Almost half of Democratic voters think federal and state governments should be able to fine or imprison individuals who publicly question the efficacy of the existing COVID-19 vaccines on social media, television, radio, or in online or digital publications.
Isabel van Brugen
January 19, 2022
Nearly Half of Democrats Would Back Temporary Detention for Unvaccinated: Poll
[It looks to me like nearly half of Democrats are at risk of prosecution for violation of Federal law.—Joe]
Blue America offers to Red nothing but scorn, contempt, hatred, insult, humiliation, calumny, outsourcing, open borders, layoffs, lower wages, opioids, losing wars, censorship, trumped-up treason accusations, surveillance, anarcho-tyranny, pre-trial detention, mask mandates, lockdowns, Critical Race Theory, and cancellation. And then not only gets enraged when Red America objects, but demands Red reverence and gratitude in return.
Michael Anton
Blue America’s Messaging Problem
January 4, 2022
[There is more than a little truth in this.—Joe]
There have been many, many statements to the effect that gun owners, so-called “constitutionalists” (spoken as an epithet), libertarians, et al (any of a generally pro-liberty, anti-authoritarian mind) are essentially vermin, heretics who deserve no rights unless they recant. And so while they’re saying we MUST trust liars and power-hungry psychopaths in government, who hate us, to “keep us safe”, they’re simultaneously saying that we’re the problem the world needs to get rid of in order to be safe (“safe” meaning “free from opposition”).
History proves beyond all doubt that if you comply and turn in your guns they’ll not stop hating and accusing you. They’ll persecute you all the more. More because you’re not only an enemy of their beautiful alliance, you’ve now proven yourself to be weak, manipulated via lies, unable to stand on your own principles, a coward, and therefore all the more contemptible! Compliance with liars and criminal psychopaths is like chum in the water— It attracts a feeding frenzy among the sharks. It ONLY leads to more contempt and more violations!
Lyle
January 11, 2022
Comment to Quote of the day—JPFO @JPFO_2A
[This reminds me of something I learned (the hard way) from dealing with people with personality disorders. You must draw a line and provide consequences for misbehavior which transgress that line. If you do not you will end up in an abusive relationship.—Joe]
Can you spot the principled difference between these two statements?
JPFO @JPFO_2A
Tweeted on January 8, 2022
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
Similar in nature to vaccines against disease, addiction vaccines stimulate the body to create antibodies that recognize a drug, and prevent or slow it from reaching the brain. A shot every few months, or once a year, has the potential to seriously ease a person’s path to recovery.
Hannah Furfaro
January 5, 2022
To fight opioid crisis, UW researchers take new shot at developing vaccine against addictive drugs
[Interesting. I never who have guessed such a thing was possible. But now that the idea has been presented I can imagine “vaccines” for all kinds of things.
The first one that came to mind was one prevent Marxist beliefs. That was quickly followed by the concern that someone would probably develop, and the government would soon mandate, a vaccine to prevent individualism and/or suspicion of large government.
I soon returned to the present day and reality by reminding myself there has been a vaccine for the lethal variants of Marxism since before the mutations first started spreading over 100 years ago. Current prices vary from less than $0.10 to over $5.00 dollars a shot. And, if properly injected, they will cure as well as provide lifelong 100% immunity from infections. Even though the shots are widely available, inexpensive, and effective we still have rising Marxist infection rates. It seems to me there will have to be mandates to achieve herd immunity. This is because the voluntary inoculation rates are so very low..—Joe]
Some policies—and some partisans—deserve forceful opposition, even contempt, from the other side. Vigorous disagreement, both within and between parties, is essential in a functioning democracy. But democracy also requires at least some level of mutual comprehension. No matter where people are on the political spectrum, they ought to know whom they’re fighting with and what they’re even fighting about.
Victoria Parker
December 27, 2021
Conservatives and Liberals Are Wrong About Each Other
[It is my belief that instead of treating people as belonging to one tribe or another people should treat each other as individuals. Individuals that have a much more nuanced set of beliefs and actions than the caricatures assigned to them by the leaders of their tribal opponents.
