Our perpetually corrupt media

When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was charting his own course during the COVID-19 pandemic, it angered leftists and their media lapdogs. Since progs saw the pandemic as an opportunity to exploit a crisis, it would have upset their narrative terribly had Florida not had a high death rate or endure a cratering state economy despite DeSantis refusing to implement locking down the state. 

Ah, but that's where an employee of the Florida Dept. of Health by the name of Rebekah Jones came in. 

Jones was touted as a "whistleblower" for her claims that DeSantis ordered her to fudge COVID data so as to give appearances that the state was not suffering to the same degree as New York, New Jersey, etc. With little to no scrutiny assigned to Jones' claim, the media ran with it. Why? For literally no reason other than to make a conservative governor appear corrupt. Had journalists done a little digging into Jones' questionable background, they might have saved themselves a little embarrassment. 

You would think after that humiliating saga that the media would humble themselves and admit.......BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! 😂😂😂 Man, I crack myself up sometimes. 

Anyhow, I give you all that background to bring you to Wednesday's saga.

Again, given the source, such fantastical claims should be given further scrutiny.

I guess the Miami Herald couldn't be bothered with such standards. 

Naturally, progs on social media ran with this claim faster than Dom DeLuise at a Krispy Kreme last call (h/t Dennis Miller). 

I'm certain you'll be shocked, SHOCKED to learn that some key context was left out. 

An incident report released Thursday afternoon by the Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Office allege that the 13-year-old made repeated threats to shoot up Holley Navarre Middle School and to stab students who angered him.

Investigators interviewed multiple students who spoke with the teenager, as well as those who saw messages he posted on social media. In the messages to his friends, the teenager made the following statements, among others:

“I want to shoot up the school.”

If I get a gun I’m gonna shoot up hnms lol.”

“I’m getting a wrath and natural selection shirt so maybe but I don’t think many ppl know what the columbine shooters look like.”

“Okay so it’s been like 3-4 weeks since I got on my new antidepressants and they aren’t working but they’re suppose to by now so I have no hope in getting better so why not kill the losers at school.”

The teenager told one of his friends that he planned to shoot up the school the Thursday before Spring Break but there were too many things going on so he postponed it until March 31.

The students reported the claims to the school prior to that date and the investigation was launched.

The teenager was homeschooled at the time of the alleged threats.

Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Office investigators called the boy’s mother, Rebekah Jones, who said the family was vacationing in Mississippi but would call investigators when she returned. During the interview, Rebekah Jones confirmed there were no guns in the residents and the only weapons were kitchen knives, which she has stored in a locked box.

That's not to say Jones' son was serious about carrying out the threats, but to say it was as benign as posting "memes" is an absurd mischaracterization. 

These days more than ever progs views DeSantis with greater disdain than they do Donald Trump given he would have a legitimate chance to be elected President were he to become the Republican nominee in 2024. As such, proggie media is willing to take the word of a confirmed fabricator like Jones as long as she spews things that cripple DeSantis (even though they're not true) . I believe this is what Jim Geraghty labeled nearly a decade ago as "narrative journalism" where straight facts are not the priority. This is not a healthy place to be in a supposed first world country. 

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Quick Hits: Volume CCCVII

 - Despite not yet having declared a 2024 run for President, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has drawn the ire of Donald Trump and his performative leg humpers. Then over the weekend when Trump announced he would likely be arrested on Tuesday over charges filed the the Manhattan District Attorney, Trumpkins insisted DeSantis come forward and call out this perceived political witch hunt. 

While DeSantis had no obligation to do so, his responses when asked about this saga proves he has more political acumen in his pinky toe than Trump and his bobos collectively. 

DeSantis adds: "We won’t be involved in this. I have no interest in getting involved in some type of manufactured circus by some Soros DA...He’s trying to do a political spectacle. He’s trying to virtue signal for his base. I’ve got real issues I got to deal with here in FL." pic.twitter.com/PDbJKEDvea

— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) March 20, 2023

DeSantis effectively calls out the Soros-funded D.A. while side stepping any unnecessary verbal jabs towards Trump himself. But since DeSantis didn't kiss the proverbial ring, crazed loser Trump fired off one of his obligatory unhinged social media posts. 

Trump has this innate gift of turning the potential of being a sympathetic character into his becoming a despised, frothing kook. It's truly a gift. 

- Speaking of unsympathetic characters, some 2-year old video footage came out of Dr. Anthony Fauci attempting to basically sell the COVID-19 vaccine door-to-door.

 

Want to see Tony Fauci and DC Mayor Muriel Bowser get shut down as they go door to door promoting the j4b in 2021?
Here you go.
(Couldn't have posted this pre-Elon) pic.twitter.com/TuPWwH8KUa

— Brick Suit (@Brick_Suit) March 20, 2023

“I heard that it doesn’t cure it and it doesn’t stop you from getting it.” pic.twitter.com/DPHfYKqurI

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) March 20, 2023

Huh. Musta been that MAGA-ite misinformation that got to these folks in that conservative mecca of....uh...Washington, D.C. 

- It's fortuitous that my friend David Strom is now part of the national conservative powerhouse blog that his HotAir.com. Given our fair state of Minnesota is in the habit of making national news for all of the wrong reasons, Strommie has a front row seat to all the lunacy. 

The latest being Minnesota's most prominent woman these days is actually......a biological male. 

(Minnesota State Rep. Leigh) Finke must be one impressive “woman,” since “she” rose from being just a guy to the most impactful woman in my state is less than 6 years. It’s the same path that transgender athletes take so often: a mediocre man becomes an exceptional woman, not through hard work, diligence, accomplishment, or anything similar. They do it by pretending to be a woman, and the rest of society applauds them and plays along.

