Weekend Open Thread
[guest post by Dana]
Another week down. Here are a few news items to talk about. Feel free to include anything you think might interest readers. Please make sure to include links.
First news item
This while third-world countries struggle to get vaccincated:
Louisiana has stopped asking the federal government for its full allotment of COVID-19 vaccine. About three-quarters of Kansas counties have turned down new shipments of the vaccine at least once over the past month. And in Mississippi, officials asked the federal government to ship vials in smaller packages so they don’t go to waste…In Mississippi, small-town pharmacist Robin Jackson has been practically begging anyone in the community to show up and get shots after she received her first shipment of vaccine earlier this month and demand was weak, despite placing yard signs outside her storefront celebrating the shipment’s arrival. She was wasting more vaccine than she was giving out and started coaxing family members into the pharmacy for shots.
“Nobody was coming,” she said. “And I mean no one.”
Second news item
According to Israel’s Ministry of Health, a large majority of those eligible for the vaccine have received at least one dose — every age group from 20 upwards is at least 75% vaccinated with one shot — although there are still hundreds of thousands left to inoculate. But one of the country’s top coronavirus experts, Eran Segal of the Weizmann Institute of Science, said he believes that the vaccines have nearly eradicated Covid-19 from Israel.
“[H]erd immunity is not binary, but I do think that we reached a high level of immunity such that outbreaks are now highly unlikely (unless a variant that bypasses vaccines arrives),” Segal told CNN.
Third news item
U.N. again confirms it’s a disgraceful and moribund entity:
UN Watch is calling on U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield and EU states to condemn the UN’s election of Iran to a 4-year term on its Commission on the Status of Women, the “principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.”
The vote yesterday by the UN’s Economic and Social Council, reported first by UN Watch, sparked outrage among human rights activists. “Electing the Islamic Republic of Iran to protect women’s rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, the Geneva-based human rights group. “It’s absurd — and morally reprehensible. This is a black day for women’s rights, and for all human rights,” said Neuer.
Fourth news item
Oh. So now it’s acceptable to question the legitimacy of *some* Blacks:
The coup de grâce of broken-brain Scott-slander, though, comes courtesy of Glenn Kessler, fact-checker for the Washington Post. “Tim Scott often talks about his grandfather and cotton. There’s more to that tale,” reads Kessler’s headline. Never mind that Scott has never hidden that his family owned a farm in South Carolina after being freed from slavery; or that it’s true that his grandfather dropped out of school at an early age to work on that farm; or that his mother inherited only five acres of land; or that Scott himself grew up in working-class poverty — Kessler is unimpressed by Scott’s rise, writing that “Scott tells a tidy story packaged for political consumption, but a close look shows how some of his family’s early and improbable success gets flattened and written out of his biography.” That Scott’s family owned some property in the Jim Crow South prior to Scott’s being born is enough to cause Kessler — a man born into wealth and privilege — to wonder aloud, in the pages of the Washington Post, if it’s all that impressive that a man born into a system designed to hold him back financially, educationally, and politically is serving in the United States Senate. In the words of Morgan Freeman’s Lucius Fox: Good luck!
Fifth news item
First U.S. president to say it out loud:
For decades, U.S. presidents have avoided calling the World War I-era mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces an act of genocide.
Now, U.S. lawmakers expect President Biden to make that declaration on Saturday as Armenians mark the anniversary of the atrocities. News reports indicate that while the move is likely, Biden has not made a final decision.
The possible declaration would be hailed by Armenian communities, lawmakers and human rights advocates who have lobbied for it. But it would also damage already strained ties with Turkey.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a statement Thursday in anticipation of Biden’s announcement, said Turkey “will continue to defend truths against the so-called Armenian genocide lie and those who support this slander with political motivations.”
Sixth news item
Ugh. An immediate disqualification:
According to limited public polling as well as private polling, [Andrew] Yang has surged to the front of the mayoral pack, fueled by his name recognition and celebrity status, as well as his cheery demeanor and optimistic discussion of the city’s future. But in the past, he has struggled with issues of tone: His presidential campaign has been trailed by allegations of a “bro” culture; in one of his own books, he admits to having named his pectoral muscles, Lex and Rex.
Seventh news item
Meanwhile, Harris’ political instincts must be telling here that she has to be careful what kind of imagery ammunition she gives to Republicans. The last thing she wants is to get caught on camera against the backdrop of migrant kids stuffed into overcrowded glass holding pens. Watching from a distance means she hasn’t had to stare into the eyes of the more than 20,000 children and teenagers languishing in U.S. custody for longer than the 72 hours permitted by law. So far, she hasn’t investigated troubling allegations about the sexual assault of incarcerated youth—either by one another, or authorities supervising them. She hasn’t had to peer into the giant aquariums that warehouse hundreds of unaccompanied minors. Most of all, Harris hasn’t had to admit that the administration’s response to the crisis is improvised, nor has she offered real solutions to this recurring problem. It’s not just Harris who is failing this course. The whole Biden administration is clueless about immigration and the border—including the two Latinos also tasked with tackling the crisis, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.
In interviews with a dozen Democrats and Republicans — including GOP strategists, Biden advisers and immigration advocates who work with the White House — a picture emerges not just of a Republican Party eager to leverage a policy point that worked well for Trump in his first run for office, but of a Biden White House that was ill-prepared for them to do that. Several Democrats and immigration activists who support Biden said they have grown frustrated that the White House has failed to respond to the attacks more forcefully and fully embrace pro-immigration policies.
Eighth news item
WHO ARE THESE SENSIBLE PEOPLE AND WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO THE REAL CHRIS CUOMO AND DON LEMON:
While doubling down during Thursday’s CNN Tonight handoff on their support for Officer Nicholas Reardon’s decision to shoot knife-wielding Ma’Khia Bryant, CNN hosts Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon blasted outlets like NBC who didn’t show the knife in Bryant’s hand while reporting on the shooting. The pair accused such outlets of “journalistic malpractice” because they weren’t being honest (an ironic notion given who was flinging it).
Their knock came as NewsBusters drove part of the Thursday news cycle with a report exposing NBC’s deception against their audience; editing out a key part of the 911 call and not showing the knife, before silently adding them in an update.
“And, we’ve got to be honest about these things. And if we’re not honest about these things, as journalists, then it is a dereliction of our duty as journalists. It’s journalistic malpractice not to do it,” Lemon opined to his friend.
Cuomo noted he had “heard some people were reporting on the incident without showing the knife.” He let his true feelings on the matter known by calling it “malpractice” and said such deceptive outlets were “looking for trouble, and that’s wrong.”
Video at link.
There is too much police brutality. There are too many police shootings. But it is wrong to try to force every police shooting into the same narrative. And it is very wrong to treat cops who stop murders the same as we treat cops who commit murders.
MISCELLANEOUS
Still stuck on spring:
(John William Waterhouse, A Song of Springtime)
Have a great weekend!
–Dana
Starting the weekend early!
Dana (fd537d) — 4/23/2021 @ 7:01 pmA country can have open borders or it can have a welfare state. It can’t have both.
norcal (01e272) — 4/23/2021 @ 7:40 pmIf Joe Biden comes out tomorrow and declares that Turkey committed genocide in Armenia, I will most certainly tip my hat to him. But from what we have seen of our geriatric President, most recently with the dithering on immigration caps, the things he says today aren’t necessarily the things he will believe tomorrow. In fact, it’s almost a certainty that Biden will be heavily swayed by whomever the last person he talks to before the announcement is.
Again, I will salute Joe Biden if he follows through with this move, but how come I have a feeling that a Democrat taking this step will be portrayed in the media as “bold” and “putting historical honesty at the center of his foreign policy” whereas a Republican President who did this would be characterized by the same media as “insulting a NATO ally during a tense moment in our relationship” and “stoking resentment in a key cog to Middle East stability”?
