CHANGE: Olympus to Exit Camera Business After 84 Years.

The Tokyo company, which has been under pressure from U.S. shareholder ValueAct Capital to improve shareholder returns, said Wednesday that it planned to sell its camera unit to private-equity firm Japan Industrial Partners Inc. It didn’t disclose financial details. The companies aim to complete their deal by the end of the year.

Olympus was a global consumer brand for decades thanks to its cameras, hiring the likes of supermodel Cheryl Tiegs to promote its products on television. It shifted readily to digital cameras in the 1990s and was No. 2 in market share behind Sony Corp. early this century.

As recently as 2007, the dawn of the smartphone era, digital cameras were a $3-billion-a-year business for Olympus. Within a few years, however, most of the market evaporated because people were using their phones to take pictures. Camera revenue shrank to just over $400 million in the year ended March 31, and the business has lost money for the past three fiscal years.

The company’s main product line is now medical-imaging devices such as endoscopes.

There probably isn’t — or at least soon won’t be — room left for more than two, maybe three SLR camera makers.

LEFTY JOURNALISTS DEFEND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AS MOBS TOPPLE STATUES.

NASCAR GETS ITS OWN JUSSIE SMOLLETT:

Cockburn was initially reticent to compare Wallace to Smollett. Wallace was not the one who initially found the ‘noose’, and was merely reacting to what his team told him. He did not manufacture the incident himself. But the fanfare that followed, despite an ongoing investigation that had yet to find evidence of a hate crime, wilted any sympathy. Drivers and team members pushed Wallace’s car to the front of the field ahead of Monday’s race at Talladega. The infield grass was painted with #IStandWithBubba. It was an outlandish show of ‘solidarity’ that only took place because just waiting for an investigation to conclude before commenting on an alleged hate crime would have earned NASCAR allegations of racism.

Then, even after the FBI concluded that the ‘noose’ was anything but, Wallace doubled down on his alleged victimhood. In a Tuesday night appearance with CNN’s Don Lemon, Wallace asserted, ‘From the evidence that we have…it’s a straight-up noose’. Never mind the 15 — yes, 15! — FBI special agents who investigated the incident. Wallace, despite never having seen the rope in person, believes it’s a noose, and therefore it’s a noose.

Wallace apparently got a taste of the fame that comes with being a professional victim and thought it was much sweeter than letting his racing do the talking. He finished 14th at Talladega.

Related: Media Buys Into Debunked Noose Hate Crime Story (Video):

More: Here’s A List Of Fake Hate Crimes Involving Nooses.

DOUBLING DOWN ON LYING AND DEMOGOGIC: Pelosi Refuses to Apologize for Accusing GOP of ‘Trying to Get Away With … the Murder of George Floyd.’

WHY ARE DEMOCRATS BLOCKING CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM? BECAUSE THEY KNOW THEIR BLACK CONSTITUENTS ARE UNHAPPY WITH THEM, AND THEY DON’T WANT TO GIVE TRUMP A CHANCE TO SHOW MORE RESULTS THAN THEY HAVE. Politico: Black voters in Detroit are disgusted with Democrats, and sure that Trump will win.

“We look at Joe Biden and see more of the same. It’s about the era he came up. It’s about his identity—he’s a rich, old white man. What are his credentials to us, other than Obama picking him? It’s nice that he worked with Obama. But let’s keep it real: That was a political calculation. Obama thought he needed a white man to get elected, just like Biden thinks he needs a Black woman to get elected. We can see through that.”

These sentiments resurfaced in almost every conversation I had. First, that Biden choosing a woman of color might actually irritate, not appease, Black voters. Second, that the inferno of June would flicker by summer’s end and fade entirely by November. And third, that Biden does little to inspire a wary Black electorate that views him as the status quo personified. It was thoroughly convincing. Here were high-information voters, giving their personal opinions while also analyzing the feeling of their community, all making the same points in separate conversations.

