The Center Cannot Hold

This courtesy of Andrei Piriutko:

"We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.”

William James

Sri Lanka, with brutal lockdowns, buried 93% of the tourism industry - the third largest source of foreign exchange inflow into the country, and 400,000 jobs.

https://www.ips.lk/talkingeconomics/2022/02/14/pro-poor-tourism-can-it-reduce-poverty-in-sri-lanka/

It also made it as difficult as possible for farmers to work in the field, access to which was blocked by the army, which led to the loss of most of the crop, which is the subject of a whole scientific study:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666049022000093

Then, with a ban on fertilizers under the banner of "sustainable development" in the fight for climate, it finally and completely destroyed private agriculture - despite the fact that it was once completely self-sufficient in providing food.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/20/sri-lanka-fertiliser-ban-president-rajapaksa-farmers-harvests-collapse

Then a man-made food crisis as farmers stopped growing their crops :

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/18/a-food-crisis-looms-in-sri-lanka-as-farmers-give-up-on-planting

And all of a sudden…

The country has run out of gasoline, as it is completely imported, and there is no more currency left to buy it. Off the coast are tankers filled with fuel, but are not unloaded, as they are waiting for payment.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/17/world/asia/sri-lanka-fuel-economic-crisis.html

… All the started with "just for two weeks to flatten the curve”…
and ended with no food, no gas and no essential drugs -

https://www.aninews.in/news/world/asia/sri-lankan-govt-medical-officers-warn-of-trade-union-action-over-pay-cuts-drugs-shortage20220519150032/

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Unmentioned

Selwyn Duke

The Disinformation Governance Board (DGB) endeavor was just put on hold, and its head, Nina Jankowicz, resigned. But the timing is interesting. It was birthed shortly after Elon Musk announced he intended to buy Twitter, and it was clear that this was a powerful impetus behind the DGB's creation.

But now that Musk has put his Twitter acquisition on hold and it's clear the sale may not go through — and now that Twitter has been exposed as a sort of Wizard of Oz social media platform (with all the fake accounts) — the DGB has also been put on hold. Interesting timing, huh?

Admittedly, it could be a coincidence, but it's certainly worth pondering.

Tim adds:

Don't think this is going away. Trotsky Mary Poppins there was a huge embarassment and she sunk it as much as anybody. But this didn't make it into court (where it needed to go and be shot down permanently) and so it will return in another form. This is the key to the Demo-left's power. They MUST silence critics; it's the only way they can cement their power in perpetuity. The First Amendment must go.

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Don't Panic; the Aviary is Still Chugging Away

Timothy Birdnow

Sorry for the operational pause yesterday; I had to take my father to the hospital for a number of tests. Monday will be much the same methinks.

Don't panic. More is coming.

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World Famine Coming

This courtesy of Maurizio Marabito:

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The Vile Ruling Class

Timothy Birdnow

@RichardGrenell
Durham says
@HillaryClinton
worked with the
@FBI
to weaponize government against Donald Trump.

Most every DC reporter is complicit in this crisis.

Tim adds:

Correct; they were all in it together.

When Trump was running I posted a segment of an essay by a journalism professor who snarled "don't you dare ignore us Trump". I knew at that time they were working with Hillary and the national security apparatus to take him out. They would lie, cheat, and beclown themselves to stop or remove him.

I was not a Trump man at the time. But I knew where this was heading - and it went there. Now the media is stripped bare for all to see. Sadly, much of the country still refuses to believe their lying eyes; it's easier to pretend then face so grim a reality.

Illusions are often pleasant. But in the end they will only hurt you.

The reality is this isn't our country - it is theirs. Or so they believe. They were not going to let us take it from them.

The Ruling Class is vile.

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China Ramps up Coal to Prepare for Taiwan Attack?

Frank Lasee

Communist China is stockpiling coal. Getting ready to invade Taiwan? Their military just did a practice invasion.

https://etfdb.com/thematic-investing-channel/as-chinas-coal-output-hits-record-high-play-this-etf/?fbclid=IwAR149aoqpsMqDGrqdLAGIVg1m-7gbKrUqqK3Z5h2KGkiX67rc257D-hqMfk

China burns more than half of the 8.5 billion tons of coal used each year.

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Propaganda Paws

Timothy Birdnow

Biden is pausing the Ministry of Propaganda scheme.

That should have triggered a hue and cry. I fear the only reason it's paused now is because the woman they hired to run it is so screwy. But it'll be back in some form.

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Price Gouging Bill Gagging

This from Gregory Wrightstone:

They are huddling up to figure out how to explain how the oil companies suddenly got greedy 14 months ago to raise gas prices but weren't greedy during the previous four years.

House Democrats Pump the Brakes on Gas Price Gouging Bill Over Lack of Support

Tim adds:

At best that illlustrates Biden's utter incompetence. During the Trump era nobody ever tried to price gouge on gas prices. But under Biden?

That is, of course, assuming Biden and the Donkeys do not WANT high gas prices.

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Replacement Theory

Willis Eschenbach

People keep raving about the "Great Replacement Theory". This is the theory that white people are all terrified that they're being deliberately replaced by people of color and will become a minority.

Here's the thing. People believe the Great Replacement Theory for a simple reason—because we cannot figure out any other reason why Biden and the Democrats would support opening the border to anyone who wants to just walk into America.

What's the competing theory for Biden's actions?

Me, I'm not scared of becoming a minority.

I am, however, scared of being outnumbered by the huge number of MS-13 members, cartel drug runners, rapists, murderers, and child molesters pouring over the border.

Yes, not all of the illegal aliens walking into the US with the blessings of Joe Biden are MS-13 members, cartel drug runners, rapists, murderers, child molesters, and the like.

But far, far too many are, and Dementia Joe's catch and release program is not stopping them.

So again I ask—what's the competing theory for Biden's actions?

Tim adds:

Agreed. It's not a conspiracy theory if it is true. Certainly some people are trying to make it so, which means it comports with reality.

Like you I fear not the immigrant but I for one want to maintain our unique culture, the culture that made America the envy of the world (and attracted these immigrants in the first place) and I don't want that culture destroyed by a bunch of people who do not understand what we have and won't enculturate.

And as you say Willis I don't want criminals and thugs coming in. Clearly the Biden Administration (and the Obama junta before him) has a reason for importing so many aliens. It's not out of the kindness of their mercenary little hearts.

The only explanation is they in fact want to replace the majority with a more compliant group.

And this isn't a "white" thing either; An aid to Vicente Fox, a man named Arias King, said that it was clear to him the political class in both parties wanted to replace the American electorate with Hispanics, who tend to ignore politics to a far greater degree than Americans and who will let them rule as they see fit. I wrote about this back in 2013. http://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2013/06/the_colonization_of_21st-century_america.html&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwipiKndzOn3AhXDp3IEHUcpBRMQFnoECAEQAg&usg=AOvVaw3C9xXeDXFlSoB-_hRykPbP

If replacement theory isn't true then why are they hell-bent on replacing us? Nothing the political class is doing is aimed at the welfare of the voting public. There is far more concern for illegal aliens than for the average American. Why is that?

Marion Martin adds:

It was funny this morning CTV news Toronto this morning were talking about this issue the replacement theory, last year CTV announced that they planned to only hire those classified as minorities, in fact 2 weather people both white were let go and replacements where both people of colour, the 3 hosts this morning having the discussion, all three people of colour, they didn’t see the irony of their discussion

Dale Mullen replies:

I'm getting really pissed off with seeing all the so-called persons of color appearing in every TV show and nearly every TV ad. If these people are so G.D. important to the advertisers then let them get their money from that same audience.
If they want money from the Caucasians, then they had better damn well advertise to the audience from whom they want support.
Now, down off my milk carton ...

Tim responds:

If CRT and replacement aren't the goals why do they keep pushing all of this? Why not have ads and shows that "look like America" or Canada or Britain? It's as if they seek to disspirit the majority, make them fearful and feel hopeless.

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Kiss my Asperger

John Conlin

Check out this Twitter twat mocking Elons Aspergers.

