Guys! Guess what? Things are still depressing and stupid. How stupid? So. Stupid. So yuck. Feh.
Here's an example of just one of the many, many El Mucho Stupido Grande stories that caught my eye this week. If you worry about free speech, there's something big for you to worry about: Facebook. For real and not for joking, there's really nothing like a censor-happy leftist Jew (who happens to control a gazillion percent of the information shared on the internet today via social media) censoring the opinion, at the behest of a Jewish organization, that a Jewish person or organization might control or "dominate" information on the internet.
Good grief. Put a fork in me, I'm done.
So, with apologies to my gracious host, this batch of links once again has a kvetch-fest for its lede. Your SteynOnline In-House Jewish Mother has thoughts and questions to share with you, my pretties, but most are cranky and pessimistic.
First of all, do we actually deserve to be free? Wuhan is partying without masks and distancing in pools, with music blasting all the while we are under lock down in the 'free' world. How does this make any sense unless we are too stupid to deserve to be free?
When did "living" in the free world get redefined as "avoiding death"? I don't remember signing up for that program. Was this all (as per one of the links below) just a test to see how much tyranny we will swallow wholeheartedly, without question or resistance? Ugh. Don't answer that.
Also, why has everyone forgiven and forgotten China? Why will nobody pay the price for the results of the asinine and suicidal policies put in place by our governments? Again, are we that dumb and complacent? Seems that way.
Basically, I'm inclined toward this assessment:
"The lockdowns have been inflicted and perpetuated by people who care more about your subjugation than your health" and that no matter where you live, the "management" (can you hear me scoffing, and see me rolling my eyes through the computer) of the China Flu "..has been, predominantly, a political campaign based on the pretense of health but dedicated to the maintenance of elite control—and it has done far more damage and caused more misery than the coronavirus itself."
More thoughts: Why, how, in a city of 8.5 million people, must a leading newspaper plead, actually pretty much beg for someone to run for mayor?! For one single normal human out of 8.5 million individual humans, to lead New York City out of its path to irreversible destruction? Is everyone in America waiting for a mythical somebody? An imaginary saviour? I cannot believe I'm even uttering these words. This is actually pathetic. It makes no sense. America, I'm begging you: Stop breaking my heart!
The good news is that while the March of the Morons plodded on, my fearless host remained steadfast at his post, manning his manly keyboard and microphone on behalf of the non-insane world. But I gotta tell you, he's not very chipper now either as you will hear in the Now Entirely Un-Asterisked show (gah!).
He also talked about the new royal family of American politics, that of Princess Kamalot, in You Say Kamala, I Say Kamala and reflected once again on the lives of some of the victims of the murderous Chinese coronavirus in an extended Last Call compilation, Squash and Sumo. He shared a few timely political observations in The Reset Jet Set and his Song of the Week was a look at Chicago, a wonderful song about an incredible city facing horrendous and shameful destruction.
Friends, it really was another crazy week. Let's take a look back at a sample of some of the stories I think are worth your consideration. Hold on to your hats and give your loved extra squeezes and hugs.
~
North America:
Retail and restaurants flee Democrat-run New York forever. More on the decline here. And here.
Oh wait! This and this denouncement should fix everything.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Deep State.
Agree with this: political lockdown restrictions are a test to see how much tyranny you will accept. (Read the whole thing.)
Homeschool your children or send to private schools. If you are short of change, sell a kidney or other bodily fluids if necessary to make it happen.
Off to gulag with you, professor.
Some good news from Canada.
~
Middle East:
So this happened. Then this. Just sayin'.
Of course the YUGE news for Arabs and Jews was the announcement of the peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. I know there have been all kinds of informal (shhhhh shhhhhh) contacts throughout the years, and I've been saying for a long time that the Sunnis are a better bet than the Shiites right now for the civilized world but yowza! Who would have thought? So lots of very cool stuff coming out of this story, including flights and tourism agreements! The best part is hearing the political left try to leftsplain why peace is Netanyahu/Orange Man Bad Bad Bad Terrible. It's also painful to see the Palestinians whine and screech, and continue on the path of never missing the opportunity to miss an opportunity.
Some Palestinians, rare that they are, think otherwise.
