Links - 30th November 2021 (2 - Biden-Harris)

Joe Biden on Twitter - "Donald Trump's "Remain in Mexico" policy is dangerous, inhumane, and goes against everything we stand for as a nation of immigrants. My administration will end it." [Ed: Added this later]
Facebook - "Scoop: Biden restarting Trump's "Remain in Mexico" policy" "Turns out, governments too can get mugged by reality.  Just don't forget that these policies that were were maligned as "white supremacist" and "racist" under a different tribe, are now suddenly totally fine when enacted by the "right political team.""

Biden claims first job offer from Idaho lumber company, 'no record' of it - "President Biden said at a wildfire-focused event in Idaho Monday that his “first job offer” came from the local lumber and wood products business Boise Cascade, but the company says it has “no record” of that being true.  Biden, who is known for sharing memories that did not happen, said he regularly mentioned the job offer to his Senate colleague from Idaho, the late Democratic Sen. Frank Church... The Post was unable to locate any prior record of Biden mentioning the company — including in news clippings archived by the Nexis and Factiva databases.  Biden’s 2007 memoir “Promises to Keep” does not mention the company or a desire to move to Idaho.  It’s unclear where the Idaho application would fit in the president’s Delaware-centric legal and political career... Biden has a record of inaccurate or embellished claims. He dropped out of his first presidential campaign in 1988 due to a scandal involving plagiarism of speeches and a law school paper and controversy about claims he made about his academic record.  But as the nation’s oldest-ever president, Biden’s mental acuity also is a frequent matter of public debate.  Biden this month falsely claimed that he remembered “spending time at” and “going to” the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh after the October 2018 mass murder of 11 people. After the synagogue said he did not visit, the White House said he misspoke and was referring to a 2019 phone call with the congregation’s rabbi.  In one infamous misstatement, Biden in 2020 claimed he “had the great honor of being arrested” in South Africa when he was “trying to get to see [Nelson Mandela] on Robbens Island,” where Mandela was in prison until 1990. He said Mandela thanked him for it. Later, he admitted that it was untrue."

Watch | Facebook - "Joe Biden locks onto a kid and creepily follows him, gropes him, and then wanders off like a demented idiot."

Jacobin on Twitter - "It’s good that Donald Trump lost. But the Left now needs to pivot immediately to opposition to the Joe Biden administration."
The circular firing squad of the left

Gad Saad on Twitter - "I often try to engage supposedly smart people about Trump. I ask them to explain their positions using policy arguments. You know, issues that matter. It is ALWAYS the same reaction. They just viscerally hate Trump. Hence by definition, @joebiden is "better." The more that I study human decision making, the more I'm disillusioned by people's shallow thinking. Again, this has nothing to do with Trump. I use him as a vehicle to demonstrate how emotions can hijack our cognitive system. Read The Parasitic Mind."

Joe Biden on Twitter - "You won't have to worry about my tweets when I'm president."
The Post Millennial on Twitter - "White House photo-op inadvertently revealed identites and locations of intelligence officials operating in the Middle East."

Joe Biden on Twitter - "We're eight months into this pandemic, and Donald Trump still doesn't have a plan to get this virus under control. I do."
Of course, liberals just blame the unvaccinated

Liberals Grow Impatient With President Biden’s Foreign Policy Decisions - The New York Times - "“I would take this in the Biden White House as a giant, blinking red light that maybe what I’m doing is not right because Jared Kushner is finding ways to praise it,” said Benjamin J. Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser under President Barack Obama who worked closely on the 2015 nuclear agreement... After seeing Mr. Biden deliver a transformational $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, progressives are asking why his foreign policy feels so conventional. They worry that Mr. Biden and his largely centrist team of national security officials will disappoint the liberal wing’s desires for a new American foreign policy that relies far less on military power, de-escalates tensions with rivals like Iran and China, and places greater pressure — under threat of cooler relations — on allies like Saudi Arabia and Israel... as Mr. Blinken and Mr. Sullivan meet on Thursday and Friday with senior Chinese diplomats, some liberals also chafe at the Biden team’s hawkish stance toward Beijing, again warning that it has Trump-inflected confrontational tones and noting that Chinese cooperation is essential to fighting climate change... Ms. Lee is also among those weary of extended deadlines for withdrawals from Afghanistan like the one Mr. Biden hinted at on Wednesday.  “We’ve got to bring our troops home,” she said, “and we’ve got to do that quickly.”"
Naked tribalism - anything related to Trump must be bad
So much for someone who's been in politics for 40 years being revolutionary everywhere (though his domestic policy is a lot more radical)
Pretty sure many of those who were bashing Biden for delaying withdrawal from Afghanistan are now defending him and saying if he had withdrawn earlier the situation would've been even worse

Joe Biden is letting India down - The Spectator World - "What a slap in the face to a very crucial ally in a time of need. This is precisely the kind of America First jingoism that former president Donald Trump was constantly excoriated for, yet when it came to such a brazen example of nationalism from the current administration in response to a devastating crisis, the US media was largely silent."

Cernovich on Twitter - Harris: "Our Kwanzaa celebrations are one of my favorite childhood memories. The whole family would gather around across multiple generations and we’d tell stories and light the candles.   Whether you’re celebrating this year with those you live with or over Zoom, happy Kwanzaa!"
"Yes I’m sure that a mixed Indian and Jamaican household that *lived in Canada* was celebrating a holiday that didn’t even come into vogue until the early 2000’s."

Meme - "Last Week: "Why the idea we would coordinate behind the scenes with social media platforms to censor our political opponents is absurd! - Jen Psaki
This Week: "We're coordinating behind the scenes with social media platforms to censor people who spread medical disinformation." - Also Jen Psaki"

Biden flubs answer on foreign policy work, falsely says you WON'T get COVID if you have the shot - "Joe Biden overinflated the efficiency of vaccines, especially against the Delta variant, during his gaffe-filled town hall on Wednesday where he claimed the jab will prevent Americans from contracting coronavirus... Biden struggled at some points during his town hall to complete statements coherently as he lost his train of thought on multiple occasions... At one point, when talking about getting vaccinations approved for children under the age of 12, the president said: 'That's underway, just like the other question that's illogical. And I've heard you speak about it because you always – I'm not being solicitous – but you're always straight up about what you're doing.' 'And the question is whether or not we should be in a position where you uh, um, are – why can't the, the, the experts say we know that this virus is, in fact, uh, um, uh, it's going to be – or, excuse me, we, we, we know why all the drugs approved are not temporarily approved by permanently approved. That's underway too. I expect that to occur quickly,' Biden continued as he fumbled over his words...
FACT CHECK REVEALS BIDEN FALSELY CLAIMED VACCINE WOULD PREVENT COVID AND HIS ADMINISTRATION HOLDS SIX-MONTH JOBS RECORD"

Charlie Spiering on Twitter - "Joe Biden says his multi-trillion dollar spending plans will reduce inflation "in the years ahead""

WATCH: Biden jokes about running over reporter after being questioned on Israel - "For four years, the mainstream media accused former President Donald Trump of "inciting violence" against the media for cracking jokes about them and criticizing them."

The Biden Administration Just Failed its First Science Integrity Test - "the Biden Administration announced “a return to science” in the form of “evidence-based estimates of the benefits of reducing climate pollution.” Technically, such estimates are called the social cost of carbon (SCC). The SCC is a quantification of the economic consequences of the emissions of carbon dioxide for use in benefit-cost analyses of proposed Federal regulations... rather than a “return to science,” the Biden Administration has continued a long-standing charade that not only violates its claim to uphold scientific integrity, but leaves its carbon price extremely vulnerable to legal challenge... a much more fundamental and immediate problem with the Biden administration’s current estimates — it is based on climate scenarios that are not just badly out of date, but reflecting a set of fictional worlds. Consequently, any SCC derived from such implausible scenarios simply cannot be justified as reflecting “best available science and data.” The Biden administration’s touting of the scientific quality of the estimate invites a legal challenge... The scenarios underlying the SCC estimates of the Biden administration envision cumulative carbon dioxide emissions that are far, far in excess of any plausible current expectation about the future. In fact, to even approach these massive amounts of cumulative emissions, the world would have to make it a policy goal to burn as much coal as possible over the coming centuries. That seems unlikely."

RNC Research on Twitter - "Joe Biden stumbles through introducing Germany’s Angela Merkel: “Second largest...longest serving chancellor”"

Is This Meandering Quote From Biden Real? - "During a CNN town hall, Biden said: "And the question is whether or not we should be in a position where you are — why can't the experts say we know that this virus is, in fact — is going to be — or, excuse me — we know why all the drugs approved are not temporarily approved, but permanently approved. That's underway, too. I expect that to occur quickly.""
I expected Snopes to call this "mostly false" and come up with some bullshit logic

Common Sense Extremists on Twitter - "“Elect Biden for a return to normalcy!!”
Biden selects a transgender to help make US health policy...."

Ronny Jackson on Twitter - "Prices are rising at the “fastest pace in nearly 13 years.” Meanwhile, the Biden Administration and Democrats in Congress plan to ram through trillions in reckless, unilateral spending this year. Inflation will only get worse, CRUSHING the middle class!"

Escape The Echo Chamber - Posts | Facebook - "Trump’s bust in the Oval Office of the deeply flawed Andrew Jackson has been replaced by the deeply flawed Cesar Chavez, a man who shared Trump’s distain for illegal immigrants."

Meme - "The Biden admin's major economic success was dropping the cost of your 4th of July BBQ, but we can't even afford to drive there."

Pam Keith, Esq. on Twitter - "One of Biden’s first Executive Orders should be to prohibit the airing of FoxNews, Newsmax or OANN in any federally owned property or any military unit or installation, and to remove it from any cable plans that are offered in government owned business or housing complexes."
Imagine if Trump had banned CNN

Jen Psaki admits Biden taking impromptu reporter questions is ‘not something we recommend’ - "Biden held his first solo press conference on March 25, the 65th day of his term, following heavy criticism from the usually supportive media for not holding one. This marked the longest a president had gone without a news conference after taking office since former President Calvin Coolidge in the 1920s. Biden has also been known to consistently leave announcements, speeches and other events without answering questions from reporters"

Biden brood already cashing in on Joe's presidency: Goodwin - "Biden family members are oblivious to conflicts and criticism because they’ve been swimming in swamp corruption for decades. The two brothers, Frank and Jim, and Hunter have made millions and millions based on selling the perception of access to Joe’s power... Any remaining doubts about Joe’s knowledge were erased by Tony Bobulinski. The former college wrestler and decorated naval officer went public about Hunter’s work with a Chinese firm and said he had two meetings with Joe Biden in 2017. As Bobulinski told me, Joe knew everything about the deal in the works, which, if true, supports his claim that our new president was to get a secret 10 percent cut. Bobulinski also said Hunter often referred to his father as the “big guy.”"

