January 22, 2025

January 21, 2025

OPEN THREAD: It’s all you.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

TUCKER CARLSON STUNNED AS NYC MAYOR ERIC ADAMS REVEALS THE OUTRAGEOUS FIVE-WORD WARNING BIDEN GAVE HIM:

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Joe Biden‘s shocking response to his demands that the White House do something about the migrant crisis was to ‘be a good Democrat, Eric.’

Which is surprisingly excellent advice from Dementia Joe!

● What Changed?! Chuck Schumer 2009 kicks Chuck Schumer 2018 right in his badoobies on illegal immigration (video).

—Twitchy, December 28, 2018.

● “Trump took to Twitter on Thursday to remind Democrats that even former President Barack Obama spoke out against illegal immigration. Trump dug up a 2011 tweet from former President Obama which said: ‘I strongly believe that we should take on, once and for all, the issue of illegal immigration.’ ‘I totally agree!’ Trump wrote, retweeting the former president.”

—The Daily Caller, December 27, 2018.

● Harry Reid in 1993: It’s insane to reward illegal immigrants by giving their children birthright citizenship.

—Hot Air, October 30, 2018.

● Bill Clinton warns of “the large number of illegal aliens” coming into America, and explains his crackdown.

—Instapundit, January 31, 2017.

Posted at 9:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

DANA PRETENDS THAT “UNDOCUMENTED” ISN’T A LEFTIST EUPHEMISM FOR “ILLEGAL:”

Posted at 8:45 pm by Ed Driscoll

HOLLYWOOD WAS ALREADY IN TROUBLE. THEN DISASTER STRUCK LA:

For months, rank-and-file TV and film workers relied on a mantra to get themselves through a dark time in the industry: “Survive till ’25.”

The slogan came after a stint that included the pandemic, strikes by actors and writers, the long and costly pivot to streaming and the continued migration of industry jobs out of Los Angeles. Hope glimmered for January, with theatrical releases on the runway and shoots in full swing.

Then came the wildfires.

“It’s sort of been the perfect storm,’” says film and TV editor Andrew Kasch, a 20-year Los Angeles veteran who, after a year of unemployment, was giving himself just 12 more months to find work or leave the city. “The people who work on the biggest shows and movies are going to continue to be fine—it’s the rest of us facing an existential crisis.”

Though his home was unscathed, the fires have Kasch, 45, seriously considering moving with his two daughters to live with his parents in Chattanooga, Tenn. His health insurance expires next month, and he fears rising costs of living. “It’s basically been one thing after the other.”

Kasch was one of the Angelenos embracing “Survive till ’25,’” but now his view is a little more arch. “I guess it’s been changed to ‘Exist to ’26.’”

This past week, Hollywood got back to work, with shows such as “Doctor Odyssey,” “9-1-1” and “NCIS” resuming shooting after wildfire shutdowns. But on a broader scale, the decline of production in Los Angeles continues, and with it, the exodus of entertainment workers from the city to hubs in states such as Georgia and New Mexico, or to new careers altogether. The fires shine a light on the tightknit community of Hollywood crew, and leaves those gaffers, grips, costumers, makeup artists, location scouts and others wondering how much longer their dwindling ranks can remain in Los Angeles.

In his latest monthly column at Commentary, Rob Long explores the impact of “The Fire This Time:”

It wasn’t immediately apparent, when the news first started to break, that the fire was going to be quite so disastrous. I moved from Los Angeles to New York several years ago, so I tend to get my local LA news from Facebook and Instagram. But as the pictures started to emerge, I watched the streaming broadcast from KTLA Channel 5 and made a list of everyone I knew who lived in the Palisades—friends, colleagues, business frenemies—and texted each one to ask whether they were safe. It was a huge list—I’ve been in the entertainment business for 35 years —and I was struck by how many in my show-business circle live there. Lived, I should say. Most of my career, it turns out, was in the fire zone.

Which makes sense if you’ve ever been to the Pacific Palisades. It’s true that it’s a very rich area, but it also feels like a very normal, very down-to-earth small town. There are hardware stores and delis that have been there for decades, along with the kind of boutiques you’d find in any upscale suburb in America: a place for high-end sporting goods, a gifty kind of bookstore, a place to buy expensive candles. The local public high school was top-notch, and it even had a thriving Episcopal church. They’ve all been burned to the ground.

There were movie stars in the Palisades, whom you’d see in the grocery stores and Peet’s Coffee, both now destroyed. But the place was mostly the support village for the entertainment business. It’s where you lived if you were one of the thousands of people who worked in show business but wasn’t famous. If you were meeting a talent manager for lunch but neither of you wanted to make it a big deal, you met in the Palisades. If you were in the checkout line at the Gelson’s supermarket on Sunset—gone now—you might, as I did years ago, bump into a network executive and find out that your show is about to be cancelled. The Palisades was the central nervous system for show business. It’s anyone’s guess where that will be now that the Palisades is a pile of ashes and embers.

