BABY YODA ON BOARD: Disney+ is coming to Teslas ‘soon.’ “At some point in the not-too distant future, you’ll be able to enjoy The Mandalorian in your car.”
Author Archive: Stephen Green
December 27, 2019
COME SEE THE VIOLENCE INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM: Trump supporter allegedly assaulted at Colorado Springs impeachment rally.
WINNING: It Was a Very Trumpian 2019: Global Stock Markets Gained $17 Trillion in Value This Year.
Obligatory: PAUL KRUGMAN ON ELECTION NIGHT 2016: “If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never.”
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Amazon’s Merry Christmas Bad News for Sanders, Warren, and Proggieland. “The most important takeaway from Amazon’s big Christmas is that this economy is still humming along. Every American over the age of ten knows that the economy is a Mt. Rushmore-sized Achilles heel. They spent most of last year hoping for a recession, and now they know that’s not happening. The best they can hope for is a tepid economy.”
LYIN’ LIZ: Elizabeth Warren’s Brother Reportedly ‘Furious’ She Claims Their Father Was a Janitor.
Perhaps the difference between a “maintenance man” and a “janitor” is in the eye of the beholder, and janitors do perform maintenance tasks.
But as Warren herself pointed out to The Globe, it’s a difference she seemed to recognize in her book, which makes no reference to her father being a janitor, but several references to him as a maintenance man. She also referred to her father as a “maintenance man” in a 2012 Senate campaign ad, and in a 2007 interview said that “maintenance man in an apartment house was his last job .”
“They always saw themselves as middle-class people,” Warren added. “They saw themselves as people who, for them the distinction was they used good English, they didn’t say ain’t.”
But in another 2012 speech, Warren got more specific about her father’s job at that apartment house, and her description did not sound very janitorial.
Again, the distinction may be a minute one, but the duties Warren described in that speech were those of an outdoor maintenance man, not a janitor. Janitor, though, has a more working-class ring to it.
Is there anyone in the world who doesn’t see through her schtick?
DEMOGRAPHICS IS DESTINY: Japan’s Births Decline To Lowest Number On Record.
JOHN PODHORETZ: Why I quit Twitter — and you should, too.
If I could find a way to participate simply by tweeting out articles and gnomish would-be witticisms, I would. But I can’t see how I would be able to avoid sinking back into the mire.
There’s a reason Twitter has defined this decade’s communications. It’s the most interactive medium the world has ever known, and it’s great fun.
But Twitter has an oversoul now, and the oversoul is poisonous. It rewards bad rhetorical behavior, it privileges outrage of any sort over reason of all sorts, and it encourages us to misunderstand each other. It’s the devil on our shoulder.
My last tweet was back in February.
I WAS HANGING STOCKINGS THE OTHER NIGHT, AND THOUGHT OF HIM THEN, TOO: You’re Not the Only One Who Saw Hillary’s Christmas Message & Thought of Jeffrey Epstein.
December 26, 2019
ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: What the Hell Is Wrong with Nancy Pelosi?
The First Rule of Holes states: “If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.”
VodkaPundit’s Second Rule of Holes says: “When your opponent is in a hole, get them a bigger and nicer shovel.”
Whatever Nancy Pelosi is trying to accomplish, it isn’t working. She’s in a hole, she’s digging furiously, and with such dedication to her craptaculent efforts that she wouldn’t even notice me handing her a bigger and nicer shovel.
Dig, Nancy, dig!
This one is for our VIP members, and as I hope you’re aware the promo code VODKAPUNDIT is still good for a nice little discount.
CHRISTIAN TOTO: Think 2019’s Box Office Was Bad? Wait ‘til 2020.
Consider 2019 featured not one but two films capping epic franchises. “Avengers: Endgame” certainly delivered on its promise, both creatively and commercially. The film, tying up loose ends from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), became the highest grossing movie of all time.
It also pleased most fans and critics, a massive win given our fractured age.
Compare that to “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” The just-released film put an exclamation point on a nine-film series that captivated the culture for 42 years.
That kind of film event doesn’t happen every day. It’s a safe bet “Rise of Skywalker,” which generated mediocre reviews, will top $1 billion at the global box office. The movie’s opening weekend earned roughly $44 million less than the debut frame for 2017’s “The Last Jedi”
For a “Star Wars” project it’s still a disappointment.
That’s the kind of “disappointment” any studio wants, of course. Still, 2020 lacks a film with anything approaching that level of pop culture gravitas. In fact, the 2020 lineup generates huge question marks and precious few sure things.
The numbers could get ugly before next Christmas rolls around.
Plus:
If stars dubbed President Trump “Hitler” during his first term, imagine what adjectives they’ll hurl in the heat of campaign season?
Think that will help or hurt the box office? That’s rhetorical.
Get woke…
AND YET, STILL NOT TIRED OF ALL THE WINNING: Pence Chief of Staff: Trump Is Getting Impeached ‘Because He’s Winning.’
RIP: Songwriter Allee Willis, Whose Work Spanned ‘Friends’ And ‘The Color Purple,’ Dies.
Maybe not a household name, but just her work with Earth, Wind & Fire was enough to achieve musical immortality.
STRANGE DAYS HAVE FOUND US: Kanye West Is Preaching The Gospel, But Pope Francis Is Telling People Not To Evangelize.
The groups use Trump’s voice in robocalls asking for “an emergency contribution to the campaign” and use POTUS’ Twitter avatar on Facebook pages.
About 20 groups with names like “Latinos for the President” and “MAGA Coalition,” groups that are structured as PACs or political nonprofits, brought in $46.7 million between January 2017 and June 2019, Politico reports. The publication adds that most of the money comes from donors who give $200 or less.
Trump officials worry that the hundreds of unofficial pro-Trump boosters are sucking up funds that would otherwise contribute to Trump’s 2020 campaign. They also confuse the Trump campaign’s messaging to the public and make it harder to accumulate donors, Trump allies told Politico.
We saw similar nefarious groups piggybacking on the Tea Party movement, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if many of the same people were involved.
BUT IF HILLARY JUMPED IN AND TOOK THE NOMINATION, I BET GABBARD WOULD: Tulsi Gabbard Furious After Yahoo Suggests She’s Seeking a ‘Spoiler Role’ as a Third-Party Candidate.
UGH: Notre Dame Rector: Fragile Cathedral Might Not Be Saved.
Monsignor Patrick Chauvet said restoration work isn’t likely to begin until 2021 — and described his “heartache” that Notre Dame couldn’t hold Christmas services this year, for the first time since the French Revolution.
“Today it is not out of danger,” he told The Associated Press on the sidelines of Christmas Eve midnight Mass in a nearby church. “It will be out of danger when we take out the remaining scaffolding.”
“Today we can say that there is maybe a 50% chance that it will be saved. There is also 50% chance of scaffolding falling onto the three vaults, so as you can see the building is still very fragile,” he said.
If it can’t be saved, it ought to be rebuilt. The question is whether modern France be trusted to rebuild it as-was.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Please Spay and Neuter Your Washington Post. “The Op-Ed by the Post’s editorial board is so foot-stompy that it reads as if it were composed in crayon on a wall while mommy wasn’t looking.”
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): More here from Jazz Shaw. “The new year is approaching and that’s widely taken as an opportunity for fresh beginnings and the hope that we might do better. So here’s a Christmas wish for the Washington Post editorial board. Do better next year.”
I’m not holding my breath on this one.