News of the Week for Nov. 29th, 2020
- Election 2020
- Riots & Revolution
- Corona Virus
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Obamacare
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
Election 2020
A conspiracy less immense
As John notes in a nearby post, Sidney Powell has been separated from President Trump’s legal team. Politico’s Kyle Cheney is one of the first with the story here. John doesn’t do full justice to the vagaries of Powells contributions, such as they were.
Exit Sidney Powell
When Rudy Giuliani took the lectern at his 90-minute press conference last week (video below), he was accompanied by five members of the Trump campaign’s legal team including Sidney Powell. Indeed, the press conference was billed as that of the Trump legal team. After greeting the assembled reporters, Giuliani stated: “This is representative of our legal team. We’re representing President Trump and we’re representing the Trump campaign.”
Trump Supporters in Georgia Threatening Boycott of Runoff Over ‘Stolen’ Election
Some Republicans in Georgia are angry at their party for apparently “giving up” and acknowledging Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential race in the state.
Why Did Donald Trump Cut Sidney Powell From His Legal Team?
On Sunday, President Donald Trump’s lawyers former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis released a statement distancing themselves from Sidney Powell, the lawyer who represents former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. Powell had promoted a conspiracy theory involving voter machines switching votes from Trump to Joe Biden. She appears to have grown more unhinged, recently attacking Gov. Brian Kemp (R-Ga.) and even Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), who faces a runoff election against Raphael Warnock.
Californians, and Americans, reject racial quotas and preferences
Among the most surprising of the multiple surprising results in this election was California’s rejection of Proposition 16. The ballot measure was supported by the Democratic supermajorities in the state legislature, by long-established corporations, and by Silicon Valley tech firms, by leaders of mainline churches and nonprofit organizations.
California: The harms of Prop. 19 will soon be clear
This column has previously described Prop. 19, which barely passed with 51 percent% of the vote, as a steak laced with cyanide. It may look good, but you don’t want to eat it.
Democrats confront a new reality — a tiny majority in the House
When the dust settles from the 2020 election, House Democrats will find themselves with a very slender majority, possibly just four seats more than the majority threshold of 218. Whatever the precise number, the margin will be the smallest in the House in two decades.
Good News — For Now: Majority Of Georgia Voters Want Split Control In Washington
Yes, yes, I know, polling … but the latest Harvard CAPS/Harris survey isn’t quite the kind of horse-race polling that went awry in 2020. For that reason, it’s also not quite as predictive, at least theoretically, about what we can expect to see in the two Georgia runoff elections taking place on January 5th. However, it’s good news for Republicans, assuming that they can shake off attempts to undermine their own advantages in the special elections that will determine control of the Senate.
Pennsylvania Certifies Election For Biden
The fat lady may not quite be singing, but she’s doing arpeggios as a warm-up. Pennsylvania certified its election this morning, formalizing its slate of 20 electors for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. The move comes as Team Trump appeals a decision that kept them from blocking the certification
Georgia Is On My Mind and It Is Imperative We Get Our Priorities Straight Now
As everyone is aware, two runoffs in Georgia will determine the balance of the Senate. The state is also an epicenter of extraordinary allegations regarding the implementation of election technology from Dominion, a consent agreement, and a complete circus following the election. As a Georgia resident, I would like to say it would be constructive if everyone could focus on the urgent issue: The January 5 runoff. It is by no means a sure thing.
Biden’s win hides a dire warning for Democrats in rural U.S.
Democrats once dominated Koochiching County in the blue-collar Iron Range of northern Minnesota. But in this month’s presidential election, President Donald Trump won it with 60% of the vote.
Democrats’ Real Liability in the House
Joe Biden’s walloping victory in the popular vote didn’t translate down-ballot.
