Archive for 2022
July 14, 2022
MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: NASA’s private sector turn shows government can get more for taxpayers’ buck.
ENJOY THE GOLDEN SUMMER: “Maybe we’ll get lucky one more time. G-d looks after drunkards, fools and the United States of America, and maybe he can still get our butts out of the bear trap, even now.”
I’m honestly feeling much more optimistic lately.
CALL ME CRAZY, BUT THIS ISN’T A SIGN OF SUCCESS:
Russian war correspondent and milblogger Maksim Fomin stated that Russia has begun a “volunteer mobilization,” where every region must generate at least one volunteer battalion.[1] The term “volunteer mobilization” likely implies that the Kremlin ordered the 85 “federal subjects” (regions, including occupied Sevastopol and Crimea) to recruit and financially incentivize volunteers to form new battalions, rather than referring to literal mobilization relying on conscription or the compulsory activation of all reservists in Russia. Russian outlets reported that regional officials recruit men up to 50 years old (or 60 for separate military specialties) for six-month contracts and offer salaries averaging 220,000 to 350,000 rubles per month (approximately $3,750 to $6,000).
When you’re recruiting guys my age, you’re losing.
DISPATCHES FROM THE PARTY OF TOLERANCE AND DIVERSITY: Here are the classy ways leftists responded to the passing of Trump’s ex-wife.
YOU’LL OWN NOTHING, AND YOU’LL LIKE IT! BMW Starts Charging Subscription Fees (In Some Countries) To Use Already Installed Hardware.
FIRE SUES ON BEHALF OF U. OF WASHINGTON PROF WHO PUSHED BACK ON PREFERRED ‘LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.’ Instead of UW’s preferred text, Prof. Stuart Reges wrote on his syllabus, “I acknowledge that by the labor theory of property the Coast Salish people can claim historical ownership of almost none of the land currently occupied by the University of Washington.” Shenanigans ensued.
Your more rigorous moral philosophers might suggest that if UW actually believes its claim on the land is illegitimate, it should give it back.
PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: AOC Melts Down over Comedian’s Catcalls — Days After Mocking Concerns for Kavanaugh’s Safety.
On the other hand: “Some would say that Ocasio-Cortez deserves this treatment, because she has enthusiastically promoted the public harassment of conservatives. It’s true: she does deserve it. Nevertheless, we conservatives should not be dragged down to the Democrats’ level. This kind of behavior does no one any good. Lately there has been a lot of talk about the possibility of civil war or, short of that, peaceful disunion. If the day ever comes when disunion becomes necessary, let’s not have any ambiguity about whose misconduct brought about that sad state of affairs.”
THE HORROR…THE HORROR…: James Lileks spots Liberace and Red Skelton’s dancers performing Simon & Garfunkel’s “Feelin’ Groovy” in 1968. “Now and then you see something that cannot be paused, lest you discover it’s not real, a hallucination. You have to keep watching. There’s so much going on in this video. You could write a book.”
Click over to watch – if you dare!
CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATS SCREWING THE ENTIRE COUNTRY: Truckers Say California Law Likely to Make U.S. Supply Chain Crisis Even Worse.
RATS ON THE WEST SIDE, BEDBUGS UPTOWN: NYC polled as one of the dirtiest cities on the planet.
Why are Democrat monopoly cities such cesspits?
FOR STARTERS, YOU SHOULD USE THE ONE ON YOUR OWN GUN: Finding the Right Front Sight.
RIP: Ivana Trump, ex-wife of former President Trump, dies at age 73, ABC News reports.
LIVE AT 4PM EASTERN: ‘Five O’Clock Somewhere’ with Kruiser, VodkaPundit, Special Guest Kira Davis.
BE PREPARED: BIUBLE Car Battery Starter. #CommissionEarned
PRIVACY: Amazon’s Ring privacy problem is back. “Like it or not, Amazon can give Ring footage to cops without your permission — or even a warrant.”
THE MEDIA’S GLENN YOUNGKIN ROPE-A-DOPE:
On issue after issue, Youngkin was essentially asked to defend the idea he’s not a radical extremist or to criticize other members of his party as radical extremists. There is no Republican who will receive positive treatment by the press unless they are domesticated lapdogs or useful idiots for the priorities of the left.
