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Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Watch “Private Property: The Bedrock of Civilization” on YouTube
Posted by M. C. on July 2, 2021
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Experimental Assessment of Carbon Dioxide Content in Inhaled Air With or Without Face Masks in Healthy ChildrenA Randomized Clinical Trial
Posted by M. C. on July 2, 2021
This leads in turn to impairments attributable to hypercapnia. A recent review6 concluded that there was ample evidence for adverse effects of wearing such masks. We suggest that decision-makers weigh the hard evidence produced by these experimental measurements accordingly, which suggest that children should not be forced to wear face masks.
What about the rest of US?
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2781743?resultClick=1
Many governments have made nose and mouth covering or face masks compulsory for schoolchildren. The evidence base for this is weak.1,2 The question whether nose and mouth covering increases carbon dioxide in inhaled air is crucial. A large-scale survey3 in Germany of adverse effects in parents and children using data of 25 930 children has shown that 68% of the participating children had problems when wearing nose and mouth coverings.
The normal content of carbon dioxide in the open is about 0.04% by volume (ie, 400 ppm). A level of 0.2% by volume or 2000 ppm is the limit for closed rooms according to the German Federal Environmental Office, and everything beyond this level is unacceptable.4
See the rest here
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: carbon dioxide, face masks, Healthy Children, hypercapnia | Leave a Comment »
The War on Reality – OffGuardian
Posted by M. C. on July 2, 2021
The War on Reality is not an attempt to replace reality with a fake reality. Or it is that, but that is only one part of it. Its real goal is to render reality arbitrary, to strip it of its epistemological authority, to turn it into a “floating signifier,” a word that has no objective referent, which, of course, technically, it already is. You cannot take a picture of reality. It is a concept.
https://off-guardian.org/2021/06/30/the-war-on-reality/
CJ Hopkins
So, the War on Reality is going splendidly. Societies all across the world have been split into opposing, irreconcilable realities.
Neighbors, friends, and even family members are bitterly divided into two hostile camps, each regarding the other as paranoid psychotics, delusional fanatics, dangerous idiots, and, in any event, as mortal enemies.
In the UK, Germany, and many other countries, and in numerous states throughout the US, a “state of emergency” remains in effect. An apocalyptic virus is on the loose. Mutant variants are spreading like wildfire.
Most of society is still shut down or subject to emergency health restrictions. People are still walking around in public with plastic face shields and medical-looking masks. The police are showing up at people’s homes to arrest them for “illegally gathering outdoors.”
Any deviation from official reality is being censored by the Internet corporations. Constitutional rights are still suspended. Entire populations are being coerced into being injected with experimental “vaccines.” Pseudo-medical segregation systems are being brought online.
And so on…you’re familiar with the details.
Meanwhile, in Sweden, and a few other countries, and in various other states throughout the US, there is no apocalyptic pandemic. People are just going about their lives as normal. OK, sure, there is a nasty virus going around, so people are taking common sense precautions, as people typically do for any nasty virus, but there is no “state of emergency” in effect, and no reason to radically transform society into a paranoid, pathologized-totalitarian dystopia.
This state of affairs, in which two contradictory, mutually-exclusive realities exist, is…well, it’s impossible, and so it cannot continue. Either there exists a devastating global pandemic that justifies a global “state of emergency,” the suspension of constitutional rights, and the other totalitarian “emergency measures” we have been subjected to since March of 2020 or there doesn’t.
It really is as simple as that.
Except that it isn’t as simple as that.
See the rest here
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: dystopia, GloboCap, new normal, totalitarian, War on Reality | Leave a Comment »
Global Warming 33 Year Birthday a Celebration of Failures – Watts Up With That?
Posted by M. C. on July 2, 2021
Numerous Democratic Senators and “experts” claimed that increasing CO2 emissions would result in devastating reductions in global food production. After 33 years of history the data shows world record high food production levels of grains, wheat, corn, rice, soybeans, etc. as noted below. The exaggerated doomsday claims by Democratic Senators and “experts” at the hearing were again proven to be wrong.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/06/30/global-warming-33-year-birthday-a-celebration-of-failures/
Guest essay by Larry Hamlin
Climate alarmists are celebrating the 33 years that have passed since the June 23, 1988 Democratic Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing that opened the door on global warming climate alarmism with testimony from Committee Democratic Senators and supposed “experts” sharing their speculation of sensationalized doomsday perspectives allegedly caused by increasing global CO2 emissions.
