So Former Governor Gina Raimondo Botched Rhode Island's Coronavirus Response, and the New York Times Shills for Her, Now That She's Joined the Biden Administration

And here I though California and New York were bad. Well, they are, but Ms. Raimondo's a genuine clown, now failing upward to a cabinet post in the Biden administration. Hopefully she'll be better than the far-left hatemonger, Neera Tanden, whose nomination for White House budget chief went down in flames, thank goodness.

Here's the Old Gray Lady, with the brazen polish-job on Ms. Raimondo's deadly record in the Ocean State. 

See, "How Rhode Island Fell to the Coronavirus":

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The numbers began ticking up in September. After a quiet summer, doctors at Rhode Island Hospital began seeing one or two patients with Covid-19 on each shift — and soon three. Then four.

Cases climbed steadily until early December, when Rhode Island earned the dubious distinction of having more cases and deaths per 100,000 people than any other state in the country. The case rate still puts it among the top five states.

Where did this tightly knit state go wrong? Former Gov. Gina Raimondo’s “pauses” on economic activity were short-lived and partial, leaving open indoor dining, shopping malls and bowling alleys. But the shutdowns were no patchier than those in many other states.

Until late summer, she was lauded for reining in the virus. Even now, few residents blame her for the bleak numbers. (Ms. Raimondo was sworn in as the secretary of commerce on Wednesday night.)

Experts point instead to myriad other factors, all of which have played out elsewhere in the country but converged into a bigger crisis here.

The fall chill sent people indoors, where risk from the virus is highest, and the holidays brought people together. Rhode Island is tiny — you can traverse it in 45 minutes. But crammed into that smallish area are a million people, for a population density second only to that of New Jersey. If everyone in the world is connected by six degrees of separation, Rhode Islanders seem to be connected by maybe two.

Central Falls, the epicenter of Rhode Island’s epidemic, has a density of 16,000 people per square mile, almost twice that of Providence. “Just imagine, 16,000 people per square mile — I mean, that’s amazing,” said Dr. Pablo Rodriguez, a member of the government committee that guides Covid vaccine distribution in Rhode Island. “It doesn’t take much for the spark to create an outbreak.”

Apart from its density, Rhode Island has a high percentage of elderly residents in nursing homes, accounting for the bulk of deaths. Packed into the state are multiple urban areas — Central Falls, Pawtucket, Providence — where language barriers, mistrust and jobs have left immigrant families in multigenerational homes particularly vulnerable. The state is also home to multiple colleges that set off chains of infection in the early fall.

For months, the hospitals in Rhode Island were understaffed and overwhelmed. Doctors and nurses were trying to cope with rising caseloads, often without the protective equipment they needed, with constantly shifting guidelines and with their own resilience stretched to the limit.

Dr. Megan Ranney, a researcher and public health advocate, is also an emergency room physician at Rhode Island Hospital who has witnessed the full scope of the state’s crisis firsthand. What she saw unfold over a single shift offers a window into what happened.

Plowing Through It One day in late December, as the crisis reached new heights, Dr. Ranney girded for a long eight-hour shift. The sores behind her ears, where her glasses and the straps of the N95 and surgical masks dug in, still had not healed. But how could she complain, Dr. Ranney said, when her medical residents “eat, sleep, breathe Covid” five days a week?

The patients had it worse, she knew. Anxious and isolated, they became even more discomfited by the masked and unrecognizable doctors and nurses rushing around them. During Dr. Ranney’s shift the prior week, she had seen a broad spectrum: elderly people on a downward spiral, otherwise healthy young Latino men, Cape Verdean immigrants with limited English comprehension.

These demographics are partly what made Rhode Island particularly susceptible, said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University in Providence: “Certainly in New England, it is the poorest state — so a lot of poverty, and a lot of multigenerational poverty.”

As in most of the country, the Latino community has borne the brunt of the epidemic. In Rhode Island, Latinos have 6.7 times the risk for hospitalization and 2.5 times the risk of death, compared with white people.

In the days before her shift, Dr. Ranney had been working in a part of the hospital intended to deal with non-Covid cases. But even people with other ailments, like ankle fractures, turned out to be positive for the virus, she found.

“I never know from day to day how bad the surge will be,” she said. “I’ve just got to plow through it.”

It turned out to be an extraordinarily busy day. “The E.R. is full, the hospital is full, the intensive care unit is full,” Dr. Ranney said. “All of our units are moving as quickly as they can, but the patients keep coming in.”

Every time she took off masks during a shift, she ran the risk of contaminating herself. She had had four cups of coffee before this shift, and nothing since.

