Archive for 2024
July 7, 2024
LIMITED TIME DEAL: Instant Pot Duo Plus 9-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker. #CommissionEarned
SOCIALISM: IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL LEAVE. The Blue-State Wealth Exodus Continues.
July 6, 2024
OPEN THREAD: Because I love you and want you to be happy.
READER FAVORITE: Tire Inflator Portable Air Compressor. #CommissionEarned (Bumped)
I ALWAYS FIGURED THEY WERE SAYING “COME HITHER, SLAVE.” The Heartwarming Reason Why Your Cat Meows at You Like That.
WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Matter/Antimatter Black Hole Jets Recreated in CERN’s Laboratory.
NOW IT CAN BE TOLD: Biden’s Physician Met with Parkinson’s Disease Expert at White House, Visitor Logs Show.
A top Washington D.C. neurologist had a meeting with President Biden’s personal doctor at the White House earlier this year, visitor logs reviewed by The Post show.
Dr. Kevin Cannard, a Parkinson’s disease expert at Walter Reed Medical Center, met with Dr. Kevin O’Connor, and two others at the White House residence clinic on Jan. 17, according to the records, which emerge as questions continue to swirl about the 81-year-old president’s mental health in the wake of his debate debacle last week with former President Trump.
Dr. John E. Atwood, a cardiologist are Walter Reed, was also in the 5 P.M. meeting, the White House visitor logs show.
The week before their visit, AP was running the headline: President Joe Biden’s record age, 81, is an ‘asset,’ first lady Jill Biden says.
The article’s lede came from her appearance that day on — where else — MSNBC’S Morning Joe, which had its own page devoted to the video of her appearance. Its metatag reads: Jill Biden: Joe’s age is an asset; he’s wise, he has experience.
WE’RE CERTAINLY HEARING A LOT OF GOOD THINGS ABOUT THESE DRUGS: Diabetes drugs like Ozempic lower cancer risks: Study.
INSERT KINGSLEY AMIS AND ROBERT CONQUEST REFERENCE HERE: The Weak Leading the Woke.
Is Biden still, you know, all there?
It is especially hard to gauge the cognitive decline of a public figure whose cognitive peak was neither recent nor lofty. In his memoir, former FBI director James Comey recalled White House meetings where President Obama would point a discussion in Direction A, then wait patiently to resume that journey until a five- or ten-minute digression from Vice President Biden in Direction Z had run its course. Discursiveness has always been Biden’s modus operandi. In 1993, the New Republic devoted an entire page to a verbatim reproduction of a single question Biden posed during a Supreme Court confirmation hearing. It contained nearly five times as many words as the Gettysburg Address.
That said, and despite campaign efforts to limit and script his public appearances, it certainly appears that Biden merits the assessment made of many people in their late seventies: he has good days and bad days. The detours that Comey noted are increasingly frequent, often occurring within a single sentence—or, rather, freeway pileup of sentence fragments. Worse, rather than heading in a new, unexpected direction, they don’t really go anywhere at all. In September Biden answered, after a fashion, a question about the coronavirus: “COVID has taken this year, just since the outbreak…has taken more than 100 years. Look. Here’s. The lives. I mean, just…you think about it. More lives this year than any other year for the past hundred years.”
In a CNN interview earlier this year, Biden repeatedly looked down from the camera to his desk while saying, “You know, there’s a…during World War Two, when Roosevelt came up with a thing, that was, you know, totally different, than a…than the…it’s called, he called it, you know, he had the war, the War Production Board.” The moment was excruciating in ways transcription doesn’t capture. Journalist Glenn Greenwald subsequently tweeted, “I’ve literally never seen one person—until Joe Biden—who had to read from notes to answer questions from a cable TV host. And even with that, he often gets lost.”
— William Voegeli, the Claremont Review of Books, September 29, 2020.
Yes, 2020, which dovetails perfectly with Ian Miller of Outkick the Coverage, who wrote on Wednesday: Media Didn’t Report On Biden’s Senility Because Republicans Noticed It.
CNN’s Hadas Gold asked White House reporters whether they didn’t do more work on Biden’s “mental fitness” because they wanted to “prop up the campaign.” Shockingly, they said no.
“The media has faced accusations that it has not covered Biden’s mental fitness more aggressively because it wants to prop up the campaign in some way – an accusation the White House reporters CNN spoke to denied,” Gold writes.
Then in the very next paragraph, those same sources admits that they didn’t actually do their jobs because it would have made Democrats mad.
“Several White House reporters told CNN that the coverage of Biden’s age and his mental stamina should have pushed harder,” Gold says. “They cited several difficulties in doing so before the debate – from the obvious political motivations of sources who either want to protect Biden’s image or project a certain image, to the blowback from pursuing such reports, especially from the White House and Democrats.”
