Blogging In The Years: 1975

The FBI has been spying on protesters:

Verdict By Decree

Don't mention the trial:

"It's reckless, it's dangerous, it's irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged just because they don't like the verdict," Biden said. "The American principle that no one is above the law was reaffirmed." "Donald Trump was given every opportunity to defend himself. It was a state case, not a federal case. It was heard by a jury of 12 citizens, 12 Americans, 12 people like you, like millions of Americans who served on juries. This jury is chosen the same way every jury in America’s chosen. It was a process that Donald Trump's attorney was part of. The jury heard five weeks of evidence. Five weeks. And after careful deliberation, the jury reached a unanimous verdict," Biden said. After stating that it’s "reckless," "dangerous," and "irresponsible" to call it rigged, Biden said "Our justice system has endured for nearly 250 years. And it literally is the cornerstone of America. Our justice system, the justice system should be respected. And we should never allow anyone to tear it down. It's as simple as that. That's America. That's who we are. And that's who we'll always be God willing." Donald Trump Jr said in response to Biden’s comments, "Except we all know that it was rigged by you and your crooked friends. That's why the number three guy at Biden's DOJ joined Bragg's office and the entire case was overseen by a Biden donor Judge whose daughter is literally a Democrat political operative!"

But it wasn't rigged...

No Fun Allowed

Welcome to recess repression:

A family moved into the Montgomery County school district unaware of what they were in store for. The first inkling of trouble came when the daughter came home from school and reported that they do recess a little bit differently than they did at her old school. "My daughter was taken aback by how many rules there were," said the mom. How many rules? Four pages of rules governing the activities of children while on recess. Some may think that oppressive and overwhelming. But it's obvious that you don't think like a progressive. Otherwise, you'd recognize the "Montgomery County Public Schools Playground Supervision Recess Procedures for Playground Aides" for what it is: guidelines that suggest anything they don't much like is verboten. The "Recess Procedures" state, among other things: Baseball and football games are not permitted at any time. Haphazard running, chasing, and tag games on the blacktop are not permitted. A student may not begin to swing on rings and bars until the student ahead of him/her has finished. Once they do swing or climb, they must use an "opposed thumb grip." (As opposed to their teeth?) Otherwise, have a ton of fun, kids! "It really feels as though maybe we've lost touch with what's developmentally appropriate," the mom told me.

Go twiddle your opposing thumgs, kids...

Funny Money Business

When Congress paid:

The story from CNN focuses on a report released by the Office of Compliance, effectively revealing that, from 1997 to 2017, Congress paid out more than $17 million in settlements. There have been over 268 settlements across the 20-year period, all of which came from taxpayers’ money through a special fund within the U.S. Treasury. This was made possible by the passing of the Congressional Accountability Act in 1995. While it was unclear as to how much of the $17million was for sexual harassment-related settlements due to the complex reporting system within the Office of Compliance, a source familiar with the process told the network that more than two-fifths of harassment claims are settled after mediation. Yesterday (Thursday), Donald Trump became the first former president to be convicted of a felony following his five-week hush money trial in the Democrat-leaning suburb of Manhatton. After the initial shock at such a landmark decision, social media users flocked to Rep. Massie’s post on X. Many saw the hypocritical side of Congress, particularly given the seismic differences between Trump’s $130,000 case and Congress’ $17 million use of taxpayer money.

One man's hush money is another's settlement...

Major Idiots

College students wasting their money:

Remember that old joke about majoring in underwater basket weaving? Oh, it’s far worse today. Here are some of the majors these young people rattled off with surprising pride: The Performance of Self Creative Production and Narrative Through the Arts The Sociology of Environmental Communication Music, Business, and Gender Studies “The Performance of Self?” Might be more honestly labeled “How To Turn Narcissistic Personality Disorder Into Fun and Profit!” Most of the alleged majors sound as though they were made up on the spot during a street game of Mad Libs, but student Dominique’s “Care Studies” major has to take top prize. What students are to care for or about is left unclear, but her minor of “Disability Studies” might give a clue.

More BS degrees for everyone...

The Verdict

Trump is found guilty:

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged former President Donald Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts. Jurors found the former president guilty on all counts. Each count carries a maximum prison sentence of 4 years. In total, Trump faces a maximum sentence of 136 years. Judge Juan Merchan invited the jury into the courtroom to read its verdict after two days of deliberations. Sentencing for the former president will be July 11 at 10:00 a.m--just five days before the start of the Republican National Convention, where he is expected to be formally nominated as the 2024 Republican presidential nominee. Any motions will need to be filed by June 13th. Prosecutors needed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump falsified those records to conceal a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, a pornographic performer, in the lead-up to the 2016 election to silence her about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006. Moments after the verdict was delivered by the jury, the former president spoke to reporters in the hallway outside the courtroom. "This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt as a rigged trial and disgrace. It wouldn't give us a venue change," Trump said. "We were at five percent or 6% in this district, in this area. This was a rigged, disgraceful trial." Trump said "the real verdict is going to be November 5th by the people."

If they're allowed...

Gaming Over

Epic Games has an epic fail:

As part of the use of Unreal Engine 5, the company's groundbreaking computer graphics engine, Epic Games requires programmers to operate under progressive gender and racial ideologies. "At Epic Games, we have a few simple coding standards and conventions. This document reflects the state of Epic Games' current coding standards. Following the coding standards is mandatory," the company wrote on its site. "The standard is expected to be followed no matter which language is used," it added. After copyright notices and naming conventions, programmers are treated to some religious fanaticism that must be adhered to at the company. The first subsection of note is "racial, ethnic, and religious inclusiveness." This told programmers not to use metaphors or similes that "reinforce stereotypes." "Examples include contrast black and white or blacklist and whitelist," with words that "refer to historical trauma or lived experience of discrimination" also being prohibited, such as "slave, master, and nuke." Who could forget the next subheading, "gender inclusiveness," which makes it mandatory for employees to use "they, them, and their, even in the singular" for hypothetical people. "Refer to anything that is not a person as it and its. For example, a module, plugin, function, client, server, or any other software or hardware component," the company said. Assuming a gender is also a violation under Epic Games' language policing, as the company said not to use collective nouns like "guys." Phrases like "a poor man's X" is also against the rules. Epic Games also said that slang should be avoided due to its work being seen by global audiences that "might not understand the same cultural references." Another term the general public may not be familiar with is "overloaded words." The gaming company said that words such as "abort, executive, or native" need to be used in "precise" manners while being examined for the context in which they appear. The developers behind the game "Fortnite" provided a list of new words that are safer for programmers to use. Instead of "blacklist," the company suggested terms like "deny list" or "avoid list." In place of "whitelist," programmers can use "trust list" or "approved list." As with "master," words like "primary" are preferred. While for "slave," examples included "worker" or "replica." After providing this re-education, Epic Games stated that its leaders are "actively working to bring our code in line with the principles laid out above."

The word police are watching...

The N Generation

Meet the new Me Generation:

The offspring of Boomers and Gen Xers are “Generation Y” (a.k.a. “Millennials”), those born from 1981 to 1996, and “Generation Z,” those born from 1997 to 2012. The most contemptible of the Gen Y/Z subset I defined as Gen Narcissist emerged in force during the “summer of rage” ignited by Joe Biden and his Demos just before the 2020 election. The most disruptive among them were the mostly white “Black Lives Matter” apologists and the antifa fascists. Since then, other Gen Narcissist collectives have emerged, drawing attention to themselves by continuing to disrupt the lives of Americans across the nation. This would include continued protests to defund police and protests against so-called “climate change.” The latest iteration of their attention-getting folly is the anti-Semitic campus protests to support Hamas terrorists, but to be clear, only a few of these campus Gen N narcissists are really devoted to the “Palestinian Cause.” For most, Gaza is just their cause of the day, the latest “shiny thing” that these developmentally arrested adolescents have latched onto in order to draw attention to themselves. In pursuit of that attention, they have perfected their penchant to be “Useful Idiots,” Western apologists for Marxist-Leninist-Maoist ideology. Because these narcissistic miscreants get a lot of media attention, the tendency is to assume their whole generation is cast in this mold and the future is doomed, but these noxious Gen Narcissists are only a subgroup of Gen Y and Z, perhaps better described as a degeneration than a generation. This Gen N subgroup is the spawn of woke Boomers and Gen Xers, primarily suburban “white privilege” Democrats, the most influential of those being inheritance welfare leftists — the effluent of generational wealth and privilege. While there are plenty of these elitist Boomers and Gen Xers in urban centers, most choose to live in the safety and comfort of suburbia, far from the poor masses they have propagated, and with whom they pretend to be allied.

