OBAMA LIBRARY: Behind Schedule, Over Budget and Mired in Lawsuits.

A federal lawsuit reviewed by Newsweek alleges that a company involved in constructing the Obama Presidential Center subjected a Chicago-based Black American-owned subcontractor to “baseless criticism and defamatory and discriminatory accusations” and blamed the company for construction delays.

“In a shocking and disheartening turn of events, the African American owner of a local construction company finds himself and his company on the brink of forced closure because of racial discrimination by the structural engineer of record (Thornton Tomasetti) for the construction of The Obama Presidential Center,” the case reads.

“At this time, we don’t have any comment,” attorney John Sebastian at Watt, Tieder, Hoffar & Fitzgerald, who is representing the subcontractor, told Newsweek.

Newsweek reached out to Thornton Tomasetti and was told the press contact would “find out” if the company wants to comment. Newsweek also reached out to the Obama Foundation’s communication team via email.

Metaphor alert:

Last year, the Obama Library announced its “commitment to environmental sustainability.” Perhaps they wish to massively accelerate the time it will take for the land to reclaim the structure.

WATCH: Margaret Brennan Gets Laid Out by Brian Mast After Demanding ‘Evidence’ of State Department DEI.

When Mast then notes that State Department officials have prioritized DEI over effective diplomacy, Brennan thinks she’s laying a trap by asking for “proof.” Instead, he turns the table on her, bringing the receipts by listing specific grants and programs that went to things like drag shows and other LGBTQ initiatives.

MAST: Sure. Let’s list them off. Half a million dollars to expand atheism in Nepal. $50,000 to do, let’s see, a transgender opera in Columbia. $47,000 dollars to do an LGBTQ trans comic book in Peru. $20,000 a pop to do drag shows in Ecuador. Shall I continue with more examples of where DEI was the priority?

To be sure, that’s just a tiny sampling of all the left-wing insanity the State Department has been spending money on in the name of “diversity.” There were even embassies during the Biden administration flying the so-called “Pride-Progress” flag* as a way to push transgender ideology on the world. So yeah, as Mast says, the priorities have been all out of whack, and the results have been predictable, with America’s stature diminished and chaos developing around the globe. But even if that weren’t the result, my taxpayer dollars should not be going to such idiocy.

With that said, when Mast gave specific examples, Brennan sprinted to move the goalposts.

BRENNAN: Oh, it certainly seems like there could be a review of things. Foreign aid as you know is less than one percent of the entire federal budget so we’re talking small amounts of money by comparison.

That is the laziest argument imaginable. Just because something represents a relatively small percentage of government spending does not mean that the country should keep wasting money on drag shows in Ecudaro and the like. I don’t care if it’s a quarter of a percent of government spending, we shouldn’t be spending it.

Brennan has descended into Martha Raddatz “The incidents were limited to a handful of apartment complexes” territory here. Why should the US be spending the taxpayers’ money on any of these things?

* QED: U.S. Chargé d’Affaires in Kabul wins poster girl contest for everything wrong in Biden-world.

EMILIA PÉREZ AND THE CURSE OF OSCAR BAIT:

Last week, the nominees for the 2025 Academy Awards were announced. The leading contender with 13 total nominations? Emilia Pérez, a French-produced Spanish-language musical about a transgender Mexican drug lord and her underappreciated girlboss defense attorney. The film lost around $15 million at the box office on a relatively modest $26 million budget, so if you haven’t seen it, you likely aren’t alone and shouldn’t feel bad—it wasn’t made for you anyway.

Emilia Pérez is what people call Oscar bait: the sort of film that is made, seemingly, for the express purpose of catching the attention of the approximately 10,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Mostly film-industry insiders, their tastes are predictable. They like austere dramas and social commentary—stories that will make you cry while also attempting to say something about politics. Think of 2016’s Moonlight, a tragedy about a poor, gay drug dealer that grossed $65 million worldwide at the box office. It beat La La Land, which grossed $509 million worldwide, to the title of Best Picture. Or think of Nomadland, which won Best Picture in 2020: It follows a homeless widow who travels the country in a van after losing her job in the Great Recession.

