Patterico's Pontifications

10/29/2021

Weekend Open Thread

Filed under: General — Dana @ 7:53 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Let’s go!

First news item

A tale of two Foxes…

Fox News contributor Lisa Boothe’s reason for not getting the COVID vaccine:

I, as a 36-year-old woman with no underlying conditions, have a 99.97 percent chance of survival against Covid. So I was on the fence because it didn’t make sense to get vaccinated for a virus that is not a threat to my life, nor one that I fear. But now, I’m doubling down as a giant middle finger to Joe Biden’s tyranny, because now it’s a fight for freedom. Now it’s a fight against tyranny in America and that’s what this is all about. We are literally fighting right now for the future of this country.

Fox News host urges viewers to get a COVID vaccine:

Fox News host Neil Cavuto, who tested positive for COVID-19 last week, returned to the air on Sunday to urge viewers to get vaccinated—hours after Fox contributor Lisa Boothe bragged that she is not getting the shot in some kind of twisted protest of the Biden administration. Cavuto, who has multiple sclerosis and is fully vaccinated, said the shot probably stopped him from getting severely ill. “It’s not about left or right, not who’s conservative or liberal. Last time I checked, everyone, regardless of political persuasion is coming down with this,” he said. “Life is too short to be an ass. Life is way too short to be ignorant of the promise of something that is helping people worldwide… Stop the deaths. Stop the suffering. Please, get vaccinated.”

Coming to Cavuto’s defense and condemning the death threats he received after imploring viewers to get vaccinated:

Second news item

Tribal warfare:

As probably will surprise no one, the polarization spiral between the left and the right has only gotten more intense in the last three years. Most alarming is the growing acceptance of political violence as a justifiable method for achieving political goals. A survey in 2019 found that approximately one-fifth of partisans in both parties believed that violence against the opposing party would be at least “a little” justified if their party lost the 2020 election. Between 2020 and 2021 the share of students surveyed who said violent protest was “never acceptable” dropped from 82% to 76% and at most elite schools it was even lower.

…The Hidden Tribes study, published in 2018…surveyed 8,000 Americans in December 2017 and used a statistical technique to identify groups of people who had similar core beliefs. They found seven groups. The one furthest to the right they labeled the “Devoted Conservatives.” This group makes up 6% of the population. Its members are “deeply engaged with politics” and hold “strident, uncompromising views.” Devoted conservatives see themselves as the last defenders of traditional values that are under threat from the far left. This group was clearly overrepresented in the attack on the US Capitol in January 2021.

The group furthest to the left were the “Progressive Activists.” This group, which makes up 8% of the population, is “highly sensitive to issues of fairness and equity, particularly with regards to race, gender and other minority group identities.” Progressive Activists talk frequently about “power structures” and how they cause and maintain inequality. They are the most active of all groups on social media. This group is clearly overrepresented in campus protests and in mass marches for progressive causes.

Although the Devoted Conservatives and Progressive Activists make up just 14% of the US population, they wield enormous influence on American political discourse as they passionately express their hatred for each other—despite their unexpected similarities. It may not surprise you to learn that the Devoted Conservatives were the whitest of all seven groups (88% white), but would you have expected that the Progressive Activists were the second whitest (80%)? Likewise, it may not surprise you to learn that the Progressive Activists—who were the most highly educated—reported the highest annual income, but would you have guessed that the second wealthiest group was the Devoted Conservatives?

[Ed. This is an excerpt from a report by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff (from Persuasion). Sign up and you too can receive thoughtful and challenging writing like this.]

Third news item

Challenging “wokeness”:

Another sign of this dis-enlightenment: the modern fashion that treats stereotyping as sophisticated analysis. We’re told much about a vague monolith of white people ever ready to circle the wagons and defend white interests. Robin DiAngelo’s best-selling “White Fragility” is Exhibit A of this trope, and her latest book, “Nice Racism,” includes a chapter titled “Why It’s OK to Generalize About White People.” But the existence of racism does not, as DiAngelo suggests, make it valid to propose that there is a kind of undifferentiated body of white people with indistinguishable interests.

