MY EYES ARE UP HERE: How old are you, really? AI can tell your true age by looking at your chest.
Archive for 2023
August 17, 2023
MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Sports protected for women and girls in North Carolina through veto override.
HOW IT STARTED: Kamala… They Are Coming for You.
If Biden is set to go, Kamala Harris must go first. A half century ago, when the Republican Establishment thought Nixon’s days as president were numbered, they decided they didn’t want VP Spiro Agnew around. So Agnew pled no contest to a felony charge of tax invasion. Gerald Ford became vice president, Nixon resigned, Ford became president, then in 1976 lost to Jimmy Carter. Watergate played a role. Can Biden scandals do it this time?
If they can’t find anything compromising in the past of Kamala Harris, Gov. Gavin Newsom could fulfill his pledge to appoint a black woman to Dianne Feinstein’s Senate by convincing Feinstein to resign, then appointing Harris to her seat. Better yet, Harris then could displace Chuck Schumer and become the “first woman” and “first black woman” to be Senate majority leader. (She’s relatively young; if she transitions, Democrats might back her for president in the future.)
* * * * * * * *
The powers in the Democratic Party can no more gamble on Kamala than on Joe. If either is on the ticket, more than the White House is at stake. Republicans would expand, not lose, their House majority. And Democrats would certainly lose their precarious hold on the Senate. Their best hope is an election that again is a referendum on Donald Trump; but regardless of who the Republican nominee is, not a referendum on Joe Biden or Kamala Harris.
Kamala must go before Joe does, certainly before Joe announces he won’t run.
One way or another — Kamala, they’re coming for you, and then Joe.
–Arnold Steinberg, the American Spectator, July 2nd.
How it’s going: It’s Getting Serious Now: L.A. Times Kicks Off the Dems’ ‘Dump-Harris’ Movement.
The Times’ George Skelton knows that the left, unlike the right, never turns on its own, and that a public acknowledgement of Harris’ manifest incompetence would be damaging not just for her, but for Old Joe himself. After all, the putative commander-in-chief has repeatedly praised her and declared as recently as May that she “hasn’t gotten the credit she deserves.”
* * * * * * * *
His plan for doing this involves Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California SSR), who is ninety years old and manages to make Old Joe look as if he’s sharp as a tack. Feinstein, Skelton writes, “is a problem for California because she’s no longer capable of fully representing the nation’s most populous state — a world-class economic power — in the Senate.” And thus the solution to the Democrats’ problems presents itself: “Feinstein could resign from the Senate and Gov. Gavin Newsom could appoint Harris to replace her. Biden then could find a more popular running mate, one more acceptable to voters as a potential successor.”
That successor could be, say, Newsom himself, although the left’s fondness for him as a possible future presidential candidate pays insufficient attention to the fact that he has presided over an unprecedented flight of patriots and other sane people from the Golden State.
No sooner does Skelton raise the possibility of Harris replacing DiFi and clearing the way for the Democrats’ dream candidate (well, the Dems’ real dream candidate would be a gay trans Marxist person of color, but if they can’t find one of those, then a more ordinary Marxist will have to do) than he dismisses it: “A great idea. But it’ll never happen because it would take all of the president’s persuasive and coercive powers to pull off. And he doesn’t seem the type likely to do that.” Indeed, not only has Feinstein said that she is going to remain in the Senate until her term ends, but Harris is unlikely to give up being a heartbeat away from pretending to be president for another Senate gig. What’s more, it’s essentially out of the question that Old Joe could persuade either of them to take this course, as the man can barely formulate a coherent sentence, much less charm two egomaniacs into being humble.
–Robert Spencer, PJ Media, today.
INDUSTRY LEADER: Sandy Munro Describes Tesla Technological Lead and Speed of Innovation. “Sandy Munro takes apart all of the leading cars in the world and analyzes costs and technological from the materials and components. He describes in this interview how Tesla achieved dominance in all drivetrain and electrical efficiency in all aspects of electric cars that matter since the Model 3 six years ago.”
I’M EXPECTING EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOMS: Nuclear Weapons Expert Rates Movie Nukes.
HE’S ALWAYS BEEN A BULLY AND A CREEP: Biden Goes Full Creeper With a Bunch of Children.
RIP: Colorado nature photographer John Fielder dies after lengthy struggle with cancer. “During a career that spanned 40 years, Fielder worked to protect Colorado’s ranches, open space and wildlife. Over 50 books have been published depicting his Colorado photography. In January 2023, he donated his Colorado photography to History Colorado. The museum is the home of a collection of more than 7,000 photos distilled from 200,000 he made since 1973, and which are now available to the public for personal and commercial use.”
I have two of his books and his work, like Colorado, is breathtaking.
ACADEMIA AS A STATUS GAME: Which BLM Research Gets Cited?
