RIOTS FOR THEE, BUT NOT FOR ME: Austin Politician Who Defunded Local Police Now Wants Police To Patrol Crime-Ridden Neighborhood.

An Austin, Texas Democrat politician is demanding police step up their patrols in his neighborhood despite previously voting to defund them.

Yes, in the latest example of ‘Do as I say not as I do,’ Representative Greg Casar now says that he wants more police for at least the next week. It’s unclear why the Congressman wanted the extra police.

The Austin Police Retired Officers Association however did not hold back and called out the Congressman’s sudden change of tone.

“We want everyone in Austin to feel safe, but this seems to us as the height of hypocrisy from the congressman. Maybe he should hire private security like his fellow squad members do. Sure seems like he wants the police in his neighborhood just not yours,” the ROA tweeted out.

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In 2020, Casar couldn’t hold back how happy he was when he helped the Austin City Council reduce the Austin Police Department’s budget by over $100 million. Hell, he even included exclamation points when the announcement came down before obviously including the hashtag #blacklivesmatter...However, now suddenly when something is wrong, Congressman Casar wants that same police department to prioritize his street. What about the other hard working voters of Austin, Greg? What makes you so special that you can leverage your political standing and call on the APD as if they are your personal butlers?”

Related: “The issue is not the issue—the issue is revolution! (And a key corollary is: the more violent, the better.)”

(Classical reference in headline.)

COOL:

Flight 3 Starship completed a full-duration static fire with all six of its Raptor engines pic.twitter.com/Mxn8faKcEv

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 20, 2023

OLD AND BUSTED:

Cable television today already reaches into 14.5 million American homes and is likely to spread with hurricane force in the early 1980’s. Industry experts expect 20 to 26 million cable subscribers by the end of 1981, with cabling available to fully 50 percent of U.S. households. Things will move even faster once the shift is made from copper wires to cheap fiber optic systems that send light pulsing through hair-thin fibers. And like short-run printing presses or Xerox copiers, cable de-massifies the audience, carving it into multiple mini-publics. Moreover, cable systems can be designed for two-way communication so that subscribers may not merely watch programs but actively call various services.

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All these different developments have one thing in common: they slice the mass television public into segments, and each slice not only increases our cultural diversity, it cuts deeply into the power of the networks that have until now so completely dominated our imagery. John O’Connor, the perceptive critic of The New York Times, sums it up simply. “One thing is certain,” he writes. “Commercial television will no longer be able to dictate either what is watched or when it is watched.”

What appears on the surface to be a set of unrelated events turns out to be a wave of closely interrelated changes sweeping across the media horizon from newspapers and radio at one end to magazines and television at the other. The mass media are under attack. New, de-massified media are proliferating, challenging—and sometimes even replacing—the mass media that were so dominant in all Second Wave societies.

The Third Wave thus begins a truly new era—the age of the de-massified media.

—Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave: The Classic Study of Tomorrow, 1980.

The new hotness? Scoop: Warner Bros. Discovery in talks to merge with Paramount Global.

Why it matters: The combination would create a news and entertainment behemoth that would likely trigger further industry consolidation.

• Zaslav also has spoken to Shari Redstone, who owns Paramount’s parent company, about a deal.
• WBD’s market value was around $29 billion as of Wednesday, while Paramount’s was just over $10 billion, so any merger would not be of equals.

Details: The meeting between Zaslav and Bakish, which sources say lasted several hours, took place at Paramount’s headquarters in Times Square.

• The duo discussed ways their companies could complement one another. For example, each company’s main streaming service — Paramount+ and Max — could merge to better rival Netflix and Disney+.
• It’s unclear whether WBD would buy Paramount Global or its parent company, National Amusements Inc. (NAI), but a source familiar with the situation says that both options are on the table.
• WBD is said to have hired bankers to explore the deal.

Between the lines: The deal could drive substantial synergies.

