If You Tell People

That a beautiful women in an ad campaign to sell blue jeans is a sign of fascism, or Nazism or the latest bogeyman word "whiteness", you're not just cheapening the actual meaning of those first two words (the third is a nonsensical leftist construct of no import). 

You're also going to get a lot of people deciding that, you know, maybe fascism or Nazism or the latest boogeyman -- whiteness -- has something going for it when a superb advertising campaign for jeans is considered to be a sign of such.

New York Post:  Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle ad slammed as ‘Nazi propaganda’ by crazed woke mob over jeans/genes pun

 Daily Caller: CLARK BARRON: Liberals Can’t Handle Sydney Sweeney In Jeans — Now Everyone Wants To Buy Them

Not exactly the conclusion the progressive left should be hoping people will draw for their latest bout of manufactured outrage, but there we are.

On the upside, American Eagle jeans sales are booming as a result of this ad campaign, especially as they refused to give in to the outrage mob and its insane claims that the ad promotes whiteness or uses Nazi imagery (quick note - it don't). 

After all, when everyone you don't like is a fascist, then well, everyone is. 

 

Culture Wars Come To Court: Michigan Judges Required To Use Litigants' Preferred Pronouns

The Michigan Supreme Court, currently dominated by Democrats, has passed an edict that, come 2024, all judges in Michigan must address the parties before them using the parties preferred pronouns.

MLive: Michigan judges must use preferred pronouns in court come 2024

All involved in state court cases are now required to use an individual’s preferred pronouns and corresponding honorific when referring to them in court according to a new rule passed down by the Michigan Supreme Court.

The only safety valve if a judge does want to use a ridiculous Ze, Xim, Xer or other ridiculousness is to address the participant by their role such as juror, attorney, defendant, etc.

In short the potential for stupidity and making a mockery of the court system is obvious with the Michigan Supreme Court deciding to go woke.

Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. 

As such, starring in 2024 my preferred pronouns in court will be M'Lord and His Majesty.

Biden's FAA Nominee Don't Know Much About Aviation

The questions asked of him were pretty much what a private pilot candidate should expect to know for their written or oral exam. Not particularly hard stuff.

Townhall: Biden's FAA Nominee Can't Answer a Single Question About Aviation

To be fair, this guy is going to be a bureaucratic administrator, not an aviator, and is likely no more than a diversity hire by the administration.  

Most likely, this is a sinecure for some services rendered in the past, or to fulfill demands from interest groups or another equity/diversity hire.  This guy will  have a staff that actually knows stuff.  He'll simply be an empty-suit signing off and collecting a sweet salary, and perhaps mouthing a few platitudes while driving the Biden Administration's woke mission of an FAA that prizes equity and diversity over competence and effectiveness.

However, it would be nice for once to have a regulator to actually know stuff about what he is regulating, just as I'd like lawmakers to actually have a clue about what they are legislating.

No chance of that happening in this case.

New York Progressives And The Justice System They Have Sowed

From New York City comes a charming if not incredulous tale of what happens when progressives run the criminal justice system.

The situation is as follows:  a man in a park in a very progressive part of Brooklyn attacked a lady walking her dog, threw urine on them and killed the dog by hitting it with a stick he was carrying. He then left unmolested.    He has since neither been charged nor arrested.

New York Post: No arrest of Park Slope dog killer despite multiple sightings of suspect

A further complication is the assumed to be mentally-challenged man happens to be Black, which has set the progressives in the area around the park in quite a quandary.

Fox News:  Dog's killing leads to Brooklyn progressive civil war over 'social justice,' New York Times reports

Hilariously if not unbelievably, residents there are less upset about the crime and the fact they have a violent mentally-disturbed person wandering about their park free to assault people at will, but are more upset that the man is being sought out of concerns that it could be systemic racism to do so. Indeed they seem busy defending him in the name of social justice:

Weeks went by with no arrest made. Neighborhood sleuths fervently discussed the situation, and many expressed support for Chrustic, but soon a vocal minority asked why the mostly White town seemed insistent on taking down a Black man who seemed homeless and "emotionally disturbed." Others called the man a "psychopath" and a "predator" who needed to face justice," the Times reported.