Daily Mail Australia

'Twitter exec trashing free speech & mocking people with Asperger's …'

Tim adds:

There are our oh-so-tolerant and loving Progressives! The reality is they are nothing but sharks pretending to have compassion.

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WHO World Power Grab

Allan MacRae

Remember how almost* everybody got suckered by the Covid-19 Scamdemic - the costly and ineffective Covid-19 lockdowns and the costly, ineffective and toxic Covid-19 "vaccines"?
Well, the WHO and the WEF and our traitorous leaders think you are stupid enough to do it again, and even bigger this time...

BIDEN HANDING OVER U.S. SOVEREIGNTY TO WHO
by Peter Breggin MD and Ginger Ross Breggin | May 4, 2022
Biden Handing Over U.S. Sovereignty to WHO - America Out Loud
[excerpt]
"Please take seriously the severity of this existential threat to everything free people hold dear. Do everything in your power to pass this report on to others and to find ways to communicate with and to influence people to stop empowering WHO to take over our national sovereignty and freedom.
On May 22-28, 2022, ultimate control over America’s healthcare system, and hence its national sovereignty, will be delivered for a vote to the World Health Organization’s governing legislative body, the World Health Assembly (WHA).
This threat is contained in new amendments to WHO’s International Health Regulations, proposed by the Biden administration, that are scheduled as "Provisional agenda item 16.2” at the upcoming conference on May 22-28, 2022."

*Note: I never believed the Covid-19 scam.- not the lockdowns and not the vaccines.
https://correctpredictions.ca/

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Biden Cancels More Oil Leases

Timothy Birdnow

"Not my fault" Biden cancels more gas and oil leases.

Willis Eschenbach dishes:

After claiming over and over again that high gas prices are not his fault, Lyin' Biden cancels oil and gas lease sales covering millions of square miles.

w.

https://apnews.com/article/climate-environment-alaska-gulf-of-mexico-191a0e2be4a95f703d9f52a6b5c36895

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Baby Got (Broken) Back

Timothy Birdnow

America continues her slide into Third World status.

Courtesy of Jennifer Vanover:

Let them eat cake! Maria Antoinette was no worse than Biden and his chums.

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How Government Promotes CRT

Timothy Birdnow

Here is a great essay on CRT, how it came about and what it aims to accomplish.

Here is a small taste:

Let’s start at the top of the political food chain with the Biden administration’s Department of Education, which is requiring school districts that receive federal funds for one of its "American History and Civics Education” programs to focus on a "national reckoning with systemic racism” and to "incorporate anti-racist practices into teaching and learning.” Grant-funded teachers must teach the core tents of Critical Race Theory, e.g., the "systemic racism, biases, inequities, and discriminatory policy and practice in American history.” They are also required to teach that "equity,” which means equal outcomes, is the solution to America’s race problems.[5]

In 2020, the federal Department of Education funded a conference for teachers and school officials that featured as its keynote speaker the communist activist, Bettina Love, who called for "tearing down” the major institutions of the United States in their current form, including America’s government schools that are "built to manage racism.” Love went on to claim that racism permeates America’s schools, and she further called for "radically changing” government schooling and "tearing down structures” that hinder "anti-racist education.”[6] But Love is a fauxabolitionist. She does not really want to abolish the government schools per se; she wants to capture and control the government schools in order to serve her ideological agenda.

Without question, the principal transmission belt delivering Critical Race Theory directly into the bloodstream of America’s K-12 schools is through America’s teacher-training institutions. For almost thirty years now, CRT has dominated the pedagogic philosophy of the nation’s "ed” schools. As one "ed” school professor put it to me recently, "America’s teacher-training institutions are CRT indoctrination factories.”

