As with so many crises, the ‘rona has brought out both the best and the worst in people. But mostly the worst.
Like many others, I’m going a little stir-crazy under our “shelter in place” directive. Most of us understand that such directives are to a large extent necessary. But more than a few mayors and state governors have gotten carried away with their newfound emergency powers, and they’ve forgotten that they’re governing actual people. Ornery, independent, American people.
There’s a natural distribution to the level of inconvenience people are willing to put up with. Some will put up with virtually nothing. Most, it seems, will tolerate quite a bit of inconvenience… for a time. But every individual has their breaking point, and the longer the restrictions go on, the more people are going to be agitated. The less the impositions seem to have any rational basis, the less the people are going to tolerate much of anything. And then all hell will break loose.
The slow-roll of increasingly arbitrary guidance and restrictions has been most maddening.
Don’t wear a mask, it will only hurt. Wear a mask if you want. You should probably wear a mask. You must wear a mask in public in order to enter a store and buy anything.
Stay active, maybe go for a walk. But don’t go to a park. Or a beach. And maybe you can kayak in some states, but don’t go motorboating.
Liquor stores in PA were closed, but beer distributors are essential.
Stay in your Detroit-metro homes in the densely-populated hotspot, and don’t drive yourself out to your second home where you can safely hole-up for a while.
Lowe’s can stay open, but your locally-owned gardening center can’t. Or maybe you can go to a store that sells gardening supplies, but those seeds you wanted were roped off because the items are deemed “non-essential”.
In a moment of absolute absurdity in a universe where cancer biopsies are elective and therefore banned, Governor Whitmer defended the continued allowance of abortion services as “life sustaining”. Now, there’s a constitutional argument to be made about keeping abortion services available — it’s a constitutionally protected right that is time sensitive — but to be so tone deaf as to call abortion “life sustaining” is rather galling when, at least for a time, Michiganders were prevented from buying child car seats.
Accommodations must be made. Open the damned garden centers, and don’t rope anything off in a store that has so-far been deemed essential. Allow hairdressers and barbers to open by appointment only and with adequate sanitation efforts. Don’t make impossible demands of small businesses about open space in their employee break areas that aren’t exactly expandable at the government’s whim.
Governors and mayors are not going to be able to sustain adequate preventive measures if they act like petty dictators and deprive people of some modicum of normalcy. The longer the restrictions are in place, the more arbitrary the restrictions, and the more disruptive to normal life, the more turmoil governments are inviting for themselves. The natives are getting restless.
The EU and the US should defend common Western values rather than their own interests, European Council president Donald Tusk said on Thursday (25 May) after meeting US president Donald Trump in Brussels.
People who are doing their best to not defend Western Civilization are telling Trump not do what’s good for America, but what’s good for its enemies.
“What gives our cooperation and friendship its deepest meaning are fundamental Western values, like freedom, human rights and respect for human dignity,” Tusk said after the meeting.
“The greatest task today is the consolidation of the whole free world around those values, and not just interests.”
No really, he said that. As EUnuchs are siding with Palestinian savages against Israel, they’re calling on Trump to defend “Western values”, which apparently mean shitting on western civilization.
“The times in which we could completely depend on others are on the way out. I have experienced that in the last few days,” Chancellor Merkel said at an election rally in the city of Munich. “We Europeans must really take our destiny in our own hands.”
Chancellor Merkel’s defiant talk was “applauded by 2,000 listeners” present in a Munich beer tent, local media reported.
“Merkel doesn’t consider the U.S. a reliable partner anymore,” wrote the German newspaper Die Welt. Merkel “has no confidence in transatlantic relationship writes Munich’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
The U.S. president’s non-committal stance on ‘Climate Change’ was reportedly the deal-breaker for Chancellor Merkel. According to the German media reports, Chancellor Merkel had been irked by Trump’s defiance on the issue. She regards ‘Climate Change’ central to her internationalist agenda
As she’s importing thousands of people antipathetic to the entire idea of western civilization.
So…basically she thinks the ‘shared values’ mean giving money to greenies and providing protection to socialist EUnuchs.
She’s trying to say continental EUnuchstan needs to go their own way. I say, good! Encourage this. Let them protect themselves and pay for their greeny EUtopia and import all the savages they want.
Have fun! Just so you know, next time we’re gonna make you keep France.
Let’s see how we’re doing defending common Western values! in other parts of EUnuchstan.
In Akbar Britain, some people were doing karaoke and it brought in a bunch of cops and a helicopter. I wasn’t singing so I’m not sure why they thought to stop them. But then, in Akbar Britain they’ve changed State Religions.
