Archive for 2025

March 22, 2025

A LITTLE ON-THE-SPOT TWITTER-JOURNALISM:

I should note that as we approached this rally we saw several Chinese couples and one woman with a stroller moving away quickly and looking worried. I don’t know if they were afraid of violence or that it might hurt their visa status to be seen there.

Posted at 2:53 pm by Glenn Reynolds on Mar 22nd, 2025

SHOCKER:

Posted at 2:52 pm by Glenn Reynolds on Mar 22nd, 2025

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: The carbon footprint of a burning Tesla.

So the sum is that the vandals, the climate alarmism that boosts Tesla sales, the subsidy pushers in the federal government, and the owner-victims are all on the Left. Fewer Republicans have the money to buy such expensive vehicles, and anyway, they don’t want to switch from their internal combustion engine. They can mostly stand aside and watch incendiary lefties attack each other.

One consequence is that Tesla owners now festoon their cars and trucks with bumper stickers bearing such slogans as, “I bought this car before we knew Elon was crazy,” and “Vintage Tesla, pre-madness edition.” The stickers serve two purposes, one boastful and the other appeasing. They signal that the owner is of a liberal and tolerant ilk, hates Musk and Trump, and is thus on the side of the angels (and the fire bombers). They are also a sort of defensive manifesto, implying to the vandals, “Don’t wreck my ride; I’m on your side.”

A further irony is that incinerating a row of Teslas or Tesla charging stations surely pumps more carbon dioxide and other acrid pollutants into the air than the vehicles would save if allowed to live out their working lives unmolested.

Ready for more ironies? One is that spray-painting swastikas is an odd way to suggest you are against Nazis, which is how many on the Left, and certainly the vandals, characterize Trump and Musk.

As this meme from today’s Power Line Week in Pictures highlights, for those of us who are non-Tesla owners, it’s fascinating to watch the left’s war on Teslas, particularly in light of their decades-long war on normal, gas-consuming cars:

But this will likely turn far uglier, and possibly quite soon:

Posted at 2:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 22nd, 2025

SNOW WHITE REVIEWS FROM CRITICS ARE MOSTLY NEGATIVE: ‘So Bland It Barely Registers.’

Disney’s live-action remake of the 1937 classic “Snow White” was released on Friday, and so far, the reviews from critics are not great.

There has been a lot of controversy and speculation about the film in the months leading up to its release. Questions about casting, creative decisions, and the outspoken views of the film’s leading lady have all led to a lot of negative press and a scaled-back premiere event in Los Angeles.

So far, “Snow White,” starring Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, has a 46% Tomatometer rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a percentage that reflects the ratings from professional critics.

“Gloss prevails over heart in nearly every scene, and plot beats feel contrived,” a reviewer from The Wall Street Journal wrote.

The New York Times said of the film: “Neither good enough to admire nor bad enough to joyfully skewer; its mediocrity is among its biggest bummers.”

There have long been rumors that studios have used astroturf to prop up their new releases’ ratings on IMDB, where a movie with a 7.0 rating is quite watchable, 7.5 is considered a very good film, and anything above 8 is an enduring classic. How much of a fortune did Disney shell out to get Snow White such a high rating there this weekend?

Posted at 1:45 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 22nd, 2025

ED MORRISSEY: Elon to ‘Fire Pull’ Bowman: Get Ready for a 4-Alarm Lawsuit.

Is stupidity a defense against defamation? Perhaps, and although [Jamaal] Bowman is a former public-school principal, his attorneys can point to a number of Bowman’s statement and actions to depict him as a pure-D moron, including and especially the fire-pull incident. A better defense, especially in light of Musk’s clear status as a ‘public person’ under the Sullivan standard, is that “Nazi” is a hyperbolic statement of disapproval that was not meant to be taken literally.

Unfortunately, both defenses would tend to get defeated by a statement Bowman made at the time of the fire-pull incident. At the time, Bowman attempted to get his fellow Democrats to adopt a set of talking points to defend him for faking a fire alarm, with Politico reporting at the time that one suggested response would be to call Republicans Nazis:

One suggested response from Bowman’s office to questions about the incident: “I believe Congressman Bowman when he says this was an accident. Republicans need to instead focus their energy on the Nazi members of their party before anything else.”

Bowman then claimed that his staffers had created the bullet points and hadn’t asked him for approval before sending it out. He then released a statement explaining why it was inappropriate:

So Bowman is on record stating that he only intends to use “Nazi” in its “precise definition,” and explicitly condemned it as a term for a broad political attack. That certainly would lead one to believe that Bowman intentionally and fraudulently applied it to Musk for the express purpose of defamation.

That certainly seems … actionable. As well as incompetent.

Anyway, Musk will still have a tough time getting around Sullivan and the court’s normal tolerance of hyperbole in political criticism. Normally, one might wonder whether a plaintiff in this situation would want to waste the resources on such a fight, but Musk has an awful lot of resources.

Related: “I’m not suggesting Elon Musk took my advice when I said he should consider suing Jamaal Bowman, but I’m not denying it either.”

Posted at 1:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 22nd, 2025

OBVIOUSLY IT’S THOSE DUMB RED-STATE REDNECK ANTI-VAXXERS: Number of Texas measles cases surpass last year’s national total.

Oh, wait: Europe grapples with highest number of measles cases in more than 25 years. “A total of 127,350 cases were reported in the region in 2024, double the number of cases reported for 2023 and the highest number since 1997, according to analysis by WHO and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).”

Also: Ontario sees another sharp increase in measles cases, outbreaks growing in Quebec and Alberta.

I wonder where all these cases are coming from?

Posted at 1:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds on Mar 22nd, 2025

DON SURBER: Highlights of the Week.

ITEM 1: Having rescued two astronauts this week, Elon Musk set his sights on bringing Major West, Dr. Smith and the Robinson family home.

NASA launched them on October 16, 1997, and were headed to Alpha Centauri, but somehow they became lost in space.

ITEM 2: Eric Daugherty tweeted, “Trump says he will pay the astronauts who were stranded in outer space overtime out of his own pocket.

“DOOCY: They didn’t get any overtime. $5 per day per diem, that’s $1,430 in extra pay. Can the administration fix this?

“TRUMP: No one mentioned this. If I have to, I’ll pay it out of my own pocket, OK? I’ll get it for them. I like that.”

And he won’t tax the OT.

ITEM 3: World Net Daily reported, “An American freed from the Taliban in Afghanistan after being held hostage for two years is thanking President Trump for his freedom.”

Trump is bringing everyone home.

ITEM 4: Chris Queen reported, “One Georgia County Is Making Bank Off Speed Cameras. It’s Time to Stop the Scam.”

Georgia needs you, Lester Maddox. Lester, won’t you please come home?

ITEM 5: CBS tweeted, “President Trump’s dismantling of Voice of America will pave the way for U.S. adversaries to tell an anti-America narrative, VOA Director Michael Abramowitz told Nancy Cordes in his first interview since VOA’s full-time staff and contractors were placed on administrative leave.”

Mollie Hemingway beat me to the punch, tweeting, “Don’t worry, CBS, no one can push an anti-America narrative as well as you do.”

Heh, indeed. Read the whole thing.™

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 22nd, 2025

THIS WILL BE AN EARLY TEST FOR RFK, JR.:

Related:

Posted at 12:14 pm by Glenn Reynolds on Mar 22nd, 2025

ONCE AGAIN, DEMOCRATS ARE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF AN 80/20 ISSUE:

Posted at 10:55 am by Glenn Reynolds on Mar 22nd, 2025
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