Lance Gooden on Twitter - "Kamala Harris: "Extreme progress” has been made at the border.
Border Patrol: 911% spike in illegals on trains in Del Rio Sector.
Choose who you want to believe."

Harris’ hopeless ‘root cause’ prescription for the border - "It’s worse than we thought: Vice President Kamala Harris just identified the “root cause” of the surge in illegal migrants at the southern border: climate change...   Not a mention of the corrupt governments that prevent economic progress — and are sure to pocket the bulk of any foreign aid meant to develop those economies or make their farms more “resilient.”  Nor did she touch on the gangs that terrorize the common people there, giving them more urgent reason to flee.  Seems like the Biden administration’s strategy isn’t to back more competent leadership and tie aid to real-world results. It will be to pour even more cash into the Green New Deal and throw another billion at bad governments."

Harvard poll: 80% see border disaster, want Trump closure restored, reject teaching critical race theory - "In a new Harvard/Harris poll, an overwhelming 80% said that illegal immigration is a serious issue and one that needs more attention than what President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris are giving.  What’s more, 68% said that signals from Biden’s White House are encouraging illegal immigration, and 55% believe that former President Donald Trump’s border closing policies should have been left in place... And despite liberal media efforts to dismiss the debates in school districts around the country over the teaching of critical race theory, the poll found that it too was a hot issue.  “On schooling and education, another sleeper issue, 61% do not believe students should be taught that America is structurally racist and is dominated by white supremacy”"

Biden Cabinet Is Historically Diverse Compared To Trump, Obama : President Biden Takes Office
Liberals: judging people by the colour of their skin etc

Thread by @RealSpikeCohen on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "You asked for it, so I'm giving it to you:
My review of @JoeBiden's Cabinet Picks!
SPOILER ALERT: they're what you would expect from Jim Crow Joe, one of the architects of every oppressive policy to come out of DC for the past few decades."

There's a better way than Biden's unrealistic, expensive climate pledge - "For the past 30 years, the global approach to climate policy has been making grand promises and later mostly failing to live up to them. At his World Leaders Climate Summit, President Biden promised to cut about twice as much carbon as what Obama promised, which was hailed as decisive and bold climate action.  This is equivalent to decreasing an additional 1.5 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas annually by 2030 beyond Obama’s commitments. But what would this achieve? Let us assume that Biden and future presidents manage to get emissions cut as promised by 2030. And let us assume miraculously that the many future presidents from 2030 to 2100 manage to continue that feat.  If we use the standard UN climate model, it turns out that Biden’s new promises will reduce warming by the end of the century by a rather small 0.07°F — from say 7.2°F to 7.13°F. Biden told us that his climate policy would make Americans more prosperous. That is implausible. If climate policies really were making us richer, everyone would scramble to shed fossil fuels and pile on the renewables. Instead, his own summit showed the need for arm-twisting even just to make a few of the participants promise expensive new policies...   The President’s own price sticker is $2 trillion on climate policy over his first term. This is equivalent to spending $1,500 per American every year on climate, while one survey shows that most Americans are unwilling to spend even $24. That is not politically viable long term. However, the real story from the climate summit isn’t Biden’s 0.07°F reduction, but China, India and other developing nations’ unwillingness to promise new carbon cuts, because they are more focused on development and getting their populations out of poverty. These countries matter, because they will make up three-quarters of this century’s emissions, and they cannot spare trillions for climate policy."

Stephen L. Miller on Twitter - "Biden’s @MoomersIceCream  order: double-dipped waffle cone with vanilla chocolate chip."
"FWIW this is right after we found out that Russia perhaps hacked the RNC and Biden said he had no idea about it."

Gad Saad on Twitter - Biden: "A Cabinet that looks like America."
"Yes! Yes! Yes! Using immutable traits as the key means by which we celebrate our politicians. I do feel somewhat unsafe though in that I am not seeing anyone who looks like me (a Lebanese Jew of my height and skin tone with green eyes)."

Dr. Jill Biden on Twitter - ""How did you get this number?" Those were the first words I spoke to Joe when he called me out of the blue on a Saturday in 1975. I’ll be speaking tonight at the #DemConvention. I hope you’ll tune in!"
The choice of feminists!

James Lindsay - Posts | Facebook - "I'm to understand that for Sam Harris to consider Biden a threat on par with Trump, he'd have to tweet support for a conspiracy theory. Black Lives Matter is demonstrably a conspiracy theory, called liberationism, built on a tower of transparent lies... Biden explicitly connects Covid-19 to systemic racism. This is a conspiracy theory. It is a conspiracy theory that has led our schools of public health and many public officials to declare "systemic racism" a "public health threat" demanding immediate action. Here, Biden tweeted a left-wing conspiracy theory about Russia and our elections. We spent millions of dollars and years of insanity-inducing time indulging this conspiracy theory... Biden flirts with, as he often does, a conspiracy theory that Trump is encouraging and enabling the production of a dangerous or bogus Covid-19 vaccine."

Energy Secretary Granholm on Colonial Pipeline Disaster: "If You Drive an Electric Car, This Would Not Be Affecting You" Voters are correct: Biden is to blame for inflation - "Inflation is soaring, and voters blame President Biden. A Morning Consult poll in late October showed 62 percent of registered voters believe Biden’s policies are to blame for rising prices on everything from turkeys to gasoline to apartment rents... supply chain problems persist, for sure. But when the main culprits driving inflation are energy (up 30 percent from last year), accelerating rents and ongoing worker shortages, sourcing difficulties are not the whole story. Policy blunders perpetrated by the Biden White House have made a bad problem worse. For instance, oil prices are higher for two reasons. First, U.S. production has declined by about two million barrels per day since 2019, even as demand has recovered from the COVID-19-induced downturn. Oil markets are global, so the fall-off in output would not necessarily jack prices up, but our declining output needs to be offset by an increase elsewhere. Enter OPEC, which has not restored output to the level necessary to bring down prices, despite repeated pleas from Biden. Meanwhile, Biden has done a lot to discourage a resurgence in U.S. drilling and production. He has cancelled pipelines, threatened oil and gas producers with higher taxes, taken promising acreage out of play, such as the Arctic Natural Wildlife Refuge, slow-walked leasing and new drilling permits and, most recently, imposed new methane-curbing rules that make drilling more expensive. What sensible person would invest in the oilfield in the face of such unrelenting hostility?... Another boost to inflation came from housing. With “shelter” accounting for some 40 percent of the CPI, economists have warned that fast-rising home prices would eventually seep into higher inflation readings... One reason home prices have been increasing at nearly 20 percent per year is that the Federal Reserve has continued to buy up $15 billion worth of mortgage-backed bonds each month, keeping mortgage rates artificially low. The result has been a booming market, driving home prices, and now rents, higher... Biden does not control the Fed, but he has made no secret of his preference for the easy money policies that have helped prop up the economy, and the stock market. Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s term ends in February; Biden has recently interviewed not only Powell but also Fed Governor Lael Brainard, a known dove and Obama appointee, for the position. That these are the only two candidates he seems to be considering sends a clear signal. He will choose growth over stability, even if it means that inflation continues to accelerate. Unhappily, Powell is listening. Finally, Biden has not only encouraged monetary excess, but has also endorsed big-spending packages that have put money in consumers’ pockets but also kept workers on the sidelines. The biggest shortage we have in this country today is labor. The labor participation rate is mired at 61.6 percent, 1.7 percentage points below the level in February 2020. Studies have shown that the slew of benefits contained in the Cares Act and subsequent relief bills, including incremental unemployment benefits, expanded child tax credits and rent moratoriums, have offered Americans up to $100,000 per year while not working. These payments may have been necessary early in our recovery from the pandemic, but no longer are needed. A recent analysis of Biden’s proposed Build Back Better bill shows the legislation could create even more disincentives to work, sidelining millions of Americans. This would drive the cost of everything even higher."
One Biden supporter claimed that since Biden was continuing old policies, it wasn't his fault and we should blame Trump. Apparently if the situation changes and Trump's policies are no longer a good idea, we should blame Trump when Biden continues them

Crude-Oil Futures End Up 2% on Keystone Progress - WSJ - "Oil futures rose 2% Wednesday after TransCanada Corp. said the southern leg of its Keystone XL pipeline is nearly complete"
From 2013
Biden supporters tell us that less than 8% of Keystone was completed when Biden cancelled it so Biden's cancellation can't have affected oil prices. Apparently the oil futures markets hadn't gotten the memo that Keystone had to be completed for news about it to affect oil markets back in 2013, when even less than 8% of the pipeline had been completed"

EDITORIAL: Biden's playing pipeline politics | Toronto Sun - "His first act on becoming U.S. President was to scrap the Keystone XL Pipeline, a move that massively damaged Canada’s energy sector. Last month, however, he gave the green light to Europe’s Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline when he lifted sanctions imposed by Donald Trump, who worried it would hand too much influence to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Eastern European countries such as Poland fear Russia will use the pipeline as a political weapon and give it even greater influence in the area. They say there are already four pipelines in place that could adequately supply Europe, but Russia is deliberately withholding supplies in order to gain approval for the Nord Stream project. Britain is suffering a crippling energy crisis and last week accused Putin of “choking supply to win approval of the pipeline,” with Prime Minister Boris Johnson suggesting it would have “security implications for the continent.” So not content with undermining Canada’s energy security, Biden has now created a European crisis as well. This comes at the same time this country has been forced to invoke a 1977 treaty to force Biden to the table for talks on Enbridge Line 5. This critical piece of pipeline infrastructure ships Canadian crude, refined products and natural gas liquids to the U.S. Citing concerns that the line runs under the Straits of Mackinac and could leak into the Great Lakes, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer revoked Enbridge’s right to operate the pipeline and ordered the company to halt the flow by May. Enbridge has ignored that order. Most legal experts side with Canada, saying the 44-year-old treaty clearly gives this country the right to keep the pipeline flowing. Enbridge and Michigan were in court-ordered mediation until Michigan halted that process in September. Biden needs to decide who his friends are. He must come to the table and end his shameful betrayal of Canada – America’s biggest trading partner and oldest ally. Instead, the President plays nice with a Russian dictator."
To liberals, out of sight [in Europe], out of mind

As Millions of Americans Wait in Gas Lines, These Hollywood Celebrities Are Protesting Pipeline Construction - "The cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline has highlighted the vital role oil pipelines play in meeting the energy needs of Americans. If left-wing Hollywood celebrities get their way, more of them would be shut down for good, potentially throwing the country into an energy crisis. A-list stars including Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, and Jane Fonda are among the numerous celebrities who have recently backed the closures of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines — both of which former President Donald Trump tagged as vital components to energy independence... Biden administration secretary of energy Jennifer Granholm admitted during a press briefing on the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack Tuesday that the best way to transport fuel across parts of the country is through pipelines."

