The Right Coast

Biden vs. Trump: The Makings of a Shattering Constitutional Crisis - POLITICO

Donald Trump is already signaling that he will run for president in 2024. A Biden-Trump rematch risks worsening our country’s already deep divisions. But there’s more to be worried about: The next election will provoke a genuine constitutional crisis, unless decisive steps are taken soon to prevent it.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment — the Disqualification Clause — expressly bars any person from holding “any office, civil or military, under the United States” if he “engaged in insurrection” against the Constitution after previously swearing to uphold it “as an officer of the United States.” These terms definitely apply to Trump, and some Democrats are exploring the use of Section 3 against him.

via www.politico.com

Prof. Ackerman has a point here, doesn't he?

Shooting Oil in a Barrel - Doomberg

The US is still the largest producer of oil and gas in the world, making its energy policy – and the desire of foreign powers to influence it – no less important than it was then. Longtime readers of Doomberg will know we have been critical of America’s energy strategy and have spilled much ink describing the predictable consequences of its obvious blunders. By closing existing nuclear power plants, opposing the development of reliable fossil fuels at virtually every opportunity, attacking existing energy infrastructure choke points, and constraining capital for future development, the behavior seems virtually indistinguishable from what we would be doing if an adversarial foreign power were in charge of our affairs.

via doomberg.substack.com

Saagar Enjeti: We MUST Stop Booster Mandates For Kids

via www.youtube.com

Rogan SMEARED As Racist As CNN Goes To War | Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

via www.youtube.com

Spotify’s Market Value Rises Amidst Rogan-Young Controversy

Spotify’s market cap increased by billions of dollars on Monday, following a controversial week that has seen the streaming platform at the center of a culture war between the folk-rock star Neil Young and leading podcast host Joe Rogan over allegations that the latter has used his platform to spread misinformation concerning the CCP virus.

The incident began last week, when Young issued an ultimatum to Spotify demanding they censor The Joe Rogan Experience, lest Young remove his music from the platform altogether.

via www.theepochtimes.com

This has got to make Spotify happy.

Seattle transgender woman reveals she identifies as a wolf | Daily Mail Online

A woman who identifies as a wolf says that people often have 'misconceptions' about her her 'spiritual and psychological' life as a animal. 

Naia Ōkami, 27, from Seattle, identifies as a British Columbian wolf and regards herself as an otherkin therian - a subculture who believe their soul is that of an animal, rather than a human. 

In 2017, Naia came out as a transgender woman on social media and in November 2019, she revealed to her followers that she had legally changed her gender to female. 

via www.dailymail.co.uk

Wolf -- good choice.

Rupa Subramanya: Freedom Convoy dismantles stereotypes about who is opposed to vaccine mandates | National Post

OTTAWA — Freedom Convoy 2022 has busted some important stereotypes. We were told it would be a small number of disgruntled middle aged, far right, potentially violent, old stock white Canadians, but walking around the protests over the weekend in Ottawa, one saw people in large numbers of all ages and ethnicities, with no violence so far reported by the police.

via nationalpost.com

Convoy? What convoy? What are they talking about?

White House Is Set to Put Itself at Center of U.S. Crypto Policy - Bloomberg

The Biden administration is preparing to release an initial government-wide strategy for digital assets as soon as next month and task federal agencies with assessing the risks and opportunities that they pose, according to people familiar with the matter.

Senior administration officials have held multiple meetings on the plan, which is being drafted as an executive order, said the people. The directive, which would be presented to President Joe Biden in the coming weeks, puts the White House at the center of Washington’s efforts to deal with cryptocurrencies.

via www.bloomberg.com

Ugh. Terrible idea.

Brawl breaks out at Golden Corral over alleged steak shortage

BENSALEM, Pa. (KYW) - More than 40 people may have been involved in a brawl at a Golden Corral in Pennsylvania, police say. The fight allegedly broke out after a customer became enraged when the buffet ran out of steak.

Investigators are trying to figure out who started the fight that broke out Friday night at a Golden Corral in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. Video of the incident shows punches being thrown and high chairs flying.

Police confirm the brawl may have involved more than 40 people and happened following an argument among some customers. They did not say what caused the argument, as that is still under investigation.

But former employee Dylan Becker says he heard from his friend, a current employee at the Golden Corral location, that the fight started over steak.

via www.nbc12.com

Can't imagine a brawl over salad.

Pfizer vaccine for children under 5 could be available by end of February: report | KTLA

(The Hill) – Pfizer and BioNTech are reportedly close to submitting a request for emergency authorization for a COVID-19 vaccine that can be administered to children under the age of 5.

Sources familiar with the matter told The Washington Post that the companies are expected to submit an emergency use authorization request for their two-dose vaccine to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as early as Tuesday, potentially allowing for the vaccine to be available by the end of the month.

via ktla.com

If I had a 5 year old, I would not be giving him a vaccine. This strikes me as madness. Why is this even legal? Is it even safe? Aren't the chances of a 5 year old even developing Covid symptoms miniscule? Please tell me if I'm wrong. Perhaps I'm just too much inside my bubble. But if I'm right, this is just child abuse.

Neil Young v. Joe Rogan and Free Speech | City Journal

Americans today face a choice of what kind of country we believe ourselves to be. Do we want to see ourselves as fragile and unable to enjoy a luxury like freedom of expression? Or do we have enough confidence in ourselves to stand by one of our foundational principles? We don’t have to follow Neil Young and others down their gloomy trail.

via www.city-journal.org

Spotify is a Swedish company. Do they have a first amendment there? Well, thank goodness they act like they do. This whole controversy makes me sad and mad. Why don't the progs start their own podcasting/music streaming company if they don't like Spotify? Just kidding. That would require principles. Joe claims to be a Bernie supporter, and he probably was. He really doesn't know much about politics, but he's a quick learner.

