Farewell 2020

This is Fountains of Wayne a couple of weeks after 9/11, expressing the sentiment we all share today as well: 

Maybe 2020 is going out on a high note

I have to relay this non-political story because it's been maybe a year since I laughed so hard.  On my commute home today, there was a white Subaru being just an absolute a-hole on the road.  Weaving in and out of traffic on I-291 outside of Springfield, MA, but then getting caught up in the bottleneck of single-lane roads through Chicopee and Granby.

Just by sheer happenstance, I caught up to this car because it simply couldn't pass any other cars on the single lane with oncoming traffic.  The white Subaru was behind an F150 going around the speed limit and I knew we were all coming up to straight section near farmland that also happened to be a double-yellow line (as in, you can't pass).

Sure enough, as soon as we were on the straight, the Subaru blew through the double line and passed the pickup.  THEN, the car BEHIND me sped up, crossed the double yellow and got behind the Subaru.

Then TURNED ON HIS LIGHTS.  It was an unmarked police car that just happened to be in the right place at the right time, if you're a fan of street justice.

I laughed all the way home.

Think different about slave labor

The Corner: "Apple Supplier Charged with Exploiting Uyghur Forced Labor."

I understand that corporations are not altruistic angels, but no company huffs on their own sweet farts like Apple.  They have a commercial running right now with Lady Gaga and Lisa Simpson that strongly implies the Apple Macbook is responsible for all artistic creativity and world-changing activism in the world.

But, but, the science

California is back on top of the state with the most per capita covid cases.  Scientists are baffled: "Locked-down California runs out of reasons for surprising surge."  

I think at this point it’s pretty clear that Californians ignored the public health guidance and engaged in inside, maskless, “singing, chanting and shouting” at their Thanksgiving gatherings while Floridians actually listened to their nonexistent gathering restrictions pic.twitter.com/00OyFmI8zf

— IM (@ianmSC) December 24, 2020

This is mental illness

Victory Girls: "The Moral Repugnance Of Cancel Culture." - "Jimmy Galligan has no character. His glee over ruining the life of one of his classmates is sickening. He has demonstrated cancel culture at its most morally repugnant iteration." 

Shame on the University of Tennessee for capitulating to the mob.

I think I fixed our refrigerator

Whenever I'm able to score a minor victory by figuring out how to fix a car or appliance, I like to post about it just in case somebody out there is in the same predicament.  So if you have a 27-year-old Amana refrigerator that won't cool down, today's your lucky day.

On Christmas day (naturally), the refrigerator got warm even though the bottom freezer was fine.  (That was nice on the one day a year you can't buy ice anywhere).  A couple of searches online and some YouTube videos later, I found that the most likely cause is that the coils behind the freezer are not going through a defrost cycle, thereby blocking the flow of cold air to the upper refrigerator section.  The repairman videos show them completely removing the ice maker and the back panel of the freezer to access the coils.  But then I noticed this red knob down at the base of the fridge:

This red knob only turns clockwise and I suspected it was a manual control and/or timer to cycle between the cooling (compressor running) and the defrost stage.  So I turned it clockwise until the compressor - which had been running non-stop - turned off and let the fridge sit for two hours.

After that time, I turned it clockwise again until the compressor kicked in and cold air started to come out of the vent in the refrigerator.  Now it's likely that this timer is either broken or just got stuck in the cooling cycle, which means every couple of hours I'll have to manually set it into defrost mode.  But this beats putting everything on the backyard deck in camping coolers.

Oh that's not news

Breitbart: "New York Times reporting blackout on Eric Swalwell - spy ties continues." - "The New York Times has continued its reporting blackout on ties between Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and suspected Chinese Communist regime spy Christine Fang — not reporting on those ties for more than two weeks after they came to light." 

Peace on Earth

Big Government: "Netanyahu: 'Many, many more Arab states' to normalize ties soon." - "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday promised that “many, many more countries” would be signing normalization agreements with Israel “a lot sooner than people expect,” and lauded the Trump administration for consistently “defending the truth and defending the State of Israel.” 

Brexit is a go

Fox News: "Boris Johnson says UK has 'taken back control' after securing post-Brexit trade deal with EU."  

It's funny because it's true

Babylon Bee: "Americans Excitedly Anticipate Getting Paid With Their Own Money." 

But it's a December to remember!

This is a great spoof of those insufferable Christmas commercials:

New York needs taxes

Reason: "Determined To Kill Businesses That Survived Lockdowns, New York Plans Minimum Wage Hike Later This Month - New York's unemployment rate is nearly 10 percent and roughly one-third of small businesses in New York City may have closed forever. Seems like a great time to make it more expensive to employ people, right?"

New York City in particular needs tax revenue from baristas to make up for the $34 billion they've lost from fleeing citizens.  

Memory-hole that headline

Via Instapundit, some headline-scrubbing at the Gray Lady:

Finished binge-watching "Dexter"

I didn't think the finale was as awful as people described.  There I said it.

