SPACE TOURISM: Japanese billionaire, Russian actress to fly to ISS.
Archive for 2021
May 15, 2021
THE ANSWER IS YES, BY THE WAY: Should America Go Nuclear?
HMM: New York Yankees Report 8 ‘Breakthrough’ COVID Cases. “The New York Yankees have reported eight ‘vaccine breakthrough’ cases, in which a person tests positive for COVID-19 after being fully vaccinated, including shortstop Gleyber Torres. Torres, three coaches and four members of the support staff tested positive. All eight received the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the team said on its Major League Baseball website. Only one person is showing symptoms, the team said.”
Prediction: We’re going to find that immunity resulting from infection is stronger than vaccine-based immunity. Of course, most of this is an artifact of very sensitive testing.
A TIMELY REPRISE: I wrote this article for The Daily Caller a few years ago. It seems sadly appropriate. And the outrage about the IDF bombing the building where the AP resides doesn’t cut it. The Committee to Project Journalists’ indignant press release never once mentions that the building was home to Hamas operations.
The AP, caught up behind the facts, later issued this statement:
I have to say I find this a bit hard to believe. As one commenter noted on my FB page:
“If AP did not know that Hamas was in the building, then they are incompetent reporters. If AP knew that Hamas was in the building but kept silent, then they are complicit. If AP comprehended that it would be used as a human shield, then it is a Hamas collaborator.”
I might add as a denouement that using US journalists as hostages and shields is nothing new to Islamic militants.
STEPHEN GUTOWSKI: Analysis: Dogs Can’t Smell Serial Numbers and the Dangers of Mindlessly Repeating Police Narratives. “Dogs, no matter how well trained, can not tell if a gun has a serial number engraved into it or not. That is not the impression you would get if you listened to KSBY’s report on Santa Barbara, California’s new police dogs, though. The NBC affiliate chose to frame their story on the dogs through the lens of their ability to detect so-called ghost guns.”
They’re not even good at sniffing for drugs: The Police Dog Who Cried Drugs at Every Traffic Stop: Cops laugh about “probable cause on four legs” but the damage to innocent lives is real.
STUMBLING ALONG: U.S. Consumer Confidence Crashes ‘Unexpectedly.’
Ok, let’s see a show of hands — who actually finds this perfectly obvious news to be “unexpected”?
No one here? Good.
So just how biased and corrupt is even the financial media now?
It’s this biased and corrupt.
Consumer sentiment in the U.S. has unexpectedly decreased in the month of May, according to preliminary data released by the University of Michigan on Friday.
The report showed the consumer sentiment index dropped to 82.8 in May from 88.3 in April. The decrease surprised economists, who had expected the index to rise to 90.4.
It didn’t take an economist to predict that keeping several large states’ economies closed, the federal government printing money faster than a counterfeiter rolling down the autobahn in a Lamborghini, and Biden deliberately strangling domestic energy producers in the name of his Green New Deal scheme, would bring about inflation.
I’m not an economist. I anticipated it. I bet every reader here did too.
What does it take to see this gigantic freight train barreling down the tracks straight at you? Eyes and common sense.
The lack of the latter inside the head of President Trunalimunumaprzure led America’s Newspaper of Record to report: Biden Worried Gas Shortages May Hurt Carter’s Chances Against Reagan.
SPACE JUNK — BETTER PUT UP MY UMBRELLA: Lasers Could Clear Space Junk From Orbit.
HOW JON STEWART KILLED COMEDY:
For those of us who grew up with it, The Daily Show’s deterioration felt like a genuine cultural loss. The issue wasn’t that Stewart had become a prominent progressive voice. It was that he’d become a pundit, another voice screaming into the void. Punditry is my job and there’s nothing inherently wrong with it. But in today’s howling mob of a mediascape, there’s nothing daring or rebellious about it either. There aren’t even any barriers to entry: a 10-year-old latchkey kid can finish his snack, log on to Twitter and start calling the president a c**t. It’s the most saturated market on earth, even as we thirst for actual insights.
So no surprise, then, that Stewart gave way not just to a successor but to about four million of them. Today, his heirs, who mimic both his approach and his politics, are spread across practically every network on TV. The ‘funnyman as newsreader’ shtick traces back to long before Stewart — Mort Sahl, SNL’s Weekend Update — but today it’s become so pervasive as to feel like newsreel propaganda. Stephen Colbert puts his hands in his pockets and mugs at Donald Trump. John Oliver reads Vox articles off the teleprompter and intersperses them with f-bombs. Samantha Bee is so edgy as to sometimes even call Republicans racists. Jordan Klepper covers hot-button issues, and while he’s never done a segment on mercy killings, his show did recently undergo one.
None of these people are in any sense of the word interesting. What they are is partisan comfort food. Are you worried that the right-wing goons are on the march again?
