The Masters are losing control

The CDC is still out there insisting that nothing will change even if you’ve been vaccinated (so why bother? — I haven’t), but with Texas, Mississipi and Oklahoma fully reopened, and even Blue States like Massachusetts dropping capacity limits on restaurants, the pressure is building. If in thirty days the reopened states remain healthy, here comes the landrush. Schools will remain closed, of course, because the teachers won’t give up their fully-paid, stay-at-home, 2-year lark until a ruler is forced into their cold, dead, hands, but otherwise, the end of this insanity is near.

This isn't going to help tourism; or at the least, it'll attract a different crowd

eat a peach

China orders up Bat Flu anal swabbing for all arriving foreigners

But don’t worry, Dr. Fauci would approve:

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin defended the screenings as “science-based”

Complete with Uyghur concentration camp Pajamas.

(BTW, old pick-up line at a gay bar: “excuse me, do you mind if I push in your stool?”)

When will charges against the D.C. rioters be dismissed?

Of course, most of the riots occurred at night, which, under the Biden Rule, means they weren’t riots at all

Biden’s new justice crew drops dozens of charges against Portland rioters

Federal prosecutors have dismissed more than one-third of cases stemming from last summer’s violent protests in downtown Portland, when protesters clashed with federal agents. KGW reviewed federal court records and found 31 of the 90 protest cases have been dismissed by the U.S. Department of Justice, including a mix of misdemeanor and felony charges.

Some of the most serious charges dropped include four defendants charged with assaulting a federal officer, which is a felony. More than half of the dropped charges were “dismissed with prejudice,” which several former federal prosecutors described as extremely rare. “Dismissed with prejudice” means the case can’t be brought back to court.

The outgoing U.S. attorney for Oregon, Billy Williams, said in an interview that ‘nobody in their right mind thinks this is OK’.

The KGW report also indicates that more dismissals may be on the way, as several sources in the law enforcement community told them they expect this is just the first round.

The Department of Justice stepped in as riots terrorized Portland throughout the summer of 2020, and Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt announced he would not prosecute most riot crimes committed in Portland.

So they (almost) broke even

20 Chieftans Road (no link) has sold for $2.450 million; it went to contract after just 85 days on market. That’s better than their predecessors, who paid $3.8 for it when it was new in 2001, priced it at $4.350 in 2007, and finally sold it to these owners for $2.3 in 2013. Deducting commissions, taxes, and legal fees, the net on this might be around $2.250, which isn’t too bad.

Well, then that makes him a Homo-Erectus

The Biden clan relaxes over a marshmallow roast

Biden claims that reopening Texas and Mississippi is ‘Neanderthal Thinking”

President Biden took a swipe at Republican governors in Texas and Mississippi Wednesday, accusing them of "Neanderthal thinking" following their decision to reverse COVID safety policies, including mask mandates.

"We've been able to move that all the way up to the end of May to have enough [vaccines] for every American, to get every adult American to get a shot," Biden told reporters from the White House Wednesday. "The last thing we need is the Neanderthal thinking."

For one, why is May significant? St. Fauci has vowed to keep the country shut down through the year and probably into 2022. And unless the teachers unions consent, schools are likely to remain closed until the fall of ‘22. We should wait for permission from these power-mad bureaucrats before we resume our lives? Why?

Second, who has opened the border to tens of thousands and soon hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens, aliens met at the border by ICE, and, at Biden’s order, immediately freed, untested for infection, to roam about the country at will? Who is flying these typhoid Marys to wherever they wish (at taxpayers’ expense?) The border crossings are now super-spreader events, all thanks to this doddering idiot.

And AOC, the gift that keeps on giving, has chimed in with her own vacuous thoughts [sic]:

See comments, above, re: opening the borders to all comers and shipping them out

Once you've proved something irrefutably, what's left except repetition?

AOC Shows She’s an Absolute Moron (Again)

Lifting a Bernie Sanders “argument” verbatim, AOC demonstrates her own economic illiteracy by posting the old commie’s Tweet under her own name. Somewhere it was said that this barista majored in economics in college; that’s probably a good argument against attending classes at today’s universities.

Red State’s Bonchi (@bonchieredstate.)

What’s utterly embarrassing is a member of Congress being this economically illiterate, and to prove my point, let’s go through some facts about Denmark.

One, Denmark does not have a national minimum wage. Yes, you read that right. Any wage floors are regionally negotiated because that makes way more sense than mandating a single minimum that may be impossible in places were the cost of living is less. AOC is using a country without a minimum wage to stump for a minimum wage increase. The mind boggles. It’s likely she didn’t bother to do the least bit of research before popping off with her socialist mad libs on Twitter.

Let’s also talk about Denmark’s tax rates. Someone making $10/hr at a rural McDonalds in the United States has an effective income tax rate of essentially 0%. In fact, they probably qualify for credits. In Denmark, someone making $22/hr pays an effective tax rate of 32% on that income. Further, Denmark has a 25% VAT tax on goods and services. Sales tax in the United States is typically falls between $0.07-$0.10 on the dollar depending on what state you are in. To make matters even worse for AOC’s point, the cost of living in Denmark is about 28% higher than the United States.

Now, take $22/hr but factor in a 32% income tax with a 28% higher cost of living (including a 25% VAT tax) and what you see is that the $22/hr number compared to workers in the United States is highly misleading. Of course, AOC doesn’t choose to share any of those details because they’d destroy her point.

It’s also important to understand how a Denmark McDonald’s is fundamentally different from one in the United States. They don’t have drive-thrus, for example. That means they require [fewer] workers. Automated ordering kiosks are already in place. That gives stores there the ability to pay less people more money.