“We’re all Democrats, but we’re all Black Democrats. So, we can see things for what they are,” explained URSURA MOORE, a 53-year-old real estate agent. “Some people thought just because we had a Black president, he was going to make things better for Black people—he was going to free Black prisoners, wipe out Black debt. That was just ignorance. But the disappointment some of us felt with Obama—more so with the Democratic Party—that was real. And it hasn’t gone away. So, people start to wonder whether the outcome even matters. They wonder whether they should bother voting at all.”

She stopped herself. “I’m going to vote. But Trump’s getting back in office either way.”

This was another recurring theme of my conversations: a fatalism about defeating Trump this fall. Not a single person I spoke with at the cookout told me they believed Biden would win.

Plus:

“If he puts Michelle on the ticket, everybody turns out.”

This much the table agreed on. But there was no such unanimity on Biden’s actual shortlist. In fact, the harshest criticisms were reserved for the person widely viewed as the frontrunner, California Senator Kamala Harris.

“She’s fake. She’s phony. She’s not one of us. She built a political career by over-prosecuting Black kids,” Neal said.

And:

“We’re always the fucking help! And I’m tired of being the help!” she cried. “Don’t wait until it’s an election year, until you’re in trouble, to come to us and ask for help saving your asses. They always say it will be different after the next election. But it never is. And we’re sick of it. And it’s why—”

Neal completed the sentence: “That’s why Trump’s gonna win again.”

The table fell hushed. I asked if anyone disagreed with that prediction. Not a single person did.

Honestly, Trump’s already done more for black Americans than Obama did, and more than Biden would do. But the Democrats are doing their best to make sure he can’t do any more before the election. You sure you want to turn out for them?

And, just because: “Don’t bring some 27-year-old white kid from Oregon, with skinny jeans and an iPad, into my fucking neighborhood in Detroit and tell me how to get out the vote!”

And a question for Pelosi, et al.: You had a supermajority under Obama. Why didn’t you do anything about criminal justice reform then?

Read the entire article — there’s much more than these excerpts, and it’s all really good reporting.

THE STRUGGLE SESSIONS WILL CONTINUE TILL SOCIALIST PARADISE ARRIVES, COMRADE:  Jon Stewart Apologizes for His Blazingly White ‘Daily Show’ Staff.

NICE TO SEE SOMEONE STANDING UP FOR FREE SPEECH: Academic groups defend Brock prof, accused of ‘hurtful’ comments.

Two academic organizations are defending a Brock University chemistry professor accused of recently publishing “hurtful and alienating” comments in a German scientific journal.

In addition to being criticized on social media, professor Tomas Hudlicky was slammed by his own institution in statements the university published online on June 5 and 7, which described Hudlicky’s comments — published last week in “Angewandte Chemie” — as “objectionable” and “utterly at odds with the values of Brock’s deeply committed research mentors.”

In the article, which has since been removed from the academic journal’s website, Hudlický argues that hiring practices that give preferential treatment to women and minorities is counter-productive if it results in discrimination against the most meritorious candidates.

But following the backlash Hudlicky received for his statement, both the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship (SAFS) and the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) sent letters to the university defending the professor.

IT’S ALL ABOUT BYTES AND ELECTRONS AND UP QUARKS AND DOWN QUARKS: Put aside the debates about Big Bangs, Multiverses, Evolution, Creationism, etc. etc. Read this analysis, put aside for now the shots aimed by the authors at scientific materialism, and think of the absolutely incredible possibilities for expanding human understanding made possible by the Computer Revolution and the Information Age. So much to get excited about when human civilization is allowed to flourish instead of having to fight to avoid being burned down by rioters.

THE DESTRUCTION OF STATUES IS MORE THAN POLITICS. IT IS AN ATTACK OF THE INTELLECTUAL EUNUCHS OF THE LEFT AGAINST THOSE WHO CAN MAKE AND CREATE:  Sterile.

