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PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: President Joe Biden drops out of 2024 presidential race.

President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he will end his presidential re-election campaign, bringing an abrupt and humbling conclusion to his half-century-long political career and scrambling the race for the White House just four months before Election Day.

Biden, 81, could not reverse growing sentiment within his party that he was too frail to serve and destined to lose to Donald Trump in November.

—NBC News, today. Curiously, all that “too frail to serve” talk was dismissed by NBC News as “cheap fakes” as recently as June 19th.

Posted at 2:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jul 21st, 2024

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

Flashbacks:

Posted at 9:11 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jul 18th, 2024

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE: ‘Unifier In Chief’ Biden Admits Mistake In Calling for ‘Bullseye’ on Trump—Then Says He Never Used Inflammatory Rhetoric.

Biden’s defiant remarks were a far cry from the call for national unity the octogenarian leader issued in a rare Oval Office address on Sunday. “We must not go down this road in America. The political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated,” Biden said. “It’s time to cool it down.” His comments in the wake of Saturday’s shooting prompted mainstream outlets such as Politico to call Biden the nation’s “unifier in chief.”

In his interview with Holt, however, Biden embraced such “heated” rhetoric. In addition to his assertion that Trump is a “threat to democracy,” Biden veered off into a diatribe about the “viciousness” of rural Trump supporters after Holt asked him whether Saturday’s assassination attempt will alter the trajectory of the presidential election.

“I’ve never seen circumstances where you ride through certain rural areas of the country, and people have signs they’re standing—big Trump signs with a middle—sign that says ‘F Biden’ and a little kid standing there putting up his middle finger,” Biden said. “I mean, that’s the kind of stuff that’s just inflammatory and a kind of viciousness. It’s a very different thing to say, ‘Look, I really disagree with Trump’s—the way he takes care of taxes.’”

Related: ‘Hitler Pig.’

As former President DONALD TRUMP’s trial opened Monday in New York City, NYT’s MAGGIE HABERMAN posted an update from the courtroom: “Trump appears to be sleeping. His head keeps dropping down and his mouth goes slack.”

The post, which immediately went viral on X and was almost instantly the talk of cable news panels, shot around Biden world in emails and text messages between White House, campaign aides and other Democrats close to the administration.

“Hitler Pig sleepy,” one individual said on one thread as a caption to Haberman’s post.

You read that right: “Hitler Pig.”

That moniker, four people in Biden’s orbit told West Wing Playbook, is one that aides to and allies of the president — generally younger, more digitally native individuals, not senior staffers, one person clarified — frequently use to describe Trump.

—The Politico, April 17th.

This morning, Biden senior advisor TJ Ducklo wasn’t happy about how his boss’s latest interaction with a party operative with a Chyron turned out:

This despite Holt doing all he can to cover for Biden’s gaffes:

Veteran journalism professor Jeff Jarvis apparently doesn’t think we’re worthy of grandpa’s wisdom:

Related: Biden Snaps at Lester Holt for Supposedly Not Covering the ‘Lies’ Trump Told at the Debate. No one is falling for the BUT TRUMP diversion. Anyone with a brain cell knows the media loves to fact check Trump.

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jul 16th, 2024

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Axios Bungles the ‘Imperial Presidency.’

Axios has published a report this morning titled, “Behind the Curtain: The imperial presidency in waiting,” in which it proposes that, if he is reelected, Donald Trump “promises an unabashedly imperial presidency.” And I’m sorry to record that it’s . . . well, it’s almost entirely garbage.

I truly write that more in sorrow than in anger. We really do need to limit the power of the presidency, and, if it takes fear of Donald Trump to do it, I’m all in. Certainly, that fear is not imagined. Like Barack Obama before him, and Joe Biden after him, Trump was guilty of attempting to usurp Congress’s lawmaking powers, and, as I have written and said 359,701 times by now, he should have been impeached in January 2021 for interfering with Congress. But, as quickly becomes clear, Axios does not actually understand the problem that it believes itself to be warning about, and, as a result, those warnings fall flat.

The term “imperial presidency” was coined by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., and it signifies two things: (1) the enormous growth of the president’s war powers over time, and (2) the president’s intrusion into areas that are supposed to be managed by Congress. Schlesinger was horribly biased as an analyst, and prior to his anti-imperial phase, he was one of the country’s most vocal champions of the presidency, but the phenomenon he described was real — and, if anything, it has got worse since he published his book in 1973. Unfortunately, though, what Axios includes as supposed examples of Schlesinger’s theory are not, in fact, examples of Schlesinger’s theory.

