BLUE CITY BLUES: Portland Is Losing Its Residents.

Portland is losing residents for the first time in years. Long known for being clean, safe and hip, Oregon’s most populous city is now struggling with serious crime and homelessness issues. Meanwhile, despite the lifestyle problems, housing continues to cost more in Portland than in many other parts of the country.

Portland lost nearly 3% of its population between 2020 and 2022, according to the U.S. Census. The drop of about 17,400 to 635,000 was the sixth largest decline among the 50 largest cities.

Local officials who grappled with a 23% population surge between 2000 and 2020 now find themselves trying to keep residents from leaving. Mayor Ted Wheeler, a Democrat, has come under increasing pressure to address rising violent crime and sprawling homeless encampments.

“Mayor Wheeler absolutely wants to retain and support Portlanders here in the city,” a spokesman for the mayor said. “Mayor Wheeler’s top priorities remain addressing the homeless crisis, reducing gun violence, improving livability, and strengthening our economy.”

Wheeler has been in office for six years so it ought to be clear by now what his top priorities are.

CHARMING: LGBTQ Activists Bark at Street Preacher, Destroy His Bible.

A HUNDRED BILLION HERE AND A HUNDRED BILLION THERE…: More Than $200 Billion in COVID Aid Fraud — and That’s Just From Two Programs.

WITH AN EYE TOWARDS CHINA: Japan, Australia Drill Together in South China Sea for Trident Exercise.

JMSDF helicopter destroyer JS Izumo (DDH-183) and destroyer JS Samidare (DD-106), which form the main body of the first surface unit of IPD23, carried out the exercise with Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Anzac (FFH150) and a Royal Australian Air Force P-8A Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) in the South China Sea, according to a Tuesday JMSDF release. The exercise focused on tactical operations, including anti-surface and anti-air warfare.

Both Australia and Japan are considered “Special Strategic Partners” in the Indo-Pacific region, Rear Adm. Takahiro Nishiyama, commander of the first surface unit for IPD23, said in the JMSDF release.

“The relationship between the JMSDF and the Royal Australian Forces has never been stronger and more important, and the JMSDF will promote further improvement of interoperability and mutual understanding with the Royal Australian Navy in order to improve the security environment in the Indo-Pacific region,” he said.

JS Izumo is a light aircraft carrier in all but name that operates F-35 stealth fighters, and is the namesake of an Imperial Japanese cruiser that fought against both Russia and China in the first half of the 20th Century.

Plus this: “The exercise followed a port visit in Vietnam.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: How Many Impaired Democrats Does It Take to Destroy a Republic? “Joe Biden, the confused face of the cabal that’s acting as President of the United States of America, is markedly worse with each public appearance. His last few on-camera struggles with mental functionality and the English language should be enough to put DOCTOR Cruella de Biden behind bars for elder abuse.”

A PILE OF MANURE BY ANY OTHER NAME…: Biden puts all his chips on the table with a push on ‘Bidenomics.’

President Joe Biden is tying his political fate to the U.S. economy — recessionary risks be damned.

The White House this week is going all in on a campaign to claim credit for the nation’s post-pandemic resurgence, touting an economic vision that aides see as so central to Biden’s presidential legacy they’ve gone as far as giving it a name: “Bidenomics.”
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“The strategy certainly makes sense,” Michael Strain, the director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, said of Biden lashing himself to an economy defined so far by rising wages and near record-low unemployment.

About those wages: Real Average Weekly Earnings Drop for 26th Straight Month.

“PROBABLY” IS PROBABLY A SAFE GUESS: Would Biden Defy a Supreme Court Decision to End Student Loan Forgiveness?

YOU’RE NOT THE MAN I KNEW 42 YEARS AGO: ‘Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny’ Box Office Projections Described As ‘Abysmal,’ Film Could Lose Upwards Of $250 Million.

The outlet quickly started lowering its predictions for the film just a week later. On June 8th, their opening weekend estimates declined 17% to between $76 million and $105 million. The total domestic run declined to $211 million to $359 million.

Another week later and the predictions declined again. This time the opening weekend estimates declined 10.5% to between $68 million and $102 million. The total domestic run declined to between $211 million and $325 million.

It still did not stop there. It dropped even further on June 22nd. The opening weekend estimates now range between $68 million and $95 million. However, the total domestic run stayed pat at between $211 million and $325 million.

And those estimates might still be high as tracking numbers from The Hollywood Reporter at the beginning of June predicted the film would only have an opening weekend between $60 million and $70 million.

Deadline recently shared their tracking numbers and it lines up more with The Hollywood Reporter’s estimates, but on the high end it’s even lower. The outlet claims the film is tracking for an opening weekend between $60 million and $65 million. It notes the film could have a global opening of $140 million.

Disney has all-but-killed Star Wars and Marvel, Pixar appears to be on life support, and the new Indiana Jones has brought a scimitar to a pistol fight.

What high-priced IP does Disney have left to squander?

ALSO, HE’S WRONG: Biden’s Transgender Czar Threatens Child Suicide If He Can’t Trans Them.

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR WEEKLY INSANITY WRAP [VIP]: I’ve Got Some Bad News and Some Good News About Trans Suicide Rates.

Plus:

• Bud Light and the Return of He Who Shall Not Be Named?
• A “Sister” of Perpetual Indulgence has just the thing for your teenager.
• The wildest hearing test ever.

So much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.

MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Cricketer Carries Climate Protester Off the Field.

BLUE CITY BLUES: Portland Real Estate Nightmare. “For a lot of people and businesses, it’s too late. Such as Kevin Howard, for whom the City of Portland refused to do anything about the homeless people breaking into his property and trashing the place. And who then fined him because the place was trashed.”