The tastes of the academy are so predictable that they’ve been delightfully parodied—most succinctly perhaps in a 2008 episode of American Dad!, in which Roger the Alien takes on a supervillain persona and produces a film called Oscar Gold about an intellectually disabled Jewish alcoholic whose puppy dies of cancer while he’s hiding in an attic during the Holocaust. The movie is intended to make viewers cry themselves to death.

Late Night with Seth Meyers did a similar parody in 2017, producing a trailer for a fictional film simply called Oscar Bait featuring “racial tension,” “latent homosexuality,” the French language, and “dialogue that feels sort of profound.”

Karla Sofia Gascon’s back catalog of angry tweets (including the one below) gives the Academy a way out of the controversy if they chose to avoid giving a Best Actress award to a T-person: Giving it to Demi Moore for The Substance at age 62 would be akin to giving the Oscar to Paul Newman at age 61 for The Color of Money and Sean Connery at age 58 for The Untouchables: It might not be their best work, but they’ve certainly been in the business long enough that they deserve some sort of lifetime achievement award. At the start of the year, Variety noted that “Moore landed the first acting award of her career — yes, career — after taking home the Golden Globe for best actress in a motion picture, musical or comedy. She won for her go-for-broke performance as an aging celebrity in the body horror satire ‘The Substance.’”

TAPPED OUT: Sean Duffy Destroys Jake Tapper Over DEI Practices Hurting Air Safety.

Tapper attempted to frame the issue by asking Duffy if there was any evidence linking DEI hiring practices to a recent tragedy at Reagan National Airport. What followed was a masterclass in rhetorical poise and assertive communication from Duffy, who diverted the conversation away from Tapper’s loaded question and toward a broader discussion of safety.

“Is there any specific evidence that backs up Donald Trump’s claims—President Trump’s claims—that DEI or FAA hiring practices are responsible in any way for this tragedy at Reagan National?” Tapper asked.

As you know, Trump, rather bluntly, blasted both the Biden and Obama administrations for prioritizing wokeness in the FAA—which, as PJ Media reporting has shown, is absolutely true. In fact, racial preferences resulting in highly qualified air traffic controllers being denied jobs and close calls and near misses have been happening all too frequently at our nation’s airports. In fact, the FAA confirmed that on the night of the terrible tragedy at Reagan National, one air traffic controller on duty was doing the job of two.

Duffy’s response was epic.

“So, Jake, I think the better question is, am I going to guarantee the American people that only the best and the brightest serve in this incredibly important body of the Department of Transportation, that they’re driven by safety?”

He then took the opportunity to point out the failings of the previous administration, noting that they were more focused on things like changing “cockpit” to “flight deck” or the phrase “notice to airmen” to “notice to air mission” than on safety.

Duffy was also critical of the previous administration’s fixation on issues like electric vehicles and sustainability at the cost of genuine safety initiatives. “They focused on EVs and sustainability and racist roads. Things that don’t matter in regard to safety,” he asserted, bluntly addressing the disconnect between social justice campaigns and the core mission of the Department of Transportation. His message was clear: social justice initiatives should not overshadow critical safety measures.

What made Duffy’s remarks particularly powerful was his acknowledgment of the Department of Transportation (DOT) as a vast entity riddled with complexities, while starkly pointing out that “the only DEI office that exists in the whole department was at the FAA.”

He noted, “Now, that existed up to a week ago. That’s now gone,” emphasizing the sweeping changes needed to refocus the agency back on its primary mission: safety.

Faster, please: Passengers on Houston to New York United Airlines flight evacuated after plane catches fire on runway.

ISIS LEADER ICED: This Is How You Do It: New Video Shows Air Strike That Erased ISIS Leader From the Planet.

https://t.co/nqSH660JUw pic.twitter.com/5iDxHEda6n

— Dan Scavino🚀🇺🇸🦅 (@Scavino47) February 2, 2025

THE DEATH OF THE MOVIE STAR,  and the Death of Hollywood:

Before Hollywood figured out how to sell you a movie you didn’t want to see, way back in the old studio days when advertising a movie was as easy-breezy as sticking up a poster and few lobby cards at your local theater, you didn’t need to be sold a movie to take an interest. You just needed to be told it was coming. Because if it had a star you liked, you’d go.

