May 21, 2024
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Starfish Space lands $37.5 million Space Force contract for on-orbit servicing vehicle. “DoD’s satellites in GEO typically lack the ability to easily move themselves around. The Otter spacecraft would provide augmented maneuver by docking and attaching to the client satellite and using Otter’s own propulsion systems, giving the military satellite a push or a pull, making specific movements or adjustments to its orbit.”
It could do the same to the other guy’s satellites, too.
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JIM TREACHER: Paul Pelosi’s Attacker Was Neither a Male Prostitute Nor a Trump Supporter. But the whole thing was weird*, and still is:
The whole thing was just bizarre. The “male prostitute” thing started because a local reporter said one of the two men was in his underwear when he opened the door for police. This claim was quickly dropped, and nobody has ever explained why it was made.
(I never understood why it would be a scandal anyway if a man was attacked in his own home while wearing only underpants. He was in his house in the middle of the night!)
Then NBC aired this report:
This sequence of events has been vindicated by police bodycam footage, but at the time it was different than the version that had been given to the public.
Instead of explaining, NBC deleted the video from their website, and reporter Miguel Almaguer suddenly disappeared. Almaguer no longer works for the network, after 18 years of service, and has never explained anything about the incident.
That’s weird, man!
Jim Geraghty adds: The Detail About Pelosi’s Attacker That Everyone Chose to Ignore.
I have no objection to Paul Pelosi’s attacker, David DePape, being sentenced to 30 years in prison. Throw the book at the bastard.
But I notice a strange detail in the coverage in the New York Times:
Judge Corley said in court that she had taken into account Mr. DePape’s lack of a previous criminal record and his vulnerability to conspiracy theories.
Lack of a previous criminal record? He was in the country illegally! His tourist visa expired in 2008! He had been residing in the country illegally for fourteen years when he attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband!
The New York Times described DePape as “a Canadian citizen who moved to San Francisco in his 20s,” and the Associated Press labeled him “a Canadian who moved to the U.S. more than 20 years ago.” Those descriptions are really misleading. DePape’s illegal immigrant status is not mentioned in the coverage from CNN, CBS, the BBC, The Guardian, and many other news reports on the verdict.
The Times characterized Pelosi’s attacker as almost an inevitable consequence of the fierce criticism of his wife:
Mr. DePape reflects the underbelly of American politics: a man driven by online conspiracy theories who seemed to embrace the rhetoric of many right-wing figures, who have used dehumanizing language for years to describe Ms. Pelosi and call her an enemy of the United States.
Yes, online conspiracy theories are bad, and no one should break into any lawmaker’s house, seeking to break their kneecaps, and violently assault a lawmaker’s spouse.
But there are some other lessons to be taken from DePape’s crime. One is that some of the people who either enter the country illegally, or those who enter legally and then stay beyond the legal limit, and who then move to sanctuary cities, are bad and dangerous people who should be deported.
* And speaking of weird: What’s Going On Here? Paul Pelosi’s Attacker Has Already Been Tried and Sentenced – Meanwhile, the Man Who Wanted to Kill Justice Kavanaugh Hasn’t Even Gone to Trial.
THEY’RE NEVER SATISFIED: People Watching WNBA Now Is Great and All, But It’s Unfair that Caitlin Clark is White. “Caitlin Clark has created some interest in the sport, and I have to say that the little I know of her makes her look wholesome and nice. She likes babies, seems humble, and apparently is quite talented. It’s almost like she is a person, not a sports star, and people seem to like that. She hasn’t even derided America, beat anybody up, impregnated some groupie, or come out as trans. What’s not to like? Well, she is straight and White, and that seems unfair. People have fallen in love with her instead of others higher up on the intersectional ladder.”
STEVEN MALANGA: The New Road Rage. Bad government policies are contributing to soaring auto insurance costs, which now worry Americans more than the costs of health care or mortgages.
IT ISN’T THAT BIDEN FORGETS, IT’S THAT HE SAYS SO MANY THINGS THAT NEVER HAPPENED: Biden Questions Intelligence of Trump’s Next Supreme Court Pick, Forgetting His Own Dumb Nominees.
MICHAEL WALSH: “We must stop being afraid.”
