Roundup!
(1) The SCOTUS Deep Leaker is still unidentified. And I think he or she will remain so.
(2) Draconian COVID Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand has resigned:
I’m leaving, because with such a privileged role comes responsibility. The responsibility to know when you are the right person to lead and also when you are not,” The Guardian quoted Ardern as saying. “I know what this job takes. And I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It’s that simple.”
Ardren knows that she used to be the right person to lead. And now she knows that, although she still would be the right person to lead if only she hadn’t suddenly run out of gas with no filling station in sight, now that her tank is low or even empty she can’t be the great PM that she once was. It’s that simple.
(3) Alec Baldwin has been charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter in the “Rust” shooting case, as has the film’s armorer:
Prosecutors also brought involuntary manslaughter charges against weapons handler Hannah Gutierrez Reed, who loaded the gun. The assistant director David Halls, who investigators said gave the loaded revolver to Baldwin just before a rehearsal in an old wooden church at Bonanza Creek Ranch, a popular movie location near Santa Fe, accepted a misdemeanor charge in a plea deal…
The decision comes three months after Baldwin and the film’s other producers struck a proposed settlement agreement with Hutchins’ family to end the wrongful death civil lawsuit they filed early last year.
I haven’t written much about the case, nor have I followed the details very carefully.
(4) The San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee panel, appointed by city supervisors in May of 2021, wants every eligible black person there to get $5 million “as recompense for the ‘decades of harm they have experienced’ as ‘the result of both intentional decisions and unintended harms perpetuated by City policy.’”
And not just a cool five million each, but also “wiping out all debts associated with educational, personal, credit card and payday loans for black households.” Will the city of San Francisco pay off all these loans as well? Sweet! San Francisco, that hotbed of segregation.
Note the requirements to be eligible: at least 18, have called themselves black on official documents for at least 10 years, and at least two out of eight others, of which four are these:
…being born in or having migrated to San Francisco between 1940 and 1996, and having proof of residency for at least 13 years, being personally or a direct descendant of someone jailed in the “failed War on Drugs,” or being a descendant of someone enslaved before 1865.
Extraordinary. It would also bankrupt the city. Virtue-signaling gone mad. But probably just the opening move in a series of negotiations.
(5) Not to be outdone, New York is thinking about reparations for black people too, this time for slavery. You know – New York, that famous slave state, the one that fought with the South in the Civil War? No? You don’t say!
“We saw what happened in California. We want to pass a bill that starts a conversation about reparations,” said Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages (D-Nassau), chairwoman of the New York Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, to The Post.
Assemblywoman Taylor Darling (D-Nassau) said it would be a “slap in the face” if Gov. Kathy Hochul and the legislature don’t green-light a reparations study commission.
Darling also scoffed that the $223,000 figure that California’s task force recommended for each black descendant there was too low.
That figure of $223,000 isn’t the one discussed in #4 above. It’s a different figure, recommended earlier by a statewide California task force. And “start the conversation” is another term for “make a bold opening bid.”
Neo says, “. . . although [Ardern] still would be the right person to lead if only she hadn’t suddenly run out of gas with no filling station in sight, now that her tank is low or even empty she can’t be the great PM that she once was.”
Gas? A fossil fuel? You mean that this prog darling compared herself to an ICE vehicle rather than identifying as an EV (electoral victor)? I suppose the Kiwi Tesla isn’t getting the charge from the New Zealand electorate that she’d taken for granted.
BTW, is New Zealand still the favored destination for the uber-wealthy seeking “apocalypse insurance,” i.e., a place to build bunkers against the day that we deplorables start decorating lampposts with them? The trend started somewhere around 2017: “Some of America’s richest citizens are buying into a fast-growing movement of well-heeled doomsday survivalists or ‘preppers’ investing billions of dollars to prepare secretly for the global apocalypse. The increasing number of billionaires who are participating in the doomsday ‘prepper’ movement by acquiring elaborate and expensive getaways in isolated and remote spots of the world is causing concern . . . . The public obtained valuable insight into the fast-growing movement, consisting of billionaire Silicon Valley and Wall Street preppers who have been secretly buying up vast tracts of land in New Zealand, following an incident involving Peter Thiel . . . .”
https://news.yahoo.com/billionaires-building-bunkers-zealand-prepping-200302696.html
” Reparations” on a massive scale at those rates would further devalue the dollar and cause inflation, especially in local areas.
