LEFTIST TROLL TRIES TO PISS OFF J.K. ROWLING, AND SHE COULDN’T CARE LESS:

J.K. Rowling is a freakin’ savage.

An internet troll tried to piss off the Harry Potter author for losing a “whole audience” over her personal beliefs – namely, that men can’t be women. Luckily, Rowling couldn’t care less about cancel culture’s numerous attempts to get rid of her, especially since she’s still a major success.

“How do you sleep at night knowing you’ve lost a whole audience from buying your books?” the troll wrote on Twitter.

Rowling’s response dropped jaws when she blasted back, “I read my most recent royalty cheques and find the pain goes away pretty quickly.”

Rainier Wolfcastle sympathizes:

A FRIEND OF A FRIEND HAS A BOOK ON GOLDBOX DEAL: The First Binding (Tales of Tremaine Book 1).

#CommissionEarned

All legends are born of truths. And just as much lies. These are mine. Judge me for what you will. But you will hear my story first.

I buried the village of Ampur under a mountain of ice and snow. Then I killed their god. I’ve stolen old magics and been cursed for it. I started a war with those that walked before mankind and lost the princess I loved, and wanted to save. I’ve called lightning and bound fire. I am legend. And I am a monster.

My name is Ari.

And this is the story of how I let loose the first evil.

At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BY MY CIRCLE OF FRIENDS. (I AM NOT A MASSIVE FANTASY READER.)

I HOPE IT’S MORE SUCCESSFUL THAN THE SHERIDAN: The Army’s new light tank can venture where its beefier cousins can’t: Plus, the MPF is designed to be ready to fight after rolling out of an aircraft. “The Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) vehicle weighs in at 38 tons, which is heavy by all standards, except it is light compared to the 70 tons of heft of an Abrams tank. That means it can go places the Abrams can’t, expanding how and where the Army can effectively fight war from vehicles. The MPF will also feature fire control and situational awareness sensors, which can allow enemy location data to be shared across vehicles in formation.”

THE TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE TWINS: Panic in the Fetterman Camp.

“After my stroke,” Fetterman opens, “I was just grateful to see Giselle and my kids.” In the soft-focus spot, Fetterman denounces “politicians” who “spend so much time fighting about the things that don’t matter.” What does matter, says Fetterman, is having the economic security to be able to spend time with loved ones because we never know how much time we have.

It’s a touching message, but it hardly allays concerns about Fetterman’s ailments. The point of an ad like this is to “hang a lantern” on the candidate’s negatives, thereby reframing the issue in more favorable terms. That’s a workable strategy, but it comes at the cost of conceding that the negative in question is a real and pressing concern for voters.

More ominously, from the perspective of Pennsylvania’s Democratic voters, is the prospect of President Joe Biden’s imminent return to the state.

As the midterm election season heads into the home stretch, the president will host a fundraiser in Pennsylvania alongside Fetterman. Biden hasn’t been seen with Fetterman in any capacity since September 5; indeed, the president hasn’t campaigned much at all of late. “Biden doesn’t appear eager to land Air Force One in states where he’s underwater in the polls, and incumbent Democratic senators are fighting to hang on,” Axios reported on Friday. “And he’s yet to headline any campaign rallies this month where he is in front of big audiences to make his closing argument.” Pennsylvania is just such a state where Biden’s presence could do more to harm than good for Democratic prospects.

September’s Franklin & Marshall Poll of the Keystone State showed that only 28 percent of Pennsylvania’s registered voters say the president is doing a “good” or “excellent” job. Seventy percent describe his performance in office as “fair” or “poor.” While that poll showed the race for Senate tightening significantly from August, Fetterman maintains a narrow lead over his Republican opponent. Moreover, the Fetterman campaign has outraised and continues to outspend Mehmet Oz, who has pumped at least $17 million of his own wealth into his campaign. The wisdom of the Fetterman camp’s decision to tether itself to the Democratic Party’s unpopular figurehead is questionable unless we assume that Democratic wallets are starting to tighten up as enthusiasm for the candidate wanes.

The media are doing all that they can to bail Captain Pike out: Rolling Stone: Gisele Fetterman became the “de facto candidate” after husband’s stroke.