One major study of the intellectual and pedagogic interests of several thousand "ed” school professors found that upwards of 48 percent of teacher-training faculty at the 20 top-rated teacher colleges had a research interest in race, diversity, and equity and 24 percent said these topics were their "primary” area of study.[7]

"Ed” school professors have also produced scores if not hundreds of books promoting Critical Race Theory. In fact, CRT has become so pervasive in the world of teacher training that James A. Banks, one of America’s most renowned CRT scholars, has edited and published a series of scholarly book on CRT in K-12 education that contains no fewer than 58 volumes! And literally hundreds if not thousands of academic articles on CRT have been published in the "ed” school academic journals. There is even an "education” journal for "ed” school professors and K-12 teachers named "Whiteness and Education” that publishes articles on promoting the teaching of CRT in K-12 classrooms. The journal describes it aims and scope this way:

Whiteness andEducationpublishes . . . manuscripts that advance critical understandings of the construction and deployment of Whiteness in educational contexts. This includes, but is not limited to, critical discussions of White racism, White identity, privilege, power and intersectionality.

The journal welcomes papers that present empirical studies of Whiteness in education and/or advance theoretical and conceptual understanding of Whiteness in Education, via recognized qualitative and/or quantitative approaches and papers that challenge conventional methodologies. . . . Critically reflective pieces by White scholars, which are explicit in how they contribute to an anti-racist agenda, will be considered.[8]

Notice the last sentence, which suggests that the journal is even open to publishing "White scholars,” but only if they prove their anti-racist bona fides.

Make no mistake about it: Critical Race Theory is openly taught to America’s teachers-in-training. Just go to the website of any college of education and read their mission statement, look at faculty bios and the classes that are being taught, and, most importantly, take a look at the course syllabi used in the teacher-training institutions. A major study of four of the nation’s largest and most influential "ed” schools produced by Jay Schalin for The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal demonstrated that Critical Race Theory dominates what is being taught to America’s future teachers.[9]Virtually all of America’s future teachers are exposed to, if not thoroughly indoctrinated in, CRT long before they ever step foot in a K-12 classroom. CRT is as ubiquitous in teacher colleges as its proponents say racism is in American society. It’s everywhere.

[...]

It should also be noted that much of what is taught in America’s "ed” schools is driven by their accrediting agencies, which require that America’s future teachers be brainwashed with CRT indoctrination. America’s largest "ed” school accrediting organization, the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), mandates that every accredited teacher-training program demonstrate that all of its future teachers have reflected on "their personal biases” so as to "increase their understanding and practice of equity, diversity, and inclusion.”[11]

 

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Oh the Horror! McDowell on Her Knees

Sherrie Mathieson

It amazes me how the media covered Trump succeeded in rooting out and revealing psychosis in women--particul arly in Hollywood.

Actress Andie MacDowell fell to her knees after suffering a Trump-induced panic attack on set when she saw a 'sea of men'


Tim adds:

Bet she was on her knees well before Trump came along...

I call b.s. She's a professional actress, used to working before crowds. We are supposed to believe she had a meltdown like a young amateur? I think McDull is virtue signalling and nothing more.

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The Stupidity of Slavish Devotion to Precedent

Selwyn Duke forwards this:

https://jonathanturley.org/2022/05/14/clarence-thomas-when-someone-uses-stare-decisis-that-means-theyre-out-of-arguments/

Correct, but I go yet further. Stare decisis (deference to precedent) is nothing but a disgusting judicial rationalization that serves to elevate judges' opinions above the law. It is un-American and unlawful, and no judge espousing it should be considered qualified to sit on any bench.

Tim replies:

It is the logical fallacy of argumentum ab auctoritate. It presupposes that someone in the past necessarily got it 100% correct and so you cannot challenge it. Imagine if we useed this in science; we would not have Relativity, Quantum physics, or even Newtonian physics. We would still be discussing Aristotle as the basis of our science. But in law it's absolute!

John M. Hill rebuts:

Precedents protect laws from future judges overturning laws based on their biases without argument.

Mr. Birdnow replies:

It does John M. Hill, and it comes out of English Common Law rather than codified laws. But at what point do you say it is not helpful?

Clearly Dred Scott was not helpful. Plessy v. Ferguson was not helpful.

Some laws are overtaken by science and technological change. Others were just poorly decided. We want precedent there, but we also want a certain degree of flexibility because sometimes it's just idiotic to slavishly obey an order from the past.

As I said, it is a case of argument from authority in many cases. In this instance modern science has made the case against abortion even stronger than when Roe was (wrongly) decided. If Stare Decisis is all that matters then we would still have a host of bad things still on the lawbooks.

