Playing MarioKart While the Economy Shrinks, Wind Power Fails Texans, Bill Gates Demands You Eat "Vegan Steak," Philadelphia Forces 5th Graders to Celebrate Communism (The Five for 02/17/21)
Hey,
Welcome to The Five, which is coming up on (roughly) a year in existence. I’m truly humbled that a loyal readership of people both left and right of center continue to check this out each week.
Thank you for engaging with real news and wrestling with big issues!
A few quick hits before we start.
President Biden is talking about pushing gun control through via executive order. Great! That’s my favorite kind. The next Republican President will just reverse it on day 1 when power changes hands. I’d much rather see that happen than a law, which is much more permanent.
Alaskan nursing homes are now offering Seal oil, a longstanding comfort food/dipping sauce for Inuapiat natives, on the menu. This is very cool (unless you’re vegan). I love anything that honors our elders. (By the way, if you’re vegan, stop reading now…seriously, you’re going to hate this issue).
Manhattan courts now require two masks to enter the courthouse despite the statistics that COVID cases are falling rapidly. as the vaccine rolls out. Also, four people have been stabbed on NY subways this week. Seriously…if you’re in a major city, it’s high time to think about your long term plants.
The Carmel, IN girls swim team won their 35th consecutive state title this week, continuing one of the greatest (and most under-reported, which is what The Five is all about) dynasties in all of sports. That means they have won every year since 1986. Why is there not a documentary or movie about this yet?
Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh died this morning. He was a huge part of my childhood and a major reason for my interest in politics and current events. I haven’t listened to him in probably 20 years, so I have no knowledge/perspective on his work after the late 90’s, but I can tell you it’s unlikely The Five would exist had he not helped spark a passion in me for keeping up on what’s happening in the world. Rush was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
[one]
Let’s take a look at the current media coverage of the Biden administration:
Newsweek reported on Joe Biden winning a game of MarioKart against his granddaughter.
The Washington Post reported on Jill Biden wearing a scrunchie in her hair.
Meanwhile:
141 security forces and 41 civilians died in combat in Afghanistan this month, with still no exit strategy for a two decade old war we can’t win. As a reminder, Trump attempted to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan in July of last year, which was overwhelmingly voted down in Congress, thanks in part to Republican Liz Cheney (daughter of then-Vice-President Dick Cheney, who shoulders a large part of the responsibity for starting the war).
In a CNN Town Hall, Biden dismissed China’s genocide of Uigher Muslims as “different cultural norms.”
The Wharton School of Business warns that the Biden stimulus will shrink the economy in 2022. The Free Economic Enterprise reports:
Scholars at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business analyzed the plan and found that the massive spending splurge—which costs roughly $13,260 per federal taxpayer—would only cause a “slight uptick” in economic growth in 2021. The analysts warned that this minor boost would just be “instant gratification,” and that the skyrocketing government debt caused by the blowout legislation would undermine any gains in the medium-to-long term.
“The existence of the debt saps the rest of the economy,” Wharton analyst Efraim Berkovich said. “When the government is running budget deficits, the money that could have gone to productive investment is redirected.”
“Effectively, what we’re doing is taking money from [some] people and giving it to other people for consumption purposes,” he continued. “That has value for social safety nets and redistributive benefits, but longer-term, you’re taking away from the capital that we need to grow our economy in the future.”
Biden’s costly plan would explode the national debt. This, per Wharton, would lead to a “crowding out” effect over the coming years as more loan money is taken away from productive business/private sector investments and instead consumed by government debt.
I absolutely understand the need for a social safety net right now, when so many Americans have seen their lives ripped apart by the COVID shutdown.
My question is, where is this bold media who “speaks truth to power” as they loved to say from 2016-2020? Where is the “democracy dies in darkness” gumption that both The Washington Post and the New York Times ran on their mastheads?
The fact that the media criticized Trump doesn’t concern me (although what they criticized—mainly a Russia conspiracy theory that was way off base—had nothing to do with policy).
The media’s softballing the Biden administration concerns me greatly. Because while they’re talking about Nintendo games and naps...Americans are dying in war, and the economy is headed in a direction that’s going to hurt a lot of people if something doesn’t change and Muslims in China are killed daily.
[two]
Bill Gates wants to take away your steak.
I hate click-bait headlines, but that’s the actual story, per his interview in Technology Review:
Q: Do you think plant-based and lab-grown meats could be the full solution to the protein problem globally, even in poor nations? Or do you think it’s going to be some fraction because of the things you’re talking about, the cultural love of a hamburger and the way livestock is so central to economies around the world?
A: For Africa and other poor countries, we’ll have to use animal genetics to dramatically raise the amount of beef per emissions for them. Weirdly, the US livestock, because they’re so productive, the emissions per pound of beef are dramatically less than emissions per pound in Africa. And as part of the [Bill and Melinda Gates] Foundation’s work, we’re taking the benefit of the African livestock, which means they can survive in heat, and crossing in the monstrous productivity both on the meat side and the milk side of the elite US beef lines.
So no, I don’t think the poorest 80 countries will be eating synthetic meat. I do think all rich countries should move to 100% synthetic beef. You can get used to the taste difference, and the claim is they’re going to make it taste even better over time. Eventually, that green premium is modest enough that you can sort of change the [behavior of] people or use regulation to totally shift the demand.
Just to recap:
American beef farmers have less of an impact than cattle farmers in Africa.
Therefore, we should make beef illegal in the U.S.
“Or use regulation” means “make beef illegal.”
