News of the Week for May 29^th, 2022

• Gun Rights
• Hide the Decline
• Obamacare
• War & Terror
• National News
• Economy & Taxes
• International News
• Opinion

 

Gun Rights

 

A Gun-Control Advocate and His Fabricated ‘Facts’
Professor Saul Cornell admits he willfully misrepresented a study on the lethality of firearms.

The ‘Gun Lobby,’ ‘Assault Weapons,’ ‘Common Sense Gun Laws’ and Other Things Joe Biden Keeps Lying About
There are millions — literally millions — of AR-15-type rifles legally owned by law-abiding American citizens who have never shot another human being. The fact that Salvador Ramos owned two of them cannot be interpreted as signifying that everybody who owns an AR-15 is a menace to society, because if you want to engage in irresponsible generalization like that, I could think of some other generalizations relevant to violent crime that no sensible politician would dare invoke.

Shattering the Myth That the U.S. Has More Mass Shootings Than Anywhere Else
It’s like clockwork. Anytime there’s a mass shooting, you can count on the Democrats and their willing accomplices in the media and celebrity bubbles to politicize the event and call for gun control, usually of the “commonsense” variety.

Two House Republicans say they’re open to an assault weapons ban
One is a (mild) surprise, the other is not. The surprise is Rep. Chris Jacobs, who’s facing a contested primary in August in his New York district.

The State of the NRA
The National Rifle Association usually announces the total attendance at its three-day convention at the conclusion, and it seems like this year’s attendance will be short of the usual number of around 80,000. The aisles of the exhibition hall don’t seem as crowded as in past years. Houston First, the government corporation that oversees the convention center, said before the event began that it was expecting around 55,000 people.

Hero Woman Stops Graduation Party Mass Shooting WITH A GUN
There’s some good gun-related news this week out of Charleston, W.Va. According to Charleston police, Dennis Butler, 27, was speeding his car through an apartment complex last Wednesday night. People approached him and asked him to stop as there were kids playing nearby. He left and returned shortly thereafter around 10:45 p.m. with an “AR-15 style” rifle and opened up on “dozens” of people celebrating at a graduation party.

 

Hide the Decline

Environment &
“Green Energy”

 

Climate Risk and Wall Street Meet Cancel Culture
As we know, the climatistas have enjoyed great success in getting Wall Street (and big business generally) to drink the climate Kool Aid, and to declare climate to be an investment risk that must be quantified somehow.

ESG’s power grows as banker is canceled for talking sense on climate change
Last Thursday, something extraordinary happened: A senior HSBC banker, Stuart Kirk, told the world that climate change, though real, is not something financial markets need worry about. “Unsubstantiated, shrill, apocalyptic warnings are ALWAYS wrong,” one of Kirk’s presentation slides read.

Jimmy Carter Argues King Cove Residents’ Safety Less Important Than Animal Sanctuary
I thought this issue was settled, but apparently not. King Cove is a remote town in Alaska with an airport that can only handle flight in good weather. This means that when people become seriously ill and need hospitalization, they may not be able to access life-saving help.

 

Obamacare

Government in Healthcare

 

Unable to See Neurosurgeon, Disabled Canadian Woman Contemplates Euthanasia
A Canadian woman with a serious neuromuscular condition has been unable to obtain an appointment to see a neurosurgeon for four years.

 

War & Terror

 

China launches an autonomous mothership full of autonomous drones
China christened a remarkable new 290-foot ship last week – the world’s first semi-autonomous drone carrier. It’ll carry, launch, recover and co-ordinate the actions of more than 50 other autonomous aerial, surface and underwater vehicles.

Guards at Xinjiang re-education camps had standing shoot to kill orders
You may have seen that there’s a new collection of documents allegedly hacked and taken directly from the police in Xinjiang, China. These documents were given to Adrian Zenz at the non-profit Victims of Communism. He shared them with a consortium of media outlets who helped verify their authenticity.

