An American Success Story – 2021 edition

 

Clarice Feldman’s weekly (Sunday) column at American Thinker is always worth reading.  This past weekend, she highlighted a true American success story 2021-style – all the more inspiring because it took place in California.  Who would have thought?  Here’s the beginning of her post titled “The Battle of Burbank” at Tinhorn Flats:

It’s believed the Battle of Lexington and Concord was the fight that set off the American Revolution. While a battle at Burbank, California has received less notice, to me it is inspiring -- a community’s refusal to bow to petty, irrational, and illegal bullying.

The story is fully recounted by Robert Morton, and I urge you to read it in its entirety, but here’s my synopsis. 

Tinhorn Flats is a family-operated bar and restaurant in Burbank. Burbank has had a death rate from the Wuhan virus  of 2.8 percent of which 80 percent were of those over 65 who had, on average three co-morbidities.

Despite this, and disregarding the substantial sums restaurant and bar owners had shelled out to keep outdoor patrons safe, on December 6 the city council ordered all restaurants closed. Tinhorn refused and continued to serve patrons outdoors. Six days later their health permit was revoked. Tinhorn continued its outdoor service, ignoring the city’s revocation of its permit. In response, the L.A. County Department of Health cited the restaurant 13 times for operating without a permit. Tinhorn stayed open.  The L.A. County Attorney filed a cease and desist order. Tinhorn stayed open.

After a few more legal forays the Burbank City Council filed suit against the restaurant and obtained a temporary restraining order. Tinhorn stayed open.

The city cut power to the restaurant and patrons and fans donated generators and equipment so the restaurant could continue operations.

The city council padlocked the front doors. Tinhorn removed the doors and stayed open.

When the padlocked doors were somehow reinstalled, the restaurant posted on Facebook a picture showing a side door open. Tinhorn stayed open.

Another L.A. County judge required the county to prove that the ban on outdoor dining was necessary. The county failed to do so, but inexplicably the judge refused to lift the ban.

Morton notes:

These petty tyrants don't seem to realize that they have awakened a sleeping tiger. People from all over the city are patronizing the restaurant. Support is pouring in from all over the country.

Nor do they realize that nothing will stop me or anyone else from patronizing this business.  We are the ocean of freedom and we will flow around any obstacles in our way.  The Burbank City Council will look like the idiots they are in trying to shut down this place.[snip]

Like a desperado who is riddled with bullets but just won't stop, Tinhorn Flats remains open. The latest chapter in this saga finds the Burbank Fire Department showing up at Tinhorn Flats on Wednesday night to remove a padlock... one that city officials had placed there earlier that morning.

Why? Because as soon as officials left, Lucas Lepejian cut off a lock on a side entrance and reopened the Old West-themed restaurant and bar, reports FOX 11.

After cutting off the padlock, Lepejian let customers in and continued serving them food and drink although the front door remains padlocked, creating what Burbank officials call a "life-safety hazard."

Standing up to bullies is the only way to defeat them. 

The rest of Ms. Feldman’s column (on other subjects) is here.

# # #

Black Lives Matter’s Corporate Funding

 

Jay Greenberg at Neonnettle reports:

Black Lives Matter Is Funded by These 18 Corporations

The main Black Lives Matter organization, founded by “trained Marxists,” calls for replacing the nuclear family with a “village,” and abolishing police, prisons, and law courts.  

Despite the extreme goals of BLM, some of America’s largest corporations have pledged or donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the far-left group.

Prominent brands, including Amazon, Microsoft, Nabisco, Gatorade, Airbnb, and the Atlantic and Warner record labels, have helped to fund the organization with massive donations.

. . .

For more details and the rest of the report, click here.  More reasons to not drink Gatorade, etc.

# # #

Sometimes you just have to laugh

Seen at Instapundit:  

#  #  #

Bookworm Room has a question

 

Bookworm Room (a/k/a Andrea Widburg) summarizes some of the destructive actions taken since the Democrat party took all three branches of power. She starts with these:

Since Biden entered the White House on January 20 the following things have happened (and this list isn’t in any particular order):

Biden’s made a wild ad hominem attack against Putin, who has nuclear power.

