NOT SEXY ENOUGH TO GET THE ATTENTION IT DESERVES: CDR Salamander: Sealift: a Tragedy of Numbers. “Have you ever seen the horror movie where victims knew they were doomed left a written record – or just their name – so there would be some proof they ever existed? Maybe they left evidence for others in the future to find out what happened, who the perpetrator was … what caused the unfolding tragedy? After reading the letter of February 6th from Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), Chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, to Ann C. Phillips, Administrator, Maritime Administration, that is exactly what came to mind.”
Archive for 2024
February 20, 2024
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: Underappreciated Albums: ‘The Dana Owens Album.’
READER FAVORITE: Orange Ninja Knife Sharpeners for Kitchen. #CommissionEarned
BEHIND THE CURVE: This State Might Ban Gasoline Cars. Here’s Who’s Fighting Back.
Banning internal combustion engines is so 2022.
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Naked, Drunk ‘Migrant’ Attacks Amazon Driver but Then Things Got Weird.
READER FAVORITE: Keurig K-Express Coffee Maker, Single Serve K-Cup Pod Coffee Brewer. #CommissionEarned
SCENES FROM THE GLOBAL BABY BUST: A novel elderly care robot could soon provide personal assistance, enhancing seniors’ quality of life.
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Democrats Concerned Biden May Be Too Old To Finish Destroying Country.
But with Kamala, Michelle, and Gavin all waiting in the wings to parachute in and finish the job that Joe’s boss started, they really aren’t, are they?
IT’S PAST TIME: Is Nikki Haley About to Drop Out?
RIDICULOUS, GENDER IS SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED: Neural network model identifies distinct brain organization patterns in women and men.
IT’S A PITY THEY CAN’T BOTH LOSE: Krugman vs. Krugman. “The soundness of Krugman’s 2006 views on labor economics and immigration has not diminished. What has changed since, however, is the political environment. In 2024, what Krugman said 18 years ago now counts as white nationalist, nativist bigotry, and economic illiteracy.”
BRING ON THE DEEPFAKES: OpenAI unveils new text-to-video generator Sora.
THAT WOULD BE “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” FOR THE DHS: R.I. Teacher Warns That DHS-Funded ‘Media Literacy’ Program Will ‘Indoctrinate Children.’
DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERCA: Seattle activists declare a ‘homosexual intifada.’
NEW: Keffiyeh-donning gay activists in Seattle have declared a “homosexual intifada.”
It signals activists will become violent to support terrorists who would toss them from the highest rooftop the moment they accuse someone of misgendering them.
Read👇🏻https://t.co/6jr3kj6HL5
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) February 20, 2024
Is it possible the Seattle homosexual intifada flyer is meant to envision a world in which gay Palestinians fight back in Gaza? Are they trolling us with their flyer? Not likely. The pro-Hamas faction of Seattle activists has consistently downplayed or ignored Hamas terrorism against Jews because they believe “resistance is justified when people are occupied.”
Generally, Hamas’ dangerous hostility to the LGBT community is ignored. But in the rare instances in which it is not, progressive activists use their hatred of Jews to gaslight. Radical Swarthmore professor Sa’ed Atshan dismissed Hamas and Gazan homophobia as if it’s no different than anywhere else. In an interview, Atshan tries to explain why there’s “queer solidarity” with Palestinians without having to mention it’s driven by blatant antisemitism, historical ignorance, or both.
Atshan noted, “Homophobia is not unique to Palestinian society. It exists in most parts of the world, including in Israeli society, as well as here in the United States.” He even manages to blame Jews for homophobia in Gaza, falsely claiming they participate in a brutal military occupation of Gaza.
“It’s very dangerous to pathologize Palestinian society as uniquely homophobic or that homophobia is endemic to the society without this broader context, as well as without understanding the ways that life under brutal military occupation exacerbates homophobia within Palestinian society as well.
Some broader context:
● What It’s Like to Be Gay in Gaza: Meeting Israelis on Dating Apps, Evading Hamas and Plotting Escape. In a society where homosexuality could be punishable by death, gay Gazans keep their identity secret.
