A man in a hurry, taking his 8-year-old son to school made a turn at a red light where it was prohibited.
"Uh-oh, I just made an illegal turn!" the man said.
"Aw, Dad, it's probably okay," the son said. "The police car right behind us just did the same thing."
*.*
8am: Too tired to think.
Noon: Too tired to think.
5pm: Too tired to think.
Midnight: How do dragons blow out candles?
*.*
Oneliners:
I don't think the therapist is supposed to say "Wow" that many times in our first session, but yet, here we are.
I'm at the point of parenting where, "What did I just say?" could either be a threat or a legitimate question.
The movie "Lincoln" made over $275-million in theaters, which is impressive, since Lincoln historically didn't do well in theaters.
A new study shows the most expensive vehicle to operate these days is a grocery cart.
Due to inflation, you can now eat food that has been on the floor for 7.5 seconds.
Dear Morning People, quick question: "What the hell is wrong with you?"
Lying about my age is much easier now that I have trouble remembering what it is.
Triscuit crackers are the perfect snack for anyone who's ever wanted to eat wicker furniture.
Every rule has an exception, especially this one.
Please pray for my son who had to empty the dishwasher when he "just did this yesterday" and he's tired.
*.*
I remember back when eggs were for Easter.
With the price they're going for these days, it's a great way to show someone how much you care on Valentine's Day.
*.*
Looking forward to Super Bowl prices, compared to last year, beer is up, chicken wings are down.
And don't even think about deviled eggs.
That's just plain crazy talk.
Quote of the Times;
“The goal of war is to wash money out of the tax bases of the United States and back into the hands of the transnational security elite.” – Julian Assange
Link of the Times;
Here’s a Guide for Spike Protein Detox by World Council for Health:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/know-someone-long-covid-vaccinated-guide-spike-protein-detox-world-council-health/
Issue of the Times;
Black Invention Myths by Greg Johnson
Perhaps you’ve heard the claims: Were it not for the genius and energy of African-American inventors, we might find ourselves in a world without traffic lights, peanut butter, blood banks, light bulb filaments, and a vast number of other things we now take for granted but could hardly imagine life without.
Such beliefs usually originate in books or articles about black history. Since many of the authors have little interest in the history of technology outside of advertising black contributions to it, their stories tend to be fraught with misunderstandings, wishful thinking, or fanciful embellishments with no historical basis. The lack of historical perspective leads to extravagant overestimations of originality and importance: sometimes a slightly modified version of a pre-existing piece of technology is mistaken for the first invention of its type; sometimes a patent or innovation with little or no lasting value is portrayed as a major advance, even if there’s no real evidence it was ever used.
Unfortunately, some of the errors and exaggerations have acquired an illusion of credibility by repetition in mainstream outlets, especially during Black History Month (see examples for the traffic light and ironing board). When myths go unchallenged for too long, they begin to eclipse the truth. Thus I decided to put some records straight. Although this page does not cover every dubious invention claim floating around out there, it should at least serve as a warning never to take any such claim for granted.
Each item below is listed with its supposed black originator beneath it along with the year it was supposedly invented, followed by something about the real origin of the invention or at least an earlier instance of it.
Traffic Signal
Invented by Garrett A. Morgan in 1923?
No!
The first known traffic signal appeared in London in 1868 near the Houses of Parliament. Designed by JP Knight, it featured two semaphore arms and two gas lamps. The earliest electric traffic lights include Lester Wire’s two-color version set up in Salt Lake City circa 1912, James Hoge’s system (US patent #1,251,666) installed in Cleveland by the American Traffic Signal Company in 1914, and William Potts’ 4-way red-yellow-green lights introduced in Detroit beginning in 1920. New York City traffic towers began flashing three-color signals also in 1920.
Garrett Morgan’s cross-shaped, crank-operated semaphore was not among the first half-hundred patented traffic signals, nor was it “automatic” as is sometimes claimed, nor did it play any part in the evolution of the modern traffic light.
Gas Mask
Garrett Morgan in 1914?
No!
The invention of the gas mask predates Morgan’s breathing device by several decades. Early versions were constructed by the Scottish chemist John Stenhouse in 1854 and the physicist John Tyndall in the 1870s, among many other inventors prior to World War I.
Peanut Butter
George Washington Carver (who began his peanut research in 1903)?
No!
Peanuts, which are native to the New World tropics, were mashed into paste by Aztecs hundreds of years ago. Evidence of modern peanut butter comes from US patent #306727 issued to Marcellus Gilmore Edson of Montreal, Quebec in 1884, for a process of milling roasted peanuts between heated surfaces until the peanuts reached “a fluid or semi-fluid state.” As the product cooled, it set into what Edson described as “a consistency like that of butter, lard, or ointment.” In 1890, George A. Bayle Jr., owner of a food business in St. Louis, manufactured peanut butter and sold it out of barrels. J.H. Kellogg, of cereal fame, secured US patent #580787 in 1897 for his “Process of Preparing Nutmeal,” which produced a “pasty adhesive substance” that Kellogg called “nut-butter.”
George Washington Carver
“Discovered” hundreds of new and important uses for the peanut? Fathered the peanut industry? Revolutionized southern US agriculture?
No!
Research by Barry Mackintosh, who served as bureau historian for the National Park Service (which manages the G.W. Carver National Monument), demonstrated the following:
• Most of Carver’s peanut and sweet potato creations were either unoriginal, impractical, or of uncertain effectiveness. No product born in his laboratory was widely adopted.
• The boom years for Southern peanut production came prior to, and not as a result of, Carver’s promotion of the crop.
• Carver’s work to improve regional farming practices was not of pioneering scientific importance and had little demonstrable impact.
To see how Carver gained “a popular reputation far transcending the significance of his accomplishments,” read Mackintosh’s excellent article George Washington Carver: The Making of a Myth.
Automatic Lubricator, “Real McCoy”
Elijah McCoy revolutionized industry in 1872 by inventing the first device to automatically oil machinery?
No!
The phrase “Real McCoy” arose to distinguish Elijah’s inventions from cheap imitations?
No!
The oil cup, which automatically delivers a steady trickle of lubricant to machine parts while the machine is running, predates McCoy’s career; a description of one appears in the May 6, 1848 issue of Scientific American. The automatic “displacement lubricator” for steam engines was developed in 1860 by John Ramsbottom of England, and notably improved in 1862 by James Roscoe of the same country. The “hydrostatic” lubricator originated no later than 1871.
Variants of the phrase Real McCoy appear in Scottish literature dating back to at least 1856 — well before Elijah McCoy could have been involved.
Detailed evidence: The not-so-real McCoy
Blood Bank
Dr. Charles Drew in 1940?
No!
During World War I, Dr. Oswald H. Robertson of the US army preserved blood in a citrate-glucose solution and stored it in cooled containers for later transfusion. This was the first use of “banked” blood. By the mid-1930s the Russians had set up a national network of facilities for the collection, typing, and storage of blood. Bernard Fantus, influenced by the Russian program, established the first hospital blood bank in the United States at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital in 1937. It was Fantus who coined the term “blood bank.” See highlights of transfusion history from the American Association of Blood Banks.
Blood Plasma
Did Charles Drew “discover” (in about 1940) that plasma could be separated and stored apart from the rest of the blood, thereby revolutionizing transfusion medicine?
No!
The possibility of using blood plasma for transfusion purposes was known at least since 1918, when English physician Gordon R. Ward suggested it in a medical journal. In the mid-1930s, John Elliott advanced the idea, emphasizing plasma’s advantages in shelf life and donor-recipient compatibility, and in 1939 he and two colleagues reported having used stored plasma in 191 transfusions. (See historical notes on plasma use.) Charles Drew was not responsible for any breakthrough scientific or medical discovery; his main career achievement lay in supervising or co-supervising major programs for the collection and shipment of blood and plasma.
Washington DC city plan
Benjamin Banneker?
No!
Pierre-Charles L’Enfant created the layout of Washington DC. Banneker assisted Andrew Ellicott in the survey of the federal territory, but played no direct role in the actual planning of the city. The story of Banneker reconstructing the city design from memory after L’Enfant ran away with the plans (with the implication that the project would have failed if not for Banneker) has been debunked by historians.
Filament for Light Bulb
Lewis Latimer invented the carbon filament in 1881 or 1882?
No!
English chemist/physicist Joseph Swan experimented with a carbon-filament incandescent light all the way back in 1860, and by 1878 had developed a better design which he patented in Britain. On the other side of the Atlantic, Thomas Edison developed a successful carbon-filament bulb, receiving a patent for it (#223898) in January 1880, before Lewis Latimer did any work in electric lighting. From 1880 onward, countless patents were issued for innovations in filament design and manufacture (Edison had over 50 of them). Neither of Latimer’s two filament-related patents in 1881 and 1882 were among the most important innovations, nor did they make the light bulb last longer, nor is there reason to believe they were adopted outside Hiram Maxim’s company where Latimer worked at the time. (He was not hired by Edison’s company until 1884, primarily as a draftsman and an expert witness in patent litigations).
Latimer also did not come up with the first screw socket for the light bulb or the first book on electric lighting.
Heart Surgery (first successful)
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams in 1893?
No!
Dr. Williams repaired a wound not in the heart muscle itself, but in the sac surrounding it, the pericardium. This operation was not the first of its type: Henry Dalton of St. Louis performed a nearly identical operation two years earlier, with the patient fully recovering. Decades before that, the Spaniard Francisco Romero carried out the first successful pericardial surgery of any type, incising the pericardium to drain fluid compressing the heart.
Surgery on the actual human heart muscle, and not just the pericardium, was first successfully accomplished by Ludwig Rehn of Germany when he repaired a wounded right ventricle in 1896. More than 50 years later came surgery on the open heart, pioneered by John Lewis, C. Walton Lillehei (often called the “father of open heart surgery”) and John Gibbon (who invented the heart-lung machine).
“Third Rail”
Granville Woods in 1901?
No!
Werner von Siemens pioneered the use of an electrified third rail as a means for powering railway vehicles when he demonstrated an experimental electric train at the 1879 Berlin Industrial Exhibition. In the US, English-born Leo Daft used a third-rail system to electrify the Baltimore & Hampden lines in 1885. The first electrically powered subway trains, which debuted in London in the autumn of 1890, likewise drew power from a third rail.
Railway Telegraph
Granville Woods prevented railway accidents and saved countless lives by inventing the train telegraph (patented in 1887), which allowed communication to and from moving trains?
No!
The earliest patents for train telegraphs go back to at least 1873. Lucius Phelps was the first inventor in the field to attract widespread notice, and the telegrams he exchanged on the New York, New Haven & Hartford railroad in January 1885 were hailed in the Feb. 21, 1885 issue of Scientific American as “perhaps the first ever sent to and from a moving train.” Phelps remained at the forefront in developing the technology and by the end of 1887 already held 14 US patents on his system. He joined a team led by Thomas Edison, who had been working on his “grasshopper telegraph” for trains, and together they constructed on the Lehigh Valley Railroad one of the only induction telegraph systems ever put to commercial use. Although this telegraph was a technical success, it fulfilled no public need, and the market for on-board train telegraphy never took off. There is no evidence that any commercial railway telegraph based on Granville Woods’s patents was ever built. About the patent interference case
Refrigerated Truck
Frederick Jones (with Joseph Numero) in 1938?
No!
Did Jones change America’s eating habits by making possible the long-distance shipment of perishable foods?
No!
Refrigerated ships and railcars had been moving perishables across oceans and continents even before Jones was born (see refrigerated transport timeline). Trucks with mechanically refrigerated cargo spaces appeared on the roads at least as early as the late 1920s (see the proof). Further development of truck refrigeration was more a process of gradual evolution than radical change.
Air Brake / Automatic Air Brake
Granville Woods in 1904?
No!
In 1869, a 22-year-old George Westinghouse received US patent #88929 for a brake device operated by compressed air, and in the same year organized the Westinghouse Air Brake Company. Many of the 361 patents he accumulated during his career were for air brake variations and improvements, including his first “automatic” version in 1872 (US #124404).
Air Conditioner
Frederick Jones in 1949?
No!
Dr. Willis Carrier built the first machine to control both the temperature and humidity of indoor air. He received the first of many patents in 1906 (US patent #808897, for the “Apparatus for Treating Air”). In 1911 he published the formulae that became the scientific basis for air conditioning design, and four years later formed the Carrier Engineering Corporation to develop and manufacture AC systems.
Airship
J. F. Pickering in 1900?
No!
French engineer Henri Giffard successfully flew a powered navigable airship in 1852. The La France airship built by Charles Renard and Arthur Krebs in 1884 featured an electric motor and improved steering capabilities. In 1900 Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin’s first rigid-framed dirigible took to the air. Of the hundreds of inventors granted patents for early airship designs and modifications, few succeeded in building or flying their craft. There doesn’t appear to be any record of a “Pickering Airship” ever getting off the ground.
Automatic Railroad Car Coupler
Andrew Beard invented the “Jenny [sic] coupler” in 1897?
No!
The Janney coupler is named for US Civil War veteran Eli H. Janney, who in 1873 invented a device (US patent #138405) which automatically linked together two railroad cars upon their being brought into contact. Also known as the “knuckle coupler,” Janney’s invention superseded the dangerous link-and-pin coupler and became the basis for standard coupler design through the remainder of the millennium. Andrew Beard’s modified knuckle coupler was just one of approximately eight thousand coupler variations patented by 1900. See a history of the automatic coupler and also The Janney Coupler.
Automatic Transmission/Gearshift
Richard Spikes in 1932?
No!
The first automatic-transmission automobile to enter the market was designed by the Sturtevant brothers of Massachusetts in 1904. US Patent #766551 was the first of several patents on their gearshift mechanism. Automatic transmission technology continued to develop, spawning hundreds of patents and numerous experimental units; but because of cost, reliability issues and an initial lack of demand, several decades passed before vehicles with automatic transmission became common on the roads.
Bicycle Frame
Isaac R. Johnson in 1899?
No!
Comte Mede de Sivrac and Karl von Sauerbronn built primitive versions of the bicycle in 1791 and 1816 respectively. The frame of John Starley’s 1885 “safety bicycle” resembled that of a modern bicycle.
Cellular Phone
Henry T. Sampson in 1971?
No!
On July 6, 1971, Sampson and co-inventor George Miley received a patent on a “gamma electric cell” that converted a gamma ray input into an electrical output (Among the first to do that was Bernhard Gross, US patent #3122640, 1964). What, you ask, does gamma radiation have to do with cellular communications technology? The answer: nothing. Some multiculturalist pseudo-historian must have seen the words “electric” and “cell” and thought “cell phone.”
The father of the cell phone is Martin Cooper who first demonstrated the technology in 1973.
Clock or Watch (First in America)
Benjamin Banneker built the first American timepiece in 1753?
No!
Abel Cottey, a Quaker clockmaker from Philadelphia, built a clock that is dated 1709 (source: Six Quaker Clockmakers, by Edward C. Chandlee; Philadelphia, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1943). Banneker biographer Silvio Bedini further refutes the myth:
Several watch and clockmakers were already established in the colony [Maryland] prior to the time that Banneker made the clock. In Annapolis alone there were at least four such craftsmen prior to 1750. Among these may be mentioned John Batterson, a watchmaker who moved to Annapolis in 1723; James Newberry, a watch and clockmaker who advertised in the Maryland Gazette on July 20, 1748; John Powell, a watch and clockmaker believed to have been indentured and to have been working in 1745; and Powell’s master, William Roberts.
Clothes Dryer
George T. Sampson in 1892?
No!
The “clothes-drier” described in Sampson’s patent was actually a rack for holding clothes near a stove, and was intended as an “improvement” on similar contraptions:
My invention relates to improvements in clothes-driers…. The object of my invention is to suspend clothing in close relation to a stove by means of frames so constructed that they can be readily placed in proper position and put aside when not required for use.
Nineteen years earlier, there were already over 300 US patents for such “clothes-driers” (Subject-Matter Index of Patents…1790 to 1873).
A Frenchman named Pochon in 1799 built the first known tumble dryer - a crank-driven, rotating metal drum pierced with ventilation holes and held over heat. Electric tumble dryers appeared in the first half of the 20th century.
Dustpan
Lloyd P. Ray in 1897?
No!
While the ultimate origin of the dustpan is lost in the mists (dusts?) of time, at least we know that US patent #20811 for “Dust-pan” was granted to T.E. McNeill in 1858. That was the first of about 164 US dustpan patents predating Lloyd Ray’s.
Egg Beater
Willie Johnson in 1884?
No!
The hand-cranked egg beater with two intermeshed, counter-rotating whisks was invented by Turner Williams of Providence, Rhode Island in 1870 (US Patent #103811). It was an improvement on earlier rotary egg beaters that had only one whisk.
Electric Trolley
Did Granville Woods invent the electric trolley car, the overhead wire that powers it, or the “troller” wheel that makes contact with the trolley wire, in 1888?
No!
Dr. Werner von Siemens demonstrated his electric trolleybus, the Elektromote, near Berlin on April 29, 1882. The vehicle’s two electric motors collected power through contact wheels rolling atop a pair of overhead wires. The earliest patentee of an electric trolley in the United States appears to be Eugene Cowles (#252193 in 1881), followed by Dr. Joseph R. Finney (#268476 in 1882) who operated an experimental trolley car near Pittsburgh, PA in the summer of 1882. In early 1885, John C. Henry established in Kansas City, MO, the first overhead-wire electric transit system to enter regular service in the United States. Belgian-born Charles van Depoele, who earned 240+ patents in electric railway technology and other fields, set up trolley lines in several North American cities by 1887. In February 1888, a trolley system designed by Frank Sprague began operating in Richmond, Virginia. Sprague’s system became the lasting prototype for electric street railways in the US.
Elevator
Alexander Miles in 1887?
No!
Was Miles the first to patent a self-closing shaft door?
No!
