YES: End the Scam: If You Live in This State, It’s Time to Stop Unlawful Traffic Cameras. “Not only that does he say they’re unconstitutional, but Sheriff Gary Long of Butts County also said that the endgame with these cameras is revenue, not public safety, and he refuses to let them run in his county during his tenure. He even goes as far as to say they’re unreliable.”
Archive for 2025
March 14, 2025
OLD AND BUSTED: The Democrats are the Working Man’s Party.
The New Hotness? The Democrats’ Brahmin Left Problem.
The Democrats have become and remain today a “Brahmin Left” party. “Brahmin Left” is a term coined by economist Thomas Piketty and colleagues to characterize Western left parties increasingly bereft of working-class voters and increasingly dominated by highly educated voters and elites, including of course our own Democratic Party. The Brahmin Left character of the party has evolved over many decades but spiked in the 21st century. The chart below illustrates this trend.
The chart does not show the most recent elections but election surveys agree that education polarization spiked further upward in both 2020 and 2024. Indeed, in the most reliable 2024 election survey the differential between unmodeled college and non-college Democratic support (compare the blue line in the chart) reached 27 points—literally off the Piketty chart and more than twice its level in the 2016 Piketty data.
It has not escaped the notice of many Democratic-sympathizing analysts that this ever-increasing education polarization—Brahminization—of the Democrats presents existential dangers to the party. Not only might the continued desertion of working-class (non-college) voters fatally undermine the Democrats’ electoral formula over time, the party’s fundamental purpose is being rapidly obliterated. What does it even mean to be the “progressive” party if the most educated and affluent voters are your most enthusiastic supporters? What does it mean to be “progressive” if working-class voters think your party mostly represents the values and priorities of those educated and affluent voters not their values and priorities?
Read the whole thing.
IS THAT BETTER, WORSE, OR JUST WEIRDER THAN THE POSSIBILITY THAT WE’RE LIVING IN A SIMULATION? Unexpected JWST Observations Hint We Might Be Inside A Black Hole.
“If the observation shown here indeed reflects the structure of the Universe, it shows that the early universe was more homogeneous in terms of the directions towards which galaxies rotate, and becomes more chaotic over time while exhibiting a cosmological-scale axis that is close to the Galactic pole,” the team explains in their paper.
“Some cosmological models assume a geometry that features a cosmological-scale axis. These include ellipsoidal Universe, dipole big bang, and isotropic inflation. In these cases, the large-scale distribution of the galaxy rotation is aligned in the form of a cosmological-scale axis, and the location of that axis in close proximity to the Galactic pole can be considered a coincidence.”
One possibility suggested by the authors is that the preferred direction is the result of the universe being on the interior of a black hole of a larger universe.
Maybe it’s black holes all the way down.
THE TRUTH SINKS IN AT BANK OF AMERICA:
Incredible note from Jared Woodard, the Head of Global Research at Bank of America:
He says the risks of Trump and Bessent’s plan are worth it, status quo is unsustainable. pic.twitter.com/hEFLQrcU4m
— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) March 14, 2025
The adjustment will be painful and there will be defeats along the way, but the necessity is undeniable.
NOPE, STILL NOT TIRED OF ALL THE WINNING: First Michelle Obama, Now Lawrence O’Donnell… How Much WINNING Can You Take?
LIKE DEMOCRATS CAN BE HUMILIATED: Can Democrats Recover From This Humiliation?
X IS MORE FUN THAN TWITTER EVER WAS:
Um… Aren't you dead? pic.twitter.com/ysgDO7BhM8
— Leftism (@LeftismForU) March 13, 2025
Who controls the social media accounts of Congressional Dems is what I want to know.
So far I've found nearly identical tweets that are almost word for word from 49 DEMOCRAT CONGRESS MEMBERS posted within the last 12 hours!!
FORTY NINE!!!!
Do none of them think for themselves?
Do none of them care to use their brains other than to spout the same talking points… pic.twitter.com/CgyTqphWTr
— Leftism (@LeftismForU) March 13, 2025
Who?
