I took the weekend off, what with church and family and such, and find everyone else did, too.
So, here ya’ go…
THAT should spark some discussion!
Remember that this is Holy Week. Palm Sunday was yesterday, so the King has entered Jerusalem, and the final events leading to Jesus’ death and our eternal life begin.
by
Tags:
I’m resting the hips this morning, for cause, so coffee in hand, I’m headed to my usual place:
Roundup:
Good morning C&C, it’s Monday, a fresh new week! Your oversized roundup today includes: Musk cancels deadbeat corporate media blue checks; OPEC cuts production to punish us for Joe Biden’s broken promise; Florida Senate passes teachers’ union-busting bill; low-cost fast food giant announces corporate layoffs; Cracker Barrel joins Wal-Mart and Nike to bail out of crumbing Portland, Or.; WSJ opines Biden will bail out blue states and cities; Florida judge gets sudden and unexpected death penalty; China and Brazil drop the dollar; Utah outlaws abortion clinics; major election player resigns after OMG scrutiny; and your manic Monday entertainment clip.
News:
Elon Musk strikes again:
The worm is turning, or something. MediaIte ran a delicious story yesterday headlined, “Elon Musk Makes His First Big Strike in the Great Blue Check Purge, Pulls the NY Times’ Badge: ‘Their Propaganda Isn’t Even Interesting’.”
/snip
Blue-checked accounts enjoyed special Twitter privileges; their posts were more prominent (so their accounts grew faster), were immune to shadow-ban penalties for being blocked, and so forth…..
But conservatives couldn’t get a blue check, no matter how many followers they had, or how influential they were….
One of the first things Musk did after buying Twitter — right after most major advertisers pulled their contracts to protest “disinformation” — was to sell blue checks on the open market to anyone for $7 a month. ….[to anyone!]
This made the libs insanely angry, since it removed their gatekeeping abilities. No longer could the woke watchers provide perks to their liberal buddies while sniggering at the frustration of conservatives. The wine and weed fueled parties of liberal superiority came to an end. I’m not sure how far I trust Musk, but I must say, his moves have pleased me so far.
But those who had blue checks before Musk was forced to buy Twitter (be careful what you wish for!) don’t want to give up their vaunted badges of acceptance and approval. The little blue mark was one of those badges on their Eagle Scout level sash of political correctness. They would never give in to the former darling of the left. To become just one of the hoi-polloi is anathema.
Yesterday Musk followed through on repossessing a blue check, on a single account: the New York Times…
Predictably, the left went bonkers. That blue check ensured their status among their woke collective. And then there’s the right. Where’s that wine now?
This silly blue check story somehow illustrates the swing of reality’s pendulum’s back toward sanity. The way blue checks used to work was completely bonkers, a dystopian Alice-in-Wonderland game where the house always won…
Musk — who seems to be making sure he gets his money’s worth — is disrupting the existing order. In a bigger sense, by down-regulating corporate media’s influence, Musk is also pushing back against the outsized significance of Twitter in public life. It’s a long-overdue correction, and you can trace the entire thing back to one illiterate California state official’s stubborn refusal to be reasonable about pandemic restrictions.
In other words, it’s another covid miracle.
Next up, Childers reports that Saudi, et al, are getting ready to cut back production. Gee, I wish there was another source of energy that we could tap into so we wouldn’t be at the mercy of foreign powers….
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer, which Joe Biden just drove into the arms of the Russia-China axis, announced surprise production cuts totaling up to 1.6 million barrels per day for the rest of the year, a move that the AP drily noted “could raise prices worldwide.”
It could, maybe. [I’ll insert the /sarc off/ tag right here.]
/snip
In other words, Russia and Saudi Arabia are already working together.
When the Saudis announced previous cuts back in October — before the midterm elections — goofy Joe Biden promised there would be “consequences,” and democrats called for sanctions against the Saudis. So much for that. The current surprise action from OPEC is retaliation for another broken Biden promise, according to the Financial Times:
Of course, that broken promise can be tied directly to our Wobbler in Chief, who is probably being medicated for the day this morning, as I post this.
Although price recently fell below $80 a barrel, Joe mumbled we WON’T refill the depleted Strategic Reserve like he’d promised, for some reason. So OPEC naturally responded. What did he THINK they were going to do?
Now, on to Florida good legislation news:
In good news, Florida’s Voice News ran a story late last week headlined, “Senate Passes Bill Ending Automatic Teachers Union Deductions.”