PA Judge’s Stay Order On Certification Argues Mail-In Ballots Challenge “A Viable Claim”
A glimmer of hope for Donald Trump et al, or yet another oncoming train? The judge who ordered Pennsylvania to halt its election certification processes on Wednesday filed an opinion backing up the action yesterday. Judge Patricia McCullough argued that the plaintiffs’ argument that mass mail-in voting violates the state constitution is “viable,” and that a short delay won’t hurt while courts sort out the challenge.
PA State Senator, Retweeted By Trump, Falsely Claims More Mail-In Ballots Were Returned Than Were Sent Out
This reminds me of the “data analysis” touted by Rudy Giuliani at his press conference with Sidney Powell that allegedly found many more votes cast in certain Michigan precincts than one would expect based on population. Proof that Biden and the Democrats had rigged Michigan’s election after all? Nah. It turned out those precincts were actually … in Minnesota. In red-leaning areas, in fact. In their haste to delegitimize Biden’s win and give Trump a face-saving claim of fraud to explain his defeat, his lawyers made an error a reasonably competent eighth-grader would have avoided with a bit of diligence.
No key to the keystone state
I wrote yesterday about the state trial court injunction prohibiting the governor and secretary of state from taking any further steps to perfect certification of the election, including but not limited to appointment of electors and transmission of necessary paperwork to the Electoral College. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court promptly vacated the trial court order and dismissed the case with prejudice.
PA Supreme Court Tosses Challenge To Mail-In Ballots
Thus endeth the end run around Pennsylvania’s election. The Pennsylvania supreme court has dismissed with prejudice a challenge to its mail-in ballot system, ruling that the challenge came far too late for any remedy that involved invalidating ballots in the 2020 general election. On that point, the court was unanimous, although two justices on the seven-member panel would like a lower court to look at the challenge to Act 77’s constitutionality for future elections.
Blame game erupts over Trump’s decline in youth vote
Everyone had a scapegoat — from the president himself, to the campaign to outside groups like Turning Point USA.
Trump: I’m Ashamed That I Endorsed Brian Kemp
Next weekend’s rally in Georgia is, or was, supposed to unite the party before the January 5 runoffs. Good luck with that after he inevitably spends 45 minutes at the mic ranting about how Kemp and his deputies are “enemies of the people” who rigged the election against him.
Riots & Revolution
The Latest Memorial to George Floyd Is in a Holocaust Museum
The viral video of police officer Derek Chauvin holding his knee on the neck of George Floyd for 8 minutes and 46 seconds shocked America, but it is a far cry from the systematic and brutal murder of millions of Jews and others at the hands of the Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler. There simply is no comparison. So, why did the Holocaust Museum in Maitland, Fla., erect a massive tribute to George Floyd’s death — right by the entrance, no less?!
New book meticulously debunks NYT’s 1619 Project–plus offers positive, accurate narrative of America’s past
Peter Wood’s new book “1620: A Critical Response to the 1619 Project” accomplishes two things in one. It meticulously debunks claims made in the New York Times 1619 Project and offers a positive, more accurate narrative of America’s true foundation.
France: Prominent Academics and Macron Administration Attack American Anti-Racist Ideology As “Anti-White”
Emmanuel Macron is making enemies in the American press after his left-liberal party, La République En Marche!, attempted to pass a bill that would withhold funding from academic institutions that preach values alien to the French Republic.
New England Journal of Medicine Pushes Reparations
Reparations would grant African Americans government benefits not paid to other Americans to rectify the awful sin of slavery and the “peculiar institution’s” residual harm. It is a favored policy of hard progressives, so of course, the New England Journal of Medicine — which regularly promotes left-wing causes in its “Perspectives” section—has published an article pushing the radical agenda as a supposed corrective to the disparate health outcomes between those “born Black or White” (capital letters in the text).
UVA prof calls for “Secretary of Equity”
A University of Virginia professor is calling on Joe Biden to create a “Secretary of Equity” cabinet position if he becomes president.
Corona Virus
New Mexico Governor Shuts Down Grocery Stores With New Public Health Order
Who had a governor is going to shut down grocery stores due to the pandemic on their 2020 coronavirus bingo card? If you did, stamp that square. The governor of New Mexico is shutting down grocery stores in her state over COVID-19 testing results.
