Howdy All, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –
In this issue –
1. Brazil
2. Abortion
3. Geoengineering
4. AntiFa
5. Boycott
6. Letitia
7. Grift
8. Cass Report
1. Brazil. Most entertaining news of the week comes out of Brazil, where the judiciary system is corrupt as the federal courts in DC and the state courts in NYC. The Brazil national Supreme Court is running roughshod over the citizenry, and apparently has been doing so for a long time. Judges who publicly complain are disappeared, and if lucky, they get to leave the country penniless. Following the Lula DaSilva – Bolsonaro, presidential election, the judges got themselves involved in political retribution against Bolsonaro and his supporters, essentially banning them from future involvement in Brazilian politics for the next decade or so. They are trying to jail Bolsonaro, having already found him disqualified from running for future office through 2030. Over the last couple weeks, they picked a fight with X/Twitter and in turn, Elon Musk, demanding X/Twitter censor a long list of accounts upon their demand. The court also wants all of X/Twitter’s internal documentation and data on those accounts, a bridge too far for Musk who pointedly, and publicly refused. Note that none of this is being done under any legislation. Over the last couple weeks, the rhetoric grew more heated, with Musk aggressively supporting free speech in Brazil. Looks like X/Twitter is trying to get their employees out of country before they are jailed. Most recent threat by the Chief Judge was to shut down Starlink in Brazilian schools, a laughable threat which will hurt Brazilian schools much worse than it will Musk. Here’s the funny part: You do know that Starlink is operating in Russia, right? Terminals are smuggled in and operate quite nicely, supported by the greater Starlink community. While I have no direct information about terminals in Iran, North Korea or China, I expect there is a non-zero population in each country. The last Brazilian presidential election was in many ways as sketchy as the 2020 and 2022 elections here in the US. The difference is that Brazil is farther along in the process of criminalizing their opposition, and their criminalization is led by their judiciary rather than the Lula regime. The pressure on X/Twitter is couched in all the expected Deep State language shutting down disinformation, with disinformation defined as anything the regime doesn’t want the general public to hear or see. While all of the above is a really big deal, the most important part of it is the use of a foreign nation to target an American not in compliance nor supportive of the incumbent Intel community / Deep State that has been in charge here in the US since at least the 1980s, likely the 1960s. The intel community, unable to bring Musk / X/Twitter to heel here in the US, is using international proxies to do their dirty work in Brazil, just like they used intel communities of other nations to prepare the Steele Dossier aimed at Trump starting in 2015. We’ve seen it done twice in 9 years. How many other times has this gone on? Once you see it, you can never un-see it.
2. Abortion. Arizona was ground zero for the abortion wars last week with a Arizona Supreme Court opinion that triggered all the expected outrage and democrat chest-beating.
- The Arizona Supreme Court upheld an 1864 law outlawing almost all abortions. This opinion overrides the most recent legislation passed in 2022. At first glance, it would be no particularly big deal, as it is simply detritus left over from the damage Roe wrought on the body politic, when the SOCTUS nationalized the issue in 1973. All this would have been (and will be) cleaned up as part of the normal legislative process, though that cleanup will be more difficult with democrats desperately needing the issue in November (and for the next few decades if we’re not careful). This isn’t the first abortion hand grenade out there. It won’t be the last one discovered. A simple repeal of the 1864 law would be the reasonable solution, as would a modification of the 2022 law to allow it to override all previous legislation. The problem with doing this is that Republicans have a one-seat majority in the house, a two-seat majority in the senate, and have a democrat governor. The democrats desperately want the issue in November. Republicans should quickly pass a simple modification / repeal and toss it on Governor Hobbs desk daring her to veto it. This makes it the democrat’s problem rather than Republicans. A deeper view, particularly in terms of dates leads to some head scratching. The law being referenced was passed by the Territorial Legislature in 1864. Arizona didn’t become a state until 1912. It would seem that the act of an actual state legislature would override that of a previous Territorial legislature, but what do I know? Better yet, how many other Territorial laws are still being enforced by this court? From this reason alone, it would appear that the AZ Supremes are playing politics with this one, intentionally giving democrats in AZ an issue for November.
- For his part, former President Trump announced his position on abortion. The announcement was near perfection as he threw it entirely back to the states. he even went so far as to oppose any congressional action on the subject, much to the distress of Lindsay Graham (R, SC). Republican senatorial candidates like Kary Lake wholeheartedly jumped onboard. This gave an opening to the never Trumpers like Mike Pence to go into tut-tut mode, trashing the position. Gaslighting media followed suit with stories about Trump’s abortion position driving his core supporters among the evangelicals.
