April 23, 2025

CNN “REPORTER” GETS A BRUTAL EXPLANATION FOR WHY NEW MEDIA IS REPLACING OLD GUARD AT THE WHITE HOUSE:

Lack of self-awareness has long been de rigueur at CNN: Radical Chic, the Boy Band Era:

Meanwhile, at America’s Newspaper of Record:

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

I HAVE A NEW PIECE AT SRAH HOYT’S MAD GENIUS CLUB: Dare to be Bad.

Posted at 2:22 pm by Charlie Martin

THE GREEN ERA IS ENDING:

To be fair, $2 billion is about 90% less than Airbus lost on the A380.

Posted at 1:46 pm by Stephen Green

THE JOE BIDEN POST-PRESIDENTIAL PHOTOSHOP TOUR ROLLS ON! ‘But You Ain’t Got No Legs!’ Joe Biden Posts Earth Day Photo and We Have Many Questions.

First of all, no. The Biden administration didn’t ‘do both.’ It managed to set the American economy on fire in service of climate change boondoggles like the ‘Inflation Reduction Act’, which didn’t, in point of fact, accomplish anything for the environment. It just lined the pockets of the left’s political patrons at the expense of the American taxpayer.

But we all knew that already. The real question is: WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH THIS PICTURE?

Is this another Photoshop? It sure looks that way.

Biden’s hapless Photoshop eunuch has proportioned Joe so that he looks the way Bruce Wayne was depicted in the 1990s Batman: The Animated Series cartoons:

Which seems odd, since we now know Batman’s secret identity, and it’s not Joe Biden:

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

WE’VE DESCENDED INTO SOME SORT OF BIZARRE HELL-WORLD IN WHICH RAHM EMANUEL IS A VOICE OF SANITY: ‘Total Bullsh*t!’: Podcaster Comes Completely Unglued When Rahm Emanuel Brushes Aside Trans Issues.

“That is such bullshit! That is total bullshit! That is buying into the right-wing media narrative and I’m so sick of Democrats like you selling out and saying this. You know who talks about trans people more than anybody? MAGA,” Welch said. “MAGA is the most genital-obsessed political party I have ever seen. [Former Vice President] Kamala Harris talked about homeownership. She talked about kitchen table issues. Trump’s over there droning on about Hannibal Lecter. Are you kidding me?”

“This is where the Democrats lose, because we’re playing the game with the rulebook — they’ve ripped the rulebook up and are cramming it down everybody’s throat. And Democrats are upset because [former President] Joe Biden pardoned his son?” she continued. “We gotta fucking fight! They’re the gender-obsessed weirdos, not us. We’re the ones who fight for Social Security. We fight for Medicare. And yeah, we’re not going to bully trans people. We’re not going to fucking do it. If you want to do it, fine.”

Emanuel touted his record as former Chicago mayor, saying in 2016 he “dealt with the bathroom issue.”

“It’s not my most important issue,” he said. “It was dealt with, and I appropriately dealt with [it], dealt with marriage equality, as I said.”

* * * * * * * * *

“I have to live in a state where women rape victims can’t get an abortion because of this bullshit! And so I’m going to fight till the bitter end,” she added. “And I’m not going to let some MAGA moron define what progressive values are. And I think it’s a really dangerous precedent. Mr. Emanuel, I’m sorry, but I just — I have to push back. And I’m not some coastal elite liberal.”

Emanuel replied that she has the option to move to another state.

Heh. Federalism — it’s an idea so crazy, it just might work.

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

CHANGE: New Poll Data Confirms the Democrats’ Worst Fears.

And that story doesn’t even mention this news:

Democrats’ biggest supporters are now in the 70+ demographic.

Posted at 12:57 pm by Glenn Reynolds

TURNAROUND? Boeing to seek FAA approval this year to increase 737 Max production as losses narrow.

Boeing is preparing to ask for Federal Aviation Administration approval to ramp up production of its best-selling 737 Max jets to 42 a month later this year, CEO Kelly Ortberg said Wednesday, as airplane deliveries picked up this year and the company narrowed its losses.

Boeing reported a first-quarter net loss of $31 million, improvement from a loss of $355 million a year earlier, as revenue rose 18% to $19.5 billion, slightly ahead of analysts’ estimates.

The company’s cash burn of about $2.3 billion was an improvement over the nearly $4 billion it used in the first quarter of 2024, and was better than analysts expected.

“Less bad” isn’t the same as “good,” but it’s still a welcome improvement.

