ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Its Back-To School Time. Do You Have Your Riot Gear?
Author Archive: Stephen Green
August 2, 2024
ME: At least by August 2024 can’t get any weirder.
August 2024:
Childless cat ladies for Kamala.
I saw it so now you have to. pic.twitter.com/ICXenkZEbY
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 2, 2024
FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: Her Bag of Drugs Was Labeled ‘Bag of Drugs.’ “It’s time for your much-needed break from the serious news, and this week we have a little too much truth in advertising, scooter and golf cart mayhem, and New Jersey Man’s flight through the overly friendly skies.”
IT’S DIFFERENT NOW BECAUSE REASONS:
Here is @donlemon back in the day on CNN when he was somewhat relevant arguing that Kamala Harris is not African American
— Drew Hernandez (@DrewHLive) August 2, 2024
Meanwhile…
The internet remains undefeated pic.twitter.com/GFVmEuZwka
— Alex VonRoberts (@AlexvonRoberts1) August 2, 2024
On a more serious note, Harris managed to be unprepared for the hostage swap that took weeks to negotiate and defaulted to another one of her meaningless word salads.
KAMALA — UNSCRIPTED FOR THE FIRST TIME:
"This is just an extraordinary testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy and understands the strength that rests in understanding the significance of diplomacy."
WHAT? pic.twitter.com/lxlhhG1xhT
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 2, 2024
AFTER TEN MONTHS, BIDEN HAS YET TO MENTION THE FIVE AMERICAN HOSTAGES BY NAME:
It's absurd that a U.S. President (and a presidential candidate, standing next to him) would reject the killing of a terrorist leader as "not helpful."
What Biden should have said: "Terrorists cannot hide. If Hamas leaders want to survive, they should release the hostages now." https://t.co/t134mZeudf
— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) August 2, 2024
But are you surprised?
Flashback: Joe Biden advised against Osama bin Laden raid, Barack Obama writes.
HMM: Lukashenko Says Biden Had ‘Nothing to Do With’ Historic Prisoner Exchange.
“You saw it happen, the [prisoners] were released. We were asked [to participate] and we got involved, helped in what ways we could,” Lukashenko was quoted as saying by Belarusian state media. “People who were sentenced for life in the West were freed.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked Lukahsenko on Thursday for his “gesture of goodwill and the pardon of a German citizen sentenced to death, R.Krieger.” Earlier this week, the Belarusian leader granted the pardon for Krieger, who was convicted on six criminal counts including terrorism in a secret trial held in late June.
“Of course, someone like the U.S. President will boost his authority with this, even though he had nothing to do with it,” Lukashenko said, referring to Thursday’s exchange.
It’s Lukashenko, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he were lying. But in this case, I wouldn’t be surprised for once if he were telling the truth.
IT’S TIME FOR VICTORIA TAFT’S West Coast, Messed Coast™: Another Corporate HQ Takes Jobs and Flees California. “Welcome to the West Coast, Messed Coast™ where Democrats imagine that money trees grow in deep ancient forests of Washington, Oregon, and northern California to fund the luxury beliefs of San Francisco, La Jolla, Medina, and West Linn.”
DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Measure banning mountain lion hunting qualifies for Colorado’s statewide ballot.
Currently numbered as Initiative 91, the ballot measure purports to ban the practice of “trophy hunting,” which generally means killing an animal for sport and not for consumption or harvest. However, the initiative goes on to broadly define trophy hunting as “intentional killing, wounding, pursuing or entrapping of a mountain lion, bobcat or lynx,” which in practice means a ban on hunting the animals entirely, according to Dan Gates from Coloradans for Responsible wildlife Management, a pro-hunting group that opposes the measure.
“They say they want to curtail trophy hunting, but the definition in the petition says ‘intentional killing,’” Gates previously said. “All of hunting is intentional killing. If they are going to classify that hunting as intentional killing, how can they not be for getting rid of all forms of hunting?”
In Colorado, the hunting of mountain lions, which runs yearly from November to March (with additional hunting in April if needed) is already prohibited unless the meat of the animal is harvested for consumption. In other words, lion hunting just for the taking of a trophy is already illegal.
Lynx are already protected by both state and federal law, with hunting and trapping prohibited.
Yes, but Initiative 91 makes Denver/Boulder Axis progressives feel good.
CORN, POPPED:
NEW: Inside the staff rebellion at Crooked Media, the progressive media org behind Pod Save America.
Among the issues dividing staff: the war in Gaza. A founder dating an employee. The union filing a complaint over union busting claims.
A third of staff have left since Jan '23 pic.twitter.com/lhYhu1jhVt
— Ashley Carman (@ashleyrcarman) August 1, 2024
Full report here: While ‘Pod Save America’ Tries to Unite Democrats, Its Staff Rebels.
The link is supposed to get readers behind Bloomberg’s paywall but I don’t know if it has an expiration.
THIS IS THE CORRECT TAKE: I’m Sorry You Have a Horrible Medical Condition. Now Stop Punching Women in the Face.
OUCH: Intel to Cut Jobs and Suspend Dividend in Cost-Saving Push.
Intel plans to lay off thousands of employees this year and pause dividend payments as part of a broad cost-saving drive more than three years into Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger’s turnaround effort.
Gelsinger laid out the plan to reduce costs by more than $10 billion next year as the chip maker reported second-quarter sales of $12.8 billion, down 1% and below analysts’ forecasts in a FactSet survey. Reaching that cost-reduction goal will require cutting jobs and lowering capital expenditures, among other moves, the company said.