Last Year, I Was a Bryn Mawr Girl. Now I’m at Hillsdale.

While many of my classmates retreated to their big houses on the East Coast or their family’s second homes, I moved home to our apartment in Tempe. There were two bedrooms between the five of us; myself, my mom, and my three younger sisters. At the time, I didn’t even have a desk where I could do my schoolwork and, regardless, I couldn’t escape the distraction of my younger siblings. Their schools were closed, too.

There was no library or coffee shop open to decamp to, and the internet in our building was shaky. But the poor connection was not my biggest problem. It was finding the motivation to attend online class as I watched everything I’d worked for evaporate.

Bryn Mawr’s Covid safety precautions for Fall 2020 were announced in July. They included, but were not limited to, isolating for 10 days prior to returning to campus and quarantining for two weeks upon arrival, living alone in a single dorm room, canceling all sporting events, weekly PCR testing, eating cafeteria take-out in our dorms, and wearing masks at all times, indoors and out. The masks could only be taken off with the door closed in our dorm room, or “outside in an area where you will not encounter others.”

via bariweiss.substack.com

Lots of stories like this. Remember, this was in all probability, a human created virus. We did this (or rather they, the gain-of-function researchers, American and Chinese, and all their little helpers) to ourselves. There are millions, if not billions, of stories like this, in the sense of lost opportunities, lost life.

Biden's Identity-Driven Supreme Court Nomination | City Journal

With the coming retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer, President Joe Biden is poised to fulfill his campaign pledge to nominate a black female to the Supreme Court. It is worth revisiting, therefore, a little-noticed announcement from Biden’s second month in office.

In February 2021, the Biden administration signaled its intentions to lower the standards for federal judicial appointments. Traditionally, presidents have submitted their judicial nominees to the American Bar Association for evaluation before announcing their choice in public. The ABA assigned potential candidates scores of “well qualified,” “qualified,” or “not qualified,” based on research about the nominee’s legal competence, integrity, and temperament. A “not qualified” rating, though confidential, served as a de facto veto.

The White House Counsel’s Office disclosed in February 2021 that it would not involve the ABA in preclearance. Republican presidents have also cut the ABA out of the confidential vetting process in recent years, on the ground that the association was biased against conservatives. That charge was plausible. The reason that the Biden administration gave for sidestepping the ABA, however, strained credulity: The ABA was insufficiently attuned to the need for “diversity” on the bench. Allowing the ABA to vet candidates was incompatible with the “diversification of the judiciary,” explained a member of the White House Counsel’s Office.

The idea that the ABA is indifferent to identity politics is laughable. Its leading members are obsessed with the racial and sex demographics of corporate law firms and law school faculties. This is the same ABA that gave its highest rating to Supreme Court nominee Sonia (“over 100,000 children . . . in serious condition, and many on ventilators” from Covid) Sotomayor. It is a measure of how far the Biden administration intended to stray from even a diversity-driven standard of competence that it saw the ABA as a roadblock.

via www.city-journal.org

Funny how I have no problem finding bad news for my blog. Anything hopeful, sunny, optimistic, etc., you find, please let me know. It's getting a bit tedious just documenting the decline.

Dr. Robert Epstein on Joe Rogan Experience Highlights: Dangers of Google

via www.youtube.com

This is terrifying stuff. Dr. Epstein is worth watching on Spotify -- you can get a free subscription. It explains a lot about our current political predicament. It also probably helps explain why Joe Rogan is so unpopular with our elite political class. It's not just Covid.

Countering China’s Human Rights Abuses: A Conversation with Bernard-Henri Lévy

via www.youtube.com

Saagar Enjeti: How Neil Young, Amazon, Hedge Funds Are Trying To CANCEL Joe Rogan

via www.youtube.com

The Black Lives Matter scam

The people who donated to BLM deserve to know where their money went. So do the people who live in communities that have been devastated by violence. Congress should investigate, and perhaps it will starting next January.

via www.washingtonexaminer.com

I disagree, at least with respect to the donors. The money will do less harm being siphoned off into high living than it would have being deployed to further corrupt our already corrupt enough system of government. BLM donors should count themselves lucky as doing less harm than they intended to. Maybe they will start to get the message, although this is unlikely. Of course none of this does any good to all those people who were fired or otherwise cancelled for daring to criticize BLM. I'm not even sure. Is it ok to criticize BLM now? If not, please take my remarks as merely a tentative observation, not criticism.

GOP dropping the ball on illegal migrants, too

At least 2 million illegal migrants crossed the border last year, and all we heard from Congress was hot air. 

Republicans in Washington will tell you they are powerless to do anything about illegal migration until after they regain control in November, assuming they do. 

But one lone New York gubernatorial candidate did more to inform the public about the Biden administration’s partnership with people-smuggling cartels than did members of Congress with vastly more resources. 

Rob Astorino didn’t rest on empty rhetoric. The former Westchester County executive took action. 

Despite being slandered by Democrats as a racist, he has exposed the deliberate subterfuge of the Biden administration as it flies illegal migrants around the country and secretes them in unsuspecting communities. 

via nypost.com

Ai in-all-seriousness chihuahua. We need more guardians of the guardians in this country. The press clearly cannot be thought of in this role, as even I once naively thought.

Canadian truckers send Trudeau into hiding and may help end mandates

You’ve heard of Hidin’ Biden. Our neighbor to the north, my native land, just outdid that with Cut-and-Run Justin.

With the pandemic in full swing, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged Canadians to show support for those helping to keep food on their tables. “While many of us are working from home, there are others who aren’t able to do that — like the truck drivers who are working day and night to make sure our shelves are stocked. So when you can, please #ThankATrucker for everything they’re doing and help them however you can,” he tweeted March 31, 2020.

