Archive for 2023

MORE ON BIDEN’S POTEMKIN PRESIDENCY: There is a Mitch McConnell angle, and, as seems always to be the case with Joe Biden, a hugely important China connection. It’s my latest column for PJ Media.

WELL, YES:

That Dr. Gay is Black gives this an especially bad look. If she stays in her job, the optics will be that a middling publication record and chronically lackadaisical attention to crediting sources is somehow OK for a university president if she is Black…. Are we to let pass a tacit idea that for Black scholars and administrators, the symbolism of our Blackness, our ‘diverseness,’ is what matters most about us? I am unclear where the Black pride (or antiracism) is in this. . . .

It’s wherever the Narrative needs it to be at the moment.

IT’S GREAT TO BE DIVERSE: Revealed: Harvard cleared Claudine Gay of plagiarism BEFORE investigating her — and its lawyers falsely claimed her work was ‘properly cited’.

The Post’s disclosure of how Harvard cleared Gay without investigating her, then aggressively tried to cover up the probe, thrusts the actions of the head of its governing body, billionaire Hyatt heiress Penny Pritzker into the spotlight.

How Pritzker — the Senior Fellow of the Harvard Corporation who was a commerce secretary under Pres. Obama — handled the crisis will now come under scrutiny. A member of her household staff told The Post Thursday that Pritzker was not available to comment. Harvard declined to confirm Friday that she knew the contents of the legal letter before it was sent.

Pritzker is coming into focus, just as the plagiarism storm finally gains attention from left-leaning media including CNN and the New York Times — whose opinion writer John McWhorter demanded Thursday that Harvard fire Gay over “the sheer amount of plagiarism.” If it won’t, she must resign, he wrote.

It’s not over.

PROF. STEVEN CALABRESI: The Supreme Court Denies Cert. in United States v. Trump: We won. “I won my campaign to get the Supreme Court to deny Special Counsel Jack Smith’s petition for certiorari before judgement. I had argued in an amicus brief that Jack Smith lacked standing to represent the United States because his appointment as Special Counsel was unconstitutional. I therefore urged the Court to deny his petition, which it did.”

SETH BARRETT TILLMAN: Is it soup yet?

TO BE FAIR, COLLEGE SAID “MEH” TO MEN FIRST: Men say ‘meh’ to college. “The higher ed gender gap is widening, reports Richard Fry for the Pew Research Center. Fewer young men are pursuing degrees, especially at four-year colleges and universities.”

THE DENATIONALIZATION OF MONEY IN ACTION: Javier Milei in Argentina has got off to a roaring start (see this summary from Tyler Cowen.) One of his more under-the-radar reforms is to allow debts to only be paid in the currency denominated in the contract. Hayek would surely approve.

FASTER, PLEASE: 2023 BMW M4 CSL First Test: So Fast It Actually Hurts. “Race cars are loud, uncomfortable, violent machines, so the fact that the 2023 BMW M4 CSL is also loud, uncomfortable, and violent should arguably be scored in the Pros column of this review.”

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: The Florida Grinch Who Saved Christmas. “Florida Man Friday is your much-needed break from the serious news and this week is HUGE with two new records set.”

THE IRONY, IT BURNS: Just The News is reporting a strong possibility that FISA’s warrantless search provision (Section 702) so favored by the Deep State going back to the W. Bush administration and embraced by the Obama and Biden DOJ may be biting Hunter Biden — and possibly the President — in the hiney.

Court records from the criminal case of Biden associate Patrick Ho, who is now in the pokey for money laundering, show the FBI and Justice Department gathered evidence under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) from around the time when Hunter Biden and his uncle James were dealing with Ho and fellow CEFC officials.

“This is certainly interesting information. We will pursue every piece of evidence that relates to Hunter Biden and his father. If there are FISA intercepts, it is something we should try to get,” said Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., a member of the House Judiciary Committee that is part of the impeachment process and the chairman of its surveillance subcommittee.”

CEFC, you may remember, channeled millions of dollars to Hunter and his uncle James, much of which was proven by the House Select Committee on Oversight to end up directly in the President’s pocket.

This idiotic talking point that “there is no evidence” makes the Adam Schiffs and Chuck Schumers out there look more disingenuous than ever. I think the only people falling for this gaslighting are within their ever-shrinking bubble of supporters.

But that’s just me.