Better in their words…

Source: LIFE’S ENDLESS FARCES ☙ Sunday, August 13, 2023 ☙ C&C NEWS

WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY

🔥 CBS ran a scorching story yesterday headlined, “How did the Maui fire start? What we know about the cause of the Lahaina blaze.” As you’ve probably heard, over the last few days a wild conflagration quickly consumed nearly all of the historic town of Lahaina, Maui. The township is basically a complete loss, and at least eighty people officially perished, with unofficial reports suggesting the casualty rate could be unimaginably higher, maybe even in the thousands.

The CBS headline suggested its readers would obtain an answer to the singularly important question: what started the fire? But not so much. Here’s what CBS offered as an explanation:

Much of Hawaii was under a red flag warning for fire risk when the wildfires broke out, but the exact cause of the blaze is still unknown.

Oh. They’re baffled! Again! The mysterious lack of any cause has fertilized countless conspiracy theories, which are now blooming like Colorado wildflowers in June.  Government arson and “directed energy weapons” (DEWs) are top contenders, not to mention a stealthy Chinese attack, and — despite admitting not knowing what caused the fires — corporate media is pluckily fighting the wildfires of misinformation.

Official theories from government agencies speculate that low pressure conditions and high winds caused by nearby Hurricane Dora created a “perfect storm” of conditions creating the fires. Try to follow the logic. NOAA explained to CBS that “strong winds can also spark power lines that go on to ignite wildfires when there is dry brush or grass in the area  wildfires can spread quickly in hot, dry and windy conditions — especially when those conditions happen simultaneously.”

Got that? Simultaneous strong winds “sparking” power lines. Happens all the time. Coincidentally, they sparked up in two desirable waterfront areas (and one unoccupied inland location):

Lahaina got it worst. Lahaina is well known as an area where locals have bravely held out from selling their properties to large corporate developers. Accordingly, many of the various theories are just following the money; suggesting that deep state corporatists, tired of trying to uselessly negotiate with the recalcitrant locals, finally took matters into their own hands, reducing the town to ashes to pave the way for a big-money takeover.

Nobody, not local officials or even corporate media, denies that lots of highly-valuable real estate could easily change hands as a result of the tragedy.

The gist is that due to the sky-high price of Maui real estate, and the stratospheric cost of building construction in Hawaii, not least in ultra-desirable locations like Lahaina, long-time residents understandably fret that they simple won’t be able to afford to rebuild, and will be forced to sell. If they don’t rebuild promptly, their burned-out properties will just be condemned by the government, and then sold.

Obviously, there’s no way to know for sure what caused the fire. But it doesn’t look natural and not much about it makes sense at this point. The fire’s speed and intensity, and its localization to the Lahaina area are … unique, to say the least.

Lahaina is a tiny tourist town sitting on the western coast of Maui, Hawaii, rich in Hawaiian history, and decorated with beautiful beaches and gorgeous, idyllic landscapes. It was even the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom between 1820 and 1845. Until this week, Lahaina was a very popular tourist destination, reknowned for its historic charms, paradisiacal beaches, and delectable food.

Social media is rapidly loading up with posts from local residents and other Hawaii residents claiming that the media is lying about the disaster, such as by understating the damage or undercounting casualties. By default I tend to want to believe anyone who claims the media is lying, but it’s still too soon to know. And if the Proxy War has taught us anything, it’s that only time will tell the truth, because the media won’t, and random social media accounts are packed with deep fakes, bots, and spooks.

Clearly, a real tragedy has occurred. What we do not yet know is just how bad it is. It looks bad. But what I find extremely interesting about the reportingon the tragedy — and the popular pushback to the reporting — is the obvious, widespread lack of trust by a whole lot of people directed toward government officials and corporate media interests. Many people seem to feel that whatever the media says, they are hiding something, something important, and the opposite of whatever media reports is probably closer to the truth.

You could call this profound lack of trust the fruit of the pandemic.