CBS News reporter pleads with Biden at White House: 'When will you take our questions?' - "President Biden left the White House podium again Tuesday without taking questions, a familiar scene for frustrated reporters, except this time they let him know how they feel... Several journalists shouted questions at Biden to try and get him to turn around, and one reporter's voice stood out. "When will you answer questions about your meeting with Xi Jinping and other leaders?," CBS News Radio correspondent Steven Portnoy pleaded as Biden walked out of the room. "When will you answer our questions, sir?" It's been a week since Biden's summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but the former has yet to remark on what was discussed in their meetings, Portnoy noted in a follow-up on Twitter... Biden has previously avoided taking questions after press conferences on the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, poor job reports, the rise in inflation, and the Democrats' reconciliation bill and what it will mean for the U.S. economy Instead of staying for questions on the multi-trillion-dollar package last month, Biden told reporters, "I'll see you in Rome," before jetting off for summits in Europe."

Premarket stocks: Why Joe Biden can't do much to ease gas prices - CNN - Julia Horowitz
Premarket stocks: Oil prices are finally falling. Thank China and Joe Biden - CNN - Julia Horowitz

Covid Variants and Chinese Names - the WHO's Duplicity in not naming the "Xi" Variant

New covid variants have, so far, been given names according to letters of the Greek alphabet (doubtless they will soon run out, so we'll see what they settle on next, since the moral panic over covid will assuredly not be over by then).

2 Greek letters have, however, been skipped in the latest batch of named variants - Nu and Xi.

The WHO claims that Xi has been passed over "because it is a common last name".

Those who are familiar with Chinese last names (and their pronunciation in Mandarin - for simplicity I will just call them "Chinese" last names) will find this claim suspect, since Xi is assuredly not a common Chinese last name (let alone a common last name). Furthermore, Mu (a currently designated variant of interest), is also a Chinese last name, but that didn't stop its use to designate a covid variant.

Extensive lists of Chinese surnames are not available in English, but it is noteworthy that Xi is not on 3 lists of the 100 most common Chinese surnames I found online. These lists also don't provide their sources.

Fortunately, a more extensive (and sourced) list of Chinese surnames is available.

<< 中国四百大姓 >> ("The 400 Most Common Surnames in China") by 袁义达 and 邱家儒 (Yuan Yida and Qiu Jiaru) provides us what its title suggests. Baidu Baike lists the 400 (in descending order of frequency)

I have provided the transliteration of each (sans diacritics). Note that some names are pronounced the same way (even down to the tone) but have different Chinese characters and so are different surnames, e.g. 39.于 (Yu) and 40.余 (Yu)

The tl;dr is that Mu shows up at 188 (穆), 344 (母) and 361 (慕). Meanwhile, Xi shows up at 213 (席) and 278 (奚) - note that both are different from Xi Dada's surname of 习 (also pronounced Xi).

So if you're going to skip the "Xi" variant in the name of not using a "common last name", the case for skipping the "Mu" is at least as strong (if not stronger).

Clearly, the WHO's true motivation for not naming the "Xi" variant is not the one they give. Either that or they are speaking out of ignorance.

What do you think is the more likely explanation?

List of the 400 most common surnames in China:

1.王 (Wang)
2.李 (Li)
3.张 (Zhang)
4.刘 (Liu)
5.陈 (Chen)
6.杨 (Yang)
7.黄 (Huang)
8.吴 (Wu)
9.赵 (Zhao)
10.周 (Zhou)
11.徐 (Xu)
12.孙 (Sun)
13.马 (Ma)
14.朱 (Zhu)
15.胡 (Hu)
16.林 (Lin)
17.郭 (Guo)
18.何 (He)
19.高 (Gao)
20.罗 (Luo)
21.郑 (Zheng)
22.梁 (Liang)
23.谢 (Xie)
24.宋 (Song)
25.唐 (Tang)
26.许 (Xu)
27.邓 (Deng)
28.冯 (Feng)
29.韩 (Han)
30.曹 (Cao)
31.曾 (Zeng)
32.彭 (Peng)
33.萧 (Xiao)
34.蔡 (Cai)
35.潘 (Pan)
36.田 (Tian)
37.董 (Dong)
38.袁 (Yuan)
39.于 (Yu)
40.余 (Yu)
41.叶 (Ye)
42.蒋 (Jiang)
43.杜 (Du)
44.苏 (Su)
45.魏 (Wei)
46.程 (Cheng)
47.吕 (Lu)
48.丁 (Ding)
49.沈 (Shen)
50.任 (Ren)
51.姚 (Yao)
52.卢 (Lu)
53.傅 (Fu)
54.钟 (Zhong)
55.姜 (Jiang)
56.崔 (Cui)
57.谭 (Tan)
58.廖 (Liao)
59.范 (Fan)
60.汪 (Wang)
61.陆 (Lu)
62.金 (Jin)
63.石 (Shi)
64.戴 (Dai)
65.贾 (Jia)
66.韦 (Wei)
67.夏 (Xia)
68.邱 (Qiu)
69.方 (Fang)
70.侯 (Hou)
71.邹 (Zou)
72.熊 (Xiong)
73.孟 (Meng)
74.秦 (Qin)
75.白 (Bai)
76.江 (Jiang)
77.阎 (Yan)
78.薛 (Xue)
79.尹 (Yin)
80.段 (Duan)
81.雷 (Lei)
82.黎 (Li)
83.史 (Shi)
84.龙 (Long)
85.陶 (Tao)
86.贺 (He)
87.顾 (Gu)
88.毛 (Mao)
89.郝 (Hao)
90.龚 (Gong)
91.邵 (Shao)
92.万 (Wan)
93.钱 (Qian)
94.严 (Yan)
95.赖 (Lai)
96.覃 (Tan)
97.洪 (Hong)
98.武 (Wu)
99.莫 (Mo)
100.孔 (Kong)
101.汤 (Tang)
102.向 (Xiang)
103.常 (Chang)
104.温 (Wen)
105.康 (Kang)
106.施 (Shi)
107.文 (Wen)
108.牛 (Niu)
109.樊 (Fan)
110.葛 (Ge)
111.邢 (Xing)
112.安 (An)
113.齐 (Qi)
114.易 (Yi)
115.乔 (Qiao)
116.伍 (Wu)
117.庞 (Pang)
118.颜 (Yan)
119.倪 (Ni)
120.庄 (Zhuang)
121.聂 (Nie)
122.章 (Zhang)
123.鲁 (Lu)
124.岳 (Yue)
125.翟 (Di)
126.殷 (Yin)
127.詹 (Zhan)
128.申 (Shen)
129.欧 (Ou)
130.耿 (Geng)
131.关 (Guan)
132.兰 (Lan)
133.焦 (Jiao)
134.俞 (Yu)
135.左 (Zuo)
136.柳 (Liu)
137.甘 (Gan)
138.祝 (Zhu)
139.包 (Bao)
140.宁 (Ning)
141.尚 (Shang)
142.符 (Fu)
143.舒 (Shu)
144.阮 (Ruan)
145.柯 (Ke)
146.纪 (Ji)    
147.梅 (Mei)
148.童 (Tong)
149.凌 (Ling)
150.毕 (Bi)
151.单 (Dan)
152.季 (Ji)
153.裴 (Pei)
154.霍 (Huo)
155.涂 (Tu)
156.成 (Cheng)
157.苗 (Miao)
158.谷 (Gu)
159.盛 (Sheng)
160.曲 (Qu)
161.翁 (Weng)
162.冉 (Ran)
163.骆 (Luo)
164.蓝 (Lan)
165.路 (Lu)
166.游 (You)
167.辛 (Xin)
168.靳 (Jin)
169.欧阳 (Ouyang)
170.管 (Guan)
171.柴 (Chai)
172.蒙 (Meng)
173.鲍 (Bao)
174.华 (Hua)
175.喻 (Yu)
176.祁 (Qi)
177.蒲 (Pu)
178.房 (Fang)
179.滕 (Teng)
180.屈 (Qu)
181.饶 (Rao)
182.解 (Jie)
183.牟 (Mou)
184.艾 (Ai)
185.尤 (You)
186.阳 (Yang)
187.时 (Shi)
188.穆 (Mu)
189.农 (Nong)
190.司 (Si)
191.卓 (Zhuo)
192.古 (Gu)
193.吉 (Ji)
194.缪 (Mou)
195.简 (Jian)
196.车 (Che)
197.项 (Xiang)
198.连 (Lian)
199.芦 (Lu)
200.麦 (Mai)
201.褚 (Chu)
202.娄 (Lou)
203.窦 (Dou)
204.戚 (Qi)
205.岑 (Cen)
206.景 (Jing)
207.党 (Dang)
208.宫 (Gong)
209.费 (Fei)
210.卜 (Bo)
211.冷 (Leng)
212.晏 (Yan)
213.席 (Xi)
214.卫 (Wei)
215.米 (Mi)
216.柏 (Bai)
217.宗 (Zong)
218.瞿 (Qu)
219.桂 (Gui)
220.全 (Quan)
221.佟 (Tong)
222.应 (Ying)
223.臧 (Zang)
224.闵 (Min)
225.苟 (Gou)
226.邬 (Wu)
227.边 (Bian)
228.卞 (Bian)
229.姬 (Ji)
230.师 (Shi)
231.和 (He)
232.仇 (Chou)
233.栾 (Luan)
234.隋 (Sui)
235.商 (Shang)
236.刁 (Diao)
237.沙 (Sha)
238.荣 (Rong)
239.巫 (Wu)
240.寇 (Kou)
241.桑 (Sang)
242.郎 (Lang)
243.甄 (Zhen)
244.丛 (Cong)
245.仲 (Zhong)
246.虞 (Yu)
247.敖 (Ao)
248.巩 (Gong)
249.明 (Ming)
250.佘 (She)
251.池 (Chi)
252.查 (Cha)
253.麻 (Ma)
254.苑 (Yuan)
255.迟 (Chi)
256.邝 (Kuang)
257.官 (Guan)
258.封 (Feng)
259.谈 (Tan)
260.匡 (Kuang)
261.鞠 (Ju)
262.惠 (Gui)
263.荆 (Jing)
264.乐 (Le)
265.冀 (Ji)
266.郁 (Yu)
267.胥 (Xu)
268.南 (Nan)
269.班 (Ban)
270.储 (Chu)
271.原 (Yuan)
272.栗 (Li)
273.燕 (Yan)
274.楚 (Chu)
275.鄢 (Yan)
276.劳 (Lao)
277.谌 (Chen)
278.奚 (Xi)
279.皮 (Pi)
280.粟 (Su)
281.冼 (Xian)
282.蔺 (Lin)
283.楼 (Lou)
284.盘 (Pan)
285.满 (Man)
286.闻 (Wen)
287.位 (Wei)
288.厉 (Li)
289.伊 (Yi)
290.仝 (Tong)
291.区 (Qu)
292.郜 (Gao)
293.海 (Hai)
294.阚 (Han)
295.花 (Hua)
296.权 (Quan)
297.强 (Qiang)
298.帅 (Shuai)
299.屠 (Tu)
300.豆 (Dou)
301.朴 (Pu)
302.盖 (Gai)
303.练 (Lian)
304.廉 (Lian)
305.禹 (Yu)
306.井 (Jing)
307.祖 (Zu)
308.漆 (Qi)
309.巴 (Ba)
310.丰 (Feng)
311.支 (Zhi)
312.卿 (Qing)
313.国 (Guo)
314.狄 (Di)
315.平 (Ping)
316.计 (Ji)
317.索 (Suo)
318.宣 (Xuan)
319.晋 (Jin)
320.相 (Xiang)
321.初 (Chu)
322.门 (Men)
323.云 (Yun)
324.容 (Rong)
325.敬 (Jing)
326.来 (Lai)
327.扈 (Hu)
328.晁 (Chao)
329.芮 (Rui)
330.都 (Dou)
331.普 (Pu)
332.阙 (Que)
333.浦 (Pu)
334.戈 (Ge)
335.伏 (Fu)
336.鹿 (Lu)
337.薄 (Bao)
338.邸 (Di)
339.雍 (Yong)
340.辜 (Gu)
341.羊 (Yang)
342.阿 (A)
343.乌 (Wu)
344.母 (Mu)
345.裘 (Qiu)
346.亓 (Qi)
347.修 (Xiu)
348.邰 (Tai)
349.赫 (He)
350.杭 (Hang)
351.况 (Kuang)
352.那 (Na)
353.宿 (Su)
354.鲜 (Xian)
355.印 (Yin)
356.逯 (Lu)
357.隆 (Long)
358.茹 (Ru)
359.诸 (Zhu)
360.战 (Zhan)
361.慕 (Mu)
362.危 (Wei)
363.玉 (Yu)
364.银 (Yin)
365.亢 (Kang)
366.嵇 (Ji)
367.公 (Gong)
368.哈 (Ha)
369.湛 (Zhan)
370.宾 (Bin)
371.戎 (Rong)
372.勾 (Gou)
373.茅 (Mao)
374.利 (Li)
375.於 (Yu)
376.呼 (Hu)
377.居 (Ju)
378.揭 (Jie)
379.干 (Gan)
380.但 (Dan)
381.尉 (Wei)
382.冶 (Ye)
383.斯 (Si)
384.元 (Yuan)
385.束 (Shu)
386.檀 (Tan)
387.衣 (Yi)
388.信 (Xin)
389.展 (Zhan)
390.阴 (Yin)
391.昝 (Zan)
392.智 (Zhi)
393.幸 (Xing)
394.奉 (Feng)
395.植 (Zhi)
396.衡 (Heng)
397.富 (Fu)
398.尧 (Yao)
399.闭 (Bi)
400.由 (You)

