BLUE CITIES WILL BURN NO MATTER WHO WINS. PREPARE ACCORDINGLY: Several arrests made after violence, looting breaks out following Dodgers’ win.
Archive for 2024
November 3, 2024
WHEREVER THE LEFT HOLDS SWAY YOU CAN BE SURE BUDGETS WILL BE PAINFUL FOR THE PEOPLE (BUREAUCRATS NOMENKLATURA, NOT SO MUCH): Budget delivers heavily on ‘painful’ promises.
SHOCKED, SHOCKED, SHOCKED: Lithium-Ion Battery Recycle Plant Explodes in Missouri.
THE PARTY DOESN’T CARE HOW CANNON FODDER VOTES: The Pentagon Fails to Send Absentee Ballots to Active Military Service Members.
TRYING TO STRADDLE THE DIVIDE MERELY IRRITATES BOTH SIDES: These Left-Wing Muslims Have a Savage Message for Kamala.
I DON’T OWE YOU AN EXPLANATION, BUT I KNOW A LOT OF YOU WORRY, SO: War and Cough.
And yes, I tried to make it funny and it’s a little lame…
November 2, 2024
COOL. I’LL BET THE PLANE HAS MORE COMEDY CHOPS THAN SHE DOES: Kamala Harris campaign plane redirected to NYC for surprise Saturday Night Live cameo.
Vice President Kamala Harris added a previously unannounced stop in New York City to her schedule for a surprise cameo on Saturday Night Live.
She is appearing on NBC’s hit late-night show with just three days to go before the election, in a move designed to reach millions of TV viewers, even if it’s at the expense of another swing state event.
Harris is likely to come face-to-face with SNL veteran cast member Maya Rudolph, who was specifically cast to play the vice president after Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
The visit is the latest in a long line of appearances by presidential candidates on the show, which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year.
Although the nature of her appearance was being kept under close wraps, it could also bring in Dana Carvey continues to skewer President Joe Biden’s speaking style, and James Austin Johnson, who plays Trump.
The surprise visit to New York came during the final laps of the campaign, when travel schedules sometimes reveal where a candidate is making their strongest play.
I don’t think Kamala still needs to lock down the votes of the SNL audience, but this will certainly help her garner more ink tomorrow morning, given that show now largely exists to provide Sunday column fodder for Beltway journalists. As John Hinderaker wrote in 2017 at Power Line, political reporters and wire services love to recap SNL episodes, because it allows them to get their biases in print while still maintaining a thin veneer of objectivity. “‘Respectable’ news outlets like the AP can’t publish absurd comedy skits ripping President Trump, much as they might like to,” Hinderaker wrote. “But by covering Saturday Night Live, they turn such meaningless attacks into fake ‘news.’” And she’ll have the show’s writers (and her own) scripting everything she says, unlike what would have been a likely trainwreck appearance on the longform Joe Rogan Show.
OPEN THREAD: Let’s go.
APEX, BABY: One Super Predator in Africa Instills Even More Fear Than Lions. “The fear of humans is ingrained and pervasive.”
SALENA ZITO: Trump has reason in Pennsylvania to feel better than Harris. “In interviews across the state, middle-class voters, white, black, and Hispanic, are now voting shoulder to shoulder, not divided by race but by the economic despair they are experiencing together. Food costs, gas prices, utilities, car insurance, rent, and mortgages (if they can even afford to buy a house) are driving their vote.”
Related: Mark Halperin: Kamala in Trouble in Wisconsin.
Yesterday, Halperin published a story on his 2Way channel in which he made some dramatic claims about the battleground states. First, he claimed that his sources tell him Kamala Harris is unlikely to win in Georgia, North Carolina and Arizona. That’s not exactly a shock at this point as most polls seem to show Trump up slightly in those states.
The big news is what he said next. If Harris loses those states, her only path to 270 is the blue wall. She must win Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. “It could be that Kamala Harris wins Pennsylvania but loses the White House because she loses Wisconsin,” he said. He added, “My reporting is that she’s in trouble in Wisconsin.”
Don’t get cocky. I hope this is true, but it shouldn’t encourage anyone to slack off.
THE ROOT OF TRUMP DERANGEMENT [VIP]:‘But Dear — He’s Just Not Our Kind!’
ANSWERS TO THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Why Peanut the Squirrel Matters.
If you live on Twitter/X (or any of the social media platforms), you will likely have heard the story of Peanut the Squirrel.
Peanut has been a social media celebrity for seven years. An animal rescue nonprofit was built around him, saving hundreds of animals, from rodents to horses, from abuse, neglect, or simply bad luck. His story and his antics charmed millions of people, and helped people escape from the grittier and nastier realities of living in an unforgiving world.
* * * * * * * *
In the midst of the decisive election campaign of our lifetimes, why talk about Peanut the Squirrel? Aren’t there more important issues like the polls, turnout, shenanigans, and all the day’s news?
How can we be living in this country? Encampments and rampant illegal drug use, defecating on the streets but ‘the state’ has the focus and the will to do this? #peanut https://t.co/sW20aeU027
— 𝚍𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚕𝚍 𝚋𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚊𝚝 (@donaldbarnat) November 2, 2024
Yes, all those things matter. But the story of Peanut matters because it is a microcosm of what we are facing. A nameless, faceless, and merciless bureaucracy with no sense of proportion or empathy can, at a whim, upend people’s lives over what amounts to nothing. It can seize a beloved family pet, the mascot of an organization that does enormous good, just because some nanny-stater decides they don’t approve.
Now, I’m not sure about crying over a squirrel and a raccoon … but having the state raid your home has to be a traumatizing experience.
You don’t have to be an animal lover to realize that the government is way overstepping what their bounds should have been in this case. It’s literally insane.