JVW (ee64e4) — 4/23/2021 @ 7:51 pmDid late-19th century damsels really wander through the woods topless, or were painters of that age just dirty old men?
JVW (ee64e4) — 4/23/2021 @ 7:53 pmJVW,
I chalk it up to a wardrobe malfunction and an artist with a photographic memory.
norcal (01e272) — 4/23/2021 @ 8:02 pmYang is also getting it from the microscopic but amplified beyond believability woke (Yellow and/or Tan) Asian community.
urbanleftbehind (16f690) — 4/23/2021 @ 8:30 pmI’m glad Andrew Yang has impressive pectoral muscles. Something has to make up for his lack of a neck.
norcal (01e272) — 4/23/2021 @ 8:36 pmJVW, not all of them. Heh. Not all of the women in JWW paintings are uncovered. But there were some. The luxurious textures and rich colors on the Arthurian women and the landscapes are just gorgeous.
Dana (fd537d) — 4/23/2021 @ 8:43 pmBiden gave Erdogan a heads-up today:
Dana (fd537d) — 4/23/2021 @ 8:52 pmHas Turkey been much of an ally? Didn’t they refuse access to U.S. forces when it came to entering Iraq from the north?
Erdogan is an asshat.
norcal (01e272) — 4/23/2021 @ 9:13 pmCome summer, cLose down interstate traffic (plane, car, etc) to states where the vaccination rate is below 70%. Make our problem their problem before they make their problem our problem.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/23/2021 @ 10:13 pmHas Turkey been much of an ally? Didn’t they refuse access to U.S. forces when it came to entering Iraq from the north?
Turkey controls the Bosporus, which is the single reason that Russia does not have a blue-water navy. Should he ally with Putin, the Black Sea becomes Putin’s gateway to the world. The West has spent almost 200 years preventing that from happening.
The only reason it hasn’t happened under Ergodan is that Turkey would be cut off from the West economically.
Maybe nobody gives a crap anymore, but we probably should.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/23/2021 @ 10:18 pmAccording to Chief Roberts, the government can tax people for not doing something. Tax everyone $10,000 who cannot prove, through data from their local health authorities (and not some bogus paper) that they have been vaccinated.
Of course, this might get some pushback, but I’m all for Biden getting some pushback.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/23/2021 @ 10:22 pmGlenn Kessler
There is probably nothing stupider than pissing off a US Senator.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/23/2021 @ 10:25 pm@13 Congress could pass a law to that effect. Don’t hold your breath.
norcal (01e272) — 4/23/2021 @ 10:26 pmUgh. An immediate disqualification:
Uh, no, given the current occupant of the office, it would be hard not to improve.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/23/2021 @ 10:29 pmRussia’s economy is the size of Brazil’s, Korea’s and Australia’s. A blue-water navy is beyond their means, but they don’t need one.
As a continental power like 20th century Germany, a submarine based navy focused on sea-lane denial suits their needs – and their budget – perfectly.
Dave (1bb933) — 4/23/2021 @ 10:33 pmRussia’s economy is the size of Brazil’s, Korea’s and Australia’s.
So much potential. So much waste and corruption.
norcal (01e272) — 4/23/2021 @ 10:41 pmKamala harris issue with illegal alien children is spelled AOC 2024! Hispanics and left love AOC. Blacks kamala harris was a prosecutor of black people.
asset (65ac7d) — 4/23/2021 @ 11:14 pmI would take Harris over AOC in that matchup. AOC is a rigid leftist ideologue. Harris is more of an opportunist, and is more likely to be a moderate on occasion a la Bill Clinton.
norcal (01e272) — 4/23/2021 @ 11:28 pmMeanwhile, Harris’ political instincts must be telling here that she has to be careful what kind of imagery ammunition she gives to Republicans. The last thing she wants is to get caught on camera against the backdrop of migrant kids stuffed into overcrowded glass holding pens.
Well, it looks like she hasn’t changed pants suits in a month for starters.
Great for campaign commercial footage; it’s an old media production trick– same reason Jack Webb wore the same sports coat in Dragnet episodes; seamless continuity and easier editing.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/24/2021 @ 12:29 amWell, that explains one thing about Dragnet.
Can you tell me why Jack Webb didn’t swing his arms when he walked?
norcal (01e272) — 4/24/2021 @ 12:41 amU.S. President Joe Biden on Friday told Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan that he intends to recognize the 1915 massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide, sources familiar with the conversation told Reuters, a potential further blow to the already frayed ties between the two NATO allies.
‘The Ottoman Empire?!?!’…. =sigh=
Isn’t that a furniture outlet store in Scranton, Joe? Or maybe a Wilmington mall…
On Sunday he’ll definitively dismiss the coal fire theory once and for all then blame NATO ally Spain for blowing up the Maine 1898, demand an apology and reparations.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/24/2021 @ 12:47 amThere is probably nothing stupider than pissing off a US Senator.
Of course there is: electing one POTUS.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/24/2021 @ 1:02 amThe Ottoman Empire was not officially dissolved until 1922. So the Armenian massacres did take place in the Ottoman Empire. Where else would you put them?
Among other news of the day regarding vaccination, let’s not forget Americas’s Dumbest Senator’s opinion:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2021/04/23/gop-sen-ron-johnson-criticizes-big-push-to-get-everyone-vaccinated/?sh=611ed4cf3572
If he were a drunk at the end of the bar he could be ignored I suppose. But instead he gets to help rule this country.
Victor (4959fb) — 4/24/2021 @ 1:32 amWHO ARE THESE SENSIBLE PEOPLE AND WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO THE REAL CHRIS CUOMO AND DON LEMON
This pattern is increasingly disturbing, though not wholly unexpected in today’s ‘Network’-styled media battlefield.
Earlier criticisms of other media reporting and their outlets by these ‘performers’- which is what they are; on-air talents with agents- is an entertainment element mostly pushed by management to draw eyeballs. These showboaters are billed as network anchors, not opinionators. Their job once was to report the news, not opine about it. Imagine a Walter Cronkite [who was managing editor and had final say on broadcast content], a John Chancellor; a Douglas Edwards, David Brinkley, Chet Huntley, Tom Brokaw, Frank Reynolds, Peter Jennings and so on regularly taking time out of a nightly newscast to present a lengthy package- [valuable time BTW]- that criticizes the methods and motives of on-air personalities on, as the say, “another network.” This is a management call, of course, but also calls into question the ethics of the so-called ‘journalists’ who go along with this Barnum & Bailey act– if not their own self-respect.
Some do grow fed up, balk and leave [Shep Smith comes to mind] but most go along to get along–and get enriched as well, believing their own press clippings. As if their opinion matters any more than your own. But don’t be fooled; these cable clowns are not covering current events; they’re drawing you into their circus tents– merely to peddle products— and entertain… not inform.
“You’re television incarnate, Diana: Indifferent to suffering; insensitive to joy. All of life is reduced to the common rubble of banality. War, murder, death are all the same to you as bottles of beer. And the daily business of life is a corrupt comedy. You even shatter the sensations of time and space into split seconds and instant replays. You’re madness, Diana. Virulent madness. And everything you touch dies with you.- Max Schumacher [William Holden] ‘Network’ 1976
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/24/2021 @ 2:05 am… the Ottoman Empire. Where else would you put them?
Perhaps between a CVS and the Food Court.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/24/2021 @ 2:13 amOT– Congrats again to NASA and SpaceX on the successful rendezvous and docking w/t ISS.
11 human beings in orbit aboard the space station at the same time. A record.
Well done, kids.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/24/2021 @ 2:17 amDSCA
Victor (4959fb) — 4/24/2021 @ 4:38 amDo you actually have something intelligent to say about the Ottoman Empire, the slaughter of Armenians or anything related?
