SDG

"Soli Deo gloria" means "Glory to God alone" and Johann Sebastian Bach would sign his church compositions with "SDG."

It's cool that some are still carrying on the tradition: "Christian swimmer with "Glory To God Alone" swim cap wins Olympic Gold, breaks world record."  

Somebody has been red-pilled

Bill Maher: "Cancel culture is a purge with a mentality that belongs in Stalin's Russia." 

Pass that buck

Daily Wire: "Pelosi Says CDC Should Extend Eviction Moratorium After Supreme Court Ruled Congress Needed To."

Mad Maxine Waters is trying to pass legislation, introduced today, for a policy that expires tomorrow.

The mark of every evil Empire

Let's see, just off the top of my head: Princess Leia in "Star Wars", Katniss in "The Hunger Games", and Tris in "Divergent."  There are many other novels and movies where the dystopian government stabs you in the arm.

Twitchy: "President Biden says he doesn’t know yet whether the federal government can mandate the whole country to get vaccinated."

No.  The answer is no, it can't.  Dummy.

"It's for your own good"

An illegal taking

Reason: "Should Taxpayers Be on the Hook for All Rental Debt Accrued During the Pandemic? - A new lawsuit from landlords argues that the CDC's eviction moratorium was a taking, and that they're entitled to compensation."

A recent ruling from the Supreme Court seems to support their argument:

Helping the NAA's case is a U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Cedar Point Nursery case handed down in June. That decision found that a California law requiring employers to give union organizers access to their property was a taking, and thus entitled those employers to compensation.

"The Supreme Court gave a big boon to challenges to these moratoria on Takings Clause  grounds," said Blevins. "All you have to show is that the government has authorized a temporary invasion of private property and this really does look like that. The CDC moratorium, even though it's temporary, requires landlords to allow a tenant who's in breach of the lease agreement because of nonpayment  to occupy the premises."

There's going to be a lot of demand for U-Haul trucks this weekend.

The science is settled...for a day or so

Twitchy: "‘Goalposts keep on moving’! Biden denies ever saying the vaccinated don’t need masks, then says ‘that was true at the time’."

Oh.

This will achieve the goal

Red State: "Biden Moves on to Insulting Americans if They're Not Vaccinated."

Zombie Joe Biden: super genius.

The Aristocrats!

Matt Taibbi: "The Vaccine Aristocrats - Covid-19 cases are rising, but the "Pandemic of the Unvaccinated" blame-game campaign is the worst way to address the problem."

The former group, the people who say they’re paying the bills, have spent years now trying to let the rabble know there’s a limit to both their patience and their generosity. They’ve made it clear there are limits to how much speech freedom they’ll confer, how much political choice or right to assembly will be permitted, how much ignorance will be allowed to fester. The news landscape has become writer Thomas Frank’s dreaded “utopia of scolding,” with every screen full of finger-wagging Rahms and croaking Brian Stelters telling us how “fed up” they are with others’ inadequacy. This approach not only will fail, it already has, over and over.

My feeling is that it's entirely rational for Americans, especially young and healthy Americans, to question whether the threat of covid is worse than a vaccine that is being distributed under emergency status and has not been approved (yet) by the FDA.  It's not crazy to question whether there might be unseen long-term effects of the vaccine, especially for kids who have an extremely low rate of covid complications.

All the superior scolding is not going to change this viewpoint.

What happened to the ACLU?

The Corner: "The ACLU Promotes an Absurd Conspiracy Theory about the Second Amendment."

The liberal organization used to have a core mission of defending the liberties spelled out in the Bill of Rights.  Now it looks like the Second Amendment is as flexible as their new position on the First: "The ACLU Retreats From Free Expression"

The American Civil Liberties Union has explicitly endorsed the view that free speech can harm “marginalized” groups by undermining their civil rights. “Speech that denigrates such groups can inflict serious harms and is intended to and often will impede progress toward equality,” the ACLU declares in new guidelines governing case selection and “Conflicts Between Competing Values or Priorities.”

This is presented as an explanation rather than a change of policy, and free-speech advocates know the ACLU has already lost its zeal for vigorously defending the speech it hates. 

The final word:

Pretty soon the ACLU is going to be arguing for the government’s right to quarter troops in your house. https://t.co/x7mEJrBPZO

— Kyle Shideler (@ShidelerK) July 26, 2021

Philippines wins its first gold medal

This is such a great story: the Philippines has never won a gold medal since they started attending the Olympic games in 1924.  Today, Hidilyn Diaz took the gold in women's weightlifting.  Nice!

I'm shocked, Cotton

PJ Media: "A Shocking Number of College Grads Wish They Had Been Taught More Life Skills."  