And then a miracle occurred

Federalist: "Corporate Media Are Ignoring Trump’s Role In Developing A COVID Vaccine" - "The press scoffed at Trump's vaccine timeline. They said it would take a 'miracle.' The miracle came, and the press just shrugged."

If history is any precedent, that means Joe Biden will win the Nobel Prize in Medicine this year. 

Maybe Cuomo can write another book about the fine job he did

His first one worked out great:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo continues to insist a new shutdown is not inevitable, even as the state set a new single-day case record Friday (along with a record number of tests) and Mayor Bill de Blasio continues to insist that another round of restrictions is not only necessary in New York City but needs to come soon.

We've used every tool in the toolbox from lockdowns to more lockdowns.

There are two great tragedies that will forever be the legacy of this pandemic: the loss of lives, of course, and the loss of livelihoods brought about by lockdowns that may not have even helped.

If any of what the petty tyrants have been peddling about masks and staying at home were true, then California would be one of the safest places on Earth right now.

Instead, it’s just a tragic place dealing with a rapidly growing population of people who are both sick and broke, thanks to all the science and helping.

It's so depressing, you just want to go out to your local wine bar and sip some Merlot.  

Listen to the scientists

Fox News: "California doctor calls lockdowns ‘failure of imagination,’ as state becomes epicenter of outbreak."

Despite enacting some of the country’s toughest measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic, California is emerging as the latest epicenter of the U.S. outbreak.

On Thursday, the state reported a staggering 52,000 new cases in a single day — equal to what the entire U.S. was averaging in mid-October — and a one-day record of 379 deaths. More than 16,000 people are in the hospital with the coronavirus across the state, more than triple the number a month ago.

So the empirical data indicates that the lockdowns don't work.  The masks don't work.  The only scientists who seem to know what they're doing are the vaccine developers.  

"The fault belongs to you, and so does the debt."

Federalist: "Mike Rowe: I Don’t Want To Pay For Your Useless College Degree." 

It's absolute insanity to ask blue-collar workers to pony up for your gender studies degree.  

The Left hates free speech, a continuing series

Reason: "New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Bans Sale of Confederate Flags, Despite Knowing This Has First Amendment Problems."

"Problems" is a slight euphemism for "glaringly unconstitutional."  

Insurers to Portland: LOLGF

Ace: "Insurers balk at insuring Portland businesses; exclude future damage related to civil unrest."

Do you remember a few months ago during the peak of the BLM/Antifa rioting when Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) were either silent about the violence, or they actually praised property destruction and looting? As for the lives and businesses destroyed, they just dismissed the damage as harmless because “insurance will pay for it.”

NPR actually spent your tax dollars to advocate for looting, publicizing Vicky Osterweil’s book “In Defense Of Looting” and effectively endorsing the book with its tongue-bath of an interview.

You’ll never guess what happened next.

Actually you will, if you're an American with the vaguest notion of how property rights work.

Speaking of property rights in Portland, Matt Christiansen how one family refused to pay for their home, squatted for years, and now suckers are rewarding their rank lawlessness by paying their debts.  At Matt notes, if this is "systemic racism" then sign me up: 

Jumped, or was he pushed?

Hot Air: "Breaking: Barr Resigns. Or Was He Fired?"  

Fact-checkers are on the case

Legal Insurrection: "Trump’s Coronavirus Vaccine Timeline Vindicated, Corporate Media Hardest Hit" - “But experts say that the development, testing and production of a vaccine for the public is still at least 12 to 18 months off, and that anything less would be a medical miracle,” NBC News reported in a May fact check."  

The MSM prepares for its 4-year nap

Hot Air: "CNN’s April Ryan To Other Journalists: Stop Exposing Leaks On Biden." 

Later, she wasn't even aware she was being ridiculed for her position.  

Democracy dies in darkness, and how

With the Hunter Biden whitewash, the mainstream media drops the mask once and for all.  David Harsanyi: "The media's disgraceful Hunter Biden cover-up."

It's now clear that the Hunter Biden story was real, with Hunter himself acknowledging a federal probe into his taxes — one that reportedly began in 2018. Really, it was always clear. Yet, when the New York Post broke the details, virtually the entire journalistic establishment and left-wing punditsphere defamed the newspaper, claiming it was passing on Russian “disinformation” or partisan fabrications.

The political media quickly began pumping out process stories about the alleged discord in the Post’s newsroom and about the problems with the reporting. In so doing, of course, they did practically no reporting on the substantive allegations that Joe Biden’s family had spent years cashing in on his influence. Tech companies, spurred on by these censorious journalists, shut down the account of one of America’s most-read newspapers to inhibit users from reading the story. It was completely unprecedented.

Unprecedented, yet not unexpected.  The New York Post, which broke the original story, is understandably reminding everyone where the real collusion was:

“Collusion” was perhaps the media’s favorite word these past four years, even when it wasn’t true. But you know what real collusion looks like? It’s when left-leaning media, that is the media in general, decide en masse that something is “not a story” because it harms their preferred political candidate.