Could peace with Lebanon be next, In'shallah?
~
Israel and Jews:
The real meaning of Never Again. More here. I trust the IAF regarding "Never Again", but considering the fact that Germany cannot stop Germaning, and has imported millions of vicious and unrepentant anti-Semites to its shores, I don't trust the German version of Never Again.
~
The Formerly Great Britain:
Boris the Clown has turned into Boris the Dictator.
~
Kook Left:
Disney goes bisexual. For the children!
Paraphrasing Kathy Shaidle's great line about liberals: it's different when we do it.
~
Human Grace:
Please say yes.
So adorable. Kids are cute as well.
That's it for now. Enjoy and I'll see you in the comments.
It's open thread time! Laura's Links serves as our weekly opportunity to kick back in the comments and dish on the stories Laura has curated and others she may have missed. While the 'No going off-topic' is suspended the bans on URLs, profanity and ad hominem attacks are still in effect. If you want to join in on the commenting – one of many perks reserved for members of The Mark Steyn Club – you can pick up a membership here. Meet your fellow Club members – and Laura Rosen Cohen herself – aboard our rescheduled Mediterranean cruise alongside Tal Bachman, Douglas Murray and John O'Sullivan.
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consider this forced isolation the inversion of the story the Rabbis tell of the farmer who thought he had a small house until he filled it up with farm animals. When he removed them the house seemed huge. Think of how much we will appreciate sports events, wedding celebrationS etc. when our amazing vaccines come online the beginning of next year. Our cup will runneth over!
Mr. C retold that story at our Shabbat table on Friday. It never gets old!
The CPC ( Canadian Conservative Party) is choosing it's leader this weekend. So by Monday we should know which squish we will have to try and drag across the line. Of course Canada's Mitt Romney (Peter McKay) is the favourite he basically agrees with Justin on 99% of his policies. If he wins Canada is doomed because unless there are changes Alberta and Saskatchewan will leave because unlike Quebec this is not a ploy for more money. It would be done with sadness but it's not that we want to leave the Country but that the rest of the country left us.
Avoiding death is No. 1 on my bucket list.
Great work, as always, Laura. I've just finished the previous round of Links, including the admirable "Orthodox Jewish professor under fire for refusing to go to Indoctrination Gulag", as well as Ricky Gervais making the obvious point: "But when people are trying to get someone fired because they don't like their opinion about something that's nothing to do with their job, that's what I call cancel culture, and that's not cool." (AOC says "so-called" cancel culture = "consequences" of free speech, which is a view more popular than that of Ricky Gervais.)
I just had a quick look at your recommendation on tolerating tyranny (Brandon Smith), which reminded me of Mark's early observations on TSA-Universalism and "The Permanent Emergency". So much for two weeks of sledgehammer lockdown to avoid Northern Italy (or Madrid/ NYC/ London) after being stripped of PPE: the continued suppression of civil liberties and economic activity by "free" polities - including Democrat and Australian-Labor states where the virus has had little impact - seems very much like a framework for a not-so-great "reset". #ThinkGlobalActLocal. Exploiting a pandemic is *the* perfect way to impose authoritarianism, supported by self-serving technocrats-in-white-coats and media censors. (The preoccupation with universal vaccines in the future over already proven therapies - such as ivermectin - is one of the many big red flags of "subjugation over health", along with the indifference to the disastrous impact on all other aspects of medical care.)
But, as you say, why have conservative commentators - aside from our host - forgiven and forgotten China, assuming they noted China's role in the "hoax" in the first place? Why the chorus to the effect that "Real-men-scoff-at-Covid" (to quote Mark)? It seems incongruous that they mock frail old ladies who choose to wear "face nappies" at the supermarket, yet acknowledge (very occasionally, if at all) that it didn't arise spontaneously from the wet market beside the WIV. So Covid-19 is a just another cause of death, and there won't be any investigation. Nor reparations. Nor "decoupling" (which would only compound the economic disaster). And China knows it.
Looking forward to all the weekend reading. Thanks again for all the time and effort you put into this corner of SteynOnline!
Hi Kate, thanks. There are some very interesting developments in the news this week about how the lock-down policies were instigated and cheered on by China. Will be including them in the next batch plus some walk-back on lockdowns from the U.K (too little too late) and some of the same in France. An unmitigated disaster.