The average age of the patients that night was about 70. One elderly woman who had trouble breathing could not isolate because she lived with her children and grandchildren. At any rate, she arrived at the hospital 10 days into her illness, too late for isolation to matter.

Rhode Island’s epidemic has been disastrous for immigrant families in multigenerational households. “How do you isolate from someone when you have one bathroom?” Dr. Ranney said...

Well, I like Dr. Ranney, who appears on CNN once in a while, and who doesn't seem to have any particular partisan agenda other than promoting the best medicine to combat the pandemic.

I can't say that for former Governor Raimondo, who obviously bailed out on her "high-density" graveyard of a state. Democrats. They're despicable people.

 

'I do not like you, Mr. Joe'

Me neither.

From Marjorie Taylor Greene, on Twitter.

Saturday Women

What a lovely double-barrel set she's got there, heh.

More here and here.

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BONUS: Mark Krikorian, The New Case Against Immigration: Both Legal and Illegal.

Can Freakin' Governor Andrew Coumo Resign Already? Sheesh (VIDEO)

I've been going pretty hard on my own state's moronic governor, but even the idiot Newsom's not near as bad as the predator in Albany, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

It's gotten so bad for the Emmy winning "author" that mainstream news outlets simply can't ignore the story, and that's keeping in mind that the story itself wouldn't have broken, had not leaked video surfaced, featuring top Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa. And the nursing home debacle? This story just keeps getting worse, and there's big headlines this morning, at NYT, "Cuomo Aides Rewrote Nursing Home Report to Hide Higher Death Toll," and WSJ, "Cuomo Advisers Altered Report on Covid-19 Nursing-Home Deaths."

Even far-left CNN's been reporting (and not Chris Cuomo, who's totally complicit at this point), so that tells you something: 

And from this morning Los Angeles Times (which also can't avoid the story, on both of these dolts), here, "News Analysis: Cuomo and Newsom, once pillars of the Democratic Party, now look for paths to survival":

WASHINGTON — It wasn’t supposed to be like this for Democrats, who expected to honeymoon into spring as Republicans sifted through the political wreckage Donald Trump left behind. But the bad behavior and grave unforced errors of two of the party’s biggest outside-the-Beltway stars are spoiling that reprieve, distracting from the Democrats’ work in Washington and forcing them to divert their attention to triage in parts of the country where they usually draw strength.

The missteps and aloofness that now have California Gov. Gavin Newsom facing the threat of recall from office have been overshadowed by the sexual harassment scandal that has rapidly engulfed his counterpart in New York, Andrew Cuomo. The two men took very different paths in their descent from favorites of liberal voters to the targets of scathing parody on “Saturday Night Live,” but both share problems so big they are stealing oxygen from a party that doesn’t have much to spare.

“I feel awful about it,” Cuomo said Wednesday of his behavior that led two women decades his junior who worked for him and a third he met at a wedding to accuse him of sexual harassment. “And frankly, I am embarrassed by it.”

He pledged at a news conference to cooperate with an investigation by the state attorney general, while still maintaining that he did not intentionally harass or inappropriately touch anyone. “I’m not going to resign,” Cuomo said, adding later: “I never knew at the time I was making anyone uncomfortable.”

Cuomo is vowing to serve out the rest of his term at the same time Newsom is battling a well-funded effort to eject him before his term ends. Political experts predict that if the recall qualifies for the ballot, by the time the election is held, voters are likely to be more forgiving of Newsom’s missteps: dining maskless at the Michelin-starred French Laundry while ordering the state locked down, bobbling school reopenings, botching the vaccine rollout, failing to halt billions of dollars in fraudulent unemployment payments.

Nobody is counting either of them out at the moment, as both Cuomo and Newsom have clawed their way back from the political abyss before — Newsom from personal scandals as San Francisco mayor, Cuomo from ethical lapses as governor that resulted in his allies going to prison. But the realities of the #MeToo era for Cuomo and a pandemic that has brought voters to the brink may have made obsolete the playbooks that worked so well for the men in the past. Calling in political favors, circling wagons inside the party and public displays of contrition are less potent tools than they once were.

Cuomo, in particular, is finding the aggressive tactics that helped him survive multiple scandals over the course of his three terms in office are not all that effective when facing claims of unwanted sexual advances. Putting party officials on notice that their loyalty will be rewarded and dissent punished, as Cuomo has in the past, is not going to fly. The allegations compounded a political crisis Cuomo had already created for himself by hiding data related to COVID-19 deaths at nursing homes.

“His problem right now is really big,” said Robert Shrum, director of the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future. “He’d be lucky to stay governor, and incredibly lucky to run and get reelected.”