Obsessive preoccupation with the past is a sign of decadence. Fine and dandy for Armenians whose future was used up while Rome was still a Republic, 1,300 years before Saladin, but Americans should still have their eyes on the future.
nk (1d9030) — 4/24/2021 @ 5:30 amBiden is so brave to declare the actions of a now-defunct empire 100 years ago as genocide. Wake me when he does something like that against China’s actions today.
Hoi Polloi (b28058) — 4/24/2021 @ 5:56 amExactly, Hoi Polloi.
BTW, you all know that Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, is the great-grandson, by direct descent on the male line, of a high-ranking Ottoman official, right?
nk (1d9030) — 4/24/2021 @ 6:08 amNo particular sympathy for Armenians. Got it. You can go back to sleep.
Victor (4959fb) — 4/24/2021 @ 6:13 amAnd dream of gluten-free, sugar-free, GMO-free, almond milk yogurt?
nk (1d9030) — 4/24/2021 @ 6:21 amAt least Tim Scott admitted a fear of traffic stops and probably is one of the more likely U.S. Sens on the R side to be part of a legislative Gang of ##. Kessler is better training the big metaphorical guns on the next wave, Burgess Owens, Mark Robinson, Daniel Cameron, the rep from SW Florida, Herschel Walker,
urbanleftbehind (34aa87) — 4/24/2021 @ 6:41 amYou know that if the Turks had not, at the same time, “exchanged” 1.2 million Greeks, there would almost certainly be no bouzouki music and probably no movie director Elia Kazan, and consequently no Zorba the Greek, On The Waterfront, or a Streetcar Named Desire, and neither Anthony Quinn nor Marlo Brando would have become famous, and who would have played The Godfather, eh?
nk (1d9030) — 4/24/2021 @ 6:48 amOr, I suppose, we could focuses on such piddly trivialities as Turkey being a member of NATO on the border of the Soviet Union is part of the reason that Armenia is again a just-plain republic and not a Soviet republic.
nk (1d9030) — 4/24/2021 @ 6:56 amHow can I engender, in others, a belief in the dignity of Man and a belief in G*D? My fellow commenters, I ask forgiveness for my laziness in not expressing myself and using, instead, Fulton Sheen to do the work.
[to the youngsters out there who have yet to cultivate patience, I ask “patience, please; take advantage of the wisdom of your elders.”]
felipe (484255) — 4/24/2021 @ 7:01 amRussia’s economy is the size of Brazil’s, Korea’s and Australia’s. A blue-water navy is beyond their means, but they don’t need one.
Being a superpower was beyond the Soviet Union’s means, and yet.
Of course when Reagan & co put them to the test, they collapsed. At the end, they were spending over 50% of GDP on their military. I sometimes think that “Star Wars” was the greatest swindle of all time.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/24/2021 @ 7:25 amAOC 2024
Just when you thought elections couldn’t get any worse: AOC vs Trump!
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/24/2021 @ 7:26 am11 human beings in orbit aboard the space station at the same time. A record.
There were 13 a while back.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/24/2021 @ 7:42 amItalics mine:
Hispanics and left love AOC. Blacks kamala harris was a prosecutor of black people.
felipe (484255) — 4/24/2021 @ 7:44 amasset (65ac7d) — 4/23/2021 @ 11:14 pm
“If you have a vaccine, quite honestly, what do you care if your neighbor has one or not?”
If you have a broken immune system (AIDS, transplant, congenital deficiency, cander treatments, etc) the vaccine isn’t much good for you and you HAVE to rely on the herd.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/24/2021 @ 7:45 am*cancer
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/24/2021 @ 7:45 amthere’s no crisis on the border for harris, only future voters and turning red states blue
this is what an insurrection actually looks like, daily and for how many decades now
this happens just a mile or two from my home
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9505311/Migrants-taken-Holiday-Inn-Arizona-airport.html
thank you, biden voters
JF (e1156d) — 4/24/2021 @ 7:45 amnk (1d9030) — 4/24/2021 @ 6:48 am
Quite right, nk: It is an ill wind that blows no one good.
felipe (484255) — 4/24/2021 @ 7:46 amSounds like we are heading down a path of battling historical narratives with the strategic goal being….unclear. What exactly is the point of aggitating Erdogan? Do we want to be kicked out of Incirlik? Do we want trade barriers to U.S. imports to Turkey? Do we want competing claims of genocide against the Native Americans? Do we want to push Erdogan to being closer to Putin? Look, Erdogan is a bad guy…..who doesn’t care about Turkish civil liberties….or about respecting the neighbor Kurds….but what’s the point of the proclamation? There is no legal significance to it….and unlike Reagan’s calling out of the Berlin Wall….there is no current festering dispute that this resolves. Both sides have their claims. Turkey claims that Armenian dissidents were supporting Russia against the Ottoman Empire in the Great War….and this forced Turkey’s hand to deal with it. Was it genocide? I think so, but Turkey rationalizes the extent of it…kind of like our own Manifest Destiny claims. If there is a strategic goal to this….fine….right now it seems like a strong dose of navel gazing and posturing. Is there a point?
AJ_Liberty (a4ff25) — 4/24/2021 @ 8:12 amI think I’ve mentioned my grandfather’s participation in the making of that history once or twice, here, felipe.
nk (1d9030) — 4/24/2021 @ 8:27 am45, chicken littling about red states turning blue…its going to be one of the big 3 red states, TX, FL, TN initiating a state income tax like Ricard Ogilvie doing for IL moreso than immigration. You say VA and CO and AZ, I say IA, OH and MO. 1 of “them” gets canceled out by the emergence of a “felipe”, anyhow.
urbanleftbehind (34aa87) — 4/24/2021 @ 8:34 amnk (1d9030) — 4/24/2021 @ 8:27 am
Yes, you have, nk. It is not lost on me.
felipe (484255) — 4/24/2021 @ 8:47 amhttps://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2021/04/24/what-school-principal-admits-theyre-doing-to-white-kids-n2588376
Demonization of an entire group of people for all that ails society. Where have we seen that before?
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/24/2021 @ 8:56 amRIP people who died
Felix Silla (84)-Played Cousin Itt on The Addams Family.
Monte Hellman (91)-Film director of Two Lane Blacktop, a highly underrated road race movie with James Taylor, Dennis Wilson, and Warren Oates.
Chuck Geschke -Co-developed the PostScript and PDF file formats. Co-founded Adobe Corporation.
Richard Rush (91)-Film director of The Stunt Man, with Steve Railsback, Peter O’Toole, and Barbara Hershey. One of my favorite movies.
Rip Murdock (55fae8) — 4/24/2021 @ 9:00 amKevin M, your desire for a surveillance state to ensure compliance disturbs me greatly. I have no interest in a jackbooted thug ensuring everyone takes an experimental vaccine to protect egg shell individuals.
Free will exists. Respect it.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/24/2021 @ 9:01 amAdditionally Kevin,
till we completely lock down our border and prevent anyone from going in and out of it your desires to keep everyone infection free is pointless. Look at what India is currently experiencing. Look at Brazil just a few weeks ago (and now.) Look at our southern border.
On and on.
Are you going to require experimental injections with every new virus released by a foreign state?
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/24/2021 @ 9:17 am“Free will exists. Respect it.”
Roger (e34354) — 4/24/2021 @ 9:26 amIt’s also my free will to call those who refuse vaccination a bit selfish (unless they have a medical reason for refusing it).
Credit to Biden say the Armenian genocide was a genocide. Erdogan didn’t help himself with his proxy war against Armenia last year, along with his other general belligerence.
Paul Montagu (26e0d1) — 4/24/2021 @ 9:53 amThe unused doses in LA and KS should be shipped to India, where the 7-day moving average is almost 300k cases per day and almost 2k deaths per day, and which is probably undercounted.