White America consists of myriad groups and individuals, whose actions and non-actions, intentional and not, have a vast range of effects whose totality challenges all thinking observers. Writers like DiAngelo, who wield enormous influence in our current discourse, encourage the assumption that white people act as a self-preservationist amalgam. This notion of a pale-faced single organism stomping around the world is a cartoon, yet smart people hold this cartoon up as an enlightened way of thinking, and it has caught on.

I also suspect I am hardly alone, when hearing the term “systemic racism,” in quietly wondering how useful it is to use the same word, racism, for both explicit bigotry and inequality, even if the latter is according to race. In his similarly best-selling “How to Be an Antiracist,” the Boston University professor Ibram Kendi begins by defining a “racist” as “one who is supporting a racist policy through their actions or inaction or expressing a racist idea.” He then defines an “antiracist” as “one who is supporting an antiracist policy through their actions or expressing an antiracist idea.”

Fourth news item

If Trump is your standard of measure, you’ve given your hand away:

“He is just not in any way the kind of toxic waste dump that Trump became,” said Matt Bennett of the center-left group Third Way. “I would guess that even if Biden isn’t over 50 [percent public approval] next year, you’re going to see him campaigning with a ton of congressional Democrats.”…

One Democratic strategist who manages House and Senate races said that given Biden’s dismal polling, he would advise his candidates not to get anywhere near the sitting president.

“There’s just no evidence that Biden is a net positive in the suburbs,” he said.

But Biden, so far, has not been shunned. In Virginia, where Biden beat Trump by more than 10 percentage points last year, many of the state’s most prominent Democrats participated in a photoline with the president Tuesday, including five House Democrats from across the state.

Fifth news item

False flag, my ass:

The Fox icon has previously suggested Jan. 6 was a possible FBI set-up, through critics have “dismissed this idea as a conspiracy theory,” writes Newsweek. On Wednesday, Carlson said he believes the documentary “answers a lot of the remaining questions from that day.” The trailer says the project will tell “the true story behind the War on Terror 2.0 and the plot against the people,” writes Vice News.

To which Liz Cheney said just shut-up already:

Sixth news item

Let’s see this in every high school across the nation:

A group of about 40 dads who roam the campus of Southwood High School and refer to themselves as “Dads on Duty” say they have the momentum to take their efforts nationwide.

“No matter what side of the political end that you’re on, we all have a love for children,” LaFitte said. “We all have a love for doing what’s right.”

With the high school’s permission, the group of dads showed up after 23 students were arrested in a rash of fights. The students said there hasn’t been another incident since.

“We stopped fighting and people started going to class,” one student said.

“You ever heard of ‘a look?'” another added, describing the firm stares from the men.

It was the dad looks and the dad jokes that helped turn things around, the men said.

“Nothing is more important than being a father,” LaFitte said.

“So just to be here makes a big difference,” another dad Tracy Harris added.

Never, ever underestimate the powerful presence of a dad.

Seventh news item

Ah:

The Lincoln Project took credit for a stunt in which a group of people wielding tiki torches in the style of a 2017 “alt-right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, showed up outside a Glenn Youngkin event.

“Today’s demonstration was our way of reminding Virginians what happened in Charlottesville four years ago, the Republican Party’s embrace of those values, and Glenn Youngkin’s failure to condemn it,” the Lincoln Project, a political action committee made up of ex-Republicans, said in a statement.

Before the source of the stunt was known, former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s campaign portrayed the group as genuine supporters of his Republican opponent.

Eighth news item

To each his own, I guess:

A social media influencer defended herself Wednesday after she was criticized for sharing photos of herself posing in front of her father’s open casket.

