[BEE] ORLANDO, FL — As the feud continues between Ron DeSantis and the Disney corporation over what the Florida Governor calls Disney's "grooming" behavior towards young children, Disney was forced to halt all operations after DeSantis's administration built an elementary school within 1,000 feet of the theme park.
"Disney has proudly employed sex predators for years, and this act of aggression by DeSantis will force thousands of our proud pedo-American workers to leave the park to stay outside the 1,000-foot radius required by law," said Disney CEO Bob Iger. "This is tyranny!"
Sources say roadblocks have already been set up at the entrance of the park, which will be closed indefinitely.
"We can't stop Disney from running constant programming that steals innocence from young children, but we can shut them down with this elementary school!" Governor DeSantis declared outside the newly completed "Based Elementary School" in front of a mural of the new school's mascot: a musclebound alligator treading on a Pride flag. "Disney's crusade to corrupt the youth has finally come to an end here in the free state of Florida."
At publishing time, the former Disney employees had all gotten jobs as public school teachers in California.
[ZMan] Elite over production is a concept invented by Peter Turchin, a Russian born academic, which argues that social unrest is often caused by too many potential elite members for the number of elite positions. These extra potential elites are under-employed and thus gravitate to things like radical politics. Over time, these excess elites chip away at the social order and eventually the order begins to falter. He claims that crises throughout history were due to the overproduction of elites.
It is an elegant theory, in that it is simple, not necessarily beautiful. It also seems to explain the present crisis in the West. Look around at any large corporation or government facility and you will see lots of credentials. Look around the local coffee shop and you can see many of the same credentials. America has far too many people with advanced degrees than it needs. Look around at radical politics and it seems to confirm that too many elites leads to trouble.
There are several counter arguments to this claim. The first is that our elite appears to be getting dumber. We assume that intelligence correlates with social status and in a healthy society it should, but we have a lot of insanely stupid people in positions of authority and influence. If the insane and stupid are occupying elite positions, then it suggests the excess elites are even more insane and stupid. A few hours on social media seems to confirm this observation.
This conforms with the observation that humans are getting dumber, and the process may be accelerating. Again, anecdotes abound. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is struggling to get a rocket to the moon, a feat accomplished by men half a century ago using materials from their garage. The Concorde achieved supersonic speeds as a passenger-carrying plane last century. We now struggle to keep the slow airplanes in the air and from smashing into one another.
Another counter to the Turchin theory is that what he terms an overproduction of elites is what fuels the dynamism of the West. Those extra elites may go off into radical politics, but they also go off to invent new stuff. The computer revolution was driven in large by people excluded from the elite. As the elite becomes more exclusive, the smart and capable form their own elite outside the system. In time, they are able to challenge the old elite and even replace it.
Then there is the issue of how one defines elite. Elizabeth Warren, for example, is as dumb as a goldfish, but she is in the Senate, which classifies her as elite. John Fetterman, a man unable to communicate with his fellow humans, was just released from a lunatic asylum into the Senate. Even before his trip to the asylum, he had never held a job, but he qualifies as an elite. When your elite contains brain damaged lunatics you have to rethink how you define elite.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/19/2023 00:00 ||
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#1
Everyone is elite in something. I was elite at hosing pavement in a now-closed amusement park. My elite skills are probably more useful to society than whatever Sen Warren is elite at.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/19/2023 12:16 Comments ||
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[PJMedia] t’s hard to be a conservative these days. And I’m not talking about trying to survive the latest policies, laws, orders, and decrees of the Biden administration or your local school board or the depredations of rioters or protestors. I’m talking about boycotts. We love boycotting things, don’t we? And with the recent events surrounding Nike, Oil of Olay, and Bud Light, it’s getting hard to keep track of what we aren’t supposed to buy. Fortunately for me, I’ve been boycotting Bud Light for the past 30 years, so beer isn’t an issue for me. (And for the record, neither is Oil of Olay.)
I just have to compete with all of the new arrivals in my state for my favorite IPA. But to that end, there was plenty of Bud Light in the coolers this weekend. However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... Utah is not a state known for its aggressive consumption of alcohol, so my local grocery store may not be the best barometer of how the battle is going. Be that as it may, a trip to the supermarket could possibly turn into an aggravating scavenger hunt to find products that don’t lean left. I’m sure there’s a list somewhere, but updating the thing must be a 24-hour job, and I don’t want to hit the "refresh button" every time I need to pick up a loaf of bread and a carton of milk. No one has time for that.
But, even as AI is getting ready to consign all of us to the ash heap of history, technology still offers some benefits to conservatives, and I don’t mean your Parler app. And so, Consumer Research to the rescue! The organization has the perfect app for the conservative on the go who wants to avoid accidentally buying a box of potentially progressive taquitos or something. It will let you know when another company has "gone woke ...the on-going war against good sense... ." Well, technically, it isn’t an app. It’s a service that will send you a message when a company makes the move to improve its ESG rating and tank its sales.