ISIS Plotting To Assassinate George W. Bush In Dallas
Two confidential informants and surveillance of the alleged plotter’s WhatsApp account reveal plans to smuggle assassins into the U.S. to murder the former president, according to a search warrant application discovered by Forbes.

Citing lessons of Ukraine, US hopes to turn Taiwan into a ‘porcupine’
Yesterday Allahpundit mentioned that the US was nudging Taiwan toward a new military posture in light of the war in Ukraine. This afternoon the NY Times published a story about this shift. As the Times describes it, the US goal is to turn Taiwan into a “porcupine” to make it a less appealing target for mainland China.

China launches bid to control the Pacific
The world has been watching over the past two years as China has systematically attempted to use its financial strength to take control of a number of island nations around the western and southern Pacific Ocean. These maneuvers were clearly designed to thwart the United States’ efforts to shore up alliances in the region and counter the spread of the CCP’s influence. This week, however, China made its boldest and most obvious bid to expand its regional dominance. In a letter sent to ten small Pacific nations, Xi Jinping proposed to enter a broad agreement wherein China would provide “security” to all of the nations and create trade pacts covering everything from fishing rights to training programs for local law enforcement agencies. They also propose to create an umbrella service that would entangle all internet services along with “cultural classrooms” to indoctrinate children. How the various nations will respond to this offer is still unknown, but at least a couple of them are objecting.

Western powers sound alarm on China plan for South Pacific
Western powers sounded the alarm Thursday over leaked plans to dramatically expand China’s security and economic reach in the South Pacific, in what one regional leader called a thinly veiled effort to lock island states into “Beijing’s orbit”.

China could start building anti-SpaceX missiles to destroy Elon Musk’s Starlink project
Military researchers in China have urged the country to build a way to ‘disable or destroy’ SpaceX’s Starlink satellites in case Elon Musk uses them to ‘threaten’ national security

Ukraine Updates: Fighting in Donbas Reaches ‘Maximum Intensity,’ Kyiv Lashes Out at NATO
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on NATO: “But war is always a test that takes the masks off.”

Russia proposes sending its wounded soldiers to recover at Cuban apartheid beach resorts
It might be mistaken for a really bad joke, but it isn’t. Yes, Russia wants to build apartheid beach resorts in Cuba for its wounded butchers. And you can bet your bottom dollar that Castro, Inc. is absolutely thrilled by this proposal.

Turkey ready to back Sweden’s NATO bid?
While nothing has been set in stone yet, there are signs that talks between Turkey and Sweden over that nation’s NATO membership application may be moving toward an agreement. Yesterday, Turkey offered a list of “concrete assurances” that Sweden could provide that might result in Turkey agreeing to vote in favor of the application, likely assuring Sweden’s rapid entry into the alliance. And the assurances Turkey is seeking once again involve the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Turkey considers the PKK a terrorist organization and wants Sweden to stop providing support to the group, along with turning over Kurds that have sought refuge in Sweden. For their part, Sweden claims they don’t support the PKK, but only provide humanitarian relief to Kurds in Syria who have been displaced by the ongoing conflicts in that region.

Ukraine Updates: Nine Killed, Including Baby, in Kharkiv, Ukraine Admits Losing Ground in Donbas
Russia is so close to gaining Luhansk and Donetsk.

Leaked audio: China is planning the invasion of Taiwan
Assuming this is real (and it appears to be), there has been what’s being described as an unprecedented leak of a recording of a top-secret meeting of China’s People’s Liberation Army leadership. During the meeting, senior military and CCP officials are heard discussing detailed plans to “smash” the military forces of Taiwan. There are also detailed discussions of logistical support for the invasion involving various companies that will provide needed supplies. Maintaining the security of key regions of mainland China from any sort of counterattacks is also discussed. The leaked audio raises several questions, including who would have carried out the leak and whether this is an actual plan or simply a preparatory exercise.

A Daughter’s Love
Jewher Ilham is a remarkable young woman. She is a Uyghur activist, although she did not set out to be, of course. Life threw at her some terrible challenges, and she has met them.