One wonders how this pandemic fruit will taste as time goes on. How will it play out in electoral politics? Absent public trust, the government’s various jobs become immeasurably harder. And there is no shortage of legitimate material to fuel people’s distrust, from Constitution-shredding WHO treaties, villainous WEF powerpoints, and all-out marxist UN “sustainable development goals,” which all give people undeniable reasons for distrust.

Take these “fifteen minute cities” as an example. Please. Take them.

Haha. Anyway, every single government official and shady oligarch seem 100% on board with the 15-minute concept as a terrific idea for curing all social justice ills and paving the driveway to Utopia. But … there is a deafening silence from all the folks who would have to live there. And yet officials seem uncharacteristically disconnected from that lack of popular enthusiasm for the shiny new plans to curtail people’s freedom of movement.

The bottom line is, so far as the Maui story proves, once again the government is baffled when it comes to anything that matters, like what’s caused a historic tragedy in Lahaina, but the government somehow always knows everything for sure when it comes to mandates for pandemics, transportation, and climate change, not to mention world-shaping facts like the Age of the Universe.

🔬 Speaking of the Age of the Universe, Open Access Government ran an under-reported story this week headlined, “New research reveals age of universe estimated to be 26.7 billion years old.”

How about that? The “settled science” until five minutes ago was that the Universe is ‘only’ 13.7 billion years old.

According to the article, a new study from a University of Ottawa physics professor has now modeled the Cosmos at about twice the previous duration. According to the article, all of a sudden the science is not quite as settled as they said it was just last week:

The existence of stars like Methuselah, which appear older than the universe’s estimated age, and the discovery of early galaxies with advanced evolutionary characteristics have perplexed scientists. These early galaxies, observed only 300 million years after the Big Bang, exhibit levels of maturity and mass typically associated with billions of years of cosmic evolution, presenting a significant puzzle.

There go those kooky scientists, baffled yet again.

Nobody has a problem with science changing its theories and refining its ideas over time as new information and new scholarship develops. That’s the legitimate scientific process. The problem is how politics has invaded science to create Science™, which is an aggressive variant that violently attacks heterodox thinking and anyone who dares question approved orthodox conclusions.

All I’m saying is, maybe we should stop teaching kids that the “science is settled,” and admit that scientists are baffled about most things and only have “theories.”  It would be more honest, and it would teach kids proper critical thinking skills.

Oh wait! I forgot. We don’t teach science anymore, it’s been replaced with Social Justice Studies. Never mind.

💉 The New York Post ran a sad story Friday headlined, “Caleb White, 17-year-old No. 3 high school basketball player in Alabama, dies after collapsing on court.”

The Post made a remarkable admission: “Caleb is the latest in a string of young athletes to collapse and die during strenuous activity.” The Post is a conservative paper, and not part of corporate media, but it’s the most prominent one so far to admit that young athletes are dying in unnatural numbers.

Caleb was described by his family as an honor student, very respectful, with a high intellect, an excellent role model, and a phenomenal basketball player.

The young man was Alabama’s third-ranking high school basketball player. He suddenly and unexpectedly became “ill” in the early afternoon last week while training with his teammates. Then he suddenly fell to the floor and was rushed to the hospital, but doctors couldn’t revive him. No warning at all.

The Post reported that Caleb’s grandfather said on Facebook that Caleb had suffered a cardiac arrest, but the Jefferson County Coroner has yet to officially announce a cause of death. I couldn’t find anything on his jab status.

We send thoughts and prayers towards the White family.

I attended a children’s birthday party yesterday. After learning that a sick family member who’d missed the celebration has been chronically ill this year, just can’t shake it, I couldn’t help myself. But to make the inevitable question easier, I first asked, “is it covid?” They said no, he’s been tested. Then: “Did he get his shots?” I probed. “Yes, all of them,” was the expected answer.

Of course, nobody else in the extended family has made the potential connection. I’m trying to figure out how to successfully get them some tips on post-jab therapy. Suggestions welcome.