Paul Montagu (26e0d1) — 4/24/2021 @ 10:19 am43% of all Covid cases are in three countries, the US, Brazil and India, all of which have been run by presidents, like Modi, who didn’t take the virus seriously.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/apr/22/us-scientists-feared-compromised-china/
Espionage by any other name…
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/24/2021 @ 10:35 amThe Postal Service is running a ‘covert operations program’ that monitors Americans’ social media posts
The law enforcement arm of the U.S. Postal Service has been quietly running a program that tracks and collects Americans’ social media posts, including those about planned protests, according to a document obtained by Yahoo News.
………
“Analysts with the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) monitored significant activity regarding planned protests occurring internationally and domestically on March 20, 2021,” says the March 16 government bulletin, marked as “law enforcement sensitive” and distributed through the Department of Homeland Security’s fusion centers. “Locations and times have been identified for these protests, which are being distributed online across multiple social media platforms, to include right-wing leaning Parler and Telegram accounts.”
………
The bulletin includes screenshots of posts about the protests from Facebook, Parler, Telegram and other social media sites. Individuals mentioned by name include one alleged Proud Boy and several others whose identifying details were included but whose posts did not appear to contain anything threatening.
“iCOP analysts are currently monitoring these social media channels for any potential threats stemming from the scheduled protests and will disseminate intelligence updates as needed,” the bulletin says.
Rip Murdock (55fae8) — 4/24/2021 @ 10:38 am……..
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service did not respond to specific questions sent by Yahoo News about iCOP, but provided a general statement on its authorities.
……….
“The Internet Covert Operations Program is a function within the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which assesses threats to Postal Service employees and its infrastructure by monitoring publicly available open source information,” the statement said.
……..
Dana/JVW/Patterico-
Please take a look at my post 59 @ 10:38 am. Not sure why it is in moderation.
Thx.
Rip Murdock (55fae8) — 4/24/2021 @ 10:45 amBefore President Biden said anything about the Armenian genocide, he should have admitted the policy mistakes that allowed the Syria/Iraq genocide during the Obama/Biden administration.
As far as I can tell, former president Obama feels no guilt about that failure. I’m not sure how Biden feels. It would be good if some journalists asked him about the failure.
(And that is all I have to say, for now, since I think their failure deserves a longish post of its own.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 4/24/2021 @ 10:51 amFoxconn mostly abandons $10 billion Wisconsin project touted by Trump
Taiwan electronics manufacturer Foxconn is drastically scaling back a planned $10 billion factory in Wisconsin, confirming its retreat from a project that former U.S. President Donald Trump once called “the eighth wonder of the world.”
Under a deal with the state of Wisconsin announced on Tuesday, Foxconn will reduce its planned investment to $672 million from $10 billion and cut the number of new jobs to 1,454 from 13,000.
Rip Murdock (55fae8) — 4/24/2021 @ 10:51 am………
Wisconsin was Foxconned.
@57 the seven day covid case average is significantly less per capita in the usa and brazil than france, which took it oh so seriously
math is hard
just like california’s average, with closed restaurants and distance learning, is about the same as arizona’s with none of that
but great that we have your president letting it come across the border, because he takes it seriously
JF (e1156d) — 4/24/2021 @ 10:56 amhttps://thefederalist.com/2021/04/23/stunning-chauvin-juror-confession-i-was-worried-about-rioting-and-destruction-and-people-coming-to-my-house-to-protest-verdict/
Worried about riots and protests coming to her home. Sure sounds like a fair trial.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/24/2021 @ 11:11 amI would like to note that NJRob’s link @51 again is about a private school parents choose to spend massive amounts of money to send their children to and that if the parents are unhappy with the curriculum, they can take their thousands and thousands of dollars and send their children somewhere else.
Nic (896fdf) — 4/24/2021 @ 11:19 amRIP Ray Lambert (100). Lambert was a medic during the landing at Normandy:
……….
From americanhomefront.wunc.org:
……..
Rip Murdock (55fae8) — 4/24/2021 @ 11:28 amLambert was awarded a Silver Star and Purple Heart for his actions on D-Day.
I didn’t vote for Biden, so he’s as much your president as mine, and my link shows cases and deaths per million, so your “math is hard” comment is disingenuous, JF.
Paul Montagu (26e0d1) — 4/24/2021 @ 11:29 amCA is 33rd in cases per million, and AZ is 7th, so it isn’t “about the same” as CA, far from it. Care to revisit your math?
Oh, and what’s your evidence that Biden is importing Covid cases? Because the illegals are being tested. This doesn’t mean I endorse what Biden has done policywise.
Here’s a good thread on the current economics of nuclear energy. Bottom line, construction is still too expensive, unnecessarily so.
Paul Montagu (26e0d1) — 4/24/2021 @ 11:41 amA co-blogger of mine works in Corvallis at a place called NuScale, which is developing smaller-scale modular generation. It could be the way of the future. That, and thorium.
Ted Nugent says he has COVID-19 after claiming the pandemic is not real
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The 72-year-old, who previously claimed COVID-19 was “not a real pandemic,” described having a “stuffed up head,” body aches and that he “literally could hardly crawl out of bed the last few days.”
“I thought I was dying,” he said, stopping periodically for his self-described “rattily cough.”
In the video, the “Cat Scratch Fever” singer repeatedly uses racist slurs to refer to COVID-19 and reiterates his previous stance that he wouldn’t be getting the vaccine because he claims wrongly that “nobody knows what’s in it.”
Rip Murdock (55fae8) — 4/24/2021 @ 11:42 am………
Nugent, a supporter of former President Donald Trump, previously called the pandemic a scam and has railed against public health restrictions. He has repeated a narrative pushed by conservative media and disputed by health experts that suggests the official death count from the coronavirus is inflated.
………
He probably had “cat scratch fever” instead of COVID-19.
Covid-19 Rates in Los Angeles Have Gone From Worst to Among the Best
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……..Los Angeles County has one of the lowest rates of infection per capita of the nation’s 10 most populous counties. Restaurants are packed, hospitals have open beds, and researchers are studying possible reasons for one of the pandemic’s biggest turnarounds, which has occurred despite vaccination rates lower than the national average. Their theories include high immunity caused by previous spikes and a common variant in California that may be keeping out more infectious strains.
As case rates have fallen across the country in recent months, California has led the way. It now has the lowest per capita Covid infection rate in the continental U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, thanks in large part to Los Angeles County, where a quarter of the state’s 40 million people live.
About 20% of Covid tests were coming back positive in Los Angeles County in early January, with more than 15,000 new cases and 250 deaths reported most weekdays and more than 1,600 intensive care beds taken by coronavirus patients. In the past week, the positivity rate has been hovering around or below 1%. There are around 400 new cases and fewer than 50 deaths reported most days and just under 500 people are currently hospitalized with Covid-19.
Rip Murdock (55fae8) — 4/24/2021 @ 11:55 am……..
In the past few weeks, Los Angeles has been one of the last major metro areas in the country to begin reopening. Public school students are returning to classrooms part-time, while restaurants, gyms and museums are welcoming limited numbers of people. In trendy neighborhoods like Echo Park, would-be diners are crowding sidewalks, waiting for an available table.
…….
But health researchers and local officials said the threat of another surge in cases will persist until at least 70% of the population is vaccinated or have some form of immunity.
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I get my second jab of the Pfizer vaccine next week. Whoooo hooooo!
@29. That’s a question you should really ask of President Plagiarist. There’s little doubt the pressing drama of Ottoman Empire actions top the agenda of immediate issues needing the attention of the President of the United States in late April of 2021. No doubt you hope he remembers to wish Austria’s Archduke Ferdinand a happy birthday this year, too; President Trump forgot.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/24/2021 @ 12:46 pmFree will exists. Respect it.
Your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins. Respect that.
Rights do not come without responsibility. Irresponsible people are crap people.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/24/2021 @ 1:23 pmAs for “eggshell people” what kind of assh0le are you?
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/24/2021 @ 1:25 pmShould someone be jailed for forging a vaccine record and using it to enter a venue which requires proof of vaccinations?
