FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 20 YEARS MORE AMERICANS THINK THE COUNTRY IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK:
Breaking: A 20 year daily trend ends, this is a big one. https://t.co/5XImapgWHr pic.twitter.com/IrSmJt08bx
— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) February 13, 2025
UPDATE: A new hope.
If this is not an opportunity for unification (without a war), what is?
— Noah Fencebutt (@Noah_Fencebutt) February 13, 2025
FIRST MILEI, NOW THIS: Who Is Nayib Bukele?
I have friends in Central America who are very impressed.
GOODER AND HARDER, CALIFORNIA: L.A. Puts Pronouns Ahead of Fire Recovery.
COLORADO: RTD’s institutional racism on display with subsidized transit ‘equity.’
If there is such a thing as systemic racism, governments like Colorado’s Regional Transportation District are the greatest oppressors. They build systems designed to guarantee people with money are free to go places where the least among us can’t follow.
Without mobility to bring you where you need to be, when you need be there, you will forever be a second-class citizen. You won’t have the opportunities for employment, housing and education someone with the most run-down car will have. You’ll be forced to live and work on a bus route, and you better have your family, friends, medical care and churches on that route, too.
Don’t believe me? Go a month without a car.
If RTD’s elected board of directors weren’t the racists they are, if they weren’t beholden to crony business interests, if they cared more for the transit dependent they were entrusted to serve than their own empire-building, they would immediately take their 95% tax subsidy and give it directly to the transit-dependent poor in the form of mobility vouchers.
Let them ride taxis, Ubers, have a friend drive them or, heaven forbid, buy their own used car.
But they don’t wish to give the poor real transit equity. They wish to force the poor to live as they dictate.
It’s an expensive proposition, too: “‘Free’ rides don’t improve ridership because RTD is already nearly free, 95% government subsidized. Said differently, a $5.50 ‘all day’ ticket actually costs $110 in expenses, with taxpayers picking up the difference.”
I knew it was bad but I didn’t know it was that bad.
AND THE HITS JUST KEEP COMING:
🚨 #BREAKING: DOGE officials have just entered the IRS building in DC to begin their investigation into the agency
This comes after 𝕏 users OVERWHELMINGLY voted for DOGE to dig into the IRS just days ago.
WE THE PEOPLE are in charge of our government again! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/8SFS9CwMss
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) February 13, 2025
Take the side of the IRS, Dems.
LIMITED TIME DEAL: REDTIGER Dash Cam Front Rear. #CommissionEarned
BOWDLERIZED: Hollywood, Media Silent as ‘Crocodile Dundee’ Gets Censored.
Hollywood and the entertainment press are worried that President Donald Trump will spark a censorship tsunami.
Deadline’s Peter Bart suggested Trump 2.0 may lead to a new Hollywood blacklist. The stars of “The Apprentice,” the anti-Trump hit piece, warned of a free speech chill when their film struggled to find a distributor.
Spoiler Alert: It eventually did, and the film flopped.
Meanwhile, both Hollywood and the reporters who cover the industry looked the other way as sensitivity readers censored classic books, movies got erased by major streaming services and trigger warnings greeted everything from “Peter Pan” to “Goodfellas.”
No outrage. Often silence.
The latest censorship attack is drawing crickets from the usual suspects.
Buy your favorites on DVD, Blu-Ray, or UHD, and make digital copies.
THAT SOUNDS PROMISING: Oral arsenic trioxide for leukemia has a 97% cure rate: Hong Kong’s prescription medicine enters international arena. That number seems awfully good, but I hope it’s right.
IT’S MY THURSDAY ESSAY FOR PJ’S VIP MEMBERS: The End of Other People’s Money.
Members asked for more long-form pieces, and I’ve been happy to oblige.
DATA AND PRIVACY? AYFKM? It turns out that while certain people *ahem* have been caterwauling about Musk having access to data that (in my personal experience) any Fortune 100 can access, this, from JustTheNews:
Just days after President Donald Trump fired the U.S. Coast Guard commandant, investigators confirmed Wednesday the military branch left computer systems and sensitive data vulnerable to foreign adversaries and hackers in a cybersecurity blunder that also left Pentagon systems dangerously exposed.
These people — it’s amazingly twee, isn’t it? — have started to call themselves “The Resistance” in social media. Totes adorbs. I’m betting the word gets mainstreamed (if David Hogg has anything to say about it) inside the next week.
THE LATEST TRUMP OUTRAGE AGAINST SCIENCE: Queer-friendly data on car crash deaths removed from NHTSA website.
More:
He was informed by a friend there was a wanted picture of him on an FBI website. He CALLED his local FBI office and turned himself in.
He was initially charged with two misdemeanors (1) knowingly entering a restrictive ground or building (2) disorderly conduct on capital grounds. This was his first encounter with the law.
