Never heard of this guy Nayib Bukele until today, but it sounds like he is working wonders in El Salvador. The LA Times, however, is clutching their pearls. Punishing criminals is now problematic to the left. And a duly elected government official doing things that over 90% of the population support is apparently a “threat to democracy.”
The largest automaker in the US continues it’s death spiral. And it really is sad to watch. An internal memo which leaked recently states that GM is desperate to reduce “structural costs” and is looking to jettison a large portion of it’s salaried US workforce. Reports suggest GM wants to “right-size” as many as 50% of current employees. Which is a curious move at a time when vehicle structures are changing at an unprecedented pace and the vehicle market is evolving rapidly Decimating your ability to innovate and develop new products seems counterproductive at a time like this, to say the least. But General Motors doesn’t really have much of a choice given it’s financial state. The sad truth is…. GM doesn’t have too many workers to be competitive. It has too many retirees. By promising lavish pension plans to previous generations of workers, GM burdened itself with a huge fixed cost for many years to come. It made sense when GM was a gigantic corporation with massive amounts of revenue and all of it’s competitors were in the same boat. Back then, GM’s pension costs could be spread across many millions of vehicles. Today, that is not the case. GM’s share of the US market has been reduced from ~50% to only 17%. Foreign competitors without GM’s huge fixed retirement costs have already chased them out of the car market. GM stopped making passenger cars well before the big EV push. They couldn’t make any money on them. The only vehicles GM could still sell and turn a profit on were big heavily-optioned SUVs where the extra cost baked into GM vehicles isn’t such a large percentage of the selling price. GM seems to be counting on Federal subsidies and regulations to make them viable in the new electric vehicle space. Without the Feds propping them up going forward, it is hard it come up with a business model where GM remains viable.
GM has already been bailed out once by the Federal government. And Barak Obama and the Democrats made sure GM’s unionized retirees did not have to share in the restructuring pain. But with GM continuing to wither and shrink, the next big crisis seems inevitable. There is little GM can do any more to avoid it. The decisions that are sinking one of the largest corporations ever to exist were made decades ago. General Motors should serve as a cautionary tale. Don’t assume your current business model can last forever. And, that which cannot continue on… won’t.
I haven’t posted much lately. The country is going to hell. Everything is stupid. Everything is corrupt. I get tired of writing the same thing over and over again. Tired of the same bullshit, over and over. It’s exhausting. And pointless at this stage.
Still, every now and then an example of how far down the shit hole this country has fallen still surprises me. I give you a Biden nominee for a federal judge:
Yep. This Democrat, who want to sit on a Federal bench and decide your fate under the law, has no idea what is in the Constitution. But don’t worry…. she can look it up if she needs to.
These aren’t esoteric “gotcha” questions. What is the purpose of Article 5? Article 2? And this moron smiles, proudly admits she has no idea, and reels off a bunch of talking points with a stupid grin on her face. She should have been laughed out of the room. But she will undoubtedly be appointed. I’m sure she checks off plenty of diversity and equity boxes. Could probably drone on for hours about white privilege and implicit bias.
The truth is she is more than qualified to be a Democrat judge. She is an empty shell. A placeholder. An automatic vote for the liberal/leftist position, whatever it happens to be at the moment. What the Constitution actually says doesn’t matter to them. God help us all.
In case you have been living under a rock for the last several years, know that the global progressive left has big plans for you. The progressives have decided that freedom and democracy are problematic. They tend to “create inequality.” And lead to outcomes that are not “sustainable.” In the name of equity, sustainability, and social justice nation-states and self-government can no longer be allowed. They are to be replaced by a global cabal of “elites” and “experts” who will plan a more conscientious and just society. Many of the features of this brave new world are starting to come into focus:
If any of this sounds unfamiliar to you or tin-foil-hat crazy, I urge you to pay closer attention. It’s not a secret conspiracy. They are saying it out loud and often. I was going to provide links for each bullet point, but the evidence is so ubiquitous and easy to find I didn’t bother wasting my time. Google is your friend (actually, they want to help enslave you, but whatevs.) Also, I didn’t include things like defunding the police and racial grievance politics. Those aren’t goals of the Great Reset. They are merely an ends to a means. They need to completely break down and discredit the current system before they can implement their progressive utopian society. Once the progressive seize full control, order will be strictly enforced.