Biden’s Defense Secretary threatened Kim Jong-un, who has nuclear power.

Biden’s erased the southern border entirely (never mind that he has no legal authority to do so).

The Democrats as a whole have switched to an economic rule that’s based on the printing press principle: Money is no object because they’ll print it up as they go along.

The Democrats have declared war on women via their proposed Equality Act.

The Democrats have declared war on our constitutional democratic republic via their laughably named For the People Act. [HR-1]

The rest of her list is here.  And her question at the end of her post is this:

I originally thought that the Democrats were just in this for power. I now think that they are in this to completely destroy the United States. . . .  Am I crazy or is that what’s really going on here?

Some of the reader comments at the blog are worth reading, also.

# # #

Industrial Scale Election Fraud

At American Thinker, Jay Valentine does a deeper dive into the 2020 election fraud. It’s frightening – and he makes the case.

The Sovereign Crime of Industrial Scale Vote Fraud

. . . Your government, at the state and federal level, the FBI, government agencies can be in on the scam.  That is the realization slowly being accepted by millions of Americans.

We have technologies that can identify dead voters the moment they cast a ballot.  We can identify people who are out-of-state, voted twice, are underage, live in a vacant lot or a UPS or FedEx postal box.  We can even show a photo of that vacant lot so you can see where your fake neighbor claims to live.

Literally, the second their ballot is counted, they can be flagged as a likely fraud.

Yes, we can deploy that technology today.  We have done it in the insurance industry for decades.

We can predict where election fraud is going to happen.  We can predict how it is going to be done.  We can deploy technologies to identify likely fraud within seconds of when it happens.

The question is, if the government is pretty much in on the election fraud, does it really matter?

Read the whole thing here.

# # #

More on HR1 ~ now in the Senate

 

At the Patriot Post, Hans von Spakovsky explains why the mis-named “For The People Act” – HR 1, is bad news for Americans:

8 Ways That HR 1, 'For the People Act,'
Imperils Free and Fair Elections

It would not only eliminate basic safety protocols, but mandate new, reckless rules and procedures.

HR 1, the deceptively titled “For the People Act,” has arrived in the U.S. Senate after a party-line vote in the House of Representatives. It is without doubt the most dangerous and irresponsible election bill I have ever seen.

If it becomes law, it will interfere with the ability of states and their residents to determine the qualifications and eligibility of voters, to ensure the accuracy and validity of voter registration rolls, to secure the integrity of elections, and to participate and speak freely in the political arena.

HR 1 is an 800-page monstrosity that would usurp the role of the states. It would not only eliminate basic safety protocols, but mandate new, reckless rules and procedures.

Mr. von Spakovsky then enumerates the eight worst provisions of this ill-considered bill.  Click here for the full article.

I don’t know if it will do any good to call decepticon Sen. Rob Portman, but here’s his contact info anyway:

Sen. Rob Portman:  202-224-3353 or by email here

https://www.portman.senate.gov/meet/contact

# # #

Independence Day planning

 

 

The headline over Catherine Smith’s report at AmericanGreatness:

Fauci Warns States to Keep Restrictions
or July 4th Could Be Cancelled

My take-away:  Plan your block parties now.

 

RELATED headline at Epoch Times: 

Biden Administration Denies Request
to Hold July 4 Fireworks at Mount Rushmore

Sad. (Photo from President Trump's speech and celebration at Mount Rushmore.)

# # #

Set your clock an hour ahead

 

Cartoon via Powerline: The Week in Pictures

Daylight Savings Time begins this weekend, effective at 2 a.m. local time Sunday for most of the United States. Don’t forget to set your clocks an hour ahead, which most people do before bed Saturday night, to avoid being late for Sunday morning activities.