A detailed review of the testimony from that hearing after 33 years of recorded climate history reveals a litany of the hearings flawed and failed speculation, conjecture and predictions of climate outcomes establishing the fact that the hearing got everything wrong from start to finish and in fact represents a celebration of an extraordinary number of failed predictions.
At the time of the hearing some regions of the Midwest and Southeast were undergoing a severe drought which led many Democratic Senators and other “experts” to exploit this circumstance (as they always do with normal weather events including droughts in the U.S. West this year) and offer extensive speculative claims that the U.S. could expect additional droughts and heat waves in the future because of growing global CO2 emissions.
The 33 years that have passed since then have proven these Democratic Senators and “experts” to be wrong with EPA and NOAA data clearly establishing that the U.S. and global droughts have not increased over this period and neither have U.S. heat waves as shown by the data below as is the case for virtually every other climate area addressed at this hearing with the specific information following for each of these areas discussed in the material below.
See the rest here
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: climate model, CO2 emissions, Democratic Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, drought, Global warming | Leave a Comment »
The System Isn’t There To Protect Us From Criminals, It’s To Protect Criminals From Us – by Caitlin Johnstone – Caitlin’s Newsletter
Posted by M. C. on July 2, 2021
The system isn’t designed to protect us from society’s worst, it’s designed to protect society’s worst from us. It’s designed to keep us turning the gears of industry without looking around and noticing that we’re all getting fucked in the ass by an alliance of plutocrats and security state insiders who only care about power and money. It’s designed to keep us too busy and propagandized to use the power of our numbers to take back what the bastards have stolen from us, and to make sure there’s enough guns on their side to kill us all dead if we try.
Donald Rumsfeld was all the worst things about our world. He perfectly embodied the corrupt, bloodthirsty, ecocidal, omnicidal, oppressive, exploitative, deceitful status quo that is driving humanity toward extinction. The US-centralized empire is Donald Rumsfeld. It might as well have his face and his name.
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/the-system-isnt-there-to-protect
Listen to a reading of this article:https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?auto_play=false&buying=false&liking=false&download=false&sharing=false&show_artwork=true&show_comments=false&show_playcount=false&show_user=true&hide_related=true&visual=false&start_track=0&url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F1079455483
Iraq war architect Donald Rumsfeld has died. Not in a prison cell in The Hague, not murdered by bombs or bullets, but peacefully in his home, surrounded by loved ones, a week and a half shy of his 89th birthday.
The imperial media are giving their fallen master a king’s tribute, with headlines describing the psychopathic war criminal as “a cunning leader“, “a man of honor and conviction“, or simply as “Former defense secretary at helm of Iraq, Afghanistan wars“.
The cancerous Washington Post, who just the other day mocked the life of the late antiwar hero Mike Gravel with an obituary branding him the “gadfly senator from Alaska with flair for the theatrical,” describes the child killer Rumsfeld as the “influential but controversial Bush defense secretary” in its headline about his death.
The New York Times wasn’t much better. Take the headline “Mike Gravel, Unconventional Two-Term Alaska Senator, Dies at 91 — He made headlines by fighting for an oil pipeline and reading the Pentagon Papers aloud. After 25 years of obscurity, he re-emerged with a quixotic presidential campaign.” Compare this to the headline “Donald Rumsfeld, Defense Secretary During Iraq War, Is Dead at 88 — Mr. Rumsfeld, who served four presidents, oversaw a war that many said should never have been fought. But he said the removal of Saddam Hussein had ‘created a more stable and secure world.’”The New York Times @nytimesDonald Rumsfeld had the distinction of being the only defense chief to serve two nonconsecutive terms: 1975 to 1977 under Gerald Ford, and 2001 to 2006 under George W. Bush. He also was the youngest, at 43, and the oldest, at 74, to hold the post. nyti.ms/2UOUaaJ
June 30th 2021115 Retweets314 Likes
There’s been criticism as well, of course; online sentiments about Rumsfeld’s death have not been nearly as worshipful and hagiographic as they’ve been toward other disgusting war whores like John McCain. But in the end all that matters is that he lived a long, full life, without ever having faced even the slightest single consequence for the horrors he unleashed upon our world; without even so much as sustaining any meaningful damage to his reputation.
