MEMORY-HOLED: The great cancellation: why megabucks TV shows are vanishing without a trace.

Two years ago, Nautilus was big news. A vast, expensive Disney+ prequel to Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Nautilus promised to tell the early story of Captain Nemo as he embarked on an epic submarine adventure, seeking revenge on his former captors the East India Company. A colossal replica submarine was built. Several soundstages on Australia’s Gold Coast were given over to it. Hundreds of crew members were hired alongside hundreds of extras. Filming took almost a year. The Queensland government claimed that the series would inject A$96m into the local economy. It looked certain to be a hit; an exciting new big-budget spectacle, underpinned with contemporary themes, based on a legendary piece of intellectual property. Nautilus couldn’t go wrong.

Except nobody is going to see Nautilus because, even though it has already been made, Disney+ has decided not to stream it. Clearly, this is unusual. The television industry has a long history of dropping previously announced shows for a variety of reasons – 2004’s animated Popetown was canned by the BBC after complaints from Catholics, 2017’s The Cops was axed after reports of creator Louis CK’s sexual misconduct came to light, and 2021’s Ultimate Slip ’N Slide was cancelled after the crew all came down with a highly infectious variant of explosive diarrhoea that can be spread through tainted water. But Disney+ has a different reason for getting rid of Nautilus: it was axed as a cost-cutting exercise.

In May, Disney+ announced a content removal plan designed to cut US$1.5bn worth of content, meaning it substantially reduces the company’s value, giving it a lot less tax to pay.

There’s also this angle: Investors Sue Disney Over Alleged Chapek Era “Cost-Shifting Scheme” to Hide Streaming Losses. “The suit claims that company executives hid the expense and difficulty of maintaining subscriber growth as it suffered “staggering costs” to create content. In an effort to hide losses, the complaint claims, former chief executive Bob Chapek, his lieutenant Kareem Daniel and former CFO Christine McCarthy aired The Mysterious Benedict Society and Doogie Kameāloha, M.D. — which were supposed to be Disney+ originals — on the Disney Channel to make the streaming service appear more successful than it actually was.”

Whatever you think is going on at Disney, the truth is probably worse.

YOU GOTTA SERVE SOMEBODY (OR SOMETHING): Bob Dylan had it exactly right with his “You Gotta Serve Somebody” and the Colson Center’s Joseph Backholm puts some interesting new spins on the ageless truth in the latest installment of “What Would You Say?” this morning on HillFaith.

GOOD: Louisiana Man Cleared to Sue Cops After SWAT Raid Over Facebook Joke.

EVERYTHING GETS HACKED: Hackers have discovered a loophole to ‘jailbreak’ Tesla’s paywall-blocked driving features, saving them thousands.

SDVs basically mean that some Tesla features, which are already built into the cars, are locked behind a paywall, requiring customers to pay extra if they want to use them. Some features in this category include a heated steering wheel, footwell lights, an “acceleration boost,” or the brand’s $15,000 Full Self-Driving feature.

Now, a group of hackers has discovered a way to “jailbreak” those paywalled features, and it looks like Tesla can’t do anything about it.

The team of hackers from Germany — a security researcher and three Ph.D. students — figured out a way to trick Tesla’s Media Control Unit (MCU) into thinking that certain purchases had already been made.

The reason that Tesla is powerless to stop it is that the MCU operates using a computer processor made by another company, called AMD. The hack targets AMD’s technology instead of Tesla’s proprietary tech.

In order for Tesla to stop this hack from spreading, it would have to physically swap out the MCUs in its cars with a new type of processor. That said, it’s possible the practice could invalidate warranties or other software updates if ever detected by Tesla, as is often the case with mobile phone and video game hardware.

If you ever took a jailbroken Tesla into the dealer for service, you’d definitely have some ‘splainin to do.

DEI IS TURNING EXERCISE SCIENCE INTO ‘HARRISON BERGERON.’ Boy, I can’t wait until we get to the point where doctors and physical therapists don’t tell white people what they need to do to get healthier because that would lead to inequitable outcomes. Imagine the benefits! No seriously, you will have to imagine them because I don’t think a real one exists.

DISQUALIFICATION BY OPED? Law professors: ‘Insurrection’ disqualifies Trump in 2024: But two left-leaning law professors dismiss idea.

THAT WOULD BE FUN: Trump Says He Might Join GOP Primary Debates.

