Jews threatened by NYC mayor.

Mayor Bill de Blasio of NYC from Twitter:

My message to the Jewish community, and all communities, is this simple: the time for warnings has passed. I have instructed the NYPD to proceed immediately to summons or even arrest those who gather in large groups. This is about stopping this disease and saving lives. Period.

Meanwhile, the NYC subway is still open and packed at rush hour, the mosques are crowded, and thousands stood outside to watch jet fighters fly overhead.Yep, talk of rounding up the Jews to promote public health on the same day as a military air show. How's that for nuance, eh?

I want you to try to imagine Mayor Bill saying that to any other group. Go ahead, try plugging "Black" or "Muslim" or "Lesbian" or "Irish" into that tweet, and see if you think he'd have the balls. There's no way.

Dear Lefties, we can all see you. We don't like what we see.

The Phantom

SJW shamed for "hyper-stupidity".

One of the unexpected consequences of the Wuhan Flu pandemic is a growing impatience with SJWs from Normies in society. And by Normies I mean all you people in the dead-center middle of the bell curve who never notice anything, just go about your business and are oblivious to the forces trying to fuck your lives over. It took a fucking plague to wake y'all the hell up.

Well, the Suddenly Awake set heard an SJW doing what she's been doing since 2010 at least, and they all screamed "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!!!"

But Dr Emily Cousens, who researches at Oxford Brooke's but teaches at the University of Oxford, wrote in the Huffington Post: "The race is on and researchers at Oxford are doing vital, life-saving work. But races have winners and losers.

"If my university is the first to develop the vaccine, I'm worried that it will be used as it has been in the past, to fulfil its political, patriotic function as proof of British excellence."

"The story will be clear: China, once again, has unleashed a threat to civilisation. But the best brains of the UK have saved the world."

Dr Cousens also took aim at Boris Johnson's handling of the coronavirus crisis, lashing out at the Government's response to the pandemic.

One would think that Dr. Cousens speaks with some authority, given the "Doctor" and the "Oxford University Professor" in her title. But one would be wrong.

Dr Emily Cousens researches vulnerability and gender at Oxford Brookes university and teaches on the women's studies masters course at University of Oxford.

Dr. Cousens has a PhD in gender studies, and knows as much about vaccines and the pandemic as Myrtle the cleaning lady who works in the Oxford University cafeteria. Maybe less, as Myrtle at least knows how to clean a lunch counter and get the frickin' germs off.

From the Huff-annd-Puff-Post article, here's the part everyone is complaining about:

Let's suppose that Oxford does develop the first vaccine. What happens next? 

David Heymann, an infectious disease specialist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who heads a panel that advises the World Health Organization (WHO) on Coronavirus, says that there could be a production shortage. Researchers have also warned that this will lead to rich countries hoarding supplies. We were too late when it came to stockpiling PPE, but we won't be caught out again. The vaccine, developed by our finest brains, is ours. And it will be Britons who are prioritised for protection. 

If there is enough vaccine to go round, the UK will be the world's saviour. We'll quickly forget the devastating delay of the UK government to take action, as Boris Johnson proudly safeguarded British institutions like individual liberty, and the pub, over lives. 

We'll forget the lessons that the pandemic has taught us so far: that the UK and the US are in fact not exceptions at the global stage. That we are not only vulnerable but can also afford to learn lessons from countries, regardless of whether we have a special relationship with them – such as South Korea. That being white, male and Oxford-educated may not be the only criteria for effective leadership (the countries whose responses have been most widely praised, Germany and New Zealand among others, are all led by women).

The problem is not that the above is utter lunacy. Of course it is lunacy, she's complaining that a successful vaccine will be a win for Oxford, for Britain and for straight white males. That's insane. But it is also 100% normal for SJWs, they say this type of thing ALL THE TIME and y'all Normies don't pay a lick of attention. That lack of attention is how Emily Cousens got a PhD in the first place, and how she still has a job. This woman has the brain of an eggplant, she's probably not capable of cleaning the friggin' lunch room.

But the one bright light in all of this is that the Normies finally looked up from their phones, and Dr. Emily is getting a well-deserved shellacking in the press. Yay. Nice of you boys and girls to join us here in the Real World.

The Phantom

Refugees quietly entering at NY/PQ border again.

Just in case you were wondering if the government is actually serious about controlling the Corona virus pandemic and protecting Canadians... no, they're not. They're really not. They're serious about controlling -you-.

This is unbelievable. As of last night Trudeau has reopened our borders to people making claiming refugee claims from Upstate New York.

New York State is currently battling a massive COVID-19 outbreak. Admitting anyone from New York is grossly irresponsible.

Then there's this part here, from Toronto where by-law officers (meter maids) and cops are giving people fines for being outside: 

Yet, get a load of this: in less than a week, the Wuhan virus has truly gone viral at the Willowdale Welcome Centre: there are now 74 residents here who have tested positive for the Coronovirus! (The centre is apparently no longer releasing the number of staff who have tested positive.)

That means there are at least 86 cases of the Wuhan virus here!

When I pointed this out to a police constable and a supervisor, I was told to contact Health Canada and Toronto Public Health — I did so, but neither agency responded to my queries.

I also reached out to Mayor John Tory's office — you know, the mayor who was recently bragging on Twitter about the number of citizens who were getting $880 fines due to alleged COVID-19 safety violations? The Mayor had nothing to say either.

Now, I've seen a lot of guff on the media and the Interwebz about those REPUBLICAN IDIOTS!!!11! protesting the lockdown in various places like Michigan (where you can buy a lottery ticket but not seeds) and Colorado etc. Yes, those astroturf Republicans endangering lives by being outside.

Lets have a look at both sides of the coin, shall we? Neither Canada nor the USA has stopped flights from infected nations. There is no quarantine for new arrivals. There is no -testing- of new arrivals. They don't even take their fucking temperature. Canada has REOPENED the illegal immigration route for refugees from New York, epicenter of the biggest outbreak in the USA. There's a lot of other stupid shit they've been doing too, like not testing people that they should be, etc.

So really, lets not pretend any of  this is about controlling COVID-19. That ship sailed in November, and we weren't on it. Are the lockdowns controlling COVID-19? No, because even in Toronto it isn't a lockdown for everybody, only for law-abiding people who won't make a fuss. Social distancing at Willowdale Welcome Center? Of course not, the inmates of the center would riot! Hand out social distancing tickets at Jane and Finch to the drug dealers? Of course not, they'd riot! Close the mosques the way they closed all the churches? Of course not, they'd riot!

What's the lockdown for, then? To make you think they're doing something to help you when they're not, and mostly to remind you who's the boss. They are.

Happy Lenin's Birthday, comrades. Now get back to work.

The Phantom

NovaScotia shooter barred from gun ownership.

