Author Archive: Stephen Green

UM, WHAT? ‘Khamenei’ says US, Israel hit by ‘decisive blow’ amid mixed signals on talks, US security alert. “Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen or heard in public since being wounded in strikes that killed his father and predecessor, Ali Khamenei, on the first day of the US-Israeli war with Iran on February 28. His message, read out by a prayer leader at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the death of the Islamic Republic’s founder, came amid weeks of talks marked by threats and flare-ups of violence that have so far failed to secure a deal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key conduit for global energy flows.”

Kudos to the Times of Israel headline writer who put scare quotes around “Khamenei.”

THE UNEXPECTEDLIES MOVE IN ONE DIRECTION UNDER A DEMOCRAT PRESIDENT, AND IN THE OTHER DIRECTION UNDER A REPUBLICAN:

IT’S TIME FOR VICTORIA TAFT’S West Coast, Messed Coast™: A Medicaid Scam You Never Saw Coming Has California Circling the… Drums “What’s the emptiest place on the West Coast, Messed Coast™ this week? It appears to be the election counting offices in California where navel-gazing vote counters are taking their sweet time to tell Californians if their vote for change has been diluted by Tom Steyer and Karen Bass ballot harvesters and vote ‘cure’ experts. We have an update.”

THE NEEDS OF THE PARTY ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE, COMRADE:

HEY, BIG SPENDER: SpaceX tells banks it won’t move its $135-a-share IPO price.

SpaceX told banks in its $75 billion initial public offering ​that it is set on the $135-a-share price ‌that the firm disclosed on Wednesday in its amended IPO filing, sources told Reuters.

The company’s decision ​is the latest sign that Elon Musk ​is intent on holding the largest ever initial ⁠offering according to his preferences, upending ​Wall Street tradition — though sources stressed that the ​decision is subject to change before the IPO takes place. SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to a request ​for comment.

SpaceX began meeting with investors on ​Thursday in its IPO roadshow – where securities issuers and their ‌bankers ⁠typically gather investor feedback before determining the final IPO price at a meeting held a day before the shares begin trading.

Needless to say, the company’s orbital AI data centers require a lot of cash.

HOWEVER MUCH YOU DESPISE THE MEDIA…:

…it will never be enough.

HIGHER EDUCATION IMPLOSION UPDATE: Low enrollment rocks U. Oregon as it works to slash $65 million, shutters dorms.

“Based on our new numbers, we will need to cut around $65 million from our budget to avoid an ongoing annual budget deficit in the coming years,” President Karl Scholz recently announced to the campus community.

He primarily blamed lower out-of-state first-year enrollment, which means lower tuition revenue, and instituted a hiring and pay freeze.

Other factors cited at a June 1 Board of Trustees meeting include increased costs and a loss in grant funding.

The university on June 2 announced it will shutter two off-campus dorm as it grapples with the budget shortfall. It will close Barnhart Residence Hall and Barnhart Dining Hall and shutter Riley Hall for the 2026–27 academic year, the Daily Emerald reported. If some students need to be housed, Riley Hall will serve as an overflow dorm.

Weird, but I didn’t see anything in that report about reducing administrative bloat.

Previously: If only someone had warned them.

HEH:

It’s fun having a POTUS having so much fun.

I DID NAZI THAT COMING:

THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA head urges new launcher for Blue Origin’s moon landers to meet Artemis mission deadlines.

In an interview with FOX Business on Thursday, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman described a “whole of government response” to the May 28 incident, which badly damaged Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral. “We are also de-coupling the lander from the launch vehicle and the pad itself,” he said.

“NASA is laser focused on the lander because we’re laser focused on our mission to return astronauts to the surface of the moon before 2028, and we’re gonna be able to keep that lander in development, progressing, so it’s available for our test mission in 2027, which is Artemis 3, and potentially available to meet our landing objectives in 2028,” Isaacman said.

“It’s a setback that happens in this business. It’s incredibly complicated. A rocket is a controlled explosion, whether you’re going to Earth orbit, 17,500 miles an hour, escape velocity, 25,000 miles an hour, it’s an awful lot of energy, things will happen. We have to learn from it and be ready to move forward.”

Faster with Starship, please, Elon.

GOODER AND HARDER, NEW JERSEY:

YES ON BOTH COUNTS:

KEEP IT UP: Feds announce major fraud busts in Ohio. “Unfortunately, this area around Columbus is responsible for 1/3 of all of the $1.5B spent on home healthcare in Ohio… that’s 3x what you would expect… it defies belief. Some of these buildings were vacant.”

FRAUD ALL THE WAY DOWN:

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Talarico Is Continuing Proof That Dems Don’t Do Jesus Stuff Well. “In addition to selling him as a moderate even though he’s not, the MSM hacks are crafting an involved fiction about Talarico being a good Christian. A new kind of Christian, one who magically turns the New Testament into leftist marching orders.”

NOBODY I KNOW WOULD FAIL THIS TEST:

The left moved almost immediately to the “Everybody Does It” phase of excusemongering for the Nazi who at the very least emotionally abused his girlfriends.

CHARMING FELLOW: Woman-hating Graham Platner made twisted rape comments and lied about Nazi tattoo, ex-girlfriends reveal.

Maine Senate hopeful Graham Platner is a woman-hater who once twisted an ex-girlfriend’s arm — and fantasized about killing people and raping intruders, according to a slew of women who’ve come forward to out his disturbing behavior.

The Democrat candidate also boasted about having a Nazi tattoo, calling it “my Totenkopf,” one ex recalled — contradicting his October claim that he thought it was merely a “terrifying skull and crossbones.”

Three of Platner’s ex-girlfriends recounted their troubling time dating the Marine veteran to the New York Times, with the women describing him as someone who “hated women,” referring to them as “hatchet wounds” in the latest scandal to dog his campaign.

Meanwhile:

If that wasn’t the Cat5 news drop, I can’t imagine what else we might learn.

Or at least I’d rather not.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN):

TWANLOC:

“This man is not ‘my fellow American’ and we do not have any shared interests whatsoever. We occupy the same landmass. That’s it. And geography alone does not hold a nation together for long.”

Update: There’s more because of course there’s more.

CHANGE: The Hormuz Squeeze Is Redrawing the Oil Map for Good.

Across the Gulf, governments are pouring billions into new oil pipelines, rail corridors and energy storage hubs to bypass the waterway in what is set to become one of the most durable outcomes of the conflict. The new energy links are part of a broader redrawing of the region’s logistics map, shifting trade toward trucking, rail and new ports.

“The legacy of the crisis will result in the construction of infrastructure to bypass the Strait of Hormuz,” said Hamad Hussain, commodities economist at London-based research firm Capital Economics. “The genie is out of the bottle given that the longstanding threat of Iran effectively closing the strait has now materialized.”

Even if Washington and Tehran reach a deal to reopen the strait and maritime exports resume, the shift toward an export network with multiple exits will endure because the conflict has proved that robust contingency plans are essential, officials and analysts say. Saudi Arabia’s ability to export oil via a previously underused fallback pipeline demonstrated the strategic value of a backup, while in recent weeks the United Arab Emirates and Iraq have launched plans to expand pipelines of their own.

The stakes extend far beyond the Gulf. Bypassing a waterway that once moved a fifth of the world’s oil will reshape how securely energy reaches all corners of the globe.

If we can’t get a Free Iran, this is the next best thing.