You can go now

Hot Air: "Texas Democrats unravel - "I'm just pissed off" that Biden won't meet with them."

I'm reminded of the old axiom that guests and fish start to smell after 3 days.  These clowns have done nothing but spread covid.

This is intimidation of a Supreme Court justice

National Review: "Brett Kavanaugh Faces Another Round of Smears and Intimidation."  This is in regard to 4500 so-called "tips" to an FBI hotline.  Not only were they all bogus but every Senator had access to the FBI's report:

Mike Davis, who served as chief counsel for nominations on the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Kavanaugh hearings, tells National Review that there was a summary of all 4,500 tips in the FBI’s report, which was available to all 100 U.S. senators.

“They printed out the entire tip-line summary,” says Davis. “Every senator had full access to read those things if they wanted to.”

Davis makes a crucial point about Senate Democrats now expressing outrage: “If there was anything that caught their attention, they could have flagged it for further investigation.”

“Every whack-job in the world called into that thing. That’s why there were 4,500 [tips],” says Davis. “Grassley’s team went through the entire tip-line. It was nonsense.”

This is all just the latest ploy to stir up the Democrat base and work up the argument for court-packing.  And if a good man like Kavanaugh has to go through this character assassination yet again, well, you need to break some eggs to make an omelet. 

That liar Christine Blasey-Ford and her lawyers need to be sued.

The CNN-Biden dumpster fire

Shot: "Biden, Don Lemon roasted for performances during CNN town hall: ‘Uncomfortable to watch’."

Chaser: "CNN’s Biden town hall loses out to Fox News, MSNBC in cable ratings." 

News coverage of Biden's mumble-fest has been sparse...for some reason.

Sparse coverage from the WaPo-NYT-CNN axis tells you this didn’t go well. https://t.co/hWONwuu7FG

— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) July 22, 2021

The Grifter

Ace: "Incredible: Hunter Biden to Meet Personally, Face-to-Face, from the "Art Buyers" Who Are Supposed to Remain Anonymous."

When Hunter started his new grift, we were assuaged by the White House that - oh, heavens no - this isn't selling access because the buyers of Hunter's finger-paintings will be anonymous.  Now, like the conclusion of "Animal Farm," we're told that "anonymous buyers good but face-to-face buyers better!"

Jen Psaki is really earning that Baghdad Bob reputation, insisting that Hunter Van Gogh is just following his passion.

Vikings - 3, Wokesters - 0

Red State: "'Woke' US Women's Soccer Goes 'Broke' in a Stunning Way."

So the U.S. womyn's soccer team has lost 100% of its Olympic Games so far.  Hahahahahahahaha!!!

Extra - Babylon Bee nails it: "Inspiring: US Women's Soccer Team To Boycott Scoring Goals Until Racism Is Defeated."  

Super-woke NPR

Matt Taibbi: "NPR's Brilliant Self-Own."

NPR has not run a piece critical of Democrats since Christ was a boy. Moreover, much like the New York Times editorial page (but somehow worse), the public news leader’s monomaniacal focus on “race and sexuality issues” has become an industry in-joke. For at least a year especially, listening to NPR has been like being pinned in wrestling beyond the three-count. Everything is about race or gender, and you can’t make it stop.

Conservatives have always hated NPR, but in the last year I hear more and more politically progressive people, in the media, talking about the station as a kind of mass torture experiment, one that makes the most patient and sensible people want to drive off the road in anguish.

This article was a hoot but the real gold is in the comments.  Dozens of people who say they once listened to NPR now say they simply can't stand the relentless woke-ness.  This was my favorite:

When NPR is on I play a game: see how long it can go before it mentions race, gender, and oppression thereof. I've clocked them at about 15 seconds.

When I left work today, I played the NPR Game.  The first story to come up was about problems in foster care and - bang! - any problems in foster care are worse for blacks and people of color.  Right there in the introduction.

That's not how it works, Joe

Fox Business: "Biden insists massive government spending will tamp down inflation."

This is like putting out a fire with gasoline.

Defund NPR and the lying liars who work there

Ace: "Taxpayer-Funded State Media NPR: Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire Is "Misinformation" Because It Favors One Political Party."

If I could take a slight diversion, I was listening to NPR this morning and they hosted Senator Amy Klobuchar to talk about the recently-passed voting reform law in Georgia.  And by "talk", I mean "lie":

KLOBUCHAR: This couldn't be more important, Noel. We are seeing, as you just pointed out, nearly 400 bills that have been introduced across the country, a number of them actually signed into law, including this one right here in Georgia, which is Exhibit A - so egregious with the limits it puts on mail-in balloting, on ballot boxes, on no water for voters in line to be given out by nonpartisan volunteers.