Current news from Nova Scotia is that the shooter, Gabriel Wortman, was banned from owning firearms and had been since an assault conviction in 2003. Also that he had an extensive history with provincial mental health authorities.

He not only had a gun (which kind has not been released yet), but he had an RCMP uniform and a replica cop car. So far, 23 confirmed dead.

Liberal gun control, working as intended.

Trump acts, Karen is angry.

Karens the world over would like you to know that #OrangeManBad.

This week U.S. president Donald Trump suspended America's $900 million annual contribution to the World Health Organization. Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of the prestigious medical journal The Lancet, called Trump's move a "crime against humanity...."

The Hill reports: "Every scientist, every health worker, every citizen must resist and rebel against this appalling betrayal of global solidarity," he added...

The American Medical Association (AMA) late Tuesday called Trump's decision a "dangerous step in the wrong direction" and urged him to reconsider. "Fighting a global pandemic requires international cooperation and reliance on science and data. Cutting funding to the WHO — rather than focusing on solutions — is a dangerous move at a precarious moment for the world," the AMA said in a statement. European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, meanwhile, said Wednesday that there was "no reason justifying" Trump's move...

And Bill Gates said in a tweet that halting funding to the WHO amid a world health crisis "is as dangerous as it sounds."

"Their work is slowing the spread of COVID-19 and if that work is stopped no other organization can replace them," the Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist added. "The world needs @WHO now more than ever."
Agreeing with Bill Gates was 95-year-old former U.S. president Jimmy Carter. Newsweek quotes Carter's newly-released statement calling the WHO "the only international organization capable of leading the effort to control this virus."

Let me just say something here about The Lancet and the American Medical Association. Neither The Lancet or JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, have ever seen an anti-gun article so unscientific or so outright stupid that they wouldn't publish it. So I hope those worthies will excuse me if their present huffing and puffing does not impress.

As for Jimmah the peanut farmer, I remember Operation Eagle Claw. That was his attempt to rescue the Iran hostages, and turned out to be one of the most colossal clusterfucks of all time, right up there with the raid on Dieppe in WWII.

In my not-so-humble opinion, internationalism generally and the WHO specifically are the entire reason we have our current Wuhan Flu pandemic in the first place. It doesn't matter if China let it escape from a lab, or if it came from bats in a Wuhan wet market, of if it was Dr. Evil's pet bioweapon. It would not have spread the way it has without the astounding stupidity of the WHO early on, and without international air traffic.

I'd like to remind y'all that during the Ebola outbreak airplanes were still flying from the stricken region to pretty much everywhere in the world. If Ebola was an airborne disease we would have had the same problem with it. Not a peep from the WHO.

I'd also like to mention that if the WHO was run by people who A) had a fucking clue and B) actually gave a single shit about preventing pandemics and other diseases world wide, then WHO would have made sure that all the medical equipment in the world was not made in one country run by Communists.

Cutting funding to the World Health Organization and the UN generally is the obvious thing to do. Trump has balls of steel for doing it. Compare and contrast with Canada's Shiny Pony.

Bill Gates and all the other Karens screaming #OrangeManBad can kiss my ass. We are in this shit because of you.

Quantum computing passes temperature barrier.

This is a very big deal. It seems like not much, but bear with me here. Two sets of researchers have managed to make quantum qubits work at temperatures above 1 degree Kelvin.

A team led by Andrew Dzurak and Henry Yang from the University of New South Wales in Australia performed a single-qubit operation on a quantum processor at 1.5 Kelvin. Separately, a team led by Menno Veldhorst of Delft University of Technology performed a two-qubit operation at 1.1 Kelvin. Jim Clarke, director of quantum hardware at Intel, is a co-author on the Delft paper. Both groups published descriptions of their devices today in Nature. 

HongWen Jiang, a physicist at UCLA and a peer reviewer for both papers, described the research as "a technological breakthrough for semiconductor based quantum computing." 

In today's quantum computers, qubits must be kept inside large dilution refrigerators at temperatures hovering just above absolute zero. Electronics required to manipulate and read the qubits produce too much heat and so remain outside of the fridge, which adds complexity (and many wires) to the system. 

At the higher temperatures described in the new research, control electronics could be placed right next to the qubits on the same chip. Instead of requiring dilution refrigerators that use isotopes helium-3 and helium-4, the system could be cooled using only helium-4. That should reduce the costs of building quantum systems—Dzurak describes the potential difference as going from a few million US dollars to a few thousand.

The big deal here is cost and complexity. Currently, quantum events can only be observed using a cooling system that costs millions of dollars, and each observation device needs its own cable. Because the control electronics have to be outside the cooler. That's what it takes to reach temperatures of 0.1K, that's -272.9 Celcius. Absolute Zero is -273 C and only reachable with laser cooling. That's where you get phenomena like the Bose-Einstein Condensate and other weird states of matter.

What these guys have done is made silicon quantum spin devices with the control electronics on them and made their measurements at 1.1 K and 1.5 K. It is significantly easier to make a cooler that goes to 1K than 0.1K, that last degree is very hard to get.

According to the really nice video that's linked at the IEEE article, this breakthrough puts us at the ENIAC-stage of quantum computing. It is going to be practical to build mainframes with millions of qubits that work at 1-2 Kelvin. They will only cost millions, not billions.

Now, millions sounds like a lot, but I know a guy who used to run a garbage hauling company back in the 1960s. His largest expense was truck maintenance. He was the first guy in Toronto to buy a big mainframe computer to track his vehicle maintenance. It cost a million dollars, give or take. He made his money back in a couple of years. That's the kind of leverage information gets you.

The type of job a million-qubit quantum computer would be able to do is decode the protein coat on a Coronoa virus. Like, fast. Minutes, not weeks.

The peasants in Michigan are revolting!

Q: When the governor of your state decides you can't buy seeds in April, and you'll get a ticket if you leave the house, what does your normal American do?

A: Take a drive over to the state capitol and park in front of her house.

The people of Michigan are done being told they can't go check on their parents or buy "non-essential" goods like tomato seeds on the order of that woman, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who thinks she has magical powers to dictate to free people what they can or can't buy. Thousands of cars descended on Lansing Wednesday to bring the clear message that Michigan is still a free state, and its citizens have not suddenly lost their constitutional rights because of a viral pandemic.

Thousands of cars, my friends. The natives, as they say, are restless.

I hope that the Liberals in Ottawa are paying attention to this. They're probably not, but I can still hope.

The Hopeful Phantom.

Liberals shocked its hard to buy a gun.

As the COVID-19 lockdown starts to bite down in some American states, and people who have disdained firearms their whole lives suddenly realize just how deep the shit they're in might get, they run out to go buy a gun.

I was chatting with a friend of mine recently and the topic of gun sales came up. My friend's father owns a gun range near me and she said he's seen a huge amount of liberals coming in to purchase weapons in recent weeks.

How does he know they're liberals?