This despite the fact that it’s been public knowledge for years that Rumsfeld began orchestrating the unforgivable invasion of Iraq within hours of the 9/11 attacks and told numerous lies in order to set that invasion in motion. He also oversaw the intervention in Afghanistan which he and his Bush administration cohorts had been planning before 9/11, beginning a decades-long occupation about which the public has been pervasively lied to from the very beginning by US officials in general and by Rumsfeld in particular. (But remember kids, only crazy conspiracy theorists question the official narrative about 9/11.)
When we are little, we are taught that we live in a nation of laws, where bad guys are thrown in prison by the good guys who are in charge of things. Because our mental programming continues for the rest of our lives in the form of mass-scale propaganda designed to manufacture consent for the status quo, most of us tend to hold onto this childish model of the world to some extent throughout adulthood.
In reality, exactly zero percent of the world’s worst people are in prison, but some of the best people are. The fact that Donald Rumsfeld lived a long life of freedom while Julian Assange wastes away in Belmarsh Prison proves the world doesn’t work the way we were taught in school. The very worst bad guys are not put in prison by the good guys who run things, because the very worst bad guys are the ones who run things. nashwa @nashwakay1 in every 5 Iraqis has someone in their family who died because of the invasion of Iraq. More than half of all babies born in Fallujah between 2007 and 2010 were born with a birth defect. The average lifespan in Iraq is 70. Rumsfeld died at 88 peacefully in his sleep.July 1st 2021466 Retweets1,319 Likes
The system isn’t designed to protect us from society’s worst, it’s designed to protect society’s worst from us. It’s designed to keep us turning the gears of industry without looking around and noticing that we’re all getting fucked in the ass by an alliance of plutocrats and security state insiders who only care about power and money. It’s designed to keep us too busy and propagandized to use the power of our numbers to take back what the bastards have stolen from us, and to make sure there’s enough guns on their side to kill us all dead if we try.
Donald Rumsfeld was all the worst things about our world. He perfectly embodied the corrupt, bloodthirsty, ecocidal, omnicidal, oppressive, exploitative, deceitful status quo that is driving humanity toward extinction. The US-centralized empire is Donald Rumsfeld. It might as well have his face and his name.
Don’t let his passing fool you: Donald Rumsfeld is dead, but he is also as alive as ever. He lives on in the continued violence he helped initiate in the Middle East. In the death and destruction rained down by the US and its allies in the name of preserving a unipolar world order that none of us ever asked for. In the dying gasps of starving children under imperial blockades in Yemen and Venezuela. In the thousands of US military bases encircling our planet like a noose. In the war ships and missiles pivoting toward China in preparation for a long-anticipated confrontation which should terrify us all.
Unless we can purge from our cells everything within us that resembles Donald Rumsfeld, there is no future for Homo sapiens on this planet. We must evolve beyond everything he stood for, as individuals, as a society, and as a species, and move into a peaceful and collaborative relationship with each other and with our ecosystem.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Donald Rumsfeld, Mike Gravel, Pentagon Papers | Leave a Comment »
Who killed Ashli Babbitt? – The Spectator World
Posted by M. C. on July 2, 2021
Sources close to and within the intelligence community tell Cockburn that Babbitt was actually shot by a member of then-vice president Mike Pence’s protective detail. The VP’s detail, of course, is provided by US Secret Service, not the Capitol Police. One person asserted to Cockburn over drinks in DC that this is ‘basically an open secret’ in the intelligence community.
https://spectatorworld.com/topic/killed-ashli-babbitt-capitol-riot-secret-service-pence/
Written by:
Cockburn
Who shot Ashli Babbitt, the pro-Trump Air Force veteran who was killed by police during the January 6 riot at the US Capitol building? The American people were told that it was a Capitol Police officer who fired the fatal shot. But Cockburn has stumbled across some information that points to a different explanation.