He was arrested. Facebook and Instagram disabled his accounts, have they disabled Diddy’s yet? The media ran hit piece after hit piece. He was smeared, bullied and defamed every single day.
On January 22, 2021, he was charged with an additional felony which was obstruction of an official proceeding. A change the DOJ knew they couldn’t prove. A statute that didn’t apply. This was ultimately thrown out by the Supreme Court.
His girlfriend left him. After that Matt was depressed and anxious. The DOJ cancelled hearings, they kept delaying and searching for more evidence. Month after the month the prosecution continued to stall, they continued to say they were looking for more evidence and Judge Bates allowed it.
The DOJ came back and offered Matt Perna 6-12 months and he entered into a guilty plea. Judge Bates set the sentencing hearing out two more months. As time continued Matt got more and more depressed and anxious and afraid.
Right before the 7 year anniversary of his mother’s death, his lawyer called and said they are adding a terrorism enhancement which would make his sentence end up being 41-72 months.
Three days later he hung himself.
Read the whole thing.
I’VE GOT A BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS: Inside Captain America Brave New World’s Chaotic Production. ‘I Think Everyone Knew This Is Probably Not Going to Be a Good Film.’
In the dénouement of a bitterly contested presidential election but also as the opening salvo to a 2025 Marvel movie slate that carries through with Thunderbolts* [asterisk in the title — Ed] and Fantastic Four: First Steps (set to release, respectively, May 2 and July 25), Brave New World now finds itself reaching theaters at a turbulent cultural moment. Mackie discovered that the hard way during the press tour as his comments that “America represents a lot of different things and I don’t think the term, you know, ‘America’ should be one of those representations” went viral, sparking accusations of anti-Americanism and necessitating him to issue a hasty Instagram retraction/apology/clarification.
According to a technical crew member on Captain America: Brave New World who was present on set and has knowledge of the film’s postproduction process, Disney is all too aware of its potential liabilities — on the heels of disastrous test screenings last year that necessitated a lengthy 22 days of reshoots, the 11th-hour addition of a new supervillain played by Giancarlo Esposito, major sequences being cut, and the film’s release date being punted from February last year. In particular, Harrison Ford’s Red Hulk/Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross character created uncomfortable political resonances. A demagogic military leader who transforms into a rampaging, orange-skinned superhuman, the character shares certain unmistakable traits with Donald Trump. To be sure, the reshoots took place last summer, long before the 45th president was certain of becoming POTUS 47. But in recognition of what one insider calls an increasingly “politicized” environment, Disney changed the sequel’s original title from Captain America: New World Order to the comparatively anodyne Brave New World. (Indeed, in July, the studio pulled a theatrical trailer featuring footage of an assassination attempt on the Ross character out of sensitivity around a deadly attempt on Trump’s life earlier the same month.)
Moreover, this source (who has worked on several Marvel television and film projects and spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to comment publicly) described a high degree of difficulty on the reshoots and action set pieces that ran up the budget. Compounding matters, Ford (now 82) lived up to his reputation as a legendary curmudgeon on set, according to the source, making matters more difficult for Onah — an acclaimed independent filmmaker but one, like so many hired by Marvel, with zero experience directing within the trappings of a nine-figure budget. Marvel and Onah declined to comment; a representative for Ford did not respond to Vulture’s request for comment. A source close to the production said there is “no truth” to allegations that Ford’s behavior was unusually challenging.
I worked on the reshoots. I think everyone on the crew knew this is probably not going to be a good film. Some of the action sequences were not believable. We had a lot of frustrations on set. After principal photography was finished, it was like, “Oh, we’re going to introduce the leader of the Serpent Society.” It was on, then it was off, then it was on again. That’s very expensive to do. My co-workers who spent more time on Brave New World than I did said, “Yeah, this has been a really rough production.”
When the studio had its test in front of an audience, it didn’t respond. Maybe they don’t want to see anything political in an election year? Maybe they were divided on who they were voting for? General Ross reads as an allusion to Trump. He’s this very powerful general who becomes kind of a fascist and turns into a raging Red Hulk. This is my opinion, but I think Disney was realizing, Hey, we’ve been bleeding for a while. Let’s try not to piss off our core base any more than we have been over the last couple of years. They know you’re going to lose a lot of your audience that way.
Earlier: ‘If you genuinely think Trump is a fascist, go and have a lie down.’
ELON TO THE RESCUE: NASA chooses SpaceX launch site in Texas for Pandora mission launch.
QUESTION ASKED:
You know we can see the actual expirations on the boxes, right? https://t.co/ZQg4uiewAr
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) February 13, 2025
C.A. SKEET: The Real Reason the Elites Were So Taken Aback by Taylor Swift Getting Booed. “A libel has been committed, and it has been done with the purpose of manipulating a narrative. This particular narrative is that any vocal criticism against a leftist female political activist, especially by males, is self-evident proof of ‘misogyny.’ The goal behind pushing this narrative is to shame or cancel the dissenters into no longer dissenting, lest they be branded a misogynist or any other of the Left’s favorite scare words.”
