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Archive for 2024
October 22, 2024
SHE’S HEMORRHAGING MALE VOTERS, ISN’T SHE?
This is basically a cut and paste from her plan for Black men, except she replaced "Black" with "Latino." Totally on brand for her. At least she didn't use "Latinx." https://t.co/UVWUyZfZJ5
— Jennifer Oliver O'Connell (@asthegirlturns) October 22, 2024
On the plus side, at least this time Harris is merely plagiarizing from herself.
THE ENDGAME: Biden’s quest for a foreign policy legacy.
Like all presidents before him, Joe Biden possesses a high opinion of himself. He believes his half-century record in public life, including his long service on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and eight years as vice president, provided him the knowledge, tools and unique ability to get things done on the international stage. His final address to the UN General Assembly in September was motivated in part by a need to elevate what he achieved during his four years. Yet as his tenure comes to a close, he continues to scramble for a foreign policy legacy that will define his presidency. It’s unlikely he’ll get one.
Actually, Biden’s foreign policy legacy has been ensured for quite some time:
THE COP SOUNDS EERILY LIKE JOHN C. REILLY’S POLICE OFFICER CHARACTER IN “MAGNOLIA”:
NEW: Millionaire cyclist who went viral for harassing a man for "driving too close," nearly has a panic attack after police tell him *he* will be receiving a citation.
73-year-old cyclist Gary Peacock harassed and detained a young man for driving "too close" to him.
Dashcam… pic.twitter.com/lWSxptCJPV
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 21, 2024
You can watch the driver’s POV here.
Also, the driver’s dashcam video makes it reasonably clear he’d done nothing wrong.
TRUMP-ROGAN INTERVIEW SET FOR FRIDAY:
Former President Donald Trump is set to record an interview with podcasting king Joe Rogan on Friday at Rogan’s studio in Austin, Texas.
According to Politico, Rogan — who has over 14 million followers on Spotify, continues to dominate national podcast ratings. Trump’s appearance is expected to help Trump win young male voters — after appearing on such podcasts as “This Week w/ Theo Vaughn” and “Full Send.”
Trump has never appeared on Rogan’s podcast and the two have had a complicated relationship. In August, Trump called out Rogan after the podcaster claimed that politicians on both sides are manipulative except for Robert Kennedy Jr., who at the time was running for president. –Politico
Reactions have been mixed — with some suggesting this is “incredible news,” and others suggesting this might not go well for the former president.
When does Kamala go on Rogan’s show?
CHAINSAW: Milei Shuts Down Argentina’s Tax Agency.
Argentine President Javier Milei announced plans to shut down the country’s tax collection agency, a bold step in his ongoing effort to slash government spending and bureaucracy.
On Monday, presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni confirmed that the Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos (AFIP), Argentina’s tax bureau, will “cease to exist.” It will be replaced by a newly formed agency, the Agencia de Recaudación y Control Aduanero (ARCA), which will assume some of its functions.
“Throughout its existence, this agency has functioned as a political cash box and, as we all know, many Argentines have been subjected to absolutely immoral persecutions,” Adorni’s statement reads. “No State bureaucrat should be delegated the power to tell an Argentinean what to do with his property.”
Up next, Elon Musk: American Chainsaw?
WE NEED A COMPLETE AND TOTAL SHUTDOWN OF CBS NEWS UNTIL WE CAN FIGURE OUT JUST WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON THERE: CBS News producer asked if Jews are ‘human like us.’
Marwan Al-Ghoul, who has long covered the region, was “praised by the network last week for his ‘resolve’ in covering the conflict,” but the CBS Gaza-based producer, “has a troubling social media history,” CAMERA told JNS. “His posts include vile antisemitism—denying the humanity of Jews—open support for terrorism, calls for ‘permanent resistance’ and predictions about the demise of both the United States and Israel.”
“This glaring inconsistency raises serious questions about CBS‘s editorial standards,” stated Jonah Cohen, communications director for CAMERA.
