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A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE HEAVILY INVESTED IN PEOPLE BEING WRONG: Planned ‘Everything You Know About Palestine is Wrong’ event at UCLA draws outrage, protest. Some of those people are in the UCLA administration.

JON GABRIEL: As unhappy as Americans are, Biden-Trump debates may actually be a welcome break.

Great news, everyone: Joe Biden and Donald Trump have agreed to hold two debates. If you want a preview, just watch some old episodes of “The Muppet Show” where those two old guys bicker in the balcony.

To be fair, I’m surprised either candidate agreed to these no-win campaign stunts. Scheduled for June 27 and Sept. 10, the debates promise to be a minefield of gaffes that will take years off the lives of any staffers cringing in the wings.

If no one falls off the dais or starts chewing the lectern, both sides will call it a success.

Neither candidate is popular, to put it kindly. According to a recent Pew Research poll, 48% of registered voters support Biden, 49% support Trump, and 49% want both candidates kicked off the ballot.

A couple of old geezers talking smack

 That last sentiment grows the younger the sample gets. Two-thirds of voters under 30 say they would replace both candidates if they had the chance.

At least I’m young at heart.

“Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020, since then he hasn’t shown up for a debate,” Biden said in a post on X. “Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal.”

Trump, for his part, said Biden was the “WORST debater I have ever faced – He can’t put two sentences together!” He ended his Truth Social post with, “Let’s get ready to Rumble!!!”

Oldest democracy on the planet or “Jerry Springer” promo: you be the judge.

It’s 2024, so embrace the healing power of “And.” But will the debates actually happen? Drug Testing Prior to Presidential Debates? From the comments: “You are missing the point. Trump made the ‘demand’ to propogate [sic] the narrative that POTATUS is too old and senile to be President. It doesn’t matter if Biden submits to the test, gives results, whatever. Trump just placed another Free Ad by manipulating the media. Marketing genius.”

PEACE IN OUR TIME: Sacramento State cut a deal with terrorism-loving occupiers. CBS celebrated it as ‘dialogue’.

IN A FEW MINUTES: Blue Origin launches New Shepard.

OH NO! ANYWAY. . . Liberal Activist You’ve Never Heard of Quits Job: Former child poet lashes out at Biden for (truthfully) accusing Hamas of hating Jews.

THE ENEMY WITHIN: Cleric Linked to Prominent Michigan Dems Accuses Pro-Israel Lawmakers of ‘Treason.’

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KEEP DIGGING: Reps. Jim Jordan, Thomas Massie threaten CDC subpoena for vaccine efficacy data.

HE’S RIGHT, YOU KNOW:

The richer you are, in general, the more conservative your life choices are. Most left wingers talk left but live right. They live in gated communities, put kids in private schools, maximize tax avoidance, have stay at home wives, pay attention to what they do not what they say.

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) May 18, 2024

UPDATE (From Ed): As Charles Murray wrote over a decade ago, “When it comes to marriage and the work ethic, the new upper class must start preaching what it practices.”

OPEN THREAD: Hope your weekend is doing well.

PROFESSOR CARRINGTON, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Here we go again — new sunspot regions emerge, strong solar flare recorded.

WELL, GOOD: Ozempic Could Be Good For Your Heart Even If You Don’t Lose Weight.

THAT’S BEEN MY OBSERVATION: Most cancer treatments are useless for patients with advanced tumors near end of life.

ANTI-SEMITISM AT THE WASHINGTON POST: The editors of the Washington Free Beacon appear to be right on target.

UPDATE: I somehow missed that Instapundit’s Ed Driscoll much earlier in the day had a superb deep-dive into this disgrace.

THAT’S NOWHERE CLOSE TO ACTUARIAL ESCAPE VELOCITY: Study predicts global life expectancy will rise by more than 4 years by 2050.

ON SECOND THOUGHT, DON’T: Gimme (Government) Shelter. States and cities spend billions on housing projects that are costly, cumbersome to build, and won’t solve the affordability crisis. Steven Malanga digs into the scandalous programs, which have provided housing to people who don’t need it (one recipient was earning $1 million annually) at prices that are gouging taxpayers, like “affordable” units that cost as much $1 million apiece to build.

NOW IN PAPERBACK: Against the Great Reset: Eighteen Theses Contra the New World Order. What’s wrong with the World Economic Forum’s plans for humanity? What can be done to resist the Davos elite’s determination to run our lives? Michael Walsh has assembled essays from, among others, Angelo Codevilla, Victor Davis Hanson, Roger Kimball, Douglass Murray, Harry Stein, and me.

WINNING TACTICS: How to Defeat Left-Wing Racialism. Battle plans from six domestic-policy experts: Wade Miller, Dan Morenoff, Ilya Shapiro, David E. Bernstein, James Sherk, Judge Glock, and Christopher F. Rufo.

END OF AN ERA: Dodge, Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis Is Following the Hemi Out the Door. “Nobody should envy the person at Dodge that has to convince a sales base of high-horsepower V-8 muscle car owners to eventually switch to electric power, but that person won’t be Tim Kuniskis, who is retiring from his roles at Dodge and Ram on June 1 this year.”

Yeah, good luck with that.

DISTURBING VIDEO APPEARS TO SHOW SEAN “DIDDY” COMBS ASSAULTING SINGER CASSIE VENTURA:

Security video aired by CNN appears to show Sean “Diddy” Combs attacking singer Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016, the latest in a months-long series of public allegations and revelations of physical and sexual violence from the hip-hop mogul.