That’s what a star was: a means to sell you a ticket.

In those days, the stars meant something; they told you something about the kind of movie it was going to be. Take All About Eve. What does it tell you, a filmgoer, in 1951, as you notice a poster in your local theater? It isn’t a sequel. You haven’t seen these characters before. It isn’t based on a hit book or play, just a short story you never heard of. Why should you buy a ticket? Bette Davis. Whether you love Bette Davis or not, you know what kind of experience a Bette Davis movie will be. Give or take some minor details, it’ll be the story of a hard woman brought down by love or softened up too late; a defiant and bitter woman whose booming voice says I don’t need a thing and whose big eyes, in the last reel, beg you to reconsider.

Intimately related, stars and genres were, in the studio years, instantly intelligible to movie audiences, but while no studio had the exclusive rights to any genre (no studio “owned” comedy), they did have the exclusive rights to say, Cary Grant or Carole Lombard, masters of comedy. “Stars were our insurance,” producer Hal Wallis said. A studio could own and sell that.

But first, they had to make that. Cary Grant, as we know, was born Archie Leach and Jean Arthur was Gladys Georgianna Greene. What accounts for their transformation? It was not by accident — it happens, much less often, today — but by dedicated though unscientific trial and error these and other film actors became stars. The triers and errers were the studios, the rights-holders, outfitting their contract players in dizzying variations of costume, makeup, cast, director and story, until they hit the triple-cherry and audiences clamored for more John Wayne — the weary, heroic cowboy.

It had little to do with acting. Director John Cromwell once said, “An actor’s value in pictures was measured strictly by the amount and character of his fan mail and the reports from exhibitors throughout the country. This was a response to personality rather than a recognition of talent. If some technical facility went with it, then so much the better.”

After the old moguls left the building, and the late ‘60s to mid-’70s “Easy Riders/Raging Bulls” period of dark (but occasionally brilliant) European-inspired films was upended by Jaws and Star Wars, by the mid-2000s, James McCormick wrote at the Chicago Boyz blog, reviewing Edward Jay Epstein’s book The Picture, Hollywood was essentially a clearing house for intellectual property:

Now the Hollywood film industry is dominated by six huge entertainment companies (Paramount, Fox, Sony, Warner Bros. Disney, and Universal). Each integrates broadcast, pay- and satellite TV networks under one umbrella. Some have theme parks and publishing companies. Each has vast merchandising ties with fast-food, music, Internet, and clothing companies (if they don’t actually own those companies). All have monopolistic foreign distribution subsidiaries that can shuffle money between branches to minimize taxes. These giants spent $18 billion dollars in 2003 to create and promote of 80 films around the world, and were rewarded with $6.4 billion in cinema revenue. A net loss of roughly $11 billion.

How Hollywood turns that $11 billion from scary red to perpetual black is part-and-parcel of why your average movie experience is nonsensical feast of noise, pyrotechnics, computer-generated image (CGI) special effects, inane celebrities, and supernatural bulls**t. It’s why dialog is at a minimum, the endings are happy, the movie running times are under 128 minutes, the popcorn is insanely salty, the ratings are usually PG-13, and every plot line requires lots of car chases, monsters, and explosions. Nonetheless, only a tiny handful of the films you see in the theatres will actual make money during theatrical release (known as “current production”). The handful of films that will gross more than a billion dollars follow a similar formula:

All of them:

1. are based on children’s stories, comic books, serials, cartoons, or, a theme park ride.
   2. feature a child or adolescent protagonist.
   3. have a fairy-tale-like plot in which a weak or ineffectual youth is transformed into a powerful and purposeful hero.
   4. contain only chaste, if not strictly platonic, relationships between the sexes, with no suggestive nudity, sexual foreplay, provocative language, or even hints of consummated passion.
   5. feature bizarre-looking and eccentric supporting characters that are appropriate for toy and game licensing.
   6. depict conflict – through it may be dazzling, large-scale, and noisy – in ways that are sufficiently non-realistic, and bloodless, for a rating no more restrictive than PG-13.
   7. end happily, with the hero prevailing over powerful villains and supernatural forces (most of which remain available for potential sequels).
   8. use conventional or digital animation to artificially create action sequences, supernatural forces, and elaborate settings.
   9. cast actors who are not ranking stars – at least in the sense they do not command gross-revenue shares.