Martin Lofsnes, a 52-year-old dancer who had moved away from the neighborhood in 2020, saw the discussion on Nextdoor while trying to sell some belongings, and was appalled. He spoke about the "400 yrs of systematic racism which has prevented black people from building generational wealth through homeownership resulting in the extreme disparity we see today." He told residents that throwing the man in jail would solve nothing and urged them to set up fundraisers for him.

Other residents thought Lofsnes naïve, with some even saying he was "mansplaining."

"In a dog-loving, progressive enclave, where pushing law and order can clash with calls for social justice, what’s the right thing to do? How do you protect the public without furthering injustice against this man?" Times writer John Leland asked.

You really cannot make this up. 

Apparently if you're Black and quite a few Froot Loops short of having a full box of cereal, you may, per the New York progressive belief system, attack people in public and kill their pets at will, because social justice.

In short, the NY powers that be will likely do nothing about this person until he kills someone.

Then, there will be much excuse-making over lack of mental health care facilities, and of course, the canard that "the system failed".

The system the woke in New York have setup is deliberately designed to fail.

It is designed to fail to protect ordinary citizens from crime - from hamstringing the police; to ignoring crimes; to letting violent criminals be immediately released without even a requirement for cash bail so they can be out to commit crimes yet again; and a justice system that gives the criminals mere slaps on the wrist if they happen to decide to show up for trial.

Unfortunately, this progressive obsession with letting criminals roam amuck is not confined to New York.

Democrat Coalition Showing Some Definite Strains In Dearborn

It's always hard having a coalition with some members who want to do their thing and push their agenda, and another portion that wants to throw them off rooftops or behead them for doing their thing and pushing their agenda.

That tension was on display in Dearborn Michigan recently when at the School Board meeting, Muslims wanted homosexual-related books removed from schools.

The Detroit Free Press: Protesters shut down Dearborn school board meeting over LGBTQ books

One of Michigan's most prominent faith leaders, Imam Hassan Al-Qazwini of the Islamic Institute of America in Dearborn Heights, urged people during his Friday sermon to attend the protests.

"Some of those books are completely inappropriate for our children to read," Al-Qazwini said. "Some of those books promote pornography. Some of them promote homosexuality. We don't need this. Go and attend this meeting."

Qazwini as a popular Democrat supporter has issues, including a history of anti-antisemitism that came to light (at least among Democrats) during his very vocal support and campaign for for Bernie Sanders.

Qazwini then went on to note that as Muslims are the majority in Dearborn they should get to decide what gets taught in schools and in school libraries.

Qazwini isn't the only rather well known fellow leading this charge:

Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), gave a talk Sunday at the American Moslem Society in the south end of Dearborn, one of the largest and oldest mosques in metro Detroit, about how Muslims can protect their religious rights in Dearborn public schools from materials or practices that conflict with their faith, such as using transgender pronouns. 

Adding to the fun, there was outrage among the Muslim community in Hamtramck when the city flew a gay pride flag.  It also likely didn't go over well when one proponent publicly compared the pride flag to a Muslim call to prayer.

Democrats are going to have a lot of fun with trying to keeping Islamists, Groomers, and Wokesters placated and kept in line.

FAA Having Solved All of Aviation's Problems, Goes A Bit Woke

The FAA under Biden is getting a tad woke.

The NOTAM, the Notices To Airmen has now been changed to be more gender inclusive, as one can't have Airmen refer to all aviators as a default, that's no longer appropriate don'cha know.

Instead it's now Notices To Air Missions.

Yes, it's now a notice to an inanimate object "Air Missions" rather than actual to persons, the pilots, who are charged with knowing the contents of said notices before every flight.

Rather dumb. Such a good thing we changed it though as another step for gender equality right? Was there a huge protest demanding such a change that everyone missed somewhere rather than the really important stuff the FAA does like education, safety regulation, and enforcement? Did nothing else need to be done around the office that day?