China’s Pacific Advance: A Pattern of Islands
I’m not much of a fan of the current Chinese remake of South Pacific, but it appears to be going rather too well.

SHUT IT DOWN: Radical Leftwing Group Draws Up Battle Plans To Blockade Supreme Court
Leaders encourage protesters to ‘stretch the bounds of constitutionally protected speech’

Ukraine: Bad Week in the Donbas
You can click on that map to view it full-size, but the story it tells is of Russian success in its attempt to cut off and encircle Sievierodonetsk, the linchpin of Ukraine’s attempt to maintain a foothold the eastern (or northern) bank of the the Siverskyi Donets river. The Ukrainian supply line for Sievierodonetsk, running west through Lysychansk and Siversk would normally run through Bakhmut, 40 miles to the south, but the Russian advance from Popasna has cut off that route.

 

National

 

Students want local government to defund police, transfer power to activists
Student organizations from two public Florida universities are supporting a left-wing community action group’s fight for a ‘People’s Budget.’

Philadelphia School District Encouraged Teachers to Attend Conference on ‘Kink’
One of the conference’s speakers argued that sex toys should be introduced to minors

Something strange is up with 45-year-old spacecraft Voyager 1
In the 1970s, two spacecraft were designed and built for the wildly ambitious mission to study the outer reaches of the solar system. More than 40 years later, the two Voyager spacecraft are, incredibly enough, still functioning and transmitting data, even as they have left the solar system behind and headed out into interstellar space. The two craft have survived various glitches and problems, however, a recent issue with Voyager 1 has engineers at NASA scratching their heads.

NYC Mayor declares state of emergency
Yesterday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency in the Big Apple. This news probably won’t sound very shocking to anyone who has been in the city or simply pays attention to the headlines. There are plenty of situations in Gotham that could rightfully be described as emergencies. Adams isn’t talking about the daily shootings, the epidemic of homelessness, or the unaffordable rent and real estate prices, however. He’s declaring a state of emergency because of the lack of baby formula on the city’s shelves. That’s certainly a bad situation for any families with infants to be sure, but can the Mayor make more formula magically appear with a stroke of his pen? Not really. But he can stop people from price gouging with the few remaining supplies of formula, or so he thinks.

Who Lied to This Lady? Pretty Much Everyone
The Washington Post ran an article on the surge in early voting in Georgia, which was supposed to be in the grips of Jim Crow 2.0.

School board scolds mom for violating ‘decorum.’ She was reading a sexually explicit assignment given to her daughter.
If it’s too sexually explicit to read at a school board meeting, it shouldn’t be assigned to children. Unfortunately, the Clark County School District isn’t following that common sense guideline.

After Roe, Supreme Court may do away with affirmative action. Here’s how it could happen.
Back in January we learned that the Supreme Court had decided to take up a case involving affirmative action in college admissions.

The Diversity Mania Swallows Up Another School
These days, almost every academic opening winds up being filled by someone who is throughly imbued with “progressive” ideology. If you’re not “woke” don’t bother applying.

15 killed by shooter at Texas elementary school
The shooting took place at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. It’s a town of 15,000 people located about 80 miles west of San Antonio.

A Princeton Classics Professor Gets Railroaded
Joshua Katz ran afoul of the woke pieties that now dominate American campuses, and his enemies have used a despicable pretext to try to get him fired for it.

New “Racial Literacy Curriculum” for High School Pushes Social Justice in Every Subject, Including Math
A new curriculum released by Pollyanna, Inc., diversity consultant to over 60 high-priced elite K-12 schools, preaches that “all texts grapple with race, either explicitly or implicitly,” that “health can be experienced at every size,” and tasks students with planning protests in math class.

Top Republican Michigan Governor Candidates Ineligible for Ballot Due to Lack of Valid Signatures
The man at the center of it was convicted of election fraud in Virginia involving…fraudulent signatures.