In the photos, Jayne Rivera, 20, was wearing a fitted, black one-sleeve blazer dress as she stood by her father’s coffin, which was adorned with an American flag. She posed with her hands in prayer in one picture.

Rivera…told NBC News in an interview that she “understood the negative reception,” but clarified that the photos were taken “with the best intentions in a manner my father would have approved with had he still been alive.”

“Everyone handles the loss of a loved one in their own ways; some are more traditional while others might come across as taboo,” the content creator said in a statement Wednesday. “For me, I treated the celebration as if my father was right next to me, posing for the camera as he had done on many occasions prior.”

And because Patterico appreciates photographic confirmation of a story:

Untitled

Ninth news item

Enes Kanter is at it again. Good on him:

Have a great weekend!

–Dana

Rep. Adam Kinzinger Decides Not Seek Re-Election

Filed under: General — Dana @ 2:04 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Kinzinger made the announcement on Twitter today:

A few quotes from his announcement:

As a country, we must unplug from the mistruths we’ve been fed. In Congress, I’ve witnessed how division is heavily rooted. There’s little to no desire to bridge our differences. And unity is no longer a word we use. It has also become increasingly obvious to me that in order to break the narrative. I cannot focus on both a reelection to Congress and a broader fight nationwide.

This isn’t the end of my political future, but the beginning. Serving six terms in Congress, has been an honor of a lifetime.

Clearly, Trump will be checking this off on his payback to-do list:

Trump referenced the political consequences of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him in a statement reacting to Kinzinger’s announcement, writing “2 down 8 to go!” GOP Rep. Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, who also voted to impeach Trump, announced last month his plans to leave Congress.

Kinzinger had demonstrated loyalty to the Constitution and voted to impeach the former president, as well as voting for the contempt resolution against Steve Bannon. When he made the decision to sit on the Jan. 6 commission and explained why he was compelled to do so:

“For months, we have searched for answers and what process we should use to get them. For months, lies and conspiracy theories have been spread, threatening our self-governance. For months, I have said that the American people deserve transparency and truth on how and why thousands showed up to attack our democracy, and ultimately, what led to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol Complex on January 6, 2021.

“Self-governance requires accountability and responsibility. My faith requires the same of me, truth is necessary for order, and that’s what I will do. Let me be clear, I’m a Republican dedicated to conservative values, but I swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution—and while this is not the position I expected to be in or sought out, when duty calls, I will always answer.

“This moment requires a serious, clear-eyed, non-partisan approach. We are duty-bound to conduct a full investigation on the worst attack on the Capitol since 1814 and to make sure it can never happen again.

Due to recent redistricting, Kinzinger would have faced an uphill re-election battle:

The reshaping of congressional districts was likely a factor in the decision. Because of Illinois redistricting after the 2020 census, GOP Rep. Darin LaHood and Kinzinger’s district would be in the same district, according to an updated map released hours earlier Friday. If that were the case, LaHood and Kinzinger would have had to run in the same June 2022 Republican primary. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is expected to sign it into law.

If the LaHood name sounds familiar, it should:

LaHood, a native of Peoria, Illinois, is the son of Ray LaHood,[3][4] the 16th United States Secretary of Transportation and before then seven-term U.S. Representative for the district his son currently represents.

LaHood, a Trump supporter, obviously did not vote to impeach Trump. Amusingly, he claimed that to impeach the president would have been divisive:

“I oppose impeachment. Pushing articles of impeachment days before the inauguration will only inflame and further divide our country.”

These days, MAGA owns the GOP, and Republicans who are vocal in their opposition to Trump and his influence and want to see the GOP completely cut ties with the former president find themselves in increasingly hostile territory. So the question now is: who’s next?

–Dana

10/27/2021

Constitutional Vanguard: Why Did a Judge Say the People Kyle Rittenhouse Shot Cannot Be Called “Victims”? Part One

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:17 pm



The latest Constitutional Vanguard newsletter addresses the story you might have read yesterday in which the judge in the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial said the shooting victims cannot be called, well, “victims” . . . but they can be called “rioters” or “looters.”

