Author: admin

Reference:          An MLK Jr. and Coretta Scott King memorial is set for Boston Common | Boston.com

                Yes, a huge pile of 22 foot tall bronze disembodied hands doing…something, not sure what…is the Boston version of the legacies of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  We assume it is symbolic of something, but we’re not exactly clear on what.  Lady MacBeth?  The state wrestling championships?  The need to constantly wash our hands in this COVID era?  Could it be a giant bottle of hand sanitizer?  That would actually be pretty helpful since people seem likely to be putting their hands all over this thing trying to figure it out.  Vaguely pornographic too perhaps, possibly depending on the angle.  But in any event, it doesn’t exactly scream out “Dr. King was here,” does it?***  If unfamiliar with it, you’re going to have to do some contextualizing to figure out what the impetus behind it was.

Artist’s rendering.

                Well, it does have the incidental benefit, as we have learned from all the pothering about Confederate and Revolutionary War and Founding Fathers and other statues recently, of not necessarily appearing to be about what it is supposedly about.  Even if at some point in the future Dr. King’s reputation goes into the tank – like when the white supremacists take over from…well, the white supremacists according to the BLM woke crowd – you don’t have to get rid of it, just call it something else, the “Donald J. Trump Hands-In-The-Till Memorial” might be fitting.

                We hope the sponsors have taken into consideration that, in the current and foreseeable environment, it certainly is going to need a 24 hour guard on it, since it is practically an engraved invitation to vandalism from those white supremacists.  That is at least until Rep. Ocasio-Cortez “deprograms” all the white supremacist zealots and turns them all into BLM Antifa zealots instead.  See our post of January 17, 2021, Line Up For The Reeducation Camps!

                At any rate, it’s interesting yet curious that this thing is going up soon in the current political atmosphere, in which most of the BLM and “progressives” have moved well on from Dr. King’s non-violence philosophy and decided that the only way to get what they want – which is to run the country and make it a socialist empire without any of these annoying white supremacists (like police) around – is to simply take what they want regardless of who gets hurt.  That is, none of these people have any use for Dr. King since to them he is a spineless accommodationist.  See our posts of October 13, 2020, The Gutless Oregon Government – Yes, Let’s Let The Tail Wag The Dog, of September 13, 2020, Shame, Shame on BLM, of September 2, 2020, Looting As Reparations Update – In New York It Is Much Simpler, Just Cut A Check, and of August 12, 2020, Did You Know That BLM Considers Looting To Constitute Reparations? True.  So, alas, any recognition of Dr. King these days is a day late and a dollar short to the “new” activists. 

                Nevertheless, a Happy Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to you all!

***What do you think?  Should we disallow the “Dr.” here, since he wasn’t a medical Dr., like Jill Biden isn’t a medical Dr.?  We don’t think we will, criticise us as you wish. 

References:        AOC pushes for more government funding to deprogram white supremacists (msn.com)

                We’re beginning to think that New York Representative and professional loudmouth-without-thinking Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez really is just stupid as well as ignorant.  She certainly isn’t any kind of a deep thinker. The things she says sometimes are obviously shooting-from-the-hip without any thought to the consequences or those of us who don’t share her “progressive” socialist views, or the wider world around her, or of the lessons that history can teach us about the downsides of what she now proposes.  Actually sounds a lot like the current President, doesn’t it?  Just on the other side of the political spectrum.

                Her latest gaffe (at least we hope it is – let’s call it a “trial balloon” and hope it goes nowhere) is, get this, pushing for more government funding to “deprogram white supremacists.”  That’s right, just as in Communist China and a long list of other fascist states (whatever the technical form of government) over the centuries, anyone who doesn’t agree with her – virtually by definition a “white supremacist” – needs to be sent off to be reeducated and deprogrammed and “deradicalized,” probably never to be heard from again.  Between just Russia, China and Nazi Germany, and just in the 20th century alone, well over a hundred million people have died for the sin of disagreeing with or not being acceptable to, the government, often by being sent away for such “reeducation” and brainwashing and for conformity with state policy.  

                This is from the Wasington Examiner:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is calling on the government to direct funds toward the deprogramming of white supremacy.

“The white supremacist cause is futile. It’s nihilist,” the New York Democrat said during a town hall event on Friday. “There are people who are radicalized right now. It’s going to take a very long time to deradicalize these people and a lot of effort.”

Ocasio-Cortez added that “healing is possible” and that “we need to double, triple, or quadruple the funding” into programs that “deradicalize” brainwashed white supremacists.