As a side note, it is interesting that 钱 (Qian - money) is only 93. I thought it would be higher given how obsessed with money the Chinese are

Links - 29th November 2021 (1: George Floyd Unrest)

A Composer Condemned Arson. Now No One Will Hire Him. - "Until last year, Daniel Elder—a 34-year-old musician who lives in Nashville, Tennessee—had a promising career ahead of him. The theme of the prize-winning composer's work, truth through emotion, is evident across his catalogue of choral music, including his debut commercial album, The Heart's Reflection.  Elder isn't composing very much these days. And even if he were, no one in the industry is willing to buy his work. His publisher has blackballed him. Local choral directors refuse to program his music for fear of provoking a backlash. They won't even let him sing in the choir...   The young composer is hardly the first person to suffer significant professional consequences after causing a social media firestorm: Virtually every day brings more examples of people saying slightly offensive things that stoke the fury of some mob. The problem is now so exhaustively covered in the media that "cancel culture" has become a top issue for many Republican voters... Elder was criticizing the activists who had set the courthouse on fire. He did not malign their cause or their ethnicity (and in fact, the perpetrator was white). He did not attack the Black Lives Matter movement or criminal justice reform. He implied that the militants had good motives ("well-intentioned") but were oblivious ("blind") when it came to the self-defeating nature of their tactics.  These sentiments are not racist; in fact, they are correct. Social science research and voter surveys show that violent and destructive protests tend to backfire, eroding support for the cause in question. While a small number of far-left agitators support these tactics, the overwhelming majority of people oppose looting, riots, and arson. That is especially true of those who live in communities of color.  One might not have expected Elder's mild declaration to attract much attention. But when he woke up the next morning, critics were spamming his Facebook and YouTube pages with comments accusing him of being a racist and a "white supremacist piece of garbage." He began to receive nasty emails as well. Some were anonymously authored, expletive-laden, and ugly from start to finish. Others confessed a previous appreciation for Elder's music but noted that they could never listen to him again...   Within 24 hours, the controversy had garnered the attention of GIA Publications. In the world of choral music, GIA is not merely a publisher; it is the major publisher of religious content, thanks to its association with the post–Vatican II Roman Catholic Church. GIA was Elder's publisher, and an important source of his income. On the morning of June 1, GIA President Alec Harris and media editor Susan LaBarr contacted Elder about posting an apology.  This apology had already been written by GIA; all Elder had to do was post it...   Elder wasn't inclined to make such a groveling apology, and was dismayed to see his colleagues siding with his critics.  "I chose to be that guy who didn't issue the apology," he says. "Things went from there and it wasn't good."  Within hours, GIA issued a denunciation of Elder...   Note this PR statement endorses the view that Elder had made an "incendiary" statement. Neither Harris nor LaBarr responded to a request for clarification as to which aspect of Elder's anti-arson agenda they oppose.  GIA also announced that the company would no longer publish Elder... the experience has positively impacted Elder in one way, he tells me: It has made him less ideologically narrow-minded.  "Because I was exiled, I started listening to voices on the right and the center, especially these classical liberals who have been exiled from the leftist movement," he says. "The strange silver lining is this shook me out of my prejudices a little bit.""
Weird. Liberals told us that no one supported riots, only peaceful protests. Yet they cancel those who condemn riots, and those who condemn violence. It's almost as if liberals are pro-riot and pro-violence...
This suggests that many people who espouse liberal ideology don't really believe in it, and just want to save their skins

Andy Ngô on Twitter - "New York: #BLM protesters tell white people dining outside to “get the f— out of New York” & that their white-owned taquerias aren’t welcome. The crowd chant along."

3 charged for involvement in confrontations at Pittsburgh restaurants during protest - "Three people are facing charges for their involvement in confrontations caught on video at Pittsburgh restaurants during a protest over the Labor Day weekend.  Charges were filed Monday against Shawn Green, who goes by Lorenzo Rulli, as well as Kenneth McDowell and Monique Craft. One of the incidents occurred in front of Sienna Mercato on Penn Avenue. A social media video showed Black Lives Matter protesters yelling and cursing at people eating outside the restaurant. One woman walked up to a table and drank someone’s drink while several other people smashed glasses on the ground.  In another video, demonstrators became aggressive toward a manager inside a McDonald’s restaurant. According to a criminal complaint, McDowell used a megaphone to scream obscenities at diners sitting outside Sienna Mercato... Craft admitted that she chugged the couple’s beer, the complaint stated."

BLM supporters post hateful messages on Facebook of mom shot dead after saying 'all lives matter' - "The Facebook page of a young mom who was shot dead after she said: 'All lives matter' to a group of Black Lives Matter supporters in Indiana has been flooded with hateful messages from trolls.    Jessica Doty Whitaker, 24, was killed early on the morning of July 5 while out on a walk with her fiancé, Jose Ramirez, and two friends in Indianapolis."

Matt Walsh on Twitter - "The average child in the inner city grows up without a father, listens to music that overtly glorifies crime and self-destruction, and lives in a community where murder is a daily occurrence and drug dealers rule the streets. But yes, his biggest problem is the police. Okay sure."

Meme - "When a President holding a Bible makes you angry but a person setting fire to a church doesn't, then it might be time to look at what feeds your soul."

Mark Dice on Twitter - "Police have charged a 25-year-old man with first-degree murder after they say he shot and killed a 5-year-old boy last week in Wilson, North Carolina."
"Notice they only mention the race of those involved when the murderer is white and the victim is black."

Phoenix police release new video of officers fatally shooting James Garcia - "The video shows an officer yelling multiple times that he’ll shoot if Garcia lifts the gun. Garcia appears to respond by yelling “shoot me” with his face close to the window... police said Garcia twice gave officers a false name, and detectives had to use fingerprints to identify him.  Police said investigators also found out later there’d been a warrant issued for Garcia for violating probation on an unspecified felony, and he wasn’t legally permitted to possess a firearm. According to online court records, a 28-year-old named James Porter Garcia, the same full name and age as the deceased man, had his probation revoked in March."
Naturally, there were protests

Scott Greer 6’2” IQ 187 on Twitter - "Why even remain a cop? This system hates you and only needs you to enforce mask regulations. Get a job that won’t send you to jail for doing your job"

College professor berates student for calling police 'heroes' - "An adjunct professor teaching her first-ever course at a California college was placed on leave this week after she ripped a student during a class presentation because he said he regards police officers as  “heroes.”  The unidentified Cypress College educator was apparently triggered Wednesday during 19-year-old business major Braden Ellis’ Zoom presentation on cancel culture in the US, in which he noted how even animated kids TV shows such as “Paw Patrol” have come under fire from unhinged cop-haters...   When Ellis asked the professor if she would call the police if she were in trouble, she insisted she would not.  “I don’t trust them. My life is in more danger in their presence,” she said, ending the discussion before she could be queried further... Ellis told The Post the situation was reflective of the far left’s influence on campuses nationwide.  “Liberal ideology is bad right now and people need to expose it and fight back — with gentleness and respect. Imagine if we don’t fight back now? What will they teach us in 10 years? It would be pure hatred,” Ellis said. “I have another [teacher] who is just as bad. These teachers just spew divisiveness and hatred toward our country.” The college, which is outside Anaheim, said Friday the professor would not be returning."