That ploy no longer works.
THE 21ST CENTURY ISN’T TURNING OUT AS I’D HOPED: Anesthesiologists warn about proper use of ketamine.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: After Putin sacked Russia’s space chief, the rumor mill is running red-hot. “In the wake of Borisov’s seemingly sudden removal—there was no readily apparent public controversy, and he was still fairly early into his tenure—the real question is why Borisov was dismissed. Ars, working with a translator named Rob Mitchell, has been combing through Russian news reports and Telegram channels to try to determine what happened. Although we don’t have absolute answers, there is plenty of intrigue.”
The mystery might never be solved but this is the sad part:
It is also possible that Borisov was simply fired because of the generally poor state of affairs at Roscosmos, which is saddled with myriad problems, including: corruption, a lack of investment, low wages and poor employee morale, Russia’s war against Ukraine draining talent, a reliance on technology half a century old, and shrinking commercial markets.
The bottom line is that Russia simply does not have the state budget to support significant investments in its space programs, and the country’s technical efforts are bent on weapons rather than spaceflight. It also has virtually no commercial space market, as everything is controlled by Roscosmos or its state-owned subsidiaries.
The Ukraine war has exacerbated Russia’s decline in space. The country’s space program survived the breakup of the Soviet Union a quarter of a century ago by partnering with the West. It formed the coalition of nations that built the International Space Station, with NASA providing significant financial support. European companies bought launches on the Soyuz rocket. American launch companies bought Russian rocket engines. But most of that is over now, and the future looks fairly bleak, with Europe closing off its markets to Russian markets and NASA and Roscosmos likely ending their space station partnership by 2030.
That’s quite a decline from the Soviet glory days or even from just a few years ago.
HISTORY:
Yes, Nazis were notorious for shrinking government and championing free speech. https://t.co/ZGNDBIDCq9
— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) February 13, 2025
READER FAVORITE: Apple AirPods Pro 2 Wireless Earbuds, Active Noise Cancellation, Hearing Aid Feature. #CommissioEarned
BREAKING:
Carrier USS HARRY S TRUMAN CVN75 has been in collision with merchant bulker BESIKTAS-M in the eastern Mediterranean Sea near Port Said, Egypt, US Navy said ca 1130 EST 13 Feb. No word on extent of damage but no reports of flooding or damage and propulsion plants are unaffected pic.twitter.com/P20cyVXndf
— Chris Cavas (@CavasShips) February 13, 2025
More to come, I’m sure.
SOMEBODY SET UP US THE BOMB: Minneapolis violence interrupter threatens violence to City Council over violence interruption funds.
A prominent north Minneapolis pastor interrupted a Monday Minneapolis City Council committee meeting and made threatening statements, then doubled down in a Facebook Live video posted Tuesday night.
The Rev. Jerry McAfee — whose nonprofit has done violence prevention work for years — brought a council committee meeting to a halt Monday when he interrupted the meeting and went on a five-minute rant about the council considering temporarily moving some violence prevention programs to Hennepin County.
In a statement released Wednesday night, Minneapolis police said the department had met with council leadership as well as McAfee.
“No crime has occurred; however, we are working with building security to ensure everyone’s safety,” according to Minneapolis police spokesman Sgt. Garrett Parten.
* * * * * * * *
When Chavez asked if he was threatening them, McAfee said, “I don’t make threats, I make promises.”
He challenged the council to “put me out” but said if they tried to arrest him, his “people” would come.
As he left the meeting room, he told the council members, “I’ll see you again; that’s a promise.”
After he left the meeting, he told the Star Tribune that the council was trying to move funding to the county to steer funding to people who had gotten it in the past. He scoffed at the council suggesting he threatened them, calling it “childish foolishness.”
McAfee suggested in subsequent social media posts that he half expected to be arrested. He doubled down in a Facebook Live post Tuesday night, in which he said “Rev. McAfee ain’t hittin’ nobody. I ain’t shot nobody. However I will if I have to. I don’t want to.”
After posting those remarks, Council Member Robin Wonsley sent a note to her constituents in which she said of McAfee: “This individual has now publicly made death threats.”
And to think Tim Walz promised to deliver all of this Minnesota Nice to the rest of America last year.
IT’S NOT EVEN THE LAST PLACE WE LOOK: Congress Discovers $2.7 Trillion in Fraudulent Government Payments — Why Is This Not a Bigger Story?
THIS:
If your party overwhelmingly comprises the federal bureaucracy, you hold onto the levers of power even through electoral losses.
This has been the story of @TheDemocrats for my entire life. It's also the best explanation for the Democrats' current desperation and hysteria.
— Abigail Shrier (@AbigailShrier) February 13, 2025
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