We are constantly lectured about The Science™, and indeed there of plenty of people who call themselves scientists who argue that natal males and females can shed their sex and transform magically into another, or none at all.

We get lectures about seahorse sexuality, natal males getting cervical cancer without having a cervix, transgender female periods, and other irrelevancies and fantasies. Every biology textbook has been tossed out the window for no other reason than to flatter the delusions of mentally ill people.

And it isn’t even disputable that they are mentally ill and deserving of compassion. “Dysphoria” is by definition a mental state, and the only evidence that a person is “born in the wrong body” (an absurdity) is the claim. Logically there is zero difference between that claim and the claim that a person is an eagle trapped in a human body. Or a space alien. Or whatever.

I've asked this question before and I'll ask again: Where are the old school radical feminists? The essence of their movement, which started about a half century ago, was that women endured unique challenges which men could not possibly understand, much less relate to. Yet in today's society we're to believe that men can not only relate to women but can actually morph into the gender????

Since radical feminists and LGBTQ+ folks typically vote for the same stripe of politicians, I'm guessin' the old school gals are willing to "go along to get along" to ensure the right people get into office. Plus one for the patriarchy in this case. 

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Ya don't say!

Something that had been suspected for nearly three years is finally getting its due credence from American media.

Another government agency has found a laboratory leak to be the most likely explanation behind the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, the Department of Energy recently revised its assessment of the origins of the pandemic to conclude that a lab leak was the most likely origin of the disease. While the assessment was made with “low confidence,” the department switched from its previous stance, “undecided,” after receiving new intelligence, studying research on the topic, and consulting with experts.

The Journal reports this Department of Energy analysis was conducted by “Z Division,” the intelligence arm of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which specializes in assessments of the nuclear- and biological-weapons activities of foreign states; their work is rarely declassified, and, when it is, it is often heavily redacted. It is worth noting that in June 2021, the same Journal reporters reported that Z Division studied the genomes of the virus, SARS-CoV-2, and concluded that “the hypothesis claiming the virus leaked from a Chinese lab in Wuhan is plausible and deserves further investigation.”

There’s still no airtight evidence that proves any theory outright, and the intelligence community remains split between the possibility of a lab leak and that of a purely natural, or zoonotic, origin. But the embarrassing failure of opinion-makers who decried the lab-leak theory as unscientific and racist looks even worse with each new development.

Instead of being introspective, prog talking heads blamed their inaccurate reporting and/or smug dismissiveness on those who speculated (as it turns out, correctly) about the virus's origin. 

It’s hard to have a good faith disagreement about a major issue if the issue itself has been hijacked by bad faith folks.

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) February 26, 2023

The best explanation I can come up with is that Trump's racist "China virus" bullshit, which resulted in lots of anti-Asian bigotry and attacks on Asian people, put liberals understandably on the defense against any theory that seemed to blame China for Covid.

— Jill Filipovic (@JillFilipovic) February 26, 2023

Heck, even the left's fake news hero understood what was up last year.

Even Jon Stewart knew the lab leak was an obvious conclusion. pic.twitter.com/Y9vfMNwpeT

— Jiminy Cricket (@jim1ny_cricket) February 26, 2023

Let's face it. The lack of curiosity by today's corporate media had nothing to do with "reserving judgement" or "giving credibility to conspiracy theorists." It was, as has been the case since July 2015, Trump-centric. 

"It's racist to say Covid came from a Chinese government lab" is the equivalent of "It's racist to say all that radiation in Ukraine came from the Soviet nuclear plant in Chernobyl."

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) February 27, 2023

Y'know what would make "conspiracy theories" disappear in a millisecond? If a collection of individuals banded together to convey cold, hard facts to a populace and did so on such a consistent basis that said populace could easily trace a story's conclusion back to the original reporting of it. 

Sadly, such a collective appears only interested in their "truth" as opposed to indisputable facts. 

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Quick Hits: Volume CCC

Insufferable leftist university being hit with a lawsuit. 

The adjunct professor accused of Islamophobia for showing artwork in class that depicted the Prophet Muhammad filed a lawsuit against Hamline University on Tuesday as Hamline’s president conceded the school mishandled the controversy.

Professor Erika Lopez Prater is suing the school in Ramsey County District Court for defamation, breach of contract and religious discrimination, among other claims.

Her complaint recounts the controversy that has been described in numerous news articles and opinion pieces in the last six weeks.

Lopez Prater says she warned students repeatedly — on the syllabus shown to students and Hamline higher-ups and during the Oct. 6 class itself — that visual depictions of Muhammad and other religious figures would be shown during her art history class.

Yet, when a Muslim student viewed the artwork and complained to Hamline administrators, the school sided with the student. Lopez Prater was allowed to finish teaching the class, but she says Hamline withdrew its offer to have her teach a contemporary art class in the spring.

In what felt like a preemptive strike ahead of being dealt a loss in court, some Hamline officials conceded to a "misstep" in how this situation was handled. 

As an aside from the lawsuit itself, I'll never get used to the idea of college kids being unable to tolerate an opposing viewpoint. Baby Boomers, Gen X and even some millennials made hay out of open debate with their college professors, a skill which proved useful in life. But today's generation? They seem to feel more empowerment from getting someone fired as opposed to fortifying their own beliefs through discourse. What a shame. 

- Speaking of attempts to squash dissent.......

Another day, another piece of constitutionally illiterate legislation coming out of Congress. This time it’s Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat, whose new bill criminalizing “hate speech” would trample over the First Amendment and imperil free speech.

