News of the Week for Jan. 29th, 2023
- Abortion
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Obamacare
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
Abortion
Dobbs Decision
Minnesota Legislature approves abortion rights bill
The Minnesota Legislature gave final approval early Saturday to a bill adding the right to abortion to state law.
Gun Rights
Gun rights groups speak out as Washington state Dems eye ban on semi-automatic rifles
Gun rights groups are speaking out against a bill being pushed by Washington state Democrats that would prohibit the sale and possession of many semi-automatic rifles, shotguns and handguns in the state.
NRA challenges Illinois semiautomatic gun ban in court: ‘Blatant violation’ of Second Amendment rights
The National Rifle Association filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the state of Illinois over its recent gun control law that the group says is “unconstitutional” and a “blatant violation” of constitutional rights.
Hide the Decline
Environment &“Green Energy”
Amanda Marcotte Says the Quiet Part Out Loud
Salon writer Amanda Marcotte — a walking, talking caricature of upper-middle-class liberal feminism — weighed in this past Friday on the still-burning gas-stove debate. Unsurprisingly, Marcotte is an enthusiastic proponent of the Current Thing — i.e., government intervention to keep these dangerous weapons of wok out of the hands of private individuals. But one reason for that interventionism, Marcotte argued, is that it would allow individual citizens to escape the unbearable guilt of taking personal responsibility for gas-stove ownership.
Medical Journal Demands ‘Ecological Equity’
The Lancet is the world’s oldest and (once) most respected medical journals. Like most publications of this genre, it has gone totally woke. It is now so out in left field that it has editorialized that the planet deserves equity.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves modular reactor design
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has formally approved a small modular reactor design from NuScale.
Here Come the Bugs
I have been writing lately about the war on agriculture–the Left’s attack on modern, scientific farming. The Left’s two main targets, so far, are fertilizers and animal husbandry. What is the end game? Leftists want us to eat a largely vegetarian diet, with insects as a protein source instead of cows, pigs and poultry.
Obamacare
Government in Healthcare
Canadian doctors are ghouls
The Canadian health care system–it’s free you know!–is killing people and harvesting their organs.
British ‘Single-Payer’ Health Care Program Is Cratering. That Should Be Wake-Up Call for US Liberals.
Rishi Sunak, the United Kingdom’s new prime minister, refuses to answer a simple question.
War & Terror
Federal Grand Jury Indicts Two People for Vandalizing Florida Pregnancy Centers
The DOJ actually went after people who attacked a pro-life pregnancy center.
National
Bathroom Bans for Transgender Youths Are Poised for Supreme Court Review
When the Supreme Court heard arguments in 2019 about the rights of gay and transgender workers, the justices seemed fixated on bathrooms.
School board member tweets: ‘Whiteness is so evil’
Tweeting “whiteness is so evil” has proven controversial for Kesha Hamilton, who’s on the Jackson (Michigan) school board, reports Kristina Watrobski for ABC News.
The Expurgated Declaration of Independence
Kamala Harris made a convenient edit when she mentioned the Declaration in her celebration of abortion yesterday
Ruben Gallego Runs to Split the Arizona Democrats for the Senate in 2024
The announcement by progressive Democrat Ruben Gallego that he is seeking the Democratic nomination for the Senate in 2024 could be very good news for Republicans in the race for the seat currently held by Kyrsten Sinema, if they don’t screw up and nominate an unelectable weirdo. Blake Masters, Kari Lake, and Karrin Taylor Robson are all reported to be mulling runs; if Masters and Lake both run, it could split the MAGA fringe vote and create more room for a normal candidate such as Robson or, if he could be persuaded to run, Doug Ducey. A pro-Gallego poll in December showed that Gallego would draw the bulk of the Democratic base in a three-way general election race, at least if Lake was the opponent. This may be an over-pessimistic assessment of Sinema’s appeal, but there is a real risk for Democrats that they could divide the left-of-center vote in a state where the general electorate may be anti-MAGA, but is still a majority right-of-center electorate. The problem for Democrats is that Sinema won’t be in their primary, so it is likely to end with both her and Gallego in the race and no obvious path to get either of them to drop out. The problem for Sinema is that the prospect of a three-way race gives Republicans little incentive to welcome her as a party-switcher if she decides to seek the GOP port in a storm, especially because a defection would not — as of now — flip control of the Senate before 2025.
