Author Archive: Stephen Green

YES. NEXT QUESTION?

RABBI MICHAEL BARCLAY: Shame on UCLA: The Cowardice of Academia. “The details and reasons behind canceling one of the most important news personalities in this nation are even more despicable than they at first seem and are examples of prejudice and insidious anti-Semitism.”

WOE, CANADA: Liberals Brainstorm Spiffy Plan to Beef Up Currently Pathetic Military.

The Canadian military has a long and storied history of valour and tenacity. Let’s get that out of the way right off the bat.

That small but respected force has withered away in recent years, losing much of its cachet and nearly all of its lethality under the liberal goverments who have held sway in recent decades.

In 2024, military analysts and Canadian government officials themselves were using the term ‘death spiral’ to describe the state of the Canadian armed forces amid calls for Canada to finally meet its obligations as a NATO member nation.

Much more at the link.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Dems’ #RESIST Strategy Might Just Be Turning Into Background Noise. “They’re hoping that the seemingly endless anti-ICE protests will sufficiently demonize the agents, the Trump administration, and any politicians associated with him to propel the Democrats to victory next November. Seriously, the platform is pro-violent criminals and anti-law enforcement. That’s what they’re going with.”

IGNORE BASIC CYBERSECURITY AT YOUR PERIL:

CHANGE? Ted Cruz believes it’s ‘entirely possible’ regimes in Cuba, Iran and Venezuela will collapse in six months.

“We are at an extraordinary moment in history. It is entirely possible, Sean, that in the next six months, we will see the regimes fall in Iran, in Venezuela, and in Cuba, and we could also see governments replace them that want to be friends with the United States of America,” Cruz said on “Hannity.”

President Trump has dramatically ramped up pressure on all three US adversaries over recent weeks.

Since last year, the US has maintained an oil quarantine around Venezuela. Trump also authorized the Jan. 3 Operation Absolute Resolve raid to capture strongman Nicolas Maduro.

Those efforts enabled the US to cut off Cuba’s key source of oil, putting a big squeeze on Havana.

More recently, Trump has massed US military assets, including two aircraft carriers, near Iran as a show of force while allowing negotiations with the regime to continue playing out.

The Axis of Resistance could potentially shrink down to just North Korea, China, and Russia — and Russia looks more and more like a liability to Beijing than an asset.

OR MAYBE IT’S THE X-FILES INSTEAD:

Update: These never get old.

GOOD DOGS:

Every New Yorker with a dog should get involved. And what a great excuse to finally get a dog for those without.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Moon mission fueling test concludes with no major problems.

NASA and contractor engineers pumped more than 750,000 gallons of supercold propellants into the agency’s huge Space Launch System rocket Thursday without any signs of hydrogen leaks or any other significant problems in a major step toward launching four astronauts on a flight around the moon as early as March 6.

The practice countdown began Tuesday night, kicking off a carefully choreographed series of steps to ready the world’s most powerful operational rocket for what amounted to a simulated launch Thursday at 8:42 p.m. EST. Controllers then carried out additional tests to make sure the team can recycle, hold and restart an actual launch countdown as needed to handle unexpected problems.

The initial stages of the rehearsal countdown went well and at 9:35 a.m. Thursday, Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson gave her “go” to begin the multi-hour process of pumping 196,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and 537,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen fuel into the SLS rocket’s first stage. The second stage was loaded with another 22,500 gallons of oxygen and hydrogen propellants.

Unlike the rocket’s first fueling test earlier this month, when hydrogen leaks forced the team to call off the countdown, sensors detected no significant leaks the second time around and the rocket’s tanks were topped off without incident.

Well, good.

CHRIS QUEEN: Trump Returns to Red Georgia With Receipts. “Thursday’s event felt like a who’s who of MAGA Georgia. From Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who is running for governor, to University of Georgia legend Herschel Walker, currently our ambassador to the Bahamas, to current UGA great Gunner Stockton, Georgia’s conservatives are turning out for the president.”

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG:

STARMER LIES:

LET’S GET BACK THERE BEFORE IT’S GONE: The Moon Is Definitely Shrinking, Newly Found Geological Features Confirm. “No other world in the solar system has tectonic plates and quakes like Earth, but it doesn’t mean that their ground doesn’t shake. Since the Apollo era, we have known there are moonquakes, and for about a decade and a half, we have known that the Moon is shrinking, losing 50 meters (165 feet) in its radius over the past 200 million years. Now, new evidence strengthens those findings.”

165 feet in 200 million years? I guess we’ve got some time left.

GOOD NAME: X-68A LongShot Air-To-Air Missile-Carrying Drone Moves Closer To F-15 Launch. “General Atomics’ air-launched LongShot drone has made new progress toward its first flight with the completion of various tests on the ground, including a demonstration of its weapons release capabilities. LongShot, now also designated the X-68A, is set to be carried aloft first by an F-15 fighter. The goal of the program has been to explore how an uncrewed aircraft capable of firing air-to-air missiles could extend the reach and reduce the vulnerability of the launch platform, among other benefits.”

THERE’S A LOT OF THAT: ‘Violence Interruptor’ Programs Are Blue State Wishful Thinking, Not Crime Reduction.

After Pritzker touted his meetings with “community violence interventionists” and state-funded “peacekeepers,” praising these “trusted messengers” whose “genuine relationships with the community are crucial to mitigating violence,” some uncomfortable information emerged. As first described by CWB Chicago, one of the “peacekeepers” Pritzker was photographed one-on-one with was apparently wanted on outstanding criminal warrants in four states; worse still, six days after the photo-op, the man was allegedly involved in a high-value commercial burglary culminating in a car crash that killed an innocent motorist.

The awkward photo showing Pritzker grinning alongside the “peacekeeper” has now been removed from the governor’s website. Seeking transparency on how (or even whether) the participants in taxpayer-funded violence intervention programs are vetted, the activist group Judicial Watch initiated a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for information from the governor’s office on vetting, background or other checks, and selection criteria both generally and specifically with respect to the “peacekeeper” in the photo-op, including knowledge of his criminal history and warrants. Judicial Watch claims the governor’s office has all but ignored the request, leading to a lawsuit being brought this month seeking to compel disclosure.

There’s clearly no shortage of poor judgment when it comes to these questionable violence interruption programs, even at the nation’s capital.

Read the whole thing.

JOANNE JACOBS: Parents say: Bring back pencil and paper.

A small but growing number of parents are opting their children out of using school-issued Chromebooks and IPads, writes Tyler Kingkade for NBC News. They cite “concerns about distractions and access to inappropriate content.”

Parents “point to research showing that students who used computers at school performed worse academically and that information is better retained when read on paper,” he writes. They don’t believe using today’s devices will prepare students to use future technology.

“I want them to be taught through humans,” said Julie Frumin, who lives in a Los Angeles suburb. “I want the teachers to teach my kids — I think they know best.”

After some resistance, the school agreed. Her children get print-outs of assignments, writes Kingkade. ” Instead of playing games on their laptops during free time, they read books.”

“Computers are now ubiquitous in K-12 education,” he writes. Nearly 9 in 10 public schools provide a device for each middle and high school student, as do more than 4 in 5 elementary schools.

Students spend too much time on screens, says David Stein, a math teacher in Montgomery County, Maryland. It’s time to think what’s essential and what isn’t.

Indeed.

WOULD YOU BELIEVE THAT PLANTS LIKE PLANT FOOD?

CHANGE:

From the replies: “Less lobbying, more building.”