Yes, China put on a performance with mist-spraying and "healthcare heroes" and now pool parties.
There was a good article a couple of months ago about the synchronicity of lockdowns - including the third world - and the fact that every nation copied Italy (even Sweden, which - as a Anders Tegnell keeps repeating in interviews - had a "softer" lockdown with quite a few restrictions, which explains the short term impact on GDP).
If the lockdowns had been limited to 2 "quarantine" weeks (and only in affected cities) - as in Sweden - the "V-shaped" economic recovery would have been possible. But it's all about subjugation over health, as you've noted.
Laura:
Your New York Post article seems a transparent plea for another Trump. Why must we rely on a few brave souls to suffer the incredible abuse the Donald has suffered? Would say, the New York Post, labor to be fair such a Quixotic figure?
Surely New York has a plentiful supply of retired/semi-retired business people who've made their nut and have little to fear? So the usual (communist) suspects in the media call you names. So what?
The anti-democratic, neo-feudalist yearning for a magical figure to arise and introduce Utopia is a perennial leftist fantasy. Barack failed, Michelle spit the bit, Biden spits up his rice pudding.
You can hide in the Hamptons, rich people, but not for long. They'll come for you. If history hasn't taught you that, you deserve what's coming.
Stephen, to your point, I saw an item on the news today about a business in America going up in flames along with its Black Lives Matter sign which had been prominently placed in front of the business.
I agree, Boris Johnson has been a big disappointment. One of the commenters on that article quoted Lincoln: "Any man can stand adversity, if you really want to test him, give him power." A few months ago, the historian David Starkey (subsequently cancelled for some less than grovelling remark about blacks) said that he thought Johnson looked like he'd been broken by his joust with the Chinese Lung Rot. I remember when a "valetudinarian" was a figure of fun in English literature. Now they run the world.
Mark predicted that Boris would disappoint!
It looks as though Johnson's War-on-Obesity is his Churchill moment. Sad!
PS. The belief that his hospital/ ICU admission was staged is commonly expressed at a popular UK-based website, such is the collapse in support for the PM and his Covid-19 regime.
I was in college in 1978 when the Camp David "Peace" Accords were announced. Being a naive idiot (as if "college" weren't enough of a clue), I shared the news with my friends down the hall. As they sere fairly observant Jews, I thought they'd be happy, even ecstatic, at the outbreak of "peace" between two mortal enemies, Egypt and Israel. Their stricken faces told me otherwise--you'd have thought someone had died--and there began-eth my real education on "peace" in the Middle East.
Although the peace between Israel and Egypt has largely held (Egypt letting Hamas and other other terrorists in Gaza do the killing for them), Israel has rarely, if ever, benefitted from historic pronouncements of peace. Their ethnic self-cleansing from Gaza in 2005, an act only pie-eyed imbeciles (remember me?) could have praised, led to a terrorist-run enclave both judenrein AND denounced as "Israeli-occupied" (neat trick). With Sinai and Gaza, Israel has returned 95-ish% of all territory won in the Six-Day War (intended to wipe it off the map), and still it is denounced as a latter day Hitler, anschlussing here and occupying there. Even the very ceasefire lines in Israel's War of Independence came to be denounced as "Auschwitz borders" for their vulnerability to repeated Arab attacks. For these and myriad other reasons, I came to see that Israel could handle itself in war; it was peace that was the very devil.
But. But could it be different this time? Could ancient enmities be set aside for common gain? Even the most intractable Sunni (which is most of them) admits that Shia Iran is a greater threat to the region (not to say the world) than the presence of a Jewish State on its postage stamp plot of land. What if Arabs put their money into research and investment instead of into hookers and liquor? (All right, most of--some of--their money.) What if Jews could actually practice tikkun olam (repair the world) instead of mortar-defense drills? I mean, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me--but there are some things, dare I say peace, for which it is worth making a fool of oneself.
When Young Jared's peace deal with the UAE was announced, I'm sure my face betrayed some of the same dread of my friends 42 years ago. Israel was on the verge of extending sovereignty over historically Jewish land in Judea and Samaria. Nothing could be more momentous. But "this" puts off "that"; maybe not forever, but for now. Peace, or "peace", better be worth it.