Dead mink infected with a mutated form of COVID-19 rise from graves after mass culling
Mink infected with a mutated strain of COVID-19 in Denmark appear to be rising from the dead, igniting a national frenzy and calls from local officials to cremate mink carcasses.
Denver Mayor Jets Off to Houston After Telling People to Avoid Thanksgiving Travel
I’m tired of saying this, but it’s still true: All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
Trump and CDC: Coronavirus vaccine deliveries will begin early December
An amazing testament to American ingenuity and Trump’s Operation Warp Speed.
Swedish government sidelines epidemiologist who steered country’s no lockdown experiment as deaths rise
The high-profile epidemiologist who led Sweden’s no lock-down strategy in the spring appears to be being sidelined by the government after his prediction that greater immunity would mean a lighter second wave proved badly wrong.
Gun Rights
Apple’s global security boss accused of bribing cops with 200 free iPads in exchange for concealed gun permits
Exec, two officers, one other charged
Turley: Third Circuit Decision On 2nd Amendment “Perfectly Tailored” For Supreme Court After Barrett Confirmation
The Supreme Court has become notoriously skittish about Second Amendment cases in the years after Heller. That may change now after a Third Circuit ruling upheld a ban on firearm ownership for felons, even those convicted of non-violent crimes. In a 2-1 decision, the court ruled that a tax-evasion conviction was sufficient for a lifetime removal of Second Amendment rights
Hide the Decline
Environment &
“Green Energy”
Ocean Temperature Update
A considerable amount of new information on ocean temperature has been gathered since I last wrote about the subject in 2016 here. In my last post on GHCN and the National Temperature Index, it appeared that ocean temperature trends and the thermal energy distribution in oceans dominate climate change. Land-based weather stations are invaluable for weather prediction, but they tell us very little about climate change. The common definition of climate is an overall change in temperature or precipitation over a period longer than 30 years. But even 30 years is a short timeframe, 100 years might be better. On this timescale, ocean temperature trends are more significant.
“Why did it take nine hours to go 130 miles in our new electric Porsche?”
A Kent couple love their new car – but their experience suggests there are problems with the charging network
Obamacare
Government in Healthcare
Fifth Circuit Permits Texas and Louisiana to Defund Planned Parenthood
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has decided that Texas and Louisiana may remove state Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood clinics, reversing lower court rulings that prohibited the states from defunding the abortion provider.
War & Terror
Did China Use Microwave Weapons Against Indian Soldiers?
What be the strategic benefit?
China Prepares for ‘Informationized’ War
In March 2012, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, speaking to the National People’s Congress, declared that the Chinese military’s most important mission was “to win local wars under Information Age conditions.”
The Incredible Shrinking British Army
What happened to the once powerful British military?
National
The DiAngelo factor
The Washington Free Beacon’s Charles Fain Lehman reports on the forum conducted via Zoom by the University of Wisconsin’s Division of Diversity, Equity, and Educational Achievement. Doing the work that the mainstream media refuse to do, Lehman draws on documents obtained from the university in response to a freedom-of-information request for this outstanding report.
The war on standards: Magnet school admissions edition
America’s top colleges and universities grant preferential treatment to Blacks applying for admissions. For example, Black applicants need not perform nearly as well as White and Asian applicants on standardized tests in order to gain admission. Admissions data from Yale exemplify the preferential treatment.
Why I Call J.K. Rowling a Moderate on Transgender Issues
Sometimes, it feels like American society consists of a bunch of lemmings rushing to see who can fall off the cliff fastest. Elites seem to treat outright false narratives as shiny objects to chase, rushing to endorse the most insane position before someone else beats them to the punch. Predictions of climate disaster have failed to come true for decades, yet everyone endorses the climate change narrative. America has increasingly fought against outright racism for decades, yet now everyone says our institutions are “systemically racist.” Then, there’s transgenderism.