Sources close to and within the intelligence community tell Cockburn that Babbitt was actually shot by a member of then-vice president Mike Pence’s protective detail. The VP’s detail, of course, is provided by US Secret Service, not the Capitol Police. One person asserted to Cockburn over drinks in DC that this is ‘basically an open secret’ in the intelligence community.
Law enforcement sources suggested to Cockburn that the Capitol Police Department and Department of Justice have publicly identified the shooter as a Capitol Police officer in order to protect the reputation of the Secret Service. Cockburn also wonders if this isn’t an attempt to protect Pence from further anger or threats from Capitol rioters who wanted him to refuse to certify the results of the election on January 6.
A cover-up of this nature would also explain why the government hasn’t been forthcoming with other information about the alleged Capitol Police officer who they say shot Babbitt. Police officers who are involved in shootings are almost always identified publicly. The unnamed officer’s lawyer says that his client is being kept anonymous due to threats against his life. Babbitt’s family, however, argues that they have a right to know who shot and killed their beloved relative. Her husband, Aaron Babbitt, is suing Washington DC for access to records that would supposedly reveal the name of the officer.
Michael Brendan Dougherty floated the idea that Babbitt was shot by Secret Service on his Twitter account in early June, writing in response to Aaron Babbitt’s lawsuit, ‘I mean, at this point you have to suspect that it’s not a Capitol cop.’ He replied ‘SS’ when asked who he thought could have been responsible instead.
The video of Babbitt being shot as she attempts to climb through a broken window that leads to the Speaker’s Gallery shows a man in a suit jacket holding the gun. The Capitol Police do have plainclothes officers, but it is much more common for the Secret Service’s protective details to be spotted in suits while tailing the president or vice president.
There have been many other theories as to who may have shot Babbitt. Some on social media posited it could be Special Agent David Bailey, the Capitol Police officer who took down the Bernie Sanders supporter that opened fire on a Republican baseball practice. However, the Capitol Police issued a statement in February denying that theory:
‘As the investigation continues into the events of January 6, 2021, it’s important to correct misinformation some in the media have reported, and that’s been shared on social media. Reports identifying Special Agent David Bailey as the officer involved in the shooting in the Speaker’s Lobby are inaccurate. The Department will share additional information once the investigation is complete.’
Cockburn reached out to Pence’s team for comment and was redirected to the US Secret Service. The Secret Service had a full 24 hours to give comment. They did not respond.
UPDATE (7/1/2021 6:15 p.m. ET):
The Secret Service finally responded to Cockburn’s inquiry more than a full day after publication of this piece. A spokesperson did not issue either a confirmation nor a denial of Cockburn’s conversations with his sources. Instead, Cockburn was directed to again read the Department of Justice press release from April in which the DoJ announces it will not file any charges against the ‘U.S. Capitol Police officer involved in the fatal shooting of 35-year-old Ashli Babbitt.’
By Cockburn
Mischief, mayhem and Washington gossip. Send tips to cockburn@spectator.us
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Ashli Babbitt, January 6, Mike Pence, Secret Service | Leave a Comment »
The Worst Is Yet To Come as Death and False Flag Threats Are Planned by the State – LewRockwell
Posted by M. C. on July 2, 2021
As the year progresses, more division will occur in an us versus them situation, pitting those ‘vaccinated’ against those unvaccinated. This will probably become a very contentious situation, and could easily lead to even more hostile confrontation among this population, causing an extremely tense atmosphere. At some point, the governing criminals will come after all those not willing to be injected, and will make living very difficult for all of us attempting to protect our own body, minds, and freedom. This could become a very dangerous country in a short amount of time for people demanding freedom.
