It's worth paying attention to just how disordered Mr. Young's thinking is because it summarizes everything that has gone awry on the political Left: He is wrong two ways: 1) morally, and 2) on the facts of the matter — which is as wrong as you can be....

Rock'n'roller Neil Young's conniption over having to share the Spotify platform with Joe Rogan affords a glimpse into the glutenous mire that is a mind bethinking itself "progressive" these drear days of American unraveling. For those of you not tuned in: Joe Rogan is a comedian and martial arts maven who runs the most popular podcast in the world, renowned for long-form interviews (three hours sometimes!) often with high-powered intellectuals. A month ago, he interviewed the mRNA developer Dr. Robert Malone, who has become an outspoken opponent of the Covid-19 mRNA "vaccines," and of the US-led world pandemic policy in general under Dr. Anthony Fauci, going as far as to call for an immediate end to the world-wide vaxxing program because, Dr. Malone says, the vaxxes don't work and they kill and disable people. Hearing that, Mr. Young called for Joe Rogan to be cancelled for spreading "misinformation."

It's worth paying attention to just how disordered Mr. Young's thinking is because it summarizes everything that has gone awry on the political Left: He is wrong two ways: 1) morally, and 2) on the facts of the matter — which is as wrong as you can be. Like virtually everyone on the Democratic Party / Woke / Progressive axis, he is obviously in favor of suppressing free speech. Since when did that become okay for old hippies?

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family were reportedly moved to a secret location Saturday after thousands of protesters descended on the country's capital to decry COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

Trudeau, his wife and their children were relocated from their Ottawa home to the undisclosed location in the capital amid heightened security concerns, sources told CBC.

The prime minister's itinerary for the day usually states he is in Ottawa if he's at home, but on Saturday it was changed to say "National Capital Region." Trudeau has been working remotely and isolating after one of his children tested positive for COVID last week.

The move to relocate Trudeau came as the protesters — mostly made up of a huge convoy of truckers — rolled into the city to rail against vaccine mandates, masks and lockdowns.

Every good fisherman knows that reeling in a big fish takes skill and conscious intention. One of the first things they learn is that you can't just crank in the big guy with one effortless winding up of the line.

It takes finesse, a dance of sorts. While always keeping a steady line, you bring them in slowly, with the primary focus on wearing them out, almost hypnotizing them into compliance.

A popular fishing website HUK says this about the process:

Remember that too much tension can snap the line and when large fish decide to make a run for it, the worst thing you can do is try to keep them in place. By fighting their runs, all you are doing is increasing the chances that your line will break and your prize will get away. Instead, set the drag so the fish can take out line while still tiring itself. This will wear down the fish; eventually their runs will get shorter, less violent, and less frequent.

Hmmm. Sounds a bit too close for comfort, eh?

I am afraid I am not all that excited about the current hoopla regarding our apparent victory over the mainstream narrative. I simply don't believe it entirely.

We've made a run, so to speak, maybe have gotten too rowdy, too powerful, and we are being given a bit of slack so we don't break the line.

This run is not being executed only by the folks on our side of the fence, but by the sheep as well. We are ALL tired, we are all ready to get out of this mess and call it a day.

It seems like a sensible tactic on their part — to let out a little line, but still keeping us hooked and apparently still in their control.

All this euphoria about us finally winning the battle and that the narrative is finally crumbling indicates to me that we may be getting lost in the weeds of apparent success and the hook and line is still, in reality, firmly embedded in our flesh, only to suddenly reel us in again, after a dizzying and disorienting taste of freedom. I don't like it.

On January 29th, the Washington Post published an op-ed by the well-known Yale neoconservative Timothy Snyder, titled "Putin's case for invading Ukraine rests on phony grievances and ancient myths". Key passages in Snyder's article are:

Last July, Vladimir Putin supplied the mythical basis [BAD LINK FROM SNYDER: here is a functional link to see Putin's article] for Russian war propaganda in an essay titled "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians." The essential idea is that Russia has the right to Ukraine because of things that happened a thousand years ago in Kyiv. ... It takes some fanciful thinking to see here a reason for Russia to invade Ukraine in the 21st century, as it seems prepared to do. ... Putin's idea is that Ukraine is a fraternal nation because of how he personally feels about the past. This is known as imperialism. It flies in the face of the basic legal principle of state sovereignty and the basic moral principle of democracy.

A parliamentary committee is reportedly set to investigate "scare ads" created by the UK government's shadowy 'behavioural insights' team to "nudge" the public into obeying Covid-19 restrictions. The move comes amid concerns about the "grossly unethical" use of the unit to "inflate fear levels."

The House of Commons' Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee is expected to probe the so-called "nudge unit" as part of an ongoing investigation into government activities during the pandemic, The Telegraph reported.