The Netherlands is about as close as you can get to Belgium, but Amsterdam has just moved as far away as possible from Brussels, the malign headquarters of the increasingly fascistic European Union, and has told it to take its regulations regarding things like “climate change” and immigration and stuff them where the sun don’t shine. “No wasting billions on pointless climate hobbies, but more money for our people,” the newly forming coalition Dutch government’s Geert Wilders, has said. “We have been made to fear climate change for decades… We must stop being afraid.”
Coming on the heels of regime change in Italy and Argentina, the Dutch Nation’s revolution against the power of the internationalist State is another manifestation of the rejection of the New World Order so loudly proclaimed at the beginning of the Great Covid Panic of 2019-22 by European and American bureaucrats and their apparatchiks in the media. Led philosophically and practically by the bonzes of Davos under Klaus Schwab, they openly proclaimed “the Great Reset,” opportunistically piggy-backing onto the Chinese-manufactured (with help from Anthony Fauci & Co.) Covid virus, sending the world into an economic tailspin and helping facilitate the election of Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., as president of the United States.
There must be consequences.
FINALLY — CALIFORNIA GETS SERIOUS ABOUT CRIME: San Diego is finally cracking down … on beachside yoga.
No, they’re not cracking down on illegals storming the beaches. They’re not cracking down on drug dealers. They’re not even cracking down on homeless encampments.
It’s the yoga that’s gotta go, according to a new city ordinance in San Diego.
https://twitter.com/TheKevinDalton/status/1792681534694281370
To be fair, it’s probably for the best: Americans who practice yoga ‘contribute to white supremacy,’ claims Michigan State University professor.
WOEING: Saudi Arabia’s biggest-ever plane order isn’t going to Boeing.
Saudi Arabia’s national airline has placed an order for 105 Airbus airplanes in the largest-ever deal in the country’s aviation history — another win for troubled Boeing’s European rival.
Ibrahim Al-Omar, director general of Saudia Group, the state-controlled owner of the Saudia airline and low-cost carrier Flyadeal, said Monday that the first planes would be delivered in the first quarter of 2026.
“The Saudia Group announces today the largest deal in the history of Saudi aviation,” he said in a speech at the Future Aviation Forum in Riyadh, referring to the contract with Airbus.
Saudia Group’s current fleet comprises 93 Airbus and 51 Boeing aircraft, according to its website. And the latest deal adds to the group’s existing backlog of Airbus orders of 39 aircraft, the European airplane maker said in a statement.
Boeing management seems satisfied with Airbus’s leftovers, so that’s what they’ll mostly get.
Arbaugh said that Neuralink has told him around 15% of the threads inserted in his brain remain in place. But these have stabilized, he said, and software changes made by the company later helped him regain many of the device’s capabilities, which he has since demonstrated in livestreams.
Since such a device had never been implanted in a human before, Neuralink didn’t know how much the brain would move inside the skull, said Arbaugh. It found that his brain moved up to three times what the company expected, he said.
To keep threads in place, one of Neuralink’s proposed solutions that the FDA has signed off on is to implant them eight millimeters into the brain’s motor cortex, compared with about three-to-five millimeters for Arbaugh.
With the FDA’s blessing, Neuralink now hopes to implant a second participant sometime in June, according to the person familiar with the company, who said that more than 1,000 quadriplegics have signed up for its patient registry, though fewer than 100 qualify for the study.
And while some of those people are eligible, Musk posted on X on Thursday that the company is still accepting applications.
Neuralink aims to implant 10 people with its device this year and hopes to have a diverse set of recipients in order to study a variety of behaviors. One challenge is that the people signing up to its patient registry skew white and male, the person said.
Better informed about medical advances? Higher risk tolerance? Coincidence?
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, IVY LEAGUE EDITION: Rep. MTG a ‘bully,’ ‘has to be smacked in the mouth,’ Princeton professor says.
Not sure that he can take her, though.
Yes my body is built and strong 💪 NOT with nips, tucks, plastic, or silicone, but through a healthy lifestyle. Soon turning 50 years old, God willing, I will continue to lift, run, swim, play sports, surf, ski, climb and LIVE this life to the fullest and enjoy every single… pic.twitter.com/DSkqJEuEnM
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) May 20, 2024
KEVIN DOWNEY JR: Thanks Joe! How China and Mexico Are Making Mad Stacks Killing Americans. “It’s implausible to suggest that Biden, whose own kids have been to rehab, isn’t aware that roughly 100,000 Americans from every step of the socioeconomic ladder are dying in record numbers.”