FIRST, SILENCE EVERYONE WHO CRITICIZES YOU WHILE YOU DO IT. THEN PRETEND YOU NEVER DID IT. Democrats Try To Whitewash Their Starring Role in School Closures: School closers (and too many journalists) want to evade responsibility for a catastrophic decision.

THAT SOUNDS BIGOTED TO ME: RIT permits locker room use based on gender identity but admits it would be ‘awkward’ for a man to be in a women’s locker room.

Besides, if he identifies as a woman, he’s a woman, not a man. Duh.

MASSIVE RESISTANCE: Universities are asking applicants about race even after affirmative action ruling.

YOU DON’T SAY: The Fed’s preferred inflation measures are back on the rise.

After finally declining in June, giving the Federal Reserve hopes of pulling off a soft landing at last, one of the central bank’s preferred inflation measures was back on a precipitous rise in July. Headline PCE inflation rose by 3.3% in the year ending in July, up from 3% in June. For the first time since January, core PCE inflation, perhaps the most important inflation measure for the Fed, increased to 4.2%, more than twice the Fed’s maximum target of just 2% inflation on an annual basis.

Dig into the details, and the data only becomes more disappointing. Core services sans housing, a favored inflation measure of both the Fed and the White House, accelerated to a staggering 4.7% in the 12 months ending in July, up from 4.1%. This defies the claim of Raphael Bostic of the Atlanta Fed that “stubborn (and lagging) housing services prices” are solely responsible for core inflation not falling to the Fed’s benchmark.

Anybody who lives and shops in the real world isn’t surprised by any of this.

DEEPLY IGNORANT, BUT ENTIRELY SURE OF THEMSELVES: Gadsden flag: How ignorant are the folks running the schools?

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Team Biden Continues Two-Pronged Assault on 2nd Amendment and Small Businesses. “As we examine the story further, it’s important to remember that Democrats have contempt for small business owners. People who can’t be forced into unionizing and stuffing the coffers of the Democratic Big Labor slush fund are useless to them.”

OUCH: Trump’s Donor Money Just Plummeted by $101 Million — What Happens to Election Funds If They Go Negative?

Save America, the leadership PAC founded by former President Donald Trump, has less than $4 million cash on hand, after siphoning over $101 million to pay legal fees for Trump and his allies since the beginning of 2022, reports the New York Times.

Mid-year tax filings for PACs provide awareness about presidential campaign funding and how those funds are being used. In Save America’s case, money that could be going to necessary campaign needs or political work, is being spent overwhelmingly on the former president’s and his associates’ pending legal cases.

According to its mid-year Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing, the Save America PAC has spent approximately $25 million in the first half of 2023, $21.6 million of that went to legal fees.

This is the direct (and intended) result of the Democrats’ coordinated legal campaign against Trump.

GREAT MOMENTS IN STATE-RUN MEDIA: NPR Moves Its Goal Posts On Senility From Trashing Trump’s Age To Defending Biden’s Decline.

NPR tried to reassure Americans that their commander in chief, who has suffered several notable spills in recent months, forgets certain people have died, and speaks in lies sprinkled with gibberish, is just taking normal precautions to avoid “bad optics.”

“Using the safer stairs is common sense, says an aging expert,” one of the article’s subheads suggested.

The publication conceded that “recent presidents mostly used the tall stairs” to enter the iconic aircraft but defended short stairs for Biden as a procedural decision that benefits everyone and should alarm no one.

“When Biden is asked about his age, he often says, ‘Watch me.’” Last week, while he was on vacation, he twice went to pilates and spin classes at a fitness studio called Pelodog. And then he boarded Air Force One to return to Washington, using the short stairs,” NPR states.

The author even quoted Obama adviser David Axelrod, who said he “isn’t convinced voters will care about this,” in an attempt to beef up its case for Biden.

“You don’t measure presidents by their ability to navigate steps,” Axelrod declared. “You elect presidents based on their ability to navigate problems.”

Really? The first season of Saturday Night Live crucified Jerry Ford every week for precisely that.

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Have you missed them?

If you struggle to tolerate all five of these hosts giving their own shows’ usual opening monologues on the issues of the day, then imagine all five of them, giving the same monologue, while talking over each other. In the first episode they dive into the writers’ strike from 2005, because that’s a historical event that not many people seem to remember or, much like this writers’ strike, care about. This is a podcast about the hosts, talking about the hosts and an entertainment strike, a problem that seems to be at the back of most Americans’ minds, as they face up to with issues like inflation and credit card debt.

