Goose-Stepping Our Way To Freedom, Comrades! Fall In.

I could comment on how China didn’t let either a global pandemic or a muted global concern over their human rights violations stop them from throwing a really big party to celebrate the opening of the Olympic games. It wasn’t as creepy as their 2008 Summer Olympics opening, which showcased 5000 identical drummers drumming in unison…

They chose a much less threatening theme this time around: snowflakes,

and hearts…

Ironic, no?

It was touching; cute kids singing John Lennon’s “Imagine” – in what passed for English – and the IOC President urging everyone to just “give peace a chance” – also in what passed for English - but fell on deaf ears in the heart of the CCP assembly.

Or I might choose to focus on how it is now simply assumed that the Chinese will deploy surveillance and malicious software on anyone stupid enough to actually use their personal phone or computer while in China. It is so taken for granted in fact that the U.S. Olympic Committee felt it necessary to warn athletes that “every device, communication, transaction and online activity may be monitored” and advised U.S. athletes to use only burner phones while in Beijing. Oh well, it’s just another bug from China that could be deployed in order to shutdown international commerce. It’s probably nothing.

But I’m not that interested in any of that. I’d rather discuss Olympic fashion.

Team U.S.A wore Ralph Lauren designed red white and blue anoraks and parkas which - although they reportedly contain some super-secret warming technology – are decidedly traditional.

I couldn’t help but note that the more avant-garde nations all sported more butt covering renditions of the standard ski slope styled parka. Take, for example, Team Iran

Team Russia (aka Team Russian Olympic Committee)

Team China

Even Team Finland, whose hats I personally love but can’t find a close up of.

But the hands-down fashion winners in last night’s contest was Team Canada. Their Lululemon designed opening ceremony outfits consisted of knee length puffers with matching vests and some sort of neck gear that could be deployed either as a scarf or an inflatable floating device.

I don’t know who’s really in charge up there in Canada, but you guys just keeping kicking butt, eh?

While the rest of the world appears quite happy to march in goose-step with Red China.

Chinese soldiers goose-step the Red Chinese flag to be hoisted at last night’s ceremonies.

 

NOTE: There is no cat in this post. Really. Don’t waste anymore of your precious time.

It’s Not A Conspiracy When The Government Does It

I know some of you are boycotting the Beijing Olympics. And I know that some of you don’t consider figure skating a real sport. However….Team USA took top place in the team figure skating event last night.  Nathan Chen (Salt Lake native) took first place in the men’s figure skating event with a near perfect performance.

Madison Hubble (Michigan native) and Zachary Donahue took first place in the rhythm dance competition.

Ignore the Rhodesian Ridgeback hair do, she’s quite lovely

and Brandon Frazier and Alexa Knierim took third place in the pairs skating.

Nathan Chen skated his best short program ever as the United States made a near-perfect start in the team event when the figure skating competitions kicked off at the Beijing Olympics on Friday. Nathan’s first place in the men's short program was followed by Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue winning the rhythm dance with their season's best, and Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier took third place in the pair short program.

For those of you who still don’t think figure skating is real athletics, check out these jumps by Chen in slo-mo - triples and quads – and tell me you don’t need to be a highly trained athlete in order to pull this kind of performance off – on ice no less.

Nathan Chen in slow motion. #WinterOlympics pic.twitter.com/hQ0gYASTky

— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) February 4, 2022

 

I also watched several Park City kids compete in day one of the moguls and aerials freestyle skiing events; I can only imagine having knees that fluid again. It was also great fun to watch and lest you forget, that is what the Olympics once were about – fun, not politics. That said it was great to celebrate Team USA currently being in first place in the skating competition. Russia, aka ROC – Russian Olympic Committee – as Russia proper has once again been banned from officially participating in the Olympics for one infraction or another – is in second place and The Peoples Republic of China third. I will savor the victory as it is unlikely to happen again, the Chinese being world leaders in vote rigging. And I’m 100% certain they made all the machines measuring time and speed in these events. Hope I’m wrong but doubt that I am.

And just one tiny bit of of non-Olympic news: I see the US Government is accusing Russia of planning a False Flag incident on the horizon in order to justify its incursion into Ukraine.

It’s not a conspiracy theory if your government does it.