The “Leading Against White Supremacy Act” starts with a relatively uncontroversial premise, reiterating the illegal nature of white-supremacist-motivated hate crimes. If this was all it did, few would object. But it then also criminalizes those who engage in a “conspiracy” with the perpetrator of a hate crime—and defines it so broadly that it could encapture people who simply post racially insensitive things on social media.

If someone posts “hate speech that vilifies or is otherwise directed against any non-White person or group,” an eminently subjective category of speech, on social media or other public forums and then someone sees it and commits a hate crime, that original poster is now on the hook for hate crime conspiracy. Yes, even though they never met or spoke to their “co-conspirator” and had no involvement in any actual crime—and, even though the “hate speech” in question is, in fact, protected by the First Amendment.

Of course this is merely a symbolic gesture by Rep. Jackson Lee given a GOP House majority will never allow such a bill to see the light of day. But then, that may well be the point. Dems, assuming people aren't actually digging into the substance of this legislation, can put forth a chanting point of "REPUBLICANS SUPPORT HATE CRIMES!!!!" in an effort to tighten their 2024 campaign messages. 

Just ten years ago I wouldn't have believed voters were that gullible. Now? Let's just say I wouldn't bet my house on that sentiment. 

- Just four months ago, President Joe Biden said that the COVID-19 pandemic "is over." However, the Federal government's appetite for draconian COVID mitigation remains.  

The Justice Department on Tuesday asked an appeals court to reverse an April 2022 ruling that overturned the CDC’s public transportation mask mandate.

Appearing before a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, Justice Department lawyer Brian Springer argued that the CDC should have the authority to declare universal mask requirements during a public-health crisis, such as the COVID pandemic. It is necessary “to prevent the possible infections and deaths that could result if people didn’t do the simple thing of just putting on a mask while they were traveling,” Springer argued, according to Reuters.

U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle ruled last year that the CDC’s mask mandate violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) because it was implemented “without allowing public participation through the APA’s notice and comment procedures.”

Masks have shown to be, at best, a mitigating factor in the spread of COVID. And in the nine months since the mask mandate was overturned, it's not like there's been an inordinate number of "super spreader events" due to people utilizing public transportation. 

In the end, the DOJ appeal has little to do with masks' effectiveness as opposed to defending Federal agencies' ability to implement arbitrary mandates. Here's hoping the initial overturn is allowed to stand. 

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Quick Hits: Volume CCXCVII

 - Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky visited Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, culminating with a speech to a joint session of Congress. 

Something a lot of people noticed, myself included? Zelensky's attire, which consisted of a plain dark-green sweatshirt and cargo pants. While I firmly believe any male visitor to the White House should don a suit and tie, National Review's Jim Geraghty says anyone focusing on that aspect is missing out on the bigger picture. 

In other circumstances, I could see getting upset about a foreign leader’s choice of attire while visiting the White House. If French president Emmanuel Macron visited the White House and didn’t wear a suit, we would be surprised and dismayed.

But Zelensky’s in awfully unique circumstances. We don’t know all the details of how he got to the U.S., but European newspapers published a picture of the Ukrainian president at the train station in the southern Polish city of Przemysl, just across the Polish–Ukrainian border.

Flight trackers determined that shortly after Zelensky announced he was going to visit the U.S., a U.S. government Boeing C-40B took off from Poland’s Rzeszów airport. That U.S. government jet looks like a miniature version of Air Force One, with “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” written in big letters on the side.

Zelensky traveled that way because on any other jet, there’s a chance — not a big chance, but a chance — that Russia would deem shooting the plane down worth the risk. Remember, if Putin and his top military advisers had a great ability to assess risk and consequences, he wouldn’t have launched the invasion. Sure, it would be extremely dangerous for the Russians to send some MiGs to attempt to shoot down a foreign leader over NATO airspace. But it’s also extremely dangerous to dig trenches and camp right outside of the Chernobyl nuclear plant and subject yourselves to high levels of radiation, and the Russians chose to do that, too. The phrase, “Oh the Russians would never do that!” needs to be put on temporary hiatus.

During the biggest land war in Europe since World War II, getting upset about what Zelensky chooses to wear while visiting the U.S. seems awfully silly and shallow. (I notice that a lot of people judge political figures — and likely everyone else — on their appearance because you don’t need to know anything else about them. Learning anything else about the person requires effort, and the last thing some people ever want to do is put effort into learning something they didn’t already know.)

Fair enough. And while my hope is for the Ukrainian military to succeed in fending off Russia (given their literal survival as a country is at stake, in addition to it being a plus for the entire world), the unconscionable amount of money the U.S. is spending in this "proxy war" should absolutely be called into question. As we learned the hard way with our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, endless founts of money with no coherent end goal is a recipe for disaster. 

- Speaking of disastrous circumstances in Afghanistan.......

Taliban security forces fanned out to some universities and informal learning centers in Kabul on Wednesday, teachers said, enforcing an edict issued the night before that appears to have banned most females from any education beyond the sixth grade.

In one instance, a teacher reported security forces barging into his class, shouting at girls to go home. "Some of students started verbal arguments with them, but they didn't listen. My students left their classes, crying," said Waheed Hamidi, an English-language teacher at a tuition center in Kabul.

The move was expected – and dreaded – by observers as the Taliban's supreme leader Mullah Haibutullah Akhundzada imposes his vision of an Afghanistan which is ultra-conservative, even by the hardline group's standards.

Say, do you happen to recall President Joe Biden's declaration upon American forces withdrawing from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021?

It was shortly thereafter that Biden's approval rating went underwater and has rarely been above the low 40s since. 

It's absolutely sickening to ponder the countless deaths of American military and their allied forces (not to mention the hundred of billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars) over nearly 20 years, only to see Afghanistan wind up literally where they were upon the initial invasion. 

