BRAVO:
I’m stunned. Apple just released the single greatest pro-parenting ad in the history of American advertising.
The pro-family cultural revolution is here.
Watch. Try not to cry… pic.twitter.com/30JvZkuMjJ
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) November 28, 2024
Caution: Contains internet-transmissible onion fumes.
IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS: Lather, Rinse, Repeat: How ‘Bout Making Sure Troops Get Some %#$*ing Food?! “For some reason, known only to God and the military hierarchy, maintaining convenient access to sufficient FOOD for troops to function has proven to be an epic challenge for the dolts behind the desks.”
HEH: Bill Whittle has gotten his hands on a pirated copy of the latest firmware update that the Vice President is currently running, and asks the question: what would Kamala Harris sound like if she were considerably smarter but still managed to speak without saying anything?
PRIORITIES:
Yes, I am willing to pay 30¢ more for a bottle of Cholula hot sauce if it means 75,000 Americans aren’t dying from fentanyl overdoses every year.
— Bad Hombre (@joma_gc) November 26, 2024
Seems like an excellent bargain.
THEIR BOX OFFICE APPEAL BECAME MORE SELECTIVE LONG AGO: Sharon Stone, Alec Baldwin Slam Dumb Trump Voters.
EUROPE: Musk is the right man in the wrong continent.
If the next intellectual trend is Musk’s rethinking of government itself, one European nation in particular would notice. In the main, the British elite’s cringing obsession with America is a bad thing. On the left, it led to the importation of critical race theory and other fads. (If only there were tariffs on ideas.) On the right, there was the delusion that America was going to do the post-Brexit UK a favour on trade out of some ancestral attachment. But one advantage of this unreciprocated infatuation is that, if Musk does change Washington, the British political class will sit up, as it wouldn’t if the same achievement took place in Paris or Canberra. He might give them what is known in the jargon of the day as the “permission structure” to reform.
Britain needs that nudge. It hasn’t balanced its fiscal budget since the early millennium. The planning regime is a Surrealist joke. The NHS forever needs “saving”. The civil service is nimble in a crisis — see the banking crash of 2008 and the almost calamitous “mini” Budget of 2022 — but its wider sclerosis is the (private) complaint of both political parties. Britain can’t borrow much more. Tax? Another major revenue-raising Budget would ensure this government is a one-term affair, which is why the chancellor talked down that prospect this week. Britain’s only consolation is that France and Italy have similar problems, and Germany equal but slightly distinct ones. The need for outside inspiration is pan-European.
The EU chose centralization over innovation so the chances of them getting a Musk of their own are about nil.
CULTURAL SUICIDE:
As of 2024 the fertility rate in South Korea is 0.68 births per woman. pic.twitter.com/Lok9npo7LI
— The Rabbit Hole (@TheRabbitHole84) November 27, 2024
Their fertility rate is down again this year from a pathetic 0.75 in 2023. Elon Musk noted, “2/3 of Korea will disappear every generation. Population collapse.”
THEY CAN’T WIN IF THEY DON’T CHEAT: Oversight Committee Hearing Will Review Census Miscounts That Benefited Democrats. “’The Census Bureau’s review of the 2020 Census revealed substantial miscounts and discrepancies tending to benefit Democrat-run states,’ House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said in a statement to The Daily Signal. ‘Congress has a responsibility to conduct oversight of these massive errors to ensure they are not repeated in the 2030 census.’”
I’M EXPECTING AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: Donald Trump Is About to Go Nuclear on the FBI.
BOUGHT AND PAID FOR: MSNBC makes eye-opening admission about the $500,000 Kamala Harris gave to host Al Sharpton’s non-profit.
Cable news network MSNBC claims it was blindsided to learn that a non-profit founded by longtime on-air personality the Rev. Al Sharpton received half a million dollars from Kamala Harris’ campaign just before he interviewed her.
The donations that flowed in just before the New York activist’s conversation with Harris have brought up questions about the news outlet’s credibility.
The National Action Network, a civil rights non-profit that was founded by Sharpton in 1991, received $500,000 from the Harris campaign just weeks before the MSNBC host conducted a highly-anticipated sit-down with the Democrat.
Campaign finance records from the 60-year-old’s campaign reveal that two separate payments went to National Action Network.
One payment for $250,000 was sent to the non-profit on Sept. 5 and another for the same amount was sent on Oct. 1.
The softball interview with Sharpton occurred on Oct. 20, just weeks after the second payment.
MSNBC is widely known to be a liberal-leaning channel, and the fact that one of its top talents took in a huge amount of cash just before a consequential interview has caused backlash from journalists who say the outlet’s now got a ‘black eye.’
Now?
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: That Is NOT How You Stuff a Turkey. “No, PETA — oh, dear Lord, no. This time, you’ve really gone and done it.”
THERE’S A LOT OF RUIN IN A CITY: Is Chicago About to Hit Rock Bottom?