But the left, as Charles Cooke implies above, loves the “imperial presidency” — as long as they’re the party presiding over the empire.

QED:

Posted at 5:32 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jul 2nd, 2024

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

Shot: ‘Age Has To Be Managed:’ Mika Brzezinski Throws Biden’s Staff Under The Bus For Poor Debate Performance.

—The Daily Caller, today.

Chaser: White House And ‘Morning Joe’ Blast Wall Street Journal Report That Joe Biden “Shows Signs Of Slipping.”

—Deadline Hollywood, June 5th.

Mika is no doubt choosing her words very carefully in this late Soviet-era of the DNC, given that the show she co-hosts is both Biden’s favorite, and one of his boss’s, as well.

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jul 1st, 2024

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Matt Yglesias on ‘Elite Misinformation.’

The last section of his piece has a subhead that reads “Lying to people is bad.”* I agree but I think at this point Yglesias underestimates what capable liars some people are. He writes, “the political system is too large…to operate on a conspiratorial basis.” Maybe that’s true on a longer time scale but I’ve personally seen the left try to operate on a conspiratorial basis too many times to shrug off the possibility that it can work sometimes.

I won’t rehash the old days at great length but Democrats did their very best to trick Americans into accepting a version of Obamacare that was intended to lead inevitably to a single-payer program that progressives really wanted. Within their own ranks they were explicit that this was their goal, but to Americans in general they just lied. There was a genuine conspiracy to mislead people. Instead of telling the truth they went with “if you like your plan, you can keep it.”

And frankly, you could look at the more recent claims about Donald Trump and Russia. The Steele Dossier was given credibility by a lot of reporters who later walked away from it when it became clear it was mostly a dumpster fire of misinformation funded by the Hillary campaign as an October surprise. But for at least two years a lot of people were leaning hard on it.

* Like I said, past performance is definitely no guarantee of future results: Liberal blogger Matt Yglesias advocates lying on Twitter.

But what set off a flurry of Tweets today – and Yglesias’s advocacy of lying – was a charge by Yglesias via Twitter that Washington Times reporter Eli Lake has a “deserved reputation for dishonesty.” Hemingway, Lake and others confronted Yglesias on Twitter about the charge, pointing out that Yglesias himself had actually advocated dishonesty.

Then, Yglesias dug in, saying lying was a necessary part of politics.

Yglesias’s Twitter opponents also charged he does not take criticism well.

“When [Yglesias] gets frustrated because he can’t counter an argument, he calls people ‘dishonest’,” Lake said, also calling him “a child.”

In concluding his interview with The Daily Caller, Yglesias said “go f**k yourself” and hung up the phone.

Good times, good times:

Posted at 5:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jun 26th, 2024

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: ‘We mark this solemn day:’ Biden statement on anniversary of death of George Floyd.

Here is the official statement from U.S. President Joe Biden on the fourth anniversary of the death of George Floyd, Floyd died May 25, 2020 at age 46 while be detained by police in Minneapolis, His death sparked protests, calls for police and racial justice reforms and civil strife across the country.

The day before George Floyd’s funeral, his young daughter Gianna told me, “Daddy changed the world.” Four years after her father’s murder, there is no doubt that he has.

George Floyd should be alive today. His murder shook the conscience of our nation and reminded us that our country has never fully lived up to its highest ideal of fair and impartial justice for all under the law. What we witnessed as a result was one of the largest modern civil rights movements in our Nation’s history, with people from every background marching together against racism and systemic injustice.

Two years ago, alongside George Floyd’s family, civil rights leaders, and law enforcement officials, I signed an executive order to implement key aspects of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act with respect to federal law enforcement, including: restricting chokeholds and no-knock warrants, and establishing a database for police misconduct—all measures to advance effective, transparent and accountable policing.

My Administration has made significant progress in implementing this Executive Order, and will continue our work to build public trust and strengthen public safety. But real and lasting change at the state and local level will only come when Congress acts. That’s why I will continue to urge Congress to send the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which ensures law enforcement accountability, to my desk.

