National Guardsmen march into Congresswoman's office to protest her political comments regarding Guam
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We’re just here for your own protection
It's back to business for our military-industrial complex
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Honey, we’re back!
Syria reports 45 U.S. trucks loaded with munitions and gear have entered the country
Robert Spencer: Are Dotty Old Joe’s handlers planning an American military misadventure in Syria? It wouldn’t be any surprise. Syria’s state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported Sunday that “a new convoy of US occupation trucks loaded with logistic materials have entered Hasaka countryside via the illegal border crossings with northern Iraq to support the occupation’s bases in Hasaka countryside. Local sources in al-Khazna village told SANA reporter that a convoy, that includes 45 trucks loaded with boxes, military vehicles and fuel tankers, entered via al-Walid illegal border crossing with northern Iraq.”
The claim comes from a hostile source, the Assad government, as became clear when the report went on to say that “the convoy crossed the M4 highway, heading for Deir Ezzor and Hasaka, where number of the occupation’s bases spread. In a flagrant violation of the international law, the US occupation troops work to enhance their illegal presence in al-Jazeera region, as they have established several bases to protect and train armed groups and terrorist organizations operating under their command to achieve their hostile schemes.”
This is, unfortunately, not at all farfetched. Back in January, two days after the inauguration, i24News reported that “a large US military convoy entered northeastern Syria.” Reportedly, the convoy “included some 40 trucks and armored vehicles and was backed from the air by helicopters.”
What is going on? Former President Trump said it last September: “The top people in the Pentagon…want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy. But we’re getting out of the endless wars, you know how we’re doing.” Not any more. The drumbeat to get American troops into Syria began almost immediately after Joe was anointed President-elect by the establishment media.
Of course, because of deep state interference in Trump’s presidency, we never really left Syria in the first place. Trump’s former special envoy for Syria, Never-Trumper Jim Jeffrey, boasted in November that he circumvented Trump’s orders to withdraw American troops from Syria by lying to the President. Jeffrey explained: “We were always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops we had there,” and said that “the actual number of troops in northeast Syria is ‘a lot more than’ the roughly two hundred troops Trump initially agreed to leave there in 2019.” [emphasis added]
What the Masters of War have in mind, however, appears to be a far greater commitment of American troops than even Jeffrey’s shell game allowed for. After all, how else are they going to keep happy “all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes”? There’s money to be made even in the devastated hellscape that is Syria after nearly a decade of civil war, and so our moral superiors are starting to beat the drums of war in Syria once again in order to ensure that Biden commits enough American troops to keep that money flowing into the right pockets.
Bashar Assad is without any doubt a scoundrel. But as his undeniable evils begin to preoccupy the military and media anew, it is useful to ask cui bono. Who benefits? There are oppressive rulers all over the world; why is Assad once again the focus of negative attention and U.S. military activity? The answer is clear enough: toppling Assad is a bit of unfinished business left over from the Obama administration. Now that Obama’s third term has begun and the messianic internationalists are back in the saddle again, they’re ready to resume working to “make the world safe for democracy,” as their equally messianic internationalist forbear Woodrow Wilson put it, and to remake the globe in accordance with their smug and miseducated sense of the way things ought to be.
And if, along the way, a few friends make a bit of money, what could be wrong with that? …
So watch for CNN, the New York Times, AP, Reuters, and the rest to start telling us again about just how bad this Assad chap is, and why it is up to the United States to do something about it militarily. They will no doubt manage to fool millions yet again.
Speaking of our lying, duplicitous, enemy of the people media ...
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If you can believe it, the Washington Post’s dud of a “bombshell” isn’t even the most scandalous thing about this episode in media malfeasance. No, the most scandalous thing is: Several newsrooms claimed they independently “confirmed” the original “scoop” with anonymous sources of their own.
NBC News reported it “confirmed The Post’s characterization of the Dec. 23 call through a source familiar with the conversation.”
USA Today claimed a “Georgia official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters confirmed the details of the call.”
ABC News reported: “President Donald Trump phoned a chief investigator in Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office asking the official to ‘find the fraud’ and telling this person they would be a ‘national hero’ for it, an individual familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.”
PBS NewsHour and CNN likewise appeared to claim they independently “confirmed” the story through their own anonymous sources.
But Trump never said those things. The sources either were terribly mistaken or lying.