AND IF FIRST THEY HADN’T COME FOR SCIENCE FICTION FIRST, DEMONIZING THE OLD MASTERS AND PUSHING SJW PAP AT EVERYONE, SO WOULD EVERYONE ELSE:  I Refuse to Live in Fahrenheit 451.

SOMETIMES I THINK THAT’S THE ENTIRE PURPOSE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION:  Induced Learning Disabilities.

THE RIOTS ARE NO MORE THE END OF THE WORLD THAN WINNIE THE FLU IS/WAS. IT’S ALL PANICS AND STAMPEDING GENERATED BY A MEDIA AND A CORRUPT ESTABLISHMENT THAT DESPERATELY NEEDS TRUMP TO LOSE SO THEY DON’T LOSE THEIR POSITIONS.  YES, THE VIDEO HAS A LOT OF SWEARING (IT’S RAZORFIST, PEOPLE!) BUT WHAT HE’S SAYING IS WHAT I’VE TOLD YOU OVER AND OVER AGAIN: BE NOT AFRAID!  Keeping The “Chaos” In Perspective – A Rant.

This is not time to go wobbly!  Be not afraid. In the end, we win, they lose, as Reagan used to say.

I’LL BELIEVE IT WHEN I SEE IT, BUT I’M ADDING POPCORN TO THE SHOPPING LIST, IN A SPIRIT OF HOPE:  Indictments Likely Coming Down in Durham Probe and Antifa Financing Probe, Former Fed Says.

WHAT? IT’S NO LONGER A BLOCK PARTY?  A 3rd Shooting reported in Seattle’s CHAZ as Mayor Moves to End the Police-Free Zone.

TO BE FAIR OBAMA ISN’T THAT MUCH BETTER. BUT THE TELEPROMPTER KNOWS:  “What are we talking about?”

EMERGING? OH, IT’S FULLY EMERGED:  Biden’s Mental Capacity: The Emerging Issue.

The left knowingly nominated a house plant to run for the presidency. I’m not sure what that makes them, but it’s not good.

OKAY, IT MIGHT BE TREASONOUS, BUT IF HE TURNS IT JUST SO WHEN THE BREEZE BLOWS IT MAKES A LOVELY WIND INSTRUMENT. AND HIS STUPIDITY PLAYS ON OUR SIDE:  The treasonous head of John Kerry rears again.

AND, I’M SORRY, IT’S BACK TO 2020:  Bubba Wallace Wants His Victim Status.

WE INTERRUPT 2020 FOR SOME UNEXPECTED SANITY:  Appeals Court Agrees With DOJ About Flynn.

JONATHAN CHAIT: A progressive listserv meltdown is a ‘case study’ of what is happening in the progressive universe. “Clearly, there is a hard core element at Progressphiles, just as there is on college campuses, that cares less about data and more about the ideology of identity politics. And just like we saw at Evergreen State College, the extremists can’t rely on superior numbers so they use intimidation and threats against people’s careers and professional lives. It really is a short walk from the student’s demand that biology professor Bret Weinstein be fired to the firing of David Shor. Meanwhile most of the left sits quietly watching it happen but saying nothing because they know they could become the next target of the cultural revolutionaries.”

The Girondists never realize that if you hang a few Montagnards the rest will leave you alone. It’s just not in their nature to understand such things.

But as we saw the first time around, the people who do understand that are the ones who wind up in power after the shouting and struggle sessions are over.

AMAZON CRACKS DOWN ON BOOK WARNING ABOUT TRANS CRAZE VICTIMIZING TEEN GIRLS.

HEH:

MAYBE HE’S FAKING DEMENTIA SO HE CAN SAY HE DOESN’T REMEMBER: Joe Biden May Have Personally Raised Idea to Investigate Flynn.

OPEN THREAD: All you filthy freaks and glamorous geeks, come on.