It's the rich white kid's burden...

No Growth

No growth allowed:

Climate liars aren’t trying the save the planet, they’re trying to oppress the planet’s inhabitants. This reality is clear in a recent article from the Atlantic, as Climate Depot quoted: The crazy idea is “degrowth communism,” a combination of two concepts that are contentious on their own. Degrowth holds that there will always be a correlation between economic output and carbon emissions, so the best way to fight climate change is for wealthy nations to cut back on consumption and reduce the “material throughput” that creates demand for energy and drives GDP. The article continues: The degrowth movement has swelled in recent years, particularly in Europe and in academic circles. The theory has dramatic implications. Instead of finding carbon-neutral ways to power our luxurious modern lifestyles, degrowth would require us to surrender some material comforts. One leading proponent [Kohei Saito] suggests imposing a hard cap on total national energy use, which would ratchet down every year. Energy-intensive activities might be banned outright or taxed to near oblivion. (Say goodbye, perhaps, to hamburgers, SUVs, and your annual cross-country flight home for the holidays.) You’d probably be prohibited from setting the thermostat too cold in summer or too warm in winter. To keep frivolous spending down, the government might decide which products are “wasteful” and ban advertising for them. Slower growth would require less labor, so the government would shorten the workweek and guarantee a job for every person. The outlet added that Saito specifically identifies as a Communist. Saito describes a fantasy that could never happen in the real world, in which the people voluntarily and democratically sacrifice their comforts and rights for minimal socialist welfare and workers’ cooperatives.

Because it's for the greater good, or something...

Blogging In The Years: 1982

We're doomed:

Pier Review

The pier to nowhere:

The U.S. military was forced to halt aid shipments to Gaza on Tuesday after the floating pier was damaged by bad weather over the weekend. The damage sustained from the bad weather is only the latest in a string of logistical and operational problems that have plagued the pier since it was constructed in mid May. The JLOTS pier was a “horrible idea,” Michael DiMino, senior fellow at Defense Priorities and former CIA and defense official, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It’s a horrible idea due to the challenges that we just saw basically wreck the whole project.” “It was never a sound plan to begin with… whether it’s accidents, or logistical hurdles, or risk to our troops and all these problems that have come to fruition. I don’t think that there should be any effort to try to continue this, or salvage it, or fix it,” DiMino said, pointing to safer, more effective methods of delivering aid to Gaza. “I think now is an opportunity to say this failed. Let’s wrap this up before we continue to tempt fate.”

Sounds about normal for Team Biden...

Panic Time

Democrats are in freakout mode:

They are so bad that Politico put no less than five reporters on a story detailing the "full-blown freakout" occurring within the Democratic Party over the president's re-election prospects. That's not hyperbole on my part. "Dems in full-blown 'freakout' over Biden" is the headline of the piece. A pervasive sense of fear has settled in at the highest levels of the Democratic Party over President Joe Biden’s reelection prospects, even among officeholders and strategists who had previously expressed confidence about the coming battle with Donald Trump. All year, Democrats had been on a joyless and exhausting grind through the 2024 election. But now, nearly five months from the election, anxiety has morphed into palpable trepidation, according to more than a dozen party leaders and operatives. And the gap between what Democrats will say on TV or in print, and what they’ll text their friends, has only grown as worries have surged about Biden’s prospects. A quick check of the polling average shows that Biden has only led in one of the last eight polls, with the president posting just a single-point advantage according to Quinnipiac. Given the dynamics of the electoral college, which suppose a three to four-point lead would be necessary for Biden to prevail, that's simply not going to cut it. No Democrat wants to be the one to admit it publicly, though they all know it. “You don’t want to be that guy who is on the record saying we’re doomed, or the campaign’s bad or Biden’s making mistakes. Nobody wants to be that guy,” said a Democratic operative in close touch with the White House and granted anonymity to speak freely. But Biden’s stubbornly poor polling and the stakes of the election “are creating the freakout,” he said. Let's be honest about what's really got Democrats losing their minds at the moment. It's not just that Biden is lagging in the polls due to his terrible tenure as president. It's that their lawfare gambit appears to be failing. It's not just the possibility of a conviction backfiring that has them needing smelling salts, though. Democrats are facing another outcome that could prove catastrophic.

It's a self-made disaster...

Working Stiffed

How the elites pretend to like the working class:

Ungar-Sargon explodes the liberal myth of a radicalised, right-leaning class of hicks intent on bringing down democracy and kick-starting a civil war. Instead, she finds a racially diverse, politically moderate working class. ‘Polarisation’, she concludes, ‘is an elite phenomenon’. She finds light amid the gloom, too. There are still good jobs to be had for people without college degrees, she notes. Skilled tradespeople can command high salaries and, in places like Nevada where hotel workers have a strong union, even cleaning staff can get great benefits. But this is not the case for most of those she interviewed. Facing exorbitant housing costs and expensive healthcare, their lives are precarious. ‘More than 80 per cent of Americans are making at least $16 an hour’, she writes, ‘yet the hallmarks of middle-class life are increasingly beyond their means, however frugally they live and however hard they work’. She notes that there are millions who have no savings and no ability to save because of the cost of living. They will never be able to afford to retire.

But their betters want to "help" them...

Media Meltdown

The media are losing it:

The gentle version is when Democrats hit up the Mainstream Media to ask Biden to show more "empathy on the economy." Things aren't that bad, you see. Biden just needs to show the kind of concern voters are looking for. From there, things escalate with lame attempts to tell readers that it's the voters who are wrong. Northeastern's David Lazer, who heads up the Civic Health and Institutions Project, explained the shift this way: "In general there’s been a lot of negativity about Biden and younger voters may have been more responsive to that." Not that Biden has done a bad job, mind you, or that Trump has somehow become acceptable. There's just this vibe, you know, this negativity about Biden. The denial is strong with this one. Then there's the swing-for-the-fences panicmongering like this one from The New Republic: How the Hell Can People Be Nostalgic for Donald Trump? Yet—They Are. I dunno — low inflation, rising wages, peace?

Just the little things...

Public Miseducation

Why charter schools are suceeding:

Politico:

These enrollment swings are pressing Broward leaders to combine and condense dozens of schools, efforts that would save the district on major operating costs. So far, some of the ideas are meeting heavy resistance. One proposal aiming to turn a popular Fort Lauderdale magnet school that focuses on the Montessori teaching method into a neighborhood school brought a crowd nearing 200 people in opposition at a recent town hall. There, dozens of audience members, a sea of blue “VSY’’ shirts representing Virginia Shuman Young elementary, contended the plan would cause an unnecessary “disruption” for a top-rated school.

“You are trying to create school communities that attract families,” Erin Gohl, the PTA president at VSY, said during the May 6 town hall. “Look at what you have before you — replicate, don’t dismantle and destroy this incredible school community.”

Don't destroy what works...

Name Games

Illinois will no longer call criminals criminals:

The word “offender” is now out, according to a bill on the Illinois governor’s desk. From now on, if you’ve broken the law and end up in jail, you are a “justice-impacted individual.” The woke and the “caring” never know when to stop, and too few conservatives make any real effort to put obstacles in their path. Notice the parallel here to the recent shift from the term “homeless” to “un-housed.” It’s sly and subtle, but it’s wicked. “Un-housed” describes homeless people in the passive voice, implying that some outside body or entity did not “house” that person. It suggests that society, or cities, or states, have somehow failed in a moral duty to give people “housing.” The term disappears personal responsibility, making it impossible to even ask whether homeless people have done anything to contribute to their circumstances. Illinois’ new “justice-impacted individual” for jailbirds is even bolder. It turns actual villains into victims. Instead of recognizing the burden a criminal has placed on their victim and society, it pretends that convicts have been “impacted” by the justice system.

Don't offend the offenders...