In one word, “Spiderman” — in two words, “Harry Potter” — in four, “Lord of the Rings.”

This formula must now also accommodate the domestic tastes and governmental concerns of the eight major foreign markets for Hollywood films that contribute as much or more to profits than domestic income (which includes Canada). In order of financial importance, they are Japan, Germany, Britain, Spain, France, Australia, Italy, Mexico. While the rest of the nations of the world contribute their share to Hollywood wealth, the design and formulation of films is driven only by these eight foreign countries.

Hold on a minute, though. The formulaic kid-bait and toy franchising represented above is only occasionally represented at awards time. Wasn’t last year’s Golden Globes a festival of gay and transsexual awakening? Yes, indeed it was. For part of the emotional cost of making bilge for children from 8-80 is a deep ennui amongst the creative and management talent that feeds the “sexopoly” – the six-company beast. In order to boost morale and acquire prestige, studios, stars, and directors also participate in making movies of interest to them and those they admire. The result is a number of films that will certainly lose money in the cinemas, have only a small chance of recouping costs in DVD or during free TV broadcast, but which will appeal to the creative talent which otherwise is engaged in making merchandisable blockbusters. Make a blockbuster, get an “art-house” film, and maybe an Oscar, as a reward.

According to Epstein, the former studio system of the mid-twentieth century has morphed into the entertainment giants who focus on being financial clearinghouses for the lucrative home entertainment market (games, toys, DVDs, TV broadcast). All else is financially trivial. WalMart, through its loss-leader DVD sales, is now the largest single customer for Hollywood. And the eight foreign nations listed above provide more income that the US/Canada market. Giving the customer what they want drives the film business.

Then came 2020. Quentin Tarantino Says Movies Died in 2019.

What the f**k is a movie now? What the f**k is a movie now? It plays in theaters for a token release of four f**king weeks, and by the second week you can watch it on television. I didn’t get into all this for diminishing returns. … It was bad enough in 2019 and that was the last f**king year of movies. And that was a sh*t deal as far as I was concerned. The fact that it’s gotten drastically worse, and that it’s a show pony exercise — the theatrical release…. Theater? You can’t do that. Theater? Yeah, I pay a lot of f**king money to get in that seat. But there’s no f**king taping it. There’s no f**king cell phones. … you own the audience for that time… And it’s not just about doing art. It’s about wowing them. It’s about giving them a great night out that makes it worth it to them, and that to me is f**king exciting.

As John Nolte responds:

The background here is that Tarantino is currently working on a play, so he’s explaining why that excites him more than making another movie.

The 61-year-old Oscar winner has repeatedly said that his next movie will be his last, and he was close to production on The Movie Critic starring Brad Pitt when he decided to pull the plug and move to playwriting.

The obvious dividing line between 2019 and today was the COVID pandemic, which effectively changed the theatrical business forever, where theatrical releases are currently made available in a matter of weeks at home as a pay-per-view offering. What had been a three-month window is forever shattered.

From a business point of view, this makes sense. The studios want to get those home-bound viewers while the theatrical publicity is still hot. Why pay for two publicity campaigns — theatrical and home — when you can pay for one?

I would love to see Hollywood right the ship and start producing movies that put butts in seats in front of a big screen on a weekly basis once again. But the industry seems to have very different concerns these days.

IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTICE: PUT DOWN ALL CARBONATED BEVERAGES BEFORE READING. French AI ‘Lucie’ looks très chic, but keeps getting answers wrong.

France’s artificial intelligence chatbot was launched last week with high-flying and patriotic ambitions.

Lucie, backed by President Macron, would bring “trustworthiness, fairness and accountability” to the world of generative tools, its developers said. It would take on anglophone rivals such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot and Google’s Gemini by embodying “European values”, promoting “cultural diversity” and countering the domination of the English language, they added.