- A lot of concerns raised over draconian lockdowns and nonsensical mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic have become validated more and more with each passing day. 

Better late than never, WaPo.

A new study found that exercise, in almost any amount, reduced people’s risks of being hospitalized or dying of covid. https://t.co/tKpKyxLPiJ

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 21, 2022

New Jersey gym owner Ian Smith defied lockdowns in order to keep his business open to allow people to better their physical and mental health. He was fined by the government for every day he kept his doors open amid the pandemic. Any idea where he can get his reputation (and money) back?

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Quick Hits: Volume CCLXXXIX

 - When the President of the United States announced his plan to "cancel" student loan debt, it was pretty much assumed a legal challenge would be forthcoming. 

Sure enough....

President Joe Biden's plan to forgive hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debt violates both federal law and the Constitution, according to a just-filed lawsuit from the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a libertarian law firm.

"This isn't how laws are supposed to be made," Caleb Kruckenberg, an attorney for PLF, tells Reason. "Only Congress has the power to pass laws and spend money under the Constitution. The administration's actions here are flagrantly illegal."

This is the first serious challenge to Biden's student loan forgiveness plan, which he announced last month. The lawsuit's plaintiff is Frank Garrison, who's also an attorney at PLF. Garrison borrowed federal student loans to pay for law school, but according to him, Biden's debt forgiveness plan will actually subject him to a financial penalty in the form of a state tax. This gives him standing to sue the U.S. Education Department, his lawsuit argues.

"Despite the staggering scope of this regulatory action, it was taken with breathtaking informality and opacity," the lawsuit claims. "In the rush, the administration has created new problems for borrowers in at least six states that tax loan cancellation as income."

It's a simple matter that no fiscal policy can be made via Executive fiat. If this were to have any legitimacy, it had to be enacted through Congress. Biden's rationale for circumventing Congress was his citing of the HEROES Act, a law passed in 2003 giving the Executive branch authority to waive tuition or fees if citizens can't complete educational obligations in the aftermath of a national emergency (i.e. 9/11). Biden cited the COVID-19 pandemic as the justifiable emergency......less than a month before he declared the pandemic "over."

I have a feeling the Biden administration knows their "cancelation" plan may well get nuked, much like they surmised the unlawful extension of the eviction moratorium was going to be overturned by the judicial branch. The difference is, the student loan "cancelation" plan was a bigger loser politically. Hardly seemed worth it. 

- Somehow a link to this story found its way into my Facebook feed. 

I wonder if one of those enterprising CNN journalists are going to take a look into the healing process of kids forced to live in fear (i.e. donning facemasks and being isolated from friends & classmates) over a virus where a statistical chance of serious illness for their demographic was near zero. Or how about the kids whose parents' "religion" is climate and thus are being informed the planet will be uninhabitable in less than a generation? 

Heh. Sometimes I say crazy things.

- Reports of Republicans' demise in the 2022 midterms appear to have been greatly exaggerated. While the U.S. Senate remains a veritable toss-up, the GOP is going to win a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. The only question is by how much. 

Among those living in congressional districts that are rated as at least somewhat competitive by ABC’s FiveThirtyEight (neither solid Republican nor solid Democratic), registered voters favor Republican candidates by a wide 55-34 percent — nearly as big as the Republican lead in solid GOP districts (+24 points). Democrats lead by 35 points in solid Democratic districts, pointing to a potential overvote where they’re most prevalent.

If Republicans really are leading in competitive districts by 21 percentage points, then this is indeed a red-wave election, and we should see some unexpected Democratic losses.

Now if only the Republicans put up someone more competent than Kevin McCarthy to be the new Speaker of the House. 

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They're gonna need a shorter leash

If you wonder why White House staff attempts to micromanage President Joe Biden, his interview on 60 Minutes this past Sunday would be Exhibit A. 

One excerpt in particular which has the President's administration scrambling: 

JUST IN - Biden: "The pandemic is over."pic.twitter.com/iS1gq31MD1

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) September 19, 2022

For many Americans, Biden saying such a thing is more a confirmation than a revelation. 

What's ironic is less than 12 hours before the airing of that interview, Joe Concha at The Hill pondered why "fact-checking" has disappeared under Biden. Sure enough, the WaPo put forth a quasi fact check in response to POTUS declaring the pandemic "over." 

 

And this is why they are scrambling to put out this fire. pic.twitter.com/T38Mxb6428

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) September 20, 2022

In essence, what the Post's Editorial Board is saying is that the bag o' taxpayer goodies is going to be emptied if the pandemic is officially declared no longer an emergency. Again, this is another in a long line of confirmed suspicions that this became less and less about public health as time has gone on.  

A good crisis has indeed not gone to waist, but progs still believe there is blood to be squeezed from the turnip. 

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Quick Hits: Volume CCLXXXI

- This past fall, members of the mounted patrol at the southern U.S. border were accused of using whips to control Haitian migrants. Given that D.C. elites can barely spell "reins" much less understand how they're used when riding horseback, Press Secretary Jen Psaki immediately condemned the actions (based on video footage and still photos) of the mounted patrol as "horrible" and "horrific" without the slightest concept of what was actually occurring. 

So once an investigation occurred and the border agents were cleared of any wrongdoing, Psaki certainly issued a mea culpa on behalf of the Biden administration for jumping to conclusions, right? 

Jen Psaki refuses to apologize for the White House's smear campaign against border patrol agents who were accused and have now been cleared of whipping migrants at the southern border. pic.twitter.com/8dclkPIEWb

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 18, 2022

Her excuse for not apologizing was that the Dept. of Homeland Security has yet to "announce any conclusion of that investigation." Ah, but Little Red Lying Hood Psaki had no such reservations last fall when casting aspersions before the initial investigation even occurred. 