If you keep reading, LAT authors Evan Hapler and Seema Mehta can't resist accusing Republicans of hypocrisy regarding the allegations against Cuomo, comparing them to the totally bogus accusations Christine Blasey Ford leveled against now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. 

But it is what it is, and I'll be cheering here in the once-"Golden State" when that recall makes it to the ballot. And I don't know what the citizens of New York are waiting for, but they need to remove the perverted Cuomo, and fast. 

This State is So F*cked (VIDEO)

First up is the news that idiot Democrat state legislators have introduced legislation to ban separate "boys" and "girls" sections in department stores. Yep. That's how psycho the deranged leadership in Sacramento has become (and these people continue to shock in their utter indifference to the real issues facing Californians).

At the Sacramento Bee, "California would ban boys and girls sections at big retailers under proposed law," and Reason, "California Bill Would Give $1,000 Fines to Retailers With Separate 'Girls' and 'Boys' Toy Sections."

In more sheer idiocy, the governor, along with the California Department of Public Health, has issues new guidelines for the states' residents to "double up" on mask wearing, which is so stupid I'm shaking my head *Eye-roll.* Next thing you know, they'll be mandating residents to wear three masks, which of course defeats the purpose anyway, since folks will suffocate to death. 

At LAT, "California urges double masking to prevent COVID spread as Texas relaxes mask rules."

Our idiot governor slammed Texas for relaxing its requirements, and I'll tell you, I was in Houston last November, and even then Texas had indoor dining, and my wife and I had no problems. I think it's the nice weather here that remains the only thing attractive about this "Left Coast" dumphole of a state. 

More at CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

 

Charlotte Bennett Details Sexual Assault Allegations Against Governor Andrew Cuomo (VIDEO)

I've been ragging a lot on the media of late, but this segment, featuring CBS Evening News anchor Norah O'Donnell, interviewing former Cuomo aide Charlotte Bennett, is riveting. 

And O'Donnell also lays into the governor over the nursing home deaths, which again, for me, is one reason I prefer CBS news to its competitors, which, as noted, I don't even watch (especially the joke "Good Morning America" on ABC).

WATCH:

See What I mean About Tucker?

I made a few points about Tucker Carlson in my post from a few days ago. 

Now I love the guy, and I rarely miss an episode of his show. But c'mon! It took me one second to search Google and up pops his comments from 2003, defending the George W. Bush administration's foreign policy, and in particular the Iraq war. See, "Questioning Bush's motives on Iraq."

What's happened, I think, and not wrongly, from the perspective of good television opinion commentary, is that Tucker's "changed his stripes," so to speak, to keep up with the times. He's transformed himself into a "populist-nationalist," obviously because there's been a big market for it this last four years, and he's good at what he does. 

But when he airs commentary like we can see at this video below, unless you're someone who has a long history of following politics (and cable news), then you'd probably wouldn't notice Tucker's wishy-washy hypocritical bull. Remember that old saying about, "having your cake and eating it too"? Well, that's Tucker.

The thing is, interestingly, I personally like a restrained foreign policy. I mean, while Trump didn't start any "new wars" during his time in office, he himself indeed took dramatic and effective military action to defend vital national interests (like the drone strike killing Major General Qassim Suleimani, who was a very bad man, who was personally in charge of killing 100s of U.S. troops during the Iraq war). So, while I think Biden's actions in Syria a week or so ago look questionable by comparison, it's a joke to argue the President Biden doesn't have "the authority" to launch such a strike. Can you name any president since, I don't know, Gerald Ford, who in fact hesitated to take swift military action, even without congressional approval? I can't. And the reason is that the "War Powers Act" itself is probably unconstitutional, though it's never been struck down by SCOTUS. 

Again, I think Tucker's great, and I won't be tuning him out any time soon. His coverage of Biden's immigration disaster is superlative. And Tucker's consistent championing of the forgotten "working class" of this country --- and his hilarious segments taking down the left's "indoctrination" fascination --- is worth the ticket right there. But I'm not going to be some uncritical "rube" who just nods along with everything the guy says, because, remember, it's not insignificantly for *show.* And obviously, his show pays, as there's no chance Fox News will "cancel" Tucker, and indeed, his programming is being expanded big time, starting in April, with exclusive "Fox Nation" subscription content, coming to your screen in no short order.

So, it's all good. Hopefully my faithful readers can see what I'm saying. (And if you're so inclined, you can read some of the best political science research on such matters, here: "Don't Come Home, America: The Case against Retrenchment.")

With that, carry on dear readers, and thank you for your support. 

Here's Tucker at the video from earlier this week:

Robert Kagan, The Jungle Grows Back

At Amazon, Robert Kagan, The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World. 