The company’s stock fell 20% in after-hours trading.
Intel has struggled to gain a foothold in the market for artificial-intelligence chips that have driven the sales and valuations of Nvidia and some other rival chip makers. The heavy spending on those AI-focused chips to build out big data centers also has cut into demand for the non-AI processors for data centers that have long been central to Intel’s business.
Intel missed the boat on mobile over 15 years ago, repeatedly failed to stick to its own roadmap on x86 chip development in the years since, and got caught flat-footed on AI chips, too.
It’s been a long time since the days of “only the paranoid survive.”
HMM: Border Invasion Validation. “Texas’ theory that the state is undergoing an illegal alien invasion, as per Article I, Section 10, Clause 3 of the Constitution of the United States of America, due to the Biden Administration willfully ignoring border control laws, just got some validation from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.”
WARGAMING THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE: Keystone Edition. “All indications are that demi-President Kamala Harris will pick Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate and I’m not going to sugarcoat this one for you — that’s a problem.”
EVEN MORE GOOD NEWS: Israel says it has confirmed that chief of Hamas’ military wing was killed in a July strike in Gaza. “There was no immediate comment on the Israeli claim by Hamas, which had previously said Deif survived the strike in Gaza. A member of Hamas’ political bureau, Izzat al-Risheq, said in a statement Thursday that confirming or denying his death is the responsibility of the group’s military wing, known as the Qassam Brigades, which so far has been silent.”
Previously: Now We Know Exactly How Israel Assassinated Hamas Chief, and I’m Laughing Inappropriately
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: I Identify as Disgusted With the Olympics Women’s Boxing Mess. “Even though I’m a huge boxing fan, I’ve always found the idea of women’s boxing to be a little weird. I’m more of a lingerie pillow fight fan (Make America Great Again) myself. Still, I’m old-school enough to believe that only women should compete in women’s boxing.”
WOEING: NASA says it is “evaluating all options” for the safe return of Starliner crew.
For a long time, it seemed almost certain that the astronauts would return to Earth inside Starliner. However, there has been a lot of recent activity at NASA, Boeing, and SpaceX that suggests that Wilmore and Williams could come home aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft rather than Starliner. Due to the critical importance of this mission, Ars is sharing what we know as of Thursday afternoon.
One informed source said it was greater than a 50-50 chance that the crew would come back on Dragon. Another source said it was significantly more likely than not they would. To be clear, NASA has not made a final decision. This probably will not happen until at least next week. It is likely that Jim Free, NASA’s associate administrator, will make the call.
Asked if it was now more likely than not that Starliner’s crew would return on Dragon, NASA spokesperson Josh Finch told Ars on Thursday evening, ” NASA is evaluating all options for the return of agency astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams from the International Space Station as safely as possible. No decisions have been made and the agency will continue to provide updates on its planning.”
Not exactly a vote of confidence for Starliner.
UPDATE.
I missed this tidbit earlier: “NASA issued a $266,678 task award to SpaceX on July 14 for a ‘special study for emergency response.’ NASA said this study was not directly related to Starliner’s problems, but two sources told Ars it really was. Although the study entailed work on flying more than four crew members home on Crew Dragon—a scenario related to Frank Rubio and the Soyuz MS-22 leaks—it also allowed SpaceX to study flying Dragon home with six passengers, a regular crew complement in addition to Wilmore and Williams.”
HEADLINE OF THE DAY: Kamala’s Ride on the Bright Yellow Economic Short Bus.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: The private space station era is dawning.
“At long last we are entering a new chapter in our exploration of space, that of private space stations in different orbits, with different objectives,” said Jeffrey Manber, President, International and Space Stations for Voyager Space.
The group’s Starlab Space LLC is a global joint venture between Voyager Space, Airbus, Mitsubishi Corporation, and MDA Space. It’s a “no assembly required” venture to be hurled into orbit via a SpaceX Starship.
Manber told Space.com that the motivating factor for Starlab is the end of the International Space Station (ISS), due to be de-orbited in 2030.
“The ISS has already been in orbit for over two decades, well past its expected life-time,” Manber said. “As wonderful an orbiting station as it has been, it is well past its prime and like an old house, in increasing need of repairs.”
That dawn of private station stations has been bolstered by NASA and the U.S. Congress, said Manber, creating a pathway to assure a robust and cost-efficient space program in low-Earth orbit.
Things really get exciting when you factor Starship into the mix. It promises to drastically reduce launch costs, allows for much larger-diameter structures, and as a result, reduced-cost designs for space station modules.
BETWEEN THE FED AND A HARD PLACE: Guess Who Is Going to Steal the Election (or Tank the Economy!) This Time.
August 1, 2024
LIVE RESULTS: Tennessee House and Senate Primaries.
SHE SEEMS NICE:
The thing about not going through a primary either in 2020 or this election is the book hasn't even begun to be opened on her and with 95 days, stashing her away leaves fewer opportunities to explain all of these coming clips. https://t.co/xCyvwDGzO8
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) August 1, 2024
The media will press her on none of these finds, of course, since they’re in on keeping the books closed.
DAMNED IF THEY DO, DAMNED IF THEY DON’T: Guess Who Is Going to Steal the Election (or Tank the Economy!) This Time.
I’M SHOCKED, SHOCKED:
The unwillingness to take questions from perhaps the friendliest press in the history of the country is shocking https://t.co/0CVJj5wKlJ
— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) August 1, 2024
UPDATE (From Ed): “That salute is something,” John Bachman of Newsmax TV tweets.