Tag: hypocrisy

Pandemic Rules Are Only for the Little People

The defining moment in the “rules for thee but not for me” ethos of the ruling class during the COVID-19 pandemic may have come when Neil Ferguson, the epidemiologist behind Britain’s lockdown policy, met with his married girlfriend in defiance of the restrictions he promoted. Eager to threaten the common people with penalties if they failed to socially distance, he saw no reason to inconvenience himself the same way—although at least he conceded that propriety required him to resign his government post when the trysts were discovered in May.

“He has peculiarly breached his own guidelines, and for an intelligent man I find that very hard to believe,” marveled Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a prominent member of the ruling Conservative Party. “It risks undermining the Government’s lockdown message.”

Well, yes. But like all too many officials, Ferguson obviously never thought he’d be caught violating rules that he’d never intended be applied to himself. As we’ve since learned, Ferguson’s above-the-law attitude is common among those who feel entitled to write regulations and impose penalties on others for violating them.

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These Governors Told Citizens To Stay Home. Then They Broke Their Own COVID Rules

Several Democratic governors who pushed Americans to stay home or to forgo Thanksgiving celebrations with their families have been accused of violating their own coronavirus restrictions.

A plethora of lawmakers across the country have been caught flouting the coronavirus restrictions, attending protests and ignoring their own social distancing guidelines. The mayor of D.C. and the governor of New York traveled to “high risk” states, Democratic leaders in New York were photographed attending a mostly maskless birthday party, and the governor of California and mayor of Philadelphia were photographed on separate occasions ignoring their own state restrictions on dining.

These incidents sparked outrage across the country in the past week. Video footage posted Sunday showed Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy confronted by two angry protestors who yelled at him and told him, “you are such a dick.”

“How you doing? How you doing,” a woman asked the governor, who was dining outside without a mask, which is in accordance with New Jersey coronavirus restrictions. “You having fun with your family in the meantime? You’re having all kind of other bullshit going on at your house?”

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New York Democratic Leaders Caught Maskless At Private Party Despite COVID Restrictions

Elite New York Democrats attending a Brooklyn private party did not adhere to the state’s coronavirus restrictions, photographs show.

The event was a private birthday party for Carl Scissura, who is the head of the New York Building Congress, a trade organization, the New York Daily News reported Thursday. Other attendees included former Brooklyn Democratic Party Chairman Frank Seddio and Deputy Brooklyn Borough President Ingrid Lewis-Martin, the publication reported.

Photographs of the event showed that very few people wore masks, though the party attendees stood in close proximity to one another as they chatted. One photograph showed both Seddio and Lewis-Martin chatting maskless.

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Denver Mayor Said ‘Avoid Travel’ 30 Minutes Before He Boarded Plane To Visit Family

The Denver mayor’s Twitter account told citizens to “avoid travel” 30 minutes before he boarded a flight to travel to his family for Thanksgiving.

“Pass the potatoes, not COVID,” the account for Denver Mayor Michael Hancock tweeted 30 minutes before he boarded the plane, according to 9News. “Stay home as much as you can, especially if you’re sick. Host virtual gatherings instead of in-person dinners.”

“Avoid travel, if you can,” the tweet continued. “Order your holiday meal from a local eatery. Shop online with a small business for Black Friday.” 

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‘The Machines Did The Killing’: Obama Awkwardly Defends Drone Kill List In New Memoir

Former President Barack Obama still can’t shake his legacy as the “drone president” given he still holds the record for number of ordered covert assassination strikes via drones.

“There were ten times more air strikes in the covert war on terror during President Barack Obama’s presidency than under his predecessor, George W. Bush,” one prior human rights study found.

“Obama embraced the US drone program, overseeing more strikes in his first year than Bush carried out during his entire presidency. A total of 563 strikes, largely by drones, targeted Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen during Obama’s two terms, compared to 57 strikes under Bush,” the study said.

This infamously included not only the killing of Yemeni-American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki due to his suspected al-Qaeda links, but also his son, 16-year-old US citizen and Colorado native Abdulrahman Anwar al-Awlaki, by a drone airstrike ordered by Obama on October 14, 2011. The boy was not even suspected of a crime upon his death while he had been casually eating dinner with this friends at a cafe in Yemen. 

The Obama administration later claimed the teen’s death was “collateral damage” and despite lawsuits related to the CIA operation, no US official has ever been held accountable for literally assassinating two US citizens without trial or so much as filing official charges. 

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