# # #

 

Flattening the curve

 

Seen on MeWe via Vodkapundit's Insanity Wrap #164

(Click to embiggen or click on link and scroll down)

BONUS MEME via Bookworm Room (Mister Potato Head enters the pantheon of cancel culture logos -- with Chief Wahoo and friends):

# # #

In case you missed President Biden’s first national address

 

Andrea Widburg (a/k/a Bookworm Room) watched President Biden’s speech so that you didn’t have to.  Her report at American Thinker begins:

On Thursday night, a masked Biden tottered down a long, empty hall to a podium.  He then gave the most bizarre presidential address in American history. After a grim recital of "facts" about the last year, Biden emphasized multiple times that Americans had better take the vaccine — and be grateful to him for his amazing ability to get the vaccine to Americans. He also insisted that, vaccines or not, the government's in control and can lock all of us up all over again.

Here, in no particular order, are the points that struck me:

1. Biden was more alert than he's been in many months.  Given how frail and confused Biden's been lately, well, let's just say his verve was suspicious.  Even his eyes, which are usually tightly squinted as he struggles to stay alert and read his teleprompter, were wide open, almost scarily so.  Still, he got visibly tired near the end, slurring his words and seeming lost.

2. The speech was both bizarre and boring.  Despite the teleprompter, it wandered hither and yon, without ever touching clearly on a single point.  It was a grim, depressing speech about a miserable year that probably won't get better even with a vaccine because we must all remain scared and isolated.

. . .

7. The main thrust of the speech was that everyone must get the vaccine (the wonderful Biden vaccine).  However, Biden conceded that even with the vaccine, masks and social distancing must continue.  Even with everyone vaccinated, by July 4, maybe we can gather with small groups outdoors.  In other words, even as we're all pumped full of a vaccine, nothing will change.  But we should trust Biden and remember that we're all in this together.

8. Here's the scariest thing Biden said, although he slipped it in so quickly many may not have noticed (emphasis mine): "Fourth, in the coming weeks, we will issue further guidance on what you can and cannot do once fully vaccinated to lessen the confusion, to keep people safe, and encourage more people to get vaccinated."

The vaccine, rather than freeing us, will bring us even more tightly under government control as the federal government mandates what [we] can and cannot do.

Read the rest of Ms. Widburg’s report here.  The article includes the video link to the speech and also a link to the full transcript. . . if you can stand it . . .

# # #

COVID-19 lockdowns are the “biggest public health mistake”

 

Meme via Patriot Post

This report is from Matthew Impalli at Newsweek:

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor at Stanford University Medical School, recently said that COVID-19 lockdowns are the "biggest public health mistake we've ever made...The harm to people is catastrophic."

Several U.S. states have started to ease their COVID-19 restrictions over the past few weeks.

Bhattacharya, who made the comments during an interview with the Daily Clout, co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration, a petition that calls for the end of COVID-19 lockdowns, claiming that they are "producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health."

As of Monday, the Great Barrington Declaration has received signatures from over 13,000 medical and public health scientists, more than 41,000 medical practitioners and at least 754,399 "concerned citizens."

During the interview last month, Bhattacharya said that the declaration comes from "two basic facts."

"One is that people who are older have a much higher risk from dying from COVID than people who are younger...and that's a really important fact because we know who his most vulnerable, it's people that are older. So the first plank of the Great Barrington Declaration: let's protect the vulnerable," Bhattacharya said. "The other idea is that the lockdowns themselves impose great harm on people. Lockdowns are not a natural normal way to live."

He continued, "it's also not very equal. People who are poor face much more hardship from the lockdowns than people who are rich."

More of the report is here.  

