In college, I was refused membership in all the fraternities because I was circumcised.
Apparently you need to be a complete dick.
*.*
Yesterday is History.
Tomorrow a Mystery.
Today is a Gift That's why it's called the Present.
You know your family is poor as f#@k when all you get for Christmas is a metaphor.
*.*
At breakfast, a man asks his wife, "If I won the lottery, what would you do?"
She replied, "I'd take my half and leave you."
He followed with, "Great. I won $12 yesterday. Here's your 6 bucks, stay in touch."
*.*
Leaders across the Department of Defense celebrated the Christmas holiday by exchanging lobbyists, sources confirmed today.
“Ooh, is that a Raytheon? I’ve always wanted a Raytheon!” Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller said during the annual Pentagon Christmas party while shaking a man-sized box sitting under a Christmas tree in the Pentagon courtyard. “My mom gets me a General Dynamics every year, and I’m soooo bored of it.”
The gift exchange, dubbed “TS/SCI Santa,” was classified at the highest levels, and each participant was only allowed access to see the specific gift that they’re given.
To keep the atmosphere light and playful, contracts signed during the lobbyist exchange were limited to 5 years and 3.5 billion dollars.
“We all remember that one time we did a lobbyist white elephant and it led to us signing off on the F-35 program. What a mess,” said Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “I think there was a little too much Lockheed Martin-brand rum in the eggnog that year.”
According to officials, this year every Pentagon leader was expected to acquire a lobbyist, wrap it, and place it under the tree. Then on Christmas morning, gifts were exchanged at random, adding to the element of surprise, which is one of the principles of war.
Miller said the exchange added some much-needed cheer into a usually stern work environment.
“All year-round, we’re so serious about the fact that this whole system is just a racket to ensure money and contracts keep flowing, that we never just sit back and have some holiday laughs at the expense of taxpayers,” said Miller. “We forget that the military-industrial complex is supposed to be joyful and fun.”
*.*
A reminder that Wal-Mart will be closed on Christmas Day.
So both cashiers can spend the holiday with their families.
Quote of the Times;
For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. - Isaiah 9:6
Link of the Times;
https://www.theorganicprepper.com/interview-with-selco-stories-from-an-shtf-christmas/
Issue of the Times;
Contrast Between New York And Florida by Francis Menton
Of all the states, the one most comparable to New York by demographics is Florida. These two states are close not only in overall population, but also in relative numbers of immigrants and of minority groups. As to population, as recently as 2013, New York had slightly more population than Florida (both around 19.6 million), but since then Florida has been growing rapidly, while New York has been shrinking slowly. Pending release of final 2020 Census numbers, estimates put Florida’s current population at about 21.8 million, and New York’s at about 19.4 million.
Despite being, at least for now, relatively close in population and other demographics, New York and Florida could not be more different in their approaches to public policy. In Florida, Republicans have controlled the legislature (both houses) since 1997, and the governorship since 1999. Florida exemplifies the low tax, low spend, low regulation approach to state government. New York is firmly in control of the progressive left, and exemplifies high taxes, high spending, and high regulation.
Different policies lead to different results. For today I’ll focus mainly on the policy response to the Covid-19 virus. On this subject, the differences in policy mostly concern regulation, rather than taxing and spending.
Yesterday, I had a roundup of the current onerous regulatory response to the virus in New York. By contrast, Florida, led by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, has been very much at the opposite end of the regulatory response spectrum. As to results, here’s the bottom line: As one would expect, the economic decline caused by intentional government suppression of the economy has been much, much less severe in Florida than New York; but just as important, Florida has also experienced, and continues to experience, superior health results to New York. In other words, Florida stands as a clear demonstration that all of New York’s behavioral mandates (e.g., masks) and intentional destruction of small business have had no measurable effect whatsoever in decreasing spread of the virus or in improving health results.
As per my review yesterday, in New York City, restaurant dining has been severely restricted for months under fluctuating directives, and as of last week, by order of the Governor, all indoor restaurant dining has been shut down entirely, with no indication of when it may re-open. Theaters, concerts and performance venues are all shuttered, and it appears they will remain so at least until the Spring. Although not mentioned in yesterday’s post, since April 17 we have had a state-wide mandate for mask-wearing covering “anyone over the age of 2” when “in a public place.”
Florida at first imposed some substantial restrictions on restaurants and other indoor businesses, but began loosening them in early June, when, for example, bars and movie theaters were allowed to reopen. On September 28 Governor DeSantis issued an executive order rescinding almost all of the remaining restrictions. At a news briefing that day, DeSantis was quoted as saying “Every business has the right to operate,” and “We’re not closing anything going forward.” WebMD summarized Florida’s provisions going forward from that time:
Businesses that have used remote work protocols can return to unrestricted staffing at their offices. Employees can resume non-essential travel. Theme parks can return to normal operations, and gyms can operate at full capacity. Bars and clubs can operate at full capacity but with “limited social distancing protocols.”
In Florida today, theaters are open, concerts are happening, and the iconic theme parks are accepting visitors (if on a somewhat restricted basis).
As to masks, Florida never imposed a state-wide mandate, but instead left it up to each county to make its own decision. Twenty-two counties imposed mask mandates for at least some period of time, but 45 never did. Townhall on December 21 has a long piece (mostly based on a paywalled study of the data at Rational Ground) giving the results. Those results are totally devastating to any claim of effectiveness of mask mandates. From Town Hall (with internal quote from Rational Ground):
If masks did even close to as advertised, one would expect to see the counties that went maskless to be absolute dumpster fires next to the counties that implemented mandates, right? At the very least, the numbers should favor the masked areas by more than a percentage point or two. So, how did it go? Yep, it was the Mask Cult’s worse nightmare: “When counties DID have a mandate in effect, there were 667,239 cases over 3,137 days with an average of 23 cases per 100,000 per day. When counties DID NOT have a countywide order, there were 438,687 cases over 12,139 days with an average of 22 cases per 100,000 per day.”
In short, the mask-free counties actually had better health results than the counties with mask mandates.
As part of his September 28 directives, Governor DeSantis announced that he would not enforce any fines or penalties for failure to wear masks.
So let’s compare health and economic results as between Florida and New York. First, health:
• Florida. Deaths per million population, pandemic inception to date (figures from Worldometers.info as of December 22): 966. Deaths within last 10 days, most recent first, from Dec 21 back to Dec 12: 106, 86, 69, 108, 102, 112, 89, 137, 81, 71 — total of 961 over that 10 day period.
• New York. Deaths per million population, pandemic inception to date: 1,886 (almost double Florida’s rate — and Florida has far more elderly people). Deaths within last 10 days, most recent first from Dec 21 to Dec 12: 179, 95, 85, 121, 156, 112, 126, 120, 87, 79 — total of 1160 over the ten days, or more than 20% more than Florida, even though Florida has more than 10% more population.
If New York’s elected leaders have anything to show for turning this city into a ghost town, you sure can’t find it in those statistics.
Now, as to economic statistics:
• Florida. Unemployment rate for November (most recent available): 6.4% (versus national rate of 6.7%)
• New York. Unemployment rate for New York State for November: 8.4%; for New York City, 12.1%. Clearly, New York City is bearing the brunt of the forced closures of the restaurant and entertainment industries.
For New York City, that extra almost 6% people unemployed by forced government action, as compared to Florida, represents about 200,000 people, most of them from the lower end of the income distribution. I suppose you could kind of, sort of justify intentionally putting all those people out of work if you could show some kind of health benefit from the decrees. But there is no health benefit to be shown. New York’s health results are demonstrably worse than those of Florida. The virus does its own thing, despite our dictators’ desperate need to show that they are “doing something,” however meaningless the “something” may be.
In other comparisons of public policy metrics between the two states, Florida’s annual state government budget is about $92 billion, while New York’s is $177 billion. How could that possibly be, when Florida has 10% more people? New York City spends almost $29,000 per student on K-12 education, while Florida spends less than $10,000 — and Florida gets somewhat better results on the NAEP national tests. And of course, New York has some of the highest income tax rates in the country, and yet has a legislature desperate to raise more revenue by hiking rates even higher; while Florida has no income tax at all and yet seems to have sufficient money to go around.
Florida shows us all what basic competent state government looks like. The extreme lack of competence in New York is simply shocking.
News of the Times;
https://www.naturalnews.com/2020-12-20-obama-and-pelosi-didnt-win-elections.html
https://www.theorganicprepper.com/us-cyber-attack/
https://thefederalist.com/2020/12/19/the-american-left-has-now-fully-embraced-racism/
https://www.dailywire.com/news/bidens-niece-who-previously-avoided-jail-avoids-jail-again-in-dui-case
https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/530008-eric-swalwell-and-the-spy-a-lesson-in-how-china-is-undermining-us
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/12/rules-thee-not-dr-birx-caught-breaking-covid-guidelines/
https://breaking911.com/pedophilia-advocate-ex-congressional-candidate-abducted-child-police-say/
https://thefederalist.com/2020/12/17/this-series-of-fact-checks-on-americas-mission-to-defeat-covid-expose-media-hatred/
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/12/17/nyc-christmas-concert-shooter-immigrant-shielded-from-deportation/
http://www.theblogmire.com/2020-the-year-we-let-ourselves-be-infantilised-and-dehumanised/
https://neonnettle.com/news/13677-judge-rules-pedophile-who-raped-own-daughter-must-get-taxpayer-funded-sex-change-op
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/eight-screaming-red-flags-2020-election-deserved-criminal-inquiry
https://nationalfile.com/united-nations-says-america-is-greener-under-trump-doesnt-need-to-rejoin-paris-climate-accords/
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/12/unexplained_explosion_and_fire_destroy_worlds_second_largest_pharmaceutical_factory_producing_precursors_for_hydroxychloroquine_.html
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/dc-passes-bill-to-vaccinate-children-without-parental-knowledge-consent
Contrast?
Mad?
My wife threatened to divorce me when I said I was going to give our daughter a silly name.
So I called her Bluff.
*.*
My dad sat me down, brought the laptop in and said, "Son, I think it's time to talk to you about pornography."
"What about it?" I replied.
"How the hell can I get past the filters without your mum knowing?"
*.*
LONDON - While filming the next Mission Impossible movie, an actor who believes Xenu stacked frozen aliens around volcanoes and then flew Douglas DC-8s over them to drop hydrogen bombs and blow them all to smithereens some 75,000,000 years ago shouted at his crew for not wearing masks and not listening to the science.
"We must listen to the science, do you understand me!?" shouted the man who follows the idea that a space lord alien dude came to Earth, then known as Teegeeack, part of a sector called the Galactic Confederation, and blew up a bunch of his people, which transformed them into thetans. "I'm sick and tired of all the ignorant beliefs going around this set! Come on, man!"
"Alright, I'm off to go clear some clusters of thetans off my body," he said, referring to his belief that the volcanoed, bombed aliens transformed into metaphysical creatures called "thetans" and now attach themselves to humans, and then must be cleared through a process that involves meditation, introspection, and giving the Church of Scientology millions of dolllars. "When I get back, I want everyone to be following..."
