OPEN THREAD: Wherever you go, that’s where you are.
Author Archive: Ed Driscoll
January 14, 2025
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD IS SEVERELY TEMPTING FATE HERE:
14 HIGHLIGHTS FROM CES 2025 IN AI, ROBOTS, GLASSES, HEALTH AND MORE:
CES went big on humanoid robots, from robots shaking hands and doing dishes to massive agricultural robots from John Deere. These innovations show how personal and industrial tasks can be automated with human-like precision, reducing labor strain and increasing productivity.
My favorites were Realbotix, who unveiled Aria, a life-size AI robot capable of expressing emotions and engaging in conversations. Aria showcases advanced motor technology for fluid movements and modular design, making her suitable for various applications, including personal companionship and travel convenience.
Additionally, Hangzhou Yushu Technology and Unitree presented next-generation robots with improved agility, interaction, and functionality for both industrial and personal use, further blurring the line between humans and machines.
However, while innovation is accelerating, the cost remains a barrier for mainstream adoption. The window cleaning robot was priced at $1,200, the personal companion robot at $175,000, and the all-in-one home robot capable of dishwashing and multitasking was also priced prohibitively high. Even the robot pet feeder came with a premium price tag. Reducing these costs will be essential for wider household adoption of these technologies.
I don’t think Robbie and C3P0, let alone Rachel and Pris from Blade Runner, will be losing much sleep about their competition though, at least this year:
DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION — CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE STYLE: Internet sleuths tracked down repulsive Eagles fan — and his life at DEI-focused company might be ruined.
A viral and revolting incident in the stands at an NFL playoff game on Sunday has already earned one football fan a lifetime ban from Lincoln Financial Field — and it may cost him even more.
The fan, identified as Ryan Caldwell, was captured on video heckling a female Packers fan — and repeatedly calling her a “dumb c–t” — while her fiancé, Alexander Basara, filmed the entire altercation in the stands during Sunday’s Wild Card game in Philly, an Eagles win over the Packers.
Caldwell has been banned from all future events at Lincoln Financial Field, a source with knowledge of the situation confirmed to The Post, and his employer, BCT Partners — a DEI-focused management consulting firm based in East Brunswick, N.J. — is involved.
“The management at BCT Partners has been made aware of a video circulating involving an employee making offensive remarks outside of the workplace,” the company said in a statement released Monday on X, without naming the employee. “BCT Partners denounces this type of behavior, and we take this matter extremely seriously. As an organization that has always stood for inclusivity, the conduct displayed was completely unacceptable and stands in direct opposition to our company values.
“We have already begun a full investigation as an internal personnel matter to determine what actions will be taken. We sincerely apologize to everyone affected by this behavior and remain committed to fostering a culture of respect for all.”
BCT Partners aims “to harness the power of diversity, insights, and innovation to transform lives, accelerate equity, and create lasting change,” according to its website.
Here’s the aforementioned video. Language alert, needless to say:
What it's like going to Philly just trying to root for your team…
Unprovoked, uncalled for. Packers twitter, help me out and find this guy…. this is not okay
I hate that my fiancé had this happen simply cheering for her team pic.twitter.com/aiHCKzxrSS
— Alexander Basara (@Basaraski) January 13, 2025
And speaking of “language alert,” “Caldwell’s profile, describing him as a business analyst, uses ‘they/them’ pronouns to detail his roles in hospitality management dating back to 2002.”
Jerry Thorton of Barstool Sports writes that he doesn’t “want to see Caldwell lose his job. If you’re going to be against seeing people get canceled for exercising their right to free speech, you have to be consistent. But …”
There might be some jobs you can still do perfectly well after you’ve called some a woman minding her own business “an ugly, dumb, c*nt” for the crime of rooting for the visiting team. But most definitely, hospitality management is not one of them.
I mean, try to picture BCT Partners getting hired to “accelerate equity and create lasting change” with ol’ Ryan still on the payroll. Their sales person meets with the HR manager of some potential client company who has to decide whether to hire them for $100,000 to conduct DEI seminars.