Steam-powered hoisting devices were used in England by 1800. Elisha Graves Otis’ 1853 “safety elevator” prevented the car from falling if the cable broke, and thus paved the way for the first commercial passenger elevator, installed in New York City’s Haughwout Department Store in 1857. The first electric elevator appeared in Mannheim, Germany in 1880, built by the German firm of Siemens and Halske. A self-closing shaft door was invented by J.W. Meaker in 1874 (“Improvement in Self-closing Hatchways,” US Patent No. 147,853).
Fastest Computer/Computation
Was Philip Emeagwali responsible for the world’s fastest computer or computation in 1989? Did he win the “Nobel Prize of computing”? Is he a “father of the Internet”?
No!
The fastest performance of a computer application in 1989 was 6 billion floating point operations per second (6 Gflops), achieved by a team from Mobil and Thinking Machines Corp. on a 64,000-processor “Connection Machine” invented by Danny Hillis. That was almost double the 3.1 Gflops of Emeagwali’s computation. Computing’s Nobel Prize equivalent is the Turing Award, which Emeagwali has never won.
Fire Escape
Joseph Winters in 1878?
No!
Winters’ “fire escape” was a wagon-mounted ladder. The first such contraption patented in the US was the work of William P. Withey, 1840 (US patent #1599). The fire escape with a “lazy-tongs” type ladder, more similar to Winters’ patent, was pioneered by Hüttman and Kornelio in 1849 (US patent #6155). One of the first fire escapes of any type was invented in 18th-century England:
In 1784, Daniel Maseres, of England, invented a machine called a fire escape, which, being fastened to the window, would enable anyone to descend to the street without injury.
By 1888 the US had granted 1,099 patents on fire escapes of “many forms, and of every possible material”.
Fire Extinguisher
Thomas J. Martin in 1872?
No!
In 1813, British army captain George Manby created the first known portable fire extinguisher: a two-foot-tall copper cylinder that held 3 gallons of water and used compressed air as a propellant. One of the earliest extinguishers to use a chemical extinguishing agent, and not just water, was invented in 1849 by the Englishman William Henry Phillips, who patented his “fire annihilator” in England and the United States (US patent #7,269).
Food Additives, Meat Curing
Lloyd Hall “is responsible for the meat curing products, seasonings, emulsions, bakery products, antioxidants, protein hydrolysates, and many other products that keep our food fresh and favorable”?
No!
Hall “revolutionized the meatpacking industry”?
No!
Hall introduced no major class of additive, certainly not meat curing salts (which are ancient), protein hydrolysates (popularized by Julius Maggi as flavor enhancers in 1886), emulsifiers and antioxidants (lecithin, for example, was used in both roles before Lloyd Hall had any patents in food processing). The so-called revolutionary meat curing product marketed by Hall’s employer was invented primarily by Karl Max Seifert?; the number of Seifert’s patent was printed right on the containers. Hall’s main contribution to this product was to reduce its tendency to cake during storage.
Fountain Pen
W. B. Purvis in 1890?
No!
The first reference to what seems to be a fountain pen appears in an Arabic text from 969 AD; details of the instrument are not known. A French “Bion” pen, dated 1702, represents the oldest fountain pen that still survives. Later models included John Scheffer’s 1819 pen, possibly the first to be mass-produced; John Jacob Parker’s “self-filling” pen of 1832; and the famous Lewis Waterman pen of 1884 (US Patents #293545, #307735).
Golf Tee
Dr. George Grant in 1899?
No!
A small rubber platform invented by Scotsmen William Bloxsom and Arthur Douglas was the world’s first patented golf tee (British patent #12941 of 1889). The first known tee to penetrate the ground, in contrast to earlier tees that sat on the surface, was the peg-like “Perfectum” patented in 1892 by Percy Ellis of England. American dentist William Lowell introduced the most common form of tee used today, the simple wooden peg with a flared top.
Hairbrush
Lyda Newman in 1898?
No!
An early US patent for a recognizably modern hairbrush went to Hugh Rock in 1854 (US Design Patent no. D645), though surely there were hairbrushes long before there was a US Patent Office.
The claim that Lyda Newman’s brush was the first with “synthetic bristles” is false: her patent mentions nothing about synthetic bristles and is concerned only with a new way of making the handle detachable from the head. Besides, a hairbrush that included “elastic wire teeth” in combination with natural bristles had already been patented by Samuel Firey in 1870 (US, #106680). Nylon bristles weren’t possible until the invention of nylon in 1935.
Halogen Lamp
Frederick Mosby?
No!
The original patent for the tungsten halogen lamp (US #2,883,571; April 21, 1959) is recorded to Elmer G. Fridrich and Emmett H. Wiley of General Electric. The two had built a working prototype as early as 1953. Fred Mosby was part of the GE team charged with developing the prototype lamp into a marketable product, but was not responsible for the original halogen lamp or the concept behind it.
Hand Stamp
William Purvis in 1883?
No!
The earliest known postal handstamp was brought into use by Henry Bishop, Postmaster General of Great Britain, in the year 1661. The stamp imprinted the mail with a bisected circle containing the month and the date. See “Bishop marks”
Heating Furnace
Alice Parker in 1919?
No!
In the hypocaust heating systems built by the ancient Romans, hot air from a furnace circulated under the floor and up through channels inside the walls, thereby distributing heat evenly around the building. One of the most famous heating systems in recent centuries was the iron furnace stove known as the “Franklin stove,” named after its purported originator Benjamin Franklin around 1745 AD. The US had issued over 4000 patents for heating stoves and furnaces by 1888 (Benjamin Butterworth, Growth of Industrial Art, 1888).
Horseshoe
Oscar E. Brown in 1892?
No!
Some sources on the web, if not ignorant enough to say Brown invented the first horseshoe ever, will at least try to credit him for the first double or compound horseshoe made of two layers: one permanently secured to the hoof, and one auxiliary layer that can be removed and replaced when it wears out. However, in the US there were already 39 earlier patents for horseshoes using that same concept. The first of these was issued to J.B. Kendall of Boston in 1861, patent #33709.
Ice Cream
Augustus Jackson in 1832?
No!
Flavored ices resembling sherbet were known in China in ancient times. In Europe, sherbet-like concoctions evolved into ice cream by the 16th century, and around 1670 or so, the Café Procope in Paris offered creamy frozen dairy desserts to the public. The first written record of ice cream in the New World comes from a letter dated 1700, attesting that Maryland Governor William Bladen served the treat to his guests. In 1777, the New York Gazette advertised the sale of ice cream by confectioner Philip Lenzi.
Ironing Board
Sarah Boone in 1892?
No!
Of the several hundred US patents on ironing boards granted prior to Sarah Boone’s, the first three went to William Vandenburg in 1858 (patents #19390, #19883, #20231). The first American female patentee of an ironing board is probably Sarah Mort of Dayton, Ohio, who received patent #57170 in 1866. In 1869, Henry Soggs of Columbus, Pennsylvania earned US patent #90966 for an ironing board resembling the modern type, with folding legs, adjustable height, and a cover. Another nice example of a modern-looking board was designed by J.H. Mallory in 1871, patent #120296.
Laser Cataract Surgery
Patricia Bath “transformed eye surgery” by inventing the first laser device to treat cataracts in 1986?
No!
Use of lasers to treat cataracts in the eye began to develop in the mid 1970s. M.M. Krasnov of Russia reported the first such procedure in 1975. One of the earliest US patents for laser cataract removal (#3,982,541) was issued to Francis L’Esperance in 1976. In later years, a number of experimenters worked independently on laser devices for removing cataracts, including Daniel Eichenbaum, whose work became the basis of the Paradigm Photon™ device; and Jack Dodick, whose Dodick Laser PhotoLysis System eventually became the first laser unit to win FDA approval for cataract removal in the United States. Still, the majority of cataract surgeries continue to be performed using ultrasound devices, not lasers.
Lawn Mower
John Burr in 1899?
No!
English engineer Edwin Budding invented the first reel-type lawn mower (with blades arranged in a cylindrical pattern) and had it patented in England in 1830. In 1868 the United States issued patent #73807 to Amariah M. Hills of Connecticut, who went on to establish the Archimedean Lawn Mower Co. in 1871. By 1888, the US Patent Office had granted 138 patents for lawn mowers (Butterworth, Growth of Industrial Art). Doubtlessly there were even more by the time Burr got his patent in 1899.
Some website authors want Burr to have invented the first “rotary blade” mower, with a centrally mounted spinning blade. But his patent #624749 shows yet another twist on the old reel mower, differing in only a few details with Budding’s original.
Lawn Sprinkler
J. H. Smith in 1897? Elijah McCoy?
No!
The first US patent with the title “lawn sprinkler” was issued to J. Lessler of Buffalo, New York in 1871 (#121949). Early examples of water-propelled, rotating lawn sprinklers were patented by J. Oswald in 1890 (#425340) and J. S. Woolsey in 1891 (#457099) among a gazillion others.
Smith’s patent shows just another rotating sprinkler, and McCoy’s 1899 patent was for a turtle-shaped sprinkler.
Mailbox (letter drop box)
P. Downing invented the street letter drop box in 1891?
No!
George Becket invented the private mailbox in 1892?
No!
The US Postal Service says that “Street boxes for mail collection began to appear in large [US] cities by 1858.” They appeared in Europe even earlier, according to historian Laurin Zilliacus:
Mail boxes as we understand them first appeared on the streets of Belgian towns in 1848. In Paris they came two years later, while the English received their ‘pillar boxes’ in 1855.
Laurin Zilliacus, Mail for the World, p. 178 (New York, J. Day Co., 1953)
From the same book (p.178), “Private mail boxes were invented in the United States in about 1860.”
Eventually, letter drop boxes came equipped with inner lids to prevent miscreants from rummaging through the mail pile. The first of many US patents for such a purpose was granted in 1860 to John North of Middletown, Connecticut (US Pat. #27466).
Mop
Thomas W. Stewart in 1893?
No!
Mops go back a long, long way before 1893. Just how long, is hard to determine. Restricting our view to the modern era, we find that the United States issued its first mop patent (#241) in 1837 to Jacob Howe, called “Construction of Mop-Heads and the Mode of Securing them upon Handles.” One of the first patented mops with a built-in wringer was the one H. & J. Morton invented in 1859 (US #24049).
The mop specified in Stewart’s patent #499402 has a lever-operated clamp for “holding the mop rags”; the lever is not a wringing mechanism as erroneously reported on certain websites. Other inventors had already patented mops with lever-operated clamps, one of the first being Greenleaf Stackpole in 1869 (US Pat. #89803).
Paper Punch (hand-held)
Charles Brooks in 1893?
No!
Was it the first with a hinged receptacle to catch the clippings?
No!
The first numbered US patent for a hand-held hole punch was #636, issued to Solyman Merrick in 1838. Robert James Kellett earned the first two US patents for a chad-catching hole punch, in 1867 (patent #65090) and 1868 (#79232).
Pencil Sharpener
John Lee Love in 1897?
No!
Bernard Lassimone of Limoges, France invented one of the earliest sharpeners, receiving French patent number 2444 in 1828. An apparent ancestor of the 20th-century hand-cranked sharpener was patented by G. F. Ballou in 1896 (US #556709) and marketed by the A.B. Dick Company as the “Planetary Pencil Pointer.” As the user held the pencil stationary and turned the crank, twin milling cutters revolved around the tip of the pencil and shaved it into a point.
Love’s patent #594114 shows a variation on a different kind of sharpener, in which one would crank the pencil itself around in a stirring motion. An earlier device of a similar type was devised in 1888 by G.H. Courson (patent #388533), and sold under the name “President Pencil Sharpener.”
Permanent Wave Machine (for perming hair)
Marjorie Joyner in 1928?
No!
That would be German hairdresser Karl Ludwig Nessler (aka Charles Nestlé) no later than 1906.
Postmarking and Canceling Machine
William Barry in 1897?
No!
Try Pearson Hill of England, in 1857. Hill’s machine marked the postage stamp with vertical lines and postmark date. By 1892, US post offices were using several brands of machines, including one that could cancel, postmark, count and stack more than 20,000 pieces of mail per hour (Marshall Cushing, Story of Our Post Office, Boston: A. M. Thayer & co., 1892, pp.189-191).
Printing Press
W.A. Lavalette invented “the advanced printing press” in 1878?
No!
Movable-type printing first appeared in East Asia. In Europe, around 1455, Johann Gutenberg adapted the screw press used in other trades such as winemaking and combined it with type-metal alloy characters and oil-based printing ink. Major advances after Gutenberg include the cylinder printing press (c. 1811) by Frederick Koenig and Andreas Bauer, the rotary press (1846) by Richard M. Hoe, and the web press (1865) by William Bullock. Major advances do not include Lavalette’s patent, which was only one of 3,268 printing patents granted in the US by the year 1888 (Butterworth, Growth of Industrial Art).
Propeller for Ship
George Tolivar or Benjamin Montgomery?
No!
John Stevens constructed a boat with twin steam-powered propellers in 1804 in the first known application of a screw propeller for marine propulsion. Other important pioneers in the early 1800s included Sir Francis Pettit Smith of England, and Swedish-born ship designer John Ericsson (US patent #588) who later designed the USS Monitor.
Refrigerator
Thomas Elkins in 1879?
No!
John Stanard in 1891?
No!
Oliver Evans proposed a mechanical refrigerator based on a vapor-compression cycle in 1805 and Jacob Perkins had a working machine built in 1834. Dr. John Gorrie created an air-cycle refrigeration system in about 1844, which he installed in a Florida hospital. In the 1850s Alexander Twining in the USA and James Harrison in Australia used mechanical refrigeration to produce ice on a commercial scale. Around the same time, the Carré brothers of France led the development of absorption refrigeration systems. A more detailed timeline
Stanard’s patent describes not a refrigeration machine, but an old-fashioned icebox — an insulated cabinet into which ice is placed to cool the interior. As such, it was a “refrigerator” only in the old sense of the term, which included non-mechanical coolers. Elkins created a similarly low-tech cooler, acknowledging in his patent #221222 that “I am aware that chilling substances inclosed within a porous box or jar by wetting its outer surface is an old and well-known process.”
Rotary Engine
Andrew Beard in 1892?
No!
The Subject Matter Index of Patents Issued from the United States Patent Office from 1790 to 1873 Inclusive lists 394 “Rotary Engine” patents from 1810-1873. The Wankel engine, a rotary combustion engine with a four-stroke cycle, dates from 1954. History of the Rotary Engine from 1588 Onward
Screw Socket for Light Bulb
Lewis Latimer?
No!
The earliest evidence for a light bulb screw base design is a drawing in a Thomas Edison notebook dated Sept. 11, 1880. It is not the work of Latimer, though:
Edison’s long-time associates, Edward H. Johnson and John Ott, were principally responsible for designing fixtures in the fall of 1880. Their work resulted in the screw socket and base very much like those widely used today.
Smallpox Vaccine
Onesimus the slave in 1721?
No!
Onesimus knew of variolation, an early inoculation technique practiced in several areas of the world before the discovery of vaccination.
English physician Edward Jenner developed the smallpox vaccine in 1796 after finding that the relatively innocuous cowpox virus built immunity against the deadly smallpox. This discovery led to the eventual eradication of endemic smallpox throughout the world. Vaccination differs from the primitive inoculation method known as variolation, which involved the deliberate planting of live smallpox into a healthy person in hopes of inducing a mild form of the disease that would provide immunity from further infection. Variolation not only was risky to the patient but, more importantly, failed to prevent smallpox from spreading. Known in Asia by 1000 AD, the practice reached the West via more than one channel.
Smokestack for Locomotives
L. Bell in 1871?
No!
Even the first steam locomotives, such as the one built by Richard Trevithick in 1804, were equipped with smokestacks. Later smokestacks featured wire netting to prevent hazardous sparks from escaping. Page 115 of John H. White Jr.’s American Locomotives: An Engineering History, 1830-1880 (1997 edition) displays a composite picture showing 57 different types of spark-arresting smokestacks devised before 1860.
Steam Boiler Furnace
Granville Woods in 1884?
No!
The steam engine boiler is of course as old as the steam engine itself. The Subject Matter Index of Patents Issued from the United States Patent Office from 1790 to 1873 Inclusive lists several hundred variations and improvements to the steam boiler, including the revolutionary water-tube boiler patented in 1867 by American inventors George Herman Babcock and Stephen Wilcox.
Street Sweeper
Charles Brooks in 1896?
No!
Brooks’ patent was for a modified version of a common type of street sweeper cart that had long been known, with a rotary brush that swept refuse onto an elevator belt and into a trash bin. In the United States, street sweepers started being patented in the 1840s, and by 1900 the Patent Office had issued about 300 patents for such machines.
Supercharger for Automobiles
Joseph Gammel/Gamell in 1976?
No!
In 1885, Gottlieb Daimler received a German patent for supercharging an internal combustion engine. Louis Renault patented a centrifugal supercharger in France in 1902. An early supercharged racecar was built by Lee Chadwick of Pottstown, Pennsylvania in 1908 and reportedly reached a speed of 100 miles per hour.
Toilet
T. Elkins in 1897?
No!
The Minoans of Crete are said to have invented a flush toilet thousands of years ago; however, there is probably no direct ancestral relationship between it and the modern one that evolved primarily in England starting in the late 16th century, when Sir John Harrington devised a flushing device for his godmother Queen Elizabeth. In 1775 Alexander Cummings patented a toilet in which some water remained after each flush, thereby suppressing odors from below. The “water closet” continued to evolve, and in 1885, Thomas Twyford provided us with a single-piece ceramic toilet similar to the one we know today.
Toilet for Railroad Cars
Lewis Latimer in 1874?
No!
William E. Marsh Jr. of New Jersey took out US patent #95597 for “Improvement in Water-closets for Railroad Cars” five years prior to Latimer’s 1874 patent with the same title. Marsh’s patent specification suggests that railroad-car water closets, i.e., toilets, were already in use:
In the closets or privies of railroad cars, the cold and wind, especially while the train is in motion, are very disagreeable… My invention is to remove these objectionable features….
W. Marsh, US patent #95597, 1869
Tricycle
M.A. Cherry in 1886?
No!
In Germany in the year 1680 or thereabouts, paraplegic watchmaker Stephan Farffler built his own tricycle at 22 years of age. He designed it to be pedaled with the hands, for obvious reasons.
Turn Signals
Richard Spikes in 1913?
No!
Did the 1913 Pierce Arrow feature Spikes’ turn signals?
No!
Electric turn signal lights were devised as early as 1907 (U.S. Patent 912,831), but were not widely offered by major automobile manufacturers until the late 1930s, when GM developed its own version and made it standard on Buicks. The Pierce Arrow Museum in Buffalo, NY denies that directional signals were offered on 1913 Pierce Arrows.
Typewriter
L.S. Burridge & N.R. Marshman in 1885?
No!
Henry Mill, an English engineer, was the first person to patent the basic idea of the typewriter in 1714. The first working typewriter known to have actually been built was the work of Pellegrino Turri of Italy in 1808. The familiar QWERTY keyboard, developed by C. L. Sholes and C. Glidden, reached the market in 1874. In 1878 change-case keys were added that enabled the typing of both capital and small letters.
News of the Times;
Big Update On Horrific Florida School Bus Beating of 9-Year-Old Little Girl:
https://waynedupree.com/2023/02/update-florida-school-bus/
Consumers could be in a 'world of hurt' if Biden doesn't act soon, former Walmart CEO warns:
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/consumers-could-be-world-hurt-biden-doesnt-act-soon-former-walmart-ceo-warns
Artillery regiments run out of... artillery:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11703401/British-army-runs-heavy-guns-pledging-30-AS90s-Ukraine-stave-Russia.html
Due to Spending Cuts, UK Military Would Run Out of Ammo In 1 Day of Fighting Russia, Top General Warns:
https://notthebee.com/article/due-to-spending-cuts-uk-military-would-run-out-of-ammo-in-1-day-of-fighting-russia-general-warns
J6er Jeremy Brown Reveals False Evidence Government Planted Against Him:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/j6er-jeremy-brown-moved-maximum-security-prison-reveals-false-evidence-government-planted/
Biden took out $250K line of credit against Delaware beach home amid Hunter probe, classified docs scandal:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-took-250k-line-credit-delaware-beach-home-amid-hunter-probe-classified-docs-scandal
Sunshine Might Be Free But Solar Power is Not Cheap:
https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2023/01/24/sunshine_might_be_free_but_solar_power_is_not_cheap_877463.html
The Futility of Wind Energy:
https://www.mikesmithenterprisesblog.com/2023/01/the-stupidity-of-wind-energy.html
Road Trips in Our Long-Term EVs Have Been... Interesting:
https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/road-tripping-in-our-long-term-electric-test-cars/
Harvard Medical School's Transgender Care Course Affirms Fans of BDSM, 'Kink' and Infidelity:
https://redstate.com/alexparker/2023/01/26/harvard-medical-schools-transgender-care-course-affirms-fans-of-bdsm-kink-and-infidelity-n694500
Idaho High School’s ‘White Power’ Graffiti Revealed To Be Hate Hoax Scheme Carried Out By Hispanic Gang:
https://nationalfile.com/report-idaho-high-schools-white-power-graffiti-revealed-to-be-hate-hoax-scheme-carried-out-by-hispanic-gang/
If white supremacy is real, why does everyone want to be nonwhite:
https://www.thecollegefix.com/fauxcahontas-white-female-scholars-keep-pretending-to-be-native-american/
Harvard Medical School ashamed of white male department heads:
https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=11027
Woman that shot a man last Sept, shoots and kills 12 year old:
https://national-conservative.com/woman-that-shot-a-man-last-sept-shoots-and-kills-12-year-old/
Migrants turn NYC hotel into violent, drug-infested ‘free-for-all’: employee:
https://nypost.com/2023/01/31/migrants-turn-nyc-hotel-into-violent-drug-infested-free-for-all-employee-says/
Claims?
Style?
Worrying works.
90% of the things I worry about never happen!
*.*
Russia's President Putin says he's pretty upset about what Germany and the U.S. are providing to Ukraine.
A U.S. spokesman asked, "What are you talking about?"
Putin replied, "Tanks."
The U.S. spokesman, unable to resist, said, "You're welcome."
*.*
According to sources, Cain has killed his brother Abel to become the first murderer. In his defense, he claims white supremacy is actually to blame.
"You can't really hold me responsible for this, God," Cain said to The Almighty. "I was brought up under an oppressive system of white supremacy that was designed to protect its own power by generating hostility between me and my brother Abel."
According to Cain, crimes like this could have been prevented if more people were aware of the need to dismantle the structures of oppression that are really to blame for the murder.
The cold-blooded killer then invited God to check his privilege and be a part of the solution to the violence, rather than perpetuating the oppressive system by simply holding Cain responsible.
God responded by banishing him.
*.*
For his birthday, Little Johnny's parents gave him a bowl of goldfish. His mother carefully explains to him how much responsibility comes with owning a pet and tells him to make sure he remembers to give the fish the care they need every day.
Johnny is responsible with the fish for about one week, after which he begins forgetting to look after them, leaving his parents to feed the fish and clean the tank. After a couple of days, Johnny's mom and dad bring the issue up to him.
"Now Johnny," says his mother. "You have to be more responsible."
"Do you know how many times those fish would have died if we hadn't been there?" his father adds.
"Uhmmm, I don't know," Johnny replies. "Once?"
*.*
Punxsutawney Phil is predicting six more weeks of winter.
Of course, he's also got the 49ers winning the Super Bowl.
Quote of the Times;
Link of the Times;
Hollywood Actor James Woods’ Wisdom to Upset Communists:
https://cleverjourneys.wordpress.com/2022/08/31/hollywood-actor-james-wood-wisdom-to-upset-communists/
Issue of the Times;
Anarchy, American-Style by Victor Davis Hanson
The 1960s revolution was both anarchic and nihilist. But it was waged against—not from—the establishment. Hippies and the Left either attacked institutions or, in Timothy Leary fashion, chose to “turn on, tune in, drop out” from them.
The current revolution is much different—and far more dangerous—for at least three reasons.
The Establishment Is the Revolution
The current Left has no intention of “dropping out.” Why would it?
It now controls the very institutions of America that it once mocked and attacked—corporate boardrooms, Wall Street, state and local prosecuting attorneys, most big-city governments, the media, the Pentagon, network and most of cable news, professional sports, Hollywood, music, television, K-12 education, and academia.
In other words, the greatest levers of influence and power—money, education, entertainment, government, the news, and popular culture—are in the hands of the Left. They have transformed legitimate debate over gay marriage into a hate crime. Transgenderism went from a modern manifestation of ancient transvestism or gender dysphoria to a veritable litmus test of whether one was good or evil.
Students have no need to jam administrators’ offices because the latter, themselves, are as radical as the protestors and often lead them on in a top-down fashion. Had they not long ago demonstrated they were perfectly willing to subvert meritocracy, free expression, and equality under the law, they would not be occupying their present positions.
Apple, Google, Facebook, and other tech companies are not 1980s and 1990s “alternative” media geeks and hipsters creating neat gadgets for the people. They are not Steve Jobs and his pugnacious Apple battling the evil Microsoft or IBM, or the Macintosh commercial of 1984 depicting a maverick throwing a hammer into Big Brother’s screen. They are the Orwellian screen.
The current generation of techies is effectively Stalinist. Big Tech now colludes with the FBI, the Democratic Party, and the bureaucratic state to suppress free expression, warp balloting, and serve as contractors of government surveillance. Currently, the most totalitarian people in America are likely to wear flip flops, have a nose ring or pink hair, and disguise their fascism with ’60s-retread costumes.
There are no “armies of the night” marching on the Pentagon. Would-be demonstrators see no need, since radical identity politics, and gay, woke, and transgendered agendas are fast-tracked by the Department of Defense.
There are no protests against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau or the “La Migra” anymore by advocates of illegal immigration, because the Left owns the border. And it has utterly destroyed it. There is no border, no border enforcement, and no meaningful immigration law. As many as 6 million illegal entries during the first two years of the Biden Administration are proof enough of that.
There are no cutting-edge Lenny Bruces or Mort Sahls fighting state censorship because entertainers accept that 1) there are no impediments to vulgarity or pornographic expression, but 2) no comic or commentator dares to take on the diversity, equity, and inclusion woke industry because he assumes he would be crushed, and his career ruined.
Question the woke status quo, and one is not canonized in Vanity Fair or Rolling Stone as a fighter against the “uptight establishment” or “the man” as in the past, but now demonized as a racist purveyor of “hate speech” and enemy of the people.
The Left does not despise the FBI. It lauds it. And the bureau is no longer consumed with tracking down violent criminals and terrorists. Instead, it has become an enemy of parents worried about school indoctrination, or a retrieval service for lost first-family classified papers, laptops and diaries, or a Washington, D.C., cadre knee-deep in big money politics.
FBI agents are praised on left–wing media—given they have been activist conspirators who sought to destroy conservative candidates, deleted subpoenaed data, lied to federal investigators or committees while under oath, colluded with Russian oligarchs, doctored court evidence, and paid foreign nationals to compile campaign dirt on American citizens.
There are no longer calls for a “three strikes” solution to violent crime as in the past, or talk of adopting the successful, time-tried “broken windows” theories of law enforcement, because there is no enforcement to modulate. The debate is no longer over enforcing the law, because de facto there is no law.
The new legal establishment has replaced the old by simply nuking centuries of jurisprudence. Violent repeat criminal offenders injure and maim innocents in the morning and are released by noon to prey again—themselves baffled that the state is even crazier than they are.
Note in the 2020-2021 riots, almost no one temporarily arrested was tried, despite $2 billion in damages, upwards of 40 violent deaths, the 1,500 injured law enforcement officers, and the torching of a courthouse, police precinct, and historic Washington, D.C., church. Instead, they were lauded by a mayor as participants in a “summer of love.” Seattle and Washington simply ceded city property to the violent protestors as if they occupied it by right of their superior morality.
The summation of the entire sordid summer was the CNN chyron assuring America that the protests on their screens were “mostly peaceful” as flames shot up to the sky in the background. In the 1960s, rioters forced social welfare concessions—or else!—on the establishment. Today the establishment welcomes urban unrest as an excuse to implement agendas that in normal times would be unpalatable.
In sum, we are living in anarchy, as institutions themselves have become nihilistic and weapons of the revolution. The Left, in viral fashion, took over the DNA of America’s institutions, and used them to help destroy their creators.
If we are bewildered why Harvard law-graduate prosecutors let out violent criminals just hours after their arrests; or why hyper-rich, pampered athletes who live in near-apartheid enclaves insult the flag, ignore the National Anthem, and sloganeer woke platitudes, it is because they were taught to undermine the status quo by fundamentally becoming it.
In our present anarchy, $7 a dozen eggs are affordable. Unaffordable gas prices become merely necessary “transitions” to fossil fuels. A “secure” border means there is none. Natural gas must be banned because it supposedly causes asthma. Tens of thousands of homeless defecate, urinate, inject, and fornicate in the increasingly vacant downtowns of Los Angeles and San Francisco, as the Golden Bear state, California, discusses reintroducing Grizzly bears.
Cars and yards are evil, elevators, high-rises, and buses sacred. There are 81 genders (and counting), with even more names for them. “Racist” is our exclamation point, fillip, a mere add-on emphatic. Everything from SAT tests to obesity to working out is racist. When little is racist, then everything must become racist.
Batter someone to a pulp and you are out of jail in six hours; claim an election was suspicious and you can be in there for six months or more. Proven merit is a pejorative. Grades are deemed useless by those who could never earn As. Boilerplate equity oaths are the best guide to hiring, retention, and admission. The ACLU or the Anti-Defamation League exist only to spot the incorrect kind of censorship and the wrong kind of antisemitism.
Macintosh Becomes MacBeth
The second contribution to the present anarchy is big tech, which speeds up the revolution and spreads it broadly. Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four was predicated not just on the Sovietization of the state, but the electronically ubiquitous and near instantaneous means by which the apparat ensures its dominance. One of the strangest things about the Left is that it no longer warns of 1984 but emulates it.
How the Left became synonymous with the Internet, social media, mobile phones, pads, and laptops is a long story. But let it be said the Left, and not conservatives, have mastered them all. It has manipulated high tech to change the way we vote, access information, communicate, consume the news, buy, and sell, and express ourselves. In sum, they run Oceania and we work for their various bureaus.
Our tech complex has combined the ethos of the 19th-century monopoly with the Chinese Communist system of mass ideological manipulation. The result is that the old Twitter or Facebook mob can ruin a career in a nanosecond. Google can manipulate the order of search results to render you a clueless Winston Smith bewildered by the alternate “reality” that pops up on your computer screen.
Wikipedia is pseudo-official falsification. Trotskization relied on scissors and paste; cancel culture can end you by a split-second use of the delete button—and erase you to 7 billion on the planet.
Big Money, Big Woke
Globalization hollowed out the red-state interior and enriched the blue bicoastal elite. Wealth in mining, farming, construction, manufacturing, and assembly became dwarfed by riches of investment, high tech, social media, law, insurance, and real estate. The former were the up-by-the boot straps conservatives, the latter one day rich and the next moment through hype, investment, and venture capital, richer than anyone in the history of civilization.
The wealthiest ZIP codes and congressional districts are blue, not red. Most of the Fortune 400 billionaires are left-wing. So, there is no ’60s-style talk about the evils of corporations and the supposedly idle rich, none of the old conspiracy theories about Anaconda Copper, ITT, or the Rockefellers.
The corporations are the Left and in service to it. Disney, American Airlines, and Nike are revolutionary icons, always ready to divest, cancel, fire, hire, and propagandize in service to woke commissars. That they are terrified by tiny bullies who have no constituencies is true, but then a Robespierre, Lenin, and Mao had initially no broad support either—at least before each mastered the use of terror and fright.
In our anarchy, “dark money” like Mark Zuckerberg’s $419 million cash infusion into the 2020 balloting processes is now suddenly good, given it is almost all leftwing. Democrats outraise Republicans in campaign contributions by anywhere from three- to five-to-one. Bundling is noble.
Netflix can buy the brand name of the Obamas for $100 million; George Soros can spend his pocket change of $40 million to elect district attorneys to destroy the law and empower criminals. Jimmy Carter used to be the poor-man idol of the old Democratic Party. Today, there is hardly a Democratic president, ex-president, or presidential candidate who is not a multi-multimillionaire—most by leveraging their heightened political profile.
What anarchy we live in when the richest among us are the most radical and wish to destroy for all others what they enjoy.
John Kerry lectures us on climate change from his private jet. Your leaf blower, not his Gulfstream GIV-SP, is the global threat. Al Gore screams about the evils of carbon emissions—after pocketing $100 million by selling his failed and worthless cable station to smoky and sooty Qatar, fronting for the antisemitic Al Jazeera.
The Clintons feel the pain of the poor all the way to their $100 million fortune from shakedown lectures, Wall Street, “consulting,” and “foundation” contributions. Van Jones, CNN expert, the object of Valerie Jarrett’s oohing and awing, famous for his “whitelash” exegeses, and recipient of a $100 million Bezos award, now lectures us that the five rogue black policemen in Memphis, who beat to death a black suspect, are still proof of white racism that accounts for blacks belittling the lives of blacks.
In our present anarchy, we take seriously the lectures on microaggressions from the Duchess of Montecito. The Obamas weigh in on the dangers of climate change and rising seas from their seaside, multimillion-dollar Martha’s Vineyard estate, or Hawaii beachfront mansion that apparently has an invisible climate-change barrier on its beach. Kamala Harris is our border czar who assures us it is “secure,” defined by 5 million illegal entries since she took office.
Nancy Pelosi works for the “children” and, after a life in politics, that selflessness ends up worth $100 million from her husband’s insider real estate deals and stock tips. It is almost as if socialist Bernie Sanders owned three homes, or anti-capitalist Elizabeth Warren was once a house flipper.
So, the current revolution is anarchy, utter confusion, pure chaos.
Every time one turns on a computer, there will be someone or something somewhere ideologically warping its use. Your vote means nothing when California cannot account for 10 million automatically, computer-guided mailed-out ballots. That state is still in a drought, defined by releasing most of the water to the ocean that the wettest winter in memory produced.
Stanford students talk revolution, Antifa, and Black Lives Matter, and want to forbid the use of “American.” But from the look of their parking lots, they cannot decide whether Lexus, BMW, or Mercedes should be the most preferred campus car. Oprah and Whoopi suffer terribly from white supremacy. Jussie the foot soldier heroically took on one MAGA thug for each of his foot kicks.
“Don’t take off your mask” at a California McDonald’s means the man who ordered that edict is maskless at the French Laundry. “Don’t get your hair done during the lockdown” means the architect of that fiat sneaks around her salon, which she has all to herself.
The common denominator to the anarchy? The hardcore Left is your FBI, CIA, and Justice Department all in one. It is Nineteen Eighty-Four. It is our era’s J. P. Morgan.
No wonder we are confused by the establishment anarchists and the anarchy they produce.
