April 23, 2024

SANDY’S WAR, THE ANTEBELLUM YEARS: In the AOC Archive.

An archived web page from 2018, created by a developer named Riley Roberts, purported to offer for sale Civet Select, “the world’s most exotic cup of coffee.” In Indonesia, according to the web page, “cage-free indigenous Palm Civets climb to the top of the plantation trees to eat the best coffee beans in the crop. Civets digest the berries and pass the coffee beans. The enzymes in the digestive process remove the bitterness and acidity from the coffee. Farmers hike the plantation and surrounding forest to find the rare, wild Civet droppings. The found beans are thoroughly cleaned, washed and sun dried at the plantation. Lab testing confirms Civet coffee is clean and safe to drink.”

Anyone reading these astonishing claims might well think the resulting product, pardon my French, tastes like shit, but a winsome photo of Roberts’s attractive partner, “Alexandria,” highlights her reassuring guarantee that that’s not the case: “This Civet coffee has a unique, smooth and full-bodied flavor that I really enjoyed.”

Yet most amazing of all is the listed price of the “found” beans for which Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was shilling: $40 for two ounces! Coffee beans usually come in 12-ounce packages, so $240 for a bag of “droppings” would be an awfully steep price even for New York City Democratic Socialists.

And you thought 2019, the year that AOC’s Green Nude Eel dominated news headlines was an innocent year compared with what was to follow. But hey, when you only have 12 years left — before the world ends and/or President Ocasio-Cortez makes everything illegal, you might as well live it up with the finest, most exotic coffee known to socialistkind.

(Classical reference in headline.)

Posted at 6:45 pm by Ed Driscoll

“ELITE HIGHER ED IS CRINGE.” Yep.

Related: Just go to a state school. “Even in a period when nearly all American institutions are losing public trust, the decline in confidence for higher education stands out. In 2015, 57 percent of Americans had a ‘great deal’ or ‘quite a lot’ of confidence in higher education, according to Gallup polling. By summer 2023, that number had declined to just 36 percent. . . . These polls, furthermore, preceded the December 2023 congressional hearings that eventually led to the ouster of Penn president Liz Magill and Harvard president Claudine Gay (though in Gay’s case, it was more because of credible allegations that she was a serial plagiarist). They also preceded the recent wave of protests on the campuses of Columbia and other elite schools, variously described as pro-Palestine or anti-Israel depending on the news outlet.”

Conclusion: “So fuck Harvard and fuck the rest of these schools4 — the correction in perceptions is long overdue. By all means go if it’s in your best interest to do so. But state colleges and institutions are much better institutions for society — one of the things that truly make America great — and often offer a more well-rounded experience and a comparable education at a lower price.”

Posted at 6:37 pm by Glenn Reynolds

FASTER, PLEASE: Supreme Court Seems Ready to Overturn 9th Circus’ Judge-Made Law That Homeless People Are Allowed to Sleep On the Streets (At Least Until Cities Build Free Houses for Every Single Homeless Person).

One (1) aspect of the downfall of California isn’t actually Gavin Newsom’s doing, unbelievably enough. Cities on the west coast allow permanent homeless encampments because the leftwing circus called the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided to make up their own laws and imposed the rule that homeless people must be permitted to camp wherever they like, until and unless governments create housing for all of them.

The Supreme Court is finally getting around to reviewing this lawless ruling.

However, California is still going to California: Santa Monica okays $1M per unit homeless housing project after audit found state wasted billions on crisis.

A new state audit shows that the effectiveness of California’s homeless programs, on which the state spent $24 billion over five years was not consistently tracked.

Santa Monica city officials last week approved a multimillion-dollar apartment unit for the homeless just days after the release of an audit which found California could not account for the $24 billion it spent on the state’s burgeoning homeless crisis.

The 122-unit building for the homeless will include a mix of studio, one, two and three-bedroom apartments, along with ground floor retail and residential and commercial parking spaces.

A design concept available on the city’s website shows that the multi-apartment unit will cost more than $123 million, for a cost of just over $1 million each for the 122 apartments. A second design concept would have cost even more, north of $200 million for 196 units.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: California hasn’t been tracking homeless programs’ effectiveness, audit finds

“Moving forward in bringing affordable and permanent supportive housing to city-owned land is a key step in our strategy to fulfill our Housing Element requirements,” Mayor Phil Brock said. “I look forward to the next steps and ultimately seeing families move into these new homes and thrive.”

The measure was approved days after the release of an audit which indicated the state had spent around $24 billion between 2018 and 2023 to tackle homelessness – but did not consistently track whether the huge outlay of public money did anything to actually improve the problem.

Fox Butterfield could not be reached for comment.

Posted at 6:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

THE 21st CENTURY ISN’T TURNING OUT AS I HAD HOPED: Sad Digital World: How it All Started in 2013.

The idea that 2013 was more than ten years ago baffles me, but while dwelling on how much time has passed, I was thinking about how that singular year redefined the current state of affairs in America. Since 1968 or even 1945, has a single year seen so much change?

When we look at the landscape of existential crisis facing the American public, a few things stand out: loneliness, mental illness among the young, the Great Awokening, and political polarization. Obviously, these aren’t the only political issues facing the United States. We have a broken border and out-of-control spending, but these issues are at the root of many of our social conditions.

2013 wasn’t the year these problems started, but it was the point of no return, at least no return that I can see. Although many of these issues are political, politicians aren’t responsible for this turning point – so much to some people’s chagrin, this won’t be a tirade on Obama.