You're gonna make a perfect MSNBC hack, Jen. 

 - On Monday, a federal judge based in Florida ruled that the Biden administration's mask mandate for  airlines and all other public transportation was unconstitutional. Within hours, the TSA announced they would not enforce said mandate and multiple major airlines also indicated masks were now "optional." 

Like Elon Musk's proposal to buy Twitter, the overturning of the mask mandate is exposing the utter derangement of "progressives" in that another "safe space" is being upended.

With each passing day, we're seeing more and more chilling signs of what could happen if progs ever attain the absolute power they desire. 

- With the Fox News late night program Gutfeld! providing a rare (and welcome) exception, there is definitely a dearth of comedic conservative content on prime time and late night TV. Admittedly it's difficult for there to be a conservative version of, say, The Daily Show, given that it's near impossible to satirize a movement (i.e. leftism) that is so self-parodying. 

Here's a classic example: 

Wow so this blew up, cash app is in the bio for my son’s legal defense fun. We are suing for intentional infliction of emotional distress

— Jared Rabel (@JradRabel) April 19, 2022

Obvious satire, right?

Well, not in the eyes of a certain New York Times reporter. 

 

Just got messaged by a NYT journalist about my previous tweet. This is what happened. pic.twitter.com/Dr5fHBnLCm

— Jared Rabel (@JradRabel) April 19, 2022

The biggest threat to The Babylon Bees these days? The mainstream media itself.  

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Separate but unequal

Of the many farcical statements made over the 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic, none was more vapid and insulting than "We're all in this together."

Here's yet another reminder of how that sentiment was unequivocal bull pucky. 

After months of pressure, Mayor Eric Adams is exempting professional athletes and performers from the city's workplace vaccine mandate.

That means Nets fans could soon see Kyrie Irving play home games and the news came down right before Major League Baseball starts its new season, CBS2's John Dias reported Thursday.

Adams said the exemptions take effect immediately, regardless of the performers' and players' COVID vaccine status.

"Currently, only non-resident are exempt under this executive order. We are expanding it to residents of New York City," Adams said at a press conference at Citi Field.

It is a considerable reversal from his original position of honoring a de Blasio administration rule requiring COVID vaccines in the workplace.

How can this be interpreted any other way than there are separate rules for the elites of NYC? I mean, we're used to seeing elites and politicos flouting the rules, but in this case there is literally a separate standard for the upper crust. 

Remember former NYC Mayor Ed Koch's sentiment of "The people have spoken.....and they will be punished?" Kinda speaks for itself here, no?

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Quick Hits: Volume CCLXXVII

 - Despite the hysterics one sees on Twitter, the Senate confirmation hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson have been relatively routine, perhaps a tad boring. 

Then this happened: 

Senator Blackburn: "Can you provide a definition for the word woman?"

Judge Jackson: "No. I can't...I'm not a biologist." pic.twitter.com/TRlqUeDGs6

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 23, 2022

Part of me feels for Judge Jackson in that if she were to give the literal definition of "woman," she would have been rhetorically slaughtered by secular progressives. However, this is no time to bow to the woke mob given the very real possibility the U.S. Supreme Court will have to hear oral arguments regarding (you guessed it) women's issues. 

- Good news: Minnesota's rate of positive COVID-19 tests is below 3% for the first time since last July. 

Bad news: The St Paul School Board is anti-science. 

- Whenever there are Republican wave elections, Minnesota is often immune from such GOP success, particularly statewide. And this year will be no exception unless a certain grifter group is put out to pasture. 

Blois Olson from his Tuesday Morning Take newsletter: 

Political parties and organizations should have one goal – to win. Most work toward that with different strategies, and different levels of successes. Some tactics can always be questionable, but harassment and intimidation are out of bounds. However, after trying to challenge stalwart Republican incumbents, and losing, the goal (of) Action 4 Liberty is becoming less clear. They have run primary candidates previously and consistently lost. The one “success story” is Rep. Erik Mortenson who doesn’t even have a caucus after he was asked to leave the more disruptive New Republican caucus. The more worrisome story for them, is multiple stories where threats and even intimidation seems to be an “organizing” strategy. They even physically removed Rep. Nolan West from an “open to the public” training. However, as an organization that pitches conservative “purity”, the idea that their preferred candidate for Governor Dr. Neil Shah donated to Gov. Tim Walz in 2018 suggests they aren’t actually serious about their calling out conservative Republicans as “RINOs”. Did they do their own homework? Or they aren’t actually as pure as they suggest others should be? Fringe groups aren’t new in Minnesota political parties, but even the DFL rejected socialists and the DSA. It’s time for Republicans to call out Action for Liberty. If Republicans tolerate the behavior at their conventions, they are likely to tolerate it at polling places, and that is toxic and unacceptable for Minnesota.

Emphasis mine. If you wanna get an idea of what the goal of A4L is (or at least it's leader), this Twitter thread from Michael Brodkorb sheds some light. 

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Two years ago

It was two years ago from the date of this blog post when the World Health Organization's official Twitter feed posted the following: 

🚨 BREAKING 🚨

"We have therefore made the assessment that #COVID19 can be characterized as a pandemic"-@DrTedros #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/JqdsM2051A

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 11, 2020

I think about that day often. My wife, mom and me were en route to the Phoenix airport after a four-day vacation in Sedona, AZ. Upon arriving at the terminal, it was pretty obvious that air travel was the first casualty. I'm certain I've never been through a TSA checkpoint faster in a comparable sized airport. 