In academia, citation is the coin of the realm. With occasional exceptions, professors cite more of what they value. Academics whose work is widely cited are then more likely to gain grants, tenure, promotions, and status. Since professors seek approval from administrators, funders and sometimes students, more broadly, citations demonstrate what the whole higher education industry values.
Does higher education value policy and administrative reforms likely to save black (and ideally other) lives? Or does higher education care more about virtue signalling and promoting a broad leftist agenda to enhance the power and status of academics and their institutions, whatever the impacts on most other human beings?
Take a wild guess.
MILTON FRIEDMAN ISN’T RUNNING THE SHOW ANYMORE: Mortgage rates could hit 8%, economists say, citing a worrying sign not seen since the Great Recession.
FLASHBACK: Our Caveman Politics.
THEY’RE ALREADY DOING THIS WITH WOLVES: Letting Grizzlies Terrorize Ranchers Is Climate Crazies’ Next Anti-Civilization Crusade.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA adds water detection instrument to Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft.
BIDEN’S KATRINA MOMENT: How Biden’s response to Hawaii wildfire disaster went so wrong.
THESE ARE WASTED ON ME BUT I HAVE FRIENDS WHO LOVE THEM: Federal Judge Delivers Big Win to the Premium Cigar Industry.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Breast, colon, pancreatic cancer rates rising among Americans under 50.
WHY THE LEFT WANTS EVERYONE URBANIZED:
Facial recognition now required for entering and leaving your neighborhood zone in China's 15-minute cities.
Citizens are literally living in open-air prisons, where their every move is being watched and judged by the draconian Social Credit System. https://t.co/vOqApgJHUE pic.twitter.com/C8gcbSOutM
— Songpinganq (@songpinganq) August 16, 2023
From the replies: 15 minute cities will go from “Convenient” to “Why do you need to leave?” to “You’re not authorized to leave” REALLY fast.
Yes.
RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP: More Women On Crews. StrategyPage’s latest Submarines update (from Jim Dunnigan’s How To Make War series). Buried halfway through the post: “One compelling reason for allowing women to serve was the growing shortage of men willing to do so.” The statistics quoted support that observation. The long duration of nuclear submarine patrols discouraged lots of sailors. Buried even deeper: “But the wives of American submariners have been openly hostile to the idea of mixed male/female crews and have not been reluctant to make their concerns known.” Seems they’ve gone nuclear.
THE WAGES OF BIDEN’S INCOMPETENCE AND CORRUPTION: (1) The Biden Administration’s Afghanistan Bug-Out Continues to Have Disastrous Consequences and (2) The Biden Administration’s Destruction of American Soft Power. Remember, leftists are big advocates of “soft power.”
From the second essay:
Quiet encouragement, demonstrating responsible behavior (leading by example), cultural attraction and generosity have always been U.S. diplomatic tools. The Eisenhower administration, pursuing a policy of “contact with the captive peoples,” sent American athletes and jazz musicians to Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe. Dizzy Gillespie and Dave Brubeck were both “jazz ambassadors.” Ike himself understood America’s and the West’s cultural attraction was an instrument of power in a struggle with communist tyranny. No contest. Rock ‘n’ roll beats lifeless socialist realist art.
More:
U.S. diplomats argue the rule of law forwards genuine internal stability. Fragile developing countries seeking internal stability should emulate America’s judicial system of honest courts and police forces. Eliminating corruption will strengthen all domestic institutions. The U.S. and other donor nations often demand countries receiving economic assistance confront and reduce internal corruption. Ukraine is the most notable example, while Congo is another.
My point: Joe Biden’s personal corruption in Ukraine “…undermined a U.S. soft-power diplomatic operation.” Read both essays and ponder.
BOOK OF THE DAY: No Grid Survival Projects Bible. #CommissionEarned
THE SWAMP’S REVOLVING DOOR: CNN, MSNBC Go on ‘Hiring Spree’ of Former Biden Regime Officials Ahead of 2024.
THOUGHTS ON STATUS SEEKING. When men compete: “in a sense, women are outsourcing the cognitive burden of mate selection onto the men. The men organize some kind of contest, the women stand back and observe, and then choose the victor, or the men the other males decide is talented. This is likely why in mixed sex environments, men do a lot of talking. They’re partaking in a kind of verbal jousting with one another, a playful form of verbal combat, in an attempt to show off their wit, their sense of humor, their cleverness, and so on.”
When women compete: “Females often target their rivals’ fidelity and chastity, questioning their sexual past or low standards for sexual activity. . . . They use rumors, gossip, innuendo, threats of friendship termination, and so on. Their competitions are less deadly, but also more prolonged. Women are generally less forgiving of their rivals and more likely to hold a grudge compared with men.”
BRYAN CAPLAN: Measuring male marriageability.