🔥 Corporate media continued drip, drip, dripping Biden scandal information this week. In one remarkable example, CBS News actually covered Devon Archer’s Congressional statements about the Biden Bribery case — and even suggested that Joe Biden could be implicated. On live TV, CBS News’s Weijia Jiang reported that Archer’s testimony “raises so many more questions — about what the president knew, when he knew it, and whether he was involved.”

https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1690356576429768704

CBS’s Jiang has occasionally asked the Administration some tough questions. In January, she pressed extra-diverse press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about the Biden Classified Document scandal. And in June, Jiang challenged Karine about the Biden Cocaine scandal, asking “This episode kind of shines a light on the fact that you can bring illegal substances into the White House, so what’s preventing a visitor from bringing in anthrax or something like that, that’s not magnetic, into the White House?”

Good question. So far, there’s no answer.

Unresolved scandals and controversies continue swirling around Joe Biden like a frog in a blender.

Yesterday, the Economist updated a previous story headlined, “What are the allegations against Hunter Biden?”  Although decorated with “Republicans pounce” language and using skeptical words like “claim,” the leftwing financial magazine fairly laid out two of the biggest allegations emerging from the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into the Biden Bribery Scandal.

The Economist described the Biden-Chinese connection and even referred to the “Big Guy:”

Between 2017 and 2018, CEFC, a Chinese oil-and-gas conglomerate, paid Hunter and his uncle, James Biden, nearly $5m. One of Hunter’s jobs was to negotiate a liquefied-natural-gas project in America (which was ultimately never built). Emails from Hunter’s laptop have been read by some as suggesting that he was planning a separate venture between several associates, including James Biden and CEFC. One email from the firm said that a 10% stake would go to “the big guy”. Mr Comer claims that “Joe Biden is the ‘big guy’.” Separately, Mr Comer told The Economist that he believed that Hunter had “compromised” the president. Joe Biden’s representatives deny any involvement.

Don’t overlook that admission, that Hunter and James were paid $5 million dollars for nothing. Of course, the Economist seems entirely uncurious about that fact, as though people are often paid millions to help negotiate deals that never happen, but at least they did report the awkward fact.

In my experience with complex commercial transactions, brokers are usually paid only when the deal closes. I guess it must be different in the Washington D.C. area, for some reason.

In the article’s final sentence — and maybe its most revealing sentence — the Economist noted that “over half of Americans, according to a poll in May, are convinced that Joe Biden was somehow mixed up in Hunter’s unseemly affairs.”

Over half!

It’s hard to say, but it feels like the corporate media drumbeat against Biden is pounding a little faster. The timing is fascinating, since we are heading straight into election season. It’s tempting to speculate that corporate media could be lobbying for a replacement candidate.

🔥 Speaking of the Biden Bribery investigation, the House Oversight Committee released another report this week, its third. So far, the total that House investigators have identified is up to an astounding $20 million dollars forked over by shady oligarchs to Biden Crime Family members and their “business associates” for doing nothing tangible at all:

Twenty million ice cream cones!

In summary, the Committee’s third memorandum included these remarkable new facts:

— The Committee has now identified over $20 million in payments from foreign sources to the Biden family and their business associates.

— Hunter Biden and Devon Archer Used Rosemont Seneca Entities to Bring in Millions from Oligarchs in Europe and Asia. Evidence suggests the amounts were staggered to avoid detection by regulators.

— In February 2014, a Russian Oligarch Sent $3.5 Million to a Shell Company Associated with Hunter Biden and Devon Archer. A million was paid to Archer and the rest funded Hunter’s new “investment” firm Rosemont Seneca.

— In Spring 2014, a Ukrainian Oligarch Placed Archer and Biden on Burisma’s Board of Directors at salaries of $1 million per year — each.

— In April 2014, a Kazakhstani Oligarch Wired the Exact Price of Hunter Biden’s luxury sports car ($142,300) to a Bank Account Used by Archer and Biden. The next day, Hunter purchased the car.

— Hunter Biden received millions of dollars in combined payments from Yelena Baturina, Burisma, and Kenes Rakishev. Then, Vice President Biden had dinner with the oligarchs at least twice, in the spring of 2014 and 2015 in Washington.

— According to the Committee’s report, no one in the Biden Administration or in the democrat Minority has ever explained what services, if any, the Bidens and their associates provided in exchange for the over $20 million in foreign payments.

