HIDE THE DECLINE: On Wednesday, America’s Newspaper of Record reported:
But in an afford to begin prepping for 2028, new talking points have been issued: Watch: Democrats Who Praised Joe Biden’s Mental ‘Sharpness’ Don’t Want to ‘Rehash the Past.’
It’s all about 2028 now, so of course, once the Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson book tour is concluded, the media wing of the Democratic Party will be tossing 2021-2024 right down the memory hole. Or to mix science fiction metaphors:
KATIE COURIC CLAIMS PEOPLE ALLEGE MEDIA BIAS BECAUSE THEY HATE FACTS:
Couric, whose own podcast was nominated for a Webby Award, proceeded to intentionally prove how ridiculous such an assertion is, “And of course, I think there’s no such thing as true objectivity, but having said that, you know, I really struggle with that. And many people say, “Listen, the rules have changed. It’s okay to say you support trans people. It’s okay that you say I am 100 percent for reproductive rights,” you know, all these things that honestly as—personally I hold dear, but professionally I’ve never really—I’ve been trained to not share that.”
Fortunately for the rest of us, despite all of that rigorous training at the Top Gun School for Ace Broadcasters, Katie has shared quite a bit about what she “personally holds dear” over the last decade and a half:
BIRTHRATES: Baby bonuses won’t solve the birthrate problem: Only culture, not cash, can spark a new boom in having kids.
Baby bonuses prove “costly and ineffective” almost everywhere they are tried, wrote Leonard Lopoo, a professor of public administration and international affairs at Syracuse University, in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed. Considering how expensive it can be to raise a child — roughly $300,000 over 18 years, according to a new LendingTree analysis — what difference is a relatively modest “baby bonus” going to make? The prospect of a government check might induce a couple already committed to parenthood to get pregnant a little sooner. But is it going to convince adults who don’t want a baby to change their minds? Hardly.
Government benefits and incentives may have some impact at the margins, but ultimately the only real strategy for reversing demographic decline is to change cultural norms surrounding marriage and child-rearing. That is the lesson from Israel, the one advanced country where the fertility rate remains far above replacement level, at more than 2.9 children per woman. All the factors that usually lead to falling birthrates are present in Israel: a rising cost of living, pronounced female participation in the workforce, high rates of education, easily accessible birth control, expensive housing. Yet fertility remains incredibly robust — not only among Israel’s most traditional and religious communities, but also among the far more numerous Israelis who live modern or secular lifestyles.
“The real secret to Israel’s fertility rates appears to be cultural,” wrote Danielle Kubes in Canada’s National Post in 2023. “The family is at the absolute center of Israeli life. Getting married and having kids is the highest cultural value.” It is a value that goes beyond religious observance and political ideology. It cannot be explained by government financial aid (welfare benefits in Israel are comparable to those in Western Europe). Rather, it boils down to this: Israelis of every stripe share a conviction that having children is the best and highest means of imbuing life with meaning.
Related: Harrison Butker, Harbinger: Life during and after the coming Demographic Winter.
USA SOURCED: ForestLeaf Colostrum Powder 50% IgG Highest Pure Concentration, Grass Fed Colostrum. #CommissionEarned
TRUMP IS SUCH A DUMMY: Trump Just Made a Huge Move on Tariffs.
There’s a useful rule: any time you think Trump is doing something dumb, ask yourself “But what if he’s actually smarter than me?”
THIS NEEDS TO BE STOPPED, IN A WAY THAT SETS AN EXAMPLE THAT WILL PREVENT FUTURE ELECTION CANCELING:
setting up another bullshit Russia predicate to invalidate Poland’s elections in case the wrong party wins this weekend https://t.co/zOBdxOQhr6
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) May 17, 2025
MAKE AMERICA FLORIDA:
Florida now has a $1.7 trillion economy under Gov DeSantis.
Florida is #1 economy in the nation for the 2nd year in a row, per US News.
Florida has added 3.6 million new biz formations since 2019.
All while running a surplus.
Amazing what great executive leadership can do. https://t.co/ck1n1hXYEY
— Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) May 16, 2025
“Surplus,” Washington, did you see that part?
LIMITED TIME DEAL: Levi’s Men’s 511 Slim Fit Jeans. #CommissionEarned
THEY GAVE HIM THE NUCLEAR BUTTONS AND THEY KEPT SECRET HOW BAD HE WAS:
🚨BREAKING: Audio from Biden’s 2023 interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur has dropped.
He forgets names, dates, and stumbles through every single answer.
He was completely checked out.
pic.twitter.com/3LdlKfQbem— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 16, 2025
THERE’S A LOT OF THAT STUFF GOING AROUND: Matching Teens to “Groomers” Was Once Part of This Company’s Business: A major antitrust trial takes an “ancillary” detour to a chilling tour of online life.
