CHANGE: Number of students being homeschooled in Colorado more than doubles. “Colorado is representative of what we’re seeing across the country – which is families had to make a lot of hard decisions last year and some of them chose to homeschool. Either for family flexibility or disenchantment with how remote school was going or they didn’t like the hybrid model — there are a lot of reasons where homeschooling may have been a better fit during the pandemic.”
After, too.
JOANNE JACOBS: SF school board, union undercut pandemic hubs. “’Political infighting undercut the effectiveness of city-sponsored learning hubs for vulnerable students last year,’ writes Jill Tucker in the San Francisco Chronicle, citing a report by independent researchers.”
It would be much easier to still believe in public education if only public educators still believed in public education.
PJ MEDIA VIP ROUNDUP: Don’t forget that VODKAPUNDIT promo code if you’ve been thinking of joining us.
Matt Margolis: Kamala Harris’s Unpopularity Is Truly Historic. “What makes this significant is that Kamala Harris’s approval ratings matter a great deal. From the very beginning, there’s been a sort of co-presidency vibe from this administration.”
Kevin Downey Jr: Liberals Worldwide Are Ramping Up the Panic About COVID Stats. Here Are Some Fast Facts. “The woman who published the tweet below, Debbie Burnett, is running against Rep. Boebert in Colorado. She is histrionic about COVID. She is actually a veterinarian who volunteers at a hospital as a physical therapist. The rolling average of new COVID cases in Aspen (which is Boebert’s district) is five per day. This woman is dangerous.”
Yours Truly: The Dumbest Well-Read Man in America Wants to Pummel You Into Submission on Vaccines. “He was and remains the master of the ‘He couldn’t be that dumb for real, could he?’ explainer piece.”
THAT’S NOT EVEN A SLAP ON THE WRIST FOR A CCP SPYWARE COMPANY AND ITS AMERICAN ENABLERS: Zoom to pay $85M for lying about encryption and sending data to Facebook and Google.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: High Noon at the Delta Variant Panic Porn Corral. “As Republicans look ahead to the 2022 midterm elections, it’s important that they realize that how they react to this lunatic overreach and overreaction from the Democrats may do more than anything to determine their success or failure next year. This isn’t time to draw a line in the sand, it’s time to push back so hard that the other side never gets near where the line would have been.”
I’M EXPECTING AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: SpaceX installs 29 engines on giant Super Heavy Mars rocket.
Super Heavy will initially sport 29 Raptors, and future versions will have 32 of the engines, Musk has said. Starship’s upper stage, a 165-foot-tall (50 meters) spacecraft called Starship, will be powered by six additional Raptors.
Three-engine Starship prototypes have flown multiple times, on test flights that reached a maximum altitude of 6.2 miles (10 kilometers). In May, a vehicle known as SN15 (“Serial No. 15”) became the first to ace this high-altitude hop, surviving its touchdown intact. (Several of SN15’s predecessors did well until the very end, failing to stick the landing.)
SN15’s success cleared the way for the coming orbital flight, which will be the first liftoff of a Super Heavy vehicle. A fully stacked Starship, consisting of a Super Heavy known as Booster 4 and the SN20 upper-stage prototype, will launch from South Texas.
The only question is when, and the EPA seems to be dragging its feet.
PROFESSIONAL COURTESY: Liberals Still Sacrificing the Safety of Law-Abiding Black Americans to Appease Criminals.
THEY’RE GONNA PARTY LIKE IT’S 2019: Welcome to the Star-Studded Superspreader Obama Birthday Party (No, You Aren’t Invited). “The whole thing is so in-your-face that, once again, we’ve descended into some sort of bizarre hell-world in which Piers Morgan is a voice of sanity.”
(Bumped.)
CHOKING IS NON-BINARY: Trans Athlete Flames Out in Women’s Olympic Weightlifting, Which Proves Nothing.
JUST ANOTHER REMINDER THAT TWITTER IS A WRETCHED HIVE OF FAKE NEWS AND MISINFORMATION:
Update: Bad link — sorry! Now fixed.
“C’MON NOW” WITH BRYAN PRESTON: Joe Biden’s COVID HOTELS Plague the Border and Endanger the Whole Country.