Trudeau had a chance to thank thousands of them personally over the weekend, as the truckers who’ve assembled what they call the Freedom Convoy to protest COVID vaccine mandates and restrictions cruised into the capital. Instead, he fled — breaking isolation to do it.

via nypost.com

The utter radio silence of legacy media on this big story is the news. As much as the role of big media is obvious for all to see -- "nothing to see here!" -- I guess I'm old enough to still be shocked by it.

Politics and the ‘Great Confinement’ - WSJ

The models of governance used during the pandemic fly in the face of our own self-perception. This is a sure formula for sowing distrust, resentment and ultimately resistance. That resistance has already spilled out into the streets in Europe’s cities and the highways in Canada.

What people will remember from this extraordinary episode isn’t the experience of Covid itself, terrible though that’s been. It will be the ineptitude and incompetence of governing institutions that are supposed to protect citizens—and the indifference, as this was happening, of the media and scientific establishment.

In the U.S., the Great Confinement has left scars on the national psyche comparable to the effects of the Great Depression. This loss of faith has been compounded by government failure to deal with spiking violent-crime rates and the shocking dereliction of duty on the part of the nation’s teachers. Children and families feel as if they’ve been left stranded by the school systems they pay for with their tax dollars.

In 1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt called those left stranded by the Great Depression “the forgotten man.” Today the Great Confinement has created a nation of forgotten Americans. In 1932 Democrats used national disillusion with big business to create a powerful new political coalition that gave them control of the White House for 20 years and a virtual stranglehold on Congress that lasted more than half a century. Today the Republican Party has a similar opportunity. If the GOP can capitalize on disillusion with big government by affirming its commitment to the interests of those forgotten Americans, regardless of racial or religious or regional labels, it will own Washington for a generation.

Polls show two-thirds of Americans feel the country is on the wrong track. In a recent Axios poll, 66% of Republicans, 41% of Democrats and 46% of independents said they are more fearful than hopeful about what’s in store for 2022. A Politico/Morning Consult poll shows Democrats’ approval numbers dropping by 12 points since March and President Biden’s sinking lower than that.

A political earthquake may be coming. In the 1932 election Democrats gained 97 seats in the House, giving them nearly a 3-to-1 margin over Republicans. The Democrats also flipped 12 seats in the Senate and took the presidency. Two years later Democrats picked up another nine Senate seats. No one expects the 2022 midterms to show such a dramatic result for the GOP. But last November’s elections in Virginia and New Jersey were a sign that a realignment is in the offing. Will the political class realize what’s happening in time to get ahead of what’s coming, or will they be swept along in its wake?

via www.wsj.com

Well, I hope so. Could be. Fingers crossed. But this could be wishful thinking.

Democrats Decried Dark Money in Politics, but Used It to Defeat Trump - The New York Times

For much of the last decade, Democrats complained — with a mix of indignation, frustration and envy — that Republicans and their allies were spending hundreds of millions of difficult-to-trace dollars to influence politics.

“Dark money” became a dirty word, as the left warned of the threat of corruption posed by corporations and billionaires that were spending unlimited sums through loosely regulated nonprofits, which did not disclose their donors’ identities.

Then came the 2020 election.

Spurred by opposition to then-President Trump, donors and operatives allied with the Democratic Party embraced dark money with fresh zeal, pulling even with and, by some measures, surpassing Republicans in 2020 spending, according to a New York Times analysis of tax filings and other data.

The analysis shows that 15 of the most politically active nonprofit organizations that generally align with the Democratic Party spent more than $1.5 billion in 2020 — compared to roughly $900 million spent by a comparable sample of 15 of the most politically active groups aligned with the G.O.P.

via www.nytimes.com

Not news. I'm not sure why the NYT is going with this story now.

China's Covid-Era Controls May Outlast the Coronavirus - The New York Times

The pandemic has given Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, a powerful case for deepening the Communist Party’s reach into the lives of 1.4 billion citizens, filling out his vision of the country as a model of secure order, in contrast to the “chaos of the West.” In the two years since officials isolated the city of Wuhan in the first lockdown of the pandemic, the Chinese government has honed its powers to track and corral people, backed by upgraded technology, armies of neighborhood workers and broad public support.

via www.nytimes.com

Rising Homicides Are a Wakeup Call for Los Angeles |

Los Angeles County district attorney George Gascón—a George Soros-backed progressive Democrat—won over voters last year with promises of sweeping criminal-justice reforms. To help him win the November 2020 election, virtually every elected Democrat in California withdrew their support from the two-term incumbent DA, Jackie Lacey, a moderate Democrat. The Biden-Harris administration, the Los Angeles Times, and Black Lives Matter leaders all rushed to endorse Gascón.

Today, the City of Angels has become synonymous with lawlessness. Images of train robberies have gone viral. The data show staggering surges of homicides, gun violence, and sexual assaults, and one can see with one’s own eyes the open-air drug scenes, rampant homelessness, streets lined with human excrement and needles, prostitution, filth, and squalor. Last year saw 52 percent more homicides than in 2019; shooting incidents were up 59 percent over the same period, according to the LAPD. On being sworn in, Gascón announced that his office would no longer prosecute a range of misdemeanor crimes, from resisting arrest, trespassing, and drug possession to making criminal threats. Additionally, he said that he would not seek the death penalty and would not impose extra sentencing time for gang membership.

via www.city-journal.org

|The New Lysenkoism

A strange thing is happening to the venerable magazine Scientific American. It has decided to kick its science-loving readers in the teeth and embrace a modern equivalent of Lysenkoism—the doctrine that required Soviet biologists to ignore evolution and the genetics of plants.

The great biologist Edward O. Wilson died on December 26. Few readers of Scientific American could be unaware of Wilson’s towering contributions to biology and conservation, or of his rare gifts as a synthesizer and writer. They surely didn’t expect that the oeuvre of this globally renowned scientist would be labeled by Scientific American, just three days after his death, as “built on racist ideas.”