Harvard creating new “antiracism” librarian job. It pays up to $240,300 per year.
Harvard University is creating a new position for its Ivy League campus: an “Associate University Librarian for Antiracism.”
Why not “My Fuhrer”? Appeals court grills public college on forcing professor to call male student “miss”
Under university’s view, it could force him to use racist language, too
UVA student newspaper opinion writer: “Stand up” to “racist family” at Thanksgiving
An opinion writer for the University of Virginia student newspaper encouraged her readers to “stand up” against “racist family.”
Media Unveils Bold New Plan to Win Latino Support by Calling Them Racist
The ruling class knows only two ways to communicate with its subjects. (Three ways if you count omnipotent claims to be speaking on behalf of science and truth.) 1. Call them racist. 2. Tell them they’re the victims of racism
Here Are The Pro-Union Labor Laws Joe Biden Has Promised To Pass As President
During his campaign, President-elect Joe Biden promised to create “millions” of new union jobs, vowed to sign the pro-union Protecting the Right to Organize Act and received the endorsement of numerous labor unions.
On Cabinet Picks So Far, Biden Could Do a Lot Worse
This week, the Biden transition team is expected to name some of the more prominent appointees, including Anthony J. Blinken for secretary of state, Jake Sullivan as national-security adviser, and Linda Thomas-Greenfield as ambassador to the United Nations.
Carl Bernstein: I Have In My Hand A List Of 21 GOP Senators Who’ve Expressed “Extreme Contempt” For Trump Privately
The funniest thing you’ll see online all day. *Every* Republican in the Senate and possibly every Republican in the House has expressed “extreme contempt” for Trump privately at times, I’m sure. (Probably not QAnon ally Marjorie Taylor Greene, but remember that she’s not a congresswoman yet.) Why, some of the president’s most loyal devotees lambasted him as a lowlife when they ran against him in the 2016 primaries.
“Wokeness” Infiltrates College Music Departments
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that college music departments are under assault by the “woke.” These days, academics in all fields, even STEM, are under pressure to conform or face the fury of the Social Justice Warrior squads.
Antiracism Icon Robin DiAngelo Paid More Than Black Woman for Same Job
DiAngelo rakes in 70 percent more for University of Wisconsin speaking gig
Court Upholds Tennessee Measure Prohibiting Abortions Based on Sex, Race, or Down-Syndrome Diagnosis
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has decided that Tennessee may begin to enforce one component of a broader pro-life law that had been delayed by legal challenges and a federal judge’s temporary injunction. The component of the bill now allowed to take effect prohibits doctors from knowingly performing abortions sought because of the unborn child’s race or gender, or because the child was diagnosed in utero with Down syndrome.
Mystery of the 12-ft metal monolith discovered in middle of Utah desert – and it looks eerily similar to the machines in Space Odyssey
State workers in a helicopter noticed the shiny marker while flying overhead. About 10 to 12 feet tall, it’s planted in the ground and not dropped from above. There are no identifying markings and no one has claimed responsibility.
Professor instructs students on “decolonizing your Thanksgiving”
Advises students on how to “indigenize your Thanksgiving menu”
When Police Yell “Drop the Gun,” Guess What Happens If You Don’t?
Say hello to Rasheed Moorman, who may have been the unluckiest criminal in America. Or maybe he was just stupid.
Wokeists Assault Space Exploration
In October 2020, NASA’s Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey committee received a manifesto from its Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Working Group (EDIWG). Written by NASA Ames Research Center public-communications specialist Frank Tavares — along with a group of eleven co-authors including noted activists drawn from the fields of anthropology, ethics, philosophy, decolonial theory, and women’s studies — and supported by a list of 109 signatories, “”Ethical Exploration and the Role of Planetary Protection in Disrupting Colonial Practices” lacks technical merit. It is, nevertheless of great clinical interest, as it brilliantly demonstrates how the ideologies responsible for the destruction of university liberal-arts education can be put to work to abort space exploration as well.