Evidence of bias? Maybe! But as I point out, such rulings are not that unusual.

I’m splitting this one up into two parts. Tonight, in Part One, I describe the issue, talk about the ways that judges can influence trials out of bias, and the institutional incentives that can cause judges to favor the defense in their rulings. Here’s a taste:

If a judge tells a prosecutor to pound sand, and that the court won’t be recessing the trial for the afternoon or for a day to allow the prosecution to get a critical witness to court, the prosecution has no recourse. None. The prosecution can’t appeal that decision. They can’t run off to the Court of Appeal and seek a writ. They are quite simply, as the saying goes, up a creek.

And so it is with most evidentiary rulings. If the judge makes a bad call and excludes clearly admissible evidence favoring the prosecution, the prosecution gets no appeal. If the prosecution loses the case as a result, that’s just too damn bad. Double jeopardy has kicked in and the defendant cannot be tried again. But the defendant can appeal all manner of rulings if there is a conviction, including exclusion of evidence, improper jury instructions . . . you name it.

I’m doing this one for the paid subscribers, mainly because it gives me a greater comfort level to write for a more loyal audience when I am writing about my profession. This will be especially so in Part Two, where I will tell some war stories about dumb/crazy rulings by judges . . . mostly from other people’s cases.

Access the post here. Subscribe here.

Lesbians Being Pilloried for Refusing Sex with “Women” Who Turn Out to Have Male Equipment

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:29 am



BBC:

“I’ve had someone saying they would rather kill me than Hitler,” says 24-year-old Jennie*.

“They said they would strangle me with a belt if they were in a room with me and Hitler. That was so bizarrely violent, just because I won’t have sex with trans women.”

Jennie is a lesbian woman. She says she is only sexually attracted to women who are biologically female and have vaginas. She therefore only has sex and relationships with women who are biologically female.

Jennie doesn’t think this should be controversial, but not everyone agrees. She has been described as transphobic, a genital fetishist, a pervert and a “terf” – a trans exclusionary radical feminist.

“There’s a common argument that they try and use that goes ‘What if you met a woman in a bar and she’s really beautiful and you got on really well and you went home and you discovered that she has a penis? Would you just not be interested?'” says Jennie, who lives in London and works in fashion.

“Yes, because even if someone seems attractive at first you can go off them. I just don’t possess the capacity to be sexually attracted to people who are biologically male, regardless of how they identify.”

My question is: why is this an issue only for lesbians? If society is forced to accept the notion that “trans women” are women in every sense, why isn’t a guy who takes a woman home to have sex, but balks upon finding out that the “woman” has a penis, a horrible transphobic monster?

I wonder how the trans community would respond. The more sensible ones would probably affirm that everyone is allowed to have sex or refuse sex with any consensual adult partner they like. But if you were ready to have sex and changed your mind only because of what you found when you undressed your prospective sex partner, aren’t you a terrible bigot by today’s standards?

10/26/2021

No, Jonathan Chait: I Don’t Want McAuliffe to Win, and Here’s Why

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:29 am



Jonathan Chait:

If Terry McAuliffe holds on to defeat Glenn Youngkin in the Virginia governor’s race, a large number of Republicans will blame Donald Trump. McAuliffe has assiduously tied Youngkin to Trump. Youngkin has followed a careful strategy of appealing to both Trump cultists and moderates. Should he lose, it would be a proof point that blue-state Republicans can’t keep a foot in both camps. They would have to denounce the former president more forcefully to gain the credibility they need to win statewide office, a step that would erode Trump’s influence over the party.

So a McAuliffe win would be a devastating blow for Trump’s power base within the Republican Party. Yet here is a funny thing. Nobody within the Republican Party, not even the Republicans who complain about his influence, wants this outcome.

