It’s Friday, April 29th, 2022…but before we begin, we thought it might prove a useful exercise to list some of the disinformation Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter will allow back on the social media site:
1. Climate change isn’t settled science.
2. The WuFlu was released, either deliberately or accidentally, by China.
3. Masks were about as useful as a…
…in preventing the spread of COVID.
4. Dr. Faux Chi and all his pompous pronouncements were even less useful, as the country would have done better never to have locked down and masked up at all.
5. There were actually legitimate concerns about the various vaccines, and ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine actually eased certain people’s suffering.
6. Hunter’s laptop was NOT a Russian plant.
7. Hate speech will no longer defined as facts delicate little snowflakes don’t want to face.
8. Just as Putin is solely responsible for the suffering he’s inflicted upon Ukraine, Biden is solely responsible for the suffering he’s inflicted on America.
9. Critical Race Theory is itself racist.
10. There are only two genders: Those God assigns at birth, which should determine the bathroom one uses and as well as the sports in which one competes.
The Biden Communist clown car responded to Musk’s move by announcing the formation a “Disinformation Governance Board”…
And that, in the eyes of many foreign-policy thinkers, was reasonable; Putin’s Russia was difficult but rational, a former great power that still commanded considerable influence around the globe, and a potential ally to the U.S. on arms control, fighting terrorism, and other issues. Last July, John Kerry, Biden’s special envoy on climate change, spoke with Putin for an hour and called the Russian leader “very forthcoming and thoughtful” about ways to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. “We can continue to feel the kind of cooperative possibility that emerged in the course of our conversation,” Kerry said.
Today, that perspective sounds unspeakably naïve. That vision of Russia as ornery but rational was always a polished public-relations illusion, meant to lull conflict-averse Western leaders into a false sense of security.
The Russian army is brutal, dumb, sadistic, disorganized, poorly trained, and often incompetent. Its troops are the nastiest of bullies against the defenseless, but wilt in the face of organized resistance. (As do their domestic Progressive counterparts!)
In the third month of the invasion of Ukraine, Russia looks both less scary and scarier than before. Russia is less scary because, clearly, its military forces are nowhere near as fearsome and capable as their reputation suggested…
…But Russia is more frightening because Putin has marched his regime and country into a desperate situation. He thought this invasion would end with him guaranteed to be remembered by Russians as the second “Vladimir the Great.” Now, he’s on course to be remembered as the most spectacularly reckless and self-destructive European leader since Adolf Hitler. Russia will be economically ruined, diplomatically isolated, globally denounced, and militarily neutered . . . all for a few stretches of bombed-out land on the other side of the pre-war border.
The worse the situation gets, the less Vladimir Putin has to lose. The stability of his regime and perhaps even his life are on the line.
Russian state media are now characterizing the invasion of Ukraine as a war with NATO — and considering all the aid that NATO countries are sending, all the intelligence the U.S. is sharing, and how the U.S. is helping Ukraine shoot down Russian planes, it’s not the most unreasonable assessment in the world.
God only knows whether the ranting and raving buffoons on Russian state television should be interpreted as just venting rage and frustration, or whether it is actually a deliberate choice to prepare the Russian public for coming military moves. But the rhetoric is getting bizarre and disturbing, talking about the need for a special military operation to “demilitarize NATO,” that NATO is “a collective Hitler,” that a nuclear strike seems probable, and that “we’re all going to die someday.”
If Russian state media are reflecting the current thinking of Putin and Russian leadership . . . then they are wrestling with the question of whether it is better to live with the abject humiliation in Ukraine or to salvage some sense of “honor” by using nuclear weapons.In the glow of a mushroom cloud, Putin and his acolytes can tell their countrymen that they have wiped out the so-called threat, once and for all.
Whatever happens next, the Russia we knew, or thought we knew, throughout much of the post–Cold War period is now long gone. What remains is something closer to a territorially giant North Korea with a much larger nuclear arsenal — paranoid, irrational, illogical, unpredictable, with serious questions of whether the leadership is getting accurately briefed on any issue. Not only is a “stable and predictable” relationship with Putin’s Russia now impossible, it is unlikely that U.S.–Russia relations will thaw for at least a decade.“
If then. In a related item from the Journal, Seth Cropsey suggests, while a nuclear war should never be fought, given the Kremlin’s escalating threat of just that, the U.S. needs to demonstrate it can win one, else the chance Putin will resort to the unthinkable “becomes dangerously real”.
Speaking of the unthinkable, the Morning Jolt exposes…
“If you borrow money and sign a contract promising to pay it back, then you must pay it back, or you will suffer serious long-term financial consequences. Or at least, that’s the way it used to work until Democrats decided they could win a lot of votes by just waving a magic wand and declaring that people didn’t have to pay their student debt back.