Under the bill, which narrowly passed the Senate 23-17, requires unions to:
Childers had proposed a similar bill in 2001, and he admits that this one is as good or better than what he proposed. Let’s hope this legislation survives the political chipper and gets signed.
It’s for the kids. If the Dems can tout that to push their ideals, we can, too.
Because…children!
Childers reports on Cracker Barrel following Wal-Mart, as the exodus from Portland, OR, continues.
In recent months, Wal-Mart and Nike also shuttered their Portland locations after record shoplifting and petty crime. Not to mention dangerous environments for employees. So.
Eventually these rapidly-dissolving woke cities will need someone smarter or stronger to take over.
I believe the phrase is: “You get the government you deserve.” If those folks in liberal land keep voting for communism, they’ll eventually get it. I just feel for those outside of the urban centers, who are getting dragged down into that criminal vortex because of geography. Same for those conservatives in California.
It would be nice if they could divorce the urban centers and become separate states. The urban voters won’t let them, though, because the need the productivity and tax base of the non-urban folks to sustain their insanity.
We in Texas should take heed.
Speaking of insanity – we need to remove the word “bailout” from the vocabulary of anyone holding a position in any government:
The Wall Street Journal ran an op-ed this weekend with the self-obvious headline, “The Coming Biden Bailout of Blue States and Cities.” The subheadline explained, “Taxpayers will be on the hook for mismanaged pensions and projects from stadiums to subways.”
/snip
Take San Francisco’s 1.7-mile Central Subway, which opened in January at a cost of $1.95 billion, three times as much as initially estimated. The subway is drawing fewer than 3,000 daily riders, no doubt because the design doesn’t make sense: Riders have to walk the equivalent of three football fields to connect to other transit lines and take three escalators to reach platforms 12 stories underground.
That’s a cost of $666K per rider for the first year. I didn’t make that up, you do the math.
Now that the Federal Reserve is jacking interest rates to fight out-of-control inflation… borrowing money through bonds or commercial loans just got a lot more expensive. In fact, borrowing is now TOO expensive for many state and local governments who’ve been on spending sprees to manage.
In addition to liberally-designed subways, there is the problem of super-generous but unfunded pension commitments, like Chicago’s four different pension systems, which only have enough assets to cover about 25% of what the city owes workers and retirees — even less than Detroit’s pension fund reserve back when the Motor City declared bankruptcy a decade ago.
Unlike cities, states are not allowed to file bankruptcy.
Will the Republicans open the purse strings and bail out these cities and states?
I hadn’t thought about the political restrictions related to the move away from the American dollar:
Over the weekend, media reported on a new agreement between China and Brazil — the second-largest economy in the southern Western Hemisphere — where the two countries agreed to deal with each other in their own currencies, and NOT the dollar. Yesterday, Marco Rubio noted “we won’t have to talk about sanctions in five years because there’ll be so many countries transacting in currencies other than the dollar that we won’t have the ability to sanction them.”
A weak dollar removes the paddle from our hands. We can’t effectively spank our enemies any more.
Because when asked for a response to O’Keefe’s expose, she’d rather tuck tail and run than dance to her own music.
May she be the first to find solace in the loving arms of her family, jobless and I hope without a pension.
And finally, this montage on the hypocrisy of the MSM:
https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1642564955718180870/vid/640×360/zfD24m-kqj9hmiDv.mp4?tag=16
Good morning fellow couch dwellers. I am a bit sore from yesterday’s activities; that tells me I need to do that sort of thing more frequently.
thatisall
From the C&C comments:
It’s not a new subway line, it’s a new temperature controlled, weather protected homeless shelter.
With that many escalators down seems more like a fallout shelter!
***
They’ve disclosed the cause of death for Florida Judge Kevin Carroll. … sudden cardiac arrest.
https://www.bevisfh.com/obituaries/Kevin-Carroll-5/#!/Obituary
In lieu of flowers, they ask you to donate to the American Heart Association. LAME! More appropriate would be the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC).
***
Of course all of this crap is on purpose. But, it’s his handlers that are pulling the strings. He’s just a dead puppet who is either ridden with dementia or the best actor I’ve ever seen.
***
That .33 per gallon is probably per gallon of crude. That would mean more like .65 per gallon of gas. And because the estimate will be intentionally low, I’m betting $.33 we’ll be paying a $1.00 more for gas a year from now. Any takers?
Sucker’s bet
***
Epic (sic) Times did a video how China has taken over Brazil. China now owns a lot of Brazil’s industries, business, land, and have so many China people living there now, and is changing so fast that Brazil is losing it’s culture.
