October 11, 2024

OPEN THREAD: Ring in the weekend.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Shijian-19 reusable satellite lands after 2 weeks in space. “China’s first retrievable and reusable satellite returned to Earth late Thursday following two weeks of experiments in low Earth orbit. . . . The Shijian-19 mission is part of China’s broader space program, which includes ambitious plans for deep space exploration, a range of experiments aboard the Tiangong space station, and advancements in reusable space technologies.”

Its cargo: Breeding experiments. “China has a strong interest in space breeding of crops. Exposure to space conditions is thought to accelerate genetic mutations that may enhance crop resilience and productivity. With relatively little arable land, China aims to increase crop yields and agricultural output.”

Posted at 9:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

KAMALA HARRIS’S MAN PROBLEM! As Obama desperately pleads with black male voters to back her, Freddy Gray says: After all the Democrats’ man-bashing, it’s too little, too late.

Last week, the influential International Association of Fire Fighters – another male-dominated union that backed Biden – joined the Teamsters in saying they wouldn’t endorse anyone this election cycle.

Which begs the question: What is now driving working-class men away from the Democrats?

For all his faults, ‘Amtrak Joe’ spent much of his long political career cultivating ties in rust-belt states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin – election battlegrounds crucial to winning the White House.

The same cannot be said for Harris, who cut her teeth as a district attorney and attorney general in the liberal la-la land of California. Despite growing up in the leafy suburbs of Berkeley near San Francisco, she has tried to bolster her plebeian credentials by touting her experience – mysteriously unverifiable – of working in McDonald’s as a college student.

But America’s working-class men don’t seem impressed – and that should serve not so much an alarm bell for the Democrats as a klaxon. For if a significant number of union voters abandon Harris in November, she may lose.

In the 2020 election, Biden carried union households by 16 points in his victory over Trump, while Hillary Clinton bested Trump by only five points among union voters in 2016 – and, of course, she lost.

Now, a September Fox News poll has shown that Kamala is in Hillary-territory. In their survey, Harris narrowly won union voters by six points – 53 percent to 47 percent.

And it’s not only working-class men who appear to be turning their backs on the Democrats.

An October New York Times poll revealed that Harris is 11 points underwater with male voters overall. She is even performing relatively badly with black and Hispanic men, who might have been expected to support her overwhelmingly.

Beginning with a flashback to Michael Douglas in 1993’s Falling Down, in a G-File titled “Who’s the Bad Guy,” Jonah Goldberg charts the 30 year history of the left’s ongoing war on men, before writing:

A couple years after Falling Down came out, the Angry White Male discourse went into overdrive because of the Oklahoma City bombing, when Bill Clinton cynically but brilliantly blamed it on the white male rage fueled by right-wing talk radio. A few years later, Chris Rock and then Toni Morrison started calling Clinton “the first black president.” This became a big refrain in the Lewinsky scandal, but the intent was the same even before: to create a rationale to inoculate Clinton’s behavior as something different than what would be deemed toxic masculinity or white privilege in a Republican.

Now, I should say that I was hugely critical of this stuff back in the day—and remain so in many respects. But given the trajectory of Angry White Male-ism since then, I have to concede that there was more to it than I thought at the time.

But that’s not what I want to talk about. I am willing to accept that the diagnosis had more merit than I appreciated at the time, but the remedy made everything worse. The decades of mocking, belittling, and minimizing of white men made many of the problems with white men worse, not better. I’m not for depriving men—or women—of agency in their own predicaments. The incels and white supremacist poltroons, the Andrew Tate fanboys, the “childless cat lady” choristers, and all of the right-wingers who now insist that the bullying and dishonest, thrice-married adulterer Donald Trump—who puts on makeup every morning—is the epitome of manly virtues and a “manly man” (in the words of one of his super-fawners Tom Klingenstein) shouldn’t be let off the hook for their own choices. But the backlash to this cultural tide is real all the same.

And whatever partisan advantage Democrats got out of this stuff, it’s now a partisan disadvantage as men—white, black, and Hispanic—move out of the FDR coalition into what is now essentially the Trump coalition.

Indeed, it’s a sign of how deep in a cultural bubble progressives are, that Democrats thought Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz could lure a sufficient number of these men back into the Democratic fold. In the same way that, say, Charlie Kirk is an old white right-winger’s idea of what a young person is—or should be—Walz is an MSNBC producer’s idea of what a “real” rural white man is.