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/24/2021 @ 1:28 pm@20 It is not what you would take, it is what voters in a democratic party primary want. AOC is popular in the party except with corporate establishment d.n.c. democrats. As I said earlier kamala harris was a prosecutor of black men (and some black woman) That does not go over well in the black community as she found out in the 2020 democratic presidential primary. See debate where Tulsi Gabbard ripper her a new one! In the twitter world democrats can’t wait to vote for AOC for president in 2024 since she first won in her primary on june 26 2018. AOC has the hispanic vote and Bernie voters locked up and thats half the party.
asset (b8ff4d) — 4/24/2021 @ 1:45 pmPOLITICO PLAYBOOK: Nikki Haley scouts a 2024 partner
SPOTTED: NIKKI HALEY in Miami meeting with Mayor FRANCIS SUAREZ at City Hall. The sitdown was arranged with the explicit goal of allowing Haley to gauge the 43-year-old Republican as a potential running mate in 2024, according to a source familiar with the huddle.
Suarez, a rising star in Florida politics, is Cuban American and an influential voice with the largest bloc of conservative Hispanic voters in the battleground state. Along with voters with roots in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Colombia, Cuban Americans shifted hard right during the Trump era as Democrats struggled with the embrace of “socialism” by the left wing of their party.
Another source told us that while a joint ticket wasn’t explicitly discussed, it hung over the entire conversation. An intriguing sidenote: Suarez is known to have a chilly relationship with Gov. RON DESANTIS, another 2024 White House hopeful and favorite of DONALD TRUMP.
Rip Murdock (55fae8) — 4/24/2021 @ 1:47 pm………
Why Biden’s Armenian Genocide Declaration Really Is a Big Deal
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Biden’s declaration represents an important step toward fulfilling America’s commitment to human rights across the world. At home, it begins to close the open wound at the center of the Armenian American experience.
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America occupied an important and positive role in this epic tragedy. Its missionaries and diplomats were among those who courageously raised the alarms about the atrocities unfolding thousands of miles away to a little-known Christian people. It served as a refuge for countless genocide survivors.
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But an accounting of the genocide, a moral reckoning led by the United States, never arrived. Other nations — Germany, France, Russia among them — made clear the massacres were state-sponsored genocide. But not America.
In the U.S., efforts to secure that declaration were dismissed as the attempted settling of some ancient tribal feud, a dispute that America had no business being a part of. But it had every reason to exert its moral authority by characterizing Turkey’s actions against the Armenian people in clear and unambiguous terms. This was the first modern genocide, so devious and effective in its design that even Adolf Hitler spoke of it admiringly.
“Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” Hitler said in his infamous Obersalzberg speech in 1939, one week before the German invasion of Poland.
Rip Murdock (55fae8) — 4/24/2021 @ 2:02 pm……….
Now, Biden has put the United States on record as the latest nation to formally recognize and condemn the Armenian Genocide.
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Biden has placed the United States on the right side of history and allowed the sons, daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Armenian Genocide survivors to honor their legacy. Equally important, he has permanently foreclosed the option of any future president to call the horrific violence of 1915 anything other than its true name.
>>>>>>>>
In-custody death reports under former Maryland medical examiner to be reviewed after he testified Chauvin did not kill George Floyd
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The announcement came less than 24 hours after the attorney general’s office received a letter from the former medical examiner of Washington, D.C., Roger A. Mitchell, signed by 431 doctors from around the country, saying (Dr. David) Fowler’s testimony and conclusions were so far outside the bounds of accepted forensic practice that all his previous work could come into question.
“Dr. Fowler’s stated opinion that George Floyd’s death during active police restraint should be certified with an ‘undetermined’ manner is outside the standard practice and conventions for investigating and certification of in-custody deaths. This stated opinion raises significant concerns for his previous practice and management,” the letter said.
Attorney General Brian Frosh’s office said Friday afternoon that it agreed for the need to review Fowler’s work, and said it had been in contact with Gov. Larry Hogan’s staff.
Rip Murdock (55fae8) — 4/24/2021 @ 2:37 pm……….
Reached by phone Friday afternoon, Fowler said he was not aware of any such consideration of a review. But he defended his office’s work, noting that he was not solely responsible for autopsy conclusions.
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Fowler declined to discuss his testimony in the Chauvin trial.
……….
Irresponsible people are crap people.
Reaganomics.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/24/2021 @ 3:03 pmDCSCA, you better talk to your girl, if FL wasnt winner take all, that gambit would make more sense. Shades of when Cruz picked Fiorina as a potential VP in a naked ploy for CA delegates.
urbanleftbehind (42a11d) — 4/24/2021 @ 3:20 pmRight on, Kev…though admittedly I spent much of the afternoon looking for images of long barreled firearms with Free Will engraved on them easily visible to those staring down at them.
urbanleftbehind (42a11d) — 4/24/2021 @ 3:23 pm78.Why Biden’s Armenian Genocide Declaration Really Is a Big Deal
Ottoman Empire… Christ Almighty.
No. Kicking the living today of a NATO ally at a time when you need every friend in the world– for event of over 100 years ago no less- in an era by people long dead– ain’t too smart.
He’s an idiot. Why Shell Premium gasoline is now $5.10/gallon in San Diego, California is a bigger “deal” to the living– who pay his damn salary.
Biden’s declaration represents an important step toward fulfilling America’s commitment to human rights across the world.
President Plagiarist is not ‘president of the world.’ We have a U.N. to field and condemn ancient slights. What’s next, Joey: condemning France for the Norman Conquest in 1066? Howzabout condemning the Irish for all the slaughter and bombings they’ve done in the 20th century?
Or better still, howzabout just learing how to walk up a flight of stairs at Andrews AFB without falling down three times.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/24/2021 @ 3:31 pmKevin M,
We don’t make policy based on fragility. At least we used to not. Average person exists for a reason.
People live and people die.
Wear a mask if you think it helps. Forcing others to inject themselves based on your desires is a fast slope to more totalitarian behavior. Why can’t you see that?
NJRob (df941a) — 4/24/2021 @ 3:34 pm@81. Meh. Looks like right wing baiting w/chum. Fishing is rich in Florida waters, but trolling for tuna that close to Cuba won’t sell nation wide. She needs to net a freshwater whitefish. No hooks.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/24/2021 @ 3:39 pmAnd you might want to tell it to the left who decriminalized passing AIDS to another .
Let me know when passing the flu means you are responsible for their life.
And the flu is more dangerous to the young than this virus.
NJRob (df941a) — 4/24/2021 @ 3:40 pmWhat exactly is the point of aggitating Erdogan?
To have you looking over there… not over here; like at the border.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/24/2021 @ 3:51 pm. . . and neither Anthony Quinn nor Marlo Brando would have become famous, and who would have played The Godfather, eh?
Frank Sinatra, of course, who badly wanted this role. (I’m guessing you know this story, nk.) Coppola ended up allegedly offering him the role of Johnny Fontaine, the singing idol who wants a role in Wolz’s latest blockbuster picture, and of course that part of a novel is just a retelling of Frank’s own woes in the early 1950 until he was cast in From Here to Eternity, even though the idea that some local mafiosi forced director Fred Zinnemann to cast him is today considered to be a myth. There is, however, still a story making the rounds that the crooner Al Martino, first cast as Johnny Fontaine, was dropped by Coppola in favor of Vic Damone, at which point Martino took it up with a local mob boss who asked Damone to back out of the role ensuring that it was indeed Al Martino who played Johnny Fontaine.
I’m glad this is an open thread, because I just wandered into the weeds with Italian crooner minutiae.
JVW (ee64e4) — 4/24/2021 @ 4:06 pmWhat exactly is the point of aggitating Erdogan?
It’s safer than agitating Xi in China or Putin in Russia. And Brawler Joe Biden with his asthma deferment which kept him out of Vietnam — although, fortunately enough, it did not at all diminish his capacity for sniffing the hair of girls and women from the ages of 6-60 — needs to look tough and resolute on the world stage.
