Last year, when the FBI triiumphantly claimed that they’d busted a plot to kidnap MIchigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, I said, in as many words, “I bet a shiny new quarter this was a setup by the feds”.

My quarter is looking safer and safer:

The explosives expert was the undercover FBI agent. He was the one who figured out where to plant the explosive and offered to obtain as much as the group wanted. Would there even have been a plan to blow up the bridge without him? The Iraq War veteran is heard barking at the other members about not hanging around unless they were “down with the thought of kidnapping.” It almost sounds as if he had to talk some of them into it. A government informant from Wisconsin was the person who traveled around the country and introduced various militia members to each other, sometimes paying their travel costs. Many of the eventual members had never met each other before this. There were fully a dozen informants and undercover agents involved every step of the way.

When you put all of that together, you are forced to consider the question that Buzzfeed is asking. Without all of those agents and government informants holding people’s hands and guiding their steps, would there even have been a conspiracy without them? The defendants are saying no. They claim that the whole idea of kidnapping Whitmer never rose above the level of fantasy, though they freely admit going to paramilitary training sessions together and engaging in anti-government conversations and online chats.

My two cents: the establisment wants to deliver on that “wave of white supremacist terror” they’ve been promising since 2009, they’re willing to create it from scratch.

Americans – at least the noisy ones that take part in politics – don’t like each other very much. Dennis Prager notes that we’re more divided, politically and intellectually, today than we were in 1861; other than slavery and its various side effects and the state and regional social differences that they led to, Americans weren’t that far apart back then.

Today? The hate is palpable. I felt it almost two decades ago, and it’s gotten much, much worse in the five years.

Half the country is using the nation’s government and media institutions and, increasingly, the corporate world to gain control over the other half.

And as the Declaration of Independence notes, people are inclined to suffer from indignities and oppression…

…until they’re not.

So – what if that other half finally says “enough”, and decides we’re better off apart?

Ignore the source – pseudonymous social media trolls are cheaper than Dogecoin derivatives these days. With that said, whoever drew this…:

…must live in Texas (or Florida?), and be one of those Texans / Floridians who doesn’t spend a lot of time paying attention to the rest of the country. The Dakotas will join a mostly-blue Midwest only via a hypothetical conquest, and Minnesotans invading North Dakota would look a little like this, or maybe this.

I digress.

Idle speculation?

Of course.

But sometimes I wonder if it wouldn’t be easier and more productive than the situation we have.

I’m as close as you can get to a First Amendment absolutist.

As a small L libertarian, I’m also big on due process and the restraint of excessive police power.

With all of that said?

I can’t be the only one who wouldn’t of minded seeing this jagoff “bump his head“ getting into the police car.

Minneapolis is almost on track to beat the murder rate from the “Murderapolis“ years.

There have been 50 homicides so far this year in Minneapolis, which is close to the amount that had accumulated by the summer of 1995 — the year the city was given the nickname “Murderapolis.” There were 97 total murders that year.

Unlike most Minnesota endeavors, I wouldn’t rule out Minneapolis “winning“ the title this time around. During the Murderapolis years, both of the Twin Cities mayors believed that law and order and public safety our primary jobs city government what is there to do. Not “privileges“.

I can’t say I was a huge fan of Sharon Sayles Belton, but she and the City Council she had actually knew what their priorities were supposed to be.

While Jacob Frey ran for office as a “law and order“ candidate (compared to the contenders in the field against whom he ran, at any rate), Minneapolis is weak mayor system and strong, and progressive to a fault, City Council make that more or less futile.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Britain to vaccinate class of people who rarely catch virus.

Imagine you went to the doctor who told you: “Your child has a one-in-a-million chance of catching a particular disease, and if she does catch it, she has a one-in-a-million chance of dying from it. I recommend you authorize me to give her this vaccine.”

You might ask, “Why? What’s the point? She’s not at risk. Why bother?”

Your doctor might say: “It won’t help her, but it’s the neighborly thing to do. Taking the vaccine protects your neighbors so they don’t get the disease. And it’s free, plus I’ll throw in a coupon for an ice cream cone in the hospital cafeteria.”

You might say, “Okay, sounds good. By the way, are there any potential side effects of the vaccine?”