They intimidated my wife to ask her her immigration status.
Welp, we’ve finally found the type of criminal that the Sanctuary City of New York feels necessary to threaten with deportation.
I think we all can surmise what happened here:
Oh no. pic.twitter.com/va50lrfoUB
— Flappr (@flapprdotnet) November 2, 2024
MORE: America’s Newspaper of Record is documenting the revenge for Peanut’s murder:
Radicalized Squirrels In MAGA Hats Begin Uprising https://t.co/90thVcIcgm pic.twitter.com/WI8NSnLFyD
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) November 2, 2024
STILL MORE (FROM GLENN):
FOR LIZ CHENEY AND HER FAMILY:
Ironically, this was once fake hero John Kerry’s fight song.
DISPATCHES FROM THE INTERSECTION OF TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE AND 21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS:
Biden says Republicans like Trump are “the kind of guys you’d like to smack in the ass.” LOL WHAT 🤣🤣🤣
pic.twitter.com/zu3n56BKIH— Tiffany Fong (@TiffanyFong_) November 2, 2024
Related: “Does Joe Biden even want Kamala Harris to win? It’s hard to tell sometimes.”
MARGARET ATWOOD MAKES SURPRISE ENDORSEMENT OF TRUMP!
ROGER KIMBALL: Donald Trump is going to win the election, and liberals are already deranged by it.
They say that truth is the first casualty of war. Maybe it is. It is certainly the first casualty of Democratic press coverage of Donald Trump when he is running for president.
“Trump escalates violent rhetoric, calling for Liz Cheney to be shot.”
Gosh. Did he really? No, he didn’t. But CNN wants you to think so, and they are happy to wheel out frantic NeverTrumpers like Jonah Goldberg to fulminate against the Bad Orange Man for threatening Cheney, one of the former president’s most outspoken critics.
The trouble is, the full clip of Trump’s appearance with Tucker Carlson shows beyond cavil that he was warning that Liz Cheney, like her father, is a war hawk who would happily send “10,000 troops” to fight and die for a pointless war.The investor and recent convert to Trump Bill Ackman has assembled an inventory of distortions the media has spread about Trump.
Read the whole thing.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Why Are So Many People Upside Down on Car Loans?
TEN YEARS GONE: 1972: CBS News’ Walter Cronkite Warns of Coming Ice Age (Video).
Flash-forward a decade:
1982. CBS News with Dan Rather details the catastrophes soon to be caused by climate change. 😂
Hopefully you don’t live in Florida, it could disappear any day now. pic.twitter.com/H6zarlCJDH
— MAZE (@mazemoore) October 31, 2024
LIMITED TIME DEAL: AOSU Security Cameras Outdoor Wireless, 4 Cam-Kit. #CommissionEarned
MISTER WE COULD USE A MAN LIKE MOSES AGAIN: The Red Sea Is Now So Dangerous Even NATO Warships Are Avoiding It.
The Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest and most strategically vital waterways, has become so hazardous that even the German Navy is steering clear. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius’s decision to redirect the frigate Baden-Württemberg and support vessel Frankfurt am Main around the Cape of Good Hope on their return from an Indo-Pacific deployment speaks volumes. The Red Sea is now deemed too perilous, underscoring just how ineffective current U.S. and EU naval protections are in this region.
For months, the U.S. and EU have stationed forces to secure the Red Sea’s shipping lanes. Yet, Houthi rebels, equipped and backed by Iran, continue to harass and attack vessels under the guise of “solidarity” with Palestinian forces in Gaza. Reports reveal Houthi attacks extending into the Indian Ocean and even the Mediterranean, a spread that demonstrates their increased capability and adaptability. The EU’s mission Aspides commander warned of escalating danger but lacked the ships and resources needed to respond adequately. The United States Navy continues to send warships through the Red Sea, but its mission to protect merchant ships—Operation Prosperity Guardian—is considered a failure by several naval experts we interviewed and has significantly diminished in scope and size. As a result, even many US-flagged commercial vessels – which the US Navy is obligated by law to protect – are opting to divert their routes around Africa.
Exit question: “If the 3rd-tier HOUTHIS, who have NO NAVY, can prevent a NATO naval vessel from transiting the Red Sea, what does it say about NATO’s naval survivability in a sea war vs. Iran, Russia, China, or all three?”
OUT ON A LIMB: Gladiator II is “total Hollywood bullsh*t”, says top historian.
A feature by The Hollywood Reporter published today (October 30) makes a bid to separate the historical accuracies of the upcoming epic from its wilder sequences – like the use of sharks in a flooded Colosseum, which had already garnered praise (and disbelief) from viewers upon its reveal in the film’s trailer.
Dr. Shadi Bartsch, a classics professor at the University of Chicago – and author of several books about ancient Rome – called it “total Hollywood bullsh*t.”
“I don’t think Romans knew what a shark was,” she said, although adding that naval battles were held in the arena.
On the use of rhinos in the Colosseum, Bartsch notes that a poem was once written in 80 A.D. “about a rhinoceros tossing a bull up to the sky”, although not of the same breed as the one in the film, which is directed by Ridley Scott. There’s also no evidence that gladiators rode rhinos, she clarified.
Another Gladiator II scene shows a Roman noble sipping tea in a cafe while reading the newspaper – which, as The Hollywood Reporter noted, would be an anachronism as the printing press would not be invented until 1,200 years later.
“They did have daily news — Acta Diuma — but it was carved and placed at certain locations,” Bartsch added. “You had to go to it, you couldn’t hold it at a cafe. Also, they didn’t have cafes!”
I eagerly await Scott’s sequels to Krakatoa: East of Java and One Million Years B.C.