As we mark this solemn day tomorrow, we join George Floyd’s family in remembering his life and his legacy. We are vigilant of Black and brown communities who all too often have borne the brunt of injustice; and we recommit ourselves to honoring George Floyd’s legacy by ensuring our Nation lives up to its founding ideal that we are all created equal and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives.

Or as the Onion noted on June 10th, 2020, just as that summer’s riot season began: Biden Flattered His 1994 Crime Bill Suddenly Starting To Receive So Much Attention.

Of course, as Jon Gabriel recently wrote: Welcome to protest season, where the cause changes but the tactics stay the same.

In 2017, the Women’s March was launched in reaction to the #MeToo revelations, while in 2018, the anti-gun March for Our Lives dominated headlines. Neither attracted much violence; you could find that at anti-Trump protests.

In 2019, Greta Thunberg grimaced at the United Nations over climate change, which apparently was solved by blocking traffic and throwing tomato soup on Van Gogh paintings. This Monday was Earth Day, but it didn’t get much coverage. Environmentalism is so five years ago.

The pandemic put the kibosh on public gatherings, which made mass protests a bit hypocritical. So, the anger went online. In 2021, it was COVID masks and vaccines, while in 2022, anyone skeptical of funding Ukraine was labeled a Putin devotee.

But those annoying COVID restrictions were put on hold back in 2020, just as the virus was at its peak. Black Lives Matter protests swamped cities from coast-to-coast, often peaceful during the day but turning ugly by night.

Downtown Seattle was turned into the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone while Portland burned for months.

Exit question:

Posted at 8:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on May 25th, 2024

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS, SOCIALIST “IT GIRL” EDITION: AOC Preps Bronx Voters for Tonight’s Trump Rally With an Amazing Gas Price Warning.

Setting aside the important and required response of “why didn’t he do this during his first term?” question which needs to be asked whenever the left has a new meltdown over the Bad Orange Man, why on earth would AOC be opposed to higher gas prices? In February of 2019, as the Federalist noted at the time, her now-infamous Green Nude Eel listed the goal of replacing “every ‘combustion-engine vehicle’ — trucks, airplanes, boats, and 99 percent of cars — within ten years. Charging stations for electric vehicles will be built ‘everywhere,’ though how power plants will provide the energy needed to charge them is a mystery.”

Higher gas prices have been openly stated as the goal of the enviro-left for over a decade and a half. Steven Chu, Obama’s then-incoming energy secretary, told the Wall Street Journal in the fall of 2008: “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.” That same year, the L.A. Times ran the headline “The joy of $8 gas,” and in lockstep, NBC, the Washington Post, and the New York Times all called for higher gas taxes. In 2023, the Washington Free Beacon noted that “Biden Taps Economist Who Bemoaned Gas Prices ‘Too Damn Low.’” The previous year, Fox News reported, “Amid high gas prices, Pete Buttigieg slammed for telling Americans to switch to electric cars.”

In 2021, then Biden-press secretary Jen Psaki told her party’s operatives with bylines, “our view is that the rise in gas prices over the long term makes an even stronger case for doubling down our investment and our focus on clean energy options so that we are not relying on the fluctuations and OPEC and their willingness to put more supply and meet the demand in the market.”

So why would AOC be complaining about Trump nudging gas prices up, when it’s something she presumably still wants?

Related: In other AOC news, Sandy’s saying the quiet part out loud: AOC: Prosecuting Trump Is Like Putting ‘An Ankle Bracelet Around Him’ Because He Can’t Campaign.

Posted at 7:44 am by Ed Driscoll on May 25th, 2024

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Biden Compares MAGA Republicans to 1950s-Era Segregationists.

But as Matt [Margolis] points out in his excellent piece on blacks and polls, black voters over 50 are more susceptible to the machinations of Democrats trying to scare black voters with visions of hooded whites coming for them.

Matt points out that “recent polling shows that black voters 50 years old and older still back Biden 82% to 8%. However, younger black voters, between 18 and 49 years old, a stunning 25% support Donald Trump.”

Joe Biden spoke on Friday at the National Museum of African American History and Culture to an audience largely made up of older black voters and raised the specter of segregationists hoping to stampede black voters to vote for him.

Biden recalled his meeting with the “Little Rock Nine” and tried to tie MAGA Republicans with the segregationists that opposed them.

