IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA: University of Illinois paid Ibram Kendi $35,000 for 60-minute Q&A.
Author Archive: Stephen Green
October 14, 2022
FINALLY: John Fetterman’s Odds Are Tanking for the First Time in the PA Senate Race. “Since July, the bookies were consistently giving Fetterman a 2/3rds chance of winning the race, with the odds giving as high as a 75% chance of winning in Mid-August. But on the day NBC’s above interview aired, there was an explosion in betting volume, bringing the odds down to nearly 50/50.”
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Forget the Red Wave. It’s Tsunami Time. “My gut instinct is that the red wave is going to hit harder than most people think. This isn’t based on deep analysis, it’s just a feeling I have. If I’m wrong I’ll own up to it immediately.”
KEEP IT REAL: Mark Zuckerberg Wants to Rule the World and He’s Getting Closer Than You Think.
Zuck wants the “Metaverse” to be the place where corporations and universities set up shop. He wants to be able to have a universe where everything goes through him be it business, information, entertainment, and more. Instead of going to the theater, he wants you to slip on the headset and walk into a virtual movie theater to see the latest flick. He wants you attending class on a school planet, working your 9-5 at an office building on a virtual moon, and then speeding off to planet DOOM in your Millenium Falcon to kill demons for fun.
Everyone will pay for the privilege and all Zuck will have to give back are ones and zeroes. Corporations will jump at the chance to move their operations into the Metaverse because it means they can cut down on all sorts of costs. Their offices will now be virtual, their transportation will now be virtual, and the only thing they may need that involves brick and mortar is a warehouse from which they ship their goods via drone.
In fact, Zuck is aiming at businesses specifically. According to Fox News, Meta unveiled a $1,500 headset geared specifically toward businesses.
But will consumers go for it?
UPDATE: Meta has burned $15 billion trying to build the metaverse — and nobody’s saying exactly where the money went. “This continues to be a risky bet by Zuckerberg and the team because, for now, they’re betting money on the future while they continue to have massive headwinds on their core business.”
NEGATIVE COATTAILS: Joe Biden’s Strange Itinerary Leading Into the 2022 Midterms.
GO LONG ON BLANKETS AND SWEATERS: US Homes Face Longest Streak of Energy Bill Increases in Decades. “Gas bills in September were about 33% higher than a year earlier to chalk up an 18th consecutive double-digit percentage gain, according to Labor Department data. That’s the longest streak in more than three decades, when a 58-month run of such gains ended in September 1983. Electric bills, which rose 15.5% last month, are on a seven-month streak of double-digit gains, the longest run in 16 years.”
LIVE AT 4PM EASTERN: ‘Five O’Clock Somewhere’ with Kruiser, VodkaPundit, Special Guest.
FAILED, TOO: Did Joe Biden Try to Blackmail the Saudis To Interfere With the Midterms?
Didn’t the Democrats impeach Trump over something like this?
TO BE FAIR, THE LATENIGHT HOSTS WERE COMPLICIT IN THEIR OWN DESTRUCTION: Trump Was Right: He ‘Destroyed’ Late Night TV. “Trump once bragged the mainstream media needed him to survive. Those same outlets are still around, but their numbers are a far cry from what they were during Trump’s term in office. And don’t even mention CNN+, which lasted all of one month before shuttering.”
MEET THE NEW GOP: Ohio’s Madison Gesiotto Gilbert. “Welcome to the latest Meet the New GOP — fresh candidates in some unlikely places who might just take that oath of office in January after the Red Wave election.”
A VERY PUBLIC EDUCATION: 22% of this year’s grads are ready for college.
DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Chicago’s Great Unraveling.
The city of Chicago made me who I am. When I was growing up there in the ‘50s and ‘60s—and for decades after—it was one of the world’s great cities. For all of the poverty on the South Side where I spent my childhood, teenage years, and early 20s, it was also a tremendously vital place with thriving middle-class communities, restaurants, nightlife, and shopping. My friends and I rode our bikes and played stickball in the alleys without fear. My parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins built lives there that they were proud of, where they could live with dignity and in relative safety.
Now so much of what made life in Chicago wonderful is being stamped out by violent crime and social dysfunction that city leaders seem unwilling or unable to address. In the absence of large-scale changes to the city’s overly lax criminal justice policies, without a concerted effort to restore order, I fear that Chicago may go the way of Detroit and end up as a decaying husk of a formerly great city.
In the following excerpt from a longer conversation, journalist Matt Rosenberg fills me in on what he calls “the Great Unraveling,” the downward spiral of crime and despair now gripping Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. It’s a heartbreaking story, one that we’re hearing from too many American cities. There are plenty of people like Matt who love Chicago and are trying to save it, but city and state political leaders need to intercede in a more proactive way. If they’re unwilling to do so, they need to be voted out.
You can listen to the podcast or read the transcript at the link.
I’d just add that Chicagoans elected their last Republican mayor in 1926.
WELL, YES, BUT IT’S A CRISIS BY DESIGN: JP Morgan CEO: Biden Is ‘Getting Energy Completely Wrong.’ “During the interview, the interviewer noted that Dimon is the only CEO of a major financial institution that weathered the 2008 financial crisis. Now he is warning Americans to be ready for anything.”
AT LEAST THEY HAD A SURPLUS TO LEAN ON: Russia’s Budget Surplus Is Nearly Erased as War in Ukraine Drags On.
WELCOME TO THE PARTY, PAL: Majority Of Democrats Now ‘Concerned’ About Biden’s Mental Health, Poll Finds.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Let’s Hope Joe Biden Doesn’t Get the Planet Nuked for Christmas. “There are consequences to installing an empty husk in the Oval Office and playing president by committee. This is an awful time in history to be waiting to see who pops out of the clown car to step up and attempt to talk Vlad out of going all boom-boom.”
BELARUS: Lukashenko’s Mad Attempt to ‘Forbid’ Prices From Rising Is a Movie We’ve Seen Before. “Last week brought news from Minsk that Lukashenko fancies himself a sort of economic sorcerer. Facing an annual rate of price inflation of nearly 20 percent, he angrily declared at a meeting of top officials, ‘All price increases are forbidden. Forbidden! From today [October 6]. Not from tomorrow, from today!'”
The shortages will arrive… unexpectedly.
MAYORKAS LIED, CAREERS DIED: Hours Before Decrying ‘Horrifying Images,’ Mayorkas Was Told CBP Agents Did Not Whip Haitian Migrants.
THE PROJECTIONS ALL SEEM TO ERR IN THE SAME DIRECTION, THESE LAST 20 MONTHS OR SO: Americans Continue to Pay for Inflation With Credit Cards. “Total consumer debt increased by $32.2 billion in August, an 8.3% increase on an annual basis. That was well above the $24 billion projection.”