Spin tobacco

The CEO of Phillip Morris surprised many this week by saying the company wants to get out of the cigarette market. This doesn’t surprise me in the least. As a (former) teacher, I can tell you that cigarette smoking is almost unheard of among teens.

What is popular with teens is vaping. Vapes come in different flavors: bubble gum, Tutti Fruity, Watermelon, Cotton Candy, and other candy flavors are enticing a new generation of customers into smoking at a time when cigarette smoking just isn’t cool anymore, and that doesn’t even address the vapes that contain cannabis. Most of the kids in high school are vaping.

Two years ago, Jim Cramer did a story on how vapes were killing the cigarette industry. If you were surprised by this, you haven’t been paying attention.

Twisting the facts

The press is surprised that a person making MINIMUM wage can’t afford the MEDIAN cost of renting a two bedroom apartment in Florida. This is largely because they apparently don’t understand math. The minimum of anything will, by definition, not be the same as the median.

“Right now, the University of Florida estimated in 2020 that almost 70,000 metro households in Orlando and surrounding areas earning 50% of the area median income or less are paying more than 50% of income on their housing. That is not sustainable,”

Median income in Orlando for a household is $61,876, but this includes two incomes (pdf alert). A household with one wage earner would of course earn half of that, or about $31,000. I can’t believe a college had to study this, it seems like common sense to me.

A person making minimum wage (currently $8.65, soon to be $10.00) would make half of the individual income, or a quarter of the median household income.

“If they have children, we’re talking three to four full time jobs at minimum wage and obviously that is not something a single parent can do,” Nazworth said.

They are of course ignoring two things: If you make minimum wage, don’t have kids, and those who do aren’t forced to pay rent without assistance. They are actually making more than the rest of us. Read an older post on this, and see that a woman making minimum wage gets another $40,000 a year in benefits from the government.

A single mother with four children who earns $2,500 a year in a part time job (that works out to 6 hours a week at minimum wage) gets another $40,000 in government benefits.

But landlords are the greedy ones here.

Propaganda

Take a few minutes to read this article and see if it sounds like propaganda to you.

They took a Klan murder case from 2017 and have twisted it into a story implicating police and Trump supporters. A quote:

During the Jan. 6 insurrection in the U.S. Capitol, “Thin Blue Line” flags flew alongside white supremacist signs and banners, and more than 30 current and former police officers from a number of departments around the nation were identified as attendees.

Then the piece goes on:

On a recent visit to the prison where the three klansmen worked, numerous cars and trucks in the employee and volunteer parking lots were decorated with symbols associated with white supremacy: Confederate flags, QAnon symbols and Thin Blue Line flag decals.

Couple this with statements that white supremacy is the largest threat to the nation, and you see where this is headed. Anyone associated with the thin blue line, Jan 6, or other people accused of racism will be enemies of the people.

This is called “othering,” a tactic where you cause people to think of those you wish to eliminate as being outside of the herd, less than human. The racism tag is how that is being done.

Lost Biscuit

How did I miss this story? It seems that Bill Clinton once lost the nuclear codes for months. Too busy chasing pussy, I guess. Why does it seem that we always elect idiots? Things like this, more than anything, have me convinced that our government should remain powerless.

At least when the current President decides to nuke gun owners, we stand a chance of the codes being lost.

Cancel culture

A guy in Sweden was getting a BJ from his girlfriend. They were both underage. He took a picture of her blowing him, albeit without her knowledge. He then showed it to his teammates. She eventually found out and called the cops. He was arrested and had to pay a fine.

Now I am not sure what exactly was in the photo because the cops sealed the record, as both of the people involved were minors. It couldn’t have been all that bad though, because the only penalty was a fine. The charges were “Kränkande fotografering” (offensive photography constituting an invasion of privacy) and “Förtal” (defamation).

Flash forward a year, and the young man, now 18, is about to enter the NHL draft. The story of what happened hits the news, and thanks to cancel culture, he was forced to withdraw his name from the draft.

Since the records were sealed, how did this hit the news? The woman scorned decided to give an interview to the media because the young man didn’t apologize to her. So, for the crime of not being sufficiently contrite, she decides to activate her victim status and ruin his life. Note: when the young man told his friends what he did, the round heeled woman had her reputation irreparably damaged, but when SHE did it, well that makes her an innocent victim.

Who is the real victim here? The woman endured a short period of embarrassment for being a tramp. Now he must endure the destruction of his entire life’s goal of being an NHL player, even though he already paid the penalty for his crime.

Well, the Montreal Canadiens drafted him anyway. The left has gone apoplectic. The press is hammering them for daring to give this canceled pariah a job. Good for the Canadiens, and that little whore needs to just get over herself.

We are all terrorists now

Facebook, Microsoft, Verizon, and other tech companies are using what they call a “counterterrorism” organization that was originally intended for Muslim terrorists to go after the right. One of the pictures used is a three percenter who was at Stone Mountain as an example of “far right terrorist militia.”

A militia member with body armor and a Three Percenters militia patch stands in Stone Mountain as various militia groups stage rallies at Stone Mountain, Georgia, U.S. August 15, 2020. REUTERS/Dustin Chambers/File Photo

Conspicuously absent is any mention of the NFAC, a violent black terrorist organization, who were also present at Stone Mountain, BLM, or Antifa, who did billions in damages and killed hundreds last summer.

Felony photography

Disney claims that it is a felony to take photos of their behind the scenes areas from your car, if you are driving on roads owned by Disney. Many of the roads near the Orlando theme park are actually private property. When you arrive at the gate to the Magic Kingdom parking lot, you have been on Disney property for 7 miles or so.

Any lawyer types here care to specify what specific felony is being committed by taking pictures?

Their tactics are fun

For years, decades even, those on the left have been throwing useless little sayings at gun owners that are annoying because they are overly simplistic. You spend hours refuting them, then they come back with a pat little phrase that they think is humorous while displaying their own ignorance:

  • You can convert a semi auto to a machine gun by changing a spring
  • Guns are simply a substitute penis
  • You own guns because you want to kill people
  • Second Amendment is a collective right
  • and more

So I have begun doing the same thing. It really pisses them off. Take a look at this article. I posted (it’s been ‘deactivated’ for violating community guidelines) a comment reading: “If the vaccine works, then why do the vaccinated need to wear masks?” Read the hilarity that results.