It reminds me of the great fun we had with “Pajama Boy” during the Obamacare brouhaha. For those of you who don’t remember, in 2013 the Obama team released a web ad with a smugly smirking “man” in his 20s wearing flannel onesie pajamas drinking some hot cocoa. The tagline: “Drink hot chocolate. Talk about getting health insurance. #GetTalking.”

The ad was only possible in a world where this image is not only what you think young men look like, but what you think they should look like.

Fortunately, Nike, knowing both that, as Michael Jordan was famously quoted as saying, “Republicans buy sneakers too,” and that Kamala wants to temporarily dial back the leftist male bashing, has a new ad that calls for a truce in the gender wars.

Nahh, just kidding, of course. As with their previous racialist-themed ads featuring Colin Kaepernick, Nike is all too happy to dial the War of the Sexes up to 11: New Ultra-Woke Nike Ad Says WNBA Dynasty ‘Makes Men Look Like Amateurs.’

Instead of defending actual women from having to compete against biological males on their own sports teams, Nike is charging full steam ahead with the “woke” agenda in their latest ad, taking aim at the “patriarchy” and touting anti-whiteness, lesbianism, and basic human history.

The new ad, first aired in August as part of the Nike brand’s “Play New” campaign and currently making the rounds (and being widely mocked) on social media, features a black high school student who’s been tasked with writing a report on a historical dynasty. Instead, she chooses to focus on the “new” dynasty of women’s basketball, one the ad claims will “Make Alexander the Great look like Alexander the OK” and headlining “women of color, gay women, and women who fight for social justice.”

Oh – and it’s a dynasty that “makes your favorite men’s basketball, football, and baseball teams look like amateurs.” Feel free to belly-laugh, it’s good for your health.

Check it out:

Exit question:

UPDATE: The New York Times: It’s Time to End Masculinity. All Masculinity. Even the So-Called “Positive Masculinity” Exemplified by Tim Walz and Doug Emhoff.

As with Falling Down being Ground Zero in the left’s cinematic War on Men, Pinch Sulzberger was quoted in New York magazine in 1991, as saying that if his newspaper was “alienating older white male readers [that] means ‘we’re doing something right.'”

More:

Posted at 8:45 pm by Ed Driscoll

THAT’S BECAUSE THEY’RE BACTERIOPHAGES: Toothbrushes and Showerheads Swarm With Unknown Viruses – And That’s Good News.

But, in the meantime, Hartmann cautions people not to fret about the invisible wildlife living within our bathrooms. Instead of grabbing for bleach, people can soak their showerheads in vinegar to remove calcium buildup or simply wash them with plain soap and water. And people should regularly replace toothbrush heads, Hartmann says. Hartmann also is not a fan of antimicrobial toothbrushes, which she said can lead to antibiotic-resistant bugs.

“Microbes are everywhere, and the vast majority of them will not make us sick,” she said. “The more you attack them with disinfectants, the more they are likely to develop resistance or become more difficult to treat. We should all just embrace them.”

Yes.

Posted at 7:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

BUT OTHER THAN THAT, HOW DID YOU ENJOY THE TOWN HALL, MRS. HARRIS?

Posted at 4:54 pm by Stephen Green

TWO WAPOS IN ONE!

Shot:

Chaser: Europe to America: Your love of air-conditioning is stupid.

—Headline, the Washington Post, July 22nd, 2015.

It’s great to see Kamala is finally taking Glenn’s advice: Ban A/C for DC! “We won two world wars without air conditioning our federal employees. Nothing in their performance over the last 50 or 60 years suggests that A/C has improved things. Besides, The Washington Post informs us that A/C is sexist, and that Europeans think it’s stupid.”

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Are you sure they’re throwing up because of the heat?

Posted at 4:45 pm by Ed Driscoll

IT ISN’T ALWAYS NICE TO MAKE TWITCHY: ABOUT That Men Being Man Enough to Vote for Kamala Ad, Here’s Who Those MANLY Men REALLY Are. “Lanre Idewu is an immigrant from Nigeria. He is also an actor who works at the D.C.-based OCTET Productions. He has many intimate pictures with the Obamas and the Bidens. Idewu, who is bisexual, has done gay-for-pay movies and nude solo shoots. In the “Men for Kamala” ad, he says he is “man enough to f-ing braid his daughter’s hair,” but the only problem is that he doesn’t have a daughter. Idewu isn’t braiding anyone’s hair.”

From there, things got weird — in other words, it’s exactly the kind of male outreach you’d expect from Harris-Walz.

UPDATE (From Ed):

Posted at 4:36 pm by Stephen Green

BILL ACKMAN:

Town halls are designed to be unscripted opportunities to hear from the candidates based on spontaneous questions from the audience. Reportedly, in her Univision town hall, the questioners were preselected and the questions were pre-vetted. Now we know that even her answers had the benefit of a teleprompter.

