Jan 262021
 

October 2020:

“I have this strange notion, we are a democracy … if you can’t get the votes … you can’t [legislate] by executive order unless you’re a dictator. We’re a democracy. We need consensus.”

So, legislating by executive order is something dictators do.

In completely unrelated news that in no way could ever possibly reflect poorly on anyone…

Here are the executive orders Biden has signed so far

In his first six days in office, Biden issued 33 executive orders, actions, proclamations, memoranda and agency directives, primarily focused on addressing the Covid-19 pandemic and undoing former President Donald Trump’s actions.

Of those 33, apparently 21 are Executive Orders. Trump was the previous reigning champ with four EOs in his first week in office. Behold the majesty of democracy in action as President Baizuo spends a surprising amount of time trying to figure out what to do with his pen:

All sales are final.

 Posted by at 10:29 pm
Jan 262021
 

Babylon 5 showed up on HBOMax today. I took a look at a few bits and pieces… “Severed Dreams” and “Sleeping In Light” to be precise – and can confirm that it looks great. It’s back to the original aspect ratio; it looks like some sort of processing was done to it so that it looks better than DVD quality, though clearly not super-duper upscaling. If anyone knows how long it’ll be on HBOMax, let me know. it would be nice if it’ll be there for a few years, but it’s hard to tell.

Now, consider this. A plot point in Season One is the election for Earth Alliance President. In the end, Luis Santiago wins the vote as President, and brings along Vice President Clark. By the end of Season One, Santiago is dead in an explosion of the transport vessel Earthforce One, and Clark is President. Clark does such a piss-poor job – screws with the economy, institutes departments devoted to deplatforming/depersoning people and squashing the views of those who disagree, gets the government into bed with badguys, creates a surveillance state that will punish you for wrongthink (literally, what with the Psi Corps), mandates political/ideological tests – that humanity splits apart and a civil war breaks out. On one side, Big Government, with all the power; on the other side, the people who just want to be left alone with their freedoms and their guns and their low taxes. Hijinks ensue, many die. Turns out Clark, under the influence of shadowy manipulators from far away, set up Santiagos assassination with a bomb.

One wonders if President Biden has a scheduled stop at a transfer station near a place called Io…

 Posted by at 7:40 pm
Jan 232021
 

“I Think My Gmail Has Crashed”: The Teacher Who Made Bernie Sanders’ Mittens on Watching Them Go Viral

So back in 2016 a fan of Bernie Sanders gave him a gift of hand-made mittens. During the recent inauguration, Sanders was photographed wearing said mittens, and because why not, the photo went viral. Slate hunted down the maker of the mittens, who remains a fan of Sanders. Where’s the irony? Well… the mittens-maker *used* to have a business making mittens, but no more. Why?

People have been contacting me thinking that they can get mittens, and actually they can’t. I don’t have any more, and I don’t have much of a mitten business anymore because it really wasn’t worth it. Independent crafters get really taken for a ride by the federal government. We get taxed to the nth degree, and it wasn’t really worth it pursuing that as a business, even as a side hustle.

Huh. You complain about taxes being so high as to crush your business. Sure, I’m  right there with you. Buuuuuuuuutttttttt……. you remain a supporter of Bernie Sanders, a socialist?

Further evidence that what the United States needs is NOT to expand the voting franchise, but to institute some basic civics tests before your vote is allowed to count.

 Posted by at 5:19 pm
Jan 222021
 

Second from left, in a photo from 2014, is U.S. Department of State Spokesperson Jennifer Psaki. She is now President Baizuo’s spokespuppet.

The story was that it was a gift from some Russian officials. Uh-huh. If some German officials showed up with a hat with a swastika on it, or some Japanese officials gave her a hat with the rising sun w/rays on it, or, heck, some Southern officials gave her a hat with a CSA “battle flag,” would she proudly wear that too?

 

I guess it’s good that these people are open  about their views. What’s bad is that their views are so fundamentally anti-American.

 Posted by at 9:43 pm
Jan 222021
 

With all the burning last  year, I missed this story. The next time you hear or read on one of those Antifa goons torching a place, and some oxygen thief defends their actions because “arson isn’t violence” or “it’s just stuff” or some such vacuous drivel, hit them with this story:

Fundraiser for beekeeper raises £24,000 after his life’s work was destroyed by arsonists

Now, the defender-of-arson will likely point out “but there was a funding effort and he got a lot of money” or “he probably had insurance” or some such nonsense. Never mind the emotional distress of having *your* *stuff* destroyed, there is also this:

Ron had spent 20 years breeding a super-bee that was able to survive attacks from a killer mite that destroyed millions of bees across the world.

The arsonists didn’t just take away a hobby or a source of income… they endangered the very existence of bees. And without bees, a lot of other species will suffer -including humans – due to bees being important pollinators. The arsonists can fairly be faulted for a mass attack on the environment, attempted (perhaps eventually successful) extermination of whole species, and genocide against large swaths of mankind.

No fundamental difference between these arsonists and those who burned Uncle Hugo’s science fiction bookstore… or anywhere else. That’s why I stand foursquare with those calling for the identification, arrest and charging with insurrection/domestic terrorism all those who set fires within the Capitol building earlier this month.

 

 Posted by at 8:18 am
Jan 212021
 

‘We feel incredibly betrayed’: Thousands of Guardsmen forced to vacate Capitol

It’s an interesting read. More than 20,000 Guardsmen were uselessly sent to protect the Capital from phantom insurgents; they were meant to play guards, but were unarmed, vetted, insulted and name-called by their political masters… then once their utility in an episode of political theater was over, they were sent to be packed neck-deep in a parking garage with vastly insufficient facilities.

Good job.

 Posted by at 10:38 pm
Jan 212021
 

For all of 2020, protestors have been given virtually free reign to loot, pillage, burn and destroy. People who repeatedly demonstrated that they were textbook domestic terrorists, insurrectionists, and conspiracy nuts, buying into every ill-informed and downright fraudulent story of some poor innocent murdered by some cops, were lauded by the media and given a pass and praise by government officials from mayors to Senators.

But now there has been a change in administrations, and the story seems to have rather suddenly changed. The same jackholes who turned 2020 into   year of loss, pain and flames now seem to be on the receiving end of the new administrations militarization of society.

Protesters in Portland and Seattle Shatter Windows and Light Fires

In Portland, Ore., lines of federal agents in camouflage — now working under the Biden administration — blanketed streets with tear gas and unleashed volleys of welt-inducing pepper balls as they confronted a crowd that gathered outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building near downtown. Some in the crowd later burned a Biden-for-President flag in the street.

Huh. I have vague recollection of many on President Baizuo’s side complaining about the use of “chemical weapons” against “mostly peaceful protestors.” I guess it’s ok now.

 

There have been a number of arrests. It will be interesting to see if *these* arrests stick or, as was all too common last year, the terrorists and insurrectionists who managed to get arrested were often simply released uncharged… and others were the beneficiaries of funds raised to bail them out. Remember this?

Kamala Harris-supported Minneapolis Freedom Fund bailed out dangerous criminals along with protesters

Harris not only provided verbal support for insurrectionists, she helped fund them. Hmm. Articles of impeachment, anyone?

 Posted by at 4:48 pm