2024: Justin Amash Might Run for the Senate and Libertarian Twitter Exploded. “Let’s just say I’m not quite as thrilled as my harder-core libertarian friends are.”
Author Archive: Stephen Green
January 18, 2024
CHRISTIAN TOTO: Whoopi Goldberg vs. Aaron Rodgers: A Tale of Two Media Narratives. “The difference couldn’t be more striking. It’s also terrible given our divided times, and it fuels our unsustainable, two-tier society.”
WHOSE KIDS ARE THEY, ANYWAY? Maine Bill Strips the Rights of Parents Opposing Transgender ‘Care’ for Their Children.
HMM: Musk wants more voting control at Tesla before expanding automaker’s AI work.
“I am uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI & robotics without having ~25% voting control,” Musk said Monday on X.
He said having roughly a quarter of all voting power would “mean I am influential, but can be overridden if twice as many shareholders vote against me vs for me.”
“At 15% or lower, the for/against ratio to override me makes a takeover by dubious interests too easy,” he added.
Musk’s stake in Tesla stands around 13%, according to reports.
Without 25% voting control, Musk said he “would prefer to build [AI] products outside of Tesla.”
Previously: Elon Musk and Others Call for Pause on A.I., Citing ‘Profound Risks to Society.’
ALL OUR INSTITUTIONS HAVE BEEN CORRUPTED: We’d Like the 2020 Election Back: DOJ Admits It Lied About Hunter Biden’s Laptop.
WOEING: Boeing’s stock tumbles after report warns investigation will open ‘a whole new can of worms.’
The Wells Fargo report, entitled “FAA audit opens up a whole new can of worms,” noted that Boeing’s quality control and engineering problems have been ongoing for years. After part of an Alaska Airlines] 737 Max 9 jet fell off the plane mid-flight, the likelihood of the US Federal Aviation Administration coming out of its investigation without significant findings was very low.
“Given Boeing’s recent track record, and greater incentive for the FAA to find problems, we think the odds of a clean audit are low,” the analysts said. “The FAA’s audit is limited to Max 9 for now, but it’s feasible that findings could expand the scope to other Max models sharing common parts.”
The analysts believe the investigation increases significantly the risk that Boeing takes a hit to its production and deliveries, and they downgraded the stock to “equal weight,” down from “overweight,” the equivalent of a “buy” rating.
Plus: Boeing lost $35 billion in market cap this year, dragging down other air travel stocks.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Who Had Iran-Pakistan Nuclear War on Their 2024 Bingo Card?
BIG TECH: Apple WILL be banned from selling smartwatches in the US from TOMORROW over claims it stole medical tech – after court rejected tech giant’s appeal. “The order comes after Apple was found to have copied patented medical technology from the California-based biotech company Massimo.”
I’ve talked to a couple people in the industry who are convinced Massimo will win in court and don’t understand why Apple doesn’t just pay up.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: A Glimpse Into Our Gulag Future — Feds Are Cracking Down on Humor. “Given my rather unflattering view of bureaucrats at any level, I was always surprised to find that there were some with a sense of humor. I wonder if they’ll all be fired now.”
LET IT GO: Boomers won’t part with their homes, and that’s a problem for young families.
“Boomers love their homes. Even if they did want to sell, it is now prohibitively expensive for many Millennials,” said Sheharyar Bokhari, senior economist at Redfin, who did the analysis, to CNN. “These are larger homes where there are only one or two people living there and, typically, they bought it a while ago, so it has value.”
This is a change from the historical norm, according to the research. Ten years ago young families were just as likely as empty nesters to own large homes.
The report defines age groups in the 2022 Census data as: adult Gen Zers were 19 to 25 years old, Millennials were aged 26 to 41, Gen Xers were 42 to 57, and Baby Boomers were 58 to 76.
Even though Millennials with kids own half as many large homes as empty nesters, Millennials make up roughly 28% of the country’s adult population, the largest share of any generation.
I’m only 54 but am eager to downsize just as soon as both kids are grown and on their own.
“BAIT AND SWITCH”: Biden Decision To Water Down Houthi Terror Designation Draws Outrage. “The Biden administration moved to reapply sanctions this week on the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, but did so under a weaker federal statute that will not criminalize support for the terrorist group or force American banks to seize their assets, current and former U.S. officials told the Washington Free Beacon.”
