Archive for 2025

December 2, 2025

GENTLEMEN, START YOUR SUVs! Daily Show Freaks Out On Climate, Warns New York May Disappear.

[New Yorker staff writer Elizabeth Kolbert] also claimed, “Now, if you are thinking about what you need to do when you are—inherit very fortunately— a period of unusual climate stability would be to try to keep it that way. But we have gone—chosen to go in the opposite direction with all the evidence mounting, mounting evidence of the risks that that entails, and once again, that is a fascinating thing to do but not exactly what you would recommend.”

[Jon] Stewart then quipped, “See, what I hear from that story is, if we keep this up, we could turn Greenland into Manhattan.”

A more solemn Kolbert warned, “That is absolutely true. Keep it up, but there’s 20 feet of sea level rising. So Manhattan will not be here.”

We are currently in the last month of 2025, but according to people like Kolbert, New York should have been underwater 10 years ago. If Stewart and Kolbert want to know why nobody takes anti-civilization environmentalists seriously, that would be a good place to start.

I’m still doing my best to put the other end of the Northeast Corridor underwater: ‘Promise?’ Illustrated warning of what Washington, DC might look like if climate change isn’t addressed backfires:

Though in both cases, as Glenn once wrote in USA Today there is a solution that’s well worth investigating: Climate Change: Tax the Blue Zones!

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll on Dec 2nd, 2025

BLACK RAIN: Michael Douglas And Catherine Zeta-Jones Reportedly ‘Furious’ Over Son’s On-Air Humiliation On CNN.

Michael Douglas and his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, are reportedly very displeased over the manner in which their son Dylan was humiliated during a roundtable discussion on politics with CNN commentator Scott Jennings.

Young Dylan was left stuttering incomprehensibly midway through the interview, which has seemingly become a source of mockery behind the scenes.

Now, according to sources, his parents, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, intend to blacklist the entire network, as they believe CNN crossed the line.

 Jennings is of course, loving every minute of this:

For years, at the top of the IMDB page of quotes attributed to Michael Douglas is this: “I’m not a big filmophile. I don’t watch movies a lot for a hobby. I spend all my time watching sporting events. Because, opposed to movies, you can never tell how they’re going to end.”

Assuming Douglas ever actually said that, as Jennings hinted in his troll of Douglas as Gordon Gekko, it’s reminder that sports teams lose because the other side is more talented and/or better prepared. Whether Douglas is playing a baddie like Gekko or a character such as President Andrew Shepherd (another baddie, let’s be honest), he’s speaking dialogue from a script that was written months in advance before he hits the soundstage. Scenes are rehearsed endlessly before the cameras turn over. But it’s easy for an actor whose dialogue was written by someone like Aaron Sorkin to think that real life – or even cable TV – always works the same way:

Among the worst disasters for progressivism in recent decades has been the work of Aaron Sorkin, whose impossibly articulate ratatat dialogue made it way too easy to imagine sexy technocrats saving the world. It’s great entertainment, but normalized unreasonable expectations of the flawed human beings who happen to have high IQs and impeccable credentials.

As a child of the New Left, I never missed The West Wing: it was irresistible catnip for my adolescent hopes and dreams, and so much more satisfying than whatever was on the news—except for the eloquent public intellectuals on the Bill Moyers show on PBS. Later, as an idealistic policy major at Brown, I was surprised and disappointed to find basically nobody operating on that level.

It was only when I’d lucked into joining the Moyers organization that I began to understand how such Sorkinesque eloquence was manufactured each week—not with deliberate dishonesty, but ever more misleading as years passed and the scene grew shallower.

We’d typically tape on Thursday or Friday mornings to turn around by Friday nights. Being of Bill Moyers’ approximate height, I was tasked with showing up early to fill his chair as gruff union guys set up cameras and lighting. Then, as Bill’s blogger and research assistant, I’d watch live interviews from the control room to highlight quotable moments.

