WHO KNEW HE WAS “FAR RIGHT” DECADES AGO?

I just found the most brilliant bit by @JohnCleese

He explains Leftism better in 90 seconds, than you could learn from any academic in 20 years. pic.twitter.com/xtubCcbRdi

— Dr Manhattva (@Manhattva) October 3, 2026

DID HE NOT EVEN EVER WATCH HOGAN’S HEROES RERUNS?

Not a history, major I see https://t.co/eoVoEIv0PJ

— Charlie Martin 🇺🇸✡️🇮🇱 (@chasrmartin) October 4, 2026

IT’S REALLY LONG:  I’ve been reading through the Report of the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans.  It’s well over 1000 pages long (and printed in a way that makes it more like 2000 pages of an ordinary book).  I probably won’t be able to read every single line of it, but I will try to read as much as I can.  Somebody has to, and it’s up my alley, so I should be the one.

The report is already three years old.  I skimmed it when it came out, but at that point I didn’t have enough time to do more.  I was hoping that it wouldn’t be acted on and that I would never have to go back to it.  Alas, that has not been the case, so now that my own book is finished and a few other projects are under control, I’m trying to make the time to read and to some degree respond to the report.

I’ll be very surprised if the proposals for direct cash payments to the descendants of slaves get anywhere, but there are other aspects of the report that have already been enacted.  (And I’m often surprised at what the California Legislature does, so don’t assume I’m right that direct cash payments were dead on arrival.)

So far, the most notable success of the Task Force occurred in 2025 when Gavin Newsom approved a law creating a Bureau of Descendants of American Slavery.  Once a bureaucracy is established, it is nearly impossible to stop it from advancing its purposes in some way.  At the same time, Newsom also  signed a bill that allocated $6 Million to Cal State University to research methods for determining who is a descendant of an American slave and who isn’t. So things are moving ahead.

But he also vetoed several bills—including one that would have authorized the University of California to discriminate in favor of the descendants of slaves—in part because he understood that Prop 209 is a potential obstacle to such a scheme. Alas, that may explain why this year’s big push from reparations supporters was to authorize  another referendum to gut Proposition 209.  The new referendum will go on the ballot in 2028.

Meanwhile, another reparations success happened a couple days ago.  Newsom signed a bill that requires corporations to disclose past profits from slavery.  It’s obvious where that is intended to go.

Our Golden State legislators just can’t seem to stop themselves.  This stuff will never end.

I hope to report back a little on the reparations report when I get a further in.  But I already find myself occasionally taking a break to look for homes for sale in other, less crazy, states, so it may take a while.

I BELIEVE THE SOCIETAL/RELATIONAL DAMAGE IS ACTUALLY THE POINT:

The biggest issue raised by Jane Doe vs. the Cornell 7 isn't simply who is responsible. It is what the controversy could do to relations between men and women at a moment when American social life is already in trouble.
Young Americans are increasingly lonely and unhappy.…

— Timur Kuran (@timurkuran) October 4, 2026

The purpose of a system is what it does.

Related:

“It was so wrong when women’s husbands had control over their finances and freedoms.”

“Unrelated men should totally call the cops on a woman who wants to have sex.”

Pick one. https://t.co/AbjMUnL03T

— Amy Curtis (@RantyAmyCurtis) October 4, 2026

AT AMAZON, Shop Early Prime Big Day Deals. #CommissionEarned

FRAUD ALL THE WAY DOWN: ‘Phantom’ ObamaCare accounts spark new crackdown as Oz targets broker fraud.

Oz told Fox News Digital that the administration is encouraging health insurance companies to get involved in the anti-fraud push.

“From now on, we’re asking insurance companies to work with brokers who record the conversations,” Oz said.

“Why wouldn’t you?” he said. “What are you nervous about? What are you worried about? Why don’t you want me to hear what you discussed?”

The move would help create transparency among the recipients who are applying to receive aid through Obamacare, ideally showing that the customer authorizing the transaction is verifiable and actually qualifies for the program.

Oz is throwing sand into the gears of Obama’s well-oiled fraud machine.

Good.

SHE IS RIGHT. THIS TRANSPLANT NEEDS TO BE LOST:  The Alien Transplant to The US.

IT’S ALL POLITICS NOW:

Yes, many critical-social-justice dogmas can't withstand intellectual scrutiny, so their proponents try to protect them via intimidation and walling off the university commons. Civil discourse and viewpoint diversity are threats to this tactic. https://t.co/zlvJCBsTa2

— Steven Pinker (@sapinker) October 3, 2026

NOT ENOUGH, PERHAPS:

How much did we learn from COVID about the right time to shut down travel from disease outbreak locations? https://t.co/ImkPJ2MrpW

— Mick Ryan, AM (@WarintheFuture) October 4, 2026

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The End of College as We Know It: AI is wreaking havoc in universities, but higher ed’s woes long predate ChatGPT.

What’s the matter with universities? Syracuse missed its 2026 enrollment target and may run a $30 million deficit. Minnesota is cutting its budget by $225 million over two years. Tulsa is slashing tuition by more than half. Colleges enroll 4.2% fewer undergraduates than last year. Cornell, Yale, Vanderbilt and Washington University in St. Louis put out plans—not radical enough, if you ask me—to reimagine the university. Wossamotta U?