That’s in addition to all of the media companies that Disney owns:

Disney owns and operates various business units, including major television broadcasting and cable television networks and entertainment networks. This includes:

• American Broadcasting Company (ABC)
• Freeform
• National Geographic Channel
• ESPN (Disney owns 80% stake)
• A&E (50% equity holding with Hearst Corporation)
• The History Channel (50% equity holding with Hearst Corporation)
• Lifetime (50% equity holding with Hearst Corporation)
• Fusion TV
• NBC Universal
• Disney Junior
• Disney Radio
• Disney Channel
• ABC Family

Streaming Services Owned by Disney

Streaming TV is the latest way of watching content across many devices. There are four top streaming services and Disney owns 3 out of the top 4 streaming services that are commonly used by consumers. Its recent takeover of 21st Century Fox has given the company a significant share in several streaming services.

Disney offers direct-to-consumer streaming services through the following media:

• Disney+
• Starz+
• ESPN+
• Hulu
• Hotstar
• ABC+ and more

As old media looks for a return to the limited and monolithic days of old, it’s a reminder that on the Internet, abandoning the decentralized Blogosphere for the walled gardens of Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube was a huge mistake, particularly for conservatives. Somebody should write a book about the reasons why.

IT IS ALIVE! Radar Reveals Signs of Volcanic Activity on Mars Far More Recently Than Expected. “The landscape also appears to have features carved out by lava interacting with ice or liquid water, causing steam explosions. This is very interesting, because terrestrial landscapes that combine hot geological activity with water, such as hot springs, are unexpectedly thriving with microbial life.”

Related: Why I hope there’s no life on Mars.

JUST LIKE IN ROTHERHAM: British Police ‘Are Giving in to the Mob’: Critics say cops aren’t enforcing the law fairly. Cops say they are scared to.

It’s unfortunate when a country’s ruling class has contempt for the people it rules. And that is the situation throughout much of the West.

And the concept of “racism” and its related “phobias” has become a very powerful tool of social control.

Related: “We live in a society where it has become increasingly common to be harsh to people with common-sense values and increasingly difficult to challenge certain forms of prejudice, lawlessness, and outright hatred of Western values.”

YES, I’M EXPECTING A TORRICELLI MANEUVER: DeSantis: Republicans Need To Be Prepared For Biden Dropping Out, Ready For Who Dems Pull Out Of The Hat.

IF YOU’D SAID THIS THREE YEARS AGO YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN SLAGGED FOR “MISINFORMATION:” Probiotics may help reduce COVID-19 symptoms, delay infection.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Behind the Shortage Keeping Cancer Patients From Chemo.

BE PREPARED FOR WINTER: Jackery Solar Generator 2000 Plus 200W. #Commissionearned

THEY CAN’T ADVANCE THEIR AGENDA WITH THE TRUTH: It’s Almost as if Giffords’ Standard for ‘Gun Safety’ Has Nothing to Do With Actually Keeping People Safe.

I NEED YOUR HELP TO DEAL WITH CALIFORNIA’S OUT-OF-CONTROL LEGISLATURE:  Have you ever wanted to give me a Christmas present?  One that won’t cost you a nickel?  Here’s how you can do it:  The California legislature is again trying to repeal Prop 209–the 1996 amendment to the state constitution that prohibits preferential treatment based on race, sex, or ethnicity in public education, public education and public contracting.  They tried this three years ago (Prop 16) and got spanked at the ballot box.  We defeated them overwhelmingly even though they outspent us more than 14 to 1.

This time they are being trickier.  Instead of a straight repeal, they are considering a referendum that would give the governor the power to grant “exceptions” to Prop 209.  The bill–Assembly Constitutional Amendment 7 or ACA7–passed the Assembly in the autumn and will be before the Senate when the legislature reconvenes in January.  I am hoping to convince the Senate that this is a bad idea.  I don’t want to have to spend the better part of a year on another campaign.