Biden's Border Crisis (VIDEO)

Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino report, for Fox News:

And must-see television: Stephen Miller's appearance on Tucker's last night: WATCH: "Tucker Carlson &  Stephen Miller Blast the Biden Administration for America's Border Crisis."

Neighbors Step-Up Support of Asian American Family in Ladera Ranch (VIDEO)

Following-up from yesterday, "Neighbors Stand Guard as Gangs of 'Youth Thugs' Racially Harass and Threaten Chinese Immigrant Family."

Here's my local CBS/KCAL affiliate with an on-the-ground report:

And here's more, from KPIX CBS News San Francisco, the supposed "tolerant" leftist enclave, apparently full of racist haters, and thus, it's almost the entire "Left Coast" of California that's not too keen and friendly to our Asian-American sisters and brothers. It makes me sick. WATCH: "Bay Area Group Mounting Foot Patrols to Protect Asians After Rash of Attacks."

Let's just all be nice to one another. This state has enough problems as it is, especially with our loser "French Laundry" Governor, Gavin Newsom. *Eye-roll.*

At Least 13 Dead as SUV Crammed With 25 Illegal Aliens T-Boned by Peterbilt Big-Rig Near Mexican Border (VIDEO)

Well, Tucker had former Trump adviser Stephen Miller on last night, and Miller explained that human traffickers cut the seats out of vehicles, like this Ford SUV, to be able to cram 25 migrants inside, most likely stacked one on top of another, like ready-made corpes.

Most media reports aren't including that kind of detail in their reporting, and of course, most media reports, again, have avoided mentioning the Biden administration's reversal of the Trump administration's tough border policies as one of the main reasons for this utter disaster. 

It's a waste of precious human life, and frankly, Democrats do not care.

At the Los Angeles Times, "At least 13 killed in crash of SUV carrying more than 2 dozen near U.S.-Mexico border":

A collision between a big rig and an SUV carrying more than two dozen people near the U.S.-Mexico border Tuesday morning killed at least 13 and injured several others, authorities said.

About 6 a.m., the 2011 Peterbilt tractor-trailer was traveling north on Route 115 near El Centro when, for reasons that remained unclear, a Ford Expedition entered an intersection directly in front of the truck, according to a California Highway Patrol report. The truck plowed into the left side of the SUV.

The burgundy 1997 Ford, designed to hold no more than eight people, was carrying 25, said Arturo Platero, a spokesman for the CHP’s El Centro office. All but the driver’s and front passenger’s seats had been removed from the SUV.

Twelve people died at the scene, including the Expedition’s driver, whom the authorities identified only as a 28-year-old resident of Mexicali, Mexico. A 13th person died after being transferred to El Centro Regional Medical Center, Platero said. The truck driver, a 68-year-old resident of El Centro, suffered serious injuries and was taken to a hospital in Palm Springs, according to the CHP report.

An almost equal number of men and women were killed in the crash, said Omar Watson, chief of the CHP’s Border Division.

El Centro Regional Medical Center authorities reported earlier Tuesday that the SUV was carrying 28 people and 14 died at the scene, but CHP officials revised those numbers.

The SUV’s occupants, who ranged in age from 15 to 53, were all either injured or killed, Watson said. Authorities were still working Tuesday afternoon to identify all of the deceased victims and notify their families, he said. At least 10 of the dead were Mexican nationals, according to Roberto Velasco Álvarez, who heads the North America Department for the Mexican Foreign Ministry.

Four people were airlifted by helicopter to the Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs. Two others hurt in the crash were in intensive care, including one in critical condition, said Todd Burke, a spokesman for the hospital.

Three people were transported to Pioneers Memorial Healthcare District in Brawley, about 20 miles away. One was treated for injuries that were not life-threatening, according to Karina Lopez, a hospital spokeswoman. The other two — a woman and teenage boy — were then airlifted to Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego.

Six others are being treated at El Centro Regional, Platero said.

Watson described the crash scene as “chaotic.” Officers found people who had been ejected onto the pavement and others wandering around the site, he said. Some had been ejected, some were pulled from the wreckage, and some “walking wounded” got out on their own, he said. First responders had to cut the sole passenger seat out of the vehicle to reach some of the wounded.

Later in the afternoon, someone placed small, colorful crosses around the crash site. Inscriptions scrawled on two of them read “Justicia migrantes” and “No mas muerte.”

“It’s a very sad situation,” Watson said. “That vehicle is not meant for that many people. It’s unfortunate that number of people were put into that vehicle because there’s not enough safety restraints to safely keep those people within the vehicle.”

A spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said special agents from Homeland Security Investigations responded to the scene of the crash and had opened a human smuggling investigation.

