TO BE FAIR, THAT DOESN’T TAKE MUCH: Trump’s Act of Kindness at Grocery Store Sends Liberals Into a Frenzy
Author Archive: Stephen Green
September 25, 2024
CRIME: Homicides are Plummeting in Philly, and It’s Not Because of Gun Control.
The criminal justice professors say that “resumed court operations, improved violence intervention programs, police recruitment efforts and reduced disability claims” may help to explain why violent crime is plummeting in the city, but add that “new leadership and crime-fighting strategies” are playing a role as well.
Specifically, the academics credit new police commissioner Kevin Bethel’s strategy of focusing on reducing crime in the city’s hardest-hit neighborhoods, which makes sense. Crime in any given community is driven by a relatively small number of prolific offenders, so strategies that target them and the locations where they operate is more likely to both reduce crime and improve relationships between law enforcement and the communities they serve than, say, stopping and frisking tens of thousands of Philadelphia residents in the hopes of discovering someone illegally carrying a gun.
The professors note that Philadelphia isn’t alone in seeing a dramatic decline in the number of homicides. Most cities across the country are seeing fewer murders this year compared to the spike in 2020 and 2021. The researchers once again credit a return to relative normalcy following the COVID pandemic, but they also offer up an intriguing theory that the increase in crime a few years ago led to the demise of some of those prolific offenders I mentioned above.
Policing works. And when that fails, the bad guys getting themselves killed off can work, too.
IT’S ASTROTURF ALL THE WAY DOWN: Law Enforcement Group Backing Kamala Harris Exposed as a Sham.
September 24, 2024
STAY TUNED…
Haifa’s northern suburbs (Kiryat Bialik and Kiryat Yam) are now under massive Hezbollah attack as is Akko (Acre).
Me: I asked a senior IDF commander today whether to push back Hezbollah to the Litani River Israel needs to send in ground troops. He said no. Israel needs to…
— Marc Zell (@GOPIsrael) September 24, 2024
WELL, SHE IS A CREEPY COMMIE: The Creepy Commie Origins of Kamala’s Catchphrase. “If you think about what Mao had to do to wipe out Chinese history, what Pol Pot had to do, you’re trying to wipe out memory, because the memory has all of this burden.”
ICYMI: Some Disassembly Required: High-Tech Goes to War Against 7th-Century Savages. “This is what happens when you f*** with the people of Einstein and Oppenheimer: you make science & technology your enemy.”
WELL SAID:
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 24, 2024
THAT IS NOT WHAT ENGLISH TEACHERS SHOULD BE SAYING: Books are too long and boring, say English teachers.
Nowadays, many students rarely read full-length novels, reports AP’s Sharon Lurye. Teachers assign excerpts, “a concession to perceptions of shorter attention spans, pressure to prepare for standardized tests and a sense that short-form content will prepare students for the modern, digital world.”
In a 2022 statement, the National Council of Teachers of English declared: “The time has come to decenter book reading and essay-writing as the pinnacles of English language arts education.” Instead, teachers are urged to focus on “media literacy” and short texts that students feel are “relevant.”
Deep reading builds “critical thinking skills, background knowledge and, most of all, empathy,” said UCLA neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf told Lurye. “We must give our young an opportunity to understand who others are, not through little snapshots, but through immersion into the lives and thoughts and feelings of others,” Wolf said.
“Only 14% of young teens say they read for fun daily, compared with 27% in 2012,” according to federal data, Lurye reports. So, if students aren’t asked to read books for school, most will not read at all.
Longer attention spans are made, not born — and English teachers are supposed to help make them. Instead, they’re making excuses.
CHANGE: One of America’s most iconic retail chains, Kmart, set to close last full-size store in US.
The store, located in the posh hamlet of Bridgehampton, NY — one of just two remaining in a chain that once spanned more than 2,000 stores before the rise of Walmart and Amazon — will close its doors for good on Oct. 20, an employee confirmed to WJAR.
The real estate investment trust, Kimco Realty Corp, which owns the shopping center that houses the Bridgehampton location, also confirmed the store would be closing, according to Newsday.