                Well, it’s a matter of opinion who is and who isn’t “radicalized.”  A lot of people would say she and her buddies are “radicalized.”  What about the self-professed radical Antifa?  What about the BLM zealots who want to eliminate the nuclear family and are “committed Marxists”?  What about the so-called “activists” who think it’s OK to take over minority neighborhoods in the name of “social justice” and make life miserable for everyone in it, and loot and destroy minority businesses while they’re at it? (that’s called “reparations,” by the way – really).  Who’s going to make that call?  Who’s going to decide?  Her?  Hasn’t she ever read a book?  How did she get through four years of college at a good school and learn nothing except leftist claptrap?  (Well, that’s actually a stupid question these days).  Didn’t she ever learn anything about what always happens when the government starts mandating thought?

                Let’s hope she takes some time to reflect on the consequences of the positions she takes and uses that time to educate herself about the history of such ideas and where they end up.  Or let’s just give everyone soma and be done with it. (Though with the current problems organizing vaccine delivery, we probably can’t even trust the government to distribute soma properly either.) Let’s just hope that if she does read a book, it isn’t 1984 or Brave New World! Then we’re all screwed. Either one of those would be a recipe book for her, just like in the Twilight Zone episode with benevolent-appearing aliens who send lots of humans back to their home world for a visit because of the teachings of a book they have called “To Serve Man,” which too late is discovered to be a cookbook.

Reference:         Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she thought she was going to die in Capitol riots and feared GOP would reveal her location – The Washington Post

                Just read some of the things Representatives Ocasio-Ortiz and Pressley are trying to sell to the public as a result of having to shelter in the Capitol Building.  This is plainly nothing more than opportunists taking advantage of a situation to playact for attention and to score political points, but it is stunning in its snowflakiness and in its pathetic whimpering for attention:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she feared GOP lawmakers would lead rioters to her: ‘I thought I was going to die’ . . . .

. . . .

As the pro-Trump rioters streamed into the Capitol on Jan. 6, lawmakers were told to take refuge in a protected “extraction point.” But Ocasio-Cortez said she did not feel safe doing so “because there were QAnon and white-supremacist sympathizers and, frankly, white-supremacist members of Congress in that extraction point who I know and who I have felt would disclose my location and would create opportunities to allow me to be hurt, kidnapped, et cetera.”

“So I didn’t even feel safe around other members of Congress,” she concluded. She did not say where she took shelter instead.

. . . .

Earlier Tuesday, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), a close ally of Ocasio-Cortez and one of a handful of Black women in Congress, said that she had similar reservations about the sheltering plan. “The second I realized our ‘safe room’ from the violent white supremacist mob included treasonous, white supremacist, anti masker Members of Congress who incited the mob in the first place, I exited,” she wrote on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon.

Ocasio-Cortez told her Instagram Live viewers that it was “not an exaggeration” to say that many members of Congress were “nearly assassinated.” She described what she called “acts of betrayal” by some members of the U.S. Capitol Police who appeared to side with the mob, saying that to run for safety and “not know if an officer is there to help you or harm you is also quite traumatizing.”

Ocasio-Cortez reserved particular anger for Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) for challenging the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s victory, saying that they “do not belong in the United States Senate” and should resign if they are not willing to accept the results of a democratically conducted election.***

. . . .

Throughout the live broadcast, Ocasio-Cortez spoke candidly about the toll that the violence at the Capitol took on her mental health, and said that she will probably seek counseling to help process the trauma.

“My body and my brain have been out of work,” she told viewers, adding that for two days after the riots, “I just slept a lot more than I usually sleep, and that to me is telling me that my body is going through something and my brain is trying to heal.” (emphases supplied)

                ***It should be noted that according to the Boston Herald, Unity, schmunity – Dems want payback for GOP dissent (bostonherald.com), this “is not the first time objections were raised during the vote certification process.  Democrats objected to George Bush’s electoral votes in Ohio back in 2004.  More than 30 Democrats voted against certifying results in states Trump won in 2017.  But that was then — when despising then-incoming President Trump was a badge of honor in the halls of Congress.” 

                So the fact that there were Republicans who challenged the electoral votes of some states is hardly some remarkable precedent-shattering event that the Democrats make it out to be.  The word “hypocritical” comes to mind.  Of course, there’s nothing new about a politician of any stripe being hypocritical – it’s actually more or less the norm. 