HR manager: “BCT. Say, aren’t you the firm that employs Ryan Caldwell? He’s the one who called that Packers fan a ‘an ugly, dumb c*n,’ isn’t he?”
Sales person: “Excuse me, you mean, ‘Isn’t they the one who called that Packers fan an ugly, dumb c*nt’? That’s exactly the kind of binary cisgender, heteronormative language we’re going to work with you to eliminate from the workplace …”
After all, you don’t want your prospective clients to think the work you do is just a big, expensive grift and you’re really all a bunch of abusive assholes away from the office. That would be bad for business.
But even with Caldwell’s perfect example of how not to stand for inclusivity of Green Bay fans or foster a culture of respect for people wearing the visiting team’s gear, keeping him on the payroll is going to be a tough sell.
Going forward, I wonder if ubiquitous smartphones and social media will be a better deterrent for the worst behavior at Eagles home games than their once-infamous in-stadium judge and jail was.
UPDATE: Eagles fan who hurled vulgar insults at Packers supporters fired from DEI-focused consulting job.
JOEL KOTKIN: The LA fires are the horrifying consequence of Democratic misrule.
Los Angeles authorities’ poor preparation for and lamentable response to the wildfires now devastating the city capture a broader problem – namely, the failure of governance across America’s Democrat-controlled regions. This pattern of incompetence has accelerated the shift of American economic and political power to regions outside the long dominant north-east and West Coast.
The reason for this shift lies in the clear failure of Democrats, writ large in the inferno now consuming large swathes of LA. In states like California, Democratic politicians no longer prioritise such things as public safety and key infrastructure, including roads, ports and, most importantly at the moment, water systems. Indeed, today’s ‘progressives’ generally shy away from things like building dams or maintaining water pressure in the name of protecting the environment. They are far more focussed on climate change and ‘social justice’.
In part, because they know the DNC-MSM has their backs, even during their biggest cock-ups:
As Treacher has said:
But this story might finally be one that’s too big for that approach to stick.
I already wrote about the role of Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom in this entire mess, and I commend that piece to all those who want to watch me pour accelerant on two careers already on fire. For now, however, I would like to recommend this lengthy and thoughtful piece by Claire Lehmann at Quillette: “Three Hard Truths about California’s Fire Crisis.” Lehmann is Australian and thus writes about the lessons of Los Angeles through the lens of her experience with the catastrophic fires that wracked her hometown of Adelaide in 2020. Readers will find much to agree with, I suspect, but much that also reads like a counsel of despair: Governments need to have the courage to step in, she writes, and privilege the realities of climate change over mere property rights. It reads uncomfortably like the excuse-making for bad government that she denounces elsewhere. I stopped short where Lehmann writes:
The challenge of implementing controlled burns shows how politics fails us regardless of ideology. It doesn’t matter if it is a left-wing or right-wing government, almost all governments fail to provide enough controlled burns.
And this is where she loses me as well as anyone who has paid attention to how American governments operate on the state level. It is a question of competence, yes, but when Lehmann compares Australia to California she is comparing two essentially left-wing governments — like and like — which is no doubt why she throws her hands up in resignation. That is needless defeatism, as the record shows. The proper comparison, rather, would be between California’s fire management and that of its inverse, the red-state bête noir that is Ron DeSantis’s Florida.
The simple truth, as even NPR admitted with disbelief, is that Florida and other southern, Republican-run states — with every bit the same level of dangerous seasonal fire exposure — are light-years ahead of sclerotic California when it comes to fire mitigation. And it is very much a matter of governance, not resignation to fate. Florida and other southern states prove, with their smartly and lightly regulated regimes of controlled burns of brush and deadwood, that you can prevent massive fires with intelligent policy. As Lehmann’s firefighter friend aptly points out in her piece, “politicians never want to admit that nothing we can do will stop the really bad fires once they’re going.” Which is why politicians in more practical (read: Republican) states have figured out that the best way to avoid that situation is to prevent the really bad fires from getting going in the first place. California forgot this, but it can remember it again.