JVW (ee64e4) — 4/24/2021 @ 4:09 pmWhat Biden ought to do is go to Ukraine and wave a NATO flag around. Things are about to get real over there.
Dustin (4237e0) — 4/24/2021 @ 4:12 pmI realize that this is cynical of me, but I think that the acknowledgement of the Armenian genocide is pretty much a win for everyone. Biden gets to look tough and ethical. The Armenian American community gets to have their issue acknowledged publicly. Erdogan gets a relatively benign issue to look tough on to his hardliners without actually having to do much AND Turkey gets to put this issue behind them (it was going to get acknowledged soon anyway, that’s where things were trending in the US). There is no downside for any of the players involved.
Nic (896fdf) — 4/24/2021 @ 4:37 pmI said upthread that I would salute President Biden if he followed through and acknowledged the Armenian genocide, and so I herewith make good on my word. That acknowledged, I would note that the article from Politico which Rip Murdock so liberally quoted from, one written by an Armenian-American activist whose grandfather had been fortunate enough to escape the slaughter, understands why Biden now is in a position to make good on the promise that so many of his predecessors have made:
Good for President Biden, but it’s pretty clear that Erdoğan handed him this opportunity so nicely gift-wrapped and ready to open.
JVW (ee64e4) — 4/24/2021 @ 4:38 pmAstute points, Nic.
JVW (ee64e4) — 4/24/2021 @ 4:39 pm90.What Biden ought to do is go to Ukraine and wave a NATO flag around. Things are about to get real over there.
ROFLMAO–You mean an “Ich bin ein Ukrainian” moment?? Ukraine ain’t a member of NATO.
Whereas went JFK went to Berlin in 1963, West Germany had been a NATO member since 1955.
____
@91. Biden gets to look tough and ethical.
Impossible. With a plagiarist history of lying and stealing??? Not a chance.
Any hope of that ever taking root finally died when he tripped and fell three times going UP steps at Andrews, too.
He projects weakness; he’s feeble; like he’s peering into a rearview mirror driving a 1975 Chrysler Newport down a narrow street. If anything, he makes fellas like Xi and Vlad– even Erdogan– appear younger and stronger than they actually are.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/24/2021 @ 5:05 pmRe: Biden’s Genocide Declaration
While the article I posted defended the declaration, it was to stimulate discussion only. My own view is that the US should not interfere in how a country treats its own citizens (or recast its history).
Rip Murdock (55fae8) — 4/24/2021 @ 5:06 pmLooking forward to President Plagiarist condemning the genocide of Native Americans by the United States Army. June 25th would be a good day to do it, too.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/24/2021 @ 5:11 pmMy own view is that the US should not interfere in how a country treats its own citizens (or recast its history).
Bingo.
Especially given America’s own brief history.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/24/2021 @ 5:12 pmAfter Trump, Young Americans Are ‘More Hopeful About The Future’, Poll Finds
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The Harvard Youth Poll of 2,513 Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 conducted from March 9 to March 22, found them expressing significantly more optimism than in the months after Donald Trump became president.
In answer to the question: “At this moment, would you say that you are more hopeful or fearful about the future of America?”, 56% said they are “more hopeful,” compared to 31% who answered that way in a 2017 poll.
The change from four years ago was particularly dramatic among Blacks – 72% compared to just 18% in 2017 — and Hispanics, 69% who said they were “more optimistic” as opposed to 29% previously.
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Those surveyed also indicated approval for President Biden’s overall job performance, with the highest marks coming from Blacks (77%), Hispanics (70%), college students (61%) and college graduates (67%). Overall, women indicated slightly more approval than men (61% to 57%). Biden also got high marks for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic (65% overall) and race relations (57%). Among college voters, Biden’s approval was the highest of any president in the poll’s 21-year history, Harvard said.
By a 2 to 1 margin, young Americans expect their lives to be better under a Biden presidency (40%) than worse (19%).
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…….. In 2009, after former President Barack Obama was elected to his first term, only 24% of 18-to-29-year-olds said they were “politically active.” Today, 36% say they are — with an even higher percentage of Blacks, 41%, saying so.
The survey also showed that young Americans are more inclined to align with a host of progressive perspectives than they were in 2016 — including on immigration, seeing basic health insurance as a right, climate change, the need to reduce poverty and affirmative action for qualified minorities.
Rip Murdock (55fae8) — 4/24/2021 @ 5:15 pm………
The poll also shows a significant skepticism among those surveyed that social media platforms Facebook and Twitter can be trusted “to do the right thing,” with half saying the government needs to increase regulation of big tech.
…….
‘The Harvard Youth Poll of 2,513 Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 conducted from March 9 to March 22, found them expressing significantly more optimism than in the months after Donald Trump became president.’
March 9- March 22…. Spring Break times??
LOL 2,513 drunk college students say the darndest things.
And the ‘young’ don’t vote.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/24/2021 @ 5:25 pmWho you gonna ask about the future if not people with a future? Old people, not sure they’ll survive their next bowel movement?
nk (1d9030) — 4/24/2021 @ 5:52 pm@100. Old people, not sure they’ll survive their next bowel movement?
That’s a POTUS problem; ask younger sober ‘folks’– hung over after Spring Break days.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/24/2021 @ 6:34 pmSo an up and coming young man, with a promising career in retail, quits his job much to the consternation of his boss and joins the police force. About a year later, he stops by the store for old times’ sake. His former boss is happy to see him and asks him how he likes being a policeman.
“Well”, says the young man, “as you can imagine, it’s more exciting. I’m satisfied with the pay and benefits and the civil service job security. But the best part is: The customer is always wrong!”
nk (1d9030) — 4/24/2021 @ 6:45 pmAndrew Yang is probably the best of the pack (of Democrats running for mayor of New York)
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 4/24/2021 @ 6:46 pmBlame Canada. They’re the only nation in the G7 where CO2 levels have increased since the Paris Climate Accords. The reason? Oil sands.
Paul Montagu (26e0d1) — 4/24/2021 @ 6:55 pmAny bets that “Rex” and “Lex” are meant to demonstrate that he can pronounce the “l” and “r”?
nk (1d9030) — 4/24/2021 @ 6:56 pmJVW (ee64e4) — 4/23/2021 @ 7:51 pm
https://www.armenian-genocide.org/Affirmation.63/current_category.4/affirmation_detail.html
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/1981-06-01/ethnic-groups-and-foreign-policy
I don’t know what it says there because it’s behind a paywall, but apparently Reagan never repeated it,
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 4/24/2021 @ 7:02 pm@194. Blame Canada?!?!?!!?!?
“…they’re not even a real country, anyway!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaXsWQAI2j4
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/24/2021 @ 7:42 pm^107 for 104
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/24/2021 @ 7:43 pmThat’s a pretty remarkable find, Sammy. Thanks for pointing it out. I’ve said earlier that one of the hallmarks of the Biden Administration is their penchant for — with the tacit complicity of the fawning media — setting the bar for accomplishment awfully low, easily clearing it, and then crowing about their amazing accomplishments. Now we find out that President Codger isn’t really the first President to characterize what happened to the Armenians as a genocide after all. So typical of what these coming years portend.
JVW (ee64e4) — 4/24/2021 @ 8:00 pm…setting the bar for accomplishment awfully low…
President Kennedy occasionally used a lift/elevator device to board AF1- due to his back injury.
If President Plagiarist tried it, he’d still manage to trip on the carpeting and fall.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/24/2021 @ 9:39 pmWear a mask if you think it helps
Actually, it’s not for me. I have a fine, vaccine-fortified, immune system. But people fighting cancer, like my wife was a few years back, have crippled immune systems during their treatment. There’s only a million or so of them so what the heck, let’em die.
And, btw, the mask is not for you, your mask stops you from coughing crap on them. Yet another thing that’s not about you.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/24/2021 @ 10:28 pmWhat Biden ought to do is go to Ukraine and wave a NATO flag around. Things are about to get real over there.
