Archive for 2023
September 26, 2023
YA THINK?
Maybe school is designed to further educators, not education. https://t.co/AApanFFLhP
— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) September 25, 2023
A GREAT PLAN, BUT INSUFFICIENTLY PRODUCTIVE OF GRAFT: Nikki Haley: My plan to unleash America’s secret weapon — economic freedom.
NO. NEXT QUESTION? Schools spend $20 billion a year for equity training, but does it work?
WHY NOT? WE’VE BEEN ELECTING THEM FOR YEARS: Biden EEOC Makes It Easier to Hire Individuals With Criminal Records for Government Positions.
$139 A YEAR AND THEY’RE BRINGING COMMERCIALS BACK? Amazon will bring ‘limited’ ads to Prime Video starting in early 2024. “Those in the U.S. can spend $2.99 more per month to retain an ad-free version of Prime Video, while Amazon will share pricing options for the premium tier in other markets at a later date.”
In other words, they’re holding commercial-free viewing hostage for another three bucks.
WHENEVER THERE’S A SHOOTING THEY GO AFTER THE PEOPLE WHO DIDN’T DO IT: MSU trustees restrict concealed carry on campus in wake of mass shooting.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Global trade nosedives: Fastest fall since COVID.
The World Trade Monitor, an analytical tool from the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, adds to this gloomy narrative with its June data showing a 2.4% contraction. The implication is evident: the world is slowing down.
Post-pandemic, economies had briefly rallied, driven by a surging demand for global goods exports. But alas, that euphoria seems short-lived.
Now, rising inflation, aggressive monetary policies in 2022, and increased domestic spending as doors reopened post-lockdowns, are causing the tide to ebb away.
Across the globe, export volumes are retracting. China’s volumes dipped by 1.5%, the Eurozone registered a 2.5% shrinkage, and the U.S. wasn’t spared either, with a decrease of 0.6%.
I keep reading about Bidenomics having so much success in reviving American manufacturing, but that’s largely government-driven malinvestment in green-energy boondoggles that are crowding out investments in profitable and innovative industries.
THE LEFT ALWAYS WANTS TO SILENCE ITS OPPOSITION BECAUSE THE TRUTH IS FATAL TO IT: Prosecutors aim to ‘silence’ Trump with proposed gag order in 2020 election case, his lawyers say.
And let’s be honest here: Prosecuting the President’s main opponent and then gagging him is serious Banana Republic stuff. At some point, the government’s behavior is sufficiently illegitimate that people will start acting outside of the usual channels. We’re getting dangerously close to that point, and our feckless overclass either doesn’t know, or doesn’t care, or actively wants that to happen.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The Lying ‘Hate Speech’ Censor Fascists Are Winning Hearts and Minds. “As I made my way as a young comedian in the glorious 1980s, free speech was something I honestly thought I would never have to worry about in my career.”
THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION FINALLY FOUND IMMIGRANTS IT DOESN’T WANT: Romeike family faces deportation after 15 years in the U.S. after losing their asylum claim based on religious persecution in Germany. If only they had illegally entered through the southern border and disregarded the asylum system completely, they would have fared better.
Flashback: Howie Carr: Please Treat Me Like An Illegal Immigrant. “Forget the 14th Amendment. I don’t want no stinkin’ ‘equal protection under the law.’ What I fervently desire is some illegal-immigrant protection under the law — which basically means no laws.”
CHANGE: Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to replace CEO Bob Smith with outgoing Amazon exec Dave Limp.
Smith is retiring effective Dec. 4 and will remain with the company until Jan. 2 for the CEO transition, according to notes to Blue Origin staff written by Smith and Bezos that were obtained by CNBC.
Limp joins Blue Origin at a key phase of the company’s multiple space projects.
Blue needs to ramp production of its BE-4 rocket engines, return its space tourism rocket New Shepard to flight, and launch its next-generation New Glenn rocket for the first time – as well as deliver on a recently-won NASA contract for a crewed lunar lander.
I’m not even being snarky here when I add, “They have to actually reach orbit, too.”
More:
In a statement to CNBC, a Blue Origin spokesperson praised Limp as “a proven innovator with a customer-first mindset” who has “extensive experience in the high-tech industry and growing highly complex organizations.”
I don’t know if Limp has the right stuff to turn Blue Origin around, but Smith is very much “old space” and not the right person to head a startup.
MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Even Bill Gates is backtracking — the air’s gone out of the climate-crisis balloon.
THEY ALWAYS SHOW YOU WHAT THEY’RE AFRAID OF: Gavin Newsom showed why the Left fears groups like Moms for Liberty.
LIGHTNING DEAL: POLAR SOLDIER Men’s Tactical Work Boots. #CommissionEarned
EVERYTHING THESE DAYS IS JUST AN EXCUSE FOR THE LEFT TO SILENCE ITS OPPOSITION: “So if your criticism of something you don’t like elicits disgust, you can, in fairly short order, be accused of inciting violence. I certainly have been seeing this form of reasoning, which, as Taibbi said, ‘massively expand[s] the purview of things [some people believe] they can censor.’ It’s so threatening to free speech values, especially when biased censors are deciding which speech fomented the disgust they find… disgusting.”
Claims based on disgust are unfalsifiable, because disgustibus non disputandum est. Leftists like to silence opposition, and to make claims that are unfalsifiable, because most of what they say is false.
The left likes to call its opponents monsters, so as to have an excuse for treating them monstrously.
REMEMBER ‘BAGHDAD BOB?’ Saddam Hussein’s ridiculous mouthpiece had nothing on President Joe Biden’s White House spokesman, Karine Jean-Pierre, according to Issues & Insights. You know your game is up when even The New York Times ain’t buyin’ your ‘the border is secure’ fantasies.
AND NOW FOR SOME GOOD NEWS: We’re Winning the Fight Against Child Mutilation.
THAT’S BECAUSE THEY WANTED IT TO HAPPEN: Biden Administration Knew Border Surge Was Coming, Internal Documents Show—And Did Nothing.
BECAUSE TED IS THE GENTRY CLASS AND THE GENTRY CLASS FEARS MERIT: Why Is TED Scared of Color Blindness?
HE ACCEPTED ENVELOPES STUFFED WITH $100 BILLS IN THE FIRST PLACE: Fetterman plans to return donation tied to Menendez ‘in envelopes stuffed with $100 bills,’ spokesman says.
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., will return $5,000 in contributions from a political action committee tied to Sen. Bob Menendez “in envelopes stuffed with $100 bills” because of the New Jersey Democrat’s indictment on bribery charges, Fetterman’s spokesman said.
Fetterman’s campaign received $5,000 from Menendez’s leadership PAC during the 2022 election cycle, according to the nonpartisan site OpenSecrets.
The Pennsylvania senator’s spokesman told NBC News, “We are in the process of returning the money in envelopes stuffed with $100 bills.”
If it feels wrong, it probably is.
CRIME: Gangs, mass incarceration and daily life in El Salvador. “Last week, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele gave a speech to the UN in which he defended his policies of jailing tens of thousands of suspected gang members to improve public safety in what was once the murder capital of the world. . . . There’s no arguing with his results. El Salvador really has changed for the better in the view of most people who live there.”
If you let crime get out of hand, voters eventually bring in someone who’ll get it in hand.
WILL THE REAL LIFE ONES GET BETTER, OR THE AD ONES GET WORSE? Burgers and tacos don’t look like they do in ads. Lawsuits are trying to change that.
Many years ago I went into an Arby’s and ordered a sandwich that looked like the one on the poster. They delivered that very thing and it was delicious and beautiful.