Sure, you could always find some smarter-than-usual jerk who hid certain assets, declared bankruptcy, and walked away from massive debts with limited impact on his lifestyle. For the overwhelming majority of Americans, however, the system was not particularly pleasant, but it was clear and fair: If you take out a loan to buy a house, you must pay it back over time, with interest. If you take out a loan to buy a car, you must pay it back over time, with interest. If you take out a loan to pay for a college education, you must pay it back over time, with interest. You signed a contract. You knew the terms going in — or at least you were supposed to know them. You’re supposed to read the documents you sign. You knew the payments you were going to have to make and when you would have to make them. If you don’t want to deal with the financial pressure of debt, don’t take out the loan.
…without an income cap, forgiving $10,000 per borrower would most benefit whites under the age of 40 who have graduate degrees and live in high-income, majority-white neighborhoods. This is one of the most Democratic-leaning and outspoken progressive demographics in the country.
This is a wealth transfer from taxpayers to the Democratic Party’s Twitter class. (Then again, judging from the rapidly changing follower numbers in just the past day or so, maybe these people are leaving Twitter now that Elon Musk owns it.)
If you paid back your student loans in recent years, there is a good chance you were a chump. You paid money that Uncle Sugar was going to come along and cover if you had just waited. You should have spent that money on other things you would have enjoyed and defaulted on your payments, waiting for the federal government to come along and say, “Don’t worry, the taxpayers have this covered.”
If you currently owe a lot on your mortgage, your car payments, your home-improvement loans, or any other loan, and you’re diligently and responsibly making your monthly payments . . . well, you are kind of a sucker, too, because you borrowed money that you had to pay back, instead of taking part in Joe Biden’s free-money program.
At the beginning of the month, when Biden extended the moratorium on repaying student loans until September, he released a statement declaring that, “We are still recovering from the pandemic and the unprecedented economic disruption it caused. If loan payments were to resume on schedule in May . . . millions of student loan borrowers would face significant economic hardship.”
What Biden ignores is that the moratorium on repaying student loans is exacerbating the “unprecedented economic disruption.” Inflation represents too much money chasing too few goods; consumer demand is high, and supply is low, thanks to pandemic disruptions, supply-chain issues, etc. One of the reasons consumer demand is so high is because no one has had to make a student-loan payment in two years!
As the New York Times observed earlier this month:
The administration’s decision to extend the student loan moratorium through Aug. 31 will keep money in the hands of millions of consumers who can spend it, helping to sustain demand. While the effect on growth and inflation will most likely be very small — Goldman Sachs estimates that it probably adds about $5 billion per month to the economy — some researchers say it sends the wrong message and comes at a bad time. The economy is booming, jobs are plentiful and conditions seem ideal for transitioning borrowers back into repayment.
Apparently, President Biden’s philosophy is to borrow and spend whatever it takes to get inflation under control. He keeps throwing larger and larger piles of money at the public and then stands in befuddled confusion, wondering why inflation keeps getting worse…”
Such economic idiocy recalls one of our favorite Seinfeld scenes:
In a blinding bit of related insight, Adam Ozimek, chief economist for the Economic Innovation Group, tweeted:
BTW, at the risk of exposing our ignorance, can anyone illuminate us as to what section of the Constitution or specific piece of legislation gives 46* the authority to arbitrarily forgive trillions in student loan debt?
Then again, there’s a good reason Uncle Joe isn’t concerned about the skyrocketing inflation he created, the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine he invited, the crime wave he caused or the steady stream of illegal aliens across the southern border he opened: None of it impacts his contributors, his family or himself personally. So it’s to Hell with those who are effected, ’cause he can’t make any money off them, and they probably voted for Trump.
Next, writing at NRO, Cody Wisniewski, director of the Mountain States Legal Foundation‘s Center to Keep and Bear Arms, reports…
“In the wake of the recent shootout in Sacramento — now thought to be a gang battle involving at least five shooters — gun-control zealots are determined to take away the people’s rights and give them more of what doesn’t work.
California has more gun laws than any other, yet state lawmakers are stillexploring new ways to disarm peaceable residents and leave them at the mercy of criminals. Meanwhile, President Biden has already taken advantage of the tragedy, calling on Congress to pass the same laws that didn’t stop the carnage in California.
Surprisingly, even the mainstream press, which tends to be favorable toward gun control, has shown skepticism.
…Different factors could explain these unusual moments of honesty from the media. Ahead of the midterm elections, it could be that the mainstream Left is eager to adopt a “moderate” image, and is thus making a tactical retreat from increasingly unpopular gun-control proposals that cause discomfort even among Democrats.