                In any event, the self-interested attention-seeking reaction of these women is stunning.  If they are simply play-acting for attention, then shame on them, though we are not aware of any politician in the country who knows what shame is or has ever felt it.  And if they really believe these statements and had these “feelings,” then one has to question their rationality and psychological ability to govern.

References:          ‘This mobocratic spirit’:  The Boston Globe, January 11, 2021 Arguable with Jeff Jacoby at view.email.bostonglobe.com/?qs=173eb710cd284d6027a8745fbd679a304f62c81d6374160ae3c6faeb648a47ac89680ef7e775785b92552d07f8d601be54089c42105c83a83d664dcda23367f05f6c575a6ee5ed89fc5ba93d739f1e1e548b10502fe29a53 and Jeff Jacoby

                Since the Spring of 2020, so-called “social justice” protests and riots became de rigueur in a host of liberal hotspots, including but not limited to Portland, Oregon, and Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Many were peaceful, or started out that way, but many also saw rioting and looting, with minority communities bearing the brunt of the violence and destruction.  People died, some innocent, some not so much.

                The left, owners of the mainstream media, however, continually soft-pedalled the harsh truths of rioting and destruction and focused instead on the sins of the past and present that the protesters were protesting (supposedly).  That is, in the words of Massachuetts Attorney General Maura Healy, “Yes, America is burning. But that’s how forests grow.”  A more irresponsible statement was never uttered by a state Attorney General.  And she had lots of company in government, politics and the media making excuses for the rioters and destructive protesters rather than calling them to account.  And as we noted in our October 14, 2020 post, the press has even diluted use of the word “riot” in the media, so that these BLM rioters could be called something less onerous. 

                Few if any in the mainstream media condemned or even criticized the rioters and protesters as they richly deserved.  Governments in Portland and Minneapolis have even allowed protesters to simply take over neighborhoods and deny access to the police or other public services, so-called “autonomous zones.”  See our prior posts The Tail Is Still Wagging The Dog (posted December 15, 2020), Hysterical Hysterical Overreactions, Part III – According To The Associated Press, “Riots” Shouldn’t Be Called “Riots” Anymore, It’s Too “Stigmatizing” (posted October 14, 2020), and The Gutless Oregon Government – Yes, Let’s Let The Tail Wag The Dog (posted October 13, 2020). 

                Numerous commentators supported the mobs.  As Mr. Jacoby points out in his excellent article at the link above:

Too many media celebrities were also quick to euphemize or indulge the eruption of lawlessness.

“Show me where it says protests are supposed to be polite and peaceful,” demanded CNN’s Chris Cuomo.

MSNBC’s Ali Velshi denounced as “nonsensical” those pleading with angry protesters not to “do these things that are destructive.” There is “ socioeconomic injustice and racism,” he insisted. “That’s what’s behind this. That’s why people are prepared to come out and do damage to private property.”

Nikole Hannah-Jones of the New York Times went on CBS to insist that wrecking business and torching neighborhoods shouldn’t even be called violent. The killing of Floyd was violence, she said, not the mere destruction of “property, which can be replaced.”

This willful determination by politicians and journalists to downplay the savagery and seriousness of the rioting and looting — or worse, to justify it — is a terrifying symptom of a society going off the rails.

                No wonder, then, that some people might get the idea that rioting and mob rule are OK, since all these other people on the other side of the political divide were getting away with it elsewhere, and even being accommodated and celebrated.  As the Massachusetts Attorney General stated, “but that’s how forests grow” after all.

                No wonder then that a mob in Washington, D.C., felt it was OK to violently storm and occupy the Capitol Building.  That’s “how forests grow.”

                And now, of course, the left, mainstream media and its ignorant celebrities are aghast and outraged that such a mob was allowed to congregate and attack the Capitol, when that act was not any different in principle than what they had previously consistently approved either explicitly or implicitly when the offenders shared their political views and biases:  someone has to be held accountable; the President must be impeached since he is a danger to democracy; by golly, this was sedition; anyone at that riot has to be cancelled; all the inciters have to be taken out and shot.  All of this, of course, is cloaked in the language of democracy and righteousness, as if most of those people gave a rat’s patootie about democracy if they even know what it actually is. 

                So, where has this outrage about mob actions been the last 10 months?  When and where is the media going to accept its sizable share of the responsibility for setting the stage and helping create a pro-leftist violence-and-mobs-are-OK-if-you-are rioting-about-social justice-no-matter-who-gets-hurt?  Had the media and responsible democrats called a spade a spade and reviled those actions, then perhaps the morons on the right would never have gotten the idea they can mob the Capitol and get away with it. 

