Massie is Disappointing

The House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning antisemitism on college campuses by a vote of 396-23.

A single Republican—Congressman Thomas Massie (R, KY)—was one of the 23 voting against the resolution. He posted his rationalization on X:

Free speech means protecting speech you don’t like, not just speech you do like.
Also, who defines antisemitism?

This is a mindless quibble. The resolution did not ban any speech, or much less antisemitic speech, however antisemitism might be defined or by whom; it only decried it. Which is itself an exercise in free speech.

Worse, quibbles of this nature—and Massie knows better; as a talented and successful politician, words are his stock in trade—are dangerous, diluting as they do the serious nature of free speech, including the free speech right to speak against others’ speech, and including applying consequences to others that don’t prevent them from continuing to speak. Even if those others don’t like it.

True Colors

The House of Representatives has passed a bill that provides $14.3 billion in aid for Israel as it defends itself against the war of annihilation that the terrorist Hamas is waging.

Progressive-Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has vowed to kill the House-passed bill.

The Senate will not take up the House GOP’s deeply flawed proposal. Instead, we will work together on our own bipartisan emergency aid package that includes aid to Israel, Ukraine, competition with the Chinese government, and humanitarian aid for Gaza.

This is the Progressive-Democratic Party, blocking aid to Israel.

This is the Progressive-Democratic Party, not seeing Israel under butchering annihilative attack by terrorists, as a valuable ally morally deserving, and politically and militarily needing, our support. Instead—despicably so—Party sees the Jewish nation merely as objects, as pawns, to be used in pursuing Progressive-Democrat goals: give us what we demand, or we will not support Israel.

This is an antisemitic (intended or not) and disgusting display by a political party gone extremist and selfish.

Another Counterproductive Union

This one is ad hoc, but it’s no less destructive of consumer well-being. That’s especially ironic here, given who this group is: a collection of pharmacy employees at chains like CVS and Walgreens, and soon-to-be-defunct for a variety of other reasons, Rite Aid.

From Monday through Wednesday workers at Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid have pledged to call in sick[.]

A fake-sick move that they’re calling, in their manufactured angst, “pharmageddon.” Never mind that the employees’ lying about the reason for their absence should itself be a firing offense.

One pharmacist, who organized a prior, smaller walkout, and who now is cowering behind anonymity, exposed the cynicism of the current move:

Our stores are still thousands of prescriptions behind. Our patients are still going days, weeks, or even months without their needed medicine. And they’re pretending that there’s not a problem. Until they acknowledge that there’s an actual problem and work to address the actual problem…we have to keep pushing.

So: the way to solve the problem of patients going with their meds for extended periods of time—a supply chain problem as much as anything—is to deliberately deny patients access to their meds for extended periods of time by simply not showing up for work. And absenting themselves with their own false claims.

Bidenomics is so Successful….

Here are a couple of measures of Progressive-Democrat President Joe Biden’s economics ideology and his policies that flow from it. The Agriculture Department says that

From 2021 to 2022, there were statistically significant increases in food insecurity and very low food security for nearly all subgroups of households described in this report[.]

Statistically significant. In concrete numbers, that saccharinely put “increase” was from 33.8 million Americans were living in food-insecure households in 2021 to 44.2 million in 2022 (2023 numbers aren’t available yet). That’s a 30% increase in the number of American families at nutritional risk.

Here’s another measure. The Census Bureau says that

poverty made the fastest rise in a half century under Biden, with 15.3 million more Americans falling below the poverty level.

The Know Betters in the White House, though, insist that everything is just coming up Aces because of the Biden ideology and policy set.

Us ordinary Americans just should not believe our lying eyes or our rudely growling stomachs.

Child Endangerment?

A 12-yr-old individual has been identified—and the individual has confessed—as the one making seven bomb threats at public schools in Montgomery County, Maryland. Under Maryland law, the child is immune to prosecution for this particular crime—he’s not 13 years old or older.

Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones added this tidbit:

It is disheartening to accept that the individual responsible for disrupting the educational process and instilling fear in our community was well aware of the legal limitations surrounding their age. They understood that they could not be charged under current Maryland statutes[.]

But maybe the child’s parents can be charged. Surely the child’s behavior is dispositive concerning the parents’ negligent (if not negligible) parenting. Surely the child’s behavior is prima facie evidence of the parents’ contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and through that in the present case, child endangerment.