MSNBC's Chris Hayes Roasted After Old 'Master Race' Tweet Resurfaces - "In the tweet, which was made just two days before the inauguration of President Barack Obama in January 2009, Hayes expressed hope that people of color would never leave the nation’s capital."
Black Lives Better, doubtless, is still a far right conspiracy theory

Escape The Echo Chamber - Posts | Facebook - "The internet has taken notice of a Holocaust museum that is hosting an exhibit on the George Floyd killing.  Museums face the challenge of creating exhibits that keep people coming through the door. The featured photographer for this exhibit is highly talented and the subject matter is a popular draw.  But is the exhibit appropriate for a Holocaust museum? It does not deal with Germany killing millions of ‘unwanteds’. The museum writes: “When someone faces an act of antisemitism, racism, or any form of identity based hate, whether it results in death or not, there is an uprising of many emotions. We felt it was important to bring the human experience of the aftermath to our museum.” On one hand, there is no evidence that George Floyd’s killing was due to ‘identity based hate’. On the other hand the killing of George Floyd was largely viewed as a continuation of extra-judicial killings of blacks by law enforcement — a multi generational problem that existed in this country. The exhibit is focusing on the aftermath and how it’s interpreted by the community.  This was a killing by a government employee, but it wasn’t sanctioned by the government. Quite the opposite as the involved officers are facing serious charges for Floyd’s death.  Society today has been watering down the atrocities of Nazi Germany by equivocating modern events to horrors of the past. The facts in Floyd’s killing pale in comparison to Germany’s sanctioned extermination of whole classes of individuals.  A more on point exhibit would have been on China’s abuses of the Uighurs — but it wouldn’t draw in the number of visitors, who would then be exposed to rest of the museum. What good is a museum if nobody sees it?"
"Inappropriate" Holocaust comparisons are only wrong when it's not liberals making them

EmillySwaven🇨🇦 on Twitter - "I really wish people would stop calling #GeorgeFloyd he, him, etc. George might have LOOKED cis, but you never, EVER know if there there's a small chance of a person being LGBTQ+"

BLM Protesters Storm Beverly Hills Neighborhood: 'Eat the Rich!'
Clearly a movement to hold the police accountable
"I guess all that virtue signaling didn’t do much to put you on the mob’s good graces"

Tim Dillon on Twitter - "It is now right wing to believe you (1) have the right not to be stabbed to death"
Presumably about Ma’Khia Bryant

Lacey Crisp on Twitter - "“Ma’Khia had a motherly nature about her. She promoted peace,” said the 16 year-old girl’s mother, Paula."
Peaceful stabbings

The New York Times - Posts | Facebook - "Adults tend to view Black girls as more threatening, more aggressive, more mature and less innocent than white girls of the same age, robbing Black girls of the freedom to be children, according to a 2017 report by the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality."
Black girls need the freedom to stab each other!

Facebook - "In 1983, avouch Communist Susan Rosenberg planted a bomb outside the US Senate chamber to assassinate Republican senators. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Democrat Rep Jerry Nadler  got Pres. Clinton to pardon Susan Rosenberg.  She’s now a board member of Black Lives Matter Network, Inc."
Too bad she didn't commit a real act of violence, like tell protesters to peacefully march on the Capitol like Trump did

CAUGHT ON CAMERA: Big brawl explodes between 2 groups at Miami Airport!
No one tried to end it because that'd be racist

Iconoclasm as a Prelude to Woke Horrors? - "Iconoclasm has been a prelude to the woke spasms of today. The mass looting and arsons were preceded by physical attacks on conservatives, which were preceded by popular depictions of the murder and decapitation of President Trump, which were preceded by mob attacks on Confederate monuments. Like the other terrors which came before Wokeness, the greatest sin of today’s iconoclasts is often reducing infinitely complex characters to just one thing. Just as Muslims who revere Jesus as a prophet were reduced to intolerable heretics, a comparatively weak and benign king and queen were reduced to insufferable tyrants, and great discoveries were reduced to “Jewish science”, the Woke reduce historical figures to their worst common denominator. To them, a statue of Columbus is not a monument of a great explorer but an homage to an abuser and murderer of Native Americans; the Jefferson Memorial is not a temple for the man who penned some of our noblest ideals but an endorsement of his slave ownership; a stone on a modern street corner once used as an auction block for slaves is not a public reminder of past wrongs but a perpetual psychic aggression towards minorities. These modern iconoclasts intentionally confuse and confound the reason for the monument’s existence with the darkest of its crimes."

Nathan Monk on Twitter - "I don’t know who needs to hear this but Jesus was an unarmed person of color that was wrongfully arrested and executed. If you are siding the with oppressors instead of the oppressed you aren’t standing with Jesus. #JesusHadARapSheet"
I didn't know Jesus attacked the police and beat up women
Reply: "The man predicted his own death and was actually cleared of charges but he wanted to be executed, or do we not care for historical accuracy anymore?"

Leonydus Johnson (leave/me/alone) on Twitter - "The very first narrative I saw this morning about Deon Kay was that was just an innocent boy, not a threat, murdered by the cops who shot him in the back But even the notoriously right-wing, pro-cop WaPo says he was 18, ran from the cops and then pulled a gun from his waistband
I'm just curious, how many criminals are we planning on canonizing into sainthood before this year is over? Maybe BLM should change it's name to CLM because literally the only people they ever care about are the criminal population. Or maybe TLM? Thug Lives Matter. Tired of it."
Addendum: Rioters Storm DC Police Station, Mayor's Neighborhood After Cop Shoots Man With Gun - "The crowd of approximately 100 people hurled profanities at the officers and raised their fists in the air as they demanded “justice” for the death of the armed suspect"

Facebook - "The first 2 genuinely useful links I've found to understand deaths of young male, highly drugged or in manic episode, predominantly black, persons in police custody. I.e. the cause of police brutality claims that underline the BLM movement.  This first link is about the cause of the deaths, excited delirium, which presents itself as hyperaggressive, paranoid behaviour with elevated temperature, immunity to pain (and thus typical police methods of restraint), and approximately 10% mortality rate... 2nd link is a metastudy (in layman's terms, it's a study of studies, to get a "big picture" overview) of excited delirium cases with possible methods of handling patients in a prehospital stage."

No matter how many times I watch this video I still can't believe it's not satire - "we've got this group of attractive folks blocking a gas station with their raised fists protecting them from all forms of oppression, when a big truck pulls up like "Hey, I need some gas." Springing to action, the brave protesters band together by holding hands in a surefire effort to block the brand new Ford Super Duty F-250 diesel from entering... The chain of dweebs decides that chanting louder might stop the torque monster that can pull down a house from moving them, so they keep yelling "NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE, NO RACIST POLICE!" at the dude trying to get gas... At 0:34 one of the brave warriors yells out, "WE ARE CHILDREN! WE'RE F******G CHILDREN!""

Popeyes is nothing without black lives. : CorporateFacepalm

Escape The Echo Chamber - Posts | Facebook - "Last week another driver was attacked by protestors. The Portland man was pulled from his vehicle and beaten into unconsciousness. It took police officers 10 minutes to get there. Past incidents include:
• The Minneapolis, Minn. truck driver pulled from his vehicle and beaten to where he was sent to the hospital.
• The Alamosa, Col. man in a pickup truck who was shot in the back of his head by a protestor.
• The Aurora, Col. man in a Jeep who had six shots fired at him, hitting two other protestors.
• The Austin, Tex. protestor who was shot when he pointed a military rifle at an armed driver.
That’s at least five drivers that have been assaulted by protestors in the last few months."
On Adam Haner who tried to stop a trans woman being robbed and then got accused of being a white supremacist

Portland attacker Marquise Love sentenced to nearly two years in protest beating - "The Portland demonstrator captured on video beating another man during a protest was sentenced to 20 months in prison, authorities said Monday.   Marquise Love, 26, pleaded guilty to third-degree assault and felony riot, the Multnomah County District Attorney said.   Love, who also goes by “Keese Love,” was seen repeatedly punching and kicking Adam Haner during an Aug. 16 protest in the downtown area before knocking him out cold."
Weird how the court doesn't mention that he was a Proud Boy doing a false flag

Meme - "Black Olives Matter"
"Zara Al-Bukake MP.: 'Disgraceful. An important message is hijacked and demeaned by a puerile vandal. Shame on you Britain. DO BETTER.'"
"It's vandalism. A criminal act."
Only leftist vandalism is good

Facebook - ""A 13-year-old Chicago boy appears to have dropped a handgun and begun raising his hands less than a second before a police officer shot and killed him last month, footage released Thursday under community pressure shows."
==
Notice how the AP headline blatantly misleads the reader into thinking an unarmed kid was executed for no reason, when it is more likely than not a split second  judgement call by the cop shooting an armed person half second too late. And you won't get that unless you click on the article. As I said, some "journalists", including supposedly reputable ones like from AP, need to go back to relearn their ethics."

Adam Toledo Police Killing Prompts New Foot Chase Policy - "The policy tells officers they are not allowed to pursue someone suspected only of committing a minor traffic offense, or suspected of committing a low-level misdemeanor, unless the person poses an “obvious” threat to the community."
I saw many liberals still upset about the pro-crime policy, because they claimed the police would just lie now

Chicago police union chief: Cop who killed boy was 'justified' - "“Time-lapse video shows that that officer had eight-tenths of a second to determine if that weapon was still in his hand or not. Period,” he said.  “There’s no way a rational person can say they can process that and their muscle reaction would be less than one second. The officer does not have to wait to be shot at or shot in order to respond and defend himself. There is no obligation whatsoever.”"

New reaction-time study addresses what’s ‘reasonable’ in armed-suspect encounters - "You are confronting an armed suspect, no cover available. He faces you, with his gun at his side, pointed at the ground. Your gun is aimed at him and you’re ready to shoot. He ignores your commands to drop his weapon.  Are you justified in pulling the trigger before he makes any move to point his gun at you?  According to conclusions reached by researchers in a unique new reaction-time study, your preemptively shooting under such circumstances may well be considered reasonable by the standards of Graham v. Connor.  If the offender suddenly points his gun in your direction, you are highly unlikely to get a shot off to defend yourself before he shoots, the researchers documented. Even under ideal circumstances, you probably can fire no faster than simultaneously with the attacker.  These findings “serve to illustrate the extreme danger that armed suspects present to police officers,” the researchers report. “Even when a police officer has his or her gun aimed at [an armed] suspect and the suspect is not aiming at the officer, the officer is still in extreme danger...."