The Woke Purge in the Sciences
Matthew M. Wielicki, professor of geosciences at the University of Alabama, has announced in a Twitter thread that he has decided to leave the university, and some of his reasons are becoming depressingly frequent in the sciences
Second Oath Keepers Seditious-Conspiracy Convictions
Two months after the split verdicts in the Justice Department’s first seditious-conspiracy prosecution against members of the Oath Keepers group, a federal jury in Washington, D.C., found four members guilty on Monday.
Mathematx is the new hotness
We all know that math is racist. It is used to enforce Whiteness on people by emphasing universalism (there is a truth) and requiring precision (apparently your ability to be precise is highly dependent upon melanin content in the skin). It is a construct that is inherently anti-radical as it assumes some inherent structure to the universe, and that there are “right” answers and wrong ones.
Nevada’s Top Court Says Cops Can Now Be Sued For Rights Violations, Won’t Have Access To Qualified Immunity
Cops in Nevada had better start behaving. The state’s Supreme Court has handed down a ruling that not only guarantees residents the right to sue under state law, but won’t allow officers to easily escape lawsuits by asking for qualified immunity.
Lawyer Finds Classified Documents in Mike Pence’s Indiana Home
“Pence asked his lawyer to conduct the search of his home out of an abundance of caution, and the attorney began going through four boxes stored at Pence’s house last week, finding a small number of documents with classified markings.”
Oakland School Board Election in Chaos as Different Winner is Declared After Results Are Certified
“The entire race has now been thrown up in the air, as the new results go against the certified results”
Vimeo Removes ‘Dead Name’ Documentary About Parents of ‘Transgender’ Kids for ‘Hateful Conduct’
The video platform Vimeo has removed a documentary about the struggles of parents who doubt the experimental transgender medical interventions that schools and doctors champion for their children, claiming that the documentary violates its policy prohibiting “discriminatory or hateful conduct.”
Florida public universities spend $15 million of taxpayer dollars on $28 million DEI, CRT initiatives
Of the total $28 million spent on DEI and CRT for the 2022-2023 school year, $15 million, or 53.5%, consists of taxpayer dollars.
More Drama in the Ohio House of Representatives
Last week, I wrote for the Wall Street Journal about how Republicans in Ohio’s house of representatives experienced their own drama over who would be speaker at about the same time Kevin McCarthy was struggling to become speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Short version: After winning a supermajority in elections last year, Ohio house Republicans chose Derek Merrin as speaker. But earlier this year, Jason Stephens, another Republican representative, outmaneuvered Merrin and ascended to the speakership with the votes of a minority of Republicans in the chamber but the support of all of its remaining Democrats. This has led to suspicion among some pro-Merrin Republicans that some kind of deal was made.
Vermont Supreme Court upholds noncitizen voting
Back in 2018, the city of Montpelier, Vermont passed an ordinance allowing noncitizens to cast votes in local and municipal elections. To make the rule look slightly less awful, they specified that the noncitizens could only vote if they were in the country legally. The city of Winooski followed suit in 2020. Democrats in the Vermont legislature approved these changes to both charters and overrode Republican Governor Phil Scott when he vetoed the measure. This led to the RNC filing two lawsuits seeking to declare noncitizen voting unconstitutional in both municipalities. The case made it all the way to the state supreme court, where it was shot down on Friday, with the justices ruling the rules complied with the state constitution.