But it all went wrong. Days after the launch, the chatbot was suspended having provoked a mixture of mirth and anger in France.

It told one user that Herod the Great, the Judaean king, had “played an important role in the development of the atomic bomb”.

Another was informed that cows’ eggs were “considered to be a healthy and nourishing food source”.

When a third user suggested that Dougal from The Magic Roundabout had won the 2017 French presidential election, it replied: “You are right.”

Math appears to be a particular challenge for Lucie:

The French consortium says other chatbots use largely English-language data, which “poses problems of values and culture”. Lucie has been developed with a dataset that is 33 per cent English, 32.4 per cent French, 15 per cent code and 20 per cent other languages.

It will “preserve … the digital sovereignty of states, in particular France and Europe”.

For now, the chatbot has scarcely convinced the French that they will be able to challenge for AI supremacy. “What is 2+2?” asked a user. “I am programmed to be neutral and objective,” Lucie answered. “I cannot take part in activities such as simple mathematical calculations.”

Sometimes, however, it seems to forget that it is not programmed for mathematics. It told one user that the solution to 5(3+2) was 13, a second that it was 17 and a third that it was 50. The correct answer is 25.

Lucie was also quoted as “claiming ‘the square root of a goat is one.’”

And note this:

Lucie was designed not just as a technological tool but also as a symbol of French sovereignty in artificial intelligence. Named after the oldest known human ancestor, its branding incorporates nationalistic themes, with a logo inspired by Marianne—the personification of France—and Scarlett Johansson’s portrayal in the film Lucy.

This isn’t the first time that Johansson has been chosen to be associated with an AI program. Last year, NPR reported: Scarlett Johansson says she is ‘shocked, angered’ over new ChatGPT voice.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who has said the 2013 Spike Jonze film is his favorite movie, invited comparisons by posting the word “Her” on X after the company announced the new ChatGPT version. But later, OpenAI executives denied any connection between Johansson and the new voice assistant.

Then the company suddenly dropped the voice.

In a post on X just before midnight Pacific time Sunday, OpenAI said the voice would be halted as it addresses “questions about how we chose the voices in ChatGPT.” A company spokeswoman would not provide further detail.

Turns out, Altman had been courting the Hollywood star for months, and she now feels betrayed.

Johansson said that nine months ago Altman approached her proposing that she allow her voice to be licensed for the new ChatGPT voice assistant. He thought it would be “comforting to people” who are uneasy with AI technology.

“After much consideration and for personal reasons, I declined the offer,” Johansson wrote.

Just two days before the new ChatGPT was unveiled, Altman again reached out to Johansson’s team, urging the actress to reconsider, she said.

But before she and Altman could connect, the company publicly announced its new, splashy product, complete with a voice that she says appears to have copied her likeness.

To Johansson, it was a personal affront.

“I was shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference,” she said.

She also found it alarming, she said, at a moment when the internet is awash in disinformation.

“In a time when we are all grappling with deepfakes and the protection of our own likeness, our own work, our own identities, I believe these are questions that deserve absolute clarity,” Johansson said.

Having very publicly rejected being a voice option for ChatGPT, did the French ask Johansson if she was bien with their AI program named after one of her characters?

QUESTION: WILL DEMOCRATS TACK BACK TO THE CENTER TO RECOVER FROM THEIR 2024 LOSSES?

Answer: Minnesota Democrat Who Wanted Trump to Be Charged with Treason Elected DNC Chair.

Ken Martin, the longtime leader of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party who called for President Donald Trump to be put on trial for treason, was elected as chair of the Democratic National Committee on Saturday.

Martin received 246.5 votes at the party’s meeting this weekend in Maryland, with Wisconsin Democratic Party chairman Ben Wikler trailing behind in second place with 134.5 votes.

In June 2020, Martin accused Trump of ignoring intelligence that Russia offered the Taliban bounties to attack Americans — an unsubstantiated claim the White House said in 2021 was based off little evidence, and a claim that was not verified by the CIA.

Trump “should be immediately impeached and then put on trial for treason. His actions led to the deaths of American soldiers. He is a traitor to our nation and all those who have served,” Martin said at the time.