The video aired Friday appears to show Combs, wearing only a white towel, punching and kicking the R&B singer who was his protege and longtime girlfriend at the time. The footage also shows Combs shoving and dragging Cassie, and throwing a vase in her direction.

The security camera video, dated March 5, 2016, closely resembles the description of an incident at an InterContinental Hotel in the Century City area of Los Angeles described in a November lawsuit filed by Cassie, whose legal name is Cassandra Ventura, that alleged years of sexual abuse and other violence from Combs.

Meanwhile from 2020, great moments in projection: Sean “Diddy Combs” endorsed Joe Biden, declared Trump “Dangerous.”

Sean “Diddy” Combs flipped a switch when it came to his friendship with Donald Trump. When Trump became president, things changed drastically, and many of his former friendships faltered — his friendship with Combs being one of them. In a 2020 interview with Charlamagne tha God, the rapper expressed worries about what would happen if Trump were to get reelected as president in the 2020 election. “If this man [Trump] is elected, we’re not standing by no more getting killed, we not scared of anybody standing up and standing by, we’re on the verge of a race war,” Diddy said. This came in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement surging in response to police violence and the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

Combs continued criticizing his former friend and Trump’s controversial opinions in the interview as he said, “White men like Trump need to be banished. That way of thinking is real dangerous.” With the 2020 election nearing, the rapper found it essential to endorse Trump’s opponent, Joe Biden. “When we look at it we don’t have no choice,” he said. “Say what you want about Biden, I can’t say I love to pick either but, hey, we gotta get him [Biden] in office, and then we gotta hold him accountable.” Combs’ interview drew a line in the sand as he made it clear his friendship with Trump was over.

Finally, at America’s Newspaper of Record: Nation Starting To Wonder If Diddy May Have Done A Few Of Those Things He Repeatedly Rapped About Doing.

(H/T: Clay Travis.)

PASS: Who Wants 30,000 Used Teslas?

Hertz’s latest challenge is trying to get out of its entanglement with Tesla. In retrospect, it just looks like a bad idea. Companies like Hertz make money when they rent out cars as often as possible, which means their vehicles will often have more miles than the average vehicle, and, in turn, have more problems that need expensive maintenance. A side deal renting the EVs to Uber drivers — who often have to drive hundreds of miles a day to make a profit — wore down the cars even more, which also weighed down their resale value. Last month, the company announced that it had sold about 10,000 EVs — about a third of the total fleet it intends to offload. At first blush, that looked like Hertz would be ahead of schedule. But the pace of sales is starting to slow. One salesman at a Hertz in Smithtown, New York, told me that sales have dropped from as much as 30 a week in January and February to about five a week in April. Online forums are full of people steering prospective buyers away from Hertz vehicles. One factor may be price. “Hertz does not provide haggling on price,” he said. “It is what it is.”

When Hertz first announced it was selling off most of its EVs, it blamed lower demand among the traveling public than it had expected. “They have an oversupply” of Teslas, said John Plimpton Babcock, an analyst at Bank of America who covers the car-rental company. That lower turnover meant less profit, he added.

It makes sense Hertz would try to sell off its fleet now. Purchases of brand-new EVs are stalling out after a decade or so of stratospheric growth. Auto loans have interest rates starting at about 5 percent and go skyward from there. A shortage of reliable charging stations, and worries about batteries losing power in cold weather, have all hurt public interest in owning — and perhaps even renting — an EV.

If you’re going to rent from Hertz, why not rent something with serious pornographic value? Rent a Shelby Mustang.

ESSENTIAL CONCEALED CARRY ACCESSORIES.

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GOT WOKE, WENT…: Sports Illustrated fails to deliver May issue after breakup with publisher: sources.

Sports Illustrated’s tumultuous breakup with its publisher caused the magazine to skip production of the May edition – leaving more than 1 million subscribers with empty mailboxes last month, The Post has learned.

Arena Group – which had its license revoked in January after failing to make a $3.75 million quarterly payment to rights-holder Authentic Brands – refuses to turn over the subscriber list to new publisher Minute Media, three sources close to the situation told The Post.

By the letter of its contract, Arena – controlled by 5-Hour Energy founder Manoj Bhargava – does not believe it needs to share the SI subscriber list, sources said.

Authentic sued Arena for $48 million for backing out on the remaining three years of the deal, and Bhargava might use the subscriber list as part of negotiating leverage in potential settlement talks, one of the sources speculated.

Arena Group and Authentic Brands declined to comment.

Minute Media did not return calls.

The disruption – believed to be the first skipped issue in the magazine’ 70-year history – was further fueled by Arena firing about 100 SI employees as part of its negotiating tactics with Authentic.

Bhargava had even threatened to kill the print edition of the iconic magazine after learning Authentic owner Jamie Salter was leaning toward awarding the rights to Minute Media, as The Post previously reported.

The last monthly issue printed was the April 2024 baseball preview edition with Shohei Ohtani on the cover – which was mailed to SI’s roughly 1 million paid and non-paid subscribers before the handover. Arena continued publishing SI after its license was terminated while attempting to regain the rights.

In accordance with the prophecy:

Sports Illustrated Goes Bankrupt Trying To Provide Enough Catering For Cover Model Shoot https://t.co/KacNRUB5Yx pic.twitter.com/CmZqG64P4u

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) May 16, 2024