SPOILER: THEY’LL STILL DESPISE US. US military pier for Gaza costs $320 million, Pentagon says.

The U.S. military’s initial cost of the temporary floating pier off Gaza’s coast is about $320 million, a Pentagon official said Monday.

“We’ve been very clear this is a temporary solution to help get humanitarian aid into Gaza. This is just one other way of getting aid in,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters.

The figure, first reported by Reuters, has not previously been disclosed about the operation that includes about 1,000 American troops.

The pier, known as Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS, is meant to provide a new way to deliver badly needed aid into Gaza. The World Health Organization has warned some 2.3 million Gaza inhabitants face extreme hunger that could become a full-blown famine by next month as Israel continues its war against Hamas militants, who launched a surprise assault in October from the enclave.

President Joe Biden first announced the JLOTS operation on March 7 during his State of the Union speech. One day later, Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said the temporary pier would be operational within about 60 days.

We’re getting laughed at on so many levels.

NHS PROBLEMS: Pathogens including multi-drug resistant superbugs found on floors, ceilings and door handles of UK hospital toilets.

DISPATCHES FROM A UNIVERSITY KNOWN FOR ITS LEGENDARY JOURNALISM SCHOOL: Columbia Suspends Media Access to Campus ‘As a Safety Measure.’

MORE RED PILLS TAKEN IN LEFTIST MEDIA? We’ve seen rage quitting on various levels from Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss and most recently Uri Berliner.

Add to the list now The Intercept‘s Ken Klippenstein, who announced his departure from the far-left news site:

I want to be an unabashed partisan for the vast majority of Americans who despise the people who run the country, putting my finger in the eye of the elites frog marching us through their managed decline of the American standard of living.

***

“The most effective way I can do this is through journalism that arms you with a better understanding of subjects elites don’t like the rabble meddling with […] I also want to be able to write without fear of billionaires, wealth or Wall Street. And when I say journalism, I’m not talking about “democracy dying in darkness” or “holding power to account” or any of that sanctimonious bullshit. I’m talking about being a thorn in the side of our self-appointed betters.”

Say what you will, but I believe true and honest liberals — in the classic sense — have more in common with today’s “conservatives” than ever…and people who identify as “conservative” or even “libertarian” should support these people.

You don’t have to agree with every policy point they hold. Understand that a commitment to honesty is what’s at stake here. We can quibble about specific policy issues later.

WATCH: Nancy Pelosi Has a Meltdown After MSNBC Challenges Her Talking Points.

SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Healthy lifestyle could counteract effects of life-shortening genes.

THEY’LL TURN US ALL INTO BEGGARS ‘CAUSE THEY’RE EASIER TO PLEASE: 1 in 4 Worry They’ll Lose Their Job In the Next Year. “The anxiety among American workers appears justified. Biden and his Democrat allies at the state and local level have made immigrant employment a top policy priority — a move that has suppressed the wages of American workers — in the name of combating inflation.”

DON SURBER: The lesson from Columbia: The protest is not getting much traction for several reasons. “The first reason is nobody cares. Jim Carville had a rant on Twitter and he said of 15 issues people under 30 were asked to rank, young people listed the Palestinian war as No. 15. . . . The well-funded communists who organize these protests may as well be talking about the Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict.”

The Palestinians are the authors of their own misfortunes, and everyone knows it, even the people who won’t admit it.

Also, there’s a distinct shortage of giant puppets. How can you take a lefty protest seriously when they don’t bring the giant puppets?

PARTY OF YOUTH UPDATE: Or, Old and Busted: Listen to the kids!

The New Hotness? James Carville Has a Message for the Kids. The message: “You suck!”

As is so often the case, Democrats believe that they own the votes of certain populations, and younger voters (people who don’t yet have jobs or families and hence don’t understand anything about how the world works) are one of the demographics to which they are entitled every vote.

Carville is directly responding to the bad news for Biden in Harvard’s latest poll of young voters, which indicates that the president’s popularity with young people is much lower in 2024 than it was in 2020.

Or as his boss’s wife would say, “You don’t have to fall in love, you just have to fall in line.”

UNSUNG HERO: If the day ever comes that the story of the recovery of American liberty is written, one of the most prominent names will surely be that of Columbia University Law Professor Philip Hamburger, founder of the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA).

I first came into contact with the good professor during my years at the Washington Examiner investigating abuses by trial lawyers, one of the groups that has most benefitted from the growth of the Administrative State.

Today on the Epoch Times, Kevin Stocklin tells the story of the successes achieved in a short six years by the NCLA and Hamburger’s troops. This is a must-read both because it clarifies so precisely the heart of the evil of the Administrative State and in doing so moves America one huge step closer to the restoration.