News of the Times;
Whistleblower reveals U.S. government behind attacks on America’s food infrastructure:
https://naturalnews.com/2023-01-18-whistleblower-us-government-attacks-americas-food-infrastructure.html
Soaring Food Prices Prompt Eurasian Nations To Ban Food Exports:
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Soaring-Food-Prices-Prompt-Eurasian-Nations-To-Ban-Food-Exports.html
European Union Approves Cricket Powder As Component Of Flour-Based Foods Despite ‘Inconclusive’ Allergy Data:
https://www.dailywire.com/news/european-union-approves-cricket-powder-as-component-of-flour-based-foods-despite-inconclusive-allergy-data
NYC Courthouse Erects Demonic Statue With Horns Paying Tribute To RBG and Abortion:
https://newspunch.com/nyc-courthouse-erects-demonic-statue-with-horns-paying-tribute-to-rbg-and-abortion/
Democrats in State of Washington releasing ‘worst of the worst’ inmates from sex offender prison island:
https://www.lawofficer.com/washington-state-democrats-releasing-worst-inmates-sex-offender-prison-mcneil-island/
Here’s What Happens to Society When the System Fails:
https://www.theorganicprepper.com/when-the-system-fails/
Connecticut Parents Arrested for Letting Kids, Ages 7 and 9, Walk to Dunkin' Donuts:
https://reason.com/2023/01/30/dunkin-donuts-parents-arrested-kids-cops-freedom/
43 charged in drug ring run by SC inmates, connected to Mexican cartels:
https://traffic.americanmilitarynews.com/2023/01/43-charged-in-drug-ring-run-by-sc-inmates-connected-to-mexican-cartels/
CIA Infiltrated Watergate Break-in as Nixon Threatened to Leak CIA Involvement in JFK Murder:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/cia-infiltrated-watergate-break-nixon-threatened-leak-cia-involvement-jfk-murder/
NYT is totally fair! I swear:
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2023/01/25/nyt-is-totally-fair-i-swear-n526383
Former Abortion Clinic Owner: We Pushed Sex Ed on Kids to Create a Market for Abortion:
https://www.lifenews.com/2019/11/08/former-abortion-clinic-owner-we-pushed-sex-ed-on-kids-to-create-a-market-for-abortion/
500 ATMs blown up by migrant gangs in Germany in 2022, setting a new record:
https://rmx.news/crime/500-atms-blown-up-by-migrant-gangs-in-germany-in-2022-setting-a-new-record/
Doctor is convicted of fraud after she was caught re-using single-use tools for sinus surgeries HUNDREDS of times:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11688247/Doctor-convicted-fraud-caught-using-single-use-tools-sinus-surgeries.html
Florida delivery driver robbed by convicted felons with dozens of charges caught on terrifying video:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/florida-delivery-driver-robbed-by-convicted-felons-with-dozens-of-charges-caught-on-terrifying-video/
More Employees Than Students at Stanford: Give Each Student a Concierge:
https://www.mindingthecampus.org/2023/01/05/more-employees-than-students-at-stanford-give-each-student-a-concierge/
90% of the things I worry about never happen!
*.*
Russia's President Putin says he's pretty upset about what Germany and the U.S. are providing to Ukraine.
A U.S. spokesman asked, "What are you talking about?"
Putin replied, "Tanks."
The U.S. spokesman, unable to resist, said, "You're welcome."
*.*
According to sources, Cain has killed his brother Abel to become the first murderer. In his defense, he claims white supremacy is actually to blame.
"You can't really hold me responsible for this, God," Cain said to The Almighty. "I was brought up under an oppressive system of white supremacy that was designed to protect its own power by generating hostility between me and my brother Abel."
According to Cain, crimes like this could have been prevented if more people were aware of the need to dismantle the structures of oppression that are really to blame for the murder.
The cold-blooded killer then invited God to check his privilege and be a part of the solution to the violence, rather than perpetuating the oppressive system by simply holding Cain responsible.
God responded by banishing him.
*.*
For his birthday, Little Johnny's parents gave him a bowl of goldfish. His mother carefully explains to him how much responsibility comes with owning a pet and tells him to make sure he remembers to give the fish the care they need every day.
Johnny is responsible with the fish for about one week, after which he begins forgetting to look after them, leaving his parents to feed the fish and clean the tank. After a couple of days, Johnny's mom and dad bring the issue up to him.
"Now Johnny," says his mother. "You have to be more responsible."
"Do you know how many times those fish would have died if we hadn't been there?" his father adds.
"Uhmmm, I don't know," Johnny replies. "Once?"
*.*
Punxsutawney Phil is predicting six more weeks of winter.
Of course, he's also got the 49ers winning the Super Bowl.
Quote of the Times;
Link of the Times;
Hollywood Actor James Woods’ Wisdom to Upset Communists:
https://cleverjourneys.wordpress.com/2022/08/31/hollywood-actor-james-wood-wisdom-to-upset-communists/
Issue of the Times;
Anarchy, American-Style by Victor Davis Hanson
The 1960s revolution was both anarchic and nihilist. But it was waged against—not from—the establishment. Hippies and the Left either attacked institutions or, in Timothy Leary fashion, chose to “turn on, tune in, drop out” from them.
The current revolution is much different—and far more dangerous—for at least three reasons.
The Establishment Is the Revolution
The current Left has no intention of “dropping out.” Why would it?
It now controls the very institutions of America that it once mocked and attacked—corporate boardrooms, Wall Street, state and local prosecuting attorneys, most big-city governments, the media, the Pentagon, network and most of cable news, professional sports, Hollywood, music, television, K-12 education, and academia.
In other words, the greatest levers of influence and power—money, education, entertainment, government, the news, and popular culture—are in the hands of the Left. They have transformed legitimate debate over gay marriage into a hate crime. Transgenderism went from a modern manifestation of ancient transvestism or gender dysphoria to a veritable litmus test of whether one was good or evil.
Students have no need to jam administrators’ offices because the latter, themselves, are as radical as the protestors and often lead them on in a top-down fashion. Had they not long ago demonstrated they were perfectly willing to subvert meritocracy, free expression, and equality under the law, they would not be occupying their present positions.
Apple, Google, Facebook, and other tech companies are not 1980s and 1990s “alternative” media geeks and hipsters creating neat gadgets for the people. They are not Steve Jobs and his pugnacious Apple battling the evil Microsoft or IBM, or the Macintosh commercial of 1984 depicting a maverick throwing a hammer into Big Brother’s screen. They are the Orwellian screen.
The current generation of techies is effectively Stalinist. Big Tech now colludes with the FBI, the Democratic Party, and the bureaucratic state to suppress free expression, warp balloting, and serve as contractors of government surveillance. Currently, the most totalitarian people in America are likely to wear flip flops, have a nose ring or pink hair, and disguise their fascism with ’60s-retread costumes.
There are no “armies of the night” marching on the Pentagon. Would-be demonstrators see no need, since radical identity politics, and gay, woke, and transgendered agendas are fast-tracked by the Department of Defense.
There are no protests against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau or the “La Migra” anymore by advocates of illegal immigration, because the Left owns the border. And it has utterly destroyed it. There is no border, no border enforcement, and no meaningful immigration law. As many as 6 million illegal entries during the first two years of the Biden Administration are proof enough of that.
There are no cutting-edge Lenny Bruces or Mort Sahls fighting state censorship because entertainers accept that 1) there are no impediments to vulgarity or pornographic expression, but 2) no comic or commentator dares to take on the diversity, equity, and inclusion woke industry because he assumes he would be crushed, and his career ruined.
Question the woke status quo, and one is not canonized in Vanity Fair or Rolling Stone as a fighter against the “uptight establishment” or “the man” as in the past, but now demonized as a racist purveyor of “hate speech” and enemy of the people.
The Left does not despise the FBI. It lauds it. And the bureau is no longer consumed with tracking down violent criminals and terrorists. Instead, it has become an enemy of parents worried about school indoctrination, or a retrieval service for lost first-family classified papers, laptops and diaries, or a Washington, D.C., cadre knee-deep in big money politics.
FBI agents are praised on left–wing media—given they have been activist conspirators who sought to destroy conservative candidates, deleted subpoenaed data, lied to federal investigators or committees while under oath, colluded with Russian oligarchs, doctored court evidence, and paid foreign nationals to compile campaign dirt on American citizens.
There are no longer calls for a “three strikes” solution to violent crime as in the past, or talk of adopting the successful, time-tried “broken windows” theories of law enforcement, because there is no enforcement to modulate. The debate is no longer over enforcing the law, because de facto there is no law.
The new legal establishment has replaced the old by simply nuking centuries of jurisprudence. Violent repeat criminal offenders injure and maim innocents in the morning and are released by noon to prey again—themselves baffled that the state is even crazier than they are.
Note in the 2020-2021 riots, almost no one temporarily arrested was tried, despite $2 billion in damages, upwards of 40 violent deaths, the 1,500 injured law enforcement officers, and the torching of a courthouse, police precinct, and historic Washington, D.C., church. Instead, they were lauded by a mayor as participants in a “summer of love.” Seattle and Washington simply ceded city property to the violent protestors as if they occupied it by right of their superior morality.
The summation of the entire sordid summer was the CNN chyron assuring America that the protests on their screens were “mostly peaceful” as flames shot up to the sky in the background. In the 1960s, rioters forced social welfare concessions—or else!—on the establishment. Today the establishment welcomes urban unrest as an excuse to implement agendas that in normal times would be unpalatable.
In sum, we are living in anarchy, as institutions themselves have become nihilistic and weapons of the revolution. The Left, in viral fashion, took over the DNA of America’s institutions, and used them to help destroy their creators.
If we are bewildered why Harvard law-graduate prosecutors let out violent criminals just hours after their arrests; or why hyper-rich, pampered athletes who live in near-apartheid enclaves insult the flag, ignore the National Anthem, and sloganeer woke platitudes, it is because they were taught to undermine the status quo by fundamentally becoming it.
In our present anarchy, $7 a dozen eggs are affordable. Unaffordable gas prices become merely necessary “transitions” to fossil fuels. A “secure” border means there is none. Natural gas must be banned because it supposedly causes asthma. Tens of thousands of homeless defecate, urinate, inject, and fornicate in the increasingly vacant downtowns of Los Angeles and San Francisco, as the Golden Bear state, California, discusses reintroducing Grizzly bears.
Cars and yards are evil, elevators, high-rises, and buses sacred. There are 81 genders (and counting), with even more names for them. “Racist” is our exclamation point, fillip, a mere add-on emphatic. Everything from SAT tests to obesity to working out is racist. When little is racist, then everything must become racist.
Batter someone to a pulp and you are out of jail in six hours; claim an election was suspicious and you can be in there for six months or more. Proven merit is a pejorative. Grades are deemed useless by those who could never earn As. Boilerplate equity oaths are the best guide to hiring, retention, and admission. The ACLU or the Anti-Defamation League exist only to spot the incorrect kind of censorship and the wrong kind of antisemitism.
Macintosh Becomes MacBeth
The second contribution to the present anarchy is big tech, which speeds up the revolution and spreads it broadly. Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four was predicated not just on the Sovietization of the state, but the electronically ubiquitous and near instantaneous means by which the apparat ensures its dominance. One of the strangest things about the Left is that it no longer warns of 1984 but emulates it.
How the Left became synonymous with the Internet, social media, mobile phones, pads, and laptops is a long story. But let it be said the Left, and not conservatives, have mastered them all. It has manipulated high tech to change the way we vote, access information, communicate, consume the news, buy, and sell, and express ourselves. In sum, they run Oceania and we work for their various bureaus.
Our tech complex has combined the ethos of the 19th-century monopoly with the Chinese Communist system of mass ideological manipulation. The result is that the old Twitter or Facebook mob can ruin a career in a nanosecond. Google can manipulate the order of search results to render you a clueless Winston Smith bewildered by the alternate “reality” that pops up on your computer screen.
Wikipedia is pseudo-official falsification. Trotskization relied on scissors and paste; cancel culture can end you by a split-second use of the delete button—and erase you to 7 billion on the planet.
Big Money, Big Woke
Globalization hollowed out the red-state interior and enriched the blue bicoastal elite. Wealth in mining, farming, construction, manufacturing, and assembly became dwarfed by riches of investment, high tech, social media, law, insurance, and real estate. The former were the up-by-the boot straps conservatives, the latter one day rich and the next moment through hype, investment, and venture capital, richer than anyone in the history of civilization.
The wealthiest ZIP codes and congressional districts are blue, not red. Most of the Fortune 400 billionaires are left-wing. So, there is no ’60s-style talk about the evils of corporations and the supposedly idle rich, none of the old conspiracy theories about Anaconda Copper, ITT, or the Rockefellers.
The corporations are the Left and in service to it. Disney, American Airlines, and Nike are revolutionary icons, always ready to divest, cancel, fire, hire, and propagandize in service to woke commissars. That they are terrified by tiny bullies who have no constituencies is true, but then a Robespierre, Lenin, and Mao had initially no broad support either—at least before each mastered the use of terror and fright.
In our anarchy, “dark money” like Mark Zuckerberg’s $419 million cash infusion into the 2020 balloting processes is now suddenly good, given it is almost all leftwing. Democrats outraise Republicans in campaign contributions by anywhere from three- to five-to-one. Bundling is noble.
Netflix can buy the brand name of the Obamas for $100 million; George Soros can spend his pocket change of $40 million to elect district attorneys to destroy the law and empower criminals. Jimmy Carter used to be the poor-man idol of the old Democratic Party. Today, there is hardly a Democratic president, ex-president, or presidential candidate who is not a multi-multimillionaire—most by leveraging their heightened political profile.
What anarchy we live in when the richest among us are the most radical and wish to destroy for all others what they enjoy.
John Kerry lectures us on climate change from his private jet. Your leaf blower, not his Gulfstream GIV-SP, is the global threat. Al Gore screams about the evils of carbon emissions—after pocketing $100 million by selling his failed and worthless cable station to smoky and sooty Qatar, fronting for the antisemitic Al Jazeera.
The Clintons feel the pain of the poor all the way to their $100 million fortune from shakedown lectures, Wall Street, “consulting,” and “foundation” contributions. Van Jones, CNN expert, the object of Valerie Jarrett’s oohing and awing, famous for his “whitelash” exegeses, and recipient of a $100 million Bezos award, now lectures us that the five rogue black policemen in Memphis, who beat to death a black suspect, are still proof of white racism that accounts for blacks belittling the lives of blacks.
In our present anarchy, we take seriously the lectures on microaggressions from the Duchess of Montecito. The Obamas weigh in on the dangers of climate change and rising seas from their seaside, multimillion-dollar Martha’s Vineyard estate, or Hawaii beachfront mansion that apparently has an invisible climate-change barrier on its beach. Kamala Harris is our border czar who assures us it is “secure,” defined by 5 million illegal entries since she took office.
Nancy Pelosi works for the “children” and, after a life in politics, that selflessness ends up worth $100 million from her husband’s insider real estate deals and stock tips. It is almost as if socialist Bernie Sanders owned three homes, or anti-capitalist Elizabeth Warren was once a house flipper.
So, the current revolution is anarchy, utter confusion, pure chaos.
Every time one turns on a computer, there will be someone or something somewhere ideologically warping its use. Your vote means nothing when California cannot account for 10 million automatically, computer-guided mailed-out ballots. That state is still in a drought, defined by releasing most of the water to the ocean that the wettest winter in memory produced.
Stanford students talk revolution, Antifa, and Black Lives Matter, and want to forbid the use of “American.” But from the look of their parking lots, they cannot decide whether Lexus, BMW, or Mercedes should be the most preferred campus car. Oprah and Whoopi suffer terribly from white supremacy. Jussie the foot soldier heroically took on one MAGA thug for each of his foot kicks.
“Don’t take off your mask” at a California McDonald’s means the man who ordered that edict is maskless at the French Laundry. “Don’t get your hair done during the lockdown” means the architect of that fiat sneaks around her salon, which she has all to herself.
The common denominator to the anarchy? The hardcore Left is your FBI, CIA, and Justice Department all in one. It is Nineteen Eighty-Four. It is our era’s J. P. Morgan.
No wonder we are confused by the establishment anarchists and the anarchy they produce.
News of the Times;
Whistleblower reveals U.S. government behind attacks on America’s food infrastructure:
https://naturalnews.com/2023-01-18-whistleblower-us-government-attacks-americas-food-infrastructure.html
Soaring Food Prices Prompt Eurasian Nations To Ban Food Exports:
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Soaring-Food-Prices-Prompt-Eurasian-Nations-To-Ban-Food-Exports.html
European Union Approves Cricket Powder As Component Of Flour-Based Foods Despite ‘Inconclusive’ Allergy Data:
https://www.dailywire.com/news/european-union-approves-cricket-powder-as-component-of-flour-based-foods-despite-inconclusive-allergy-data
NYC Courthouse Erects Demonic Statue With Horns Paying Tribute To RBG and Abortion:
https://newspunch.com/nyc-courthouse-erects-demonic-statue-with-horns-paying-tribute-to-rbg-and-abortion/
Democrats in State of Washington releasing ‘worst of the worst’ inmates from sex offender prison island:
https://www.lawofficer.com/washington-state-democrats-releasing-worst-inmates-sex-offender-prison-mcneil-island/
Here’s What Happens to Society When the System Fails:
https://www.theorganicprepper.com/when-the-system-fails/
Connecticut Parents Arrested for Letting Kids, Ages 7 and 9, Walk to Dunkin' Donuts:
https://reason.com/2023/01/30/dunkin-donuts-parents-arrested-kids-cops-freedom/
43 charged in drug ring run by SC inmates, connected to Mexican cartels:
https://traffic.americanmilitarynews.com/2023/01/43-charged-in-drug-ring-run-by-sc-inmates-connected-to-mexican-cartels/
CIA Infiltrated Watergate Break-in as Nixon Threatened to Leak CIA Involvement in JFK Murder:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/cia-infiltrated-watergate-break-nixon-threatened-leak-cia-involvement-jfk-murder/
NYT is totally fair! I swear:
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2023/01/25/nyt-is-totally-fair-i-swear-n526383
Former Abortion Clinic Owner: We Pushed Sex Ed on Kids to Create a Market for Abortion:
https://www.lifenews.com/2019/11/08/former-abortion-clinic-owner-we-pushed-sex-ed-on-kids-to-create-a-market-for-abortion/
500 ATMs blown up by migrant gangs in Germany in 2022, setting a new record:
https://rmx.news/crime/500-atms-blown-up-by-migrant-gangs-in-germany-in-2022-setting-a-new-record/
Doctor is convicted of fraud after she was caught re-using single-use tools for sinus surgeries HUNDREDS of times:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11688247/Doctor-convicted-fraud-caught-using-single-use-tools-sinus-surgeries.html
Florida delivery driver robbed by convicted felons with dozens of charges caught on terrifying video:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/florida-delivery-driver-robbed-by-convicted-felons-with-dozens-of-charges-caught-on-terrifying-video/
More Employees Than Students at Stanford: Give Each Student a Concierge:
https://www.mindingthecampus.org/2023/01/05/more-employees-than-students-at-stanford-give-each-student-a-concierge/
Wire?