The idea that FB/IG had “work to do” on “grooming,” and that certain kinds of underfunding were “deliberate,” became more explicit when an exhibit was introduced, an internal study from the next year, 2019, titled “Inappropriate Interactions with Children on Instagram.”
Hmm.
WHAT’S REALLY AT STAKE IN TRUMP’S CIVIL SERVICE REFORMS: Dr. Donald Devine was “Reagan’s Terrible Swift Sword” back in the 1980s and he accomplished more to make government work more efficiently in five years as Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director than all the rest of the individuals who ever held the position.
All of which is a round-about way of saying Devine gets what President Donald Trump’s federal civil service reforms are all about. As Devine explains in this American Spectator piece, Trump is not at “war” with the federal bureaucracy (as incessantly claimed by the Left media, especially the Washington Post), he’s working to make it much more responsive and accountable to the American people.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I was privileged to work with Devine as Assistant Director of OPM for Public Affairs for three great years (1982-1985), so I may be just a teeny, tiny bit biased.
TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE! Newly Released Biden-Hur Audio Captures Former President’s Stumbles from Special Counsel Interview.
Newly released audio from then-President Joe Biden’s lengthy interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur captures Biden’s diminished mental acuity in his failure to recall the year his son Beau passed away, the year his vice presidency ended, the year President Donald Trump was first elected, and why he possessed certain classified documents.
Biden’s long pauses and incoherent ramblings in response to light questioning from Hur are apparent in over four minutes of audio first reported by Axios on Friday night. The partial release fulfills expectations that the Trump administration would finally disclose the long-anticipated interview tape after Biden’s administration obstructed its disclosure at every turn.
Mistakenly, Biden said in the interview that his son Beau died in 2017 and had to be reminded that he passed away in 2015. Biden also said Trump was first elected in 2017 and had to be corrected that Trump won the presidency in 2016.
“OK, yeah. In 2017, Beau had passed and — this is personal — the genesis of the book and the title Promise Me, Dad, was a — I know you’re all close with your sons and daughters, but Beau was like my right arm and Hunt was my left,” Biden said at one point in the interview audio, with lengthy pauses peppered throughout.
Biden also can be heard stumbling over his words and whispering throughout the audio, two aspects of the interview the transcripts fail to fully capture. Biden struggled to explain why he possessed classified documents, and he veered into rambling, storytelling territory about his decision not to run for president in 2016. Hur interviewed Biden over the course of two three-hour-long sessions on October 8 and 9, 2023.
Every journalist in DC knew Biden was mentally gone by the beginning of 2024, but nobody wanted to be the first to say it. Just think of the media as Democratic Party operatives with bylines, and it all makes sense.
UPDATE:
Now that the Hur interview is being released, let's flashback to Kamala's comments on the subject.pic.twitter.com/fsYzyF9avS
— MAZE (@mazemoore) May 17, 2025
More:
The scandal is MUCH worse than the Biden WH not releasing the tape. The so-called “independent” Merrick Garland crooked Justice Dept was SUBPOENAED by Congress to release it, he defied that subpoena after jailing Steve Bannon for defying one, then DOJ refused to jail Garland. https://t.co/TLzzdrosZf
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) May 16, 2025
C’MON CHARLIE BROWN! KICK THE FOOTBALL! Let’s 86 the 86 Thing, M’kay?
OPEN THREAD: AI will probably most likely lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime there’ll be some great open threads.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: China launches first of 2,800 satellites for AI space computing constellation.
MORE DIE OF HEARTBREAK: Men Are Dying From ‘Broken Heart Syndrome’ at Twice The Rate of Women.
JUSTICE:
🚨BREAKING: Former FBI Director James Comey is reportedly under Secret Service escort to the Washington Field Office for questioning by investigators. pic.twitter.com/JvmW3FSYzy
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 16, 2025
“JUSTICE:” SCOTUS to CASA to A.A.R.P.: In Case Of (Perceived) Emergency, Ignore The Rules, And Make Stuff Up: None of the usual rules will apply when the ACLU says there is an emergency.. The ACLU sees itself as part of the judicial system, not as a party. Some of the courts see it the same way.
The past 24 hours have been something of a Rorschach Test for the Supreme Court. In the birthright citizenship case, the Court made clear that in emergencies, the judiciary must retain the power to enter universal injunctions, even if Article III does not otherwise permit such injunctions. And in A.A.R.P. v. Trump, the Court made clear that in emergencies, the court should certify a class without going through Rule 23, and grant an ex parte tro without considering any of the usual TRO factors.
What lesson should lower court judges take away? In cases of perceived emergencies, forget all the rules and make stuff up. When the executive branch takes such actions we call it an autocracy. When the courts do it, they call it the “rule of law.”
Krytocracy is not stable.
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