Archive for 2024

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Phelim McAleer’s Haunting ‘October 7’ Ignored by Press.

If there’s a play in New York City about one of the most horrific days in recent memory it might be a story. If said play requires a police presence to keep the stars and audience safe, that’s your lede.

Tell it to the mainstream media.

Read the whole thing.

MORE STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS CHICANERY. Yes, it’s unlikely that the trillion-plus in student loans are going to be paid back in full. But a giveaway to current debtors without changing the system that caused the problem is beyond foolish. And call me old-fashioned, but if we’re going to spend the money, Congress should probably vote on it.

BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW THIS ABOUT ISRAEL: Richard Pollock explicates a superb piece of historical reconstruction reporting in the Jerusalem Post by Alex Winston. The point is to correct the recurring crude distortion by the radical Left and Islamic Jihadists  of the truth that the movement that led to the re-founding of Israel after WWII was part of a world-wide anti-colonialism crusade.

HE NEVER CHANGES: Well, Bless Your Heart, Mitt Romney. “This is where I’d like to grab Romney by the lapel of his suitcoat, pull his face so close to mine I could see my reflection in his Brylcreem, and shout, ‘THE BIDEN WHITE HOUSE IS BEHIND ALL THIS, YOU PREENING NINNY.'”

I CARRY A SQUIRT GUN FULL OF HOLY WATER FOR JUST SUCH EVENTUALITIES:

My second action would be to replace my fusebox with a breaker box because come on.

YOU DO REALIZE THAT HAMBURGERS WERE INVENTED IN GERMANY, AND ARE NAMED FOR A GERMAN CITY, RIGHT? Teaching my White Boyfriend to eat “Ethnic Food.” “When you are eating a burger in Germany, you are not eating a burger, you are fully cognizant of the fact you’re eating a bun stacked on lettuce stacked on a beef patty.”

Eating a burger when you’re not from Germany is literally cultural appropriation. Stay in your lane, bigot!

PUT NOT THY FAITH IN JUDGES: In an awful 7-2 decision today, the Supreme Court failed to uphold one of the most important constraints on executive power and okayed the bizarre funding mechanism of the CFPB (it gets its money on request from the Federal Reserve.) As I said in response, “Sadly, the Court has given the green light to Congress to abrogate its own power of the purse. We can expect future Congresses to come up with ever more inventive ways to allow the executive branch to fund its whims. The only hope for responsible government is for Congress to rediscover its own prerogatives and repeal unusual funding mechanisms for executive agencies that exercise more power over American citizens than the Post Office – starting with the CFPB.” Justices Alito and Gorsuch got the point exactly right in their dissent – there’s a reason England had a Civil War over this question.

GOODER AND HARDER, CALIFORNIA:

Refinery capacity is already tight.

BAILOUT NATION: China considers local government purchases of unsold homes.

China’s property sector has been in a deep slump for years, hit by a debt crisis among developers. Since 2022, waves of policy measures have failed to turn around the sector that represents around a fifth of the economy and remains a major drag on consumer spending and confidence.

Banks have been reluctant to heed Beijing’s repeated nudges to bolster credit to the embattled sector given the risks of more bad loans and continued weak sales. Home sales value of top 100 developers in April slid 45% from a year earlier, according to recent surveys published by CRIC, a major real estate information provider.

The Politburo of the Communist Party held a meeting on April 30, saying it would improve policies to clear mounting housing inventories.

Dozens of cities have offered subsidies to encourage residents to replace their old apartments with new ones, in order to sell their growing stock of new apartments and provide crucial cash-flow to ailing developers.

Local state-owned enterprises would be asked to help purchase unsold homes from distressed developers at steep discounts using loans provided by state banks, according to the report, adding that many of these homes would then be converted into affordable housing.

China’s state-owned enterprises (SOE) are already models of Communist inefficiency and overloaded with existing debt, so I’m not sure how this is going to work.

LINCOLN BROWN: Colorado Town Tries to Shutter Church Homeless Ministry. “For Dys and the First Liberty Institute, the issue is about more than governmental overreach and a case of NIMBY. It is about the First Amendment. Dys told me that Castle Rock is attempting to force The Rock to cease and desist from pursuing its core mission. He added that the First Amendment means something and cannot be dismissed when a municipality says, ‘Because I said so.'”