That may be too much to ask. The tribal behaviors are almost certainly deeply embedded in our psyche and difficult to override. As I have said many times before*, “It is irrational to expect people to be rational.”
The end result may be a tragedy of misunderstandings with a great mass of people “targeted” by each side when, if at all, it should only be that small fraction of extremists who are dragging the whole population into the fire.—Joe]
* For example:
Michelle Tandler starts out with this:
Here is what confuses me about San Francisco.
We have the most liberal, left-wing government & population in the country.
We have a $13B budget.
And we have 8,000 people sleeping in the rain this week.
Can someone please explain this to me?
Continues here:
I’ve been a registered democrat for 18 years.
I grew up in a Progressive family and went to a Progressive school, and have mostly Progressive friends.
Yet what I see in SF – if this what Progressive stands for – I want the opposite.
And here:
+ Why, after decades of Progressive rule in SF are 8,000 people in the streets?
+ Why do we have the highest overdose rate in the nation?
+ Why do we have the highest property crime rate?
+ Why do we have fewest children per capita?
And here:
Why have I never learned about the case for gun rights?
Or about the values of Islam?
What are the arguments against abortion?
Why do so many people not want to take the vaccine?
Why am I not allowed to ask these questions without being accused of “doing harm”?
There more. A lot more. The entire thread is interesting. But the bottom line is that reality has intruded into her progressive bubble and she finally noticed. It appears to have cause a crisis of faith.
I have hope for the future.
8 is when we exercise the second FLUENTLY. #BlackGunsMatter
Maj Toure @MAJTOURE
Tweeted on November 27, 2021
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
FBI document shows what data can be obtained from encrypted messaging apps:
| App | Legal process & additional details |
|---|---|
| Apple iMessage |
*Message content limited. *Subpoena: can render basic subscriber information. *18 USC §2703(d): can render 25 days of iMessage lookups and from a target number. *Pen Register: no capability. *Search Warrant: can render backups of a target device; if target uses iCloud backup, the encryption keys should also be provided with content return can also acquire iMessages from iCloud returns if target has enabled Messages in iCloud. |
| Line | *Message content limited. *Suspect’s and/or victim’s registered information (profile image, display name, email address, phone number, LINE ID, date of registration, etc.) *Information on usage. *Maximum of seven days worth of specified users’ text chats (Only when E2EE has not been elected and applied and only when receiving an effective warrant; however, video, picture, files, location, phone call audio and other such data will not be disclosed). |
| Signal | *No message content. *Date and time a user registered. *Last date of a user’s connectivity to the service. |
| Telegram | *No message content. *No contact information provided for law enforcement to pursue a court order. As per |
| Threema | *No message content. *Hash of phone number and email address, if provided by user. *Push Token, if push service is used. *Public Key *Date (no time) of Threema ID creation. Date (no time) of last login. |
| Viber | *No message content. *Provides account (i.e. phone number)) registration data and IP address at time of creation. *Message history: time, date, source number, and destination number. |
| *No message content. *Accepts account preservation letters and subpoenas, but cannot provide records for accounts created in China. *For non-China accounts, they can provide basic information (name, phone number, email, IP address), which is retained for as long as the account is active. |
|
| *Message content limited. *Subpoena: can render basic subscriber records. *Court order: Subpoena return as well as information like blocked users. *Search warrant: Provides address book contacts and WhatsApp users who have the target in their address book contacts. *Pen register: Sent every 15 minutes, provides source and destination for each message. *If target is using an iPhone and iCloud backups enabled, iCloud returns may contain WhatsApp data, to include message content. |
|
| Wickr | *No message content. *Date and time account created. *Type of device(s) app installed on. *Date of last use. *Number of messages. *Number of external IDs (email addresses and phone numbers) connected to the account, bot not to plaintext external IDs themselves. *Avatar image. *Limited records of recent changes to account setting such as adding or suspending a device (does not include message content or routing and delivery information). *Wickr version number. |
Prepare appropriately.
