YIKES! New Yorker Photo of Alex Soros and Huma Abedin Sure Sends a Message (Not the One They Wanted).
Wait, are we sure Alex and Huma weren’t deliberately going for looking like Bond villains in their SPECTRE-built lair? It looks a bit like Alex is getting bored with the photographer and reaching for the button to activate the trap door above the piranha pit that’s just out of shot:
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: Israel Just Blew Up More of Yemen — and Peace Has Never Been Closer? “This is a two-track peace process Ronald Reagan would find familiar. Reagan’s ‘peace through strength’ wasn’t just a slogan — it was his strategy.”
NARRATIVES DON’T MAINTAIN THEMSELVES, COMRADE:
A fun question for the Pulitzers is how 3 debunked stories about abortion laws gets an award but Free Beacon's investigative journalism resulting in the resignation of Harvard's president doesn't. https://t.co/XpKW7vp0eZ
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 6, 2025
2025: A LUDDITE ODYSSEY. Leonard Nimoy The BBC Goes In Search Of “The people refusing to use AI:”
[Sabine] Zetteler runs her own London-based communications agency, with around 10 staff, some full-time some part-time.
“What’s the point of sending something we didn’t write, reading a newspaper written by bots, listening to a song created by AI, or me making a bit more money by sacking my administrator who has four kids?
“Where’s the joy, love or aspirational betterment even just for me as a founder in that? It means nothing to me,” she says.
Ms Zetteler is among those resisting the AI invasion, which really got going with the launch of ChatGPT at the end of 2022.
Since then the service, and its many rivals have become wildly popular. ChatGPT is racking up over five billion visits a month, according to software firm Semrush.
But training AI systems like ChatGPT requires huge amounts of energy and, once trained, keeping them running is also energy intensive.
While it’s difficult to quantify the electricity used by AI, a report by Goldman Sachs estimated that a ChatGPT query uses nearly 10 times as much electricity as a Google search query.
Which, prior to the debut of AI in late 2022, similarly gave the BBC the heebie-jeebies: Why your internet habits are not as clean* as you think.
A decade ago, each internet search had a footprint of 0.2g CO2e, according to figures released by Google. Today, Google uses a mixture of renewable energy and carbon offsetting to reduce the carbon footprint of its operations, while Microsoft, which owns the Bing search engine, has promised to become carbon negative by 2030, and efforts are underway to investigate whether this footprint is now higher or lower.
According to Google’s own figures, however, an average user of its services – someone who performs 25 searches each day, watches 60 minutes of YouTube, has a Gmail account and accesses some of its other services – produces less than 8g (0.28oz) CO2e a day.
Newer search engines, however, are attempting to set themselves apart as greener options from the outset. Ecosia, for example, says it will plant a tree for every 45 searches it performs. This sort of carbon offsetting can help to remove carbon from the atmosphere, but the success of these projects often depends on how long the trees grow for and what happens to them when they are chopped down.
Regardless of the search engine you choose, using the web to find information is more sustainable than browsing in books. In fact, a paperback’s carbon footprint is around 1kg (2.2lbs) CO2e, while a weekend newspaper accounts for between 0.3kg (10oz) and 4.1kg (9lbs) CO2e making reading the news online more environmentally friendly than poring over a paper.
But you could still read a lifetime of paperbacks – 2,300 to be precise – for the same carbon footprint as a flight from London to Hong Kong, so don’t feel too guilty for reading the next best seller. (Read more about how to reduce the impact your flights have on the environment.)
Or not – it’s eco-guilt all the way down with the British left. And it all ends in a very, very bad way:
This is vandalism – pure eco vandalism.
Farmers lives are being destroyed for this junk. Future land fill. Imported. Plastic wrapped.
This needs to be stopped. And fast pic.twitter.com/zphU16r4zO
— Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) May 1, 2025
* I’m not sure that’s a headline I’d want to run if I worked at the Beeb…
MICHAEL WALSH: Make Universities Great Again.
FBI ‘MISLED THE PUBLIC’ IN CLAIMING 2017 GOP BASEBALL SHOOTING WASN’T DOMESTIC TERROR: HOUSE INTEL.
The FBI “misled the public” for years in claiming a sniper’s attempt to kill Republican congressmen at a June 2017 baseball practice was “suicide by cop”, when it was in fact domestic terrorism, according to a new congressional report released Tuesday.
The 27-page House Intelligence Committee report concludes “the FBI’s bottom line – ‘the FBI does not believe there is a nexus to terrorism’ – was based upon falsehoods, half-truths, and manipulations of the known facts.”
FBI Director Kash Patel announced in April that he had handed over to Congress long-sought bureau records related to the shooting at a ball field in northern Virginia.