Why would the editor of the magazine, Laura Helmuth, take it into her head to insult almost everything her readers believe in? The sad truth is that she, like some editors of more important scientific journals, has been infected by a taste-destroying, judgment-paralyzing malady: the virus of progressive wokeness.

The article she ran, by a junior academic at UC San Francisco, Monica McLemore (who holds a Ph.D. in nursing science), asserts that Wilson’s “racist ideas” come from his book Sociobiology, which supported “the notion that differences among humans could be explained by genetics, inheritance and other biological mechanisms.”

The assertion reflects the foundation on which woke theory is built: everyone is the same, with no genetic differences between sexes or races. By rejecting genetics, adherents can dismiss the notion that people might have different innate talents and earn different rewards. The theory instead attributes any deviation from equality, whether in occupations or income, to discrimination. At one blow, the hope of a merit-rewarding society is destroyed, to be replaced by a distribution of wealth according to wokeist rules.

via www.city-journal.org

On Decency and Double Standards at Georgetown

Shapiro is a Soviet emigré and highly regarded scholar who, until last week, seemed like a perfect match for the job as executive director at the Georgetown Center of the Constitution. He was scheduled to start February 1. But late at night, on January 26, he took to Twitter to express his disapproval of President Biden’s pledge to appoint only a black woman to fill Justice Breyer’s seat on the Supreme Court. Now, his career is on the line.

Here’s what Shapiro wrote: 

Objectively best pick for Biden is Sri Srinivasan, who is solid prog & v smart. Even has identity politics benefit of being first Asian (Indian) American. But alas doesn't fit into the latest intersectionality hierarchy so we’ll get lesser black woman. Thank heaven for small favors?

Because Biden said he's only consider[ing] black women for SCOTUS, his nominee will always have an asterisk attached. Fitting that the Court takes up affirmative action next term.

Many others wrote similar tweets the same day, expressing outrage at the president’s promise to reserve the seat for someone of a specific race and gender. Andrew Sullivan, for example, put the objection this way: “The replacement will be chosen only after the field is radically winnowed by open race and sex discrimination, which have gone from being illegal to being celebrated and practiced by a president of the United States.”

But instead of expressing disappointment that the president had made clear that his priority would be to choose a black woman—not the best candidate, whatever that person’s race or sex—Shapiro’s inartful phrasing indicated that the president’s pledge would hand us a “lesser black woman.”

Led by a Slate journalist, the Twitter mob did what Twitter mobs do and stoked the intended result: In an email to the school the dean called Shapiro’s tweets “appalling” and “at odds with everything we stand for at Georgetown Law.”

Then Shapiro, who had already deleted the tweet, sent an apology addressed to the Dean William Treanor and the entire Georgetown community: 

“I sincerely and deeply apologize for some poorly drafted tweets I posted late Wednesday night,” he wrote. 

“Issues of race are of course quite sensitive, and debates over affirmative action are always fraught. My intent was to convey my opinion that excluding potential Supreme Court candidates . . . simply because of their race or gender, was wrong and harmful to the long term reputation of the Court. It was not to cast aspersions on the qualifications of a whole group of people, let alone question their worth as human beings. A person’s dignity and worth simply do not, and should not, depend on any immutable characteristic. Those who know me know that I am sincere about these sentiments, and I would be more than happy to meet with any of you who have doubts about the quality of my heart.”

But apologies and contrition are no longer enough, it seems. On Friday, the Black Law Students Association, speaking on behalf of a dozen student groups, wrote to insist that the school rescind Shapiro’s job offer among many other demands. That’s because these days, sincere apologies do not function as expressions of regret but as confessions of guilt. 

via bariweiss.substack.com

It's not difficult to see what the right thing to do is here. It's only difficult to do it. How refreshing it would be to have a dean at a major law school that just did the right thing instead of wiggling about until finally doing the craven thing. That can't be a good sign of where we are going.

Judge Michelle Childs being considered for Supreme Court, White House confirms | Fox News

"Now, as it relates to who, I don't have anything against the seven or eight names that I have been floated as possibilities, the all great people," Clyburn, who represents South Carolina's 6th congressional district, said. "The fact of the matter is, I have been discussing Michelle Childs with the president and his people now for, I guess at least 13 months now."

Clyburn touted Childs’ path from a blue-collar family through South Carolina Public Law School to working as a deputy director of a state agency and as a workers comp judge. Clyburn said she knows the corporate side of the world as well as the labor side and that she has been an "outstanding federal judge."

via www.foxnews.com

She might be a good judge for all I know. She at least has not been polluted by the latest ideas should would have gotten at Harvard or Yale. She's not automatically disqualified because she is holding a political golden ticket. Give her a chance. She might be terrible. Or she might be OK. Which is more than can be said for some Justices.

An article by the Defence Secretary on the situation in Ukraine - GOV.UK

It is obviously the Kremlin’s desire that we all engage with this bogus allegation, instead of challenging the real agenda of the President of the Russian Federation. An examination of the facts rapidly puts a match to the allegations against NATO.

First, NATO is, to its core, defensive in nature. At the heart of the organisation is Article 5 that obliges all members to come to the aid of a fellow member if it is under attack. No ifs and no buts. Mutual self-defence is NATO’s cornerstone. This obligation protects us all. Allies from as far apart as Turkey and Norway; or as close as Latvia and Poland all benefit from the pact and are obliged to respond. It is a truly defensive alliance.

Second, former Soviet states have not been expanded ‘into’ by NATO, but joined at their own request. The Kremlin attempts to present NATO as a Western plot to encroach upon its territory, but in reality the growth in Alliance membership is the natural response of those states to its own malign activities and threats.

Third, the allegation that NATO is seeking to encircle the Russian Federation is without foundation. Only five of the thirty allies neighbour Russia, with just 1/16th of its borders abutted by NATO. If the definition of being surrounded is 6% of your perimeter being blocked then no doubt the brave men who fought at Arnhem or Leningrad in the Second World War would have something strong to say about it.

via www.gov.uk

By Ben Wallace, the UK Minister of Defence. A must read.

