Archive for 2023

METAPHOR ALERT: National Christmas Tree does best Biden impression by falling over ahead of president’s lighting ceremony, may not be salvageable.

In a 2010 article headlined, “Obama’s Hell of a Ride,” John Podhoretz wrote:

Something weird happens when presidencies go wrong — presidents become incompetent at doing the things they were always able to do in their sleep, and their aides follow suit. I noted this when I wrote my first book, Hell of a Ride, about the decline and fall of the first President Bush, back in 1993. When Bush spoke, it rained, and his advancemen weren’t quick-thinking enough to move his events indoors. When he went to Japan on a state visit, he vomited. He was so intent on getting out his message of the day that he referred to it as “Message: I Care.”

For the past four years though (including his elegiac basement campaign), Biden’s variation on the above quote would be, “Message: Trunalimunumaprzure, Fat!”

HIGHER EDUCATION UPDATE: Harvard University faces federal civil rights investigation for antisemitism amid Israel-Hamas war.

The U.S. Department of Education has added Harvard University to its list of schools that are under investigation for possible civil rights violations as students have reported antisemitic incidents amid the Israel-Hamas war.

The Cambridge campus is now under the federal microscope for potential discrimination following antisemitism complaints since Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Oct. 7.

One notable incident on campus involved pro-Palestinian protesters surrounding a Jewish student, which led to reports being filed with the FBI and Harvard Police.

On Tuesday, Harvard was added to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights list of the higher education and K-12 institutions under investigation for alleged shared ancestry violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Title VI prohibits race, color, or national origin discrimination, including harassment based on a person’s shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics.

Good.

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Chuck Schumer: GOP ‘Dangerously’ Trying to Tie Ukraine Aid to ‘Hard-Right Border Policy.’

So hard right that it was the policy of — checking notes — a crazed stalwart of the vast right wing conspiracy called Chuck Schumer in 2009:

 

IF YOU LIVE IN ARIZONA:  I suspect some of your tax money will soon be going to the University of Arizona’s “Emancipatory Education” graduate minor at the College of Education.  It sounds ghastly.  Maybe you should complain.

DONALD TRUMP, PAY ATTENTION: Milei to Send ‘Shock’ Package to Argentina’s Congress on Day One.

“This is urgent,” he said in an interview broadcast Sunday by LN+ TV, adding that Argentina can’t wait for the usual start of congressional sessions in March. “Solving the central bank’s problems as soon as possible” and stopping money printing that causes inflation are among the urgent issues he intends to tackle with lawmakers, he said.

Once his government gets public finances and the central bank balance sheet in order, it will be able to start lifting capital controls and unifying the country’s diverse exchange rates, Milei said, repeating that he never promised to close the central bank on day one.

The positive market reaction to Milei’s win in the Nov. 19 runoff, evidenced by a rally of sovereign bonds and YPF’s debt, emboldened the libertarian economist to pursue his “shock therapy” agenda of fiscal adjustment.

“This has given us greater strength to redouble our bets in favor of fiscal order,” he said, adding the market read the signs his incoming government sent “to perfection.”

“If the financial markets accompany us and interest rates fall, this will be painful but a lot less painful,” he said of the impact of the spending cuts his government proposes — a key concern in a country where more than 40% of the population lives below the poverty line.

Maybe not for much longer, they won’t, if Milei gets his reforms pushed through.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: The Left Wants to Force You Into Scarcity “You probably already know, or at least suspect, that the plan is to make us so poor (and if the low-population radicals get their way, so few) that we’ll be easier to control. Corral, even. But there’s an irony here so delicious that I want to bite into it like one of those soon-to-be-forbidden juicy ribeyes I’m so fond of grilling.”

I DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU, BUT THIS WHOLE ECONOMIC THING FEELS:  Mushy.