Dr. Shavonne Borchardt at El Centro Regional Medical Center said injuries ranged from fractures to life-threatening head and chest injuries. The hospital is transferring patients to other treatment centers as soon as they are stable, she said.

“Our staff has done a tremendous job getting everything ready for these patients and being able to handle them and get them transferred out to the appropriate places as soon as possible, or if we can take care of them here, they’re being well taken care of as well,” Borchardt said...

 

Professor Danielle Allen on 'A More Resilient Union' (VIDEO)

I assigned Ms. Allen's piece in my introduction to American government classes just last week, and it's interesting to see her now interviewed with Judy Woodruff at the PBS News Hour.

Ms Allen's article is here, "A More Resilient Union: How Federalism Can Protect Democracy From Pandemics."

The main thing that struck me about the piece is that she doesn't rag on former President Trump, except to argue that he failed to educate the public on the full nature of the virus, not to mention his failure to better delineate the respective roles of the federal government vis-a-vis the states. 

What I did appreciate is her discussion on the American public's widespread ignorance on how the U.S. governmental system operates. That was a key theme I wanted students to discuss, and she make a pretty shocking case to abolish school football programs, even though she apparently loves football: 

If the country’s constitutional democracy is to have a healthy future, Americans should finish this crisis intending not only to invest in health infrastructure but also to revive civics education. Schools need more time for history, civics, and social studies. What should go to make room? Sports, for one thing. Compared with other countries, the United States invests a disproportionate amount of time and money in sports. Americans appear to prefer football to democracy. It’s time to cut back—and I say this as someone whose first professional ambition in life was to be a running back. The United States has made such sacrifices before. World War II saw the suspension of football and soccer seasons the world over. Sporting events may be the last things Americans get back as they reopen their economy. They should use the extra time to double down on civics education.

This crisis has laid bare just how fragile and unsteady the United States’ constitutional democracy is. Now, the country must get its house in order and prioritize its farthest-reaching hopes and aspirations. Americans had all the tools needed to respond to this crisis, except for the very thing that would have given them reason to use them: a common purpose. Let the search for one begin.

Most students weren't thrilled with the idea, but some thought it not a bad notion. As a professor, I just like Ms. Allen's focus on improving civic education, especially for young people, which, as a professor of political science, and I can attest first hand, is dismal.

Watch:

 

Fergus M. Bordewich, Congress at War

At Amazon, Fergus M. Bordewich, Congress at War: How Republican Reformers Fought the Civil War, Defied Lincoln, Ended Slavery, and Remade America. 

Neighbors Stand Guard as Gangs of 'Youth Thugs' Racially Harass and Threaten Chinese Immigrant Family

Now this is an interesting story.

Keep in mind that I live in Irvine, well north of Ladera Ranch (in south O.C.), and I've long joked (in a kinda "racist" way, frankly), about how Irvine is actually "Beijing West," and for years, especially when my oldest son was getting his driver's license, I used to constantly rag about how "Chinese drivers" are the absolute worst, which isn't racist to me, because they are the worst. Back in the 1980s, "No Jap Drivers" bumper stickers were very popular (and racist, with slant eyes and buck teeth poking out over thin lips). But that's not something I'd ever put on my car, and of course, in Irvine, Chinese and Korean immigrant families are in fact model members of the community. 

One thing that always amazes me is the huge number of Asian-American churches, especially Korean-American. And while you see lots of recent immigrants, wearing big dark face shields to protect their skin, and, frankly, a lot of Chinese women --- fresh off the boat --- who wear Mao jackets and such, they never bother anybody. Both my sons attended Irvine High School, and the diversity there was between different Asian-American student groups, with some Hispanic, white, and not too many black kids. 

So, it's all good, and you get used to it, and some of my Asian neighbors are the kindest, nicest people you could ever meet.

Which brings me back to this story, at LAT, which is actually horrifying, despicable, and a f*cking shame. Some of this can be traced back to Trump and his moniker, the "China virus," etc. But most if is just plain old intolerance --- and if you know the history of the O.C., so called "far-right" groups did in fact often originate here, and there are K.K.K. types that abound. So, as someone who is "mixed-race," and I've taught "Black Politics" at the upper-division level, it's not lost on me, this resurgence of racist hatred. And it's bad. Just bad for everybody, especially the victims. 

See, "An Asian American family in O.C. was being harassed. Now their neighbors stand guard":

Every night, the neighbors converge on the Si family’s two-story home, which has large windows and an expansive porch adorned with columns.

The Sis moved to this upscale Ladera Ranch neighborhood a few months ago, with the country deep in the COVID-19 pandemic and hate crimes against Asian Americans on the rise.