He left a dramatic pause here.
"... THE SCIEEEEEEENCE!!!"
*.*
Indonesia is building their own version of "Jurassic Park", which means a resort on an island with over 1,000 Komodo Dragons.
Apparently, that's a third of the Komodo Dragons left in the world.
Unfortunately, last week, one of the workers was attacked by a Dragon and had to be rushed to a hospital.
Did we not learn anything from the movies?
*.*
Just wait until 2020 turns 21 and start drinking.
Quote of the Times;
The unarmed man is not just defenseless, he is also contemptible. — Machiavelli
Link of the Times;
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/12/20/exclusive-rand-paul-masks-are-all-about-submission/
Issue of the Times;
Where Did the New Mad Left Come From? by Victor Davis Hanson
Bouts of extreme leftism are frequent in history. Plato’s Apology, Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France, and Vladimir Lenin’s What Is to Be Done? — all offer us insight into the mind and methods of the hard Left.
America has experienced surges of mainstream anarchism, socialism, and communism, most profoundly during the late 19th century, amid the Great Depression, during the Soviet-American alliance of World War II and afterward, and in the 1960s. But rarely have these radical movements openly and without apologies made such inroads into and inside government and the establishment as during the past decade.
We had earlier seen massive rioting, looting, and iconoclasm, similar to the chaos of summer 2020. But seldom did they continue with the de facto approval of mayors who restrained the police and turned their downtowns over to virtual occupiers setting up “autonomous” zones. Nor had we see seen city councils defund police operations. New York’s mayor Bill de Blasio and Seattle’s mayor Jenny Durkan were not so much hard-Left Democrats or socialists as they were anarchists who ceded control of parts of American cities to other anarchists.
We cannot recall any district attorney in memory who simply declared that an entire array of crimes no longer existed, and that those convicted of them would be let loose on the public. Yet Los Angeles County district attorney George Gascón recently announced that his office will not be charging anyone arrested for making criminal threats, possessing drugs and drug paraphernalia possession, being publicly intoxicated or under the influence of a controlled substance, loitering to commit prostitution, resisting arrest, or a host of other crimes.
In essence, Gascón simply overrode the California legislature and his own county statutes. He has made up his own laws in his own private fiefdom of Los Angeles County — a jurisdiction of over 10 million, larger than 40 states.
Where and how did radical ideas such as the non-enforcement of laws, the Green New Deal, open borders, the -studies curricula of the university, or the political weaponization of professional sports come from?
What happened to the mainstream liberal, left-wing party of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton that it has been transmogrified into the neo-socialist movement of the Squad, Antifa, BLM, Kamala Harris, Bernie, Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren? When and how did the three-decades-long socialist loudmouth of the Congress, perennially barking at the moon, suddenly become the driving force of the Democratic Party?
Worldism
Globalization certainly changed the financial dynamics of the U.S.
Big Tech, Silicon Valley, and Wall Street became not multibillion-dollar centers of commerce, but multi-trillion-dollar nexuses as they capitalized on a new 7-billion-person market. This staggering concentration of wealth had a number of profoundly negative effects on the country.
Many in the new plutocracy were not business people in the traditional sense of making, growing, or transporting things. The old fortunes of timber, farming, railroads, gas and oil, construction, real estate, mining, manufacturing and assembly, and shipping paled in comparison with global finance, communications, media, entertainment, social media, and computer/Internet access. There was a certain grittiness, grounding, and earthy realism to the old money that is completely lacking in the new.
Once our generation’s multimillionaires reached billionaire status, they turned utopian. They psychologically squared the circle of their own privilege by supporting the sort of left-wing causes that would never have allowed them to make their own money. And they did this always with the understanding that they had enough money and influence to ensure that the consequences of their utopianism did not apply to themselves: Walls on the border are passé; walls around Silicon Valley and Napa estates are necessary; guns should be banned, except for my security detail; big carbon footprints are killing the planet, except those of my own private jet.
The really big global money now came more quickly and easily, as billionaires were harder left and younger, and discovered that they were exempt — in their tie-dyed T-shirts, flip-flops, and nose rings — from the usual leftist hits on capitalist “parasites.”
As a result, staggering amounts of penance and indulgence money have poured into left-wing media, foundations, universities, and Democratic-driven activism. The monopolist Mark Zuckerberg’s various fronts invested $350 million to “help” government bureaucracies “oversee” the vote. The piratical George Soros’s giveaway empire explains the rise of city and district attorneys whose radical agenda is to decriminalize much of what we used to call criminality.
The old “dark money” no longer exists. The once-demonized Koch brothers’ funding of conservative political activism is mostly now apologized for by its original architects — and yet it’s small potatoes compared with the new Democratic slush fund.
In radical-chic fashion, nothing makes a hip billionaire hipper than to brag at cocktail parties that he funded a local BLM chapter. Corporate boardrooms, enmeshed in vast lucrative partnerships with the Chinese and enjoying global markets, are now among the most powerful forces of radicalism.
CEOs assume that they have a blank check from the Left to leverage as much Chinese money as they wish, as long as they subsidize the radical agenda. And so they do, as they fund and advertise the entire climate-change, identity-politics, and globalist cause. None of this elite moral preening is completely new, when one remembers the naïve, culotte-wearing aristocrats who joined the Committee of Public Safety during France’s Reign of Terror, or the Russian landed gentry who believed that Lenin would work out for them too, or the mau-mauing flak catchers Tom Wolfe described in his account of late-’60s radical chic.
Indebted Wannabe Geniuses
From the 1970s to the 1990s, universities had lots of culture wars. But they were still constrained by budgets from hiring too many nonessential diversity and inclusion czars. Globalist capital had not yet quadrupled college endowments. Nor was there yet $1.6 trillion in federal money to institutionalize the new idea of massive student debt, which posed a moral hazard for the country.
Students and universities now no longer worry about budgets, inflationary tuition, or cost-to-benefit analysis of the new therapeutic undergraduate curricula.
The result?
Today 45 million students are in debt. Many are credentialed but ill-educated, and they lack the means to pay off their compound-interest obligations. They have grown accustomed to the good life on campuses, many of which are Club Med retreats where late teenagers play-act by bullying faculty and administrators with primal screams.
All too many lecture the country on their superior morality — and then graduate and face the reality that no one cares whether the barista who serves you a beer or the Uber driver who gives you a lift has a degree in environmental studies. Delayed marriage, delayed childbearing, delayed home purchases, delayed everything — all further radicalized youth, who are intrinsically prone to radicalism.
Again, the most dangerous cohort in history has been the half-educated — the on-and-off university student or upper-middle class elite who is aggrieved that his youthful genius is neither appreciated nor justly compensated.
“Elite glut” well describes millions in debt who feel they are owed quite a lot. The nasal-twanged Antifa wannabe Bolshevik is mostly furious that we who watch his psychodramas on television have not extended to him the status and wealth he thinks he has long ago earned.
Big Tech
Big Tech, as an original offshoot of university research centers, and geared to self-described young geniuses, became a leftist monopoly. When social media and the Internet began, the naïve assumed these were just delivery systems, not new tools of ideological persuasion.
But like a virus that alters the DNA of the host, the very ways we now access knowledge, communicate, fathom the news, advertise, buy, and sell are controlled, massaged, politicized, and weaponized by a few thousand prolonged adolescent, thirtysomething techies in Silicon Valley and its spin-offs.
When an ideology can use its monopolies to Trotskyize the past, cancel a career, depersonalize, censor, and ban — or warp the very ways we retrieve information — then 1984 is already here. We scarcely appreciate Silicon Valley’s power and how it has vastly changed our very language, culture, and politics.
The Obama Years
Barack Obama really did, as promised, “fundamentally transform” the country. He destroyed the old pretense of a centrist Democratic Party helmed by Southern twangers like Jimmy Carter (who promised to kick Ted Kennedy’s ass in the 1980 primary and did), Bill Clinton (who used to decry illegal immigration), and an earlier incarnation of Al and Tipper Gore (who used to rail about music-industry-sponsored pornographic lyrics).
Obama’s chief accomplishment was twofold. One, he ended the idea of affirmative action as a “white” population owing reparatory consideration to a largely African-American population in admissions and hiring as atonement for the wages of slavery, Jim Crow, economic disparity, and what is now known as “systemic racism.”
Two, Obama mainstreamed “diversity” as the new binary replacement. Anyone with even one drop of nonwhite ethnicity in his ancestry, or who was not male or heterosexual, joined an updated “rainbow coalition” of victims — including even Elizabeth Warren and Ward Churchill. And the oppressed didn’t need to worry about their own actual ancestry, the historical basis for claims of discrimination, or their own private experiences with prejudice — or lack of same.
Class mattered not at all. Nor did intermarriage, which under the melting pot had been making race a superficial construct, as the pedigrees of Americans became increasingly multifarious.
The consequences of this retrograde return to one-drop racialism and the stigmatization of the white male was that suddenly 30 percent of the country — from Oprah to Colin Kaepernick to Lisa Jobs to Pete Buttigieg to Jorge Ramos — was “diverse,” meaning somehow the victims of a toxic majority, which in truth under the new race and gender rules was a minority.
Barack and Michelle could be worth $100 million, own three mansions, enjoy multimillion-dollar corporate-consulting sinecures — and yet venture out from their enclaves from time to time to lecture the lathe worker in southern Ohio or the insurance salesman in Tennessee on their “systemic racism,” or hijack a funeral encomium to badger the country on the need to get rid of the “Jim Crow” filibuster and the ossified idea of a 50-state United States.
Residence on a bluff in Martha’s Vineyard was not at all incongruent with the radicalism of kindred souls hitting the streets to protest “systemic racism” and capitalist exploitation. Antifa and BLM were grifters whose criminality in the street, like Roman gangs of the past, could be turned on and off before the election as needed. No such groups would ever march, burn, or loot on Martha’s Vineyard or in Kalorama.
Once class under the tenets of cultural Marxism was largely ignored, the ranks of the victimized not only swelled and but grew wealthier and more powerful. So influential were they that the nation embraced flagellantism. Qualifying as a victim (however slight the grounds) meant that one could now castigate the entire unprivileged lower-middle working classes as privileged.
The immigrant CEO from India, the African-American multimillion-dollar media anchor, the Facebook female mover and shaker — all could now write off the deplorables/clingers/dregs/scum/ugly folk/chumps/irredeemables/smelly and toothless. And they could thereby obtain virtue-signaling tenure, despite their class privileges.
If globalization and the universities had not bifurcated the nation enough, Obama finished the project by divorcing the authentic history of bias, violence, and institutionalized racism of the African-American experience from the new official ecumenical victimhood.