And your doctor might say, “Not really. There’s a one-in-six chance she’ll have a heart attack which is why we make you wait 20 minutes before leaving the office, but most of them survive. Oh, and blood clots and heart inflammation, those are possible, too, and maybe infertility or miscarriage but we really don’t know the long term side effects because the vaccine was rushed through the approval process so quickly and has been in use such a short time. She’ll probably be fine.”

Would you let the doctor vaccinate your daughter under those circumstances, or would you weigh reward-versus-risk and conclude getting vaccinated is a bad idea?

SCIENCE DENIER! MURDERER!

You’re not supposed to question the doctor. You’re supposed to blindly trust anybody wearing a lab coat. People like you are the reason we can’t give accurate numbers about cases and deaths. If we did, you’d use them to think for yourself. Stop that! We already did your thinking for you and we’ve decided you don’t need to weigh reward-versus-risk, you just need to Shut Up and Do as You’re Told. Hold her arm steady, she’ll just feel a little pinch . . .

Joe Doakes

Someday, one would hope they would be a reckoning for how much of our “public health“ effort exists for the appeasement of Big Karen.

Pleadin (falsely, it would seem) “racism“ apparently wasn’t enough to get the Minnesota DFL upset withRepresentative John Thompson (DFL – ???) But years old domestic violence accusations apparently triggered the last vestiges of #MeToo; late last week, it was enough to cause the DFL to ask for Thompson‘s resignation.

For his part, Thompson says he’s not leaving.

Given the prurience of the accusations against Thompson from 2003, his best bet may be to hold out for a sinecure with the Lincoln Project.

Tim Walz joins Melissa Hortman, Ryan “Uncle Tom” Winkler, and Ken “Alita Messinger’s Shih-Tzu” Martin in calling or John Thompson’s resignation.

The reasoning?

“…he can no longer be effective”.

He was “effective” enough after his “Burn Hugo Down” antics for the same three people to endorse him for election.

So – what are they thinking?

My guess:

Threatening children: Effective.

“Burn down Hugo”: Effective.

Be a human virtue-signal to the most over the top “progressive” wing of the DFL: Effective.

Be a potential polling drag on the rest of the DFL heading into what could be a tough mid-term?: Aaaaaaah.

Bonus Question: Does anyone out there seriously believe the DFL knew none of Thompsons domestic violence or, er, domesticity allegations before he got elected?

That feeling when you search, and search, and search, believing that something you see on social media just has to be from the Babylon Bee.

But it’s not.

City of Anaheim “respects free speech”…

… but…

“We support free speech, but…” = “We don’t support free speech”.  

Points will be docked from the first member of the local prog peanut gallery who says “I thought you Republicans supported property rights – why not allow the vendor to decide what to do with their own property?”

This is the city getting a business – possibly sympathetic, possibly not – to do its censoring for it.   Just like the Administration is doing with Facebook and Twitter.   

But go ahead.  Suggest it.  

Joe Doakes fro Como Park emails:

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit hears cases from Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina and from federal administrative agencies.  It recently decided Hirschfeld v. Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco & Explosives (what us old timers called ‘ATF’ before the name changed.  Text of opinion here and also here.

2-1 decision says it’s unconstitutional to deny 18-year-olds their full rights under the Second Amendment.

The dissent argues that we’ve been doing it wrong for a long time so we shouldn’t restore their rights now; that it’s not the federal courts’ job to protect civil rights that Congress took away; Second Amendment rights shouldn’t be protected as strongly as other fundamental rights (intermediate scrutiny instead of strict scrutiny) because guns are dangerous; and the challenged law only applies to purchases from federally licensed firearms dealers (18-year-olds can still obtain guns from unlicensed sellers, back alleys, gun show loopholes, friends and relatives so their rights aren’t infringed by being denied purchases from licensed dealers.)

The dissent points out the prohibition on felons and mentally ill owning guns as evidence Congress can deny 18-year olds the right to buy guns because felons – crazies – teens – pretty much the same.  Senator Frank Dodd studied the issue and announced ‘a causal relationship between the easy availability of firearms other than a rifle or shotgun and juvenile and youthful criminal behavior,’ so it’s scientifically proven guns cause kids to kill.  Besides, it’s only a temporary denial of their rights – those crazy kids can buy guns as soon as they turn 21 so even though justice is delayed a few years, it’s still justice. 

The dissent goes on a great length how people over 18 but under 21 are responsible for a vast proportion of crime so it’s sensible and proper to deny them their Constitutional rights.  Seems to me that analysis could be applied to “Blacks” just as easily.  Would we be so eager to deny gun rights in that case?

