Society's ChildS


Bullseye

Dr. Peterson: Durham City Council purchases unearned virtue with the currency of denouncement

Jordan Peterson
A few days ago (July 6, 2018) Mayor Pro Tempore Jillian Johnson and her colleagues on the Durham city council saw fit to release a statement on FaceBook concerning my upcoming 12 Rules for Life Tour appearance September 10 at the Performing Arts Center in their city. These are the signatories:

Steve Schewel, Mayor: Steve.Schewel@durhamnc.gov
Jillian Johnson, Mayor Pro Tempore: Jillian.Johnson@durhamnc.gov
Vernetta Alston, City Council Member, Ward 3: vernetta.alston@durhamnc.gov
Javiera Caballero, City Council Member At-Large: Javiera.Caballero@durhamnc.gov
DeDreana Freeman, City Council Member, Ward 1: dedreana.freeman@durhamnc.gov
Mark-Anthony Middleton, City Council Member, Ward 2: Mark-Anthony.Middleton@durhamnc.gov
Charlie Reece, City Council Member At-Large: charlie.reece@durhamnc.gov

The entire council can be contacted here: council@durhamnc.gov

Lest anyone accuse me of doxing, let it be known that all these email addresses can be found on the Durham city council website.

Bad Guys

Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: The beginning of the Democratic Party's demise?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Tom Perez, the Big Labor Establishment-backed Democratic National Committee Chairman, declared that the upstart Berniecrat, Bronx-native Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was the future of the Democratic Party. She rocketed to the forefront of Democratic politics when she had trounced liberal Democratic House leader Joe Crowley 57%-43% in a Democratic primary upset. She's young, a minority, and energizing to the Left. She also opposes secure borders, wants Medicare for all, demands the abolition ICE, and she calls housing "a right." In other words, she's a socialist.

As expected, the liberal press, including The Nation, wrote a glowing review of this self-avowed Democratic Socialist Millennial of Puerto Rican descent who campaigned hard for Bernie Sanders in 2016. The likely reason why Perez called Ocasio-Cortez the Democratic Party's future is that he fears losing his job. The left tends to cannibalize itself when the younger generation demands socialist outcomes at a faster rate. Instead of heeding the past and ignoring these demands, the leadership and doubles down on this self-defeating insanity.

USA

Founder of movement for disillusioned Democrats refused service at New York electronics store

Brandon Straka
© Brandon StrakaBrandon Straka, the founder of the "Walk Away" movement.
The founder of a movement that encourages disillusioned Democrats to walk away from their party says he was denied service by an employee at a New York electronics store after he was recognized from an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Brandon Straka, a gay hairdresser and the founder of the "Walk Away" campaign using the viral hashtag #WalkAway, had spent over an hour on Thursday carefully choosing equipment at electronics superstore Adorama in Manhattan following a week of media appearances, reports the Epoch Times.

After an employee sent Straka to a different department to buy a microphone, a customer in front of him exclaimed "I saw you on Tucker!" - before asking for a picture with the "Walk Away" founder.

The exchange was overheard by a store employee, who then refused to sell him the mic.
"He stared at me with this kind of dead-pan expression," Straka told The Epoch Times. "And he said: Are you planning to use this equipment for alt-right purposes?'"

As Straka struggled to comprehend what was happening, the clerk, whom Straka asked not be named, said: "I'm sorry I just don't feel comfortable selling to you. I can't sell to you." -Epoch Times

Hourglass

Elon Musk touts building 'escape pod' to rescue stranded Thai footballers - 'Can be built in 8 hours'

Elon Musk
© Joe Skipper / ReutersSpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk.
Elon Musk, the eccentric CEO of Tesla and Space X, has billed himself as a would-be savior of the Thai junior football squad that is trapped in a flooded cave. He is apparently building a tiny submarine out of space rocket parts.

With time being of the essence for 12 boys and their coach, who have been trapped inside a Thai cave for over two weeks, the US tech visionary has come forward with some ideas of his own.

Back on Thursday, a few days after the boys were discovered crammed on a ledge by divers, Musk floated the idea of building an "escape pod" and said his engineers were also busy working on "an inflatable tube with airlocks" to fetch the boys.

After receiving "great feedback" from Thailand, Musk has now apparently settled on "a tiny, kid-sized submarine" that would be based off a liquid oxygen transfer tube from his Falcon 9 space rocket. The device, Musk tweeted, will be "light enough to be carried by 2 divers, small enough to get through narrow gaps" and "extremely robust."

Comment: See also:
Former Navy Seal dies in Thai cave rescue operation; Elon Musk offers help
Children's football team missing for 9 days found trapped in flooded cave in Thailand


Books

Literature and identity politics: Lionel Shriver vs. Penguin-Random House

Lionel Shriver
© Getty Images
"Writers should be judged first by the quality of the content of their prose, not their identity. If we forget this, then the world of literature will be much poorer, and with the loss of this source of consolation, so will we all."
Lionel Shriver is the author of books such as We Need to Talk About Kevin and others. Shriver is not afraid to write about difficult and often disturbing subjects. She is also not afraid to raise her head above the parapet on things that she does not agree with. Unfortunately, in these times of perpetual outrage and flaunting of hurt feelings, that is a recipe for trouble. Shriver has feared for some time that her outspoken opinions and her obstreperous attitude to cultural dogmas might land her in hot water; she specifically said in an interview with Ben Domenech that her writing in the Spectator magazine might be what brings the outrage mob down on her. And so it has proved.