Los Angeles is indubitably fire-prone. But force majeure is not the same as fate. Even my city once rather infamously burned to the ground — mostly because it was made out of wood at the time. Our response was to rebuild it out of less flammable materials such as concrete and steel — now we have no problems whatsoever; Chicago is a metropolis of model governance. Heck, Moscow has burned down so many times throughout its history — most notably in 1812, when it razed itself in response to a flood of obnoxious and unwanted French tourism — that one almost begins to understand why Russians are the way they are. But our American experience has shown us that blaming “climate change” or “acts of God” is a cheap response, an act of avoiding responsibility. If Florida and Georgia can figure this out, then the only thing preventing California from doing so is Californians.
So they never will, in other words: There Is No Bottom for Blue California.
RIOTS FOR THEE, BUT NOT FOR ME:
Roberts did ads for Kamala — a candidate who wouldn’t take a stance on whether theft under $1000 should be a felony. https://t.co/vkDdEBstYM
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) January 14, 2025
Related: LA’s lowlifes: The ‘looters, burglars and drug addicts’ arrested during Palisades Fire all share common trait. “Cops charged more than 40 detainees with various offenses including burglary and drug possession since the fires broke out on January 7. Remarkably, none of those arrested were actually living in the evacuation zone and seemingly travelled with the intention of taking advantage of the devastation.”
(Classical reference in headline.)
SKYNET SMILES, ORDERS A CURRY: Indian army to replace pack mules with robotic dogs.
THIS IS CNN: ‘We Gonna Nail This Zachary Young MF**ker:’ CNN Reporter’s Text Read Aloud In Court.
CNN reporter Alex Marquardt took the stand on Monday, marking the sixth day of the network’s Florida defamation trial, brought by U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young over a report about his efforts to aid in the evacuation of Afghan citizens.
Marquardt stated on the stand that he had pitched a story to the network about desperate Afghans fleeing the Taliban — which resulted in a piece that went to air with claims that Young had “preyed” on the people and “exploited” their desperation to make a quick buck.
* * * * * * * *
Marquardt made Young the face of the story after getting the go-ahead from “top brass” within the network. Young’s attorney, Devin Freedman, shared internal messages from CNN, including one from Marquardt stating, “We gonna nail this Zachary Young mf**ker.”
More here: CNN’s Phil Marquardt Refuses to Apologize for Alleged Defamation, Doubles Down.
CNN Panelist Squirms as Scott Jennings Exposes Who’s Really Fueling Division Over LA Wildfires
John Avlon never saw this coming.
AVLON: “I think also in this environment right now, where immediately there’s disinformation flowing through social media networks that cleaves down… pic.twitter.com/Du04KHMbhN
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) January 14, 2025
Here’s the story that Avalon doesn’t want to discuss, from those nutty MAGA hat wearers at the Politico yesterday: Gavin Newsom and California Democrats reach $50M deal to Trump-proof the state.
Related: Bush-Era Republicans Flourished As Anti-Trumpers — Scott Jennings Took A Different Path. “‘We’re the party that defends Western civilization. We’re the party that generally tries to adhere to common sense. We’re the party that respects cultural norms and values. We respect average everyday people. For as long as I’ve been in politics now, 25 years, that’s been sort of how I view the Republican Party. From that perspective, it’s no trouble at all for me to have proudly worked for George W. Bush, and in this election, and the last two voted for Donald Trump,’ Jennings told the Caller.”
THE BRUTALIST: The Raw Concrete of America.