So what have we learned in these past two years? Well, many Americans who were not politically engaged quickly ascertained that government is inefficient and doesn't have the best interest of its citizens in mind when making decisions. To people like me, that was more a confirmation than a revelation, so I was struck by the number of Americans who were shocked, SHOCKED I TELL YA by such ineptitude and corruption. 

As difficult as things are economically in the U.S. as a result of legislation and government mandates in reaction to COVID, the most significant damage is yet to come. It still angers me what we did to the kids by not doing everything in our power to have them back in the classrooms ASAP. But once they did return, keeping them in facemasks served to only stunt their social skills and communicative abilities. Sadly it will be years playing catch up for the children as they look to acquire the necessary acumen to be a productive member of the employment sector. It's impossible to put a number on the hit our GDP will take with today's generation 2-3 years behind where they otherwise could have been. If there is one silver lining to this awful period, it's that the sense of urgency for the civil rights issue of our time (i.e. school choice) is getting a much louder voice. 

Rahm Emmanuel once famously said that elected officials should "never let a good crisis go to waste." When it comes to the actions of American politicians over the past two years, it's obvious how much they heeded that advice. 

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Progs' new obsession

Without a President Donald Trump to kick around, leftist progs are focusing their ire on a new boogie man: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

The latest incident which has progs clutching their veritable pearls occurred this past Wednesday morning: 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by [SLIGHTLY] OFFENS*VE 🇺🇸🇦🇺 (@slightlyoffensive.tv)

In a story that didn't deserve to be breathing past Wednesday, NBC News included it in their Thursday evening newscast, which featured one of the students and his mother. 

So I guess we're just gonna gloss over the part where DeSantis said "If you want to wear it, fine....," huh. 

Look, it wasn't like DeSantis and his handlers browbeat the kid into removing his mask. He took it off on his own accord while the young man to his right kept his on. I mean, if secular progressives believe teens can now decide on their own to have an abortion or transition to a different sex, why are they getting the vapors over the kids making a personal choice here??? This is yet another classic example of narrative journalism where a leftist media outlet (in this case NBC News) declares DeSantis the "face of controversy" when the vast majority of the flippin' country agrees with him. 

In the end, this is just an attempt (albeit futile) to cripple DeSantis' electoral prospects in the event he ever chooses to run for President. It was sport for the media to ding Trump because they knew his response would be disproportional to the criticism lobbed his way. But DeSantis is the left's worst nightmare because he has a substantive bite in his responses to attacks levied towards him. 

In other words, bring it on, progs. 

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A Super Sunday indeed.

It was an enjoyable Super Bowl Sunday for me, my wife and select friends we had over to our abode. Given we had finished our basement just prior to last year's Super Bowl, we had yet to hold a sizable gathering as the COVID-19 pandemic raged on. But we had that opportunity to host such a soiree on Sunday and it's safe to say a good time was had by all.

While I was rooting for the Cincinnati Bengals to prevail over the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI, I can't help but be ecstatic for Rams QB Matthew Stafford leading his team to the 23-20 victory. As a Vikings fan, I became quite familiar with Stafford given I saw his Detroit Lions team twice per season for 13 years. He was a highly talented, gritty player but suffered from mediocre coaching, a dysfunctional ownership group and lack of a consistent supporting cast. 

A big kudos should go to the Rams' front office, particularly GM Les Snead. After falling short in the Super Bowl three years ago against the New England Patriots, the Rams knew their window of opportunity for a championship was closing. As such, over the past few years they added star players Stafford, DB Jalen Ramsey, WR Odell Beckham, Jr. and LB Von Miller to enhance an already talented roster. And since the Rams won't have a first round draft choice again until 2024, the 2021 campaign would have been considered a failure had they not won it all. 

While many of the Bengals' players and coaches expressed disappointment over the tough loss, they should be consoled by the fact that their young, talented roster is set up to be perennial contenders for the foreseeable future. QB Joe Burrow is the real deal, and if his offensive line can can be upgraded at all (Burrow was sacked 19 times in four postseason games), Cincy has an excellent chance to supplant the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills as the premier team in the AFC. 

With this year's Super Bowl being held in Los Angeles, it was inevitable we'd see a cavalcade of stars attending the game in person. And as we witnessed in the very same venue two weeks ago, said elitists proved once again that government mandates (particularly of the COVID genre) are for the hoi polloi. 

LA Youth Orchestra is forced to wear masks while the singers, players, and fans are maskless at the Super Bowl pic.twitter.com/qJAWPuNj5y

— Jewish Patriot 🚛 (@MAGAJew2) February 13, 2022

Not a single mask in the entire photograph. https://t.co/ditV8pw1gF

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) February 14, 2022

Here’s the video of every celebrity without a mask during the Super Bowl. But every kid in California will have to be wearing them tomorrow in school. They must all be holding their breaths the entire game. pic.twitter.com/Dc9yVd7RPf

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) February 14, 2022

So apparently the Super Bowl was the ultimate example of Animals Farms “all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others”🐖pic.twitter.com/tjFf7r337x

— NevilleTheCat (@FearTheFloof) February 14, 2022

My little girl with a disability will be forcibly masked at school 8 hours tomorrow#UNMASKOURCHILDREN pic.twitter.com/DHxc6yubUw

— NYC State of Mind (@NYC_stateofmind) February 14, 2022

LA mayor setting world records for holding his breath. pic.twitter.com/CFcQuWSNJQ

— Will Cain (@willcain) February 14, 2022

Translation: do what I say. pic.twitter.com/4EH1Ats54h

— Jon Miltimore (@miltimore79) February 14, 2022

The absolute state of our country right now. pic.twitter.com/xOyojrWlq9

— Jake Bequette (@JakeBequette91) February 14, 2022

As Jonah Goldberg pointed out, there is a silver lining to this naked hypocrisy. 