Throwback Thursday: A Little Orwellian Makeover

“If there be time to expose through discussion, the falsehoods and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.” - Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis. 1856-1941, Liberal, Progressive

Serious Throwback Thursday question: Does anyone else remember when Liberals were adamantly opposed to censorship? They were you know, back before “liberal” became a synonym for “fascist.” But today you would be hard pressed to find more than a handful of people who identify with the Left/Democrats who are opposed to cancel culture. They love shutting down whatever they determine to be “hate speech” or the advancement of dangerous “conspiracies,” i.e. anything they don’t personally believe to be true.

From one of the Left’s few remaining free thinkers:

Wow, Dems/Lean Dems; you honestly think that the answer to bad speech is NOT more speech but rather more regulation and censorship? That is terrifying. You actually trust the nameless, faceless, unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats who are empowered to regulate every aspect of your life? The petty tyrants who enjoy requiring Americans to play Simon Says?

Simon Says No Mask! Simon Says Mask! Simon Says Double Mask!  No Mask! Ha – caught you!

You believe that the inscrutable algorithms of Twitter, Google, Facebook et al are unbiased and deployed only for the public good? Or perhaps you approve of squelching speech you don’t approve of, never imagining the tables could be turned at some point and used against you and your speech.

A gifted propagandist acutely conscious of the relationship between political power and optics, Mussolini established a High Commission for the press in the spring of 1929. Insisting that the Commission would not interfere with the freedom of the press, Mussolini’s Keeper of the Seals, Alfredo Rocco, nevertheless maintained an exception for “any activity.

The Keeper of Seals would, of course, determine if an activity was “contrary to the national interest.”  You Dems/Leaning Dems really need to understand that your position is closer to Mussolini than the Founding Fathers.  You are simply Mussolini fascists with an Orwellian makeover.

Throwback Thursday: A Little Orwellian Makeover

“If there be time to expose through discussion, the falsehoods and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.” - Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis. 1856-1941, Liberal, Progressive

Serious Throwback Thursday question: Does anyone else remember when Liberals were adamantly opposed to censorship? They were you know, back before “liberal” became a synonym for “fascist.” But today you would be hard pressed to find more than a handful of people who identify with the Left/Democrats who are opposed to cancel culture. They love shutting down whatever they determine to be “hate speech” or the advancement of dangerous “conspiracies,” i.e. anything they don’t personally believe to be true.

From one of the Left’s few remaining free thinkers:

Wow, Dems/Lean Dems; you honestly think that the answer to bad speech is NOT more speech but rather more regulation and censorship? That is terrifying. You actually trust the nameless, faceless, unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats who are empowered to regulate every aspect of your life? The petty tyrants who enjoy requiring Americans to play Simon Says?

Simon Says No Mask! Simon Says Mask! Simon Says Double Mask!  No Mask! Ha – caught you!

You believe that the inscrutable algorithms of Twitter, Google, Facebook et al are unbiased and deployed only for the public good? Or perhaps you approve of squelching speech you don’t approve of, never imagining the tables could be turned at some point and used against you and your speech.

A gifted propagandist acutely conscious of the relationship between political power and optics, Mussolini established a High Commission for the press in the spring of 1929. Insisting that the Commission would not interfere with the freedom of the press, Mussolini’s Keeper of the Seals, Alfredo Rocco, nevertheless maintained an exception for “any activity.

The Keeper of Seals would, of course, determine if an activity was “contrary to the national interest.”  You Dems/Leaning Dems really need to understand that your position is closer to Mussolini than the Founding Fathers.  You are simply Mussolini fascists with an Orwellian makeover.

Biological Conspiracies

Groundhog Day, 2-2-22. Also known as  day 702 to flatten the curve.

Happy birthday Punxsutawney. 702 and still going strong! 

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and predicts 6 more weeks of winter. But then, you knew he would. We’re in this for the long haul.

Unless, that is, the long-haulers - i.e. #MapleLeafRevolution - inspire their brethren to the south to mount an even larger convoy and declaration of freedom from the autocratic policies that our betters have deemed “useful and necessary.”

In a sane time, in a sane world – neither of which we’ve seen for years – this Johns Hopkins study would drive a stake deep through the heart of these petty tyrants and autocratic vampires.