Alabama GOP Senate Race Heads to Runoff after Katie Britt Bests Mo Brooks by 16 Points
Katie Britt, an attorney and former chief of staff to retiring GOP senator Richard Shelby, won 45 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s Republican Senate primary in Alabama. She is now the favorite heading into the runoff election against GOP congressman Mo Brooks, who came in second with 29 percent of the vote.

Brian Kemp’s Master Class in Political Strategy
Alex Isenstadt has a piece for Politico that explains how Governor Brian Kemp was able to solidify support within the Republican Party of Georgia and cruise to victory over David Perdue in yesterday’s primary election.

Raffensperger Wins by Double Digits, Avoids Runoff
Polls had shown a competitive race in the Georgia GOP primary for secretary of state, but incumbent Brad Raffensperger is leading Trump-backed congressman Jody Hice 51.3 percent to 34.1 percent with nearly 90 percent of votes counted. According to Henry Olsen, Raffensperger is a heavy favorite to win the 50 percent necessary to avoid a runoff election under Georgia primary rules.

Baptist university establishes its first LGBTQ+ student group
Baylor University, a Christian institution, has officially charted its first LGBTQ+ student organization in its 177-year history.

What’s the Matter with Oklahoma?
From time to time we like to highlight academic job ads as an indicator of how badly politicized our universities have become. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, along comes the University of Oklahoma with a job ad so jaw-dropping bad that it sets a new standard. In this case, for a musical theater performance slot.

San Francisco Schools Abolish the Word ‘Chief’ Because of Course They Did
Apparently, February’s recall of school-board members in San Francisco did not cure the city’s public-school system of its preference for cultural leftism over such trivia as teaching children. You can’t make this stuff up: The San Francisco Unified School District is dropping the word “chief” from job titles (“chief technology officer,” “chief of staff,” etc.) for its 10,000-strong workforce because — you guessed it — the word is associated with Native Americans. According to spokesperson Gentle Blythe, “While there are many opinions on the matter, our leadership team agreed that, given that Native American members of our community have expressed concerns over the use of the title, we are no longer going to use it.” No substitute has been agreed upon, which suggests how much thought was put into the decision. Not only is this cultural erasure of Native Americans in the service of supposedly removing a source of offense, it is also a symptom of the educational illiteracy of our educators.

Texas Police Lieutenant Says Cops Were Reluctant to Engage Gunman Because ‘They Could’ve Been Shot’
A Texas Department of Public Safety official said responding officers were cautious as they entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas because “they could’ve been shot.” Nineteen children and two teachers were murdered after authorities say an 18-year-old male entered with a rifle 12 minutes after he crashed a car near campus.

DPS spokesman: Police ‘could’ve been shot’ and decided to ‘contain the gunman’ with his victims
Earlier today I posted a Today show interview with Texas Department of Public Safety Lieutenant Chris Olivarez. In the clip which was posted yesterday, he described the timeline of what happened at Robb Elementary School.

Liberal Los Angeles could take right turn in mayor’s race
Many voters in heavily Democratic Los Angeles are seething over rising crime and homelessness and that could prompt the city to take a turn to the political right for the first time in decades.

Va. Judge Finds Probable Cause That “Court of Mist and Fury” and “Gender Queer” Are “Obscene for … Minors”
This finding is now being used as a basis for seeking a restraining order banning Barnes & Noble from distributing the books to minors. Is that constitutional?

Duke professor under fire for refusing to attend ‘Maoist’ diversity training
A professor at the Duke University School of Medicine is under fire after he blasted a mandatory equity training as “Maoist political propaganda” and refused to attend.

“There was almost a mutiny”: Uvalde cop says force is furious that they were held back
The key word here is “almost.” Why wasn’t there a mutiny? The Border Patrol didn’t let the wishes of the police chief stop them from going in — after they waited half an hour.

