Archive for 2024

September 21, 2024

FIND YOUR PHONE: Apple AirTag. #CommissionEarned

Posted at 3:02 pm by Helen Smith on Sep 21st, 2024

TO SERVE MAN: The Kamala Cookbook.

Some of this incuriosity is no doubt the result of careful cultivation of the media by Harris in the last two years. As Semafor’s Max Tani reported in late July, Harris has “invited a parade of prominent television anchors and media executives to dine with her at the Naval Observatory, given personal tours of her garden to journalists from diverse backgrounds, and shaped trips to do media appearances with the outlets serving Democratic-leaning groups the White House refers to as ‘coalition media.’” Harris has fêted the hosts of Morning Joe over dinner, as well as Meet the Press’s Kristen Welker, and doesn’t discriminate between prestige and nontraditional media. As Semafor notes, “Staff from gossip site The Shade Room snagged an invite to her holiday party,” and off-the-record meetings included visits by the authors of “fairly niche abortion Substacks.”

Instead of running down the story themselves, media outlets have scolded Republicans who posited their own theories about Biden’s departure and its resemblance to a bloodless coup. In a piece that included charts and an extended note on its “methodology,” the New York Times decried the use of words such as “coup” and “cover-up” and claimed, “A vast majority of prominent Republicans have treated the development [Biden’s exit] with suspicion or scorn.” New York magazine declared such speculation “lurid,” stating, “This line of argument is as feeble as it is loud and insistent. If Biden could be brushed aside against his will, why did it take so long, and why did the alleged orchestrators of the ‘coup’ insist that Biden himself make the decision?”

A willing media have continued to serve as the Harris campaign’s boosters by avoiding asking difficult questions about her policy positions. As New York’s Gabriel Debenedetti wrote recently, a “popular media narrative” suggests that Harris should take clear policy positions on important issues, but “people close to Harris” say “her primary job now is to win an election and that most voters need to understand her values and priorities, not her white papers.”

In her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, Harris said, “My entire career, I’ve only had once client: the people.” Is it a good idea to keep your client in the dark about not only how you got your job but also what your plans are for leading them, given that they ultimately decide whether you get that job and pay your salary? Harris is betting that it is. And given the media’s incuriosity about her résumé and rise to power, it’s a clever gamble. For the ever-more distrusted and increasingly unpopular and unprofitable mainstream press, however, it’s just another path of indignity leading to the industry’s grave.

Running out the clock with a subservient media in tow could very well work for Kamala, but there is certainly precedence for failure, and not just in 2016: Is Kamala setting herself up for a Dewey-versus-Truman defeat?

Posted at 2:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on Sep 21st, 2024

THIS IS THE MOST DELICIOUSLY DEVIOUS PART ABOUT ISRAEL’S EXPLODING PAGER ATTACKS:

This operation has obviously been planned for quite some time. Though Israeli intelligence agencies were completely caught off guard by Hezbollah’s Iran-backed October 7 attack, they appear to be trying to make up for that huge intelligence debacle.

Defense One reports that Hezbollah had a deal with a Taiwan company, Gold Apollo, to supply the Islamic supremacist terror organization with pagers. Someone probably needs to have a little chat with the Taiwan company that sells AR-924 pagers to terrorists, but they told whoever asked that they weren’t responsible for the pagers.

They pointed the finger of blame at a Hungarian firm called BAC Consulting KFT. This appears to be a shell company run by friendly or Israeli intelligence. Indeed, multiple Israeli cutouts may have been involved in the manufacturing and sales of the devices.

The Times reports that Israel “did not tamper with the Hezbollah devices that exploded, defense and intelligence officials say. It manufactured them as part of an elaborate ruse.”

That’s right. The shell company sold the rigged pagers manufactured by the good guys.

Live look at the Mossad demonstrating the value of superior technology, and the nerve to use it judiciously:

Posted at 1:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Sep 21st, 2024

I DON’T BELIEVE YOU CAN GET TREBLE DAMAGES AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT, BUT THIS IS WRONG AND CERTAINLY EXPLAINS THEIR RECRUITING PROBLEMS:

Posted at 8:00 am by Glenn Reynolds on Sep 21st, 2024
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