"They're shocked to discover they can't just walk out of the store with a gun."

We've all heard about gun sales skyrocketing recently, but I hadn't considered some of the tangential effects of the phenomenon until I spoke to my friend. Not only are many liberals suddenly learning to love their Second Amendment rights, many of them are finding out that the gun control narrative in this country — as repeated loudly and often by Hollywood and the mainstream media — is a complete lie.

There's a mini-interview with a gun store owner in California who estimated 60% of his new buyers were first-time buyers and liberals. They didn't have a clue.

We tried to look at just who the new firearm purchasers were and we believe that more than 60% of these individuals were first time buyers. I can't describe the amount of fear in my staff as we had the buyers show proof of safe handling as part of the purchase process as required by law. You have never seen so many barrels pointed at sales staff and other customers. It was truly frightening. We had to keep stopping the process to give quick safety lessons.

How to tell a liberal in a gun shop: they muzzle-sweep the store clerk first thing they do. It doesn't matter how much you tell them not to do it, they will 100% for sure do it. If you get up in their face and scream "DO NOT POINT THAT GUN AT ME ASSHOLE!!!" ... they'll still do it. I have seen it. More than once.

Because they are liberals. They think they know better than you do.

So the prospect of all those assholes suddenly, in a dire emergency, finding out what they've been voting for since 1968, man that is some tasty schadenfreude right there. Vengeance, served cold with a twist of lime.

Well would you look at that... now mask good.

National Post, April 8th 2020: Headline, "Despite what you may have heard, you should wear a mask for COVID-19. We're not wearing masks, and despite what you may have heard, including from some of our most trusted medical authorities, you absolutely should be."

Phantom Soap Box, April 4th 2020: Headline, "Masks for COVID-19: Wear 'em."

You know, some things are just obvious. If you are dealing with a disease that has silent cases, and we definitely are, then EVERYBODY needs to wear a mask when they go out in public.

I want you, dear readers, to consider something. I am one guy, sitting at home with the same access to the Interwebz and medical professionals that everybody else has. I am a physical therapist, not an Infectious Disease specialist. I've had basic infection control training, the same they give to the cleaners at the hospital, garbage men, and guys who pump out septic tanks. Nothing cutting edge, okay? Wash the hands, wear gloves, take your clothes off outside the house when you come home (if you can), launder every day, keep your hands off your face, wear your goddamn safety gear the way it was designed to be worn. Basic cleanliness, not rocket surgery.

I'm four days ahead of the National Post. This is in an emergency, not to put too fine a point on it. I'm STILL ahead of Health Canada and the good Dr. Tam. I should be getting my pointers from them, given their reach and resources. Instead, I'm raging on about shit they need to do before they even start talking about it. That's not good.

I prophesy that the good Dr. Tam and the federal government will be rolling out mandatory mask rules in the not-too-distant future. They have to, because it is the only way we beat this thing now that social distancing is failing to get the job done sufficiently. The numbers keep going up, so they'll have to look like they're "Doing Something About The Crisis!" any day now.

So, for all you Canadians following the rules, staying home, wearing your mask, wearing gloves, staying 6 feet apart, I love you. You are awesome.

For you morons cutting in line, squeezing past people in the store, coughing on your hands and then touching the meat... fuck you.Your moment will come, you incredible, oblivious assholes. One day soon you're going to pull that shit, and a cop will smack your head into the back of the cruiser as you get arrested. Just remember when it does, that you asked for it.

The Phantom

The Dragon Awakes: a snippet.

This is a random scene I've had floating around the back of my mind for a while. Today was the day it made it out into the world. Enjoy! ~:D

The dragon slowly awoke to the feeling of something tugging insistently on his face. It wasn't painful, more as if somebody had hold of his mustache and was gently pulling on it. He opened one basketball-sized eye a crack and discovered a small boy, about eight years old, dressed in some sort of colourful costume. The boy had hold of his whiskers and was yanking as hard as he could. Being a dragon bigger than a city bus, it didn't feel very hard. He opened the eye a little wider and looked at the boy, who froze in mid-yank.

"Kid," he inquired quietly, "do you really think that's a good idea? Pulling on a dragon's whiskers like that?"

The boy let go and stepped back, putting his hands behind his back.

"That's better," said the dragon, then yawned widely. Teeth the length of the boy's leg flashed briefly in the light of the lamp the boy had brought, long forked tongue curled up, then he closed his mouth and smacked his lips a couple of times. "Ugh, jungle mouth," he muttered.

The boy backed up a couple more steps, but didn't run away.

George looked at him skeptically. "Still here, kid?"

"Ah, if it please you, your Greatness, I am sent here as a sacrifice to propitiate your righteous temper," the boy stuttered. He was clearly reciting something he had been taught, hesitating on pro-pit-iate in an attempt to get it right. "Please consume me, as is your right."

"You're shitting me," said George flatly, opening both eyes widely to examine the child closely. "Where's your mom and dad?"

The dragon was off-script. The boy got a panicked look on his face, because none of his lessons contained an answer for that. "Uhm," he managed, and began nervously shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

"Let me guess," said the dragon sourly. "Based on the shocking condition of you, you're an orphan. The village elders keep you around to do all the shit jobs nobody else wants, and the sons of bitches beat you every day. They trained you with a bunch of fancy speeches to keep me happy so I'll do what they want. Right?"

"Uhm, yes?" ventured the boy. "You're supposed to eat me."

"Oh, well let's get right on that," said the dragon sarcastically. "You want me to eat you?"

"It would be easier," said the boy sadly. "They'll kill me for sure if you don't. They don't like me, the villagers."

"Okay then," said the dragon. "C'mere, kid. Let's see what's going on with you." He reached out a foreleg and grasped the boy in a surprisingly dexterous forepaw. The child gave up completely, assuming the monster was going to bite him in half and resigned himself to death. The dragon sniffed at him, licked him with his immense forked tongue, looked into his eyes one at a time, then considered him at some length. "You are a mess, kid. You've got damn near everything wrong with you there could be. I'm surprised you can walk."

"I'm sorry I'm not a good sacrifice, Great One. I'm not good at anything," the boy sniffled.

"Here now, no crying," said the dragon sternly. "If you want to be a proper sacrifice you have to be brave. Buck up." The dragon poked the boy gently with his nose, and the boy subsided. "That's better. You're a tough kid. Now, I have to test your blood. I'm going to take a single drop from your finger. Hold your hand up for me."

The boy dutifully held up his hand, and the dragon pricked a finger with one claw. It was so sharp the boy didn't even feel the prick, then a drop of red swelled on his finger. The dragon carefully took the drop onto his tongue, then tasted it for a while.

"Hmm," he said as he tasted. "Malnutrition, rickets, worms, fractures, starvation, and there's something weird going on with your liver. Nope, sorry kid. Can't eat you. You taste bad."

The boy was crestfallen at that.

