The Daily Gouge Archive, Wednesday, December 9th, 2020

On December 10, 2020, in Uncategorized, by magoo1310

It’s Wednesday, December 9th, 2020…but before we begin, we take a moment to honor a man who in so many ways…

…truly lived a dream. They still make ’em that way; just not as many as they once did.

Now, here’s The Gouge!

First up, filling in for Jim Freeman at Best of the Web, Allysia Finley highlights the havoc counterproductive Progressive policies (Do they come any other way?!?) are having on those unfortunate enough to be…

Locked Down in La La Land

“…During the state’s first stay-at-home order this spring, cannabis shops were classified as essential. Ditto entertainment production. But hair salons and outdoor dining? Nope—unless of course these businesses cater to the state’s entertainment industry.

A Los Angeles restaurant owner who had to close her outdoor patio posted an emotional video on social media late last week begging Gov. Newsom and Mayor Eric Garcetti to let her and other mom-and-pop restaurants reopen. Right across the street from her, she pointed out, a film studio had set up an outdoor cafeteria for its production workers.

Big-shot producers like Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg donate heavily to Democrats. But the Hollywood dispensation probably owes more to the political clout of production unions, including the Teamsters, which are worried studios will move production to other states like Georgia if they can’t film in California—as they have in recent years in pursuit of more generous tax breaks. Democrats may not care much about the economic impact, but union members don’t pay dues unless they work and get paid.

Asked last Thursday about the scientific evidence to support the state’s business closures and whether a ban on outdoor dining could lead to an increase in private gatherings, Mr. Newsom replied, “The evidence you ask? Very significant evidence, overwhelming evidence.” He couldn’t cite any.

Meantime, Democratic legislators led by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez—a Teamsters member who championed the state’s AB5 law reclassifying hundreds of thousands of independent contractors as employees—have sent a letter to Gov. Newsom beseeching him to reopen playgrounds, noting the disparate impact the closures have on low-income families without backyards.

Maybe once kids, parents and small-business owners start paying union dues Mr. Newsom will start to care about their interests.“

And for those unlucky enough to be living in the former City of Angels, as Tucker relates, the hits just keep on coming:

In a related item, Townhall.com‘s Cortney O’Brien tells us…

Dr. Fauci Suggests Cuomo’s COVID Mandates Don’t Go Far Enough

“The bromance has begun. And it’s one we probably should have expected. On his press conference call with Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo referred to the two of them as, “the modern day De Niro and Pacino.”

Fauci praised Gov. Cuomo for what most others have criticized him for – his draconian lockdowns. Ahead of Thanksgiving, Cuomo ordered bars and restaurants to close indoor and outdoor dining nightly at 10 p.m. And he limited private gatherings to just 10 people, meaning families had to make some cuts from their holiday guest lists.

In their conversation, however, Fauci suggested that 10 people “may even be a bit too much.“

Funny…we can’t remember any of De Niro or Pesci’s characters willfully slaughtering the aged.

What follows are the questions we’d pose to Dr. Faux Chi had we the opportunity granted Jim Jordan:

Dr. Faux Chi, you’ve been director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. Soooo…

(1). Why is it, when in 2009, as the H1N1 virus was infecting some 66,000,000 Americans, cutting a wide swath NOT in the elderly and vulnerable but in otherwise healthy young adults, you recommended NONE of the measures you’re now promoting?

(2). What makes the Wuhan virus so different or more deadly than the 1968-’69 Hong Kong flu, which killed over 100,000 in the U.S. and 1,000,000 worldwide, that it requires never-before enacted restrictions on economic and personal liberties? Hells bells, Tony, not only weren’t masks not required, but Woodstock went down!

(3). Though a vaccine was ultimately developed for the Hong Kong flu, the virus continues to mutate and return ever year, as will, undoubtedly, the Wuhan virus. Do you expect Americans to continue to wear masks, practice social distancing and cancel holiday get-togethers in perpetuity?!?