A Public Health Reckoning Is Coming › American Greatness

The postmortem of the last two years is sure to begin now in earnest. We will thereby be confronted by failure on an epic scale, orchestrated by our expert class. 

Nationally and internationally, too many extreme decisions were made in too short a period by too few people with far too little reflection on the broader impact upon society. 

In pushing for their preferred remedies of lockdowns, mask mandates, social distancing—as well as flirting with vaccine passports and mandates—our experts intervened like never before in the proper functioning of a free society. 

They have made themselves the inevitable target of future investigations and potential retribution.

via amgreatness.com

I hope so.

The Pressure Campaign on Spotify to Remove Joe Rogan Reveals the Religion of Liberals: Censorship

American liberals are obsessed with finding ways to silence and censor their adversaries. Every week, if not every day, they have new targets they want de-platformed, banned, silenced, and otherwise prevented from speaking or being heard (by "liberals,” I mean the term of self-description used by the dominant wing of the Democratic Party).

For years, their preferred censorship tactic was to expand and distort the concept of "hate speech” to mean "views that make us uncomfortable,” and then demand that such “hateful” views be prohibited on that basis. For that reason, it is now common to hear Democrats assert, falsely, that the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech does not protect “hate speech." Their political culture has long inculcated them to believe that they can comfortably silence whatever views they arbitrarily place into this category without being guilty of censorship.

Constitutional illiteracy to the side, the “hate speech” framework for justifying censorship is now insufficient because liberals are eager to silence a much broader range of voices than those they can credibly accuse of being hateful. That is why the newest, and now most popular, censorship framework is to claim that their targets are guilty of spreading “misinformation” or “disinformation.” These terms, by design, have no clear or concise meaning. Like the term “terrorism,” it is their elasticity that makes them so useful.

via greenwald.substack.com

It really is astonishing. SCOTUS will have to weigh in on the First Amendment issues sooner or later, presumably later as it will take a special sort of plaintiff to show that the private entity really was pressured by government to get the sympathetic plaintiff to shut up. Perhaps it will be some left-winger who is quashed by eager censors of the Right.

The Pressure Campaign on Spotify to Remove Joe Rogan Reveals the Religion of Liberals: Censorship

American liberals are obsessed with finding ways to silence and censor their adversaries. Every week, if not every day, they have new targets they want de-platformed, banned, silenced, and otherwise prevented from speaking or being heard (by "liberals,” I mean the term of self-description used by the dominant wing of the Democratic Party).

For years, their preferred censorship tactic was to expand and distort the concept of "hate speech” to mean "views that make us uncomfortable,” and then demand that such “hateful” views be prohibited on that basis. For that reason, it is now common to hear Democrats assert, falsely, that the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech does not protect “hate speech." Their political culture has long inculcated them to believe that they can comfortably silence whatever views they arbitrarily place into this category without being guilty of censorship.

Constitutional illiteracy to the side, the “hate speech” framework for justifying censorship is now insufficient because liberals are eager to silence a much broader range of voices than those they can credibly accuse of being hateful. That is why the newest, and now most popular, censorship framework is to claim that their targets are guilty of spreading “misinformation” or “disinformation.” These terms, by design, have no clear or concise meaning. Like the term “terrorism,” it is their elasticity that makes them so useful.

via greenwald.substack.com

It really is astonishing. SCOTUS will have to weigh in on the First Amendment issues sooner or later, presumably later as it will take a special sort of plaintiff to show that the private entity really was pressured by government to get the sympathetic plaintiff to shut up. Perhaps it will be some left-winger who is quashed by eager censors of the Right.

It’s time to really fight crime in NYC

Watching the heartbroken eulogy of a police officer’s widow is painful under any circumstances. But the pain of watching the widow of Officer Jason Rivera was mixed with a sense of awe and admiration. 

Dominique Luzuriaga managed to express not only immeasurable grief, but also a restrained fury toward the insanity that paints cops as bad guys and criminals as victims. 

“This system continues to fail us,” she said through tears at a packed St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Friday (right). 

“We are not safe anymore, not even the members of the service.” 

Then, speaking to her husband, whose casket she stood near, Luzuriaga added: “I know you were tired of these laws, especially the ones from the new DA. I hope he’s watching you speak through me right now.” 

The audience rose and gave her a thundering ovation that rang throughout the majestic cathedral. This was no ordinary funeral. 

With an enormous public outpouring and Fifth Avenue turned into a sea of blue, the scene and raw emotions recalled the many police and fire funerals after 9/11. They were a catharsis for a shattered city and, if we are lucky, this funeral will mark a turning point in the war against the crime and violence bringing New York to its knees. 

via nypost.com

This wasn't just predictable; it was predicted.

Opinion | New York Police Officers Remember Jason Rivera - The New York Times

My brother Kevin, then in second grade, was traumatized by my mom’s terror as she stood in the kitchen, frozen, before she got word that my dad was OK. “Your father is in a shooting,” she told Kevin.

I thought about this listening to Dominique Luzuriaga, Officer Rivera’s widow, give her eulogy through sobs.

“You know, it’s hard being a cop’s wife sometimes,” she said. They had a fight the day he died. She didn’t want him to be on the phone for work so much. But he was excited to be a police officer, so excited that on his first day at the station in Harlem, he double parked in front and caused a traffic jam.

He epitomized what we want in an officer — full of compassion and joy, with an infectious smile. His older brother, Jeffrey, remembered Tata, as his family called him, stripping down to his tighty-whities as a child to do Latin dances.

Rivera was the mirror opposite of the brutal Derek Chauvin. As Jeffrey recalled, “My brother was afraid of heights, he was afraid of rats, he was afraid of dogs.” But he “was not afraid to die to wear that uniform.”