The GOP-led Intelligence panel said in the report Tuesday that Patel’s cooperation is “a welcome change from previous FBI leadership, who thwarted Congressional oversight and public accountability at every turn, however, after reviewing the case file, the Committee could not be more disappointed by the FBI’s incomplete investigation and substandard analysis in 2017.”
James Hodgkinson, a left-wing activist from Illinois, shot four people in the June 14, 2017, attack, including Louisiana GOP Rep. Steve Scalise. He reportedly asked GOP congressmen who had left the practice early, and before the attack, whether the players were Republicans or Democrats. He died a day after a 10-minute shootout with police. The members of Congress were practicing for an annual charity game.
The FBI concluded the attack was “suicide by cop” instead of domestic terrorism — a position the bureau did not reverse until 2021, and a position the FBI has never fully explained.
Flashback: Bernie Bro James T. Hodgkinson, Attempted Assassin Of Steve Scalise, Already Being Erased From History. And additional examples of leftist violence and eliminationist rhetoric at the link.
BLOAT: Hegseth orders Pentagon to cut number of senior generals by 20%.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered senior Pentagon leadership to cut the number of four-star generals and admirals by at least 20% across the military, according to a memo signed by Hegseth dated Monday and obtained by CNN.
As of 2023, there were 37 four-star generals and admirals across the entire military.
The memo also directs the Pentagon to cut the number of general officers in the National Guard by 20%, and to cut the total number of general and flag officers across the military by 10%. There are currently about 900 general and flag officers — those with the rank of one star or higher — across the military.
Cynical Publius has suggestions:
Pete, I know you got this and you are totally awesome, but I also know the Joint Staff is going to come up with a bunch of COAs on how to make these cuts that will be presented in a 120-slide PowerPoint deck after 9 months of coordination with the Services and USD (P&R), so can I… https://t.co/36xgY1od1i
— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) May 5, 2025
Full text:
Pete, I know you got this and you are totally awesome, but I also know the Joint Staff is going to come up with a bunch of COAs on how to make these cuts that will be presented in a 120-slide PowerPoint deck after 9 months of coordination with the Services and USD (P&R), so can I please make a recommendation on how to make these cuts in the next two weeks?
First, cut any flag officer who did not draw hostile fire pay at any time in the past 20 years.
If that doesn’t get you to the required % cuts, then cut any flag who ever signed a DEI policy statement or signed separation paperwork on anyone who refused the COVID vax.
Finally, if that does not get you there, hold a PT test for all generals/admirals under applicable Service standards, run by a bunch of angry E-6 drill sergeants who were passed-over for E-7, and then cut the lowest scores until you meet your quota.
You will then have a lean, mean combat-ready cadre of senior leaders, I promise.
Indeed.
LIGHTNING DEAL: REDTIGER 4K 3 Channel Dash Cam, 5GHz WiFi Built-in GPS. #CommissionEarned
WHAT ARE SCHOOLS FOR? Refactoring Education: Focus on Achievement, Not Social Engineering.
Might that be for this reason, noted by The Conversation at the bottom?
In Vucci’s photograph, we are given the illusion that this photograph captures “the moment” or “a shot”. Yet it doesn’t capture the moment of the shooting, but its immediate aftermath. The photograph captures Trump’s media acuity and swift, responsive performance to the attempted assassination, standing to rise with his fist in the air.
In a post-truth world, there has been a pervasive concern about knowing the truth. While that extends beyond photographic representation, photography and visual representation play a considerable part.
It made Trump look like the hero we know him to be, the decisive, swift-acting, self-sacrificing leader that voters had been looking for. The picture turned up on tshirts, coffee mugs, stickers and posters, signaling how much the public was moved by it. Of course he won the election.
Some must have blamed this photo for it. But it was hardly propaganda — it was the work of an experienced photographer able to act with split-second instincts in a dangerous situation with events still unfolding. What’s more Vucci was hardly buddies with Trump. In March, he testified against the White House exclusion of AP from the photo press pool over the ‘Gulf of Mexico’ being renamed the ‘Gulf of America.’
Given Vucci’s photos, it seems kind of counterintuitive for the White House to exclude Vucci over a dispute like that, but the Pulitzer board didn’t notice.
But not entirely unexpected:
Or to put it another way:
MAN BITES DOG: ABC Ambushes Barstool’s Dave Portnoy, Gets Wrecked.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA’s Artemis II Orion Spacecraft Ready for Fueling, Processing.
The Orion spacecraft for NASA’s Artemis II crewed mission around the Moon has been on the move. Technicians relocated the spacecraft May 5 from the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it was assembled, to its fueling facility at the spaceport.
“With the Artemis II on the horizon, seeing the Orion spacecraft depart the Operations and Checkout building for the Kennedy Space Center’s Multi-Payload Processing Facility reflects the many months of hard work, dedication, collaboration, and innovation of the entire team” said Howard Hu, NASA’s Orion program manager. “It demonstrates our ability to achieve ambitious goals to enable a safe and successful Artemis II mission. The Orion team was proud to turn over the first human-rated deep space exploration spacecraft in over 50 years to Exploration Ground Systems for fueling and stacking for our next mission to the Moon.”