                That’s the wonderful thing about the mainstream media – they are so self-righteous and are such true believers that reason, sadly, has no effect on them.  It is, in some ways, like being God. It is, however, a sad thing to read the Times or the Globe these days.  Once upon a time when we were growing up these papers were reliable and impartial purveyors of news, not opinion camouflaged as news and facts.  Now the only useful aspect of the Times is the Sunday Crossword.  It’s the only page worth reading these days.  Same for the Globe, though at least the Globe has pretty good sports.

                It may be that someday the media might wake up and acknowledge that their biased “reporting” has helped lead to some of these ills.  It may be that someday beat reporters will stop thinking they are actually opinion columnists.  Don’t hold your breath though.  They had lots of help, of course, and social media has seemingly stolen some of their “oomph.”  Still, one can’t help but believe that had media outlets done their job and not become partisans of one stripe or another, we’d all be a lot better off.  As it is now, however, you simply cannot rely on the mainstream media for unbiased reporting. 

References:          Ocasio-Cortez Fires Back at Cruz After He Criticizes Biden’s Reference to Nazis (msn.com); Illinois GOP Rep. Mary Miller apologizes for her remark praising Hitler at pro-Trump rally – Chicago Sun-Times

Part I – The Republican Gets Lambasted And Her Resignation Is Demanded

                “Illinois freshman Republican Congresswoman Mary Miller [made] recent comments, in which she referenced Hitler when speaking about propaganda being targeted towards children.  ‘Hitler was right on one thing: He said, “Whoever has the youth, has the future.”  ‘Our children are being propagandized,’  Miller said at a rally on Tuesday.” 

                She then got lambasted on social media by liberalsprogessives/Democrats for making any kind of Nazi or Hilter reference at all, much less one that has a good deal of truth in it and using it to make a valid point.  Of course she was then forced to apologize: “She has since apologized for the comment, according to The New York Times.”

                The Chicago Sun-Times described the inevitable backlash:  “An online petition demanding Miller’s resignation posted by the Illinois Legislative Jewish Caucus, a group of 15 state lawmakers, had more than 11,500 signatures by Friday evening.  Illinois Democratic Reps. Jan Schakowsky, Marie Newman, Sean Casten and Sen. Tammy Duckworth called on Miller to resign.  Tim Schneider, the Illinois GOP chairman and Illinois GOP Reps. Rodney Davis and Adam Kinzinger condemned her remarks. ‘Hitler wasn’t right about anything,’ Kinzinger said.  Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, said her remarks were ‘unfathomable and disgusting’ and invited her to visit the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum said it ‘unequivocally condemns any leader trying to advance a position by claiming Adolf Hitler was “right.”‘”

                So it appears to be virtually unlawful for anyone to suggest that Adolph Hitler or the Nazis were right about anything or to use one of their valid points to make a valid point about today’s environment.  The fact is that Hitler was right about all kinds of things, which is why he got to power in Germany in the first place and enabled to commit the crimes he did.  But goodness, you can’t say that, despite the obvious wisdom in learning about and taking instruction from what the Nazis were right about, as well as what they were wrong about.  Actually, their morality was wrong – on many other things they were spot-on.

                As George Santayana, Harvard Philosphy Professor, wrote, “[t]hose who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  (most often misquoted as something like “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.”).  These Demogratic progressive clowns should take a lesson from that. 

                OK, so if that is the rule, then what about this?

Part II – The Democrat Does Same Thing And Is A Hero

                Yesterday Democratic President-Elect Biden tells an extended anedote about Joseph Goebbels and how the big lie can become reality, just keep repeating it and repeating it.  “Biden said that the senators were ‘part of the big lie’ and shared an anecdote about Nazi minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, exaggerating the number of people killed in the firebombing of Dresden and the papers printed it.  ‘They’re part of the big lie,’ he said at the press conference. ‘We’re told that Goebbels and the great lie: you keep repeating the lie, repeating the lie.'”

                That is, Goebbels, Hitler’s henchman and propagandist, was right.  The more you tell the big lie, the more people believe it. The difference between this example and the Miller example above is….what? Nothing, that’s what.

                Guess what?  Not a peep of any criticism from any Democrat.  Not one.  No one has suggested he resign (well, decline his election).  No one has suggested he apologize for suggesting that something the Nazis advocated was actually correct.  As noted above, Hitler and the Nazis were correct about all sorts of things, but deliberately ignoring that fact and trying to cancel anyone who says so, is intentional ignorance of historical events which should not be tolerated in people who are elected to establish public policy. 

