Mitch Should Send Merrick Garland a Thank You Basket

Posted: February 24, 2021 by datechguy in Uncategorized

To say the testimony and priorities of Merrick Garland that were on display during the hearings on Monday were “interesting” is about as a big an understatement as you can get.

When you have a person claiming that attempting to burn down a federal courthouse is not terrorism because the judges were not sitting is session that’s interesting to say the least.

I wonder what that would mean concerning the Kavanaugh protesters pounding on doors?

His testimony has erased of the myth of the “moderate” Garland that was promulgated when he was nominated for the SCOTUS court which is good, to quote a conservative writer, I prefer my wolves in wolves clothing.

But the biggest winner from these hearings has to be Mitch McConnell.

Right now McConnell’s standing among conservatives is about as low as it can be as he has gone full swamp publicly.

However yesterday’s hearing has reminded us that the only reason why this man is not creating law out of the whole cloth is because Mitch McConnell in the face of as much media pressure as he could possibly face, didn’t let him get there. The fundraising mailers write themselves.

Now given what we saw from the court this week one can question how much of a difference it would have made but nobody conservative can question the fact that keeping a justice’s robe off of Merrick Garland’s back was likely the greatest single service that Mitch ever did for his country.

If I was Mitch McConnell I’d send him the nicest fruit basket they have in the shop.

The violence of lockdowns

Posted: February 23, 2021 by chrisharper in Uncomfortable Truths
Tags: , , ,

By Christopher Harper

Violence from firearms nearly doubled in Philadelphia—a trend that occurred throughout the United States—during the city’s lockdown for much of last year.

That’s the conclusion of a group of doctors and scientists from Temple University and published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association. See 10.1001/jama.2021.1534

“These analyses provide evidence of a significant and sustained increase in firearm violence in Philadelphia following the enactment of COVID-19 containment policies. Counts of individuals shot per week continued to increase during protests following the killing of George Floyd and remained high during the partial lifting of containment policies until the end of the study period,” the authors found.

This study accessed data from the Philadelphia Police Department’s registry of shooting victims from January 1, 2016, through November 26, 2020. This registry is updated daily and includes all individuals shot and/or killed with a firearm. There were no changes in data collection policies or practices in 2020. Compared with trauma center records, the police registry contains approximately twice the number of individuals shot with a firearm. 

The authors examined the data after three events:

  • The enactment of Philadelphia’s first COVID-19 containment policy (closure of nonessential businesses; March 16, 2020).
  • The killing of George Floyd (May 25, 2020).
  • The partial lifting of containment policies (June 26, 2020). 

During the 256 weeks included in the study, 7,159 people were shot in Philadelphia. The shootings stood at 25 per week before the lockdown in March. However, after the lockdown, the incidents jumped to 46 people shot per week in the 37 weeks of the policy. 

During 2020, Philadelphia saw 499 murders, an increase of 40 percent over the previous year and the second-highest rate in homicides since 1960. The city had 500 murders in 1990. Other cities saw similar increases. See https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/94292-us-homicide-rates-skyrocket-in-2020-exacerbated-by-the-covid-19-pandemic 

“The sustained nature of the increase in firearm violence observed in this study may be related to longer-term effects of COVID-19 containment policies, including intensifying unemployment and poverty, particularly in lower-income Philadelphia communities where shootings are most concentrated,” the analysis found.

Jessica Beard, a physician at Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine, headed the inquiry.

Reminder: There’s No “Suck it Up Whitey” Clause in Hostile Workplace Rules and Laws

Posted: February 23, 2021 by datechguy in Uncategorized

One of the basic facts of life are that if you reward an activity you get more of it and if you punish an activity you get less of it.

Attacks on “whiteness” are a great example of it.

these days the rewards of attacking “whiteness” are great, government grants, places of honor in universities, jobs for people with degrees in various “woke” studies and companies and the elites rushing to embrace you and fund you to prove just how virtues they are without showing any sign of actual virtue.

It’s like the sale of Indulgences  on steroids.

There alas is a fly in the ointment that the various lawmakers, universities, corporations and media types have forgotten.

And that are laws and regulations concerning “hostile work environments”.

You see when the left pushed for these laws all those years ago in the name of “equality” they never dreamed of or didn’t anticipate a day where they might actually be the ones wielding power over their enemies. To them that was a fantasy and thus when those rules and laws were in place they never thought to exclude white people of European ancestry from using them.

What happens when they find out?

Imagine if you are a company says one of the largest drink manufacturers in the world or say one of the oldest universities in the nation with billions in endowments and one of your white employees having looked up the rules and laws concerning “hostile work environments” formally informs their manager in writing that the various workshops concerning purging whiteness creates such an environment for them?