The medieval indulgences sacralizing diversity worked for Obama as well. Who could believe that a diversity president really would build cages on the border, weaponize the IRS for his own political agenda, surveil the communications of Associated Press reporters, run guns to the cartels in Mexico, jail a video maker to mask the scandal of Benghazi, offer a quid pro quo on missile defense with Putin to help his own reelection campaign, and discredit the CIA, FBI, and DOJ to destroy an oppositional campaign, transition, and presidency?
Diversity people just don’t do those things. If they are suspected of unethical behavior, then they must have good reason for it; any perceived lapses are only a result of their passion for fighting bias, racism, sexism, and other -ologies and -isms.
Incredibly rich people in a few zip codes, wealthy left-wingers’ thirst for penance, the global accentuation of class and regional differences, the corporatization of the universities along with the pauperization of students, the construct of a new “diversity,” social media and the Internet, and the idea that the affluent can be oppressed on the basis of their appearance, while the poor and lower-middle class can be privileged on the same grounds — all that has created a radical new/old progressivism.
And our collective madness is just getting started.
News of the Times;
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/12/breaking-huge-simple-math-shows-biden-claims-13-million-votes-eligible-voters-voted-2020-election/
https://www.inputmag.com/tech/capella-spaces-new-satellite-is-eerily-observant
https://thenationalpulse.com/exclusive/ossoff-biden-digital-director-racist-tweets/
https://www.theepochtimes.com/china-engaged-in-mass-surveillance-on-american-mobile-phones-report-finds_3622636.html
https://www.newsweek.com/trumps-legacy-peace-opinion-1554928
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/12/wow-youtube-removes-video-trump-lawyers-opening-statement-senate-committee-hearing-watch/
https://national-justice.com/current-events/gay-black-icon-indicted-sodomizing-boy
https://rumble.com/vbppu9-dan-crenshaw-ends-nancy-pelosis-whole-career-in-savage-speech.html
https://en-volve.com/2020/12/18/with-the-election-over-ama-magically-approves-hydroxychloroquine-covid-treatment-because-it-no-longer-risks-helping-trump/
https://gellerreport.com/2020/12/dueling-electors-and-the-upcoming-joint-session-of-congress.html/
https://creativedestructionmedia.com/video/2020/12/20/video-make-your-kids-watch-this-wwii-infantryman-tell-why-america-is-worth-saving/
https://loomered.com/2020/12/17/exclusive-hunter-biden-emails-reveal-founder-of-facebooks-dc-office-banned-accounts-at-bidens-request-as-family-made-millions-from-silicon-valley-dems/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/12/overdose-deaths-far-outpace-covid-19-deaths-liberal-utopia-san-francisco
https://rumble.com/vby74b-josh-hawley-shreds-dems-to-their-faces-for-mocking-americans-on-election-in.html?mref=22lbp&mc=56yab
https://www.usapoliticstoday.org/fbi-director-christopher-russian-energy/
So I called her Bluff.
*.*
My dad sat me down, brought the laptop in and said, "Son, I think it's time to talk to you about pornography."
"What about it?" I replied.
"How the hell can I get past the filters without your mum knowing?"
*.*
LONDON - While filming the next Mission Impossible movie, an actor who believes Xenu stacked frozen aliens around volcanoes and then flew Douglas DC-8s over them to drop hydrogen bombs and blow them all to smithereens some 75,000,000 years ago shouted at his crew for not wearing masks and not listening to the science.
"We must listen to the science, do you understand me!?" shouted the man who follows the idea that a space lord alien dude came to Earth, then known as Teegeeack, part of a sector called the Galactic Confederation, and blew up a bunch of his people, which transformed them into thetans. "I'm sick and tired of all the ignorant beliefs going around this set! Come on, man!"
"Alright, I'm off to go clear some clusters of thetans off my body," he said, referring to his belief that the volcanoed, bombed aliens transformed into metaphysical creatures called "thetans" and now attach themselves to humans, and then must be cleared through a process that involves meditation, introspection, and giving the Church of Scientology millions of dolllars. "When I get back, I want everyone to be following..."
He left a dramatic pause here.
"... THE SCIEEEEEEENCE!!!"
*.*
Indonesia is building their own version of "Jurassic Park", which means a resort on an island with over 1,000 Komodo Dragons.
Apparently, that's a third of the Komodo Dragons left in the world.
Unfortunately, last week, one of the workers was attacked by a Dragon and had to be rushed to a hospital.
Did we not learn anything from the movies?
*.*
Just wait until 2020 turns 21 and start drinking.
Quote of the Times;
The unarmed man is not just defenseless, he is also contemptible. — Machiavelli
Link of the Times;
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/12/20/exclusive-rand-paul-masks-are-all-about-submission/
Issue of the Times;
Where Did the New Mad Left Come From? by Victor Davis Hanson
Bouts of extreme leftism are frequent in history. Plato’s Apology, Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France, and Vladimir Lenin’s What Is to Be Done? — all offer us insight into the mind and methods of the hard Left.
America has experienced surges of mainstream anarchism, socialism, and communism, most profoundly during the late 19th century, amid the Great Depression, during the Soviet-American alliance of World War II and afterward, and in the 1960s. But rarely have these radical movements openly and without apologies made such inroads into and inside government and the establishment as during the past decade.
We had earlier seen massive rioting, looting, and iconoclasm, similar to the chaos of summer 2020. But seldom did they continue with the de facto approval of mayors who restrained the police and turned their downtowns over to virtual occupiers setting up “autonomous” zones. Nor had we see seen city councils defund police operations. New York’s mayor Bill de Blasio and Seattle’s mayor Jenny Durkan were not so much hard-Left Democrats or socialists as they were anarchists who ceded control of parts of American cities to other anarchists.
We cannot recall any district attorney in memory who simply declared that an entire array of crimes no longer existed, and that those convicted of them would be let loose on the public. Yet Los Angeles County district attorney George Gascón recently announced that his office will not be charging anyone arrested for making criminal threats, possessing drugs and drug paraphernalia possession, being publicly intoxicated or under the influence of a controlled substance, loitering to commit prostitution, resisting arrest, or a host of other crimes.
In essence, Gascón simply overrode the California legislature and his own county statutes. He has made up his own laws in his own private fiefdom of Los Angeles County — a jurisdiction of over 10 million, larger than 40 states.
Where and how did radical ideas such as the non-enforcement of laws, the Green New Deal, open borders, the -studies curricula of the university, or the political weaponization of professional sports come from?
What happened to the mainstream liberal, left-wing party of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton that it has been transmogrified into the neo-socialist movement of the Squad, Antifa, BLM, Kamala Harris, Bernie, Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren? When and how did the three-decades-long socialist loudmouth of the Congress, perennially barking at the moon, suddenly become the driving force of the Democratic Party?
Worldism
Globalization certainly changed the financial dynamics of the U.S.
Big Tech, Silicon Valley, and Wall Street became not multibillion-dollar centers of commerce, but multi-trillion-dollar nexuses as they capitalized on a new 7-billion-person market. This staggering concentration of wealth had a number of profoundly negative effects on the country.
Many in the new plutocracy were not business people in the traditional sense of making, growing, or transporting things. The old fortunes of timber, farming, railroads, gas and oil, construction, real estate, mining, manufacturing and assembly, and shipping paled in comparison with global finance, communications, media, entertainment, social media, and computer/Internet access. There was a certain grittiness, grounding, and earthy realism to the old money that is completely lacking in the new.
Once our generation’s multimillionaires reached billionaire status, they turned utopian. They psychologically squared the circle of their own privilege by supporting the sort of left-wing causes that would never have allowed them to make their own money. And they did this always with the understanding that they had enough money and influence to ensure that the consequences of their utopianism did not apply to themselves: Walls on the border are passé; walls around Silicon Valley and Napa estates are necessary; guns should be banned, except for my security detail; big carbon footprints are killing the planet, except those of my own private jet.
The really big global money now came more quickly and easily, as billionaires were harder left and younger, and discovered that they were exempt — in their tie-dyed T-shirts, flip-flops, and nose rings — from the usual leftist hits on capitalist “parasites.”
As a result, staggering amounts of penance and indulgence money have poured into left-wing media, foundations, universities, and Democratic-driven activism. The monopolist Mark Zuckerberg’s various fronts invested $350 million to “help” government bureaucracies “oversee” the vote. The piratical George Soros’s giveaway empire explains the rise of city and district attorneys whose radical agenda is to decriminalize much of what we used to call criminality.
The old “dark money” no longer exists. The once-demonized Koch brothers’ funding of conservative political activism is mostly now apologized for by its original architects — and yet it’s small potatoes compared with the new Democratic slush fund.
In radical-chic fashion, nothing makes a hip billionaire hipper than to brag at cocktail parties that he funded a local BLM chapter. Corporate boardrooms, enmeshed in vast lucrative partnerships with the Chinese and enjoying global markets, are now among the most powerful forces of radicalism.
CEOs assume that they have a blank check from the Left to leverage as much Chinese money as they wish, as long as they subsidize the radical agenda. And so they do, as they fund and advertise the entire climate-change, identity-politics, and globalist cause. None of this elite moral preening is completely new, when one remembers the naïve, culotte-wearing aristocrats who joined the Committee of Public Safety during France’s Reign of Terror, or the Russian landed gentry who believed that Lenin would work out for them too, or the mau-mauing flak catchers Tom Wolfe described in his account of late-’60s radical chic.
Indebted Wannabe Geniuses
From the 1970s to the 1990s, universities had lots of culture wars. But they were still constrained by budgets from hiring too many nonessential diversity and inclusion czars. Globalist capital had not yet quadrupled college endowments. Nor was there yet $1.6 trillion in federal money to institutionalize the new idea of massive student debt, which posed a moral hazard for the country.
Students and universities now no longer worry about budgets, inflationary tuition, or cost-to-benefit analysis of the new therapeutic undergraduate curricula.
The result?
Today 45 million students are in debt. Many are credentialed but ill-educated, and they lack the means to pay off their compound-interest obligations. They have grown accustomed to the good life on campuses, many of which are Club Med retreats where late teenagers play-act by bullying faculty and administrators with primal screams.
All too many lecture the country on their superior morality — and then graduate and face the reality that no one cares whether the barista who serves you a beer or the Uber driver who gives you a lift has a degree in environmental studies. Delayed marriage, delayed childbearing, delayed home purchases, delayed everything — all further radicalized youth, who are intrinsically prone to radicalism.
Again, the most dangerous cohort in history has been the half-educated — the on-and-off university student or upper-middle class elite who is aggrieved that his youthful genius is neither appreciated nor justly compensated.
“Elite glut” well describes millions in debt who feel they are owed quite a lot. The nasal-twanged Antifa wannabe Bolshevik is mostly furious that we who watch his psychodramas on television have not extended to him the status and wealth he thinks he has long ago earned.
Big Tech
Big Tech, as an original offshoot of university research centers, and geared to self-described young geniuses, became a leftist monopoly. When social media and the Internet began, the naïve assumed these were just delivery systems, not new tools of ideological persuasion.