I visited the site where you can sign up to receive "Woke Alerts." By doing so, you will be the first to know when the inevitable happens and your favorite brand, company, or team goes sour. There’s even a "Report" button so you can pass the word should you encounter a woke product, service, or entity in its natural habitat. At first blush, the site lists the usual suspects: Black Rock, Bud Light, Jack Daniels, and Silicon Valley Bank. But if you page down, you will find a variety of articles that could be useful for understanding how the woke mindset works and just how far it has permeated the market.
[The National] n the April 4, Sebastien Lecornu, France’s Minister of the Armed Forces, released a new Military Programming Law meant to provide the framework for the country’s defence expenditure during the 2024-2030 period. The government of President Emmanuel Macron has talked of an "historic" budget meant to "transform" its armed forces.
In light of the war in Ukraine and its long-term effect on European security policies, France is determined to remind everyone that since Brexit it remains the de facto biggest military power of the EU. It follows announcements by Germany’s government last February that it would increase its own annual defence budget by €10 billion ($11bn).
At first sight, the new bill submitted by the French government evidences its ambitions: estimated at €413bn, the law represents an increase of more than €100 billion from the previous one for the 2019-2025 period. But the numbers hide a more complex reality. Less than a post-Ukraine military revolution, the bill reflects a compromise that takes stock of several constraints at the strategic, political and economic levels.
[HotAir] Back in 2019, the liberal stronghold of Berkeley, California became the first city to ban natural gas hookups in most new construction projects. The California Restaurant Association took them to court almost immediately. Their complaint had less to do with the freedom to cook food in whatever fashion they chose than a technical argument stating that the ban violated the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA). While Berkeley prevailed initially in a lower court, the suit was upheld on appeal yesterday by the Ninth Circuit. Considering how many blue state and municipal governments around the country are currently trying to ban gas stoves and natural gas in general, this decision could have wide-ranging implications. Of course, the city is planning to appeal, so the argument isn’t over yet. (Bloomberg) This is the insanity.
A California city’s ordinance banning natural gas hookups in new buildings was toppled Monday by the Ninth Circuit, which said that the ordinance is preempted by federal law. This is the sanity.
The panel’s decision was a win for the California Restaurant Association, which argued the Berkeley, Calif., ordinance was preempted by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. The city said the ordinance would help control emissions and "eliminate obsolete natural gas infrastructure." But it effectively amounted to a ban on natural gas appliances, the CRA told the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Natural gas is clean burning. What emmisions are they talking about? Progressives gotta progress.
"Berkley can’t bypass preemption by banning natural gas piping within buildings rather than banning natural gas products themselves," the panel wrote. Those sneaky progressives.
The EPCA was passed back in the 70s in response to the oil and gas shortages that threatened to paralyze the country. It was the same period when the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was established, aiming to ensure America’s energy independence as much as possible. Under the act, bans on the use of various energy sources are not allowed.
Berkeley tried to argue that it wasn’t banning the use of natural gas, but rather altering building codes to regulate what types of installations would be allowed. But the court determined that banning the installation of gas lines would amount to a de facto ban on natural gas. New York City has already passed a ban on gas stoves and natural gas hookups in new buildings less than seven stories in height beginning next year. If the precedent set yesterday stands up under challenge, New York’s law may be on the way out as well. As well it should.
One notable aspect of this decision involves Donald Trump. For decades, the 9th Circuit was regarded as the most liberal court in the nation, with a significant majority of justices appointed by Democrats. But from 2016 until 2021, Trump and Mitch McConnell took a wrecking ball to that imbalance. As the L.A. Times noted earlier this year, a lack of retirements has prevented Joe Biden from swinging that pendulum back in the other direction. If this case had been heard seven years ago, it probably would have gone the other way.
Sadly, the EPCA doesn’t place any limits on the White House when it comes to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. In fact, it places the control of many energy matters directly in the hands of the President. Of course, it was written at a time when Congress assumed that presidents would always act in the interest of maintaining the country’s energy security. They were clearly unable to foresee the era of climate alarmism and Joe Biden on the horizon.
[Wash Times] Two leaks from Chinese labs in fall 2019 are the most likely sources of the coronavirus’ spread among humans, a Senate report concluded after an 18-month investigation into how the COVID-19 pandemic began — a thorny question that has stumped two administrations and fueled rancor between Washington and Beijing.
Sen. Roger Marshall, Kansas Republican, circulated the report. The weight of evidence shows that the pandemic was caused by unintentional lab incidents in Wuhan, China, as far back as October 2019. The virus swept through the central Chinese city before emerging as a global concern by January 2020.