What’s the reason for this curious choice? It’s not that mainstream Republicans are morons. They’re perfectly aware of the stakes Trump has in the race. But they have other, normal Republican reasons to prefer a Youngkin victory: They would end Democratic control of Virginia, throw a scare into national Democrats, help their own fundraising, and so on. And faced with a choice between advancing normal Republican politics and prying their party loose from Trump’s grip, they are picking door No. 1 en masse.

I have not followed this race closely, but from what I know, I am one of the people Chait describes, who complains about Trump’s influence but wants Youngkin to win. Why? First and foremost, because McAuliffe is vile. He is a scumbag relic of the Clinton years and he needs to be gone. Second, because I think it’s healthy for Democrats to try to put forth decent candidates and become reasonable on the issues, rather than think they can win elections simply by pointing to Donald Trump. McAuliffe walked out of an interview in the middle, chiding the reporter by saying he should have asked better questions. But the questions he had already been asked were perfectly reasonable:

The questions Minock did have the opportunity to ask McAuliffe were about his declaration that he doesn’t “think parents should be telling schools what to teach,” the Biden administration’s decision to involve the FBI in disputes between parents and school boards, how he would allocate resources to lower the violent crime rate in Virginia, and vaccine mandates.

McAuliffe didn’t like being challenged. He wanted to say “Youngkin=Trump” 100 times and dust off his hands.

Joe Biden will be watching this race closely. And he needs to get his [scatalogical reference deleted] together and realize that he can’t govern like a radical leftist idiot for four years and just expect to sail to re-election because the other guy is Donald Trump.

Maybe the Democrats have their own lessons to learn from this race too, is my point.

10/25/2021

More Low-Hanging Fruit: MAGAland Mocks Alec Baldwin After Tragic Film Set Incident

Filed under: General — Dana @ 4:04 pm



[guest post by Dana]

This low-hanging fruit is an important reminder to non-MAGA Republicans: This is today’s Republican Party. MAGA Republicans know that these attacks will play well with their base. And that’s precisely the point.

As you are certainly aware by now, actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun (or perhaps real gun) on the set of his new movie after he had been told that it was a “cold gun” (no live rounds), subsequently killing the film’s director of photography and injuring the director. Pouncing on the horrific film set tragedy to score MAGA points, these t-shirts are currently being sold on Donald Trump Jr.’s website:

Untitled

And then there’s this from Rep. Lauren Boebert, who tweeted just hours after the announcement of the incident:

J.D. Vance, currently an Ohio candidate for the US Senate, also jumped on the bandwagon. (The capitulation of Vance to Trumpism has been especially disappointing.)

So, you get the picture. In the name of payback and scoring political points, MAGA Republicans are roundly attacking a celebrity who accidentally shot and killed an individual all because he is fiercely anti-Trump and equally fierce in his advocacy for gun control.

Once upon a time, there would have been an outcry against those exploiting a tragedy like this for their own gain, or their tribe’s gain. Instead, such an incident would have elicited sympathy for all parties involved. But those days are long gone. Social media has made it incredibly easy to shed civility and basic good manners. In the name of politics (and vengeance on behalf of one’s tribe), compassion is now for losers. When tragedy strikes, an obligatory pounce by one or the other side of the aisle is commonplace. Does anyone even cringe at the vulgarity? Polarization and tribal allegiances have begotten a cheapened people, a crass people, and a people who believe that common decency is to be mocked. And the worst part of it all is the bleating attempt to justify such behavior. I think the word I’m looking for is reprehensible.