What’s never mentioned is the reason the nation adopted the 26th Amendment lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.  I wonder why not?

Joe Doakes

Silliness had few consequences in the ’70s. 

I wasn’t living here in 1980. I’m not sure how Minneapolis’s Loony Left reacted to the “Solidarity“ protests in Poland – where the Polish “Solidarity“ trade union led a year of demonstrations against Poland’s communist government. The demonstrations – which newly elected President Ronald Reagan supported morally, symbolically and materially – were the beginning of the end of the communist bloc, and the Soviet Union with it.

I have vague memories, arriving in the Twin Cities years later, of sensing that an awful lot of Minnesota leftists had bet on the wrong side in that particular episode. I mean, two decades later some of them still did, in my comment section.

Now, 40 years later, as a similarly benighted country protests for similar reasons, a Democrat government is lending the Cuban demonstrators a bit of rhetorical support from a senile president, along with an executive branch that is, as we noted yesterday, laying down the law hard in favor of the regime.

And the Minnesota left?

They are showing themselves to be as morally depraved and intellectually bovine as ever:

Facing an economic crisis, food and medicine shortages and rising prices, the Cuban people are demanding that the communist regime give up power.

“We have to see the larger context of the pandemic, COVID-19. The economy has also collapsed, Cuba depends on tourism,” said Nimtz. The Minnesota Cuba Committee is also calling for an end to the U.S. trade embargo.

“What we are doing here is to demand, demand that the Biden administration end the embargo, lift the embargo, and do as he promised,” said Nimtz.

Minnesota Progressives; reliable communist useful idiots for 60 years.

Let me try to fomulate the logic, here.

:If it biological man says she identifies as a woman, that decision must be treated as sacred.

Ditto a biological woman claiming to now be, or identify, as a male.

Naturally, someone of any gender declaring an affectional orientation for their own gender is to be supported.

Industries and entire areas of academic disciplines have sprung up to support all of those decisions. Institutions, up through and including academia, the American Civil Liberties Union, and a fair chunk of corporate America, deem that decision to be absolute, inviolate and ironclad. Naturally, there’s a branch of medical science devoted to helping people transition physically as well as psychologically, to support that identity.

But a gay person deciding they want to identify as straight, and making efforts to do so, must be squashed with the full power of the state?

Why the special treatment?

What side effects affect “gay conversion therapy”, that don’t affect any other change in identity?

I’m not judging, one way or the other; I’m just trying to figure out the moral logic.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Democrats seized upon the Covid virus as a means to terrify voters so they would accept suspending the Constitution and mailed ballots (which are easier to harvest and cheat) allowing Democrats to ‘fortify’ the election to remove Bad Orange Man from office.

But terrifying the American public caused panic worldwide and in a global economy, that’s not risk-free. The First Order Effect of The Big Steal was The Garden Administration but what are the Second and Third Order Effects?

Richard Fernandez fears the international order is breaking down.

Sarah E. Hoyt points out the consequences of the hoax at home and abroad.

Even the UN admits the world hunger has gotten worse.

Democrats loosed War, Disease, Famine and Death in the world to gain political power at home.

Prepare yourselves.

Joe Doakes

The history of leftism is replete with examples of actions taken with no regard for, or blithe acceptances, unintended consequences

SCENE: A group of parents are gathered at a school board meeting in “Anytown, USA” – a medium-sized city in a swing-ish state. The city voted for Trump in 2016, elected a Democrat cityi council in 2018, and was nearly statistically tied in 2020.

While these meetings are normally somnolent affairs dealing with abstruse board policies and contracts, this is the exception. The district’s contract with a curriculum consultant who’s been training the staff on “inclusive teaching” is under discussion.

The audience is orderly, but the tension is palpable as school board president, Doctor Karen Gossleiten-Prigg, addresses the audience.

GOSSLEITEN-PRIGG: Questions? OK – you, over at the microphone to my left.

AUDIENCE MEMBER 1: Why is the district teaching Critical Race Theory?

GOSSLEITEN-PRIGG: We’re not teaching “Critical Race Theory”. Indeed, the entire term “CRT” is a creation of (clears throat) conservative media.

You, over on my left…

AUDIENCE MEMBER 3: But Ms. Gossleitein-Prigg…

GOSSLEITEN-PRIGG: …That’s Doctor Gossleiten-Prigg.