Almost immediately, teenagers swooped in for nightly visits, repeatedly ringing the doorbell, yelling and pounding on the door.

“I did not understand the extent of the harassment and how often it was occurring, at first,” said Layla Parks, who organized the nightly neighborhood watch. “I was immediately outraged and wanted to help.”

Violence and hate incidents directed at Asian Americans have surged across California, including in Orange County, since the beginning of the pandemic, with some blaming Asians because of the coronavirus’ origins in Wuhan, China.

A recent spate of violent attacks in Oakland, San Francisco, New York City and elsewhere has attracted national attention and sparked fear among Asian Americans, though it is not clear whether some of the incidents were racially motivated.

In February in Koreatown, two men hurled anti-Asian slurs at a 27-year-old Korean American U.S. Air Force veteran, calling him “Chinese virus” and then swinging at him, he told KTLA.

“We’re seeing an epidemic of hate right now, and we have to stand together,” state Sen. Dave Min (D-Irvine), who represents the district just west of Ladera Ranch, said last week at an event to show support for the Si family.

While officials in Orange County are still compiling information on reports made in 2020, preliminary statistics indicate a tenfold increase in hate incidents against Asian Americans, said Alison Edwards, chief executive of the nonprofit OC Human Relations.

It’s a troubling uptick that experts have blamed in part on Donald Trump’s rhetoric about the pandemic, including his use of terms such as “China virus” and “kung flu.”

Last year, California saw a consistent increase in hate incidents and crimes targeting Asian Americans, said Brian Levin, executive director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino.

Stereotyping and conspiracy theories identifying Asians as responsible for COVID-19 have been embraced by wide swaths of the country, Levin said, with a new Center for Public Integrity/Ipsos poll showing that nearly 1 in 4 Americans have concerns about being physically near Asian people.

“My kids are scared. I’m very annoyed,” said Si, 48. “At night, my wife and I could not sleep for more than three or four hours. Please, parents, tell your kids don’t do that again.”

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department has been called to the home seven times between October 2020 and February. Deputies have ramped up patrols in the area, and the department has launched an investigation, said Sgt. Dennis Breckner.

Still, the doorbell kept ringing, Si said. Nothing helped until his neighbors stepped in, vowing to put an end to the harassment.

Parks, who takes daily walks around the neighborhood, had introduced herself to Si and his family when she noticed them moving in last year.

In early February, Si reached out to Parks for advice.

He had already told her about the constant doorbell ringing, and she had offered to help if needed.

At first, she figured it was a harmless childhood prank of “ding-dong ditch.”

But as the harassment continued, including racial slurs against the family, Parks realized this was something uglier...

Still more.

 

Tony Dokoupil Covers Government Housing Policies Discriminating Against Black Americans (VIDEO)

I was discussing previous my news watching habits, and one of the great recent stories, from CBS Evening News, it turns out, is the tale of the man who adopted a "rescue dog" who was apparently afraid of men, but the guy adopted the dog anyway, and it turns out the dog returned the favor, and saved his life by dragging the man over to the phone, so he could call 911 as he was suffering from a stroke. This was a really heartwarming, down to earth report. Here, "Rescue dog that nobody wanted saves life of new owner."

And a few weeks back, Tony Dokoupil, at CBS This Morning, did a really good personal-story-style report on racial segregation in the neighborhood where his grandparents bought a home, in Linwood, New Jersey. 

This report, which is interesting to me because this kind of "redlining" was (and to some extent still is) a real example of insidious racism against black Americans. And I also liked the way Dokoupil handled the story, and the interviews he conducted, as he doesn't make it all about himself, but puts it in the context of how folks at the time felt, and what can be done now. 

And I didn't know it until this morning, but Dokoupil is married to Katy Tur, who is the super left-wing news anchor at MSNBC, who's biggest claim to fame is that she was once called out by Donald Trump while covering his campaign back in the day, and she published a best-seller out of it. Well, she and Dokoupil have three kids (two from Dokoupil's previous relationships), and they're expecting another baby in April, in contrast to the "baby bust" that is happening of late, especially because of the lockdowns, and the terrible life chances for young people nowadays, who really do have it worse than their parents and grandparents generations. Now good for Dokoupil, because Ms. Tur is actually pretty hot, but I'm surprised he comes off nothing like her in his reporting, and is more of a "straight news man," which I like, a lot. 

In any case, here's the segment on housing discrimination against blacks in New Jersey. Very well done:

Poor F*king George Stephanopoulos

This fake "journalist" is the reason I quit watching ABC News, and that includes even "ABC World News Tonight," which previously was my favorite, back in the day, when Peter Jennings held down the nightly news chair --- and that guy was the real deal, and star broadcaster with incredible appeal and savoir faire out the wazoo. 