Soon after its 1996 opening, the Bridgehampton Kmart became the retailer’s proudest and most productive location as well-heeled shoppers flocked to the store alongside the ritzy area’s working class population.
I miss the ’90s almost as much as the ’80s.
Related: These Are the Only 12 Sears Stores Left in America.
BECAUSE OF COURSE THEY DID: Biden Justice Department, in Filing in Federal Court, Sides With the UN Against Victims of October 7.
While the Department of Justice has been working overtime to pierce President Trump’s immunity, Attorney General Garland’s lawyers are busy seeking to establish immunity for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency from a lawsuit by the victims of the massacre of Jews on October 7.
That stunning stand is emerging in filings in federal court in the Southern District of New York, where Hamas’s victims are seeking some quantum of justice. The suit, brought this summer by 101 victims of Palestinian Arab terror, seeks a billion dollars from UNRWA and its leaders, including the current commissioner-general, Philippe Lazarrini.
The plaintiffs argue that the defendants “are liable for aiding and abetting Hamas’ genocide, crimes against humanity, and torture.” UNRWA’s own investigation found nine of its employees “may have been involved” in the October 7 attacks. Israel contends there was a greater degree of complicity in the murders and kidnappings.
Shameful but not surprising. Biden restored US funding to UNRWA in April 2021, meaning your tax dollars helped to underwrite the Oct. 7 terror invasion of southern Israel.
WOW: Son of would-be Trump assassin arrested for child porn. “I guess his dad should have given him a heads up to destroy his devices.”
GOOD ANTIMISSILE SYSTEMS MAKE GOOD NEIGHBORS:
A regular house in a regular village in Lebanon is attacked by Israel. A rocket stored there is launched directly at a neighbor's house, destroying it 👇 pic.twitter.com/jKHMPmjmMR
— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) September 23, 2024
One can only hope the neighbors were Hezbollah, too.
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Some Disassembly Required: High-Tech Goes to War Against 7th Century Savages.
The origin of the rocketry term Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly (RUD) is shrouded in mystery but it’s just the funny engineer’s way of saying the rocket blew up. What you’ve been witnessing in southern Lebanon these last several days is the Rapid Scheduled Disassembly of the Hezbollah terrorist organization, eventually involving thousands of explosions instead of just one big one.
The RSD got started last week with Israel’s three-part virtual decapitation of Hezbollah’s organization. That is, if “decapitation” is the correct word when exploding pagers removed Hezbollah bits a bit further down than their large heads. That was followed up, as I’m sure you know, the next day by exploding walkie-talkies. When Hezbollah’s remaining leadership began to meet in person to overcome their crippled comms, the Israeli Air Force bombed the meetings.
*chef’s kiss*
Now that Hezbollah is disorganized, almost leaderless, and deathly afraid to communicate with one another, Israel is going after its terrorist infrastructure — aided by some of the highest tech in service.
Much more at the link.
DEMOCRATS: Farming Illegal Aliens For Votes And Profit. “The storyline that’s come out of the Democratic Party’s decision to flood Springfield, Ohio with illegal aliens from Haiti is them eating people’s pets, but the real storyline should be how Democrats destroy neighborhoods and displace locals for financial and political gain all over the country.”
TRIGGERED:
David Sacks points out that Ryan Routh, the man who attempted to assassinate President Trump, has tweets that sound exactly like Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the corporate media.
"Let's look at the rhetoric that Ryan Routh was literally quoting on his X. He was saying that… pic.twitter.com/ggS3prKCr4
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) September 23, 2024
Previously: No Rest for the Wicked in the Aftermath of Trump’s Second Assassination Attempt. “You might think that a second unsuccessful assassination attempt on a presidential candidate calls for a respectful pause of at least a day or two before winding up the next potential whackjob until he snaps, but no.”
THAT OUGHT TO BE A KISS OF DEATH: 741 Intel Chiefs — Including Hunter Laptop Liars — Endorse Harris.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: US Navy Oiler Runs Aground, Forcing Carrier Strike Group to Scramble for Fuel.
gCaptain has received multiple reports that the US Navy oiler USNS Big Horn ran aground yesterday and partially flooded off the coast of Oman, leaving the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group without its primary fuel source.