As Michael Graham wrote in 2004 after Frank Lautenberg was swapped in to replace Bob Torricelli on the Democrats’ Senate ticket in NJ, “Don’t assume you know who’s on the Democratic ticket until Election Day.”

THAT’S A SPEEDING TICKET: AT&T to pay $23M fine for bribing powerful lawmaker’s ally in exchange for vote: AT&T said it’s “committed to ensuring that this never happens again.”

Of course, bribery is an established local custom in the Illinois legislature, and AT&T probably thought it was just respecting the culture.

OH, TO BE IN ENGLAND: Just Stop Oil activist sprays Aston Martin showroom with paint as others block London’s Park Lane.

I’m sure they’ve got all of the appropriate kit to protest Big Oil:

THAT’S SAD, BUT BIG RADIO OBSERVATORIES SHOULD BE BUILT ON THE FAR SIDE OF THE MOON, AS GOD AND ROBERT HEINLEIN INTENDED: Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico will not be rebuilt.

GREAT MOMENTS IN LAW AND ORDER: Rather than prosecuting car thieves, St. Louis wants to sue Kia and Hyundai for making their cars so easy to steal.

So what’s the city’s solution to all the car thieveries?

Why, sue the auto makers for making the cars so easy to steal of course.

The city has focused on Hyundai and its subsidiary Kia as their targets for the lawsuit. Gardner and St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones have singled out these two automakers because of a viral TikTok challenge using the hashtag “Kia Boys,” which demonstrates how certain models of Kias and Hyundais can be stolen with a screwdriver and a USB cord. The models in question are not equipped with electric immobilizers.

That’s why the city leaders claim car thefts are on the rise.

It has nothing to do with the removal of all deterrence from the criminal justice system in their minds.

Speaking of which: St. Louis mayor accused of defunding police department by millions of dollars.

THE STAGFLATION PRESIDENT: Joe Biden’s terrible economic legacy.

Another month, another bad report. On October 13 the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that consumer price inflation, at an 8.2 percent annualized rate, was higher than expected through September. Americans continue to endure the worst inflation in four decades. They continue to experience a decline in real average hourly earnings. They continue to tell pollsters that the economic recession has arrived. Blerina Uruci, an economist at T. Rowe Price, does not like what she sees. “This is very troubling,” Uruci told the New York Times. “The trend is very troubling.”

Not at the White House. It doesn’t see any troubles. According to President Biden, the most recent BLS data are superfluous. After all, everybody already knows that “Americans are squeezed by the cost of living: that’s been true for years, and they didn’t need today’s report to tell them that.” As a matter of fact, Biden said in a statement, rising costs are “a key reason I ran for President.” And anyway, the situation is under control. “My policies—that Democrats delivered—directly tackles [sic] price pressures we saw in today’s report.”

End of story, thank you all very much, nothing to see here, move along, move along.

Just a minute. Biden’s reading of recent economic history is filled with evasions, half-truths, and “yarns.” They deserve comment and rebuttal. I don’t remember Biden staking his 2020 candidacy on inflation. He couldn’t have. The inflation hadn’t happened. It didn’t arrive until the spring of 2021. By which time Biden was living—during weekdays, at least—at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

It’s as if “Milton Friedman isn’t running the show anymore.” A theme that would have made a younger Biden – or at least his comms team, back in the day – quite cross:

But that was decades before people started wondering: Is Team Biden purposefully grinding down the middle class?

UPDATE:

DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: ‘You All Got Caught With Your Sparkly Panties Down:’ Mom Wrecks School Board Over Halloween Drag Show.

One outraged mother, Brittany Mayer, accused the Encinitas Unified School District school board members of “pimping out” the district’s children to a transgender surgical facility and a 21-and-over gay bar, apparent sponsors of the event.

“What is it about a grown man costumed in a sparkly bra with augmented boobs busting out, a leather miniskirt barely covering his twerking ass with tuck tape on his front while spreading his fish-netted legs as he writhes on the ground, grinding his groin next to a minor, ‘family-friendly?’” Mayer slammed the school board, video shows.

“You all got caught with your sparkly panties down,” the outraged mother continued, demanding an explanation and an apology from each member. “And while we have a culture that has a massive problem with child porn, with sex trafficking — you, a little school district, board of adults, made the decision to feature an event to hyper-sexualize young children.”