Though it might be hard to believe, things are getting worse. In 2023, the city elected Brandon Johnson, a former organizer and lobbyist for the Chicago Teachers Union who defeated former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas by fewer than 27,000 votes — the smallest margin for a winning mayor in city history. If anything, Johnson’s rampage of misguided reform is an object lesson in demonstrating what happens when a far-left activist controls the levers of power in a major American city. It’s not pretty.
Over the last 18 months, Johnson’s administration has attempted to build a migrant camp on toxic land, hired four top staffers who support abolishing the police, ousted all seven members of the Chicago school board after they refused to issue a $300 million high-interest loan, appointed a 9/11 conspiracy theorist as the new school board president, demanded (and failed to secure) a taxpayer-funded stadium for the Chicago Bears, attempted (and failed) to install a socialist alderman as chair of the city’s powerful Zoning Committee, canceled the city’s gunshot detection system over the objections of black and latino aldermen, and broke his promise to not hike property taxes.
Johnson’s mayoral victory, itself governed by the same logic of power and corruption that runs the city, was the culmination of a decade-long rise — and political radicalization — of the most powerful teachers union in America. The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is not only Johnson’s former employer, but also his largest campaign funder and supplier of political muscle in City Hall and Springfield. It’s also the single largest spender on Chicago politics. Though its $30 million budget is funded by teacher dues, the CTU spends just 17 cents of every dollar on teacher representation. The rest goes to administration, politics and other leadership priorities.
Plus: “Despite everything, Chicago is still an American titan: Nowhere else in the country can claim such cheap access to the richness of life that a big city provides. But it is the worst governed American city. As a result, it is an outlier with severe problems. Those problems are man-made, which means the solutions are, too. This may be Chicago’s turning point — a moment to rebuild its foundations. Not just in steel and cement but in accountability, transparency, and a government that serves its people. If the city’s past is any indication, it’s when Chicago is on the ropes that it finds the will to rise again.”
The real trick will be neutering the CTU, a parasite consuming its host. Is there any likely future mayor with the guts to take on CTU and be able to win a mandate from the voters to do it?
MAYBE IT’S TIME TO MOVE THE REST OF TESLA TO TEXAS: California Declares WAR on Elon Musk: ‘This Is Insane.’
HMM: ‘Millions Of Homes Will Stay Unbuilt’: What Builders See That Policymakers Don’t.
Recent data from the Census Bureau reveals housing starts fell 3.1% below September’s revised estimate, landing at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,311,000 units. Building permits declined 0.6% from September, marking a 7.7% drop from October 2023.
The numbers create friction with recent comments from Federal Reserve officials, including Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, who, according to HousingWire, suggested housing demand remains robust enough to warrant higher mortgage rates.
The data tells a different story, with existing home sales hitting their third consecutive year of record lows when adjusted for workforce size.
Builder behavior offers telling insights into market conditions. HousingWire said construction companies have shown increased optimism when mortgage rates approach 6%, but consistently pull back when rates climb between 6.75% and 7.5%. The pattern extends beyond single-family homes, with multiunit permits already at recession levels.
It’s difficult to see sustained mortgage rate reduction so long as Congress is spending $2 trillion in funny money every year for the foreseeable future.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Trump Continues to Assemble Avengers to Battle the Swamp Ick. “It’s safe to say that any Anthony Fauci lackeys still at NIH — there are probably quite a few — are nervously updating their résumés on LinkedIn today. Dr. Bhattacharaya was the target of a campaign intended to discredit and quiet him for telling the truth about the almost science-free garbage being spewed by Fauci and his tyrannical ilk at NIH.”
The changes, confirmed by Walmart on Monday, are sweeping and include everything from not renewing a five-year commitment for an equity racial center set up in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd, to pulling out of a prominent gay rights index. And when it comes to race or gender, Walmart won’t be giving priority treatment to suppliers.
Walmart’s moves underscore the increasing pressure faced by corporate America as it continues to navigate the fallout from the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June 2023 ending affirmative action in college admissions. Emboldened by that decision, conservative groups have filed lawsuits making similar arguments about corporations, targeting workplace initiatives such as diversity programs and hiring practices that prioritize historically marginalized groups.
Separately, conservative political commentator and activist Robby Starbuck has been going after corporate DEI policies, calling out individual companies on the social media platform X. Several of those companies have subsequently announced that they are pulling back their initiatives, including Ford, Harley-Davidson, Lowe’s and Tractor Supply.
But Walmart, which employs 1.6 million workers in the U.S., is the largest one to do so.
“This is the biggest win yet for our movement to end wokeness in corporate America,” Starbuck wrote on X, adding that he had been in conversation with Walmart.
It gets better:
24 hours after announcing @Walmart worked with me to end their woke policies, their stock is up 2.1% and their competitor @Target is down 3%. Our movement is a force in the market. Go woke, go broke actually has meaning now. pic.twitter.com/QzwK0R6XXl
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) November 26, 2024
This is no time to go wobbly.