“LAWLESSNESS”: Mark Levin Blasts SCOTUS Decision Denying State Regulation of Elections.

SOD OFF SWAMPY: SciAm wants you to drink warmer cocktails to save Gaia.

As SciAm rightly points out, ice wasn’t even available to people in most places most of the time until an enterprising New Englander invented the industry in the early 19th century, cutting ice out of a lake in the winter and storing it for distribution throughout the year. He even created a worldwide industry well before artificial refrigeration was invented.

This is, I suppose, proof that human life and ice need not coexist, but that says little about whether a world with ready access to ice is preferable to one without.

It is, in fact, preferable to have ice available.

At this point, lefties are basically in a contest with one another to see what they can get people to give up in the name of their Earth cult.

FUNNY! Drag Activists Claim They Were Only Joking About ‘Coming for Your Children.’

TURNABOUT: Trump sues E Jean Carroll for defamation over rape comments.

GOING TO THE MATTRESSES: The GOP Primaries Are Gonna Get Ugly — Between Us, Not Them.

OUCH: Ford Plans to Lay Off at Least 1,000 Contract and Salaried Workers.

Ford Motor plans to lay off at least 1,000 salaried employees and contract workers in North America, people familiar with the matter said, the automaker’s latest effort to defray the heavy cost of investing in electric cars.

In internal meetings Monday, Ford began notifying some salaried workers in North America that job cuts would be coming, a company spokesman confirmed Tuesday morning. The planned layoffs are concentrated in the engineering ranks, where Ford is targeting costs across its business units, he said.

The automaker has made several rounds of global layoffs over the past year, including a 3,000-person reduction in the U.S. last summer and a slightly larger layoff in Europe initiated earlier this year.

Ford has about 28,000 salaried employees in North America. The U.S. automaker’s plan for another round of layoffs was first reported last week by The Wall Street Journal.

This latest reduction of Ford’s white-collar workforce includes employees in its electric-vehicle and software side of the business, the company spokesman confirmed.

Earlier today: “For all the ‘thou shalt have only electric vehicles by [insert date]’ mandating going on by state legislatures, greasy governors, and a Biden administration desperate to shove them down our throats, the numbers on the ground are signaling pretty stiff resistance.”

I VOTED: Vote Now! The PJ Media Presidential Straw Poll Is LIVE.

SPACE: NASA converts pee to drinkable water on International Space Station.

Future crewed deep space missions that will last months or even years will be very different from any that have come before. Until now, astronauts have either carried their own supplies along or relied on regular visits from cargo ships. As to waste products, these were simply disposed of in a variety of ways. Unfortunately, deep space missions don’t have that luxury.

A mission to Mars, for example, could last two years. That’s a lot of water to take along at a gallon (3.8 L) per person per day. If the spacecraft has a crew of four, that comes out to about nine tonnes of water at a minimum. It also ends up as tonnes of pee.

The ideal craft would be essentially self-sufficient with the ability to recycle air and water as well as growing its own food like a closed ecosystem. As the first step toward this, NASA has been testing the water recovery components of its Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) aboard the ISS.

Consisting of a Water Recovery System, a Water Processor Assembly (WPA), a Urine Processor Assembly (UPA), and the Brine Processor Assembly (BPA), the ECLSS recovers and reprocesses water on the space station through a series of steps, from urine as well as crew breath and sweat that accumulates in the air, and then purifies it into drinking water.
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The result is a 98% recovery rate. This can be accomplished on Earth, but the ECLSS can do the same thing in zero gravity.

If NASA could just figure out how to do this with scotch, you’d only ever have to buy one more bottle of each of your favorites.

BOOM: House Oversight Committee Just Went Nuclear on ‘the Bidens.’

UH-HUH: White House blames technical glitch for removal of Jean-Pierre’s hostile exchange with reporter.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: More Damning Biden/ChiCom Evidence for the DOJ to Ignore Emerges. “Sadly, I think that Garland is willing to risk permanent injury to his neck looking the other way when it comes to his boss. At this point, he probably has a chiropractor in attendance 24/7.”

ANALYSIS: TRUE. America Needs More McJobs.

“McJobs” aren’t just worth having. They’re vital. They make it easier for the people who have them to accumulate valuable skills and labor market experience, which research has shown leads to higher future earnings. The market process allows low-skill people to specialize in what they do best while freeing up high-skill people who can concentrate their efforts on things they do best. Everybody wins, and in some small way, you have a part in every achievement by every bleary-eyed customer for whom you dutifully pour coffee on their morning commute.

Consider a real-world example. This article has sat in my “drafts” folder for a very, very long time. I wrote the very first draft of this article more than a decade ago at a McDonald’s and revised it one time at India Palace (one of my favorite restaurants in Memphis, where I was living at the time). The opportunity to cooperate with the owners and staff at India Palace freed up time I would otherwise spend on food preparation and allowed me to concentrate on something I enjoy and do relatively well, namely, writing articles like this one. The owners and staff at the restaurant were able to earn higher incomes. I’m able to earn a higher income. We’re both better off.

Minimum wage laws and other job-killing regulatory schemes have forced automation — or getting customers to do for themselves what employees used to do for them — on what used to be entry-level jobs that young people needed to get started in the real world. That, coupled with the elimination of work requirements for welfare, goes a long way towards explaining our stubbornly low labor participation rate.

If government had intended to destroy the American work ethic, I’m not sure what they would have done differently. Or maybe that was the goal all along.

AND I WAS SO LOOKING FORWARD TO JUNE BEING OVER: Biden Administration’s Token Transgender Declares ‘Summer of Pride.’