Martin joined the rest of the DNC candidates over the weekend in saying that “racism and misogyny” played a part in Kamala Harris’s loss to Trump. Although minority voters made dramatic shifts to the right in the last presidential election, Martin said that the Democratic Party has “got the right message.”

“What we need to do is connect it back with the voters,” Martin, who was a vice chair of the Harris-Walz campaign, said.

And Martin has the perfect Mini-Me for the job! Like White on Vice: DNC Ditches DEI by Electing David Hogg to Number Two Party Chair. Based on recent headlines and Snopes reports regarding the semiotics of arm gestures when speaking from a podium, in this photo, he certainly looks primed to spread socialism on a national level:

He may be a big government, pro-gun control kind of guy, but we’re not sure how he’ll be enforcing those laws, and keep the nation’s border safe:

TRUMP AND THE FIRST RULE OF POLITICS:

The Trump Administration has grasped the first rule of politics better than any Republican president in modern times: always be on offense. Reagan was always at his best when he was on the attack against liberalism, and always at his worst when, as too frequently happened under the advice and pressure of his conventional functionaries like David Gergen and Mike Deaver, he or his spokespeople were defensive in response to Democratic and liberal media attacks.

Trump never plays defense. Yesterday he issued a proclamation of Black History Month, and note who he singles out for recognition:

Thomas Sowell and Justice Thomas are always conspicuous by their absence in every liberal notice of blacks or black history in America. I believe it is still true that the National Museum of African-American History on the Mall in Washington contains not a single mention of Thomas. It hardly needs restating that for the left—and our cultural elites—you are not “authentically black” unless you are a leftist.

Related: Ted Cruz urges Trump to award presidential medal of freedom to prominent economist Thomas Sowell.

Mr Cruz made this plea to Mr Trump with his “this is a very good idea” response to a post by popular black conservative figure Larry Elder, calling on the U.S. president to bestow the highest civilian award on Mr Sowell, 94, while he is still alive.

“The Great Thomas Sowell is 94. There is still time for President Trump to award Professor Sowell the Presidential Medal of Freedom!!!” Mr Cruz said in the post.

Faster, please!

LIVE FROM NEW YORK, IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT MEMBER BERRIES!

My latest, over at Ed Driscoll.com, a deep dive into last fall’s Saturday Night Live origin story movie, which is now on Netflix.

DNC-MSM BIG MAD AT PENTAGON: Defense Department Orders ‘Unique’ Move Against Media Establishment Entrenched In Halls Of Pentagon.

The Pentagon announced Friday it will rotate legacy media outlets’ physical presence in its press corps, in line with President Donald Trump’s plan to challenge tradition and bring in new media, CNN reported.

CNN’s Pentagon producer, Haley Britzky, shared an internal memo by acting Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot to the Pentagon Press Association announcing the “annual media rotation program.” The program will see One America News Network replace NBC News, Breitbart replace National Public Radio (NPR), the New York Post replace The New York Times and HuffPost replace Politico in the coveted “Correspondents’ Corridor” effective Feb. 14, 2025. (RELATED: NPR Editor Who Exposed Newsroom’s Left-Wing Bias Resigns.)

The year-by-year rotation program will “broaden access to the limited space of the Correspondents’ Corridor to outlets that have not previously enjoyed the privilege and journalistic value of working from physical office space in the Pentagon,” Ullyot wrote.

Ullyot also noted that while the outlets were only to give up their office spaces in the Pentagon, they “will remain as full members of the Pentagon Press Corps,” enjoying the same access to the Pentagon and its briefings and retaining the privilege of being considered for travel with the Pentagon’s leaders.

As Sean Trende of Real Clear Politics wrote on Wednesday, “there’s just a monumental shift in attitude in dealing with unfriendly institutions on the Right, and I think in all the trees sprouting up everywhere it’s really easy to lose sight of the forest being built.”

And Mark Hemingway asks, “Serious question — after years of reporting on Trump, and half the country generally, with lies and overt hostility, did these media outlets think there would never be repercussions?”

