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Archive for 2023
October 23, 2023
IS THE NEW YORK TIMES A LIBERAL NEWSPAPER? OF COURSE IT IS: NYT: A Week Later, Hamas “Fails to Make Case” that Israel Struck Hospital; UPDATE: “Editors Note”?
Marry yourselves to terrorists in haste, repent at leisure? The New York Times has all but redefined ‘leisure’ in this old axiom with its ever-so-slow retreat from its initial report that Israel bombed a hospital in Gaza.
A week ago, the NYT and every other American media outlet swallowed that Hamas claim without question while sourcing it from “Gaza’s health ministry. Even after Israel provided video of the failed rocket launch by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and radio communications from Hamas confirming the incident as friendly fire, American news media declared that the IDF hadn’t “proven” their case.
Now, a week later, the ‘Paper of Record’ grudgingly admits that the claim came from Hamas and never did have any evidence supporting it. The headline itself is a marvel in the annals of modified limited hangouts (via Power Line):
As America’s Newspaper of Record reported last week: New York Times Patiently Awaiting Zoom Call From Hamas To See What They Should Print Today.
(Classical reference in headline.)
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: You’ll Never Believe Where Hamas Hid a Military Headquarters (Actually, You Will).
Plus, a preview of the upcoming ground campaign courtesy of Edward Luttwak.
SPACE: Two groups look at the economic viability of mining asteroids. “Their math suggests that over the next 30 to 40 years, harvesting metals from asteroids could become not only profitable but also the predominant means of mining precious metals as prices rise and the cost of working in space declines.”
The real value of these metals, of course, will be for uses in space, not on earth.
IT’S A START, BUT I’M RESERVING JUDGMENT UNTIL I SEE MORE: Could Yale’s Hiring Of Princeton’s Keith Whittington Signal A Shift In Legal Ed’s Alleged Hostility Toward Conservative Professors? Much more.
TAKE SOME TIME TO scroll down Andy Ngo’s feed if you want to know what’s going on.
DEAL OF THE DAY: Membrane Solutions Straw Water Filter. #CommissionEarned
ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL: 1 in 4 ISIS brides returned to Sweden now work in Swedish schools, shocking report reveals. “Of the 81 women confirmed to have fled Sweden to join the Islamic State at the peak of its power and subsequently repatriated, 21 were found to now be employed in Swedish schools, kindergartens, and asylum centers for kids. The bombshell report evoked a strong reaction from government ministers who questioned how radicalized individuals who were willing to join a terrorist organization had been permitted to work with young people upon their return to the country.”
DON SURBER ON HARVARD, ET AL.: The Nazis Are Winning: Society accepts and promotes anti-Semitism again. “But what does one expect when students are taught about Hiroshima and Nagasaki but not about Pearl Harbor? What do we expect when the liberals brand any Republican president Hitler and his supporters Nazis, watering down their evil to just being a political disagreement? What do we expect when the UN panics about a climate genocide, as if Jews died in tanning beds and not ovens?”
Just a few years ago, all the best people were encouraging me to punch Nazis. Now it’s racist if you notice them.
KEVIN DOWNEY JR: Obama’s Racist Chickens Have Come Home to Roost. “Rather than elevate black people, the far left has created a situation where black crime is legal and white people are racist if they notice.”
CHANGE: As U.S. Debt Surges, Europe Brings Its Own Under Control.
The U.S. government Friday said its deficit rose to $1.7 trillion, or 6.3% of gross domestic product, in the year ended Sept. 30, from $1.4 trillion, or 5.4% of GDP, a year earlier. Without an accounting change related to the administration’s aborted student-loan-cancellation program, the deficit would have been closer to $2 trillion, a doubling from the prior year.
In projections released earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund projects U.S. deficits for all governments will reach 7.4% of GDP in 2024 and 2025.
But in Europe it is a different picture. The IMF expects combined deficits of eurozone governments will fall to 3.4% of GDP this year from 3.6% in 2022, and further to 2.7% in 2024.
…
Crucially, it doesn’t seem to have a path to narrowing those deficits: the Biden administration has proposed tax rises that Republicans and some Democrats in Congress reject, while Republicans seek spending cuts that the administration won’t countenance.
Under Biden, federal spending as a percentage of GDP is at post-WWII highs (excluding one-time lockdown bailouts/stimulus of 2020-21), while defense spending (including on Ukraine) as a percentage of GDP is at or near post-WWII lows.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Academics pledge ‘unwavering solidarity with Palestinian resistance.’
ASHLEY MCCULLY: The Silent Death Toll in Israel.
Natanel died living his dream: defending Israel as an IDF soldier. He was only 20 years old.
The youngest of five children, Natanel, or Nat as his family called him, moved from London to Tel Aviv when he was 18, just old enough to volunteer in the Israeli Defense Force. Nat embodied the Spirit of the IDF: Patriotism, commitment, and devotion to the State of Israel—a democratic state that is the national home of the Jewish people—and to its citizens and residents.
Israel’s national airline, El Al, maintains the same spirit. It is one of the only airlines continuing routes in and out of the country, delivering tens of thousands of people to defend their homeland with Nat and his comrades.
Read the whole thing.