The key phrase there is “partisan comfort food.” In the age of a massively splintered media, the palace guard approach is the safest method to holding onto an audience that’s a sliver of what Johnny Carson enjoyed:
This is also my theory about the big entertainment awards shows like the Oscars and the Emmys. If the big, broad, general audience you used to have is gone, and deep down you think it’s never coming back, then why not make a harder bid for the loyalty of the smaller audience you’ve got left? In a time when the entertainment industry is (or thinks it is) a one-party state with no dissenters, you had better echo that politics back to your base.
What were once cultural institutions with a broad, bipartisan audience are becoming niche players with a narrow fan base. They no longer view partisan politics as a dangerous move that will shrink their audience. Instead, they’re using partisan politics as a lure to secure the loyalty of their audience, or what is left of it. Not that it’s going to work over the long term, because people who want to have their biases confirmed will just watch the five-minute YouTube clip Chris Cillizza links to the next day.
—Why Late Night Hosts Like Jimmy Kimmel Are Suddenly So Political, Robert Tracinski, the Federalist, October 5, 2017.
I’M NOT SURPRISED THAT YOU LOSE CARDIO FITNESS FASTER THAN STRENGTH: Here’s How Quickly We Become ‘Unfit’ if We Drop Our Exercise Routines.
MATT TAIBBI: On the Hypocrites at Apple Who Fired Antonio Garcia-Martinez. Much easier to ruin a career than mess with a corporate cash cow.
The Verge triumphantly reported on Apple’s move using the headline, “‘Misogynistic’ Apple hire is out hours after employees call for investigation.” Other companies followed suit with the same formulation. CNN: “Apple parts ways with newly hired ex-Facebook employee after workers cite ‘misogynistic’ writing.” CNET: “Apple reportedly cuts ties with employee amid uproar over misogynistic writing.”
Apple by this point not only issued a statement declaring that Antonio’s “behavior” was demeaning and discriminatory, but by essentially endorsing the complaints of their letter-writing employees, poured jet fuel on headline descriptions of him as a misogynist. It’s cowardly, defamatory, and probably renders him unhirable in the industry, but this is far from the most absurd aspect of the story.
I’m a fan of Dr. Dre’s music and have been since the N.W.A. days. It’s not any of my business if he wants to make $3 billion selling Beats by Dre to Apple, earning himself a place on the board in the process. But if 2,000 Apple employees are going to insist that they feel literally unsafe working alongside a man who wrote a love letter to a woman who towers over him in heels, I’d like to hear their take on serving under, and massively profiting from, partnership with the author of such classics as “Bitches Ain’t Shit” and “Lyrical Gangbang,” who is also the subject of such articles as “Here’s What’s Missing from Straight Outta Compton: Me and the Other Women Dr. Dre Beat Up.”
It’s easy to get someone like Antonio Garcia Martinez fired. Going after a board member who’s reportedly sitting on hundreds of millions in Apple stock is a different matter. A letter making such a demand is likely to be returned to sender, and the writer of it will likely spend every evaluation period looking over his or her shoulder. Why? Because going after Dre would mean forcing the company to denounce one of its more profitable investments — Beats and Beats Music were big factors in helping Apple turn music streaming into a major profit center. The firm made $4.1 billion in that area last year alone.
Read on for the “misogynistic” language Garcia-Martinez used in one of his books that caused social media and Apple’s board to dive for their fainting couches.
A biomedical professor has been sentenced to 37 months in prison for carrying out a scheme to use millions of dollars in federal grant money to advance research in China, according to the Justice Department.
Zheng Songguo, a former professor at Ohio State University (OSU), pleaded guilty in November to lying on his National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant applications, in order to use $4.1 million in research grants to develop the fields of rheumatology and immunology for China, the department said.
He was arrested last May in Anchorage, Alaska, as he was preparing to board a charter flight to China in an attempt to flee the United States. When taken into custody, he was carrying multiple items, including two laptops, three cell phones, several USB drives, several bars of silver, expired Chinese passports for his family, and deeds for property in China.
The judge also ordered Zheng to pay more than $3.4 million in restitution to the NIH and about $413,000 to OSU.
Related: Fauci Must Be Held to Account for His Role in Funding Wuhan Lab Research.
More: Report: Chinese paper discussed weaponization of SARS coronaviruses in 2015.
BASICALLY, ONLY WHEN AND WHERE THE MOB GIVES YOU NO CHOICE: I’m Fully Vaccinated. When, Where, and Why Should I Still Mask Up?.
THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTINUES APACE: Biden sending $10 million to unnamed Palestinian groups.
ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: CNBC Host Laughs at Pete Buttigieg Trying to Sell ‘Infrastructure.’
MARK JUDGE: Revisiting Fast Times at Ridgemont High. “Fast Times was a huge hit and a cultural touchstone. The film, unlike anything else at the time, reflected the truth. In the audio commentary, Heckerling observes that the teens in the movie were like ‘little adults.’ She notes that while the kids struggle with issues like sex, abortion and drugs, most of them also have jobs. About half the scenes take place with characters at work, and the closing credits show the places where they all have jobs shutting down for the night.”