 

The crowd shots are like nails in the coffin of mask mandates.

— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) February 14, 2022

And I'll hear nothing of the b.s. retort "bUt ThOsE pEoPlE aRe FuLlY vAcCiNaTeD." The mask mandate in L.A. County requires all to wear masks regardless of vaccination status. So go suck a brick. 

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Over before it started.

 Well that didn't last long. 

Twin Cities Mayors Melvin Carter and Jacob Frey jointly rescinded their vaccine-or-test emergency regulations for restaurants, bars and entertainment venues, effective immediately, as COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations rapidly decline.

Mask mandates for city-licensed businesses will stay in place for now.

"We always want to try and be as least invasive as possible when we're coming from a public health perspective," said Minneapolis interim Health Commissioner Heidi Ritchie in an interview. "We felt like in the areas where there were people who were eating and drinking and they couldn't feasibly wear a mask, that vaccination was really the best way to keep everybody safe. At this point with the transmission rates dropping the way that they are, the hospitalization rates not as precarious as they were, we're comfortable pulling that more invasive regulation backwards."

The Twin Cities have been closely monitoring new case rates, positivity rates, vaccination rates, hospital capacity and vaccine breakthrough cases since announcing the vaccine-or-test mandates last month.

This mandate was a fool's errand from the outset. Given the rate of breakthrough cases involving Omicron, it was highly plausible that a fully vaccinated and boosted customer was also very contagious with that strain of COVID. However, if they were willing to show their vax card, it was all good, even if they looked like warmed over death. This also put an establishment's employees in an awkward position of having to insist on seeing paperwork upon entry. If said employees were told by patrons to pound sand, what were the repercussions? Was law enforcement called? Heck, in Minneapolis they don't even respond to gun shots in a timely manner. 

This saga also emphasizes the perils of elected officials having no concept of what it takes to run a business. When restaurants/bars place orders for supplies, they do so in anticipating what business will potentially look like in the weeks ahead. When this mandate was handed down in mid-January, restaurants and bars were given literally one week to prepare. This is after they had likely stocked up on supplies for the upcoming 2-3 weeks only to be hit with the reality that much of what they purchased would go unused. Not only that, some employees would have to be jettisoned due to the inevitable downturn in patronage. 

While it's good news that the rescission of this mandate is effective immediately, this also poses issues for bars and restaurants. Management has to scrounge up staff for what will be a sudden influx of business returning. Regardless, I guess that's a more palatable problem than trying to keep businesses in MSP (those that are even still standing) afloat. So....uh.....thanks, Mayors?

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SCIENCE!

As many states with Democrat governors are signaling a winddown of COVID-19 mandates, let's take a look at the "science" they utilized to make that decision. 

The final straw may have been the Virginia Senate passing an amendment barring masks in schools. Nearly half of that legislative body's Democrats joined Senate Republicans in support of such a measure. 

As always, we'll be sure to keep a list of those "progressives" who are seamlessly pivoting to anti- COVID mandates now but were bullish on them merely weeks ago. 

via GIPHY

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"Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?"

 Alternate post title: They think you're stupid. 

Despite Los Angeles County imposing a mask mandate, California Gov. Gavin Newsom was seen sans facemask at the NFC Championship game in L.A. this past Sunday. He attempted to explain himself. 

.@GavinNewsom defends himself for once again breaking his own Covid masking rules: "I was very judicious yesterday ... In my left hand is the mask, & I took a photo. The rest of the time I wore it, as we all should. Not when I had a glass of water, or anything … and that’s it.” pic.twitter.com/3FAgbNPM5t

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 31, 2022

What we've been told about wearing facemasks is they're not meant to protect us from COVID as much as they're effective in protecting others from us transmitting the virus. If that's the case, then why would Newsom remove his mask for a photo op with Magic? After all, Magic is north of 60 years old, overweight and, oh yeah, HE HAS THE FLIPPIN' AIDS VIRUS!!! God love Magic, but he's the textbook definition of immunocompromised. So when Newsom claimed to have only removed his mask for the photo op, that would seem to be the one occasion where he shouldn't have done so.  

 

Gavin Newsom unmasked in a packed stadium while the state of CA still has emergency orders in place for Covid-19. pic.twitter.com/PUAZoYoql3

— Tomas Morales 🇺🇸 (@TomasMorales_iv) January 31, 2022

Oh, and the bit where he was "judicious" about wearing a mask the rest of the time? Yep. Bull pucky (see about 3 seconds into the following video).  

 

California governor Gavin Newsom said he only took his mask off for a “brief second” for a photo at 49ers-Rams. Here he is on live TV during the game without his mask on. Liars gonna lie: pic.twitter.com/AiQOcb740y

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) January 31, 2022

Not to be outdone, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti also had an explanation for why he appeared unmasked at the same venue. 

 

The Mayor of LA has said it was OK for him to take a maskless picture with Magic Johnson because "I held my breath"https://t.co/WEjfrB07PX

— Truckistan Amb. Poso 🏁 (@JackPosobiec) February 3, 2022

Translation: Yeah, I took a picture with Magic Johnson while unmasked.....but I didn't exhale!!!

In all seriousness, the optics of this whole thing are infuriating. 

 

Here’s governor @GavinNewsom at the @RamsNFL game last night, no mask, enjoying his evening with 80,000 people.