Planted

Joe Rogan was right:

Medical Waste

Welcome to medcine, no experience needed:

In the coming decades, we could be facing yet another serious problem with medical care in our country as waves of students who aren’t qualified academically but were admitted to medical schools based on diversity initiatives are put in charge of our care. Case in point: The David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. Once considered one of the top medical schools in the nation, its standards have been dropping dramatically, thanks largely to a dean who is obsessed with DEI admissions. Until recently, the medical school had a stellar reputation and has Nobel Prize winners on its faculty. Of the 14,000 students who apply to study there every year, only 173 are admitted. However, the tides are turning there thanks to new Dean of Admissions Jennifer Lucero. Since she was appointed to the role in June of 2020, it has dropped from 6th to 18th place in the rankings. Multiple faculty members who have firsthand knowledge of the school’s admissions process have said that diversity is now being prioritized over merit, and the result is less qualified classes that are not prepared to succeed. In addition, the number of students there who are failing tests about basic medical knowledge has risen tenfold in some subjects since she took over, and among certain cohorts, the majority of students are failing standardized tests on topics such as family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine and emergency medicine. Are these the people we want taking care of us?

No, but they'll be taken care of by their woke educators...

Small Matters

Time Bandits get the woke treatment:

In a decision ostensibly made in order to be more ‘inclusive’ and less offensive, Taika Waititi’s upcoming television remake of Time Bandits will no longer see dwarfs accompanying protagonist Kevin on his adventures, but rather regularly-sized individuals. … Therein, Kevin (Kal-El Tuck) can be seen standing in a field standing side-by-side with the titular Time Bandits (Tasha Murphy, Roger Jean Nsengiyumva, Kiera Thompson, and Rune Temte) and their leader Penelope (Lisa Kudrow), a new character developed exclusively for the series.

Whatever happened to just sticking with the original source material...

Hooked

Never let a shooting go to waste:

The messages come from a fresh tranche of documents released by Congress on Wednesday, given to them by IRS agents who investigated the First Son. On December 12, 2017 Hunter wrote on the Chinese messaging app WeChat to Liu Yadong, a top executive at Chinese oil giant CEFC, to arrange a meeting with his father. 'Can you meet this evening early,' Hunter wrote. 'My father will be in New York also and he wants me to attend the Sandyhook memorial service with him and I would like him to meet you along with my uncle [Jim Biden] and then you and I can talk let me know if that works.' 'No problem,' Yadong replied. 'Pls let me know where and when to meet.' The texts to set up a meeting with Joe came after months of negotiation about the Biden family's involvement in the deal with the Chinese government-linked company, in exchange for $10 million a year.

It was just business...

Money Chase

Conservatives are no longer forbidden at Chase:

According to Fox News, JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the U.S., recently “rolled back” its “social risk issues” policy, which resulted in the “debunking” of several Christian nonprofits and conservative individuals. Its WePay service required merchants to refuse to accept payments from those flagged with the “social risk issues” category. The bank described the category as anything “subject to allegations and impacts related to hate groups, systemic racism, sexual harassment, and corporate culture.” The Alliance for Defending Freedom (ADF) announced that the language had been removed from the bank’s website this month.

All cash welcome...

AI Blues

It's still learning:

It’s been less than two weeks since Google debuted “AI Overview” in Google Search, and public criticism has mounted after queries have returned nonsensical or inaccurate results within the AI feature — without any way to opt out. AI Overview shows a quick summary of answers to search questions at the very top of Google Search. For example, if a user searches for the best way to clean leather boots, the results page may display an “AI Overview” at the top with a multistep cleaning process, gleaned from information it synthesized from around the web. ...Here are some examples of errors produced by AI Overview, according to screenshots shared by users. When asked how many Muslim presidents the U.S. has had, AI Overview responded, “The United States has had one Muslim president, Barack Hussein Obama.”

So Google is now apparently a conspiracy theorist...

Terf Wars

No feminists allowed:

Bookshops have been told by Scotland’s most powerful literary alliance not to sell books written by gender-critical writers or to give the authors public platforms. As reported by the Times, a briefing document on providing safety for trans people published by the Literary Alliance Scotland (LAS) said that “Terfs” – trans-exclusionary radical feminists, a derogatory term for women considered hostile to trans people – were joining forces with “fascists”. It said this was a “societal issue” and urged bookshop owners not to “stay out of it”. It added: “This rise in transphobia signals a danger to all LGBTQ+ people, to reproductive rights, etc.” In a section titled “for bookshops”, the briefing said: “Don’t sell Terf books/platform Terf authors. Don’t expect trans booksellers to sell them. Trans people who see Terf books or ‘gender criticism’ in a bookshop will understand that the bookshop doesn’t want them there.”

Censorship the Scottish way...

Star Bores

George Lucas isn't having it:

“They would say, ‘It’s all white men.' I'd say, it's not. Most of the people are aliens," he said. "And the idea is you’re supposed to accept people for what they are, whether they’re big and furry or whether they’re green and whatever — the idea is all people are equal.” Lucas pointed out that in his Star Wars movies, the only characters ever shown on the wrong side of discrimination are robots and droids. “And that was a way of saying, people are always discriminating against something, and sooner or later, that’s what’s going to happen,” he added. “I mean, we’re already starting with AI, saying, ‘Well, we can’t trust those robots.' ” The filmmaker said that he never shied from hiring actors of color for his Star Wars projects, between Billy Dee Williams' role as Lando Calrissian in the original trilogy and Samuel L. Jackson's Jedi character Mace Windu in the 2000s-era prequel movies. He even pointed out that each trilogy features strong women leads for protagonists, between Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia and Natalie Portman's Padme Amidala. “Who do you think the heroes are in these stories? What do you think Princess Leia was? She’s the head of the rebellion," Lucas said. "She’s the one that’s taking this young kid who doesn’t know anything and this boisterous, I-know-everything guy who can’t do anything and trying to save the rebellion with these clowns."

Now he has to save it from different clowns...

Rich Kids

Most of the Hamas supporters tend to be from certain backgrounds:

By matching that data to percentages of students at each campus who receive Pell Grants (which are awarded to students from moderate- and low-income families), we came to an unsurprising conclusion: Pro-Palestinian protests have been rare at colleges with high percentages of Pell students. Encampments at such colleges have been rarer still. A few outliers exist, such as Cal State Los Angeles, the City College of New York, and Rutgers University–Newark. But in the vast majority of cases, campuses that educate students mostly from working-class backgrounds have not had any protest activity. For example, at the 78 historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) on the Monthly’s list, 64 percent of the students, on average, receive Pell Grants. Yet according to our data, none of those institutions have had encampments and only nine have had protests, a significantly lower rate than non-HBCU schools.

It's a rich kid thing...

Price Check

Everything is just fine:

Burger Woes

Eating is expensive:

These are the key points and findings: Americans love fast food, but costs are forcing them to curb their cravings. 3 in 4 Americans typically eat fast food at least once a week, but the majority (62%) say they’re eating it less due to rising prices. In fact, 65% of Americans have been shocked by the high price of a fast-food bill in the past six months. Are burgers the new Birkins? 78% of consumers view fast food as a luxury because it’s become increasingly expensive. Additionally, half of Americans say they view fast food as a luxury because they’re struggling financially. This is especially true among Americans who make less than $30,000 a year (71%), parents with young children (58%), Gen Zers (58%) and women (53%). Americans are opting for food at home. While 67% of Americans agree fast food should be cheaper than eating at home, 75% say this isn’t the case. Further, nearly half (46%) say fast-food restaurants cost similarly to their local sit-down restaurants, while 22% say fast food is more expensive. When asked about their go-to for an easy, inexpensive meal, 56% cite making food at home. Surge pricing and tipping leave a bad taste in consumers’ mouths. 78% of Americans are concerned about surge pricing at fast-food restaurants, but 72% admit they’d be more likely to eat fast food at off-hours if there was a discount. Additionally, 44% of Americans say they’ve been asked to tip on fast food in the past six months, and 43% of those asked refused to add gratuity. Not all fast-food chains are rated equally, but apps help to lure some customers to return for more. Americans rank Chick-fil-A as the most high-end fast-food chain (25%), followed by Starbucks (22%) and Chipotle (21%). Further, 46% of Americans use apps for fast-food establishments that entice them to visit more often. As you see, it isn't just McDonald's and Burger King. Price hikes have happened across the board. It looks like a consumer may get a little break on deals using the apps.

Hunger? There's an app for that...