There were all sorts of old, venerable laws that are no longer acceptable. Laws against dancing, or working on the Sabbath, or the possession of alcohol were all on the books at one time. Some were ended by the political process but a large number of them were ended via court cases - court cases that overturned legal precedent on many occasions.

Remember the context I'm stating this; it is in reply to Selwyn's argument here. I agree.

And given the way the Left has repeatedly overturned legal precedents in the past to promote their beliefs it is a necessary thing to overturn precedent.

Did you know that most legal precedents were overturned in the last hundred years? It started with the 1930's and Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes. The Progressives have used it repeatedly. SCOTUS overturned established precedent 145 times over the years.

That includes such rock-solid precedent as gay marriage, where they just created a right out of thin air (there never was any nation on Earth that had gay marriage until the 1980's - that was the Netherlands.) Overturning precedent in that case would be to restore precedent - not radicalize it.

There are many others. Certainly Roe v. Wade is one such.

If precedent were all that mattered we could dispense with the Supreme Court entirely. Everything would be covered by existing laws/precedents.

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Bombs Away

Timothy Birdnow

I'm the kind of guy who can flip a coin ten times, and have it come up the opposite of what I call it eight or nine times. I've never been a lucky person in that regard. I don't gamble as a result;

I once had four kings and LOST a hand of poker (a very big hand)! I won fifty dollars in the state lottery when I was in my early twenties - I was excited and didn't watch my speed and got a $75 ticket PULLING OFF THE LOT. I am a great believer in Murphy's Law, as it almost always goes wrong at the worst possible time.

It generally makes me cautious; I rarely count on my good fortune to carry me.

Yesterday was a prime example; I went out to get something for the wife and me to eat and when I came home I heard the song of birds.

Now, I live in a house built in 1927 and it is a story and a half with a room over a big covered porch (absolutely necessary in the old days as nobody had air conditioning and so you lived on the porch on hot days.) The room above it is supported by two large pillars, which are square and stick out from the main support beam. Birds like that spot; it's covered, dry, and there is plenty of room for their nests.

I, on the other hand, don't like that spot; it means bird poop all over my porch, on my table and chairs, etc. There is also the danger of bird mites, which are even harder to eradicate than bedbugs and the birds often leave them when they vacate the premises and so the mites seek new, succulent fare. You don't want to get bird mites; if you have a nest anywhere around your house in behooves you to get rid of it asap.

So I came home this particular evening and saw a nest in my problem spot.

I notice not one but TWO birds in the nest, small birds sporting a very royal blue plumage. I had bluebirds! A pair of nesting bluebirds! Bluebirds of happiness! Harrah!

I moved in a little closer to see them and see if they had any eggs in the nest.

They didn't like that, and both took wing, flying over my head in a strafing maneuver. And then they both dropped their blockbusters on me!

Yes, I was crapped on by the Bluebirds of Happiness.

They got my head and neck and so I took vengeance by removing their nest and throwing it away.

Man, some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed.

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Durham Smoke and Mirrors

Warner Todd Huston

Folks, expect NOTHING to come of these Durham prosecutions. The Sussman judge is a Clintonista and half the jurors are Clinton donors. The fix is clearly in.

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A Double Wrong

This from Fay Voshell:

"Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power. Thrones, dominions, principalities,

and powers, founded in injustice and wrong, are sure to tremble, if men are allowed to reason... Equally clear is the right to hear. To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker." --Frederick Douglass

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Pennsylvania Zeros

Warner Todd Huston

I don't envy the GOP voters in Pennsylvania trying to figure out which of the three posers they should vote for for U.S. Senate. You have Dr. Oz who has been a pro-abortion and pro-trans guy... until he wasn't.You have David McCormick who is a total GOP establishment squish, and then you have Kathy Barnette who has a history of sea-sawing from hating Trump to loving him, and for making false statements about her military service and viciously attacking Jews and Muslims (the latter of which will sink any chances she can win general election in purple Penn.). I mean, not one of the three top candidate is worthy of a vote.

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