Archive for 2023
April 25, 2023
THEY WEREN’T EXPECTING SUCH AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: Why did SpaceX Starship’s debut launch cause so much damage to the pad? Starship’s launch mount wasn’t ready for the power of the vehicle’s 33 first-stage Raptor engines.
YOU’RE GONNA NEED A MUCH BIGGER BLOG: Three huge problems with Biden’s new ‘equity’-based mortgage policy.
DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: Eco-Terrorist ‘Pipeline’ Bombs at Box Office.
James Cameron caught little heat for a shocking admission. He hearts eco-terrorism.
It’s one thing for the “Avatar” director to be so green he makes his cast and crew eat vegan. That seems quaint compared to a quote that got ignored by most press outlets.
Now, we have an entire film dedicated to eco-activists willing to employ violence to suit their needs. And it’s clear where the story’s empathy lies.
“How to Blow Up a Pipeline” deserves some sort of Truth in Advertising award. The story follows a gang of eco-thugs plotting to deliver on the title’s promise.
HiT guest critic Joshua Sharf called it “really good agitprop” along with this warning.
In other exchanges, we hear the familiar refrain, “you can’t make omelets without breaking a few eggs,” unaware that violent revolution generally produces a lot of broken eggs and few omelets.
The film enjoyed a limited release April 7 but expanded to north of 500 theaters last weekend. The results?
I’m glad to see the film bomb, but it will likely have a quite a shelf life in the form of DVDs, cable and satellite reruns and streaming platforms. (See also: Oliver Stone’s 1991 film JFK, which is an excellent Manchurian Candidate-style political thriller, but execrable as a history lesson.)
WAITING FOR THE SUPREME COURT’S DECISION IN HARVARD/UNC: If you’ve heard of the mismatch problem, but never read about it, here are two articles that are probably worth your time–one short and the other a bit longer (and more up to date). Most Court watchers don’t expect a decision until June, but you never know.
THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND:
Shot: Jim Cramer Is Surprised No One Is Buying This ‘Very Good Bank’ Amid Crash.
Celebrity stock picker and CNBC host Jim Cramer tweeted early Tuesday that First Republic is a bargain buy and he was surprised that a big broker wasn’t interested in it.
“Fear is so palpable that no one seems to want to step up and buy a very good bank like First Republic which can probably be had for one fourth of what it was worth three months ago,” he said.
“It has an amazing client base. Surprised a big broker isn’t interested.”
—Business Insider, March 14th.
Chaser: First Republic Bank Expected to be Seized by US Government.
First Republic lost more than 40 percent of its deposits, approximately $72 billion, in the first quarter of this year. Its shares sank nearly 50 percent as of end-Tuesday. This is according to a Monday announcement by the bank.
The bank has seen record drops over the past month and a half, particularly since the Silicon Valley Bank was closed in March. Multiple big banks have also struggled, however, it looks like First Republic will be falling into the hands of the US government soon.
—Watcher.Guru, today.
GREENING OF PUERTO RICO: Why is Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm making so many tax-paid junkets to the Caribbean island territory of the U.S.? Inquiring minds – remember those? – want to know.
WEEK OF THE LONG KNIVES:
Nate Silver Out at 538, ABC News as Disney Layoffs Hit ABC News – The Hollywood Reporter https://t.co/Rb6bZN5jEz
— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) April 25, 2023
Flashback: Nate Silver blasts ‘crazy’ COVID lockdowns that closed churches, kept museums open.
REVERSE THE SEXES AND THIS WOULD BE ABOUT MALE PREJUDICE AGAINST FEMALE RESEARCHERS: Gender of researchers could affect participation of women in exercise studies.
But when women don’t want to participate in studies by male researchers it’s — haha, just kidding, it’s still about male prejudice against female researchers.
PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Anthony Fauci Says Don’t Blame Him for COVID Lockdowns and School Closures.
The interview is framed by the Times as an inside look at Fauci as he “wrestles with the hard lessons of the pandemic—and the decisions that will define his legacy.” But when it comes time to answer the tough questions about who was at fault for America’s botched response to COVID-19, the good doctor is happy to pass the buck. The blame is spread around, not only to the CDC and the other public health apparatuses for which Fauci became a convenient (and willing) personification but also to the politicians who followed public health recommendations without any consideration of the costs involved.
Here’s the most interesting and illuminating part of the exchange:
“I gave a public-health recommendation that echoed the C.D.C.’s recommendation, and people made a decision based on that,” says Fauci. “I’m not an economist. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is not an economic organization. The surgeon general is not an economist. So we looked at it from a purely public-health standpoint. It was for other people to make broader assessments—people whose positions include but aren’t exclusively about public health. Those people have to make the decisions about the balance between the potential negative consequences of something versus the benefits of something.”
In a certain way, Fauci is correct about all this. He never called for the closure of specific schools, nor did he stand at the podium in the White House briefing room and announce which businesses could stay open and which must close. Those acute decisions were made by other people—by governors, mostly, but also by local elected officials and school boards. And they were made, in the case of schools specifically, with teachers unions weighing heavily on the scales.
But in October of 2020, Fauci told an interviewer, “I recommended to the President [Trump] that we shut the country down.” Shameless Anthony Fauci tries to completely rewrite history on his starring role in COVID shutdowns.
