Howdy All, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –
In this issue:
1. Asians
2. Disrespect
3. Voting
4. Noem
5. Border
6. Pot
7. Phillips
8. Mann
1. Asians. This is a piece I had queued up over the weekend as a standard bit of democrat race-baiting, this time aimed at roping straying Asians back onto the democrat plantation. But that changed yesterday with Scott Adams daily Periscope when he pointed out that this new big story is quite likely ChiCom battlefield preparation against the US. The piece starts at the 44:50 point in the podcast. His point is that nobody wants violence against Asians here in the US. The question is if the media would be reporting on violence against Asians here in the US (the Georgia sex worker killings) unless the ChiComs weren’t influencing the discussion with advanced AI. While there is another explanation (to come later), ChiCom influence is a great starting point.
- How did this conversation and argument start in the US? Better question: Is there anything better for the ChiComs than starting a national story on anti-Asian violence here in the US? If you are of the opinion that the ChiComs are manipulating US media to make this the lead story, then it is a persuasion play that will keep the US from going hard against China. Any action the US takes against China can then be framed as a racist play against Asians and Asian-Americans. This means that the world has changed to the point where our default assumption should be that this is coming from China rather than growing organically from the media headlines. Further, all future stories should be viewed through the filter that the stored were planted and grown by foreign actors. To test if this is happening, see how many internal news stories are favorable to our foreign adversaries. Remember that our intel community is (and should be) doing the same thing with other nations. Are they? Who knows, given all the time and effort they spent in getting rid of Bad Orange Man. Maybe there’s not a lot left.
- The alternate explanation for this is that democrats, alarmed with the hemorrhage of working voters to Trump, are playing the only card they have, the race card, this time using Asians as the target race du jure. For many, many years, Asians have voted for and supported democrats. And that worked pretty well for both of them, especially in places like California with large Asian populations. The problem with all this is that liberals, always on the lookout for races to pit against one another started treating Asians like they were white. This is particularly in evidence in racial quotas for entrance into exclusive schools and colleges where Asians and whites are discriminated against purely on the basis of race in order to let students with lower SAT and other scores into Ivy League schools. There are several lawsuits working their way through the federal courts system on this basis. The Harris – Xiden administration dropped a Trump Justice Department discrimination lawsuit against Yale shortly after assuming office. Their problem is on one hand claiming anti-Asian racism from whites based on the Georgia shootings while on the other systematically discriminating against better qualified Asian children based entirely on their race.
- Which one of these is true? My guess is both, as the ChiComs are in pure battlefield prep mode, and the democrats and their media cheerleaders are in their annual election year panic. This is percolating throughout everything cultural, making it more difficult to push back hard against what the ChiComs are doing. A recent example is a screening of Breakfast at Tiffany’s on TCM a couple weeks ago. Mickey Rooney plays a character Mr Yunioshi in the movie. The post-movie discussion was all about how offensive this particular character was rather than how great the movie was. Much of this is organic growth of cancel culture that has already removed old portrayals from the cultural world (Charlie Chan, anyone?). But the ChiComs are very good at persuasion and appear to be taking advantage of our fecklessness to their benefit.
2. Disrespect. Nothing says respect like the Harris – Xiden administration, which has had a great couple of months undoing everything Trump put into place. Xiden bragged about it during his press conference last week. The ChiComs were sufficiently emboldened that they spent most of two days lecturing the newly ensconced Xiden State Department team in Anchorage. They then spent at least a week spiking the ball in the end zone afterwards including selling items with that message on them. Secretary of State Blinken and his team meekly turned belly up and took the beating. Russian President Putin challenged Xiden to a live debate to be broadcast to both nations. Should that happen, my prediction is that it will not go as badly as we think, as Xiden still appears to have sufficient brane cells intact to allow at least a little coherence. Nork leader Ki Jong Un is back to firing missiles. And Central American nations have turned the migrant spigot on once again. The only good news appears to be that Mexican President AMLO is going to use the Federalies to obstruct the immigrant caravans if for no other reason than to limit COVID transmission while they cross Mexico.
3. Voting. Georgia passed and their governor signed a massive revision of voting laws in the state. Democrats, their media cheerleaders and President Harris – Xiden were all apoplectic. The first lawsuit was filed by the end of the week. Looks like the name calling will start with Jim Crow, a democrat anti-black regime, will be the opening bid. Among other things, the legislation requires an ID for all voting, tightens up signature requirements for absentees, and limits outside money paid to state and local election officials (the Zuckerberg gambit that turned local election offices into democrat get out the vote centers). No discussion or even identification of precisely which Georgia blacks are unable to get an ID for voting. There are at least 30 other states working on similar legislation. Here in Alaska, there is similar legislation under construction. Given the split legislature due to 3 turncoat Republicans, it remains to be seen whether it will see the light of day. Local democrats, their NGOs and media have been particularly incensed with multiple anti-reform columns by local Black Caucus and NAA(L)CP leaders in the local fish wrapper. Comments to the articles have been expectedly incendiary. The thing these clowns don’t understand is that none of this would have happened unless they decided to commit Sovereign Fraud on the massive level they decided to do for the 2020 election.