But like a virus that alters the DNA of the host, the very ways we now access knowledge, communicate, fathom the news, advertise, buy, and sell are controlled, massaged, politicized, and weaponized by a few thousand prolonged adolescent, thirtysomething techies in Silicon Valley and its spin-offs.
When an ideology can use its monopolies to Trotskyize the past, cancel a career, depersonalize, censor, and ban — or warp the very ways we retrieve information — then 1984 is already here. We scarcely appreciate Silicon Valley’s power and how it has vastly changed our very language, culture, and politics.
The Obama Years
Barack Obama really did, as promised, “fundamentally transform” the country. He destroyed the old pretense of a centrist Democratic Party helmed by Southern twangers like Jimmy Carter (who promised to kick Ted Kennedy’s ass in the 1980 primary and did), Bill Clinton (who used to decry illegal immigration), and an earlier incarnation of Al and Tipper Gore (who used to rail about music-industry-sponsored pornographic lyrics).
Obama’s chief accomplishment was twofold. One, he ended the idea of affirmative action as a “white” population owing reparatory consideration to a largely African-American population in admissions and hiring as atonement for the wages of slavery, Jim Crow, economic disparity, and what is now known as “systemic racism.”
Two, Obama mainstreamed “diversity” as the new binary replacement. Anyone with even one drop of nonwhite ethnicity in his ancestry, or who was not male or heterosexual, joined an updated “rainbow coalition” of victims — including even Elizabeth Warren and Ward Churchill. And the oppressed didn’t need to worry about their own actual ancestry, the historical basis for claims of discrimination, or their own private experiences with prejudice — or lack of same.
Class mattered not at all. Nor did intermarriage, which under the melting pot had been making race a superficial construct, as the pedigrees of Americans became increasingly multifarious.
The consequences of this retrograde return to one-drop racialism and the stigmatization of the white male was that suddenly 30 percent of the country — from Oprah to Colin Kaepernick to Lisa Jobs to Pete Buttigieg to Jorge Ramos — was “diverse,” meaning somehow the victims of a toxic majority, which in truth under the new race and gender rules was a minority.
Barack and Michelle could be worth $100 million, own three mansions, enjoy multimillion-dollar corporate-consulting sinecures — and yet venture out from their enclaves from time to time to lecture the lathe worker in southern Ohio or the insurance salesman in Tennessee on their “systemic racism,” or hijack a funeral encomium to badger the country on the need to get rid of the “Jim Crow” filibuster and the ossified idea of a 50-state United States.
Residence on a bluff in Martha’s Vineyard was not at all incongruent with the radicalism of kindred souls hitting the streets to protest “systemic racism” and capitalist exploitation. Antifa and BLM were grifters whose criminality in the street, like Roman gangs of the past, could be turned on and off before the election as needed. No such groups would ever march, burn, or loot on Martha’s Vineyard or in Kalorama.
Once class under the tenets of cultural Marxism was largely ignored, the ranks of the victimized not only swelled and but grew wealthier and more powerful. So influential were they that the nation embraced flagellantism. Qualifying as a victim (however slight the grounds) meant that one could now castigate the entire unprivileged lower-middle working classes as privileged.
The immigrant CEO from India, the African-American multimillion-dollar media anchor, the Facebook female mover and shaker — all could now write off the deplorables/clingers/dregs/scum/ugly folk/chumps/irredeemables/smelly and toothless. And they could thereby obtain virtue-signaling tenure, despite their class privileges.
If globalization and the universities had not bifurcated the nation enough, Obama finished the project by divorcing the authentic history of bias, violence, and institutionalized racism of the African-American experience from the new official ecumenical victimhood.
The medieval indulgences sacralizing diversity worked for Obama as well. Who could believe that a diversity president really would build cages on the border, weaponize the IRS for his own political agenda, surveil the communications of Associated Press reporters, run guns to the cartels in Mexico, jail a video maker to mask the scandal of Benghazi, offer a quid pro quo on missile defense with Putin to help his own reelection campaign, and discredit the CIA, FBI, and DOJ to destroy an oppositional campaign, transition, and presidency?
Diversity people just don’t do those things. If they are suspected of unethical behavior, then they must have good reason for it; any perceived lapses are only a result of their passion for fighting bias, racism, sexism, and other -ologies and -isms.
Incredibly rich people in a few zip codes, wealthy left-wingers’ thirst for penance, the global accentuation of class and regional differences, the corporatization of the universities along with the pauperization of students, the construct of a new “diversity,” social media and the Internet, and the idea that the affluent can be oppressed on the basis of their appearance, while the poor and lower-middle class can be privileged on the same grounds — all that has created a radical new/old progressivism.
And our collective madness is just getting started.
News of the Times;
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/12/breaking-huge-simple-math-shows-biden-claims-13-million-votes-eligible-voters-voted-2020-election/
https://www.inputmag.com/tech/capella-spaces-new-satellite-is-eerily-observant
https://thenationalpulse.com/exclusive/ossoff-biden-digital-director-racist-tweets/
https://www.theepochtimes.com/china-engaged-in-mass-surveillance-on-american-mobile-phones-report-finds_3622636.html
https://www.newsweek.com/trumps-legacy-peace-opinion-1554928
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/12/wow-youtube-removes-video-trump-lawyers-opening-statement-senate-committee-hearing-watch/
https://national-justice.com/current-events/gay-black-icon-indicted-sodomizing-boy
https://rumble.com/vbppu9-dan-crenshaw-ends-nancy-pelosis-whole-career-in-savage-speech.html
https://en-volve.com/2020/12/18/with-the-election-over-ama-magically-approves-hydroxychloroquine-covid-treatment-because-it-no-longer-risks-helping-trump/
https://gellerreport.com/2020/12/dueling-electors-and-the-upcoming-joint-session-of-congress.html/
https://creativedestructionmedia.com/video/2020/12/20/video-make-your-kids-watch-this-wwii-infantryman-tell-why-america-is-worth-saving/
https://loomered.com/2020/12/17/exclusive-hunter-biden-emails-reveal-founder-of-facebooks-dc-office-banned-accounts-at-bidens-request-as-family-made-millions-from-silicon-valley-dems/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/12/overdose-deaths-far-outpace-covid-19-deaths-liberal-utopia-san-francisco
https://rumble.com/vby74b-josh-hawley-shreds-dems-to-their-faces-for-mocking-americans-on-election-in.html?mref=22lbp&mc=56yab
https://www.usapoliticstoday.org/fbi-director-christopher-russian-energy/
Confiscated?
Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes.
Large, small, circle, square, thin crust, deep dish, extra toppings…
*.*
What is the similarity between a communist and an IT technician?
They both believe restarting it might work.
*.*
A woman joins a country club and when she hears the guys talking about their golf round, she says, "I played on my college's golf team. I was pretty good. Mind if I join you next week?" No one wants to say 'yes', but they're on the spot…
Finally, one man says, "Okay, but we start at 6:30 a.m."
He figures the early tee-time will discourage her.
The woman says this may be a problem and asks if she can be up to 15 minutes late.
They roll their eyes, but say, "Okay."
She's there at 6:30 am. sharp and beats all of them with an eye-opening 2-under par round.
She's fun and pleasant and the guys are impressed.
They congratulate her and invite her back the next week.
She smiles, and says, "I'll be there at 6:30, or 6:45."
The next week she again shows up at 6:30 sharp.
Only this time, she plays left-handed.
The three guys are incredulous as she still beats them with an even par round, despite playing with her off-hand.
They're totally amazed.
They can't figure her out.
She's very pleasant and a gracious winner.
They invite her back again, but each man harbors a burning desire to beat her.
The third week, she's 15 minutes late, which irritates the guys.
This week she plays right-handed and narrowly beats all three of them.
The men grumble that her late arrival is petty gamesmanship on her part.
However, she's so charming and complimentary of their strong play, they can't hold a grudge.
This woman is a riddle no one can figure out.
They have a couple of beers in the Clubhouse and finally, one of the men asks her, "How do you decide if you're going to golf right-handed or left-handed?"
The lady blushes, and grins. "When my dad taught me to play golf, I learned that I was ambidextrous." she replies. "I like to switch back and forth."
"When I got married after college, I discovered my husband always sleeps in the nude. From then on, I developed a silly habit. Right before I leave in the morning for golf practice, I pull the covers off him. If his willie points to the right, I golf right-handed; if it points to the left, I golf left-handed."
The guys think this is hysterical.
Astonished at this bizarre information, one of the guys says, "What if it's pointing straight up?"
She says, "Then, I'm fifteen minutes late.
*.*
The judge says: “you must pay the court $12,000.”
Mario, surprised, asks: “Why?”
The judge replies: “It’s a fine.”
Mario, heartbroken, sadly says: “No itsa not.”
*.*
Microsoft have released a festive advent calendar this Christmas.
No chocolates, just a load of f#@k!ng updates every time you open your windows.
Quote of the Times;
Don’t whine about footballers taking the knee and then give them your money for tickets and gear. The Marxist virtue signalling will only stop when the money does. - @TheAliceSmith
Link of the Times;
https://summit.news/2020/12/18/top-catholic-cardinal-warns-covid-19-being-used-to-usher-in-evil-great-reset/
Issue of the Times;
Governments have confiscated nearly $70 billion from Americans By Bob Unruh
'Civil forfeiture' gives law enforcement 'perverse' financial incentives
A new study by the Institute for Justice finds local and federal governments have confiscated nearly $70 billion from Americans over the last 20 years.
That's without any of the individuals being convicted of any crime, according to "Policing for Profit: The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture.".
It's the third edition of the report, which includes 17 million data points from 45 states, the District of Columbia and the federal government.
It reveals a "massive nationwide problem," with governments taking "at least $68.8 billion – that we know of."
Not all states provided information.
"The heart of the problem remains poor state and federal civil forfeiture laws, which are little improved since the previous edition of 'Policing for Profit' was published in 2015,' said IJ senior director of strategic research and report co-author Lisa Knepper. "Most laws still stack the deck against property owners and give law enforcement perverse financial incentives to pursue property over justice."
The report gives a grade of D+ or worse to 35 states and the federal government. New Mexico earned the report's only A, largely based on a reform that removed many options for civil forfeiture and directed all proceeds to the state's general fund.
"Importantly, New Mexico’s reform has not compromised public safety, according to a new analysis published in the report. Compared to neighboring Texas and Colorado, New Mexico’s crime rates remained steady in the months and years following the reform, suggesting forfeiture does not deter crime and law enforcement are able to do their jobs without forfeiture proceeds," IJ said.
The report also shows forfeiture procedures seldom target big-time criminals.
"Data from 21 states show half of all currency forfeitures are worth less than $1,300, hardly the stuff of vast criminal enterprises and far less than it would cost to hire an attorney to fight back," said IJ.
"Despite its national prevalence and popularity with police and prosecutors, civil forfeiture simply doesn’t work," said IJ senior research analyst and report co-author Jennifer McDonald. "It doesn’t fight crime, it doesn’t target criminal kingpins, and it doesn’t support crime victims or community programs."
Civil forfeiture happens when police, or some other law enforcement officer, come across cash or a valuable asset then claim it might have been used in or the result of a crime. Often the owners never are charged, but they then must go to court to obtain the return of their private property.
Part of the problem is that frequently law enforcement agencies that confiscate cash or assets benefit from them if the owner is unable to fund a court fight to get it back.
"No one should ever lose their property without first being convicted of a crime, but lawmakers should be especially concerned about forfeiture abuse now, as local governments face increased fiscal pressure amid the COVID-19 pandemic," said Knepper.
The report recommends that all civil forfeiture procedures be eliminated.
News of the Times;
http://redpatriots.live/2020/12/05/two-star-witnesses-against-biden-found-floating-in-river-ukraine/
https://thefederalist.com/2020/12/07/feds-canceling-tests-will-hide-for-years-how-school-shutdowns-screwed-kids/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/11/huge-exclusive-bombshell-documents-released-by-ukrainian-general-prosecutors-office-reveal-millions-funneled-to-hunter-biden-and-the-john-kerry-family
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/12/huge-4-years-stonewalling-corrupt-fbi-finally-admits-holding-seth-richs-laptop/
https://www.lawofficer.com/harris-county-has-had-69-people-killed-from-a-person-recently-free-from-jail-on-multiple-felony-bonds/
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/12/09/pompeo-so-many-of-our-colleges-are-bought-by-beijing/
https://pjmedia.com/election/bryan-preston/2020/10/22/bombshell-hunter-biden-email-names-sen-kamala-harris-others-as-key-contacts-for-joint-venture-with-china-belt-and-road-company-n1077890
https://dailycaller.com/2020/12/09/marcia-fudge-joe-biden-judge-murder/
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/12/scrutiny_of_her_doctoral_dissertation_will_make_dr_jill_biden_wish_she_had_stuck_with_mrs_biden.html
https://www.thecollegefix.com/ed-dept-launches-free-speech-hotline-to-combat-cancel-culture-on-campus/
https://www.rebelnews.com/us_foreign_aid_to_be_rebranded_labelled_paid_for_by_american_taxpayers
https://www.lifenews.com/2020/12/10/president-trump-finalizes-rule-protecting-christian-groups-right-to-hire-christian-employees/
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2020/12/15/canadian-fashion-mogul-peter-nygard-arrested-in-winnipeg/
https://nationalfile.com/exclusive-source-biden-daughters-diary-details-not-appropriate-showers-with-joe-as-child/
https://archive.vn/7eYW4
Large, small, circle, square, thin crust, deep dish, extra toppings…
*.*
What is the similarity between a communist and an IT technician?
They both believe restarting it might work.
*.*
A woman joins a country club and when she hears the guys talking about their golf round, she says, "I played on my college's golf team. I was pretty good. Mind if I join you next week?" No one wants to say 'yes', but they're on the spot…
Finally, one man says, "Okay, but we start at 6:30 a.m."
He figures the early tee-time will discourage her.
The woman says this may be a problem and asks if she can be up to 15 minutes late.
They roll their eyes, but say, "Okay."
She's there at 6:30 am. sharp and beats all of them with an eye-opening 2-under par round.
She's fun and pleasant and the guys are impressed.
They congratulate her and invite her back the next week.
She smiles, and says, "I'll be there at 6:30, or 6:45."
The next week she again shows up at 6:30 sharp.
Only this time, she plays left-handed.
The three guys are incredulous as she still beats them with an even par round, despite playing with her off-hand.
They're totally amazed.
They can't figure her out.
She's very pleasant and a gracious winner.
They invite her back again, but each man harbors a burning desire to beat her.
The third week, she's 15 minutes late, which irritates the guys.
This week she plays right-handed and narrowly beats all three of them.
The men grumble that her late arrival is petty gamesmanship on her part.
However, she's so charming and complimentary of their strong play, they can't hold a grudge.
This woman is a riddle no one can figure out.
They have a couple of beers in the Clubhouse and finally, one of the men asks her, "How do you decide if you're going to golf right-handed or left-handed?"
The lady blushes, and grins. "When my dad taught me to play golf, I learned that I was ambidextrous." she replies. "I like to switch back and forth."
"When I got married after college, I discovered my husband always sleeps in the nude. From then on, I developed a silly habit. Right before I leave in the morning for golf practice, I pull the covers off him. If his willie points to the right, I golf right-handed; if it points to the left, I golf left-handed."
The guys think this is hysterical.
Astonished at this bizarre information, one of the guys says, "What if it's pointing straight up?"
She says, "Then, I'm fifteen minutes late.
*.*
The judge says: “you must pay the court $12,000.”
Mario, surprised, asks: “Why?”
The judge replies: “It’s a fine.”
Mario, heartbroken, sadly says: “No itsa not.”
*.*
Microsoft have released a festive advent calendar this Christmas.
No chocolates, just a load of f#@k!ng updates every time you open your windows.
Quote of the Times;
Don’t whine about footballers taking the knee and then give them your money for tickets and gear. The Marxist virtue signalling will only stop when the money does. - @TheAliceSmith
Link of the Times;
https://summit.news/2020/12/18/top-catholic-cardinal-warns-covid-19-being-used-to-usher-in-evil-great-reset/
Issue of the Times;
Governments have confiscated nearly $70 billion from Americans By Bob Unruh
'Civil forfeiture' gives law enforcement 'perverse' financial incentives
A new study by the Institute for Justice finds local and federal governments have confiscated nearly $70 billion from Americans over the last 20 years.
That's without any of the individuals being convicted of any crime, according to "Policing for Profit: The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture.".
It's the third edition of the report, which includes 17 million data points from 45 states, the District of Columbia and the federal government.
It reveals a "massive nationwide problem," with governments taking "at least $68.8 billion – that we know of."
Not all states provided information.
"The heart of the problem remains poor state and federal civil forfeiture laws, which are little improved since the previous edition of 'Policing for Profit' was published in 2015,' said IJ senior director of strategic research and report co-author Lisa Knepper. "Most laws still stack the deck against property owners and give law enforcement perverse financial incentives to pursue property over justice."
The report gives a grade of D+ or worse to 35 states and the federal government. New Mexico earned the report's only A, largely based on a reform that removed many options for civil forfeiture and directed all proceeds to the state's general fund.
"Importantly, New Mexico’s reform has not compromised public safety, according to a new analysis published in the report. Compared to neighboring Texas and Colorado, New Mexico’s crime rates remained steady in the months and years following the reform, suggesting forfeiture does not deter crime and law enforcement are able to do their jobs without forfeiture proceeds," IJ said.
The report also shows forfeiture procedures seldom target big-time criminals.
"Data from 21 states show half of all currency forfeitures are worth less than $1,300, hardly the stuff of vast criminal enterprises and far less than it would cost to hire an attorney to fight back," said IJ.
"Despite its national prevalence and popularity with police and prosecutors, civil forfeiture simply doesn’t work," said IJ senior research analyst and report co-author Jennifer McDonald. "It doesn’t fight crime, it doesn’t target criminal kingpins, and it doesn’t support crime victims or community programs."
Civil forfeiture happens when police, or some other law enforcement officer, come across cash or a valuable asset then claim it might have been used in or the result of a crime. Often the owners never are charged, but they then must go to court to obtain the return of their private property.
Part of the problem is that frequently law enforcement agencies that confiscate cash or assets benefit from them if the owner is unable to fund a court fight to get it back.
"No one should ever lose their property without first being convicted of a crime, but lawmakers should be especially concerned about forfeiture abuse now, as local governments face increased fiscal pressure amid the COVID-19 pandemic," said Knepper.
The report recommends that all civil forfeiture procedures be eliminated.
News of the Times;
http://redpatriots.live/2020/12/05/two-star-witnesses-against-biden-found-floating-in-river-ukraine/
https://thefederalist.com/2020/12/07/feds-canceling-tests-will-hide-for-years-how-school-shutdowns-screwed-kids/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/11/huge-exclusive-bombshell-documents-released-by-ukrainian-general-prosecutors-office-reveal-millions-funneled-to-hunter-biden-and-the-john-kerry-family
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/12/huge-4-years-stonewalling-corrupt-fbi-finally-admits-holding-seth-richs-laptop/
https://www.lawofficer.com/harris-county-has-had-69-people-killed-from-a-person-recently-free-from-jail-on-multiple-felony-bonds/
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/12/09/pompeo-so-many-of-our-colleges-are-bought-by-beijing/
https://pjmedia.com/election/bryan-preston/2020/10/22/bombshell-hunter-biden-email-names-sen-kamala-harris-others-as-key-contacts-for-joint-venture-with-china-belt-and-road-company-n1077890
https://dailycaller.com/2020/12/09/marcia-fudge-joe-biden-judge-murder/
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/12/scrutiny_of_her_doctoral_dissertation_will_make_dr_jill_biden_wish_she_had_stuck_with_mrs_biden.html
https://www.thecollegefix.com/ed-dept-launches-free-speech-hotline-to-combat-cancel-culture-on-campus/
https://www.rebelnews.com/us_foreign_aid_to_be_rebranded_labelled_paid_for_by_american_taxpayers
https://www.lifenews.com/2020/12/10/president-trump-finalizes-rule-protecting-christian-groups-right-to-hire-christian-employees/
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2020/12/15/canadian-fashion-mogul-peter-nygard-arrested-in-winnipeg/
https://nationalfile.com/exclusive-source-biden-daughters-diary-details-not-appropriate-showers-with-joe-as-child/
https://archive.vn/7eYW4
Inner?
My wife told me I was incapable of multitasking...
So I got drunk and embarrassed her at the same time.
*.*
I took my mate out on the pull, as he hasn't had a woman since his divorce ten years ago.
In the club he said to me, "But I don't know how to talk to women!"
I replied, "You used to be married, dude! Just talk to them the way you used to talk to your wife."
Didn't end well.
*.*
A guy sat next to me on the train pulled out a photo of his girlfriend from his wallet and said 'she's beautiful isn't she'
I said 'if you think she's beautiful, you should see my wife'
He asked 'why, is she a stunner?'
I replied 'no, she's an optician'
*.*
After a short break, Japan has announced that it is to resume hunting whales for research.
They say the research is vital, as it is feared that the whales may have lost some of their flavor and texture.
*.*
Irony:
Hyphenated
Non-hyphenated
Quote of the Times;
Avoiding long-term poverty is not rocket science. First, graduate from high school. Second, get married before you have children, and stay married. Third, work at any kind of job, even one that starts out paying the minimum wage. And, finally, avoid engaging in criminal behavior. – Williams
Link of the Times;
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/12/the-teachers-unions-are-evil.php
Issue of the Times;
Top Chinese professor boasts of operatives in top of US ‘core inner circle’ by Emily Jacobs
A recently recorded lecture showing a Chinese Communist Party expert explaining how Beijing had “people at the top of America’s core inner circle” has found its way onto the internet in the United States after being censored in China.
The lecture, given by Di Dongsheng, vice dean of the School of International Relations at Renmin University, in late November also included references to President-elect Joe Biden’s son Hunter and his business dealings in the Communist country.
Speaking about what was pushing the Chinese to accelerate the reopening of their financial sectors, Di made the revelation that Beijing had a rarely discussed advantage in working with the US prior to the Trump administration.
“We know that the Trump administration is in a trade war with us, so why can’t we fix the Trump administration? Why did China and the US used to be able to settle all kinds of issues between 1992 and 2016?” Di asked, going on to answer the question himself.
“I’m going to throw out something maybe a little bit explosive here. It’s just because we have people at the top. We have our old friends who are at the top of America’s core inner circle of power and influence,” the top Chinese political scientist continued.
Di added during the lecture that “for the past 30 years, 40 years, we have been utilizing the core power of the United States.”
As for the future of the US-China relationship, Di appeared optimistic about China’s ability to thrive under an incoming President Biden.
“During the US-China trade war, [Wall Street] tried to help, and I know that my friends on the US side told me that they tried to help, but they couldn’t do much. But now we’re seeing Biden was elected, the traditional elite, the political elite, the establishment, they’re very close to Wall Street, so you see that, right?” Di asked the audience, noting that the next administration would likely take a very different stance from that of President Trump.
Di went on to suggest that Hunter Biden, whose business dealings in Ukraine and China have come under scrutiny, received help from the Chinese in his business efforts.
“Trump has been saying that Biden’s son has some sort of global foundation. Have you noticed that? Who helped [Hunter] build the foundations? Got it? There are a lot of deals inside all these,” Di explained.
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe reacted to the video while appearing on Fox News Monday.
“There are a lot of people who, for economic reasons, don’t want China to be our greatest threat. There are a lot of people who, for political reasons, don’t want China to be our greatest threat in America, but the intelligence doesn’t lie. China is our greatest threat and it’s not even close,” the intel boss told Tucker Carlson.
“No other country has the capability of essentially taking away the American dream, and a specific plan to do so, and the intelligence is clear.”
News of the Times;
https://patriothat.com/three-states-pull-cnns-broadcasting-license-they-fail-to-be-truthful/
https://spectator.us/twitter-china-pocket-jack-dorsey-marco-rubio/
https://themarshallreport.wordpress.com/2020/12/03/lin-wood-says-america-will-be-shocked-to-find-the-level-of-satanism-and-child-pedophilia-in-washington-d-c/
https://bigleaguepolitics.com/multiculturalism-over-500-hate-crimes-were-perpetrated-against-european-christians-in-2019/
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/highly-sophisticated-chinese-money-brokers-laundering-mexican-cartel-drug-money
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-real-fascist-threat-was-never-trumpits-corporate-power
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/12/china-whistleblower-steps-forward-reveals-video-photos-alleged-chinese-counterfeit-ballot-printing-operations-us-ballots-mi-fl-nc/
http://www.free-speechfront.info/2019/01/germany-8-year-old-girl-attacked.html
https://www.dw.com/en/israel-to-deport-40000-african-refugees-without-their-consent/a-41443084
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/second-major-california-sheriff-openly-rebels-against-newsom-lockdown
https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/12/diversity-and-social-justice-are-big-business-in-education-and-youre-paying-for-it/
https://www.infowars.com/posts/vaccine-whistleblower-found-dead-after-saying-shed-never-commit-suicide/
https://disrn.com/news/elon-musk-plans-to-move-from-ca-to-texas
https://nypost.com/2020/12/07/cops-raid-home-of-scientist-who-said-she-was-fired-for-not-doctoring-covid-19-data/
https://www.citizenfreepress.com/breaking/disturbing-video-bomb-attack-on-home-of-well-known-trump-supporter/
So I got drunk and embarrassed her at the same time.
*.*
I took my mate out on the pull, as he hasn't had a woman since his divorce ten years ago.
In the club he said to me, "But I don't know how to talk to women!"
I replied, "You used to be married, dude! Just talk to them the way you used to talk to your wife."
Didn't end well.
*.*
A guy sat next to me on the train pulled out a photo of his girlfriend from his wallet and said 'she's beautiful isn't she'
I said 'if you think she's beautiful, you should see my wife'
He asked 'why, is she a stunner?'
I replied 'no, she's an optician'
*.*
After a short break, Japan has announced that it is to resume hunting whales for research.
They say the research is vital, as it is feared that the whales may have lost some of their flavor and texture.
*.*
Irony:
Hyphenated
Non-hyphenated
Quote of the Times;
Avoiding long-term poverty is not rocket science. First, graduate from high school. Second, get married before you have children, and stay married. Third, work at any kind of job, even one that starts out paying the minimum wage. And, finally, avoid engaging in criminal behavior. – Williams
Link of the Times;
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/12/the-teachers-unions-are-evil.php
Issue of the Times;
Top Chinese professor boasts of operatives in top of US ‘core inner circle’ by Emily Jacobs
A recently recorded lecture showing a Chinese Communist Party expert explaining how Beijing had “people at the top of America’s core inner circle” has found its way onto the internet in the United States after being censored in China.
The lecture, given by Di Dongsheng, vice dean of the School of International Relations at Renmin University, in late November also included references to President-elect Joe Biden’s son Hunter and his business dealings in the Communist country.
Speaking about what was pushing the Chinese to accelerate the reopening of their financial sectors, Di made the revelation that Beijing had a rarely discussed advantage in working with the US prior to the Trump administration.
“We know that the Trump administration is in a trade war with us, so why can’t we fix the Trump administration? Why did China and the US used to be able to settle all kinds of issues between 1992 and 2016?” Di asked, going on to answer the question himself.
“I’m going to throw out something maybe a little bit explosive here. It’s just because we have people at the top. We have our old friends who are at the top of America’s core inner circle of power and influence,” the top Chinese political scientist continued.
Di added during the lecture that “for the past 30 years, 40 years, we have been utilizing the core power of the United States.”
As for the future of the US-China relationship, Di appeared optimistic about China’s ability to thrive under an incoming President Biden.
“During the US-China trade war, [Wall Street] tried to help, and I know that my friends on the US side told me that they tried to help, but they couldn’t do much. But now we’re seeing Biden was elected, the traditional elite, the political elite, the establishment, they’re very close to Wall Street, so you see that, right?” Di asked the audience, noting that the next administration would likely take a very different stance from that of President Trump.
Di went on to suggest that Hunter Biden, whose business dealings in Ukraine and China have come under scrutiny, received help from the Chinese in his business efforts.
“Trump has been saying that Biden’s son has some sort of global foundation. Have you noticed that? Who helped [Hunter] build the foundations? Got it? There are a lot of deals inside all these,” Di explained.
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe reacted to the video while appearing on Fox News Monday.
“There are a lot of people who, for economic reasons, don’t want China to be our greatest threat. There are a lot of people who, for political reasons, don’t want China to be our greatest threat in America, but the intelligence doesn’t lie. China is our greatest threat and it’s not even close,” the intel boss told Tucker Carlson.
“No other country has the capability of essentially taking away the American dream, and a specific plan to do so, and the intelligence is clear.”
News of the Times;
https://patriothat.com/three-states-pull-cnns-broadcasting-license-they-fail-to-be-truthful/
https://spectator.us/twitter-china-pocket-jack-dorsey-marco-rubio/
https://themarshallreport.wordpress.com/2020/12/03/lin-wood-says-america-will-be-shocked-to-find-the-level-of-satanism-and-child-pedophilia-in-washington-d-c/
https://bigleaguepolitics.com/multiculturalism-over-500-hate-crimes-were-perpetrated-against-european-christians-in-2019/
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/highly-sophisticated-chinese-money-brokers-laundering-mexican-cartel-drug-money
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-real-fascist-threat-was-never-trumpits-corporate-power
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/12/china-whistleblower-steps-forward-reveals-video-photos-alleged-chinese-counterfeit-ballot-printing-operations-us-ballots-mi-fl-nc/
http://www.free-speechfront.info/2019/01/germany-8-year-old-girl-attacked.html
https://www.dw.com/en/israel-to-deport-40000-african-refugees-without-their-consent/a-41443084
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/second-major-california-sheriff-openly-rebels-against-newsom-lockdown
https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/12/diversity-and-social-justice-are-big-business-in-education-and-youre-paying-for-it/
https://www.infowars.com/posts/vaccine-whistleblower-found-dead-after-saying-shed-never-commit-suicide/
https://disrn.com/news/elon-musk-plans-to-move-from-ca-to-texas
https://nypost.com/2020/12/07/cops-raid-home-of-scientist-who-said-she-was-fired-for-not-doctoring-covid-19-data/
https://www.citizenfreepress.com/breaking/disturbing-video-bomb-attack-on-home-of-well-known-trump-supporter/
Hypocritical?
My friend got bitten by a snake and he fell to the floor and started writhing around.
It's amazing how fast the super powers kick in.
*.*
I took my son to school for the first time today and I was amazed at the number of mums turning up in four-by-fours.
I thought to myself, "They will never use those for off-roading."
Then I saw them trying to park.
*.*
I definitely learned my lesson about speeding today and it will never happen again.
I didn't get pulled over or anything,
I just showed up to work 20 minutes early.
*.*
My wife thinks the reason she can't fit into anything anymore is not because she's fat, but because everything has shrunk.
I'm pretty sure I've never seen our car in the washing machine.
*.*
Why is it so hard to buy a gift for a futurist?
They never like the present.
Quote of the Times;
"Before you make fun of people who still believe in Santa. Remember, there are those that still believe in socialism." - @JimmySmith300
Link of the Times;
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/12/coronavirus_hysteria_is_simply_too_ridiculous_to_continue.html
Issue of the Times;
These Hypocritical Government Officials Want YOU to Stay Home While THEY Go Out and Party by Daisy Luther
Little is more annoying than seeing a wealthy government official solemnly telling you to stay home, forgo time with your family, and stop working while losing tons of money in missed wages.
Well, except for one thing. It’s more annoying when that government official is telling you to hunker down while they’re out partying in one luxurious location or another. I’d say that is far more annoying to watch those people tell us, “Do as I say, not as I do.”
It reminds me of The Hunger Games, in which people at the Capitol enjoy frivolous pastimes while the peons in the other Districts must spend their days doing menial jobs to provide for the wealthy, lest they be beaten or killed by “Peacekeepers.”
Here are some particularly egregious examples of hypocritical government officials who want you to sacrifice while they celebrate. The list is by no means comprehensive.
California Governor Gavin Newsom
Probably the most prominent example of a “leader” abandoning any pretense of following his rules is California Governor Gavin Newsom, who was spotted dining at a fancy restaurant – like $325 per person fancy – at a birthday party for a lobbyist.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) was photographed attending a dinner party at the French Laundry, one of the nation’s priciest restaurants, with a group of prominent lobbyists, including several who represent the California Medical Association. The photos show no one in the large party wearing a mask.
Newsom apologized a few days later.