A British police officer was moved to activate her panic button after taking offence at a parody song making fun of former Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden being played at a garden party…
Responding to the call for help, the local force dispatched another ten officers and a police helicopter, Cambridge News reports.
It is alleged that in addition to the parody song making fun of the dead terrorist, party-goers were also shouting “anti-Islamic abuse”, a suggestion the partygoers deny.
So…that’s what happens when you don’t have a Constitution.
Or a gun.
More of that Defending Western Values! With a side-dish of “Ha-ha” as this fine, tolerant lefty finds out other lefties are not so tolerant.
All Ryerson social work grad Rebecca Katzman wanted was to do her third-year placement at one of two respected Toronto Jewish organizations with a track record of addressing social justice issues…
After making it clear to Bain about her preferred placement, Katzman said the field coordinator advised her in an e-mail in late August of 2015 she did not follow up with the JCC or UJA because their values appeared to be “in opposition” to the values of the School of Social Work…
“My understanding is both agencies have a strong anti-Palestinian lean,” Bain continued, suggesting that if Katzman agreed to bring a “critical awareness” (of Palestinian solidarity movements) to either agency she might reconsider.
Jew-cooties are the worst cooties!
I will admit that I’m rooting against both sides in this dispute. Why?
Bain listed those values as the advancement of anti-oppression; anti-racism; anti-colonialism and decolonization; feminism; anti-capitalism; Queer and trans liberation struggles; issues in disability and madness (cct); among others (many of which are not listed on the school’s own website.)
Anti-capitalism is a deal-breaker for me. Also, most of the other stuff are really just happy euphemisms for “we hate western civilization and our daddies” so I’m pretty much rooting for the Jew-hater. I mean, if you’re going to be an anti-freedom asshole, don’t whine about others wanting to be anti-different freedom than what you’re against.
It’s funny how often a question I’ve asked is even more funnier when asked by a lefty.
Some students at the University of California Santa Barbara believe a local bar acted with racial animus after it challenged their forms of identification.
Oscar Zarate and Stephanie Periban allege Giovanni’s Pizza was “insulting” for its employees’ ambivalence over the IDs, and the UCSB Campus Democrats claim the bar “enforced racist and deeply problematic ID policies.”
If it’s racist to ask for ID to vote, it has to be racist to ask for ID for any reason whatsoever. Especially since this was one of our Preferred Citizens who don’t need to follow the law.
According to The Bottom Line, Zarate’s Mexican government-issued ID was questioned, with the bartender asking for “extra documentation.” Periban’s EAD card, which is issued to DACA — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — students, was refused.
Now, Mexican isn’t a race, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the owner was anti-illegal immigrants.
Below we have the beginnings of blaming this crazy, Bernie bro/Steyn greeny on the Right!!!!!
He was a leftist who supported Bernie, voted Jill, and was kicked out of a rally by Trump supporters — but don't let facts get in your way. https://t.co/LLVtS9610I
— Cassandra Fairbanks (@CassandraRules) May 28, 2017
Look at the replies to that, lots of people are defending the media, the rest notice stuff like this.
…the 35-year-old Portland man who allegedly murdered two men and left another critically wounded while yelling anti-Muslim slurs in a knife attack on Friday, has been painted by the mainstream media as a “right-wing extremist,” but posts on his Facebook page indicate he was a supporter of socialist Senator Bernie Sanders and Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
According to screen captures of his Facebook page obtained by Buzzfeed, Christian was not a Trump supporter, as many media outlets claimed, but was a supporter of the idea of a Sanders/Stein ticket…
After the election, Christian made a point of posting to Facebook that he did not vote for Trump, that couldn’t bring himself to.
I hate the media. I really, really do. And I only used to hate the Arafish.
Here’s how Fake News Works, in a Tolerance Setting!
Sikhs are awesome. They don’t take shit and they don’t give it. “I’ll help you if you’re down and can’t we all get along?”, but if people don’t want to get along, well, they’re ready for that too.
But this is about Minitrue lies. So we had a touching story but Minitrue had to ‘fix’ it. And since they’re idiots and/or they think their readers are idiots, they did something stupid.
Cuz all them ragheads look the same to stupid Americans. Derp!
Video on some Fake News that our fine media betters are pushing back hard on when they’re not ignoring it.
— Alternative Views (@AlternativViewz) May 25, 2017
You see, like the deal with the IT workers, that makes Dems look bad so it’s Not News Guys.