Those are just the highlights. Here’s a link to the complete memo.

🔥 This week, Twitter’s (X’s?) new Chief Executive Officer Linda Yaccarino announced the company’s upcoming content moderation policies. So get ready.

According to Linda, Twitter is going to sort-of-but-not-quite delete “hateful” content, by making banned posts invisible unless people search for them.  There’s no definition for what will be de-promoted, but Linda said you’ll know it when you see it, referring to such content as “lawful but awful.”

https://twitter.com/BillboardChris/status/1689910209555111936

I’m pretty close, but I’m not a free speech absolutist when it comes to private platforms. The Constitution protects Americans from the government, not from each other. And it seems to me that some horrifying and deliberately-offensive posts should be hard to see.

There’s a lot of stuff from social media I’d like to unsee.

Having said that, allowing that some content moderation might be justifiable, consider three points.

First of all, and most important, the government should have nothing whatever to do with content moderation. That’s clearly illegal, and is exactly what the historic case of Missouri v. Biden is all about. Second, content moderation should be transparent. Suppressed posts should be clearly labeled as such, and a reason should be provided to the author. Third, moderation should be apolitical: offensive leftwing content should be limited as frequently as is any offensive rightwing content.

Although many folks are concerned Twitter is reverting to its pre-Musk baseline censorship, it’s too soon to tell. But we will be watching, closely and carefully.

📉 Remember my theory that Blue cities’ weak-on-crime policies are really just controlled demolition designed to create financial opportunities for billionaires? The latest evidence came in the form of Friday’s cheerful SFGate article headlined, “Downtown SF office building sells for 66% less than assessed value.”

The gist is, a downtown skyscraper valued at $121 million just sold to an opaque investment group, Presidio Bay Ventures, for only $40.9 million. That’s a pretty good discount.

Who or what is Presidio Bay Ventures? Who knows. The firm has a whopping four followers on Facebook:

Among the goals on Presidio’s high-impact website are “promoting diversity in commercial real estate,” supporting “LGBTQ-affirming HIV, mental health, substance use, sexual health and education programs,” and “and raising voter participation in every election and closing the race and age voting gap.” Uh huh.

Oddly, there was nothing about creating profits for investors. I probably don’t need to tell you this, but in my experience as an attorney practicing in commercial real estate, owners’ goals are not normally focused on social justice. Just saying.

Presidio’s website also offered this rather, um, unique way of describing its business partners. Plus, note the buzzword salad:

Hope and change for San Fransisco! At wholesale prices.

🔥 Speaking of hope and change, the New York Post ran a remarkable headline yesterday:

According to documents described by Obama biographer David Garrow, in a letter to a girlfriend, 21-year-old Barack wrote:

“In regard to homosexuality, I must say that I believe this is an attempt to remove oneself from the present, a refusal perhaps to perpetuate the endless farce of earthly life. You see, I make love to men daily, but in the imagination…in returning to the body, I see that I have been made a man, and physically in life, I choose to accept that contingency.”

There’s a lot to talk about in just those few lines. Aside from the obvious reference to his homosexual fantasies, what exactly did Barack mean by “the endless farce of human life?”  A farce is an obvious fabrication. What fabrication of his life did he have in mind? And was the young Obama referring to the trans revolution when he said he “chooses” to accept the “contingency” that he’s a man? As opposed to what? Not choosing to accept that?

I’m going to leave it there. Have fun in the comments.

🔥 Finally, I debated whether or not to include this last satirical and hilarious clip, as it will trigger some folks’ germaphobia. It did for Michelle. But I laughed so hard when I showed it to her that I finally had to share it with you guys. As a spoiler, since it takes a minute to figure out what you’re looking at, it is a recipe for making a Chic-fil-A chicken sandwich. It’s a masterful lampoon of the how-to “cool recipe” genre on social media. I hope you find it just as funny as I did:

https://twitter.com/CensoredMen/status/1689058115168215040

That’s some master-level bachelor cooking right there.

Have a very blessed Sunday! Thank you once again for your loyal support. I couldn’t do this without you. Meet me back here tomorrow morning for another action-packed roundup.

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