News Weakly - 12/12/20

The Grinch
Hospitals are filling up from Covid, so California is shutting down Christmas. That'll fix it. To be fair, the mandate is that you can't be together with anyone from your own household and not "You can't have Christmas," but it covers Christmas time and everyone knows that Christmas is hugely about getting together with friends and family. Well, everyone but California's leadership. They don't call him "Governor Grinch" for nothing.

Context Matters
The New York Times headline reads "Police in Indonesia Kill 6 Followers of Hard-Line Cleric." I think there is a subliminal "bad ol' police" in there. The actual story is that police were following suspected criminals when they were attacked. A shootout ensued in which 6 followers of said cleric were killed, not because they were followers, but because they were shooting at the police. Context is important.

Double Standard, Anyone?
Melanis Trump sent out her thanks to the hardworking people who had built a White House Tennis Pavilion and the country went crazy. "Tone deaf," CNN said. Bad timing said many more. "How many ICU beds will it hold?" complained one pithy Tweeter. Because, as we all know, anyone who is anybody stops all of normal life for themselves when a pandemic occurs. They don't eat out. They don't entertain themselves. They don't buy luxury items. Any good person would know that you just stop doing anything ... pleasurable when a pandemic is at hand. Right? I'm not defending a Trump; I'm calling out the hypocrites. Because I'm pretty sure that if she had built a hospital with her own two hands they would have complained. It's a Trump, after all.

Option B
It's not just me. It's not just a guy with questions. It turns out that 43,000 medical and public health scientists and medical practitioners so far have signed the Great Barrington Declaration. This document was created by and for scientists and experts as a recommendation to mitigate the damage being done by the Covid response. Neither they nor I are recommending no action at all. They're just recommending some common sense, some weighing of the facts, some thought rather than gut reaction. You know ... Science. Oh, but we'll have none of that when it is not part of our current narrative. Not even President-elect "I trust scientists" Biden.

Telling You the Truth
It look like we're going to change that phrase. "Telling you the truth" has been meant descriptive, but now we'll have to change it to prescriptive. "This is the truth and anyone who disagrees will be publicly deemed wrong (or worse). Facts don't matter." You can see this in You Tube's urge to purge their service of those who have questions regarding the election. No, the Dominion Voting System wasn't rigged. How do we know? We asked them; they said no. No, there was no voter fraud. How can we be sure? Well, they said so. Yes, "conspiracy" means "lie" ... well, of course, unless it's an accepted (even if debunked) conspiracy like "Russia and Trump collaborated to steal the 2016 election." So they're removing your options to consider possibilities that they deem not worth considering. They're telling you what facts to allow and what facts to dismiss. They will be telling you what is or is not true. Please be sure to adjust your beliefs accordingly.

Unbiased Reporting
MSNBC's headline reads, "Ludicrous Texas anti-election lawsuit jolts Republican politics." The epitome of unbiased reporting. The actual story is that 18 AG's are backing Texas's lawsuit challenging the election results, but what MSNBC (and others) assure us is that "When a political party decides democracy is a problem that needs to be contested, it's dangerous." Unlike the Democrats in 2016 against Trump, right? Texas is questioning the results, not democracy. Texas and 18 other states are wondering if there was something fraudulent going on, not democracy. In fact, if their contention is true, it is democracy that is at stake here. I'd say let them ask the question. Sure, it's "improbable" and, sure, it might be incorrect, but why not let them ask the question? Consider. Biden, aka "sleepy Joe" or "creepy Joe," managed to get voted in by a landslide even though his son was being investigated for using Joe to give access to the Russians and states flooded addresses with hundreds of thousands (at least) of faulty mail-in ballots and Trump was running away with the election on election night and report after report of ballots being tossed or tampered with kept pouring in and we're supposed to believe that "There's nothing to see here; move along"? At the insistence of the potential perpetrators and the social media moguls and the Left media? Because they know what's right and we don't. Don't be ... what was the term ... "ludicrous." But, hey, what do I know? I'm biased, unlike the unbiased media we have in this country that is so arrogant that they believe they can tell the American people what they must believe without regard for the facts.

(Note: The Supreme Court denied the suit. What most will take away is, "See? The court agreed with the outcome of the vote." The truth is the court said that "Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections." They didn't have sufficient interest, not "They didn't have an argument." This is not the vindication you were seeking.)

Interesting Choice
I don't much care, but Time has made an interesting choice for their annual "Person of the Year." Interesting first because it's not a person; it's two -- Biden and Harris. Interesting second because it isn't clear in the least how these two people "affected our lives the most." Biden has long been a tepid factor in politics with his own party trying to alternately hide his gaffs and mask his anonymity. "Sure, he's like a creepy uncle, sniffing girls' hair. Sure he says some stupid things. But he's a really important and influential guy. Trust us." While the conjecture swirls about that the party will have him declared incompetent and put Harris in the position of president, Time thinks this is an influential duo. Interesting.

And You Thought "Pandemic" Was a Bad Thing
The Global Carbon Project is reporting that, because of the pandemic, global greenhouse gas emissions dropped by a record 7% this year, the largest drop ever recorded. Thank you, COVID-19. I guess we have our solution to global warming. Stop people from doing anything.

Not So Funny
As my regular readers know, I typically like to put some humor at the end of my News Weakly segments. Typically it's from the Babylon Bee or, rarely, Genesius Times. Unfortunately, it wasn't so funny. The Bee's story about a remake of "It's a Wonderful Life" in which the angel tells Bailey to kill himself because he is white was, perhaps, timely, but not that funny. Or the one about the progressive Santa who lectures girls who ask for a Barbie about harmful gender stereotypes. I'm not at all sure that wouldn't actually happen. In the wake of the "Elliot Page" debacle, Genesius had one about the "brave celebrity" who "comes out as a straight white male" and a more obscure one where Trump leaves a garage pull on fraudulent ballots to get the FBI to finally investigate. (You'd have to remember back when the FBI investigated a story about a garage pull that resembled a noose was found in a black driver's garage.) Not that good. Better luck next week.