Author Archive: Glenn Reynolds

SOMEONE NEEDS TO START PRESSURING BANKS NOT TO DO BUSINESS WITH LEFTY ACTIVISTS: Climate Nazi Alert: Banks Urged to Stop Financing Livestock Production. “Over 100 climate groups are pressuring JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and other private banks to stop financing global meat and dairy companies. Agriculture Dive Dot Com says the institutions’ lending activities undermine their environmental commitments. An open letter from groups led by Friends of the Earth to some of the world’s biggest banks calls for a halt on any new financing that expands industrial livestock production and to add requirements that meat, dairy, and feed clients disclose their climate action plans. The letter calls out the banks by name for supporting the world’s biggest meat, dairy, and animal feed producers like JBS, Tyson Foods, and others.”

OPEN THREAD: Happy Saturday.

LEO BEATS GEO: United Airlines bumps GEO operators off fleet for Starlink Wi-Fi.

United, which has more routes across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans than any other airline, plans to offer passengers high-speed, low-latency Starlink Wi-Fi for free.

“Everything you can do on the ground, you’ll soon be able to do onboard a United plane at 35,000 feet, just about anywhere in the world,” United CEO Scott Kirby said in a statement.

According to United, supported Starlink services would include live streaming, gaming and the ability to connect multiple devices at once under one user.

On the one hand, yay, progress. On the other hand, I usually don’t even connect to existing aircraft wifi because I enjoy reading my book in peace.

I DIDN’T KNOW THE DODGE HORNET EXISTED: The slowest selling car in America. “Even with its appealing starting price of $42,530, dealers just can’t get them off their lots quickly enough. According to CarEdge dealer inventory data, the Market Day Supply—or the number of days it would take to sell all the models available based on its current sales rate—of the Dodge Hornet is up to 428 days. Dodge apparently has 14,596 Hornets on dealer lots, but has only moved 1,536 in the last 45 days. As we mentioned, it doesn’t get much better for other Stellantis vehicles, as the Jeep Grand Wagoneer is in the same 428-day supply boat with 2,214 units on lots with only 233 sold in the past 45 days.”

I vaguely considered a Grand Wagoneer when I was buying a new SUV a couple of years ago, but it seemed expensive and clunky to me. I guess I wasn’t alone.

WE NEED A FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS LAW PROTECTING SELF-DEFENSE: Blue States Can’t Ban Your Guns So They’ll Punish You For Using Them.

Also gun-rights groups need to target prosecutors who go after people who defend themselves. There should be an automatic outside-funded effort to oust them, and nonstop vilification nationwide of the sort lefties engage in routinely.

MATT TAIBBI: Leaders Beyond the Law. In a very real sense, Dick Cheney hasn’t changed sides at all.

WHY MALE VOTERS CAN’T STAND KAMALA:

Kamala’s biggest problem is the men. White men. Black men. Young men.

Gen Z has the largest gender gap of any age group with young men supporting Trump by margins similar to those of older men. Black men and Hispanic men have been the hardest minority groups to persuade into the Kamala camp. A New York Times article last month blamed lagging black male support for Kamala on the ‘misogynoir’ that black men were suffering from.

Why is Kamala doing so poorly among men? One hint comes from polling numbers showing that white men went from supporting Trump by 13 points before the DNC convention to 21 points afterward. “Joy”, “brat summer” and all the efforts to brand a presidential campaign like the Barbie movie backfired making Kamala into ‘Barbie’ and Trump into ‘Oppenheimer’.

It’s not just the vibe, climaxing in Oprah’s convention appearance, that’s turning off men, the vibe is a symptom of the real problem not only with the campaign, but the candidate.

Kamala is a lightweight politician running on feelings at a time when men need something more solid. The “joy” theme told votes to turn off their brains, join the party and stop worrying. TikTok dances make a certain kind of voter gush while completely alienating another kind of voter.

Having “brat summer” inflicted on you when you’re cutting back on groceries is salt in the wound. A trivial campaign is insulting to those who are suffering and falling behind on bills.

But TikTok dances are the whole reason why Kamala is here.

Also, every office has a woman like Kamala, cruising on privilege and diversity points.

SOMETIME BETWEEN WHEN I WAS A KID AND THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY, NOOSES WENT FROM EMBLEMS OF THE OLD WEST TO PRESUMPTIVELY RACIST: Maryland noose not ‘racist’ or ‘anti-black’: principal. “This is not the first time during this new school year a rope has turned out to just be a rope.”

ICYMI: MAKE THEM PAY: Jonathan Turley: Sixth Circuit Hands Down Major Free Speech Win for Professor Against the University of Louisville. “The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit handed down a major victory for free speech this week in favor of a professor challenging his treatment by the University of Louisville. In Josephson v. Ganzel, a unanimous panel ruled for Dr. Allan Josephson who was subject to adverse actions after he publicly expressed skepticism over some treatments for youth diagnosed with gender dysphoria. The decision is important because it deals with qualified immunity and reaffirms liability for the denial of free speech protections. Writing for the panel (including Senior Judge Ronald Lee Gilman and Judge Allen Griffin), Judge Andre Mathis found that university officials could not claim immunity in the denial of free speech protections for faculty.”

Note that being stripped of qualified immuninty means they are subject to personal liability.

OPEN THREAD: Enjoy yourselves.