Officer Rivera and his 27-year-old partner, Wilbert Mora, died answering a 911 call from a mother in Harlem who said her son had verbally threatened her. They walked down a hall in the apartment and the son jumped out and opened fire, fatally wounding both officers.

via www.nytimes.com

Maureen Dowd.

Race, Gender and the Supreme Court - WSJ

“Racially tinged?” We guess that’s what you write if you want to accuse someone of racism but know it would be a canard to say so. Mr. Shapiro was endorsing a minority candidate in his tweet, albeit an Asian who is a man. He has also apologized for his ugly choice of words. But the racial tinge was applied by Mr. Biden in his criteria for his judicial selection. Is it taboo to comment on the use of a racial litmus test that a President has himself made explicit?

The hilarious part is that, after she lambastes Mr. Shapiro (and us), Ms. Marcus ends up agreeing with most of our point. “Would I be more comfortable if Biden hadn’t been quite so explicit? Yes. Partly because it carries an aura of unfairness to announce that no one will be considered who does not meet an announced racial test,” she writes.

So it’s okay to use a racial test for judges as long as it’s not explicit, but anyone other than Ruth Marcus who criticizes the explicit racial test is “racially tinged.” What she’s really saying is that conservatives are right in their criticism but only liberals can say so.

via www.wsj.com

This is so ridiculous. Obviously, Ilya Shapiro was saying the pledged Biden selection, whoever she was, would be the lesser candidate because she would be less qualified *as a Supreme Court Justice* than Sri Srinivasan is. What is it Shapiro is supposed to have said, anyway? Post columnist Ruth Marcus does not say; she just insinuates it must, or I suppose might be (?), some sort of racial slur. Of course, there is no interpretation of what Marcus says that is other than it is an attack in bad faith. Not that that matters any more.

This is why dueling should perhaps be brought back. Or at least lawsuits for libel against those in the media. That is, we should absolutely get rid of NY Times v. Sullivan. After some gutless wonder like Marcus accused Shapiro of being a racist, he could sue her and hang her out to dry, and other "columnists" would think, ah, I wouldn't want that to happen to me. Then they would take more care with their words. Who knows? It could happen.

U.S. Wages, Benefits Rose at Two-Decade High as Inflation Picked Up - WSJ

Employers spent 4% more on wages and benefits last year as workers received larger pay raises in a tight labor market, rebounding economy and period of accelerating inflation, marking an increase not seen since 2001.

The U.S. employment-cost index—a quarterly measure of wages and benefits paid by employers—showed that costs continued to rise at the highest rate in two decades. The fourth-quarter gain, compared with a year ago, was 4% on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department said Friday.

Still, the figures offered a sign that labor-cost increases could be easing, with the Labor Department reporting a seasonally adjusted 1% rise in compensation for the fourth quarter, down from with a 1.2% increase the previous three months.

via www.wsj.com

Bill Maher: "It's Not Me Who's Changed, It's The Left"; They've Gone Mental And Made Me A "Hero" To FOX News | Video | RealClearPolitics

HBO host Bill Maher responded to critics that say he makes fun of the left too much, saying they didn't use to give him this much material to work with. In a monologue titled "How The Left Was Lost," Maher said Democrats "have become a parody of themselves" and that if people are laughing that means it rings true.

"Let's get this straight," Maher said. "It's not me who's changed, it is the left. Who is now made up of a small contingent who've gone mental and a large contingent to refuse to call them out for it. But I will. That's why I'm a hero at FOX these days. Which shows just how much liberals have had their head up their ass because if they really thought about it they would have made me a hero on their media. But that can't happen in this ridiculous new era of mind-numbing partisanship where if I keep it real about the nonsense in the Democratic party it makes me an instant hero to Republicans."

"People sometimes say to me, 'You didn't used to make fun of the left as much.' Yeah, because they didn't give me so much to work with," Maher said. "The oath of office I took was to comedy. And if you do goofy shit, wherever you are on the spectrum, I'm going to make fun of you because that is where the gold is. And the fact that they is laughing at it should tell you something: it rings true."

via www.realclearpolitics.com

UPenn considering suit if Lia Thomas barred from women's champs

The University of Pennsylvania is considering a lawsuit if Lia Thomas is barred from competing in the upcoming NCAA women’s swimming championship, according to a report.

A swimmer on the Penn women’s team, speaking on the condition of anonymity, claimed to Fox News that administrators were considering legal action if Thomas is prohibited from participating in the championship.

“I have a feeling that if USA Swimming changes their rules, they will be filing a lawsuit for Lia to swim, but they wouldn’t do that for us,” she said. “That’s just really upsetting.”

The swimmer said she had “heard that from some of the administrators.” 

A rep for Penn didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

Lia Thomas, the record-smashing transgender swimmer, is currently eligible to swim, under USA Swimming’s rules which require a year of testosterone suppression. By March, transgender athletes will be required to document testosterone levels to remain eligible.

via nypost.com

Putin agrees to hold talks with Germany, France and Ukraine as NATO squabbles | Daily Mail Online

NATO has failed to come up with a common position on deploying troops to the region with many of its 30-strong members against military action.

Member countries located closer to Russia fear antagonizing Putin while countries such as Germany rely on Russia for 50 per cent of their gas.   

Just one country can veto any action by the entire alliance.   

Earlier this week, the Pentagon told 8,500 troops in the U.S. to be on high alert for a potential deployment to Eastern Europe, as Russia has already amassed over 100,000 troops at the Ukraine border. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the global media in Kiev Friday and pushed back on world leaders who have publicly stressed the prospect of Russian invasion – following a call with President Biden where the president raised the 'distinct possibility' Russian troops would soon overrun his country.