I'm in a great place right now.
Maybe not emotionally, financially, mentally or physically, but the place I'm at serves coffee.
So, I'm good.
*.*
An asteroid the size of a truck passed by the earth last Thursday just 2,200 miles above the planet's surface in one of the closest approaches ever recorded.
We didn't tell you ahead of time so you wouldn't worry.
*.*
It’s Not Just You:
Hairanoia: The suspicion that everybody is just saying they love your new haircut.
Kinsomnia: The inability to fall asleep once one starts thinking about one’s family.
Rexhibitionism: Childhood compulsion to show dinosaur figurines to everyone, even strangers on the street.
Seasonings affective disorder: Manifested by the need to glop Sriracha on things that taste just fine the way they are.
Dementionate: Compulsively nice behavior — the lending of money, sharing of fries, remembering of birthdays — sparking waves of unworthiness on the part of the recipient.
Socialism Anxiety: Inability to converse with anyone who voted for Bernie Sanders.
Hippochondria: The conviction that one’s hips look about a mile wide in the outfit one idiotically chose to wear today.
Angoraphobia: The fear of being way too hot in a sweater.
Delusions of Grandes: Compulsive fantasizing about one’s next Starbucks, even while sipping a Frappuccino right now.
Schleptomania: Going from store to store even though you don’t really know what you want and are maxed out on your credit cards.
Obsessive-Complainer Disorder: Manifests itself in singsong statements of fatigue, boredom and the wish to do, eat or be something else. Also see: whines, whining, whiners, children.
ATMnesia: The inability to remember where you put your bank card moments after you have completed a cash machine transaction.
Post-Traumatic Dress Disorder: Rage and guilt focused on a bride after she has ordered mauve poufy dresses for her bridesmaids, and you are one of them.
Psyintology: To feel wildly conflicting emotions about Tom Cruise. On the one hand, he’s a cult member. On the other hand, my GOD he is STILL gorgeous. And “Maverick” — wow! All is forgiven, Tom! Or is it? No. Yes! No. Yes!
Bi-Stroller Disorder: To experience violent fantasies while being stuck behind someone with a double stroller hogging the whole sidewalk, especially if that someone is on her phone.
Post-Cardum Depression: Feeling sad looking at old postcards from when you used to bother to write them.
Dysmexia: Confusing tacos and burritos.
Sharkolepsy: Inability to stay awake during shows featuring would-be entrepreneurs.
Clinical Cynical Syndrome: To reply to any idea proposed by a thoughtful adult with “Yeah, right” or “OK already!” Technically known as “adolescence.”
Mallucination: Often triggered by Cinnabon inhalation.
Duhlirium: The inability to stop responding with the word “duh” when someone is trying to explain something.
Lawyerism: Compulsive bingeing on anything starring Sam Waterston.
*.*
Oneliners:
The Lunar New Year means that it's now the ‘Year of the Rabbit', although some pronounce it ‘Wabbit' and you know who you are.
My bank balance is a constant reminder that I'm safe from identity theft.
I don't think girls realize how handsome my mom says I am.
I could be a morning person if morning happened after 11.
I really hate negativity.
People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.
Facebook should really have a "no one cares about" option too.
Running is the best way to remind yourself how much you love sitting.
A large group of Karens is called a Homeowners Association.
Love is like Wi-Fi: You can't see it, but you know when you've lost it.
*.*
Amazon is ending its "Amazon Smile" program on February 20th.
Apparently, charities have received enough.
Quote of the Times;
"Why is corporate journalism rushing to defend the state instead of the people?" – Musk
Link of the Times;
Google Is Doing Its Best to Censor Project Veritas Bombshell Sting on Pfizer Executive:
https://redstate.com/brandon_morse/2023/01/27/google-is-doing-its-best-to-censor-the-project-veritas-bombshell-sting-on-pfizer-executive-n694613
Issue of the Times;
Conservative Inc. And The Deal With The Daily Wire Devil by Andrew Torba
This week Steven Crowder made headlines for turning down a 50 million dollar term sheet offered by The Daily Wire. The term sheet, which would have forced Steven to sign over his email list, social media accounts, and revenue streams from his Mug Club, among other things from his life’s work, raised concerns about censorship and the gatekeeping of content creators by large conservative media companies and their owners.
The point of this article is to open your eyes to why your favorite conservative media outlets are not on our side and help you understand that they exist to keep you from discussing ideas that threaten the power of the Regime. These types of exploitative gatekeeping deals are not the outlier; they are the norm. Unlike most of the talking heads I have no gatekeeping contracts and thus can speak freely on these matters and tell you the unfortunate truth that you need to hear.
The Daily Wire is currently trying to gaslight Crowder and make this issue about money or greed when anyone paying attention knows that is not the case. This is a projection on their part because money is indeed what they care about here and in general. They can’t imagine that someone would reject that much money, and it “offends” them. They cry out in pain as they strike Crowder with a terrible one-sided deal for his soul.
Clearly, money is not an issue for a man willing to turn down $50 million and go public to dispute the predatory practices of a very large conservative media company. It’s also noteworthy that Steven claims to have been friends with everyone involved for the past decade, so this likely wasn’t an easy decision on his part from any angle. He’s burning bridges here in a big way.
It’s difficult for many people to wrap their heads around what appears on the surface to be a large sum of money. Most of us could never imagine turning down that sum to make Youtube videos. Still, for a creator as big as Crowder with an already established large audience and revenue-generating business, that amount of money over a multi-year period isn’t all that large. Likely, Crowder is already generating millions of dollars annually with his business.
Crowder’s business is worth a significant amount of money between his successful Mug Club monetization strategy, his established audience, and the potential for advertiser deals. Remember, the Daily Wire deal is not just for Steven himself, but for the entire operation he has built up over the past decade, including his library of content, the talent of his team, and the various revenue-generating business models he built. The money would be used to continue funding and expand the operational costs of his business.
The bigger picture here is that some things are worth more than any amount of money—things like dignity, principles, and the ability to speak freely without asking permission from Ben Shapiro.
One of the main issues with the term sheet was that it would have required Steven to censor himself to avoid being banned by Big Tech platforms or face steep financial penalties from The Daily Wire. In other words, Steven would have had to compromise his principles in order to maintain his operational income and continue to reach his audience. He would be beholden to the gatekeeping whims of Ben Shapiro and Big Tech.
He would be, as Jeremey Boring said in a recorded call with him, a “wage slave.”
Crowder made the right choice in rejecting the deal with The Daily Wire. He has set an important example for other content creators and media figures and exposed the dark underbelly of exploitative contracts in media companies like the Daily Wire, who put on a facade of “fighting back against the Regime,” when in reality, they are the controlled opposition that operates on behalf of it. Still, there is much more to this story.
We live in a time when the Friend/Enemy Distinction is essential to understand. This may be difficult for many of you to accept, but Ben Shapiro and The Daily Wire are not our friends. Nor are Fox News, Prager U, The Blaze, Charlie Kirk, and many others in the “conservative” media landscape. Not even Crowder himself, for that matter, but hopefully, that is about to change.
These people are working on behalf of our enemies. They aim to keep you within a tightly controlled narrative box of what the Regime deems “acceptable oppositional discourse.” Anyone who steps outside that line is blacklisted, smeared, and banned by these “conservative” media outlets for daring to speak the Truth.
Ask yourself why in a culture of censorship unlike anything ever seen before in this country, has Ben Shapiro, The Daily Wire, and all of the other “popular” conservative media outlets I mentioned never faced any modicum of censorship over the past seven years? Why is Ben Shapiro “shadow-boosted” into Facebook and YouTube feeds while the rest of us are banned, demonetized, and shadowbanned?
You may think that it’s because he is paying Facebook millions of dollars, and that would be a very logical assumption, but what is going on here is much bigger than that. Ben Shapiro, The Daily Wire, and the rest of Conservative Inc. exist for one reason and one reason only: to keep you from entertaining forbidden opinions. They are a release valve that herds those who would otherwise be genuinely right-wing (and thus a threat to the Regime) into bland, “acceptable” conservatism that threatens nothing.
That’s why they are not only allowed on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter by our enemies but also boosted and promoted by them. They pose no real threat to those in power; instead, they are an asset to them. They give the illusion of opposition to the totality of the Regime’s grasp on government, media, entertainment, banking, and technology.
Shapiro is boosted artificially so much by Big Tech that he consistently appears in the top shared links on Facebook, not because his content is novel, interesting, or talented, but rather because our enemies are inflating him on purpose. That purpose is to corral the conversation and prevent you from listening to anyone with ideas that legitimately threaten the existing power structure. For the life of me, I can’t understand how people could possibly listen to his annoying nasally speed talking for hours, but I digress.
The Daily Wire and Conservative Inc aren’t interested in free speech. They are interested in Controlled Speech. That’s their job. They rope you in by giving off the appearance of cultural resistance, and when it really matters, they sideswipe their conservative Christian audience with Regime-approved narratives. There are many examples of this – too many to count. Christians need to wise up to what is going on here.
Ben Shapiro was notoriously anti-Trump in 2016 when it mattered. He called the January 6th political prisoners’ evil’ and said they should “end up rotting in prison.” He made a case in front of his audience for “mandatory vaccinations” when people were losing their jobs and businesses for refusing to be lab rats. He has repeatedly shilled for endless foreign wars on behalf of Israel. The list goes on and on.
Conservative Inc lures you in with culture war distractions, convincing you that they share your values and are fighting back against the Regime. The reality is they exist to pull a bait and switch on you and force Regime-approved narratives about critical issues down your throat from a “right-wing” perspective. Big Con is conning you, and many of you don’t realize it yet, but hopefully, with what Crowder is exposing here, you are starting to get the picture. Conservative Inc is not your friend.
Let’s look at what happens when someone signs on the dotted line with a Conservative Inc company like The Daily Wire. Jordan Peterson did just that several months ago. The first videos Peterson released after joining The Daily Wire chastised Muslims and Christians with criticism and scolding. Noticeably he provided none of the same complaints and scolding to people of the Jewish faith. Instead, he is now making trips to Israel, crying on stage, praising them, and doing glowing interviews with Benjamin Netanyahu. This is what it looks like to sell your soul for money and become a dancing clown for Ben Shapiro and Israel.
Last fall, Ye came under scrutiny from the media for expressing similar concerns to Crowder with certain music industry contracts that were equally exploitative. Ye was then promptly banned from social media, bank accounts, and much more for criticizing the group of people behind these contracts.
As it turns out, the same group of people are behind Steven Crowder’s exploitative term sheet offer from The Daily Wire. So, it appears Ye indeed had a point about exploitative contracts from Jewish media moguls. These are the facts, and the gatekeepers at Conservative Inc don’t want you to discuss these uncomfortable truths. It’s not Christians running these companies and making these deals. Ye told you who is running them, and they destroyed him for it.
When Ye’s friend Candace Owens, who works for The Daily Wire, went to bat to defend him, Ben Shapiro quickly put her in her place to stop it. Signing on the dotted line with The Daily Wire means you are forbidden from discussing topics that make Ben Shapiro uncomfortable. Topics that are essential to breaking down the problems in our society and that are culturally, spiritually, and politically relevant. Taking the deal with the Devil means you must shut your mouth about these topics and must leave your friends and principles hanging under the bus.
Money can be a powerful motivator for many people, but there are some things that no money can buy. You cannot serve God and money (Matthew 6:24). The Bible tells us:
“A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the Lord upholdeth the righteous.”
- Psalms 37:16-17
It’s easy to see the appeal of making a deal like this for Crowder, Jordan Peterson, Candace Owens, and others. Many on the right are making a point about the “large sum of money,” but are missing the bigger picture about this deal: no amount of money is worth being a “wage slave” and selling your life’s work to Ben Shapiro. None. Not $50 million.
Big Tech companies have a huge influence over the distribution of information and content. We must support and protect the rights of creators to produce content freely and without censorship. That’s what we have been doing here at Gab for over six years now, and it’s what we will continue to do going forward. Why do you think none of the Conservative Inc personalities and media companies are on Gab? They can’t control the narrative here. It’s that simple.
Last summer, I said that to be a leader or influencer on the right, you need to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and be a Christian. I said in no uncertain terms that people like Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson have no place in any serious right-wing movement and resistance to the Regime unless they become Christians. I got a lot of flack for this from the media and many people on the right, but I stand by it, and now you see why.
This Daily Wire situation with Crowder is a great example. Christians don’t act the way Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boreing act. They don’t refer to themselves as “god-kings.” They don’t write soul-buying exploitative contracts. They don’t refer to employees as “wage slaves.” They don’t force people to throw their friends under the bus. These people don’t act like Christians because they aren’t Christians, and the Christians who do work for them and have made a deal with the Devil–people like Matt Walsh–should be ashamed of themselves. If they had any self-respect and cared about the truth and fighting the Regime, they would move on to bigger and better things.
When you support The Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro, and Conservative Inc, this is the behavior you are endorsing and making possible. This is why we need to explicitly support Christian businesses, creators, media companies, and leaders only. Period.
I wish Crowder all the best with whatever comes next and pray that he starts speaking a little more boldly, stops punching right, and remains independent from the Conservative Inc machine.
Andrew Torba
CEO, www.Gab.com
Jesus Christ is the King of kings
News of the Times;
U.S. trade deficit shrinks 21% to 26-month low as imports tumble:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/u-s-trade-deficit-sinks-21-to-26-month-low-as-imports-tumble-11672926549
Another Wave of Joe Biden J-O-B-S Losses:
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2023/01/27/another-wave-of-joe-biden-j-o-b-s-losses-n1665451
The Mainstream Media admits that we are facing “the worst food crisis in history”:
https://xyz.net.au/2023/01/the-mainstream-media-admits-that-we-are-facing-the-worst-food-crisis-in-history/
Chicken farmers report hens are not laying eggs, tainted feed possible culprit:
https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-01-26-hens-not-laying-eggs-tainted-feed-culprit.html
Massive Fire Destroys Commercial Egg Farm Belonging To Top US Supplier:
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/massive-fire-destroys-commercial-egg-farm-belonging-top-us-supplier
Here it is: The Smoking Gun:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/smoking-gun-20-point-email-classified-information-father-hunter-biden-sent-burisma-board-member-april-2014/
Biden Admin to Scientists: If You Want Grants, You MUST Promote Inclusion and Equity:
https://thenewamerican.com/biden-admin-to-scientists-if-you-want-grants-you-must-promote-inclusion-and-equity/
Secret Pope Benedict book is published blasting progressive Pope Francis, reveals US Catholic seminaries are havens of 'gay clubs':
https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-secret-pope-benedict-book-is-published-blasting-progressive-pope-francis-reveals-us-catholic-seminaries-are-havens-of-gay-clubs
These Jews are defending Drag Story Hour against far-right protestors:
https://www.jta.org/2023/01/06/ny/these-jews-are-defending-drag-story-hour-against-far-right-protestors-heres-why
Bearded Drag Queen Toasts To “Those Who L*ck Us Where We Pee” In Front Of Young Children At Texas Drag Show:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/sick-bearded-drag-queen-toasts-lck-us-pee-front-young-children-texas-drag-show-video/
Local Official Indicted on Voter Fraud Charges Connected to Both Primary and General Elections:
https://www.westernjournal.com/local-official-indicted-voter-fraud-charges-connected-primary-general-elections/
Uncovered Email Names Joe Biden in Oil Deal with China:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/uncovered-email-names-joe-biden-oil-deal-china-2017-2022-biden-president-biden-sold-oil-hunter-connected-chinese-company/
Memphis cops charged in Tyre Nichols murder hired after PD relaxed job requirements:
https://nypost.com/2023/01/28/memphis-cops-in-tyre-nichols-murder-hired-after-pd-relaxed-job-standards/
Memphis police chief previously fired by Atlanta police for covering up child sex crime:
https://thepostmillennial.com/memphis-police-chief-previously-fired-by-atlanta-police-for-covering-up-child-sex-crime
I Left the Gunman Unhindered to Continue Killing the Children He Held Hostage:
https://ace.mu.nu/archives/402713.php
Maybe not emotionally, financially, mentally or physically, but the place I'm at serves coffee.
So, I'm good.
*.*
An asteroid the size of a truck passed by the earth last Thursday just 2,200 miles above the planet's surface in one of the closest approaches ever recorded.
We didn't tell you ahead of time so you wouldn't worry.
*.*
It’s Not Just You:
Hairanoia: The suspicion that everybody is just saying they love your new haircut.
Kinsomnia: The inability to fall asleep once one starts thinking about one’s family.
Rexhibitionism: Childhood compulsion to show dinosaur figurines to everyone, even strangers on the street.
Seasonings affective disorder: Manifested by the need to glop Sriracha on things that taste just fine the way they are.
Dementionate: Compulsively nice behavior — the lending of money, sharing of fries, remembering of birthdays — sparking waves of unworthiness on the part of the recipient.
Socialism Anxiety: Inability to converse with anyone who voted for Bernie Sanders.
Hippochondria: The conviction that one’s hips look about a mile wide in the outfit one idiotically chose to wear today.
Angoraphobia: The fear of being way too hot in a sweater.
Delusions of Grandes: Compulsive fantasizing about one’s next Starbucks, even while sipping a Frappuccino right now.