Such a lost opportunity.  They could have been far more gender inclusive and still referred to people rather than an object by changing it, if they really felt they had to do so, to:

Notices To Aviating Miscreants; or

Notices To Alcoholic Muppets; or

Notices To Aspiring Millionaires (Q: How do you make a small fortune in aviation?  A: Start with a large one); or

Notices To Awesome Mankind (Pilots are by definition one of the awesome-est portions of mankind extant - don't believe me? Ask a pilot and they'll tell you); 

or

Notices To Aeronautical Monkeys - Yes, with enough time you could probably teach a monkey to fly, or it could be that humans, especially the flying sort, are kinda monkey-like (especially the alcohol imbibing ones above), you can take your pick.

Notice To Air Missions not only lacks style and flair, but it just sounds flat as heck and seems like a silly name-change pulled out of a hat for no better reason then to proclaim how gender-sensitive the FAA is now.

The Lighter Side Of Laughable Land Acknowledgments

I've talked about the stupidity of "Land Acknowledgments" before.

It seems a professor at University of Washington didn't just talk about the stupidity of required Land Acknowledgments, he went ahead and demonstrated the absurdity of such by inserting a true but certainly politically incorrect land acknowledgment statement on his syllabus rather than using the administration's approved message.

The result - perfection:

Yep, pretty much accurate, that. 

Computer science professor Stuart Reges rather delightfully and skillfully mocked the inanity that are these land acknowledgments.

The powers that be at UW were not amused. Really not amused.

Feathers were ruffled, students' fee-fees were offended. Snowflakes were melted.

770KTTH: Rantz: UW admin. goes to war over Seattle professor’s hilarious land acknowledgment joke

We will note for the record that to date neither UW, nor its Director of the School of Computer Science and Engineering, Magdalena Balazinska, have deeded their properties over to the Coast Salish tribes. 

Had they really believed in their own land acknowledgment virtue signalling BS, then it only goes to follow that they should have deeded the University and their properties over to the Salish - immediately - even as that would be rather ahistorical as much as it is woke.

So far, the University is putting a competing section of the class at the same time as Professor Reges' class, and have removed his syllabus from their website. and made a virtue signalling abject apology for it - and asking students to make complaints against him.

The Woke Attack On School Safety Continues In Michigan

In the name of racial justice and stopping the  mythical "School-to-Prison-Pipeline", Democrats in the Michigan legislature want to get rid of the "effects" zero-tolerance (a policy ended in 2016 I might mention)  and add "equitable" including racial and other factors to the disciplining of students at school

Michigan Advance: Lawmakers introduce bills to reform school disciplinary process

The Civil Rights Data Collection, which gathered information from over 96,000 public schools in the 2015-16 school year, found that minority students face harsher discipline than white students. Black students made up about 15% of the student body but accounted for 31% of the arrests made.

Considering this is actually lower than the  world outside the school walls where Blacks make up 50% of violent crime while being only 13% of the population, the statistic does not appear unreasonable and likely should have some context - namely what were these students doing that caused them to be expelled?  Indeed, should we cap expulsions to ensure racial equity regardless of actions of the individual?

Some politicians apparently think so.

Geiss noted that Black girls are eight times more likely than white girls to be at risk for school arrests. She highlighted that these bills will help to tackle the school-to-prison pipeline and ensure more justice in school disciplinary actions.

With trauma-informed restorative justice techniques in discipline at the school level, we can disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline and bring about racial justice in the process.” Geiss said at the press conference.

Again, no contextualization as to why they are eight times more likely, nor a ny accusation that whites are not being suspended/expelled for the same actions, merely that Blacks are apparently committing expulsion-able offenses in disproportion to their percentage of the population.

Oh, you see this is about racial justice, not justice for any of the victims of the expelled.  it seems these legislators in the name of racial justice want programs put in place where the students that disrupt and attack other students are kept in school  "Trauma-informed restorative justice techniques"  where the wrongdoer's acts are excused due to their "trauma", and their victim gets to have them stay in school to continue to torment them.  What could go wrong?

We can note both Trayvon Martin and Nicholas Cruz each received Florida's Promise program that let them skate on disciplinary and expulsion-worthy activities to the detriment of other students and society.  

These Michigan Legislators seem to want a similar program here, which will likely sadly lead to similar results.