Which makes me think there’s something to it. Minitrue doesn’t push that hard back against stuff that isn’t true. They usually push the crazy conspiracy theories not shut them up.
Nimitz, one of the world’s largest warships, will join the USS Carl Vinson and USS Ronald Reagan there, sources close to the U.S. military said May 26.
It is rare for the U.S. Navy to deploy three aircraft carriers to the same region at the same time. This latest decision means that three of the U.S. Navy’s 11 aircraft carriers will be deployed in the western Pacific.
The U.S. Navy will delay the refueling of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) for an unknown period because of the uncertain fiscal environment due to the ongoing legislative struggle, the service told Congress in a Friday message obtained by USNI News. (as they were buying very expensive ‘green’ fuel. V)…
On Wednesday it announced it would delay the deployment of the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) to the Middle East do to the ongoing budget strife bringing the total number of carriers in U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) to one until funding normalizes…
For the next week (Published December 30, 2016 V), not only will there be no U.S. Navy aircraft carrier in the Middle East, but there will be no American aircraft carriers deployed at sea anywhere else in the world, despite a host of worldwide threats facing the United States.
It’s funny how the media acts as if murderous dictators hating Trump is a bad thing. See also, Mattis Video Above.
(What) Do Russia, China, Iran and Cuba All Have in Common? Intelligence Services Gunning for America
I’d say that headline should read,
(What) Do Russia, China, Iran, Cuba and The NYTimesWashPostCNNABCCBSNBCFOXNEWS.etc. All Have in Common? Intelligence Services Gunning for Trump’s America
But that’s just cuz I spend a fair amount of time noticing stuff like that.
It’s a very sudden interest in possible wrongdoing in the Legislature: Soares has been AWOL in probing all the corruption that has rocked Albany since he took office.
At issue is payments normally given to senators who chair committees that instead went to vice chairs. (The actual chairmen were already collecting bigger “lulus” for other jobs, and the rules don’t let you collect two.)
Four Republicans and three IDCers got such bonuses. Lawyers for Senate leaders say the law allows leeway in how they allocate the payments.
Soares’ record isn’t inspiring: He was criticized by New York Civic head Henry Stern and others for bungling (bungling, yeah, let’s go with that V) the 2007 investigation of then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s use of the state police in a vendetta against the Senate majority leader. In 2009, he failed to follow up on campaign finance questions that later helped sink rogue Democratic Sen. Pedro Espada.
That’s funny. They’re pretending it’s new that a political asshole in NY would go after his political enemies for doing what all NY pols do while ignoring actual law-breaking by his own party.
It never ceases to amaze me how the papers cover all this stuff all the damn time but each time act as if it’s new. I’ve been watching them detail NY corruption for decades. At first it amazed me, now it just amuses me.
My friend was a journalist in Albany when her news service cut back, she went to work for a Republican and had to vote GOP while doing so. NY is very feudal that way and yes, they’ll know all about your ‘secret’ ballot.
I really pissed her off by explaining that not only was her vote not canceling a GOP vote now but since she was changing from Dem to GOP it was like 3 votes for the GOP.
That was in the 80s, back when I thought there was a slight difference between the parties in NY. What can I say, I was young and naive.
Ousted FBI Director James Comey must be held accountable for creating a presidential election frenzy over “fake” intelligence, one top Republican senator said Sunday.
“If he intervened in the election based on fake information generated by the Russians, that was an incredibly incompetent thing to do,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
The document was Russian intelligence that purported to show that then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch was compromised. It referenced an alleged email between former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and a political operative, Leonard Benardo, about reassurances Lynch had made to not let the FBI investigation go too far.
Graham wants further investigation on the alleged email and possibly further sanctions on Russia.
So the head of the FBI cleared a wrongdoer because he thought the head of the DO”J” wanted him to illegally do so and Lyndsey Fucking Graham is mad at Russia.
Now, I don’t believe a word of this whole, ridiculous story. I sincerely doubt Lynch was subtle at all in telling Comey the outcome demanded in this Tom Sawyer investigation.
It’s a post hoc attempt at deflecting outrage from a blatantly political FBI asshole turning the FBI into Hillary’s Bitches at the behest of a corrupt Dept. Of “Justice” working for a Chicago-Machine POTUS to Russia which leads us to…..
President Trump fired Comey earlier this month.
Trump.
Get Trump! I really have to think that anybody who reads any of these stories has to say, “Wait a minute. Isn’t what Comey did really, really wrong? And isn’t it wrong that he thought that was something his boss would want him to do?”
