BLUE CITY BLUES: Houston Crime: ‘Galleria Is The New Greenspoint.’ “This sort of broad daylight shooting at the Galleria would have been unthinkable thirty years ago. But it’s all too thinkable with the general rise in Harris County crime under Soros-backed DA Kim Ogg, Harris County judge Lina Hidalgo, and hard left activist judges. (Houston mayor Sylvester Turner is also a Democrat, but he notably rejected calls to defund the police back in 2020 and his policies don’t seem to have been a driver for the crime increase.) But it’s the Democrats in Harris County government whose policies are responsible for putting violent felons back on the streets.”
Archive for 2022
April 18, 2022
THE CURRENT STATE OF EXPERTISE: “OMG, this woman wrote an entire thread on why you can’t tan your testicles.”
SPOILER: IT’S THE THING THEY KEEP VOTING FOR. You Won’t Believe What Californians Say They’re Sick Of.
SLS UPDATE: NASA to roll back its mega rocket after failing to complete countdown test.
NASA said that its contractors, as well as its agency’s, will use the next several weeks to address problems that cropped up during the fueling tests when the SLS rocket returns to the large Vehicle Assembly Building. For example, gaseous nitrogen system supplier Air Liquide will upgrade its capabilities. NASA will also replace a faulty check valve on the upper stage of the rocket, as well as fix a leak on the mobile launch tower’s “tail service mast umbilical,” a 10-meter-tall structure that provides propellant and electricity lines to the rocket on the pad.
The space agency announcement did not provide any information about schedule impacts. It seems probable that it will take a week or so to prepare and roll the SLS rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building. Work on the rocket at that location will probably take up most of the month of May, at least.
NASA will then have to make some difficult decisions. It could opt to roll the rocket and its mobile launch tower to the pad a second time and try again to complete the wet dress rehearsal test. Then, following its normal procedure, NASA would roll the rocket back to its assembly building to arm the “flight safety system,” before rolling for a third time to the launch pad for liftoff. It seems the absolute earliest the SLS rocket could launch in such a scenario would be August, but a fall liftoff may be more likely.
Scheduling a wet dress rehearsal usually indicates the rocket is basically ready to go but that doesn’t seem to be the case with SLS, after $23 billion and years of delays.
Also: “Agency officials are closely tracking the health of the fuel in the solid-rocket boosters, which were stacked about 16 months ago, among other issues.”
OH: Suspect arrested in South Carolina mall shooting granted bond. “The man accused of opening fire during a mass shooting at the Columbiana Centre mall in Columbia has posted bail after a heading Sunday afternoon, WLTX-TV reported. A South Carolina judge announced that Jewayne M. Price, 22, would be granted a surety bond of $25,000 and be required to wear an ankle monitor.”
HOW DO YOU KNOW HIS RACE, ARE YOU A BIOLOGIST? Arizona State U. instructor accuses black DJ at local school event of dressing in … ‘blackface.’ “A petition has been created calling for the resignations of Rhoden and Lassen and the ‘dissolution’ of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee.”
Punch back twice as hard.
WHAT A RELIEF: Baskin-Robbins’ Shocking New Re-Branding Campaign. “In a shocking move, mega-ice cream seller Baskin-Robbins has re-branded itself for 2022 — and neglected to include any obnoxious, in-your-face woke themes in its new marketing.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Prof says that election integrity is racist. Texas state representative reacts.
NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: White House resumes flying migrant children after dark on charter flights.
Plus: “Luckily, my friends at the SEC – or as Musk calls it, ‘the short selling enrichment commission’ – have informed me they have a few surprises in store for Mr. Musk. By the time they’re through with him, he’ll be ready to send himself to Mars in one of those spaceships of his.”
This, by the way, is the same SEC where the prosecutors are reading the files of the judges.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: New York Times Takes a Swing at God, Misses Wildly. “They desperately don’t want us to have a singular authority. The moral relativism that leftists deal in thrives on a lack of absolutes. God is a most definitely inconvenient notion for those who would rather that society be buffeted about by the whims of the day.”
LOCKDOWNS DON’T WORK, BUT POLITICIANS LOVE THEM: Starving Shanghai residents lose confidence in regime as lockdown grinds on. “It’s so bad that even Chinese state media feels obliged to acknowledge the ‘doubt, anxiety and fatigue’ among Shanghai residents. There’s no sense pretending otherwise: Despite the best efforts of government censors, Chinese social media has been overrun by complaints and criticism of Beijing’s response to the crisis. . . . Why, it’s enough to make a Chinese citizen question the wisdom of the Communist Party. Which many seem to be doing.”