Colleges are known for left-leaning professors, speech suppression, bizarre courses—Occidental College taught “The Unbearable Whiteness of Barbie”—and easy grading more than critical thinking, judgment and problem solving. It’s easy to blame artificial intelligence, but problems run deeper. . . .

According to Gallup, in 2013, 70% of Americans said college was very important. Today it’s only 31%. If universities don’t change, more than a few will implode, while others will wither away over decades. AI and alternative forms of learning are already rising. Something radical is needed to stop the decay of our once great universities. Who will step up?

Who indeed? The link above is supposed to be a free link, but in case it doesn’t work for you, you can read the whole article here, too. And you should.

WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T MENTION THE JIHAD: Basil Fawlty, Mad Bomber? John Cleese Reported to Counterterror Cops.

ON SUNDAYS I RUN A PROMO POST FOR (MOSTLY) INDIE AUTHORS:  Book Promo And Vignettes By Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.

Turns out the email has been doing very weird things, including at least one totally inappropriate automated response. I didn’t notice because we were doing a dance of houses (between houses, more like.) If you’ve sent something to the promo and been ignored, please send again.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST:

Falcon 9 flew more missions in ONE YEAR than the entire Space Shuttle program flew in 30 years

• The entire Shuttle fleet:
135 missions from 1981–2011

• Falcon 9 in 2025 alone:
165 launches

SpaceX exceeded the Shuttle program’s entire lifetime mission count by 30 launches in… pic.twitter.com/xUjhOexVpQ

— X Freeze (@XFreeze) October 3, 2026

F— THE POLLS, GET OUT AND VOTE LIKE IT’S YOUR LAST CHANCE TO!  California governor’s races sees another massive swing as nail-biting new poll released.

AN AMAZING WEEK, IN A WORLD GETTING INCREASINGLY CRAZIER:   My Week in Review: Heroes in the Cockpit, Burnham Flying Us Into the Ground. A week of extraordinary courage in the air and suicidal complacency in government, on borders, on borrowing and on energy security.

Don’t tell me I’m wrong to call Europe uncivilized, either.

AS IF COMMIE MAMDANI KNOWS SQUAT ABOUT DIGNITY:   Socialist Mayor Mamdani: Government’s Job Is to Deliver ‘Whatever You Need’ for a Dignified Life.

TALARICO. LIKE ALMOST ALL DEMS IN COMPETITIVE RACES, IS RUNNING A SMOKE & MIRRORS CAMPAIGN; RE-CYCL;ING OLD CAMPAIGN RALLY FOOTAGE NEEDS TO BE RECOGNIZED:  It Turns Out That Talarico’s ‘Latest’ High-Profile Campaign Stop Is From February.

Sorry I refuse to believe Texas will consider electing this homunculus.

GOOD GUYS DOING GOOD:  U.S. Troops Help Capture Narcos In Ecuador.

SIBERIA. KEEP IT IN SIBERIA:  One Dead, Nearly 200 Hospitalized in Siberian Pneumonic Plague Outbreak.

IF HE HAD A SMIDGE OF HONESTY IN HIM, THIS WOULD MEAN BANNING ALL CHINESE COMPANIES, THE ONLY ONES STILL PRACTICING SLAVERY:  Gavin Newsom Signs New Law Requiring Companies To Disclose Historical Ties To Slavery.

PLEASE PAY ATTENTION:  If you want to see the GRANITE Act pass, and get foreign censors the hell off of America’s Internet, now is the time to take any and all action you feel appropriate. Call your reps, write an op-ed, tell your friends – literally anything.

Our first amendment rights shouldn’t be subjected to the freakish fits of the uncivilized of Europe and the world at large. Let them rot in tyranny, but preserve the basic civil rights of our people.

YES, GAS IS EXPENSIVE:  But there are fixes already being worked out for that. Meanwhile not voting against the democrats gets you this:  Hello, America! The Midterm Elections are a Month Away. Here’s what Chuck Schumer and the Democrats have planned.

THEY CRAVE POWER LIKE A MISER CRAVES WEALTH:  Those who are attracted to power are the ones least capable of using it wisely.

YOU KNOW, SINCE I’M THEIR FAVORITE SNACK, I’D BE ALL FOR THIS:  Since my original post below got a bit of traction, I’ve been doing a bit of research with Grok on the costs of completely eliminating mosquitoes that attack humans using gene drives. Bottom line is, this would probably save 2/3rds to 3/4ths of the money we currently spend for only partly effective insecticide based control methods in the United States, but would totally eliminate mosquitoes rather than just cutting back on them. For those tuning in late, gene drive involves the release of male mosquitoes that generally only have male descendants; the “gene drive” part uses advanced techniques so that instead of half of the offspring inheriting this property, almost all or all do. Eventually the population disappears for lack of female mosquitoes.  Again for those tuning in for the first time, most mosquito species don’t attack human beings; there are 3500 species of mosquitoes worldwide but only a couple hundred, most of them invasive, are of interest because they bite humans and spread disease, not to mention just raw discomfort and an inability to stay outdoors without covering yourself in DEET. The rest we don’t care about. Also, only female mosquitoes bite humans; the males do not, so releasing males doesn’t itself add disease carriers to the environment.

STOP PANDERING TO INVADERS:  Gavin Newsom signs Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha into law as new California state holidays.