If the members of the Supreme Court and their “Chief Security Officer” can’t figure out who leaked the memo, why should we trust the deliberations and decisions of people who can’t even solve a game of Clue?
With this admission that they can’t find out who leaked the memo (or is it that they don’t want to find out who leaked the memo),they paint themselves as clowns.
They have revealed themselves to not really be serious people but, rather, just a bunch of Bozos.
California, as a state, never had legal slavery.
Andy Ngo: https://mobile.twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1616212695409381377?cxt=HHwWgsDS9cS4-O0sAAAA
https://thepostmillennial.com/andy-ngo-reports-four-charged-with-domestic-terrorism-following-deadly-shooting-at-atlanta-autonomous-zone?utm_campaign=64470
I was listening to NPR on the way home, All Thing Considered. They were carrying the sad news about Ardern. I’m glad I wasn’t eating at the time: Layer after layer of honeyed praise laid on while they burnished her impending political sainthood to a warm glow, recounting the daunting hardships her leadership faced. Nary a word about censorship, governmental overreaches, cancellation of fundamental human freedoms, forced vaccinations, ‘un-personing’ and so on. Nothing about Her Eminence declaring that the Government was to be the source of all information required to be a Good Citizen, with stern admonishments to avoid the pitfalls of information on the internet. Those unpleasant variables do not exist in this humanitarian equation, nor in its derivatives. Finally, about 2/3 of the way in, the buried lede: Ardern is facing plummeting ratings and unpleasantness in the face of an upcoming election. Time to Get Out Of Dodge, while the horses are still fresh. Watch, she’ll be rehabilitated as she’s enshrined, and then discover a new career on the World Stage. Her brand of diplomacy is popular these days, I hear.
Andrew Branca, youtube, “FINALLY! Alec Baldwin Charged with Manslaughter!”: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9NG1-0c_ENA
1) It’s likely that the leaker has been identified. If so it’s been decided that it’s for the best that the identity of the leaker(s) not be revealed.
2) I suspect the world has not seen the last of that piece of work.
3) Lock him up!
4) the best part of the proposed reparations is that every black resident receive compensation adequate to raise their income to the San Francisco mean income level. Which is $97,000. So in other words, someone making $27,000 would get a yearly free check for $50,000.
But wait there’s more… that program would continue for the next 250 years.
Not covered is who would have to pay. Would Hispanic and Asian residents who never engaged in racial discrimination have to pay increased taxes? They would certainly claim that they and their ancestors experienced racial discrimination and would thus be due compensation as well. So it would presumably be a tax upon white people only, which is of course a blatant racially discriminatory tax.
But of course it’s not really about reparations. It’s about using partial truths to leverage liberal white guilt over their ‘ancestral sins’ to squeeze more coin from them. If fully implemented, in 250 years it would have to be extended for another $250 years, ad infinitum. Got to keep that gravy train a running.
P.S.–From what I have read, although there are close to a total of 100 people who work at the Supreme Court, there are actually only a couple dozen people–the Justices themselves and their clerks–who would have been likely to have had access to the text of the preliminary decision.
Thus, the likely universe of most likely leaker candidates is not 100 people, but more like perhaps 25 or 30.
So, just how wide, deep, and thorough was the search for the leaker among those most likely candidates?
Very intense and close questioning, data dumps of work and personal computers– same for cell phones–polygraphs, bank accounts, outside contacts?
Or, did they just take each person’s signed statement that they didn’t do it?
Was it a no holds barred inquisition, or a soft, gentlemanly inquiry that just scratched the surface?
@ Snow > “Or, did they just take each person’s signed statement that they didn’t do it?”
An earlier post by Prof. Jacobson indicates they didn’t even require a signature, quoting the Wall Street Journal.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/01/scotus-investigation-into-abortion-leak-seems-a-mess/
He added: “Doesn’t look promising that the perp(s) will be identified.”
Got it in one.
My two favorite comments on that post:
Reparations – don’t be pikers. Why not a hundred million apiece? And, in related news, the Babylon Bee reports that Egypt will have to pay slavery reparations to the Hebrews.
@ PA Cat > “BTW, is New Zealand still the favored destination for the uber-wealthy seeking “apocalypse insurance,” i.e., a place to build bunkers against the day that we deplorables start decorating lampposts with them? The trend started somewhere around 2017:”
The story you linked was copying this original post, in which I found an interesting nugget that Yahoo omitted, as it came after the “click here for more”:
https://www.inquisitr.com/3950643/billionaires-are-building-bunkers-in-new-zealand-prepping-for-the-apocalypse
I wonder what he thought about the wonderful policies of “Draconian COVID Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern” the last few years.
