)

Does Marjorie Taylor Greene Own Stock in Three Vaccine Manufacturers? (Newsweek)

American “Super Rich” Feel “Immense Relief” As ‘BBB’ Tax Hikes Are Canceled

NBC: GOP/Manchin Are Starving Children by Tanking Build Back Better

“If You Could Die Of Irony, She Would Be Dead”: Musk Slams Liz Warren And Woke Culture In Epic Babylon Bee Interview

Shareholders doubt Apple’s civil rights stance, call for investigatio

To the MSM, John McCain Was a Maverick. Joe Manchin Is an Obstacle. 

Wokeism Ended His Father’s Teaching Career. Now, This Teacher Has a Warning for Other Educators.

Woke Matrix Scriptwriters Complain About The Phrase ‘Red Pilled’ Being “Kidnapped By Right Wingers”

Joy Reid RAGES Over ‘Maserati Joe’ Manchin Opposing BBB Since He Hates ‘The Poors’

On Kim Foxx’s tenure is the indelible stain of the Smollett case.

Jussie Smollett Special Prosecutor’s Report: Kim Foxx Shouldn’t Be Charged, But Her Office Exhibited ‘Substantial Abuses of Discretion and Operational Failures’ Nobody gets fired, nobody goes to jail.

Chicago Mayor Lightfoot asks federal government for help fighting city’s crime BRAAAAAAAINS!

Top DeSantis official embraced critical race theory in dissertation (Politico) So what?

Founder of Black Girls Code has been ousted as head of the nonprofit

Swing District Dem Calls Opposition to Critical Race Theory a ‘Racist Dog Whistle’  Remember: If you hear the ‘dog-whistle’, then you’re the dog.

Special Prosecutor: Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx Lied To The Public In Smollett Case But, because she’s a Magic Negro, she won’t be fired and she won’t go to jail.

UBC bans non-minority candidates from applying for tenure-track quantum position

EXCLUSIVE: Parents Accuse Virginia School District of Teaching Students to ‘Discriminate Based on Race’

The Land Where Angela Davis Is Queen  Angela Davis ought to have been hanged right next to Jane Fonda.

EXCLUSIVE: EPA Focused on Gender, Ethnic Diversity to Fill ‘Purged’ Advisory Posts

Nuclear power has no business case and could make climate change worse (The Hill)

Nuclear energy’s second chance: Climate crisis is driving revival in interest (WRAL TechWire)

Vikings may have fled Greenland to escape rising seas

Florida Is Locking In Its Own Demise (Gizmodo)

Global destruction isn’t funny, but when it comes to the climate crisis, it might have to be (Boston Globe)

When Fossil Fuels Run Out, What Then? (It’s 2060) (2019)

Professor: UK Companies Hiding CO2 Emissions with “Carbon Colonialism”

The real reason the right hates Anthony Fauci (Washington Post) Well, he’s a crook and a liar. Isn’t that enough?

‘It is embarrassing’: CDC struggles to track Covid cases as Omicron looms (Politico)

‘Enormous’: Secret Service reveals scope of Covid-19 fraud (CNN)

Secret Service: Nearly $100B stolen in pandemic relief funds (Associated Press)

Omicron Variant Surges Across North Texas But Hospitalizations Remain Flat

Bill Gates: Omicron Will Be The “Worst Surge We Have Seen So Far”

Judge Blocks Biden’s COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate For Federal Contractors In 10 States.

Fauci calls for firing of Jesse Watters

Omicronmania

NBC’s Holt Wants Us to ‘Dial Back’ Life ‘On All Fronts’ Citing Omicron

Ebenezer Joy Reid: ‘God Bless Biden’ Because Fox News Is Going to MURDER You!

Austria Hiring People To “Hunt Down Vaccine Refusers”  Time to leave.

EU Sets 9-Month Expiration Date For Vaccine Passports

WHO’s Tedros Warns Holiday Gatherings Could Result In COVID Surge, Urges People To Cancel Events

Omicron, Ontario and Lying With Statistics

Absurd New COVID Rules Fine People For Going To Work, But They Can Go To The Pub  “A gramme is better than a damn.” — Brave New World

Airline CEO Calls For Unvaccinated “Idiots” To Be Ostracised From Society

Amazon Limits Sales Of COVID Home Tests To 10 Per Person

US Army Developing World’s First “Universal” COVID Vaccine As Original Jabs Await Final Approval  I think it involves a bayonet.

COVID-19 Madness Resurges Worldwide With Draconian Measures

The Big Government COVID-19 Lie

South Africa Sees New Cases Plunge As Omicron Wave Peaks  Coming soon: A New Variant that will extend the State of Emergency so that the ruling class can sit on you some more.

South Africa’s omicron coronavirus outbreak subsides as fast as it grew  Who gets to tell Sleepy Joe?

New Data Show Omicron Hospital Risk Significantly Lower Than Delta, FDA Approves Pfizer COVID Pill

“Your Time Is Up”: Chicago Mayor Threatens Unvaccinated With Draconian Measures  BRAAAAAAAINS!

FDA Releases More Data On “Adverse Reactions” To Pfizer Vaccine

Read it.

In Michigan, the state’s civil rights agency said proposed maps of legislative districts “do not measure up to the requirements of the law.” In Pennsylvania, Republican lawmakers complained about an “extreme partisan gerrymander.” And in Virginia, incumbents and potential challengers scrambled to work with proposed district maps.

In theory, new bureaucracies to draw up maps for congressional and legislative districts were supposed to save democracy from politics and block the practice of gerrymandering.