Oops – Gibson’s Bakery Seeks To Execute On $36 Million Appeal Bond Since Oberlin College Failed To Obtain Stay Of Appeals Court Mandate
Motion filed in trial court today: “If Defendants wanted to stay execution of the mandate of the Ninth District Court of Appeals, they were required to seek that stay in the Ohio Supreme Court. They did not. Plaintiffs are entitled to judgment on the surety bond ….”

The Threat to America’s Bacon and Egg Breakfasts
Between bird flu and fuel costs, egg and meat production plummet.

Florida universities record students’ preferred pronouns
Public universities in Florida are allowing students to add their preferred pronouns to various forms of university identification. Florida International University now allows students to select preferred pronouns on its online system, which professors are then expected to use.

Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions
Jury trials, bench trials, and prospective insurrections.

Cops Probe After Middle School Librarian Allegedly Says Students Are ‘Sex Workers’ To Justify Pro-Prostitution Book
Police in Northern Virginia are investigating after a middle school librarian allegedly defended a pro-prostitution book by saying it belonged in the library because many of the school’s 11- to 13-year old students are sex workers, The Daily Wire has learned.

 

Economy & Taxes

 

How the United States Conquered Inflation Following the Civil War
Americans today are once again the victims of price inflation brought on by runaway government spending and printing of unbacked paper money.

CBO Projects Largest Sustained Deficits Since ‘At Least 1930’
The Congressional Budget Office is out with a fresh report projecting that deficits will remain at a sustained level not seen since “at least 1930” even after coming down from their Covid-era peak.

Congressional Budget Office: Inflation Will Continue Into 2023
Hopefully, prices won’t increase but it sounds like we won’t see a decrease at the store and gas station anytime soon.

Evidence of the Coming Freight Recession
Rachel Premack of FreightWaves has a new piece about the prices of used semi-trucks. After a year and a half of soaring used-truck prices, the market is cooling off. That’s a necessary, though not sufficient, condition for a freight recession.

Biden student-loan forgiveness plan: $20,000 for households earning $300K per year?
So much for Scranton Joe looking out for the working class, eh? While Joe Biden crows about the “incredible transition” he’s forcing lower- and middle-class households to endure with hyperinflation and record gas prices, Biden’s about to offer Academia a bail-out. College-loan recipients could get $10,000 taken off the top of their debt as long as they earn under $150,000 per year, and married couples with loans for both could see a $20,000 benefit as long as they earn under $300K.

One of California’s worst ideas yet is to turn government into a union for fast food workers
If there were an annual awards banquet for Worst Ideas Introduced in Legislation, California would certainly dominate the competition every year, and this year, a bill threatening to turn the government into a labor union for fast food employees might very well win the top trophy.

Will this fruit-picking robot transform agriculture?
Creating a machine that can perform the delicate work of picking an apple is tricky – and farmworkers say it could be a benefit

U.S. Diesel Supplies Running on Fumes as Inventories Hit Record Lows
Of course, instead of gas exploration, Biden exploring release of diesel fuel reserves.

The Global Food Crunch: Will Rice Be Next?
In the most recent Capital Letter I have written about how disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine were triggering export bans by some food-producing nations (and risked triggering more), something made more dangerous by the way that, in a era of global food markets, the aim of self-sufficiency had been replaced by specialization. That works very well until it doesn’t.

CA Senate Passes Guaranteed Basic Income Bill for ‘Homeless’ Graduating High Schoolers
The definition of ‘homeless’ is creative and includes ‘migratory children’

 

International

 

Only the Woke Need Apply
From the Telegraph, a story that sums up much that is wrong with the West. Calvin Robinson has been studying at Oxford for the last two years to become an Anglican priest. Robinson was scheduled to begin a curacy at a parish in London, but the post was denied him and he was told the church did not have a role for him. Why?

Kill Japan’s elderly? Cannes film probes chilling idea
A Japanese film-maker is shaking Cannes film audiences to the core with a dystopian vision of her country in which old people agree to be euthanised to solve the challenge of a rapidly ageing population.