# # #

A local success story to punch back against Critical Race Theory

 

From our friends at Ohio Value Voters:

On March 6th we alerted you to mandatory Critical Race Training at Beachwood High School coming soon on March 11th. Yesterday, on March 8th, in a packed school board meeting, outraged citizens held nothing back when they spoke to the Beachwood School Board. Watch Jonathan Broadbent expose the school board of quietly changing policy that gives teachers a new right to "express their opinions" instead of the current policy that has been in existence since the beginning of the school system: WATCH HERE The rest of the meeting grew in intensity as tax-payers and parents spoke truth to power in the following block-buster school board meeting video: MUST WATCH VIDEO Below is our Email from March 6th A group of parents in Beachwood Ohio are recommending that all parents keep their children home on 3/11/21 or otherwise remove their children from upcoming "mandatory" Critical Race Training. Every study including "1776 Unites" shows that "Critical Race Theory" leads to MORE racism and division. Parents are urged to attend the Beachwood Board of Education meeting on March 8, 2021 at 7:00 p.m. to voice your concern regarding this mandatory training.   The Beachwood Board of Education meets in regularly scheduled meetings on the second and fourth Monday of each month at 7:00 pm, in the Fairmount Community Room, 24601 Fairmount Boulevard, Beachwood, Ohio. 44122 phone: (216) 464-2600 Click this link for more information: What is Critical Race Theory? A good example of local citizen involvement.  # # #

Beware the not funny cartoon

Not funny cartoon via Patriot Post:

# # #

 

Immunity Passports Bring Back Racial Segregation

 

image credit: themunicheye.com

More very scary developments: Daniel Greenfield at Frontpage reports:

Vaccine passports aren’t coming: they’re already here. And while discriminating against people based on their vaccination status is bad enough: the implications are even worse.

A vaccine passport transforms all of society into a two-tier system, but the basis for it isn’t a needle, it’s a set of government guidelines that were based on identity politics or ‘equity’.

From the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to various state equity initiatives, some even worse than the CDC’s push to prioritize people by race, the vaccine rollout was designed to put minorities at the head of the line. These prioritizations were meant to be invisible, using disparate impact to advance groups with the right demographic skew.

The government using race to prioritize medical treatment is horrifying enough, but vaccine passports take the biased vaccine system and embed that bias into everyday areas of life.

The end result is a horrifying cross between China’s social credit system and the racial segregation of the South. Call it the equity credit system based on racial and sexual identity.

Read the rest of it here.

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A heads up on GOP fund-raising

 

How many calls and emails a week do you get from various GOP entities asking for money?  Our household gets a lot.  However, we haven’t contributed to GOP groups for years. The GOP groups raised millions for over eight years on the specific promise of repealing Obamacare, and then … they didn't keep their promise.  

Now President Trump is taking steps to re-direct contributions that might go to various GOP groups to instead support the Save America Super PAC.  From Dennis Michael Lynch’s blog:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former President Donald Trump has demanded that three main Republican groups stop using his name and likeness to help raise money, a Trump adviser said on Saturday.

The adviser, confirming a report in Politico, said that lawyers for Trump on Friday had sent cease-and-desist letters to the Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Campaign and National Republican Senate Campaign, asking them to stop using his name and likeness on fundraising emails and merchandise.

The article goes on to state the following:

The adviser said Trump is sensitive to the use of his name and likeness for branding purposes and has been irked that the three groups have supported Republican lawmakers who had joined Democrats in voting to impeach him over the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump protesters.

Trump’s plan is to use the money raised from his Save America SuperPAC to help candidates of his choice win in the 2022 congressional elections.

For those patriots who are perpetually fed up with GOPe branch of the DC Uniparty, this may be a start. 

# # #

 

2nd Action Alert to stop election fraud

 

The bad news: The House passed HR1 last night.  (The Cleveland Tea Party Action Alert from yesterday is here.)

Today, Andrea Widburg at American Thinker has the Action Alert for us to call our Senators:

If you thought the election in 2020 was bad, you'd better reach out to your senator to fight H.R. 1, which passed the House last night.  H.R. 1 takes every bad idea blue states adopted in 2020 — all with an eye to facilitating election fraud and increasing the number of otherwise ineligible Democrat voters — and nationalizes all of them.  It isn't just that this bill will mean that Republicans will have an even more uphill battle than usual in every election.  It also means that no federal election will ever be trustworthy — and an untrustworthy system is one that will inevitably fail.