Ethhical Exploration and th… by ThePoliticalHat
Biden’s Dangerous Central-Planning Ambitions
President-elect Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda has more than a whiff of FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society. Combing through Biden’s website, one can find a host of proposals which would expand the scope of the federal government, and grant it license to socially engineer on a scale not seen since the late ’60s.
Two Polls Show Republicans Prefer Trump As 2024 Nominee, But…
It’s a good thing we know now that polls are as reliable as astrology or I would have had a hell of a hard time reconciling these two. On the one hand, says Morning Consult, a clear majority of Republicans favor nominating Trump again in 2024
Marco Rubio: Biden’s cabinet is a bunch of polite, Ivy League caretakers of American decline
Marco’s working hard lately to rebrand himself as a leading populist voice of the post-Trump GOP. If you read this post, you know why.
Blowtorch Sheldon Whitehouse fights Blowhard Dick Durbin for top Dem spot on Senate Judiciary Committee
“some prominent progressives are pushing for Whitehouse to get the job due to his reputation as a political brawler”
Jordan Peterson v. the Publishing Mob
Staff at Penguin Random House Canada have “confronted management” about the decision to publish Jordan Peterson’s book in an “emotional town hall,” Vice reports. Peterson’s Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life will be released in March 2021.
Huge Religious Liberty Win At SCOTUS Rejecting NY Lockdowns – What a difference a Barrett makes
5-4 decision: “the regulations cannot be viewed as neutral because they single out houses of worship for especially harsh treatment”
California AG’s Brief Claims “Hate Speech” Is Constitutionally Unprotected
From a brief filed by the California Attorney General’s office in Ogilvie v. Gordon, a case dealing with restrictions on personalized license plates (such as exclusions of “racially degrading term[s]”)
When Police Yell “Drop the Knife,” Guess What Happens If You Don’t?
Antonio Estrada, 26, has been charged with arson, assault with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest in connection to a series of incidents that ended with San Francisco cops shooting Estrada.
McConnell Told Trump to Nominate Amy Coney Barrett on Night of Ginsburg’s Death, Ex-Chief of Staff Says
On the evening that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell allegedly encouraged President Donald Trump to nominate Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill Ginsburg’s seat, according to a PBS documentary expected to be broadcast on Tuesday on the series Frontline.
Chief diversity officer: “First Amendment ‘excuse’ is out” regarding offensive speech
In a recent interview with the student paper, the chief diversity officer at Georgia Southern University said that the “First Amendment excuse is out” when it comes to dealing with insensitive and racist speech.
Opioid deaths in young Americans often involve other drugs
Opioid overdose deaths involving more than one substance are more common among American teens and young adults than deaths caused by opioids alone, researchers report.
The Life Of the Hive Mind
News from the world of publishing: A walkout. One wonders what might cause such an outpouring of agitation and distress. Was it the looming publication of How to Punch Small Black Children and Get Away With It…?
Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions
Stay away from Martin Van Buren.
Kentucky Religious Schools Have First Amendment Right to Reopen, Says Federal Judge
The decision should also support secular private schools having similar rights as well. (Public schools are under control of the state government, and lack First Amendment rights against it.)
62 Arrested After Squatters Evicted from Vacant Homes in California
The California Highway Patrol has arrested 62 people in connection with evictions they carried out in homes owned by the state. Homeless people had occupied several of the vacant properties in El Sereno and CHP had been called in to investigate several break-ins that occurred in those properties.
“Students for Western Civilization” wants to set up shop at Canadian university
A group dubbed “Students for Western Civilization” wants to establish a chapter at Canada’s McGill University in order to “fight anti-white hate speech” and “preserve and enhance [white] cultural heritage.”
Trump considering kicking off 2024 run during Biden’s inauguration: report
President Trump is reportedly considering kicking off his 2024 campaign during President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, The Daily Beast reported.