Activists at U. Texas-Austin Have Driven the DEI Agenda Into Every Corner of the School
“Throughout our analysis, we have found an entrenched bureaucracy with an ever-expanding ideological agenda.”
Schiff enters race for Senate seat Feinstein still occupies
You gotta admit — the man is versatile. Yesterday, Adam Schiff made the case that’s his membership on the House Intelligence Committee is indispensable to American national security. The White House followed up yesterday by insisting that his expertise was crucial to the committee, which Karen covers in our next post.
Sen. Rick Scott is running for re-election pushing his controversial ‘Rescue’ plan
The Florida senator said he’ll stay neutral in the presidential race with the possibility of two Florida men, Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, running.
Brian Kemp’s Political Successes Are Evidence of Traditional Conservatism’s Popularity
In the aftermath of the 2022 midterm elections, Dominic Pino wrote an excellent piece detailing Brian Kemp’s electoral successes.
Constitution? What’s that?
Patty Murray gave a ringing endorsement for her, having urged President Biden to nominate Judge Charnelle Bjelkengren to serve as a U.S. District Court Judge in the Eastern District of Washington.
Accreditation Never Did Much Good, but Now It Pushes Ideology
Supposedly, accreditation ensures that educational programs are of high quality, as if it’s the equivalent of the UL symbol on an appliance. It was seldom any good at that, however. Accreditors have always been far more interested in a school’s outward trappings than digging deep to see if students learn anything.
State of Emergency: Gov. Kemp Issues Order to Deal With Atlanta Rioters
He’s ready to call up 1,000 National Guard troops.
‘Chief experience officer’ for students is the newest job in higher ed
Five universities are hiring or have recently hired a chief experience officer (CXO), an administrative position that does for college students what human resources (HR) does for employees.
Here’s How the Left Reacts to a Decrease in Educational Power
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently appointed several new trustees of the state’s New College. They are all people who intend to return it to solid, unpoliticized education. Of course, that’s just intolerable!
‘Mostly Peaceful Protests,’ Again
It’s been a while since we’ve had a good old-fashioned national riot wave. But in the wake of the police killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, that might be what we’re due for. Protests have already turned violent in Los Angeles and New York. Businesses in Memphis and elsewhere have already begun boarding up their windows. In Georgia, Governor Brian Kemp declared a state of national emergency, as the national restlessness over Nichols’ death intersected with the police killing of a climate activist.
Here Comes ‘Transableism’
Some people may think that transgenderism is the end of the road for radical individual “re-creationism” (a piquant term coined by the great Leon Kass). Not on a bet. Once surgically altering people who feel they are the different sex than they were when born becomes normalized, we will soon be ready for the next abyss. What is that? “Transableism.”
Ronna McDaniel Wins Fourth Term as RNC Chairwoman
It wasn’t even close.
Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions
Bogus arrests, bogus charges, and bogus seizures.
Memphis Police Department deactivates SCORPION anti-crime unit
The five Memphis police officers charged with second-degree murder and other offenses in the arrest of Tyre Nichols will be arraigned in Shelby County on February 17. The officers were members of an elite anti-crime police unit known as the SCORPIONS – Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods. The Memphis Police Department has deactivated the unit in the aftermath of Nichols’ death.
BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales exposes family-friendly drag show where children collect tips, performer toasts those who ‘lick us where we pee’
BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales exposed a family-friendly bingo and drag show in Princeton, Texas. Video recorded by Gonzales shows children scooping up tip money for the drag show performers.
Economy & Taxes
California Democrats consider wealth tax — including for people who moved out of state
Several Democrat-led states introduced similar measures in effort to tax rich even more
Eleventh Circuit Becomes Second Federal Appellate Court to Strike Down Tax Mandate Condition in 2021 Covid Stimulus Bill
Like the Sixth Circuit before it, the Eleventh ruled that the requirement that states receiving stimulus money refrain from cutting taxes was never clearly authorized by Congress.