Today, I’m about to take my son to elementary school in LA where he MUST wear a mask all day, even outside at recess! #Insanity

Time to end the charade. pic.twitter.com/sPSyDtxNvC

— Jaren Grenell (@jarengrenell) January 31, 2022

Yup. Some studies show unvaccinated kids are less likely to contract the virus than vaxxed adults, yet in some areas are threatened with a trespassing charge if they show up at school unmasked. Meanwhile, elitists flout such mandates then have the temerity to gaslight us when called on it. 

Just watch. In about ten years, many of these same elites will insist that throughout the pandemic they were adamantly opposed to lockdowns and masking kids. 

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It was a good run, MSP

I believe Vivian Ward summed up Minneapolis and St Paul's vaccine mandate perfectly. 

via GIPHY

Minneapolis and St. Paul will require customers to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to enter restaurants, bars and other entertainment venues, among the most aggressive steps the Twin Cities have taken to date to curb the spread of COVID-19, mayors from both cities announced Wednesday.

The action comes as officials are trying to temper a spike in infections and hospitalizations fueled by the fast-spreading omicron variant, which is already causing staffing shortages across industries.

"This is a critical next step to avoid closures," Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said at a virtual news conference. "We want to stay open, and we need to stay safer."

The new restrictions — which will apply to businesses where food or beverages are sold for on-site consumption — will go into effect for most businesses on Jan. 19. Patrons can provide either proof of vaccination or proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken under medical supervision within the last 72 hours. Booster shots are not required.

The requirement would apply to stadiums, movie theaters, bowling alleys, convention centers and other venues that serve food or drink. St. Paul's mandate will apply only to businesses that are licensed by the city.

"Our expectation is the vast majority of businesses will comply, will participate and will see this as an opportunity to keep their business open, to keep their employees working and to keep our whole community moving forward together," St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said at the news conference.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, I have rarely set foot in Minneapolis given the alarming spike in violent crime of late. But St. Paul is a little tricky given my mother resides in the Highland Park neighborhood. However, if we're going to break bread within the city limits, we'll make it a point to patronize a suburban establishment for takeout and then bring the grub to mom's place. 

As is usually the case, my friend and NARN colleague Mitch Berg brilliantly points out the unintended consequences of such draconian policies. 

But this is not only moronic - it disproportionally impacts minorities. Black males are the least-vaccinated population in the state; you're basically adding a "color bar" to Twin Cities public spaces. And the businesses affected - by barring their customers, and employees, as well as by people taking their business elsewhere - are disproportionally POC and immigrants as well.

 

This moronic rule is going to turn yet more small, especially minority-owned, businesses into empty storefronts.

How very "progressive" of our state's two largest cities. 

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Quick Hits: Volume CCLXXII

 - There may be some hope for New York City yet! Now that the deplorable Bill de Blasio is no longer Mayor, the new leadership sounds downright reasonable by comparison. 

Eric Adams has started his tenure as New York City mayor by rejecting a request from the city's largest teachers' union to temporarily move public schools to remote learning, capping off a frenetic first 72 hours of his administration.

Adams' focus on keeping children in-person for school -- even in the face of opposition from the teachers' union -- is one of the clearest examples of how the former Brooklyn Borough president will offer the nation's largest city a different brand of leadership for the next four years.

The request from the United Federation of Teachers came as coronavirus cases across the country -- including in New York City -- have spiked dramatically with the spread of the Omicron variant in recent weeks. In a statement to his members on Sunday, President Michael Mulgrew said the union asked Adams to temporarily move to remote learning to mitigate staffing challenges caused by positive Covid-19 cases but that the mayor felt "strongly" that schools needed to remain open despite the surge.

"We advised the new mayor that it would be safest to allow our school system to go remote temporarily until we could get a handle on the staffing challenges that each school is about to face as we return," he wrote. "However, he feels strongly that schools need to remain open."

Adams remained rooted in his position on Monday.

"We're staying open," the mayor said.

There have been numerous studies recently showing the adverse impact on kids being isolated for long periods of time, particularly when it comes to their mental health and emotional maturity, to say nothing of their education lagging. 

Kudos to Mayor Adams, a Dem who actually follows the science. 

- For the first time in the era of head coach Mike Zimmer, the Minnesota Vikings will miss the NFL playoffs in consecutive seasons. 

With that in mind, it wouldn't be the worst idea to start rookie quarterback Kellen Mond in Sunday's season finale against the Chicago Bears (who also have nothing to play for). But when broached with that possibility, Zimmer sounded less than enthusiastic. 

When asked if he wants to get a look at rookie QB Kellen Mond next week in the meaningless regular season finale against the Bears, Zimmer quickly said "not particularly."

Why not?

"I see him every day," Zimmer replied.

This is the coldest thing I’ve ever heard from a coach. My goodness. pic.twitter.com/0FaufxxoQw

— Ian Kenyon (@IanKenyonNFL) January 3, 2022

Oh, and take a look at who bookmarked that tweet containing the Zimmer clip. 

Good news though, Zim? You only have less than a week to further endure Mond, but not because he is going anywhere. 

- Patton Oswalt shared a New Years Eve photo op he had with fellow comedian (and, as Oswalt claims, his friend for the past 34 years) Dave Chappelle. 

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt)

Given some of the comments which ensued on this post, Oswalt quickly realized his fellow secular progressives still hold ill will towards Chappelle because he doesn't subscribe to the far left orthodoxy on transgenderism. As such, Oswalt felt the need to grovel for his fans' forgiveness for having the audacity to tout a decades long friendship. 

Closed circuit to Patton: It's ain't gonna be enough. The only way to satisfy the woke mob is via total capitulation, which will likely include demands to disavow your friendship with Chappelle. But hopefully you have more integrity than that. You have an ample opportunity here to stand much taller than your 5'3'' frame. 

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