There’s a word for that, which Twitter’s current management doesn’t allow its users to say: OK, Groomer: Phrase Calling Out Predators Banned on Twitter.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): The left is losing its war on parents.

I REMEMBER WHEN THEY TOLD US TRUMP’S BIG MOUTH WOULD WRECK OUR DIPLOMACY: Pakistan summons US ambassador after Biden calls it a loose nuclear cannon. I also remember how they said Biden would smooth relations with the Muslim world, but here he is alienating Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, while Trump managed to put together the Abraham Accords.

GREENS ARE OFTEN UPPER-CLASS TWITS: Upper-Class Twit of the Year Goes Green. “One can’t help but wonder if this piece is at all connected to recent reports that Rees-Mogg’s own mother is set to make a pretty penny on the development of a massive solar farm in the politician’s own constituency? Perhaps he was trying to get ahead of accusations of hypocrisy on green matters, or maybe signaling his disagreement with the Truss government’s stated intention of making such developments more difficult, potentially endangering his family’s cash out. This is the theory of the politics site Guido Fawkes, which broke the story. Rees-Mogg is currently secretary of state for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy in that government, so he would have a real say in the implementation of such a proposal.”

DEAL OF THE DAY: Rockport Men’s Waterproof Storm Surge Toe Boot. #CommissionEarned

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: How Is Fake Money Made For Movies And TV? (Video.)

FLASHBACK: Columbia U. vs. the little guy.

We often hear politicians and pundits denounce property rights. Property rights, we’re told, protect the fat cats against the needs of the public. They’re a tool for keeping the little guy down.

Like a lot of what we hear from politicians and pundits, this is exactly the opposite of the truth. The fat cats don’t need the protection of property rights, because they already control the political system. It’s the little guy (or gal), the one without political juice, who needs strong property rights for protection from the fat cats and the politicians they control.

This was demonstrated again this week, as the last legal barrier (a possible US Supreme Court review) to Columbia University’s efforts to condemn and seize two businesses — Tuck-it-Away Self-Storage and a gas station owned by Gurnam Singh and Parminder Kaur in West Harlem — vanished.

It’s only gotten worse.

ELITISTS FLYING COVER FOR THE PARTY: Professors: Crime not a real election issue, GOP is just racist.

Of course, crime is the biggest issue for poor brown people, and university professors demonstrably don’t care much about their actual lives.

Related: America’s elites are waging class war on workers and small biz.

THE WEEK IN WHOPPERS: The NYT’s sugar-coating of Biden’s lies, MSNBC’s disaster lunacy and more.

READER FAVORITE: Westinghouse 2200 Watt Super Quiet & Lightweight Portable Inverter Generator. #CommissionEarned

SOD OFF, SWAMPY: Climate Activists Pour Out Milk in Edinburgh Grocery Store.

Activists poured milk out in a grocery store in Edinburgh, Scotland, and other locations across the United Kingdom, on Saturday, October 15, as a part of a climate protest organized by the Animal Rebellion group.

The environmental organization, with the goal of “transitioning to a plant-based food system,” said that “dairy, like all forms of animal farming, is an incredibly wasteful and destructive industry, and a major contributor to the climate crisis that is currently threatening all life on Earth.”

Exit questions:

A DIM AWARENESS OF TROUBLE IS BUILDING: Barack Obama takes shot at cancel culture, rips ‘buzzkill’ Democrats in interview.

THINGS ARE BETTER HERE, BUT IT’S STILL A GOOD IDEA TO KEEP THIS STUFF: UK stocks up on generators, gloves, and flashlights to prepare for winter blackouts.

UNEXPECTEDLY! Voters care more about inflation than Democrats’ democracy fearmongering.

Well, how many people believe the Democrats actually care about democracy? They care about “Our Democracy,” but that’s just a catchphrase meaning Democratic Party power.

DEAL OF THE DAY: Anker 521 Portable Power Station. #CommissionEarned

“WHO SAYS THE LEFT CAN’T MEME?” Out-of-touch Joe Biden brings the ice cream meme to life.

GARBAGE PEOPLE GONNA DO GARBAGE STUFF:

Related:

A riposte worthy of Larry Correia.