This recent dashcam video shows what the Palisades looked like before the fire. It’s a bit like holiday snapshots taken during a visit to the World Trade Center in 2000 or the summer of 2001. In this case, it was likely just some video created because it’s so easy to hit the record button these days — but one that becomes very precious after tragedy strikes and the world is upended.

UPDATE: Remembering My Lost Los Angeles. “I imagine that my old neighbors in the Pacific Palisades will be making the same walks in the days to come. They’ll recall white stucco walls adorned with neon bougainvillea or ficus hedges shielding some fading star’s privacy. But the rest of the country must understand: this world of The Beach Boys, The Parent Trap, avant-garde architects, physicists, novelists, of soft Southern California light was once here. Now it’s gone, and it will never come back. The imagination that made Old California come to life was snuffed out long ago. It won’t be remade by tech bros, influencers, or anyone else. Here, in this pretty world, Old California took its last bow.”

And perhaps, so did Kamala: Unemployed Kamala Harris’ neighbors annoyed by her return to LA as city burns: ‘I’m embarrassed that she lives here.’

Posted at 8:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

JUST NBC THE EXTORTION! MSNBC’s Al Sharpton Uses Network To Launch Boycott of Companies That Cut DEI Programs.

MSNBC host Al Sharpton announced plans on the liberal network Monday to boycott corporations that have ditched diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, marking yet another conflict of interest for the activist and liberal network.

Sharpton told MSNBC colleague Joy Reid he will select “two or three companies” that his National Action Network will boycott to show that “Donald Trump can’t make us spend money for companies that will not deal and commit and continue with diversity and equity and inclusion.”

“What we said today is that these companies that are now saying they’re going to back up off of diversity and equity and inclusion, should therefore not have a diverse consumer base,” said Sharpton, who hosts MSNBC’s weekend show PoliticsNation.

The campaign comes as Sharpton and MSNBC face scrutiny over a series of Washington Free Beacon reports that the Kamala Harris campaign gave $500,000 to Sharpton’s National Action Network—which paid him $650,000 in 2023—just before the anchor-activist interviewed the Democratic presidential candidate on MSNBC in October. The Society of Professional Journalists, considered the gold standard of media ethics, called the conflict of interest a “black eye” that “harms the credibility of the journalist, the news organization, and journalism overall.” President Donald Trump recently said the arrangement was “totally against the law.”

Nice business you’ve got there. Shame if something were to happen to it…

After Sharpton destroyed Don Imus’ career on MSNBC in 2007, the network knows firsthand what can happen when Sharpton threatens a business: “Sharpton paid to keep quiet about lack of black TV programming: suit.”

Posted at 8:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

MILE MARKERS ON THE ROAD TO DETROIT: Biggest Remaining Tenant in SF’s Biggest Mall is Closing Its Doors.

The largest remaining tenant in San Francisco’s largest mall just called it quits. Bloomingdale’s which is owned by Macy’s announce it will be closing its doors in March.

The store, which occupies 330,000 square feet in the beleaguered San Francisco Centre, is slated to close at the end of March. Bloomingdale’s is by far the mall’s largest remaining tenant, and it is closing the brand’s second-biggest store after its New York flagship…

Bloomingdale’s, which opened in 2006 in the former Westfield mall, is the second anchor tenant to bail on the 1.5 million-square-foot property at Fifth and Market streets. Nordstrom’s flagship store closed in 2023 after 35 years in business…

The closure of Bloomingdale’s deals another setback to the struggling San Francisco Centre mall, which is about half vacant after an exodus of retailers since the pandemic.

This mall has been on the edge of collapse for a while now. The owners of the mall walked away from it in 2023:

The San Francisco Centre is being managed by a receiver after its previous owners, Westfield and Brookfield Properties, walked away from the property in 2023.

The 800,000-square-foot mall was supposed to be sold in a public auction late last year, but the process has been delayed twice by lenders.

Earlier: ‘Don’t invest in San Francisco, because you won’t make it:’ Facing closure, chef unloads on city.

Posted at 8:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO? Study Finds Coffee Linked to Lower Risk of Dementia, But There’s a Catch. “But there’s a twist to the tale – the association only applies to unsweetened, caffeinated coffee.”

Well, decaf is just dirty water. And I’m not surprised that a 600 calorie double pump mochalatte sugar bomb isn’t good for you.

Posted at 8:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

#JOURNALISM:

Related:

Posted at 7:28 pm by Glenn Reynolds

“WOKEPEDIA IS AT IT AGAIN”:

The Left has to invent distractions like Elon Musk’s “Nazi salute” to keep people from noticing their actual, Nazi-like activities.

Posted at 4:51 pm by Stephen Green

BIDEN’S PARTING GIFTS:

The Obama Cabal that ran the Biden White House really did a Third World number on our nation’s finances. Trump and the DOGE boys have their work cut out for them.

Posted at 3:49 pm by Stephen Green