"Based on the publicly available evidence, it appears Wuhan is the only location where SARS-CoV-2 spilled over into humans," said the report, using the formal name for the virus that causes COVID-19 disease. "The low genetic diversity of earliest SARS-CoV-2 samples suggests that [the] COVID-19 pandemic is most likely the result of one or possibly two successful introductions of SARS-CoV-2. Additionally, these estimates indicate that the initial introduction may have occurred on or about November 18 and a second within weeks of the first."
Dr. Robert Kadlec, who played a crucial role in Operation Warp Speed to develop a COVID-19 vaccine during the Trump administration, prepared the report.
The 300-page document undercuts Beijing’s official position that the outbreak began in December 2019 and says the Chinese Communist Party started to develop a vaccine after the first leak, which went unnoticed outside China, and before the global surge of COVID-19 cases in early 2020.
Dr. Zhou Yusen, a Chinese military scientist, filed a patent for a COVID-19 vaccine on Feb. 24, 2020, that would have required weeks of work to sequence the new virus, according to the report.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/19/2023 8:59 Comments ||
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#7
The weight of evidence shows that the pandemic was caused by unintentional lab incidents in Wuhan, China, as far back as October 2019.
China was already raiding the world for masks and other personal protective gear by August 2019. In addition, the Oct 2019 Wuhan World Military Games reported strange illnesses and brought back the virus to airports and bases worldwide.
[PJ] Happy Tuesday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Devon’s intimacy issues were rooted in a fear of losing a woman to Gerhard, the Strudel King of the Cul de Sac.
There was a time not so long ago — and I’m not being sarcastic here — when the government in the United States was distinguishable from the various fascist/communist/totalitarian regimes around the world.
Good times, huh?
As with everything that’s gone off the rails here and is still in the middle of a slow-motion crash, COVID-19 gets a lot of the blame. Maybe all of it. It’s not as if the Democrats haven’t been tiptoeing towards totalitarianism for a while now, but COVID gave them an excuse to abandon pretense and accelerate the process.
Working in cahoots with the media on narrative control was also nothing new for the Democrats but, again, 2020 made them bolder about it. Or sloppier. Message control was paramount for the Dems to achieve their wide-ranging and nefarious goals. After decades of whipping the mainstream media into shape, they knew how to get social media on board after it became useful.
The media blackout of anyone who told the truth about Hunter Biden’s laptop was straight-up election tampering, which the Democrats love to insist that they never, ever do. Those of us over here on the right knew what they were up to, of course.
#3
ChiComs tell Team Biden how to do it. With all the money that's at stake, Biden and the mainstream media damn well better do as Xi tells them.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/19/2023 11:44 Comments ||
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#4
Anyone remember Biden's senior advisor and White House communications director Anita Dunn? She of the Mao portrait in her living room and saying Mao was one of her "favorite political philosophers."
Posted by: Skidmark ||
04/19/2023 06:46 ||
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#1
For two generations, our systems have decayed while our opponents have modernized their own. They have done so without our immutable civil service system, congressionally mandated layers of micromanagement and legalese, and the lobbying world’s desperate defense of incompetence and obsolescence.
And then there's the media.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/19/2023 11:34 Comments ||
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#2
the Land is full of couch surfing internet users, armchairing the next battle plan...
[PJ] Happy Wednesday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Jurgen stopped eating ice cream just before bedtime after repeatedly dreaming of Jennifer Lawrence wearing a fuchsia hazmat suit while in the YMCA jacuzzi.
On more than one occasion here at the Morning Briefing we have discussed the ever more disturbing leftist habit of sexualizing children. They seem to be on a mission to normalize things that are taboo for a very good reason.
The same people who want all college boys convicted of rape without a trial for merely asking a girl out also want to force sexual awareness on kids who are still years away from no longer believing in Santa Claus. Thus far, we’ve been discussing American leftists. We can’t forget, however, that they’re working in unison with leftists around the globe in a bid for a Collectivist Kumbaya New World Order.
#1
Given all the stories about sexual assault by UN troops, you can file this under "Enlightened Self-interest".... for certain values of "enlightened".
#2
Bowing to the Muzzi gods of pedophilia... This has to be stopped. Maybe Russia or China will show some leadership here and veto it. We know our president will embrace it, er, embrace the kids instead of sniffing them.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
04/19/2023 12:07 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[BEE] ORLANDO, FL — As the feud continues between Ron DeSantis and the Disney corporation over what the Florida Governor calls Disney's "grooming" behavior towards young children, Disney was forced to halt all operations after DeSantis's administration built an elementary school within 1,000 feet of the theme park.
...the on-going war against good sense...
[Wash Times] Two leaks from Chinese labs in fall 2019 are the most likely sources of the coronavirus’ spread among humans, a Senate report concluded after an 18-month investigation into how the COVID-19 pandemic began — a thorny question that has stumped two administrations and fueled rancor between Washington and Beijing.
[PJ] Happy Tuesday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Devon’s intimacy issues were rooted in a fear of losing a woman to Gerhard, the Strudel King of the Cul de Sac.