The story follows the fortunes of the Hungarian architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody) after he flees the aftermath of the Holocaust in Europe to seek his freedom in the United States…Tóth settles with his cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola), a furniture-maker in Philadelphia, who is enslaved by his desire to assimilate: He marries a shiksa, he becomes Catholic, he even changes his Hungarian surname to Miller. Tóth regards him with contempt. Soon, he encounters the wealthy industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce), an ersatz Charles Foster Kane, who is of course enslaved to his own money, but also to a driving desire to be thought of as a serious, intellectual man. Van Buren, in turn, enslaves Tóth, all but forcing him to design and build a large, self-consciously modern community center in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. And of course, Tóth enslaves himself, first to drugs to numb his despair, and then to despair itself, as he comes to see his American experience as little more than an extension of his detainment in the concentration camps.
In case anyone in the audience isn’t tracking with the brutality of it all, Corbet helpfully includes a scene where Van Buren rapes a drunken Tóth while making antisemitic observations about the causes of the Holocaust. (Yes, yes, we get it—America has raped the world….) And in case that brainy symbol isn’t clear enough, shortly after, he restates the film’s thesis in the mouth of Erzsébet, who declares to her dejected husband, “You were right, this place is rotten. The landscape, the food we eat—this whole country is rotten.” And so it goes until the very end, when Corbet unveils his final exhibit: At the first Venice Biennale, Tóth’s niece reveals in a speech that his forced labor for Van Buren was really just an extension of his Holocaust experience, that what his patron has intended as a monument to a modern, forward-looking America was in fact a re-envisioning of the death houses at Buchenwald.
Wow, I’ll be happy to see the Biden era come to end as well next week, but this film sounds like a massive overreaction to its worst excesses.
FINALLY, REUTERS UNCOVERS THE MOST TERRIFYING ASPECT OF THE L.A. FIRES:
Questions about California's preparedness and response to the massive fires have rendered its Democratic leaders vulnerable to escalating attacks from the right, in a possible prelude to the politicization of disaster response under President-elect Trump https://t.co/38Lsmb5BHA
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 14, 2025
IS THE MORE OF THE “JOY” OR “BRAT” VIBE? Harris declines to invite Vance for courtesy visit to vice president’s residence before inauguration.
January 13, 2025
Abbott’s concern may well be that the left will conflate the symbology of commemorating the death of one president with the inauguration of another, and, in all candor, some on the left will certainly try to make that comparison. The president-elect certainly is; he took to his Truth Social platform to express that view:
President-elect Trump’s full post reads:
The Democrats are all “giddy” about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at “half mast” during my Inauguration. They think it’s so great, and are so happy about it because, in actuality, they don’t love our Country, they only think about themselves. Look at what they’ve done to our once GREAT America over the past four years – It’s a total mess! In any event, because of the death of President Jimmy Carter, the Flag may, for the first time ever during an Inauguration of a future President, be at half mast. Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it. Let’s see how it plays out. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
This has happened once before: Flags were at half-mast to mark the death of former President Harry Truman when Richard Nixon was inaugurated for his second term in 1973.
Given how that certainly foretold of worse things to come, I can understand Gov. Abbott’s decision.
SHOCK: BIDEN NAMES AIRCRAFT CARRIER AFTER HITLER! Biden names Navy aircraft carriers after Bill Clinton, George W. Bush.
President Biden on Monday named Navy aircraft carriers after former Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush.
“I am proud to announce that the next two Gerald R. Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers will be named for two former presidents: Bill Clinton and George W. Bush,” Biden said in a statement on Monday.
“When I personally delivered the news to Bill and George, they were deeply humbled,” the president added. “Each knows firsthand the weight of the responsibilities that come with being Commander-in-Chief. And both know well our duty to support the families and loved ones who wait and worry for the safe return of their servicemember.”
Bush, Clinton and Biden attended funeral services for former President Carter last week, alongside the two other living presidents, former President Obama and President-elect Trump.
In his Monday statement on the aircraft carriers, Biden said construction on the two ships named for his predecessors is coming “in the years ahead.” Upon the ships’ completion, the president added, “They will join the most capable, flexible, and professional Navy that has ever put to sea.”
Chester Nimitz could not be reached for comment regarding that last statement, but it’s been hilarious to see first Kamala and now Joe rehabilitate Dick Cheney and George W. Bush and rescue them from the Fuhrerbunker they were trapped in from 2000 to 2008.
TRUMP’S WORST NIGHTMARE: Jennifer Rubin Leaves Washington Post To Launch ‘Pro-Democracy’ Website.
Rubin, widely regarded as the most courageous and intellectually dynamic opinion columnist in the history of American journalism, finally “resigned” from the Washington Post on Monday and launched a “pro-democracy” website, the Contrarian, on Substack. In a note announcing her alleged resignation, less than a week after the Post laid off roughly 100 employees in an effort to stop losing $77 million a year, Rubin accused the paper’s owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, of sabotaging journalism’s “sacred mission” of “defending, protecting and advancing democracy.”
The Contrarian is built on a premise some would describe as delusional. In Rubin’s view, the mainstream media have been too soft on Donald Trump, if not openly supportive of his MAGA agenda. Mainstream journalists have been too afraid to criticize him and alert the public to the existential threat he poses to American democracy. They’ve been too polite to fight back by lashing out Trump’s voters for ignoring the experts and making the wrong decisions.
* * * * * * *
A press release circulated by the Dewey Square Group, a political consultancy founded by former Democratic operatives, heralded the list of contributors as “a broad range of respected voices in law, politics, foreign policy, and culture.” It’s actually a bunch of people you’ve never heard of with utterly predictable opinions about everything:
Esosa Osa, a former adviser to Stacey Abrams. David Litt, a former speechwriter and “comic muse” for Barack Obama. Ilan Goldenberg, a Middle East expert who helped John Kerry negotiate the Iran nuclear deal. Karen Agnifilo, defense counsel for Luigi Mangione. Mike Podhorzer, the former political director of the AFL-CIO. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a fascism expert from New York University. Kim Lane Scheppele, a Princeton professor at the University Center for Human Values. Nancy Gertner, a Harvard Law School professor and author of the book In Defense of Women: Memoirs of an Unrepentant Advocate.
And more! Are you not impressed?
In a VIP post at RedState, Brandon Morse adds: Jen Rubin’s Independent Move Is Living in the Future, But Her Mind’s in the Past.
Rubin’s anti-Trump nature is so rabid that she’s willing to flat-out say some crazy things that can make even people on the left cringe. In order to keep up the rage bait, she’s going to have to flat-out go so extreme that she ends up lying about situations or people. Back when Rubin was on top of the world and WaPo was a top player in the narrative game, she could get away this.
But as I wrote in my aforementioned article, that age is dead. Now, anything extreme Rubin or her people put out can immediately be debunked, and that debunking will be very, very public. The embarrassment will be constant, and this won’t be good for subs.
So while, Rubin is living in the future in terms of her craft, she’s operating on an old set of rules that don’t apply anymore. Rubin’s only hope is that Trump’s second term is a monumental failure, but it’s not shaping up to be. Time will tell, of course, but the odds aren’t exactly on Rubin’s side.
The anti-Trump audience is actually very small, and Rubin is trying to tap into a sentiment that not a lot of people share. Moreover, once Trump is gone, organizations like Rubin’s will have to find ways of tapping into a leftist base that will effectively be “anti-Republican” at all costs.
See also: the WaPo after Trump was on the losing side of the 2020 election: Washington Post traffic craters, loses $100M amid identity crisis as talent, readers flee: reports.
FASTER, PLEASE: TSMC’s Arizona Fab 21 is already making 4nm chips — yield and quality reportedly on par with Taiwan fabs.
TSMC has started producing chips at its Fab 21 near Phoenix, Arizona, using its 4nm-class process technology, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Reuters. This marks the first time such a cutting-edge production node has been manufactured in the United States. The confirmation from a high-ranking official comes months after the first unofficial information emerged that the fab was mass-producing chips for Apple.
“For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading-edge 4nm chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo told Reuters.
And not a moment too soon: China Suddenly Building Fleet Of Special Barges Suitable For Taiwan Landings — Unusual Barges Similar To D-Day Mulberry Harbours.
NEWEST MARVEL SEQUEL SOUNDS TERRIBLE. ONE STAR OUT OF FOUR. CANNOT RECOMMEND: MSNBC Ups Rachel Maddow to Five Nights, Sends Alex Wagner Into Field for Trump’s First 100 Days.
A cable-news outlet’s primetime schedule has in past years largely remained inviolate, except when anchors and networks part ways. Under Rashida Jones, MSNBC’s president, the network has experimented with new concepts. Jen Psaki, who anchors a Sunday program, also holds forth on Monday nights at 8, giving host Chris Hayes a schedule like Wagner’s — Tuesdays through Fridays. MSNBC has also tested programs that air separate originals on the Peacock streaming hub and the MSNBC weekend schedule.
Some of those new ideas have made Maddow a more frequent primetime presence than many had previously envisioned. She also leads a schedule-busting concept known internally as “The Avengers” that MSNBC uses on nights of exceptional news. Maddow sits for multiple hours at a dais with a shifting lineup of MSNBC personalities that range from Joy Reid and Nicolle Wallace to Ari Melber and Stephanie Ruhle.
“I made a promise that when you need me, I’ll be there,” Maddow told Variety late last year about her appearances on MSNBC beyond her regular Monday duties.
Other hosts will weave new elements into the mix during Trump’s first weeks in the Oval Office. Jen Psaki will launch “The Blueprint with Jen Psaki,” a new podcast that examines the future for the Democratic Party after a brutal election season. Chris Hayes will debut a new recurring segment, “Here is What is True,” that will scrutinize misinformation tied to news coming out of Washington and how it affects political discourse.
Wagner’s reports may crop up across the MSNBC schedule, as well as in specials, on digital platforms and through live events. “We are building the plane on the runway,” says Wagner as her journey looms.
“Building the plane on the runway” sounds like a recipe for a spectacular crash. Will Boeing be involved in the engineering?
Related: MSNBC’s Avengers will be minus one comic book superhero: Jen Rubin “Exits” the Washington Post; Chuck Todd “Exits” NBC.
As Ace of Spades suggests, “Maybe they can do a show together. Can you imagine the sexual heat that would convect out of your TV? NBC wouldn’t agree to Chuck Todd’s terms, so his contract his ending. I assume that NBC wanted him to take a pay cut, because no one’s watched him in eight years, and he refused, as he couldn’t suffer that indignity.”
BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: WaPo’s Pretend Conservative Resigns — And Rage-Quits X — Over Trump-Musk Alliance.
The Washington Post’s longtime “conservative blogger” Jennifer Rubin announced on Monday that she had resigned from the paper, effective immediately, to launch a new outlet that was “not owned by anybody.”
Rubin, who became an outspoken advocate for Democrats in her efforts to “resist” Donald Trump, lionized President Joe Biden until the very end, and then went so far as to fawn over Vice President Kamala Harris even before she was foisted on the Democratic Party as their de facto nominee.
But the media landscape has begun to change with Trump’s re-election — and even some legacy media personalities and outlets have started to show signs of coming around, resigning themselves to the fact that if they don’t at least attempt to speak to Trump and his allies in good faith, they may find themselves ousted by podcasters, citizen journalists, and other less traditional media outlets.
Rubin, according to her Monday announcement, is having none of that — in addition to launching her new outlet, she declared her intention to leave X altogether in protest of Trump’s alliance with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.
“BIG NEWS. I have left the Post. Corporate and billionaire media are failing to meet the moment,” she claimed in her post to X. “With @normeisen.bsky.social I’m launching @contrariannews.bsky.social. We’ll have politics but also cooking, humor, film and even pets. Please subscribe and join the fight. And because I want to be true to my values I am leaving X. I refuse to enable the Elon-Trump presidency.”
Ace of Spades posits that Rubin was likely pushed out of the newspaper:
She demanded other journalists resign in protest when their owners made decisions prioritizing profit and sales over wokeness, but didn’t resign herself.