"Seriously, you're sad I'm not going to eat you?" snorted the dragon. "Tell you what, kid. You can be my assistant. First job you have is to hold still while I fix all that stuff that's wrong with you. You're no use if you're fainting from hunger all over the place."

The dragon rolled his eyes and felt around in his mouth with his tongue, then extruded a large dollop of viscous purple goo onto the forked end. This he slathered on the child liberally from head to foot, front and back. The boy made a face because it was slimy, but it sank into his clothing and skin leaving him clean and dry.

"That's better," said the dragon as he surveyed his work. The boy's colour was already improving as a billion nanobots invaded his tissues and began the long job of repairing all the damage there. "Ready to go to work?"

"As you wish, Great One," said the boy bowing. "What would you like me to do?"

"We're going to go have a word with the village elders who thought it would be a good idea to wake a sleeping dragon," he said with an evil glint in his eye. "Then I'm going to get a coffee. You're going to find me a coffee shop. Sounds good?"

"Yes sir!" said the boy enthusiastically. Going for coffee sounded a lot better than being eaten, whatever coffee was.

Why don't we have gloves and masks?

Its an interesting question, isn't it? Given the unholy amount of money the federal governments of Canada and the USA spend every single year, you would think they'd keep their emergency stuff topped up. Well, now we find out, they didn't.

Canada.

I'm talking about the federal government failing to ensure sufficient supplies of masks, gloves and other material in the National Emergency Strategic Stockpile.

The stockpile "contains supplies that provinces and territories can request in emergencies, such as infectious disease outbreaks, natural disasters and other public health events, when their own resources are not enough."

...

The system worked in 2009 when H1N1 hit and provinces, especially Manitoba, were required to draw down on the stockpile as their own resources dwindled.

In the 10 months that Canada had two peaks of H1N1, the federal government never ran out.

...

Yet, the responsibility for ensuring that the country as a whole is ready and has sufficient emergency supplies rests with the federal government and the Public Health Agency of Canada in particular.

This is their core function, not funding questionable academic studies as we've seen reported elsewhere, and on their core function, they have failed miserably.

Yes, my friends. There is indeed a whole agency of the feds whose job it is to keep a National Emergency Strategic Stockpile. They used to do their job, and their work saved us a couple of times since 2003 with SARS. But now, they don't do their job. Why that is remains a mystery. So far. It may take an election and a really dire invbestigation to find out what happened, but I do believe that eventually we will find corruption down at the bottom.

The USA.

The claim: The Obama administration used and did not replenish the nation's emergency stockpile of medical supplies, including N95 masks

As the novel coronavirus pandemic strains  health care systems, questions around the U.S. government's response have circulated in the media and online.

On March 26, The Daily Wire published an article centering on the Obama administration's role in using and allegedly failing to replenish the federal stockpile of N95 masks.

"The Obama administration significantly depleted the federal stockpile of N95 respirator masks to deal with the H1N1 influenza outbreak in 2009 and never rebuilt the stockpile despite calls to do so," the piece begins.

Our rating: True

We rate this claim TRUE because it is supported by our research. There is no indication that the Obama administration took significant steps to replenish the supply of N95 masks in the Strategic National Stockpile after it was depleted from repeated crises. Calls for action came from experts at the time concerned for the country's ability to respond to future serious pandemics. Such recommendations were, for whatever reason, not heeded.

This bit of fact checking comes to us courtesy of USA Today, always big fans of the Democrats generally and the Obama admin in particular. It really says something that a toadying brown-nosed outfit like USA Today has come out and laid this at Obama's doorstep. Also worth noting that the neglect contiinued on through the first three years of the Trump admin, a clear indication that the Swamp needs some draining. As with Canada, I expect we'll find out the money got stolen. But Americans will probably find out before the election.

America the worst for COVID-19? No. not really.

I thought this was worth sharing, as the media is playing obscene politics with people's lives these days.

Looks bad, right?

Try this one.

Then  the kicker is this one:

So there you go, all you OrangeManBad NPCs.

As I said yesterday, America is BIG and it has a large population. They are doing more testing and reporting more results than anybody else.

Canada is NOT testing. We have no idea how many COVID-19 cases are out there. Even attempting to place Canada on these curves is a waste of time thanks to that.

Trudeupia: the socialist Utopia for dopes who don't pay attention.

Physical force can trigger gene expression.

This is -so- cool.

Cells will ramp up gene expression in response to physical forces alone, a new study finds. Gene activation, the first step of protein production, starts less than one millisecond after a cell is stretched—hundreds of times faster than chemical signals can travel, the researchers report.

The scientists tested forces that are biologically relevant—equivalent to those exerted on human cells by breathing, exercising or vocalizing. They report their findings in the journal Science Advances.

"We found that force can activate genes without intermediates, without enzymes or signaling molecules in the cytoplasm," said University of Illinois mechanical science and engineering professor Ning Wang, who led the research. "We also discovered why some genes can be activated by force and some cannot."

The amazing basic things we don't know about the body. Wow.

Turns out that bass beats of 10-20hz are the most responsive forces. Explains a lot, eh? ~:D

The Phantom

 

NYT: 430,000 flew from China to USA since December.

For the slow and the stupid among us, and those camels who try to walk like men but can't quite manage, a reminder of where the COVID-19 virus came from, and why we are all locked in at home with the drawbridge up.

From the Lefty paper of record, the NY Slimes:

430,000 People Have Traveled From China to U.S. Since Coronavirus Surfaced

There were 1,300 direct flights to 17 cities before President Trump’s travel restrictions. Since then, nearly 40,000 Americans and other authorized travelers have made the trip, some this past week and many with spotty screening.

In Canada we know that people have been freely flying into Toronto from Wuhan with no screening whatsoever. There's video on Rebel Media of them arriving.

We also know that the authorities are not handling the situation well.

Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam reiterated in a press conference on Monday.
"What we worry about is actually the potential negative aspects of wearing a mask, where people are not protecting their eyes or other aspects of where the virus could enter your body, and that gives you a false sense of confidence," Tam said.


"But also, it increases the touching of your face. If you think about it, if you've got a mask around your face sometimes you can't help it."
Last week, Health Canada released a warning about homemade masks, advising Canadians that they should be used with caution and have several limitations that surgical masks and respirators do not. Homemade masks have not been tested “to recognized standards.” They may not provide “complete protection” against viruses. They may be difficult to breathe through and made with ineffective fabric. They may also be loose-fitting and require frequent adjustments that would increase hand-to-face contact.
“Homemade masks are not medical devices and consequently are not regulated, like medical masks and respirators,” the agency wrote.

But gee, what if I have to go to the store? Come on, Dr. Tam, help me out here. Is it safe to wear something that's not OSHA Approved? Even if it only works half as well as the regulated one, isn't that worth it?

