April 16, 2024
TO ASK THE QUESTION IS TO ANSWER IT: ¿Qué? Why Do Flyers in Mexico Encourage Illegals to Vote for Biden?
CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: The Battle For National Park Carry Isn’t Over.
READER FAVORITE: Bissell Little Green Pet Deluxe Portable Carpet Cleaner. #CommissionEarned
SO LONG, AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH: In World First, Scientists Share What Was Almost Certainly a Conversation with Humpback a Whale.
ANOTHER REASON NOT TO GET COCKY: ‘Bidenbucks’ Make ‘Zuckbucks’ Look Like Chump Change.
On Aug. 9, 2021, just five months after Biden signed the executive order that would command the federal government to serve as a get-out-the-vote arm of the Democrat Party, Adam Lioz emailed “Team USDA.” Lioz, who at the time served as senior counsel for left-wing policy activist group Demos, wanted to circle back with Department of Agriculture staff and thank them for “a productive conversation,” according to records obtained by the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project.
“As we noted, we’ll have our ‘best practices’ slides ready in the next 1-2 weeks and in the meantime, y’all had asked for data on voter registration at the state level, which I’ve pasted below,” Lioz, who these days serves as senior policy counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, wrote in the email with the subject line, “Demos Meeting on Voting Rights EO.”
“We’re eager to schedule follow up conversations to dig into specific programs and help with integration in any way we can. Just let us know when you are available for that,” he added.
Not surprisingly, Biden’s USDA did just that. New York-based Demos reportedly helped draft Biden’s Executive Order 14019, which directs each federal agency head to develop a plan to “promote voter registration and voter participation.” As the Foundation for Government Accountability notes, Biden’s fiat “follows the same strategy” contained in a Demos policy paper.
If you’re filling your leftist bingo card, Demos is closely tied to the far-left Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wing of the Democrat Party, according to activist tracker InfluenceWatch.
Much more at the link.
KUDOS TO CBS: ‘If a Bully Takes 350 Odd Swings at You and You Duck, How Is That a Win?’
CBS Mornings co-host Tony Dokoupil eschewed both approaches and did his job of asking tough, adversarial questions. …
When [Biden flack John] Kirby meandered and argued it all worked out for the best, Kirby both pushed back and took aim at those (including in the White House) arguing Israel should just take drones and missiles ad nauseam without being allowed to hit back:
Nobody wants a war in that region, not at all, but let’s take up this question of what a win is. You’ve described the Middle East there, Israel’s neighborhood, as a tough one. Deterrence matters, hitting back does. If a bully takes 350 odd swings at you and you duck, how is that a win?
Kirby replied he wouldn’t “get into what the future portends here and — and what the Israelis might or might not do”, but doubled down on not wanting “a wider war” while also this laughable and vague claim of “continu[ing] to hold Iran accountable”.
A wise community organizer famously advised his constituents to “get in their faces and punch back twice as hard.” Offer not valid in Israel, apparently.
CLOGGED ARTERIES: The unseen cost of road-blocking protests.
Recent events in Israel and Gaza have sparked a wave of protests, with some activists in major cities using a familiar tactic: obstructing traffic.
While this seems to have been an effective strategy by protesters across the political spectrum to draw attention to a variety of issues in recent years — including racial injustice, climate change, and pandemic restrictions — these protests raise an important question: At what cost do these disruptions come?
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times about a demonstration disrupting traffic at the Los Angeles airport recently, Michael Beer, the director of Nonviolence International, said that it can be hard for protesters to cut through the media environment without disruptive action like blocking traffic. He then added, “But you have to think: Are you stopping the ambulance from getting to a hospital and somebody’s going to die?”
Research on road closures suggests the answer is probably yes.
* * * * * * * *
The issue at hand, of course, is not the right to protest; non-violent protest is a cornerstone of our democracy and our American identity. But a commonsense extrapolation of the marathon study, and other studies that illustrate how mere minutes matter in medical emergencies, tells us that even when the protest itself is peaceful and protesters clear the way for ambulances or other emergency vehicles, transit times will still be longer, particularly when accounting for the ripple effects that a blockage in one area can cause for motorists miles away.