–Dana

Boston Celtics Enes Kanter Continues His Courageous Campaign Against Brutal Oppression

Filed under: General — Dana @ 9:22 am



[guest post by Dana]

A little follow-up to the Weekend Open Thread and Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter. Kanter shows no signs of letting up on his justified attacks on China’s President Xi Jinping. On the contrary… If you recall, last week the NBA player tweeted on behalf of the oppressed Tibetan people, addressing his tweet to Brutal dictator Xi Jinping:

Tweets specifically protesting the genocide of the Uyghur people followed. He addressed these to the Heartless Dictator of China while name-checking Muslim leaders in the region for their complicity:

Kanter then implored the public to spread the word about the persecution of the Uyghurs while posting photos of his #FreedomShoes:

Yesterday, Kanter threw down the gauntlet:

More about Kanter’s #FreedomShoes:

Enes Kanter continued his campaign of criticism against China and its president Xi Jinping on Sunday when he wore another controversial pair of shoes, this time with the words “Free China” emblazoned on them, while on the bench for the Boston Celtics against the Houston Rockets in Texas.

It is the third time in the past week Kanter, who did not play in the game, wore shoes featuring an anti-China message. The shoes have been created in conjunction with Shanghai-born, Australia-based dissident cartoonist Badiucao, who had a show in Hong Kong cancelled in 2018.

The first pair, worn on Wednesday, featured a message which read “Free Tibet”. The second, worn on Friday, read “Free Uyghur”. The latest pair featured an image of Kanter holding the head of cartoon character Winnie the Pooh…

Likeness of Winnie the Pooh being compared to Chinese President Xi Jinping is reportedly banned in China…

The shoes also featured the iconic “Tank Man” scene with the tops of the tanks replaced by Winnie the Pooh heads.

While there has still been no official comment from the NBA regarding Kanter’s tweets, Celtics management voiced support for Kanter’s right to free speech, if not support for his specific campaigns:

Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens on Friday voiced his support for center Enes Kanter, whose comments in support of Tibetan freedom on Wednesday led to Celtics games being removed from the Chinese streaming service, Tencent.

“My conversation with Enes was real short and sweet,” Stevens said during his weekly appearance on 98.5 The Sports Hub, “and that is we’re always going to support any of our players and their right to freedom of speech and expression. And I think in my experience with the Celtics and the NBA, that’s the way it’s been and that’s the way it’ll continue to be.”

In bitter irony, China just marked its 50th anniversary as a member of the United Nations with President Xi Jinping declaring that China will ‘be a builder of world peace’.

–Dana

10/22/2021

Weekend Open Thread

Filed under: General — Dana @ 2:39 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Let’s go!

First news item

Rep. Liz Cheney works to save the Republican Party from itself:

Almost every one of my colleagues knows in your hearts that what happened on Jan. 6 was profoundly wrong. You all know that there is no evidence of widespread election fraud sufficient to have changed the results of the election. You all know that the Dominion voting machines were not corrupted by a foreign power. You know these claims are false. Yet former President Trump repeats them almost daily, and he has now urged Republicans not to vote in 2022 and 2024. This is a prescription for national self-destruction.”

More Cheney (addressing fearful Republicans):

Cheney made the remarks in her opening testimony at the House Rules Committee ahead of an expected Thursday vote to hold Steve Bannon, an “alt-right” activist and former President Donald Trump’s one-time chief strategist, in criminal contempt of Congress for his refusal to cooperate with the select committee.

“Let me address my Republican colleagues specifically,” Cheney began.”I’ve heard from a number of my colleagues in the last several days who say they just don’t want this target on their back,” Cheney said. “They’re just trying to keep their heads down.”

“They don’t want to anger Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader, who has been especially active in attempting to block the investigation of events of January 6th,” Cheney went on to say. “Despite the fact that he clearly called for such a commission the week after the attack.”

“I ask each one of you to step back from the brink. I urge you to do what you know is right, to think of the long arc of history,” she said. “We are told that it bends towards justice. But it does so only because of the actions of men and women in positions of public trust.”

P.S. About Bannon and Jan. 6:

Crossing the aisle:

The House of Representatives voted on Thursday to hold Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist and a close confidant of former President Donald Trump, in criminal contempt of Congress. The vote will trigger a referral to the Justice Department, which will then decide whether to bring formal charges against Bannon.