. . .

And allowing the election to extend indefinitely ensures that Democrats will always win.  They'll just see how many votes they need after Election Day and keep submitting more ballots.  Eventually, in self-defense, Republicans will do the same.  At that point, citizens can just stop voting at all, because elections will have devolved into battles between crooks rather than the voice of the people.

Contact your senators and make let them know that, in the interests of American democracy, you are completely opposed to steps that will weaken Americans' ability to trust the integrity of their elections.  It's not just Republicans who should care.  Democrats should, too.

In D.C., the continued presence of the National Guard shows that the Democrats are frightened.  They fear that people who feel that they don't have a truly representative government will make themselves heard by other means.  If the Democrats continue with this mad plan to destroy voter integrity, they will become increasingly fearful of the American people.  It creates a volatile situation when the government fears the people because the government knows that it has done wrong.

Read the full article here. Action Alert: Contact your senators.  Sherrod Brown page is here.  Rob Portman page is here. 

# # #

Canceling Dr Seuss

 

Michael P Ramirez cartoon via Townhall

Mister Potato Head and now Dr Seuss.  Madness.

HR1: Legislation to make Election Fraud -Permanent - Action Alert

 

Louis Debroux sounds the alarm at Patriot Post:

HR 1 Makes Election Fraud & Chaos Permanent

The Democrat legislation aims to secure their power by any and all means necessary.

If you liked the dozens of post-election lawsuits, the ballot recounts and audits, and the utter chaos and anger that prevailed after the 2020 elections, then you’ll absolutely love the Democrats’ top legislative priority this year — passage of HR 1, the ludicrously named “For the People Act.”

With a House vote expected this week, the 791-page HR 1 is a massive power grab by Democrats that takes the worst aspects of the 2020 elections and puts them into federal law. Democrats aim to dictate from Capitol Hill election law for every single state, county, and city. HR 1 intentionally weakens election security, creating the very lawlessness and discord that made the last election such a nightmare and guaranteeing that it’s the norm for all future elections.

Veteran political reporter John Fund calls it “the worst piece of legislation I have even seen in my 40 years reporting from Washington.”

For example, HR 1 would greatly expand mail-in voting, despite election officials warning that mail-in voting fraud is “vastly more prevalent than the in-person voting fraud.” The CalTech/MIT Voting Technology Project advised states to end mail-in voting because of the “significant cost to the real and perceived integrity of the voting process.” Even The New York Times admits mail-in balloting not only makes it “much easier” to buy and sell votes but also makes voters, especially elderly voters, vulnerable to fraud, threats, and coercion.

In many states that vote by mail, registered voters are automatically mailed a ballot. Yet these states tend to have poorly maintained voter rolls that have not been updated to exclude those who have died or moved, making it child’s play to illegally cast a ballot in ways that appear legal. In California, it took a lawsuit by watchdog Judicial Watch to force California to begin removing more than five million ineligible voters from state rolls.

The bill would also force states to accept mail-in ballots for 10 days after Election Day.

Much more on HR1  here.

ACTION ALERT:  Call your Representative to oppose house bill HR1.  (At the link:  members of the House listed by state with phone number.)

# # #

A.F. Branco: Dr Fauci’s magic goalposts

 

A.F. Branco cartoon credits: Townhall and Legal Insurrection 

Related headlines:  

At RedState:  New York Legislature -- Dominated by Dems -- Strips Gov. Cuomo of his Pandemic Emergency Powers

At The Federalist:  Texas Governor Announces 100% Reopening, No More Mask Mandate After Months Of Closures (to take effect on March 10)

# # #

America First PAC: the alternative to CPAC

 

Evan James at Big League Politics reports:

The second annual America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC) took place Friday night in Orlando, Florida, the same city where CPAC has been holding its own conference.