Kamala Harris is never unscripted and we don’t know who is writing the scripts.

A person who reads scripts is an actor. We don’t want an actor for president particularly when we don’t know who is the script writer and who is the director.

Recently when she went off script and gave an answer ‘they’ didn’t like, her answer was edited and changed just like they do in post-production in Hollywood except this was 60 Minutes.

There is, however, a lot of historical footage available about VP Harris before she was the Democratic nominee. Her answers to questions then don’t match the answers she gives now on border security, foreign policy, fracking, gun buybacks, Medicare for all, defunding the police, and more. Then she was ranked the most left-wing senator based on her voting record.

Whom do you believe? Harris unscripted or the Hollywood version written by anonymous handlers designed to get her elected?

To ask the question is to answer it.

Posted at 3:52 pm by Stephen Green

I’M SO OLD, I REMEMBER WHEN DISSENT WAS PATRIOTIC:

And here’s Harrison’s full statement:

Notwithstanding Barack Obama’s ethno-tribalist herding of black men into a sheep’s pen, as it were, so they can be told by him, their self-appointed political shepherd, for whom they are to cast their vote in November, he is stripping these men of their identity as image-bearers of God (Gen. 1:27).

Imagine having your entire identity reduced to the color of your skin and subsequently being told that on that basis alone—the basis of a static and immutable aspect of your personhood (melanin), as opposed to your God-given intellect and discernment—that you must vote for someone simply because that person looks like you.

Think about that.

In Obama’s eyes these black men aren’t “brothas,” they’re sheep. They’re not men, they’re political pawns to be used and discarded once the election is over—just like he did to black people in 2008 and 2012.

And here’s what started all the fuss: ‘Not Acceptable’: Obama Scolds Black ‘Brothas’ For Not Backing Harris – Blames Sexism. “Having exhorted black men to embrace racism in the voting booth, Obama then suggested the same group’s sexism was at the heart of Harris’ problem with them.”

He’s flailing.

UPDATE: Harrison since posted that he’d blocked Obama but read it the wrong way around. But the point about Obama flailing and scolding still stands.

Posted at 3:33 pm by Stephen Green

CORN, POPPED: Walz to launch media blitz to woo male voters. “Faced with a serious polling deficit among young men, Harris’ campaign is sending the Minnesota governor on a man-focused media blitz on Friday, including football-focused TV interviews and pheasant hunting with digital influencers, according to details shared first with POLITICO.”

Posted at 2:50 pm by Stephen Green

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Saturday Night – Counter-Culture Cut-Ups Crush Conformity.

J.K. Simmons steals the movie as Milton Berle, the literal face of Old Hollywood. He doesn’t think much of these kids rewiring the variety show template. His disgust adds a welcome layer to the film’s premise.

And, yes, another part of the Berle, ahem, legend gets mentioned.

Related: ‘Saturday Night’ Recalls When Left Loved Comedy, Free Speech.

Willem Dafoe plays an NBC executive eager to cut Michaels off at the knees. The cast may get their first.

A subplot finds John Belushi (Matt Wood) refusing to sign his contract minutes before showtime. We all know now how combustible Belushi was behind the scenes.

At the time, Michaels and co. needed that coiled energy to power episode one.

LaBelle, who played the Steven Spielberg-style character in “The Fabelmans,” makes Michaels earnest and flexible. He’ll do whatever it takes to get his show off the ground, and his faith in the concept holds the thin narrative together.

“Saturday Night” starts as a frantic look at show business behind the scenes. What emerges is a thoughtful, even nostalgic glimpse at a comedy institution that captures the ’70s at its best. It questioned authority, uprooted the status quo and proved talent could win the day if given the chance.

For all those reasons, “Saturday Night” is a rare must-see movie in 2024.

HiT or Miss: “Saturday Night” is funny, bittersweet and always engaging. Much like the best “SNL” sketches of yore.

It’s one of those movies based on real-life events like Apollo 13, Titanic, and Bohemian Rhapsody where we broadly know exactly how it’s going to end. So the ride along the way better be good.

Posted at 2:45 pm by Ed Driscoll

UP IN SMOKE:

I wonder how much of that came from Iran via Joe Biden’s largess.

Posted at 2:33 pm by Stephen Green

ESCHEW THE COCKINESS: Panic At Kamala HQ. Brand-new polling was released by Quinnipiac on Wednesday showing  that Harris is dropping like a stone in some of the swing states.

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll