RABBI MICHAEL BARCLAY: The Insidious Reason Why Hamas Is Releasing Hostages.
November 27, 2023
CYBER MONDAY DEAL: Kindle Paperwhite (8 GB). #CommissionEarned
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: As Dept. of Ed launches investigation into Cornell, still no word on consequences for prof ‘exhilarated’ by Hamas terrorism. I would say that we don’t punish speech in this country but you know, we do under the new rules the left has made. My own opinion is that people shouldn’t be fired even for repulsive speech unless it relates to their ability to do their jobs. But that’s not how things work anymore. If Amy Wax can face firing for insensitivity, then . . .
SO NOW THEY WANT THEM BACK: Sarah Holliday of The Washington Stand has everything you need to know about how and why the Pentagon suddenly wants those thousands of service members who were discharged for refusing the COVID vaccine to return.
Class-action lawsuits are in the offing, and, while I am generally not enthusiastic about trial lawyers (perennially among the most generous donors to Democrats) and class-action litigation, it would not break my heart if these succeed quickly and spectacularly.
Elon Musk played a big role in persuading Ilya Sutskever to join OpenAI as chief scientist in 2015. Now the Tesla CEO wants to know what he saw there that scared him so much.
Sutskever, whom Musk recently described as a “good human” with a “good heart”—and the “linchpin for OpenAI being successful”—served on the OpenAI board that fired CEO Sam Altman two Fridays ago; indeed, Sutskever informed Altman of his dismissal. Since then, however, the board has been revamped and Altman reinstated, with investors led by Microsoft pushing for the changes.
Sutskever himself backtracked on Monday, writing on X, “I deeply regret my participation in the board’s actions. I never intended to harm OpenAI.”
But Musk and other tech elites—including ones who mocked the board for firing Altman—are still curious about what Sutskever saw.
Late on Thursday, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, who has ridiculed “doomers” who fear AI’s threat to humanity, posted to X, “Seriously though — what did Ilya see?” Musk replied a few hours later, “Yeah! Something scared Ilya enough to want to fire Sam. What was it?”
That remains a mystery. The board gave only vague reasons for firing Altman. Not much has been revealed since.
I suppose we’ll learn what really happened when and if Skynet decides to tell us.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The Morning Briefing: About That ‘Migrant’ Thing. “We don’t need to resurrect Freud and Jung to figure out why Democrats love to cast a soft glow around criminal activity.”
FASTER, PLEASE: The Implosion of the Climate Left. “At the end of March 2021, Alex O’Keefe, among the first Black hires of the Sunrise Movement and a member of management, dropped a long manifesto, signed by three others, into the organization’s Slack account, indicting the leadership for a culture of white supremacy.”
CDR SALAMANDER: American Naval Forces (with a Japanese assist) Capture Pirates. “It is a welcome sight to see Japan step by step become more of a player in the international security arena. They are great allies and responsible professionals. CTF-151 has been just the right arena for them to get used to it. . . . The note about the PRC ships not responding it telling. CTF-151 is a counter piracy force. If you are not going to respond to cries for help from merchantmen from piracy, then why are you actually there? Well, see the prior paragraph.”
Related:
Highway robbery, piracy etc was a common feature of the ancient world to which we are returning at the edges of Western civilization.https://t.co/5Yz4AmSK0V
— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) November 27, 2023
As dependent as China is on sea commerce, you’d think they’d take a harder line on piracy. Unless the pirates basically work for them or something.
IT’S ALL SMOKE AND MIRRORS: Hamas Busted on Yesterday’s Hostage Release Tape, Makes Sure There’s No Audio on Today’s.
The only reason they get away with so much is that the press is largely complicit.
UPDATE: See, e.g., Reuters:
Reuters knows that the hostages being released by Hamas aren’t soldiers (neither are the terrorists Hamas is getting), but they casually drop the term into their headline to fundamentally alter your perception of what is happening. A POW exchange is a lot different than the negotiated release of people held hostage for 50 days–women and children who have nothing to do with the war except by being victims of evil terrorists.
Using “soldiers” was a conscious choice. Reuters knew who was being released, knew their circumstances, knew how they were captured, and knew that they weren’t “released” but ransomed. They framed the story to manipulate the audience.
People weren’t fooled, except those who wanted to be. They received so much criticism that they deleted the headline and issued a non-apology apology, but this was not a mistake made in the fog of war. All the facts are established and well-understood. Reuters just chose to lie.
As they so frequently do. And to be clear, this isn’t a good-faith difference in perception, but a deliberate effort to deceive.
LET THEM FREAK OUT: As the Left Freaks Out, Geert Wilders Vows He ‘Will Be Prime Minister.’
CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Biden Admin Gave $3 Billion Loan to Solar Company Accused of Scamming Elderly.