What happens if said employee if rejected or laughed off by their superiors goes to a lawyer who notifies said company and / or university in writing of said complaint and also reminds them of additional penalties concerning retaliation against an employee who makes such a claim that might apply.

Now picture that potential suit multiplied by the largest single demographic in the nation and the potential paydays for the lawyers willing to bring those cases forward? The numbers are more staggering than Joe Biden’s 3 AM vote counts the night after the election and the risk adverse businesses and organizations

Suddenly the rewards of pushing these programs would be outweighed by the risks of a deluge of suits filed by Americans sick of being blamed for all the country’s problems while discovering the rewards of claiming victim status under the law.

And once the risks outweigh the rewards watch these people fold like wet blankets.

Report from Louisiana: How the South was Crippled by a Snow Storm

Posted: February 22, 2021 by Pat Austin in Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

By:  Pat Austin

SHREVEPORT – As you are probably aware, the South was hit with a crippling snowstorm last week, something for which we are woefully unprepared.

In Shreveport it has been a “perfect storm” of catastrophe, and while I realize it could be so much worse (see: Lake Charles, LA where many still live in tents or gutted homes due to hurricanes), it has been mind boggling how less than a foot of snow can cripple a city for over a week.

Is it any coincidence that Shreveport’s infrastructure is crumbling, literally, and we have had three mayors since 2006, all Democrats?

Our water system is literally crumbling under the pothole ridden city streets. During this snow and ice event last week at least eight major water mains have broken and countless other leaks and breaks across Shreveport. As a result, some 10,000 people in town still do not have water, now into Day Seven. Most other water customers have very low water pressure. We have been under a boil advisory for a week and will be for at least five more days, minimum.

Other cities around us, I know, are also under boil advisories; we are not the only ones, to be fair.

But our Shreveport leadership had virtually no plan to address the aftermath of this storm. We do not have snowplows down here or stockpiles of salt for the roads. We don’t get this kind of thing very often, but when you have at least a week’s notice that a storm is coming, wouldn’t you expect leadership to have a plan for recovery?

Local volunteers are the ones who got out with tractors and other construction vehicles and on their own dime cleared the roads in the city.

Neighborhoods pulled together: those with water shared it with those who did not. No water distribution sites were set up by the City until seven days after the storm hit. Neighbors took care of each other.

If your water needed to be cut off at the meter because of a break, a neighbor was there to help you; if you called the City for help you either got a busy signal or a promise to come out in a day or two.

When the grocery stores were literally bare because trucks were stranded on the interstate for miles in both directions, neighbors shared their food and set up sites at local churches. The community donated meals to the veteran’s home who had no water and no food to feed the men.

On Saturday, six days after the storm and two days after the volunteer network cleared the roads, Mayor Adrian Perkins showed up for a photo op on social media praising the National Guard who just rolled into town to clear roads. I’m not throwing shade on the National Guard, but I have to wonder why a photo op is more important to Adrian Perkins than actually taking care of his people.

Three days ago, our City Council had “an emergency” meeting on Zoom to address overtime pay for city workers in this crisis and other issues. There were representatives from the water department and homeland security there as well. Shreveport’s Chief Administrative Officer, Henry Whitehorn (appointed by Mayor Perkins last year), told residents without water that they could call 211 and the city would pick them up and take them to a safe shelter until the crisis was over. People began calling 211 and nobody there knew anything about that, but they could provide the phone number to the food pantry.

Yesterday, seven days after the storm, the city set up a handful of water distribution sites that would open at noon. By 12:01 the site nearest to me was out of water (they started early) with lines of cars backed up for miles, waiting. There is no water in the stores to buy. The National Guard brought in water and people sat in these lines all day and got a case of water. The effort continues today, primarily by local volunteers and nonprofits.

All in all, this has been a mess and an utter failure of City leadership. From the power grid failures, to water failures, to leadership and communication failures, what has kept people going has been each other. Neighbors helping neighbors.

If this event has taught me anything, it is perhaps that sometimes we need to slow down, quit staring at screens, and become more involved in our communities. Appreciate the little things, like a toilet flushing without having to manually fill up the tank because there is no water pressure. Don’t take things for granted, like clean water coming out of your faucet. Help those among us that might need lifting up.

And hey, I’m ready for spring, y’all. Snow is pretty for a minute, but this girl is ready for spring.

Pat Austin blogs at And So it Goes in Shreveport and is the author of Cane River Bohemia: Cammie Henry and her Circle at Melrose Plantation. Follow her on Instagram @patbecker25 and Twitter @paustin110.

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