Author Archive: Stephen Green

WE HAVE AN ASTRONAUT-ENTREPRENEUR IN CHARGE OF NASA:

FIRST LOOK: ‘Melania’ Trailer Takes Us Inside Trump 2.0. “The film will hit Prime Video cyber-shelves soon after its theatrical run, giving the streamer an original title that could spark membership interest.”

BEEGE WELBORN: Trump Makes the Move on ‘Sanctioned Oil Tankers’ From Venezuela Official.

When the headlines broke late last night, I thought, wowsahs – this is an escalation.

And that while a ‘blockade’ was a dramatic move, it seemed like it would be kind of difficult to enforce on a country whose other two-thirds of borders had nothing to do with the oceanfront. There are plenty of roads in and out of Venezuela, and people who are willing to still trade with them in South America.

Maduro’s gang hasn’t reached complete pariah status yet, but, man, are they getting there quickly.

When I had a chance to read what Trump had actually announced vice breathless media chirps, it made perfect sense as the next step to ratchet up pressure on Maduro’s finances.

Read the whole thing.

I’d just add that sanctions without teeth are meaningless, and Trump’s “blockade” is finally sanctions with real teeth.

THE MEDIA LIES:

The media lies stupidly, clumsily, and obviously. Maybe I’d despise them less if the lies came without all the moral preening about objectivity, editorial standards, and those layers of editors and fact-checkers.

Maybe, but I doubt it.

THE GHOST OF RONALD REAGAN SMILES: Space Force wants advanced tech for space-based interceptors. “Space-based interceptors are a key component of the Trump administration’s massive Golden Dome program for missile defense of the United States. Earlier this month, the Space Force released a Request for Proposal for space-based midcourse interceptors that would target missiles as they coast in space in between launch and reentering the atmosphere. Boost-phase interceptors seek to destroy missiles during their slower, more vulnerable ascent as the rockets gathers speed after launch.”

THE ENEMY WITHIN:

We need a complete and total shutdown of the Ivy League until we can figure out what the hell is going on.

Related (From Ed): Is Brown University Protecting a Suspect in the Campus Shooting?

I ASSUME THERE ARE STILL PLENTY OF AMERICANS WITH LIVING MEMORIES OF SMUGGLING GUNS INTO IRELAND:

AS IN MORE CHEAP PHOTOSHOPS IN ANOTHER DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO DISCREDIT TRUMP? DOJ Epstein files are required to be made public by Friday; Democrats say there are more. “Democrats held a press conference Tuesday saying they expect the administration to only partially comply with the law on Friday, but that there would be consequences for anything less than full compliance.”

Based on what we’ve seen in recent days, this is just more handwavium from the Dems.

M&A: Warner Bros. Discovery recommends investors reject Paramount’s hostile takeover bid.

The company’s board said in a statement that it determined the Paramount Skydance offer “is not in the best interests of WBD and its shareholders.”

The Warner Bros. board’s recommendation to shareholders effectively means Paramount’s offer is dead. Paramount could, however, return with a higher offer.

“This offer once again fails to address key concerns that we have consistently communicated to Paramount throughout our extensive engagement and review of their six previous proposals,” WBD’s chair, Samuel Di Piazza, said.

Warner Bros. Discovery said it was instead sticking with its initially announced deal to sell its studio, HBO, and HBO Max to Netflix. “The terms of the Netflix merger are superior,” WBD said in a letter to shareholders.

Sad end for a storied studio.

YES:

Exit reply: “They did this after January 6th, and the J6ers weren’t even armed.”

HEY, BIG SPENDER:

Message sent and received.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Greatly reduced expectations: Students read few ‘whole books’ or none at all.

“Twelfth-grade reading scores are at historic lows,” she writes. “College professors, even at elite schools, are increasingly reporting difficulties in getting students to engage with lengthy or complex texts.”

Andrew Polk, 26, who teaches 10th-grade English in suburban Ohio, tells the Times he was assigned many whole books and plays when he was in high school not that long ago. But he’s supposed to use McGraw-Hill’s StudySync, which centers on excerpts. He has time for a few longer works each year, such as Macbeth, Fahrenheit 451 and John Green’s Paper Towns, a young-adult mystery. Teenagers still feel “passion for a good story,” and “can and do rise to the occasion.”

Teaching excerpts can expose students to more diverse writers, writes Goldstein. Schools can avoid controversial passages, such as sex scenes. The passages students read resemble what they’ll see on standardized tests. And providing online excerpts can be cheaper than buying books.

But students don’t build reading stamina. They don’t have a chance to dive into a different time or place, see characters develop or get to the happy ending.

What shame. Some of my best and most enjoyable reading was books I didn’t want to read, but that teachers required.

ALSO FILED UNDER, “NO JEWS, NO NEWS.”:

Exit question: “Has anyone heard from Tucker on this war — estimates on those killed go as high as 400,000. Tucker’s been as quiet about this as he’s been on the genocide of Nigerian Christians by Islamists.”

GROOMING, STRAIGHT UP: San Diego school district teaches young kids 28 sexual orientations, 9 gender identities. “Using a rationale rejected by the Supreme Court’s Mahmoud precedent against a suburban D.C. district’s no-exceptions LGBTQ curriculum, SDUSD claims it can expose children to such mature and disputed concepts because it’s ‘not trying to change the religious beliefs or ideologies of any person’ but rather ‘to change how we respond to the most vulnerable populations that we serve.'”

Stick to the three R’s and leave them kids alone.

RELIGION OF PEACE UPDATE, IOWAHAWK STYLE:

2028 PREVIEW: Rubio: I Won’t Run If Vance Enters 2028 Race.

“If J.D. Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee, and I’ll be one of the first people to support him,” Rubio told author Chris Whipple in a “Vanity Fair” interview published Tuesday.

Rubio, 54, and Vance, 41, are widely viewed as leading GOP presidential candidates when Trump’s second term ends. Presidents are constitutionally limited to two terms under the 22nd Amendment.

Trump this year publicly praised Vance and Rubio and floated the idea of them running together on a future Republican ticket, without specifying who would lead.

“We have J.D., obviously — the vice president is great,” Trump said while traveling in Asia in October. “Marco’s great. I’m not sure if anybody would run against those two. I think if they formed a group, it would be unstoppable.”

Of course, intentions often change as the primaries come closer.

SAD:

“Police and security agencies warned the bakery had become a potential target, and that they were unable to guarentee their safety.”