THEY NEED TO LEARN A LOT OF LESSONS: Campus unrest over Hamas attacks on Israel offers students tough lessons on free speech in higher education.
Law enforcement budgets in the city, which is ravaged by homelessness, drugs and a downtown business exodus, face cuts of $27.6 million, while the public health department could lose a further $25.9 million, according to a DailyMail.com analysis.
The fire department must propose reductions of around $10.5 million to meet the mayor’s demand, while city’s crumbling Municipal Transport Agency must find savings of $15.5 million, a review of official figures suggests.
In a letter dated October 11, Mayor London Breed ordered departments to propose massive cuts to this year’s budgets in order to prevent San Francisco reaching a $500 million deficit by 2025.
The radical cuts mark an embarrassing change of tack from Breed, who is now forced to tear up the record-breaking $14.6 billion annual budget she signed off just three months ago. Department heads across the city have until Thursday, October 26 to propose their cuts.
San Francisco has serious problems with crime, mental health, and drug addiction, so it’s big cuts for police and health.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Democrats Want Kids Dumb for Public School Indoctrination. “While it’s true that the young minds of college students are polluted by leftist radicals in Academia, those who arrived at universities via the American public education system did so with brains that were ripe for whatever progressive nonsense their professors threw at them. The far-left thoroughly evil teachers’ unions who control public schools and the Democratic Party saw to that.”
KEEP YOUR EYES ON THIS ONE, FOLKS: The SCOTUS has granted cert to hear what (IMHO) may be one of the most important First Amendment/Media cases since Times v. Sullivan. The outcome of the case may open the gates for those voices who have been suppressed by the government. In his dissent to taking the expedited case, Justice Alioto wrote:
“At this time in the history of our country, what the court has done, I fear, will be seen by some as giving the Government a green light to use heavy-handed tactics to skew the presentation of views on that increasingly dominates the dissemination of news.”
The matter has repercussions going beyond the “mere” right to dissent. There is a strong argument to be made that there is a connected campaign to demonetize web platforms that don’t toe the government line, and on personal information I can say with absolute certainty that many of the “right-leaning” news sites have seen dramatic revenue drops, less connected to traffic than a blacklist forced upon advertisers.
Naturally, faux liberals continue to support censorship. Look at the dog-whistles in NPR’s take from Nina Totenberg:
“The case has profound implications for almost every aspect of American life, especially at a time when there are great national security concerns about false information online during the ongoing wars in the Middle East and Ukraine and further concerns about misinformation online that could cause significant problems in the conduct of the 2024 elections. And that is just the tip of the iceberg […]The case is part of long-running conservative claims that liberal tech company owners are in cahoots with government officials in an attempt to suppress conservative views.”
Note the prioritization on “national security” and “election integrity.” Also the cynical language “long-running conservative claims” (conspiracy theory!) and “cahoots” (disbelief!)
The fact is that depending on how the SCOTUS rules, there may be (and ought to be) many cases brought where government influence pushed a blacklist, and the discovery in those cases will be telling indeed.
Stay tuned…
ANALYSIS: Diversity Is Not Our Strength.
THIS IS CNN: CNN Tries to Explain What’s Going on in Israel, but There’s a Slight Problem With That Map.
We’ve seen a lot of bad reporting when it comes to the Israel-Hamas war so far.
We saw it particularly when it came to the Gaza hospital explosion. A lot of the media just reported what Hamas told them uncritically, and without knowing the facts. Even when an IDF spokesperson called the BBC out on its reporting about the hospital incident after more evidence came out and showed it wasn’t an Israeli airstrike, the BBC host wouldn’t take responsibility for what they had done. That was symbolic of media in general, which varied from not correcting their false reporting to stealth editing after they were called out on it.
Is it any wonder Americans so distrust media now with examples like that? The hospital incident was only the latest in a long history of problematic media reporting. When they wouldn’t even check facts before running with the story, as you saw in that case, you know there’s a problem with basic journalism.
But CNN somehow managed to be even more incompetent, on Sunday during its reporting, and in a way that many people immediately picked up on.
Here’s the map they threw up on the screen as they were talking about aid to Gaza.
They don't only lie.
They can't even show a proper map of #Israel.
FYI @CNN:
1) #TelAviv is located on the beach.
2) Sderot is nearby #Gaza.
You can't deliver correctly even the simplest things & you wish us to believe a lot more difficult stuff you report on!?#IStandWithIsrael pic.twitter.com/Mhnw1xE5hI— Ariel Aharonovich (@AAharonovich) October 22, 2023
Missed it by that much:
CNN doesn't even know where Israel's cities are located. It's like putting New York in California, and Miami in Montana 🤣 pic.twitter.com/O1Goq38C7X
— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) October 22, 2023
WELL, TONY BLAIR’S LABOUR GOVERNMENT IMPORTED AN AWFUL LOT OF ANTISEMITES: 1350% Increase in London Anti-Semitic Crimes Amid Israel-Hamas War.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Flashback: “It was alleged that the document showed that Labour had overseen a deliberate open-door policy on immigration to boost multi-culturalism. Voting trends indicate that migrants and their descendants are much more likely to vote Labour.”