Tory MP William Wragg, who chairs the committee, told the paper that the "central issue is how 'nudge' sits within parliamentary democracy and ministerial accountability."

According to The Telegraph, the committee received a letter from a group of 40 psychologists this week, which warned that it was "highly questionable whether a civilised society should knowingly increase the emotional discomfort of its citizens as a means of gaining their compliance."

Friedrich Merz, the leader of Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), believes that Europe will make a mistake if it attempts to disconnect Russia from the international payment system SWIFT, he said in an interview published by the Die Welt daily on Saturday.

"Once we disconnect Russia from SWIFT, there is a big risk that this system will collapse, and we may then have to switch to the Chinese payment system. That would cause us serious damage," Merz said adding that in spite of this fact, Russia's possible disconnection from SWIFT "remains a topic of discussion" in Europe.

Merz pointed out that the European Union "did make a mistake" when sealing the association deal with Ukraine.

The withholding of aid comes after human rights groups called on the US to block the aid following Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's crackdown on dissent.

According to US State Department officials, the current US administration is preparing to withhold Egypt $130 million in military aid for "human rights concerns" and Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's tightening crackdown on dissent in recent years.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated in September that funding would be withdrawn if Egypt did not meet particular human-rights-related criteria imposed by Washington, which activists claim included the release of some political prisoners.


Rights organizations have urged the administration to halt all foreign military aid to Egypt's regime under Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Jacinda Ardern recently told an American television host that she finds it 'slightly offensive' when outsiders assume every other New Zealander starred in Lord of the Rings. Quite so. New Zealand has only one real film star in 2022, and that's the Prime Minister herself. But the way things are heading, she might best suit an adaptation of Lord of the Flies.

The place has gone mad. Many countries, even nearby Australia, have responded to the arrival of the Omicron variant by drastically easing many of their formerly draconian measures in response to Covid, in particular the widespread use of lockdowns, or what some might prefer to describe as mass house arrests. New Zealand's government is not one of them.

According to the latest announcement, anyone known to be infected will now be required to lock themselves in their homes for 14 days. That is only the start of it, however, because anyone else in the house automatically becomes classified as a close contact; they must also now 'isolate' for the same period and then for an additional ten days as well. And if it so happens in those last ten days that one of the previously un-infected close contacts in your house tests positive then the whole process starts all over again. If Omicron spreads as quickly here as it has in other countries, it seems possible that at some point nearly every household will be forced into isolation.

As the latest anti-Substack campaign shows, more and more people are forgetting why free speech works.

Earlier this week, in the latest in a series of scolding campaigns, a Britain-based group called the Center for Countering Digital Hate gave a sneak peek at a research report on Substack to The Guardian and The Washington Post. Both outlets came out with their scare pieces this morning.

From The Guardian:

A group of vaccine-skeptic writers are generating revenues of at least $2.5m (£1.85m) a year from publishing newsletters for tens of thousands of followers on the online publishing platform Substack, according to new research...

Imran Ahmed, chief executive of CCDH, said companies like Substack were under "no obligation" to amplify vaccine skepticism and make money from it. "They could just say no..."

The Post, citing "some misinformation experts" — the pandemic version of "people familiar with the matter" — added:

These newer platforms cater to subscribers who seek out specific content that accommodates their viewpoints — potentially making the servicesless responsible for spreading harmful views, some misinformation experts say.

If these stories sound familiar, it's because this same Center for Countering Digital Hate two years ago tried to pull the same stunt with The Federalist, using NBC to ask Google to crack down on them. Humorously, and typically — this happens a lot with these stories — that effort ended in fiasco. The piece NBC ended up writing boasting of the success of its "Verification Unit" in getting the site demonetized, entitled, "Google bans two websites from its ad platform over protest articles," turned out to itself be misinformation. The Federalist was never banned, only warned, and the issue was its comments section, not its articles.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hit back at Jen Psaki on Wednesday, accusing the White House press secretary of "lying through her teeth every single day" after she chided Florida for being slow to apply for COVID-19 education funds.

DeSantis said at a news conference at Miami Dade College:

"The White House press secretary stands in front of that podium and lies through her teeth every single day, and usually about the state of Florida."

DeSantis specifically called out Psaki for saying Florida hadn't done enough to distribute money to help keep schools open during the latest COVID-19 wave.

DeSantis said of Democrats who slammed his decision to open schools in the fall of 2020:

"Are you kidding me? I remember them criticizing me when we did this almost two years ago. We were the only big state to have every school open for in person, and we did that way before Biden was even president. We didn't need the Biden stimulus money for that."

Florida was one of the only states to push schools to reopen in person during the coronavirus pandemic while others held only virtual classes, leading to frustrations among teacher's unions, elected officials, and families. The topic has become a lightning-rod issue ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, with Republicans seeing fewer COVID-19 restrictions as a winning message for bringing people to the polls.