Crime Time

The crime that isn't there:

Trump is not charged with "an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 presidential election." He is not charged with "election interference," as Bragg described the Daniels NDA. Nor is he accused of "election fraud" or "conspiracy," as Colangelo suggested. Given the "election interference" framing, it is easy to lose sight of what this case is actually about: 11 invoices from Cohen, 11 corresponding checks, and 12 ledger entries—"just 34 pieces of paper," as Todd Blanche, the lead defense attorney, described them. Prosecutors say those documents were falsified because they mischaracterized Trump's reimbursement of Cohen. But to justify felony charges, they had to prove that Trump was not merely trying to hide an embarrassing transaction. They had to prove that he was trying to cover up or assist "another crime." What crime? "The primary crime that we have alleged," Colangelo told Merchan before the jury returned to the courtroom on April 23, "is New York State Election Law Section 17-152″—a provision so obscure that experts say they have never seen a criminal case based on it. That law makes it a misdemeanor for "any two or more persons" to "conspire to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means." The "unlawful means," according to prosecutors, was Cohen's payment to Daniels, which amounted to an excessive campaign contribution. Cohen accepted that characterization in a 2018 federal plea agreement that also resolved several other, unrelated charges against him. But Trump was never prosecuted for soliciting that "contribution," probably because it would have been hard to prove that he "knowingly and willfully" violated federal campaign finance regulations. If Trump thought the nondisclosure agreement with Daniels was perfectly legal, as his lawyers maintain, he did not have the intent required for a conviction under the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA).

The fishing expedition continues...

Voting By Degree

Elitism, election style:

a recent poll by Scott Rasmussen shows that 69% of the Carr's Water Cracker crowd (the one-percenters) holds that only people with college degrees should be able to vote. During an interview on the Daily Signal Podcast, Rasmussen described this group as those who hold post-graduate degrees and live in densely populated urban areas with approximately 10,000 people per square mile in a given zip code. This group also makes at least $150,000 a year. Rasmussen found a subset within that group that he calls the "politically-obsessed elites." Rasmussen previously described the group as a whole as those who also contend that people have too much individual freedom and have a high level of trust in the federal government. They are also blissfully unaware of their disconnect: Perhaps the funniest finding of all is we ask the question, “Do most Americans agree with you on most important issues?” Now, if we ask voters, about half say, “Yeah, I think most people agree with me.” Among the politically obsessed elites, 82% of that group thinks that most Americans agree with them on most issues. It’s not even close to true, but they’re looking in a mirror. They see what they want to see. What’s scary about that, if you think about it in context of the administrative state, if these people believe that their views are representative of America, it justifies them cheating a little bit or bending the rules because they can say, “We’re fighting for the American people.” In fact, they’re fighting against the American people. According to Rasmussen's poll, 64% of these elites believe that Americans would happily hand over an additional $250 each year to combat climate change, 57% hold that most voters want to live in an area where guns are outlawed, 55% contend that most voters want to see the sale of gas-powered cars banned, and 41% believe that most voters agree that biological men should be able to compete in women's sports. Oh, and 71% are under the impression that most voters trust the federal government. Rasmussen also predicts that should Trump win in November, these elites will be among the loudest complainers that the election was stolen.

They want to keep out the riff raff...

Rank Contenders

Welcome to UCLA, experience not necessary:

In interviews with the Free Beacon and complaints to UCLA officials, including investigators in the university’s Discrimination Prevention Office, faculty members with firsthand knowledge of the admissions process say it has prioritized diversity over merit, resulting in progressively less qualified classes that are now struggling to succeed. … Within three years of Lucero’s hiring in 2020, UCLA dropped from 6th to 18th place in U.S. News & World Report‘s rankings for medical research. And in some of the cohorts she admitted, more than 50 percent of students failed standardized tests on emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics. … “Race-based admissions have turned UCLA into a ‘failed medical school,’ said one former member of the admissions staff. ‘We want racial diversity so badly, we’re willing to cut corners to get it.'”

Be careful what you wish for...

Zero Degrees

No degrees for them:

The Harvard Crimson reported Wednesday: The Harvard Corporation rejected an effort by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences to confer degrees on 13 seniors facing disciplinary charges for participating in the pro-Palestine encampment, an unprecedented veto that opens a new front in the internal battles that have convulsed Harvard for the past year. … “Today, we have voted to confer 1,539 degrees to Harvard College students in good standing,” the Corporation wrote in a joint statement on Wednesday. “Because the students included as the result of Monday’s amendment are not in good standing, we cannot responsibly vote to award them degrees at this time.” On Thursday, pro-Palestinian students walked out of Harvard’s graduation, or commencement, ceremony in protest.

This does not look good on a resume...

Bot Beat

Bots come to the newsroom:

Tani reported: Washington Post CEO Will Lewis is introducing the paper’s new “Build It” plan today. In a meeting with staff, he noted that the paper lost $77 million over the past year, and saw a 50% drop off in audience since 2020: “To be direct, we are in a hole, and we have been for some time.” Lewis says the says the three pillars of the new strategy are: great journalism, happy customers, and making money: “If we’re doing things that don’t meet all three…we should stop doing that.” He adds that the company will also be looking for ways to use A.I. in its journalism. A.I. is a major component of the Post’s internal strategy announcement today. WaPo’s chief tech officer told staff that going forward, the paper has to have “A.I. everywhere in our newsroom.” Lewis says the company is focused on growing subscriptions organically but is open to growing them through an acquisition if it makes sense. Recently, the outlet’s owner, Jeff Bezos, indicated that he would no longer subsidize the company’s losses.

Let the bots take over...

Media Notes

How the media really does their reporting:

Left Hook

James Carville isn't happy:

Red Wages

Socialism doesn't pay:

The site posted the article, titled “Walmart Is Still Putting Ebenezer Scrooge to Shame”, on Monday, May 20. It described the retailer as “infamous for its starvation wages”. “The surge is a result of its strategic shift toward catering to affluent shoppers while its full-time workers continue to rely on Medicaid and food stamps,” the post added. However, social media users were quick to point out the low rates of pay for Jacobin’s writers, who are only paid $0.07 per word. This pay rate – for which writers are asked to complete at least 1,800 words – is at lower end of the pay scale for inexperienced, beginner writers. Alas, a worker at Walmart, who can enjoy additional company benefits, outearns the average writer in the Jacobin sweatshop when you account for the amount of research and editing it takes to complete a 1,800 word article.

Wages for thee, not for me...

Lobster Tales

Red Lobster failed because of racism, or something:

MSNBC contributor Robyn Autry claimed on May 19 that the Red Lobster bankruptcy proceedings would “hit Black communities differently,” at least demonstrating an impressive ability in racializing anything. Partially justifying the claim by pointing out a correlation between Black people and their consumption of fish, Autry went on to highlight Bill Darden’s integrationist policy when he opened his first Red Lobster in 1968 (which, of course, was required by law due to passing of the Civil Rights Act four years earlier). Effectively, the article goes on to highlight how Red Lobster is popular among Black and Latino Americans, and pins its success and failures to the economic prospects of Black Americans. According to the author, “Black consumers are among the most loyal. Sure, we like fish and a good deal — Red Lobster represented something like the strip mall version of the beloved fish fry — but we like being treated equally even more.” It’s worth noting that if a white person wrote an identical argument he’d be accused of racism for unfairly stereotyping black people. But once again, the only standards on the left are double standards.

Sometimes a business failure is just a business failure...

Riot Signs

Get ready for a long, violent summer:

it is no coincidence that we are seeing another uptick in violence and chaos again as we head into the summer months. With Biden’s polling numbers woefully down, the left will do anything to help carry this cadaver across the finish line to maintain power. It began with the pro-Hamas faction of the Democrat base causing turmoil on college campuses across the nation. Rioters shut down college campuses and threatened students. A report surfaced last month indicating George Soros and other progressive Democratic donors had been funding the anti-Israel protests. Some might suggest those protests are detrimental to Biden. But, as with most extremists on the left, they will assuredly vote Democrat when it comes time to take action. We see this with Squad members in Congress who consistently complain about Biden regarding Israel but who would not hesitate to back the president. Why? Because they believe he is malleable enough to do their bidding. Progressive voters think that as well. Has he demonstrated otherwise during his term in office? Plus, what is the other option for these pink-haired, college-aged communists? Trump?

He might be what they prefer, at that...

Lawfare Losing

Lawfare isn't working:

It’s fair to wonder whether a conviction in New York’s Stormy Daniels trial (or in any of the cases against him) could hurt Trump. We cannot know definitively until it happens, and we at least won’t have to wait indefinitely for it to occur: a verdict could come soon, as the prosecution rested its case on May 20. The case’s salacious details, however, are already out there in public view. And despite this, Trump’s numbers have rebounded. So it is easy to believe that a conviction would not change public sentiment. Indeed, on balance, it appears that the court cases now have more potential upside than downside for Trump. The depths have been plumbed in public, and Trump has recovered during it. An acquittal or mistrial could boost Trump — even an appeal, which would inevitably be more favorable to Trump, would further muddy the legal waters. In any case, Trump will be freed from the requirement that he be present at the trial and off the campaign trail.