Plus: “Especially in light of today’s woke guidelines strangling filmmaking, Fast Times represents a genuinely free vision—and also, ultimately, a decent one.”
DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: University of California drops SAT scores for admission.
GLENN GREENWALD: Liz Cheney Lied About Her Role in Spreading the Discredited CIA “Russian Bounty” Story.
Does this sound even remotely like what Cheney claimed to Baier? She denied having played a key role in spreading the Russia bounty story because, as she put it, “every single thing I said, I said: if those stories are true.” She also told him that she never referred to that CIA claim except by saying: “if these reports are true.” That is false.
The issue is not merely that Cheney lied: that would hardly be news. It is that the entire media narrative about Cheney’s removal from her House leadership role is a fraud. Her attacks on Trump and her party leadership were not confined to criticisms of the role played by the former president in contesting the validity of the 2020 election outcome or inciting the January 6 Capitol riot — because Liz Cheney is such a stalwart defender of the need for truth and adherence to the rule of law in politics.
Read the whole thing.
AS A STARLINK CUSTOMER, I APPROVE: SpaceX Will Launch 52 Starlink Satellites and 2 Small Payloads Tonight. Scheduled for 6:54 pm ET.
PRO TIP: DON’T BASE YOUR PRESS OFFICE IN A BUILDING THAT HOUSES HAMAS. IDF razes Gaza high-rise hosting Hamas military intelligence, intl media offices. “The IDF fighter jets razed on Saturday afternoon a high-rise building in the Gaza Strip hosting the Hamas military intelligence units. The Jala Tower complex in the Gaza Strip is also where the Gaza offices of several international news media outlets are based, including the Associated Press and al-Jazeera.”
Related: Associated Press CEO Gary Pruitt Confirms the AP Works in a Hamas Operated Facility.
The CEO of the Associated Press claims he is “shocked and horrified that the Israel military would target and destroy the building housing AP’s bureau and other news organizations in Gaza.”
This is a very important admission from the head of a global news organization. The building Israel blew up is actually an intelligence facility for the terrorist group Hamas. This is a statement of objective fact that is not actually in dispute.
Gary Pruitt, with his statement, is admitting the Associated Press worked out of Hamas’s building. Al Jazeera and other media enterprises were in the building as well.
Do you really believe the Associated Press is capable of telling the truth of the situation when its reporters are working in the same building as terrorists and that building is owned by those terrorists?
AP having a meltdown at being caught in the same building housing Hamas makes for quite a contrast with last year’s pro-riot reporting in America:
Related: Feint by Israel May Have Delivered a Major Blow to Hamas.
THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: Gas Mask Edition.
Is it merely a coincidence that the CDC abruptly announced this week that masks are no longer necessary for people who have been vaccinated? Could it be that with multiple crises piling up for the Biden Administration, they need to do something to improve the mood of Americans suddenly re-enacting the gas lines of 1979?
ROGER SIMON: This Time Israel Should Finish Off Hamas.
The Jerusalem Post has an article on what can be done about these myriad social media lies about Israel. The Post’s intent is laudable, but the reality is it’s unstoppable. Social media, we should all know by now, is the Devil’s spawn. Believe it at your, and the world’s, peril.
But there is something that can be done about Hamas.
Israel, and those of us who support her—even some liberal Jews, if they can be shaken from their morally narcissistic lethargy—can ignore public opinion for once, it’s not going to get better anyway, forget this “light unto the nations” business that no one could live up to in the first place, and go full bore on the terrorists of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
No mercy, this time. Full Dresden—or enough Dresden for them to know for once you’re very serious, desperately wave the white flag and disarm the way Germany and Japan did.If you don’t win a war, I mean really win it, as both the United States and Israel have seen to their detriments, you are going to fight it again and again and again.
Winning a war seems awfully unconventional, but it would nice to give it a try for a change.
TAKING ANTI-RACISM SERIOUSLY: Education group files federal civil rights complaint against school district that admitted to ‘systemic racism.’
SWALWELL FLIPS OUT WHEN CONGRESSIONAL STAFFER ASKS WHY HE’S STILL WEARING A MASK:
Swalwell may have been mad that Dyer’s boss, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) got the best of him in an exchange about his relationship with an alleged Chinese spy.
Why was Swalwell being ‘anti-science’ and wearing a mask, thus sending mixed signals to people about getting vaccinated?
It’s safe to say that Swalwell’s message on masks has been a complete mess.
There was this winner from March of last year from Swalwell.
Of course, since then, he’s been all-in telling people to wear masks.
So no one should be bullied for wearing a mask, but it was ok to bully people to wear a mask? He doesn’t see any irony in that?
“Douche gigolo, California congressman” is a rather irony-challenged fellow.