“I want to apologize to you because I need to preach and practice, not just preach and not practice, and I’ve done my best to do that,” Newsom said.
Oh and also, his kids can go to school in person at their fancy private school, while everyone else’s kids are stuck with “distance learning.”
Newsom is self-quarantining after a student at one of his children’s schools tested positive for the coronavirus — another sore spot for critics who are frustrated that most California students are not learning in person.
“His kids can learn in person. But yours can’t. He can celebrate birthday parties. But you can’t,” San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer (R), a potential Newsom rival in 2022, wrote on Twitter.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed
Incidentally, the following night after Newsom got busted at French Laundry, San Francisco Mayor London Breed was caught at a birthday dinner there with 7 other people – right before she closed down dining in every restaurant in San Francisco.
“I cannot emphasize enough how important it is that everyone act responsibly to reduce the spread of the virus,” Breed said in a statement Nov. 10. “Every San Franciscan needs to do their part so that we can start moving in the right direction again.”
Austin Mayor Steve Adler
Steve Adler, the mayor of Austin, Texas, has been busted twice flouting his own restrictions. First, he hosted 20 people at a wedding and reception for his daughter at a downtown Austin hotel. The very next day, he took 7 other people in a private jet to his timeshare in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The thing that makes this so richly ironic is that he addressed the people of Austin from Cabo on a Facebook video in which he said:
We need to stay home if you can. This is not the time to relax. We are going to be looking really closely. … We may have to close things down if we are not careful.”
Adler maintains that neither the wedding nor the vacay broke his orders or those of the state’s governor.
However, the city recommended that people not gather in groups larger than 10 people, and also Adler himself asked people not to travel for Thanksgiving, saying,
“Everyday since March, I repeat that being home is the safest place for people to be,” Adler said in a statement Wednesday. “Only at our most trying moments, like around Thanksgiving, have I asked people not to travel as part of extra precautions. It is safest to stay home. However, we aren’t asking people to never venture out. We ask everyone to be as safe as possible when they do.”
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo
Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York was forced to change his plans after he announced on the radio, for Pete’s sake, that he was having his adult daughters and his 89-year-old mother visit his home in Albany for Thanksgiving. Cuomo:
…went on WAMC radio and told of his own Thanksgiving plans, for all to hear, as CNN noted: “My mom is going to come up and two of my girls, is the current plan. But the plans change. I have a lot of work to do between now and Thanksgiving.”
And then in this same interview, Cuomo scolded New Yorkers again to stay home and to stay in groups of fewer than 10.
Meanwhile, he was telling other New Yorkers to skip Thanksgiving.
“My personal advice is, you don’t have family gatherings – even for Thanksgiving,” the governor said as he listed off a number of smaller gatherings that have led to recent outbreaks across the state.
“My personal advice is the best way to say ‘I love you,’ this Thanksgiving, the best way to say ‘I’m thankful for you,’ is to say, ‘I love you so much, I’m so thankful for you, that I don’t want to endanger you, and I don’t want to endanger our family and I don’t want to endanger our friends. So we’ll celebrate virtually,’” he added.
New Yorkers got the Emmy Award-winning governor’s mixed message loud and clear.
Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser
Mayor Muriel E. Bowser of Washington, DC ignored travel restrictions to go to Joe Biden’s victory party in Delaware, and then changed the rules for a mandatory 14-day quarantine established for peons upon her return. The Washington Post reports:
The trip, which comes as the mayor attempts to discourage interstate travel because of the pandemic, prompted questions from reporters and derision on social media from some residents and Bowser critics.
Bowser (D) said that she was “very proud” to attend the celebration in Wilmington and that the trip “absolutely” qualified as “essential travel” — which is exempted from the mayor’s quarantine order — because she was conducting government business on the road.
“I do a lot of things to advance the interests of the District of Columbia. Some of them are formal and some of them are informal, but all of them are necessary,” she said…
…Until last week, Bowser’s mayoral order on interstate travel would have required anyone who visited Delaware (and other states with more than 10 new daily coronavirus cases on average per 100,000 residents) to quarantine at home for two weeks upon returning to the District, except those whose travel was for essential purposes.
Last week, however, Bowser replaced that order with a new one that went into effect Monday, after her trip. The new order got rid of the two-week, post-vacation quarantine that she had instituted in July. In its place, she ordered that people who wish to visit the District from high-risk states get a negative coronavirus test first (though the city will not check or enforce that requirement); residents who travel should quarantine at home — except for essential activities — until they get a negative test, generally at least three days after their trip.
It’s certainly convenient to be able to rewrite the rules at your own convenience.
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock
Mayor Michael Hancock of Denver, Colorado tweeted a reminder for people to “Pass the potatoes, not COVID… Stay home as much as you can, especially if you’re sick… Host virtual gatherings instead of in-person dinners. Avoid travel, if you can.”
He tweeted that minutes before boarding a plane to spend Thanksgiving with his own family members.
Hancock then flew off to Houston, with a connecting flight to Meridian, Mississippi. His wife, Mary Louise Lee, was already there and they would be joining their 22-year-old daughter, Janae Hancock, for Thanksgiving…
…Apart from the outrageous timing, Hancock’s hypocrisy becomes particularly egregious when you consider a Nov. 20 letter his office received from a Colorado county public health official warning that Denver International Airport (DIA) constitutes a serious COVID-19 hazard…
…Despite the warning, Hancock headed for the airport on Thursday and passed through the Thanksgiving crowds, tweeting a warning about COVID-19. He told his constituents to stay home and then boarded a plane, undermining critical warnings while placing others at risk, by example and directly in person. He also stood a chance of passing along COVID with the potatoes to his wife and daughter.
It’s notable that in early November, Mayor Hancock humble-bragged that he wouldn’t be hosting his usual Thanksgiving dinner for 60 people at his home. Instead, he opted to fly across the country during a pandemic while telling everyone else to cancel their plans.
Members of the California Legislature
Several members of the California legislature enjoyed a trip to Hawaii to attend a conference.
Those attending include Republican Assembly members Heath Flora of Ripon and Jordan Cunningham of Paso Robles, Republican Sen. Andreas Borgeas of Modesto, Democratic Sen. Bill Dodd of Napa, Democratic Assembly members Blanca Rubio of Baldwin Park, Mike Gipson of Carson, Jose Medina of Riverside and Wendy Carrillo of Los Angeles, as well as Chad Mayes of Rancho Mirage, who won reelection this month as unaffiliated with any political party.
They rubbed elbows with lobbyists and special interest groups while in Hawaii. The Los Angeles Times reports:
More than half a dozen California lawmakers are among the 50 people attending a policy conference sponsored by the Independent Voter Project, a nonprofit group, at the Fairmont Kea Lani Hotel in Wailea, with some legislators’ travel expenses picked up by the hosts. The four-day conference, at which panel participants discuss various issues including how to reopen states safely amid COVID-19, began Monday.
The annual gathering, which has seen up to 25 California lawmakers in attendance in past years, has faced criticism because it is partly financed and attended by special interests, including businesses and labor groups, that lobby legislators.
Ironically, the conference began on the same day California reinstituted its strict “purple level” restrictions for citizens of the state that aren’t legislators or governors.
And that’s not all.
These are but a sprinkling of the hypocritical actions of those who claim to be leaders but are showing themselves to be more along the lines of pampered despots.
Don’t forget about Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s infamous haircut, Chris Cuomo wandering around without a mask, Senator Diane Feinstein wandering around without a mask at both the Capitol building and Dulles International Airport, the mayor of San Jose dining with members of five other households, Dr. Fauci attending a baseball game with 2 guests and his mask pulled down in an otherwise empty stadium, and the “fact” that it’s okay to “protest” but not to go to church.
It’s certainly no way to get people on board with dystopian restrictions. The fact that these so-called leaders throw caution to the wind when it comes to the rules the rest of us are expected to follow certainly lends credence to those questioning whether the government is overstepping when it’s unnecessary.
What are some of the hypocritical things you’ve seen leaders do that the rest of us are not allowed to do during the Covid era?
News of the Times;
https://www.naturalnews.com/2020-12-03-situation-update-dec-3rd-trump-invokes-foreign-interference.html
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/florida-gov-says-closing-schools-biggest-blunder-us-history-says-schools-will-remain-open
https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-momentum-is-being-crushed-by-the-crime-wave/573198901
https://pjmedia.com/uncategorized/jim-treacher/2020/09/16/after-trying-to-defund-police-minneapolis-city-council-asks-where-are-the-police-n934589
https://creativedestructionmedia.com/analysis/2020/11/28/report-lt-gen-mcinerney-reports-us-special-forces-attacked-cia-server-farm-in-germany-in-server-seizure-operation-5-soldiers-killed-servers-secured/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/people-vicious-saw-kinds-illegal-behavior-michigan-election-witness-saw-4-illegal-ballot-drop-biden-speaks-video/
https://thefederalistpapers.org/us/slamming-america-first-mattis-true-motivations-discovered-tied-firm-business-china
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2020/11/indonesia-muslims-raid-village-murder-four-christians-burn-church-and-six-christian-homes
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/whistleblowers-post-office-labeled-trump-mail-undeliverable-388-000-ballots-backdated-disappear
https://tennesseestar.com/2020/12/01/blms-national-arm-gave-little-to-local-chapters-while-reaping-millions-local-blm-chapters-allege-in-statement
https://bongino.com/president-trump-the-first-since-carter-not-to-get-u-s-involved-in-new-wars
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/nasdaq-require-one-woman-and-one-minority-or-lgbtq-company-boards
https://www.naturalnews.com/2020-11-30-loneliness-triggers-cravings-for-social-contact.html
https://www.infowars.com/posts/project-veritas-cnn-tapes-drop-zucker-employees-anti-trump-bias-exposed/
https://www.revolver.news/2020/12/mckinsey-deserves-unholy-hell-after-purdue-pharma-oxycontin-debacle/
It's amazing how fast the super powers kick in.
*.*
I took my son to school for the first time today and I was amazed at the number of mums turning up in four-by-fours.
I thought to myself, "They will never use those for off-roading."
Then I saw them trying to park.
*.*
I definitely learned my lesson about speeding today and it will never happen again.
I didn't get pulled over or anything,
I just showed up to work 20 minutes early.
*.*
My wife thinks the reason she can't fit into anything anymore is not because she's fat, but because everything has shrunk.
I'm pretty sure I've never seen our car in the washing machine.
*.*
Why is it so hard to buy a gift for a futurist?
They never like the present.
Quote of the Times;
"Before you make fun of people who still believe in Santa. Remember, there are those that still believe in socialism." - @JimmySmith300
Link of the Times;
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/12/coronavirus_hysteria_is_simply_too_ridiculous_to_continue.html
Issue of the Times;
These Hypocritical Government Officials Want YOU to Stay Home While THEY Go Out and Party by Daisy Luther
Little is more annoying than seeing a wealthy government official solemnly telling you to stay home, forgo time with your family, and stop working while losing tons of money in missed wages.