Meanwhile, Biden will be bogged down in a polling quagmire...

Quiet Change

The enemy of their friend:

Secret talks between Iran and the United States in Oman were making good progress, but have now been jeopardised by the sudden death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister. Brett McGurk, US President Joe Biden's senior Middle East adviser, held indirect negotiations earlier this month with Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s point man for negotiations with the West, according to three Iranian sources close to the talks. The talks took place in Muscat, which hosted secret meetings between Tehran and Washington a decade ago that led to the 2015 JCPOA (joint comprehensive plan of action) nuclear agreement. They were the first round of discussions between the US and Iran since January. One source close to the talks, which were first reported by Axios on Friday, told Middle East Eye that discussions between Bagheri Kani and McGurk were progressing well and were close to reaching some sort of agreement. Bagheri Kani was deputy foreign minister at the time, but following the death of Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in the helicopter crash that killed Raisi on Sunday, he is now acting foreign minister. The talks focused on three subjects: a shared desire for a change in government in Israel; ending Israel’s war on Gaza; and preventing the conflict from spreading elsewhere in the region.

Don't mention the regime change...

Ethical Complaint

the judge in the Trump kangaroo court might have a problem:

In her letter to the Commission, Ms. Stefanik highlighted that Justice Merchan presides over the case where President Trump faces a potential 136 years’ imprisonment if convicted. Ms. Stefanik argued that this case has far-reaching implications, not just for President Trump, but for the broader political landscape, as President Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee for the upcoming presidential election. Ms. Stefanik raised concerns about Justice Merchan’s impartiality due to his daughter’s position as president of Authentic Campaigns, a firm representing prominent Democrat politicians and political action committees (PACs). According to the complaint, these clients have capitalized on President Trump’s indictment for fundraising purposes. For instance, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a client of Authentic Campaigns, used the indictment to solicit donations of $10, raising approximately $20 million. Similarly, the Senate Majority PAC raised around $73.6 million following the indictment. Legal Basis for Recusal Ms. Stefanik cited a section of the New York State Unified Court System’s Rules of Judicial Conduct, which mandates a judge’s disqualification from a case if a close relative stands to benefit substantially from the proceedings. Ms. Stefanik asserted that the professional engagements of Justice Merchan’s daughter constitute such a conflict of interest, as her clients’ fundraising efforts are directly linked to the case over which her father presides.

Fund not, preside not...

Big Internet

Online censorship the sneaky way:

Under the old rules of publisher liability, only an “anything goes” approach would protect a website from legal responsibility for user-created content. Prohibiting bullying, swearing, harassment, and threats of violence could be legally disastrous for any site. It was clear, then as now, that if the law were to encourage such a hands-off approach, the internet would turn into a cesspool. It’s important to remember this history when evaluating the merits of sunsetting Section 230, as the House proposal intends. According to the bill’s text, if Congress can’t agree on a successor to Section 230 by Dec. 31, 2025, websites from Yahoo and Etsy to the local restaurant hosting customer reviews will become liable for every syllable posted on the site by a user or troll. A single post can generate claims that run into the millions of dollars. Reverting to this pre-Section 230 status quo would dramatically alter, and imperil, the online world. Most platforms don’t charge users for access to their sites. In the brave new world of unlimited liability, will a website decide that carrying user-created content free of charge isn’t worth the risk? If so, the era of consumer freedom to both publish and view web content will come to a screeching halt.

They want to save the internet by destroying it...

Football Feminists

Don't marry a football player, or something:

"Can you imagine how terrible it would be to marry a ripped, non-feminist football star who loves you so much he gets choked up every time he honors you in a speech?" activist Margery Strecker exclaimed in a Tik-Tok short aimed at 13-year-old girls. "Imagine if you married a guy like that and he started sacrificially loving you and honoring you while taking care of your every need forever! It would be like The Handmaid's Tale all over again!" "Harrison Butker is disgusting!" Jane Davis (@38yroldsngle) commented on X (formerly Twitter). "Young girls should avoid men like that at all costs and instead pursue corporate careers in the big city while going to clubs and sleeping with losers they meet on dating apps every weekend until they turn 38! Think of your careers, ladies!"

Think for yourselves, ladies...

Tax Breaks

Gavin Newsom channels George H.W. Bush:

Earlier this month, the governor repeatedly pledged he would not raise taxes to solve the budget crisis—which comes just two years after he boasted a nearly $100 billion surplus—telling reporters that "the answer is no," should Democratic lawmakers bring him tax hike proposals, and that "there’s only so many times I can say no to the tax question." "I don’t see there’s real evidence and need right now to increase general taxes … in this state and put more burden on working folks and our competitive posture," he told one reporter who asked him if tax hikes were an "absolute nonstarter" for him. Newsom unveiled his budget proposal on May 10, and the tax policy details the following week. The proposal would, for the next three years, bar businesses earning $1 million or more from deducting operating losses from their taxes while also limiting business tax credits. The provisions are projected to cost California businesses about $18 billion through 2027, although they wouldn’t take effect if tax collections beat expectations. Such a scenario appears unlikely, however, given that California’s tax revenues are massively down thanks to a stagnating economy and exodus of both high-earning residents and businesses. State finance department spokesman H.D. Palmer said the proposals are "designed to protect small businesses" and said the administration projects they will hit a small percentage of corporations, and the tax credit limits especially will primarily affect research and development. He also disputed the framing of the policies as temporary tax increases, saying they are "fundamentally different in structure." Yet critics are blasting the move as tax increases, regardless of the governor’s framing. David Kline, vice president of communications and research for the California Taxpayers Association, said adding these taxes will only make California’s already beleaguered economy worse.

Taxing people into povery doesn't work...

DA Blues

A DA in Oregon could be out of work:

Prosecutor Nathan Vasquez, a Republican-turned-independent who works under Schmidt, could oust the district attorney in the head-to-head nonpartisan primary if he secures over 50% of the vote. Schmidt would be the latest left-wing prosecutor, funded by groups linked to George Soros, to not secure another term after critics argued they were soft-on-crime. “What I hear when I’m knocking on doors, is ‘Hey, I consider myself very liberal but this is out of step — we’re not getting served well,’” Vasquez told Politico. “People definitely want public safety. It doesn’t mean people are wholly abandoning the idea of criminal justice reform. They just want it delivered in a pragmatic, practical way.” San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin was recalled in June 2022; Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx decided in April 2023 not to run for reelection in Chicago; and Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón is facing former Republican California attorney general candidate Nathan Hochman in November. Schmidt was overwhelmingly elected in May 2020, just before the George Floyd riots broke out in Portland and other blue cities across the country. “Prior to him coming into office, we ranged somewhere between 12,000 to 20,000 cases a year,” Vasquez told Politico of the drop in prosecutions since 2020. “Under him, post-Covid, we were under 6,000.” Crime jumped in 2021 and 2022 in Portland after the city defunded part of the police force in 2020.

People are having second thoughts...

Stopped Lights

The stoplights go out in Oakland:

Oakland, Fox News explains, “has been experiencing high crime and theft, including people stealing copper wires and the city's infrastructure.” The city tried to stop this by putting up cement barriers around electrical boxes, but the brigands proved resourceful enough to overcome that. And so now the wise Communists who rule the city have “taken to removing the traffic lights at a busy intersection and replacing them with stop signs.” A nearby business owner spells out what this signifies. Tam Le of Le's Auto Body & Engine Repair said: "It's just telling us that the city is giving up on us.” That’s right, Tam Le. That’s exactly what it’s telling you. Tam Le continued: "If you really want to fix the stop sign, I think you really have to clean up this homeless encampment." Yes, but there is no chance that Oakland officials will do that. It would go against so many leftist dogmas that they would be impeached and removed from office within minutes. And so the traffic lights have to go.

But the thieves get to stay...