We conclude our COVID chronicling with an absolute must-read article from Hillsdale College’s Imprimis containing Jay Bhattacharya’s speech at the October 20th Hillsdale College Free Market Forum, which was featured in the WSJ back on October 23rd:

A Sensible and Compassionate Anti-COVID Strategy

This as opposed to the current lock-down strategy birthed by George W. Bush’s (ANOTHER gift from the family that keeps on giving…giving it to America, right up our her collective keister!) backing of a plan conceived by two government doctors with no epidemiological or pandemic expertise based on a 14-year-old girl’s high school science project which was rejected by every expert in medical expert in the country, largely owing to its lack of any cogent exit strategy, i.e., how you UNlock! You know,…sorta like Dubya’s exit strategy from both Afghanistan and Iraq!!!

Here’s the juice: The incredible level of willing compliance shown by a significant portion of the country with the policies and pronouncements issued by hypocrites who consider themselves free from their own strictures never ceases to amaze, as demonstrated by this drawing forwarded by Balls Cotton we’ve featured before:

C’mon, man:

Meanwhile, as this Twitter post forwarded by Balls suggests…

Next, our continuing coverage of the Great Election Heist of 2020 features:

(1). Courtesy of Speed Mach, writing at The Federalist, Mollie Hemingway opines that No, The Georgia Vote-Counting Video Was Not ‘Debunked.’ Not Even Close.

(2). At the same time the Supreme Court denies a long-shot Republican bid to block Pennsylvania’s election results for Joe Biden…

(3). In a forward from Mark Foster, we learn Texas has sued Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin at the Supreme Court over election rules.

Where this goes? YOUR guess is as good as OURS! As for The Donald: He’s nothing if not exciting!

Moving on, as this forward from Revolver via George Lawlor relates, the once prestigious…

Rhodes Scholarships Have Become a Laughingstock After Embracing the Left’s “Woke Culture”

“Twitter user David Burge provided one of the finest, and most succinct, descriptions of modern leftism in a brief tweet back in 2015.

Burge’s observation has been vindicated over and over again, in one once-useful institution after another. From Harvard University to the FBI, from The New York Times to the Boy Scouts of America, America is littered with organizations that may have deserved respect fifty or one hundred years ago, but are now destructive, parasitic entities sucking the lifeblood of America.

One of the most glaring skin suits of all, though, is America’s most famous academic award, the Rhodes Scholarship.

…The 2021 Rhodes class, announced in late November, is such an orgy of left-wing identity politics it would be impossible to parody.

…The biographies of the winners are even more absurd than the initial press release. Each profile seems written with an eye toward being even more ridiculous than the one before…”

Frankly, the Rhodes Scholarship program went Tex-Ritter-down-the-sh*tter with William Jefferson Clinton, who, after having initially read for a B.Phil. in philosophy, politics, and economics, transferred to a B.Litt. in politics and, ultimately, a B.Phil. in politics.

And, far more importantly, some years thereafter suggested…strongly suggested…Juanita Broaddrick, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey and Monica Lewinsky read for a “B.Ill.” in fellatio.

In a related item of educated idiocy, The Washington Free Beacon reports…

Cornell Offers Minority Students Exemption from Mandatory Vaccine

After all, it’s not as if minority students are susceptible to or could spread infectious diseases! So to HELL with Cornell…along with the rest of the Ivy League.

And in today’s installment of the EnvironMental Moment, courtesy of Breitbart via Walt Meisen, The Lancet informs us…

Climate Response Must Break ‘Stranglehold of Fossil Fuels’

“…Marching in lockstep with the World Economic Forum (WEF), Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Joe Biden, Pope Francis, and others, the U.K.-based Lancet argues for a global reset.

Aligning responses “presents an opportunity to improve public health, create a sustainable economic future, and better protect the planet’s remaining natural resources and biodiversity,” it declares.

While climate change “has slipped from the top of the global agenda because of political indifference and the need to deal with the immediacies of COVID-19,” the time is ripe for “seizing the opportunity to refocus interests on sustainability [and] the co-benefits of protecting our future health, the environment, and our planetary systems.”…”

In other words, as detailed by the graphic we featured in the Monday edition courtesy of Carl Polizzi, you’re being conditioned…