“Liberty is not for these slaves; I do not advocate inflicting it against their conscience. On the contrary, I am strongly in favor of letting them crawl and grovel all they please before whatever fraud or combination of frauds they choose to venerate…Our whole practical government is grounded in mob psychology and the Boobus Americanus will follow any command that promises to make him safer.”
~ H. L. Mencken
How is one to gain and keep his freedom in a country made up of apathetic and obedient fools steeped in ignorance? This is a question for the ages, but in this twenty first century, it is a life and death struggle on the edge of darkness, where light exists only in the distance, and only in the minds of the very few. The reality of this dilemma is a story about survival, so should those that understand the dire situation we face, those that have the courage to fight for their own liberty; abandon the rest of society in favor of pursuing truth and freedom without being surrounded by the chains of weakness and submission that consume most of the masses? We are currently living in an irresponsible insanity, so should the societal cord be cut? Is that the only way to escape the collective mob mentality?
The polarization of America that has been growing in strength for years, continues to escalate at an even faster pace, and of course, this has all been accomplished by design through indoctrination, fear mongering, and brainwashing. Many believed that during the last criminal political administration, it could not get any worse, but alas, each time one evil and corrupt group replaces another in this absurd political process, division and hatred continues to grow, and things always worsen.
Since we are in the midst of what is referred to as a “Great Reset” of society, and the push for global governance, transhumanism, and a new technocratic ‘elite’ controlling system are being sought, it is brutally obvious that more lies, deceit, false flag events, threats, and liberty destruction will be forthcoming. But this time, the final push toward a totalitarian state is upon us, and an all-out assault on society seems imminent. With most of the population still going along with these scams, still obeying every order, and still unable to muster any courage to protect their own lives and families, what then are those of us that are informed and willing to defy ‘authority’ to do?
What is actually coming in my opinion will be a combination of extreme propaganda, fear-mongering, false flag attacks, fake ‘virus’ attacks, a deadly flu season due to ‘vaccination,’ more ‘vaccine’ mandates, and power and water grid shutdowns, creating an environment to allow for full or partial martial law. This will set the stage to reinstate lockdowns, quarantines, and isolation, to advance bogus ‘climate change’ agendas, and to create a regulatory climate so restrictive as to mirror that of a total dictatorial state.
First and foremost, the ‘variant’ threat will be easily advanced because many more will likely die this fall and winter than last due to widespread immune system failures because of the stress of the lockdowns and isolation, and the millions of poisonous injections that have already been administered. Excess deaths, actually most all deaths, will still be blamed on a ‘virus’ or ‘variant’ that does not exist, and this tactic will allow the purposeful spreading of extreme fear.
This government and all its propaganda arms will then go after the children by planned injection of the toxic ‘Covid vaccine throughout the government run indoctrination centers called ‘public’ schools. This will begin with children 12 and older, and throughout this year and next will be targeting every child down to babies and infants with this deadly concoction.
With more death and sickness, new and more severe lockdowns will be attempted, and very restrictive measures will be forthcoming. This plot will be enhanced due to planned cyber attacks that are ‘expected’ to shut down power and water grids across the nation. These so-called attacks will certainly be false flag terror against the masses, and could easily cause civil unrest, violence, and extreme aggression by the state in response to any dissent. These cyber attacks have been acted out for years, but simulations have been greatly intensified this year, and will culminate with the World Economic Forum’s Cyber Polygon simulation on July 9th, just one week from today.
As the year progresses, more division will occur in an us versus them situation, pitting those ‘vaccinated’ against those unvaccinated. This will probably become a very contentious situation, and could easily lead to even more hostile confrontation among this population, causing an extremely tense atmosphere. At some point, the governing criminals will come after all those not willing to be injected, and will make living very difficult for all of us attempting to protect our own body, minds, and freedom. This could become a very dangerous country in a short amount of time for people demanding freedom.
Don’t forget about the fictitious manmade ‘climate change’ agenda, as it looks like the drive toward radical policy decisions based on climate are already in the works. This is very troubling, as it adds another dangerous level of tyranny to a society already consumed by dictatorial madness. It could easily be used to force more quarantines, travel bans, and allocation of utility services, that are all virtually controlled by this government and its partners. What comes with this agenda is mass restriction of life-giving water and power, the decimation of food production and distribution, supply line shutdowns, and unstoppable runaway inflation, especially concerning the most vital needs of this citizenry. When food becomes so scarce that many are starving, total chaos will ensue.