PRIORITIES: Fatal Truck Crashes Pile Up as the Biden Administration Remains Blasé About Highway Safety.

READER FAVORITE: Where Should We Camp Next?: Budget Camping: A 50-State Guide to Budget-Friendly Campgrounds and Free and Low-Cost Outdoor Activities. #CommissionEarned

WE’VE DESCENDED INTO SOME SORT OF BIZARRE HELL-WORLD IN WHICH PIERS MORGAN IS A VOICE OF SANITY: Where the hell are the parents of these deluded Columbia students chanting about attacking Jews?

Intifada is an Arabic phrase that translates to “uprising” or “shaking off.”

It became notoriously immortalized by the two intifadas that erupted in 1987 and 2000 — when Palestinians rose up against what they deemed to be the long-time Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The First Intifada, which lasted for six years until 1993, escalated into violent riots and acts of terrorism by Palestinians against Israelis, fueled by a very aggressive Israeli military response, and caused the deaths of 160 Israelis and 1,087 Palestinians.

The Second Intifada, which lasted for five years until 2005, involved significantly worse violence and acts of terrorism from Palestinians against Israelis, amid a significantly more aggressive Israeli military response, that led to 1,000 Israeli and 3,000 Palestinian deaths.

Whatever your view of the rights and wrongs of any of this, there is one undeniable fact: The Intifadas were violent uprisings.

And here’s another undeniable fact: When Jewish people hear the word “intifada,” they believe it denotes a desire to do them violent harm.

So, these chants and banners, accompanied by acts of increasing violence and intimidation, will have sent a shudder down the spine of many Jewish undergrads.

Yes, yes — I know there are some Jewish students joining the protests too.

But honestly, I wonder what the hell they’re thinking if they’re involving themselves in those chants or standing near those banners, or seeing fellow Jews being jostled and threatened?

Are they really encouraging another violent uprising against their own people?

If so, have they taken leave of their senses?

And where the hell are THEIR parents?

Many of them must be horrified, but why aren’t they doing anything about it?

Aside from the hideous anti-Semitic rhetoric, if I was paying $400,000 to have my child educated at Columbia, I wouldn’t be too happy seeing that child risking their chances of completing their course or even jeopardizing future employment by chanting on camera about launching a violent attack on Jewish people.

In fact, I’d be bloody livid.

Especially if I then saw scores of faculty members in orange safety vests, joining the students in solidarity.

“We salute you, we stand with you,” bellowed Shana Redmond, a professor of English and comparative literature, to the mob with her megaphone. “And we’re so proud to be your professors.”

Unlike Volkswagen, Hugo Boss has never entirely shaken off its image as being the outfitter of choice for those who wish to party like it’s 1939. But as Iowahawk noted yesterday, the 21st century “anti-Zionist” need only go to Amazon or Home Depot to get his fascist freak flag on:

It used to be all Defund The Police, and now these stupid tankie mfs are all putting on $9.95 Amazon reflective vests and calling themselves 'marshals' https://t.co/w9uiAB1puJ

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) April 29, 2024

If I'm Home Depot, I'm installing a special aisle for campus dipshit supplies. Reflective vests, empty paint bucket for drum circles, and whatnot

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) April 29, 2024

FIRST, DENVER FORCED WOLF REINTRODUCTION IN COLORAD’S RURAL AREAS. THEN THE INEVITABLE HAPPENED, AS IT ALWAYS SEEMS TO DO: Another calf death reported at ranch where 4 cattle were killed by wolves.

“We’ve got to keep up the pressure,” Ritschard said. “That’s all we can do right now, putting pressure towards CPW, but I don’t know. I really don’t know where we go now.”

Ritschard said the ranch where the most recent kill occurred is going to continue trying nonlethal methods to prevent attacks.

“How many more are we going to have until something’s done?” he asked. “Are we gonna have a yearling, or two yearlings, killed every 10 days?”

A map released Wednesday by CPW shows that gray wolves have crossed into watersheds east of the Continental Divide and onto the Front Range.

“They’ve still been in the area, and we’ve still been seeing them at night,” Ritschard said.

The new CPW map shows collared wolf activity between March 26 and April 23. The map shows that over the past month, at least one wolf with a GPS collar traveled in watersheds in Larimer County.

CPW also said on Wednesday that it has launched a website for wolf depredation reports to keep the public informed about confirmed livestock deaths by wolves.
CPW confirmed the latest cattle death Sunday evening on its website. The agency did not respond to 9NEWS’ questions.

Wolves have now killed six cattle in Grand County this month.

“At the rate this is going, there isn’t going to be any livestock left in this country,” Ritschard said.

Denver-Boulder Democrats don’t care what happens to the livestock, so long as the ranchers are eventually driven out.