That’s a key takeaway from Wednesday’s bombshell news revealing a federal probe of Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, that reportedly involves e-mails from his laptop — which The Post reported on exclusively in October. We even noted back then that the FBI had seized the computer and hard drive; Fox News later confirmed that it was part of an FBI money-laundering probe.

Other media outlets didn’t just ignore the story; they tried to suppress it. Then social media stepped in, preventing the story from being posted (Facebook) and even banning The Post (Twitter).

Twitchy's Media section is jam-packed with the receipts from "news" outlets who either ignored the story or actively worked to discredit it.

Now it's our turn.

Now the Republican-controlled Senate will be charged - turbocharged - to grill any nominee for Attorney General since "nobody is above the law" as we've been reminded a jillion times.  Oh, dear, Manafort was convicted on money laundering and tax evasion from his business in a foreign nation?  Well, it's great to have that precedent staring us in the face.  And I guess the precedent of really, really wanting to see somebody taxes - just because - will come in handy.

It's going to be great.

Swalwell must lose his seat on the Intel committee

Fox News: "Growing number of top Republicans call for Swalwell removal from House Intelligence Committee." 

I'm a huge fan of the show "The Americans" about Russian secret agents living in the U.S. and all the schemes they use to extract information.  The "honey pot" is a regular technique due to its effectiveness (at least on the show).  Information is gained by:

1) Pillow talk - "Tough day at work?  Tell me all about it."

2) Access - once you invite the spy into your bedroom, he/she will start rifling through your briefcase while you're taking a shower.

3) Bugging/surveillance - or, he'll plant a recording device in that briefcase or a clock on a shelf.

4) Blackmail - I was as surprised as Ace that Swalwell is married.  There's always that chance the honey trap will lay out pictures with the implicit threat of exposure if he doesn't produce the goods.

No matter how you cut it, this is an astonishing lapse of judgement.  Swalwell must go.

Swalwell falls into the honey pot

Federalist: "Swalwell Refuses To Disclose Whether He Had A Sexual Relationship With A Suspected Chinese Spy."

Using the Eric Swalwell Rule of Innuendo, that means he did.  He totally did.

I hurt my singing box

I woke up this morning with a sore throat, so I was a little nervous in this age of covid.  However, it faded by midday.  The only explanation I can offer is that "Wichita Lineman" came on the radio yesterday and I was singing "I am a lineman for the county!" - loudly - in my car.  

Nice work if you can get it

Fox News: "New York’s threatened lockdown spares ‘SNL’ once again as show uses COVID loophole to keep in-person audience."  Here's the loophole:

As previously reported by Fox News, the comedy show is said to have skirted strict coronavirus regulations in the Big Apple by paying audience members $150 for their participation in the season premiere this fall. This would allow the program to consider live audience members paid individuals who “work” for the show.

So, if I'm reading this correctly, a bar could sell you a beer for $155 and then pay you $150 to engage in the performance art of drinking it. 

At this point it's more than obvious that there's one set of rules for Hollywood types and another set of rules for the rest of us.

Oh, man, this needs context

Not the Bee: "USA Today fAcT-cHeCkErS compare Trump shirts to Nazi symbols but say pic of Biden staffer with Commie symbol is "MiSSiNg CoNtExT" 

Prove you're not a robot

This is great, I LOL'd hard:

The grievance shakedown

Ace: "Time's Up -- the #MeToo Organization Which Raised Money, Supposedly to Pay the Legal Expenses of Women Making Accusations -- Spent Almost No Money on Their Legal Fund But Spent a Lot of Money on Salaries for Themselves."

This is the future of Black Lives Matter.  If you caught their disastrous Reddit interview, you'll realize it's just a matter of time before BLM is exposed as an everyday shakedown operation.  

The struggle sessions are real

Quillette: "Race and Social Panic at Haverford: A Case Study in Educational Dysfunction."

The school-wide November 5th Zoom call, a recording of which has been preserved, was hosted by Wendy Raymond, Haverford’s president. At the time, the elite Pennsylvania liberal arts college was a week into a student strike being staged, according to organizers, to protest “anti-blackness” and the “erasure of marginalized voices.” During the two-hour-and-nine-minute discussion, viewed in real time by many of the school’s 1,350 students, Raymond presented herself as solemnly apologetic for a litany of offenses. She also effusively praised and thanked the striking students for educating her about their pain, while “recognizing that I will never understand what it means to be a person of color or be black or indigenous in the United States. I am a white woman with considerable unearned privilege.”

Confess your sins to the state, entitled bourgeois scum.

Since 2015, when Yale rolled over in response to student harassment of two husband-and-wife faculty members, such self-abasement rituals have become common—even if the prevalence of teleconferencing during the COVID-19 pandemic has given us an unprecedented opportunity to watch them unfold.

In the end, Jonathan Kay comes to the depressing conclusion that it's better for the school administration to assuage some of the most privileged students in America and keep collecting that $54,000 tuition. 

Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia

Red State: "NYT Hilariously Stealth Edits a Paul Krugman Column After He Gets Caught Undercutting His Own Claims."

Dude never heard of Google, apparently.