Ingham County: Gun Laws Are Not To Be Enforced Against Criminals.

Because doing so is racist, per the prosecutor.   So what good are they then?

WKAR:  Ingham County Prosecutor Pledges To Dial Back Use Of Mandatory Minimum Gun Charge

The woke prosecutor,  Carol Siemon, is against charging criminals with the possessing a firearm in the commission of a felony charge under Michigan law.   

That charge carries a 2-year prison sentence and thus gets felons out of circulation for awhile.  She's opposed to it because it turns out that a lot of felons carrying firearms and committing felonies in her county happen to be Black.

Black people make up 12% of Ingham County’s population, but they accounted for 67% of those charged with felony firearm possession in the county last year, according to a news release from the prosecutor's office.

Given that FBI statistics show Blacks at 13% of the national population commit 50% of the murders in America and 45% of all violent crime in general (with most of the murder victims being Black) the statistics seem to concord quite well with the existence in her county of a very active felon subclass of the Black population.

The prosecutor went to to say that punishment doesn't work so why bother.  Well she actually said that:

"We've learned, of course, that deterrence is not a very strong motivator, unfortunately."

Siemon says the penalty hasn't made the public safer since prosecutors can add the charge even if the gun was legally owned or if the gun wasn't used in the underlying felony for which someone was arrested. Instead, she says, the charge is a major driver of racial disparities in incarceration. 

Putting felons in jail for felony firearm possession would result in keeping them off the street and not commititng cirmes, incuding crimes agaisnt racial minorities, but that is insufficiently woke.

Of course, she reserves the right to bring such a charge against the right kind of people: 

Although Siemon can't stop police from arresting people for firearm possession, she says her office will be more limited in approving the charge.

Any use of the charge will need to be OK'd by Siemon herself or the county's chief assistant prosecutor, according to a new policy announced Tuesday.

Siemon says she'll limit approval of the charge to "extreme circumstances,"

A little anarcho-tyrrany there, where criminal felons of the right skin color will go uncharged, and one can expect that those non-felons of a different color using a firearm to defend themselves may get hit with this charge.

In other woke news, she also refuses to charge criminals caught with drugs or firearms during traffic stops with any crimes.   

This isn't just being soft on crime.  This is giving criminals a complete pass when caught with illegal items as long as it's during a traffic stop, which is the best time to actually stop them, before they're a the scene of their next crime.  

Expect crime in Ingham County to start tracking upwards as criminals take note of the new hands-off approach to crime in the name of wokeness.

More Woke Ridiculousness - Detroit To Put Reparations On The Ballot

Detroit, a majority Black city, through it's majority Black city council is going to put reparations on the city's next ballot.

The Detroit News: Detroit City Council votes to add reparations committee question to November ballot

Of course the details are fuzzy, as the opportunities for graft from such a vaguely worded proposition offering free money (from whom is not exactly explained) to the gullible on account of their skin color is rather limitless.

Let's point out there's no one alive in the city of Detroit that has been a slave in America and thus eligible to receive reparations.

Let's also point out that Detroit is in Michigan, a state that has never a slave holding state,  unless for example one counts slavery by the Indians, the French and indentured servants, as the attached article does.  The last recorded slave in Detroit, if one includes indentured servants ended was freed at the latest in 1815.  There are no living people from 1815 in existence in Michigan, even if some of the deceased still vote Democrat in Presidential election in Wayne County.

Indeed Michigan sent its sons to end slavery in the United States and at least 14,790 of them gave their lives doing so which pays off any "reparations" for slavery in full.

Of course they're wanting to expand the concept of reparations to anyone who has been discriminated against in Detroit - although one wonders if they will cover the Poles who had lived in Hamtramck who had their properties seized under Coleman Yong to build a GM factory.  Somehow I doubt that's the target recipients of such reparations as they tie it all to slavery in their statements for the proposal.

In short, the proposal is for Democrats to give money to those in Detroit allegedly historically discriminated against by Democrats in Detroit.

It Would Take A Heart Of Stone Not To Laugh At East Lansing Residents

In the news, and it must be a slow news day over in EL,  East Lansing residents are complaining about noise from traffic along the main drag in the city.

