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Thursday, April 8, 2021

Briefly Noted: Race, Money ... Politics In America!

Race, Money, Politics--it's as American as apple pie.

I have four stories to link that all play into our increasingly dysfunctional society. But overall it could be argued that these stories mostly add up to good news.

First, Steve Sailer links to an account of a student at UVA Med School, whom the administration tried to kick out unless he went through re-education for having a bad attitude. He asked questions. Worse, since his question concerned the concept of "microaggression" it seems he must have committed a macroaggression--otherwise, why would the school have been so determined to force hin out? The good news is a federal district court has denied UVA's attempt to dismiss the student's First Amendment lawsuit. From Reason's account:


A Medical Student Questioned Microaggressions. UVA Branded Him a Threat and Banished Him from Campus.

Kieran Bhattacharya's First Amendment lawsuit can proceed, a court said.


Speaking of America, where else would you run across people with unlikely names like ... Kieran Bhattacharya? Anyway, the Reason article concludes:


UVA's administration engaged in behavior that can be described as "gaslighting." Administrators asserted that Bhattacharya had behaved aggressively when he hadn't, and then cited his increasing confusion, frustration, and hostility toward the disciplinary process as evidence that he was aggressive. And all of this because Bhattacharya asked an entirely fair question about microaggressions, a fraught subject.

His lawsuit contends that UVA violated his First Amendment rights by retaliating against him for speaking his mind. UVA filed a motion to dismiss the case, but a district court judge ruled that the suit could proceed.

"Bhattacharya sufficiently alleges that Defendants retaliated against him," wrote the court. "Indeed, they issued a Professionalism Concern Card against him, suspended him from UVA Medical School, required him to undergo counseling and obtain 'medical clearance' as a prerequisite for remaining enrolled, and prevented him from appealing his suspension or applying for readmission."


Steve Sailer notes:


Back in the 1970s, the Soviets used mental health hospitals to punish and silence dissidents, ...


Here we go.

This next story is about baseball--but really we know it's about Race, Money, and Politics, all three together: Sources Claim They Know Who Convinced the MLB Commissioner to Relocate the All-Star Game.

If you guessed that the governor of Georgia, Stacey Abrams, was behind the relocation, you guessed right--according to the article. Only in America--to combat supposedly racist election laws the MLB All-Star game--with it's cornucopia of revenue for local workers and businesses, was moved from 52% black Atlanta to 9% black Denver. I'm sure that makes sense to someone. But to me it's major league good political news that this story continues to have such legs. The article goes into all the backstabbing and bad faith exhibited by all the usual suspects.

You may have been reading accounts of how the Zhou Baiden regime's "infrastructure" bill is, in significant part, a war on the suburbs. That's an issue that Stanley Kurtz has been all over for some years now. He's recently written about it at NRO, and Paul Mirengoff picked up on it from there. Today, Monica Showalter at AmThinker has a lengthy article full of informative links to explain it all--Joe Biden is coming for the suburbs. The idea is to force single residence zoned suburbs to accept, in effect, low income multi-residential apartment buildings:


Buried deep in Biden's monster $2.3-trillion "infrastructure" stimulus package is a sneaky little notation that would mandate a federal takeover for local zoning for any district that takes the proffered federal money, coming off such zones' already paid taxes.


However, it seems this whole "infrastructure" boondoggle may not be so easy. At Red State we read that Joe Manchin Knee-Caps Chuck Schumer With Latest Stand on Filibuster and Reconciliation:


In a new op-ed, Manchin reiterated his opposition to blowing up the filibuster, addressing the issue in no uncertain terms. But more importantly, he also signaled that he’s not down with abusing the reconciliation process as a way to go around the filibuster.


One tweet--no, make that, two tweets summarize the problem for Dems:




Bonchie at Red State points out that--whatever your opinion of Manchin and Sinema--this looks serious:


If Manchin is a no-go on letting Schumer push through the “infrastructure bill” (which is anything but), then that effectively kills the effort without major concessions by the White House to try to pick up GOP votes. Kyrsten Sinema has also signaled she may not be down with that approach, further putting it in peril.

At this point, it seems extremely unlikely Manchin would go back on his word. Perhaps after the first few times he said it, you could be skeptical, but he keeps reiterating his stand in a way that would doom him politically if he flipped now. That won’t stop an activist, obsessed media from continuing to question him about it, but it should stop Chuck Schumer from living out his wildest dreams via massive spending bills and federal takeovers of the voting system.


Manchin only won by 3 points last time, so appearing to be in Chuck Schumer's pocket is a bad look for him. Much better to appear as the principled independent rep for his constituents. The same is true for Sinema. What can Schumer actually do for either of them? Is he gonna stiff them on committee assignments, when the Senate is 50-50. They have too much leverage for Schumer to try to discipline them. Interesting times.