Nowadays, if I watch MSM news programming, I prefer CBS News, especially "CBS This Morning," which while leftist, is still aiming for a pretty "middle class / working class" demographic, and I enjoy a lot of their segments, although I'm too lazy to blog them.

So, just read the whole thing, at also uber-woke CNN, a network I still watch, except for Jake Tapper, who I just can't stand. (And while the whole story isn't out yet, it turns out the Brooke Baldwin is not leaving the network on her own accord --- the truth will come out sometime, of course, but I'm sure she's got some revelations of "power struggles" over there, and it's going to be interesting to hear more about them.) 

And one more thing about CNN, I still like Wolf Blitzer. I know he's under pressure from his producers to toe the "woke" line, but, jeez, he's 100s of times better that the dork Tapper, so at least in the early afternoons, if I'm watching CNN, it's not too bad. After that, I flip over to Fox News, and I definitely try to watch Tucker every night, and that's even after sometimes I think HE's a phony, given his elite pedigree (his dad married divorcée Patricia Caroline Swanson, of Swanson TV dinner fame). And if you recall, Tucker used to be a "golden boy" on daytime news shows, including a stint at --- you guessed it! --- CNN, when he was a co-host of "Crossfire" for a time, back when he wore a bow-tie. He's dropped that habit like a hot potato, and now looks more, well, normal, with his regular coat and tie on his evening shows. 

Anyway, being a political scientist, I literally have to watch some television news, but all these "woke" networks are making it a chore. 

So, RTWT yourself, at "woke" CNN (and featuring the network's resident potato-head, Brian Stelter), "David Muir's new role at ABC News leads to drama with George Stephanopoulos and a visit from Bob Iger."

Time's Up Golden Globes?

This is exactly why I didn't watch the stupid Golden Globes last night: all the overwrought and stupid hand-wringing about "not enough diversity."

And here I am, an actual diverse guy, with an actually diverse family, to boot. 

Interesting, though, I did watch "Nomadland" last night, starring the phenomenal Frances McDormand. And you know what? It's a freakin' conservative movie! Yep. The film is almost all platitudes to rugged individualism, with all kinds of settings in rustic, "small-town" America, and "Fern" (McDormand) gives a raw and compelling performance that is indeed deep, genuine, and award-worthy. And the kicker is that the director, Chloé Zhao, is freakin' Chinese! I mean, you can't make this up. Zhao is a woman and an ethnic minority, but oh! That's not enough --- it's never enough for the gouging nobodies who put on these idiotic awards shows. 

And these dolts with their stupid hashtags, like "#TimesUpGlobes," are whining about not enough blacks, waah! Well, if they wanted more blacks, why the f*ck did they have ultra-white babes Tiny Fey and Amy Poehler hosting? You'd think someone, somebody, anybody, might have asked, ahead of time, "Aren't there any beautiful black women on T.V. we could have host the program?" I'm dyin' over here. *Shrugs.* 

Again, I think it's just best to watch shows that might interest you, rather than pay attention to the stupid media people who rag endlessly at these showbiz [slash[ media orgs, like the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. These are stupid, un-self-aware elites, who don't deserve the attention they so desperately crave. 

And no surprise, the self-flagellating story is at the Los Angeles Times (FWIW, really!), "‘Nomadland’ and ‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’ win at Golden Globes, as HFPA tries to move past controversy."

'Seig Heil for Hyatt'? Despicable Twitter Leftists Attack American Conservative Union for Imaginary 'Nazi Rune' at CPAC

I can't even on this one. 

I mean, who even notices this stuff? You'd have to be deranged and sickly obsessed demons pointing to something like this --- which is obviously true --- and clearly just one more attempt to disparage, libel, and destroy the obviously ordinary folks chanting "We Love You" for Donald Trump, and presumable other conservatives speaking at the conference, like awesome South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem.

And keep in mind, I haven't been to CPAC in over 10 years. It's a fun one-time experience, but it's not cheap. Besides, in the 2010s, lots of longstanding conservatives quit attending, because, for one thing, the place became more of a "meat-market" for teeny-boppers than a forum for serious political engagement. (And that's not to mention the awful treatment that Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer were subjected to, among others, basically being banned because they were, allegedly, "Islamophobic.")

So as you can see, I'm not a particularly big fan of the American Conservative Union, and particularly Matt Schlapp, who appears more like a glad-handing "good ole boy" than the leader of a vigorous grassroots movement. And while I like the mans's wife, Mercedes Schlapp, who was White House Director of Strategic Communications in Trump's administration, she's been back on Fox News quite a bit, and honestly, she also sounds like a puffed-up lobbyist for the G.O.P more than an oracle of movement conservatism. 

