American Power

Saturday, November 21, 2020

Magnificent Sarah Hoyt

But even if you want to believe lockdowns would work, the way they’re implemented tells you that we’re under psychological warfare that might be on the excuse of a virus, but have nothing really to do with it. No sane human being can say that more than 10 people in a CATHEDRAL designed for 2000 is a danger, but while you at the same time keep dispensaries open for pot? Yeah, no. In the same way, no sane human being can think wearing a mask at the zoo or botanic gardens, outside and in a sparsely “peopled” environment is going to make any difference, even if masks made a difference. (And before you say they make a marginal difference, no. Not really. The difference was “in the margin of error”, and that was before you take in account the masks involved had SEVENTEEN layers of fabric, relying on the “complicated pathway” to stop the virus. And no, I don’t have a link to that study, but trust me on this, it was one of the deep dives. Frankly, with four layers I can’t BREATHE, much less seventeen.)

RTWT.

Priti Patel is Sorry (VIDEO)

The bitch is sorry. (*Eye-roll.*)

At the Guardian U.K., "How Boris Johnson found grounds to ignore Priti Patel bullying verdict: Sir Alex Allan was clear in his central finding against home secretary but offered caveats":

How Boris Johnson found grounds to ignore Priti Patel bullying verdict https://t.co/BZJlAw6rUA
— The Guardian (@guardian) November 20, 2020

Boris Johnson’s decision to ignore the verdict of his independent adviser on ministerial standards, Sir Alex Allan, on a bullying inquiry into the home secretary has been met with indignation.

Allan, a public servant with a 47-year career in the civil service, was clear in his central finding that Priti Patel’s behaviour was in breach of the ministerial code, and he has resigned in the face of Johnson’s contrary ruling.

But did Allan’s statement on his findings leave the prime minister with some room for manoeuvre? Here we look at some of the key passages:

‘Justifiably frustrated’

The home secretary says that she puts great store by professional, open relationships. She is action-orientated and can be direct. The home secretary has also become – justifiably in many instances – frustrated by the Home Office leadership’s lack of responsiveness and the lack of support she felt in DfID [the Department for International Development] three years ago.

Analysis Allan says civil servants – particularly senior civil servants – should be able to handle robust criticism, though they should not “face behaviour that goes beyond that”. In his advice, Allan suggests that on more than one occasion Patel was justified in being frustrated at the operation of the Home Office. The background to the inquiry is a rift between Patel and the former top civil servant at the Home Office, Sir Philip Rutnam, who quit and launched tribunal proceedings against the minister. Allan acknowledges there were issues with the Home Office leadership – an allusion to Rutnam – and the lack of support.

Mind-Bogging Artificial Intelligence

It's Kashmir Hill, a technology reporter at the New York Times, who used to be a tech blogger back in the day. Once she commented on a blog post of mine thanking me for a link. I'm still blogging. She's at the Old Gray Lady. And I know. I know. It's a despicable left-wing partisan propaganda outlet, but even a broken clock is right twice a day.

In any case, this is cool.

Here, "Designed to Deceive: Do These People Look Real to You?":

They look stunningly real at first, and the technology used to create them is getting better — quickly. https://t.co/rNQXV2jh73 pic.twitter.com/MDHUXm7EHT
— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 21, 2020

The creation of these types of fake images only became possible in recent years thanks to a new type of artificial intelligence called a generative adversarial network. In essence, you feed a computer program a bunch of photos of real people. It studies them and tries to come up with its own photos of people, while another part of the system tries to detect which of those photos are fake.
The back-and-forth makes the end product ever more indistinguishable from the real thing. The portraits in this story were created by The Times using GAN software that was made publicly available by the computer graphics company Nvidia.
Given the pace of improvement, it’s easy to imagine a not-so-distant future in which we are confronted with not just single portraits of fake people but whole collections of them — at a party with fake friends, hanging out with their fake dogs, holding their fake babies. It will become increasingly difficult to tell who is real online and who is a figment of a computer’s imagination.
“When the tech first appeared in 2014, it was bad — it looked like the Sims,” said Camille François, a disinformation researcher whose job is to analyze manipulation of social networks. “It’s a reminder of how quickly the technology can evolve. Detection will only get harder over time.”
Advances in facial fakery have been made possible in part because technology has become so much better at identifying key facial features. You can use your face to unlock your smartphone, or tell your photo software to sort through your thousands of pictures and show you only those of your child. Facial recognition programs are used by law enforcement to identify and arrest criminal suspects (and also by some activists to reveal the identities of police officers who cover their name tags in an attempt to remain anonymous). A company called Clearview AI scraped the web of billions of public photos — casually shared online by everyday users — to create an app capable of recognizing a stranger from just one photo. The technology promises superpowers: the ability to organize and process the world in a way that wasn’t possible before...

Keep reading.

'I love podcasts too...'

A classic:

i would like to introduce you all to one of the funniest tik toks of all time pic.twitter.com/d2dYDlP9im
— rohan ramdin (@rohanramdni) November 19, 2020

Risque Kate Mara 'Doggy Style' Scene From the New Hulu Series, 'A Teacher' (VIDEO)

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Reportedly Insisted That Netflix End 'The Crown' Before It Gets to Their Drama

Well, those spoiled little f*cking brats.

Piers Morgan's show at the video.