Schleptomania: Going from store to store even though you don’t really know what you want and are maxed out on your credit cards.
Obsessive-Complainer Disorder: Manifests itself in singsong statements of fatigue, boredom and the wish to do, eat or be something else. Also see: whines, whining, whiners, children.
ATMnesia: The inability to remember where you put your bank card moments after you have completed a cash machine transaction.
Post-Traumatic Dress Disorder: Rage and guilt focused on a bride after she has ordered mauve poufy dresses for her bridesmaids, and you are one of them.
Psyintology: To feel wildly conflicting emotions about Tom Cruise. On the one hand, he’s a cult member. On the other hand, my GOD he is STILL gorgeous. And “Maverick” — wow! All is forgiven, Tom! Or is it? No. Yes! No. Yes!
Bi-Stroller Disorder: To experience violent fantasies while being stuck behind someone with a double stroller hogging the whole sidewalk, especially if that someone is on her phone.
Post-Cardum Depression: Feeling sad looking at old postcards from when you used to bother to write them.
Dysmexia: Confusing tacos and burritos.
Sharkolepsy: Inability to stay awake during shows featuring would-be entrepreneurs.
Clinical Cynical Syndrome: To reply to any idea proposed by a thoughtful adult with “Yeah, right” or “OK already!” Technically known as “adolescence.”
Mallucination: Often triggered by Cinnabon inhalation.
Duhlirium: The inability to stop responding with the word “duh” when someone is trying to explain something.
Lawyerism: Compulsive bingeing on anything starring Sam Waterston.
*.*
Oneliners:
The Lunar New Year means that it's now the ‘Year of the Rabbit', although some pronounce it ‘Wabbit' and you know who you are.
My bank balance is a constant reminder that I'm safe from identity theft.
I don't think girls realize how handsome my mom says I am.
I could be a morning person if morning happened after 11.
I really hate negativity.
People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.
Facebook should really have a "no one cares about" option too.
Running is the best way to remind yourself how much you love sitting.
A large group of Karens is called a Homeowners Association.
Love is like Wi-Fi: You can't see it, but you know when you've lost it.
*.*
Amazon is ending its "Amazon Smile" program on February 20th.
Apparently, charities have received enough.
Quote of the Times;
"Why is corporate journalism rushing to defend the state instead of the people?" – Musk
Link of the Times;
Google Is Doing Its Best to Censor Project Veritas Bombshell Sting on Pfizer Executive:
https://redstate.com/brandon_morse/2023/01/27/google-is-doing-its-best-to-censor-the-project-veritas-bombshell-sting-on-pfizer-executive-n694613
Issue of the Times;
Conservative Inc. And The Deal With The Daily Wire Devil by Andrew Torba
This week Steven Crowder made headlines for turning down a 50 million dollar term sheet offered by The Daily Wire. The term sheet, which would have forced Steven to sign over his email list, social media accounts, and revenue streams from his Mug Club, among other things from his life’s work, raised concerns about censorship and the gatekeeping of content creators by large conservative media companies and their owners.
The point of this article is to open your eyes to why your favorite conservative media outlets are not on our side and help you understand that they exist to keep you from discussing ideas that threaten the power of the Regime. These types of exploitative gatekeeping deals are not the outlier; they are the norm. Unlike most of the talking heads I have no gatekeeping contracts and thus can speak freely on these matters and tell you the unfortunate truth that you need to hear.
The Daily Wire is currently trying to gaslight Crowder and make this issue about money or greed when anyone paying attention knows that is not the case. This is a projection on their part because money is indeed what they care about here and in general. They can’t imagine that someone would reject that much money, and it “offends” them. They cry out in pain as they strike Crowder with a terrible one-sided deal for his soul.
Clearly, money is not an issue for a man willing to turn down $50 million and go public to dispute the predatory practices of a very large conservative media company. It’s also noteworthy that Steven claims to have been friends with everyone involved for the past decade, so this likely wasn’t an easy decision on his part from any angle. He’s burning bridges here in a big way.
It’s difficult for many people to wrap their heads around what appears on the surface to be a large sum of money. Most of us could never imagine turning down that sum to make Youtube videos. Still, for a creator as big as Crowder with an already established large audience and revenue-generating business, that amount of money over a multi-year period isn’t all that large. Likely, Crowder is already generating millions of dollars annually with his business.
Crowder’s business is worth a significant amount of money between his successful Mug Club monetization strategy, his established audience, and the potential for advertiser deals. Remember, the Daily Wire deal is not just for Steven himself, but for the entire operation he has built up over the past decade, including his library of content, the talent of his team, and the various revenue-generating business models he built. The money would be used to continue funding and expand the operational costs of his business.
The bigger picture here is that some things are worth more than any amount of money—things like dignity, principles, and the ability to speak freely without asking permission from Ben Shapiro.
One of the main issues with the term sheet was that it would have required Steven to censor himself to avoid being banned by Big Tech platforms or face steep financial penalties from The Daily Wire. In other words, Steven would have had to compromise his principles in order to maintain his operational income and continue to reach his audience. He would be beholden to the gatekeeping whims of Ben Shapiro and Big Tech.
He would be, as Jeremey Boring said in a recorded call with him, a “wage slave.”
Crowder made the right choice in rejecting the deal with The Daily Wire. He has set an important example for other content creators and media figures and exposed the dark underbelly of exploitative contracts in media companies like the Daily Wire, who put on a facade of “fighting back against the Regime,” when in reality, they are the controlled opposition that operates on behalf of it. Still, there is much more to this story.
We live in a time when the Friend/Enemy Distinction is essential to understand. This may be difficult for many of you to accept, but Ben Shapiro and The Daily Wire are not our friends. Nor are Fox News, Prager U, The Blaze, Charlie Kirk, and many others in the “conservative” media landscape. Not even Crowder himself, for that matter, but hopefully, that is about to change.
These people are working on behalf of our enemies. They aim to keep you within a tightly controlled narrative box of what the Regime deems “acceptable oppositional discourse.” Anyone who steps outside that line is blacklisted, smeared, and banned by these “conservative” media outlets for daring to speak the Truth.
Ask yourself why in a culture of censorship unlike anything ever seen before in this country, has Ben Shapiro, The Daily Wire, and all of the other “popular” conservative media outlets I mentioned never faced any modicum of censorship over the past seven years? Why is Ben Shapiro “shadow-boosted” into Facebook and YouTube feeds while the rest of us are banned, demonetized, and shadowbanned?
You may think that it’s because he is paying Facebook millions of dollars, and that would be a very logical assumption, but what is going on here is much bigger than that. Ben Shapiro, The Daily Wire, and the rest of Conservative Inc. exist for one reason and one reason only: to keep you from entertaining forbidden opinions. They are a release valve that herds those who would otherwise be genuinely right-wing (and thus a threat to the Regime) into bland, “acceptable” conservatism that threatens nothing.
That’s why they are not only allowed on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter by our enemies but also boosted and promoted by them. They pose no real threat to those in power; instead, they are an asset to them. They give the illusion of opposition to the totality of the Regime’s grasp on government, media, entertainment, banking, and technology.
Shapiro is boosted artificially so much by Big Tech that he consistently appears in the top shared links on Facebook, not because his content is novel, interesting, or talented, but rather because our enemies are inflating him on purpose. That purpose is to corral the conversation and prevent you from listening to anyone with ideas that legitimately threaten the existing power structure. For the life of me, I can’t understand how people could possibly listen to his annoying nasally speed talking for hours, but I digress.
The Daily Wire and Conservative Inc aren’t interested in free speech. They are interested in Controlled Speech. That’s their job. They rope you in by giving off the appearance of cultural resistance, and when it really matters, they sideswipe their conservative Christian audience with Regime-approved narratives. There are many examples of this – too many to count. Christians need to wise up to what is going on here.
Ben Shapiro was notoriously anti-Trump in 2016 when it mattered. He called the January 6th political prisoners’ evil’ and said they should “end up rotting in prison.” He made a case in front of his audience for “mandatory vaccinations” when people were losing their jobs and businesses for refusing to be lab rats. He has repeatedly shilled for endless foreign wars on behalf of Israel. The list goes on and on.
Conservative Inc lures you in with culture war distractions, convincing you that they share your values and are fighting back against the Regime. The reality is they exist to pull a bait and switch on you and force Regime-approved narratives about critical issues down your throat from a “right-wing” perspective. Big Con is conning you, and many of you don’t realize it yet, but hopefully, with what Crowder is exposing here, you are starting to get the picture. Conservative Inc is not your friend.
Let’s look at what happens when someone signs on the dotted line with a Conservative Inc company like The Daily Wire. Jordan Peterson did just that several months ago. The first videos Peterson released after joining The Daily Wire chastised Muslims and Christians with criticism and scolding. Noticeably he provided none of the same complaints and scolding to people of the Jewish faith. Instead, he is now making trips to Israel, crying on stage, praising them, and doing glowing interviews with Benjamin Netanyahu. This is what it looks like to sell your soul for money and become a dancing clown for Ben Shapiro and Israel.
Last fall, Ye came under scrutiny from the media for expressing similar concerns to Crowder with certain music industry contracts that were equally exploitative. Ye was then promptly banned from social media, bank accounts, and much more for criticizing the group of people behind these contracts.
As it turns out, the same group of people are behind Steven Crowder’s exploitative term sheet offer from The Daily Wire. So, it appears Ye indeed had a point about exploitative contracts from Jewish media moguls. These are the facts, and the gatekeepers at Conservative Inc don’t want you to discuss these uncomfortable truths. It’s not Christians running these companies and making these deals. Ye told you who is running them, and they destroyed him for it.
When Ye’s friend Candace Owens, who works for The Daily Wire, went to bat to defend him, Ben Shapiro quickly put her in her place to stop it. Signing on the dotted line with The Daily Wire means you are forbidden from discussing topics that make Ben Shapiro uncomfortable. Topics that are essential to breaking down the problems in our society and that are culturally, spiritually, and politically relevant. Taking the deal with the Devil means you must shut your mouth about these topics and must leave your friends and principles hanging under the bus.
Money can be a powerful motivator for many people, but there are some things that no money can buy. You cannot serve God and money (Matthew 6:24). The Bible tells us:
“A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the Lord upholdeth the righteous.”
- Psalms 37:16-17
It’s easy to see the appeal of making a deal like this for Crowder, Jordan Peterson, Candace Owens, and others. Many on the right are making a point about the “large sum of money,” but are missing the bigger picture about this deal: no amount of money is worth being a “wage slave” and selling your life’s work to Ben Shapiro. None. Not $50 million.
Big Tech companies have a huge influence over the distribution of information and content. We must support and protect the rights of creators to produce content freely and without censorship. That’s what we have been doing here at Gab for over six years now, and it’s what we will continue to do going forward. Why do you think none of the Conservative Inc personalities and media companies are on Gab? They can’t control the narrative here. It’s that simple.
Last summer, I said that to be a leader or influencer on the right, you need to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and be a Christian. I said in no uncertain terms that people like Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson have no place in any serious right-wing movement and resistance to the Regime unless they become Christians. I got a lot of flack for this from the media and many people on the right, but I stand by it, and now you see why.
This Daily Wire situation with Crowder is a great example. Christians don’t act the way Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boreing act. They don’t refer to themselves as “god-kings.” They don’t write soul-buying exploitative contracts. They don’t refer to employees as “wage slaves.” They don’t force people to throw their friends under the bus. These people don’t act like Christians because they aren’t Christians, and the Christians who do work for them and have made a deal with the Devil–people like Matt Walsh–should be ashamed of themselves. If they had any self-respect and cared about the truth and fighting the Regime, they would move on to bigger and better things.
When you support The Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro, and Conservative Inc, this is the behavior you are endorsing and making possible. This is why we need to explicitly support Christian businesses, creators, media companies, and leaders only. Period.
I wish Crowder all the best with whatever comes next and pray that he starts speaking a little more boldly, stops punching right, and remains independent from the Conservative Inc machine.
Andrew Torba
CEO, www.Gab.com
Jesus Christ is the King of kings
News of the Times;
U.S. trade deficit shrinks 21% to 26-month low as imports tumble:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/u-s-trade-deficit-sinks-21-to-26-month-low-as-imports-tumble-11672926549
Another Wave of Joe Biden J-O-B-S Losses:
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2023/01/27/another-wave-of-joe-biden-j-o-b-s-losses-n1665451
The Mainstream Media admits that we are facing “the worst food crisis in history”:
https://xyz.net.au/2023/01/the-mainstream-media-admits-that-we-are-facing-the-worst-food-crisis-in-history/
Chicken farmers report hens are not laying eggs, tainted feed possible culprit:
https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-01-26-hens-not-laying-eggs-tainted-feed-culprit.html
Massive Fire Destroys Commercial Egg Farm Belonging To Top US Supplier:
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/massive-fire-destroys-commercial-egg-farm-belonging-top-us-supplier
Here it is: The Smoking Gun:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/smoking-gun-20-point-email-classified-information-father-hunter-biden-sent-burisma-board-member-april-2014/
Biden Admin to Scientists: If You Want Grants, You MUST Promote Inclusion and Equity:
https://thenewamerican.com/biden-admin-to-scientists-if-you-want-grants-you-must-promote-inclusion-and-equity/
Secret Pope Benedict book is published blasting progressive Pope Francis, reveals US Catholic seminaries are havens of 'gay clubs':
https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-secret-pope-benedict-book-is-published-blasting-progressive-pope-francis-reveals-us-catholic-seminaries-are-havens-of-gay-clubs
These Jews are defending Drag Story Hour against far-right protestors:
https://www.jta.org/2023/01/06/ny/these-jews-are-defending-drag-story-hour-against-far-right-protestors-heres-why
Bearded Drag Queen Toasts To “Those Who L*ck Us Where We Pee” In Front Of Young Children At Texas Drag Show:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/sick-bearded-drag-queen-toasts-lck-us-pee-front-young-children-texas-drag-show-video/
Local Official Indicted on Voter Fraud Charges Connected to Both Primary and General Elections:
https://www.westernjournal.com/local-official-indicted-voter-fraud-charges-connected-primary-general-elections/
Uncovered Email Names Joe Biden in Oil Deal with China:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/uncovered-email-names-joe-biden-oil-deal-china-2017-2022-biden-president-biden-sold-oil-hunter-connected-chinese-company/
Memphis cops charged in Tyre Nichols murder hired after PD relaxed job requirements:
https://nypost.com/2023/01/28/memphis-cops-in-tyre-nichols-murder-hired-after-pd-relaxed-job-standards/
Memphis police chief previously fired by Atlanta police for covering up child sex crime:
https://thepostmillennial.com/memphis-police-chief-previously-fired-by-atlanta-police-for-covering-up-child-sex-crime
I Left the Gunman Unhindered to Continue Killing the Children He Held Hostage:
https://ace.mu.nu/archives/402713.php
Strangle?
Someone asked me what I would like from the 1970s to be brought back.
I said, "My hair."
*.*
Remember how Park Rangers in Australia found the world's largest toad last week, weighing just under six pounds?
Shortly after its discovery, it was put down because it's part of an invasive species.
Either that, or the world's second largest toad paid them off.
It's competitive out there.
*.*
Little Johnny ran into the room sobbing as through his heart would break.
"Whats the problem Johnny?" asked his mother.
"Oh, daddy was hanging a picture and he dropped it on his toe," replied Johnny.
"Why, that's nothing to cry about. You should be laughing at that," said his mother.
"I did," Johnny replied.
*.*
Archeologists in Norway say they have found the world's oldest runestone, over 2,000 years old.
Just a reminder, runestones aren't as old as Rolling Stones, but they're close.
*.*
I'm not a complete idiot.
Some parts are still missing!
Quote of the Times;
"Inside every progressive is a totalitarian screaming to get out." - horowitz
Link of the Times;
FBI Agent Behind Trump-Russia Hoax Arrested For Illegal Russian Bribes, Money Laundering:
https://valiantnews.com/2023/01/fbi-agent-behind-trump-russia-hoax-arrested-for-illegal-russian-bribes-money-laundering/
Issue of the Times;
Ending the Stranglehold of Public Employee Unions by Mark Pulliam
The threat of faction - a “mortal disease,” James Madison warned in Federalist 10 - has plagued popular government since time immemorial. The eternal desire to improve one’s economic position at the expense of others without the benefit of consensual exchange has long tempted mankind into (again, using Madison’s words) “mutual animosities” that eventually found voice in Karl Marx’s toxic class consciousness. In the pre-industrial era, the “dangerous vice” of rent-seeking often consisted of debtors seeking to avoid their repayment obligations through the use of worthless paper money. During the 20th century, the New Deal institutionalized economic warfare between employers (capital) and employees (labor) in the guise of collective bargaining.
In the 1960s, the private-sector model of unionization was imprudently extended to government employees, and in the ensuing decades - coinciding with the meteoric growth of local, state, and federal employment - public employee unions have become one of the most powerful factions in America. James Madison would be astonished and chagrined. The number of unionized government employees now rivals that of their private sector counterparts, forming a special interest group that in many cases controls the dynamics of representative self-government. Unions representing government workers plunder public treasuries, hamstring elected officials, hinder efficiency and reform, and aggressively lobby to benefit the narrow interests of their members over those of the taxpaying public.
The baleful effects of public-sector unionism are particularly evident in the field of K-12 education, where unionized teachers dictate a self-serving agenda. In America’s major cities, government employee unions such as SEIU and AFSCME have replaced Boss Tweed as political power brokers.
Yet, despite the dysfunction resulting from the indefensible extension of collective bargaining to government workers - something that both FDR and George Meany opposed - the topic of public-sector unionism has largely been ignored by the legal academy as if self-interested public employees tilting the playing field of democracy in their favor is no different than the influence of K Street lobbyists or climate change activists. The Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Janus v. AFSCME drew fresh attention to the subject of public-sector unionism, but the focus was generally limited to agency fees and compelled speech. Unlike, say, the administrative state or campaign finance regulation, there is a dearth of current legal scholarship on public-sector unionism.