EXCERPT FROM A PERSONAL EMAIL: I got a ranting screed from a hardcore Dem pal, a great guy but totally unhinged when it comes to All Things Trump. His daughter apparently lost her dream job when the company folded b/c of the tariffs and trade regs w/r/t China. Apparently the company was wholly reliant on China.
At the risk of sounding cold-hearted, I sent him the note below. Real friends will tell you what you think they need to hear, not only what they want to hear:
Dear [XXX]:
Of course it’s not good that your daughter lost her dream job. But to be 100% honest, investing one’s life in a company that relies wholly on business with CCP is not a good choice. Never was. She chose poorly.
I do a lot of editorial work on this subject, and I have to tell you the CCP (which controls every major Chinese enterprise) are a very bad, no good, inhumane bunch. Even the NIH has something to say about it.
Interestingly, a large portion of my NYU students are FOTB Chinese. In my History of Journalism class, when I get to the section on cable news, I show them the video clip of this:
Only about 1/3 of the Chinese students had ever seen or heard of Tiananmen Square, and they only learned about it while in other countries. The subject is completely unfindable in any Chinese platform or outlet, and people who share this in China are subject to immediate arrest and often, made to disappear.
So, at the end of the day, from a moral perspective, in some ways, your daughter is better off. If she got a fabulous job with I.G. Farben in 1939 developing Zyklon B, and then lost her job…what would you say?
I know, people break long-time relationships taking the world too seriously. I could only end with this.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE:
(In fact, what was really common at Harvard in the 1930s was genteel social prejudice against Jews, we have lost the linguistic distinction between "mere" prejudice and various forms of hateful racism, including antisemitism. Prejudices can be harmful, too, but they are of a…
— David Bernstein (@ProfDBernstein) March 14, 2025
Worth reiterating. pic.twitter.com/qSyEJSUYRp
— David Bernstein (@ProfDBernstein) March 14, 2025
COLORADO: Senate Bill 86: Social media companies as agents of the state.
At its core, Senate Bill 86 seeks to regulate social media platforms by imposing strict requirements on content moderation, user removals, and law enforcement cooperation. Among the bill’s most concerning provisions is the requirement that social media companies determine within 72 hours whether a user has violated the platform’s policies or state and federal law. If a violation is found, the company must remove the user within 24 hours—a mandate that effectively deputizes private companies to police speech at the behest of the state.
This rushed enforcement process leaves little room for due process or thoughtful review. Instead, it incentivizes social media companies to err on the side of censorship rather than risk punishment under Colorado’s broad “deceptive trade practices” statute. The likely outcome? More voices silenced, more accounts banned, and an increasingly sanitized digital space where only state-approved speech is permitted.
Further, the bill’s vague definitions of prohibited activity—such as “subject use” violations that include selling illicit substances or firearms—open the door to arbitrary enforcement and politically motivated deplatforming. The government shouldn’t be in the business of deciding what speech is acceptable, nor should it coerce private platforms into acting as enforcers of an ill-defined and ever-changing set of online restrictions.
The bill looks an awful lot like California’s AB 587 which just had a major provision slapped down by the Ninth.
Update: Second link removed pending a look into a missing PDF and other oddities.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Let Mahmoud Khalil’s Supporters Spend Quality Jail Time With Him. “Back in the 1960s and early ’70s, protesters viewed getting arrested as a badge of honor, unlike the diaper-filling mobs of today. I say we give these kids some help on their protesting journey, and round up even more of them. Better yet, give them each some cell time with Mahmoud Khalil. If his deportation gets delayed any longer, I may start a nonprofit that will fund sending his American supporters back to Syria with him. It’s not deportation, it’s ‘studying abroad.'”
THE BIDEN CABAL JUICED THE ECONOMY, NOW COMES THE HANGOVER:
Chicago Fed retail sales data shows the consumer hit a wall in January (-.4%) and fell off a cliff in February (-.8%).
The Fed is beyond clueless at this point.
The consumer, particularly, the lower income one, is totally tapped out. pic.twitter.com/JRICVs5yxw
— Real Developments, CFA (@pdubdev) March 13, 2025
Those changes are month over month. “Annualized that’s -12%.”
Remember that tha Biden Cabal’s primary reason for existence was to print enough funny money to allow them to continue looting the Treasury. By far the most corrupt administration in American history.