“The Little Rock Nine were met with vitriol and violence. Today the vitriol comes in other insidious forms—an extreme movement led by my predecessor and his MAGA Republican allies, backed by an extreme Supreme Court that gutted affirmative action in college admissions. My predecessor and his extreme MAGA friends are now going after diversity, equity and inclusion all across America,” Biden said. “They want a country for some —not for all.”

Biden has no business criticizing MAGA for being segregationists. As a congressman in the 1970s, Biden fiercely resisted busing and school desegregation.

And how: Speaking of George Wallace…:

But since Obama brought it up, it’s worth noting that the only person in modern American politics to have repeatedly praised Wallace and other segregationists is Joe Biden. It was Biden who bragged that in 1973 Wallace considered him “one of the outstanding young politicians of America.” It was Biden who wrote in 1975 that the “Democratic Party could stand a liberal George Wallace.” It was Biden who in 1981 told a black witness in the Senate that “sometimes even George Wallace is right.” It was Biden who, while campaigning for the presidency in Alabama in 1987, claimed that he’d been the recipient of an award from Wallace in 1973 (it probably wasn’t true; but what a thing to brag about!), and then boasted that Delaware was “on the South’s side in the Civil War.”

“Biden was also buddies with J. William Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and a segregationist and anti-Semite who would later become a mentor to the Clintons.”

As well as another fellow Democrat, Robert Byrd: Herschel Walker says ‘Democrats do not like America’ and slams media for not grilling Joe Biden over his friendship with former KKK member-turned senator Robert Byrd.

Not to mention this former aficionado of blackface:

Then there was Biden’s terrible optics in 2022, when he modeled himself after the ultimate segregationist:

And while Biden is busy trashing “MAGA Republicans,” in the past he was eager to attack their predecessors as well, using similarly hyperbolic language.

Flashback to 2012: Biden: Romney’s approach to financial regulation will ‘put y’all back in chains.’

And a flashback to 2011, when Biden called Tea Party members “terrorists.”

Posted at 2:45 pm by Ed Driscoll on May 19th, 2024

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

Shot: Robert Kennedy Jr.: We need laws to ‘punish global warming skeptics.’

“Those guys are doing the Koch Brothers bidding and are against all the evidence of the rational mind, saying global warming does not exist,” Mr. Kennedy said, Climate Depot reported. “They are contemptible human beings.”

He then turned his attacks directly at the Koch Brothers, accusing them of “polluting our atmosphere,” he said, the blog reported.

“I think it’s treason. Do I think the Koch Brothers are treasonous — yes, I do,” Mr. Kennedy said, Climate Depot reported. “They are enjoying making themselves billionaire by impoverishing the rest of us. Do I think they should be in jail — I think they should be injuring three hots and a cot at the Hague with all the other war criminals. Do I think the Koch brothers should be tried for reckless endangerment? Absolutely, that is is criminal offense and they ought to be serving time for it.”

—Cheryl Chumley, the Washington Times, September 23rd, 2014.

Chaser:

Of course Mr. Bond, Spectre does have its methods to deal with those who are uncooperative:

Posted at 12:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on May 19th, 2024

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Ashley Biden Wrote Letter to Judge Confirming That Diary Reporting That Biden Showered With Her Until a ‘Not Appropriate’ Age Is Real. “Snopes has been denying this for years — and this is one of the ‘fact’ checking outfits which social media companies use to decide whether to censor/throttle accounts. It was false for years, now it’s true. No apologies. No explanation of how or why this error (or ‘error’) was made.”

Oceania has never been at war with Eastasia.

Posted at 10:42 pm by Ed Driscoll on May 13th, 2024

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Far-left U. Wisconsin student groups suspended after antisemitic chalkings.

The University of Wisconsin chapters of Anticolonial Scientists and Mecha have been placed on interim suspension pending an investigation into chalkings which “endorsed violence, supported terrorist organizations and/or contained antisemitic comments.”

According to the student paper The Daily Cardinal, an interim suspension means a group “must cease activities [during] an investigation and decision from the CSO [Committee on Student Organizations].”

The report notes last weekend’s chalk messages had included “Al-Qassam you make us proud, kill another soldier now,” “Power to Al-Qassam” (the military wing of Hamas), “Power to Hezbollah,” and “Down with ‘Israel’ down with ‘USA.’”

Others praised the Houthis, who use the slogan “God is great, death to the U.S., death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory for Islam.”