Into that vacuum steps well-respected lawyer and veteran public policy analyst Philip K. Howard in his latest book, Not Accountable: Rethinking the Constitutionality of Public Employee Unions. Howard, Chair of the nonpartisan reform group Common Good, is a serial best-selling author with a knack for explaining complex problems in simple terms and identifying common-sense solutions. In Not Accountable, Howard boldly takes on the juggernaut of public-sector unions and concludes that collective bargaining by government workers is an unconstitutional subversion of sovereign power.
Not Accountable explains the problem in a nutshell:
Union power in government happened almost by accident in the 1960s, ostensibly to give public unions the same bargaining rights as trade unions. But government bargaining is not about dividing profits, but making political choices about public priorities. Moreover, the political nature of decision-making allowed unions to provide campaign support to friendly officials. Public bargaining became collusive. The unions brag about it: “We elect our own bosses.”
Sitting on both sides of the bargaining table has allowed public unions to turn the democratic hierarchy upside down. Elected officials answer to public employees. Basic tools of good government have been eliminated. There’s no accountability, detailed union entitlements make government largely unmanageable and unaffordable, and public policies are driven by what is good for public employees, not what is good for the public. Public unions keep it that way by brute political force - harnessing the huge cohort of public employees into a political force dedicated to preventing the reform of government.
This critique echoes the work of public-sector union critics such as Daniel DiSalvo, Manhattan Institute senior fellow, CUNY professor, and author of Government against Itself: Public Union Power and Its Consequences. The only solution, Howard argues, is to declare public-sector collective bargaining unconstitutional: “America’s republican form of government requires an executive branch that is empowered to implement public policies, not one shackled to union controls. Public employees have a fiduciary duty to serve the public and should not be allowed to organize politically to harm the public.”
Not Accountable is not a dense treatise or a legal brief. In 200 pages of text, including a Foreword by Mitch Daniels, former Governor of Indiana and President of Purdue University, Howard ably distills the issues into a five-point indictment. He argues that public employee unions have:
1. Severed the links of accountability;
2. Rendered government substantially unmanageable with detailed rules and veto powers;
3. Made government unaffordable with opaque benefit packages and compensation manipulations;
4. Changed public policies to the harm of the public good; and,
5. Entrenched these abuses, and made reform practically impossible, through organized political power.
Howard elaborates on each of these points in a series of concise, elegant chapters, with anecdotes drawn from current events, references to classical political theory, and supporting end notes for readers wishing to dig deeper. For the most part, a 30,000-foot overview is enough to convince the reader that we face a serious problem - loss of sovereignty coupled with what Howard aptly calls “bureaucratic kleptocracy” via a “union spoils system.” The more difficult issue is crafting a solution. Political reform is stymied by unions’ pervasive rent-seeking and institutional capture of state and local government.
Howard’s constitutional objections, while - to my mind - compelling, are not particularly original; he mainly cites scholars who made similar arguments decades ago, including the prolific Sylvester Petro (who unsuccessfully argued Abood v. Detroit Board of Education [1977] before the U.S. Supreme Court, only to be posthumously vindicated when the decision was overturned 41 years later in Janus) and Edwin Vieira, Jr. However, the legal case against public-sector unionism (other than Abood, Janus, and similar agency fee challenges) was never fully litigated, has been all-but-forgotten, and unfortunately vanished from the public conversation - until now. Howard has resurrected formidable but neglected legal arguments so that they may, hopefully, gain the overdue airing they deserve.
One of the reasons public-sector unionism has not attracted the attention of many legal scholars is that the subject is governed by a patchwork quilt of state laws and regulations. The federal National Labor Relations Act applies only to private-sector employees. Nationally-prominent scholars tend to be drawn to uniform schemes of law, such as the NLRA. Collective-bargaining rights for federal government employees, first conferred (via Executive Order 10988) by President Kennedy in 1962, were later expanded by Congress in the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978.
Although seldom noticed, government employee unions are a major issue at the federal level. Howard notes that “All told, the executive branch must bargain with a dozen different unions, each focused on specific cohorts. Together 25 percent of federal employees belong to unions, with total coverage somewhat higher.” These unions contribute to the Beltway morass.
Unlike some critics of public-sector unionism, Howard does not overlook congressionally-mandated collective bargaining by federal government employees, which he contends usurps the executive branch’s authority under Article II of the Constitution. Moreover, Howard ingeniously argues that the states’ surrender of sovereignty to unions representing government employees violates the Guarantee Clause of Article IV, which guarantees “to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government.” Stripping elected officials of their authority, and conferring it instead on self-interested representatives of government employees, robs the voters (“we the people”) of control over state and local government. The Founders would surely object to a collective-bargaining scheme that structurally empowered union officials at the expense of governors, mayors, and other public executives. Therefore, Howard maintains that the issue should not be deemed a non-justiciable “political question.”
Whether these - and other - constitutional objections to public-sector unionism will find a sympathetic hearing in court remains to be seen, but this much is clear: Absent a constitutional challenge, the dysfunctional status quo will continue or even worsen. Howard ends Not Accountable with these words:
No one elected unions to co-run American government. No democratic principle gave legislators and other officials the right to surrender governing powers to unions. No ethical value allows public employees, having taken an oath to protect the public, to organize politically to harm the public. Democracy under union restraints can’t work as the framers intended. That’s why union controls on the operating machinery of government should be ruled unconstitutional.
Judging from the enormous impact of Howard’s numerous prior books, including the critically-acclaimed national bestseller The Death of Common Sense (1995), and The Collapse of the Common Good (2002), Not Accountable will be widely read and find a large and receptive audience on both sides of the partisan aisle. (His 2010 Ted Talk entitled “Four ways to fix a broken legal system” has been viewed over 770,000 times.)
Howard’s thoughtful perspective and well-deserved reputation for dispensing non-wonkish common sense make it likely that his message and proposed reforms will not be ignored. A half-century ago, when America began the failed experiment of public-sector unionism, a small group of perceptive scholars predicted doom, in heavily-footnoted jeremiads that were largely ignored. It turns out they were prophetically correct. One hopes that Philip Howard’s Not Accountable will motivate Americans to pay closer attention and heed his sensible recommendations.
It is not often that public policy disasters offer a second chance at correction. Getting it wrong a second time would be unpardonable - and tragic.
News of the Times;
The Missing Babies of Europe:
https://defending-gibraltar.net/t/the-missing-babies-of-europe/4423
We’re in the midst of a coup. Who the hell’s behind it:
https://archive.is/SeUcY
Ukraine Rocked By Corruption Scandal, Wave Of Top Officials Resign:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukraine-rocked-corruption-scandal-wave-top-official-resignations-sports-cars-mansions
American Airlines cuts flights due to covid jab-induced pilot shortage:
https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-01-12-american-airlines-cuts-flights-covid-jabs-pilot-shortage.html
More than ONE MILLION children sought NHS treatment for depression, anxiety and eating disorders last year:
https://davidicke.com/2023/01/03/more-than-one-million-children-sought-nhs-treatment-for-depression-anxiety-and-eating-disorders-last-year-as-mental-health-referrals-soared-39-per-cent/
Migrants Living for Free in NYC Hotels are Fighting Staff, Drinking All Day, Having Sex in Public:
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/01/14/whistleblower-migrants-living-for-free-in-nyc-hotels-fighting-staff-drinking-all-day-having-sex-in-public/
Boulder’s Main Library Closes Due to Meth:
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/lincolnbrown/2023/01/02/can-you-check-out-a-pipe-too-boulders-main-library-closes-due-to-meth-n1657982
Creep tries to abduct boy from NYC synagogue, thwarted by mom:
https://nypost.com/2023/01/25/man-tries-to-abduct-kid-from-nyc-synagogue/
“Rape the White Girls” Poet Included in Florida’s Black AP Course:
https://www.frontpagemag.com/rape-the-white-girls-poet-included-in-floridas-black-ap-course/
A Mad Rush to Build More EV Factories, But Where are the Minerals?:
https://mishtalk.com/economics/a-mad-rush-to-build-more-ev-factories-but-where-are-the-minerals
Chinese Communist Party Aggression against America:
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/01/chinese_communist_party_aggression_against_america.html
Why Was Hunter Paying Joe Biden $50k Per Month To Rent House Where Classified Documents Found?:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/why-was-hunter-biden-paying-joe-50k-month-rent-house-where-classified-documents-found
Inspector Report Found Hundreds Of Chicago Teachers Allegedly Sexually Groomed, Raped Students:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/inspector-report-found-hundreds-of-chicago-teachers-allegedly-sexually-groomed-raped-students/ar-AA163iKE
Jamie Lee Curtis Deletes Instagram Post Showing Photo of Naked Child Stuffed in a Box:
https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2023/01/18/jamie-lee-curtis-deletes-instagram-post-showing-photo-of-naked-child-stuffed-in-a-box/
How White and American SLAVES Were Treated In Africa:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbWBHMerbvU
I said, "My hair."
*.*
Remember how Park Rangers in Australia found the world's largest toad last week, weighing just under six pounds?
Shortly after its discovery, it was put down because it's part of an invasive species.
Either that, or the world's second largest toad paid them off.
It's competitive out there.
*.*
Little Johnny ran into the room sobbing as through his heart would break.
"Whats the problem Johnny?" asked his mother.
"Oh, daddy was hanging a picture and he dropped it on his toe," replied Johnny.
"Why, that's nothing to cry about. You should be laughing at that," said his mother.
"I did," Johnny replied.
*.*
Archeologists in Norway say they have found the world's oldest runestone, over 2,000 years old.
Just a reminder, runestones aren't as old as Rolling Stones, but they're close.
*.*
I'm not a complete idiot.
Some parts are still missing!
Quote of the Times;
"Inside every progressive is a totalitarian screaming to get out." - horowitz
Link of the Times;
FBI Agent Behind Trump-Russia Hoax Arrested For Illegal Russian Bribes, Money Laundering:
https://valiantnews.com/2023/01/fbi-agent-behind-trump-russia-hoax-arrested-for-illegal-russian-bribes-money-laundering/
Issue of the Times;
Ending the Stranglehold of Public Employee Unions by Mark Pulliam
The threat of faction - a “mortal disease,” James Madison warned in Federalist 10 - has plagued popular government since time immemorial. The eternal desire to improve one’s economic position at the expense of others without the benefit of consensual exchange has long tempted mankind into (again, using Madison’s words) “mutual animosities” that eventually found voice in Karl Marx’s toxic class consciousness. In the pre-industrial era, the “dangerous vice” of rent-seeking often consisted of debtors seeking to avoid their repayment obligations through the use of worthless paper money. During the 20th century, the New Deal institutionalized economic warfare between employers (capital) and employees (labor) in the guise of collective bargaining.
In the 1960s, the private-sector model of unionization was imprudently extended to government employees, and in the ensuing decades - coinciding with the meteoric growth of local, state, and federal employment - public employee unions have become one of the most powerful factions in America. James Madison would be astonished and chagrined. The number of unionized government employees now rivals that of their private sector counterparts, forming a special interest group that in many cases controls the dynamics of representative self-government. Unions representing government workers plunder public treasuries, hamstring elected officials, hinder efficiency and reform, and aggressively lobby to benefit the narrow interests of their members over those of the taxpaying public.
The baleful effects of public-sector unionism are particularly evident in the field of K-12 education, where unionized teachers dictate a self-serving agenda. In America’s major cities, government employee unions such as SEIU and AFSCME have replaced Boss Tweed as political power brokers.
Yet, despite the dysfunction resulting from the indefensible extension of collective bargaining to government workers - something that both FDR and George Meany opposed - the topic of public-sector unionism has largely been ignored by the legal academy as if self-interested public employees tilting the playing field of democracy in their favor is no different than the influence of K Street lobbyists or climate change activists. The Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Janus v. AFSCME drew fresh attention to the subject of public-sector unionism, but the focus was generally limited to agency fees and compelled speech. Unlike, say, the administrative state or campaign finance regulation, there is a dearth of current legal scholarship on public-sector unionism.
Into that vacuum steps well-respected lawyer and veteran public policy analyst Philip K. Howard in his latest book, Not Accountable: Rethinking the Constitutionality of Public Employee Unions. Howard, Chair of the nonpartisan reform group Common Good, is a serial best-selling author with a knack for explaining complex problems in simple terms and identifying common-sense solutions. In Not Accountable, Howard boldly takes on the juggernaut of public-sector unions and concludes that collective bargaining by government workers is an unconstitutional subversion of sovereign power.
Not Accountable explains the problem in a nutshell:
Union power in government happened almost by accident in the 1960s, ostensibly to give public unions the same bargaining rights as trade unions. But government bargaining is not about dividing profits, but making political choices about public priorities. Moreover, the political nature of decision-making allowed unions to provide campaign support to friendly officials. Public bargaining became collusive. The unions brag about it: “We elect our own bosses.”
Sitting on both sides of the bargaining table has allowed public unions to turn the democratic hierarchy upside down. Elected officials answer to public employees. Basic tools of good government have been eliminated. There’s no accountability, detailed union entitlements make government largely unmanageable and unaffordable, and public policies are driven by what is good for public employees, not what is good for the public. Public unions keep it that way by brute political force - harnessing the huge cohort of public employees into a political force dedicated to preventing the reform of government.
This critique echoes the work of public-sector union critics such as Daniel DiSalvo, Manhattan Institute senior fellow, CUNY professor, and author of Government against Itself: Public Union Power and Its Consequences. The only solution, Howard argues, is to declare public-sector collective bargaining unconstitutional: “America’s republican form of government requires an executive branch that is empowered to implement public policies, not one shackled to union controls. Public employees have a fiduciary duty to serve the public and should not be allowed to organize politically to harm the public.”
Not Accountable is not a dense treatise or a legal brief. In 200 pages of text, including a Foreword by Mitch Daniels, former Governor of Indiana and President of Purdue University, Howard ably distills the issues into a five-point indictment. He argues that public employee unions have:
1. Severed the links of accountability;
2. Rendered government substantially unmanageable with detailed rules and veto powers;
3. Made government unaffordable with opaque benefit packages and compensation manipulations;
4. Changed public policies to the harm of the public good; and,
5. Entrenched these abuses, and made reform practically impossible, through organized political power.
Howard elaborates on each of these points in a series of concise, elegant chapters, with anecdotes drawn from current events, references to classical political theory, and supporting end notes for readers wishing to dig deeper. For the most part, a 30,000-foot overview is enough to convince the reader that we face a serious problem - loss of sovereignty coupled with what Howard aptly calls “bureaucratic kleptocracy” via a “union spoils system.” The more difficult issue is crafting a solution. Political reform is stymied by unions’ pervasive rent-seeking and institutional capture of state and local government.
Howard’s constitutional objections, while - to my mind - compelling, are not particularly original; he mainly cites scholars who made similar arguments decades ago, including the prolific Sylvester Petro (who unsuccessfully argued Abood v. Detroit Board of Education [1977] before the U.S. Supreme Court, only to be posthumously vindicated when the decision was overturned 41 years later in Janus) and Edwin Vieira, Jr. However, the legal case against public-sector unionism (other than Abood, Janus, and similar agency fee challenges) was never fully litigated, has been all-but-forgotten, and unfortunately vanished from the public conversation - until now. Howard has resurrected formidable but neglected legal arguments so that they may, hopefully, gain the overdue airing they deserve.
One of the reasons public-sector unionism has not attracted the attention of many legal scholars is that the subject is governed by a patchwork quilt of state laws and regulations. The federal National Labor Relations Act applies only to private-sector employees. Nationally-prominent scholars tend to be drawn to uniform schemes of law, such as the NLRA. Collective-bargaining rights for federal government employees, first conferred (via Executive Order 10988) by President Kennedy in 1962, were later expanded by Congress in the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978.
Although seldom noticed, government employee unions are a major issue at the federal level. Howard notes that “All told, the executive branch must bargain with a dozen different unions, each focused on specific cohorts. Together 25 percent of federal employees belong to unions, with total coverage somewhat higher.” These unions contribute to the Beltway morass.
Unlike some critics of public-sector unionism, Howard does not overlook congressionally-mandated collective bargaining by federal government employees, which he contends usurps the executive branch’s authority under Article II of the Constitution. Moreover, Howard ingeniously argues that the states’ surrender of sovereignty to unions representing government employees violates the Guarantee Clause of Article IV, which guarantees “to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government.” Stripping elected officials of their authority, and conferring it instead on self-interested representatives of government employees, robs the voters (“we the people”) of control over state and local government. The Founders would surely object to a collective-bargaining scheme that structurally empowered union officials at the expense of governors, mayors, and other public executives. Therefore, Howard maintains that the issue should not be deemed a non-justiciable “political question.”
Whether these - and other - constitutional objections to public-sector unionism will find a sympathetic hearing in court remains to be seen, but this much is clear: Absent a constitutional challenge, the dysfunctional status quo will continue or even worsen. Howard ends Not Accountable with these words:
No one elected unions to co-run American government. No democratic principle gave legislators and other officials the right to surrender governing powers to unions. No ethical value allows public employees, having taken an oath to protect the public, to organize politically to harm the public. Democracy under union restraints can’t work as the framers intended. That’s why union controls on the operating machinery of government should be ruled unconstitutional.
Judging from the enormous impact of Howard’s numerous prior books, including the critically-acclaimed national bestseller The Death of Common Sense (1995), and The Collapse of the Common Good (2002), Not Accountable will be widely read and find a large and receptive audience on both sides of the partisan aisle. (His 2010 Ted Talk entitled “Four ways to fix a broken legal system” has been viewed over 770,000 times.)