***
bad news about something more nutritious than beer: mRNA poison in the meat supply starting now
https://lionessofjudah.substack.com/p/breaking-news-the-lobbyists-for-the
[Canning meat is at 240 degrees Farenheit – I wonder if this is high enough to destroy the mRNA virus?]
***
It’s terrifying. It will kill everyone. They want to put it in all of our food.
https://rumble.com/v2foga8-tom-renz-missouri-and-mrna-food-supply-part-1.html
***
Regarding the Florida judge who suddenly died…..I just had a thought, this seems like a new and improved stealthy way to “suicide” people with causing undue concern?
[…and Clintons, Pelosi, et al, have a sudden *perk!* moment!]
I laid down on the sofa to keep my back from going out last evening and conked out.
I want to see this indie movie: His Only Son
I don’t know how long it’ll be in the theaters, so I guess I need to make it a priority.
The Angel Studios’ film, the first in its new wave of theatrical releases, came in third place in early box office estimates over the weekend. Deadline.com reports the faith-based drama brought in $5.5 million on just under 2,000 screens.
That’s roughly half of what most major new releases score.
Now that I’ve loosened up a bit, I need to get some tubs ready for all the asparagus bean seedlings I have.
I have a deadline, before they get too big for their little peat pots. And they’re growing fast!
Law professor Seth Barrett Tillman points to the lack of integrity at National Review
Actually, we do not know that Trump slept with Daniels. Only Trump and Daniels would know. There are no photographs or videos—something Daniels might know about. Nor has Daniels produced any physical evidence supporting her allegations. We just have her word for it. What we do know is, and it has been long reported, that Trump is a notorious germaphobe—a fact which cuts strongly against Daniels’ claims. Would a notorious germaphobe sleep with Daniels?
The fact that some at National Review dislike Trump is not surprising. The fact that some at National Review take Daniels’ claims at face value absent concrete physical evidence is also not surprising. But the fact that the editors at The Corner published Blehar’s assertions as an undoubted truth which “everyone knows” only shows that—all too many at National Review are willing to destroy their publication’s institutional good will.
And why would they do that? It is virtue signaling. By demonstrating that they are oblivious to the actual evidence at hand (and the lack thereof), by putting reason and fair-play aside, they illustrate the same primal unreasoned hatreds about which the American right would usually castigate the left. And here they do it to prove their worth to the beautiful people. The sad truth is…the National–Review-types could never convince the beautiful people—no matter how hard they try to do so.
We don’t seem to have any Richard Feynmans these days and that is a shame.
The Feynman Technique is a learning method that prioritizes simplicity to build depth of understanding.It takes its name after Richard Feynman—an American theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize in 1965 for his groundbreaking work in quantum electrodynamics.
Richard Feynman was certainly intelligent.But there are a lot of intelligent people in the world.
Feynman’s true genius was noted as his ability to convey complex ideas in simple, elegant ways.
He observed that complexity and jargon are often used to mask a lack of deep understanding.Hence “The Feynman Razor” that I’ve written about:
If someone uses a lot of complexity and jargon to explain something to you, they probably don’t understand it.
Morning, gang. I need to buckle down and locate all my paperwork to get started on 2022 income tax. No more “Later” excuses.
The lies being told about “green energy” are as big as any ever peddled to the human race.
Consider an article this week by Denver-based writer Michael Thomas headlined, “A Fossil Fuel Economic Requires 535X More Mining Than A Clean Energy Economy.”
A thread based on the article was viewed 244,500 times and liked more than 2,000 times.
Thomas, who has written for The Atlantic and Fast Company, disputes claims that a transition away from fossil fuels to wind and solar power will require a lot of mining.
He takes figures from the International Energy Agency (IEA) of the total volume of critical minerals that will be needed to reach renewable energy targets for what the IEA calls a “sustainable development scenario.”
When this publication contacted the writer, Michael Thomas, he ignored them.
In one Twitter thread, Pettimore displays a photo of a 1-ton rock to illustrate the volume of mined material that must be taken from the earth to get very small quantities of useable minerals. The 1-ton of rock, Pettimore explains, nets 13 to 22 pounds of copper.
In “Mines, Minerals, and ‘Green’ Energy’: A Reality Check,” Mark Mills, physicist with the Manhattan Institute, explains that a single 1,000-pound electric vehicle battery requires mining 500,000 pounds of materials.