Right now, the Germans are scrambling to scrape together enough energy to keep from freezing to death this winter. Russia just announced they are cutting the flow of natural gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to 20% of capacity. There is a good chance they will soon cut it to zero. And all the Germans can do is whine like silly little bitches about how unfair it all is. What did they think the Russians would do while Germany was waging a proxy war against them in Ukraine? How fucking stupid are the “foreign policy experts” and “global elites”, really? The man that the left loved to slander as “Putin’s Puppet” warned them about this exact thing 4 years ago. And the smarmy Euro-weenies just laughed at him. It is simply fucking amazing how many times Donald Trump was 100% right about something that nearly all of the “experts” got totally wrong.
Joe Biden is a lying sack of shit. Or a moron. Or both. On thing for sure, he is a detestable asshole.
Gas prices have already skyrocketed on his watch. And they are about to shoot into the stratosphere. And the rotting corpse occupying the White House just went on TV and had the absolute gall to say it has nothing to do with the policies of him or his party. Even ignoring the effect his weakness and incompetence had on encouraging Russia to invade Ukraine, that claim is just infuriating. It is so obviously false as to be insulting to our intelligence. Biden is the guy who halted new drilling leases. Biden killed the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office. Oh, but that pipeline wouldn’t be finished for years his apologists will whine. You can’t blame Dementia Joe for what is happening now. It’s a total dodge. It is true that a lot of the pain we are feeling now is due to anti-energy policies that date back to the Obama years. And the direct consequences of Joey Hair Sniffer’s recent stupid decisions might not be felt for years.
None of that changes the fact that Dementia Joe, and the Party he represents, have been waging a war on domestic oil production for years. Democrats want oil prices to skyrocket. To their fevered way of thinking, $7 per gallon gasoline is a good thing. They believe making fossil fuels unaffordable will force people to adopt expensive and unreliable Green energy sources they favor for ideological reasons. Their leaders have the temerity to claim transitioning our energy production to moonbeams and unicorn farts will be good for our economy and standard of living. And their voters are dense enough to believe it. To quote our decrepit ruler, “Let me be perfectly clear.” The Democrats want to punish you at the gas station. And they will do everything they can to drive the price of gas up. They want to force you into a into a much more restricted and meager life style (equity and sustainability, they call it.) They just don’t want to take the blame for it.
According to a recent Quinnipiac poll, 52% of Democrats would flee the country if it were invaded like is currently happening in Ukraine. 68% of Republicans would stay and fight.
So we would need to fight off foreign invaders, but could get rid of over half the Democrats (plus some chickenshit RINOs)? Might be a worthwhile tradeoff.
The trucker rally taking place in Canada right now has somewhat restored my faith in our neighbors to the North. After electing effeminate weirdo Justin Trudeau twice, I figured Canuckistan had gone full blown WOKE(!) The protests prove that at least a sizable minority of Canadians still have a decent bit of testosterone left in them. Some of them still remember what freedom is, and they are not going to allow themselves to be enslaved without a fight.
However, the media coverage of the Canadian trucker rally looks very familiar. It turns out the US media aren’t the only ones who are big enough assholes to lie about their political foes. The Canadian media is probably even more left wing than ours, if that is actually possible. They are certainly less subtle about their biases. The CBC is Canada’s state-funded media company. Check out some of the blatant propaganda in this hit piece they recently published.
The article starts out noting that scores of angry left wing Canadians have been breaking ties with anyone who dares to join a peaceful protest they don’t agree with:
“I think I’ve unfriended, like, 100 people — and that includes some family,” he said. ” I won’t even talk to them anymore.