The nomination of Trump in 2016 indicated that Republican voters finally recognized this game for what it is. Having seen the savage treatment of their ticket in 2012, GOP voters decided they were done playing nice or even trying to win the Washington Post to their side. And as I’ve noted in the past regarding the media’s attacks on the misogyny, heartlessness and extremism of the likes of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan: if you cry wolf long enough, you lack the vocabulary when the actual beast shows up.
In Youngkin’s case, he could actually be a formidable national candidate with many positive attributes and an ability to reach beyond the traditional party coalitions. And as soon as he was a threat to win, the media would depict him as the unthinkable: worse than Trump.
The reverse is true as well, and the strange new respect Trump will receive from the press in the runup to 2024 will be both astonishing and predictable, as well, as media socialists nationally discover their next Hitler: Terrified Dems Ramp Up ‘Worse Than Trump’ Anti-DeSantis Narrative as Fears About His Popularity Grow.
SKYNET SMILES: A self-aware robot taught itself how to use its body.
The explanation for the media shift is very simple. It has everything to do with Biden’s tepid response to the Supreme Court decision on Dobbs v. Jackson, the case that saw the overturning of Roe v. Wade, one of the religious pillars of Democratic Party politics. Abortion is also part of the political culture that many in the media reflexively defend down to their very bones.
The response to the landmark decision has involved minor protests and skirmishes from activists but almost no legitimate executive orders or policy solutions. On the day the ruling came down, Biden gave brief remarks and then got on his airplane and flew out of the country. His words and actions have been largely performative and had even the Atlantic wondering if Biden was “a Man out of Time.”
The Democratic activist base and the media want bold, loud, concrete action. Whether that means abolishing the filibuster to codify Roe, adding additional Supreme Court justices, or even impeaching them, as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has called for, they want action. Failing that, Joe has to go. The media were always going to hold Biden accountable from the Left flank on the issues they care about, such as climate change and abortion. They see a tired, part-time president and sinking poll numbers, not to mention the terrifying possibility of a Ron DeSantis presidency or the return of Donald Trump, and have hit the panic button.
But perhaps there’s a reason why the Biden/Klain White House hasn’t yet provided “bold, loud, concrete action:” Biden Surrenders to the Conservative Legal Movement.
The president’s far-left flank remains fixated on the policy outcomes that have and will follow Dobbs, which leaves them confused as to why the administration isn’t responding with policy-oriented solutions. By contrast, the White House remains focused on the new legal environment that the decision produced. In the process, it has confirmed that the right’s judicial philosophy has secured an even more sweeping victory than merely overturning Roe and Casey. Faced with the immovable object of an originalist judiciary, the president is deterred.
“As President Joe Biden faces calls for more drastic action on abortion, the legal team vetting his options has found itself preoccupied by a single pressing concern,” Politico reported earlier this week. “That any action they could take would simply be struck down by the very court that put them in this place.” The administration’s lawyers believe that a poorly calibrated response to the Court’s decision could “backfire,” opening the door to “even more severe limits” on executive authority.
This admission represents nothing less than a triumph of a multigenerational campaign of conservative judicial thought. Not only have the right’s arguments against the ephemera that created a constitutional right to abortion succeeded but so, too, have their efforts to incept in the judiciary a philosophy that rejects reflexive deference to the exercise of executive power. Rather than mount a slapdash assault on this new paradigm, Joe Biden’s White House is keeping its powder dry and placing the onus on the federal and state legislatures to do the work of legislating. In so doing, the Democratic president has reaffirmed the whole point of the conservative legal project.
Related: Why the Supreme Court’s EPA Ruling Has Politicians and Gun Control Advocates Worried.
LINCOLN BROWN: BYU and the Trans Agenda. “The College Fix reports that the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, which is part of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, is investigating the school’s master’s program in speech pathology, and may consider the program’s certification. The reason? BYU will no longer offer ‘vocal training’ to people who want their voices to sound more like their gender identity.”
UNEXPECTEDLY! U.S. Producer Price Index Jumps More Than Expected In June.
Bidenflation will be in double digits by next month. And, actually, it already is.
AT A RANDOM GUESS HERE, A SHORTAGE OF CHOLINE IN THE DIET CONTRIBUTES TO BOTH: Liver disease linked to higher risk of dementia. “People who have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, a buildup of fat cells in the liver, may have a higher risk of dementia, according to a new study published in the July 13, 2022, online issue of Neurology.”