Al-Ghoul “has been praised within CBS for his reporting since Oct. 7. CBS News desk editor Emmet Lyons described him as ‘an incredibly courageous man and a fantastic reporter,’ while senior foreign correspondent Elizabeth Palmer said ‘his resolve is simply astonishing,’” CAMERA said. “However, Al-Ghoul’s social media activity reveals deeply troubling views, including blatant antisemitic rhetoric and praise for violence against Israeli civilians.”
In addition to Al Ghoul’s social-media posts and the Dokoupil controversy, Bari Weiss of the Free Press recently exposed that the day after the October 7 attack, CBS News cautioned its reporters about using the word “terrorist,” writing that, while the U.S. government considers Hamas a terrorist organization, the term may not always be accurate.
“There are some who believe the attack by Hamas is a justified retaliation to Israeli occupation of their lands,” the internal email said, according to Weiss. “Others believe this to be an unprovoked attack on Israel and, as such, Israel has every right to defend itself.”
Cohen said the Al Ghoul commentary paired with the Dokoupil episode calls into question CBS News’s integrity.
“We have a situation here where CBS’s editorial standards appear deeply flawed,” he said. “You would think the way Dokoupil was treated, those high standards would be applied to Al Ghoul. And by their own standards, he would be seen as someone who really couldn’t represent the truth of the situation.”
“Truth” and CBS News have been increasingly mutual separate terms for quite some time now, alas.
NEIL KINNOCK SMILES: Kamala Harris Plagiarized Pages of Congressional Testimony From a Republican Colleague. Plus, a Fictionalized Story About Human Trafficking.
In a written statement to the House Judiciary Committee, she described how debt-addled prosecutors often decamp to the private sector a few years into the job, lured by the prospect of higher pay that could be used to pay off law school debt. That dynamic had left many district attorneys’ offices short-staffed, she said, forcing them to put rookie attorneys on complex cases.
“There are numerous criminal cases that are particularly difficult because of the dynamics involved,” Harris wrote. “To name just a few—child abuse, elder neglect, domestic violence, identity theft and public corruption. The stakes are simply too high to allow any attorney other than experienced prosecutors to handle these matters.”
By repaying the loans of prosecutors and public defenders, Harris argued, the bill, which had been introduced with bipartisan support, would provide an incentive for lawyers to enter public service, or at least diminish the incentive to leave it.
The statement was simple and pragmatic. But Harris wasn’t the first person to make it.
Virtually her entire testimony about the bill was taken from that of another district attorney, Paul Logli of Winnebago County, Illinois, who had testified in support of the legislation two months earlier before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Both statements cite the same surveys, use the same language, and make the same points in the same order, with a paragraph added here or there. They even contain the same typos, such as missing punctuation or mistaken plurals. One error—a “who” that should have been a “whom”—was corrected in Harris’s transposition.
* * * * * * * *
The plagiarism could become a potent symbol of that critique in the last days of a dead heat. In an article about Rufo’s allegations, the New York Times noted that “none of the passages in question took the ideas or thoughts of another writer.” The new examples—in which Harris lifts pages of original material from other lawyers—undermine that defense and suggest that not all the passages were copied in error. Some contain tell-tale signs of intent, such as small tweaks in punctuation and the removal of minor details.
The symbolism could be especially resonant given that Logli, who has been donating to GOP candidates since 1994, is not the only Republican Harris has been accused of parroting. She endured a different sort of plagiarism scandal in August when she promised to eliminate taxes on tips—two months after her rival, Donald Trump, had promised to do the same.
“This was a TRUMP idea,” Trump fumed on Truth Social at the time. “She has no ideas, she can only steal from me.”
Well, not just from Trump, apparently. Oh and regarding the second half of the headline above:
(Classical reference in headline.)
SKYNET IS A DEMOCRAT: This AI Would Rather Save Moldy Leftovers Than the Life of Donald Trump.