Economically speaking, any or all of these things happening will disrupt all economic activity for the masses, but will be used by the claimed ‘elite’ ruling class to continue to steal the wealth from all of you, just as has happened over the past year and a half. This has been the biggest wealth transfer in history, and it is not over yet. The powerful that are destroying the lives of billions, are continuing to live like kings while claiming ownership of all money and property. The goal of course, is for you to own nothing and be happy about it.
All these things spoken about here are just the tip of the iceberg. There will be much more pressure to mandate immunity passports, and surveillance of everyone will dramatically increase. Much of the general population will become enforcers for the state, and will monitor and report their neighbors in order to gain favor. It seems logical as well, that social scoring will become a distinct possibility, in order to add another layer of control to this society. Markets will eventually collapse, and what little savings are left will be depleted. As all this happens, the dollar will likely be replaced over time with digital currency so that each and every transaction can be monitored and scrutinized. This is the “Great Reset,” after all, and all the warning signs have been evident for many years, but blind indifference and voluntary obedience have led to the possible end of humanity as it has ever been perceived.
All the common people are enemies of this state, but those of us refusing to go along are going to face extreme hatred by our fellow men. We will be targeted, abused, and accused of causing any manner of public ills, and also of allowing the perpetuation of this state terror. We will be said to have caused mass death because we refuse to take the poison being administered by the real criminals. We will be hated by the government and the people at large as well, and may in the future even be hunted, jailed, or worse. None can force sanity on others, or make them protect themselves, so I am speaking to those that stand up and question authority, not to those that continue to acquiesce to their masters.
In my estimation, there will soon be violence in the streets; which could lead to medical and martial law. The more that refuse to accept this totalitarian domination, the better, as time has run out, but if a very large number of excess deaths occur this fall and winter as I expect, the wheels of tyranny will turn faster and faster in an attempt to finish this long-planned coup to capture and control the bodies and minds of humanity. At that point, we will have already lost, especially those living in the highest population areas such as cities.
I realize all this sounds far-fetched to most, but then most have no idea of what is coming. We are not in Kansas anymore.
Source links:
They are going after the children
Fauci optimistic about vaccinating all kids
Children are the test animals of the elite
From “Event 201” to “Cyber Polygon”
People have no idea what is coming
Covid lockdowns will become climate lockdowns
Gary D. Barnett [send him mail] is a retired investment professional that has been writing about freedom and liberty matters, politics, and history for two decades. He is against all war and aggression, and against the state. He recently finished a collaboration with former U.S. Congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney, and was a contributor to her new book, “When China Sneezes” From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Political-Economic Crisis.” Currently, he lives in Montana with his wife and son. Visit his website.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: False flag, fear-mongering, Global Governance, Great Reset, propaganda, Transhumanism, unvaccinated, vaccinated, variant | Leave a Comment »
New York Can’t Run an Election. Why Can’t Governments Do Their Most Basic Tasks? | Mises Institute
Posted by M. C. on July 2, 2021
We’re told that governments must be in charge of elections; that governments will “keep us safe” by catching criminals and preventing crime; that governments must be in charge of the justice system; that governments must be in charge of the schools.
Yet in all these cases, the competence and success with which government agencies carry out these “core duties” is questionable at best.
New York City held its Democratic primary for mayor last week, and the initial results favored Brooklyn Borough president Eric Adams by a sizable margin.
But now officials say those results aren’t reliable at all and the Board of Elections botched the vote-counting process.
As the Washington Post now reports:
It turns out that the results the city released also included a number of dummy ballots, used to test the system—ballots that should not have been included in the initial count….
It will still be a few weeks before we know who won the primary, given those absentee ballots (which are likely to aid Garcia) need to be counted.
This is a primary election in a single city, yet based on the level of competence brought to the operation, one would think this were an incredibly complex affair, unknown in the annals of government operations.