And here's my beef with NPR: when they have a conservative on the air, they are constantly challenged by NPR hosts but when there's a liberal like Klobuchar on, she is allowed to make these provably false statements without a hint of pushback.  This goes on at NPR all the time.  

Here are the facts on the Georgia voting law:

Return of the misery index

National Review: "Welcome back, Carter." - "The 70s are back!," declares French fashion magazine l’Officiel. No kidding: Prices are up, crime is up, Iranian kidnapping plots targeting Americans are up. . . . Surely the groovy sounds of disco and a heady whiff of Hai Karate cannot be far behind." 

Extra - From Powerline.

Taxes, death, and more taxes

National Review: "Biden’s ‘Double Death Tax’" - "After these unrealized, unsold, phantom gains are subject to the new 50 percent double death tax, there is still the matter of the old death tax to deal with. Imagine a 50 percent death tax followed by a 40 percent death tax on what is left, and you get the idea. Karl Marx called for the confiscation of wealth at death, but even he probably never dreamed this big."

It's always for your own good

Legal Insurrection: "Biden Admin Calls for Cross-Platform Social Media Deplatforming - When fascism comes to America it will look like Jen Psaki and will be carrying the DNC flag." 

Look upon my martyrdom and tremble

Twitchy: "‘Performative nonsense’: Dem who fled Texas on a chartered jet now forced to wash her bra and panties in the sink."

These people are high on their own supply.

The Atlantic under water

Legal Insurrection: "Report: ‘The Atlantic’ Has Lost Tens of Millions of Dollars, May Not Turn a Profit Until 2023" - "According to NBC News, “[Editor-in-chief Jeffrey] Goldberg has privately expressed fear that Powell Jobs and her organization, Emerson Collective, might pull the plug if the magazine doesn’t reach profitability within the next four to five years, Atlantic sources said."  

As a former subscriber, let me tell Jeffrey Goldberg where The Atlantic lost its way.  Here is a cover from the Atlantic from 2014 back when they wrote interesting stories:

I remember this story so distinctly as it described scheduled play dates and helicopter parents, and the long-term effects of children dependent upon their parents for socializing and conflict-resolution.  It's the kind of story that appeals to a wide audience, relevant, measured, and topical.

Then Trump won the Presidency and The Atlantic went full retard.  Here are just a handful of cover stories they featured:

"The Trump Presidency: A Damage Report"

"How American Politics Went Insane"

"Can Satire Save the Republic?" (with an Alec Baldwin cover)

"How to Build an Autocracy"

"Is Democracy Dying?"

"How to Destroy a Government"

and, of course: "Impeach."

Those were just the covers, but every issue had the same drumbeat that never changed.  Even if you agreed with the magazine, it was a crushingly monotonous bore. 

Clearly not allowed

Red State: "Dems Can't Help Themselves; Embed the PRO Act into the Infrastructure Bill Reconciliation."

The Byrd rule of budget reconciliation says the bill can only deal with spending or taxes.  Bernie just went ahead anyway so he can claim he tried.

The Ponzi scheme winds down

Reason: "Shaky Social Security Trust Fund May Run Out in 11 Years" - "Are you ready for 30 percent cuts in benefits to keep the program alive?"  

Squinting at the teleprompter

Legal Insurrection: "Joe Biden’s BIG LIE About Republican Voter Suppression Is About Busting The Legislative Filibuster" - "Biden blabbering about “the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War” is just an excuse to curtail liberty and destroy voting integrity."

First of all, I'm well on-record predicting there will be no change to the legislative filibuster.  Not gonna happen.  So we can skip that concern.

Second, after reading several accounts of "Biden's" speech, I'm struck by how exactly nobody thinks he had a hand in writing a single word.  The vast consensus is that his handlers pushed him on stage to read some words, with the promise of a pudding after he's done.

Eventually, the media will run out of questions on ice cream flavors

American Greatness: "The Democrats’ Topsy-Turvy Spin Machine - The media can’t cover for Joe Biden’s “Gong Show” administration indefinitely."

Everything appears to be topsy-turvy: the chairman of the joint chiefs and the chairman of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, made almost identical statements about critical race theory. The Democrats now claim the Republicans are the ones who wished to defund the police, and now they suddenly have discovered the virtue of voter identification, which, up until yesterday, they had been shrieking from the roof-tops was tantamount to the restoration of slavery. Apparently, it’s not Jim Crow after all. 

The media are so absurdly partisan they will try to allow the Democrats a free pass across the barricades on those issues. But the accumulating disasters for the Biden Administration will not be entirely absorbed by the (agonizingly slow) return to work of Americans after COVID and the miracle of the Warp Speed vaccine development, (for which Trump must receive no credit). The media can’t cover for this “Gong Show” administration indefinitely, but I must admit they have lasted longer than I expected, given their invertebrate response to almost everything else. 