So, the 28 million tons of annual demand of critical minerals for wind, solar and batteries under the IEA 2040 scenario would require hundreds of times more tonnage of mined material to produce those minerals.
and,
In a Substack article, “Fuel is a Commodity, Uber is a Service, & Floober is a Loser,” Randall explains that electricity should be thought of more like a service since it’s consumed in the exact moment it’s demanded.
Since wind and solar produce energy randomly, Randall wrote, it’s a lot like an Uber driver who doesn’t show up when he’s needed but instead at some random moment in the day when he’s not.
“Random service is an absurdity,” he wrote.
I’ve been trying to find any articles written by the insurance analyst, Josh Stirling, who has been studying the excess deaths data in countries around the world. Unfortunately, he seems to have a deal with Epoch Times TV to release his reports through them behind a paywall. Although I did sign up for Fox Nation for a year at $23, I’m not buying any more subscriptions these days.
Here is an article about Stirling’s report at Slay News:
Those who have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19 with mRNA shots will lose 25 years of their life expectancy, a bombshell new study has revealed.
Researchers analyzed government data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Cleveland Clinic Data, and insurance company risk assessment data.
The analysis uncovered a disturbing trend showing life spans plummetting in those who had multiple doses of the shots.
The latest Cleveland Clinic Data and the latest US data were analyzed by Josh Stirling, founder of Insurance Collaboration to Save Livess and former #1 ranked Insurance Analyst.
Stirling’s study shows an incredibly disturbing trend.
and,
According to the study based on government data out of Cleveland, the average age of a man is around 80 years if he’s unvaxxed.
Yet, the rate of vaxxed deaths is growing in comparison to unvaxxed.
The study found that someone who’s had 4 or 5 shots and is 30 years old today can now expect to live to 55 at the oldest.
Popping in for a brief cooldown and paper shredding session.
Re the insurance story: I’ve said from the very beginning that the insurance industry was going to be hit. What will they do with the “excess deaths” and those payoffs, while losing those customers who’ve been paying in?
Add to that the pending of a probable economic depression, if not outright collapse, those investments that the insurance companies have made to help sustain their products might just cause a complete collapse of the insurance system.
In addition, as noted China expert Gordon Chang told Newsmax, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army is entering the country through the border, as well. During an appearance on “America Right Now,” Chang said:
Michael Yon, the war correspondent who’s been spending his time in the Darién Gap, where these migrants … flow through has been saying he’s been seeing … males of military age who are unaccompanied with families. That, to me, suggests either People’s Liberation Army or Ministry of State Security agents.
Surely you jest, Gordon. I mean DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas continues to assure us (lie his ass off) that no border “crisis” exists, and even more assuring [sarc], that the southern border is “secure.” [ROFL emoji]
It is way past time to indict Mayorkas for perjury. I would even go so far as to use the “T” word, as he is giving aid and comfort to our enemy (China) in a time of war. We are at war with China right now and it is an economic war which we are badly losing.
At the CMT Music Awards last night, country singer Kelsea Ballerini, who was also co-hosting the event, performed her song “If You Go Down (I’m Going Down Too)” with four drag queens from the show “RuPaul’s Drag Race” dancing around her.
The performance was a glaring display of full-blown wokeness and support for cross-dressing men and sexual degeneracy, from the song’s title (sang in honor of the drag queens), to the rainbow lighting, to CMT and Ballerini’s follow-up messages.
Since I have long believed all awards shows are a blight upon our culture, I watch none of them and wouldn’t have known about this without conservative media.
I would not have guessed that “Country Music” would be despoiled by degenerate performers or fans.
But there was a time when I was stunned to realize that Disney had been contaminated.
Good Afternoon Hamsters,
Lots of good stuff already posted today, and thanks to the folks here who find these interesting items and pass them on to Hamsters and those other folks who read them but haven’t yet introduced themselves. 🙂
Sunshine has been hiding behind some high clouds, and it is only 84 degrees here with some humidity thrown in. Fortunately the weather has helped our many guests for the Final Four get around town dry. It is impossible to imagine the horrendous mess there would be if we had a spring storm or two pass through. The Houston area and Texas has done itself proud this week, and thanks to so many folks who worked so hard to make it happen. Certainly this should have a positive effect on the powers that be who decide where such large events shall win the prize to host them.
#7 – TP IMHO epoch times isn’t worth 15 cents!
Without exception EVERY email alert I receive from them is 2 day old news.