That’s ultimately the real problem with Strike Force Five: it’s boring. Their writers aren’t available for jokes, so it’s mostly just five talk-show hosts talking about how they aren’t talk-showing, instead discussing the name of the podcast and the cute nicknames they have given each other. John Oliver and Stephen Colbert were comedian colleagues while appearing on The Daily Show, so you would think there might be some funny behind-the-scenes stories there. Alas the listener isn’t treated to any of that. Instead they get to hear why John Oliver is listed as “Joliver” in Stephen Colbert’s phone. Hilarious. Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon were writers and performers on Saturday Night Live together; the history of backstage antics from that show’s cast members is legendary. Sorry, no, no stories about that either. It’s mainly five former comedians, making a living off their politics now, all talking about themselves. Jimmy Kimmel likes to fish. That’s interesting, I guess.

Or as America’s Newspaper of Record notes: Five Late Night Hosts Combine Forces In Vain Attempt To Produce A Single Funny Joke.

UNEXPECTEDLY: Democrat senator wants to BLOCK Hurricane Idalia relief—unless it includes more money for Ukraine.

MAKE AMERICA PLAY NICE WITH OUR ENEMIES AGAIN: Biden Regime’s Clueless Military Has Former Official of Government That Chants ‘Death to America’ Address Symposium.

GEORGIA: Warnock’s Church Resumes Evictions From Low-Income Apartment Building as It Enriches the Senator.

SAYING THE QUIET PART OUT LOUD: Biden says government’s ‘gonna need a whole hell of a lot more money’ to spend.

Covid “relief.” Ukraine. Global warming. It’s as if Milton Friedman isn’t running the show anymore. (Not that he ever did, of course.)

INSTAPUNDIT READERS KNEW THIS AT THE TIME: Philadelphia Fed GDPplus Measure Sure Looks Like Recession Started in 2022 Q4. “In 100 percent of the cases, with no false signals, no misses, and no lead times more than two quarters, every time GDPplus had two consecutive quarters of negative growth, the economy was in recession.”

Lots of data and charts at the link, if you’re into that kind of thing.

LIGHTNING DEAL: YTD Men’s Casual Slim Fit Basic Henley Long Sleeve T-Shirt. #CommissionEarned

HOW IT STARTED:

No, Los Angeles is and should remain a Sanctuary City and the LAPD should not be burdened with the federal government’s responsibility to enforce immigration law. I do not support an ICE presence in local and state correctional facilities, nor do I support ICE transfers, absent a judicial warrant.

—“Karen Bass on how she will reach Latino voters,” Calo News, November 1st, 2022.

How it’s going: Los Angeles City Council wants Texas Gov. Abbott to face human trafficking charges over busing of migrants.

—The Blaze, yesterday.

Earlier: Sanctuary Cities Seethe as Illegal Immigrants Actually Arrive.

The surest sign that public policies are simply virtue signals is when the messages don’t cost anything. The easiest way to tell when that signal starts to fail is to watch politicians flounder as the costs start to rise and voters demand relief.

It was free—and meaningless—for progressive churches to post banners calling themselves “nuclear free zones” during the Reagan era. Their dwindling congregations loved it. It was free, after George Floyd‘s murder, to post woke catechism signs on your front lawn, proclaiming “In this house, we believe: Black Lives Matter, women’s rights are human rights, no human is illegal” and so on. Maybe the neighbors gave you high-fives. And for years it has been free for deep-blue cities to proclaim themselves “sanctuaries” for illegal immigrants. That’s changing now that voters want some sanctuary for themselves.

Changes like this happen when voters realize the old virtue signals actually entail serious costs—and that they will have to pay them. That is exactly what’s happening in New York City and Washington D.C. now that Texas governor Greg Abbott is sending those cities a few busloads of illegal immigrants from his state.

These progressive bastions were silent when the Biden administration flew planeloads of illegal immigrants to suburban airports in the middle of the night. TV coverage was prohibited, and the arrivals were secretly dispersed. Abbott’s buses, by contrast, arrive downtown greeted by local TV crews. Now you can hear the politicians screech.

Why, it’s as if: Democrats Discover Only The Federal Government Can Solve The Border Crisis.

FLASHBACK: Don Surber: What Rule of Law?

FINGERS CROSSED THAT NOBODY IS STUPID ENOUGH TO START ONE: Yeah, We’re Going to Lose World War III to China.