Speaking of accumulating disasters: "Inflation surges to 13-year high."  

Minority rights

Red State: "Texas Democrats Decide to Play a Ridiculous Game of Chicken They Can't Win."

I'm so confused: is it the right of a minority to thwart the majority OK or not?  It's a binary question.

Tone deaf

Fox News: "Kamala Harris slammed for claiming rural Americans can't photocopy their IDs - The vice president tried to back her claim by saying rural communities don't have Kinkos or OfficeMax."

Do you know where I make my photocopies?  On my 20-year-old HP scanner/printer.

She's a piece of work.

Extra - From Twitchy. 

Afghan skedaddle

Althouse, quoting a CNN story: ""On Thursday President Joe Biden spoke in defense of his ill-considered, hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan, in remarks peopled with straw men and littered with false assertions."

One of these assertions is that, even though Biden has reversed dozens of Trump policies, gosh-darn-it he just can't reverse the agreement Trump made with the Taliban.

Speaking of which: "Joe Biden’s Nonsensical Claim That the Afghan Army Can Handle the Taliban from Here."  

Extra - Instapundit: "This is from Biden-friendly CNN, so you know it’s bad." 

Already over the Olympics

Reason: "With Spectators Banned, Tokyo Olympics Look Like an Even Bigger Money Pit."

Ugh.  I really have no interest in watching the woman's gymnastic team 20/7.

Conversations from Vox SJWs on race

This video showed up on my recommended YouTube videos: "Worst Vox Video EVER?"  I was intrigued.  It was a group of self-important, mid-20s people from Vox doing the only thing they ever do when it comes to the subject of race: self-flagellation.

Except for the black guy who said, no, it's not racist to want to date people from your same race.  "You like who you like."  Good for you, buddy.

Otherwise, what I absolutely loved and sent my head nodding up-and-down was when the host noted that there are always conversations about having conversations on race.  We need to acknowledge our sins and come together to have a real conversation.  We need to look past our biases and have that conversation.

One problem: we never have that conversation.

Anyway, check it out.  Well done, dude.

A Democrat must be President

Daily Wire: "‘Did A Money Printer Write This?’: CNBC Mocked For Saying That ‘Rising Wages’ Are A ‘Silver Lining’ Of Inflation."  

What kind of dirt does Putin have on Biden?

Wasn't this the same question asked every time Trump didn't threaten nuclear war?  Hot Air: "Washington Post: Putin isn't listening to President Biden on ransomware attacks so it's time to act."

Don't worry: Sleepy Joe will be checking his cheat sheets to see what to do.

Don't act surprised

Federalist: "When Stores Close Due To Rising Crime, Urban Blight Is Back — And It Will Get Worse."

How's the gaslighting business, Jen?

Fox News: "Washington Post gives White House 'Three Pinocchios' for claiming Republicans are defunding police."

This guy does a great job explaining the plot twist: 

Happy Fourth of July!

Enjoy a hot dog and some baseball, America.

While the U.S. media hides the decline

Daily Wire: "Foreign Media Skewer Joe Biden As ‘Barely Cogent,’ ‘Bizarre’." 

Ermergawd, Joe got ice cream again!

The internal polling must be horrific

Twitchy: "‘This is unbelievable’: Jen Psaki dials the ‘defund the police’ gaslighting up to eleven (again)."

Trying to think of another time where a sizable constituency in a party demanded something so politically toxic that party leaders said it was the other side’s idea all along https://t.co/irVmLYqTR7

— Joe Gabriel Simonson (@SaysSimonson) July 3, 2021

More Kamala leaks?

Red State: "Dems Leak More Fears About Kamala for the Future."

What's going on here?  Is this just disgruntled staffers or something more?  Some have suggested that the answer to cui bono is Jill Biden who (allegedly) has a frosty relationship with Kamala.  

This is good news, too

Wall Street Journal: "U.S. Added 850,000 Jobs in June Labor Rebound - Increase in jobs was the strongest since last August, as more Americans joined the labor force." 

Good news!

Babylon Bee: " Man Spending $5 A Gallon On Gas Excited To Learn He Will Save $0.16 On Cheese This Year."

ICYMI: "The White House wants you to know that your July 4th cookout will cost $0.16 less than last year."  

DOJ case against GA probably DOA

Power Line: "Supreme Court delivers major blow to Dems' campaign against state election laws."

The Department of Justice case against Georgia's election law was already ridiculous and now the Supreme Court has telegraphed it has no basis in law.