Inside the Multi-Payload Processing Facility, engineers and technicians from NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program will load Orion’s propellants, high pressure gases, coolant, and other fluids the spacecraft and crew will need to maneuver and carry out their 10-day journey.
Trump’s pick for NASA administrator — Jared Isaacman, who has yet to receive a full Senate vote — says he’s committed to flying Artemis II and Artemis III with the SLS and Orion. But after that, budgets look grim for both the rocket and the space capsule.
SLS costs way too much and does far too little.
OPERATION GIDEON’S CHARIOTS: Israel to Hamas: You’ve Got 10 Days or It’s All Over.
DON’T LET LEGACY MEDIA MEMORY-HOLE JAMES HODGKINSON: I couldn’t find a word about this from the dead-tree media, but Just the News is reporting that a Congressional report released this morning says:
“The FBI “misled the public” for years in claiming a sniper’s attempt to kill Republican congressmen at a June 2017 baseball practice was “suicide by cop”, when it was in fact domestic terrorism, according to a new congressional report released Tuesday.”
Gee, you’d think an official report from the House Intelligence Committee might get their attention.
But I guess if it isn’t about Hegseth following Biden’s tradition of using third-party apps, or if it inconveniently exposes the narrative of “those GOP people are violent” then it’s not “All the fits that’s news to print.”™
I’m no psychologist, but doesn’t the Hodgkinson matter — a self-described “Bernie Bro” — show that it’s always projection?
THANKS, FELLAS: Oil settles down more than $1 a barrel as OPEC+ accelerates output hikes.
Oil prices fell by more than $1 a barrel on Monday to settle at multi-year lows, as an OPEC+ decision to expedite its output hikes stoked fears about rising global supply at a time when the demand outlook is uncertain.
Brent crude futures settled at $60.23 a barrel, down $1.06, or 1.7%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude ended at $57.13 a barrel, falling $1.16, 2%. Both benchmarks settled at the lowest since February 2021.
Last week, Brent shed 8.3% and WTI lost 7.5% after Saudi Arabia signaled it could cope with a prolonged lower price environment. That offset optimism on the demand side that U.S.-China tariff talks could occur, Saxo Bank analyst Ole Hansen said.
On Saturday, OPEC+ agreed to further speed up oil production hikes for a second consecutive month.
Unless OPEC nations think they need extra cash as a hedge against near-term disruptions, I have no idea what might drive these output hikes.
THROUGHOUT WESTERN CIVILIZATION, PEOPLE WHO USED TO BE PILLARS OF NORMAL HAVE BEEN TURNED INTO SHOCK TROOPS OF CRAZY: Unbelievable: British Head Teachers ‘In Turmoil.’
If somebody from 2005 teleported 20 years into the future, they would beg to go back home.
Sure, there are lots more cool toys to play with now, and the televisions are mega huge, but it seems our basic grasp of reality disappeared somewhere along the way. It’s kinda like that Ryan George series of videos where the time-traveling reporter keeps begging to go back home to the 90s.
What got me thinking about this trend is this article explaining how the NAHT–which used to be called the National Association of Head Teachers until it was rebranded–can’t figure out what to do now that the UK Supreme Court ruled that boys and girls are different. . . . The NAHT is deeply confused by the ruling that boys are boys and girls are girls, and are asking for guidance from the government on how to deal with this newfangled idea regarding sexual dimorphism.
Kooks on parade.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Now MAGA Also Stands for ‘Make Alcatraz Great Again.’
OH, FER CRYIN’ OUT LOUD: Female cop may be the reason Luigi Mangione goes free…
Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old who’s accused of murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, might walk free, not because he’s innocent, but because a female cop allegedly mishandled the search that led to critical evidence being used against him.
According to his lawyers, Mangione’s backpack was illegally searched right after police found him at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania. Now they’re demanding that everything inside be tossed from the case.
And if a judge agrees, the entire case could fall apart, and one of the most high-profile murder trials in recent memory could blow up over a mistake made by a female officer.
But sadly, this isn’t just about one bad call. It’s about a dangerous pattern driven by DEI hiring, where meeting diversity quotas is more important than choosing the best people for one of the hardest, most stressful jobs on the planet. Just like the military, law enforcement shouldn’t be a social experiment. It’s life and death and more and more Americans are starting to ask the hard question: Are all these diversity-first hires really equipped to handle these high-performance jobs?
Developing…
I THINK IT’S MORE A SIGN THAT CANCEL CULTURE HAS RUN ITS COURSE: How The Shiloh Hendrix Case Killed Cancel Culture.
MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Will Gen Z Reverse the Baby Bust?
InstaPundit is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.