Plus: No Crisis at Border, Biden Says.
All is well. Remain calm.
January 17, 2024
THE ONLY DOWNSIDE TO WINNING THE COLD WAR PEACEFULLY WAS THAT RUSSIA WAS NEVER DECOMMUNIZED THE WAY GERMANY WAS DENAZIFIED: Russia’s Creeping Rehabilitation of Joseph Stalin.
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: I Know Exactly Who Trump (Shouldn’t) Pick for Veep.
THAT’S NOT HOW THE SOVIET UNION COLLAPSED BUT IT’S STILL A DECENT-SIZED PROTEST: Russia is hit by huge civil protest in support of anti-Ukraine war activist as 10,000 take to the streets and clash with riot police: Putin speechwriter warns ‘This is how the Soviet Union collapsed.’
IT’S A CROWDED FIELD BUT I LIKE THIS GUY’S CHANCES: Is Rep. Dan Goldman the Most Aggressively Wrong Idiot on Capitol Hill?
JONATHAN S. TOBIN: Jews Waking Up To Hollywood’s Antisemitism Should Try To Destroy DEI, Not Join Its Ranks.
While Hollywood rallied around the Black Lives Matter movement, relatively few celebrities have willingly braved the intersectional left’s abuse to speak up in defense of Israel — even after the slaughter, torture, and rape of Jews that took place on Oct. 7. The assumption among the fashionable left is that Jews “control” Hollywood and that they are a powerful group that must be humbled and cast aside to make way for diverse representations of approved minorities.
A similar dynamic involved efforts of Jewish groups to get a law imposing an ethnic requirement in California to include Jews in classes that are steeped in antisemitism. The problem with the curricula is the DEI mandate, not whether it includes some non-approved minorities like Jews.
Those actors and Jewish donors who foolishly hope they can get Harvard to stop encouraging antisemitism without eliminating DEI mandates fail to understand that it isn’t just linked to antisemitism. It’s a threat to the survival of America.
Read the whole thing.
EVERYTHING. NEXT QUESTION? China Is Tinkering With a Mutant COVID-19 Strain. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY: Colorado Democrats Push for Controversial $3,000 Cash Payments to Ex-Cons. “If passed, Senate Bill 12 would make Colorado the first state to codify such a program into law. However, it is important to question the effectiveness and sustainability of this approach. While State Senator Coleman argues that the current $100 and a bus ticket provided to released individuals are insufficient, it is questionable whether a large cash payment is the solution.”
Or, Denver could cut out the middleman and pay the $3,000 directly to local drug dealers.
GOODER AND HARDER, CALIFORNIA: Calif. Appellate Court Rules That the Homeless Can Sleep on the Sidewalks.
WHEN CIVIL NORMS COLLAPSE: Underwear and socks are the latest items to be locked up in shoplifting crackdown – as Walmart and Target both take action on theft of undies. “Locking up items can lead to frustrating waits of up to 40 minutes for shoppers to get their hands on basic groceries like toothpaste, baby formula and vitamins as retailers lock up products to combat soaring crime.”
THE DEMO BOMB: Chinese Women Are Voting Against Communism With Their Uteri.
IT ISN’T EASY TO SUCKER A RECON PLANE: Ukrainian Crews Set A Complex Missile Trap For Russia’s Best Radar Plane.
Exactly how the Ukrainians shot down the four-engine A-50 with its top-mounted radar is unclear, but analyst Tom Cooper—who has written many books about Soviet and Russian warplanes—has a theory.
Ukrainian radar and missile crews lured the Russian crews into a trap.
If Cooper’s theory is correct, the Ukrainians set the trap on Saturday, when Ukrainian air force jets—presumably Sukhoi Su-24 bombers—struck Russian air force installations across the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula. “A number of radars were knocked out,” Cooper reported.
The Saturday strikes, the latest in a long campaign of Ukrainian raids on Russian defenses in Crimea, suppressed the Russians’ ground-based radar coverage, leaving the surviving missile batteries on the peninsula partially blind—especially to the north, where the terrain could mask incoming Ukrainian planes, drones and missiles.
So Russian commanders did the obvious, but stupid, thing. They ordered one of their few remaining A-50U radar planes, which normally fly far to the south over the Sea of Azov, to push farther north in order to extend radar coverage over most of Crimea.
Clever, if true.