If activists are indeed committed to peaceful protest, they must be cognizant of the real harms of road-blocking protests that are more problematic than a simple nuisance to commuters, nearby businesses, and others. It is unlikely that protesters would ever find out if an ambulance was delayed and a patient was physically harmed or died as a result of that delay. If protesters were aware of the extent to which those with life-threatening medical emergencies could be dying as a result of their blockade, would they choose differently?
Given that they share the same “Progressives Against Progress” anti-modernity worldview as the climate change apocalyptic narcissists who similarly block roads and destroy artwork, then the answer is “No.” Next question?
WHEN YOU’VE LOST CNN…: Even CNN’s Legal Analyst Destroys Bragg’s Case Against Trump for its ‘Weakness.’
“PEOPLE WITH BREAST CANCER.” SCIENCE! Many people with breast cancer ‘systematically left behind’ due to inaction on inequities and hidden suffering. Okay, men do occasionally get breast cancer. But the article speaks entirely about the woes of women. Only the headline bothers to be woke.
INFLATION, ONCE UNLEASHED, IS DIFFICULT AND PAINFUL TO REIN BACK IN:
This is not great inflation news: the disinflation in market rents proved to be really short lived https://t.co/YghTyrcuNB pic.twitter.com/ejhJITrk6P
— Adam Shapiro (@ah_shapiro) April 15, 2024
But fear not. Jonathan Chait says to believe Paul Krugman and not your lying bank statement.
OLD AND BUSTED: “The Male Gaze.”
The new hotness? Skynet’s gaze! World’s first beauty pageant for AI women is announced: ‘Miss AI’ contest will see computer-generated ladies face off in tests of beauty, technology and social-media clout — with a $20,000 prize at stake.
PARTY OF YOUTH UPDATE: John Cougar Mellencamp, 72, angry that fans don’t want a lecture on the wonders of Joe Biden, age 81:
If I were in the audience I would demand a refund. Or reverse the charges on the credit card used to buy the tickets.
— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) April 16, 2024
UNEXPECTEDLY! ABC, NBC, CBS Fail To Tell Viewers Trump Prosecutors Are ‘Democrats’ 90% Of Time.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, barring any unforeseen delays, will begin his criminal trial of former President Donald Trump on Monday on 34 felony charges of falsifying business records to cover up “hush money” allegations.
The trial is unprecedented. Political implications loom large. The Republican nominee for president and favorite to win the general election faces a full team of Democratic prosecutors.
Yet Americans who rely on evening newscasts from legacy broadcast networks for information are likely unaware of the latter fact.
Rich Noyes is a contributing editor for MRC NewsBusters, the most reliable media watchdog in the industry today. Noyes led a team of analysts who reviewed “NBC Nightly News,” “CBS Evening News” and ABC’s “World News Tonight” from January 1, 2023, through April 10, 2024.
MRC found that the three networks failed to inform viewers during “at least 90 percent” of the coverage that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis, and New York Attorney General Letitia James are Democrats.
“The network coverage of the Trump prosecutions routinely and fraudulently implies that they are nonpartisan public officials. It’s Trump versus the New York Attorney General, or the Manhattan District Attorney,” NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham told Fox News Digital.
“They’re not just Democrats, they’re elected Democrats, building a career on taking down Trump. Leaving that out of the story is irresponsible.”
Just think of the media as Democratic Party operatives with bylines, and the bias-by-omission makes perfect sense.
Evergreen:
DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: Mother Moves Son to CA for Chemical Castration.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: U.S. pharmacy database shows record-high shortages of medical drugs.
DEAL OF THE DAY: Glocusent LED Neck Reading Light, Book Light for Reading in Bed. #CommissionEarned (Bumped)
PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:
Shot: Another Boeing whistleblower says he faced retaliation for reporting ‘shortcuts.’
—NPR, Friday.
Chaser: NPR suspends veteran editor Uri Berliner who called out left-wing bias.