WaPo confessed via a “correction” notice rather than a separate article, so few will see it; that’s deliberate. And when will we see reports that the Democrats’ criminal investigation into that phone call has been dropped? Never, it will just go down the memory hole, to rest next to the intelligence services’ attempted coup.
Is the NYT actually apologizing for trashing DeSantis? Quietly and grudgingly yes; almost, sort of
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Bataan death march, florida edition
Ed Morrissey: If so, it’s doing so grudgingly
NYT: To bask in that feeling — even if it is only that — is to ignore the heavy toll the coronavirus exacted in Florida, one that is not yet over.
More than 32,000 Floridians have died, an unthinkable cost that the state’s leaders rarely acknowledge. Miami-Dade County averaged more than 1,000 new coronavirus cases a day over the past two weeks, one of the nation’s most serious outbreaks. And Florida is thought to have the highest concentration of B.1.1.7, the more contagious virus variant first identified in the United Kingdom.
Yet Florida’s death rate is no worse than the national average, and better than that of some other states that imposed more restrictions, despite its large numbers of retirees, young partyers and tourists. Caseloads and hospitalizations across most of the state are down. The tens of thousands of people who died were in some ways the result of an unspoken grand bargain — the price paid for keeping as many people as possible employed, educated and, some Floridians would argue, sane.
[Morrissey]; Ahem. If Florida has had better outcomes, as the NYT reports, then what exactly is the “unspoken grand bargain”? That might apply if Florida had worse outcomes than lockdown states, but not if they’re doing just as well or better. National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke points out the fallacy:
It cannot simultaneously be true that “the tens of thousands of people who died were in some ways the result of an unspoken grand bargain” and that Florida’s death rate is “no worse than the national average, and better than that of some other states that imposed more restrictions.” If it is true that Florida both refused to lock down harshly and kept as “many people as possible employed, educated and . . . sane” and has a death rate that is “no worse than the national average, and better than that of some other states that imposed more restrictions, despite its large numbers of retirees, young partyers and tourists” — well, then there was neither a meaningful tradeoff nor a “grand bargain,” was there?
[Morrissey] It’s not the only point made grudgingly, either. The NYT points out that Florida’s decision to keep beaches open “infuriated many people,” but now “the decision seems obvious in retrospect, given how much safe people are outside.” That decision didn’t seem obvious just in retrospect, however. Florida made that decision based on the science, well-known at that time as well as now, that COVID-19 does not transmit easily outdoors, especially in sunshine. We knew that as early as April of last year, in the first weeks of the pandemic. With that in mind, imposing lockdowns and forcing people to remain indoors is a far worse policy choice, especially in warm-weather states.
Rather than lock down, Florida enforced some social-distancing and mask requirements but allowed venues to operate normally. Now they’re recovering economically much faster, while not suffering worse outcomes from the pandemic. That has other states taking a second look, and the media too, according to Axios:
After a solid year of living with a pandemic, the national press is beginning to ask the question that even Democrats have been quietly pondering in the Sunshine State: Was Gov. Ron DeSantis’ pandemic response right for Florida?
Don’t forget: More than 32,000 Floridians have died, a number the state’s leaders rarely acknowledge, but our death rate is no worse than the national average — and better than some states with tighter restrictions.
Floridians don’t appear reluctant at all to credit DeSantis, not even across party lines:
Ms. García, a 34-year-old Democrat, said she found herself unexpectedly defending Mr. DeSantis’s policies to her friends up north.
“People here, they’ve been able to work. The kids have been able to go to school,” she said. “We have this reputation in Florida of being all Florida Man and crazyland. But I’d much rather be in Florida than California, New York or Chicago.”
[Morrissey]: In fairness, Florida’s weather allowed for more liberalized restrictions….But California has similar weather advantages, and instead of giving people outdoor venues to socialize and conduct commerce, they kept them locked indoors — where the virus can do its worst. Perhaps the leadership of the lockdown states should answer for those choices … and the media should answer for its coverage of them, too.
[Fountain] A sample of the media’s attack on De Santis (and Texas) can be found in this BBC report from last July. I’ll point out as just one example, that Disney World reopened month ago and tens of thousands of people were able to resume earning a living, while Gov. Noisome has kept Disneyland shut down, devastating the surrounding city of Anaheim and all who derived their livelihood from the park. Recall? Hell, hang him.