UPDATE:

Couric is the last person to argue about news becoming propaganda:

● Katie Couric and Gun Rights: A Study in Dishonesty.

● Katie Couric: Ruth Bader Ginsburg disparaged activists who kneel during the anthem — and I cut the quotes from our interview.

● Katie Couric Uses Christmas Poem To Campaign For ObamaCare.

● Woody Allen, Katie Couric, and George Stephanopolous Attended Post-Sentence Epstein Party.

● Katie Couric: Obama Owes Me a ‘Big-Ass Bouquet’ for 2008 Palin Attack Interview.

FAA REPORT: Staffing At Reagan Control Tower Was Below Normal Standards.

The tragic plane crash at Reagan International Airport in Washington D.C. has people searching for answers while others play political gotcha games. But the fact is, mistakes were made. The FAA staffing at the Reagan control tower is one such issue.

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport has the busiest runaway in the US, with an average of 819 takeoffs per day – which experts say likely contributed to Wednesday’s air disaster.

The airport – also known as DCA – also has two other runways, launching 62 flights an hour, according to a 2023 report by the Alexandria Times.

It is in proximity to two other airports, including international Washington Dulles, and various military bases which also launch large volumes of aircraft, making for crowded airspace where precision is key.

“DCA is one of the most demanding airports in the world. It also has what’s known as ‘helicopter alley’ with hundreds of police, military, news and rescue helicopters criss-crossing the Potomac River – it’s crazy out there,” Captain Ross “Rusty” Aimer, a retired United Airlines pilot and aviation expert, told The Post.

Nearly 900 takeoffs a day is a LOT, and leads one to believe that there are nearly that same number of landings!

Which creates a high stress environment for the folks manning the control tower and herding airplanes through the landing and takeoff process. So one would assume that a very significant airport in Washington D.C. would be fully manned at all times, right? The FAA report says otherwise. 

Related:

1 year ago 11 Republican Attorneys General wrote a letter to the Biden administration, expressing their frustration with the new DEI practices affecting the Federal Aviation Administration.

Nothing was ever done about their concerns by the Biden administration. pic.twitter.com/9O2UD1WXxS

— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) January 30, 2025

THIS TOP SENATE DEMOCRAT IS NOW UNDER FEDERAL INVESTIGATION:

Interim D.C. U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin, Jr. has made a bold move, dismissing about 30 federal prosecutors involved in the Capitol riot cases. This decision, announced on Friday, signals a significant housecleaning of the top prosecutor’s office in Washington, D.C., as Martin gears up to purge partisans who weaponized the Justice Department against Joe Biden’s political enemies, including Trump, pro-life activists, and others.

But he’s also taken another bold step, effectively launching an investigation into Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer over comments he made back in March 2020 during a #MyRightMyDecision rally outside the Supreme Court. During the rally, Schumer blatantly threatened Trump-appointed Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch over their potential votes in the first abortion case before the Supreme Court with the new conservative majority.

“I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh: You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price,” Schumer said to a chorus of cheers. “You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”

Exit quote: “‘We take threats against public officials very seriously. I look forward to your cooperation,’ Martin wrote Schumer in a letter obtained by the Washington Post.”

Well done (which is very different from how Schumer grills his hamburgers).

WELCOME TO MY UNDERGROUND LIAR, MR. BOND: Inside a Covert Cold War Army Base Built Beneath a Greenland Glacier.

CONTRARIANS, ASSEMBLE! Chuck Todd’s Exit From NBC Fuels Speculation of Resistance ‘Dream Team.’

Todd is the latest self-righteous media figure this week to quit his job at a mainstream establishment. Obnoxious anchor Jim Acosta resigned from CNN on Tuesday, the same day crotchety columnist Paul Krugman announced his departure from the New York Times. Krugman and Acosta immediately sought solace in the arms of the Contrarian, a new Substack website founded by former Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin and former CNN analyst Norm Eisen. Krugman published an article explaining his resignation on the Contrarian, and Acosta did a bizarre webcast with Eisen.