Uncut conversations were eye-opening; it was astonishing how often our esteemed guests hemmed and hawed and got basic facts embarrassingly wrong. And how many came off batshit crazy: one, later an anchor on MSNBC, speculated that Captain Sully’s Miracle on the Hudson—visible from our west side offices—had been God blessing the Obamas.

Drafting the Moyers Blog and promotional listings, I’d sit in with producers and video editors to consult on coalescing broadcasts. They were like wizards, casting away awkwardness and errors to sculpt artful vignettes of the most compelling bits of conversations that often stretched well over an hour or more.

So many of the most rousing clips came from when guests were at their most factually inaccurate, and editors deftly dipped in and out to pull and seamlessly reassemble the very best parts. It was wondrous alchemy, and a privilege to work with super-talented creatives, but the reality of our academic pundits remained the same.

Viewers, or at least those motivated enough to weigh in, frequently testified that their social-democratic faith had been wavering until they’d seen whichever inspiring interview affirming what they’d always believed. I always found that frustrating, wondering if they might have reacted more thoughtfully to the real deal than the perfected package that aired.

Jennings seems to agree that this is what happens when a leftist steps into a unscripted event with a Republican who is prepared for the debate:

In his interview with [Meghan] McCain on Monday, Jennings said he was surprised that Zeta-Jones and her husband were reportedly left infuriated by the debate.

‘I’m more than willing to apologize personally to Catherine Zeta-Jones over a nice seafood dinner if she wants to do it,’ he cheekily remarked.

‘Actually, I have to say Dylan was really nice off the air,’ he continued. ‘I think he was honored to be there.’

‘We had what is relatively a normal exchange,’ Jennings then insisted. ‘He made his Democratic talking points. I dismantled him. Not an uncommon thing to happen on CNN.’

When he then saw that Zeta-Jones and Michael were livid about the segment, Jennings reiterated that he was ‘surprised.’

‘But I think that what happens with some of these folks is that they exist in a very tight little bubble. They never really talk to Republicans or conservatives. They don’t really get outside of their bubbles, where people tell them how smart and good-looking they are.

‘And then they wind up on television with someone of a different persuasion, and it’s surprising to them.’

‘I hope Dylan comes back,’ Jennings added. ‘I’m sure he’ll get better at it.’

Earlier in the interview, McCain said she thought Dylan ‘should not have been booked on a show with you because it’s like bringing a knife to a gun fight, quite frankly.’

She then went on to say that the entire segment on November 10 made her feel ‘so uncomfortable,’ as she referred to herself as the ‘queen of nepo babies‘ thanks to her father, the late Senator John McCain.

‘I have been put on TV way too early as a nepo baby,’ she said. ‘And of all people, Paul Begala schooled the living s**t out of me the one and only time I went on Bill Maher,’ McCain said of a former adviser to then-president Bill Clinton.

‘I have been Dylan Douglas,’ McCain continued. ‘But what didn’t happen is my parents didn’t have a meltdown. My dad was like, “Buck up and move on.”‘

If only Dylan had gone into the profession like Michael and Kirk – he would have had great writers supplying him dialogue, and the chance to do take after take to get those line readings pitch perfect.

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll on Dec 2nd, 2025

AFGHAN NATIONAL HIT WITH FEDERAL CHARGES OF THREATENING TEXAS SUICIDE BOMB ATTACK:

Mohammad Dawood Alokozay, who has been living in Fort Worth, Texas, said in a video posted on TikTok, X and Facebook days before Thanksgiving that Americans and “infidels” must perish and that he was going to use an improvised explosive device — with a yellow cooking oil “favored by the Taliban” — to carry out the slaughter, according to the Department of Justice.

* * * * * * * * *

“This Afghan national came into America during the Biden administration and as alleged, explicitly stated that he came here in order to kill American citizens,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi in a statement.

Related: Suspected National Guard shooter reveals deeper problems with asylum seeker vetting.

UPDATE: Vets explain their dealings with Afghan “allies” to illustrate why they shouldn’t be in America.