Nope. Because that home made mask "gives you a false sense of confidence," and because you are a mere untrained Canadian plebe, you are too stupid to manage properly. Stay home and starve until we tell you to come out, plebes.

Well, except that the Czech Republic does seem to be doing well with their home made mask policy. And up until fairly recently ALL masks were fabric. The fancy N/M-95s everybody wants are a comparatively recent invention. 1972.

They're pretty much all made off-shore in third world countries. 80% of 3M production seems to come from... China.

That name keeps popping up. The disease comes from China, just like every other flu in the last 40 years. It comes on airplanes, which seem to keep flying no matter what. China controls all the PPE production the West relies on to keep physicians and front-line staff safe. I'm not saying its was deliberate because I don't think the pricks are that clever. But there's not much they could have done differently if it was.

Then there's the evil capitalists. Its their fault we don't have stuff, right?

Looks like I have to remind some camels and other assorted tiny-brained mollusks that Canada is a SOCIALIST nation, and we have a GOVERNMENT CONTROLLED health care system. Like Italy, but unlike Italy there is no private hospital option.

That means all the purchasing of emergency supplies and sourcing of goods, PPE etc. is done by the GOVERNMENT.

Well, they didn't do it. There's -supposed- to be a significant stockpile of PPE and reagents and testing kits and all kinds of shit that you need for an epidemic. There USED TO BE exactly such a stockpile. But now, there isn't one. Its gone. Sold? Stolen? Eaten by aliens? We don't know. We will probably never know, because the media here are doing their level best to make the Liberals look good. (As well they might, the Liberals are PAYING them. Story for another day, there.)

Well, what are the eeevile capitalists doing?
Amazon.
Under Armor
Ontario government.

What they're doing, obviously, is running to pick up the slack being dropped by the all-seeing, all-knowing government.

What's the government doing? Buying shit from China which European countries have already reported huge problems with, and preparing to fine anyone who goes outside.

Oh, and why is there a ban on 3M exporting to Canada? Because a Canadian 3M distributor tried to jack the Americans up. That's why. Funny you don't see that in the Canadian news.

Social distancing is the worst possible solution to the problem. In large Canadian cities it is functionally impossible. Its impossible to ride a subway train safely without a mask and eye shield at the very least, because its an airborne contagion. You're going to get it. For sure.

But since the GOVERNMENT let this thing in, and since the GOVERNMENT didn't stock sufficient emergency stuff, and since the GOVERNMENT drove all manufacturing of vital emergency materials and equipment off-shore (because remember, they always go with the lowest bidder, which is always China) social distancing is the only solution available. Wash those hands, peons. No mask for you.

Maybe its time we all examine our relationship with the supposedly efficient and supposedly benign government of Canada, with an eye to making them a lot fucking smaller and in charge of a lot less important stuff.

The Phantom

Update: From the mouths of camels, a question.

"In Particular why was the supposedly greatest nation on Earth, the USA, so woefully unprepared? Mr Phantom’s own nation of Canada, is currently managing the disease better than the USA — not flawlessly by any means but still better. Why is that if the USA is just so good at things and has such great leadership currently?"

First, the camel being basically a transplanted Brit with no understanding of geographical scale (or anything else about Canada and the USA) does not comprehend that Canada has three (3) large cities of any appreciable density.  Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Calgary and Edmonton are big, but not very dense.

The USA has 10 or more as big as Montreal. The Greater NYC area contains 20 million people. You can't get 20 million people to "shelter in place" for much longer than two or three weeks. Its not practical.

Canada has 30 million total population. The USA has 300 million. Its as big as three Britains. It is literally an order of magnitude bigger than Canada. Given how badly they've been fucked over by their largest trading partner, and given the density of NYC area, they're doing pretty good.

Second, as outlined above, Canada is not managing the disease better than the USA. The USA already has military ships and field hospitals up and running in the hardest hit areas, beefing up the civilian response.

Canada does not have that. Because we don't actually have a real military when you get right down to it. We have about 10,000 troops who can do things and another 10,000 majors polishing chairs in Ottawa.

Third, USA is testing at a high rate, and expediting the manufacture of 15 minute tests to increase that rate. The CDC started slow and stupid, but it seems the leadership managed to kick them into some semblance of function. They are truthfully reporting their testing numbers as those numbers change daily. They are moving to identify and quarantine cases in the hopes of flattening the curve.

Canada is not doing that. They don't have test kits, they don't have lab capacity, they don't have supplies, and they're not reporting what they do have. Currently they are testing medical staff only, and the wait for a result is 12 days.

That means the numbers posted for Canada have very little to do with the progress of the pandemic. Conveniently, this makes Canada look better than the USA on the numbers game. But its not true. We're still doubling every 4-5 days, right on glide path.

Fourth, the FDA has already approved Hydroxychloroquine for use in treating COVID-19. They did the testing and pushed it through in a couple of weeks. They're ramping production and preparing to flood the market with billions of doses.

Hydroxychloroquine is NOT approved for COVID-19 in Canada. There is no information available suggesting when it might be. There are no plans to ramp production in Canada if we even make it here. Currently the OMA is telling doctors not to use it. It is sitting in the pharmacy sure enough, but you can't have any. This of course means that family of physicians and pharmacists are getting treated but no one else is. Very socialist.

Overall, we here in Canada are doing about as well as Italy. It just isn't as far along the curve yet. Shit's going to get real pretty soon though. I'm afraid for my parents, let me tell you.

So in answer to this snide question: "Why is that if the USA is just so good at things and has such great leadership currently?"

 The answer is simple. Everything you've heard about how great Canada is doing is a lie. 

We don't have PPE. We don't have approval for known treatments. We don't have military medical support. We don't have testing. We don't even have hand sanitizer. Our leadership is telling us NOT to wear masks when we go out. Our supply chain for necessary goods is -fucked-. It can't improve for at last 6 months.

If we're not extremely careful the spring planting season will get screwed up, and then the whole world is going to feel the lack of Canadian wheat and corn. 

Tell me again how great social distancing is, floppy. Scaring people into staying home is the last refuge of socialism. Its stupid, it doesn't work, and its killing our economy. But because of assholes whinging about how closing the airport is racist, its all we've got. Fuckin' A.

Happy 4/4/2020!

Yes all you number nerds out there, it is four-four-twenty-twenty. Wait until 4:20pm, then jump up and down and consume a cannabis item of your choice.

It isn't like you've got anything else to do today, right? ~:D

And we can do it again on 4/20/2020! At 4:20! Woohoo!

Ivermectin as possible treatment for COVID-19

Here's a paper on the effects of the de-worming drug Ivermectin on COVID-19 virus IN THE LAB.

Everybody got that? This is petri-dish level testing here. Don't run out and buy a bottle of this in the hope it will cure you. Okay?

I don't think the people who read this blog are going to do that, but the Internet is big and somebody might be desperate. Take it easy, turbo.