It took longer than I thought, but I got two tubs filled and planted today. All of my bean seedlings have a home, and I planted some collards and echinacea flowers.
Next up – I have five tomato plants that are getting to be a pretty good size for their pots. I have a few more tubs from last year that need to be reworked, so I think I’ll leave them in the pots and submerge them into the reworked tubs. They gotta go on the ground since they’re vining ‘maters, and I need to get some kind of support for them.
And if I do it right, I can clone those plants by taking the suckers and getting them their own place.
But, time for dinner, then errands.
Shannon
That’s disgusting.
There’s a special place in hell for those who screw with with the kids and the mentally ill.
For whatever reason Netflix has “Charlie Wilson’s War” back in the top rotation, I remember watching it many years ago. I may talk the wife into watching it tonight. The good old days when a liberal Democrat could still be a patriot.
https://www.today.com/news/gwyneth-paltrow-not-guilty-ski-crash-trial-rcna77519
I don’t even like Gwyneth Paltrow, but I’m glad she won this lawsuit. After all, the old man smashed into her, not vice versa.
GOOD LUCK AND GODSPEED TOMORROW, ElGordo.
16 GJT
Good old Charlie. What a character.
#18: Ditto from me, EG!
El Gordo
Make sure you go into the surgery department for hernias and not the Transgender Affirmation department. We don’t want you to come back to San Saba as El Gorda.
La Gorda
Dear El Gordo,
Prayers for you and a most successful surgery, recovery, and time to get back to us. 🙂
Then again, if you do the full monty, at least no more prostate problem. 🙂
Tie a little ribbon on the parts you want to keep.
Better to use a Sharpie.
”Do Not Cut Here”
If there’s enough room.
Out of curiosity I’m watching the championship basketball game tonight. Had forgotten how much energy those players must expend to be constantly moving so fast. Wonder how much that energy is equivalent to how many miles of cross-country running. I’m just about exhausted watching it.
I’m for the Huskies for the simple reason I love their mascot.
Adee
As predicted, it’s a blowout.
I am not a basketball fan, but I have always enjoyed the Sweet 16.
Back in the old days, when the Rockets were winning national championships, I got to attend a few games.
I was shocked at how much standing around goes on in the pro game.
These college guys work their butts off.
Beagle life.
Gordo, prayers for steady hands for the surgeon and a speedy and complete recovery for you.
Shannon my favorite dog function is the built in door bell / knock repeater in a vocalized form. This morning my MIL came over to take me to my chemo infusion. I was brushing my teeth and did not hear the doorbell. I most certainly heard my Ridgeback barking and knew it was probably her at the door.
Before they give me chemo, they give me some antiemetics one of which is a steroid. It’s after 10 pm and I don’t think I’ll be able to fall asleep for a while. I’ve been dealing with some insomnia as well lately. I’ll sleep from 10 pm – 1 am and then I can’t fall back asleep until 4 am or 5 am. This causes me to not get out of bed till 10 am – noon which I am sure exacerbates the problem.
Texmo,
I can empathize.
Heavy dose Prednisone is one of my last resort options when my back really goes out and I can barely walk. I keep a course on hand at all times. I think it’s been a year since I’ve had to take it.
(60mg for three days, 40mg for two days, 20mg for two days, 10mg for two days, 5mg for one day)
It’s a massive amount of steroids.
Basically, no sleep for a week. And hungry as a bear the whole time.
No fun. But blessedly, it still works.
At the end of the course, I feel like I’ve been on an amphetamine bender for a week..
All best Blessings EG!
So the Huskies won in great fashion tonight, the crowd attending was from what I could see orderly and enthusiastic. Lots of folks of all ages who know how to conduct themselves and make sure their kids also do at events of all kinds. Great celebrations with no idiots ruining the evening for everybody. And delightfully, many folks in town for the Final Four who were asked by the TV media if they enjoyed being here replied they thought Houston was great, a nice place with friendly, welcoming people and lots of interesting places and events being part of the weekend. Houston did its job well, and I presume that will be in our favor when bidding to have equally large events come here.
On the downside of the 10pm news was a not so merry chase of some idiot driver by a lot of police cars heading out toward the big airport. That ended with the driver crashing into the side of terminal B. Then there was another dork driving recklessly elsewhere who crashed into the side of a home, right into the only bathroom the house has, with a family with 4 kids living there. Fortunately nobody was hurt, but one child had just left the bathroom before the crash. And the family does not have insurance. Bet some judge will order the dork to pay for repairing the damage.
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