'There are signals even from respected leaders of states, they just say that tomorrow there will be war. This is panic - how much does it cost for our state?' said Zelensky.

via www.dailymail.co.uk

Annoying that we have to rely on a British tabloid to get this take on the news . . . But, it doesn't seem we should be ignoring the Ukrainian president's POV. This does seem like Ol' Joe is sorta pushing the US into a conflict. C'mon man! Give the parties a chance to work it out themselves!

In call with Macron, Putin slams West for ignoring Russia’s ‘fundamental concerns’ – POLITICO

Russian President Vladimir Putin used a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday to accuse the U.S. and NATO of ignoring Russia’s “fundamental concerns” over NATO’s growth.

According to a Kremlin readout of the conversation, Putin argued that Western allies had refused to listen to core Russian demands, including “preventing NATO expansion, refusing to deploy strike weapons systems near Russian borders” and withdrawing allied forces to positions they held in 1997, prior to the alliance’s eastward enlargement.

His remarks came after the U.S. and NATO this week both said they would not make any concessions on those fronts in written responses delivered to Moscow.

via www.politico.eu

Freedom Convoy: Crowds grow on Parliament Hill as more protesters arrive | CTV News

Thousands of truckers and supporters are gathering in downtown Ottawa to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other public health measures, with more convoys rolling into Ottawa expected to join them.

via ottawa.ctvnews.ca

Fascinating development.

Yes, There Is a Counter-Revolution - Abe Greenwald, Commentary Magazine

It is a noteworthy fact that human beings can sense acceleration but not constant speed. Think of your experience on an airplane. During takeoff, you might grip your armrest as you feel your body pressed to the seat. But once the plane is tearing across the sky at a steady 500 mph, it’s as if everything is perfectly still. And yet, you’re moving faster than at any other point in your life.

It’s a paradox worth keeping in mind as we check in on the current condition of the anti-American revolution that took off in the summer of 2020. In late May of that year, millions of Americans came out to protest the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Isolated and dispirited by the COVID pandemic and successive lockdowns, citizens found a new sense of purpose and unity in social-justice activism. Pushed by radicals in Black Lives Matter and Antifa, and by other assorted leftists, the movement soon grew into a mass revolution to remake an irredeemably racist United States of America into a grievance paradise. The police were to be defunded, rent was to be cancelled, statues were to be toppled, and “whiteness” was to be remedied. 

The revolution’s early methods were violence and intimidation. Riots consumed major American cities, with frequently deadly consequences. Armed anarchists took over swaths of land in Seattle and Portland. Both public figures and nobodies were forced to endure Maoist-like struggle sessions and confess their anti-revolutionary thoughts before being driven from polite society. The country’s elites, scared of losing their status overnight, embraced it all. A slew of re-education policies, governmental and corporate, was proposed to fight back the scourge of white privilege. The media applauded both the rioters and their aims. Liberal politicians adopted revolutionary language and imagery. Congressional Democrats donning Ghanaian kente cloths—let us never forget this moment—took to their knees in Emancipation Hall and observed a moment of silence to honor the memory of George Floyd. 

And the entire upheaval was born in a lie—a sinister and easily debunked lie about the police’s general treatment of black Americans. Derek Chauvin did indeed murder George Floyd (and was convicted and sentenced appropriately). But there is simply no campaign of black genocide in American law enforcement. In 2020, that year of cataclysm and chaos, police officers shot and killed 17 unarmed black men nationwide. There are more than 40 million black people in the United States.

via www.commentary.org

This is a really good piece, and you should read it. But you need a subscription.

‘Right Of Attila The Hun’: ‘The View’ Hosts Launch Racial Attacks On Clarence Thomas For Being Conservative | The Daily Caller

“You know you could make the case that somebody like [SCOTUS Justice] Amy Coney Barrett was put in there because she’s a white woman who they say, well, she’ll go against abortion rights and she’s a woman,” Behar shared. “So that was deliberate, I think.”

via dailycaller.com

Something my late father said to me was quite true. I had said something heated about how stupid TV tended to be. He said there were a lot of stupid people in the world and they deserved consideration and respect just like everybody else, and even the occasional entertainment, too. It's true. Perhaps not as much entertainment as they get, but still.
It's easy to make fun of stupid people. Indeed, we aren't so smart ourselves. Why are you reading this, or am I writing it? Why aren't you working to unify physics or coming up with the next billion-dollar commercial idea? Even smart people are stupid a lot of the time. Why does Jeff Bezos make himself look like a penis? Why did he leave his perfectly adequate wife? Why did he wear that stupid cowboy hat after his impressive, but really, when you think about it, stupid space stunt? I'm not smart enough to answer these questions. And one only has to mention Critical Race Theory, Wokeness, Donald Trump, cunning though he may be, any number of Democrats and, to be fair, Republicans, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and whoever it was that transferred the Covid-19 virus into a new test tube in Wuhan and then picked his nose. So much stupidity. And so much suffering.

This stupidity would be forgivable if it were not combined with the ambitions of smart people and stupid to make the world better, but first to make themselves grander people in it. China just had to be a leader in virus research; the Communist Party just has to conquer the world. Xi just has to be President for life. Why not just president? Why not just not working in a rice paddy all day? What a roiling mass humanity is, always trying to climb up into the great void on top of each others' backs.

As I look over this post, I think it's just fine. Somebody give me an award.

Putin Targets Ukraine’s Growing Sense of National Identity - WSJ

In the subsequent eight years, Ukrainians have torn down hundreds of Lenin statues and changed the names of cities and streets connected with the country’s Soviet past. The language of conversation in Kyiv, which a decade ago was usually Russian, is now more frequently Ukrainian. In 2019 the country won its own Orthodox Church after centuries in which believers were part of Moscow’s flock.

Mr. Putin has fought back with pen and sword. Last year he wrote a 7,000-word essay describing Ukraine as an artificial creation of Soviet leaders made up largely of historically Russian lands. He has railed against the changes, suggesting they were driven by radical nationalists and part of a plot by foreign intelligence agencies to divide the two countries. Now he is massing more than 100,000 troops around Ukraine as a possible prelude to another invasion.