The speakers at AFPAC included political commentator Vincent James, reporter Jon Miller, bestselling author and columnist Michelle Malkin, former congressman Steve King, sitting congressman Rep. Paul Gosar, and political commentator and activist Nick Fuentes.

AFPAC is a conference specifically for the dissident wing of conservative politics known as the America First movement. The movement held its first political action conference last year in Washington DC as an invitation only event, but this year’s event opened to the public and sold tickets on a first-come, first-served basis.

. . .

The evening’s third speaker was Michelle Malkin. Continuing the tradition of building her major political speeches on a work of poetry, Malkin on this occasion chose William Ernest Henley’s poem “Invictus.” Per usual she delivered a fiery speech that pulled no punches. She tore into globalist “conservatives” like Matt and Mercedes Schlapp, lobbyists and organizers of CPAC, and she ridiculed the recent attempts by the GOP establishment to coopt the term “America First.”

. . .

All of the speeches from AFPAC II can be watched in their entirety below [at the link below]:

Full report here. President Trump made it clear in his CPAC speech that he does not intend to launch a third party;  he is trying to drag the GOP back to the right.  CPAC vs. America First PAC is the debate of the day:  many conservatives are not optimistic that the GOPe can be reformed from within.  Meantime, I have bookmarked Vincent James’ website TheRed Elephants.

# # #

A test

 

I am testing this blog because I have tried four times to load up a blog post contrasting CPAC with the America First PAC (AFPAC).  Each time, the blog post has been theoretically accepted but has not shown up on the blog itself, so I am posting this to test the upload mechanism.

Sorry for the aggravation.

# # #

President Trump at CPAC today

 

Right Side Broadcast Network [RSBN] is live streaming from CPAC 2021 in Orlando, FL. President Trump will deliver his remarks today, Sunday Feb, 28, in the afternoon, sometime after 3:00pm (CPAC schedule specifies 3:40pm).  Conservative Treehouse has the live-stream link here.

UPDATE at 3:47:  One America News is broadcasting live as well.  3:58pm: President Trump's speech is evidently delayed.  4:49:  One America News is cutting in and out of CPAC.  The livestream link at Treehouse, above, is carrying it.

# # #

 

RINOs

 

In her American Thinker essay “RINOs: The Scourge of the Republican Party,” Patricia McCarthy speaks for many:

How clueless are the swamp RINOs?  Very, very clueless.  So confident that they can dismiss President Trump like last week's news, a select few of them are hilariously destroying their own brands — as if the 75M+ people who voted for Trump are just going to forget Trump, the best president they've had in decades, and go their establishment way.  This scenario could be a sitcom; that is how comical people like Liz Cheney, Mitch McConnell, Nikki Haley, Adam Kinzinger, Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Pat Toomey, and Mike Pence are at this sad moment in time.  They all thought, perhaps still think, that by denigrating President Trump, they will win over those 75M people.  They thought that by blaming him for what happened at the Capitol on January 6, they would be rid of the man who so threatened their cushy, establishment lives. 

How can these lifelong pols be so deluded?  Because they live in a bubble of their own making.  They presume without thinking that they are smarter than "we the people."  Proceeding from that fixed belief, they have no doubt that they can mesmerize us to forget Trump and all the good he did, the promises he kept, the economy he built, the jobs he created, the energy independence he made possible, the control of the southern border he commenced, the wars he did not start, the rebuilding of the military after Obama, the sex-trafficking he interdicted, and much more.  The man was and is the best kind of warrior for America.

No wonder the left has hated and feared him with the "white hot intensity of a thousand suns" (h/t Cheers).  Donald Trump was and is their worst nightmare; he actually does care about "we the people."  That, for the leftists, is a deal-breaker; the "people" are nothing more than units of labor to the left.  They should not have a voice or a vote.  For all their touting of their concern for "the people," they have exactly none. 

. . .