A quick, cheap way to begin getting the Senate’s attention is through X (Twitter).  I have put together photo parade of about 100 people holding “No on ACA7” signs.  Last night I posted (tweeted) 24 of the photos. All of them were tagged to the Senate, leadership. Consequently, every time someone “likes” one of my posts (tweets), leaders of the Senate will get a little notification.  Later today, tomorrow, and Friday, I will be posting more.

If readers with a Twitter account are so inclined, it would be great if you could go into my X/twitter page and “like” all the 24 photos I sent out last night.  It would equally great if you could re-post/re-tweet a bunch of them.  With any luck, the Senate leaders who are tagged won’t be able to ignore the number of notifications they get.

The Calif constitution’s ban on preferential treatment based on race, sex, or ethnicity was put there in 1996 by Prop 209. Now state legislators want to create an unlimited number of “exceptions.” They will swallow the rule. #NoACA7 #KeepDiscriminationIllegal pic.twitter.com/sZVoh6PXVo

— Gail Heriot (@GailHeriot) December 19, 2023

If you’re wondering if I feel like Sisyphus working to get Prop 209 passed, defending it in courts, fighting Prop 16, and now this, the answer is yes.

Thank you to anyone who is in position to help. (Bumped)

PROTECT YOUR EARS: Walker’s Razor Slim Earmuffs. #CommissionEarned

PLANETARY DEFENSE: New nuclear deflection simulations advance planetary defense against asteroid threats.

SO CAN WE: China Can Replace Coal With Nuclear Power.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Disney’s Terrible, Awful, No Good, Very Bad 2023.

TO BE FAIR, BIDEN LIES A LOT: Biden Tried to Keep This Dirty Little Secret About His Summit with Xi.

BREAKING: Just the News reporting that “Colorado GOP to have caucus instead of primary if Trump ballot decision stands”

“After GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said Tuesday evening on X, formerly Twitter, that he would withdraw from Colorado’s primary ballot if Trump is not allowed on, the state Republican Party responded: “You won’t have to because we will withdraw from the Primary as a Party and convert to a pure caucus system if this is allowed to stand.”

You don’t have to be a Trump supporter to realize that the Colorado Supremes went way off the rails, and their decision obliterates (IMHO) the Fifth, Fourteenth, and possibly the First Amendment. But that’s what outcome-determinative judiciaries and illiberal liberals do.

This may be the first smart thing I’ve seen the GOP do in years. Granted, it’s the state, not the national level, but McDaniels really ought to step down.

SO YOU’RE SAYING SHE’S KINDA THE POSTER-CHILD FOR ABORTION, THEN? Kamala Harris to launch nationwide tour in 2024 to promote abortion rights.

FIGHT THE POWER: Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw Files Bill To Ban DEI Statements At Universities.

BOWLING ALONE READS LIKE A NOSTALGIC LOOK AT THE GOOD OL’ DAYS:

What [Robert] Putnam couldn’t possibly have seen at the dawn of the technological revolution is how much worse the “bowling alone” phenomenon would get with the addition of the smartphone and the internet. I was waiting tables during the portable computer revolution. In the course of just a few years people went from dining together to dining together, alone. Entire families eating together, all looking at their phones.

My Gen Z nephews look at the TV like a telephone landline. Why would they be chained to one room, at the mercy of other people’s preferences, when they can roam freely from place to place, consuming whatever content their heart desires?

There is a line in Bowling Alone that made me laugh out loud. Putnam wrote, “Some see hope in the rise of news on the Internet or the all-news cable channels. It is still too early to predict the long-run effects of these new channels,” Putnam wrote. He adds, “That said, the early returns are not encouraging.”

Adorable. Cable news is dead. Cable broadcasts get fewer viewers than many YouTube streamers. Trump will probably be our next president, again. Now we are fat and lazy and also outraged and misinformed and distracted. Our attention spans are shredded by the multiple devices and social media constantly capturing our attention.