Lastly, let’s note that Denmark has a very strict immigration system. That makes it possible to keep their welfare state at somewhat manageable levels. A country with only 5 million people and a homogenous culture is far easier to run. Does AOC support Denmark style immigration restrictions? Of course she doesn’t because that would require some level of critical assessment.

Given all these facts, I’m still not going to make some definitive statement that the wage for a McDonald’s worker in Denmark is actually the same as the United States. Cost of living obviously depends on what you choose to buy, for example. How the stores operate there vs. in America is also a huge factor. What I can say is that pronouncing that McDonald’s workers make $22/hr in Denmark leaves out a lot crucial context and detail that, when taken into account, make things much closer than they appear.

Regardless, if AOC wants to be like Denmark, she should be stumping for no minimum wage, sky-high tax rates for the working class, and a strict immigration system. What she doesn’t get to do is continue to use Denmark as an example of her policy goals when the facts simple tell a far different story than what she’s presenting.

Cos Cob contract

12 Maplewood Drive (next to Loughlin Park) $1.875 million, contract in just 19 days. Nicely renovated in 2006, when it sold (after 283 days) for $1.775 million.

It’s small — 3,100 sq.ft. — by Greenwich standards, but between the park next door and the easy walk to school and train, I can see its appeal.

(modified) Zebra

Oh, I'm long past the point of being able to feel outrage — that would require the ability to be surprised

Biden’s giveaway to federal bureaucrats should outrage you

 …. [N]othing quite compares to its “Emergency Federal Employee Leave Fund” for the righteous indignation it should arouse in most Americans.

The provision sets aside money for a leave program that would allow any federal employee not working for the military to take up to 15 weeks of paid leave and collect up to $21,000 ($1,400 a week) between whenever the bill is passed and Sept. 30, 2021, if the pandemic has had certain deleterious effects on their lives.

…

And then there is the pièce de résistance of these goodies. The paid leave also applies to any federal worker who “is caring for a son or daughter of such employee if the school or place of care of the son or daughter has been closed, if the school of such son or daughter requires or makes optional a virtual learning instruction model or requires or makes optional a hybrid of in-person and virtual learning instruction models, or the childcare provider of such son or daughter is unavailable, due to COVID-19 precautions.”

For as long as schools remain closed — and remember, the Biden administration’s kind-of-sort-of, wishy-washy contention is that they should until more money is spent, even though there remains over $100 billion in unspent education appropriations from the last relief bill — bureaucrats whose paychecks are provided by John and Jane Q. Taxpayer would be able to collect from the comfort of their own homes, where they supervise their children and catch up on their favorite shows. Again, it would be difficult to devise a targeted giveaway more likely to inspire wrath and resentment.

Families across the country continue to have the costs of the pandemic passed down to them by the Democratic Party and its patrons in the teachers unions. American children are suffering scholastically and emotionally. Parents are left to deal with both of these heartbreaking consequences, as well as the practical problem of where their kids are supposed to be during the typical workday.

The Biden administration proposes not to put an end to this inequitable cost distribution, but to provide 15 weeks of paid vacation time to any member of another core Democratic constituency whose kids have the option of attending school virtually. After all, there is no time like a pandemic to encourage federal workers to take a holiday.

Legal Insurrection provides this additional point:

The $1400 a week comes from the taxpayers. Do you know who is not getting that $1400 a week? The majority of the taxpayers.

The majority of the taxpayers do not even qualify for the single $1400 checks in the COVID-19 bill!

Facebook? Twitter? Democrats?

Louis Farrakhan posts his denunciation of COVID vaccinations — “vials of death”, on Facebook and Twitter. When can we expect the permanent cancellation of his accounts, and his condemnation by our betters in Washington?

Louis Farrakhan, the influential leader of the Nation of Islam, continued his crusade against the coronavirus vaccines over the weekend, calling the vaccine a “vial of death” during remarks at the extremist group’s convention, where other speakers falsely claimed that the vaccines have caused more than 900 deaths.

Videos of the convention, which was held for the Nation of Islam’s annual Saviours’ Day, are posted on the group’s Twitter, Facebook and YouTube pages, despite the social media companies’ policies against vaccine-related misinformation.

“By rushing so fast to get something out, bypassing normal steps in a true vaccine, now God is going to turn your vaccine into death in a hurry,” Farrakhan said at the end of a plenary session held on Saturday.

“It is death itself, created by what you call ‘Warp Speed,'” Farrakhan also said, referring to the U.S. government’s project, Operation Warp Speed, to develop a vaccine for the virus.

And from Stephen Green: To Ask the Question is to Answer it. Why Does Big tech Censor Conservatives But Not Terrorists?

I'd ask whose side he's on, but that was answered long ago

Just a friend you haven’t met

Biden ends ICE warnings about fugitive aliens

U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) explained on Tuesday why the agency decided to lock down an account that was used to post warnings of dangerous aliens who were released into American communities, often citing city policies that released the aliens before ICE officers could take them into custody.

The account, @ICEAlerts, was created in 2013 and was extensively used during former President Trump's administration. The last tweet was sent on January 21, 2021. [Hmmm — what happened that day?]

"It seems the Biden Admin locked @ICEAlerts because if you were to report the location of one of these dangerous aliens to ICE, it would become too obvious that these assaulters, drug dealers, thieves, and drunk drivers are now allowed to go free under Biden's policies," Jon Feere, former senior advisor to the ICE Director and chief of staff, tweeted.