Labor Relations and Thought Control
The notion of the exploitative employer has been a standard critique of capitalism, and not always without reason (curiously, the way that communist states treated workers in their factories has been subject to a rather less sustained critique, in the West anyway), but the degree of intrusiveness of some contemporary employers, who appear to be engaged either in changing the way that their employees think or, at least, pretend to think, goes beyond anything that could have been dreamt up by the robber barons of old.

The House of Lord’s Only ‘Female’ Hereditary Member
There are many quirks to the British political system. One such is the system of hereditary titles and male primogeniture in the upper parliamentary chamber, the House of Lords.

Ex-rebel emerges as favorite in Colombian presidential race
Flanked by bodyguards with bulletproof shields, Gustavo Petro stood on a stage and lashed out at Colombia’s political elite in a speech to the residents of Fusagasuga, a rural town where farmers are struggling.

Make womb for breakfast! ‘UTERUS-shaped’ cereal aims to normalise conversations about periods at the breakfast table
Intimina developed Period Crunch to encourage families to discuss periods

Ancient DNA reveals secrets of Pompeii victims
Researchers studying human remains from Pompeii have extracted genetic secrets from the bones of a man and a woman who were buried when the Roman city was engulfed in volcanic ash.

Japanese companies are taking “furries” to a whole new level with realistic animal costumes straight out of your nightmares
Well, Japanese company Blast Entertainment has you covered with their costumes that are creepier than the anamorphic cartoon outfits furries usually wear.

Lula’s Lead Over Bolsonaro Grows in Brazil Presidential Race
Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s lead surged over incumbent Jair Bolsonaro as the field of candidates seeking Brazil’s top office thins out ahead of the October election, according to DataFolha’s latest poll.

Over 100 freedom advocates sign open letter warning Colombia of the extremist left trying to take over
With elections in Colombia coming up next Sunday, pro-democracy advocates around the world are warning of the consequences the country and the region will suffer if extreme leftist Gustavo Petro is elected.

Pets may have to be culled to prevent spread of monkeypox in UK, report says
Experts say you should stay away from animals if you have monkeypox and if the pets cannot be isolated euthanasia is another option

 

Opinion

 

What’s with all the Newsom POTUS talk?
There certainly seem to be plenty of people in the political media who want to talk about Gavin Newsom as a potential presidential candidate in 2024. He gets asked about it regularly. The San Francisco Chronicle brought this up last week during a meeting they had with him prior to endorsing him for another term as governor. CBS News asked him about it last year. And now, Politico has decided to dive into the analysis, citing those previous two examples and more. Of course, there’s one exception to this seeming parade of people wanting to talk about Gavin Newsom running for president and that would be Gavin Newsom himself. Whenever he’s asked, he uses some variation of the phrase, “100 percent not on my radar.” At what point can people simply be grateful and take no for an answer?

The Stare Decisis Case against Roe
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Adam White has an excellent op-ed arguing that the Supreme Court should overturn Roe v. Wade precisely for the sake of stare decisis. Supporters of Roe often argue that the Court would be doing a disservice to the importance of precedent if it overturns its 1973 ruling, but White makes the case that not to do so would be the real stare decisis error

Revisiting Bakke
Adam Liptak, writing in the New York Times, notes Jonathan Mitchell’s brief urging the Supreme Court to start applying the clear terms of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to colleges — which would entail getting rid of admissions practices that discriminate on the basis of race. It closes by citing a counterargument from Harvard’s lawyers: The Court decided not to apply those terms back in 1978 (Regents of the University of California v. Bakke), and Congress has not chosen to pass a statute clearly outlawing such admissions practices.

Supervillains Gather in Davos
Why do our global elites sound like they belong in a bad dystopian movie?

Centers of Progress, Pt. 37: Dubrovnik (Public Health)
Today marks the 37th installment in a series of articles by HumanProgress.org called Centers of Progress. Where does progress happen? The story of civilization is in many ways the story of the city. It is the city that has helped to create and define the modern world. This bi-weekly column will give a short overview of urban centers that were the sites of pivotal advances in culture, economics, politics, technology, etc.