Fauci in October 2020 on the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic: “I recommended to the President [Trump] that we shut the country down.”pic.twitter.com/B6CeXPbPcA https://t.co/ZnZCPFAMOg
— Jerry Dunleavy 🇺🇸 (@JerryDunleavy) April 25, 2023
Why, it’s as if: Fauci Has No Idea Why People Are Mad At Him.
IT’S DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION! CNN Discovers, to its Horror, How Many New and Different People Have Been Buying Guns.
Our decision to acquire a gun is due to the recent release of the man who bludgeoned my wife’s younger sister to death several decades ago. My wife fears that the murderer, released from prison during the Covid-19 pandemic by New York state’s board of parole, poses a potential threat to us.
But our decision also is due to society’s current dysfunction. Crime is surging in our city—Washington—and around the country. Vagrants wander the streets, police are reluctant to tackle criminals, and courts seem unwilling to impose serious sentences on those who break the law. Given these circumstances, owning a gun seems to be one of the few ways to feel even a semblance of personal safety. There is an irony that policies progressives espouse, such as gun control, have prompted us to have a gun in our home.
Progressives nationwide have attacked police and law enforcement, alleging that our legal system is systemically racist and oppressive. They have caused recidivist criminals to haunt our streets and commit more crimes—and have refused to deal with homelessness in spite of the mental illness and drug addictions that so often afflict our cities’ most vulnerable. Numerous efforts to reduce the use of drugs have been rebuffed in the name, of course, of racism.
This approach has unleashed a crime wave and diminished our sense of safety on the streets. It is, therefore, unsurprising to see ever more law-abiding people seeking to arm themselves. As a result, there will be more guns out there, including in the hands of people who should never be near them.
They want you to feel unsafe, it’s part of their political strategy. But remember, ultimately the police aren’t there to protect the public from criminals. They’re there to protect criminals from the rough justice meted out by a public that takes matters into its own hands for lack of a better alternative.
ANALYSIS: TRUE. We’re done with “gradually”. We’ve now reached the “suddenly” part.
Back in 2009 when I started Sovereign Man, I spoke a lot about ideas that were highly controversial at the time.
I suggested that Social Security’s trust funds would run out of money. That the US government would eventually be buried by its gargantuan national debt. That the US dollar would eventually lose its international reserve dominance. That inflation and social conflict would rise.
The main thesis, quite simply, was that the US was in decline. And whenever I spoke at events, I used to talk about logarithmic decay, saying:
“As a civilization in decline, you never really know quite where you are on the curve. You could be way over here on the horizontal line, at the very beginning of the decline… or you could be standing on the precipice about to hit the vertical slide down.”
Well, now we have a much better idea of where we are on that logarithmic decay curve. Because these ideas about the national debt, inflation, social security, social conflict, etc. are no longer theories. Nor are they even remotely controversial.
This is from Simon Black who is far from alone in warning people about all of these long-ticking time bombs, and far from alone in being completely ignored by those who should have been defusing them.
GOODER AND HARDER, SAN FRAN: San Francisco Target puts entire inventory on lockdown amid shoplifting crisis.
San Francisco’s last Republican mayor left office at the beginning of 1964.
THE BIDEN FAMILY CRIME SYNDICATE: Charges Loom for Hunter Biden as His Dad Launches Presidential Bid.
I WANT A CAMPER WITH LOTS OF RANGE: EV Camping in Winnebago’s eRV2: Cozy Cabin but Constrained Range. “Ford quotes a 108-mile range for the high-roof E-Transit, and Winnebago says its testing revealed an average range of 120 miles. But the eRV2 traveled just 70 miles at 70 mph—we couldn’t do our standard highway test at 75 mph as the Winnebago tops out at 74 mph—and the dashboard readout never displayed more than 90 miles during our time with the vehicle, possibly due in part to the cold weather.”
Plus: “Winnebago claims the eRV2 can boondock—run completely off the grid—for up to seven days, but that requires keeping the climate control off. With the overnight temperature dipping down to 30 degrees, that didn’t sound like a good option. The eRV2 also has roof-mounted solar panels—supplemented by foldable panels stowed in the cargo hold for a total output up to 900 watts—to help extend battery life, but the gloomy skies nullified their usefulness.”
Not only would I like lots of range, but heat and air conditioning and working appliances. This isn’t it.
JUST ANOTHER TUESDAY FOR THE BIDEN CABAL: The Biden EPA Will Drive Energy Bills Even Higher With Yet Another Legally Dubious Regulation.
IF IT AIN’T WOKE, DON’T FIX IT: Warner Bros. to Mark Its 100th Anniversary by Wokeifying Its Old Classics.
READER FAVORITE: GTHUNDER Digital Night Vision Goggles Binoculars for Total Darkness. #CommissionEarned
FAT, STUPID, AND DRUNK ON POWER IS NO WAY TO GROW AN ECONOMY, SON: For America To Grow, Washington’s Swampy Spending Spree Has To Shrink.
21ST CENTURY FITNESS: Half the men I know are using Ozempic to lose weight – the signs are hard to miss.
THEY CHOSE… POORLY: Fox News ‘Is Dead,’ and Tucker Carlson Is Already Living Large With a Job Offer.
OUR TECH CLASS DOES CHINA’S DIRTY WORK, AT HOME AND ABROAD: Tibetan Police Mass-Collect DNA and Lawmakers Say U.S. Firm Is Helping.