WHAT WOULD WE DO WITHOUT EXPERTS? Experts Agree: Rice is Gluten-Free!
Archive for 2023
September 11, 2023
ROGER KIMBALL: Joe Biden’s global G20 embarrassment.
I am not sure that President Biden is still possessed of a guard he can drop. But if his recent performance in Hanoi is any indication, he does seem to be confused about the time of day. “Good evening, everyone. It is evening, isn’t it? This around the world in five days is interesting. Well, one of my staff members said, ‘Remember the famous song, Good Morning, Vietnam?’ Well, good evening, Vietnam.”
It was a feeble effort to make a joke, emphasis on “feeble.” The president’s increasingly wary aides took the hint. They had been holding their collective breath as he rambled on. “Lying dog-faced pony solider,” “John Wayne,” “my brother,” “climate change,” “worse than nuclear war.”
“We talked about stability,” Biden slurred, “we talked about the Third World, excuse me, the Third World, the uh, uh the Southern Hemisphere has access to change…”
This wasn’t going well. You can’t talk about “the Third World” in polite company anymore. Suddenly, Biden’s mic was cut and the dulcet tones of his press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre intervened: “Thank you everybody. This ends the press conference. Thanks everyone.” Unaware of what happened, Biden maundered on for a few seconds. Then, like Nietzsche’s Last Man, he gazed vacantly about him and blinked. Then he shuffled slowly off stage and disappeared behind the drapery.
Which explains why: Biden is the first president to spend 9/11 away from attack sites as VP Harris visits Ground Zero ceremony in NYC.
THE CRIME OF DELICIOUSNESS: Study shows food from tobacco-owned brands more ‘hyperpalatable’ than competitor’s food.
AMERICAN REFUGEES: At my Substack: A Letter From Knoxville: Life under the Great Sort. (Bumped).
THEY’RE NERVOUS AND THEY OUGHT TO BE: Democrats express frustration with Biden’s moribund poll numbers.
“You got to be concerned about those poll numbers, you just do,” Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) said. “There’s plenty of time to get them back up. Whether he can or not, I just don’t know but you got to be concerned.”
One Democratic senator who requested anonymity said voters at home expressed deep apathy about Biden’s prospective reelection during constituent meetings over the August recess.
The senator said the polling data “reflect all the miscellaneous encounters I’m having all the time.”
“There’s just no enthusiasm,” the senator said. “It does pretty much come down to ‘Well, he’s done a pretty good job, but he’s just too old.’”
Mr. 81 Million Votes was no spring chicken in 2020 but it was much easier to hide his senescence when he was “campaigning” from his basement than it is now that he’s LARPing as POTUS.
JAY BHATTACHARYA: The Government Censored Me and Other Scientists. We Fought Back—and Won.
On Friday, at long last, the Fifth Circuit Court ruled that we were not imagining it—that the Biden administration did indeed strong-arm social media companies into doing its bidding. The court found that the Biden White House, the CDC, the U.S. Surgeon General’s office, and the FBI “engaged in a years-long pressure campaign [on social media outlets] designed to ensure that the censorship aligned with the government’s preferred viewpoints.”
The judges described a pattern of government officials making “threats of ‘fundamental reforms’ like regulatory changes and increased enforcement actions” if we did not comply. The implication was clear. To paraphrase Al Capone: Nice company you have there. It’d be a shame if something were to happen to it.
It worked. According to the judges, “the officials’ campaign succeeded. The platforms, in capitulation to state-sponsored pressure, changed their moderation policies.”
In exposing this behavior—and in declaring it a likely violation of the First Amendment—the ruling is not just a victory for my fellow scientists and me, but for every single American.
Read the whole thing.
IT WOULD BE NICE TO CLEAR SENESCENT CELLS IN ANYONE: Phase I clinical trial shows treatment designed to clear senescent cells in Alzheimer’s disease is safe.
9/11: A Memorial To FBI Failure. Note that there were no real consequences for that failure, just as there are no real consequences for the FBI’s abuses of power.
9/11 TIMELINE: Where Were You When?
BY “PAINKILLERS” THEY MEAN NSAIDS: Using painkillers while on birth control may elevate risk of blood clots.
IT’S SO NICE HAVING THE GROWNUPS BACK IN CHARGE: Energy Secretary’s Electric Vehicle Roadtrip Devolves Into ‘Scene Out Of VEEP.’
The purpose of the trip was to “draw attention to the billions of dollars the White House is pouring into green energy and clean cars,” but Domonoske, who joined the caravan for the ride, shared how the four-day venture was not a smooth ride all the way through.