Posted at 12:44 pm by Stephen Green

THEY’RE NOT UMPIRES CALLING BALLS AND STRIKES, THEY’RE BATTING FOR ONE TEAM: A Tale Of Two Shadow Dockets: The Supreme Court moves heaven and earth to block removal of alleged gang members who are almost certainly removable, but says nothing about Ohio initiative process being declared unconstitutional. “It is often said that the Supreme Court follows the headlines. To be clear, the Supreme Court follows the headlines of the mainstream media. There is a never-ending torrent of hottakes about a constitutional crisis. But most Americans will scratch their heads at this issue and wonder why the Supreme Court is giving so much attention to these alleged gang members.”

Yes, when John Roberts worries about the Court’s “legitimacy,” he means its legitimacy in the eyes of the editorial boards of the New York Times and the Washington Post, not in the eyes of the American people. Which is shortsighted, but so very on-brand.

Posted at 12:40 pm by Glenn Reynolds

SAVE THE EARTHLINGS FROM EARTH DAY:

Google up “Taihang mountains solar panels” to see multiple images of previously beautiful green hills in China now totally covered in black panels.

The material progress of our species is directly tied to increasing our energy density. Using much less of the Earth to get a whole lot more power from it is how we advance. Humans nearly hunted whales to extinction so we could obtain tiny trickles of oil from them, and we once deforested vast hunks of wilderness just to create fire.

Switching to land-devouring wind and solar energy would be a giant leap backward.

Nuclear power, America’s largest source of carbon-free electricity, is a functionally miraculous alternative. To get the energy embedded in 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas or 120 gallons of oil requires a uranium pellet no larger than the end of a small adult’s thumb. A nuclear power plant is almost as gentle on land use as a natural gas powerstation, but is the most reliable source of power we have and one of the safest.

But don’t attend Earth Day to hear this good news because the Earth Day Network hates nuclear power. In 2021 the nonprofit co-signed a letter sent to President Biden that made this request: “Phase out nuclear energy as an inherently dirty, dangerous and costly energy source.”

Last year’s Earth Day theme— “Planet vs Plastics”— also portrayed environmental progress as a problem. The Earth Day Network’s website for the event proclaimed they were “unwavering in our commitment to end plastics for the sake of human and planetary health.”

Trees, turtles, and elephants are just the start of a long list of creatures and resources that were once consumed with reckless abandon but are now conserved because we use plastic instead. Innumerable plastic health and safety devices save and prolong human lives every day. We waste less food, and pay less for it, because low-cost plastic keeps it fresh. Most household consumer products, from toothbrushes to televisions, are made with plastic.

More: Earth Day 2025: Our Power, Our Planet, Our Propaganda.

The leftist opposition to fossil fuels has nothing to do with environmental quality or climate issues or any of the other rationalizations repeated ad nauseam. It is instead a central component of the fundamental anti-human core of left-wing environmentalism, a stance that studiously ignores the relationship between fossil fuel use and human flourishing. In 1990, the late Alexander King, cofounder of the Club of Rome in 1968, argued in the context of the use of DDT to control malaria:

My own doubts came when DDT was introduced for civilian use. In Guyana, within two years it had almost eliminated malaria, but at the same time, the birth rate had doubled. … My chief quarrel with DDT in hindsight is that it has greatly added to the population problem.

Tens or hundreds of millions of the world’s poor have died from malaria as a direct result of the multination ban on the use of DDT, driven by false assertions about its harmful effects on various bird species, promulgated from the very first Earth Day in 1970. Then there was the observation made in 1971 by Michael McClosky, the former executive director of the Sierra Club, during an Ethiopian famine:

The worst thing we could do is give aid…. the best thing would be to just let nature seek its own balance and to let the people there just starve.

For left-wing environmental ideologues, humans are nothing more than environmentally destructive mouths to feed without moral standing. (The Nazi term was “useless eaters.”) Nor, implicitly, do humans have the intelligence, inventiveness, and ingenuity to solve problems. Au contraire: Simply because of the laws of large numbers, some substantial numbers of people are and will be geniuses.

I return, as I have so many times, to the wisdom of Dogbert: “You can’t save the earth unless you’re willing to make other people sacrifice.” That is the true theme of all Earth Days, yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever.

Related: Over 30 items here: Evidence that the climate scam is collapsing.

Earlier: It’s Earth Day. Again. Contain Your Excitement.

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Gov. Polis signs new restrictions on gun shows, ammunition sales into law.

Polis gave his pen to House Bill 25-1133, Requirements for Sales of Firearms Ammunition, and House Bill 25-1238, Gun Show Requirements.

Polis previously signed Senate Bill 25-003, creating a lengthy and expensive licensing system in order to purchase a wide-range of semi-automatic weapons.

HB 1133 would mandate retailers lock up all ammunition, meaning customers cannot serve themselves off the shelves, and prohibits the retail sale of ammunition to a person who is younger than 21 years of age, while HB 1238 would place onerous new barriers on federal firearms licensees (FFLs) that would drastically change the way vendors do business at Colorado gun shows, as well as who can access the events, respectively.