– some self-righteous left wing Canadian jackass
The author assures the readers that this is a totally normal and healthy reaction to have over a political disagreement, because there are “core values” being violated by the protestors. This next gem has to be the pull quote from the entire article:
Flear said they were shocked to see that one of their friends from their Nova Scotia hometown posted that he had attended the rally. Flear, who has a master’s degree in biology, said they reached out to him, said they would talk about vaccinations, and clear up any misunderstandings or confusing science jargon related to getting a shot. “But he just replied with something along the lines of ‘Canada is a free country’ or something like that,” Flear said.
– some arrogant Canadian wanker
Wow. I can’t believe that person turned down an opportunity to be lectured by some random fuckwad with a Biology degree. What a missed opportunity. Mr. Biology could have cleared up all of this guy’s “misunderstandings” and explained all of that confusing medical jargon using simple one syllable words that even the hoi polloi could understand. He must have been brainwashed by Fox News into believing freedom was more important than submitting to your intellectual superiors for your own good. So sad. Even on the left, that level of arrogance, self-righteousness, and condescension is rare. Bravo, sir.
Still, it feels like something is missing for a left wing hit piece. Bring in the psychology professor!
“But I think what the vaccine issue and now the protests are really bringing to light are issues that are highly tied to our core values,” she said. These values include the idea of not just protecting yourself, but protecting others, she added. They also include feelings about racism, safety and personal choice versus the greater good — values that you hold that are so important, that they can’t be compromised.
– some obscure Canadian professor with a Mickey Mouse degree
Sacrifice your freedom and personal choice for the “greater good.” Basically forever. Even if the sacrifices don’t do diddly squat in reality. That is the “core value” the left is insisting on. Chairman Mao couldn’t have put it any better.
But wait, did that Professor also throw out the racism canard??? Of course she did. Any time anyone does something a leftist doesn’t like, it is motivated by racism. So we have a bunch of Canadians protesting against vaccine mandates and COVID restrictions. How could that possibly be racist, you might ask? Do they only want to restore freedom for white people? Where is the racism angle?
But the convoy protest has added a new strain on relationships. Concerns and outrage over the participation of white nationalists, the presence of swastikas and Confederate flags at the rally and reports of harassing and intimidating behaviour by some protesters have prompted some to sever their friendships with rally supporters.
Swastikas and Confederate flags! These people are truly shameless. I have seen tons of pictures and videos from the protests. All you see are friendly patriotic folks smiling and waving the Canadian flag. In fact, the atmosphere seems almost celebratory. The Ottawa police were even forced to admit that the crowd was not violent, but still insisted on labeling them “dangerous” anyways. The racism and white supremacy smears against these good people are a pathetically transparent attempt to marginalize them and avoid addressing the substance of their protest. The fact the CBC would take part in it is at the same time appalling and totally expected.
I actually took the time to follow the links in the article claiming the truckers are white supremacists flying swastikas and Confederate flags. The 1st link has a total of zero pictures to back up their claims. The entirety of their evidence is one anonymous woman from Winnipeg who claims to have seen a Confederate flag on her morning drive. Seriously. That’s it. An unverifiable story told by a single person. And the evidence they give for swastikas is even weaker.
To be fair, I did see one video on YouTube where a jackass with a confederate flag tried to join in on the protest. The protestors immediately called this fool out as a left wing saboteur. With his cover blown, he quietly slinked away. I am quite confident 99% of all the other allegations of racism are astro-turf bullshit too. I’m really getting sick of the left’s slimy tactics. Maybe we should start doing the same vile shit to them. Any time they have a protest, conservatives should pose as pedophiles and join in. Then we can say, See! The left is chock full of pedophiles! Everything they do or say can be linked back to pedophilia! Only problem is, I don’t think leftists would be all that upset to be associated with pedophiles.
In the 24th paragraph, the author does finally get around to the other side’s position. Journalistic Integrity! Just like the US media!
Following the weekend rally, Sheila Mills, from Salt Spring Island, B.C., posted on Facebook that anyone who believed the media’s negative spin of the protest and accusations of racism should unfriend her. “Anyone who believes that is not my friend, they don’t know me well enough to be considered a friend,” Mills said. “Anyone who is going to label all of those people as racist or supporting white supremacy. I lose respect.”
So Canadian media is total garbage, just like in the good ole U. S. of A. All of them can choke on a bag of wangs.
Tulsi Gabbard dropped this MOAB of truth on Twitter:
LoL. Honestly, how is this woman still a Democrat? Of course, she is 100% right about Kamala being grossly incompetent. “Heels Up” was chosen to check off the “person of color” and “female” boxes to coax the identity-obsessed progressives to vote for Joe Biden’s crusty old white male ass. The fact she was not chosen based on qualifications isn’t all that unusual though. VPs are routinely chosen to help a presidential candidate in a crucial swing state, or with a demographic they would otherwise struggle to hold. Of course most VPs are also at least marginally competent public officials too. Joe and Kamala have both made their political careers on personality and identity. Neither have ever actually done anything of substance or created anything of value since holding office. All talk, no action (or skill, or drive, or knowledge.) A cult of personality doesn’t keep the trains running.
Yet, the Supreme Court has historically been (mostly) different. Candidates are generally expected to have the highest credentials, the right experience, dazzling intellect, and flawless records to be confirmed. Drooling imbecile Sonya Sotomayor not withstanding. But “President” Biden has promised to pick a black woman as his nominee, regardless of who is most qualified. It honestly wouldn’t surprise me if the Dems were to cynically nominate someone really radical. A candidate they know would be completely unacceptable to conservatives. They would love the optics of Republicans blocking the nomination of a black woman in an election year. And if the Republicans blink, they get a progressive activist on the Court despite a 50/50 split Senate. Heads they win, tails we lose.
Much of modern progressivism is built around denying abject reality. Denying minimum wage hikes kill jobs. Denying a fetus is human life. Denying men and women are fundamentally different. Denying printing piles of money causes inflation. And denying law enforcement and incarceration deter crime. That’s why a recent daily newsletter from the New York Times was an interesting read.
To my surprise, the article wasn’t all leftist boilerplate. It had a liberal bent for sure, but was more thoughtful and honest than most of the crap the Times churns out. For starters, they acknowledged that the murder rate has spiked dramatically. That in itself is a little unusual. For progressives, the most common reaction to uncomfortable facts is to pretend they don’t exist. That may have been a little more difficult for the Times in this case, since their reader base is almost exclusively urban progressives. And large Democrat-controlled cities are precisely where murders, and crime in general, are spiraling out of control.
The article starts out with the obvious:
In 2020, murders in the United States spiked more than 27 percent — the largest percentage increase in at least six decades. Last year, murders went up again. Those murders resulted in the deaths of thousands more Americans, and returned the U.S. to homicide rates not seen since the mid-1990s. (While murders and violent crime overall are up, other crimes are down.)
So far, mostly so good. Although I do take umbrage with the fact that other crimes are down. I don’t believe for a second that criminal acts have gone down in the big progressive cities. What they have done is to de-criminalize criminal behavior. Things like drug dealing, shoplifting, breaking into cars, etc. are now no longer prosecuted or even considered criminal acts. It’s the classic progressive response to a problem. Instead of fixing it, they prefer to just pretend it isn’t a problem. It is the exact same approach they take to standardized tests, grades, and failing schools.
The piece continues:
The effects are felt unequally across the country. Shootings are historically concentrated in impoverished, minority communities. In a typical U.S. city, a small segment of neighborhoods account for most of the violence. Most homicide victims are Black. And Black Americans were eight times as likely to be murder victims in 2020 as their white counterparts… The violence remains a grave example of racial inequality in the U.S
It is certainly true that blacks are disproportionately the victims in murder cases. It is also true that blacks are much more likely to be the perpetrators. And that the murders are much more likely to occur in cities controlled by black Democrats that espouse racial grievance politics and buy into modern progressive theories about the causes and solutions to criminal activity. So while the author doesn’t explicitly go there, he strongly hints at the racism/white supremacy angle that people who read the New York Times believe explains literally everything.