The final vote was 229-202, with 9 Republicans joining Democrats to hold Bannon in criminal contempt.

Here are the Republicans who broke party lines:

Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney
Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger
Michigan Rep. Peter Meijer
Ohio Rep. Anthony Gonzalez
Michigan Rep. Fred Upton
New York Rep. John Katko
South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace
Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick
Washington Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler

Second news item

NBA player on the Boston Celtics boldly denounces China’s treatment of the Tibetan people:

On the heels of Kanter’s protest, the CCP announced that the Boston Celtics games would no longer be aired in China.

Third news item

After Kamala Harris’s less than impressive trip to El Paso, could President Biden do any worse?:

President Biden tonight said he will consider visiting the southern border, suggesting he has not visited so far because he has been busy visiting the sites of disasters around the country.

“I know it well,” said Biden, when asked if he had plans to visit the area. “I guess I should go down, but the whole point of it is I have not had a whole lot of time to get down.”

Biden noted that he has travelled the country and the globe since taking office in January, adding he has “not had a whole lot of time to get down” to the border.

“I have been spending time going around looking at the $900 billion worth of damage done by hurricanes and floods and weather and traveling around the world,” he said.

Clearly, President Biden doesn’t believe the humanitarian crisis at our Southern border is worth his time, nor does he really have any intention of getting control over the border. So what’s new?

Fourth news item

The genocide of the Uyghurs goes on unabated:

A recent State Department report on admissions details countries of origin for refugees who were resettled from the beginning of October 2020 through the end of September 2021. According to that document, not a single refugee of Chinese nationality—including Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities from Xinjiang—was resettled in America through the program in that time.

Asked why no Uyghur refugees were resettled, a White House spokesman referred The Dispatch to the State Department and said it is “something we take very seriously and something the president is committed to.”

Despite the genocide designation, Uyghur refugees have dealt with delays and a lack of urgency in their asylum requests. The admissions program on the whole has also suffered from drastic decreases in the total number of refugees admitted to the United States.

During his one term, former president Donald Trump repeatedly set records for granting the fewest refugees entry since the modern resettlement program began in 1980. In fiscal year 2020, the United States let in just 11,841 refugees, which is far lower than the historic average of 90,000 annually. The massive drop in admissions that year was partly due to the coronavirus pandemic—but Trump slashed admissions to historic lows in his prior years in office as well. The United States admitted 30,000 refugees in 2019, 22,560 in 2018, and 53,716 in 2017.

President Joe Biden says he supports admitting more refugees, but his actions in office have not matched his rhetoric.

Boston Celtic player Enes Kanter again speaks out against persecution. This time it’s against the genocide against the Uyghurs and President Xi’s draconian measures, as well as the CCP, and boldly name-checks Muslim leaders in the region for their complicity (through silence):

What a man, what a man, what a mighty fine man.

P.S. Let’s see if the NBA and its players will have the courage to get behind Kanter, or if lucrative endorsement contracts will continue to rule the day…

Fifth news item

CDC may change the definition of “fully vaccinated”:

Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Friday the U.S. “may need to update” its definition for what it means to have full vaccination against COVID.

The CDC and the FDA have officially approved boosters with every authorized vaccine in the U.S. for people who meet specific requirements. Walensky explained that since not everyone is eligible for a booster, the definition has not been changed “yet.”

Currently, the CDC’s definition is the following: “Fully vaccinated persons are those who are ≥14 days post-completion of the primary series of an FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccine.”

“We have not yet changed the definition of ‘fully vaccinated.’ We will continue to look at this. We may need to update our definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ in the future,” Walensky said during a press briefing.

Sixth news item

California parents push back:

More than a thousand people crowded the front steps of the California Capitol on Monday to protest Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to require all children to get the coronavirus vaccine to attend public and private schools.