                In fact, Democratic Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, the well-known but unsophisticated and ignorant progressive loudmouth from New York, fully supported and defended Biden against criticism from Texas Republican Senator Cruz, and then raised Miller’s comment as evidence of Republican support for Nazis.  C’mon, talk about a hypocrite.  She sure needs a history lesson or two about how the Nazis came to power and what they did to maintain their power, but as we all know by now, history has no interest to this crowd unless it supports something they already think.  If it contradicts something they think (or more accurately, think they think), then you just cross it out of the history textbooks and POOF!  It’s gone.  Just like in the 1619 Project, which is largely pure fantasy.

                We suggest that all these Congressmen and Congresswomen, of all parties, go back to school and learn something.  Or try reading a book rather than a .04 second Google search when looking for information that might be accurate. It is amazing to us that, for just one example, Representative Ocasio-Cortez actually received a bachelor’s degree in economics and international relations from Boston University but continues to spout such anti-historical and hypocritical nonsense.  This apparently is just one example of what the ultra-liberal safe-space trigger-warning colleges have been teaching (or more accurately, not teaching) for the last couple of decades.  This does not bode well for this country.

Reference:          Providence’s NBC affiliate faces firestorm after host’s comments about incoming female lawmakers of color – The Boston Globe

                This one is tough to believe, but it’s in the paper so it must be true, right?  Look at the picture in the link above.  Some poor respected TV host/anchor of thirty-years standing in Rhode Island, Gene Valicenti, saw that photo and commented in an interview that the three women were striking a “fierce pose” and also called the women “fierce-looking.” 

                According to the Globe, the picture was posted on-line by “Senator-elect Tiara Mack, a progressive Democrat from Providence, which shows Mack, Senator-elect Cynthia Mendes and Representative-elect Brianna Henries, both East Providence Democrats, posing on the steps of the State House with a caption that reads: ‘We don’t just want a seat at the table. We’re bringing the table back to where it belongs: with the people. This is our power. This is our house.’”

                If you look at the picture, it is obvious that the three women were going out of their way to appear fierce and intimidating, since, after all, “[t]his is our power.  This is our house.”  And all this guy did was say so.  And of course he immediately “came under fire on social media” as a “racist, ageist and classist” for stating the obvious, that the “three incoming female lawmakers of color were striking a ‘fierce pose’ in a picture taken on the steps of the State House.” 

                Talk about people looking under every rock they can to find a nit to pick.  Senator-Elect Mack “called his comments ‘racist, ageist, and classist.’”  Obviously she has no idea what any of those terms mean.  But of course she’s black, so her line is that because she’s black she can call anything she wants racist and she has to be validated, and any white man suggesting she’s insane is simply doubling down on his racism.  Where the “ageist” and “classist” claims come from, who the hell knows.  Presumably the three women are younger than Mr. Valicenti, and come from a poor background while to them he is, of course, a white supremacist enjoying his white privilege and hefty paycheck. 

                It is a new and peculiar phenomenon that any black person can say anything is “racist” these days, and we’re all supposed to agree and validate that.  Just like we all have to believe a female alleged “victim” of sexual harassment or assault, regardless of how obviously phony a claim is.  It used to be the customer was always right – now it is any alleged victim of just about anything.  Doesn’t matter how frivolous or idiotic the claim is – in this case, blacks apparently believe they have an absolute right to define what is and isn’t racist, and that is the end of the story.  And anyone questioning that, or even seeking an explanation, is him or herself an irremediable racist who has to be squished like a bug.

And of course with instantaneous social media circulation and endless moronic commentary from people who know absolutely nothing about anything except how to prattle on their keyboards and support any alleged “victim” they can find, the next thing you know you’re cancelled.

That may be what Mr. Valicenti is in for.  This is what Mack said, according to the Globe:  “Mack stopped short of calling for Valicenti to be fired, but said she doesn’t believe he should be delivering the news to Rhode Islanders.  She questioned whether he should be reassigned.”  Yes, she probably thinks she’s showing mercy by not explicitly calling for his firing, but even if he isn’t fired he probably going to anti-discrimination training pretty soon. But it must be nice for HR departments everywhere to know that the “victimhood” is willing to make discipline and firing decisions for them, one less thing to be concerned about.