Stone Cold

Oliver Stone criticizes lawfare:

In a recent interview at the Cannes Film Festival, Oliver Stone also said some of the charges Trump is fighting are “minor.” “The charges on both sides of the Trump-Biden election are pretty wild — that Biden is corrupt and Trump is corrupt,” he told Variety. “It’s a new form of warfare. It’s called lawfare. And that’s what they’re using against Trump. And I think there’s interesting parallels here in America, as well as all over the world, you’re seeing this kind of behavior. [Trump’s] got four trials and some of these charges, whether you’re for him or against him, they are minor.”

But they want to make a big deal out of it anyway...

Party Time

Ding dong the dictator is dead:

C Steal

Whoops:

Bad Dogs

China unveils its new dogs of war:

AFP reported: The hardware on show included the so-called “robodogs” — remote-controlled four-legged robots with automatic rifles mounted on their backs. Handlers kept the dogs of war on the leash, demonstrating only their walking capabilities to watching journalists and top brass — not their shooting skills. Opening the exercises, Cambodian armed forces commander-in-chief Vong Pisen said that they would “enhance the capabilities” of the two armies in the fight against terrorism. Vong Pisen said that Cambodia would never allow a foreign military base on its territory, echoing previous assertions by Cambodian leaders. China is not the only military power interested in manufacturing these somewhat unfriendly pooches. According to Futurism, the U.S. military has also explored the possibility as part of a futuristic approach to warfare. The outlet notes: It’s not the first time we’ve come across quadrupedal gun-toting robots. Last year, the Pentagon announced that the US Army is considering arming remote-controlled robot dogs with state-of-the-art rifles as part of its plan to “explore the realm of the possible” in the future of combat. A US-based military contractor called Ghost Robotics has already showed off such a robot dog, outfitted with a long-distance rifle. However, as far as Boston Dynamics’ popular Spot Mini robot dog is concerned, the company has been adamant that strapping weapons to the robodog is against its terms of service. “We pledge that we will not weaponize our advanced-mobility general-purpose robots or the software we develop that enables advanced robotics and we will not support others to do so,” the company wrote in an open letter. Sadly for America and the rest of the world, China does not share such ethical concerns.

Here come the bots...

Lost Generations

South Korea doesn't have enough kids:

President Yoon Suk Yeol is taking aim at the country's disastrously low birth rate by declaring a national emergency and is considering creating a new government ministry to address the coming disaster. South Korea's president has declared the country's low birth rate a 'national emergency' and announced a new government ministry to address the problem. In a televised press conference on May 9, President Yoon Suk Yeol said, 'We will mobilize all of the nation's capabilities to overcome the low birth rate, which can be considered a national emergency.' How bad is the low birth rate in South Korea? It has been the worst on the planet for years, and 2023 showed a NEW low. The babies per woman has dropped to 0.72 in 2023, down from 0.78 in the previous year. They would need to TRIPLE this number just to hit replacement rate. It would take more than that to grow the population. If this continues, South Korea will no longer exist soon enough.

The country that's no longer there...

Raccoon Wars

The raccoons are invading:

Japan’s raccoon infestation has gotten considerably worse over the last decade, multiple Japanese news sources are reporting. Nearly 1,300 raccoons were captured during the 2022 fiscal year, said Tokyo’s government. This is about five times the number that were captured 10 years ago, reported Kyodo News, a Japanese news agency. In 2013, the Japanese government reiterated the need to combat raccoons as an invasive species. Raccoons are not native to Japan, but were brought to the country in the 1970s following the popularity of the 1977 anime “Rascal the Raccoon.”

Real life is not a cartoon...

Money Walks

The big money makers bail on Biden:

After Biden's three-plus years in the White House, these deep pockets are coming back to Trump. Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and others are now saying they may not like Trump but they dislike Biden's policies more. Many of them are keeping anonymous, at least at this point, because they don't want their personal political views to be linked to their employers. One hedge fund billionaire said, "I still hate the man." Most are coming to appreciate Trump's successes in his first term in the White House. His economic policies had the economy humming along for all demographics, not just top earners as Democrats would have you believe. And Trump's immigration policies worked well, too, for the entire country. A third reason is dissatisfaction with Biden and his administration's turning against Israel in the war against Hamas in Gaza. They have taken a second look at Trump and life during the Trump administration looks a lot better than life during the Biden administration. If asked, voters would not say that they are better off today than they were in a pre-pandemic America with Trump in charge.

They'd like to actually keep the rest of their money under Trump...

Solar Heat

It's the scam down under:

The wholesale price of electricity in Australia is roughly three times cheaper than it was two years ago, according to new data from the Australian Energy Regulator, but retailers are still jacking up their prices. The regulator's Wholesale Markets Quarterly Report for the first quarter of 2024 shows that wholesale energy prices have fallen about two thirds from recent highs in 2022. However, Queensland Conservation Council energy strategist Claire Silcock said those savings were not being reflected in people's power bills. "The retail price is going up in Queensland next year because there's still a lot of risk for retailers that there will be periods of extreme high prices," Ms Silcock said. "They're managing that risk and not passing those wholesale power price reductions on to consumers."

Going solar gets you burned...

Blogging In The Years: 1953

I think this Reagan fellow might have a future:

Bug Off

This is what bug eaters really want:

Squawking Off

This bird is the word:

Nature's Rainbow

Nature is gay, or something:

Wigging Out

The end of the wigs?

A common practice dating back to at least 1685, the wearing of wigs came under scrutiny following an incident in 2022 when Michael Etienne, a black barrister with a large afro hairstyle, claimed that he faced being in contempt of court if he refused to wear a wig while claiming that the demand represented a form of “hair discrimination”. While wigs are still required in the crown court, the Court of Appeal, and the High Court, the requirement was ended in 2007 for family, civil and Supreme Court cases in 2007. Arguing in favour of scrapping the tradition entirely, mixed-race barrister Rachel Bale said that wigs are “not fit for purpose” for people with some black hairstyles. “Something overlooked often in black culture is that your hair is so inexplicably important and it is completely interwoven with your identity,” she claimed. Prominent barrister Leslie Thomas KC, also of African descent, has described the wigs as a “ridiculous costume” which allegedly represents the “culturally insensitive climate” in the British judicial system. “The wigs certainly should go. There isn’t any place in a modern society for barristers to be wearing 17th-century fashion,” he said this week, adding that other “archaic” dress code items should also be scrapped, including bands, collarettes, and wing collars. A spokesman for the Bar Council said: “Following questions from barristers about wigs and hair discrimination, the Bar Council set up a working group to consider court dress in the context of all protected characteristics. “The findings of the working group are currently being discussed with the judiciary as part of our regular dialogue on equality and diversity matters.”

Triggered by wigs...

Diet Life

Coke is it:

Blue Devils

Democrats, don't be evil:

Woke Rising

The young are creating a woke emergency:

Woke may not be able to triumph just yet, but, one funeral and one hire at a time, it is on course to prevail. Consider that a Harvard-Harris poll finds nearly half of Zoomers support Hamas over Israel while a Skeptic Research Center survey finds that a similar share believe “the Israeli government advocates for white supremacy.” Among older people, the share who agree is in low single digits, exposing a massive generational canyon. This youthquake is taking place across the West. I find that British 18-25-year-olds split evenly over whether J.K. Rowling — who thinks a biological male is not a woman — should be dropped by her publisher while fewer than five percent of those over 50 do. Progressive illiberalism may be less fashionable in the boardrooms of 2024 than it was in 2020, but its writ will likely run through them in 2044. As Kaufman sees it, conservative priorities must reorient away from economics and foreign policy toward the reform of cultural institutions. We should not lull ourselves into the comforting conceit that the kids will grow out of woke. If the rise of secularism is any indication, the young can readily serve as the shock troops of a new order, leading society toward transformative value change. Detailed analysis of five decades of survey data by Dennis Chong and his California political-science colleagues shows that young people as recently as the early 2000s were much more tolerant of speech that might offend a sensitive member of a minority group than their Gen-Z counterparts are today. College-educated youth, the leaders of tomorrow, are now more likely than young people with just a high school diploma to believe in moral absolutism, overturning decades of prior research.

They're so right, they won't admit when they're wrong...

Never Nevers

There are more of them:

In a recent poll 52% of respondents said they would never vote for President Joe Biden, while 46% said the same for former President Donald Trump. This flips the narrative from the 2020 election, which saw the opposite be true. It’s another sliver of evidence that Trump has an edge over Biden in November. Three of four such polls since November have more “Never Biden” voters than “Never Trump” voters. Voters have had a more favorable view of Trump’s presidency since Biden took office, and that appears to be manifesting in the polls. The “Never Trump” movement originally began in 2015, as Trump built momentum toward his eventual 2016 Republican presidential nomination, with many conservatives vowing to never support him. That group of Republicans united behind former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in 2024, and primary voters are still casting votes for her despite Trump’s clinching of the Republican nomination. Recently, Haley grabbed 21.3% of the vote away from Trump in Maryland’s primary this month.