Newsom’s mandate, announced earlier this month, made California the first state in the country to say it will require the COVID-19 vaccine for schoolchildren once the vaccines receive full federal approval.

California has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country — over 85% of people 12 and older have gotten at least one shot, and 72% are fully vaccinated. But as in other places, the state has a vocal minority skeptical of both the vaccine and the government’s assurances of its safety.

Many parents at the rally in Sacramento had pulled their children out of school to attend the rally, hoping the absences send a message to state officials.

Seventh news item

There is not, and never will be a kinder and gentler Taliban. Only delusional fools would ever consider it a possibility:

An Afghan volleyball player on the girls’ national team was beheaded by the Taliban — with gruesome photos of her severed head posted on social media, according to her coach.

Mahjabin Hakimi, one of the best players in the Kabul Municipality Volleyball Club, was slaughtered in the capital city of Kabul as troops searched for female sports players, her coach told the Persian Independent.

She was killed earlier this month, but her death remained mostly hidden because her family had been threatened not to talk, claimed the coach, using a pseudonym, Suraya Afzali, due to safety fears.

Eighth news item

SMDH:

During a segment of his podcast — “Louder with Crowder” — on Wednesday, Steven Crowder said, “Oh, that is an aggressively Asian face” when describing [Betty] Yu, a reporter for KPIX-TV, a local CBS affiliate.

He made multiple remarks about Yu’s features with comments like, “that just means if you were a skier, it would be like a black diamond. You’d have to drop in on a chopper.”

Crowder ended the segment by saying, “By the way, the reason I say that is because usually with the reporters, they’re, like, they’re kind of like Americanized Asians. So I think it’s a good thing. It’s a good thing, it’s full Asian.”

Have a great weekend.

–Dana

Constitutional Vanguard: The Hyper-Wokesters’ Support for Affirmative Action Is Rooted in Racism

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 1:22 pm



You’ve probably heard about the professor who said: “This idea of intellectual debate and rigor as the pinnacle of intellectualism comes from a world in which white men dominated.”

That’s the topic of my latest newsletter — this one for paid subscribers — which explores how deeply this racist attitude is embedded in academia. There are generous quotes to relevant pieces from John McWhorter, and some debunking of the idea that the SAT and other tests are inherently racist. But the real target is the mindset that things like linear thinking or being on time are “white” behaviors:

McWhorter quite properly describes this as a “racist screed” posing as antiracism, which must be resisted at all costs by parents. It is the attitude criticized in Stuart Buck’s book Acting White; namely, the absurd and racist proposition that logic, argumentation, reason, hard work, merit, punctuality, good grades, and other markers of success are somehow uniquely white attributes.

What could be more insulting than this ridiculous mindset? What could be more obviously discriminatory?

Link to the piece is here.

Subscribe here.

Trump To Launch Social Media App Called, Ironically, “TRUTH Social”…

Filed under: General — Dana @ 9:19 am



[guest post by Dana]

Well, this should be…fun?? Is this part of gearing up for a run in 2024? It would make sense. Without Twitter and Facebook, he’s going to need a way to reach his supporters bigly:

Former U.S. President Donald Trump will launch his own social media app, TRUTH Social, that he said would “stand up to Big Tech” companies such as Twitter and Facebook that have barred him from their platforms.

TRUTH Social will be created through a new company formed by a merger of the Trump Media and Technology Group and a special acquisition company (SPAC), according to a press release distributed by both organizations.

“We live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter, yet your favorite American President has been silenced. This is unacceptable,” Trump said in a written statement included in the release.

“I am excited to send out my first TRUTH on TRUTH Social very soon. TMTG was founded with a mission to give a voice to all. I’m excited to soon begin sharing my thoughts on TRUTH Social and to fight back against Big Tech,” he said.

Clearly, the actual, unvarnished “TRUTH” continues to mean nothing to the former president:

The insurrection took place on November 3, Election Day. January 6 was the Protest!

–Dana

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