MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Too Much Is Never Enough: the Big Lie about Education Spending.
Archive for 2024
November 25, 2024
READER FAVORITE: Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Cream with SPF 30. #CommissionEarned
THIS MIGHT BE THE STUPIDEST DAMN THING POLITICO HAS EVER PUBLISHED, AND THAT’S REALLY SAYING SOMETHING: Musk gets a leg up from Trump in space battle vs. Bezos.
Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have been locked in a bitter rivalry for supremacy in space exploration. Donald Trump’s return to the White House could boost Musk’s ascent.
As it stands, Musk’s SpaceX is the competition’s undisputed leader: It regularly sends astronauts into orbit, while Bezos’ Blue Origin has yet to launch anyone beyond the outer edge of space.
But Bezos’ company, even if far behind SpaceX, is seen as its closest American competitor, and the two companies have clashed in court over billions of dollars in government funding. More recently, their battle has become increasingly bitter, as the billionaires themselves traded barbs on Musk-owned X.
Now, as Musk spends weeks palling around with Trump at Mar-a-Lago after the election, their proximity has the space industry fearing that Musk could rig the space race in his favor by diverting billions of dollars in government funding to SpaceX. The chief threat to SpaceX’s peers is that Musk will aim to create a monopoly in the private space industry.
Blue Origin has yet to put a single kilo of mass into orbit, much less catch up to the reusability standard set by Falcon 9 almost eight years ago. Meanwhile, with Starship, Musk is working on reducing the cost to orbit by two orders of magnitude.
Politico is indulging in the stupidest kind of scaremongering in a story that was probably shopped around by the same “space industry lobbyist granted anonymity” it quotes spouting off nonsense like this gem: “You’re talking about two of the most unpredictable people in the world getting together. It’s not like chocolate and peanut butter, and you get a great combination. You’re talking about world dominance here.”
This next graf is the big tell:
On Capitol Hill, Blue Origin is trying to raise alarms about potential unfair advantages in the space race. The company has been arguing that any policy that crowds out competition and capacity in civil or military space business could hurt the country’s space program and national security, according to the person who works with Blue Origin. Another person familiar with Blue Origin’s Washington strategy said the company has been trying to remind those on the Hill that its technology will be flying soon and intends to be a competitor.
Blue Origin hasn’t been able to compete so the company is crying to Capitol Hill — and garbage publications like Politico are happy to help.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Trump Ruined the Good Vibes With a Couple of Horrible Nominations. “There is nothing for conservatives to like about either of the nominees that we’re discussing this morning. Both Ed and I noted that the Chavez-DeRemer nomination is a gift to Teamsters President Sean O’Brien for his support of Trump. A Republican president who is beholden to Big Labor is…a Democrat.”
If Trump 45 is anything to go by, his worst picks probably won’t last long under Trump 47.
SCOTT JOHNSON: Who Will Guard Newsguard? “The Washington Post employs a large staff of political reporters, columnists, and editors. Coverage of the presidency is central to its mission. If I understand correctly, we are to believe that no one at the Post staff itself noticed Biden’s senility before these Biden donors in 2023. NewsGuard didn’t see it our way. The Washington Post didn’t see it our way. As Bond notes in the JTN story linked above, however, the Washington Post scores a perfect rating of 100 percent by NewsGuard. Someone needs to guard us against NewsGuard.”
CDR SALAMANDER: China to the world: what are you going to do about it? Classic imperialism. “Weakness invites aggression. Appeasement accelerates it. There is absolute clarity what the People’s Republic of China is doing. There is also absolute clarity that no one on the international stage has the will or the ability to do anything about it.”
YOU DON’T SAY: Liz Cheney Hurt Kamala Harris with Swing Voters in Rust Belt.
The data, published by Data for Progress, asked voters in Michigan and Pennsylvania if they were more enthusiastic or less enthusiastic about Harris after she campaigned with Cheney.
With Michigan swing voters, 3-in-10 said Cheney’s endorsement made them less enthusiastic about Harris, while only 23 percent said they were more enthusiastic.
Similarly, in Pennsylvania, 28 percent of swing voters said they were less enthusiastic about Harris after she campaigned with Cheney, while only 21 percent said the endorsement from the neoconservative made them more enthusiastic for Harris.
The only people who thought Cheney would help Harris with Republicans are people who don’t know any Republicans — or at least not any from outside the Beltway.
YOUR TERMS ARE ACCEPTABLE*: Denver Mayor Mike Johnston says he’s willing to go to jail to protect illegal immigrants.
“I would if I believed that our residents are having their rights violated,” Johnston said. “I think things are happening that are illegal or immoral or un-American in our city, I would certainly protest it, and I would expect other residents would do the same.”
“Trump’s new border czar, Tom Homan, has said that he is willing to arrest leaders like yourself for standing in the way of these policies that they want to enact. Would you be willing to go to jail for these things?” Sallinger asked.