Why would a college student group even think of deploying chalk when all the best people assured me in 2016 that it was one of the most dangerous powders of mass (mental) destruction that could be deployed on a campus?

It began at Emory University, but has quickly spread across the country like a calcium carbonate plague. #TheChalkening has now terrorized college students from the University of Michigan to Arizona State, with temporary, hand-scrawled messages of support for Donald Trump on public sidewalks and stairways. While various campuses have dealt with the scourge in different ways—some creating safe spaces for the triggered teens, some encouraging the free exercise of ideas in temporary outdoor media—one school, DePaul University in Chicago, is turning to extreme measures. They’re banning chalk. Or, at least, they’re banning the use of chalk. Whether the campus intends on performing door-to-door dorm searches for paraphernalia remains to be seen.

Why were the University of Wisconsin chapters of Anticolonial Scientists and Mech exempt from such searches?

Posted at 1:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on May 12th, 2024

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE:

UPDATE: Flash-forward to 2024: Bombshell: Biden Administration Has Been Hiding Intel on Location of Hamas Leaders in Betrayal of Israel.

Posted at 10:14 am by Ed Driscoll on May 12th, 2024

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

Shot: Another Boeing whistleblower says he faced retaliation for reporting ‘shortcuts.’

—NPR, Friday.

Chaser: NPR suspends veteran editor Uri Berliner who called out left-wing bias.

NPR has suspended Uri Berliner, the senior editor who published a bombshell essay a week ago that claimed that the publicly funded outlet has “lost America’s trust” by approaching news stories with a left-wing bias.

NPR media writer David Folkenflik revealed on Tuesday that Berliner beginning on Friday was suspended for five days without pay. Folkenflik, who reviewed a copy of the letter from NPR brass, said that the company told the editor he had failed to secure its approval for outside work for other news outlets — a requirement of NPR journalists.

NPR called the letter a “final warning,” saying Berliner would be fired if he violated NPR’s policy again.

Neither NPR nor Berliner immediately responded to requests for comment.

Curiously, beleaguered NPR CEO Katherine Maher hasn’t locked down her Twitter account or deleted her tweets yet: Christopher Rufo Goes Through New NPR CEO’s Amazingly Woke Twitter Timeline, which could well be driving Berliner’s suspension:

Gentlemen, start your screenshots; there’s a pretty good chance the treasure trove of hot takes from Maher that Rufo uncovered won’t be online much longer:

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Perhaps red-state legislators and governors should require their public universities to disassociate themselves from NPR, given its commitment to racism and hate. NPR is all over red states, supported financially and otherwise by public universities.

Posted at 12:55 pm by Ed Driscoll on Apr 16th, 2024

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Schumer Denounces Netanyahu as an ‘Obstacle to Peace’, Calls for New Elections in Israel.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) denounced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an “obstacle to peace” in a Thursday floor speech and called on Israelis to hold a new election to replace the Netanyahu government amid the ongoing war with Hamas.

“Netanyahu has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel,” Schumer said in a 40-minute speech on the Senate floor, suggesting Israel should elect a new leader who can deal with the threat of Hamas.

Schumer’s call for an Israeli election comes as President Joe Biden and other Democrats are becoming increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu over the rising civilian deaths in Gaza and his refusal to agree to a cease-fire deal with Hamas, which would include the establishment of an official Palestinian state. The Israeli leader again rejected the possibility of a two-state solution earlier this week, saying his nation wouldn’t support the proposition after the brutal October 7 attack.

I’m so old, I can remember when Schumer claimed to be against foreign interference in another country’s elections:

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll on Mar 14th, 2024

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Krugman vs. Krugman. New York Times columnist tries to memory-hole his prior views on immigration.

And don’t get him started on this sort of invasion of illegal aliens: Fake an Alien Invasion, Save the U.S. Economy. “‘If we discovered that space aliens were planning to attack and we needed a massive build-up to counter the space alien threat, and inflation and budget deficits took secondary place to that, this slump would be over in 18 months. And then if we discovered, ‘whoops, we made a mistake, there aren’t actually any space aliens,’ we’d [still] be better,’ he added.”

Posted at 8:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Feb 20th, 2024

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Ocasio-Cortez says Trump win would result in ‘grave impacts’ on democracy.

—The Hill, yesterday.