UNEXPECTEDLY: Steven Soderbergh Compares Trump to Movie Villain.
Steven Soderbergh misses the Old Hitler.
The “Sex, Lies and Videotape” auteur told Variety how much he pines for President George W. Bush.
God, the George W. Bush-era seems like the golden age now. Who would have thought we’d find ourselves wishing that things were that simple?
The two-term Republican president was slammed as Hitler throughout his White House days. Kanye West even told a telethon audience that Bush didn’t “care about black people.”
That was news to African nations that received billions in aid from the 43rd president.
Soderbergh shared that thought and more during a Variety Q&A tied to his latest film, “Black Bag.” The thriller stars Michael Fassbender as an intelligence officer tasked with investigating his wife for treasonous ties. The film co-stars Cate Blanchett, Naomie Harris, Pierce Brosnan and Regé-Jean Page.
“God, the George W. Bush-era seems like the golden age now. Who would have thought we’d find ourselves wishing that things were that simple?” Everybody who votes Republican. Flashback:
Strange, how a man once so reviled has gained stature in the memory. How we cheered when Richard M. Nixon resigned the presidency! How dramatic it was when David Frost cornered him on TV and presided over the humiliating confession that he had stonewalled for three years. And yet how much more intelligent, thoughtful and, well, presidential, he now seems, compared to the occupant of the office from 2001 to 2009.
Nixon was thought to have been destroyed by Watergate and interred by the Frost interviews. But wouldn’t you trade him in a second for Bush?
—The late Roger Ebert in the lede to his December 2008 review of Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon.
For the institutional left, every Republican president or presidential candidate is Hitler, and then is inevitably rehabilitated as a wise, thoughtful statesman once the latest Hitler runs and/or wins.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The Upstart ‘Classic Learning Test’ Gets a Testy Welcome From the SAT.
The battle over [the Classic Learning Test (CLT)] also reflects the profound forces transforming K-12 education. As growing numbers of Americans seek alternatives to traditional public education, an infrastructure of charter, private, and home schools has expanded to support them. The CLT, which grew out of the classical education movement, is a recent addition to that infrastructure, a bridge between high school and college.
“The [Classic Learning Test (CLT)] is another option for students that tests a different aspect of education,” said Chester Finn, an expert on assessments and president emeritus at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. “It has merit as a test for college admissions.”
For decades, the College Board’s SAT and its chief rival, the ACT (which was bought last year by a private equity firm), have dominated the college admissions market. They are not simply exams – they are touchstones of academic achievement that have extraordinary influence on education, giving shape to what students study in school and strive for in life. High-performing schools display their students’ SAT and ACT scores online as a badge of honor.
William Slater, Tennessee lawmaker: “I’m not going to allow a monopoly to keep us from doing good education policy in Tennessee.”
As CLT founder Jeremy Tate sees it, those tests have played a role in making education overly utilitarian and job-focused. It has lost its soul, leaving students bored and uninspired with learning, says Tate, a former public school teacher in New York City. He is not surprised at all that public education is afflicted with sky-high absenteeism and record low achievement.
Tate is a central figure in an educational revival that aims to restore some of the wonder in learning. The great books of Western civilization and a focus on big questions of virtue and justice form the centerpiece of classical instruction. Science, math, and technology are important, too, but as pieces within the broader classical approach.
Read the whole thing.
LIGHTNING DEAL: 8.0 Cuft Heavy Duty Biometric Fireproof Safe Box. #CommissionEarned
HOW IT STARTED:
● Rep. Maxine Waters Jokes About Threatening Trump Supporters ‘All The Time.’
● Maxine Waters: ‘Americans should be out in the streets screaming’ for Trump’s head.
● Maxine Waters Attacks The Declaration Of Independence On The 4th Of July.
● Dershowitz: Maxine Waters Used KKK Tactics to Intimidate Chauvin Jury.
● As Maxine Waters Calls for Riots in the Streets to Continue, Minnesota National Guardsmen Shot At.
How it’s going: Rep. Maxine Waters Believes Trump Wants Violence and Is Working Toward a Civil War.
—Twitchy, yesterday.