You’re hanging out downtown and see a runaway trolley speeding down the tracks, approaching a switch. If the trolley continues on the track it’s on, it will run over and kill five people who (for whatever reason) have fallen and can’t get up. You can reach the switch and save five people but, if you do, you’ll kill the one person trapped on the alternate track.
What do you do?
That’s the trolley problem, a thought experiment in ethical dilemmas that grows ever more complex as the options change.
So what happens when you present an AI like ChatGPT with variations on the trolley problem that don’t even rise to the level of ethical dilemmas?
You get a dead Donald Trump but at least the sock and the moldy leftovers are safe.
Much more at the link, including six million dead Jews.
I MISSED THIS ON FRIDAY BUT IT’S STILL WORTH A LOOK: Apple CEO Allegedly Calls Trump to Discuss EU Fines.
According to Trump, Cook reported two major fines:
A $15 billion fine.
An additional $2 billion fine.
In March, the EU fined Apple approximately $2 billion for anticompetitive practices related to music streaming apps.
The EU also won a case requiring Apple to pay $14.4 billion in unpaid taxes to Ireland.
Trump alleges that Cook described Europe as Apple’s “enterprise,” implying that the EU is using these fines to fund its operations. In response, Trump claims to have told Cook,
“That’s a lot… But Tim, I got to get elected first, but I’m not going to let them take advantage of our companies — that won’t, you know, be happening”.
Apple hasn’t confirmed or denied any of this but the company is notoriously tight-lipped. Still, Trump is bragging that, as president, he’ll have the backs of American businesses in trade disputes despite political differences.
“Politics stops at the water’s edge” used to be how Washington operated, or at least aspired to — but somehow Trump is the radical breaker of our precious rules and norms.
UNEXPECTEDLY: Former Abercrombie and Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries is arrested for sex trafficking.
Attorneys for the victims of the class action lawsuit said on Tuesday that ‘today’s arrests are monumental for the aspiring male models who were victimized by these individuals.’
‘We look forward to holding Abercrombie and Fitch liable for facilitating this terrible conduct and ensuring that this cannot happen again,’ the statement added.
Abercrombie has previously said it is ‘appalled and disgusted’ by the allegations against Jeffries.
Jeffries, who left Abercrombie in 2014, converted the chain from an struggling retailer of hunting apparel to a seller of must-have teen clothing. But he faced criticism for the company’s sexualized marketing, including billboards and beefy models that alienated potential customers who didn’t fit into its image.
QED, the late William F. Buckley, who famously wrote in November of 2001, in a column titled, “Porn, Pervasive Presence:”
I stopped by at the local Abercrombie & Fitch for sailing wear. I waited, at the counter, for my package and looked down on the A&F Summer Catalogue. You could see the handsome young man on the cover, but the catalogue itself was bound in cellophane. My eyes turned to the card alongside. “To subscribe: Fill out this card and head to the nearest A&F store with a valid photo ID.” With a valid photo ID? I thought that odd and asked the young man behind the counter, who was perhaps 19 years old, why IDs were required for purchasers of an Abercrombie & Fitch catalogue. He said, “Well, uh, it’s kind of porny inside.”
Abercrombie & Fitch has been from time immemorial a sportswear store renowned for its wholesome regard for the outdoor life. I smile still at the story recorded in The New Yorker generations ago. It was of a gardener in Long Island who yearned to buy a genuine A&F barometer and finally saved up the money to do so. He brought the beautiful thing back from Manhattan to his little house on the south shore, tapped it a few times impatiently, and stormed back to Manhattan to complain to the salesman that it was defective, its needle stuck at the mark “Hurricane.” Abercrombie returned his money and the plaintiff returned to Islip to find that his house had been blown away.
Abercrombie’s barometric needle had pointed resolutely at the impending hurricane of 1938, and presumably the company’s current managers are confident that its current clothes line is also pointed surely, though the summer A&F catalogue seems to be suggesting that young men and women are better off wearing no clothes at all.