AUDIENCE MEMBER 2: (Over snickers in the audience) …Doctor Gossleiten-Prigg, I brought a series of CRT press clippings to show the audience:

GOSSLEITEN-PRIGG:

AUDIENCE MEMBER 3: You’re telling me there isn’t a certrain…tone to the discourse when it comes to this subject?

GOSSLEITEN-PRIGG: Right, but that’s not Critical Race theory. You ,over on my left…

(Audience members 2,4,6 and 8, standing at the mic on GOSSLEITEN-PRIGG’s right, start to rustle a bit. )

AUDIENCE MEMBER 5: So you’re saying that the district doesn’t teach critical race theory?

GOSSLEITEN-PRIGG: That’s correct. You on my left…

(Audience members 2,4,6 and 8, start to audibly complain )

AUDIENCE MEMBER 7: So if you’re’ not teaching Critical Race Theory, what are you teaching them?

GOSSLEITEN-PRIGG: Glad you asked. What we are proposing is a set of standards, a framework if you will , for teaching the history of this country. You, on the left…

AUDIENCE MEMBERS 2,4,6 and 8 (Agitated) Hey! What about us?

GOSSLEITEN-PRIGG: You’re on the right. You on the left…

AUDIENCE MEMBER 9: So you’re not teaching Criticial Race Theory?

GOSSLEITEN-PRIGG: Of course not. CRT doesn’t exist. Again – we’re creating a framework for teaching history.

AUDIENCE MEMBER 9: So where are kids being taught that “whiteness” is a deterministic unavoidable state that makes one uncontrollably racist, and that every group of “white’ people is in and of themselves a “structure” that just can’t avoid hating other races?

GOSSLEITEN-PRIGG: Oh. That’s not CRT.

AUDIENCE MEMBER 9: So where does it come from?

GOSSLEITEN-PRIGG: History!

And SCENE

Cubans, actually suffering the oppression that a few million “progressive” snowflakes fantasized they were suffering during the Trump term, are thinking, again, about risking it all to come to America:

And our administration will have none of that:

 Note to Cubans:   it’s a rookie flub.  As long as Biden Harris is in office, you need to come via the southern border.

Problem solved. 

Question:  Mayorkas didn’t put this out via a mean tweet.  So why am I feeling ashamed to be an American, right about now? 

Esme “Rabid Bulldog” Murphy, the dowager dean of Minnesota political reporters and tenacious, utterly impartial reporter on all things political in the state of Minnesota, who has never, ever been fairly or accurately accused of softballing DFLers, twote in re Rep. John “Burn Hugo Down” Thompson and allegations that he snuck out of a not-generally accessible back stairway from Minneapolis City Hall to avoid reporters who, to my amazement, seem curious about his verbal claims of racism and written but unacknowledge claims of multiple residences:

Well, that settles that.

If there’s one thing no DFL pol ever needs to worry about, it’s Esme Murphy violating their privacy. Or asking them anything more involved than their favorite flavor of ice cream.

But let’s pump the brakes – I’m all for respecting peoples’ privacy.

With that in mind, all I really want to know is, which of Thompson’s residences should I plan on not protesting at – the one on the East Side of Saint Paul, the one in Superior, some other residence not yet publicly discussed, or any or all of the above?

Thanks.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Democrats seized on a flu virus to panic the public into accepting restrictions on civil liberties including ‘fortifying’ the election to defeat Bad Orange Man. Now they want storm troopers to go door-to-door, forcing people to take a counter-measure that doesn’t prevent you from catching the virus and won’t prevent you from spreading it to other people. It’s solely intended to reduce the severity of symptoms in breakthrough cases (which we no longer count as “Covid” cases, since May). And why is it any of the government’s business how severe my flu symptoms are?

Because they saved your life and now they own you. No, literally, that’s the justification. ““The federal government has spent trillions of dollars to try and keep Americans alive during this pandemic,” Becerra said on CNN’s “New Day.” “So it is absolutely the government’s business . . . .”

The arrogance is breathtaking. An earlier generation of Americans would have risen up and exterminated such would-be tyrants for their insolence. Push hard enough and maybe this one will, too?

Joe Doakes

There are seriously times where I wonder how this nation doesn’t break into somewhere between two and six different independent countries.

This year isn’t changing anything.