“The clock is running against Putin,” said Pavlo Klimkin, a former Ukrainian foreign minister. “The country is changing.”

via www.wsj.com

Putin really is a vile creature, even for a KGB hood. He's a stone killer of many people, both en masse (Chechnya, Georgia) and up close (Litvinenko). I can see why the Ukrainians don't like him one bit. No, we shouldn't start WW3 over Ukraine. But we should absolutely help them with arms (not the Germans' "pillows").

Ottawa police prepare for trucker protest against federal vaccination mandate - The Globe and Mail

A convoy of truckers protesting against the federal vaccination mandate could arrive in the capital as early as Thursday, and other groups and counterprotesters will likely join their multiday demonstration, Ottawa police say.

Senior Ottawa law enforcement officials told the police board on Wednesday that the protesters are difficult to predict and officers are preparing contingency plans in case of violence. The number of participants is quickly changing, but the officials said that, so far, they expect 1,000 to 2,000 people to arrive in trucks and other vehicles, and stay through the weekend.

Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly said the main group of truckers, which calls itself the Freedom Convoy, has been peaceful as it rolls through towns and cities, but others who plan to join the protest or hold counter demonstrations are being more aggressive.

via www.theglobeandmail.com

We've got ourselves a convoy.

Judging the Justices: Epstein and Yoo on the New Originalist Supreme Court

via www.youtube.com

Why Are We Boosting Kids? - Common Sense

We have been exceptionally lucky that Covid-19 largely spares the young. This isn’t to say that the virus hasn’t brought tragedy to some families. But we should keep perspective: More children have died or been hospitalized from the flu in many seasons, than have from Covid in each of the past two years. 

And yet, for those two years, many young Americans have been robbed of normal schooling and normal interactions with their peers. We have demanded that young people bear the heaviest burden of our policies for the sake of those who are more vulnerable.

Now we risk asking them to sacrifice even more.

Earlier this month, the CDC and the FDA approved Covid vaccine boosters for children as young as 12. (Until recently, only those 16 and older were eligible for a third dose.) Federal officials celebrated this as excellent news. They insist that the key to children’s safety, and being able to resume normal life, is near-universal and, apparently, repeated vaccination. Young people are not merely able to get a third dose. The CDC obliges them to do so with its language “should receive a booster.”

It’s not just the CDC. 

There are signs that state and local governments are mandating a third Covid shot for kids as a condition to participate in society. New York state has already upped its guidance, saying that if kids are 12 or older and exposed to a positive individual, only those who are boosted will be allowed to play sports and participate in extracurricular activities; all other kids will be quarantined. Hawaii’s governor said he is planning to require boosters for visitors. Other states are likely to follow suit. 

This is unwise—and likely to further diminish the already degraded trust in our governmental institutions and public health authorities. 

via bariweiss.substack.com

I've mostly stayed out of the vaccine debate because I'm far from an expert on vaccines. I trust my doctor and annoy my medical spouse with lots of questions. I do my research, make up my own mind, and do whatever she says. My youngest is also 18. But it really does seem that many people in the US, and especially blue state governments, are completely losing their minds with pushing the covid vaccine on little kids when there seems precious little medical reason for doing it. I'm glad we don't have a small child in school in California these days. Then there's the whole mask nonsense. We might have had to move to Florida and fend off the palmetto bugs and cottonmouths.

Ukraine’s Bulked-Up Military Is Still Outgunned by Russia - WSJ

KYIV, Ukraine—Eight years after Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and fomented war in the country’s east, Kyiv’s once-feeble military is bigger and better armed. It is still far outgunned by Moscow, but it could inflict a high price on any invading army, its leaders and analysts say.

via www.wsj.com

And it's very highly motivated.

Ukraine conflict: US and allies won't budge over fears of Russian invasion | DW News

via www.youtube.com

Assassinating Police in New York - WSJ

Civilians need to know how police can be at risk responding to even a routine 911 call.

But the people who really should be forced to watch the video are members of the City Council and the Legislature in Albany. Their two-year campaign against police has created a far more dangerous city, where criminals get sprung without bail to commit more crimes, and police are treated as if they are the cause of public disorder. A measure of justice for the dead officers would be the lasting shame of these anti-police politicians.

via www.wsj.com

Waiting for the Last Days of Putin - WSJ

Of course, there is no chance of such a thing happening. Mr. Putin would be greatly overestimating his own salience to Western leaders and publics, and also their interest in Ukraine. Recall the mess the place has already been for the Biden family. By embracing Ukraine, NATO would essentially be joining an in-progress war, hostaging itself to any Ukrainian politician who came along with a platform of reconquering the lost lands. Not in 1,000 years would NATO willingly put itself in this position.

The U.S. does have a powerful interest in drawing a line on Putin adventurism—his predilection for exporting his domestic insecurities—before it reaches countries the U.S. is treaty-bound to defend militarily, including the former Soviet possessions of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

via www.wsj.com

Holman Jenkins speaks the truth, as usual.

The Best Summary of the 2020 Election - WSJ

If curious Republicans want to know what really happened in 2020, this is the best summation to date. Released Dec. 7, it was written by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), a policy shop with conservative bona fides that supported many of Mr. Trump’s policies. A Wisconsin judge this month said ballot dropboxes are illegal under state law, in a challenge brought by WILL.

Its report on 2020 wallops state officials for bending election rules amid the pandemic. That mistake put ballots into legal doubt, due to no fault of the voter, while fueling skepticism. Yet the stolen-election theory doesn’t hold up. President Biden won Wisconsin by 20,682, and mass fraud “would likely have resulted in some discernible anomaly,” WILL says. “In all likelihood, more eligible voters cast ballots for Joe Biden than Donald Trump. ”

via www.wsj.com