Ray Elliott, president of the Colorado State Shooting Association called it an escalation of the assault on Second Amendment rights.

“This legislative session, Democrats have unleashed a brazen attack on our freedoms, and the Colorado State Shooting Association (CSSA) is fighting back,” Elliott said in a news release “We will not stand for this betrayal of our constitutional protections, and we call on every patriot to join us in this battle for justice, and retribution.”

Over at Reason, Nick Gillespie is all-too-belatedly catching on to Polis’s scam self-ID as a “libertarian Democrat.”

Posted at 11:42 am by Stephen Green

‘THE CANCELING OF THE AMERICAN MIND’ PAPERBACK HITS SHELVES APRIL 29, AND AVAIL FOR PRE-ORDER TODAY: “A powerful and prescient book that is more relevant than ever.” — Steven Pinker.

Posted at 11:26 am by Greg Lukianoff

SPECTRE OPENS UP NEW PROBE INTO ERNST STAVRO BLOFELD: World Economic Forum Opens New Probe Into Founder Klaus Schwab.

World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab is under investigation by the organization he created after a new whistleblower letter alleged financial and ethical misconduct by the longtime leader and his wife.

The anonymous letter was sent last week to the Forum’s board and raised concerns about the Forum’s governance and workplace culture, including allegations that the Schwab family mixed their personal affairs with the Forum’s resources without proper oversight, according to the letter and people familiar with the matter.

It included allegations that Klaus Schwab asked junior employees to withdraw thousands of dollars from ATMs on his behalf and used Forum funds to pay for private, in-room massages at hotels. It also alleged that his wife Hilde, a former Forum employee, scheduled “token” Forum-funded meetings in order to justify luxury holiday travel at the organization’s expense.

Related: With Blofeld staring into the piranha pits, new Bond supervillain appointed to lead Spectre:

Nestle, eh? If that business’s name rings a bell in the context of woke corporatism, it’s what launched Jonah Goldberg to write Liberal Fascism in 2008, which focused several chapters on a century’s worth of corporatism, the intertwining of government and corporations, much beloved by the namesake publisher of Bloomberg (and in an even more radical form by Bernie Sanders), which the post-Weimar government of Germany dubbed the Gleichschaltung. As Jonah told Kathryn Jean Lopez in 2009, at the apogee of the left’s Hopenchange Obamamania:

You know, when I first started pondering the book, I thought it might be all about economics. About ten years ago I went on a junket to Switzerland and attended a talk with the CEO of Nestlé. Listening to him, it became very clear to me that he had little to no interest in free markets or capitalism properly understood. He saw his corporation as a “partner” with governments, NGOs, the U.N., and other massive multinationals. The profit motive was good for efficiency and rewarding talent, but beyond that, he wanted order and predictability and as much planning as he could get. I think that mindset informs the entire class of transnational progressives, the shock troops of what H. G. Wells hoped would lead to his liberal-fascist “world brain.”

If you look at how most liberals think about economics, they want big corporations and big government working in tandem with labor, universities (think industrial policy), and progressive organizations to come up with “inclusive” policies set at the national or international level. That’s not necessarily socialism — it’s corporatism. When you listen to how Obama is making economic policy with “everyone at the table,” he’s describing corporatism, the economic philosophy of fascism. Government is the senior partner, but all of the other institutions are on board — so long as they agree with the government’s agenda. The people left out of this coordinated effort — the Nazis called it the Gleichschaltung — are the small businessmen, the entrepreneurs, the ideological, social, or economic mavericks who don’t want to play along. When you listen to Obama demonize Chrysler’s bondholders simply because they want their contracts enforced and the rule of law sustained, you get a sense of what I’m talking about.

I don’t think Obama wants a brutal tyranny any more than Hillary Clinton does (which is to say I don’t think he wants anything of the sort). But I do think they honestly believe that progress is best served if everyone falls in line with a national agenda, a unifying purpose, a “village” mentality expanded to include all of society. That sentiment drips from almost every liberal exhortation about everything from global warming to national service. But to point it out earns you the label of crank. As I said a minute ago about that “We’re All Fascists Now” chapter, I think people fail to understand that tyrannies — including soft, Huxleyan tyrannies — aren’t born from criminal conspiracies by evil men; they’re born by progressive groupthink.

I’m sure with a former Nestle CEO running the World Economic Forum, the chocolate ration should be doubleplusgood! Or the insect ration, at the very least.

UPDATE: Environmentalists make good movie villains because they want to make your real life worse.

Posted at 10:55 am by Ed Driscoll