Meme - "Light ray: CRIMINAL
Prism: SHOT BY A WHITE MAN
Rainbow: JOGGER, TEEN, UNARMED, GENTLE GIANT, ASPIRING RAPPER, G.E.D"

Links - 26th November 2021 (2 - General Wokeness)

Sera-Jade (WARNING: this unit has low bio-quality) on Twitter - "If you equate both titles “Supreme Leader” and “Prime Minister” with the descriptor “head-of-state” but think one sounds more ‘totalitarian’ than the other as if “Supreme” is not simply just a synonym for “Prime” and “Leader” a synonym for “Minister” - then you might be a racist!"
"New Zealand / Prime minister: Jacinda Ardern
North Korea / Supreme leader:  Kim Jong-un"

Autopsies can uphold white supremacy - The Washington Post
Naturally, liberals are against attempts at objectivity, since that prevents them from imposing their narrative

Gina Bontempo on Twitter - "You’re telling me that a piece of rope hanging in Bubba Wallace’s NASCAR garage was more worthy of national coverage for WEEKS than 5-year-old Cannon Hinnant being executed in cold blood in front of his sisters?"

ZUBY: on Twitter - "'Woke' white liberals need to stop projecting their racism and guilt onto everybody else. They assume that because they are racist and obsessed with skin colour, that everybody else must be. Nah fam. That's just you. "

Leonydus Johnson (leave/me/alone) on Twitter - "I learned today that the world used to be full of carebears and butterflies and all the Native Americans, Africans, Arab Muslims and anyone who was brown pranced in meadows and sang songs of peace and love while riding on unicorns until white people showed up and killed them all."

Human Nature and IQ, SAT, GRE, ASVAB - "Every so often there is some talk about eliminating requirements for the SAT or the GRE.   A headline from the NYT: “Go Ahead, California, Get Rid of the SAT”   The writer claims standardized tests penalize poor kids who get good grades. He calls it a “barrier.”   I rarely see discussions about the reverse situations. There are poor kids who get bad grades but find a path upward because of standardized testing...  My senior year of high school I took the required test to join the military — the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB)... these tests are thinly veiled IQ tests. The SAT and ASVAB both correlate with IQ at r = .8.   A study on Army recruits found that scores on an intelligence test, along with 2-mile run time, were the best predictors of success in infantry training.   Research on tank gunners found that replacing a gunner who scores around the 20th percentile with one who scores around the 55th percentile improves the likelihood of hitting a target by 34 percent.   To qualify, potential military recruits must score higher than roughly one-third of all who take the ASVAB. The lowest acceptable percentile score to join is 36 for the Air Force, 35 for the Navy, 32 for the Marine Corps, and 31 for the Army.   By definition, the worst test taker who makes it into the military still scores higher than one-third of his or her peers. The military slices off the bottom third of standardized test-takers, not allowing them to join.    The psychology professor Linda Gottfredson has written: “IQ 85…the U.S. military sets its minimum enlistment standards at about this level…The U.S. military has twice experimented with recruiting men of IQ 80-85 (the first time on purpose and the second time by accident), but both times it found that such men could not master soldiering well enough to justify their costs.”   In the 1960s, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara initiated Project 100,000 which lowered the testing requirement. This allowed people at the 10th percentile (70~ IQ)—a standard deviation lower than the previous standard—to join.   Supposedly, the aim was to alleviate poverty. LBJ had recently begun his War on Poverty program.   The story was that getting more recruits into the military would help them move into the middle class.   And they needed more recruits for the Vietnam War. Lowering recruitment standards was an easy way to get them.   Recruits of Project 100,000 were 9 times more likely to require remedial training and training took up to 4 times longer to complete compared to their peers who had entered under the higher score requirement.   In Vietnam, men recruited under the lower testing threshold were 2.5 times more likely to die in combat.   Did the veterans who made it home achieve upward mobility? No.   Compared to civilians with similar attributes who were not recruited, McNamara’s Morons (as they were later termed) were less likely to be employed, less likely to own a business, and obtained less education.   Later, the policy changed to improve the talent pool of the armed forces. Higher ASVAB score thresholds were reinstated. Along with additional rigid requirements.   Today, 71% of Americans between 17 and 24 are ineligible for military service.   Over 24 million of the 34 million of young Americans cannot join the armed forces—even if they wanted to...    The SAT is a “barrier” according to that NYT op-ed. But it’s also a gateway. Most poor kids don’t take the SAT. Or any other standardized test. Maybe more should.   The chattering class is using poor kids as pawns to eliminate standardized testing. Which helps their own kids. Rich kids who “don’t test well.”   But they know how to strategically boost their GPAs, get recommendation letters from important people, and stack their resumes with extracurriculars. They have “polish.”   Interestingly, despite the chatter about getting rid of the SAT and the GRE, there is no talk of eliminating the ASVAB military test. No one says that it’s biased, unreliable, or discriminatory.  There are two reasons for this.
1. In the military, actions have real consequences. People want service members to be held to a high standard. For military recruits, a pencil and paper test is a reasonable requirement. But for those interested in studying at a place of higher learning, it’s a bridge too far.
2. The military is viewed as a lower middle-class organization. Influential members of society know their kids won’t be joining. So they don’t care about military entry standards the way they do for college and grad school."
McNamara "knew" that IQ was a "myth". Apparently the "low IQ" soldiers weren't socialised enough, which was why they failed to perform. Damn self-fulfilling prophecy and stereotype threat!
Given how woke the US military is becoming, it's only a matter of time before they forget the lessons they learnt and abolish ability testing due to "racism"

60% of U.S. Colleges Nix Testing Requirement for Admission - "Approximately 60 percent of U.S. colleges have nixed testing for student admission amid claims the tests give an advantage to applicants who are white and wealthier than other potential students because they have access to test preparation.  The debate about the claim’s accuracy has not been settled, some saying testing can help disadvantaged students"

To demonstrate why standardized testing is wrong, aNti-rAciSm proponents are actually, seriously comparing different racial groups to ANIMALS.

Why Elites Dislike Standardized Testing - "federal prosecutors exposed a crooked college admissions consulting operation that bribed SAT administrators and college athletic coaches in order to get wealthy, underqualified applicants into elite universities. Also charged were 33 wealthy parents who had paid for admissions bribes, including actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, Gordon Caplan, a co-chair of the international law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, and Douglas Hodge, the former chief executive of Pimco... People are going to say that this scandal is proof that the meritocracy is broken and corrupt. And it’s likely that many commentators will use this event as an opportunity to attack the SAT and the ACT. Progressives view test-based admissions as inequitable because some marginalized groups are significantly underrepresented among the pool of top-scoring college applicants. But millionaires and elites also hate standardized admissions tests, because their children’s admission to top colleges is contingent upon test scores.  Under pressure from both the academic left and wealthy parents, hundreds of colleges have become “test optional,” allowing students to submit applications without test scores. Some elite schools, including Bowdoin, Bryn Mawr and the University of Chicago have adopted these policies.  It is absolutely true that the SAT is the reason this scandal occurred. But for standardized testing requirements, the millionaires and celebrities charged in this scheme would not have needed to search for “side doors” to get their children into elite colleges; they could have walked right in through the front...   Opponents of tests like to argue that tests primarily measure socioeconomic status and parental resources, but it’s not true that rich parents unfairly distort the college admissions process by outspending other people on test prep. There’s not a clear causal relationship between income and test scores, and there’s no evidence that expensive test prep gets better results than cheap or free alternatives.  According to data released by The College Board, the median SAT test taker in 2013 scored a 496 on the SAT’s critical reading section and a 514 on the math. The median student whose family earns less than $20,000 will score a 435 on the critical reading section and a 462 on math, considerably below average. Students from families earing $60,000-80,000 perform similarly to the overall distribution, and median scores continue to rise about 10 points for every marginal $20,000 of family income. The median student from a family earning more than $200,000 per year scores a 565 on critical reading and a 586 on math. The richest students perform a little more than half a standard deviation above average, while the poorest perform a bit more than half a standard deviation below.  But while it’s true that higher-income students get better scores on average and lower-income students do worse, it doesn’t necessarily follow that money raises test scores. This is a mere correlation, and, as anyone who did well on the SAT knows, correlation doesn’t imply causation.  SAT scores correlate strongly enough with IQ that the SAT is interchangeable with IQ as a test of general cognitive ability. Cognitive ability is highly heritable; the single strongest predictor of a child’s IQ is the IQ of the child’s parents. There is also a correlation between income and IQ. That means smarter than average parents are likely to have smarter than average kids and higher than average incomes. The educational attainment of an SAT taker’s parents is about as strongly correlated with higher scores as high income is... it has never been true that poorer students lack access to test prep; most students prepare for the SAT, and high quality materials and practice questions drawn from old tests have been available in inexpensive test-prep books for decades. In 2015 the College Board partnered with Kahn Academy to provide free online test prep resources, and about 60% of test takers now utilize the free official test-prep resources.  Despite what commercial test prep companies might claim in their marketing materials, there is no evidence that expensive commercial prep materials or private tutoring yield better results than test prep with inexpensive practice materials or the free official online resources.   It’s worth noting that the scores most rich kids and most children of highly educated parents earn are still far too low to get into elite colleges. The median child from a family earning $200,000 scores an 1151, which puts you in the bottom half of the admitted class at a school like Ole Miss or University of Alabama, and is far short of the 1500 earned by the median student who enrols at Yale.  If rich people could just spend their way to high test scores, then they wouldn’t be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to bribe their way into elite schools...   You can tell an objective, meritocratic system is working when it pushes out people that the establishment would prefer to admit (people like Zoe Kazan), and it admits the people that the establishment would prefer to reject (Jews and Asians). It is phenomenal that CEOs and power brokers and celebrities are getting indicted for desperately trying to bribe someone to get their mediocre kids into good schools, because that means meritocratic systems are throwing barriers in front of the children of elites when they can’t compete on an objective test.   There’s a reason Zoe is attacking the SAT rather other controversial aspects of the college admissions process like the preferential treatment of legacies: Testing impedes the success of people like her.  If Yale goes test-optional, what else is there in the admissions portfolio that could possibly scuttle the application of somebody like Zoe Kazan? When millionaires and celebrities attack the testing establishment, they pretend to do so on behalf of the marginalized and disadvantaged, but they really want to destroy the SAT because it is the only mechanism by which your kid can get into an elite college ahead of their kid."
Since liberals don't want to believe that IQ is genetically influenced - or even that IQ is real - they hate standardised tests

NYC schools chancellor calls for end to elite school test - "Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross-Porter called for an end to the specialized high school entrance exam Thursday while fuming about new admissions data that showed Asians dominating the controversial test once again... Test backers assert that it’s a colorblind measure that has forged some of the most academically renowned schools in the country. Others also note that many of the immigrant Asian groups that predominate at the eight schools come from low-income backgrounds rather than privilege."