Disclaimers offered in advance: it’s The Blaze, so it’s just a smidgen suspect.

But if it’s true, I’m not sure I like this story all that much: The police charged a Utah woman with a “hate crime“ for destroying a “Back the Blue“ sign and quote smirking and “at a deputy in an “intimidating“ manner.

“As I concluded my traffic stop and released the individuals, I observed some of the individuals’ friends approach them and attempt to console them,” the deputy wrote in a probable cause affidavit, the News said.

“I observed one of the friends, later identified to be Lauren Gibson, stomping on a ‘Back the Blue’ sign next to where the traffic stop was conducted, crumble it up in a destructive manner, and throw it into a trash can all while smirking in an intimidating manner towards me,” the deputy added, according the paper.

On the one hand? I’m not going to say there’s not some smidgen of glorious schadenfreude involved in seeing one of these entitled little “progressive“ twerps getting a comeuppance.

On the other?

Think of all the legitimate hate crimes that “Progressive“, under the cover that urban progressive privilege grant them, have carried out over the past 10 or 15 years; James Hodgkinson and his shooting spree against Republicans, the assault on Senator Rand Paul, and for that matter this little list of politically motivated bias crimes that I used to maintain until it stopped being fun, for that matter, among many others.

Distraction of signs and “intimidating“ “smirking“? That’s every election season for every conservative in Saint Paul.

Is it a good thing that, of all of the non-Leftist victims of bias-based assaults in this country, only cops seem to be covered by hate crime laws?

It’s almost a year and a half until the next elections. But I’m starting to think that things aren’t polling nearly as well for the Harris (or, haha, Biden, sure, whatevs) ticket as the media says.

Reason?

Because the “Christian boogeyman“ is already making headlines.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Some people believe today’s high housing prices are due to stimulus payments. All those people getting unemployment checks and $1,400 gifts are using them to bid $50-60,000 over the market for houses. I don’t think so. I think realtors are correct: there’s a shortage of houses for sale, about 40% lower inventory than normal. Low supply, high price, basic economics.

A person who lost his job during the Covid pandemic could sell his house and reap the equity, but then he’d have nowhere to live. During the moratorium on foreclosures, he can live in the house rent-free. And there’s always the hope he may get back on his feet, the government may offer an assistance program, he might win the lottery, something might work out that he can keep the house. Psychologically, people in financial distress hang on too long, they end up staying until they’re evicted because they can’t downsize and shed debt fast enough. Their houses are being artificially withheld from the market because of the moratorium on foreclosures.

Even if they did sell, there are increasingly fewer places to rent because landlords can’t evict tenants during the eviction moratorium (recently extended to next June). Fewer available apartments, higher rent, basic economics.

Ramsey County’s normal foreclosure rate is about 300-400 per year in good times (2000-2003 and again 2017-2019): people died, got divorced, lost their jobs, etc. Foreclosures dropped to single digits in April 2020 when the moratorium took effect. There’s a 15 month backlog of ordinary foreclosures and if the economy stutters when inflation causes interest rates to rise, there could be a great deal more coming. Hundreds of bank-owned properties will flood the market in a short period. Banks dump properties cheap. High supply, low price, basic economics again.

Sale prices will drop. Appraisers see the value of comparable sales dropping – appraised values drop. You won’t be able to sell sell your house for what it was worth in 2021 because the appraisal won’t support the sale price. It’s the 2008 downward spiral all over again.

The government knew that its panic reaction to Covid would throw millions of people out of work, making them unable to afford their mortgages, sending them into foreclosure, and exacerbating the homeless crisis. The Band-Aid approach was a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions. But that’s just a Band-Aid, it doesn’t solve the underlying problem of people out of work, unable to repay their loans. There’s a storm coming. It has nothing to do with stimulus payments.

Of course, there is one way housing prices don’t fall:

Shovel pandemic relief money to the politically well-connected who will stash it in safe currencies; continue endless ‘temporary’ moratoria on foreclosures and evictions to keep masses quiet even as landlords go broke; extend/increase unemployment benefits to hide the destruction of the working economy; and allow hyper-inflation to conceal the destruction of middle-class savings/wealth. Your house will be worth a million dollars, which will be just enough to buy a loaf of bread. Zimbabwe, Argentina . . . America?

If I was one of the well-connected people able to stash my wealth to ride out the ensuing global crash, that might actually be considered a feature, not a bug. I wonder who else is thinking that way?

