No matter how paranoid or conspiracy-minded you are, what the government is actually doing is worse than you imagine.
William Blum, Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower (2000; 2016).
GoFundMe has decided not to rob its users after all.
Canadian truckers have been protesting the requirement that truckers be vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to cross the Canadian-U.S. border to deliver stuff. There have been miles-long convoys and so forth. Ottawa has been clogged with trucks.
The Freedom Convoy incurs expenses like gas, food, and lodging. Many people are glad to help because they’re sick to death of pointless, destructive Draconian measures to pseudo-combat the virus.
Organizers naively sought to raise funds for the cause through GoFundMe. Alas, this is one of the left-leaning tech giants that selectively enforce their alleged standards in hopes of thwarting ideological opponents.
After consulting with Concerned Canadian Officials, GoFundMe blocked the donations from reaching the intended beneficiaries.
That’s not all.
Instead of then simply refunding the donations, GoFundMe declared that it would redistribute the cash to GoFundMe-approved organizations unless donors specifically requested a refund. Busy, inattentive people would be robbed.
Outcry ensued. The Florida attorney general, backed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, proposed to investigate the proposed theft.
GoFundMe caved. We won’t steal the funds after all, they announced (not in quite those words).
So if you tried to support the protest of the Canadian truckers and GoFundMe blocked you from donating, you’ll get your money back without having to make a special appeal for it. And now you can contribute to Freedom Convoy 2022 via GiveSendGo instead. Hurray!
Thank you, GoFundMe. Thank you. So. Much.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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I never know whether to pity or congratulate a man on coming to his senses.
William Makepeace Thackeray, The Virginians (1857-1859).
“This city is under siege!”
“This is a threat to our democracy!”
“There’s a nationwide insurrection!”
“This is madness!”
This is not a recording from January 6th and, no, it’s not happening here in these United States. Look north. Those are the words of Ottawa’s Police Chief Peter Sloly.
Sloly was addressing what The Washington Post reports are “big rigs and other vehicles — emblazoned with signs blasting [Canadian Prime Minister Justin] Trudeau in obscene language and reading ‘Mandate Freedom,’” adding that an estimated “5,000 people and at least a thousand tractor-trailers and other vehicles clogged the streets of Ottawa over the weekend.”
“The situation at this point is completely out of control,” Ottawa’s mayor told a radio audience, “because the individuals with the protest are calling the shots.”
“It’s not a protest anymore,” argues Ontario Premier Doug Ford. “It’s become an occupation.”
Meanwhile, this anti-vax-mandate effort spurred by these truckers is spreading across the country, including “the blockade of an important U.S.-Canada border crossing” in Alberta.
I can certainly see how these government officials might feel they are under siege, with an occupying force impinging on their freedom to act as they wish. Not a good feeling at all.
But isn’t that the same feeling these truckers and others are experiencing? Aren’t they being occupied by a government that demands a measure of control over their bodies? Their very livelihoods? That is willing to block their ability to earn a living to gain that control?
Public officials might ask themselves how come so many people are so upset that it looks like an “insurrection.”*
And then consider their position as public servants, that they may be in the wrong. Not the protesters.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* The Post story mentioned only four arrests made so far in Ottawa, none for insurrection.
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No paper with a past like the Gray Lady’s can be trusted to deliver “all the news that’s fit to print,” or to identify “fake news.”
Mark Crispin Miller, foreword to Ashley Rindsberg’s The Gray Lady Winked: How the New York Times’s Misreporting, Distortions and Fabrications Radically Alter History (2021).
On February 7, 1990, the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agreed to give up its monopoly on power, thus ushering the way for the dissolution of the putatively communist empire.
I’m sick of hearing about China and ‘their’ censorship. OK? Our censorship is China’s censorship now. Dragonfly and Google were the same thing. I warned you then. It’s over.
Jason Bermas, “Is This the End of Joe Rogan at Spotify?” on Rokfin (February 5, 2022).
On February 6, 1778, the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce were signed by the United States and France, signaling official recognition of the new republic. Exactly a decade later, the State of Massachusetts became the sixth in the union to ratify the new United States Constitution.
February 6 marks the birthdays of Aaron Burr (1756 – 1836), third Vice President of the United States and infamous Weehauken duelist, and Ronald Reagan (1911 – 2004) 40th President of the United States.
Paul Jacob serves as the voice or reason on many issues, like ballot reform and social media, but also regarding the pressing Nincompoopery Question:
This Week in Common Sense, February 4, 2022.