LIGHTEN UP, FRANCIS: Siri accused of anti-China bias after inaccurate Olympic medal tally.
RED-PILLED ONCE MORE: Bill Maher Rains Fire Down on Cancel Culture ‘Purges’ and the ‘Bummer’ Olympic Games.
SAY IT: Dare I Say That January 6 Was Not an Insurrection?
The D.C. Capitol Police proved to be incompetent — something we knew already — and failed to set up sufficient barriers. Consequently, a bunch of angry people in the front lines charged the police barricades and got through, and the throng mindlessly followed them. That is what throngs do. They do it at movies, at restaurants, at soccer games, and at heavy metal concerts.
They burst into the Capitol because that’s where the throng flowed. For 99 percent of those inside, it was pure curiosity. It was like the people who almost tore down the White House when celebrants thronged to fete the newly elected Andrew Jackson.
Remember the guy sitting on Nancy Pelosi’s chair? Do you think he came like John Brown in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, to seize military weapons and incite a national insurrection? Of course not. Be real. The guy was having the time of his life.
The people in Washington calling it an insurrection are doing so to justify their own attempt to illegally seize power.
BIDEN’S RETURN TO LAWFULNESS: Biden Administration Defies Federal Ruling, Processes DACA Applications.
CAM EDWARDS: Boston Globe Readers Discover The Racist History Of Gun Control. “I was shocked to see a column headlined ‘The Very Racist History of Gun Control’ on the paper’s website this weekend. I’m sure the piece by longtime columnist Jeff Jacoby has caused some heartburn in the newsroom, not only because the op-ed is chock full of inconvenient truths for fans of gun control, but because it directly takes aim at the claims of historian Carol Anderson, whose new book ‘The Second’ is based on the premise that the right to keep and bear arms itself is rooted in racism.”
CRISIS BY DESIGN: Mexico’s Turn: The Border Mess Is About to Get Much Worse.
ONE FOR THE ROAD: Gas Station Liability Lunacy. “New Mexico Court Rules Gas Stations Liable for Selling Fuel to Drunk Drivers.”
HEINLEIN’S CRAZY YEARS (CONT’D): California May Require Public Colleges to Provide Free… Men’s Menstrual Products?
SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE IS NOT MERELY PINING FOR THE FJORDS: Nine Of The 10 Worst Cities For First-Time Home Buyers Are In California.
MATT MARGOLIS: The Biggest Indication Yet That Trump is Running in 2024. “We met with some of our Cabinet members tonight. […] We’re looking at what does come next. I’m not authorized to speak on behalf of the president. But, I can tell you this: We wouldn’t be meeting tonight if we weren’t making plans to move forward in a real way, with President Trump at the head of that ticket.”
HMM: Congress Likely to Pass $550 Billion Infrastructure Bill That Threatens to ‘Kill’ Crypto Industry.
To pay for $28 billion of the total, the bill includes a provision to expand the definition of a broker for tax purposes to cover “any person who (for consideration) is responsible for and regularly provides and services effectuating transfers of digital assets.”
In practice, this means that crypto miners, validators on proof-of-stake networks, and possibly even those active in decentralized finance markets (think liquidators or governance-token holders) will have to meet IRS reporting requirements and file 1099 forms. These forms include customer data such as name, address, and tax identification number (which, in the case of self-employed individuals, can be a social security number).
The ostensible reason for the provision is to ensure people pay taxes on their crypto earnings—legislators reckon that it can lead to $28 billion more in payments—but it ratchets up financial surveillance to ensure such a result.
Jake Chervinsky, general counsel at DeFi lending protocol Compound, tweeted, “It’s literally impossible for non-custodial actors like miners to get the information they need to do Form 1099s. In practice, this could mean a de facto ban on mining in the USA.”
I think that’s what it’s actually about.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: The Trump 2024 Democrat Destruction Machine Readies for Battle. “All of this is more than likely causing quite a bit of flop sweat at the Democratic National Committee though. On his quietest days, Trump gives them headaches. More than six months after they set up Biden in the Oval Office, they still act like Trump’s there goading them. They can’t quit him and their continued torture is a never-ending delight to watch.”
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