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Tuesday, June 20. 2023

The scientific proof that thinking positive really does help conquer chronic pain and illness

A Conversation with Animal Rights Pioneer Peter Singer - “Animal Liberation” is nearly 50 years old. What have we learned?

Taki has a colorful life

YouTube says it removed Jordan Peterson interview of RFK Jr. for violating vaccine policy

Did the vaccines work? Did lockdowns?

Naomi Wolf, feminist turncoat

AP Style Guide is an ideological minefield

Titanic tourism: the military loves this type of stuff. It’s the rare opportunity to do live deep sea rescue. They get to try out their latest equipment.

Mayo Clinic professor suspended after saying testosterone improves athletic performance

Nat. Georgraphic: Interested in an electric car? Here's what you should know before you buy.

Not interested

UN Chief Goes on Delusional Tirade Against Fossil Fuels, Saying They Are “Incompatible with Human Survival”. Meanwhile, globalists of the World Economic Forum want the number of cars around the world to be reduced by 75% by 2050.

Now It's the Body Mass Index (BMI) That's Racist

SpaceX launches SATRIA-1 communications satellite for Indonesia, lands rocket at sea

England is giving masturbation homework assignments to nine-year-olds

Anheuser-Busch tries again to repair the damage with a new ad campaign

The World War On Free Speech Intensifies. Elon Musk can't fight censorship on his own - MICHAEL SHELLENBERGER

Governments hate free speech

The stupidity of the Oscars’ diversity quotas

Patients who regret sex-change ops, sue doctors pose legal challenges for health care industry. Mother "repeatedly" told doctors daughter might have same bipolar disorder but was ignored in favor of drugs and surgery. Academic publisher called out for selective retraction.

AMC Cancels Showings of Documentary Showcasing People Who Regret Sex Change Procedures After Transgender Activists Complain

WSJ: U.S. Becomes Transgender-Care Outlier as More in Europe Urge Caution

WaPo: 100 places to see after you die

Black Marxist scholar who supports reparations finds out she descends from slave owner

Law, Betrayed - Identity’s triumph over argument in legal education undermines democracy.

There are legitimate questions about Biden's age and stamina as he runs for a second term — but his off-beat proverbs are just Biden being Biden.

I think that's right. Always a goofball.

China Says Xi, Blinken Meeting Was Just A "Courtesy", Castigates US For "Misperceptions"

"We have always been at war with Eastasia" Sheesh, China is not an enemy. Not mine anyway.

There Is No Substitute for Ukrainian Victory. Now is not the time for an armistice in Ukraine.

How about tomorrow?

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 07:55 | Comments (33) | Trackbacks (0)

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re Positive Thinking: From the article: "...their levels of positivity may alleviate their symptoms..."

So what we have here is not "scientific proof" (which does not really exist) but sciency-sounding speculation.

Just the same, this line of research has merit and should be continued.

#1 Hairless Joe on 2023-06-20 09:00 (Reply)

Re: WaPo: 100 places to see after you die

I guess there's no rush then...

#2 mudbug on 2023-06-20 09:53 (Reply)

Pam Geller reports that young Biden has a plea agreement for two tax charges and his gun charge. Will likely be no jail time involved. What a "not surprised".

#3 indyjonesouthere on 2023-06-20 10:47 (Reply)

indyjonesouthere: Pam Geller reports that young Biden has a plea agreement for two tax charges and his gun charge.

That's the expected result. Hunter Biden is in recovery from addiction. Accepting the consequences of your actions is part of recovery.

#3.1 Zachriel on 2023-06-20 11:32 (Reply)

Come up with someone else that intentionally paid no taxes for two years, who lied on his background FBI gun check, and gets off without doing time. No mention if he even paid the taxes or even paid a fine or penalty. Nice to have such widespread institutional suck.

#3.1.1 indyjonesouthere on 2023-06-20 11:37 (Reply)

indyjonesouthere: Come up with someone else that intentionally paid no taxes for two years

About a third receive probation. Biden had already paid his taxes, albeit late, so he would have had a defense at trial.

indyjonesouthere: who lied on his background FBI gun check, and gets off without doing time.

Referrals for prosecution for lying on the FBI gun background check almost never result in prosecution due to the difficulty of proving intent.

#3.1.1.1 Zachriel on 2023-06-20 12:01 (Reply)

We're back to "Hillary intent". Perhaps that needs to be updated to "democrat intent". Anything yet on the 5 million bribe for Hunter and 5 million bribe from the big guy? There seems to be plenty of evidence but no FBI leaks to the media.

#3.1.1.1.1 indyjonesouthere on 2023-06-20 12:46 (Reply)

indyjonesouthere: We're back to "Hillary intent".

Of course intent is important. The question on form 4473 is "Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?" He may have thought he had kicked the habit. That is certainly an argument that could be made in court. He pleaded guilty, in any case. Whether the plea deal will be accepted is up to the court.

indyjonesouthere: There seems to be plenty of evidence but no FBI leaks to the media.

Actually, there's a curious lack of evidence. There's little doubt that Hunter Biden traded on his name, but that's not illegal.

#3.1.1.1.2 Zachriel on 2023-06-20 13:33 (Reply)

Z: Referrals for prosecution for lying on the FBI gun background check almost never result in prosecution due to the difficulty of proving intent.

I'm not a lawyer or affiliated with the legal system in any way but that is my understanding of the way gun laws are generally handled. When a person is charged with illegal possession of a firearm or other firearms charge, that is often the first thing that is dropped in a plea bargain. And that's part of the problem. Gun laws are used as a political weapon when they are imposed on a persona non grata or a bludgeon when they pile on a particularly heinous criminal.

The FBI NICS check is designed to ensure that people who shouldn't own a gun are prohibited from purchasing one from a dealer. For that reason, the maximum sentence for lying on the NICS form is five years in prison. We are serious about keeping guns out of the hands of irresponsible people, aren't we?

Well, I guess we're not really that serious about it after all.

#3.1.1.1.3 mudbug on 2023-06-20 17:01 (Reply)

And then there is this from former US Attorney Brett Toleman, “DOJ is violating its own internal policies on this case. The Ashcroft Memo requires they charge the “highest provable offense” and seek consistent sentences with other cases brought by DOJ. This prosecution is an absolute laughable joke,” Tolman wrote in a tweet Tuesday. “Thousands have been sent to prison for long terms for the same charges.”

This isn't the kind of joke you actually laugh at.

#3.1.1.1.4 mudbug on 2023-06-20 17:06 (Reply)

mudbug: When a person is charged with illegal possession of a firearm or other firearms charge, that is often the first thing that is dropped in a plea bargain.

If the gun was used in the commission of another crime, it is more likely to result in a prison term.

mudbug (quoting): The Ashcroft Memo requires they charge the “highest provable offense”

More accurately, the Ashcroft Memo refers to the “most serious, readily provable offense”. The Ashcroft Memo was superseded more than a decade ago.

#3.1.1.1.5 Zachriel on 2023-06-20 20:34 (Reply)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/06/20/hunter-biden-plea-deal/

QUOTE:

“The defendant has agreed to plead guilty to both counts of the tax Information,” the prosecutors wrote. The second criminal information is about the gun charge. In that case, the letter says, “The defendant has agreed to enter a Pretrial Diversion Agreement with respect to the firearm Information."

Handling the gun charge as a diversion case means Biden will not technically be pleading guilty to that crime.

It appears that if Hunter takes the slap on the wrist that the DOJ will forget about the far more serious crimes.

His lawyers claim he has paid his back taxes but provided no evidence to the public that he had.

One wonders if the IRS will bother to check and see if he paid or just take Hunter's lawyers' word for it?

Whitewash whitewash whitewash.

#3.2 feeblemind on 2023-06-20 11:33 (Reply)

feeblemind: It appears that if Hunter takes the slap on the wrist that the DOJ will forget about the far more serious crimes.

That's how plea deals work. However, they can still bring charges if something new is discovered.

feeblemind: His lawyers claim he has paid his back taxes but provided no evidence to the public that he had.

Biden reportedly borrowed money to pay his tax bill in 2021. The report is reasonable as paying his tax bill would tend to mitigate (though not exonerate) criminal liability.

#3.2.1 Zachriel on 2023-06-20 11:44 (Reply)

QUOTE:

The charging decision came about a month after the IRS dismissed a 13-person investigative team that worked on the case — allegedly in retaliation after supervisory agent Gary Shapley in April contacted Congress to allege a coverup featuring “preferential treatment” and alleged false testimony by Attorney General Merrick Garland about Weiss’ ability to make independent charging decisions.

Shapley and a second IRS agent Htestified in the past month to the House Ways and Means Committee about alleged irregularities in the Hunter Biden case.

https://nypost.com/2023/06/20/hunter-biden-faces-three-new-federal-charges-including-tax-crimes

#3.2.2 Zachinoff on 2023-06-20 17:47 (Reply)

Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas.

Joseph Stalin

Comrade commissar Blinken (CPUSA) stated that former USA doesn't support Taiwanese independence.
The global soviet Trojan Horse UN is incompatible with human survival.
Mars Attacks Elon loves free speech so much, he has a WEF comradette onboard the bird to curb it.
Got Gab?

#4 Freedom Of Speech on 2023-06-20 10:49 (Reply)

"China is not an enemy."

Maybe not. Maybe yes. Either way they should not have favored trade status. They should not be allowed to sell us products that are the result of stolen technology. In fact no Chinese company that has stolen technology should be allowed to sell anything into the U.S. AND they should not be allowed to attend our colleges where they steal technology.

But "we" are most guilty in this toxic relationship. We should pass laws that require all critical or strategic products be made in the U.S. so that we are not dependent on China. 100% of our electronics and medicines should be made in the USA. We should also never run a trade deficit with any nation. If they will not buy our products and allow the trade to be equal than ban trade past a specific dollar amount.

#5 OneGuy on 2023-06-20 10:52 (Reply)

With "not-enemies" like China, who needs enemies?

Seriously, this seems to be a blind spot (and a rather well-maintained one, it seems) of our host. We all have them, but this is a particularly bad one to have.

China is not a friendly power. They really think they should be running things. The notion of living as equals is not in their conceptual universe and never has been. Unfortunately, this Administration seems to be at some pains to reinforce their prejudices about our degeneracy and inferiority.

#5.1 Hairless Joe on 2023-06-20 17:03 (Reply)

There is no substitute for a Ukrainian victory. What a wish list, not going to happen. Ukraine is getting its ass handed to them once again and it is likely that more than half of Ukraine has left the country as refugees. There is unlikely to be a cease fire as that only benefits Ukraine with zero benefit to Russia. To survive, Ukraine will have to surrender with no preconditions and never agree to NATO membership. Without declaring neutrality, there will be no Ukraine. Russia has all the time in the world and Ukraine is running out of support as Europe has its own recessionary economy and cannot keep feeding material to Ukraine.

#6 indyjonesouthere on 2023-06-20 10:58 (Reply)

Russia has already lost that war.

It lost it as soon as its ill-conceived attempt to seize Kyiv and topple the Ukrainian government failed miserably.

You know, I can understand Americans wanting nothing to do with the Ukraine/Russia conflict; it's that oddly contradictory isolationist sentiment percolating up. But I have no idea at all why so many conservative Americans are so disparaging of Ukraine yet so enamoured with Russia.

#6.1 JJM on 2023-06-20 11:17 (Reply)

Who is enamored with Russia? I fault US foreign policy for Ukraine's problems. The US fermented the overthrow of a legitimate government and used NATO as a cheap whore to do all the dirty work. They did the same shit in Serbia under Clinton. The US doing the same thing in Sudan in order to keep the Sudan president's agreement with Russia on a naval base from occurring. The US government is getting more desperate every day because we are losing support in the world while our trade world is shrinking. There are consequences for those who will not mind their business and stay out of other people's business. Ukraine is corrupt, Biden is corrupt ... this will all end very poorly.

#6.1.1 indyjonesouthere on 2023-06-20 11:48 (Reply)

JJM, I'm with you entirely on this.

#6.1.2 Texan99 on 2023-06-20 12:12 (Reply)

Please explain to this confused Irishman why it is acceptable for the United States to invent tales of 'weapons of mass destruction' as a pretext for invading an Iraq that lay many thousands of miles away and wcould be of no interest to the US, but for her oil; but not so for a Russia with co-ethnics being attacked by a Ukraine well within her historic sphere of influence and allying herself with NATO. Why did the then US government involve itself in the violent overthrow of the democraticaly elected prime minister of the Ukraine some years back?

In the absence of a viable explanation, I'll find myself continuing to attribute it to the post-WWII imperialism of the United States, which has left her with a trail of humiliating defeats, with the present invasion of Russia by proxy about to be another such humiliation.

