December 3, 2024

OPEN THREAD: Tuesday’s groovy.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

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Posted at 6:58 pm by Glenn Reynolds

THEY HAVE THEIR PRIORITIES.

Posted at 6:44 pm by Glenn Reynolds

WELL, GOOD: Chad Chronister, Donald Trump’s pick to run the DEA, withdraws name from consideration.

More… much more:

Posted at 6:25 pm by Stephen Green

ACE OF SPADES: Trump Nominates Revealer of the Russiagate Psyop Kash Patel to be New Director of the FBI.

Patel is a solid, sensible man who has been on the right side of every single Deep State op and hoax.

That means they will stop at nothing to block him.

* * * * * * * *

Unfortunately, the head of the FBI is considered a cabinet-level posting and Trump will need Senate approval to confirm Patel.

I don’t think he’ll get it, unfortunately[.]

Related: Matt Taibbi’s “Note on the FBI:”

When I heard Kash Patel had been tabbed by Donald Trump to run the FBI, I could already imagine the pushback and moved immediately to start the just-published article “The Bell Finally Tolls for the FBI” piece. The thought was that the role Patel played in preparing the “Nunes memo” was both the clearest example of media corruption from Trump’s first term and also the most easily demonstrated episode of FBI malfeasance. Since I had to spend an unnatural amount of time on the topic over the years (it even intersected with the Twitter Files and Hamilton 68) I quickly found myself in the weeds of the “memo” tale, when there’s a larger argument about why the FBI needs a major reorganization that someone needs to make amid what’s already an ugly fight about Patel’s nomination:

The transformation of the FBI back into a J. Edgar Hoover-style domestic spy service with sweeping political ambition has been a long-developing story, obscured by a political anomaly. In the first phase of this nightmare, between 2001 and 2016, the post-9/11 Bureau used the pretext of an enhanced counterintelligence mandate to throw off some mild restraints that had been placed on it the last time it had to be slapped down, i.e. after the Church Committee hearings in the 1970s. The second phase of its transformation took place after the election of Donald Trump, when the Bureau remade itself on the fly as a kind of government-in-exile, empowered by an outpouring of public and media support to view itself as a counterweight to the Trump government.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Heckuva job, Brownie!

 

Posted at 4:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

‘JESUS CHRIST:’ Social Media Erupts Over House Democrats STILL Mocking Inflation Worries After Election Beatdown.

Social media erupted on Tuesday after the X account for the Democratic members of the House Ways and Means Committee went out of its way to mock Americans over their continued concerns about rising prices.

Reposting a tweet claiming that despite “record air travel, holiday shopping busting records,” and “stock market all-time highs,” there remain “some Pollyannas” whining that the economy is “the worst ever,” the Ways and Means Democrats account added, “And here we were thinking y’all couldn’t afford eggs!”

Onlookers reacted to it like they might a particularly ugly car crash.

“Jesus Christ,” exclaimed the popular New Liberals (formerly Neoliberal) account.

* * * * * * * * *

“They never learn,” chimed in House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN).

“‘But how can things be unaffordable when people are spending record amounts of money on things? Checkmate, losers!’” tweeted one right-wing personality unimpressed not only with the messaging, but the logic behind the post.

A CBS News exit poll from the 2024 election — which saw Republicans win the presidency as well as both chambers of Congress — found that 53% of voters called inflation a “moderate hardship” over the last year and an additional 22% called it a “severe hardship.”

The same survey found that only 24% of Americans said their personal financial situation was better than it was four years ago, as compared to 45% who said it was worse.

The tweet sparking the firestorm of criticism was later deleted.

But not before it was screen-capped by numerous Twitter users:

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

PEOPLE ARE ASKING HOW TO DONATE TO INSTAPUNDIT AGAIN, SO HERE YOU GO. You can donate via stripe using the silver “Donate” button at the top of the right sidebar, or by using this link to go to Stripe. You can mail a check (made out to Glenn Reynolds, not InstaPundit) — people still do that — to 118 N. Peters Rd. #12-230, Knoxville, TN 37923. Or you can become a paid subscriber to my Substack, which is always appreciated. Any way you choose to do it, I thank you, and my family thanks you.

Posted at 2:23 pm by Glenn Reynolds

MAYBE ELON MUSK COULD SALVAGE THIS MESS BUT EVEN THAT’S A LONGSHOT: The End Of Fake News? MSNBC Hits New Low In Ratings.

During the week of Nov. 6, MSNBC averaged just 38,000 viewers among adults 25-54, its lowest-rated non-holiday weekday since July 19, 2004.
…
Low viewership impacted shows like The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle and Jose Diaz Balart Reports, both of which saw their smallest audiences ever.

Other shows—including Chris Jansing Reports, Deadline: White House and Katy Tur Reports—saw their worst days ever among the demos.

Several shows lost over 50% of their 25-54 audience. Among those shows are The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle, All In with Chris Hayes, Chris Jansing Reports, Inside with Jen Psaki, The Rachel Maddow Show and Joy Reid’s ReidOut.

This slump couldn’t have come at a worse time, as MSNBC’s parent company, Comcast, announced cuts to cable channels, excluding NBC News and Bravo TV. CNN reports that MSNBC will be moved into “SpinCo,” a publicly traded cable programming company.

Tech mogul Elon Musk has hinted at purchasing MSNBC, while journalist Jack Posobiec says he’s recruiting investors to take control of the left-wing network.

How much could it still be worth?

Posted at 1:45 pm by Stephen Green