Joe Doakes

Thinking? Of course.

Able to act?

The transformations of four years of war were readily apparent at 1am in the skies above Al-Afuleh in Palestine on September 19th, 1918.  One British Handley Page 0/400 bomber flew over the city, the headquarters of the Ottoman/German command for Palestine in the Jezreel Valley, dropping it’s payload of sixteen 112-pound bombs.  Four years earlier, the first “heavy” bomber in aerial history, the French Voisin III, could carry one 132-pound bomb, dropping it indiscriminately with little to no accuracy.  Aerial operations in 1914 were reconnaissance-focus; by 1918, both sides were using planes in intra-service coordination to attack and overwhelm their enemy’s lines.  With a singular strike, the Handley Page bomber destroyed the telephone exchange and main railway station, serving communications between the Ottoman/German High Command and their soldiers.

A few hours later, the British army roared to life, with 385 field guns lashing out at the Ottoman line.  A massive coordinated campaign of artillery, cavalry, infantry and Arabian guerillas would destabilize what remained of the Central Powers’ position in Palestine, destroying two Ottoman armies and reducing the Ottoman morale to dust.  As had happened to the Germans and the Bulgarians, now the Turks would face a killing stroke that would set in motion the end of their Empire.  It would be a fitting conclusion to a battle chosen by the British because of the proximity to the ancient city of Megiddo – or as it was known in Hebrew, Armageddon.

British troops advance with air cover – the modern ability of airpower to attack ground forces would set a historic precedent at Megiddo

The capture of Jerusalem in late 1917 had been a welcome victory for an Allied war effort that appeared to be falling apart.  In a few sharp battles, British General Edmund Allenby had driven the Turks out of southern Palestine with thousands of casualties to few losses of his own.  Where the British had been stymied in the Sinai and Gaza for years, racking up losses of tens of thousands of men, in six months Allenby had gutted the Ottoman line, destroyed entire armies and all for the loss of perhaps just over 3,000 men.  Accuracy, speed and guile had been Allenby’s tools and they had worked wonders against veteran Turkish soldiers and accomplished German commanders like Erich von Falkenhayn and Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein.  But the victories hadn’t meant the end of the Palestinian campaign and Allenby would now face his greatest opponent – the British War Office.  (more…)

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided but the Supreme Court shows no sign of correcting its mistake.  That decision is here to stay and with it, the societal consequences it generates.  

We’re often told that No Child Should Be Born Into Poverty.  That child will suffer compared to its peers.  Supporters of Roe v. Wade tell us that child should be aborted, instead, out of kindness and mercy.

It follows, then, that No Child Should Have To Grow Up In Poverty. If being born into poverty is a bad enough outcome to justify killing the child who has never known anything else, surely being thrown into poverty after a lifetime of plenty and leisure is far worse.  

Children of families who suffer divorce, death, disability or sudden job loss of a breadwinner will suffer cruelly when Daddy can’t afford Summer Camp or a new car for graduation.  It is inhumane to force those children to bear the deprivations and shame of poverty.  It would be much kinder to put them out of their misery.  Plus, it would break the cycle of generational welfare dependency. 

Kill the children – for the children.  It’s the Roe thing to do.

Joe Doakes

It’s not even that big a caricature of “prog” logic…

A friend of the blog emails:

Reading this story from the strib it sounds like the Birchwood is no longer slinging hash (er avocado toast) for cash, but is providing amuse-bouche for people who are working their way through the three steps of Maoist Self-Criticism. The question for the author, Ms Du, to answer for the reader would be “Is their food any good?” I have eaten there and the answer is they are at their best mediocre, plus they don’t know how to make coffee and skip the pie.There is not much joy in listening to White Urban Privilege whinge about the traumas induced by The Patriarchy while you’re working your way through some dismal chick-pea with burnt bell pepper concoction.

These sorts of places can – I say, can – be fun for the flavor of people watching I’m starting to call “virtue signal intelligence“.

Am I the only one to whom this looks like a press release from the North Korean press office?

It’s a senior official in the Biden administration.

Am I the only person who hopes the protesters in Cuba didn’t choose the wrong Administration during which to break cover?

This entire thread…

…may be the best single summation of the post-Tea=Party right-of-center landscape I’ve seen since, well, the Tea Party.

It’s going to be the subject of a solid chunk of my show on Saturday.