Wait for Felix the Cat and Poindexter to get finished doing their testing. Its only prudent, and they're going as fast as they can.

Possible progress is good. So buck up, things could be worse. Maybe drop a note to your various public health officials that they should pay attention to this testing.

But if you've got a relative who's sick and there's nothing to lose by trying... they sell this shit in gallons at the feed store. Your vet has lots of it. Maybe the cat might need de-worming, know what I mean?

Just thought y'all might like to know about it.

Masks for COVID-19: Wear 'em.

New video about masks from the Czech Republic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhNo_IOPOtU

Lately we've seen the various cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister out there on TV saying that wearing a mask is the wrong idea. The reason they state for this claim is that the mask "gives people a false sense of security."

Translated from Official Speak: You people are too stupid to live. This is all far too complicated for your feeble minds to comprehend. Just shut up and do what you're told.

Wear a mask when you go out. Even a sock or a bandana over your face is better than nothing. Sew something up and wear it.

Fuck Health Canada, they're lying.

Actual government leadership.

While the federal government is telling us we are a bunch of racists and we shouldn't wear masks to curb the spread of COVID-19, otherwise known as the Kung Flu, the Wuhan Flu, the Chinese Communist BioWeapon Flu, the Bat Flu, and etc... the Premiere of Ontario is saying we need to be making masks right here in Ontario instead of begging China for them.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has been leading an effort to get the province's manufacturers to retool to make key pieces of equipment during the crisis. Speaking Thursday, Ford said that it's time Ontario and Canada were self-sufficient in providing this gear.

"We're going to start manufacturing them. We're going to encourage hospitals to support these manufacturers. We can never, ever be put in this position again that we're relying on countries around the world to support us with PPEs," Ford said.

Yes my friends, there it is. REAL government leadership and application of government power to do something constructive about the Wuhan-Flu. Got a mask shortfall because the Feds are useless liars and corrupt puppets of China? Can't get foreign companies to fulfill their commitments because they're a bunch of thieving assholes? No problem, JUST MAKE MORE!

Anybody think Kathleen "Sexy Librarian" Wynne would be working with industry to make more masks and gloves? No fricking way.

And that is why I consistently vote Conservative. Because while Conservatives are often boring and funny looking, at least they live in the Real World with the rest of us, and they understand that food doesn't come from the store. Farmers grow it. They understand that masks don't come from the hospital. Companies make them, and usually they make them out of Canadian paper and Canadian petroleum products.

Phantom update, so far so good.

Update from Chez Phantom, We are observing the Get Off My Lawn protocol for the next two weeks. Drawbridge is up.

For mental health, I am staying off the news pages as much as possible. The amount of conflicting information out there on the official channels is sufficient that I'm assuming nobody has a clue out there. The numbers will tell the tale soon enough, I can wait.

Everybody stay safe, stay home, and wash your hands.

The Phantom

New Rules: Chris Matthew's Last Tingle.

Big news tonight is that in the biggest election year since Regan beat Carter, Chris Matthews of MSNBC Hardball fame is "retiring."

Word is, Chris maybe made one too many jokes to the wrong women, and he's been "#MeToo-ed right out the door. Hasta la vista, baby.

Now, most other guys I'd have some sympathy. A joke is a joke, guys play around and say stupid stuff all the time, it is no big deal. We're not talking about rape here, right? This isn't sexual assault, ass-grabbing, using a position of power to get sexual favors from a subordinate. This is -talking,- allegedly anyway. Free country, a man should be able to talk, right?

But Chris Mathews has been on the cutting edge of the PC movement and pushing the DemocRats for a very long time. He was all over letting Bill Clinton off the hook when the Monica Lewinsky thing broke. If any one guy contributed more to the current political climate than Chris Matthews, I don't know who that might be.

New Rules, Chris. Live by #MeToo, die by #MeToo. Matthews has thrown his last softball, but Rush Limbaugh is still on at noon tomorrow, lung cancer and all.

New bedside MRI for $50K

This is an amazing machine. A magnetic resonance imaging scanner that fits on a trolley like an ultrasound machine, can be wheeled around the hospital by one or two people, and costs $50,000. Price of a car. Wow.

Magnetic resonance imaging is no longer confined to radiology departments. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday that it has provided clearance to the "world's first" bedside MRI system, according to an announcement.

Hyperfine said it will begin shipping its portable, low-field modalities this summer. It's 510(k) clearance falls on the same day that Yale researchers reported the device can accurately and safely image patient's brains for stroke. Those preliminary results are set to be presented next week at the American Stroke Association's International conference in Los Angeles, the group announced.

"We've flipped the concept from having to get patients to the MRI to bringing the MRI to the patients," said Kevin Sheth, MD, senior author and a chief physician at Yale School of Medicine. "This early work suggests our approach is safe and viable in a complex clinical care environment."

If this pans out, a lot of people will have their lives saved by cheap and easy MRI scans.

In the United States, anyway. Look for Canadian approval to be decades away. A diagnosis means you have to treat the patient. Better not to have a scanner handy. #Rationing.

The Phantom has published!!!

Yes, the long awaited day is finally here!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0848PX3TC/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Edward+Thomas+Unfair+Advantage&qid=1580166769&s=books&sr=1-1

That's the live link to Amazon.com where my first book is now available!

And yes, Edward Thomas is very much a pen name.

A little background, this book started off as a tiny little idea in my head in 1993. I wrote down things from then until about 2012, when a friend of mine read the collected scribblings, pronounced them good, and told me "You have to finish this right now!"

So I did finish it, around 2014. Then I kept going and going, until now I have five in the can and two more in the oven, as it were.

This year it was decided I needed to get busy and PUBLISH it, so a cover was constructed and here we are. Published.

I'm not sure how I feel about it right now. I pulled the trigger at 3:15 this afternoon, and now I have a stomach ache. 😓

The Phantom

Geography is racist!

As I've been saying for some time now, if you break crimes by geography, you find some very interesting things. Such as if you map shootings and murders on a map, you very rapidly see that more than half the shootings are concentrated in two or three areas of a city, and some areas have no murders at all.

Here's a guy who did that for the continental United States.

We hear a lot of banter from the "anti-gun" media that these problems are gun problems, and they've concocted this "gun deaths" number in order to lump these into the same problem and gloss over the differences. But if the problem were "guns," then the hot spots on the suicide map and the hot spots on the homicide map would coincide, and would be related to gun ownership rates. There are only a few places where they overlap. Most of the hot zones for suicide have low homicide rates, and most of the hot zones for homicide have low suicide rates. The difference is stark.

Gun ownership rates, as far as such a thing can be determined, generally are inverse to crime and suicide rates from the studies I've seen. But its kind of hard to tell, because people generally lie like bastards when asked if they have any guns.

At any rate, there are some very interesting graphs here that tell a very non-PC story about who is getting shot by who, and where.

Map website here. You can do your own research.

The Phantom.

Austrailan bush fires are arson?

Apparently the extensive brush fires burning up Australia this year are largely arson.

Overall, across Australia police arrested 183 people for lighting bushfires across Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania in the past few months.
The link between arsonists and the deadly fires that devastate Australia every summer is well known and well documented, with the rate of deliberately lit fires escalating rapidly during the school holiday period.

The Conversation reports experts estimate about 85 percent of bushfires are caused by humans. A person may accidentally or carelessly start a fire, such as leaving a campfire unattended or using machinery which creates sparks.
Research has shown about 8 percent of officially recorded vegetation fires were attributed to malicious lighting, and another 22 percent as suspicious. However, about 40 percent of officially recorded vegetation fires did not have an assigned cause.
When unassigned bushfires were investigated by fire investigators, the majority were found to be maliciously lit, the Conversation added.

Meanwhile, Prophetess Greta Thunberg is screeching that its all global warming to blame. It'll be interesting to see how many Lefty eco-wingnuts end up convicted of arson over the coming year. My wild guess, more than a few.

Its 2020!

Happy New Year!

Daily Mirror celebrates "Trans" birth.

Saw this headline:

Transgender man gives birth to non-binary partner's baby with female sperm donor

Which pretty much encapsulates the entire "trans" movement. Its cosplay. This is the proof that its cosplay.

Which is what JK Rowling said the other day, and got shirt-stormed for it.

When "men" start having babies fathered by "women" the thing starts to unravel a bit.

Entanglement transmission WORKS.

Communication between two computer chips by entanglement.

Scientists at the University of Bristol and the Technical University of Denmark have achieved quantum teleportation between two computer chips for the first time. The team managed to send information from one chip to another instantly without them being physically or electronically connected, in a feat that opens the door for quantum computers and quantum internet. This kind of teleportation is made possible by a phenomenon called quantum entanglement, where two particles become so entwined with each other that they can "communicate" over long distances. Changing the properties of one particle will cause the other to instantly change too, no matter how much space separates the two of them. In essence, information is being teleported between them.

This is the ultimate "wireless" transmission. Undetectable, can't be listened to or deciphered.

This means that data can, in principle, be sent from anywhere to anywhere, from across a chip to across the planet, with zero loss, at the speed of light. Or possibly instantly, It may be that quantum entanglement does not respect the lightspeed barrier.

Wouldn't that be something?

The Entangled Phantom

Merry Christmas!

Enjoy!

Star Wars Rise of Sywalker review!

Or, well, kind of a review. I sent scouts instead of going myself. Actual teenagers, to spy out the movie and report on it in a non-political, unbiased Gen Z kind of way. (Because I'm pretty cranky about movies these days, but also because I didn't want to be trapped in a theater with this thing playing and no fast-forward button to get me past the stupid parts.)

Visual aid for the reading impaired. "It's dead, Jim."

Their report: This is a shitty fanfic best viewed as a comedy. It has no coherent plot, the characters made the whole theater laugh in the "emotional" parts, but nobody laughed at the quippy humor. The devoted Star Wars old guys with the merch in their arms were laughing. It was so bad they weren't even offended.

Of note was one complaint that the powers of the various Jedi -vary- from scene to scene. In one scene a Jedi grabs a spaceship with the Force and "yeets it". (Teenagers. Get off my lawn.) In another scene the same Jedi is powerless to stop a fleeing spaceship.

There you go. Smarty teenagers say save your money, wait for Netflix.

Another stupid "smart" person tries to sell me a self-driving car.

Yet another Big Corporate dude explains why we are all stupid, and why we need to listen to him. Dan Amman, CEO of Cruise the self-driving-car division of General Motors:

Imagine if someone invented a new transportation system and said, "I've designed a new way of getting around: It's powered by fossil fuels that will pollute our air. It will congest our cities to the point of inciting rage in its users. Its human operators will be fallible, killing 40,000 Americans — and more than a million people around the world — every year. Most of the time, the equipment will sit unused, occupying prime real estate and driving up housing costs. If you're young, old, or living with a disability, then you can't use it. And for those who can, the privilege will cost $9,000 a year and suck up two years of your life."

You'd say, "You're crazy." And yet, here we are, living in a state of cognitive dissonance with exactly this — the human-driven, gasoline-powered, single-occupant car — as our primary mode of transportation.

Well Dan, imagine that somebody invented a machine that would take you from where you are to where you want to go, protect you on the trip, and look cool doing it. And everybody loved it, and everybody bought one. For 100 years, everybody bought one. Then some smooth-talking corporate dude came along and said "You people are all IDIOTS! You need to give up the effective cheap and cool transportation machines, because mumblemumble!" I imagine Mr. Smooth gets told to fuck off, is what.

And Dan my dude, about that "sitting unused" thing. What happens to any ride-sharing situation like buses, trains, taxis, Ubers, robot car hailing thing, when EVERYBODY NEEDS A RIDE at the same time? Hmm? You know, like at rush hour. Or in an emergency like fire, flood, earthquake, riots. You either come up short as public transit inevitably does, or you build in excess capacity and have units "sitting unused" most of the time.

Never fails to amaze me how guys like this think they can make up any old shite and the rest of us will go along like good little peasants.

The Phantom

Trump: SJWs always double down.

Well, looks like they went and did it.

President Donald J. Trump was impeached on Wednesday.

For the third time in the nation's history, the House of Representatives voted to impeach a sitting president, acting after a daylong debate on whether Trump violated his oath in pressuring Ukraine to damage a political opponent.

Trump was impeached on two articles. The first vote, 230-197, accused him of abuse of power and was almost entirely on party lines; it was followed quickly by a second, 229-198, vote accusing the president of obstructing Congress. The one-vote difference was that of Democrat Jared Golden of Maine, who voted yes on abuse of power and no on obstruction.

No Republicans voted against Trump. Two Democrats, Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who is expected to switch parties soon, and Collin Peterson of Minnesota, voted with Republicans against both articles. One Democrat, Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who is running for president, voted "present" on both articles.

There's a Star Wars quote that covers this situation: "If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful that you can possibly imagine."

"This is going to hurt, bro."

They just guaranteed Trump's re-election landslide. Next year is going to be quite a ride.

The Phantom

Rationing to save the planet!

Yesterday this appeared in the Globe & Mail, touted as Canada's "newspaper of record".

The climate crisis is like a world war. So let's talk about rationing

It's time for mandatory cutbacks on the kinds of consumption that threaten all of us

One expects this sort of thing from the Toronto (Red) Star, traditionally the Globe & Mail has been a bit more... rational? Staid, perhaps?

What this is, my friends, is that since Brexit and Trump, our Betters are becoming very tired of having the Lower Classes running around doing whatever the hell we want. Its been decided by The Great And the Good that the peasants are revolting and must be brought to heel. Like a fractious dog.

Eleanor Boyle is a Vancouver-based writer. She is the author of High Steaks: Why and How to Eat Less Meat and the forthcoming book Mobilize Food! Wartime Inspiration for Environmental Victory Today.

It's too bad meat is so tasty, driving so convenient and airline travel so desirable. Because those all create large amounts of greenhouse gases and worsen the climate crisis. We know it, and some of us feel guilty getting on a plane, hopping in the car or eating burgers. But how are we to cut back when we're not sure what level of a high-emission behaviour is sustainable – and when everyone else is doing it?

Some environmental activists and leaders suggest we should practice moderation, take the bus, eat veggie burgers. But voluntary measures just can't deliver when the problem is this big and time is so short. That's why it may be time for mandatory cutbacks on the kinds of consumption that threaten all of us.

It may be time for rationing.

Yes, it may be time for rationing because all you fat disgusting fools out there are behaving immorally and eating like the pigs that you are. Time for the peasants to walk off some of that lard while Eleanor Boyle and her high-minded friends continue their world-saving crusade, jetting from The Hague to the Bahamas and back, dining on the finest Wagu beef. More for them and less for us.

First gun control, then gasoline control, and finally food control. Keeping the peasants in their place and paying their taxes like they were meant to.

I would like to point the idiots in charge to the current situation in France, where this is being tried in real life with a fuel tax. 6000 people showed up in front of the Presidential Palace this week with the stated purpose of dragging Mr. Macron out into the street and kicking his ass. Every cop in Paris was there to protect him. I submit that creating a situation like that in Canada, where the national sport is hockey and not wine, cheese and surrender, might be "problematic" for the idiots in charge.

The Phantom

No, its NOT OKAY!!!

Kid arrested, expelled from university, and questioned by the FBI for putting up posters that say "Its okay to be white."

The Oklahoma City University police manhunt that went viral after being reported on by National File in October resulted in the expulsion and police interrogation of a student activist on Dec. 9.

An update from The Oklahoman stated that the student was tracked down, expelled and interrogated by OKC police for placing the flyers.

Federal law prevented the student from being doxxed by university officials.

OCU Police director Bill Citty explained his reasoning for the Orwellian police investigation: "The reason you look into those types of things is you want to make sure the individual is not a threat to other students." Citty did not explain how "it's OK to be white" could possibly be a "threat" to students.

The OCU police department reportedly partnered with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force to locate and interrogate the student activist.

So, I guess its not okay. Message received, assholes.

The Phantom

York U moving from cowardice to enemy action.

Today's quite the day for guys self-identifying as the enemy. York University, long a Canadian leader in anti-Semitic bullshit, comes right out and says it out loud.

Action was taken to address an anti-Semitic incident at York University which was called unacceptable by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Premier Doug Ford and Mayor John Tory.
But it was not the action that was expected.
Following an aggressive attempt to interrupt a pro-Israel event, York University has suspended Students Against Israeli Apartheid from operating on campus, pending a review.
But the university also informed the host of the Nov. 20 event, Herut Canada, it's privileges — such as hosting events on campus — are being pulled.
"The preliminary internal review has led us to conclude that a more immediate intervention is needed with both Herut Zionism and Students Against Israel Apartheid (SAIA)," said a letter sent to both groups by the university. 

This is what we call the "heckler's veto" working hand in hand with official sanction. Some campus group is hosting an event and you don't like them? Stage a riot out front, and the University will shut them down.

Here's what the university spokes-dude is reported to have said:

University spokesman Yanni Dagonas explained they "did not make this decision lightly but we recognize the holding of certain events at this time could lead to further tensions."
After "facilitated mediation that would establish mutually agreed upon processes for future events" the university is confident it will be able to restore "the withdrawn privileges," said Dagonas.

Strip away the bafflegab and one little piece stand out: "...mutually agreed upon processes for future events..." means the hecklers get to decide if there will be future events. All they have to do is disagree! No "mutually", no events.

Your tax dollars at work, ladies and gentlemen. I think a wide-based boycott of York might be in order about now, and possibly an intervention by the Provincial government. Perhaps an investigation of how provincial money is being spent would be scary enough to straighten them up.

COWARDICE. DC deletes Batman poster to please Beijing.

Deleted by DC Comics because Beijing didn't like it.

From the bulging American corporate cowardice file, this gem.

DC Comics teased Frank Miller's upcoming The Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child on social media this month --- the sequel comic releasing in December -- using artwork by Rafael Grampá, only to remove the promo posts shortly afterwards, following backlash from vocal readers in China.
The issue here revolves around the variant cover featured in the posts, which depicts Carrie Kelly as Batwoman, hurling a Molotov cocktail against a backdrop that included text reading, "The Future is Young." Those opposing the artwork claimed that it implies DC Comics' support for the protesters in Hong Kong, largely owing to Batwoman's outfit and pose and their resemblance to the general aesthetic of Hong Kong protesters.

That's from CBR.com, quoting Variety Mag. They seem to be pretending that people who actually read Batman comics in China are the ones creating the "backlash".

Here's the Variety piece:

But the poster came under fire from Chinese internet users who contended that it contained coded messages in support of Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests. They said that the Molotov cocktail alluded to young Hong Kong protesters' more violent tactics, that the "dark knight's" choice of black attire referred to the black-clad Hong Kong protesters, and that the "golden child" of the book's title was a veiled reference to the color yellow, which was taken up by previous pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong five years ago.

In this article Variety had the wit to say "Chinese internet users" rather than imply it was Chinese comic readers. I think it's safe to assume that Chinese comic nerds are being very, very careful about what they say on the internet.

Variety went on to say this:

China is a critical market for Warner Bros., which owns DC Entertainment and DC Comics, its publishing subsidiary. "Aquaman" broke Chinese box office records last December to take in a cumulative $292 million, while "Shazam!" made $43.8 million in April.

What the corner-office dorks at Warner are doing is the typical risk-averse two-step that countless American companies have been doing the last 40 years. They're trying to please everybody. Unfortunately in this case its a binary situation. On one side, the totalitarian state of Communist China, with all that implies. On the other side is Western Civilization, freedom, and the very innermost character of the franchises in question.

What would Batman do? He'd kidnap the president of China and make him pull the army out of Hong Kong, most likely. Batman is not a big fan of innocent people getting shot, from my reading of the comics over the years.

For DC Comics to be A) selling super hero comics and B) openly toadying to Beijing over a comic book poster is a pile of irony upon irony that would make a hipster swoon.

There really is a culture war out there, and it is being waged against Individual Freedom by the likes of the Communist Chinese and the SJWs at comic companies and in Hollywood. I capitalized individual freedom because thats the crux of the argument. We are all supposed to be good little peasants who stay in our assigned place and do our assigned work quietly.

Personally, I'm not having it. I aim to misbehave.

The Phantom