Gates is heavily invested in “vegan meat” startups Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, which the general public rejected last year en masse when “vegan” burgers at Burger King flopped and “plant based sausage” sat un-purchased at grocery stores.
Apparently Gate’s next step in recouping his investment and turning a profit is simply to push for meat to be illegal in the countries where beef has the lowest environmental impact.
Oh, and one more (very important) thing. “Vegan meat” is made with a lot of soy, which needs nutrient rich soil to grow.
Soil becomes nutrient rich from breaking down plant and animal waste, often from crop rotation and cattle grazing…so even “vegan” meat needs cattle (to create better soil) for production to happen.
I try to present the news with an even hand, avoiding click-baity takes and emotional reactions.
And today, I am failing at that goal, because this is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen in my life, and is completely ignorant of science, how farming works and how plants are grown.
[three]
Texas is without power, due to the state’s reliance on natural gas and wind energy, according to the Houston Chronicle.
The Texas power grid, powered largely by wind and natural gas, is relatively well equipped to handle the state’s hot and humid summers when demand for power soars. But unlike blistering summers, the severe winter weather delivered a crippling blow to power production, cutting supplies as the falling temperatures increased demand.
Natural gas shortages and frozen wind turbines were already curtailing power output when the Arctic blast began knocking generators offline early Monday morning.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, which is responsible for scheduling power and ensuring the reliability of the electrical network, declared a statewide power generation shortfall emergency and asked electricity delivery companies to reduce load through controlled outages.
More than 4 million customers were without power in Texas, including 1.4 million in the Houston area, the worst power crisis in the state in a decade. The forced outages are expected to last at least through part of Tuesday, the state grid manager said.
Turns out Green Energy…isn’t that reliable.
There is, of course, a proven power source that’s environmentally efficient, safe and doesn’t leave millions to die in the cold when the wind turbines freeze up, but the United States has rejected nuclear power even though…something something science or something.
Seriously though, if you want to read up on nuclear, this 2016 feature from Wired Magazine on a power plant re-opening in Tennessee is a great (non-partisan) starting point.
[four]
The Lincoln Project is an anti-Trump campaign from the political right that emerged during the 2020 election. It’s unclear as to why the organization is even still around, if the goal was to prevent Trump’s re-election, but calls to shut the Political Action Committee down full scale have elevated in the wake of founder John Weaver allegedly sexually harassing more than 20 young men.
Lincoln Project co-founder George Conway called for an investigation into the organization on Tuesday in the wake of a mounting sexual harassment scandal, tweeting: “THE LYING HAS TO STOP.”
Conway sought to put distance between himself and reports that the leaders of the anti-Trump Republican PAC knew about sexual harassment allegations against ousted co-founder John Weaver as early as last June before they first emerged in media reports last month.
“An investigation is necessary. But it has to be thorough, and not a whitewash. And—THE LYING HAS TO STOP,” Conway wrote in a Tuesday tweet.
“It’s clear now that, as early last *MARCH*, the people who were in operational control of the Lincoln Project were told of Weaver’s predations. Enough is enough. LP needs to waive the NDAs and come clean,” he said.
At least three of the group’s Republican founders, including Conway, have jumped ship in the wake of the allegations and denied they knew anything about the allegations against Weaver.
On Monday, a second teenager accused Weaver of “aggressively” sexually harassing him, according to the journalist who initially broke the story.
Weaver, who worked on both of John McCain’s White House bids, stands accused of sexually harassing more than 20 young men, including former interns with the embattled Lincoln Project.
In another tweet Tuesday, Conway, who is married to former Trump White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway, called for the organization to be shut down.
[five]
Finally, a public school in Philadelphia forced their fifth grade class to celebrate Communism.
Fifth graders in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, were subjected to a celebration of “black communism,” complete with a mock Black Power rally to honor devout communist Angela Davis.
Christopher Rufo, contributing editor at City Journal, reported on the classroom activities after receiving whistleblower documents and speaking to a school source. Students at William D. Kelley School were forced to participate in a social studies curriculum that celebrated Davis, “praising the ‘black communist’ for her fight against ‘injustice and inequality.’” Students were required to “‘describe Davis’ early life,’ reflect on her vision of social change, and ‘define communist’—presumably in favorable terms,” Rufo reported.
Further:
At the conclusion of the unit, the teacher led the ten- and eleven-year-old students into the school auditorium to “simulate” a Black Power rally to “free Angela Davis” from prison, where she had once been held while awaiting trial on charges of conspiracy, kidnapping, and murder. The students marched on the stage, holding signs that read “Black Power,” “Jail Trump,” “Free Angela,” and “Black Power Matters.” They chanted about Africa and ancestral power, then shouted “Free Angela! Free Angela!” as they stood at the front of the stage.
Davis is a militant activist praised by the Left. She joined the Communist Party and has won the International Lenin Peace Prize, an award from the Soviet Union named after Vladimir Lenin. She has also been accused of anti-Semitism over her support for Occupy Wall Street and the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.
Communism killed 100 million people in the 20th Century, which may have been lost on teachers at the William Kelly School, where 3% of students are proficient in math by the end of 6th grade, and only 13% have achieved basic literacy by graduation.
I guess if you haven’t been taught math, haven’t been given the skills to read a history book and are told in flipping elementary school that Communism is awesome…AND you get to take a break from regular classes for an exciting assembly…that’s probably a pretty decent way to indoctrinate elementary school students en masse.
In almost everything, we disagree in polite society and remain civil. Promoting the totalitarianism regime that nearly wiped all living things from the earth via nuclear war and starved tens of millions of people to death just because, is a rare exceptions to the rule.
Until the next one,
-sth