So they didn’t report on Biden’s age because, in part, they were lied to by their friends in the Democratic Party, and because their allies in the party would have been upset if they told the truth. But Gold unwittingly reveals an even more important reason why liberal media reporters had no interest in reporting: because it would have proved Republicans right.
“Biden’s age was also a right-wing talking point for years, something the White House was quick to point out to reporters, which may have inadvertently turned off any serious investigation,” Gold writes.
And there it is.
Liberal ‘Journalists’ Won’t Accept The Truth If It Comes From The Right
Jonathan Turley confirms this thesis: Reporters Blame “Right-Wing Media” for Their Failure to Disclose Biden’s Infirmity.
Their willfully turning a blind eye to years of Biden’s condition worsening is the ultimate example of Jim Treacher’s observation:
(Classical allusion in headline.)
WATCH: Local Radio Hosts Blow the Whistle Biden Admin, Telling CNN Interview Questions Were Scripted.
Happy to see this come out, particularly on CNN, but this isn’t exactly breaking news: Former ESPN host Sage Steele says her Biden interview was entirely ‘scripted’ by network execs: ‘Every single question.’
—Fox News, April 3rd.
And in June of 2022, the story of Biden using cheat sheets at his rare press conferences made the rounds:
UPDATE: Jonathan Karl of the House of Stephanopoulos pretends to be surprised that Biden’s handlers use cheat sheets and supplied questions to get his withered husk through interviews:
In April 2023, Biden was literally caught, on camera, with a “cheat sheet” showing the specific questions that reporters were going to ask him.
It is genuinely remarkable to watch the media—in perfect unison—suddenly pretend to be outraged about things they already knew. https://t.co/NgSsD4i8VV pic.twitter.com/ECKMTPwgPM
— America 2100 (@America_2100) July 6, 2024
AND NOW, A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR: A leading engineer offers his thoughts on the build quality of the 1968 Toyota Corona:
The two door model is really intriguing, but I’m not sure I’d get it in red (IYKWIMAITTYD).
FINALLY: Japan declares victory in 20-year ‘war on floppy disks.’
Japan’s government has declared victory in a 20-year war to eliminate the widespread use of floppy disks.
The move is a key milestone in the Japanese government’s painstaking efforts to modernise its old-school office practices, with fax machines still ubiquitous in many departments.
“We have won the war on floppy disks on June 28!” Taro Kono, the digital minister, who has been vocal about wiping out fax machines and other analogue technology in government, said on Wednesday.
A charismatic figure with 2.5 million followers on Twitter, Mr Kono formerly headed the defence and foreign ministries as well as the Covid vaccine deployment, taking up his current role in August 2022 after a failed bid to become prime minister.
The Digital Agency was set up during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021 when a scramble to roll out nationwide testing and vaccination revealed that the government still relied on paper filing and outdated technology.
Last year, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a piece headlined, “Here are 10 ideas San Francisco can import from Tokyo to save downtown.” So perhaps the above news might encourage a bit more modernization in the Bay Area: San Francisco’s Train System is Still Running on Floppy Disks.
CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: West Virginia, Tennessee Strengthen Campus Self-Defense.
OUT: COPPER. IN: IRON. Researchers aim to change contraceptive technology with new iron IUDs.
DID POLITICO JUST ADMIT BIDEN IS SELLING ACCESS AND INFLUENCE?
You know, after years of defending Biden for virtually everything, his terrible debate performance truly seems to have broken the dam, and given the media cover to report on what they never would have before, as it appears that they are actively trying to push him to drop out of the race.
Imagine my surprise Saturday morning when I came across an article from Politico that declared “White House visits are a cash cow for Biden.”
The report goes into extraordinary detail about how Joe Biden hosted donors at the White House and got huge donations afterward.
For example, shortly before Christmas last year, four billionaire Democratic donors visited the White House to meet with Biden privately. During this private session, Biden discussed his second-term agenda and answered questions about his campaign and policies.
The day after the meeting, tech entrepreneur Mark Pincus donated the maximum allowed amount of $929,600 to Biden’s fundraising committee, the Biden Victory Fund. Within three weeks, venture capitalist Reid Hoffman contributed $923,000. Former Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson donated nearly half a million dollars two days before the meeting.
Read the whole thing.
RANDY BARNETT: What the Declaration of Independence Said and Meant.
BIDEN IS GABAGOOL:
The Sopranos is a television property of HBO Entertainment, which means either management at HBO signed off on this, or whoever is running their social media account felt comfortable enough with posting this without checking with higher-ups. But the lack of ratio in the comments means it’s not getting all that much pushback from fans, either.
Related: “Hollywood Knew About Biden … and Weinstein … and Louis CK,” Christian Toto writes: “Can Hollywood keep the biggest story of the year, if not the decade, quiet? How many celebrities got serious face time with President Biden, realized his decline was both real and shocking and said nothing? All secrets tumble out eventually, even those hidden by Hollywood.”