“[B]etween stops, Granholm’s entourage at times had to grapple with the limitations of the present. Like when her caravan of EVs — including a luxury Cadillac Lyriq, a hefty Ford F-150 and an affordable Bolt electric utility vehicle — was planning to fast-charge in Grovetown, a suburb of Augusta, Georgia,” the report said.
“Her advance team realized there weren’t going to be enough plugs to go around. One of the station’s four chargers was broken, and others were occupied. So an Energy Department staffer tried parking a nonelectric vehicle by one of those working chargers to reserve a spot for the approaching secretary of energy,” the report continued. “That did not go down well: a regular gas-powered car blocking the only free spot for a charger?”
“In fact, a family that was boxed out — on a sweltering day, with a baby in the vehicle — was so upset they decided to get the authorities involved: They called the police,” the report added. “The sheriff’s office couldn’t do anything. It’s not illegal for a non-EV to claim a charging spot in Georgia. Energy Department staff scrambled to smooth over the situation, including sending other vehicles to slower chargers, until both the frustrated family and the secretary had room to charge.”
It would take a heart of stone not to laugh.
THE STIG DRIVES A SIX-WHEEL F1 CAR! Ben Collins Drives the Tyrrell P34 (Video).
I’VE BEEN SCANNING TWITTER ALL MORNING AND APPARENTLY, HE STILL HASN’T SAID ANYTHING: Joe Biden’s Shameful Silence on 9/11 Anniversary.
TWO CHINAS: Taiwan envoy sees ‘alarming’ signs in China’s economic slowdown. “Asked whether she is worried a slowing economy could push Chinese President Xi Jinping to move on Taiwan, either militarily or through an economic blockade, Hsiao said leaders in Taipei are carefully considering all possible scenarios, including the ‘worst case scenario.’ China claims sovereignty over the island.”
MAKE TEXAS BLUE AGAIN: Biden Move to Keep Illegals in Texas Is Part of the Democrat Long Game. “Ask yourself what’s really the endgame here. Well, what’s the endgame of every Democrat attempt to flood the nation with illegal immigrants? It’s the three As: Amnesty, Amnesty, and Amnesty. And what happens when illegals are forced to remain in Texas as they await asylum screening for who-knows-how-long? They’ll establish roots in the local community, and they’ll likely stay in Texas. That’s a great place for them to remain, as Democrats wait for their golden opportunity to grant illegal immigrants amnesty, with all the rights of citizenship — including the right to vote.”
Democrats are just taking cues from the UK Labour party (again): Labour wanted mass immigration to make UK more multicultural, says former adviser. “This Government has admitted three million immigrants for cynical political reasons concealed by dodgy economic camouflage.”
DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Woman Goes To LAPD About Stolen Credit Card. One Of Them Stole It. “She’s fortunate that the bad cop was stupid enough to carry out his shopping spree in stores with security cameras.”
BUILDING PARALLEL INSTITUTIONS TO DISPLACE THE CORRUPTED ONES: Trail Life USA Celebrates 10 Years of Picking Up Where BSA Left Off. “Thanks to the foresight and organizational work of Trail Life USA’s founders, the old-school, all-American scouting experience lives on. And this year the plucky upstart is celebrating its 10th Anniversary.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: University president warns lawmakers to ‘think twice’ about restricting DEI, scholars disagree.
DECOUPLING: The West is Touting a New Trade Route That Bypasses China.
At the G20 summit in New Delhi this past weekend, global leaders voiced their support for a new ship, rail, and digital corridor that will connect India to the Middle East and Europe — and counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
The proposed corridor, with backing from leaders including the US, India and Saudi Arabia, could be a momentous shift for the exchange of goods. “This is nothing less than historic,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping didn’t attend the summit, but something tells us he’s less than pleased. His country’s trillion-dollar-plus initiative to fund infrastructure projects in mostly developing countries was a bid to expand China’s economic reach. But it has courted controversy from some who see it as a predatory money pit: In 2018, for example, Sri Lanka couldn’t afford the payments on its strategic Hambantota port, so it was handed over to China.
Western leaders looking to mitigate China’s influence while also cooling tensions with the Middle East could view a new trade pact as a win-win.
Related:
BREAKING:
At the G20 summit in India, Meloni to the Chinese that Italy will be leaving China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Italy is the only G7 nation to be a member. Major blow to China’s foreign policy plans in Europe! pic.twitter.com/hyL8AA14o1
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) September 10, 2023
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Dems Aren’t Coming to Take Your Guns…Until They Are. “I guarantee you that Gov. Stalin Grisham will not be the last Democrat to use the COVID-inspired ‘public health’ nonsense as an excuse to oppress the good citizens of this country. They take to tyranny like ducks to water over there in Dem Land. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that the Democratic National Committee has spun off a little think tank to ponder new ways to use public health panic to shred the Constitution.”