3. Geoengineering. Geoengineering is the large-scale manipulation of an environmental process that effects Earth climate in an attempt to counteract global warming. Essentially, it is something done with intentional global impact. Who would approve such a thing? A government nominally, or a lot of governments working together would be the right answer. The problem with all of this is that manmade global warming due to CO2 emissions is not even agreed upon as a measurable fact, much less how much of what is making the changes. With that in mind, we have the University of Washington conducting an experiment from the deck of a decommissioned aircraft carrier in San Francisco Bay. The experiment shot aerosols into the sky in an attempt to reflect sunlight back into space. This one sprayed microscopic salt crystal into the air in an attempt to increase density (reflectivity) of marine clouds. It was kept secret in order to minimize hostile public opposition. At least two NGOs are involved with hopes this is something they can talk third world nations into secretly hosting the generators. As an aside, this is essentially the plot of The Arrival (1996) with Charlie Sheen, though alien invaders were secretly modifying the planet to better suit them. If the climate is as fragile as these idiots believe it is (and I don’t believe that), these sorts of unapproved environmental engineering ought to be dealt with just as harshly and permanently as humanly possible. If left alone, the tests are intended to continue through May.
4. AntiFa. One of the basic lessons of the gaslighting age we live in today is that the leftist rioters are all orchestrated, all products of the government at various levels, and never organic like those on the political right. Recent examples here in the US are Occupy Wall Street, BLM and AntiFa. Irish protesters demonstrated this nicely a week or two ago in Coolock, Dublin, Ireland, where locals protesting a refugee center were confronted by AntiFa types, and journalists. AntiFa showed up to protest and take video. They were told to leave. Refused, and hilarity ensued. They were forced to leave and had their flags and signs removed. Some of the protesters dropped phones which were examined afterwards. Some of these phones were unlocked and had message traffic between various media sources, NGO workers (people working on the government dime), journalists, and prominent AntiFa operatives in both Ireland and the UK. The AntiFa types showed up at the protest thinking there would only be women and children there. Poor mission planning, that.
5. Boycott. The NAA(L)CP called for a student athlete boycott of all Florida colleges and universities following Governor DeSantis crackdown on DEI programs in state universities. The thinking is that they will starve Florida schools of athletes. This has been a miserable failure, as 35 top athletes signed letters of intent this year with various Florida colleges and universities including Miami, Florida and Florida State. There were no decommits by black athletes for DEI purposes listed.
6. Letitia. Having lost her last few attempts to seize Trump properties in NY, State Attorney General Letitia James is challenging Trump’s $175 million bond on the grounds that the bond issuer, Knight Specialty Insurance, is not licensed to do business in NY. She challenges the company that it is not legitimately qualified to assure the bond against Trump. Completely unbiased (/sarc) Judge Engoron scheduled a hearing next Monday. Pretty good scam James and her attack dog judge are playing here. After threatening insurers licensed in NY with regulatory punishment if they post a bond for Trump, Trump does what he always does, shakes the box, and finds an alternative solution. In this case, an out of state insurer. whom James immediately attacks as being unqualified to do business in NY. I expect Engoron to toss the bond and attempt to allow James to start seizing Trump properties. I expect Trump lawyers to make the case upon appeal that other insurers were threatened by the State and dare the appeals court to agree with James.
7. Grift. This week’s example of Eric Hoffers observation (The Temper of Our Time) that:
Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.
comes courtesy of virulent anti-gunner David Hogg, who became the face of the aggrieved anti-gun community following his survival at the 2018 school shooting at the Stoneman Douglas High School. He made the rounds of all the media and democrat political right places for years. He moved up a weight class in 2022, becoming the face of the Leaders We Deserve PAC, created to elect Gen Z democrats to political office. FEC filings from 2023 demonstrate that this PAC is well into Hoffer’s racket phase, with most of its money going to themselves via payroll, political consulting, legal fees, travel and entertainment. Indeed, only $263,000 or over $3 million raised went to a mere four political races. Well at least they are doing it to themselves this time around. And yes, Hogg is the leader democrats deserve.
8. Cass Report. The Cass Review released their final report and recommendations to the British National Health Services a couple weeks ago. Cass is Chair of the Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People at the NHS. It was a devastating rebuke to the current trans mania. Her report concluded the following:
- There is no simple explanation for the increase in numbers of young people who have a trans or gender diverse identity. While she does not specifically state it, the only thing that fits here is an orchestrated fad.
- There are conflicting views about the clinical approach. Expectations of care at times are far from usual clinical practice.
- International guidelines for care and treatment of children and young people with gender dysphoria found no single guideline can be applied across the board in the UK.
- Published research is of poor quality. There is no reliable evidence base to make clinical decisions or for families and children to make informed choices.
- Evidence is often misrepresented and overstated in the publications and social debate.
- Controversy surrounding medical treatment takes focus away from individual care and treatment.
- There is weak evidence for the impact of gender dysphoria and its impact on cognitive and psychosexual development.
- Hormone treatments under age 18 present many unknowns. There is no long-term follow-up data on outcomes for this group.
- Clinicians are unable to determine which children and young go on to have an enduring trans identity.
- For most children, a medical pathway is not the best way to manage gender-related distress.
- It is important to balance innovation, monitoring, oversight and regulation so that it does not stifle progress while preventing the creep of unproven approaches into clinical base treatment.
More later
- AG