AT AMAZON, Cyber Monday Deals. #CommissionEarned
ANTISOCIAL MEDIA: Unsealed complaint says Meta ‘coveted’ under-13s and deceives the public about age enforcement.
The newly unsealed complaint, filed on Wednesday, reveals arguments that were previously redacted when attorneys generals from across the US first hit Meta with the lawsuit last month in the California federal court. It alleges the presence of under-13s is an “open secret” at Meta. While the policies on Facebook and Instagram state a person must be at least 13 years old to sign up, children can easily lie about their age — something the lawsuit says Meta is well aware of, and has done little to stop. Instead, when Meta “received over 1.1 million reports of under-13 users on Instagram” from 2019-2023, it “disabled only a fraction of those accounts and routinely continued to collect children’s data without parental consent,” the complaint says.
Meta “routinely violates” the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) by targeting children and collecting their information without parental consent, according to the complaint. The lawsuit also argues that Meta’s platforms manipulate young users into spending unhealthy amounts of time on the apps, promote body dysmorphia and expose them to potentially harmful content. When the lawsuit was first filed in October, a Meta spokesperson said the company was “disappointed” over the chosen course of action, stating, “We share the attorneys general’s commitment to providing teens with safe, positive experiences online.”
Meta earlier this month published a blog post calling for federal legislation to put more responsibility on parents when it comes to kids’ app downloads. Meta’s global head of safety, Antigone Davis, proposed a requirement for parents to have approval power over downloads for kids under the age of 16.
Melissa and I have never let our boys install social media apps (or any other apps without permission) and now that our oldest is turning 18, here’s to hoping he developed the good sense not to bother just because his permissions are relaxed.
Related? Russia puts the spokesman for Facebook owner Meta on a wanted list.
Nearly 200 Black and Latino students at Evanston Township High School signed up this year for math classes and a writing seminar intended for students of the same race, taught by a teacher of color. These optional so-called affinity classes are designed to address the achievement gap by making students feel more comfortable in class, district leaders have said, particularly in Advanced Placement courses that historically have enrolled few Black and Latino students.
“Our Black students are, for lack of a better word…at the bottom, consistently still. And they are being outperformed consistently,” Monique Parsons, Evanston school board vice president, said at a November board meeting. “It’s not good.”
School districts across the country have sometimes struggled to find ways to boost the performance of Black and Latino students, who, nationwide, tend to enroll in fewer advanced classes and score lower on standardized tests than white students. . . . Equity guides many of the district’s decisions, embodied in a stated board goal: “Recognizing that racism is the most devastating factor contributing to the diminished achievement of students, ETHS will strive to eliminate the predictability of academic achievement based upon race.”
Equity. Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever! George Wallace’s ghost smiles.
CHARLES GASPARINO: Elon Musk has a target on his back as Media Matters adds to X drama.
I HOPE 2024 IS WORSE: Randi Weingarten’s Not-So-Dandy Year: The teachers’ union boss has been having an awful 2023.
Also in April, Weingarten testified before the House Subcommittee on the Covid pandemic. She was there to answer questions about her union’s influence on school reopening guidelines issued by the CDC.
While Weingarten insisted that her main goal was opening schools, it was anything but. She constantly argued for keeping schools shuttered through the spring and summer of 2020 when her union aggressively lobbied the CDC to adjust its school-reopening guidance. Two of its language recommendations were adopted verbatim.
Yet, she had the audacity to tell Congress, “We spent every day from February (2020) on trying to get schools open. We knew that remote education was not a substitute for opening schools. We know that young people learn and connect best in person, so opening schools safely – even during a pandemic – guided our actions, which I will describe in detail.”
But her “details” were really quite undetailed. She dodged, obfuscated, and even used the fact that she was 65 years old to explain her memory lapses.
Additionally, Dr. Tracy Høeg, an epidemiologist, blasted Weingarten, accusing her of fudging a scientific study to wrongly argue to Congress that schools should have been kept closed during the height of COVID-19.
Read the whole thing.
THE SUNDAY BOOK PROMO IS UP, WITH A SALES SECTION: Book Promo And Vignettes By Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.
There’s also a cool vignette challenge that has sparked a dozen novels, at least.
WE FOUND THAT OUT WHILE TRAVELING THIS SUMMER: Blue State Residents Are Paying Way More For Energy Than Red States, New Report Shows.
THE WAR AGAINST GREED (THAT GREED DIRECTED TO PROVIDING PUBLIC SERVICE, AKA CAPITALISM): NY retailers lost $4.4 billion due to organized shoplifting rings in 2022: group.
AS IT SHOULD. THEY’RE HOLDING BACK THE TIDE: Election of Milei, Wilders and Cogswell Has the Left Worried.
WHEN YOU’RE CARRYING CHRISTIE’S BULK YOU SHOULD AVOID JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS: Christie blames Trump for nationwide spike in Islamophobia, antisemitism.