We are experiencing tyranny by executive order, and most of the Republicans are sitting still for it when they should, as a group, be on the steps of the Capitol every day warning the American people about what is happening.

Read the full article here.

# # #

The COVID-19 denouement

 

Jeffrey A. Tucker at American Institute for Economic Research has some predictions about the COVID-19 denouement:

There is a sense in the air that the pandemic is winding down, and the toxic culture of division, fear, and hatred along with it. Cases are down dramatically. Deaths too. Hospitalizations are no longer irregular. Restrictions are being repealed. You can follow all the action daily at the CDC’s new and unusually competent landing page on the virus (it only took them a year to build this). 

Despite all the talk of a new normal and infinite mandates, there is hope that it could all unwind quickly, pushed by force of public impatience and frustration with restrictions, and a political scramble to avoid responsibility by running away from all that they did for the last year. 

The list of signs and symbols could be made very long. 

• ·         The politicians who overreached are suddenly being held accountable, with both Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsom on the hotseat. Calls for governors and mayors to resign consume state and local news. There is clearly major political tumult building. 
• ·         The Great Barrington Declaration scientists can hardly keep up with the requests for respectful interviews, now that it is becoming clear that they were right all along. 
• ·         The experience in open states like Florida, Georgia, South Dakota, and so on, makes it impossible to ignore the grim truth that the lockdowns achieved nothing for public health but did harm health, businesses, liberties, law, and civilized life. 
• ·         The push to open economies, by the same people who locked down the economies, such as Boris Johnson in the UK, is an implicit repudiation of the nonsensical ZeroCovid movement. Everyone seems now to agree with what AIER has been saying for a year: humanity must deal intelligently with pathogens and stop pretending that political forces can control them. 
• ·         AIER visiting senior fellow Naomi Wolf had a hit just last evening on the Tucker Carlson show, and they spoke as allies in the reopening efforts after years of ideological sparring. 
• ·         There is growing weariness of Anthony Fauci’s daily word salads that have massively mixed up the public health messaging for a full year, to the point that Meghan McCain has called for his firing. 
• ·         A year ago, Slate was making sense until the virus became political and they joined the lockdown mob. Now the publication is back to making sense again, with this excellent piece. 
• ·         British medical journal The Lancet is publishing excellent short pieces on the cost of lockdowns, including this riveting letter from Martin Kulldorff. 
• ·         A prestigious European journal of public health has published a blistering attack on the very idea that a power government should ever be trusted with virus mitigation. 

The people who have committed their careers and lives to this pandemic and the policies surrounding it might soon need to find a new raison d’etre. Then the clean up begins – how did this happen, who did it, how to make sure it never happens again – and does not end perhaps for decades. 

The full article is here.

# # #

Face Masks and Civil Disobedience in Burbank

 

Time to tear a page from a Burbank restaurateur. Carl Durrek at NOQ Report has the inspiring development:

Civil disobedience has been a staple of American culture since before the nation broke free from England. It is a necessary component of our freedom as government tends to lean towards authoritarianism whenever it sees a clear path. Covid-19 has opened up such a path for many authoritarians across the nation with California leading the way towards a dystopian near-future.

The city council of Burbank, California, has been in a mini-war with businesses from the beginning of the pandemic. One business in particular, Tinhorn Flats Bar and Grill, has chosen to fight back. Following yesterday’s unanimous vote by the city council to shutter the oldest bar in the city, the response from the local business was short and sweet:

As promised, the bar opened for business as planned. An hour after opening, there had been no word from the city or visits by law enforcement. So far it appears the civil disobedience is happening unimpeded. But that likely won’t last long as the strongarm of the law will soon step in. Very similarly to the infamous Hank Rearden speech in Atlas Shrugged, owner Baret Lepejian believes if government wants to stop them from doing business, they’ll have to do so with more than just an order.