Well, except for one thing. It’s more annoying when that government official is telling you to hunker down while they’re out partying in one luxurious location or another. I’d say that is far more annoying to watch those people tell us, “Do as I say, not as I do.”
It reminds me of The Hunger Games, in which people at the Capitol enjoy frivolous pastimes while the peons in the other Districts must spend their days doing menial jobs to provide for the wealthy, lest they be beaten or killed by “Peacekeepers.”
Here are some particularly egregious examples of hypocritical government officials who want you to sacrifice while they celebrate. The list is by no means comprehensive.
California Governor Gavin Newsom
Probably the most prominent example of a “leader” abandoning any pretense of following his rules is California Governor Gavin Newsom, who was spotted dining at a fancy restaurant – like $325 per person fancy – at a birthday party for a lobbyist.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) was photographed attending a dinner party at the French Laundry, one of the nation’s priciest restaurants, with a group of prominent lobbyists, including several who represent the California Medical Association. The photos show no one in the large party wearing a mask.
Newsom apologized a few days later.
“I want to apologize to you because I need to preach and practice, not just preach and not practice, and I’ve done my best to do that,” Newsom said.
Oh and also, his kids can go to school in person at their fancy private school, while everyone else’s kids are stuck with “distance learning.”
Newsom is self-quarantining after a student at one of his children’s schools tested positive for the coronavirus — another sore spot for critics who are frustrated that most California students are not learning in person.
“His kids can learn in person. But yours can’t. He can celebrate birthday parties. But you can’t,” San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer (R), a potential Newsom rival in 2022, wrote on Twitter.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed
Incidentally, the following night after Newsom got busted at French Laundry, San Francisco Mayor London Breed was caught at a birthday dinner there with 7 other people – right before she closed down dining in every restaurant in San Francisco.
“I cannot emphasize enough how important it is that everyone act responsibly to reduce the spread of the virus,” Breed said in a statement Nov. 10. “Every San Franciscan needs to do their part so that we can start moving in the right direction again.”
Austin Mayor Steve Adler
Steve Adler, the mayor of Austin, Texas, has been busted twice flouting his own restrictions. First, he hosted 20 people at a wedding and reception for his daughter at a downtown Austin hotel. The very next day, he took 7 other people in a private jet to his timeshare in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The thing that makes this so richly ironic is that he addressed the people of Austin from Cabo on a Facebook video in which he said:
We need to stay home if you can. This is not the time to relax. We are going to be looking really closely. … We may have to close things down if we are not careful.”
Adler maintains that neither the wedding nor the vacay broke his orders or those of the state’s governor.
However, the city recommended that people not gather in groups larger than 10 people, and also Adler himself asked people not to travel for Thanksgiving, saying,
“Everyday since March, I repeat that being home is the safest place for people to be,” Adler said in a statement Wednesday. “Only at our most trying moments, like around Thanksgiving, have I asked people not to travel as part of extra precautions. It is safest to stay home. However, we aren’t asking people to never venture out. We ask everyone to be as safe as possible when they do.”
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo
Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York was forced to change his plans after he announced on the radio, for Pete’s sake, that he was having his adult daughters and his 89-year-old mother visit his home in Albany for Thanksgiving. Cuomo:
…went on WAMC radio and told of his own Thanksgiving plans, for all to hear, as CNN noted: “My mom is going to come up and two of my girls, is the current plan. But the plans change. I have a lot of work to do between now and Thanksgiving.”
And then in this same interview, Cuomo scolded New Yorkers again to stay home and to stay in groups of fewer than 10.
Meanwhile, he was telling other New Yorkers to skip Thanksgiving.
“My personal advice is, you don’t have family gatherings – even for Thanksgiving,” the governor said as he listed off a number of smaller gatherings that have led to recent outbreaks across the state.
“My personal advice is the best way to say ‘I love you,’ this Thanksgiving, the best way to say ‘I’m thankful for you,’ is to say, ‘I love you so much, I’m so thankful for you, that I don’t want to endanger you, and I don’t want to endanger our family and I don’t want to endanger our friends. So we’ll celebrate virtually,’” he added.
New Yorkers got the Emmy Award-winning governor’s mixed message loud and clear.
Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser
Mayor Muriel E. Bowser of Washington, DC ignored travel restrictions to go to Joe Biden’s victory party in Delaware, and then changed the rules for a mandatory 14-day quarantine established for peons upon her return. The Washington Post reports:
The trip, which comes as the mayor attempts to discourage interstate travel because of the pandemic, prompted questions from reporters and derision on social media from some residents and Bowser critics.
Bowser (D) said that she was “very proud” to attend the celebration in Wilmington and that the trip “absolutely” qualified as “essential travel” — which is exempted from the mayor’s quarantine order — because she was conducting government business on the road.
“I do a lot of things to advance the interests of the District of Columbia. Some of them are formal and some of them are informal, but all of them are necessary,” she said…
…Until last week, Bowser’s mayoral order on interstate travel would have required anyone who visited Delaware (and other states with more than 10 new daily coronavirus cases on average per 100,000 residents) to quarantine at home for two weeks upon returning to the District, except those whose travel was for essential purposes.
Last week, however, Bowser replaced that order with a new one that went into effect Monday, after her trip. The new order got rid of the two-week, post-vacation quarantine that she had instituted in July. In its place, she ordered that people who wish to visit the District from high-risk states get a negative coronavirus test first (though the city will not check or enforce that requirement); residents who travel should quarantine at home — except for essential activities — until they get a negative test, generally at least three days after their trip.
It’s certainly convenient to be able to rewrite the rules at your own convenience.
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock
Mayor Michael Hancock of Denver, Colorado tweeted a reminder for people to “Pass the potatoes, not COVID… Stay home as much as you can, especially if you’re sick… Host virtual gatherings instead of in-person dinners. Avoid travel, if you can.”
He tweeted that minutes before boarding a plane to spend Thanksgiving with his own family members.
Hancock then flew off to Houston, with a connecting flight to Meridian, Mississippi. His wife, Mary Louise Lee, was already there and they would be joining their 22-year-old daughter, Janae Hancock, for Thanksgiving…
…Apart from the outrageous timing, Hancock’s hypocrisy becomes particularly egregious when you consider a Nov. 20 letter his office received from a Colorado county public health official warning that Denver International Airport (DIA) constitutes a serious COVID-19 hazard…
…Despite the warning, Hancock headed for the airport on Thursday and passed through the Thanksgiving crowds, tweeting a warning about COVID-19. He told his constituents to stay home and then boarded a plane, undermining critical warnings while placing others at risk, by example and directly in person. He also stood a chance of passing along COVID with the potatoes to his wife and daughter.
It’s notable that in early November, Mayor Hancock humble-bragged that he wouldn’t be hosting his usual Thanksgiving dinner for 60 people at his home. Instead, he opted to fly across the country during a pandemic while telling everyone else to cancel their plans.
Members of the California Legislature
Several members of the California legislature enjoyed a trip to Hawaii to attend a conference.
Those attending include Republican Assembly members Heath Flora of Ripon and Jordan Cunningham of Paso Robles, Republican Sen. Andreas Borgeas of Modesto, Democratic Sen. Bill Dodd of Napa, Democratic Assembly members Blanca Rubio of Baldwin Park, Mike Gipson of Carson, Jose Medina of Riverside and Wendy Carrillo of Los Angeles, as well as Chad Mayes of Rancho Mirage, who won reelection this month as unaffiliated with any political party.
They rubbed elbows with lobbyists and special interest groups while in Hawaii. The Los Angeles Times reports:
More than half a dozen California lawmakers are among the 50 people attending a policy conference sponsored by the Independent Voter Project, a nonprofit group, at the Fairmont Kea Lani Hotel in Wailea, with some legislators’ travel expenses picked up by the hosts. The four-day conference, at which panel participants discuss various issues including how to reopen states safely amid COVID-19, began Monday.
The annual gathering, which has seen up to 25 California lawmakers in attendance in past years, has faced criticism because it is partly financed and attended by special interests, including businesses and labor groups, that lobby legislators.
Ironically, the conference began on the same day California reinstituted its strict “purple level” restrictions for citizens of the state that aren’t legislators or governors.
And that’s not all.
These are but a sprinkling of the hypocritical actions of those who claim to be leaders but are showing themselves to be more along the lines of pampered despots.
Don’t forget about Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s infamous haircut, Chris Cuomo wandering around without a mask, Senator Diane Feinstein wandering around without a mask at both the Capitol building and Dulles International Airport, the mayor of San Jose dining with members of five other households, Dr. Fauci attending a baseball game with 2 guests and his mask pulled down in an otherwise empty stadium, and the “fact” that it’s okay to “protest” but not to go to church.
It’s certainly no way to get people on board with dystopian restrictions. The fact that these so-called leaders throw caution to the wind when it comes to the rules the rest of us are expected to follow certainly lends credence to those questioning whether the government is overstepping when it’s unnecessary.
What are some of the hypocritical things you’ve seen leaders do that the rest of us are not allowed to do during the Covid era?
News of the Times;
https://www.naturalnews.com/2020-12-03-situation-update-dec-3rd-trump-invokes-foreign-interference.html
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/florida-gov-says-closing-schools-biggest-blunder-us-history-says-schools-will-remain-open
https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-momentum-is-being-crushed-by-the-crime-wave/573198901
https://pjmedia.com/uncategorized/jim-treacher/2020/09/16/after-trying-to-defund-police-minneapolis-city-council-asks-where-are-the-police-n934589
https://creativedestructionmedia.com/analysis/2020/11/28/report-lt-gen-mcinerney-reports-us-special-forces-attacked-cia-server-farm-in-germany-in-server-seizure-operation-5-soldiers-killed-servers-secured/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/people-vicious-saw-kinds-illegal-behavior-michigan-election-witness-saw-4-illegal-ballot-drop-biden-speaks-video/
https://thefederalistpapers.org/us/slamming-america-first-mattis-true-motivations-discovered-tied-firm-business-china
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2020/11/indonesia-muslims-raid-village-murder-four-christians-burn-church-and-six-christian-homes
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/whistleblowers-post-office-labeled-trump-mail-undeliverable-388-000-ballots-backdated-disappear
https://tennesseestar.com/2020/12/01/blms-national-arm-gave-little-to-local-chapters-while-reaping-millions-local-blm-chapters-allege-in-statement
https://bongino.com/president-trump-the-first-since-carter-not-to-get-u-s-involved-in-new-wars
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/nasdaq-require-one-woman-and-one-minority-or-lgbtq-company-boards
https://www.naturalnews.com/2020-11-30-loneliness-triggers-cravings-for-social-contact.html
https://www.infowars.com/posts/project-veritas-cnn-tapes-drop-zucker-employees-anti-trump-bias-exposed/
https://www.revolver.news/2020/12/mckinsey-deserves-unholy-hell-after-purdue-pharma-oxycontin-debacle/
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No Vegans were harmed in the making of this site. We're looking for a new provider.