“Yeah, I’m not afraid of that, and I’m also not seeking that,” Johnston said. “I think the goal is we want to be able to negotiate with reasonable people how to solve hard problems.”
* No, they really are:
Your terms are acceptable. https://t.co/5zuZwhxyPd
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 24, 2024
BOMB CANADA: THE CASE FOR WAR. Journalist Ezra Levant arrested while reporting on ‘Free Palestine’ rally for ‘breach of the peace.’
I was arrested two hours ago, handcuffed, searched and jailed for “causing a disturbance”.
I was just released moments ago.
I wasn’t causing a disturbance — I was standing by myself on a public sidewalk, silently filming a grotesque pro-Hamas mannequin in a Jewish neighbourhood… https://t.co/xWs0ZgrBeW
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) November 24, 2024
DON SURBER: And the horse Walmart rode in on: Sam Walton championed American factories. His heirs cheer Red China’s. “Big business tells us that free trade creates jobs and tariffs hurt Americans. Corporate America never explains why all our factories are closed and the Midwest is dying. If tariffs are as inflationary as Fortune and Walmart claim, then why was the annual inflation rate only 1.9% under President Trump even after he imposed tariffs on Red China?”
YOU’VE BEEN A GREAT YEAR, 2024, BUT PLEASE JUST GIVE US THIS ONE MORE THING: Will Elon Musk Buy MSNBC?. “And, of course, if Rogan wants he can have a show called ‘Morning Joe!'”
HOW ARE ANY OF THESE HOSTS STILL EMPLOYED? ‘The View’ Hosts Forced to Read Four ‘Legal Notes’ on Friday for Lying and It Was Glorious.
THE MONEY PRODUCES RESULTS, JUST NOT FOR STUDENTS:
The US is one of the top per-pupil spenders in the world. Tell me John, how much more money till you admit it’s not the money? https://t.co/RGctnRhy0d pic.twitter.com/GLTUeTj7qW
— Inez Stepman ⚪️🔴⚪️ (@InezFeltscher) November 24, 2024
WHEN YOU’RE A DEMOCRAT WHO’S LOST THE ECONOMIST…: Woodrow Wilson’s reputation continues to decline.
How will Joe Biden and Donald Trump be remembered a century from now? Presidential legacies change over time. For decades, Woodrow Wilson, America’s president from 1913-21 who died 100 years ago, enjoyed a reputation as an enlightened internationalist. He established the Federal Reserve and the Federal Trade Commission; he backed the creation of the League of Nations, a precursor to the UN, and was a staunch advocate for democracy abroad. In 1948 Arthur Schlesinger senior, a historian at Harvard, asked 55 other historians to rank the presidents in order of greatness: Wilson came fourth, behind Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Franklin Roosevelt.
More recently Wilson has been downgraded, with his racism and sexism eclipsing his accomplishments. In 2020 Princeton stripped his name from its public-affairs school; Washington, DC’s biggest high school did the same in 2022. In “Woodrow Wilson”, Christopher Cox, a Republican who served in Congress for eight terms before running the Securities and Exchange Commission, offers a doggedly researched and soberly told story of American progress—and the president who stood in its way.
A Democrat and the first president from the South since the civil war, Wilson opposed constitutional amendments that extended citizenship and voting rights to all, arguing that it “put the negroes upon a footing of civil equality with the whites”. He allowed the white supremacists he chose for his cabinet to resegregate the federal workforce.
Still though, Wilson will always have David Frum: There’s No Defending Woodrow Wilson.
Frum’s article, “Uncancel Woodrow Wilson,” appears in the March 2024 issue of the Atlantic. How perverse a choice is it to write on this now? Consider that the last thing the magazine published was a special issue dedicated to the topic “If Trump Wins,” warning of peril to the American system and the civil liberties of our people from a man who would come to the Oval Office with a dictatorial temperament and contempt for the constraints of our Constitution. Frum himself contributed a screed against the menace of such a president:
If he wins the election, Trump will commit the first crime of his second term at noon on Inauguration Day: His oath to defend the Constitution of the United States will be a perjury. A second Trump term would instantly plunge the country into a constitutional crisis more terrible than anything seen since the Civil War. . . . For his own survival, he would have to destroy the rule of law.
How terrible to contemplate a president who loathes the Constitution and is bent on permanently subverting it. And worse, imagine one who might win the job without a popular majority at his back, owing to an opposition divided by a third-party challenge:
If Trump is elected, it very likely won’t be with a majority of the popular vote. Imagine the scenario: Trump has won the Electoral College with 46 percent of the vote because third-party candidates funded by Republican donors successfully splintered the anti-Trump coalition. Having failed to win the popular vote in each of the past three elections, Trump has become president for the second time.
If the nation indeed stands at such a precipice, you and I might think it the worst possible occasion to laud Woodrow Wilson. But you and I are not David Frum.
Yet another thing each of us can be thankful for this week.