                All this nonsense just for saying that the Emperor has no clothes.  Sheesh!  What was he supposed to say about the photo – that the three looked warm and fuzzy?  Apparently truth has no value to these people. Mack and others like her should be ashamed of themselves, but phony victims with their own agendas have no shame, do they? It is only real victims that have shame, which in an ass-backwards way, is exactly what real victims should not have and phony victims should. This is a perfect example of, in the delicious words of Jason L. Riley at the Wall Street Journal (Gender-Neutral Language Is More Than a Word Game – WSJ), “opportunists who were playacting for attention.”

References:        U.S. House Democrats introduce ethics, legislative reforms | Reuters; untitled (house.gov) (for text of resolution)

                Yes, responding to what they apparently think is a crying need and national mandate after their overwhelming victory in the recent elections, our Democratic “progressive” friends are going to make sure that gender-specific terms such as “father” “mother” “brother” and “sister” are eliminated.  New proposed rules for the Congress provide that:

“In clause 8(c)(3) of rule XXIII, strike ‘father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, first cousin, nephew, niece, husband, wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in- law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, stepfather, stepmother, stepson, stepdaughter, stepbrother, stepsister, half brother, half sister, grandson, or granddaughter’ and insert ‘parent, child, sibling, parent’s sibling, first cousin, sibling’s child, spouse, parent-in-law, child-in-law, sibling-in-law, stepparent, stepchild, stepsibling, half-sibling, or grandchild’”

                Similarly, “seamen” shall be changed to “seafarers,” (which actually sounds better anyway, maybe let that one go) “chairman” becomes “chair,” and “himself” and “herself” shall be changed to “themself.”  “He” and “she” are also eliminated.  Hilariously, the ” Office of the Whistleblower Ombudsman” is changed to ” Office of the Whistleblower Ombuds.” 

                Now these rules are supposed “reforms” of the Congress’s own rules for its own conduct, so their application is limited, at the moment anyway, to that. We’ll see what they Congress as a whole thinks about this and whether or not they’ll let this nonsense continue. However, you don’t have to be a genius to see the way this is going if “progressives” get their way. 

                Pretty soon, it will be a hate crime to refer to someone as “him” or “her.”  It will be a hate crime to refer to your mother as your “mother.”  It will be a hate crime to call your son your “son,” or your daughter your “daughter.”  You wait and see how far these morons can push this nonsense.

                As the New York Post reported at NY GOP congresswomen blast Nancy Pelosi’s new House gender rules (nypost.com):

“Staten Island’s Congresswoman-elect Nicole Malliotakis also had words for the new rules.  ‘There are millions of Americans suffering, our economy is hurting, vaccine distribution is lagging and Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats are worried about this nonsense,’ she said. ‘Here’s a gender neutral word to describe this legislation: ridiculous.’”       

                There are a lot of other words that come to mind too – stupid, unnecessary, pandering, woke, idiotic, etc., you get the point.  This is your tax dollars at work – YOU are paying for this.  And there’s a lot more in these proposed rules that is just as stupid, but we’d be here for weeks.  Anyone still want the Democrats to run the show?

Reference:         U.S. to allow small drones to fly over people and at night | Reuters

                OK, maybe drones have some legitimate uses.  Surveying natural disaster sites, mapping, missing person searches and military applications seem to be appropriate and could save lives.  But delivering our new pair of underwear?  C’mon.  Talk about yet another solution in search of a problem.

                Yes, our government, in its infinite wisdom, has just issued long-awaited rules allowing drones to fly over people, and at night.  They have to have lights and have an identification chip so it can be identified from the ground (but not by ordinary citizens of course).  As noted in the above article, “’The new rules make way for the further integration of drones into our airspace by addressing safety and security concerns,’ FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said. ‘They get us closer to the day when we will more routinely see drone operations such as the delivery of packages.’”

                Whoopie.  We’re not at all sure why drones have to be integrated “into our airspace.”

                “In August, Amazon.com Inc’s drone service received federal approval allowing the retailer to begin testing commercial deliveries through its drone fleet.”

                Wow, that’s terrific.  We can’t wait.

                Of course, all the big retailers are getting in on this latest fashionable craze, like the Walmarts of the world.  Is this progress?  Well, we suppose it is if you manufacture drones or want to deliver things.  Otherwise?  Meh.

                This is what happens when government fails to do its job, which in turn makes us wonder what the hell good is government doing?  If there is any, it certainly isn’t evident from the rolling-over-and-showing-your-belly capitulation to and acquiesence in the commercial drone business, which doesn’t appear to have any legitimate argument for its existence.