18 comments:

  1. Who’d’ve thunk that it may come down to two Democrats to save the Republic?

    Certainly not I.

    Boarwild

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  2. y'know, perhaps it would make sense for these two to become "independents" as a counter-balance to the other two existing "independents"...might make for some interesting politics going forward (and talk about leverage - something POTUS45 certainly understood)

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  3. Manchin is up for re-election-election in 2024.

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    Replies
    1. True, but in politics you can't be too careful of your brand/image. If his only ambition now is to remain senator from WV, that's a concern. But if he has, for example, executive ambitions down the road, that's still a concern.

      Delete
    2. My guess is Manchin sees 2024, as a Democratic bloodbath, and it’s only 3 years away. And he wants tobget re-elected.

      Those running for Senate re-election in 2026 are less concerned. Sasse is an example of that.

      Delete
    3. I don't think Manchin is going to re-up in 2024. He's going to be late 70's by then and he knows WV will swing 2 Republican Senators based on the Zhaou agenda. Climate change, energy changes, will doom him in 2024 and he knows this. Best to do what is necessary to wake up his fellow Dem's I believe.

      Delete
  4. If Paul and numerous others had not been soo anti-Trump, we might not be in this mess right now.

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  5. Speaking of voting and hijacking... Mark have you noted the new Georgia voting law?

    I'm doing a double take at the GA's AG filing... https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/w-georgia-sec-state-files-brief-prevent-ga-voter-group-auditing-physical

    So Georgia... In light of required election integrity. Passed a law forbidding the inspection of paper ballots by pushing the idea forward that only digital image inspection can be used in auditing.

    Bypassing all of the issues at play with digital printing of ballots, unfolded mail-in ballots, fake ballots, etc, etc...

    Seems to me they pulled and FBI/IG manauver here and investigated all of the ways you "could" do bullet proof forensics on ballots with scanning, then outlawed the ability to do it.

    I don't know if I should laugh, cry or throw things!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't cry. Laugh and throw things? Yeah. Joke's on the voters.

      Delete
  6. O'Biden is proving without any shred of doubt that he, and his Marxist minions are full-throttle bent on destroying the United States,by any means necessary.

    ...and debate certainly isn't going to stop them.



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  7. Sure feels like a Black Swan event is coming. Anyone else get that tingling feeling, not up my leg for all you wise asses out there, that somethings about to pop?

    0311

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    Replies
    1. WW3? That's be one helluva 'pop'. They're currently talking about sending ships into the Black Sea to be ready to react. Sounds insane to me.

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    2. Naw... Let NATO handle it this time, it's the european theater, that's their back yard. Let Germany and Turkey work with their Baltic Sea comrades to sort Russia out.

      Give em all of the logistics and adviser support they could wish for, but let them loose the personal and equipment.

      And yes .. I'm being very spiteful!!!

      Delete
    3. Agree - it’s insane.

      I wonder if Russia will:

      - use fleet of civilian fishing boats, taking a page from Chinese playbook.

      - Or perhaps a limpet mine?

      Somehow Putin will embarrass the us. Only question is how.

      > sending ships into the Black Sea

      Delete
  8. SO MLB commissioner is a member of the "Augusta National Golf Club". Seeing how the masters is taking place this weekend I wonder if he'll stroll by? Wonder too what kind of reception he may get from his fellow Georgian August National members? Too surreal. Can't wait to hear the stories in a few days.

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  9. Finally, in the UVA court case... example of those who live in "glass houses" shouldn't throw stones. This blog and article suggest (and many many other similar examples) to me that I'm glad I don't live in a gated community. Those behind the gates (the elites) will ultimately become miserable and will turn on each other. I like it outside the gate.

    In O/T; I read where we're consulting with our Euro allies on the Russia buildup outside of Ukraine. However, no news on consultation with anyone on the weekly fly-by's in Taiwan airspace. Go figure.

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  10. Rule #4 from Alinsky:

    "make the enemy live up to its own book of rules"

    Kind of a humorous take on this, Scott Adams is self-identifying as black. Totally serious, he's reiterated it a number of times. Apparently he has a small amount of black DNA, but according to the left, this is totally legit. (FYI, he's a 60ish yr old white guy)

    He frequently skates very close to the line, and it seems he ought to be cancelled soon, or should have been by now, but he phrases things carefully and subtly.

    Identifying as black, I suspect, is one tool to avoid that. Also, he could be owed reparations...

    He frequently says if you don't like a law, don't fight it, use it to its fullest extent until it collapses.

    Why don't more conservatives use the rules and should...

    https://dvorak.substack.com/p/rules-for-radicals-redux

    Frank

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