K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Patrick Henry High School cuts honors courses in the name of ‘equity.’ “The principal, Michelle Irwin, claims she made the decision in the name of ‘equity.’ Irwin also said cutting the honors courses would remove the stigma from non-honors classes and ‘eliminate racial disparities in honors enrollment.’ In an email thread obtained by KUSI News, Irwin told concerned parents the entire district has been embracing and promoting ‘inclusive environments.'”
DURHAM INVESTIGATION: DOJ’s Special Counsel says CIA data that came from former Clinton lawyer claiming Trump had Russian connections is ‘not technically plausible’ and was ‘user-created.’
The Justice Department’s Special Counsel’s Office has said that CIA data alleging a relationship between Donald Trump and Russia is ‘not technically plausible.’
In a court filing on Friday, Special Counsel John Durham asserted that the alleged relationship with the former President and Russia – which Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann concluded – was ‘user-created.’
Sussmann is accused of lying to the FBI in September 2016 saying he didn’t work for the Clintons when he presented the ‘purported data and “white papers” that allegedly demonstrated a covert communications channel’ between former president Trump and Kremlin-tied Alfa Bank.
Durham also alleged Sussmann gave the CIA information about Trump in February 2017. He said the agency concluded the information wasn’t true.
‘While the FBI did not reach an ultimate conclusion regarding the data’s accuracy or whether it might have been in whole or in part genuine, spoofed, altered, or fabricated, [the CIA] concluded in early 2017 that the Russian Bank 1 data and Russian Phone Provider 1 data was not “technically plausible,” did not “withstand technical scrutiny,” “contained gaps,” “conflicted with [itself]” and was “user-created and not machine/tool generated,”‘ he wrote in the court documents filed Friday.
He did, however, say the Special Counsel’s Office ‘has not reached a definitive conclusion in this regard.’
More to come…
UNPAID WORK FOR THE GOVERNMENT IS INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE: Tax preparation costs nation 6.5 billion hours, $210 billion.
POPULAR WITH READERS: Instant Read Meat Thermometer for Cooking. #CommissionEarned
THEY CAN’T GET THE STORY STRAIGHT: When it comes to the controversy over Critical Race Theory, progressives have been making two contradictory arguments, neither of which are correct.
The first argument is that CRT merely describes historical examples of racism in the American legal system, and therefore should be uncontroversial except for those who want to censor discussion of the history of racism in the US.
The second argument is that CRT is not taught in public schools.
These arguments contradict each other, because public schools obviously do teach about the history of racism in the US, so if that’s all CRT is, it is indeed taught in public schools.
All this is certainly nothing new to Instapundit readers, but it is rather rare to see both arguments made within paragraphs of each other in the same article, as in this Washington Post piece:
For what it’s worth, I noted discriminatory federal housing and mortgage policy in an article I wrote in 1994, before it was cool to note that the federal government was complicit in American racism, and no one has ever accused me of being a Critical Race Theorist…
And by the way, I recently gave a talk at the University of Chicago about Critical Race Theory and the reasons it’s problematic. And I meant actual CRT, that is both taught in law schools and other academic programs and is having influence on grade school education, not the stylized, inaccurate versions that have become fodder in political debate. You can watch it here.
MY FRIEND GEORGE SAYS THE ANSWER IS NO: “Should we replace racial preferences with socio-economic preferences?”
WHY IS THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY SUCH A HOTBED OF ANTI-ASIAN HATE? VIDEO: Democrat Mocks Asian Congresswoman’s Accent.
UGLY: Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, April 17.
Russian forces likely captured the Port of Mariupol on April 16 despite Ukrainian General Staff denials, reducing organized Ukrainian resistance in the city to the Azovstal factory in eastern Mariupol. Russian and DNR forces released footage on April 16 confirming their presence in several key locations in southwestern Mariupol, including the port itself. Isolated groups of Ukrainian troops may remain active in Mariupol outside of the Azovstal factory, but they will likely be cleared out by Russian forces in the coming days. Russian forces likely seek to force the remaining defenders of the Azovstal factory to capitulate through overwhelming firepower to avoid costly clearing operations, but remaining Ukrainian defenders appear intent on staging a final stand. Russian forces will likely complete the capture of Mariupol in the coming week, but final assaults will likely continue to cost them dearly.
Much more at the link.
ARKANSAS: Still Simmering: “Lest you believe the flap over the recent prohibition on law professor Rob Steinbuch’s long-approved use of guest lecturers during absences on Jewish high holidays has passed, think again. I say that because a committee at the UALR Bowen Law School recently voted to recommend eliminating the school’s guest lecturer policy to the full Bowen faculty, keeping the issue alive. For years, policy has allowed guest lecturers to cover Bowen classes when faculty members were legitimately absent (as on religious holidays).”
IT SURE LOOKED THAT WAY TO ME: ‘Fact Checkers’ Claim Biden Wasn’t ‘Shaking Hands With Thin Air.’ Oh, Really?