                Think about it.  Someday soon, which we hope we don’t live to see, the skies will be flush with busy little drones buzzing back and forth between residences and fulfillment centers.  You think the people in East Boston and Milton have it bad with flights screaming overhead to and from Logan?  Just wait.  Any urban area is eventually going to be subject to clouds of these things blackening the skies.  Want to see the eclipse?  Forget it.  Want to see the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter?  You’ll have to get on a Space X flight. Think light pollution is bad? Don’t worry – there won’t be any, not from the sun or the moon anyway.

                Now, they may have some beneficial environmental effect of getting a bunch of these delivery vans off the streets, although what all those people are going to do for work after they all have to declare bankruptcy is certainly an interesting question. 

                But the larger question here is the notion of “progress” and whether or not progress should be allowed to run roughshod over all of us.  Since the Renaissance, it’s been onward and upward in everything.  Economies have to grow or die, cars have to get bigger, then smaller, then bigger again, then smaller again, etc., wrinkles can be made to disappear with botox but you’ll look like you’re 150 year old by the time you’re 60.  Just look at all these Hollywood “stars” with pouty lips run amok.  The internet has basically eliminated libraries, dictionaries, encyclopedias and books you can hold in your hand with pages to turn.  Social media has turned into a pox on society worse than any pandemic.  Actually, the internet and social media have largely relieved many people from the arduous and time-consuming task of thinking. 

                And of course there are these fashionable but phony alleged-to-be-good-for-the-environment remedies for past polluting progress like electric vehicles, which are the new polluting progress.  As it turns out, the environmental costs of just producing the batteries for these vehicles largely eliminates any benefit from their gaslessness.  But no doubt progress will cure that too, though bear in mind the old saw that the cure is often worse than the disease.

                And now, some clowns have developed drones, which will ruin privacy in any inhabited area, ruin aesthetics and ruin just about any view.  It’s going to be just like a buzzing plague of locusts darkening the sky to dine on your crop except it isn’t going away once its belly is full.  All in the name of getting our new pair of underwear to us as soon as humanly possible.  And just because they got invented and the government has kowtowed to big business, the rest of us have to suffer.  That’s progress all right!  Keep it up!  It’s not climate change that’s going to do us all in (which was caused by “progress” in the first place), it’s progress.  Or the drone that fell on your head.

Reference:          ‘It’s hostage-taking.’ AOC lashed out after lawmakers got only hours to read and pass the huge 5,593-page bill to secure COVID-19 relief (msn.com)

                While we rarely agree with New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on just about anything, she is absolutely spot-on in her criticism of the Congressional “leadership’s” handling of this almost 6,000 page so-called “stimulus” bill, of which “stimulus” turns out to be just a tiny part apparently.  The entire bill is a so-called “omnibus” spending bill that finances the government until September, 2021, along with apparently many hefty aide servings of pork.  No one knows, however, because no one, including members of Congress who are supposed to be able to vote intelligently on a bill because they read it and are aware of what’s in it, were never given an opportunity to read it or understand it. 

                In the famous words of current Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D. Ca), “. . . we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it – away from the fog of the controversy.”  Now to be fair, that statement was in relation to the citizenry learning what was in the Obamacare bill years ago, not the membership, though the membership had no idea either.  But either way it is astounding in a representative democracy that the handfull of (hopefully) pre-senile senior citizens who run Congress feel perfectly comfortable telling their members to pass a bill that no one has read. 

                And that is business as normal.

                What are these people thinking?  Read our December 2, 2020, post The Massachusetts General Court And Its “Leadership” Should Be Ashamed Of Themselves, which is about the exact same issue on the state level, wherein the Massachusetts General Court got only hours to read a large and highly controversial piece of legislation on police “reform” before a vote on it.

                The arrogance and irresponsibility of these “leaders” is stunning, though we suppose not surprising given their history.  But no one voted for them to be the “leadership” of Congress or of the country.  Their districts voted them in so they could serve in Congress and represent that district – no one voted for them to dictate policy and laws to the rest of us, never mind being a shepherd for the sheep in Congress.  None of us checked off a ballot voting for Nancy Pelosi as Majority Leader in the House, or McConnell in the Senate either. 

                But the feckless membership puts up with this with few complainers.  The comical parts of all this are listening to those members and those outsiders who support or criticise such legislation even when they don’t know what’s in it other than what they were told by the “leadership” – the classic blind leading the blind.  This is not what we elected these clowns for.  We elected them so that they will soberly and responsibly think about what is good for the populace before they decide how to vote and then vote accordingly.  That consideration should not be founded on what the “leadership” demands or insists on, or what lobbyists want, or even what the loudmouth minorities back home or in Washington demonstrate for.  And it shouldn’t be determined by how desperate the membership is to get back home for Christmas.