Hi Josh, so far I'm not seeing the terrible side of this deal if there is any. As far as I've read, the Israelis agreed to temporarily freeze plans to annex the Jordan Valley, not disavow plans to do so. Who knows, maybe this is the face-saving gesture required in the Middle East milieu. It seems to me that both populations are quite happy and interested in this deal, unlike the citizenry of Egypt, Jordan or anywhere in the Palestinian Authority. That's a big difference-enthusiastic embrace of normalization, recognition of common enemies, immediate plans for tourism, cultural and scientific exchanges. Seems like it could be an actual peace, not the "cold" (read: murderous) peace with the other Arab countries that Israel currently has.
From your lips to G-d's ears, Laura! I know the Palestinians are unhappy, which makes me giddy!
Right. That seems to be a reasonable barometer. I think most lefties and the NY Times are not happy either so....
"Please say yes".
Man tears here. Dammit.
I hope you're proud of yourself Laura!
My mom and dad think I'm awesome!
"This state does not run from a crisis — it's not what we do," Cuomo said. "It's not who we are, and we're not going to deny that this is a crisis. What we do is run to a crisis and make it into an even bigger crisis and then blame somebody else."
OK, I added a bit there, but Cuomo left it unsaid, for some reason.
He flattened the coronavirus wave... with corpses.
No doubt he'll be just as successful at flattening the crime wave.
Using the same technique, presumably.
Indeed. For Covid, NY State was worse than any European nation on a deaths/million scale, even without taking into account those in aged care facilities (many of whom were not only deliberately infected but also euthanased in cities that were hit in March-April... an emerging scandal in itself).
Yet Cuomo has a book coming out about his "leadership" on Covid.
Wuhan is partying while the free world is in lockdown and it's not safe for our kids to go to school. We might just be too stupid to deserve the freedom we've inherited.
Not safe here either, Jamie. When I check out at the pharmacy the last month or so, the cashier asks if I would like to donate to the teachers. Wait, I asked, haven't they said that it's too dangerous to go back to teaching and didn't they demand to still be paid? What's wrong here?
"Fran, meet unionism. Unionism, meet Fran."
No fear. That's an introduction you'll never, ever catch me making.
Your response was dead right, F.
Exactly.
Donate to the teacher? Wow. That's chutzpah.
In my tiny little corner of the world I've been pitted in the local paper against our regional School superintendent: me advocating a return to school based on science & data, the health and well-being of school-age kids, and the will of 80+% of parents who voted to return to in-person learning; against the superintendent and school board who, I'm not quite sure what they base their decision on, maybe other than the will of the teachers union.
Mark has given people like me the courage to engage, I'm sure all over the world. He's led by example really. If he can take on the mob at his level, we have to do the best we can at ours.
We exchanged comments last year about how the schools served the students three meals a day. I was wondering where the meals came from. I thought they came from our school district. They're distributed through the schools but the food is from a Federal program. I was apoplectic last year that we live in such a poor state but still couldn't figure out where the funds to feed all the students came from. Now I learned when the topic came up recently. During the school shutdown this past Spring semester, meals were still being served in the county. 60,000 meals went out each day to the schools but many were never picked up. This even happened in Good Friday when the schools are usually closed half day.
The students are presently getting supplies from the NM state police outreach and also our community is asked to donate supplies. I can't imagine growing up expecting my notebooks, pencils and backpack provided to help my parents. Everything now is free! Even laptops are being delivered to homes of those children who don't have computer access. No internet connection? That's provided, too, at no charge!
Still the extra change or loose dollars are wanted for the teachers at the check out! Walgreen's!
(Thanks for your hard work at these links! I do enjoy seeing what's outside my scope of normal daily reading).
Jamie, I really hope Mark sees your comment. To be in the position of endowing someone with "the courage to engage" is a tremendous blessing and privilege. Good on you and of course, good on the Great Prophet Steyn as well.
Ya, I don't really like the phrase "extra". Like I work pretty hard for the money I earn to provide for my family. I don't have "extra" money. There's money that I feel comfortable and happy to donate, but it isn't "extra" or "spare".