First reported on the gCaptain forum and by maritime historian Sal Mercogliano, a leaked video and photos show damage to the ship’s rudder post and water flooding into a mechanical space. US Navy vessels don’t typically transmit AIS signals, so we don’t know the exact location of the ship. However, unconfirmed rumors claim she’s currently being towed to Dubai for repairs.
Compounding the problem is the fact that the Big Horn is the only oiler the Navy has in the Middle East. One shipowner told gCaptain that the Navy is scrambling to find a commercial oil tanker to take its place and deliver jet fuel to the USS Abraham Lincoln.
We have too few oilers, without which a multibillion-dollar nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is just an oddly flat ship.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Presidential Endorsement Season Is Getting Interesting. “This news may not fulfill all of the criteria of an October surprise, but it’s pretty close to being one. Over at Townhall, my friend and colleague Matt Vespa asked in a headline, ‘You Think This Endorsement Is Going to Give Kamala’s Team Heartburn?’ The polling in Michigan has been close, and Harris has been slightly ahead in most of them. Ghalib’s endorsement does shake things up there, and the odds are pretty good that Harris’s campaign people have been heading for the Prilosec. “
WHY DOES THIS SOUND SO FAMILIAR? Harris embraces crypto, in overture to young men.
In an aggressive overture to business and young men, Vice President Harris used a packed fundraiser on Wall Street yesterday to declare her friendliness to cryptocurrency — and promise to work with major companies.
Why it matters: Harris is trying to convince businesspeople she’d be better than former President Trump, despite his promised tax cuts — and would work with them more than President Biden, who rankled many CEOs.
The fundraiser at Cipriani Wall Street raised $27 million — the biggest single-day haul of Harris’ presidential campaign.
Oh, yeah — it sounds familiar because I wrote about it just last week: This Is What Trump’s Crypto Play Is Really About.
I think Trump is making a bold play for technologists and tech-minded libertarians who ordinarily wouldn’t even dream of voting for him.
Anointed Democrat nominee Kamala Harris is a “blank slate” on crypto, according to Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary, like she is on so many other issues. “She has no track record at all, which is probably in some ways a benefit for her,” O’Leary said. “She’s got a blank slate. She can start bringing policy in any way she wishes.”
Other crypto investors don’t see Harris’s flexibility as a plus for them. “U.S. cryptocurrency shares fell in early trading on Wednesday after Democratic candidate Kamala Harris put her Republican rival and crypto supporter Donald Trump on the defensive in a combative presidential debate,” Reuters reported last week.
Trump, on the other hand, already has one tech bro on board — Vivek Ramaswamy, who last year made himself the only GOP presidential candidate with a crypto policy plan. “What we’re going to have is rescinding any of those regulations that are allowing the regulatory state to go after perfectly legal behavior, but by claiming that somehow it shouldn’t exist because they don’t like it,” Ramaswamy said at the time. “All of that can end on my watch.”
Whatever you think of Trump’s business partners at WLF — like self-described “dirtbag of the internet,” Chase Herro — if you’re a tech-savvy who’s been in on crypto for years, who are you going to trust?
Harris will get serious about crypto just as soon as she’s tackled that border crisis.
CUE THE WORLD’S SMALLEST VIOLIN: Afghan Men Are Feeling the Effects of Taliban Rule
READ THIS HEADLINE TWICE: IAF strikes Hamas command center in Gaza’s Khaled ibn al-Walid school.
The IAF conducted a precise strike on Hamas terrorists who were operating inside a command and control center embedded inside a compound that previously served as the ‘Khaled ibn al-Walid’ School in the central Gaza Strip, the IDF announced overnight on Sunday.
Hamas terrorists reportedly used the school compound to plan and execute terrorist attacks against IDF troops and Israeli territory, the military added, noting that numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence information.
The IDF stated that it had operated based on the guidance of the Intelligence Command and Southern Command.
Plus: “In its announcement, Al-Manar stated that Khaled bin Al-Walid school also shelters displaced people east of the Nusirat camp.”
Just remember that Hamas doesn’t just want human shields — they want dead Gazans to use as propaganda.