Of course, she’s gone and he (maybe) is not, but the people who elected her, implemented her policies, and (in many cases) cheered the tyranny are still there.
Which makes the last graf in the post kind of a joke:
Do they really think that New Zealand will be immune to the effects of a global melt-down, or that the decline of the US won’t have ramifications that far away?
And if they did leave at the first sign of trouble, were they there during PM Ardern’s regime?
New Zealand’s a lovely place. You can retire there if you deposit several million dollars with the government to help them pay any benefits you might receive – healthcare mostly. I imagine Theil paid them a nice sum for citizenship. The Kiwis are practical people. Money (especially hard currencies) talks.
They have plenty of electricity from hydropower and geothermal. What they don’t have is fossil fuels. They import all their oil, gas, and coal – probably from Australia and Indonesia.
They have frequent and often bad earthquakes. The two islands are on a fault zone somewhat like the San Andreas.
Their primary industry is dairy farming. It’s a mostly agrarian economy with wool, wine, fruit, and timber being their other main products.
In the event of a worldwide apocalypse, they might be able to do okay with subsistence farming, etc. But if they lost their access to fossil fuels, it would be starvation times, as their agricultural output would plummet. Do billionaires think about these issues? Do they consider where the food and fuel come from? How it’s produced?
There are no safe havens unless they have secure energy and food supplies. Someplace in Texas would be my choice for a getaway if I was a billionaire.
I was mildly shocked by the SF reparations thing–not the thing itself, but the amount. $5,000,000 per person?!? But I was really shocked by the declaration that the law would be in effect for the next 250 years. I just can’t imagine–I mean literally and seriously unable to imagine–how they think they have the right to do that, or how it could be enforced. The basic thing is the sort of ludicrous proposals we expect from progressives. But that 250 years is on another level.
2023+250 = 2273, in case you didn’t do that in your head immediately. I would not bet on San Francisco even existing in any form we would recognize in 2273. In fact I’d bet against it.
Surellin: then I bet the Egyptian government will quickly argue that the Hebrew tribe crossing the Red (or Reed) Sea was really only 600 people, not 600,000, as is the common presumption.
Mac: but the real kicker is that each recipient of reparations will have to swear to (and actually abide by) never bringing up the issue of race or past racial injustices ever again. Those that do will have to forfeit their current and any future gains, and return any amounts already spent. I suspect 98% of them will fail in this duty.
sdferr, you gotta be kidding.
We all know that antifa is just “a concept” (per Joe Biden) and/or “myth” (per Jerry Nadler)…or should that be, mythical concept? Conceptual myth?
Quite a mythical (conceptual?) stash of weaponry they had in their forest hangout, too….
Now it seems that those conceptual myths (or mythical concepts) are threatening mythical (conceptual?) retaliation against the Atlanta police….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgXq8S02NJc
Jacinda Ardern is the literal personification of the tyranny in C.S. Lewis’ famous quote about tyranny. Every imposition on her people she committed, she did so with the approval of her conscience.
Thou shall not make waves in John Roberts leaky swimming pool.
Their primary industry is dairy farming. It’s a mostly agrarian economy with wool, wine, fruit, and timber being their other main products.
Food and agricultural raw materials account for just north of half the country’s export revenue. However, the ratio of export revenue from such sources to nominal gross domestic product is about 0.14. Agriculture accounts for about 5.5% of the country’s value added and a similar share of its labor force.
I was mildly shocked by the SF reparations thing–not the thing itself, but the amount. $5,000,000 per person?!? But I was really shocked by the declaration that the law would be in effect for the next 250 years.
Look at the employment history of the schmucks on the commission. One of them is a secretary at Kaiser Permanente; as far as I can tell, she’s the only one of them with a job which has operational measures of competence. You’re looking at a mess of people whose brains might be taxed by anything more complex than long division.
Art D.: “Agriculture accounts for about 5.5% of the country’s value added and a similar share of its labor force.”
Have you been there? Have you talked to the natives who know what’s going on in their economy? It’s easy to look at wiki or some other economic site and quote statistics, and think you know all there is to know.