Meme - Lil Nas X ‘Satan Shoes’: "If you don't like it, just don't buy it."
*Aunt Jemima*: *Triggered*

La comunidad afro celebró el cambio de logo de Blancaflor
Comment: "The Aunt Jemima from Argentina?
Well, the woke ridiculousness did it again, my friends. After 65 years, this famous brand of flour called "Blancaflor" removed its famous drawing of a black lady from the packaging, because it is, of course, associated with sLaVEry and rACisM. But the best part is that her image was replaced with the image of two arms cooking something. Some people simply assumed that these two arms belong to a woman, which caused outrage, because "of courrrse, these narrow minded bigots are implying that women belong in the kitchen". On the other hand, some people perceived that these arms belong to a man, and it also caused controversy because "this HORRIBLE man stole the spotlight from some poor black lady". Once again, there's no way to win with these idiots.
Well, I, for one, used to love the black lady and I am going to miss her Good bye, black lady!
Edit: Just to make it clear for the cry-babies. Whether the packaging is actually racist or not, that's debatable. The point is that, even after removing the black lady, people still found two completely different reasons to be offended."

ryan cooper on Twitter - "sales of mega-pickups, which have basically been deliberately designed to intimidate and kill pedestrians, are booming"
Maybe it's projection
A blue check mark, of course

Black man's jaywalking ticket in N.S. was racial discrimination, says rights board - "A human rights board of inquiry has found that a Black man was discriminated against by Halifax police when he was ticketed for jaywalking... the officers first stopped Symonds as he headed for the Nook Espresso Bar across from his office without using a crosswalk at the corner. They warned him about jaywalking and told him he was free to go. Perryman said that first encounter was “brief and cordial.”  The decision says the facts of what happened next were disputed, with Symonds telling the board he crossed at the intersection when he returned to his office and the two police officers saying they observed him again crossing in the middle of the block and that he didn’t yield to a bus. The officers followed him into his office building and gave him a ticket.  Under the province’s Motor Vehicle Act, it’s an offence if someone crosses a road at a place where there’s not a regular crossing for pedestrians and doesn’t “yield the right of way to vehicles on the roadway.”  However, Perryman found in his ruling that it was “more likely than not” that Symonds didn’t jaywalk on his return trip and concluded the officers’ decision to wait and observe the man was based in part on race. Perryman has ordered the Halifax Regional Police to pay Symonds $15,232 and give him a written apology. He also suggests all new hires complete training in policing without bias... Perryman noted that he was concerned about the decision of the officers to remain and observe Symonds after the first encounter, as the man exited the coffee shop to return to work.  His decision says the officers told the board of inquiry they kept watching Symonds because they had some time available and that it was a so-called “de-escalating tactic,” where they believed police presence would deter law-breaking.  Perryman said he found those explanations inadequate."
Minorities should be allowed to do whatever they want

Avoiding marginalised people in the street : socialjustice101 - "I am a white, cis hetero presenting male. For the last 3 years, I have been actively crossing the street to avoid women, especially at night. I do this to try and reduce their anxiety that I may be an attacker. After the tragic events last summer, I started doing the same when I encountered BIPOC. I just felt like the last thing BIPOC needed was to have to face white people. With this in mind though, I've also seen a lot of black people in the UK, describe how white people always cross the road to avoid them and how this is a microagression. so Im really torn here and would like sokr advice about what the best thing to do is? Should I actively try and interact with minorities and try and be a good ally? or should i step to one side and give them the space they need yo breathe, whilst silmultaniously trying to be an ally?"

The Independent - Posts | Facebook - "Exclusive: Born and raised in London, Ace Ruele Aristotles has three children in UK"
"UK-born actor Ace Ruele faces deportation to Jamaica"
So many people in the comments are unwilling and/or unable to understand that the UK (and indeed, most of the world) does not practise jus solis. They need to decolonise their thinking from the hegemony of American liberalism

Meme - "The party that tells us DACA kids shouldn't have to suffer for the crimes of their parents also tell us that Americans should suffer for the crimes of slavery centuries ago."
Basically only white people inherit Original Sin

#UsToo: Why haven't more black women been sexually harassed? - "No one wants to be sexually harassed in the workplace, but everyone would like to think that they’re worthy of being sexually harassed in the workplace. When I was sexually harassed at White Castle, back in the mid ‘00s, causing me to walk off the line mid-shift, it was one of the most difficult times in my life, but it was nice to know that someone wanted to take advantage of me. My concern is that not enough black women are being sexually harassed in the media. In the past few weeks, literally hundreds of women have come forward to allege sexual harassment—and worse—against Harvey Weinstein, James Toback, Brett Ratner et alia, and few, if any of them, have been black."
Addendum: Weird. We're told that sexual harassment is about power, not sex. So why doesn't racism mean black women suffer even more sexual harassment?

Cathy Reisenwitz 🥑 on Twitter - "I’m watching the Boondocks for the first time and I have feelings. I understand the viewer is supposed to laugh at some of these characters. But I must say it feels gross, as an exceedingly melanin-deficient person, to laugh at Black characters."
Having real, believable black characters who are treated the same way as white people is racist
The poisonous obsession with "punching down" strikes again

Anyone who has no slave is his own slave
A slave who looks on while a fellow slave is tied up and thrown into the grave with his master should realise that the same thing could be done to him someday
It is when the son is being given advice that the slave learns...
"We think this trade must go on," one local king in Bonny infamously said in the 19th Century.  "That is the verdict of our oracle and our priests. They say that your country, however great, can never stop a trade ordained by God."... Acclaimed Igbo historian Adiele Afigbo described the slave trade in south-eastern Nigeria which lasted until the late 1940s and early 1950s as one of the best kept secrets of the British colonial administration.  While the international trade ended, the local trade continued... Records from the UK's National Archives at Kew Gardens show how desperately the British struggled to end the internal trade in slaves for almost the entire duration of the colonial period"
Only white people get judged for their ancestors' sins, while black people who have been involved in the slave trade in living memory are innocent

An African country reckons with its history of selling slaves - The Washington Post - "Less than a mile from what was once West Africa's biggest slave port, the departure point for more than a million people in chains, stands a statue of Francisco Félix de Souza, a man regarded as the father of this city.  There's a museum devoted to his family and a plaza in his name. Every few decades, his descendants proudly bestow his nickname — "Chacha" — on a de Souza who is appointed the clan's new patriarch.  But there's one part of de Souza's legacy that is seldom addressed. After arriving here in the late 1700s from Brazil, then a Portuguese colony, he became one of the biggest slave merchants in the history of the transatlantic slave trade... The trade largely stopped by the end of the 19th century, but Benin never fully confronted what had happened. The kingdoms that captured and sold slaves still exist today as tribal networks, and so do the groups that were raided. The descendants of slave merchants, like the de Souza family, remain among the nation's most influential people, with a large degree of control over how Benin's history is portrayed... Many members of the de Souza family are aghast at the idea.  "He was a man who helped modernize our nation," said Judicael de Souza, 43, noting his ancestor's role in expanding agricultural trade with Europe... Late last year, the family appointed its new patriarch, or Chacha. He is a construction engineer named Moise de Souza who lives in a concrete apartment building with a poster-size picture of himself on the wall. He has light brown skin, a point of pride for a family that often boasts about its ties to colonialists... he worried that members of his family would be livid if he shared that sentiment publicly in Benin. He vehemently opposes any mention of de Souza as a slave merchant in the new Ouidah museum.  "It's the reputation of our family," he said. "We don't want to be known for this dirty thing.""

Introducing Woke: Detect Insensitive Language in Your Source Code | by Caitlin Elfring | Better Programming

Escape The Echo Chamber - Posts | Facebook - "A University of Minnesota student posted on Instagram about a late night encounter with police that left him “mentally and emotionally tormented”.  In response the police released video and audio of the encounter that told a very different story."
The most useful part of body cameras

S.F. high school students get a lesson in subtle white privilege - "Three weeks ago I processed the Capitol insurrection with my high school students. Rallying our inquiry skills, we analyzed the images of that historic day, images of white men storming through the Capitol, fearless and with no forces to stop them. “This,” I said, “is white supremacy, this is white privilege. It can be hard to pinpoint, but when we see, it, we know it.”  Across our Zoom screen, they affirmed, with nods, thumbs-ups, and emojis of anger and frustration. Fast-forward two weeks as we analyzed images from the inauguration... They saw a white man in a puffy jacket and huge mittens, distant not only in his social distancing, but in his demeanor and attire... Sen. Sanders is no white supremacist insurrectionist. But he manifests privilege, white privilege, male privilege and class privilege, in ways that my students could see and feel.   “When you see privilege, you know it,” I’d told them weeks before. Yet, when they saw Sen. Bernie Sanders manifesting privilege, when seemingly no one else did, I struggled to explain that disparity. I am beyond puzzled as to why so many are loving the images of Bernie and his gloves. Sweet, yes, the gloves, knit by an educator. So “Bernie.”  Not so sweet? The blindness I see, of so many (Bernie included), to the privileges Bernie represents. I don’t know many poor, or working class, or female, or struggling-to-be-taken-seriously folk who would show up at the inauguration of our 46th president dressed like Bernie. Unless those same folk had privilege. Which they don’t. Ingrid Seyer-Ochi is a public school teacher."
I thought Jews weren't white
Of course teachers aren't trying to indoctrinate their students

Woman Behind Bernie's Mittens Quit Making Them Because Taxes Killed Her Business - "The Vermont school teacher who made Bernie Sanders’ mittens, featured in the most recent viral meme, said she had to stop making them after the federal government taxed her too much.  “People have been contacting me thinking that they can get mittens, and actually they can’t. I don’t have any more, and I don’t have much of a mitten business anymore because it really wasn’t worth it,” Jen Ellis explained... Even though Sanders admitted in 2019 that he would raise taxes on the middle class to support his Medicare for All plan, Ellis has shown support for the senator, sending him the repurposed sweater mittens in 2016 because she was “heartbroken” that he lost the Democratic nomination and “probably wouldn’t run again.”"
Only those who vote Republican are mocked for voting against their interests