GLEICHSCHALTUNG: Would You Like a Little State Propaganda with Your Amateur Pr0n? “I think they just wanted some edgy girl of color to just tell people – when they nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson, they’re like, ‘Can you say as a person of color, you know, you feel reflected?'”

WOEING: Boeing is borrowing $10 billion as it burns cash fixing its issues.

In March, Boeing CFO Brian West warned investors that fixing his company’s problems would be expensive. He wasn’t kidding: When Boeing presented earnings last week, it reported burning through nearly $4 billion in cash.

Bloomberg reports that there was nearly $80 billion in demand for the debt, which helped Boeing get a better interest rate. Both Moody’s and S&P have Boeing just a notch away from a speculative-grade (or “junk”) credit rating, which would substantially reduce the pool of money that would be allowed to purchase its bonds and notes. Moody’s reiterated its wariness in the rating it put on the new borrowings, giving the notes a “Baa3″ rating, also one step above speculative-territory.

“The negative outlook incorporates Moody’s view that the headwinds buffeting Commercial Airplanes will persist at least through 2026,” the firm said in a note explaining the rating for Boeing’s latest debt offerings. “The path to restoring compliance, higher quality and strong cash flow in its commercial aircraft assembly operations remains fraught with execution risk.”

The engineers need to be back in charge again but the Commercial Airplanes division’s new CEO is finance specialist Stephanie Pope.

PAYING THE PRICE FOR BIGOTRY: New York City to pay over $2 million settlement for discrimination against white educators.

SADLY, THE LEFT STILL CAN’T MEME: You Love to See It: Left Goes Memes-Out Against ‘Genocide Joe’ Biden.

GOOD FOR THEM: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Jewish ASU frat boys speak out after viral video shows them helping cops throw away Gaza Glampers’ tents: “It’s our duty to help keep our freedoms secure. Jews should not have to feel threatened to hide on campus, when they call for ‘Jewish genocide’ the answer was extremely clear: help the police.”

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Can Turning Office Towers Into Apartments Save Downtowns? “Early in the conversion process, Berman’s construction team removed the fluorescent-tube lighting and the dropped PVC ceilings. Then workers knocked down the drywall that had once delineated corner offices, windowless offices, rest rooms, mop closets. “We do a very thorough gut renovation,” Berman told me. “We literally take everything out.” At 55 Broad, the result was nearly four hundred thousand square feet of raw space, with a potential to generate more than thirty million dollars in rental income annually. But Berman still had a major puzzle to solve: If no one wanted to work in a glum, out-of-date building, why would anyone want to live there?”

Conversions are expensive, time-consuming, and by themselves don’t do anything to address the policy decisions driving people away from Democrat-run urban centers.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Woke Scolds Won’t Be Able to Cancel Jerry Seinfeld. “Comedy has been under assault from the Left for quite a while now. There are a variety of reasons for that, a couple of which we’ll get to here. Chief among them, of course, is the fact that leftists are inherently miserable people who abhor levity. Oh, they’ll insist that isn’t the case, but they’ve got a rather large body of work out there to reference.”

LOOKING FOR A CRIMINAL/DUI LAWYER IN THE CHATTANOOGA/NORTH GEORGIA AREA? You can’t do better than my former student Meredith Mochel, criminal lawyer extraordinaire, who also serves as this blog’s Contributing Tik Tok Editor, which means that she follows Tik Tok so that I don’t have to, and shares clips with me that might interest other InstaPundit readers. I was speaking down her way a few years ago and I asked the public defender if he knew her and he responded that she had taken over a murder case from their office and done a truly amazing job. I was like well of course, she was my student. Helen and I get together with her from time to time, and it’s always fun to hear those two doing a deep dive on criminal forensics.

Her office is dog friendly, too.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY:

BREAKING: 43% of small businesses were unable to pay their rent in full in April due to economic headwinds.

That’s the highest rent delinquency rate since March 2021, per Bloomberg.

— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) April 29, 2024

More:

Independent restaurants are having the most trouble, with 52% not paying April rent on time. On the other hand, just 20% of small manufacturers are delinquent.

More than half of small-business owners say that their rents are higher now than they were six months ago. Of those, 11% are paying at least 20% more than they did last fall.

Alignable found that fewer than a third of businesses founded prior to March 2020 are earning as much or more each month than they did before the pandemic. And among firms founded after the pandemic, 60% are making less than they did a year ago.

Bidenomics is working.

MY LATEST SUBSTACK ESSAY: Notes on the Asylum Where I Was Raised: In Which I Visit the Harvard Protests, Among Other Things.

If you enjoy these essays, please subscribe.

THE ENEMY WITHIN: K-12 ‘Action Civics’ Trained Students Encamped on College Campuses. Here’s What Parents Need to Know.