A handful of mentally ill wine moms are tremendously excited about the #Resistance “Dream Team” starting to take shape on Substack, a platform many mainstream journalist have denounced for eschewing fact-checkers and promoting “misinformation.” The addition of Todd would give the Contrarian a formidable starting five akin to the 1992 USA basketball team that featured Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Karl Malone, and Patrick Ewing. Alleged humor columnist Andy Borowitz, author of “Inauguration to be Held Inside Cybertruck” and other knee-slappers, would also join the rotation.

Related: The 12 Worst Fails Of Media Propagandist And Toilet Paper Bandit Chuck Todd’s Career.

More: How the legacy media became powerless.

THE LAMPS ARE GOING OUT ALL OVER EUROPE. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime:

EPIC: Peter Hitchens tears Net Zero to shreds, to the dismay of BBC panellists and audience members.

"We didn't just close down our coal fired power stations, we blew them up, we were so certain we were right to do so. At the same time, China is building the equivalent of two… pic.twitter.com/HrBDXO5F8L

— Wide Awake Media (@wideawake_media) January 31, 2025

MATT WALSH: This New York Magazine Cover Goes Viral For All The Right Reasons (Video).

Related: Astonishingly, New York magazine cropped out yet another well known partygoer from its cover!

THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: I Don’t Really Care Margaret.

DISPATCHES FROM BIZZARO WORLD:

DEVELOPING: Plane crashes in Philadelphia, igniting inferno near homes and mall.

BREAKING NEWS: Reports that a plane has crashed striking a mall in Philadelphia just moments ago #BreakingNews pic.twitter.com/oLMlqLBCwK

— Bret Baier (@BretBaier) February 1, 2025

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Nazi Killer Robots — Fact or Fiction? New video from Mark Felton:

FORMER FEDERAL RESERVE ADVISER ARRESTED FOR PASSING TRADE SECRETS TO CHINA, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SAYS:

A former senior advisor to the Federal Reserve, John Harold Rogers, was arrested on charges he conspired to steal Fed trade secrets for the benefit of the People’s Republic of China, the Justice Department announced Friday.

Rogers, who worked as a senior adviser in the Fed’s division of international finance from 2010 until 2021, allegedly shared confidential information with Chinese co-conspirators. He is charged with conspiracy to commit economic espionage and with making false statements.

And from two weeks ago: Chinese hackers accessed Yellen’s computer in US Treasury breach, Bloomberg News reports.

THE CRITICAL DRINKER ON DISNEY’S UPCOMING SNOW WHITE REBOOT: The Most Hated Movie Ever? (Video.)

The Drinker is referring to Disney’s full length trailer, which dropped on December 3rd, and by the following day, had the following number of downvotes:

As of shortly before this post was published, it is indeed over 1,000,000 downvotes on YouTube:

The teaser trailer, which has been online since August 9th has even worse numbers:

The teaser trailer screencap was from mid-December. As of now, it has gained a thousand more likes (to 101K), but the downvotes are apparently capped at 1.4 million. Does Google limit the number of downvotes something can receive? Did they anticipate this sort of visceral hatred to a woke remake of a beloved classic animated film?

CHUCK TODD EXITING NBC NEWS AFTER NEARLY 20 YEARS AS TRUMP STARTS SECOND TERM.

The NBC chief political analyst and former “Meet The Press” moderator announced the news in a memo shared with staff Friday. The exit comes amid broad shifts in the TV news landscape as President Donald Trump begins his second term. In the memo to fellow NBC staffers, Todd teased his next chapter.

“There’s never a perfect time to leave a place that’s been a professional home for so long, but I’m pretty excited about a few new projects that are on the cusp of going from ‘pie in the sky’ to ‘near reality.’ So I’m grateful for the chance to get a jump start on my next chapter during this important moment,” Todd said in the memo obtained Friday by USA TODAY.

And so, as he flies the Blue Lady of the Skies into the sunset, we say “aloha” Five o’clock F. Chuck Todd, and return to our duties.  Let me remind you, the Weblog is open twenty-four hours for your dining and dancing pleasure.

UPDATE: Oceania has always been at war with disinformation:

Chuck Todd has left NBC News. Here's a good video to remember his news career by. pic.twitter.com/u1GAxsRSFA

— MAZE (@mazemoore) January 31, 2025