“The pathetic-losers on the Burbank City Council had obviously made up their minds way before the ‘meeting'” ever started,” the bar posted on Facebook. “This was nothing short of a vicious mob with pitchforks coming for that who stands against their campaign of fear. I WILL NOT COMPLY AND I WILL NOT CLOSE MY BUSINESS TO THESE PATHETIC, UNAMERICAN SOCIALIST COWARDS. If need be, I will go down with my ship..”

This isn’t the first attempt by the city to shut them down. Last month, they revoked the restaurant’s public health permit in hopes of bullying the establishment into shutting its doors. But as noted by attorneys for the bar, they have never had a health violation. This latest move to revoke their business license has brought the city and bar national attention. Burbank City Attorney Amy Albano said that if the restaurant’s owners do not comply a lawsuit will be filed and a court order will be sought to close the business.

We wholeheartedly stand with Tinhorn Flats Bar and Grill as they fight to keep their rights to operate safely and within reasonable guidelines that follow medical science. Their story is America’s story. Their fight is our fight.

Which is why I posted this.  We’ve let the owners of our favorite neighborhood bistro know that if they want patrons who will refuse to wear a mask or to practice social distancing, we’ll be there. In the meantime, I continue to wear my [useless] mask like a beard across my chin.

# # #

President Trump will deliver the keynote address at CPAC

 

From the CPAC website (mark your calendar):

Sunday, Feb 28: President Donald Trump will speak at 3:40 pm

Sundance at Conservative Treehouse is no fan of CPAC.  He has many reasons, but every Tea Party member will remember this:

I do not forget when we gave Republicans control of the House of Representatives; and when Paul Ryan took over as speaker; and Ryan passed another three trillion omnibus spending bill with full support of Democrats…. and then showed up to a standing ovation at the “conservative conference.”  WHAT the HELL was being conserved?

The time is now for CPAC to reform…. OR the time has come for CPAC to be abandoned in favor of a national convention that supports the 75 million+ Donald Trump voters.  CPAC is not that convention… not even close.

Nevertheless, President Trump’s CPAC keynote speech will attract a huge audience.  Expect RSBN to live stream;  links to follow.

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State censorship in America

 

More state censorship is on the way.  Brandon Morse at Red State reports:

House Democrats Are Going After Cable Providers and
Streaming Services for Hosting Channels Like Fox News and OANN

When going after advertisers wasn’t enough to sink channels that hold conservative opinions, Democrats began shifting their attention to other methods of fascistically silencing their ideological opposition.

According to The Hill, Democrats are now going after streaming services and cable providers for playing host to what they call “misinformation” and for breeding “radicalized individuals.” The companies they’re going after include Comcast and Verizon, as well as streaming companies like Hulu and Roku to question their “ethical principles” . . .

Mr. Morse’s report concludes:

This isn’t about misinformation. This is about narrative control. This is fascism trying to do what fascism always does; silence the opposition and reign supreme in both state and media.

Much more at the link here.

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Media losing power?

 

Glenn Reynolds, a/k/a Mr. Instapundit, makes a good case:

Media’s censorious gatekeepers are mad —
because they’re losing power

With Donald Trump out of office and de-platformed, you’d think mainstream media gatekeepers would be happy. You’d think wrong.

Though the media-Big Tech regime is doing its best to silence opponents and seize control of the high ground, the news from within is grim. They aren’t happy with how things are going. 

That’s because they know they’re losing. Some are losing audiences and revenues. But more important, they’re losing control of the narrative.

And since control of the narrative, and the power and self-importance that accompany that control, is the most important thing in their lives, they can’t be happy.

Consider the cri de coeur of Washington Post public editor Hamilton Nolan, inspired by Tesla’s decision to scrap its media-relations department. How could that happen?

Nolan knows how, and that’s what bothers him: Tesla scrapped its media-relations department because the media don’t much matter to it. Tesla has plenty of ways to get its story out without relying on the media, and that makes the media much less important — and much less powerful. And it’s the power part that hurts the most.

. . .

I hope it’s true.  Read the rest here.

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A.F. Branco's tribute to Rush

 Via Legal Insurrection:

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