Quick Jots: June 2022

Alameda County mask mandate revival
#covid
After all the science come out, showing that mask mandates don't work, the Trust the Science crowd in Alameda County decided to reimpose mask mandates. Wait, did I say crowd? It's actually just some guy named Nicholas Marsh in an unelected post that apparently has wide ranging powers to instill these restrictive measures. Even Berkeley, which has separate health enforcement, declined to reinstate mask mandates. It seems, however, that people are mostly over it. I have been in several stores in Alameda County and while most people wear masks since the mandate was revived, there are always several that ignore the mandate, whereas before, compliance was much higher. The only place where I have been "asked" to put on a mask was at a Whole Foods, where someone working there informed me that they provide masks at the front door so I can comply with the mandate. I said okay and promptly ignored her. She didn't ask me again even though our paths crossed near the butcher counter. It's not like I was the only one there without a mask on. Then, on June 24th, the mandate was unceremoniously rescinded. The infection trends between Alameda County and Contra Costa County are virtually identical.

Mom speaks out against cops in Uvalde shooting
#police #gunrights
Angeli Gomez, a mother of two who were at the elementary school during the horrific shooting, is criticizing the police for spending more time restraining parents than doing something about the school shooter. She sped back to the school when hearing about the shooting after dropping her kids off, where she was promptly arrested for trying to enter the school to get her children out. Eventually, she was uncuffed and she ran into the school to grab her children, amid resistance from the police. She said that the police spent more effort preventing parents from trying to save their children than trying to figure out how to take out the shooter. It took police standing around for over 70 minutes before engaging the shooter. Oh, and the police threatened Gomez with obstruction of justice charges for talking about what had happened. Give that mother a medal and fire all the Uvalde police. Give the entirety of their pensions to the victims of the shooting. Will the conservatives finally take down their thin blue line flags and the left finally realize taking away self defense to rely on police is a folly? I won't hold my breath.

China turns protesters' health codes red
#china #covid
A protest in China aimed to demand their frozen funds in banks for two months be released was foiled because their phones turned red. No, really. The people planning to travel to the protest had their health codes turn red, making them unable to use services including transportation. No matter how scared you are of a virus, you should always be more scared of the government.

Flashback: Michael Avenatti
#democrats #media
Remember back in 2018 when the media was fawning over Michael Avenatti because he represented Stormy Daniels in a case against Donald Trump? Brian Stelter said he seriously looked at Avenatti as a contender for POTUS as Avenatti sought nomination, or at least made waves of doing so, from the Democratic Party. This was after he tried to extort Nike for up to $25 million. Which was shortly before it came out that he was stealing from clients. It looks like the final chapter is closing on this clown, as Reuters reports he will plea guilty to the remaining criminal charges, which includes lying to the IRS. I wonder what his tax policy proposal would have been as a Democrat?

CNN plans to actually broadcast news
#media
Chris Licht, the new guy at the helm of CNN after Jeff Zucker was unceremoniously ousted for some domestic reason other than crashing CNN into the iceberg, has indicated he would like to see the partisanship be dialed back and on-air personalities to reign in their hackery. I'm not sure what to think of this. It's not like libertarian views will be any better represented. Ever since SE Cupp declined to renew Dave Smith's occasional appearance on her show (presumably because he kept intellectually wrecking her pro-war guests), CNN has right around zero libertarian representation. The bias will still be there, it may just force them to be more subversive about it. The good thing that came out of CNN losing its collective shit was that they showed themselves for what they are. I suppose if they would actually report things accurately and provide a multitude of sides, that would be a good thing. But I'll believe it when I see it. I think it's better to let the personalities be who they are, but just have a variety of personalities. Have a show with a progressive, one with a conservative, one with a libertarian, and one with a socialist. Better yet, put them all in a room to hash things out on topics. I'd gladly pay to watch Kmele Foster destroy Brian Stelter night after night, Gene Epstein destroy Richard Wolff night after night, and Scott Horton destroy Bill Kristol night after night.

Socialist owns herself on Stossel
#housing
Sometimes I wonder what goes through some peoples' minds when they go on interviews. Stossel created yet another great video exposing the lunacy of rent control, particularly in St. Paul, where they enacted far reaching rent control measures, crashing the construction of new housing units. Minneapolis city council member Aisha Chughtai agreed to be interviewed on Stossel and it was immediately apparent she had not utilized more than three brain cells thinking about her position, though to be fair, that may have been 50% of her brain power. When asked simple questions, she completely froze up before offering a complete red herring of an answer. It's like she never heard of St. Paul's rent control obliterating new construction. Hell, even I knew that and St. Paul is 2,000 miles away from me while it's the next city over from her. Chughtai is like one of those people on Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, shocked that their refrigerator is completely filthy and moldy when Ramsay looked through it. Have they never watched the show before? At least the other rent control advocates were smart enough to know that Stossel would completely destroy their arguments, making them marginally more intelligent than Chughtai. Honestly, though, good for Aisha. I assume she knew how Stossel leaned and she went on the show anyway. Hopefully she learned something and doesn't just double down. Luckily for her, Stossel is a super nice dude. He wouldn't call anyone a wanker because they screwed up a beef wellington. 

SCOTUS ruling on guns
#gunrights
The Supreme Court has ruled that New York's requirement to show a specific need to carry a gun to obtain a license to carry was unconstitutional. This seems to fall in the "no shit, Sherlock" category of SCOTUS cases, but we need to expend all kinds of energy on brazenly stupid things. I think New York's "specific need" had one requirement: to be friends or family with a police officer or politician. That this was a big win is a testament to how far out we are from having the Second Amendment actually being enforced.

Gret Glyer RIP
#obituary #libertarians
Well, this one hit me pretty hard. Gret Glyer, years ago, founded DonorSee after he saw the stark poverty in Malawi. The organization crowdfunds donations to get projects completed in regions with extreme poverty. People that live in these areas can come up with and post projects on the website, post videos, and keep their donors up to speed with regular video uploads to keep them engaged. With the projects on a grassroots level, money gets funded to what the locals think are the most important to lift people out of poverty, not NGO executives, Washington DC politicians, and Tom's Shoes. When my son is older, I plan to give him money every year and have him decide which causes on DonorSee to give to. Gret was one of the best human beings on the planet and has created a more positive influence in the poorest regions of Africa than just about anybody else.

Gret Glyer was shot to death in his home on June 24th, ruled a homicide by the police, confirmed by the autopsy. His wife and children were unharmed and no news articles I've found mentioned that anything was missing. It turns out it was a guy, likely with a mental illness, that thought there was a romantic relationship with Gret's wife, when none existed. Kudos to the police in this instance, for a swift arrest of the perpetrator. Before that news was released, all kinds of conspiracy theories were running through my head.

Glyer had appeared on Tom Woods's podcast numerous times to talk about the phenomenal work he had been doing on DonorSee. DonorSee has set up a fund for his wife and children to manage expenses.