THE CHINA SYNDROME: China’s property support measures disappoint.
Shares of Chinese developers wobbled on Monday as investors fretted that China’s “historic” steps to stabilise its crisis-hit property sector fell short of what is required to foster a sustainable turnaround in demand and confidence.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Mainland Properties Index (.HSMPI), opens new tab closed down 0.7%, after having gained around 18% so far this month after the Politburo said in an April 30 meeting that it would coordinate to clear housing inventory.
Embattled state-backed developer China Vanke eased 0.2%, after bouncing as much as 6.4% in the morning session. Shimao Group (0813.HK), opens new tab, R&F Properties (2777.HK), opens new tab, Kaisa Group (1638.HK), opens new tab and KWG Group (1813.HK), opens new tab were down more than 10% each.China unveiled measures on Friday to facilitate up to 1 trillion yuan ($138 billion) in funding and ease mortgage rules, with local governments set to buy “some” apartments.
As part of those steps, the central bank said it would set up a 300 billion yuan ($41.49 billion) relending facility for state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to purchase completed and unsold homes at “reasonable prices” for affordable housing.
The central bank expects the relending programme would result in 500 billion yuan worth of bank financing.
My takeaway is that the money is too little and that depending on debt-heavy SOEs to do the lending is too much.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: It’s Time for Biden to Get to the Basement and Stay There. “Yesterday, I mentioned that the Democrats’ flying monkeys in the mainstream media gloss over Biden’s various lies. They have finally allowed themselves admit that he’s old, but these monumental screw-ups don’t get reported on. They’re in full cheerleader mode trying to get him over the finish line in November. The propagandists can’t really keep pointing out that their standard-bearer is a slurring, babbling idiot.”
LEGALIZATION: Hospital Visits For Cannabis Poisoning Tripled Among Seniors After Canada Legalization, Study Finds. “The number of older Canadians who faced cannabis poisoning without heading to a hospital is likely higher, researchers noted, adding the study was limited to emergency room visit data. Some adults may sought medical care somewhere else or not at all, as some of the data includes a period during the Covid-19 pandemic, the study said.”
THAT’S TRUE, IF YOU’RE A HORRIBLE PERSON AND A NEW YORK DEMOCRAT (BUT I REPEAT MYSELF): New York Democrat says there’s ‘no greater enemy’ than Trump ahead of Bronx rally.
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CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Texas Gun-Rights Orgs Get Big Win in Federal Court.
TRIED FOR AN AS-YET UNDEFINED CRIME: How can it still not yet be determined what law defines the crime?!
The real crime, of course, is simply being Donald Trump. Let’s see him talk his way out of that!
Plus:
If Trump is convicted, just ask people *what* Trump was convicted of? I’ll bet no one — not even the jurors who convicted him — would be able to state the answer correctly.
I myself can’t do it, and I have tried to understand what the crime supposedly is. I even suspect the judge and the prosecutors don’t know!
What the hell kind of conviction will this be — conviction of a crime that no one understood, based on the testimony of a huge liar?
Blue State justice.
MARGOT CLEVELAND: I Researched Judicial Ethics Rules For Years. Here’s Why The Alito Recusal Calls Are Ridiculous.
The false flag of an ethical scandal was clear from The New York Times’ spin in breaking the story on Thursday under the headline: “At Justice Alito’s House, a ‘Stop the Steal’ Symbol on Display.” From the Old Gray Lady’s header, one would think the Alitos had displayed a banner brandishing the phrase outside their home.
But no, as the article soon acknowledged, it was an upside-down American flag seen flying outside the home where Justice Alito lives with his wife. And it was his wife who raised the flag — in protest of a neighbor displaying a profane yard sign, as we would soon learn.
The Times, though, quoted supposed ethics experts, including Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia, to frame the hanging of an upside-down flag as a public declaration of “Stop the Steal.” This is “the equivalent of putting a ‘Stop the Steal’ sign in your yard,” Frost reportedly told The New York Times.
That’s quite the leap of logic — and one even the Times’ reporters refrained from making. (Frost did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment). The Times instead left its readers to infer the upside-down flag professed a “Stop the Steal” sentiment by noting some of Trump’s supporters had inverted Old Glory in contesting the 2020 election results.
Plus: “The Times’ Thursday hit piece ignored that advisory opinion which made clear the Code of Conduct does not control Mrs. Alito’s behavior — and neither does Justice Alito.”