NPR has suspended Uri Berliner, the senior editor who published a bombshell essay a week ago that claimed that the publicly funded outlet has “lost America’s trust” by approaching news stories with a left-wing bias.
NPR media writer David Folkenflik revealed on Tuesday that Berliner beginning on Friday was suspended for five days without pay. Folkenflik, who reviewed a copy of the letter from NPR brass, said that the company told the editor he had failed to secure its approval for outside work for other news outlets — a requirement of NPR journalists.
NPR called the letter a “final warning,” saying Berliner would be fired if he violated NPR’s policy again.
Neither NPR nor Berliner immediately responded to requests for comment.
Curiously, beleaguered NPR CEO Katherine Maher hasn’t locked down her Twitter account or deleted her tweets yet: Christopher Rufo Goes Through New NPR CEO’s Amazingly Woke Twitter Timeline, which could well be driving Berliner’s suspension:
Gentlemen, start your screenshots; there’s a pretty good chance the treasure trove of hot takes from Maher that Rufo uncovered won’t be online much longer:
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Perhaps red-state legislators and governors should require their public universities to disassociate themselves from NPR, given its commitment to racism and hate. NPR is all over red states, supported financially and otherwise by public universities.
INDUSTRIAL POLICY: Samsung Snags $6.4 Billion For Texas Fabs. “As I’ve written before, semiconductor subsidies are the wrong solution for the wrong problem (especially if the Biden Administration demands Samsung pledge fealty to social justice before sucking the taxpayers teat). But if you are going to subsidize someone, and your goal is more cutting edge American fabs, then Samsung isn’t the worst recipient.”
You have to wonder if Samsung is hoping the social justice regs buried in the CHIPS act will get 86’d by the next administration.
For decades, the attitude toward the documentary “Let It Be” in the Beatles‘ camp seemed to be: Let it it rest in peace. But the film is finally going to be seen again. A restored version of the 1970 movie is coming soon to Disney+, the same service that brought fans “The Beatles: Get Back,” the 2021 Peter Jackson docuseries that used outtakes from director Michael Lindsay-Hogg‘s original film.
The documentary will re-premiere on Disney+ May 8, certain to be a red-letter day for Beatles fans who have spent most of their lives wondering if it would ever be let out of the vault again. Not only has the 1970 film been dusted off, but it’s been restored by Peter Jackson’s Park Road Post Production using the same technology employed to make the vintage footage in “The Beatles: Get Back” look and sound as revitalized as it did.
The original film has been notorious for being the one item in the Beatles’ catalog that Apple seemed to want to suppress rather than exploit. “Let It Be” has not been officially in circulation in any form since the early 1980s, although muddy-looking bootleg copies have been widely available. Those boots were lifted off VHS and laserdisc versions that came out in the early days of the home video revolution; the movie never made it to a release in the DVD era, much less Blu-Ray or streaming.
Jackson used hours of outtakes from Lindsay-Hogg’s footage to assemble “The Beatles: Get Back.” During the publicity campaign for that project, he repeatedly vowed that his fresh treatment of the material was meant to complement the original film, not forever supplant it, and that the original doc would eventually be seen again so that they could stand as companion pieces.
“I’m absolutely thrilled that Michael’s movie, ‘Let It Be,’ has been restored and is finally being re-released after being unavailable for decades,” Jackson said in a statement. “I was so lucky to have access to Michael’s outtakes for ‘Get Back,’ and I’ve always thought that ‘Let It Be’ is needed to complete the ‘Get Back’ story. Over three parts, we showed Michael and the Beatles filming a groundbreaking new documentary, and ‘Let It Be’ is that documentary – the movie they released in 1970. I now think of it all as one epic story, finally completed after five decades. The two projects support and enhance each other: ‘Let It Be’ is the climax of ‘Get Back,’ while ‘Get Back’ provides a vital missing context for ‘Let It Be.’ Michael Lindsay-Hogg was unfailingly helpful and gracious while I made ‘Get Back,’ and it’s only right that his original movie has the last word… looking and sounding far better than it did in 1970.”