The original coronavirus lockdowns had 'little to no' effect on pandemic death tolls in the US, UK and Europe, a controversial report suggests. 

Economists who carried out a meta-analysis estimated that draconian restrictions first imposed in spring 2020 — including stay-at-home orders, compulsory masks and social distancing — only reduced Covid mortality by 0.2 per cent.  

They warned that lockdowns caused 'enormous economic and social costs' and concluded they were 'ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument' going forward.

The review, led by a Johns Hopkins University professor, argued that border closures had virtually zero effect on Covid mortality, reducing deaths by just 0.1 per cent.

But we don’t live in sane times and once seized, tyrants never relinquish powers willingly. Instead of fearing COVID we should fear the colossal idiots calling the shots (literally) around here. Fear the bureaucrats who are scamming and scheming for personal gain, fear the tyrants – from petty county ‘public health directors’ to Governors and Presidents who have used a particularly lethal flu bug to seize “temporary” powers which bulldoze over rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.

They have been wrong, wrong, wrong…about everything. From the start. Wrong about the origins of the Wu-Flu virus, wrong about the effects of mandatory face masks, wrong about the efficacy of the vaccines, and now, wrong about the effectiveness of lockdowns.

Henceforth they will no longer be known as conspiracy theories; they will be called “spoiler alerts.” I assure you, we are surrounded by conspiracies.

Another biological conspiracy

Workers of the World Unite: This Time Against the Socialists/Communists!

On February 1, 2020 had somebody asked you to pick the country whose citizens would mount a mass protest against government tyranny that would spark a worldwide movement,

and which country would zoom from freedom to tyranny in something like zero to sixty in three seconds,

Note: you can’t play this as it has, of course, been taken down.

I’ll bet your pre-lockdown answers would not have been, respectively, Canada

and Australia.

The new rule was introduced by the Western Australia government, not the supermarket chain

Note bene: Australia’s dictates have nothing to do with “health.” This mechanism is intended to reward compliance and punish non-compliance. It’s not even subtle anymore, their “incentivizing” their citizens to behave as they wish is simple in-your-face tyranny. This week it’s alcohol, next week medical care and the following food and fuel. That is how tyrants work and if you don’t think it could ever come to that go back and read some more history.

But for the record, you -  and I - would have been wrong in our 2020 predictions. I might have guessed it the other way around but not as it actually played out. The only thing that I would have forecasted correctly 2 years ago was that no matter how it turned out the media, as usual, would side with power and against the people:

Disdainful media, of course, spent days warning of violence to come and searched supporters’ messages for evidence of racism. “ ‘So many angry people’: Experts say online conversation around trucker convoy veering into dangerous territory” read a CTV News headline. CBC, Canada’s PBS and NPR, called Saturday’s protest “a raucous demonstration that has police on high alert for possible violence even as organizers urge the crowd to be peaceful.” Police said that night that “no incidents of violence or injuries” were reported and no protesters faced charges.

The elite media also paint the protesters as stupid hicks, claiming they don’t understand that provincial governments all have restrictions that Ottawa can do nothing about. But Saskatchewan premier Scott Moe told truckers he supports their “call to end the cross border ban on unvaccinated truckers” and announced his government will soon “be ending our proof of negative test/proof of vaccination policy in Saskatchewan.”

As somebody with the Truck Frudeau movement noted, Justin should stop worrying about the truckers coming, and start worrying about what happens if they don’t.

Parting shot:

Workers of the World Unite: This Time Against the Socialists/Communists! They think your life is theirs to rule and will not stop until we stop them.

Another Bridge To Nowhere

Calvin’s father was closer to the truth than he thought:

That is pretty much how they do it when Democrats are in charge. You see, the bridge in Pittsburgh that collapsed last week was known to be failing. It was one of those projects that the Obama/Biden administration touted as a “shovel ready job” that the nearly trillion dollar "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act" was intended to fix.

So why didn’t it? Why was this rusted out bridge, first identified as a shovel ready job during Obama’s first term and scheduled to be rebuilt in 2016, left to fall down? Well, that’s an interesting question with an interesting answer. According to Monica Showalter’s post (via Instapundit) it was because Democrats have a proclivity for redirecting funding intended to fix failing infrastructure to Green Weenie projects. How is it a surprise that the first Brandon Administration, that wasted billions of tax payer dollars on bogus solar projects like Solyndra, would fund a bill that ended up diverting funds intended for highways and bridges to bike paths, dedicated self driving lanes and other green-boondoggles?