Yes, who knows what level of government force he would use to coerce people to his whims? Oh wait:

“[T]he Green New Deal would mean big changes. But how big? And how would those changes be made? Steve Inskeep, a journalist at NPR and host of the Morning Edition program, asked AOC if her plan requires ‘massive government intervention.’ ‘It does. It does. Yeah. I have no problem saying that,’ she responded, according to the transcript.”

—”44 Things You Should Know about the Green New Deal,” the Foundation for Economic Education, May 24th, 2019.

And what would Sandy’s massive government intervention have entailed in 2019? The 10 Most Insane Requirements Of The Green New Deal. Banning cars? Check! Banning planes? Check! Gutting every building in America? Check! Banning farting cows? But of course!

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll on Feb 15th, 2024

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE:

Posted at 8:22 am by Ed Driscoll on Feb 14th, 2024

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: NBC: Taylor Swift arrives in Las Vegas for Super Bowl.

With the help of Tokyo’s 17-hour time difference ahead of Las Vegas, Swift had a window of more than 35 hours to cover the 5,500-mile journey to watch her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, face off against the San Francisco 49ers in the 58th Super Bowl Sunday evening.

Despite buzzy speculation about the tight travel plans, many fans weren’t too worried about her ability to make it. The Japanese Embassy in Washington, D.C., even issued a social media statement earlier this month expressing confidence that the pop star would “comfortably arrive” at her destination if she departed after her concert, which on Saturday ended at around 9 p.m. local time.

“We know that many people in Japan are excited to experience Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, so we wanted to confirm that anyone concerned can be Fearless in knowing that this talented performer can wow Japanese audiences and still make it to Las Vegas to support the Chiefs when they take the field for the Super Bowl wearing Red,” the embassy wrote, referencing albums of Swift’s.

Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles, online sleuths spotted what they believed to be a private or chartered jet containing Swift — who has been the subject of intense scrutiny and criticism for her outsize carbon emissions as a frequent domestic and international traveler — touch down at LAX.

From there, she traveled to Las Vegas, where she is all set to cheer on her 13th (her lucky number) Chiefs game of the season.

Hey, remember back in 2007 when NBC tried to shame football fans for having too many lights on? (Except for the billions of watts of klieg lights illuminating the NFL stadium in Philadelphia. And, err, the lighted Toyota sign, since they were sponsoring SNF.) I remember:

Posted at 5:45 pm by Ed Driscoll on Feb 11th, 2024

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: David Frum Announces Misguided Quest to Rehabilitate the Reputation of One of America’s Worst Presidents.

I dunno — Woodrow Wilson sounds like a pretty awful fella based on what I’ve read in the past:

Wilson was also the most disdainful racist to hold the presidency since Andrew Johnson in the 1860s. Wilson’s administration sought to remove black Americans from all but the most menial federal employment. Those who could not be removed were required to work in spaces screened from public view and to use segregated lunchrooms and toilets. When a black newspaper editor led a delegation to Washington to protest the introduction of Southern Jim Crow into the national government, Wilson — a slaveholder’s son — retorted that segregation “was not humiliating, but a benefit” to black people.

Wilson led the United States into the First World War in April 1917, justifying his decision in characteristically idealistic language: “to make the world safe for democracy.” Only five months before, he had won reelection on an antiwar platform: “he kept us out of war.”

* * * * * * * *

Yet these same admirers also quietly came to see Wilson as the very model of how not to be president: as a dogmatist, a chatterbox, and, ultimately, a loser. When it came their turn to decide issues of war and peace, they praised Wilson — then did just the opposite. That seems likely to be the lasting verdict of history, too.

—“Mystery Man,” David Frum, Newsweek, March 11th, 2013.

Related: The Hater’s Guide to Woodrow Wilson. “I come now not to explain Wilson, but to hate him. A national consensus on hating Wilson is long overdue. It is the patriotic duty of every decent American. While conservatives have particular reasons to detest Wilson, and all his works, and all his empty promises, there is more than enough in his record for moderates, liberals, progressives, libertarians, and socialists to join us in this great and unifying cause.”

Posted at 8:14 am by Ed Driscoll on Jan 28th, 2024

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Chuck Schumer: GOP ‘Dangerously’ Trying to Tie Ukraine Aid to ‘Hard-Right Border Policy.’

So hard right that it was the policy of — checking notes — a crazed stalwart of the vast right wing conspiracy called Chuck Schumer in 2009:

 

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll on Nov 29th, 2023
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