AT AMAZON, Shop the Black Friday Deals. #CommissionEarned
THE BIG NEWS IS THAT THE DOJ IS DOING ANYTHING: DoJ Indicts Two Foreign Nationals for Swatting Prof Turley, Members of Congress, and Others.
TRANSITION: Trump taps loyalist Rollins for USDA chief in surprise pick.
Rollins served as director of the Office of American Innovation and acting director of the Domestic Policy Council during the first Trump administration. Since her time in the White House, Rollins has co-founded and helmed the America First Policy Institute think tank, which played an influential role in the transition and has been referred to as Trump’s White House in waiting.
Rollins, who grew up on a farm, is a surprise pick for the role, with less experience in agriculture policy than those on Trump’s shortlist. Trump’s decision to tap her, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, came amid ongoing fighting over the role among his advisers, family members and powerful agriculture groups.
Since it seems we must have a Secretary for Agriculture — even though the country somehow managed to itself in the century before the department was formed — I’d rather have a farmer and an “expert” in “agriculture policy.”
Regardless of whether they’re a so-called “loyalist.”
But this is where we are in the Dem-to-GOP transition:
Now that it’s not a democrat administration, the media all the sudden:
1. Tells you it’s unheard of to pick loyal cabinet members;
2. Intense vetting and stringent adherence to job qualifications is good again;
3. Billionaires involved in politics is a grave concern for…
— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) November 24, 2024
ALMOST.
It’s almost as if the “diversity is our strength” narrative is complete and total bullsh*t
— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) November 24, 2024
REPORT: Donald Trump to kick transgender troops out of US military.
Donald Trump is planning an executive order that would lead to the removal of all transgender members of the US military, defence sources say.
The order could come on his first day back in the White House, January 20. There are believed to be about 15,000 active service personnel who are transgender. They would be medically discharged, which would determine that they were unfit to serve.
It would also lead to a ban on trans people joining the military and would come at a time when almost all branches of the American armed forces are failing to meet recruitment targets.
Trump, 78, has railed against “woke” practices in the military, saying that some high-ranking officers are often more interested in diversity, equity and inclusion than planning to fight.
The ban is expected to be wider ranging than a similar order made during his first term in office, when Trump prevented transgender people joining the armed forces, but allowed those already serving to keep their jobs. President Biden rescinded the order, but this time even those with decades of service will be removed from their posts, according to several sources.
“These people will be forced out at a time when the military can’t recruit enough people,” a source familiar with Trump’s plans said. “Only the Marine Corps is hitting its numbers for recruitment and some people who will be affected are in very senior positions.”
According to the Pentagon, privacy policies make it difficult to measure the number of active duty trans people, but about 2,200 service members had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria in 2021, when Trump’s first ban was lifted.
There are about 1.3 million active duty personnel in the military.
There are believed to be thousands of other personnel who identify as transgender.
Related:
You cannot argue with this logic. He’s 100% correct. And he’s going to be perfect as Secretary of Defense and that is why they hate this pick so much. pic.twitter.com/8dBdhlMOYk
— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) November 14, 2024
More: Kurt Schlichter: SecDef Pete Hegseth Will Be a Welcome Injection of Vitamin I (Infantry).
As Glenn wrote in the New York Post, Trump’s first days in office should be a massive case of shock and awe: “It won’t all pass, of course, but much of it probably will — and the legislative fights will keep Democrats too busy to attack elsewhere. Given Trump’s deal-making style, some of these bills may even carve off key Democratic constituencies, encouraging division among his foes.”
PIERRE TRUDEAU’S BIGOTED POLICE STATE:
CANADA HAS FALLEN
Watch and share how my boss Ezra Levant was arrested in Toronto today for being Jewish while practising journalism
Help him fight back at https://t.co/y0N5bzmSdJ
— Avi Yemini (@OzraeliAvi) November 24, 2024
EXCEDRIN HEADACHE #47: Voter Approval for Trump’s Transition Creates Huge Problem for Democrats.
FOUR AD FIRMS GOT RICH ON HARRIS LOSS: Washington Free Beacon’s Andrew Kerr dug into the FEC reports and found four ad firms that collectively received almost $600 million of the $1 billion+ raised by Vice-President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign.
“The latest available FEC data show the Harris campaign exceeded $880 million in total spending as of October 16, though that number is expected to balloon to $1.5 billion after the Harris campaign files its post-election FEC report on December 5,” Kerr reports.
“Seventy percent of the campaign’s known total spending flowed through four firms: Media Buying & Analytics, Gambit Strategies, Bully Pulpit Interactive, and Dupont Circle Strategies.
“Together, these four Democratic firms were largely responsible for distributing Harris’s campaign messaging across the nation—an effort that ultimately saw Harris lose all seven swing states and the popular vote but directed huge sums of donor money the firms’ way.”
Perhaps as Harris sits on the beach in Hawaii contemplating her campaign and why she lost, the word “refund” may well keep recurring in her mind regarding those four firms.