Bernie Sanders meme: Viral image of senator at inauguration sparks a debate about sexism - "Some people posted on Twitter and suggested that the reaction to the picture and the popularity of the meme is a sign of wider misogyny in society. The crux of the argument seems to be that if a woman had turned up to an event like this wearing similar clothing, supposedly looking disgruntled and unenthusiastic, then people wouldn’t have had the same jubilant and positive reaction... 'I’ll admit the Bernie memes are funny BUT his openly grumpy disposition during a very historic moment for women and particularly women of color speaks volumes to me.'...  to be fair on Bernie, it was freezing cold and he is almost 80 years old, so it seems understandable why he might be wrapped up warm and not look so smiley. Also, Michelle Obama was seen looking less than happy at Trump’s inauguration (and later spoke about how she “stopped trying” smile during the event) and it became a meme way back in 2017. Some people think we should just let people enjoy things without having to create edgy discourse about every meme or online trend."
This is why in Communist countries they clap for their leaders for so long

Zoning, Housing and Liberals

Divergence in Land Use Regulations and Property Rights / Christopher Serkin, in Southern California Law Review

"Zoning has long been seen as a kind of ex ante nuisance prevention. It separated incompatible uses of land before they arose, keeping factories out of residential neighborhoods during the urbanization and industrialization of the early twentieth century. And it protected single–family homes from more intensive uses, in effect stratifying much of the country into single-use zones. This had a pernicious underbelly, reinforcing divisions based on class and on race, keeping apartment buildings and other forms of multifamily housing out of more affluent single-family zones. Indeed, this is zoning’s original sin. But this is also the fundamental justification that the Supreme Court endorsed in Euclid.

Few people objected to the idea of using regulations to separate genuinely incompatible land uses. Indeed, the regulatory goal of minimizing externalities was consonant with both liberal and conservative convictions. But zoning’s contours have been contested now for a long time. By and large, conservatives objected to regulatory restrictions on property rights and so have advocated for limited zoning that separates only the most conflicting uses. Others on the right have advocated for even more extreme regulatory minimalism, relying on private land use controls instead of zoning and invoking covenants and homeowners’ associations as remedies for regulatory overreach. Liberals, on the other hand, embraced zoning. They were willing to take a more capacious view of the harms of neighboring uses and so promoted increasingly fine-grained land use regulations... Today, the underlying goals of many land use regulations have nothing to do with ex ante nuisance controls...

Although not always noticed, even by local officials and developers let alone by courts and scholars, the presumptive conservative opposition to land use regulations and liberal support has, in many cases, flipped...

Advocates for sustainable development clash with NIMBYs (“Not in My Backyard”) and BANANAs (“Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything”) and are joined by California’s new YIMBYs (“Yes in My Backyard”)...

People concerned with preserving the existing in-place community will usually object to development that changes the character of a place...

Just as some people seek growth for the amenities it brings, others may object because of increasing congestion or changes in municipal character that can accompany substantial new development. It can also come simply from status quo bias.

Again, whatever the specific motivation, the anti-growth agenda embraces zoning and land use regulations of all kinds. The clearest regulatory strategy to preserve the status quo is to erect as many regulatory hurdles as possible to prevent new development. Strict zoning requirements, including designating large areas of a municipality as effectively off-limits for development, are the most obvious techniques. But adding new layers of regulation can be equally if not more effective. One study has demonstrated that every new regulation reduces building permits for multifamily units by 6%. Historic preservation rules, strict subdivision ordinances, development impact fees, and so forth can also create an atmosphere hostile to development that drives growth elsewhere...

While normatively controversial, local governments often seek to exclude affordable housing because low-income households generate relatively little revenue and yet place significant burdens on municipal budgets through impacts on schools and other municipal services. On the flip side, local governments seek land uses that generate substantial tax revenue while creating few costs. Depending on the nature of the tax base, this often means seeking to attract high-valued homes for people with few if any school-aged children...

Simply increasing the supply of any form of new housing can also put downward pressure on price... The most extreme example is the YIMBY movement in California, which pushed for a change in 2018 that would have all but eliminated density limits on residential development anywhere near mass transit. This would have unlocked an enormous amount of development potential throughout California’s cities. The measure failed, but there can be no doubt that affordability is motivating increasing political pressure...

In 2019, Professor Vicki Been et al. surveyed the economic literature and concluded that unlocking supply, even without explicit inclusionary zoning requirements, helps make housing more affordable, whereas supply restrictions drive prices up...

Zoning can be used to exclude disfavored groups or businesses. This is most obvious and familiar in the context of racially motivated zoning. Although explicitly race-based zoning is clearly unconstitutional and illegal, exclusionary zoning often has a racially discriminatory impact, if not motivation. Because this can be so difficult to detect and to prove, it remains widespread. For example, opposition to affordable housing or simply to less expensive multifamily housing may well be motivated for some people by racial animus...

Multiplicity in land use regulations can allow people to better satisfy their individual preferences by choosing to live in a place that pursues their particular regulatory priorities. And they will not always choose to live in the place where their property rights are the most expansive. Indeed, it is quite to the contrary. While no one likes to be told what they can and cannot do on their own property, almost everyone likes being able to tell neighbors what they can do on theirs. Many people will willingly trade greater restrictions on their own land for equivalent restrictions on their neighbors. The proliferation of common interest communities, many of which are subject to much more burdensome property restrictions than any local zoning ordinance would ever impose, is proof that many people prefer this trade–off. Just as people can choose to live in a place with good public schools, or low taxes, or mass transit, or lots of open space, regulatory priorities can be important selection criteria for homeowners...

[For Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee] the City also sees a substantial fiscal upside. Not only does new development generate more property tax revenue, but also its net fiscal impact is even more positive. Where dense urban infill has occurred nearby, the net tax revenue per square foot is dramatically higher than anywhere else in the metro area because of the relatively low cost of building out infrastructure and the high property values...

Consider, first, the effect on traffic: a central source of opposition. This is a perplexing reason to oppose redevelopment. Music Row is adjacent to Vanderbilt and in the heart of the City. Yes, new residential buildings will increase local traffic to some extent, but it should marginally reduce traffic in the City more broadly. It is not exactly transit-oriented development since there is no meaningful transit in Nashville. But it is development that is closer to the places people work and play and so will result in fewer vehicle miles traveled. Traffic has a lot of political valence, and it makes tactical sense for opponents to use it as a reason to push back against development, but it seems misguided as a basis for objecting new buildings on Music Row. For this same reason, those concerned with sustainable development should favor dense infill in places like Music Row over suburban sprawl. This also reduces development’s total carbon footprint.

Increased housing costs citywide are also a poor reason to oppose the redevelopment of Music Row. While new housing may well precipitate a change in the character of the particular neighborhood and increase prices there, the best evidence demonstrates that adding supply will decrease median property values in the City and increase affordability. This is true even if the new housing stock is exclusively market rate and expensive. Such is the power of supply and demand"

Related:

San Francisco's Housing Activists Are Making the City More Expensive - The Atlantic (also headlined: "San Francisco's Self-Defeating Housing Activists")

Why Middle-Class Americans Can't Afford to Live in Liberal Cities - The Atlantic
Addendum: "according to Trulia chief economist Jed Kolko... “Even after adjusting for differences of income, liberal markets tend to have higher income inequality and worse affordability”... There is a deep literature tying liberal residents to illiberal housing policies that create affordability crunches for the middle class. In 2010, UCLA economist Matthew Kahn published a study of California cities, which found that liberal metros issued fewer new housing permits. The correlation held over time: As California cities became more liberal, he said, they built fewer homes."

""Democratic, high-tax metropolitan areas... tend to constrain new development more," Saiz concluded, and "historic areas seem to be more regulated." He also found that cities with high home values tend to have more restrictive development policies."

Do liberal cities limit new housing development? Evidence from California

"Traditional explanations for why some communities block new housing construction focus on incumbent home owner incentives to block entry. Local resident political ideology may also influence community permitting decisions. This paper uses city level panel data across California metropolitan areas from 2000 to 2008 to document that liberal cities grant fewer new housing permits than observationally similar cities located within the same metropolitan area. Cities experiencing a growth in their liberal voter share have a lower new housing permit growth rate."

Liberals and Housing: A Study in Ambivalence

"Do political liberals support or oppose zoning changes that allow more market-rate development? I use survey data from California and show that liberals are ambivalent. The ambivalence is explained in part by homeownership, which is associated with opposition to new housing of all kinds, even as it has little influence on attitudes about other policies. Even controlling for ownership, however, I find that self-identified liberals remain ambivalent about new development, never supporting it as much as they support more stereotypically liberal policies, and opposing it outright when reminded that enabling new housing might require less regulation, particularly environmental regulation. In contrast, liberals strongly and consistently support spending on subsidized affordable housing. The results together suggest that in supply-constrained cities with liberal electorates, the political calculus is unfavorable to new housing. Ownership injects some conservatism into development politics; liberal ideology could provide a counterweight to that conservatism, but that counterweight might be blunted if development also requires deregulation."

From what I see, liberals still support zoning (to prevent both densification and new development) - they just blame foreigners, speculators, landlords and big business for unaffordable housing, and pretend that supply isn't a factor.

Yet, higher density results in more tax revenue, which can be used for the public services that liberals love.

For sure, the environmentalist opposition to new development is coming from liberals.

Ironically, environmentalists and the NIMBY anti development lobby are literally conservative - they don't want things to change or even look back to a prelapsarian ideal.

The same people who want low density housing everywhere also oppose new development, block everything due to supposed environmental impacts, demand good public transport/public transit - and then complain about high housing prices. And they are for rent control too. And they will call anyone who points out that immigration boosts housing prices racist.

Addendum: Refined to: The same people who only want low density housing everywhere because they hate condos and oppose any intensification also oppose opening new land to development, blocking everything due to supposed environmental impacts (despite intensification leading to a lower average environmental impact) or because we can't afford to lose farmland (as if we must grow as much food as possible nearby), while blocking housing renewal because that will displace existing residents, as well as demanding good public transport/public transit (even as they refuse to allow lines to run under their homes or have maintenance and storage facilities in their neighbourhoods) - and then complain about high housing prices. And they are for rent control too even though that reduces the incentive to build new housing. And they will call anyone who points out that immigration boosts housing prices racist - even as they call for foreign buyers to be kicked out, even though foreign buyers make up a small portion of the market.
Keywords: the same people who demand public transit

I've also seen comments by some people that others don't have to live in their communities (i.e. the ones they oppose development in). I've asked where people should live instead, but haven't gotten an answer.