Rush Limbaugh had his “stack of stuff” he used as part of his show prep, and each day, it seemed like he covered all or most of it in the course of three hours. Anyone who writes every day about what’s in the news, or what should be in the news, has his or her own system for monitoring and tracking what’s going on.
In homage to Rush, for my own podcast, I kept a physical stack of episode ideas on one corner on my desk, which I would revisit regularly. Since starting to write for PJ Media in September, I have done something similar on another part of my desk, but it’s not quite a stack of anything. PJ Media moves way too fast for that.
So, here we are on Friday evening, and I’m looking at a bunch of items I was considering exploring in some way the past few days. Since they’ll mostly be dated by Monday, I figured I’d just leave them here for you to ponder over your Friday evening soda pop.
DOJ Is Suing Newsom Over Gerrymandering
In case you missed it, the Justice Department announced this week it’s suing California Governor Gavin Newsom and Secretary of State Shirley Weber for the State of California’s newly adopted redistricting plan enacted with the passage of Proposition 50. The suit alleges that the plan mandates racially gerrymandered congressional districts in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Proposition 50 amends the California Constitution, allowing the legislature to draw a new congressional-district map. Substantial evidence, including that in the legislative record and public statements, indicate that the legislature created a new map in which Latino demographics and racial considerations predominated, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause, according to the DOJ.
Said Attorney General Pam Bondi, “California’s redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process… Governor Newsom’s attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Californians will not stand.”
As we’ve all seen, the courts are funny things when it comes to the Trump administration. You never know how it will work out, so all we can do at this point is hope that the DOJ has a few more home runs in its bat.
DHS Launches ‘Operation Dirtbag’ in Florida
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported this week that it has arrested “more than 150 illegal alien sex offenders during a major enforcement surge across the state of Florida.” The surge is called Operation Dirtbag.
The federal agency said it conducted the operation with state and local law enforcement partners.
‘Dirtbag’ targeted child predators, rapists, and violent criminal illegal aliens with convictions that included sexual assault of minors, rape, lewd and lascivious conduct, child exploitation, battery, and attempted homicide.
In total, more than 230 criminal illegal aliens — including 150 sexual predators — were arrested in Florida.
If you’re wondering how they came up with that catchy name for the operation, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said, “I call this Operation Dirtbag because these individuals were not just sex offenders, they targeted children.”
As Donald Trump would say, ‘Kristi, thank you for your attention to this matter.’
The University of Illinois Just Wants to Get Under Trump’s Skin
Legal Insurrection is reporting that “the University of Illinois plans to rename its Office of Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in January, citing a ‘changing higher education landscape.’”
Gee, I wonder what that could be. Trump and his legal team, perhaps?
Never fear, wokesters, the school’s chancellor Charles Isbell wrote in a university-wide missive on Nov. 6 that the office will still exist, and it will do the same sort of stuff. It’s just, kinda, sorta changing the sign on the door to keep out of trouble, I guess.
“The office structure and name are changing,” said Isbell. “The mission of the office and our institutional commitment to supporting the success of our entire university community are not changing.”
Hey, Pam Bondi, Harmeet Dhillon, do you hear that?!
It’s not clear if the university will continue to hand out DEI awards as it has, or if it will conduct student training on “racial justice,” “LGBTQ+,” and “Undocumented Student Ally Training,” as Legal Insurrection found when scanning the university’s website.
Maybe it’s just me, but I think the site and the office need a refresh. It just seems so locked in the past, almost like it’s 2023.
COVID Shots Are Rearing Their Ugly Heads
On what could still be the early phase of a massive and long-term societal problem, news about other risks of the COVID-19 vaccines emerged. LifeSite News reported that “two major new studies have been published sounding the alarm about the COVID-19 shots potentially carrying risks of not only respiratory diseases, but also kidney injury: The Washington Stand first drew attention to the studies, published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases (IJID) and International Journal of Medical Science (IJMS), respectively.”
According to the reporting, the first study looked at “insurance claims and vaccination records for the entire population of South Korea, filtering out cases of infection prior to the start of the outbreak for a pool of more than 39 million people.”
You may remember that South Korea’s approach to vaccination during the pandemic was a lot like how its neighbor to the immediate north does just about everything. South Korea issued vaccine passports and restricted the movement of those without one. As a result of this and other aggressive monitoring and tracking policies, the country had an 85% vaccination rate at the peak of the pandemic.
Well, now the IJID study has revealed that the COVID shots were tied to mixed impacts on certain respiratory conditions.
It stated that a “temporary decline followed by a resurgence of URI [upper respiratory infections] and common cold was observed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Reported LifeSite News: “Children in particular, who are known to face the lowest risk from COVID itself, had dramatically higher odds of adverse events the more shots they took. Receiving four or more was associated with 559% higher likelihood of cold, 91% higher likelihood of pneumonia, 83% higher likelihood of URI, and 35% higher likelihood of tuberculosis.”
Geographically speaking, the second study hit closer to home and was very large, too. It analyzed 2.9 million records of adults. Half of those received at least one COVID-19 vaccine injection. The other half did not take the vaccine, giving the researchers a very large control group.
The final report for that study said, “COVID-19 vaccination was associated with a higher risk of subsequent renal dysfunction, including AKI [acute kidney injury] and dialysis treatment.”
According to the data, those who got the shot and who were then found to have kidney disease totaled 15,809, compared to 11,081 kidney disease cases among the unvaccinated.
Most importantly, LifeSite News wrote: “The researchers note that this is not simply a matter of correlation, but that a causal mechanism for such results has already been indicated.”
Why does it feel like the public health establishment knows a whole lot more, but it’s only allowing things to come out in dribs and drabs over time instead of all at once? That way, each story can be buried, disputed, and marginalized as a one-off. This may keep them out of trouble for a short while, but it’s not sustainable.
While each of these stories is unique in its own way, there is a pattern. The left doesn’t quit. That means we can’t. Let’s get some rest this weekend and meet back here on Monday, ready to keep taking it to the left.
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