                We suggest that there should be a rule, or even a statute, or a Constitutional Amendment, mandating that members of Congress (and at least the Massachusetts General Court) get at least one week to review any proposed legislation prior to a vote on it.  What’s the argument against that?  That some legislation is critical and has to be passed immediately?  Baloney.  Congress has been futzing around with this bill for months and months, just like the Massachusetts legislature was, and it is only their own dilatoriness that has created some “crisis,” and they pull this nonsense time and time again.  If they’d act like adults (although it is frightening to think that perhaps they actually are acting like adults), then they should focus on the job and get it done.  Only in government and government bureaucracy is this type of nonsense tolerated.  It is not tolerated in the private sector – people get fired when they pull this crap.  Good luck firing Pelosi.

                In any event, we propose a week of repose before a vote on any bill.  That seems eminently sensible and might also result in better thought-out bills that aren’t going to be subject to judicial interpretations anywhere near as much as is currently the case.  That will save us all a lot of trouble and hassle.

Reference:         George Floyd Memorial Thrives, but Minneapolis Neighborhood Struggles – WSJ

                This is getting ridiculous.  So-called “activists” have created a “memorial” to George Floyd in the intersection where he was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  OK, so far, fine.  Memorials generally are nice things.  However, they have taken over that intersection and adjoining roads so:

“Motorists can’t drive through, impeding patronage of businesses on the block.  Police patrols aren’t allowed in . . . A busy bus stop next to a gas station that was boarded up amid the summer’s unrest had to be moved. . . . Local activists, who have set up a medical shed and greenhouse as part of an effort to make the area autonomous, say they aren’t ready to relinquish the intersection to the city.  People stand guard and stop police and nonresidents from driving through.  ‘When we get something that looks like justice, they’ll get something that looks like a street,’ said Marcia Howard, a 47-year-old high-school teacher and area resident who waved neighbors through a concrete barrier on a recent day.”

                Of course, the City is letting this all happen like it’s OK for “activists” to just take over any part of a town or city they want with impunity.  When City officials “began discussions to reopen the intersection in August . . . [they] backed off when they were met with resistance from activists and a list of 24 demands that included firing several law-enforcement officials and investing in the community”.

                Subsequently, in September and November, the City sent letters to organizers outlining “steps the city is taking to respond to the demands within the city’s jurisdiction.  They include funding in the mayor’s 2021 budget to address structural racism in the city, while the 2020 budget includes $100,000 for planning a permanent memorial to Mr. Floyd.” 

                Minneapolis City Council Vice President Andrea Jenkins, who “represents a ward that includes much of the current memorial, said it is an inspiring and healing place for visitors.  For many residents, however, she said, ‘It is challenging, to put it mildly.‘”  She added that [t]his autonomous zone has created an atmosphere of criminal activity and drug sales and violence, gun shots, and that’s separate from people who are occupying the space.”  Consequently, “[y]ear-to-date, murders are up 65% compared with all of 2019.  Shootings have more than doubled compared with the same period last year. Carjackings are up more than 300%, with 385 reported through Dec. 8”, said a police spokesman.  He added that “[t]here has been such an anti-law-enforcement rhetoric that people have been emboldened to go out and do what they want.”

                OK, so these clowns have taken over an intersection, don’t let the police in, are trying to make it “autonomous, and neighbors are having a “challenging” time living in their own neighborhood, and the government, the jurisdictional entity responsible for that area just throws up its hands and lets this go on, now for months and months and months. 

                Just as in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, public authorities have completely and shamefully abdicated their responsibilities to the businesses, citizens, and taxpayers of their cities and let unelected “activists” just take over neighborhoods as though this is business as usual.  This is absolute foolishness; it’s the wild west all over again.  It’s a wonder the residents haven’t pulled out every firearm they have and themselves forced these clowns out since the City won’t do it.  Fortunately that hasn’t happened yet, but the longer nonsense like this is allowed to go on, who knows what will happen.

                Of course the feckless City and its elected officials are busy trying to figure out how to appease these clowns and persuade them to move along rather than actually do anything about it.  We respectfully suggest it is a fundamental responsibility of elected officials in any community to provide public services to the entire city, including public safety, and not have residents’ lives, businesses and activities compromised in the selfish interests of a tiny bunch of loudmouthed bullies who attempt to cow the city into appeasing their every stupid demand.  Again, to appeasers we have two words:  Neville Chamberlain.  Look it up.