And at Marie Claire:

--- When they signed their massive deal with Netflix, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle shocked a lot of royal fans who were surprised they would work with the streaming giant, which produces the royal drama The Crown.
--- According to royal biographer Angela Levin, Harry confided in her two years ago that the royal family did indeed watch the series, but that he was determined to make sure it stopped before it got to his adult life and relationship with Meghan Markle.
--- Although Harry and Meghan reportedly used their position as partners with Netflix to insist that The Crown end before it got to their royal drama, Levin fears the strategy might backfire and that Netflix might actually end up "getting a lot of information that will absolutely decry the royal family" from the Sussexes.

More.

Busty Nude Women in Fishnet

At Drunken Stepfather. This is amazing!

Fishnet pussy shots too, dang!

See, "FISHNET FRIDAY NUDE OF THE DAY (PHOTOS)."

Big-Breasted Country Girl

You gotta follow Country Girls.

💗💗 pic.twitter.com/ye2D8WnEkE
— Country Girls (@DownHomeGirls) November 16, 2020

Blonde Katy

On Twitter.

Anti-Lockdown Protests in Britain

At London's Daily Mail, "At least 22 are arrested after anti-lockdown protesters chanting 'freedom' clash with police as hundreds march against Covid restrictions through streets of Bournemouth, Liverpool, Basildon and Hyde Park":

Tommy Robinson News, Nov 21
Towns and cities across the country now rising up against the Coronavirus lockdown measures, this was basildon today. pic.twitter.com/JPHQLpoKMU
— TROLL HUNTER AKA Katie Hopkins.✊🏼🤫😉 (@BrettEverest) November 21, 2020

In Basildon, Essex, footage today captured police clash with protesters amid a 'large unauthorised gathering' in the town centre.

The protest, which breached the Government's Covid-19 measures, led to several arrests after 'attempts to engage with those attending were unsuccessful', Essex Police said.

Officers have put a dispersal order in place within the boundaries of Great Oaks and Southernhay, with the force adding: 'We know this is a challenging time but we all have a responsibility to follow the regulations and keep each other safe.'

Intersectionality Has Turned on the Left

A fantastic piece, at American Greatness:

Robert Lopez: If I were a Democrat, getting rid of intersectionality would top my to-do list. https://t.co/DED0oCrsj2
— American Greatness (@theamgreatness) November 21, 2020

Repulsive Doctrines Drive Away Voters
The Left needs to understand the lessons this year has taught us. Intersectionality works as much for the Republicans as it does for the Democrats.
Here is why. If the overall tone of the victim coalition is shrill and accusatory, then every victim group alienates its designated oppressor. While the victim groups ostensibly should join forces under the Democrats, the alienated groups accused by the victim groups join forces under the conservatives, canceling out the entire exercise.
#MeToo terrifies and exasperates men, many of whom are people of color and/or gay. Black Lives Matter starts to vex not only whites, but other non-black groups such as Latinos and Asians, many of whom are women and/or gay. LGBTQ has the unique distinction of inflicting discomfort and uneasiness on people who like the opposite sex, people who like the genitalia with which they were born, people who are attracted to only one sex, people who perceive normal male-female sex as healthier and better for families, and random people who think it’s creepy to have nightclub erotic performers in drag read books like Jacob Has a New Dress to a crowd of toddlers.
While feminism, in theory, should rally women to the Democrats, a lot of women happen to be white and don’t appreciate being called vulgar names by Black Lives Matter activists. Asian and Latina women don’t necessarily like the aggression and nihilistic tone of Black Lives Matter. And lots of women like the idea that they can call a local police department for help.
If you take the women compelled by #MeToo and subtract all these women who don’t want the cops to be defunded or don’t appreciate being called names on a street corner by someone brandishing a portrait of George Floyd, you find that the Democrats probably lost as many women as they gained by this particular exercise in coalition-building.
Certainly many Latinos and Asians agree with the idea that racism is wrong. But many Latinos and Asians disagree with the notion that burning down stores and smashing business windows is a good way to express this belief. A lot of immigrants fled to the United States from Latin American or Asian countries to get away from violence, repression, and bleak economic chances; they often came here to start the kind of businesses that urban rioters sack when they get angry over police shootings.
As Black Lives Matter grew more insistent on focusing on “black and indigenous” peoples only, Latinos and Asians saw the writing on the wall. If it comes down to a race war, they’re not going to be given a pass simply because they’re not white. It’s no surprise that as Black Lives Matter protests continued through the long hot summer, more and more rallies materialized in support of Trump, with a new kind of right-wing identity politics: Cubans for Trump, Amish for Trump, Chinese Americans for Trump, Indians for Trump, Colombians for Trump, and so on and so on.
For all the people the Left may have rallied to its side by way of Black Lives Matter, the Left probably lost just as many “people of color” since most people of color had become reclassified as the oppressor somewhere along the way...

RTWT.

Margaret Thatcher Restored Britain's Standing in the World (VIDEO)

It's Niall Ferguson, for Prager University:

Holiday Shopping

*BUMPED.*

I should probably be promoting my Amazon sales. It's not that I've been slacking. It's the online remote instruction during the California lockdown (re-uppped lockdown, as it turns out). I'm swamped with work, a lot of it time-consuming, energy-wasting administrative work (paperwork), with people who are literally incompetent at their jobs.

Oh well, I don't blog for the money, obviously. But I love posting Amazon links, especially to books, as you can tell.

So, if you're in the mood, you can shop my associates links, at the frequent Amazon sales blog posts, or at the banner links at the sidebar. It's much appreciated. Maybe I can afford some oysters and olives to go with the dressing for Thanksgiving dinner. (Just kidding, lol.)

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