#6.1.3 DeGaulle on 2023-06-20 14:23 (Reply)

There were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. That is why Europe and Russia fought the invasion in the UN. A number of European countries built the WMD manufacturing facilities and Russia specifically built the bio-weapons facilities. Even after months and months of a constant stream of trucks hauling the WMDs and equipment to Syria and Russia flying out the bio-weapons and facilities the U.S. forces uncovered huge stashes of WMDs and a nuclear enrichment plant. The real question you should ask is why did the U.S. and the MSM go along with a coverup of the WMDs. I.e. your comment and thousands of politicians, commentators and reporters to this day parrot that same statement that there were no WMDs in Iraq. Saddam was using all his oil income, billions and billions all going to WMDs. Israel was on the verge of having to attack Iraq to destroy the threat to their country. There were literally more WMDs in Iraq in 2001 than any other place on earth.

#6.1.3.1 OneGuy on 2023-06-20 14:35 (Reply)

We invited ourselves into Iraq. WMD's are present in an endless number of countries such as N.Korea and Iran. Do we invite ourselves into those countries? Did Libya have WMD's? Hillary invited the US into Libya in a gunrunning operation. Is there any Middle eastern country that is not pissed at the US at this time? Need more pot stirring over there?
We invited ourselves into the Sudan skirmish over a Russian base. Even the Peru skirmish over lithium mines.
China has WMD's and are negotiating a base in Cuba. And they have settled on islands throughout the S. China sea even against UN agreements. Ready to invite the US into that hornet nest. World policeman is not in our Constitution. You do remember "foreign entanglements"?

#6.1.3.1.1 indyjonesouthere on 2023-06-20 16:10 (Reply)

"We invited ourselves into Iraq."

You forget! Saddam Hussein orders his troops to march into Kuwait. After the invasion is condemned by the UN Security Council, the US forges a coalition 34 countries and frees Kuwait. This was a brutal invasion. Should we have ignored it and sip tea? After Saddam was defeated we forged a treaty which Saddam consistently broke endangering our forces there and nearby countries. Slick Willie ignored it because he was too busy doing other things and this encouraged Saddam to become a very real threat. After 9/11 Saddam became even more provocative and refused demands that he honor the treaty and stop threatening his neighbors. You can disagree with the decision to invade Iraq but you can't backup your claim that they had no WMDs. They had them, we saw them, we even destroyed some of them that he was unable to move to Syria while the UN delayed the invasion.

#6.1.3.1.1.1 OneGuy on 2023-06-20 19:10 (Reply)

You just glossed right over 911. Why did 911 occur. Just keep messing around in other backyards and then FAFO. We don't need anything in the Middle East least of all their oil. Drill and frack here and no need to be there. Trump was getting us out of the oil import business and getting us into the export oil business.
If WMD's are your standard for invasion we will never be out of the invasion business as there is no shortage of WMD's throughout the world. Is Fentanyl a WMD? Mexico next?

#6.1.3.1.1.1.1 indyjonesouthere on 2023-06-20 21:16 (Reply)

Really? They must be very stupid, then, if they didn't even use them for their own defense.

#6.1.3.1.2 DeGaulle on 2023-06-21 13:07 (Reply)

It’s not something that we like to think about, but it’s not hard to imagine the reality of the white men running the slaves getting themselves some ‘lovin’ after hours. I doubt that much of that ‘lovin’ was consensual.

#7 B. Hammer on 2023-06-20 11:04 (Reply)

QUOTE:

Black Marxist scholar who supports reparations finds out she descends from slave owner

B. Hammer: it’s not hard to imagine the reality of the white men running the slaves getting themselves some

It's hardly surprising. American Blacks have about 20% of their genes from Europeans, though it varies considerably. That hardly undermines the case of reparations (which we oppose, by the way).

#7.1 Zachriel on 2023-06-20 11:20 (Reply)

"(which we oppose, by the way)"

We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. Your culture will adapt to service us.

#7.1.1 eeyore on 2023-06-20 15:10 (Reply)

But they have gotten decades of reparations. Black rape of white women is literally epidemic while white rape of black women is almost non-existent. And I doubt that much of that ‘lovin’ was consensual.

#7.2 Reparations on 2023-06-20 11:44 (Reply)

Reparations: But they have gotten decades of reparations.

You are confusing individual crime with institutional crime. The individual is liable for their crimes. Institutions are liable for theirs.

#7.2.1 Zachriel on 2023-06-20 12:04 (Reply)

Oh thank you! And the millions of women raped by black men thank you. It is SOOO MUCH better that they were raped by individuals and not an institution. You are so kind and caring we all feel so much better now.

#8 Reparations on 2023-06-20 14:37 (Reply)

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Tuesday, June 20. 2023

Tuesday morning links