For serious Beatles Kremlinologists, Get Back teased that Let It Be would likely be finally coming out in some form. Peter Jackson’s miniseries ends with the Beatles’ legendary final concert atop the Apple office building on Savile Row, but in 1969, the day after the rooftop concert, the Beatles were filmed performing three acoustic numbers indoors that they had deemed unsuitable for playing in the wintry conditions on the roof:
On 31 January, the last day of filming and recording, the Beatles reconvened in the Apple building’s basement studio. They played complete performances of “Two of Us”, “The Long and Winding Road” and “Let It Be”, which were included in the film as the end of the Apple studio segment, before the closing rooftop segment.
Presumably at Christmastime, there will some sort of box set, with either the Let It Be movie on Blu-Ray with an assortment of outtakes and bonus footage, the movie bundled with the Get Back miniseries, or both projects bundled with some or all of the contents from the Let It Be CD box set from 2021.
But will there be a token theatrical release as well? And will audiences respond differently than they did in 1970?
The crowd I first saw the original film with weren’t interested in a happier spin on the Beatles. They were there to render judgment, to be the choric voice of the Beatles’ community declaring their disapproval. In other words, they were there to boo. They were there to boo Yoko Ono. If I remember the film correctly, the opening credits were barely done when we see John Lennon, and there is Yoko, sitting right beside him.
“Boooo.”
Then, there is Yoko, knitting right beside him.
“Boooo.”
For the length of the movie, every time Yoko was on camera, the crowd booed, as if to say, “Take that, Yoko, for breaking up the Beatles.”
There are two things generally remembered about the film now: the euphoric rooftop concert that closes the movie and the horrible, miserable dust-up between bossy-pants Paul and passive-aggressive George. McCartney has been trying to get Harrison to play a less-busy strumming, and does so with cringe-making condescension: “I’m trying to help, but I always hear myself annoying you,” says an exasperated Paul.
“No, you’re not annoying me,” says George in a flat you’re-dead-to-me tone. “You don’t annoy me anymore.” It is the scene that best captures the unhappiness and mutual dislike that was destroying the band.
But Peter Jackson says that such scenes did not accurately represent what was going on between the Beatles, and he has the footage to prove it.
Jackson’s Get Back decisively accomplished that in 2021; finally though we’ll get to see, in pristine form, the last movie release from their run as an active band.
LIMIT THE CASH-COW ENROLLMENT OF FOREIGN STUDENTS VIA LAW OR TAX REGULATION AND YOU’D SOLVE MUCH OF THE CAMPUS ANTI-SEMITISM PROBLEM: Gaza Grilling Felled Two Ivy Presidents. Columbia Hopes to Avoid the Same Fate.
Four months after a congressional hearing prompted the resignations of two Ivy League university presidents, the leader of Columbia University is set to face questions Wednesday from the same committee trying to determine how she has protected students as protesters rage against Israel and the war in Gaza.
Columbia President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik has the advantages of hindsight and months to prepare. . . .
“Some of the worst cases of antisemitic assaults, harassment, and vandalism on campus have occurred at Columbia University,” said Rep. Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.) in a March statement. Foxx is the chairwoman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, which is holding the hearing.
Jewish students at Columbia have alleged incidents of assault, antisemitic graffiti like swastikas, calls for the destruction of Israel at rallies and speaking invitations from student groups to members of foreign terrorist groups.
Shafik, who became Columbia’s president on July 1, 2023, has defended the university’s actions following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.
The free speech argument would be more compelling if Columbia had a record of vigorously defending the free speech of students its leadership didn’t agree with. It doesn’t. And with the AAUP and university faculties suddenly interested in defending academic freedom — where have you been? It’s not like higher education hasn’t spent the past decade or two convincing the public it was a toxic industry.
Flashback: Welcome to the party, pal!
FORGET IT, HE’S ROLLING: Projection Much? ‘Morning Joe’ Scarborough’s On-Air Meltdown “If a lefty isn’t projecting, it’s only because zhey haven’t had zheir soy-based coffee yet.”