East Lansing info: “Unbearably Ridiculous” Noise from Cars and Motorcycles Is Riling East Lansing Residents

But, the woke residents there also don't want police in the area, nor having police enforce minor infractions - like, you know, noise complaints.

Wing said that officers from the East Lansing Police Department are not helping so far as she can see.

. . .

Responding to complaints from people like Worth and Wing, at the June 8 meeting, East Lansing Police Chief Kim Johnson said that his officers had tried showing up in the West Grand River Ave. area to help, only to be asked by one resident to leave because that resident didn’t want armed police hanging out in the neighborhood.

Johnson said police were doing their best, but it is clear that with this issue, as with many others, ELPD now finds itself caught between people who want enforcement against disturbances of the peace by things like loud parties, fireworks, and noisy motorcycles, and people who want the police to back off of enforcement of non-violent offenses.

There have definitely been mixed messages on policing issues like this, with Council taking actions such as revising the disorderly conduct code to reduce the likelihood of a person being prosecuted for a “minor” offense while also wanting the police to stop motorcyclists for making loud noises – something that might be seen as a minor offense.

So get woke, push to defund the police, complain about their presence, insist they don't enforce the law on minor infractions, and revise city code to not enforce prosecution for minor offenses, and then complain when they don't enforce the law on minor infractions that are affecting your quality of life.

Next step:  Act all surprised when your woke policy of having the police not enforce minor infractions leads to higher crime in both minor and major categories, as minor crimes go unpunished and major offenders are not interdicted by being caught for a minor crime prior to their committing a major crime. 

Funny how that happens, eh?

It's Not Like We Didn't Tell You That Woke Policies Have Consequences

Ah, those lovely and oh-so predictable moments when those woke-inspired policy choices come back to bite the Progressives in the butt.   Sadly thenon-woke get to suffer the consequences of their policy choices as well. 

1. Defund the Police:  Conservatives and others with common sense pointed out this was not a good idea and would lead to more crime and violence.

To no one's surprise, it did lead to increased crime and violence.

The Oregonian, first supported the defund the police movement, and defunding the Portland Police’s gun violence team in particular. They are now shocked, simply shocked, and dismayed at the violence, shootings and deaths that have resulted.  

The Oregonian is now advocating to reinstate the Portland Police’s gun violence team  after the reality of the crime increase after its disbandment and to actually fund the police, but the woke running Portland still have other ideas and will likely double-down on their failure.

2.  Ending Cash Bail / Low Bail:  Again, this has been pointed out to be a very bad idea with lots of consequences by releasing criminals onto the streets to continue to commit crimes.

Yep this Illinois state senator, advocated for and passed the law for eliminating cash bail. He's now all sorts of surprised when he's a victim of crime and the criminal who committed the crime against him gets out on low bail and can go on committing crimes? 

At least it's nice that someone who passed this idiotic law has to live with the consequences of his actions rather than being able to wall himself from the consequences of those actions.  This no cash bail policy has led to more crime everywhere it has been tried in the US so far, yet the progressives show no signs of backing away from this crime-increasing policy.  

These defund the police and no cash bail policies are brought to you by the same fools who couldn't figure out the correlation between criminals being locked up and resulting low crime rates.

Princeton: Well, That Woke Pronouncement Didn't Go As Expected

Mouthing woke bromides in an official capacity can cause issues.

The President of Princeton was quick to abase himself before the BLM masses and pronounced in an open letter, published on their website no less to state that:

Racism and the damage it does to people of color nevertheless persist at Princeton as in our society, sometimes by conscious intention but more often through unexamined assumptions and stereotypes, ignorance or insensitivity, and the systemic legacy of past decisions and policies. 

Racist assumptions from the past also remain embedded in structures of the University itself.

Yep, the President of Princeton publicly announced that Princeton is a racist institution, embedded with racism.   What could possibly go wrong with such a statement?

Now, he meant it in a wonderfully self-abasing progressive way that all the proper-thinking and feeling would understand, but words do mean things after all.