But all that said, I think the A.C.U. is absolutely right to hit back at the despicable Twitter trolls attacking Hyatt Hotels, and more importantly, repudiating Hyatt's own craven capitulation to ideological evil. See Forbes, for example, "How a Nazi Symbol at CPAC Turned Into a Massive Hyatt Public Relations Disaster."

F*cking leftist ghouls. These are people who actually deserve an American flagpole to the face. 

In any case, here's the response from David H. Safavian, General Counsel to the A.C.U, "A Response to Hyatt Hotels: We Will Not Be Canceled":

Mr. Thomas J. Pritzker 

Executive Chairman 

Hyatt Hotels 71 

South Wacker Drive 

Chicago, Illinois 60606

 

Dear Mr. Pritzker:

Contrary to Hyatt’s own mission statement of inclusivity, your company just attacked its own customer by caving into the pressures of the politically motivated social media agitators who seek to destroy CPAC, our attendees and speakers from across the country, and the millions of Americans who support our work. Hyatt made a decision to issue additional statements late last night after the conference ended that disparaged and defamed us. These statements appear to validate demonstrably false and malicious claims.

When we learned of the orchestrated assault on us, we immediately contacted your senior management to set the record straight. Together, we quickly responded to these slanderous accusations. Your hotel’s senior management was on notice and acknowledged that these claims were false and agreed to share any statement before its release. We agreed that coordination was critical so that the general public would know the truth and that you would treat your customer with honesty. Thus, we were shocked that the Hyatt waited until after the conference concluded to issue additional statements--ones that are irresponsible, untrue, and contribute to a climate of division and hatred.

For months we have collaborated with your team on logistics, including sharing, reviewing, and approving the stage design that was created by one of our subcontractors. The fact that no one on the Hyatt staff ever raised concerns during the process shows the ridiculous nature of your statements. Moreover, your statements falsely conceal your oversight role. In fact, the Hyatt Hotel, with our organization and subcontractors, approved and worked collaboratively to build this stage. Only after a coordinated far-left assault to destroy our conference arose did you succumb to lies and compound them with your own.

During this difficult time for our nation, we believe in Americans getting back to work and helping companies like yours to flourish. Indeed, you recruited us. We sought to work with you in good faith to help Hyatt workers and the Florida economy. In fact, countless employees expressed their immense gratitude for bringing CPAC to the Hyatt in Orlando, many stating that this very conference was the sole reason they had a job.

Our Jewish Board Members, staff, speakers, and attendees are appalled by the Hyatt leadership for not standing with us as we fight against antisemitism (a term that Hyatt fails to use in its statements). We would have hoped that our 10th annual Shabbat Dinner, daily Jewish prayer services, and speeches on the main stage from Jewish leaders, such as Ambassador David Friedman, Former Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, and Rabbi Yitz Tendler would be enough to put an end to these outrageous falsehoods.

The theme of CPAC 2021 was “America UnCanceled.” It is tragic and reckless that Hyatt would choose to abandon its own mission statement of inclusivity and play into the hands of those who are attempting to silence legitimate political views.

Sincerely,

David H. Safavian

General Counsel

 

Donald Trump at CPAC (VIDEO)

UPDATE: YouTube has banned and removed all videos of Donald Trump's speech at CPAC 2021. I noticed this happening in real time, as the ABC News video of Trump's speech I posted was taken down, and I replaced it with on from the Independent U.K., which was still available at the time. Now, as you can see, it's gone. 

*****

Clicking around the channels yesterday, CNN wasn't going live with Trump speech at CPAC (at least when I click over), while Fox News livestreamed it. CNN, of course, came out immediately after with "fact checks," and MSM newspaper coverage, at LAT, for example, is full of lies and distortions of what Trump actually said, here: "Trump blasts GOP lawmakers who voted to impeach: ‘Get rid of them all’."

I thought is was a great speech. Trump probably should have laid off on the election fraud claims to the extent that he did, because although there was rampant fraud, I never considered there to be enough fraudulent ballots to ultimately overturn the results of the election.

That said, Trump's attacks on "RINOs" and the radical left Dems was right on, and his speech was clearly electrifying for the CPAC hordes crammed into the hall in Orlando. I would have loved to have been there.

In any case, Trump teased the notion of his own run for the presidency in 2024, and that's the left's biggest fear, especially all the lamestream media hacks at CNN, and no doubt elsewhere. (I haven't checked NYT's coverage yet, but I'm sure it's pathetic.)