(Classical reference in headline.)
GET YOUR POPCORN READY! Chicago Dem Socialists Vow to Make DNC a ‘Political Disaster’ for Biden.
This writer is getting out of Dodge the week after next, when the RNC descends on Milwaukee. She fully expects chaos, but it will likely pale in comparison to the three-ring circus the DNC in Chicago will be. The DNC is already preparing for this reality and Chicago’s commie mayor, Brandon Johnson, has no intention of helping stop the protests (cause he sympathizes with them).
Read the entire thread.
And make more popcorn.
Speaking of popcorn, will there be a remake of 1969’s Medium Cool shot cinema vérité-style around the Windy City chaos? And will it be in theaters or just available via streaming?
BIDENOMICS: Popular nationwide pizza chain set to file for bankruptcy in days — sparking fears its 500 restaurants could close.
A popular pizza chain is the latest to face money problems in the face of rising costs and falling customer numbers.
Mod Pizza is preparing to file for bankruptcy as early as next week, sources told Bloomberg on Wednesday.
The plans are not finalized and could still change, the person familiar with the matter said.
‘We’re working diligently to improve our capital structure and are exploring all options to do so,’ a Mod Pizza spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Mod Pizza, known for its custom personal pizzas and salads, has more than 500 locations across 28 US states.
* * * * * * * *
Restaurants have increasingly been struggling this year.
They have been putting up prices over the past two years – as they pass on higher costs to customers. But these price hikes have led to a fall in visitors.
Bigger chains like Applebee’s, TGI Fridays and Boston Market have have all recently shuttered restaurants, as have smaller chains like BurgerFi.
Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy in May and also shuttered almost 100 restaurants.
Chains have been worst hit in California where the minimum wage for fast food restaurants jumped to $20-an-hour from April 1. In early June, Mexican chain Rubio’s shut 48 locations in the state and also filed for bankruptcy.
Two weeks ago, it emerged that almost 150 Pizza Hut restaurants are set to close due to an ongoing financial dispute with one of its major franchisees.
Bidenomics is also likely driving McDonald’s return to reality: McDonald’s will stop selling ‘healthy’ menu item due to lack of sales.
‘Our founder famously said in 1970, “I don’t know what people are going to be eating in the year 2000, but we’re going to serve more of it than anybody else,”‘ the CEO said.
Adding: ‘And so if people really want salads from McDonald’s, we will gladly relaunch salads. But what our experience has proven is, that’s not what the consumer is looking for from McDonald’s.’
At the same time as he said the chain was ditching salads, [McDonald’s USA president Joe Erlinger] said that McDonald’s had given up on its bid to sell meat-free beef burgers in America.
He said the McPlant has been ditched because customers did not want fake meat.
The chain had been testing the McPlant at several hundred restaurants in California and Texas since trials began in late 2021.
Developed with Beyond Meat, it was made from pea and rice proteins.
While it has flopped in the US, it has been a hit in the UK, Germany , Holland and Portugal.
As Steve Green wrote in 2015, when since-departed McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook announced his plans to transform McDonald’s into a “modern, progressive burger company:”
McDonald’s is almost certainly doomed. Or at the very least, Easterbrook is the wrong guy to head up the burger chain — any burger chain, for that matter.
To understand why I’ve come to this conclusion, read the very next line from the story:
Easterbrook plans to unveil his plan for turning McDonald’s into a “modern, progressive burger company” on May 4.
Now maybe I should withhold judgement until I see this plan next week. Maybe a bold headline like “McDonald’s Is Doomed” is just the kind of baseless clickbait fear-mongering I try to resist indulging in.
But a progressive burger company? Really?
How about a barber shop with shampoo laced with Nair? No, that doesn’t seem like a good idea to you? Let’s talk about it at my bar, where I water down the scotch. No, you’d rather not? Well, that’s how I feel about a “modern, progressive burger company.”
A progressive burger chain is like a quiet rave, a smoke-free poker game, or a free & fair Chicago election.
A burger chain serves up the sandwich version of meat & potatoes — the very antithesis of “progressive” anything. A fast-food burger is supposed to be simple, hearty, wholesome, perhaps-not-entirely-healthy fare designed for families on a budget and on the go.
* * * * * *
This shouldn’t be rocket math. Progressivism has come to mean top-down, pre-engineered, overpriced, “we know what’s best for you,” nannystatism — which is not what I consider to be a fun meal with the kids.
A fun meal with the kids is decent, fast, inexpensive dining on American food. There’s nothing “progressive” about it. And any attempt to force that square peg into the round hole of our hungry mouths is doomed to failure.
An inflationary economy with poor job numbers is hastening the demise of many companies, and speeding up a return to reality for McDonald’s.
Besides, you don’t win friends with salad: