IT’S AN IDEA THAT’S SO CRAZY FOR A STREAMING SERVICE, IT JUST MIGHT WORK: Liz Wolfe of Reason: Netflix Airs Ricky Gervais’ Controversial Standup, Chooses Actual Entertaining Over Woke Pandering.

“Does Netflix even care that Ricky Gervais’s SuperNature is rife with transphobic TERF ideology?” asks Aja Romano this week at Vox. The answer seems to finally be nope; comedy that pokes fun at extremely online trans activists can in fact be both widely amusing and a moneymaker. And Netflix is in the entertainment business, for which both of those components are important. “We program for a diversity of audiences and tastes; and we let viewers decide what’s appropriate for them, versus having Netflix censor specific artists or voices,” the company said in a policy update earlier this month. “Depending on your role, you may need to work on titles you perceive to be harmful. If you’d find it hard to support our content breadth, Netflix may not be the best place for you.”

Ergo, Romano argues, the company is “just fine inflicting bigoted hateful rhetoric on its subscribers” and “with the subsequent real-world harm that comes from amplifying such views.”

“At this point, Netflix—the comedy division, if not the entire company—is not just passively supporting transphobic creators, but seem to be actively courting a transphobic audience,” adds The A.V. Club‘s Mary Kate Carr. “The platform’s choice to release this special now,” writes Romano, “during a wave of unprecedented anti-trans legislation, is unconscionable.”

These critics are wrong. The company is not “inflicting” hateful rhetoric on its subscribers; one must consensually opt in to watch it. The “real-world harm” argument goes unsubstantiated yet remains the frequent rallying cry used by many leftists to argue for deplatforming. Recall, for example, the newsroom protest by New York Times staffers, who argued en masse that the paper running an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R–Ark.) calling for military action to pacify domestic protests and riots was putting black staffers’ lives in danger.

But does any evidence suggest that, without Gervais releasing comedy specials, Republican legislators would never have had the idea to pass trans bathroom bills? Or that the people who laugh at jokes about how annoying some radical trans activists are on Twitter are the same people who commit violent acts against trans people?

As one of Steven Crowder’s co-bloggers notes regarding another comedian: Bill Burr’s Specific Reason for Refusing to Apologize to Outrage Mobs Proves Why He’s the Best to Do It.

And his reason why shows why he’s one of the best. If he bends a knee to the mob, it makes it harder for all other comedians.

“I refuse to apologize to anyone that’s upset that they heard a joke at a show they weren’t at […] I’m not a believer in the mob mentality, and I’m not going to apologize just because it’s not worth it. Because then all I do is give that strength, then some other comic’s gonna have to deal with it so.”

I watched Gervais’ special earlier this week. I didn’t find the writing to be at Dave Chappelle’s level, but it was very, very funny, with shotgun blasts at everybody. More from Wolfe:

[A joke] doesn’t always land; you may not think masturbation and 9/11 combine for comedic payoff quite as well as Louis C.K. does. But you sure as hell have to give comics space to try, and audiences the opportunity to seek reprieve from the world’s horrors, delivered magnanimously to us by the funny people.

This is exactly what Netflix aims to do and why more than 200 million people pay for it, seemingly against the wishes of the scolds at Vox, who sanctimoniously announced to no one in particular that they’ll “refrain from clapping” for Gervais’ standup. As if anyone had asked!

Or to put it another way:

BRAD THOMPSON: Our Killing School. You know what the #1 common factor in school shootings is? Schools.

DAN MARKEL UPDATE: Jury Finds Katherine Magbanua Guilty Of First Degree Murder Of Dan Markel.

WELL: ‘Stunning’ Andrew Giuliani surges to No. 1 in GOP NY gubernatorial primary. “Once considered a long shot in the New York gubernatorial race, former White House official Andrew Giuliani has stealthily surged into the lead for the June 28 GOP primary. New York pollster John Zogby called the emergence of the former New York City mayor’s son in the No. 1 position remarkable and the product of a bruising battle involving Republican competitors Rep. Lee Zeldin, 2014 nominee Rob Astorino, and upstate millionaire Harry Wilson.”

SCHOOL DISCIPLINE POLICY HAS RUN AMOK:  The local NAACP and local teachers association recently rallied for stronger school discipline policy from the Baltimore County Public Schools.  Local organizations like those are often pretty good on the issue.  It’s the inside-the-beltway, haven’t-seen-the inside-of-a-classroom-since-the-Clinton-Administration educrats who tend to do the most damage.  See The Department of Education’s Obama-Era Initiative on Racial Disparities in School Discipline:  Wrong for Students and Teachers, Wrong on the Law.  Alas, my understanding is that the Biden Administration is abandoning the Trump Administration’s approach and going back the Obama approach.

OUT ON A LIMB: Biden’s energy policy is sending us toward recession.

With the travel-heavy Memorial Day weekend upon us, the fast-rising cost of gasoline is getting a lot of attention.

Last week, gasoline rose above $4 a gallon in all fifty states. That’s the first time that has happened. Some are predicting gas could reach $6 a gallon this summer. If that comes to pass, the average American family could see a major impact on their budgets.

(It might be noted as well, that the price of home heating oil has nearly doubled this year. If that continues, the economic impact next winter, especially in the northeast, where a high percentage of homes are heated by oil, will be considerable.)

The threat of a recession is rising thanks to fuel shortages.

Why has the price of gasoline risen so far so fast? Easy: the Biden administration, driven by the ideological fantasy of a green-energy future, has hampered domestic production and exploration at every turn.

How bad has it gotten? Even CNN has noticed, John Nolte writes: CNN Admits ‘It’s Time to Prepare for a Recession.’

Anyway, the news we’re heading into a recession is old news. The real news here is this…

Biden has so mishandled the economy, so devastated America with his disastrous domestic policies, that not even CNN can pretend it’s not happening or happy-talk past that fact.

But this was inevitable.

Why?

Because this is the inevitable outcome of leftism.

Obamacare exploded our health costs.

Left-wing environmental policies (based on what everyone knows is a hoax) ensure Americans do not have enough energy, water, or food.

Left-wing energy policies, by design, explode the cost of energy.

Left-wing regulations cripple the private sector.

Higher taxes slow the economy.

Profligate spending creates inflation.

Social Justice pours violent criminals into the streets.

Or as Glenn asks in his latest New York Post column, “So does the Biden administration actually want to see middle-class Americans reduced to poverty and privation? Or is it just too stupid to foresee the obvious consequences of its own actions? At this point, I’m not even sure which is worse. But with the midterms coming, no amount of talk about gun control, abortion or other Democratic hot-button issues is going to distract Americans from what’s happening to their pocketbooks. Good.”

RACISM, STRAIGHT UP: Los Angeles Times Columnist Can’t Believe Texas Shooter Was Latino.

BECAUSE IT WOULD MAKE US ALL MISERABLE:  “Why Not Polygamy?”

GLAD TO SEE THE MLB FINALLY PROTESTING JOE BIDEN: In Wake Of Uvalde Shooting, San Francisco Giants Manager Boycotting National Anthem Until He Feels Better About Direction Of America.

HE’S RIGHT AGAIN:

DEAL OF THE DAY: WORKPRO 16-inch Wide Mouth Tool Bag. #CommissionEarned

WHOM THE GODS DESTROY, THEY FIRST MAKE NIXONIAN: Matt Taibbi: Shouldn’t Hillary Clinton Be Banned From Twitter Now? Trial testimony reveals Hillary Clinton personally approved serious election misinformation. Is there an anti-Trump exception to content moderation?

Last week, in the trial of former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann, prosecutor Andrew DeFilippis asked ex-campaign manager Robby Mook about the decision to share with a reporter a bogus story about Donald Trump and Russia’s Alfa Bank. Mook answered by giving up his onetime boss. “I discussed it with Hillary,” he said, describing his pitch to the candidate: “Hey, you know, we have this, and we want to share it with a reporter… She agreed to that.”

In a country with a functioning media system, this would have been a huge story. Obviously this isn’t Watergate, Hillary Clinton was never president, and Sussmann’s trial doesn’t equate to prosecutions of people like Chuck Colson or Gordon Liddy. But as we’ve slowly been learning for years, a massive fraud was perpetrated on the public with Russiagate, and Mook’s testimony added a substantial piece of the picture, implicating one of the country’s most prominent politicians in one of the more ambitious disinformation campaigns we’ve seen.

There are two reasons the Clinton story isn’t a bigger one in the public consciousness. One is admitting the enormity of what took place would require system-wide admissions by the FBI, the CIA, and, as Matt Orfalea’s damning video above shows, virtually every major news media organization in America.

Read the whole thing. As David Frum puts it in his 2000 book How We Got Here: The 70s The Decade That Brought You Modern Life — For Better Or Worse: 

Some blame Watergate for this abrupt collapse of trust in institutions, but not very convincingly. For one thing, the decline in trust begins to appear in the polls as early as 1966, almost a decade before the Watergate was known as anything more than a big hole in the ground alongside the Potomac River. For another, the nation had managed unconcernedly to shrug off Watergate-style events before. Somebody bugged Barry Goldwater’s apartment during the 1964 election without it triggering a national trauma. The Johnson administration tapped the phones of Nixon supporters in 1968, and again nothing happened. John F. Kennedy regaled reporters with intimate details from the tax returns of wealthy Republican donors, and none of the reporters saw anything amiss. FDR used the Federal Bureau of Investigation to spy on opponents of intervention into World War II—and his targets howled without result. If Watergate could so transform the nation’s sense of itself, why did those previous abuses, which were equally well known to the press, not do so? Americans did not lose their faith in institutions because of the Watergate scandal; Watergate became a scandal because Americans were losing faith in their institutions.

President DeSantis is going to be doing a lot of housecleaning when he takes office.

Flashback: Deep State, Deep Trouble — America’s woke generals and the Military-Industrial Complex must be purged to save the nation.

WHICH IS WHAT THE REAL STORIES ARE ABOUT:  Absolutely unique, just like everyone else.

OUR AWFUL RULING CLASS, ADDICTED TO POWER, BUT NOT GOOD AT IT:

YOU DON’T HAVE TIME FOR ME TO TELL YOU:  Just how crazy are these people?

IT WILL ACTUALLY RESULT IN PEOPLE BURNING ANY WOOD THEY CAN REACH:  Biden grants Earth ‘climate stability’ through higher gas prices according to 2012 New York Times OpEd – NYT claimed massive increase in gas prices would ‘result in climate stability’.

IT’S LOWER THAN THAT. MOST OF US LIE TO POLLSTERS:  Biden’s approval rating sets a new record…

SARGENT MOM DOES GOOD HEADLINES:  A Farrago of Fail.

PEOPLE ARE GROWING VEGETABLES AND CHICKENS:  Regarding the upcoming food crisis.

And by people I mean me. Well, vegetables. Chickens would require me to not be allergic to feathers.

A SMALL POTATO MIGHT BE WORSE:  Kamala Isn’t That Bad, Reporter Insists After Poll.

Look, it depends. Is the potato at least cooked, does it have butter?

THEY ARE WHERE THEY ARE FOR ETHNICITY AND SEX, NOT COMPETENCE:  The Unbearable Derp Of AOC.

SUFFER PEASANTS. GAIA IS ANGRY:  UDSA Raises Food Price Forecast to Highest Level in 42 Years, Third Wave of U.S. Food Inflation Will Dwarf Prior Price Increases.

THE FICUS IS MAKING OIL EXPENSIVE, IS ALL:  America’s Pain at the Pump is Due to The ‘Incredible Transition That is Taking Place,’ Biden Admits.

Their sacred writ promises that if you have to pay a lot more for gas, you’ll move to the city, and live in a tiny apartment, and take the bus everywhere.  All of you. I mean. You can take the bus out to your farm and…. what?

Yeah. Their sacred writ was written by Occasional Cortex. On the bathroom wall. And I wouldn’t look too closely on what she wrote it with.

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT PLANET THIS PERSON IS FROM:  Wind and Solar Will Have to Wait.

Sure. Wind and solar won’t work, but trying to revive the 70s lie that we’re running out of oil to give coverage to the heinous behavior of the administration is as much a non-starter as telling us there was no fraud on the 20 elections. Dudes, give it up. We saw it happening, in front of G-d and everybody. Preventing people from drilling from oil and limiting oil transport is not an oil shortage. It’s criminal behavior designed to destroy this country. Next he’s going to say the border just can’t be defended. (Spits.) Where do these pudding heads come from?

WHAT IT IS IS A LOT CLEARER THAN IT USED TO BE: Something’s Happening Here.