ALSO KNOWN AS “JUST ANOTHER WEEK IN EL PASO”: Denver hits 10,000 immigrants milestone during 5-month stretch.
Archive for 2023
May 22, 2023
PAUL CARON: The Life, Death, And Legacy Of Tim Keller.
‘FAITH VOTERS’ WANT CANDIDATES WHO SUPPORT 1ST AMENDMENT: That’s probably not a surprise to most Instapunditeers, but don’t expect to hear about it in the Mainstream Media. That’s why the new Trafalgar Group survey is on HillFaith this morning.
And just for the record, my mind is not made up on the advisability of convening a new constitutional convention. I would be very interested in what you think about that prospect.
UKRAINE WAR: Russia Finally Takes Bakhmut… Now What? “It was the bloodiest battle in Europe’s bloodiest war since WWII and, whatever Bakhmut’s actual value, Russia’s first win since last year’s humiliating triple defeats around Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Kherson.”
READER FAVORITE: Gradual Men’s Golf Joggers Pants with Zipper Pockets. #CommissionEarned
THE BIG MISTAKE WAS MADE BACK IN 2015: How Bud Light Blew It. “Anheuser-Busch works with 385 independent distributors, or wholesalers, across the country. Many of them are family-owned businesses that have carried Anheuser-Busch products for generations. The move of the company’s sales and marketing hub from St. Louis to New York in 2015, several years after Anheuser-Busch was acquired by global giant InBev, has been a point of contention. Some wholesalers have pushed the brewer to move those marketers back to St. Louis, arguing that executives in New York are out of touch with the drinkers of the company’s flagship brands. Anheuser-Busch also has marketers based in St. Louis, Austin, Miami and Los Angeles.”
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Sort of like how Boeing started downhill when it moved its executive offices from Seattle to Chicago.
TALES FROM THE SWAMPLAND: Deep State Quietly Starting to Fear the Worst: the Return of the Trump Wrecking Ball.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: College librarians discover new ‘transmisic microaggressions.’
LOCK-IN: Neeva, the would-be Google competitor, is shutting down its search engine. “I’ve talked with Neeva’s co-founders several times over the last couple of years, and their list of grievances here is long and well-founded. They’ve had to contend with the billion-dollar deals Google signs to make itself the default search engine on devices everywhere; the huge ‘are you sure you want to change?’ popups that show up whenever you try to set a new default browser or search engine; the difficulty of finding those settings in the first place; the mess that is the Chrome Web Store; on and on and on. Anyone trying to build a new search engine is fighting a massively uphill battle.”
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: As DeSantis Decision Nears, Media Ramps Up the Smears. “The Democrats and their flying monkeys in the mainstream media are afraid of both Trump and DeSantis and — because they’re not very crafty anymore — they don’t do anything to hide it.”
WELL, IT’S OBVIOUS TO MOST THAT THE PEOPLE RUNNING OUR INSTITUTIONS ARE GARBAGE. THAT MAKES THE PEOPLE THEY CLEARLY HATE MORE ADMIRABLE.
It’s an interesting finding — suggests that the Borg overreached in its response to Trump and lost its ability to define consensus reality in ways that will soon be manifest at the ballot box https://t.co/lRe6bVnBMT
— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) May 22, 2023
LEARN TO CODE: Layoffs are hitting HR and DEI teams at a disproportionately high rate.
Well, for the most part they subtract value, rather than adding it.
SAY ANYTHING: Biden Accuses Republicans Of Sabotaging Debt Limit To Get Him Out Of Office. “If the economy does default, Biden argued he would be ‘blameless,’ and called for Republicans to move their positions.”
The GOP-controlled House already has voted to raise the debt limit. This is all on the White House.
SALENA ZITO ON THE FAR-LEFT SURGE IN ALLEGHENY COUNTY: How the Democratic establishment gave way to a new generation of progressives. “What people missed is that the left-wing challengers were patient, organized and strategic: They picked races they knew they could win, and didn’t overreach. And they have gone nearly undefeated in every race in Allegheny County for several years now.”
IT’S SCHEDULED FOR 9:24 AM ET: Watch SpaceX Dragon carrying private Ax-2 astronauts dock with the space station today.
KEVIN DOWNEY JR: Three Years of COVID Democrat Tyranny That We Should Never Forget.
C. BOYDEN GRAY, R.I.P.: Yesterday, Boyden Gray–best known as George H.W. Bush’s White House Counsel–died at the age of 80 of heart failure. He will be remembered, among other things, for his successful efforts to win Senate confirmation for Bush’s Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.
The first time I laid eyes on Boyden Gray, I had to love him. It was at a Federalist Society event at the Mayflower Hotel in the late 1990s. I don’t recall what the panel discussion had been about. What I remember is the question-and-answer period. Two celebrity lawyers lined up at the microphone along with several rank-and-file Federalist Society members. The first was a well known federal judge who shall go nameless. The guy just couldn’t resist making sure everybody knew he was a big shot and seemed to assume that he would be adored for it. He asked a snarky and ultimately pointless question. Later in line came Boyden Gray–at the time at least as well known as the judge and probably a little more so. He mumbled his name and identified himself as “a lawyer in Washington.” His question was gentle and insightful. If you didn’t know better, you might have thought Boyden Gray was just another Washington lawyer, practicing his craft in relative obscurity. But most of the people in the room did know better. That’s why it was so endearing. A quarter of a century later I still remember it fondly.
ANALYSIS: TRUE: The FBI is a danger to democracy.
DEAL OF THE DAY: Alpha Grillers Grill Set Heavy Duty BBQ Accessories. #CommissionEarned
Behind the scenes is China’s reluctance to forgive debt and its extreme secrecy about how much money it has loaned and on what terms, which has kept other major lenders from stepping in to help. On top of that is the recent discovery that borrowers have been required to put cash in hidden escrow accounts that push China to the front of the line of creditors to be paid.
Countries in AP’s analysis had as much as 50% of their foreign loans from China and most were devoting more than a third of government revenue to paying off foreign debt. Two of them, Zambia and Sri Lanka, have already gone into default, unable to make even interest payments on loans financing the construction of ports, mines and power plants.
In Pakistan, millions of textile workers have been laid off because the country has too much foreign debt and can’t afford to keep the electricity on and machines running.
In Kenya, the government has held back paychecks to thousands of civil service workers to save cash to pay foreign loans. The president’s chief economic adviser tweeted last month, “Salaries or default? Take your pick.”
Since Sri Lanka defaulted a year ago, a half-million industrial jobs have vanished, inflation has pierced 50% and more than half the population in many parts of the country has fallen into poverty.
Experts predict that unless China begins to soften its stance on its loans to poor countries, there could be a wave of more defaults and political upheavals.
Never get in bed with mobsters.
IT’LL NEED TO DO A LOT MORE WRECKING THAN LAST TIME: Deep State Quietly Starting to Fear the Worst: the Return of the Trump Wrecking Ball.
In truth, the Deep State has done more damage to itself than Trump did directly.