But nobody’s asking those questions of anybody important.
In the United States, which contains 8 percent of the world’s forests, there are more trees than there were 100 years ago. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), “Forest growth nationally has exceeded harvest since the 1940s. By 1997, forest growth exceeded harvest by 42 percent and the volume of forest growth was 380 percent greater than it had been in 1920.” The greatest gains have been seen on the East Coast (with average volumes of wood per acre almost doubling since the ’50s) which was the area most heavily logged by European settlers beginning in the 1600s, soon after their arrival.
We were really bad about cutting down trees until the middle of the last century. Now, lots of these trees are not the same, hardwood trees from before, but they are still trees.
I’d like to see more hardwood trees planted, but they take decades to grow unlike pine.
An interesting link blog. They link the post and show the first paragraph or so. You can tell they’re smart cuz they linked me. Well, that or they like assholes.
Bad news everybody, garden gnomes have jumped the shark
That’s too bad. I was just about to get a few to put around my trailer.
I should have expected it, as soon as there’s zombies of it you know the sharks can’t be far behind.
President Donald Trump abruptly fired FBI Director James Comey Tuesday, ousting the nation’s top law enforcement official in the midst of an investigation by the agency into whether Trump’s campaign had ties to Russia’s election meddling [emphasis mine – Paco].
At least 4 months late.
Now back to our post in its entirety!
Nick Kristof, who if he didn’t exist I’m not sure even FrnakJ could invent, mansplains abortion to backward Xtian women
If that seems incongruous, let’s remember that conservative Christianity’s ferocious opposition to abortion is relatively new in historical terms.
The Bible does not explicitly discuss abortion, and there’s no evidence that Christians traditionally believed that life begins at conception. St. Thomas Aquinas, the father of much of Catholic theology, believed that abortion was murder only after God imbued fetuses with a soul, at 40 days or more after conception.
So…. historically recent? In about 30 seconds of searching, we find this scholarly dude writing about how there was significant discussion in early Christianity about its sinfullness.
Huh. Why it’s as if Nick Kristof is an idiot?!?! Possibly. But he’s more of a fakenewser who spreads disinformation and misinformation to provide affirmation to NY Times readers because they’re good enough, they’re smart enough, and doggone it, people like them!
The deranged drifter charged with gunning down a shelter worker after she fought off his rape attempt refused to show up to court Monday for the first day of his murder trial.
West Spruill has been a no-show to Bronx Supreme Court before –
Dr. Herbert Lin, one of the nation’s pre-eminent thinkers on cybersecurity policy, shuns the internet-connected devices that fill some American homes.
He’ll have nothing to do with “smart” refrigerators, hands-free home speakers he can call by name, intelligent thermostats and the like.
“People say to me, ‘How can you have a doctorate in physics from MIT and not trust in technology?’ And I look at them and say, ‘How can I have a doctorate in physics from MIT and trust technology?’ ” Lin said.
The more you know the more paranoid you are.
Also, I wonder how many viruses (virii?) I picked up at that site.
In Fourth Circuit Hearing on Obama’s Travel Restrictions, ACLU Lawyer Admits, Sure, This Executive Order Might Be Legal if Hillary Clinton Signed It
Well, this was all pretty much implied from the lower courts’ reasoning — which always centered not on the law itself, but on statements Trump made (or was alleged by Rudy Giulliani to have made).
Minus those statements, then the EO passes muster. It’s facially constitutional. But they’re saying a bad man wants to pass it, which makes it unconstitutional by prior statements.
Chief Justice John Roberts first says the mandate in the law requiring individuals to buy health insurance is not a tax.
Then he says it is a tax.
He upholds the individual mandate—as a tax, not a penalty—as the law of the land. But then says it would not be “unlawful” for Americans to violate the law’s mandate that they “shall” buy health insurance–as long as they are willing to pay the “penalty” for not obeying the law.
So what you’re saying is that if you pass a law saying it’s not a tax it is a tax, except when it’s not, and Trump’s a doody-head?
I really need to read the commerce clause more closely cuz I just don’t see that. Or is it the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness clause?
A judge on Tuesday erased a 2013 murder conviction against former NFL star Aaron Hernandez, ruling that case law in Massachusetts has long established that defendants who die before their appeals are heard should have their convictions vacated. (emphasis me, V)
Ungulate gnawing on bone has been reported in the taphonomic and zooarchaeological literature, but there are no known reports of ungulates altering human remains. Herein, we report on the first known photographic evidence of deer gnawing human remains. (emphasis none of your business, V)
doubleplusundead 