I have long had an interest in New Zealand. I was in line to be assigned to Operation Deep Freeze in Christchurch as far back as 1967. As a result, I talked with other Navy pilots who had been there. It was quite a different country then. Wool was their main export (and exported primarily to the UK) and importing goods such as cars, stoves, or refrigerators was not allowed. It wasn’t until the 1980s when they broke the UK’s stranglehold on their trade that they began to be able to export to China and other nations. It turned out Chinas wanted their dairy products in large quantities. It was a good thing because their wool was being supplanted by other fabrics that were cheaper and just as durable.
I considered retiring there, but after visiting and learning about the rather large cash deposit required and that Kiwis were not keen on outsiders moving in, I crossed them off my list. Also, I doubt I could ever be comfortable driving on the left side of the road.
If you should visit there and talk with the natives, they will tell you that the backbone of their economy is farming and fishing. Their manufacturing sector is quite small.
From Wiki: “Exports: Dairy products, meat, logs and wood products, fruit, machinery and equipment, wine, fish and seafood.”
“Main industries: Food processing, Agriculture, Forestry, Tourism, Financial Services”
Tourism brings in a lot of hard currency and helps their GDP, but it’s one of the few service industries that does. I imagine those employed in that sector have been suffering quite a bit under Jacinda’s lockdowns.
They have a movie making sector in Wellington (Lord of the Rings movies and others) that has helped bring in capital but was probably pretty much shuttered during the pandemic.
It’s a lovely place to visit. The geography is spectacular, and if you’re a trout fisherman, it’s as good as any place in the world. Many parts of the South Island will remind you of small-town USA back in the 1950s.
Re: Reparations
All over the world, every group/tribe of people has, apparently, at some time or other, moved in and taken over/taken land from another group and that group has, in turn, been subjugated/enslaved or dispossed by the next incoming group, and so on throughout history.
Slavery has also been a practice of–it seems–every culture throughout history (and it still exists, to this day, in some countries.)
Thus, to be fair, if reparations are to be given to one group they must be given to all other groups, going back through history along the chain of dispossessions and/or enslavements.
There is also the major problem of how you can make someone who has never held slaves–or whose ancestors never held slaves, and force him or her to pay reparations to someone who has himself, nor have his ancestors of the last couple of generations, ever been enslaved.
Snow on Pine:
The San Francisco reparations are explicitly not for slavery. They are supposedly for discrimination of various kinds that occurred in San Francisco.
A good assessment of John Roberts’ SCOTUS investigation screw-up:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/supreme-incompetence/
RE: Supreme Court leak.
What a joke! It appears that this “investigation” was conducted by Inspector Clouseau.
Well, that’s about the last American institution whose reputation used to be one of, at least–rigor and competence–that we can now add to the pile of compromised and failed institutions, right on top of our military, whose leadership is now focused on “diversity” and “inclusion” issues and not on war fighting.
worse, mr burns lookalike michael chertoff, first of the pretender siloviki at homeland, (who had at least one conflict of interest subsequentlly in the private sector,) part of the deep state gang that included general hayden and co, who also did favors for ukrainian oligarchs, like firtash, sort of a swiss army knife, sometimes he could be used against manafort or giuiliani, other times well he was a fine fellow to work with,
Have you been there? Have you talked to the natives who know what’s going on in their economy? It’s easy to look at wiki or some other economic site and quote statistics, and think you know all there is to know.
Agriculture accounts for 5.5% of the value-added in the New Zealand economy and absorbs a similar share of the labor force. I’m sorry acknowledging that upsets you.
Chertoff was the no 2 choice for disinfo ministry,
the problem is ardern waving her xi pom poms has turned new zealand into
mordor, the hellscape that peter jackson shot,
but of coursem
https://www.frontpagemag.com/rape-the-white-girls-poet-included-in-floridas-black-ap-course/
down with the old orc, up with the new
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/01/21/lockdown-tsar-chris-hipkins-to-become-next-new-zealand-prime-minister/
Reparations are just another Dem vote-buying ploy: “Alright, there, darkies, vote straight D, this shows you which side your bread is buttered on.” Standard Dem playbook – free stuff with OPM. The numbers show that nobody’s serious.
Almost every country will allow residence and/or citizenship with sufficient grease. Central and South American countries are fairly reasonable whereas the further up the “-world” ladder, countries raise the ante. Spain is something like $350k of owned real estate. NZ is evidently well above that. They do have some native industrial capacity; Fischer and Paykel, for instance.