Economy & Taxes
US economy grows at record 33.1%, according to second estimate
Initial estimate released last month showed record growth
Slumbering GOP Deficit Warriors Awaken to Do Battle
Something has been missing from Republican politics for the last four years. It wasn’t anti-abortion activism– we had plenty of that. It wasn’t the culture war — goodness knows we had plenty of that.
Cha-Ching: Black Friday Sales Hit New Record Totals
Retailers were not sure exactly what to expect this year during Black Friday sales. The coronavirus pandemic has caused merchants to expand Black Friday into a long weekend or to move doorbuster deals online to help avoid crowds of shoppers trying to pile into brick and mortar stores. Discounts are expected to continue to be offered throughout the weekend.
San Francisco wealth tax will fuel next blue exodus for rich earners
The celebration of Democrats is on hold after the election results. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are headed to the White House, but defeats in both chambers of Congress slowed the extreme agenda of packing the Supreme Court, adding new states to the union, and the prospect of a confiscatory wealth tax. Unforeseen losses for Democrats in Congress and state legislatures will most likely mean that radical policy prescriptions will be only possible at the local level.
International
School tells girls not to show knees because it distracts male staff
Parents and students at an Irish preparatory school are blasting administrators after female students were told not to wear tight clothing that could “distract” staff members.
Human ageing process biologically reversed in world first
The ageing process has been biologically reversed for the first time by giving humans oxygen therapy in a pressurised chamber.
ESA to Launch Space Junk Claw
The European Space Agency has announced plans to launch a space claw, which latches on to pieces of space junk, then drags the junk into a fiery death in Earth’s atmosphere. My question – what is the difference between something which can destroy space junk, and a satellite killer?
Opposition leaders circumventing Maduro regime to funnel funds using a unique crypto
Opposition leaders have launched a partnership with cryptocurrency to bolster foreign aid
Egypt Has Unearthed 160 Ancient Coffins Since September. Some Were Sealed With a ‘Curse’
Thousands of years ago, ancient Egyptians were laid to rest in Saqqara, an ancient city of the dead. Priests placed them inside wooden boxes adorned with hieroglyphics, and the sarcophagi were sealed and buried in tombs scattered above and below the sand.
‘Sistine Chapel of the ancients’ rock art discovered in remote Amazon forest
Tens of thousands of ice age paintings across a cliff face shed light on people and animals from 12,500 years ago
Earth now 2,000 light-years closer to Milky Way’s supermassive black hole
Finally 2020 delivers some good news.
Opinion
The Trouble(s) with “Sovereignty”
The concept exists both in principle and in practice, and Washington has embraced the former at the expense of the latter.
System over Policy, Nation over Faction
One of the more insidious things about President Trump is the way he acts as a kind of gravitational distortion in our political-moral space. His combination of self-serving unscrupulousness and weaponized charisma adds ethical weight to the decisions of more ordinary politicians and pundits. Political calculations that in normal times would have been routine and inconsequential become no longer so, and courage is required to do what is right rather than acquiesce in what is wrong.
On the Intellectual Decay at the University of Virginia (and Elsewhere)
At a great many colleges and universities across America, traditional academic standards and norms are being replaced by the “progressive” trinity of diversity, equity, and inclusion. That serves the interests of the people who are intent on transforming the country so it will fit their vision. That vision doesn’t look kindly on dissent or freedom.
Thanksgiving Is Not a Lie
It’s a mistake to read future conflict back into the 1621 feast, a moment of comity and hopefulness.
Back to the Future of Conservatism
There is much talk these days about the future of conservatism. Donald Trump has decisively changed the Republican Party; most of us think, for the better. Republicans are now seen as the party of the middle and working classes. I would say that we really have been that all along, but Trump brought the populist core of conservatism to the forefront. And “America First,” far from being scandalous as the Left believes, is the president’s job description.
California, There It Goes
The collapse of the last frontier—and how to save it.
Critical race theory: a ruling-class ideology
It is embraced by today’s political and cultural elites because it serves their interests.