President Jack Ryan sent ’em air power. But we don’t get Jack Ryan or Jed Bartlett, we get Trump and Biden.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/24/2021 @ 10:31 pmROFLMAO
The 90’s called. They want their slang back.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/24/2021 @ 10:32 pmIn answer to the question: “At this moment, would you say that you are more hopeful or fearful about the future of America?”, 56% said they are “more hopeful,” compared to 31% who answered that way in a 2017 poll.
I love it. Biden is going to saddle them with twice the taxation of the generations before them, to pay for things they neither want or need (or, likely, get). And they cheer. Since I am mostly past paying income taxes, and I’m likely to reap some of the benefit, I wonder how hard to talk them out of it.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/24/2021 @ 10:35 pmThe 90’s called. They want their slang back.
No answer; no land line.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/24/2021 @ 10:38 pmPresident Jack Ryan sent ’em air power. But we don’t get Jack Ryan or Jed Bartlett, we get Trump and Biden.
Liz Cheney in camo should do the trick.
“Shrinkage!” – George Costanza [Jason Alexander] ‘Seinfeld’ NBC TV 1989-98
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/24/2021 @ 10:43 pmPerhaps Eric Adams is a better candidate, but warning to those going to his pressers…NYPDers are not known for their marksmanship.
https://news.yahoo.com/armed-york-mayor-democratic-ex-033041176.html
urbanleftbehind (42a11d) — 4/24/2021 @ 10:57 pmReal life “Rebenga”…and a sobering reminder that most Saturday night gatherings in a lot of neighborhoods are for viewing PPVs of these guys:
https://sports.yahoo.com/jorge-masvidal-ufc-261-free-alexis-vila-shirt-mma-034705334.html
urbanleftbehind (42a11d) — 4/24/2021 @ 11:02 pmIf you see Andrew Cuomo holding a beer and not allowed to drink it:
https://news.yahoo.com/least-23-killed-fire-oxygen-024912518.html
urbanleftbehind (01e15b) — 4/25/2021 @ 8:22 amhttps://www.thecollegefix.com/this-sorority-accused-a-sister-of-racism-after-she-anonymously-criticized-its-woke-agenda-then-they-learned-shes-not-white/
Hitler youth.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/25/2021 @ 9:17 amGood vaccine news.
Paul Montagu (26e0d1) — 4/25/2021 @ 9:28 am31. Hoi Polloi (b28058) — 4/24/2021 @ 5:56 am
They did that.
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/in-report-biden-administration-formalizes-genocide-declaration-in-china
Now Biden half-apologized to Xi (as necessary politically) just like he did to Erdogan but he did approve that statement
https://nypost.com/2021/02/17/biden-says-uighur-genocide-is-part-of-chinas-different-norms
What Biden hasn’t taken China on about at all (personally) is co-operating in helping get at the truth about the origin of the coronavirus.
Evidently because he recognizes that as extremely sensitive – even more sensitive than the Staete Department issuing a statement that China is violating the genocide treaty. But why should it be so sensitive?
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 4/25/2021 @ 9:57 amNJRob #64. This was an alternate juror, who did not participate in deliberations. None of the actual jurors have said so, maybe not because it might not be true for them but because they didn’t want to upset the verdict.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 4/25/2021 @ 10:12 am109. JVW (ee64e4) — 4/24/2021 @ 8:00 pm
I knew to look for it (using Google) since I read a reference to it in a newspaper story the other day.
Case in point, sort of: His date for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan. His real intention is sometime in July, so he set a deadline of September 11.
His people, incidentally, are claiming that the Taliban won’t be so bad the second time around:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/23/us/politics/biden-afghanistan-taliban.html
Well, they are somewhat more likely to allow women who give birth to use midwives.
The North Vietnamese conquest of South Vietnam (suddenly, in 1975) didn’t turn out to be quite as bad as anticipated. What happened in Cambodia, on the other hand, was much worse. You never can tell what can happen with a government that is not responsible.
The Khmer Rouge regime only ended because it was invaded by Vietnam, after the Khmer Rouge persisted in trying to fight then. It could have been ended two years earlier by Thailand. but Jimmy Carter dissuaded Thailand from doing so. For ten years after that , the Khmer Rouge (technically a coalition) controlled a tiny strip of territory in Cambodia and a seat in the United Nations, a Carter policy that President Reagan continued.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 4/25/2021 @ 10:34 amOf course the Taliban are sponsored by Pakistan’s rouge military intelligence agency, the ISI, which is exercising control of Pakistan without taking official power (because then the United States might do something about it in a command raid – considering the nuclear weapons and all.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/15/world/asia/pakistan-afghanistan-withdrawal.html
Pakistan has been running the Taliban and some other Islamist groups. For two years the death of Mullah Omar was kept secret – and that can’t happen when someone is really in charge, no matter how secretive the group may be. The instant Howard Hughes died, we found out. When the ruler of Chad was killed the other day, we found out. How was it that a prisoner of the Hekmatyr group was freed in exchange for some Taliban if the groups are not truly one. How was Osama bin Laden living in a house near the “West Point” of Pakistan?
There have been Taliban willing to get out of the war, but they were killed by the U.S.usually. The Taliban kill any good officials in Afghanistan. Nobody in the U.S. gvernment knows how to play this game, but Pakistan does.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is preparing for conflict with the Taliban
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/21/us/politics/afghanistan-withdrawal-pentagon.html
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 4/25/2021 @ 11:04 amhttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/20/world/asia/pakistan-france-ambassador.html
So long as the United Sates is in Afghanistan, or maintains aircraft carriers nearby there will be more fear on the part of Islamists (or whoever controls them) of openly taking control of Pakistan,
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 4/25/2021 @ 11:09 amCalifornia’s massive UC and Cal State systems plan to require COVID-19 vaccinations this fall
The University of California and California State University announced Thursday that they will require COVID-19 vaccinations for all students, faculty and staff on campus properties this fall once the Food and Drug Administration gives formal approval to the vaccines and supplies are sufficiently available.
The directive is the largest of its kind in U.S. higher education, affecting more than 1 million members of the two public university systems. More than five dozen colleges nationwide have already announced they will require vaccination for enrollment this fall, including Yale, Princeton, Columbia and, in Claremont, Pomona and Claremont McKenna.
Rip Murdock (55fae8) — 4/25/2021 @ 11:36 am…….
The COVID-19 directive would allow for students or employees to seek an exemption based on medical or religious grounds. Current UC requirements for vaccinations against such illnesses as measles, mumps, rubella and chicken pox allow for medical exemptions.
……..
Universities can require it, but in a more general sense it can’t be required because all the vaccines are at this point legally experimental. (40% of U.S. Marines turned down the vaccine.)
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/09/politics/marines-coronavirus-vaccines/index.html
And I don’t understand who can and who can’t require it.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 4/25/2021 @ 3:06 pmEarth Day. Very cold for April 22 (37 degrees Fahrenheit in New York before 7 am, with gusts of wind.
Friday, April 23: 47 degrees before 11 am, 61 degrees at 3:30 according to WOR AM 710
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 4/25/2021 @ 4:16 pmWelcome to 93rd Blacademy Awards!
“Hey! Where are all the white women?” – Sheriff Bart [Cleavon Little] ‘Blazing Saddles’1974
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/25/2021 @ 5:09 pmMy 89-year-old mother called and left a short message.
Did she say she loved me, or that she missed me, or that she needed something? No.
All she said was, “These pretzels are making me thirsty.”
Yes, she’s been watching Seinfeld again.
norcal (01e272) — 4/25/2021 @ 6:00 pmBreaking News: Oscar.
Dead at 93.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/25/2021 @ 6:41 pmAnother weekend without a story from Gawain’s Ghost, thanks to the person who took a dump in the punch bowl.
norcal (01e272) — 4/25/2021 @ 8:54 pmHe’s probably on a private plane to las vegas with the dallas cheerleaders or something.