It is introduced by a 150-word essay under the title, “The Pleasure Principle.” A definition ensues: “In psychoanalysis, the tendency or drive to achieve pleasure and avoid pain is the chief motivating force in behavior.” And then an amplification: “Summer being our favorite time of the year and all, we’ve worked extra hard to bring you our best issue yet by letting the pleasure principle be our guide through the hottest months.”
The lead page gives us a jaunty blonde clutching her hair, wet from the ocean she has just emerged from. If she is wearing anything, it would be below her pelvic joint. Above it, which is all the viewer can see, there are no clothes.
Exit quote from Buckley: “There was never a pitch more nakedly designed than Abercrombie’s to stimulate erotic appetites. The last part of the catalogue actually depicts clothes of one kind or another, but the reader, getting that far, is hotly indignant: What are all those shirts and shorts and pants doing, interrupting my view of the naked kids! I mean, I showed you my ID, didn’t I?”
BELMONT CLUB: Excellence in the Service of Mediocrity. “The problem of controlling Elon is an example of the dilemma of mediocrity controlling talent. How can Kamala Harris, who, according to Senator Ted Budd, has not connected a single person to the internet ‘using the $42.45 billion allocated for the BEAD program,’ meaningfully supervise a man whose Starlink satellite constellation had 4 million users worldwide? It would be like putting the Detroit Public Schools in charge of Albert Einstein.”
WELL, NOT WHEN MUCH OF OUR GOVERNING CLASS IS ON THE CHINESE PAYROLL: A Larger Navy is Not in the Cards. “Should the Great Pacific War come in the next decade—which I believe has a better than even chance—we will either have to decide to pass on the fight and resign ourselves to decline, or fund the fight that will find ourselves as bankrupt as the British Empire was in 1945, with a decline to follow. These debt levels simply are not economically, culturally, or morally sustainable.”
READER FAVORITE: Kitchen Academy Induction Cookware Sets. #CommissionEarned
IS THIS THE IDF OR THE TRAILER FOR OCEAN’S 14?
“Tonight, I am going to declassify intelligence on a site that we did not strike—where Hezbollah has millions of dollars in gold and cash—in Hassan Nasrallah’s bunker. Where is the bunker located? Directly under Al-Sahel Hospital in the heart of Beirut.”
Listen to IDF Spox.… pic.twitter.com/SjMZQpKqoJ
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 21, 2024
AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE SAT/ACT: THE CLASSIC LEARNING TEST. If it doesn’t keep getting changed for political reasons, a test like this could end up being very predictive for college/career success.
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Dear Pennsylvania: Harris 100% Supports Fracking (Unless She Doesn’t) “The Harris camp’s Climate Engagement Director (really!) Camila Thorndike tried to walk back the walk-back.”
WINNING: Key Pennsylvania County Must Provide Paper Ballots to Voters in Major Election Integrity Victory.
Blame paper ballot shortages for disenfranchising dozens of voters in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.
Some 40 precincts in this critical county southwest of Scranton, which broke heavily for Trump in 2016 and 2020, ran out of paper ballots on Election Day, forcing poll workers to turn away voters in the 2022 midterm election and outraging residents who didn’t wish to vote via electronic voting machine. While some voters were able to return later and cast a ballot at their local polling place—which were ordered by courts to remain open for two extra hours—many did not, meaning their vote was effectively suppressed by election mismanagement.
This disproportionately affected Republican voters.
“Someone definitely failed to do their job,” one self-described “appalled [and] disheartened” volunteer said. Indeed, Luzerne Co. had no plan to resupply precincts that ran out of paper ballots in 2022.
But that won’t be a problem in 2024, thanks to a critical legal settlement secured earlier this week by the Center for Election Confidence (CEC), an election integrity watchdog.
More like this, please.
DIVERSITY PROBLEM: Only 8% of faculty will vote for Trump: survey.
JOY CAN’T BE MANUFACTURED: Kamala’s Campaign Tried to Manufacture Joy. It Hasn’t Worked.