Howard’s thoughtful perspective and well-deserved reputation for dispensing non-wonkish common sense make it likely that his message and proposed reforms will not be ignored. A half-century ago, when America began the failed experiment of public-sector unionism, a small group of perceptive scholars predicted doom, in heavily-footnoted jeremiads that were largely ignored. It turns out they were prophetically correct. One hopes that Philip Howard’s Not Accountable will motivate Americans to pay closer attention and heed his sensible recommendations.
It is not often that public policy disasters offer a second chance at correction. Getting it wrong a second time would be unpardonable - and tragic.
News of the Times;
The Missing Babies of Europe:
https://defending-gibraltar.net/t/the-missing-babies-of-europe/4423
We’re in the midst of a coup. Who the hell’s behind it:
https://archive.is/SeUcY
Ukraine Rocked By Corruption Scandal, Wave Of Top Officials Resign:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukraine-rocked-corruption-scandal-wave-top-official-resignations-sports-cars-mansions
American Airlines cuts flights due to covid jab-induced pilot shortage:
https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-01-12-american-airlines-cuts-flights-covid-jabs-pilot-shortage.html
More than ONE MILLION children sought NHS treatment for depression, anxiety and eating disorders last year:
https://davidicke.com/2023/01/03/more-than-one-million-children-sought-nhs-treatment-for-depression-anxiety-and-eating-disorders-last-year-as-mental-health-referrals-soared-39-per-cent/
Migrants Living for Free in NYC Hotels are Fighting Staff, Drinking All Day, Having Sex in Public:
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/01/14/whistleblower-migrants-living-for-free-in-nyc-hotels-fighting-staff-drinking-all-day-having-sex-in-public/
Boulder’s Main Library Closes Due to Meth:
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/lincolnbrown/2023/01/02/can-you-check-out-a-pipe-too-boulders-main-library-closes-due-to-meth-n1657982
Creep tries to abduct boy from NYC synagogue, thwarted by mom:
https://nypost.com/2023/01/25/man-tries-to-abduct-kid-from-nyc-synagogue/
“Rape the White Girls” Poet Included in Florida’s Black AP Course:
https://www.frontpagemag.com/rape-the-white-girls-poet-included-in-floridas-black-ap-course/
A Mad Rush to Build More EV Factories, But Where are the Minerals?:
https://mishtalk.com/economics/a-mad-rush-to-build-more-ev-factories-but-where-are-the-minerals
Chinese Communist Party Aggression against America:
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/01/chinese_communist_party_aggression_against_america.html
Why Was Hunter Paying Joe Biden $50k Per Month To Rent House Where Classified Documents Found?:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/why-was-hunter-biden-paying-joe-50k-month-rent-house-where-classified-documents-found
Inspector Report Found Hundreds Of Chicago Teachers Allegedly Sexually Groomed, Raped Students:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/inspector-report-found-hundreds-of-chicago-teachers-allegedly-sexually-groomed-raped-students/ar-AA163iKE
Jamie Lee Curtis Deletes Instagram Post Showing Photo of Naked Child Stuffed in a Box:
https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2023/01/18/jamie-lee-curtis-deletes-instagram-post-showing-photo-of-naked-child-stuffed-in-a-box/
How White and American SLAVES Were Treated In Africa:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbWBHMerbvU
Monsters?
My going out clothes missed me so much.
I put them on and they hugged me so tightly, I could barely breathe.
*.*
SHE: Why don't your socks match?
ME: Why don't your kid's last names match?
*.*
Oneliners:
Hello darkness, my old friend, I just stood too fast again.
As you get older, you begin to suffer a series of increasingly humiliating micro-injuries, including: I slept wrong, while I was driving, I happened to yawn while checking my blind spot and the classic, I drank water too hard.
The best sign of a healthy relationship is no sign of it on Facebook.
Pretending to be a functioning adult is exhausting.
I just saw a TikTok video that claims the reason Millennials love Charcuterie boards and Mimosas so much is because they grew up on Lunchables and Sunny D!
It was a lot more fun being 20 in the 70s, than being 70 in the 20s.
I hope when I'm gone, they'll say, "Well, at least he was committed or should have been."
Our town is so small, we don't have a town drunk, so we all take turns.
I feel like getting something done today, so I'm just going to sit here until that feeling passes.
Remember, you can't be late until you show up.
*.*
Top ways high egg prices are changing the world:
Only the wealthy can now afford to walk on eggshells.
Eggs are now considered too good to scramble.
"Laying an egg" is now a compliment.
People are starting to ask for a cost-of-mayo raise.
You can have a steak. Or, for $2 more, an egg salad sandwich.
*.*
HELP WANTED at a Wisconsin dairy farm.
Must work well with udders.
Quote of the Times;
Those who assign to either stupidity or pecuniary interest the actions of the wicked simply fail to understand either the objectives or the nature of evil. This may sound like a criticism, but it is actually a testimony to the fundamental decency that makes it difficult for them to give credence to the true depths of human depravity. - Vox Day
Link of the Times;
Illegal Alien Gang Member Arrested For The Rape And Murder Of 20-Year-Old Maryland Woman With Autism:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/illegal-alien-gang-member-arrested-rape-murder-20-year-old-maryland-woman-autism/
Issue of the Times;
Destroying Monsters by Helmholtz Smith
A lot of the people who comment on this blog seem to me to be patriotic Americans. And, it’s clear, if you read the comments, that many of them – probably the majority – want Russia to win the war. This is not because they like Putin or Russia particularly, and certainly not because they’re on the “Putin payroll”. Not at all. These people understand what is really at stake.
These are people who know that the American war party (one of many names – deep state, borg, neocons, one percent, MICIMAC) is responsible for pushing Russia to the decision that it made last February. That it is the war party that expanded NATO despite the promises, that arms Ukraine, that encourages the fanatics driving that country, that blocks all routes to a peaceful settlement, that encourages Kiev to squander the lives of its people. But what really concerns these patriotic Americans is the damage the war party has done to their country.
An America of war all the time everywhere, of tent cities and full jails, of open borders, disappeared manufacturing, opiates, misery, poverty, corruption. An America with endless money to spend abroad but none to spend at home. (The hundred billion dollars dumped into Ukraine would give a $200,000 house to every one of the estimated half million homeless in the USA!) An America failing, no longer the American they loved, served and believed in. The Twitter revelations show some of the activities of this enemy embedded in the American polity. It’s very late and many fear that it is too late.
How to get this leech off America’s back? Voting can’t make much difference if both parties are manipulated. Is the voting system itself corrupted? Can the judicial system be trusted? Special counsels who report when it’s too late to matter? The managed media? Some may still believe in these things but the people I’m talking about don’t any more.
They can only see one way that the power of this internal enemy can be broken – complete and utter defeat. Defeat that cannot be ignored, cannot be explained away, defeat too big and too obvious for the obedient mass media to bury.
And that is why these people want Russia to win. They don’t necessarily like Russia or Putin or dislike Ukraine – it has little to do with either. It’s because they see this as the opportunity for the humiliating defeat that will shatter the power of the internal enemy. The war party assumed that Russia was weak and sanctions would crash its economy and bring down Putin. When this didn’t happen, they doubled down on their failed bet arrogantly certain they were right because everybody they allowed to speak agreed with them. If (when) Russia scores a decisive and undeniable victory, the perpetrators of the disaster will be revealed as corrupt fools wasting your money on their worthless fantasy.
Russia is also fighting a bigger war against the so-called rules-based international order. This shiny label covers the assertion that whatever America and its allies/subordinates do is right and whatever its opponents do is wrong and is the war party’s license to interfere everywhere. The hope is that the defeat – following on the Afghanistan debacle – will so weaken the war party that it will fall.
This far I have talked of patriotic Americans wanting Russia to win but I believe that every country in the West has people who also want Russia to win because utter, obvious and undeniable defeat is the only way that they can see to get their leeches off their backs.
The West is ruled by corrupt fools who are sending it to disaster – it is circling the drain of history. The hope is that Russian victory will burst the bubble, the internal enemy will be got rid of and these countries will start to mind their own business, care for their own populations and forget about the (mostly imaginary) monsters out there.
News of the Times;
Comedian Leaves Oxford Union SPEECHLESS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKIOSnKX96E
Roomba Robot Vacuum Testers Find "Intimate" Photos Of Themselves On The Web:
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/roomba-robot-vacuum-testers-find-intimate-photos-themselves-web
MIT Adopts Free Speech Resolution: “We Cannot Prohibit Speech as Offensive or Injurious.”:
https://jonathanturley.org/2022/12/30/mit-adopts-free-speech-resolution/
Jihadi Who Murdered Eight People in NYC Was In the U.S. on a Diversity Visa:
https://gellerreport.com/2023/01/jihadi-who-murdered-eight-people-in-nyc-was-in-the-u-s-on-a-diversity-visa.html/
Pipe bomb found in Seattle underground garage, suspect Osman Ibrahim in custody:
https://thepostmillennial.com/pipe-bomb-found-in-seattle-underground-garage-suspect-osman-ibrahim-in-custody
Mexican president thanks Biden for not securing American border with 'even one meter of wall':
https://www.theblaze.com/news/mexican-president-thanks-biden-for-not-securing-american-border-with-even-one-meter-of-wall
Biden Covering up: More Americans Killed During Afghan Withdrawal Than Reported:
https://floridianpress.com/2023/01/biden-covering-up-more-americans-killed-during-afghan-withdrawal-than-reported/
Tracking CIA-Backed ‘Zero Units’ in Afghanistan:
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/01/12/tracking-cia-backed-zero-units-in-afghanistan/
US Navy SEAL killed in Ukraine:
https://www.rt.com/news/570237-us-navy-seal-killed-ukraine/
Echoes from the first Neocon war in Europe and some music:
https://thesaker.is/echoes-from-the-first-neocon-war-in-europe-and-some-music/
Hundreds of UK police face sack as part of clean-up - top officer:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/482619/hundreds-of-uk-police-face-sack-as-part-of-clean-up-top-officer
Ukrainian Refugees In Britain Are Going Home For Medical Treatment Rather Than Endure NHS Waiting-Times:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/ukrainian-refugees-britain-are-going-home-medical-treatment-rather-endure-nhs-waiting
Radio stars criticize George Soros-backed move to ‘silence conservative Hispanic voices’:
https://nypost.com/2022/12/20/inside-george-soros-backed-move-to-silence-conservative-hispanic-voices/
Southern Poverty Law Center Got Busted Again Sending Millions To Offshore Accounts:
https://thefederalist.com/2017/09/01/southern-poverty-law-center-got-busted-sending-millions-offshore-accounts/
The matrix is malfunctioning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gHwe180s-U
I put them on and they hugged me so tightly, I could barely breathe.
*.*
SHE: Why don't your socks match?
ME: Why don't your kid's last names match?
*.*
Oneliners:
Hello darkness, my old friend, I just stood too fast again.
As you get older, you begin to suffer a series of increasingly humiliating micro-injuries, including: I slept wrong, while I was driving, I happened to yawn while checking my blind spot and the classic, I drank water too hard.
The best sign of a healthy relationship is no sign of it on Facebook.
Pretending to be a functioning adult is exhausting.
I just saw a TikTok video that claims the reason Millennials love Charcuterie boards and Mimosas so much is because they grew up on Lunchables and Sunny D!
It was a lot more fun being 20 in the 70s, than being 70 in the 20s.
I hope when I'm gone, they'll say, "Well, at least he was committed or should have been."
Our town is so small, we don't have a town drunk, so we all take turns.
I feel like getting something done today, so I'm just going to sit here until that feeling passes.
Remember, you can't be late until you show up.
*.*
Top ways high egg prices are changing the world:
Only the wealthy can now afford to walk on eggshells.
Eggs are now considered too good to scramble.
"Laying an egg" is now a compliment.
People are starting to ask for a cost-of-mayo raise.
You can have a steak. Or, for $2 more, an egg salad sandwich.
*.*
HELP WANTED at a Wisconsin dairy farm.
Must work well with udders.
Quote of the Times;
Those who assign to either stupidity or pecuniary interest the actions of the wicked simply fail to understand either the objectives or the nature of evil. This may sound like a criticism, but it is actually a testimony to the fundamental decency that makes it difficult for them to give credence to the true depths of human depravity. - Vox Day
Link of the Times;
Illegal Alien Gang Member Arrested For The Rape And Murder Of 20-Year-Old Maryland Woman With Autism:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/illegal-alien-gang-member-arrested-rape-murder-20-year-old-maryland-woman-autism/
Issue of the Times;
Destroying Monsters by Helmholtz Smith
A lot of the people who comment on this blog seem to me to be patriotic Americans. And, it’s clear, if you read the comments, that many of them – probably the majority – want Russia to win the war. This is not because they like Putin or Russia particularly, and certainly not because they’re on the “Putin payroll”. Not at all. These people understand what is really at stake.
These are people who know that the American war party (one of many names – deep state, borg, neocons, one percent, MICIMAC) is responsible for pushing Russia to the decision that it made last February. That it is the war party that expanded NATO despite the promises, that arms Ukraine, that encourages the fanatics driving that country, that blocks all routes to a peaceful settlement, that encourages Kiev to squander the lives of its people. But what really concerns these patriotic Americans is the damage the war party has done to their country.
An America of war all the time everywhere, of tent cities and full jails, of open borders, disappeared manufacturing, opiates, misery, poverty, corruption. An America with endless money to spend abroad but none to spend at home. (The hundred billion dollars dumped into Ukraine would give a $200,000 house to every one of the estimated half million homeless in the USA!) An America failing, no longer the American they loved, served and believed in. The Twitter revelations show some of the activities of this enemy embedded in the American polity. It’s very late and many fear that it is too late.
How to get this leech off America’s back? Voting can’t make much difference if both parties are manipulated. Is the voting system itself corrupted? Can the judicial system be trusted? Special counsels who report when it’s too late to matter? The managed media? Some may still believe in these things but the people I’m talking about don’t any more.
They can only see one way that the power of this internal enemy can be broken – complete and utter defeat. Defeat that cannot be ignored, cannot be explained away, defeat too big and too obvious for the obedient mass media to bury.
And that is why these people want Russia to win. They don’t necessarily like Russia or Putin or dislike Ukraine – it has little to do with either. It’s because they see this as the opportunity for the humiliating defeat that will shatter the power of the internal enemy. The war party assumed that Russia was weak and sanctions would crash its economy and bring down Putin. When this didn’t happen, they doubled down on their failed bet arrogantly certain they were right because everybody they allowed to speak agreed with them. If (when) Russia scores a decisive and undeniable victory, the perpetrators of the disaster will be revealed as corrupt fools wasting your money on their worthless fantasy.
Russia is also fighting a bigger war against the so-called rules-based international order. This shiny label covers the assertion that whatever America and its allies/subordinates do is right and whatever its opponents do is wrong and is the war party’s license to interfere everywhere. The hope is that the defeat – following on the Afghanistan debacle – will so weaken the war party that it will fall.
This far I have talked of patriotic Americans wanting Russia to win but I believe that every country in the West has people who also want Russia to win because utter, obvious and undeniable defeat is the only way that they can see to get their leeches off their backs.
The West is ruled by corrupt fools who are sending it to disaster – it is circling the drain of history. The hope is that Russian victory will burst the bubble, the internal enemy will be got rid of and these countries will start to mind their own business, care for their own populations and forget about the (mostly imaginary) monsters out there.
News of the Times;
Comedian Leaves Oxford Union SPEECHLESS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKIOSnKX96E
Roomba Robot Vacuum Testers Find "Intimate" Photos Of Themselves On The Web:
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/roomba-robot-vacuum-testers-find-intimate-photos-themselves-web
MIT Adopts Free Speech Resolution: “We Cannot Prohibit Speech as Offensive or Injurious.”:
https://jonathanturley.org/2022/12/30/mit-adopts-free-speech-resolution/
Jihadi Who Murdered Eight People in NYC Was In the U.S. on a Diversity Visa:
https://gellerreport.com/2023/01/jihadi-who-murdered-eight-people-in-nyc-was-in-the-u-s-on-a-diversity-visa.html/
Pipe bomb found in Seattle underground garage, suspect Osman Ibrahim in custody:
https://thepostmillennial.com/pipe-bomb-found-in-seattle-underground-garage-suspect-osman-ibrahim-in-custody
Mexican president thanks Biden for not securing American border with 'even one meter of wall':
https://www.theblaze.com/news/mexican-president-thanks-biden-for-not-securing-american-border-with-even-one-meter-of-wall
Biden Covering up: More Americans Killed During Afghan Withdrawal Than Reported:
https://floridianpress.com/2023/01/biden-covering-up-more-americans-killed-during-afghan-withdrawal-than-reported/
Tracking CIA-Backed ‘Zero Units’ in Afghanistan:
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/01/12/tracking-cia-backed-zero-units-in-afghanistan/
US Navy SEAL killed in Ukraine:
https://www.rt.com/news/570237-us-navy-seal-killed-ukraine/
Echoes from the first Neocon war in Europe and some music:
https://thesaker.is/echoes-from-the-first-neocon-war-in-europe-and-some-music/
Hundreds of UK police face sack as part of clean-up - top officer:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/482619/hundreds-of-uk-police-face-sack-as-part-of-clean-up-top-officer
Ukrainian Refugees In Britain Are Going Home For Medical Treatment Rather Than Endure NHS Waiting-Times:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/ukrainian-refugees-britain-are-going-home-medical-treatment-rather-endure-nhs-waiting
Radio stars criticize George Soros-backed move to ‘silence conservative Hispanic voices’:
https://nypost.com/2022/12/20/inside-george-soros-backed-move-to-silence-conservative-hispanic-voices/
Southern Poverty Law Center Got Busted Again Sending Millions To Offshore Accounts:
https://thefederalist.com/2017/09/01/southern-poverty-law-center-got-busted-sending-millions-offshore-accounts/
The matrix is malfunctioning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gHwe180s-U
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And someone shot a duck.
An Images & Ideas, Inc. Service.
No Vegans were harmed in the making of this site. We're looking for a new provider.