But this month has seen controversies on multiple fronts regarding the independent redistricting commissions involved.

Saw that comin’.

“California’s independent redistricting commission yields more disproportionate representation than most states,” Watson told The Daily Signal. “California Democratic Party-aligned advocacy groups lobbied the commission.”

Similarly, redistricting commissions in Arizona and Michigan have been “besieged by shadowy pressure campaigns,” The New York Times reported.

The Times noted a string of problems in other states that use a redistricting commission even as New York’s Democrat-controlled state Legislature was expected to ignore its advisory committee, just as Utah’s Republican Legislature did.

Ohio’s Republican-controlled Legislature overrode the independent commission with primary responsibility for redistricting.

My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

I’ll refrain from repeating my explanation of how ‘gerrymandering’ improves democracy rather than the opposite, and from pointing out that the only people who profit from ‘competitive districts’ are Narrative Media who can gin up attention from the ‘horse race’.

Read it.

The reason I prefer Google Maps to Apple Map is because Apple Maps is more difficult to use and doesn’t provide as much useful information.

Read it.

As we reported earlier this month, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) San Francisco director Zahra Billoo recently gave a speech in which she outlined an enemies list for Palestinian advocates.

Her list included the vast majority of American Jewry, whom she dismissed as “polite Zionists,” including people with the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Federation, campus Hillel chapters and “Zionist synagogues.”

It’s a stunning expression of hate that, if it targeted any other minority group, would create a firestorm of controversy and generate national news.

But CAIR has yet to say a critical word about Billoo. To the contrary, it posted a statement expressing pride in “the courage she demonstrates in her civil rights work” and saying she is the victim: “we strongly condemn this online smear campaign against our sister and colleague, Zahra Billoo.”

Islam is as much an existential enemy of America as the Communist Party.

Paul Graham.

It may seem a hair-splitting distinction to point out that intelligence and its consequences are not identical, but it isn’t. There’s a big gap between them. Anyone who’s spent time around universities and research labs knows how big. There are a lot of genuinely smart people who don’t achieve very much.

I am often reminded that ‘intelligence and wisdom are separate rolls’. The world (and especially the government) are full of very smart yet very foolish people.

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Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, has introduced legislation that would game the nation’s regulatory system. Under her bill, regulations primarily would be based on studies that support expanding the regulatory power of government agencies.

Among many other troubling things, Jayapal’s bill would require agencies to publicly label studies and research submitted and developed by regulated entities—including property owners, farmers, truckers, and local governments—as having a conflict of interest.

It’s not clear how one’s own research reflects any conflicts of interest. Apparently, it’s a conflict when research conflicts with the agency’s interest.

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• Natural wood materials are processed into a HW with a 23-fold increase in hardness
• The HW can be processed into different shapes for various applications
• An HW table knife can be nearly 3 times sharper than most commercial table knives
• An HW nail can be as functional as a steel nail with comparable performance

Check it out.

This appears to be a great idea in VTOL aircraft. I wish them good fortune.

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It was a challenging task but an esteemed panel of NewsBusters editors led by MRC President L.Brent Bozell and MRC’s Vice President for Research and Publications Brent Baker boiled down all the biased outbursts from lefty hack hosts, anchors, reporters and pundits in 2021 and on December 15 announced The Chris Cuomo Memorial Award for Quote of the Year.

Of course, every year there is way too much bias for just one category. So Baker led a panel of NewsBusters editors to break down the Worst of 2021 into seven additional categories (The Damn Those Conservatives Award; The GOP Wants To Bring Back Jim Crow Award; The Joy of Hate Award for Joy Reid Rants; The Praising and Protecting Old Joe Award; The Media Heroes Award; The Craziest Analysis Award and the Celebrity Freak-Outs Award).

Scott Johnson at Power Line.

President Biden gave his speech (cough, cough) on what my friend Kevin Roche refers to as the the Moronic Variant yesterday. He read from the teleprompter in his accustomed style and even took a few questions at the conclusion of his remarks. The White House has posted a transcript under the heading “Remarks by President Biden on the Fight Against COVID-?19.”

Having attributed responsibility for the Covid deaths that occurred last year to President Trump — I thought that was insanely stupid, but that what he did — Biden is in a bad spot now. Deaths attributed to the epidemic this year are set to exceed deaths last year. He promised to stop the virus and he has failed. Now he’s blaming and shaming and talking. Lots of talking. It doesn’t all add up, but he has achieved a limited form of clarity.

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I am not making this up.

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There is less Boko Haram and ISWAP (Islamic State West Africa Province) activity in the north, particularly Borno state, where both Islamic terrorist groups were founded and thrived for several years. The two groups turned much of northern Borno into an economic wasteland, full of local self-defense groups, anti-terrorist vigilantes and a much more effective military. The Islamic terrorists have experienced heavy personnel losses because of a lack of new recruits while suffering higher losses from sickness and desertion. A combination of hunger, fewer places to loot and more danger from the security forces or armed civilians Boko Haram and its more radical spinoff ISWAP a less attractive career option for the many young Moslem men who are poor, unemployed, and angry.

Steve Sailer.

British prime minister Harold Macmillan supposedly replied to a question about what is the most important influence on his term of office with, “Events, dear boy, events.”

Biden isn’t that suave, but he would have some justification for blaming the Democrats’ tumble on a series of unfortunate events. But much of the ruling party’s growing unpopularity stems from inevitable outgrowths of their fundamental 21st-century political strategy of exacerbating divisiveness in the name of diversity.