Why was 2013 so important? It was the first time a majority of Americans had a smartphone, and the first time the iPhone became available on all cell phone providers’ plans. It was the first time a supermajority of Americans were on social media. And it was the year that the media began their Great Awokening, whereby all news centered around race and racism. All these technological and social advances fed into one another to further drive Americans apart.

There’s now a wide body of scientific literature showing that smartphones, combined with social media, are linked to anxiety, depression, and social contagions among teenagers, especially teen girls.

From 2010 to 2019, as smartphones and social media became more commonly used, rates of depression in adolescents rose more than 50 percent. The suicide rate rose 48 percent for adolescents ages 10 to 19. For girls ages 10 to 14, it rose 131 percent.

Jonathan Haidt noted in the Atlantic how the extreme pivot in most measures of teens’ mental health (which he says began in 2012 instead of 2013) occurred with easy access to social media and the smartphone.

Related: Haidt talks with Margaret Hoover about his thesis on a recent episode of PBS’s reboot of Firing Line: 

Posted at 6:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

THE NFL IS ONCE AGAIN SEEKING TO TANK ITS OWN REPUTATION: NFL Funded Left-Wing Group Bailing Out Anti-Israel Bridge Blockers.

Community Justice Exchange set up a “bail and legal defense fund” for those arrested during last week’s A15 protests. The protests targeted major airports, highways, and bridges in dozens of U.S. cities including San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia. Their explicit goal was to disrupt economic “choke points” to maximize financial disruption, as explained on their website.

The online fundraiser, hosted by ActBlue and organized in conjunction with A15 Action, told donors that the funds will “support community members who are criminalized in the U.S. for their solidarity with Palestine.”

As an official “Inspire Change” partner, the Community Justice Exchange received grants and publicity in its work “to end money bail and pre-trial detention at the local level and immigration detention at the national level.” The NFL’s partnership with the Community Justice Exchange was last extended in June 2022, according to an announcement from the league. The league touted the left-wing group’s “work with organizers, advocates, and legal providers across the country that are using community bail funds as part of efforts to radically change local bail systems and reduce incarceration.” The grants went toward “coordinating and supporting the 100+ local protest to bail funds and a centralized rapid response fund to support those protesting for racial justice.”

The partnership appears to have since lapsed—the nonprofit wasn’t on the list of grantees announced in May 2023. The NFL’s “Inspire Change” website lists Community Justice Exchange under “Previous Grant Recipients” and still includes a link to the group’s website.

The NFL did a pretty good job over the past couple of seasons to minimize its Trump-era days of peak-wokeness. However, the above news sounds like that was simply a smokescreen to placate its fans on the right-hand side of the stadium.  And it’s a reminder that Pete Rozelle left the building a very long time ago, indeed.

Posted at 6:00 pm by Ed Driscoll

IN PRAISE OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS. “Acknowledging the people whose way of life we have appropriated.”

Posted at 5:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

SAD: Jerry Seinfeld Says the ‘Movie Business Is Over’ and ‘Film Doesn’t Occupy the Pinnacle in the Cultural Hierarchy’ Anymore: ‘Disorientation Replaced’ It.

Jerry Seinfeld is finally a movie director with the upcoming premiere of his feature debut “Unfrosted.” Backed by Netflix, the star-studded comedy is a fictional account of the creation of Pop-Tarts toaster pastries. In a new interview with GQ magazine, Seinfeld reflected on his experience jumping into moviemaking for the first time so late in his career.

“It was totally new to me. I thought I had done some cool stuff, but it was nothing like the way these people work,” Seinfeld said. “They’re so dead serious! They don’t have any idea that the movie business is over. They have no idea.”

Asked to elaborate on a more serious note, Seinfeld continued: “Film doesn’t occupy the pinnacle in the social, cultural hierarchy that it did for most of our lives. When a movie came out, if it was good, we all went to see it. We all discussed it. We quoted lines and scenes we liked. Now we’re walking through a fire hose of water, just trying to see.”

So what, if anything, has replaced film? “Depression? Malaise? I would say confusion. Disorientation replaced the movie business,” he answered. “Everyone I know in show business, every day, is going, ‘What’s going on? How do you do this? What are we supposed to do now?’”

There’s no secret to good storytelling. Give audiences flawed but admirable heroes they can identify with, and then put them through hell on the way to victory.

It seems impossible that Hollywood can’t — or won’t — remember that simple lesson, but here we are.

Posted at 1:44 pm by Stephen Green

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD ONCE AGAIN DOING STRAIGHT UP REPORTAGE:

And as Jonathan Turley writes: “Deactivated:” Columbia Reportedly Blocks Jewish Professor from Access to Campus.

Meanwhile, it’s back to the (virtual) bunkers for the rest of the students and faculty there, as the demons of 1933 and 2020 converge: Columbia University faces calls for tuition refunds as school moves to hybrid classes for rest of semester in wake of anti-Israel protests.

Exit question:

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

IT HAD A REALLY GOOD RUN: After 48 years, Zilog is killing the classic standalone Z80 microprocessor chip. “Last week, chip manufacturer Zilog announced that after 48 years on the market, its line of standalone DIP (dual inline package) Z80 CPUs is coming to an end, ceasing sales on June 14, 2024. The 8-bit Z80 architecture debuted in 1976 and powered a small-business-PC revolution in conjunction with CP/M, also serving as the heart of the Nintendo Game Boy, Sinclair ZX Spectrum, the Radio Shack TRS-80, the Pac-Man arcade game, and the TI-83 graphing calculator in various forms.”

The faster eZ80 — introduced more than 20 years ago — remains in production.

Incredible.

Posted at 12:42 pm by Stephen Green