First step towards national rent control? Biden admin to mandate “fairness”
Inflation is eating citizens alive in these United States; nowhere are those numbers more obvious or egregiously out of whack than in the housing and rental industries. If you owned your home already, you’re in the catbird’s seat. If you just bought one, or are trying to in an unbelievably tight market, you know what I’m talking about. Also, if you just bought one, but overpaid because of the tight market, and are watching values start to drop because of interest rates climbing, you’re not really happy.
Democrats hammer GOP plan to impose national sales tax, abolish IRS
Democrats are seizing on a Republican proposal to impose a national sales tax and abolish the Internal Revenue Service as a cudgel against the GOP, even though the bill has few fans even among Republican lawmakers.
Let’s go crazy, taxes edition
Now that Democrats control Minnesota’s political branches, they are in let’s go crazy mode. I’ve lived here all my life. I don’t want to let them drive me out, but they are doing their best. I want to take my stand and go down fighting. Besides, I’m afraid Florida is so overpopulated that it will detach and capsize.
International
The women who lived as sex slaves to an Indian goddess
Dedicated to an Indian goddess as a child, Huvakka Bhimappa’s years of sexual servitude began when her uncle took her virginity, raping her in exchange for a saree and some jewellery.
The Decline of China
China recently announced that its population fell last year for the first time in 75 years, and is expected to fall sharply in the coming decades. India will soon to pass up China as the largest national population in the world. China’s demographic decline may already be having a negative effect on its economic growth, which was already starting to decline before COVID disrupted everything.
Canada’s Black Out
Segregation has been making a comeback in the Western world, and the Left thinks that is a good thing. They are its proponents.
Scientists Discover Giant Reservoir Of ‘Hidden Water’ Just Three Feet Below Mars’ Grand Canyon
If we send a crewed spaceship to Mars right now and it lands in a large canyon and starts exploring, they’ll find a massive deposit of water. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) mission discovered “large volumes of water” in the red planet’s Valles Marineris canyon system.
‘Gay clubs’ run in seminaries, says Pope Benedict in posthumous attack on Francis
New book by the late pontiff makes extraordinary claims about the Catholic Church under his progressive successor
Czech EU minister to Elon Musk: Regulate speech or else…
Don’t worry, those increased vapor trails you saw in the skies last weekend were not part of an alien invasion. It wasn’t a secret government plot to seed the atmosphere in an attempt to control the weather. It was just all of the elite billionaires flying home from the World Economic Forum in Davos in their private jets.
Opinion
Tocqueville on the Roots of MEOW
I had the pleasure of spending three days last week at a series of events with the great Prof. Jean Yarbrough at UCLA’s Center for Liberal Arts and Free Institutions (podcast coming shortly), chiefly on Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. We were especially concentrating on Book II of that classic work, where Tocqueville examined the issue of equality in the American mind.
Trans Teacher Takes to TikTok, Tattles on Tween Tormentor
Is it prudent to scold misgendering students?
How bad a candidate was Kari Lake? This bad.
Bad candidates cost the Republican Party plenty in the 2022 election. But with the possible exception of Michigan, in no state did they cost their party like they did in Arizona.
Trad and tankie reactionaries would not have survived long as Medieval peasants
The horseshoe theory of political science holds that the radical Left and Right both tend to agree on obvious falsehoods — for example, the idiotic notion that capitalism has made us poorer. The latest result of this phenomenon is a new, imbecilic meme inverting this economic delusion, which both trad and tankie Twitter accounts alike are wholeheartedly embracing.
Tocqueville Anticipates How Wokery Grows
From Volume Two, Part Two, Chapter 1 of Democracy in America, on “Why Democratic Peoples Show a More Ardent and More Lasting Love for Equality than for Freedom”
Thank goodness woke education is saving our kids from learning how to spell
The unlucky students of the past were not offered the Bethlehem gifts of social justice activism