And as a result: The closing of the teenage mind is almost complete.

In the 1950s, the psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg developed a model for moral reasoning that follows a trajectory similar to Piaget’s model for cognitive development: Children progress from more concrete to more abstract thinking, from more rigidity to more flexibility. Levine says that what alarms her about the rigid, concrete take on right or wrong she sees in my generation is that without the “capacity to hear opposing points of view, you don’t develop empathy. And you’ll need empathy to end up with a good partner, to be a good parent and to be a good citizen.”

Julie Lythcott-Haims, a former Stanford dean, agrees: “We’re in desperate need of humans who can grapple openly with ideas, and disagree, as reasonable people will, without villainizing each other.”

I see teenagers unintentionally becoming more unforgiving and judgmental rather than open-minded and compassionate. When we can’t or don’t talk freely, we lose the chance to find real common ground, acknowledge complexity or grasp that even our own opinions can be malleable. If we listen only to those who already agree with us, we won’t make wider connections. We won’t grow.

Some people told me not to write this piece — that I could get canceled online, cut off by peers and perhaps even rejected by colleges. That’s a risk I’m willing to take.

I definitely don’t have all the answers, but I believe that daring to get past what’s acceptable and engage in open dialogue — as we did walking away from English class that day — is the key way to finding them and becoming the empathetic critical thinkers we need to be as we grow into adulthood.

Let’s start talking.

But that would require reasoning and — heaven forfend — even thoughtful debate! It’s so much easier (for kids of all ages) just to let those knees jerk and tear down the posters when confronted with a liberal ideology that causes them plenty of cognitive dissonance.

IS OUR CHILDREN LEARNING? A diploma for you and a diploma for you! States drop exit exams.

More than half of states required an exit exam in 2002, according to Education Week’s data.

“Objective metrics of student performance really helped to shine a light on some of the important inequities that existed in school systems,” John Papay, a Brown education professor told Stanford. However, “students of color, students who grew up in poverty, multilingual learners, and students with disabilities tended to have lower scores on these exams.”

Typically, students can take and retake the exams before 12th grade. but “equity” advocates have pushed for alternative ways to qualify for a diploma.

Killing the messenger that brings bad news is an old tradition.

Why it’s as if, “The left isn’t just reading 1984 as an instruction book. It’s also reading Harrison Bergeron as [a] How to Destroy Civilization for Dummies Guide.”

MATT MARGOLIS: Planned Parenthood Finds a New Disturbing Cash Cow.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Spain’s New Space Agency. “It appears the goal was to consolidate Spain’s government space operations from eleven different agencies so as to better coordinate that government’s work with the nation’s burgeoning new commercial space sector.”

ANTI-GUN MOM LOSES IT OVER MINIATURE GUNS:

The horror. pic.twitter.com/vg5SAkEeHA

— GLB – sh@tposter with excellent points 🏴 (@CallMeGlib) December 17, 2023

That’s right. THAT is what this woman is losing her mind over.

It’s a “rifle” that literally fits in the palm of your hand.

Yet in the process, Nebraska Mom here has illustrated one very important point about anti-gun folks. For all their talk about respecting the Second Amendment and not wanting to take your guns away, they are very much terrified that someone somewhere might actually like and want firearms.

In this case, she’s trying to pressure Scheels to stop selling a freaking model because it’s a model of a gun way too close to something else she thinks is only for children–sleds.

What she’s admitting here is that people like her don’t want anyone seeing guns or gun-like objects at all. They don’t like that someone out there might look at guns with something other than fear or scorn. That’s what this is truly about.

To paraphrase the leitmotif from A Christmas Story, you’ll shoot your GI Joe doll’s eye out, kid!

DON’T BE RIDICULOUS, ONLY REPUBLICAN-APPOINTED JUSTICES CAN HAVE ETHICS PROBLEMS: KBJ Repeatedly Failed to Report Husband’s Income, Investiture Donors: Complaint.