So the Department of Education decided to take action, and based on the admissions by the President in the letter has decided to launch an investigation into whether Princeton has been violating the Civil Rights act and should continue to receive federal funding, as racist institutions should not be receiving federal dollars: 

Washington Examiner:  EXCLUSIVE: Education Department opens investigation into Princeton University after president deems racism 'embedded' in the school

Oopsies.  Yep, Princeton may just lose federal funding for their president's woke announcement that they are a profoundly racist institution if such racism is actually found to exist if not then the President was lying in his letter.  

Even better, it just opened the door to an investigation to see exactly how racist they in fact are - which could look into their admissions policies regarding Jews and Asians which could be rather embarrassing to Princeton as well as other race-based policies they may have adopted.

9-1-1 Lone Star - A Show More Woke Than Watchable

I don't watch a lot of TV being busy doing other things. When I do, I want to be entertained with quality story lines.

9-1-1 Lone Star threw out the storytelling part and replaced it with a focus on wokeness, making a rather unwatchable mess.

The TV show 9-1-1, from which 9-1-1 Lone Star sprang, does have a fair bit of PC to it, considering it's set in LA that's to be expected. Of course, it had its Black Lives Matter moment and other stuff, but it typically wasn't in your face and did not replace the story of the show itself and was generally more subtle and in the background rather than in your face.

9-1-1 Lone Star flips the script on that, being woke as all heck, and real short on story-line.

The story begins: A disaster at a Austin, Texas storage facility wipes out all but one member of a firehouse in a rather earth-shattering kaboom. A promising start that swiftly goes downhill.

The Austin Fire Department then heads to New York to hire Rob Lowe, their only hope (who has early stage lung cancer from 9/11 of course), to diversify the department (because Austin, Texas is just a backwater in fly-over country and obviously only has white good ol' boy firefighters, amirite?) and rebuild the empty station.

Lowe, in between being very concerned about his hair and moisturizing (no, not making that up), goes forth and totally ignoring any existing civil service and firefighting hiring protocols assembles a crack woke team of:

- A devout Muslim female daredevil acrobatic firefighter from Miami;

- A trans from female-to-male firefighter from another city (Chicago?), who happens to be a magically talented crack investigator;

- A Hispanic who has continually failed the written test for the fire department but, because he is detail oriented at cleaning the Fire Chief's car, Lowe feels he'll be a great firefighter so no need to actually pass the academy;

- Lowe's fictional son, who is not just very, very gay, but also has an opioid addiction problem and is just recovering from trying to commit suicide after his prior lover broke up with him; and

-The Texan lone survivor who is present as a PTSD suffering, stubborn, somewhat conservative good ol' boy, and not depicted as overly smart. But, thankfully, he does at least have a redeeming feature by having an African-American wife who is depicted as very wise, sensible, and able to order him around.

Yep, you can just imagine the hiring board, the Austin firefighter's union, and not to mention the City's liability insurance company absolutely losing their stuffing over such a hiring process.

On top of that, you have Liv Tyler, who is horribly miscast as a top paramedic. Liv, when not working, is busy searching for her sister's killer, and is busy handing out medications and performing off-book medical procedures for illegals. The illegals in thanks for her medical services then give her a clue to the disappearance of her sister three years before. Yes, really.

Of course, the average white Texan represented on the show are depicted as overly conservative in a stupid backwards way, or being benightedly Christian-religious (which is bad, unlike a devout Muslim praying on a prayer rug in the station, which is good), or racist. They often score a perfect trifecta of all three in the show.

In short, the show decided to put maximum wokeness way ahead of the story line and replace an actual plot with actual disasters/emergencies at the forefront with PC pablum and it really shows. I got through the first episode just to see if they could actually stop this from turning into a PC-train wreck, and then threw in the towel mid-way through the second episode.

Basically, the show is designed to gut the standard heroic Emergency!/Rescue show and bend it to the progressive zeitgeist and let the cognoscenti tea-bag on their imagined stereotypical denizens of a red state. Meanwhile, the show producers are apparently too ignorant to realize that Austin is a rather solidly blue dot in Texas.

In short, there's much better stuff on TV to watch today and 9-1-1 Lone Star is not worth your time.