4. Noem. SD Governor Kristy Noem opted out of the 2024 Republican presidential field last week with a veto of a SD bill that would have limited sports for men to men and women’s sports for women. Her excuse was fear of what the NCAA would do to SD in response, a remarkably weak position. The legislation was sent back for the legislators to fix, an opportunity rejected by the House Speaker. We will see if they can get an override. Criticism from conservatives was withering, leading a Noem spokesman to opine against cancel culture on the political right. The linked Kurt Schlichter column was typical of the well-earned criticism. From a political standpoint, now that Republican voters know what a Republican who fights for their best interest, those who self-identify as something other than fighters have self-selected out of the political gene pool for a long time to come. From an actual standpoint, I am wondering if there is another way out of this morass. Perhaps it isn’t the feds that are broke (not that would ever be a bad opening guess), but perhaps it is the way we divide up sports themselves today. What if the levels of play weren’t divided based on sex, but entirely on ability? Those who can compete on the professional level, whatever that is, compete on the professional level. Those who can barely hold the floor at their local YMCA basketball court play at that level. Problem with this construct is people from higher levels punching down to ensure wins at the lower levels. But that problem is far less intractable than the current media-sponsored male-female-trans construct. This has been a Scott Adams suggestion for over a year.
5. Border. Now that Harris – Xiden has destroyed Trump’s control of the southern border, they have set the stage for what they think will be a slam-dunk approval of citizenship for all the illegals here in the US. Their problem is that Trump had the problem solved, much to the disgust of democrats, the media, and the various naturalization organizations. Last week, Xiden blamed everything on Trump, yet it was Xiden who ditched all the government-to-government relationships Trump had forged with Mexico and the bad actors among Central American nations. Xiden also shut down all wall construction. And they have shut down all reporting from their facilities on the US side of the border, the ones illegally holding illegals. We know how to fix this. We know what worked. Xiden intentionally broke it, creating a crisis growing far faster than they expected. Never fear, he put giggling future President Harris in charge of the mess.
6. Pot. Here’s a funny story from the political left about the Xiden – Harris WH. They have suspended, asked to resign, or put on remote work detail dozens of young WH staffers who used marijuana in the past. They were told by the Harris – Xiden hiring people that past use would be overlooked. Apparently not. The fun part comes with future President Harris, who was driven into yet another of her fabulous giggling fits when asked about her past marijuana use. Typical democrat. When faced with a policy they don’t like, they end up taking it out on people who can’t do anything about it, people they lied to rather than actually take steps to change the policy. But they would rather run their mouths than actually get anything done. Yet another difference between Trump and Harris – Xiden.
7. Phillips. Colorado baker Jack Phillips is in court yet again for refusing to create a trans celebration cake for Autumn Scardina. Phillips first went to the SCOTUS for his refusal to bake and decorate a gay marriage cake. He was hounded by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission and won a SCOTUS case in 2017. That very same day, Scardina demanded Phillips create a transition cake for him/her/it. Took less than a year for the second case to make it to the SCOTUS where Phillips won a partial victory against the Colorado Civil Rights Commission accusing the Commission of anti-Christian bigotry. Phillips counter sued. Both the State of Colorado and Phillips dropped their dueling cases in 2019. This wasn’t good enough for Scardina who took him on in civil court. Note that in neither case did Phillips refuse to sell a cake, which he offered to do in both cases. In both cases, as an artist who happened to be a Christian he refused to CREATE a cake for an event against his religious beliefs. This isn’t about discrimination. It is now about compliance, using the legal process as punishment. Also note that neither Scardina nor his/her/its lawyer had the cojones to try this sort of foolishness with a Muslim baker. I wonder why (/sarc).
8. Mann. It only took eight years, but a federal judge finally dismissed Michael Mann’s SLAPP lawsuit against National Review agreeing to a motion for summary judgment. No action has been taken to date on the related ongoing court cases against Mark Steyn and Rand Simberg. Mann’s lawsuit was the worst sort of lawfare conducted both by the University of Virginia where he currently is employed, but by the DC Circuit which refused to abide by anti-SLAPP legislation. Mann’s technique is to drag out the festivities as long as humanly possible and crush his target under massive legal fees. We will see if National Review asks for legal fees and court costs to be reimbursed by Mann, UVa and the people who are backing him. Mann privately boasted that the suit was an opportunity to ruin National Review.
More later –
- AG