Trump would like to thank them for their non-support...

Mad Genius

Inside the mind of Francis Ford Coppola:

A futuristic melodrama about a visionary architect (played by Adam Driver), “Megalopolis” is the first film in 13 years from the 85-year-old Coppola, best known for directing the “Godfather” trilogy. But on the dais at Cannes, he was eager to share credit for the movie with his cast, which also includes Aubrey Plaza, Nathalie Emmanuel and Giancarlo Esposito. “We made it together — I didn’t make the film,” Coppola insisted. “When you make a film like this, I didn’t know how to do it, let’s face it. The movie makes itself.” The news conference started 20 minutes late, limiting the number of questions that could be posed, and none of the journalists who were called on asked Coppola about a recent report in The Guardian in which anonymous sources described a chaotic “Megalopolis” shoot and alleged that Coppola tried to kiss some of the female extras featured in a nightclub scene. (Executive co-producer Darren Demetre has said he was unaware of any harassment complaints made during the production, but acknowledged that Coppola gave “kind hugs and kisses on the cheek to the cast and background players.”) Still, at the news conference the cast members alluded to a filming experience that was unusual. “It felt like experimental theater and that’s what made it feel rebellious and exciting,” Driver said.

The work continues...

Movie Music

the return of the sounds of music:

The LP for “I Saw The TV Glow” arrives in the aftermath of the pop delights of the “Barbie” soundtrack, which climbed the Billboard 200 last summer and earned Billie Eilish and Finneas two Grammys and an Oscar for “What Was I Made For.” Last year the “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” soundtrack, from producer Metro Boomin, was filled with dreamy hip-hop that sounded like the kind of thing that the hero Miles Morales himself would have listened to. And on television, the Apple TV+ period piece about Chanel and Dior, “The New Look,” recruited Taylor Swift’s collaborator Jack Antonoff to produce covers of tunes from the era by modern artists like Florence and the Machine and the 1975. It’s not as if soundtracks had gone away completely. A decade ago, “Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1” went platinum with its compilation of classic rock songs like Blue Swede’s “Hooked on a Feeling.” Still, with top artists like Swift and Beyoncé more focused on albums than singles, it seems fitting that Hollywood is getting back into the soundtrack game. Why not sell a movie with music as well?

Listen to the music...

Sandwich Shops

The tale of the taco:

While the debate as to whether tacos, hot dogs, and the like meet the definition of “sandwich” is mildly amusing, like most questions of this type the correct answer is “It depends.” And I think Bobay got it wrong here. In the above-linked case regarding Panera Bread’s exclusive contract to sell sandwiches in a specific strip mall, it seems obvious to me that a Mexican-style restaurant is not a direct competitor and the ruling was therefore correct. In this case, though, whether the exemption that kept out “fast food restaurants” but allowed establishments serving “sandwiches” applied to a taco joint really depends on the intent of the original restriction. And it seems obvious to me that the strip mall and condo association, and not a judge, should have made that call. Rather clearly, a McDonald’s hamburger and an Arby’s roast beef sandwich are sandwiches. They’re more obviously sandwiches than a taco or Bahn mi. So, why were they explicitly banned but Subway and Jimmy John’s exempted? Alas, I was unable to find the answer to that question. Left to speculate, though, the former primarily serves hot food, whereas the latter serves cold food almost exclusively (with the few hot items typically pre-cooked and reheated in a microwave). So, my guess is that the condo association was worried about odors emanating from the restaurants. In which case, tacos, gyros, and Bahn mi are much more like McDonald’s and Arby’s than Subway or Jimmy John’s.

Sometimes a taco is just a taco...

Blood Drive

The price of plasma:

Two-thirds of the world’s plasma comes from the United States, one of the only countries that allows for paid donations. The U.S. also has some of the most relaxed laws around how often you can donate. Plasma is supplied by paid and unpaid donors, but the majority are paid. And of course, if you are a paid donor and you do the math, you can tell you’re being exploited. You’re paid about $50 for one donation (slightly more if you’re donating during a promotional period) of a substance used to make medications that cost thousands of dollars a dose. The plasma market is worth billions of dollars. Higher compensation to “donors” is nothing compared with that. “You shouldn’t have to do that,” people often say to me when I tell them where a portion of my income comes from. “It’s gross.” But then I think of other things I’ve done for money, other people I’ve worked for. A restaurant where a manager would say “I like seeing you on your knees” each time he made me scrub the floor by hand. An artist who offered me $14 an hour to be her assistant, then forgot to pay me when I invoiced. A startup funded partially by a donor to anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. All of these places where I did a lot more for a lot less, where I found myself physically ill over who my boss was, what my labor meant. Of course you should be paid more to donate your plasma. Of course you’re getting the bad end of the deal. But isn’t that true of a lot of jobs?

A job is a jab...

Faking Friends

How to tell if your friends are real:

Social media has made it easier to build more parasocial relationships with celebrities and influencers. What impact are those connections having on our relationships IRL? And how do they shift our understanding and expectations of intimacy and trust? Florida State University assistant professor Arienne Ferchaud defines parasocial relationships and discusses how new technologies are changing the role of entertainment in our lives.

Real friendships with benefits...

Speech Lessons

The accidental accent:

after nearly two decades of revolting against my parents’ desperate attempts to keep me in Chinese school, I figured I was toast. Surely, by then, my brain and vocal tract had aged out of the window in which they could easily learn to discern and produce tones. And whatever new vocabulary I tried to pick up would, I figured, be forever tainted with my American accent. Turns out I was only partly right. We acquire speech most readily in early childhood, when the brain is almost infinitely malleable. And the older we get, the tougher it is to pick up new languages and dialects—to rewire our brain circuitry and to move our mouth and tongue and vocal cords in new ways. But even when you’re an adult, “the way you pronounce sounds can and does change,” Andrew Cheng, a linguist at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, told me. Just how much will depend on factors such as age, geography, exposure, and natural talent. To a large degree, how we speak also reflects what we feel—especially, it seems, when it comes to regional accents.

You are who you imitate...

Web Review

How the Web lost its spunk:

Ian Bogost has lived through more than a few hype cycles on the internet. The Atlantic contributing writer has been online, and building websites, since the early days of the World Wide Web. I spoke with him about what happens when new technologies age into the mainstream, how the web has in some ways been a victim of its own success, and the parts of the internet that still delight him.

It's hard for anyone getting older...

Rat Run

The last rat patrol:

Rats had lived on the island for hundreds of rat generations. The rodents likely arrived in the late 1700s, when a French ship—carrying Malagasy people kidnapped for the slave trade—wrecked there, says Matthieu Le Corre, an ecologist at the University of Reunion Island, a French overseas region off the coast of Madagascar. Tromelin Island was probably home to at least eight different seabird species, including hundreds of thousands of frigate birds, terns, and boobies, before the rodents arrived. But, like on countless other islands around the world, the rats ate their way through those birds’ eggs, eventually decimating the populations. By 2005, when researchers and French authorities finally began eradicating the rodents, only two bird species were left: a few hundred pairs of masked and red-footed boobies.

The rats had to go...

Plane Crazy

They missed their flight:

The activists from the group Last Generation were protesting flying, the most polluting form of transportation, said the German news agency dpa. Police have detained the six. Incoming flights had to be diverted to other airports, an airport spokesperson said. After a couple of hours, the airport’s two runways were reopened though some disruptions to flight schedules may happen, a statement on the airport´s official website said. Last Generation posted on social media platform X, accusing the German government of “downplaying” the negative effects of flying on the environment instead of “finally acting sincerely.” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser slammed the protests and called for them to stop. “Such criminal actions threaten air traffic and harm climate protection because they only cause lack of understanding and anger,” she wrote on X.

Fly the lunatic skies...