The article then examines the historical trend:
From 1991 to 2014, America’s murder rate plummeted by more than half. Experts still don’t agree on why that happened. Among the many possibilities: mass incarceration, changes in policing, reduced exposure to lead and video games keeping more young men occupied.
Amazing the Times could bring itself to admit that mass incarceration of criminals and changes in policing could have an effect on public safety. Progressives hate the police, and accuse them of perpetuating the violence. And they believe mass incarceration is racist. Surely, there must be an explanation for the drop in murders that progressives could feel good about. Community outreach programs? Social workers? PSAs? Lead exposure and video games was the only other thing you could come up with? Yikes.
Finally, we get to the supposed causes of the murder spike:
The pandemic. Covid disrupted every aspect of life in the past two years. Social services and supports that help keep crime down vanished overnight. Schools could no longer keep unruly teens safe and distracted. A broader sense of disorder and chaos could have fueled a so-called moral holiday, in which people disregard laws and norms.
The case the author makes for blaming the covid pandemic is exceptionally weak. And even he is forced to concede that the timing doesn’t really work. What else ya got?
Changes in policing. The fallout from the 2020 racial justice protests and riots could have contributed to the murder spike. Police officers, scared of being caught in the next viral video, may have pulled back on proactive anti-violence practices…. The timing supports this theory, with homicides rising unusually quickly shortly after George Floyd’s murder and the ensuing protests. Killings also spiked in 2015 and 2016, after protests over policing during those years.
The author basically describes a Ferguson Effect on steroids, where police are cowed into not enforcing the law. I think there is definitely some truth to that. I think an even bigger factor that the author completely overlooks was the overall lawlessness and violence of the 2020 riots that the establishment normalized and even encouraged. The message to criminals could not have been clearer. Democrats did not have the will or moral certainty to protect their cities. And the author concedes that the timing of the spike coincides perfectly with the BLM rampages of 2020.
And finally, the author gets around to blaming inanimate chunks of metal for violent crimes:
More guns. Americans bought many more guns in 2020 and 2021 than they did in previous years… Research generally shows that where there are more guns, there is more gun violence.
I call total bullshit on this one. The left has been blaming guns for violent criminal activity for decades, so nothing new there. I didn’t waste my time checking out his “research” that correlates gun ownership with crime. I can say that I have seen numerous studies that show no correlation whatsoever, or even an inverse relationship between gun ownership and violent crime. From my own personal experience, I can share that I live in a more rural area that leans conservative. And like many towns across the country, our community is awash with guns. Almost everybody owns a gun where I live. And a sizable number carry them on a regular basis. Yet gun crime is virtually nonexistent. It’s not the guns.
Finally, the author gives his ideas for solutions:
In the short term, there’s solid evidence for policing — specifically, more focused policing, targeting the people and places most likely to be violent.
Holy crap, how did that one get past the Times editors??? Not only is the author calling for policing to stop the carnage, he is calling for targeted policing. Did he forget what color the “people and places most likely to be violent” are? Progressives would never support this (obvious and effective) solution. I’m surprised this guy didn’t get run out of town for even suggesting such a thing. This same mindset is exactly why progressives push for gun control but resist punishing actual gun crimes. The people breaking gun laws are disproportionally black, therefore the gun laws must be racist. Or so they reason.
The author concludes with some other ideas that progressives might find less repugnant:
In the long term, experts support a range of solutions that enrich both individuals’ and communities’ socioeconomic standing over time; they include preschool programs, summer job initiatives, raising the school dropout age, greening of vacant lots, more streetlights and expanded drug treatment. There’s also good evidence for gun control and higher alcohol taxes.
None of that stuff will do shit to prevent murders, obviously. I doubt this guy will last long at the Times. Times readers want to hear how the murder spike is due to racism and white supremacy. And this dude failed miserably.