Archive for 2023
April 19, 2023
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Dead man walking: Big city commercial real estate.
Plus:
Largest Tech Layoffs Since November 2022:
1. Amazon: 27,000 employees
2. Meta: 21,000 employees
3. Google: 12,000 employees
4. Microsoft: 10,000 employees
5. Salesforce 8,000 employees
6. Dell: 6,700 employees
7. Twitter: 80% of employees
8. Uber: 30% of employees
9. Coinbase:…— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) April 19, 2023
AN ECLIPSE. IT’S CALLED AN ECLIPSE. A Rare Event Is About to Send Parts of Australia Into Darkness.
LUCKILY, BOYS AND MEN ARE REGARDED AS EXPENDABLE: “For years, the conventional wisdom has been that a lack of sex-specific health research mainly hurts women and gender minorities. While those concerns are real, a closer look at longevity data tells a more complicated story. Across the life span – from infancy to the teen years, midlife and old age – the risk of death at every age is higher for boys and men than for girls and women.”
Plus: “The topic of men’s health simply hasn’t caught on as something that advocates, corporate sponsors and politicians want to get behind. While the pink-ribbon has been elevated to iconic status to signal breast cancer awareness, nothing in men’s health has achieved the same level of attention. ‘There is an empathy gap,’ Henry said. ‘There are people who shrug and say, “Yes, men die younger. That’s the way the world is.”‘”
WHAT DID THE PRESIDENT KNOW, AND WHEN DID HE KNOW IT? John Solomon’s JustTheNews.com just broke a bombshell of a story that leads any reasonable person to ask that question. It turns out that a well-respected IRS agent of senior experience has documented and is planning to disclose evidence of specific interference being run by Biden appointees in the DOJ, including warnings to others in law enforcement to not ask about Hunter’s shenanigans. The lede graf says it all:
“A decorated supervisory IRS agent has reported to the Justice Department’s top watchdog that federal prosecutors appointed by Joe Biden have engaged in “preferential treatment and politics” to block criminal tax charges against presidential son Hunter Biden, providing evidence as a whistleblower that conflicts with Attorney General Merrick Garland’s recent testimony to Congress that the decision to bring charges against Biden was being left to the Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for Delaware.”
David Weiss, the Attorney General for the District of Delaware found that he did not have jurisdiction over Hunter’s tax matters because Biden did not file taxes in Delaware. When Weiss tried to refer the matter to the appropriate AG’s, he was stiff-armed.
Who would have thought that Merrick Garland (who swore before Congress that “Delaware U.S. Attorney Weiss had full authority, free from political pressure, to pursue a case against Hunter Biden in any part of the country”) turned out to be a lying sack of dog poo?
HMM: This Sci-Fi Monster Is Lexus’ New Minivan, Complete With 48-Inch TV. And a limo-style partition. It does look rather comfy.
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: What If They Gave Away $53 Billion But Nobody Wanted It? “Chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) has serious concerns about taking CHIPS Act money — part of Presidentish Joe Biden’s budget-busting effort at a shotgun marriage between Big Government and Big Tech — to build a long-planned fabrication plant in Arizona.”
FOR ONE THING, THEY’VE LOST THE PUBLIC: The Anti-Gun Left’s Current Predicament, Voxsplained.
Actively promoting crime and disorder is also bad for gun-control support.
HE HAS AN EXCELLENT CASE: Ex-Biden ‘Non-Binary’ Official Looking to Dodge Jail Time for Theft by Claiming Mental Illness.
BE PREPARED: Telescoping Ladder A Frame. #CommissionEarned
DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Oakland landlord stands to lose everything after tenant fails to pay rent for 3 years.
YES: Let Teens Work.
Over the past year, to help deal with labor shortages, several states have pushed for legislative changes that would let more teenagers work. New Jersey enacted a bill allowing 16-year-olds to work up to 50 hours a week during summer break with parental approval. In Ohio, the legislature is considering a proposal that would make it possible for 14- and 15-year-olds to work longer hours during the school year—one of the few policies Democrats and Republicans in the legislature agree on. And last month, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a bill that eliminated a requirement that 14- and 15-year-olds obtain a permit before getting a job.
These bills don’t primarily benefit the big food lobby, as the union-backed group that posted the video claims. And it’s not an evil plot to exploit children for profit. The people who stand to benefit most are teenagers themselves, who by having a job can learn to show up on time, follow instructions, work collaboratively, and manage money that they earned themselves and therefore value more.
“I feel as if I’ve learned so much from this simple job over the past few years,” a teen who worked as a ski instructor told The New York Times in 2022. “I’ve learned how to work with children, become a better teacher, and how to help different people based on how they learn new skills.”
“My job has helped me personally in many ways, I was super shy before I started and now I am more confident,” added another high school student, who was working 5 days a week after school. “I have learned time management so that I can get from school to work and then come home and do homework.”
Plenty of data backs up the claim that holding a job as a teen has positive effects.
I agree, and had some related thoughts here.
There is a constitutional right to work, and I see no reason why it shouldn’t extend to teens.
WELL, PLAGIARISM BEATS FRAUD, I GUESS: Plagiarism allegations pursue physicist behind stunning superconductivity claims: Evidence suggests much of Ranga Dias’s thesis was copied from other sources. Though I’d be slow to trust the work of someone who’s willing to cut corners in this fashion.
Some general thoughts of mine on plagiarism, here.
TO BE FAIR, THEIR NEW ENTERTAINMENT ISN’T VERY ENTERTAINING: Disney Is Set to Eliminate Thousands of Jobs Starting Next Week. “Walt Disney Co. plans to cut thousands of jobs next week, including about 15% of the staff in its entertainment division, according to people familiar with the plans.”
BOB ZUBRIN’S NEW BOOK, THE CASE FOR NUKES, GETS A VERY POSITIVE REVIEW: Energy Abundance Is Liberating Humanity From Grueling Labor.
Of course, the “connection between energy and freedom” is why our ruling class is against nukes.
UNEXPECTED HEADLINES [VIP]: New York City Might Need to Track Your Farts to Save the Planet. “Please, someone, tell me I’m wrong about this one. And if I am, I hope at least you’ll get a laugh or two out of what follows in this article. But if I’m even just half-right — the jokiest parts of this article are obviously just jokes, after all — then our would-be world-savers have gone completely off the deep end.”