Memory Check

The media finally fact-checks Biden:

Inflation rose under Biden to historic highs not seen since the early 1980s due in large part to Biden’s massive spending packages, Breitbart News reported: Biden’s inflation peaked in June 2022 at a year-over-year rate of 9.0 percent, nearly one and a half years after he took office. Inflation remains sticky and recently rose again. In March, inflation increased to 3.5 percent. The average Wisconsin family lost $21,981 due to the increased cost of living under Biden, the Republican National Committee estimated in May. A McDonald’s Big Mac burger, a medium beverage, and a medium fries meal costs $18 in some locations, up $10 from 2018 when Donald Trump was president. On Tuesday, Biden, whom Special Counsel Robert Hur described as “an elderly man with a poor memory,” defied the fact checks and repeated the false claim again, drawing a multitude of fact checks from establishment media outlets. Associated Press (AP) assessed Biden’s repeated claim as false: AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Inflation was at 1.4% in 2021 as Biden assumed the presidency, having risen from a low of 0.1% in May 2020, two months into the COVID-19 pandemic. It continued to increase steadily in the first 17 months of Biden’s presidency, reaching a peak of 9.1% in June 2022. Data released today shows that as of last month, it had fallen to 3.4%. THE FACTS: Biden has twice cited this number, which is drawn from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index, in the past week, first in a CNN interview on May 8 and again during an interview with Yahoo Finance on Wednesday.

Facts and bad memory don't mix...

Green Prices

Whoops:

After arguing that the 2% inflation number is an “arbitrary” number and going from 3% to 2% isn’t worth it, El-Erian said that “if you were to establish an inflation target today based on the secular issues, and let’s talk about it, the domestic paradigm is changing. We’re no longer in this Washington consensus of deregulation, liberalization, and fiscal prudence. We are in a world of industrial policy, government intervention, and fiscal irresponsibility. Let’s talk about the international, we’re no longer talking about…globalization. We’re talking about fragmentation. Then look at the transitions we have, we have major transitions going on, not just generative AI, life sciences, and sustainable energy, we have things happening in health care, you have things happening in defense, you have things happening in food security. If you put all that together, it is a different inflationary environment. It’s a world that’s subject to higher inflation, and we’ve come from a world that was subject to lower inflation.”

Green costs more green...

Slush Fund

It was good work while she had it:

Barbara Furlow-Smiles, 38, of Marietta, Georgia, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Steven D. Grimberg to five years and three months in prison, followed by three years’ supervised release. She was also ordered to pay $5,102,838.08 to the impacted companies, the bulk of which was to Facebook. From January 2017 to September 2021, Furlow-Smiles led Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs at Facebook and was responsible for developing and executing DEI initiatives, operations and engagement programs. Her role at the company provided her access to company credit cards, and authority to submit purchase requisitions and approve invoices for authorized vendors of Facebook – a level of power she quickly abused. The former DEI manager linked PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App accounts to her Facebook credit cards and used those accounts to pay friends, relatives, and other associates for goods and services that in truth were never provided to Facebook. The vast majority of the money was then returned back to Furlow-Smiles in cash. Following her termination from Facebook, she worked as Senior Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for Nike from November 2021 to February 2023, where she was responsible for DEI initiatives including the Juneteenth event in New York. Like her previous offences, Furlow-Smiles circumvented the vendor process at Nike to commit fraud, with expense reports falsely claiming that the payments were related to the Juneteenth event. The 38-year-old stole almost $5million from Facebook and $121,054.50 from Nike to fund a luxurious lifestyle in California, Georgia, and Oregon.

Somebody had to pay for her lifestyle...

Green Review

Climate crisis skepticism is growing:

If polling data is any indication, the rhetoric may be having the opposite effect of what’s intended. A Monmouth University poll released earlier this month found that, while a wide majority of people believe climate change is happening (73%), a shrinking portion of people believe that climate change poses a very serious problem. The last time the poll was run, in 2021, it found that 56% of Americans viewed climate change as a very serious issue, but the latest poll shows only 46% see it that way. Among people ages 18 to 34, the drop is even more pronounced, with 67% viewing it as a very serious problem in 2021 and 50% viewing it as very serious in the latest poll. Support for government action has likewise taken a tumble, at least among younger age groups. Those 18 to 34 who support government action to address climate change fell from 80% in 2021 to 62% in 2024. Older generations still want to see government involvement, with 60% of those over age 55 supporting government action in both polls. Among all age groups, support fell from 66% in 2021 to 59% in 2024.

The green revolt is growing...

Warning Shot

From someone who knows:

Guitar Man

The old woman versus the musician:

Masks Off

No more masks in North Carolina:

The proposal, which was voted on following an intense debate, was approved along party lines and will now head to the House for further scrutiny. The Hill reports: The North Carolina state Senate voted along party lines Wednesday to ban anyone from wearing masks in public, even for health reasons. Republican supporters of the ban said it would help law enforcement crack down on protesters who wear masks. They say demonstrators are abusing COVID-19 pandemic-era practices to hide their identities following a wave of pro-Palestine protests nationwide and at North Carolina universities.

By their faces they will know them...

State Race

Biden races the clock:

Biden’s administrative state in recent months appears to be working overtime to cement his agenda into the fabric of America. For example, the administrative state implemented 66 significant rules in April alone, a number that is greater than any month since the Reagan administration, a Regulatory Studies Center analysis found. Biden’s administrative state published 111 more regulations than Trump implemented at the same point in his term, Axios reported. Many of the rules will protect the progressive agenda of “climate change,” such as limiting auto tailpipe emissions and forcing power plants to cut carbon dioxide emissions. The rules implemented during an upcoming “lookback period” can be reversed in a potential Trump administration via the Congressional Review Act. Any rules put into action before the deadline cannot be reversed. When the “lookback period” begins in 2024 is murky, but Axios reported Biden’s deadline to range between next week and September. That means Biden has little time to cement his radical left agenda within the administrative state, Steven Balla, co-director of George Washington University’s Regulatory Studies Center, told Axios.

They know they're running out of time...

Free Ride

The gravy train is over:

“The reason Kevin got involved financially in the first place was that he could see that no one was going to help Hunter,” said an associate of Morris’s in an interview with POLITICO.The individual continued: “Now, four and a half years later, there’s still no help — and now Kevin is completely tapped out. So just when Hunter is facing two criminal trials starting in a few weeks, he has no resources. It’s pretty dire.” The entertainment lawyer confirmed the associate’s account to POLITICO. Hunter Biden faces two upcoming criminal trials in June — one set to start in less than two days over federal gun charges and the other set to begin on June 20 in California over allegations of tax evasion.Morris is said to be facing severe financial constraints, which could leave Hunter Biden without any means to pay for legal services such as expert witnesses as he heads to trial. In January, Morris admitted to the House Oversight Committee that he had loaned Hunter Biden at least $6.5 million.

He'll have to pay his own way now...

Tape Worms

The tale of the tapes:

Mr. Garland, in a May 15 letter to the president, said that the “committee’s needs are plainly insufficient to outweigh the deleterious effects that the production of the recordings would have on the integrity and effectiveness of similar law enforcement investigations in the future.” Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte asked Republican leaders not to continue with the contempt proceedings. “It is the longstanding position of the executive branch held by administrations of both parties that an official who asserts the president’s claim of executive privilege cannot be held in contempt of Congress,” Mr. Uriarte wrote to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) in a May 16 letter. .... In a statement, Mr. Comer slammed President Biden’s move as politically motivated and reiterated that his committee will move forward with the resolution to hold Mr. Garland in contempt of Congress. “It’s a five-alarm fire at the White House,” Mr. Comer said. “Clearly President Biden and his advisers fear releasing the audio recordings of his interview because it will again reaffirm to the American people that President Biden’s mental state is in decline.”

Don't show the decline...

Squad Riot

Radical Democrats keep losing it:

Things are out of control in the Oversight Committee as there have been repeated outbursts from Marjorie Taylor Greene. The hearing has been tied up after Greene insulted the appearance of another member.

Greene: I would like to know if any of the Democrats on this committee are… pic.twitter.com/vl2LWpkbm2

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 17, 2024

AOC has had enough of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s outbursts pic.twitter.com/OlItyszihs

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 17, 2024

F For Flunking

Public schools continue to fail downward:

The latest math scores from 2022 show the largest declines in the fourth and eighth grades since we began tracking these scores in 1990. Math scores for both grade benchmarks have been in a free fall since 2013. The decline is not isolated to one region of the country. As a matter of fact, according to NAEP, “Fourth-grade mathematics scores declined across all regions of the country and in 43 states/jurisdictions.” Not only do we see scores decline, but “a larger proportion of fourth-grade students performed below NAEP Basic in mathematics in 43 states/jurisdictions.”

But I'm sure they all got passing grades anyway...