We don't follow science, we ARE science: we're the CDC
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What, you think we just make this stuff up? We use technology, damn it!
New CDC guidelines require masks for children 2-years and up
PJ Media:
“The new CDC guidance calls for mask-wearing for children aged two and older:
Everyone 2 years and older should wear a mask covering their mouth and nose when around people who do not live in their household, except when eating or sleeping.
“Anyone who thinks two-, three-, and four-year-olds are going to tolerate this has never met one. In a stunning statement, it goes on to say:”
…even after childcare providers and staff are vaccinated, there will be a need to continue prevention measures for the foreseeable future, including wearing masks, physical distancing and other important prevention strategies outlined in this guidance document.
Pending
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28 Pheasant Lane, $2.950 million, Sally Maloney’s listing. Originally listed in October, it went to contract almost immediately, but then that deal fell through, and the house was pulled from the market until after the holidays. It came back on in January, and this time, the deal stuck.
As an aside, the fact that a house has fallen out of contract shouldn’t be given much weight unless the reason is known. It could be that it failed a building inspection, which is obviously a matter of concern, but contracts fail for all sorts of reasons: job loss or transfer, cold feet, even good fortune: I once had a client who, ready to pull the trigger on a $4 million house, suddenly received a promotion and a very nice bonus and decided to raise his target to $6 million. So you never know.
Postscript: I’ll add that, in Greenwich, where realtors reach an accepted offer and then turn it over to lawyers to negotiate the contract, there can be many slips before cup reaches lips. Back when I was on the lawyering side and a proposed contract came in, I’d check who’d sent it. If it was one of the Kaye boys, Joel or Jeremy, I’d give the deal a 100% chance of success because, one way or the other, I knew we’d reach a satisfactory agreement. Other lawyers, and I won’t name names, because some of them are still practicing and are very nice people otherwise, I’d rate the odds as low as fifty-fifty: when individual ego and the need to “win”, overrides achieving the goal of the client, which is to sell his house, nothing good happens.
Market Watch
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3 Juniper Lane, in Riverside, built by Lino Marcal (one of the good guys), was listed in May 2018 at $3.295 and had dropped to $2.895 by June, 2019 when he gave up and rented it out (for $12,500, so not too shabby). It came back on the market last November, priced at $2.845 and went to contract, via multiple bids, in February. Closed Friday at $2.895.
She depends on the kindness of strangers; don't we all?
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Pal Nancy reports from Colorado:
Here’s something to be grateful for...I was standing outside my garage looking at the two and a half feet of snow in my little driveway area when a man came along with his plow. I gave him my best Blanche DeBois look and he cleared the driveway. There’s something everyday!! 😀
Nancy thanked the gentleman and (I asked) didn’t grill him about his politics, or inspect his truck for Trump stickers before allowing him to lend a helping hand. That’s in contrast to that crazed New Yorker who last month described her quandary when her Trump-voter neighbor plowed her out. Do you even acknowledge a Nazi? She decided a half-hearted wave would be acceptable, but there was no friggin’ way she’d go beyond that, of course.
Oh, heck no. The Trumpites next door to our pandemic getaway, who seem as devoted to the ex-president as you can get without being Q fans, just plowed our driveway without being asked and did a great job.
How am I going to resist demands for unity in the face of this act of aggressive niceness?
Of course, on some level, I realize I owe them thanks — and, man, it really looks like the guy back-dragged the driveway like a pro — but how much thanks?
These neighbors are staunch partisans of blue lives, and there aren’t a lot of anything other than white lives in neighborhood.
This is also kind of weird. Back in the city, people don’t sweep other people’s walkways for nothing.
SO: Lily-white liberal flees the lockdowned city for her country retreat and is appalled by the lack of diversity, a term which she very much doesn’t mean to include diversity of political views. No, she wants neighbors who think as she does, but preferably, say, a mixed-race gay professional couple (if one of them was a doctor, that would be nice) with three adopted children of undetermined gender. Now those are neighbors she’d be happy to let help her. “Oh, and I hope they do gutters!”
Some owners and their agents seem to be counting on a market boom this spring
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9 Knollwood Drive failed to sell for $3.795 back in 2019-September 2020, when it was pulled from the market.. It’s back today at $4.5 million.
cultural appropriation! (And the zebra’s also pissed off)