Comment:


Ambulance

Embattled GOP Congressman Jim Jordan's nephew, NCAA wrestler, killed when car runs off road

jim jordan nephew eli stickley
Eli Stickley
A 21-year-old wrestler for the University of Wisconsin died in a car crash Thursday night.

The wrestling team said their "hearts are heavy" after hearing about the loss of teammate Eli Stickley.

"Our hearts are heavy today. The entire Badger wrestling family extends its most heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Eli Stickley, our brother and teammate, who passed away last night," the team said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with Eli's family and friends."

Stickley, of Urbana, Ohio, was an Academic All-American wrestler and an NCAA qualifier.

Comment: Condolences to the Stickley family on their tragic loss.

Still, it is a strange, unsettling coincidence given both the high-profile role his uncle Congressman Jim Jordan is playing on the House Intel Committee hearings and the potential sex-abuse scandal brewing at Jordan's old employer Ohio State University.


Propaganda

Debunking the Skripal 2.0 nonsense: The assassins take the tourist route

Elizabeth Gardens in Salisbury
Elizabeth Gardens in Salisbury
Elizabeth Gardens in Salisbury is a rather lovely park. Situated next to the river, and overlooking the Water Meadows, it is a wonderful place to take an early morning stroll, and then to walk along the town path, where you get a wonderful view of the towering 13th Century gothic cathedral from the very spot where Constable painted his famous Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows.

Yet, like the centre of the City, it is now apparently a place synonymous with poisoning. According to latest reports, it is apparently the place at which Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley became poisoned on Friday 29th June. This from The Mail:

Comment: If it seems unbelievable, that's because it probably is. For more on British intelligence's continued farcical attempts at smearing Russia, see:


Red Flag

Young America's Foundation files First Amendment lawsuit against University of Minnesota for censoring Ben Shapiro

Ben Shapiro
Ben Shapiro
On Tuesday, Young America's Foundation filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the University of Minnesota, in federal court, after University officials engaged in viewpoint-based censorship of conservative students and their YAF-sponsored lecture featuring New York Times bestselling author Ben Shapiro.

School policy permits administrators to wield unbridled discretion to suppress student speech that administrators dislike. The University of Minnesota has a long history of welcoming leftist guest speakers to campus, but when conservative students invited Ben Shapiro to speak at a YAF-sponsored lecture, administrators put the school's Speech Suppression policy into action.

University administrators schemed to limit student exposure to Mr. Shapiro's conservative ideas. They banished Shapiro's lecture to the St. Paul campus, refusing to allow him to speak on the University's main campus in Minneapolis, and they arbitrarily limited student attendance to 500 attendees.

Comment: See also:


Whistle

Woman who scaled the Statue of Liberty identified as immigrant activist

Therese Patricia Okoumou
© Gabriella BassTherese Patricia Okoumou
The woman who scaled the Statue of Liberty on Wednesday has been identified.

Cops say Therese Patricia Okoumou - a 44-year-old immigrant from the Democratic Republic of the Congo - was the person responsible for the Fourth of July protest.

She lives in the St. George neighborhood of Staten Island and is currently in federal custody, according to police sources.

Officers from the NYPD's Emergency Service Unit transported her to a federal detention center Wednesday night following her three-hour standoff with authorities. Her case is being handled by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.

Sources said Okoumou told investigators she climbed up to the feet of Lady Liberty to protest President Trump's "zero tolerance" policy on immigration and the separation of families at the border.

Cowboy Hat

Sadiq Khan's Greater London Authority grants permission for obscene Trump inflatable to fly over Parliament during President's visit

Trump blimp London
© Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty, Dan Kitwood/Getty
A group of self-declared "anti-fascist art activists" have been granted permission by Sadiq Khan's Greater London Authority to fly a grotesque 20-foot inflatable caricature of President Donald J. Trump when he visits the city next week.

The balloon will fly next to Britain's Houses of Parliament at Parliament Square Gardens during the U.S. President's visit, and has been funded with nearly £17,000 in crowdfunding donations. A spokesman for the baby Trump group behind the stunt said of the creation that it is an "obscene mutant clone of the president".

"The Mayor supports the right to peaceful protest and understands that this can take many different forms," a spokesman for Sadiq Khan told Sky News.

"His city operations team have met with the organisers and have given them permission to use Parliament Square Garden as a grounding point for the blimp."

Comment: The anti-Trump resistance continues to showcase its shallowness. London is not only plagued by violence but millions in the UK are homeless or barely surviving in poverty with the vicious austerity measures imposed by successive governments. Just think what that £17,000 in crowdfunding donations could have meant to charities attempting to actually do something useful to alleviate suffering.