Righting the listing ship of state requires that we once again recognize that process, tedious though it may be to political hotheads, is more important than temporary victories and defeats on policy. The idea that results alone are important is the same as saying might makes right. It is the maxim of bullies and tyrants. It is not the political philosophy on which America long stood and should still stand.
Hugo Gurdon
November 17, 2021
Damn the evidence, convict the white supremacist
[+1.—Joe]
“Democracy Dies in Darkness” is not a warning, but a mission statement to the Left.
Kevin Baker
November 13, 2021
Comment on Facebook.
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
Via Rolf.
Australia: Army Forcibly Throws Covid-Exposed Citizens in Quarantine Camps
Two Northern Territory communities in Australia, Binjari and Rockhole, have imposed strict lockdowns after nine new positive coronavirus cases were registered. The military has been called in to bring positive cases and close contacts to a quarantine center.
We live in interesting times.
When Brother Doug and I get together we frequently have long talks about our country’s political state. The illegal gun laws, the U.S. debt, the out of control printing of money, etc..
One of the things Doug frequently points out is that the average person doesn’t get outraged because the legacy media gives the political left cover through, at best, selective reporting of the facts and implications of things that are not true. And frequently outright lies.
So how do we combat these lies? Doug and I get frustrated at this point. Politely pointing out their errors doesn’t work. After all, as Lyle frequently points out a good case can be made they actually pride themselves on there ability to lie and get away with it.
I finally came up with decent response. I have created a new blog post category, Legacy Media Liars. This category will be used to call out individuals (when available) as liars. I don’t know that my blog has enough Google Page Rank to bring searches for the liars names into the top ten on Google but it’s better than doing nothing.
I have gone back to a few previous posts and categorized them as well to kind of jump start the category. This is as if I actually will be short on material. The Rittenhouse verdict probably gave me 100 articles to blog about in the first 12 hours after the verdict was announced.
This is going to be a busy category.
Via email from Rolf:
Idaho has the fastest growing population in the U.S. in 2021:
Idaho had a population growth of 2.12%, growing from 1,789,060 to 1,826,913. People from all over the U.S. are being drawn to Idaho for its affordability and the strong job market. Additionally, Boise has a rapidly growing tech sector. Many people migrating to Idaho are from California, most likely due to its affordability (especially compared to California) and a much lower population density. Despite the state’s rapid growth, it is the 12th-smallest state in the U.S.
Idaho residents would prefer people, especially refuges colonizers from the socialist states, stay where they are and continue to provide a bad example for the rest of the country.
Stop granting these people the intellectual charity that they are arguing in good faith. They despise you. And they are at war with you. Rules of engagement are a disadvantage when your opponents have none.
bumbletron @citizenobscure
Tweeted on November 13, 2021
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false.
Paul Johnson
1980
The Recovery of Freedom by Paul Johnson
[Via Thomas Sowell.
My web wanderings for the original source resulted in stumbling across this web page. I now have Intellectuals in my Audible library.—Joe]
Before he was elected mayor of New York City last week, Eric Adams raised some eyebrows by saying he would carry a handgun to protect himself and any houses of worship he might visit. While those remarks were controversial, the real scandal is that ordinary New Yorkers cannot legally carry guns for self-defense — a privilege that Adams takes for granted as a former police officer.
Jacob Sullum
November 10, 2021
Supreme Court should reject law that keeps ordinary people from carrying guns for self-defense
[Of course. The most foolish mistake they could possibly make would be to allow their subjects to posses arms.
See also here for more context and commentary.—Joe]
Via Jonathan Sullivan on Facebook in November of 2016:
This must have been someone from the political party that celebrates diversity.
Prepare and respond appropriately.
David Hardy makes an observation on the Rittenhouse case that is in line with the suggestions that the prosecutor’s poor showing is intentional:
I’ve been practicing 46 years, and have never seen a case, civil or criminal, collapse like this. Any good attorney would have seen it coming, and dismissed or settled.
It will be interesting to see if we get something approximating an after action report from the DA’s office.