(It’s also reminiscent of the botched primary election in Iowa in February 2020, when the Democratic Party had more trouble counting a small number of votes in one of the smallest states in America.)
In the wake of the New York fiasco, not surprisingly, some Americans began to point out that if New York miscounted its votes in a mayoral election, why should we trust that 2020’s presidential election in New York was “secure”?
Perhaps aware of the fact that last week’s election doesn’t look good for the idea of election integrity, the corporate media sprang into action with a plan: blame everything on New York’s board of elections (BOE). This is a New York problem only, we’re told. Elections everywhere else in America are in tip-top shape and run by only the highest-quality, most competent people.
To keep up this narrative, the Washington Post today ran an article with the title “New York’s mayoral election is a mess. This doesn’t somehow prove Donald Trump right.”
Now, I don’t know if Donald Trump lost due to election fraud, but the idea that elections and election officials are not exactly paragons of efficiency and virtue is plausible, to say the least. Nonetheless, the Post article makes it clear that the BOE is to be thrown under the bus in order to insist that election systems everywhere else are in great shape:
No observer of New York City politics was surprised to learn that the Board of Elections had messed things up. It’s common knowledge the board is at best inept, as a report from the city’s local paper documented in late October. The city’s politics broadly are byzantine and dishonest, often relying on a system of patronage that those in power—generally the system’s beneficiaries—are loath to challenge. It’s an embarrassing situation, but usually one that does its embarrassing thing out of the spotlight of national attention.
Similarly, CNN featured a story today declaring the New York BOE to be “corrupt and incompetent,” with CNN on-screen personality John Avlon insisting in no uncertain terms that the BOE is worthless.
Needless to say, one rarely hears such thundering condemnation of Democrat-controlled institutions at the WaPo or CNN, yet it’s no holds barred at major news outlets today. But it’s all necessary to assure the public that New York is the only place in America where election systems are “corrupt and incompetent.”
Governments Continue to Botch Their Core Functions
But even if we leave Donald Trump and the 2020 election out of this, the New York affair should be regarded as just the latest reminder that government institutions increasingly can’t seem to be able to carry out what we’re told are their most basic functions.
We’re told that governments must be in charge of elections; that governments will “keep us safe” by catching criminals and preventing crime; that governments must be in charge of the justice system; that governments must be in charge of the schools.
Yet in all these cases, the competence and success with which government agencies carry out these “core duties” is questionable at best.
The court system is slow, overloaded, and involves long wait times. The multiyear wait times needed to get a hearing for suspected illegal immigrants is just the latest example. The right to a “speedy trial” is apparently not much of a right at all.
Meanwhile, the homicide rate continues to head up to the multidecade highest. Millions of Americans are buying guns because they don’t trust government officials to “keep us safe.” This is true both at the micro and macro levels. In many cities, police devote almost no resources to investigating homicides. And then, of course, there is the American intelligence “community” (i.e., the FBI and the CIA), which allowed 9/11 to happen right under its nose. And don’t forget the fact the US just lost two more wars.
Public schools are almost as unimpressive. The US ranks forty-eighth in math and science education. The US is only in the middle in terms of science and reading. Ninety percent of American schoolchildren attend public schools.
Yet while governments in America can’t seem to pull off these most ordinary tasks, they seem to have plenty of time and resources for investigating middle-aged women who “stormed” the US Capitol on January 6. Last Sunday, the US government bombed Syria and Iran—for reasons that obviously had nothing to do with defending the borders of the nation or the rights of American citizens. America’s governments have plenty of resources to pour into bailouts for wealthy bankers and other corporate friends.
But crime? Elections? Schools? Well, that’s all just much too complicated and governments insist we shouldn’t expect too much of them. After all, they assure us, we stingy taxpayers aren’t willing to cough up as much money as we should. The data says otherwise.
So when New York announces that it just hasn’t yet gotten the hang of this whole “elections thing,” just chalk it up to yet another example of how governments are awash in cash, yet never seem to be able to actually deliver the promised goods.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Democratic Primary, election, New York | Leave a Comment »