Check out this Twitter thread from a Pittsburgh local:

But of course, it wasn’t a crisis until the bridge actually collapsed. At least we’ve established the Democrat constituency’s capacity for their load of crap: they are willing to let a bridge collapse while waiting for the Feds to send in the engineers. Following Joey’s lead they can now complain about Republicans not allocating adequate federal spending to fix all the broken down infrastructure in America.

"We have been so far behind on infrastructure for so many years it's just mind-boggling," Mr. Biden told a group of elected officials and first responders during a visit to the collapse site. "...We used to be number one in the world."

Well Brandon, we were number one in the world until you and Obama came along and decided it wasn’t our turn to be #1 any longer and did everything in your power to fundamentally transform Amerika into another socialist/communist hell-hole. You demonized anyone who felt that making America Great Again was a worthy undertaking as a racist/fascist/white supremacist. You’ve  laid all your cards on the table and we see you for the cheat and liar you are.

So stop lecturing us on how you need more money to fix stuff that you failed to fix the first time around with the $831 billion you were given. Just shut up and build something with what you’ve got.

One year hence: Nothing built, nothing back, nothing better

Most 8 year olds have built more than the Brandon Administration.

When God gives you snow don’t let it melt, use it.

But don’t worry, eventually Brandon will build another bridge to nowhere that can accommodate a high-speed bullet train to the same destination.

“Show Me Where The Global Warming Is Touching You”

White on White Privilege

It used to be that Americans, who were free to disagree on everything, had one safe space where they could speak civilly to each other. No more; we can’t even agree on the weather because SCIENCE! Or something sort of like science. Take this weekend’s storm in New England:

CNBC - Climate change, particularly the warming ocean, probably influenced the strength of the storm, atmospheric researchers said.

Much warmer ocean waters “are certainly playing a role in the strengthening of the storm system and increased moisture available for the storm,” said University of Oklahoma meteorology professor Jason Furtado…[before whispering the quiet part] “But it isn’t the only thing.”

Once upon a time we had blizzards, then they morphed into more dramatic bomb cyclones and now, compliments of the BBC no less, we’ve landed on the truly sensational: “US East Coast blanketed by 'bombogenesis' snowstorm.” A bombogenesis that even warrants it’s own name: Winter Storm Kenan. Never mind that “Kenan” sounds about as threatening as “Percival.”

So yes, the east coast is blanketed in snow that “near hurricane” winds whipped into some daunting drifts and brought water ashore causing flooding of some low coastal areas. It’s winter people; weather happens. And it’s been happening for millennia. What family with agricultural roots doesn’t have a story about some poor ancestor who went out in a blizzard to feed the cows and never returned because he failed to tie a rope between the house and the barn?

Whiteout rope: still useful after all these years

Enough with the weather hysteria for goodness sake, it’s New England, it’s winter; it’s not as if these folks have never seen a blizzard before. As recently as 2010 the East Coast lived through Snowmageddon and then there were the Snowpocalypses of 2013, 14, and 16. How can anyone be a Global Warming denier after all this?

Drudge predicts the end of history, 2016

Global warming is also increasing the amount of moisture in the atmosphere, causing not just increased rainfall, but increased snowfall as well when conditions are right. So while it might seem contradictory, global warming seems to be part of the reason for recent “snowmageddon” events. -NS

And here’s more news: there are and always have been blizzards – some in places other than the East Coast.

Mid-West blizzard of 1967

 

Mid-West Blizzard of ‘78

It was a glorious time to be young!

So leave your measly bombogenesis of 2022 where the sun don’t shine. The human race has been dealing with weather for a very long time.

Neighborhood shovelers after the ‘67 blizzard in Grand Rapids, some taking a smoke break. And look: black and white, male and female working together without benefit of an advertising agency.

So pick up a shovel and start shoveling. For we have much larger fish to fry than a little Global Warming.

“Show me on the polar bear where global warming is touching you.”

P.S. here in the mountains 2 feet of snow is known as “a good powder day.”