It could also be that some reporters are just getting tired of the way in which mass shootings are constantly and predictably politicized. Even gun-control supporters might get sick of repeating the same calls to action, by the same politicians, over and over again. Whatever the reason, it’s good to see a bit of common sense cut through the mainstream media’s echo chamber. More gun control won’t save California from a crisis that has seen residents flee the state and Los Angeles be compared to a horror film.
Of course, recognizing as much is not enough. Californians, and all Americans, need to hear the full truth: Gun control isn’t just ineffective, it’s deeply immoral. Armed self-defense is a natural right, not a government-granted privilege. Gun control disarms peaceable citizens and doesn’t stop criminals. And the most important thing government can do for our safety is to stay out of the way of our right to self-defense.
You won’t hear those truths from NPR or Politico. But we the people will continue to make ourselves heard.“
Turning from those who promise to continue making themselves heard to those who should just shut up, FOX tells us…
“...The quote Weingarten tweeted did combine two separate portions of Rufo’s April 5 speech and not in the order in which they were said.
While offering advice to Hillsdale students, Rufo said that they must engage in a “narrative and symbolic war” against institutions like Disney. “You have to be very aggressive, you have to fight on terms that you define, you have to create your own frame, your own language, and you have to be ruthless and brutal in pursuit of something good,” Rufo told the students.
Several minutes later, Rufo urged his audience to “attack the credibility of institutions,” suggesting the damage is self-inflicted, which caused trust among Americans to be eroded.
“I think you want to create the conditions for fundamental, structural change…for example, school choice. To get universal school choice, you really need to operate from a premise of universal public school distrust. Because in order for people to take significant action, they have to feel like they have something at stake. I think that the public schools have done a remarkable job at doing that- specifically the public school teachers unions. They shut down schools for more than a year”…”
Here’s wishing Chris Rufo the same success as Nick Sandman.
Moving on, here’s a quintet of specially selected items certain to pique the interest of inquiring Conservative minds:
(2). An article from The Atlantic forwarded by Jeff Foutch concludes the path to avoiding the worst impacts of climate change requires something impossible; Well, not actually impossible, but exceptionally difficult to imagine.” Sorta like the junk science of anthropogenic global warming itself.
Which brings us, appropriately enough, to The Lighter Side:
Then there’s these from Balls Cotton…
…the lovely Shannon…
…and Mark Foster:
Finally, we’ll call it a month with yet another tortured tale torn from the pages of The Crime Blotter, as, in a forward from Golf Digest courtesy of James Patrick, we learn a…
“… 74-year-old Robert Levine is under arrest for attempted first-degree murder for shooting 64-year-old Herbert Merritt in the ankle after he found Merritt walking his dog along the 15th hole of Kings Point Golf Club just before 7 p.m. on Sunday. Here’s how it went down according to Merritt (as reported by WPBF News):
“Merritt told deputies he was walking his dog on the grass next to the golf course when Levine rode up in his golf cart and began causing a verbal altercation with him due to having his dog on the golf course. He then began shooting at him while Merritt was running away. Levine chased Merritt around a tree while continuing to shoot—Merritt said he shot about five rounds at him, and he felt that Levine was trying to kill him.”
According to witnesses, who called the police as the altercation unfolded, the semi-automatic handgun police found in Levine’s front left pocket a short while later wasn’t enough:
“Witnesses told deputies they saw Levine kick Merritt in the head, go back to his cart and get a club and begin beating Merrit with the club while holding the gun in his left hand. Deputies said they found shell casings on the ground and two golf clubs with what appeared to be blood on them.”
Thankfully Merritt survived the ordeal and was transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, but clearly this is no laughing matter. You’re not supposed to be walking your dog on an active golf course, but this is a 64-year-old man we’re talking about. There were only a few minutes of playable sunlight left. A normal human would let it slide and maybe (and we stress maybe) send an email to the club to keep an eye out for it. Levine pulled out a gun and started blasting.“
Levine, who is manifestly abnormal, obviously believes in the old adage, “Shoot first and ask questions later”, though such an approach generally applies to circumstances where the party fears for their life. Here’s hoping Mr. Levine is given plenty of time to work on his short game. His VERY…
…short game.
Magoo
Video of the Day
Jesse Watters knocks it out of the park as he describes Progressives’ predictable opposition to a genuine threat to their media monopoly.
Tales of The Darkside
John Stossel reveals the reality behind Wikipedia.
On the Lighter Side
Watch as 46* stumbles over the word which perfectly describes his own family.
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