Dustin (4237e0) — 4/25/2021 @ 9:19 pmLOL, Dustin!
In that case we’ll be all set for stories!
norcal (01e272) — 4/25/2021 @ 9:23 pmYou could have made that comment shorter, norcal:
nk (1d9030) — 4/25/2021 @ 9:30 pmnk,
True. I guess noel would prefer your comment over mine. 🙂
norcal (01e272) — 4/25/2021 @ 9:45 pmHey nk,
You recently mentioned that there was a gathering of Patterico readers in Chicago way back when. Was Dmac one of those in attendance? I always wondered what happened to that guy. I think he had a bout with cancer, but it seemed like he recovered.
norcal (01e272) — 4/25/2021 @ 9:53 pmI don’t remember, norcal. The only ones I remember for sure by name are JD, happyfeet, daleyrocks, Karl, and carlitos.
nk (1d9030) — 4/25/2021 @ 10:14 pmYou met the legendary happyfeet in person? What was he like?
norcal (01e272) — 4/25/2021 @ 11:19 pmDCSCA left in the 4th inning, but I hope he heard the rest of the game on the radio
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/oscars-2021-highs-lows-chadwick-boseman-in-memoriam-glenn-close-da-butt-nomadland-chloe-zhao-043026747.html
Like a bittersweet sweeps month episode of Good Times or Jeffersons.
urbanleftbehind (c2f378) — 4/26/2021 @ 5:37 amThe recount the AZ senate is doing seems really odd.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/04/24/arizona-senate-election-audit-video-streaming-what-youre-seeing/7367424002/
Time123 (441f53) — 4/26/2021 @ 9:00 amSidney Powel’s defamation defense seems to be increasing her risk of being sanctioned in michigan.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/04/26/sidney-powell-donald-trump-election-michigan-misinformation/7381653002/
Time123 (52fb0e) — 4/26/2021 @ 9:10 am@141. No, sat through the whole sermon– even the extra innings. Plenty of dark players but traffic was light leaving the stadium. Traded box scores w/colleagues,too; industry insiders agreed; worst Oscar telecast ever.
And that’s saying something.
The reason a broadcast television network like ABC contracts and pays for the rights to air it is to sell ads around it to entertain; not preach. ABC ain’t BET; and AMPAS ain’t the NBA.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/26/2021 @ 10:08 am143. Time123 (52fb0e) — 4/26/2021 @ 9:10 am
“no reasonable person would believe [that what she said was established, or establishable fact” is not a good defense, because first of all, not all persons are knowledgeable enough to evaluate that, and because she was insisting very hard that they were facts.
And because it was in fact hurting Dominion’s business, because people charged with hiring or contracting with a voting machine company were afraid of what uninformed people might think, and even maybe of what they themselves might be accused of; and besides that they wanted people to have confidence in the voting tabulation system, and she was making that difficult if not impossible if the name Dominion came up anywhere.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 4/26/2021 @ 11:15 amCorrection maybe: The “no reasonable person would believe…” is a defense to a different accusation: defamation.
There is no defamation in court documents – they are privileged. But there’s a different accusation possible with lawsuits – that they are frivolous.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 4/26/2021 @ 11:19 amI detect a campaign of leaks (not personal accusations) against Andrew Yang. Too much. Yews, he’s panderer and something of a lightweight, but he’s mot a committed ideologue – his instincts were pro charter school. That makes him a moderate. Now if he’s corrupted or something, that would be something to know, but nothing has been said on that.
He will be in at least two debates this week.
One is at the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, apparent;y focusing on Covid, which will be streamed online starting at 6 pm Eastern time at
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 4/26/2021 @ 12:53 pmat https://www.metcouncil.org/forum
The other will be broadcast on WABC radio [770 AM] at 4 pm EDT Wednesday, April 28, 2021, and can also be accessed over the Internet. Maybe from here: https://www.iheart.com/live/77-wabc-5349
They hosted a Republican debate on a Wednesday two or three weeks ago.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 4/26/2021 @ 12:58 pmIn 1918, the flu, which probably started 40 miles west of Dodge City, in Haskell County, Kansas (but died out there) and then went to Camp Funston, by Fort Riley, Kansas and then spread all over the world, each time getting worse, adding about 12% to the number of deaths in the United States in the calendar year 1918.
The coronavirus called Covid, which started spreading about the same time in the year 2020, as the “Spanish flu” did in 1918, added about 16% to the total number of deaths in the United States in the calendar year 1918.
Yet, from all reports, the flu was worse. Maybe it would mutate back and forth? Also, older people are supposed to have been somewhat immune.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 4/26/2021 @ 1:10 pm@141. Postscript; household tip: what happens when you try to polish a gold-plated statuette with AfroSheen?
Oscars Ratings Plummet, With Fewer Than 10 Million Tuning In
Sunday night’s pandemic-restricted telecast drew 58 percent fewer viewers than last year’s record low.
-source, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/26/business/media/oscars-ratings.html
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/26/2021 @ 1:43 pmPhil Murphy might be wetting the bed (regardless of who the R is, NJ-Gov would be my pick to flip in November)…
https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-florida-mar-a-lago-bedminster-golf-2021-4
urbanleftbehind (cbe01b) — 4/26/2021 @ 1:46 pmLivestream of the Covid “debate”
Still in preliminaries, organization praising itself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOdEiCuQ1o8
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 4/26/2021 @ 3:07 pmCandidates kept leaving and joining the forum.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 4/26/2021 @ 4:04 pmThere’s a medicine that prevents scars from wounds and even the doctor researching it is trying to prevent or discourage people from using it until it goes through all the rigamarole of step by step testing. This is wrong.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/22/health/surgery-scar.html
It already exists.
Now of course I could see – maybe using it wold increase the risk of imfection – but you can try it bit by bit.
Proceeding like this is not how medicine got to be good.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 4/27/2021 @ 4:16 pm150 Oscars:
There are two things notable about the Oscars, besides the continued and growing drop in ratings:
1. The results are indeed secret. The last award is usually for Best Picture. This year it was moved to next to last and the last was for Best Actor. The reason for this is probably that the winner for Best Actor was expected to be Chad Boseman, who died, and there was a whole speech prepared and
more. But the winner was Anthony Hopkins, who was in Wales (5 time zones ahead of Eastern) and
wasn’t even watching it. He made a short video statement the next day/
2. The Chinese government pretty much blacked out the Oscars, because one of the nominees was
a Chinese national, Chloe Zhao who was nominated for Director, with a pretty good chance of
winning. She hadn;t said anything against the government of China recently, but they reasoned
that she might and they didn’t want her to become any more famous. There is a campaign being
waged against her for saying in 2013 to an American film magazine in which she said China was a place “where there are lies everywhere.” (they also do’t like that she said : “The U.S. is now my country, ultimately.” (The Australian website said that was an error, and she actually said
The U.S. is not my country, ultimately.” – that is it was a typo.
But in any case she is considered politically unreliable, and capable of influencing people in China, and the Chinese government decided to think several steps ahead by cancelling all mention, not of her, but of the Oscars! And searches on social media for hashtags related to her movie, “Nomadland.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/26/world/asia/china-chloe-zhao-oscars.html
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 4/28/2021 @ 12:02 pmThe debate of the Democratic candidates for mayor of New York City will start on WABC radio 770 AM in less than 15 minutes time.
It will be hosted by former New York Governor David Paterson, who would make a better Governor than most or all of the candidates likely to run in 2022.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 4/28/2021 @ 12:50 pmLivestream of deate
https://wabcradio.com/nyc-first-democratic-mayoral-debate/#anchor1
(not all candidates are there. Some important ones are not)
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 4/28/2021 @ 1:18 pmUnslved msytery as to why others are not there.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 4/28/2021 @ 1:18 pm