Archive for 2023

ENDORSED: House Speaker introduces bill to extend commercial spaceflight regulatory learning period. “Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy has introduced legislation that would extend a restriction on the Federal Aviation Administration’s ability to regulate commercial human spaceflight safety by another eight years. McCarthy announced Sept. 21 he has introduced the Space Transformation And Reliability (STAR) Act. The one-page bill would extend what is alternatively called a ‘learning period’ or moratorium on certain safety regulations, set to expire at the end of this month, through September 2031.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Legit Question — How Is Chicago Even Still Here? “My headline question was, of course, mostly tongue-in-cheek. Still, it does look like Chicago is an asylum that permanently bequeaths the keys to the craziest inmates. As we’ve seen in other super blue cities, there will be no Republicans, or even moderate Democrats elected again. Johnson is already making his predecessor Lori Lightfoot look like Cato the Elder.”

PRICE CONTROLS NEVER WORK: How Russia’s Playing Games With Gas Prices Became A Big Problem For Its War.

If fuel prices are higher abroad than in Russia, the government provides additional compensation to oil companies for supplying the domestic market. Conversely, if foreign prices are lower, oil companies contribute to the government’s budget. This mechanism guards against a scenario in which nearly all fuel is exported, creating a domestic shortage.

In their “quest to maintain control”, Vakulenko points out, the government has decided to “tether real fuel prices to strict inflation-based increments, regardless of how logical or reasonable market fluctuations might be”. This endeavor, Vakulenko explains, is akin to the authorities attempting to peg the exchange rate of the dollar at a fixed value, say 70 or 80 rubles, and compensating banks for the difference between this rate and the market rate.

However, this attempt to outsmart the market has planted a ticking time bomb. Oil companies have long been required to bear substantial costs to maintain price stability. In the previous year, when oil prices were particularly high, these compensations amounted to a staggering 2.2 trillion rubles ($23 billion), nearly a fifth of the total windfall generated from the oil and gas industry, which amounted to 11.6 trillion rubles ($120 billion).

While the government’s efforts to control fuel prices may yield short-term stability, they come at a considerable cost, potentially jeopardizing the long-term financial health of the oil and gas sector and the broader economy.

Russian oil production is already “among the most expensive in the world.”

THAT’S CERTAINLY THE GOAL: Voters: Biden’s America becoming a ‘police state.’

Nearly three-quarters of voters believe that America is “becoming” a police state under President Joe Biden, whose administration has invested heavily in investigations of Republican politicians and political challengers.

According to the latest Rasmussen Reports survey, 72% said that they are concerned that “America is becoming a police state.”

They’ve noticed, despite the censorship.

Flashback: Majority see FBI as Biden’s ‘personal Gestapo’ after Trump raid.

Related: ‘Strong-arming:’ Appeals court judges compare Biden social media pressure to mafia.

#JOURNALISM: David Brooks is laughing at you, peasant. “If anybody wonders why so many of us think our elite are trash, refer them to this clueless tweet from David Brooks. He lectures us obsessively, interprets the feelings of average Americans for the benefit of his peers, and hasn’t got a clue about how the other half actually lives. Brooks got quite the ratio on Twitter and deserved it. But scoring points at his expense advances the debate not at all. Understanding why he and his colleagues are clueless, however, is useful.”

Flashback: How David Brooks Created Donald Trump.

Related:

JOANNE JACOBS: I am a rockgender, I am an autismgender.

Gender Spectrum, which Eden calls “arguably the most influential gender identity nonprofit in K-12 education,” is training “tens of thousands of teachers, administrators . . . and other leaders to create gender inclusive environments.”

In a 2022 video, “Intro to Neoidentities and Neopronouns,” Naomi Cruz, then Gender Spectrum’s manager of family and educational programming, explains that gender identity isn’t confined to variations on male and female, reports the watchdog group OpenTheBooks. There are an infinite number of identities, including “noungenders” such as rocks.

The current neo-identity movement got its start on Tumblr in the mid-2010s with emoji-self genders and unpronounceable pronouns, Cruz says in the video.

“If a man identifies as a woman, then, according to gender ideologues, he truly is a woman,” writes Eden. “However, if a man identifies as the moon, he is not necessarily the moon. It might just mean that he identifies with society’s perception of the moon.”

I hope that clears things up for you.

GRIFTERS GONNA GRIFT: Like other ‘antiracist’ activists, Ibram X. Kendi proves he’s only in it for himself.

The real measure of an individual’s character isn’t what he portrays to the public but how he treats people in private.

Truly righteous people treat others with respect and dignity when there is no one else around and no social credit to be earned for doing the right thing.

This distinction matters — especially for people who’ve made a career lecturing others on the appropriate way to treat people, especially those perceived as having less power in society.

But when no one was looking and nothing was to be gained, it seems Ibram X. Kendi used his power and privilege as the director of a think tank to exploit and mistreat the people who worked under him as if they were people who are beneath him.

Amid confirmation of layoffs being made at Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research, former and current faculty have spoken out about Kendi’s mismanagement, “exploitation” and enrichment.

It’s always like that with these lefty heroes.

UNEXPECTEDLY! 95% of NFTs are Worthless: Report.

NFTs went mainstream, and then the bubble burst, as it often does. The financial failure does not even begin to scratch the surface of the environmental devastation wrought by crypto, either. It is unclear what the vast majority of crypto and NFT owners have gotten in return for accelerating climate change.

Iowahawk is taking his financial setback relatively well…