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Dec 2nd, 2025

NEWS YOU CAN USE:

Posted at 12:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds on Dec 2nd, 2025

CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN:

Posted at 11:54 am by Stephen Green on Dec 2nd, 2025

DISPATCHES FROM THE RED ZONES: Idaho Bar Offers Free Beer to Help ICE Catch Illegals.

The Old State Saloon in Eagle made an announcement Saturday on social media that ignited a firestorm online, Fox News reported.

“ALERT: Anyone who helps ICE identify and ultimately deport an illegal from Idaho gets FREE BEER FOR ONE MONTH at Old State Saloon!” its post read:

When word of the deal spread online, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reacted with a gif of a dinosaur character dropping what appeared to be a beer can while it had a dumbfounded look on its face:

“If you’d like to claim your free beers, send a detailed email with any evidence, photos, videos, summary of events, dates, and times etc to: ,” the saloon wrote in a reply to its initial post.

The establishment later shared screenshots of what appeared to be messages from people taking up the challenge:

In a subsequent post early Sunday, the saloon, which is owned by Mark Fitzpatrick, announced another beer giveaway.

“For the month of December it’s ‘Merry Snitchmas’ at Old State Saloon: Manly American Mondays — all American Citizen males who support ICE get one free beer! Ladies’ ‘I’m Telling’ Tuesdays — BOGO for American woman willing to tell ICE about any illegals, to get them deported. Wednesday: American heterosexual couples get 10% off their entire bill. Get married and make American babies, if at all possible!” the post read.

Beer: Helping people get married and make American babies since 1776!

Posted at 11:41 am by Stephen Green on Dec 2nd, 2025

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: The Hollow Man.

People are at once the greatest treasure and the greatest bane. Who hasn’t watched the movie where sadistic convicts take the guards hostage with makeshift knives and threaten to kill them one by one unless their demands are met? Or the scenario where a cab driver refuses to drive all the way into a high crime area and drops his passenger off in a dimly lit street, leaving him to walk the rest of the way past a group of youths hanging menacingly out in an alleyway? Or perhaps we’ve heard of the pizza delivery employee hesitating to take a food order to a neighborhood that even the police avoid, leaving some elderly person without food because he can’t walk to the nearest store because of the gangs?

Drama is about good versus evil. The dilemma in each case is that people can be either the source of sentient evil or all that morally matters in the world; the ultimate good and the ultimate bad, depending on their choice. That’s a common view in many modern ethical systems—especially in humanism and most versions of utilitarianism or rights-based theories. Man was at the center of things for all recorded history. But if we could send robots into the mix, then humanity’s position could change.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 11:10 am by Stephen Green on Dec 2nd, 2025

WHOSE COUNTRY IS IT, ANYWAY?

Posted at 10:54 am by Stephen Green on Dec 2nd, 2025

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China’s Shijian spacecraft separate after pioneering geosynchronous orbit refueling tests.

China’s experimental Shijian-21 and Shijian-25 satellites have separated in geosynchronous orbit after being docked for months conducting apparent low-profile on-orbit refueling tests.

Shijian-21 and Shijian-25 performed rendezvous and proximity operations during the first half of the year before apparently docking in late June or early July, when the pair became virtually indistinguishable when viewed from the ground, likely marking the start of planned refueling tests, according to independent satellite-tracking analyses. The docked pair then later performed fuel-intensive orbital plane change maneuvers, reducing their orbital inclination.

Optical ground observations Nov. 29 made by S2a systems, a Swiss company which develops and operates customized systems for optical space surveillance worldwide, reveal that the two satellites have now separated in geosynchronous orbit, close to the geostationary belt (GEO) at 35,786 km above Earth’s equator. The orbits of the pair are inclined by 4.6 degrees with respect to GEO.

The separation could mark a successful conclusion to a world-first refueling operation in GEO.

Beijing appears to be working very hard at making their space systems robust.

Posted at 10:39 am by Stephen Green on Dec 2nd, 2025
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