Jason North

Wow, wow, wow. I just left the National Press Club where Minister of Communications @AnikaWells spoke. She repeatedly and brazenly lied about the fake accounts, claiming they were only for enforcement, even though the legislation says in black and white that the eSafety Commissioner can use them in unlimited ways for "educational" and "promotional" purposes. One big moment came when a Politico reporter got up and said something about how mean people like @PaulineHansonOz were to eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman-Grant. Seriously. A supposed reporter was white-knighting for a government official during the official Q&A. The same reporter had come up to me before Wells' speech and asked if I had criticized Inman-Grant. Who needs government censors when you have Politico? After he asked his question, Wells showed the most emotion, describing online criticism of Inman-Grant as "abuse." She also talked about her own staff's supposed suffering. I kid you not. The mask dropped, and you could see what really upset her: people — including a sitting Senator — criticizing government officials. After gaslighting the audience about fake accounts, Wells repeatedly insisted the government wasn't trying to censor content. She said this after filling her speech with examples of content she claimed harmed people. You couldn't make it up. This legislation is the culmination of decades of progressives equating words with physical violence. Wells cynically compared her legislation to prevent psychological "harm" to various laws that protect people from physical harm, like seat belt laws. BTW, Wells never said what content it was that she thought caused eating disorders. Pictures of skinny women? Dietary advice? Who knows. Nobody asked. Another important moment came when Wells explicitly said Australia would be pursuing censorship alongside other nations, including the UK, France, and Spain—all countries where governments risk losing power to populists. I spoke with Julie Inman-Grant before the speech began and asked about the fake accounts. She insisted they were there just for enforcement, and when I asked why the law allowed them to be used for government propaganda, she said she might write an "enforcement memo," which, of course, would have no impact on the legislation. After her speech, I went up to Wells and asked if she was seriously saying the legislation didn't allow the government to use fake accounts for government propaganda. She refused to answer. A man who said he was from the National Press Club stepped in front of me and said I could interview her afterward. But that wasn't possible because they rushed her out the back to avoid any difficult questions. So there you have it. The pettiest people in Australia are seeking to silence citizens and their political opponents in the name of protecting children. These deeply intolerant and cynical people want to control what you can see and say online. And they're doing it with most of the media's support. Australia has reached a new low in its rapid descent into dogmatism, intolerance, and censorship.

I liked the world better when the news came on for 30 minutes and then we did other shit for 23 1/2 hours. Now the news follows you around all day like a hobo begging for change.

A small cup of white sauce arrived with my pizza in Ohio. I had not ordered it. Nobody at the table found this alarming but me. White. Cold. Herbed. Unexplained. I stopped the waitress. "We did not order this." "That's ranch, hon. It's for dipping." Ranch. In my land, a sauce is married to one dish. It serves that dish for life. It does not wander. Two days later, ranch appeared beside carrots at my neighbor's house. Then beside chicken at a graduation party. Then at a drive-in, beside my fries, where a boy of maybe seven watched me hesitate and said, "You gotta dip it, dude." I dipped. I chewed. Then I apologized, out loud, in the middle of the drive-in, to every fry I had eaten undipped in my life. The boy accepted my apology on their behalf. I began to test its borders. Fries. Accepted. Pizza crust. Improved. Salad. The bottle claims salad is ranch's actual job, as if everything else were charity work. On my third visit I asked the waitress what ranch does not go with. She thought about it. Real thought. "Fish? No. Wait. Fish is fine." There is no border. I went looking for the edge of ranch and found only more ranch. I bought a bottle. Then the restaurant jug, because the bottle insulted my pace. Last night at 1 a.m. I dipped a slice of watermelon, purely as reconnaissance. I finished the watermelon. Then I stood alone in the dark kitchen and bowed to the jug. It seemed correct. I was not conquering this sauce. I was being annexed by it. A sauce that welcomes everything can refuse nothing. I have met entire armies with less confidence. This country puts its welcome into everything. Even the sauce turns no one away. I tried to write a rule. Ranch is for vegetables and pizza. Nothing else. Then I learned the truth. There are only two kinds of food in this country: food that has met ranch, and food that is waiting. I run a merciful house. Nothing waits.

CNN doctor Sanjay Gupta told Gavin Newsom that people never should have claimed that the Covid vaccines stopped transmission and infection. Sanjay Gupta was one of the people who claimed that the Covid vaccines stopped transmission and infection.

1996. Bill Clinton campaign ad hypes his hardline immigration record: Doubled border agents! Signed law protecting US workers from illegals! Record deportations! Dole doesn't want to jail illegals! Run this ad today, and you'd be smeared as a far right xenophobic bigot by the very same party that produced it.

Reminder that if you are fully vaccinated and up to date on boosters, you are allowed to celebrate the Fourth of July. Those vaccinated are even permitted to have a very small backyard barbecue. Five person maximum.

Yes, your rent is frozen. So is the landlord's budget to fix your heat, your leaks, and your broken freezer. But don't worry, when nothing works, at least the number on your lease stays the same. You can admire it while you eat out. And the rent won't rise, true. Neither will any new buildings, because no one builds apartments he's forbidden to price. So enjoy the same aging unit for the next thirty years, paying yesterday's rent for tomorrow's ruins. Freezing a price doesn't freeze reality. It freezes the supply, halts the repairs, and ends the building, while the line of people waiting for an apartment grows longer every year. But feel the warmth of collectivism: everyone equal, shivering together in identical crumbling units, sharing the broken elevator and the dead freezer as one community. The number stays the same. That was the promise, and that is all you'll get.

Happy Flag Day!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸

Y'all ever wonder why there's not some Big Shiny Communist Country out there that all of the socialists and communists are trying to flee to? Think on it for a minute and get back to me...

Marxists are just the incels of economics.

Coca-Cola commercial from 1976 The past is a foreign country

Congress watching soldiers get arrested for insider trading