● Hamas Executes Prominent Commander After Accusations of Gay Sex.
GET IN SHAPE: DMoose Fitness Forearm Exerciser – Hand, Wrist and Forearm Strengthener. #CommissionEarned
HE SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME: Biden Claims in East Palestine ‘Since Day One.’
ELON NEEDS ALLIES: Musk’s SpaceX Forges Tighter Links With U.S. Spy and Military Agencies: Company has grown from a for-hire rocket launcher into a major national-security contractor. His overriding goal is to establish a spacefaring civilization. To ward off his enemies, he’s allied himself with the most powerful part of the Deep State. I hope it works. The risk is that SpaceX will be turned into just another bloated defense contractor. I think that risk is low as long as Musk is at the helm.
ACE OF SPADES: The New Yorker: Is The Media Prepared for an Extinction-Level Event?
Note that this is a different article from the similarly titled “Is the Media Heading Towards an Extinction-Level Event?” that appeared in The Atlantic February 2nd.
The media basically just copies from each other and writes the same ten pieces over and over again.
Is the Media Prepared for an Extinction-Level Event? Ads are scarce, search and social traffic is dying, and readers are burned out. The future will require fundamentally rethinking the press’s relationship to its audience.
It would be nice if you stopped lying to that audience all the time.
And as far as an audience being “burned out:” maybe you could stop the endless Cycles of Crisis where one Outrage is only displaced by the next Cause for Alarm and then that is replaced by the next Moral Panic.
Maybe your liberal readers — who are highly neurotic, as every survey shows — wouldn’t be so burned out if you weren’t constantly lighting their nervous systems on fire with your panic pornography.
A report that tracked layoffs in the industry in 2023 recorded twenty-six hundred and eighty-one in broadcast, print, and digital news media. NBC News, Vox Media, Vice News, Business Insider, Spotify, theSkimm, FiveThirtyEight, The Athletic, and Condé Nast–the publisher of The New Yorker–all made significant layoffs. BuzzFeed News closed, as did Gawker. The Washington Post, which lost about a hundred million dollars last year, offered buyouts to two hundred and forty employees. In just the first month of 2024, Condé Nast laid off a significant number of Pitchfork’s staff and folded the outlet into GQ; the Los Angeles Times laid off at least a hundred and fifteen workers (their union called it “the big one”); Time cut fifteen per cent of its union-represented editorial staff; the Wall Street Journal slashed positions at its D.C. bureau; and Sports Illustrated, which had been weathering a scandal for publishing A.I.-generated stories, laid off much of its staff as well. One journalist recently cancelled a networking phone call with me, writing, “I’ve decided to officially take my career in a different direction.” There wasn’t much I could say to counter that conclusion; it was perfectly logical.
Keep talking that hot, sweaty sexytalk.
If only someone could have predicted the potentially disastrous impact of being myopic coastal-oriented publications that ignored or insulted the views of millions of Americans living in the vast region it dismissed as “flyover country.” If only:
BIDENOMICS: Plans to Expand U.S. Chip Manufacturing Are Running Into Obstacles.
The delays come as the Biden administration begins dispensing the first major awards from a $39 billion pot of money aimed at building up the U.S. semiconductor industry and reducing the nation’s dependence on technology manufactured in East Asia. On Monday, the administration said it would award $1.5 billion in grants to the chipmaker GlobalFoundries to upgrade and expand facilities in New York and Vermont that make chips for automakers and the defense industry.
But the issues that companies like TSMC face with their projects could undercut this fanfare, raising questions about the prospects of success for President Biden’s industrial policy program. The investments are expected to figure heavily in Mr. Biden’s re-election campaign over the next few months.
“Nothing has failed yet,” said Emily Kilcrease, a senior fellow and the director of the energy, economics and security program at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think tank.
“Nothing has failed yet” is quite the endorsement.
OK, NOW YOU CAN PANIC: CNN Claims That Calm, Cool Kamala Is Taking Charge.