She’s finally resigned. Except, of course, I don’t believe she “resigned.” I would bet any amount of money that the Washington Post, losing money and readers at such a pace the paper’s existence is literally in danger, looked at its staff and decided to fire the non-performers.
She literally has no constituency at all. Almost no NeverTrumper does. Almost every single NeverTrumper in the country has a high-paid media gig despite having no audience or constituency. They have been paid simply for loyal service to the Democrat/Progressive Cult, and to astroturf a propaganda front against Trump.
And the paper really does have quite the astonishing burn rate: Washington Post traffic craters, loses $100M amid identity crisis as talent, readers flee: reports.
The Washington Post’s readership reportedly cratered during Joe Biden’s presidency — and the Jeff Bezos-owned broadsheet lost $100 million last year alone — as the embattled paper continues to suffer an exodus of top talent.
The left-leaning publication drew about 2.5 million to 3 million daily users to its site last summer, a fraction of the 22.5 million daily visitors at its peak when Biden took office in January 2021, according to internal data shared with Semafor.
The plummeting site traffic led the business to lose around $100 million on weak subscription and ad revenue in 2024, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
WaPo took a hit to its bottom line after reportedly 250,000 readers canceled their subscriptions following Bezos’ decision to kill an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris just weeks before the election.
The Washington Post had 54 million digital visitors last November — down from 114 million in November 2020, according to global media analytics firm Comscore.
Leaders at the company have discussed ways to hit a goal of 200 million users, according to the Journal. Executives at the paper once vaunted for its Watergate coverage have suggested using artificial-intelligence tools and news aggregation to reach the goal, the outlet said.
AI “journalists” really would be the next logical step for the beleaguered paper:
UNEXPECTEDLY! Dallas Cowboys moving on from Mike McCarthy as head coach.
KURT SCHLICHTER: There Is No Bottom for Blue California.
I don’t want to be pessimistic, but I’ve lived here 50-odd years, and I know the score. I got here when California was the Golden State, and now it’s the Charred Black State. It was a middle-class state in the 70s and 80s, but today’s California is a feudal society with an affluent aristocracy – their castles and keeps were the ones burned in this fire – lording over a huge caste of serfs. The middle class is either gone or leaving. That’s OK with the Democrats because it was the middle class that made California a Republican state for so long. They were the ones who demanded good government. Most of them are now in Texas or Idaho.
That leaves a bunch of really poor people and a few really rich ones. The poor people vote Democrat because the Dems feed them scraps, and the rich people vote Democrat because it makes them feel that they’re not the complete scumbags that, in many cases, they are. Have you noticed how it’s always the worst people who seem to be the most vocally liberal? Paging Harvey Weinstein – he probably worked with half the people whose houses burned down, and he probably tried to score with the other half.
The thing you must understand about the rich Californians who vote for Democrats – and not only vote for them but actively campaign for them and donate to them – is that this kind of leftism isn’t just a belief system. It’s their religion. Well, more accurately, it’s a substitute for religion. There’s an empty space inside every human being that normal people fill up with things like faith, family, and patriotism. The rich blue voters of California fill it up with commie gobbledygook. They add some wokeness, a dash of climate change, and a heaping helping of smug self-satisfaction. The resulting dog’s breakfast is what passes for their souls.
Zev Chafets’ 1990 book Devil’s Night portrays the dwindling post-riot population of Detroit utterly enthralled to leftist identity politics, no matter how badly it’s wrecked their city. Those who remain in Los Angeles will likely also triple-down on their leftist politics, no matter how badly it literally burned much of their city to the ground:
WHEN YOU CAN’T SURVIVE THE SOFTEST OF SOFTBALL INTERVIEWS:
Newsom: "We've got a Marshall plan."
NBC: "Tell us about that Marshall plan."
Newsom: "Okay, we've got a name for a plan." https://t.co/TlrDR6xdR3— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) January 13, 2025