WELL, YES: Most gun ‘magazines’ are high capacity, 11 rounds or more. Like basically every other gun control talking point, the “high capacity magazine” thing was a lie.
May 2, 2024
I CAN’T RECALL AN UPWARD REVISION SINCE TRUMP WAS IN OFFICE: US Factory Orders Rise In March… But February Saw Yet Another Downward Revision. “This is the 17th monthly downward revision in the last 22 months… come on!!!”
TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE! Biden May Have Just Created an International Incident With Comment Insulting Our Allies, Japan and India.
“One of the reasons why our economy’s growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants,” Biden said at a Washington fundraising event for his 2024 re-election campaign and marking the start of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
“Why is China stalling so badly economically, why is Japan having trouble, why is Russia, why is India, because they’re xenophobic. They don’t want immigrants. Immigrants are what makes us strong.”
* * * * * * * * *
Um buried lede here is that Biden is admitting the border invasion is intentional https://t.co/jm9eJ0QLqm
— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) May 2, 2024
He really is: Biden-Harris HQ Is Campaigning for Donald Trump Again.
Trump: Look at Paris. Look at London. They're no longer recognizable. I'm going to get myself into a lot of trouble, but you know what? That's the fact, they are no longer recognizable. We can't let that happen here pic.twitter.com/sRr6pdU2rb
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) May 1, 2024
Flashbacks:
● Jared Bernstein, member of Biden’s Council of Economic Advisors: “One thing we learned in the 1990s was that a surefire way to reconnect the fortunes of working people at all skill levels, immigrant and native-born alike, to the growing economy is to let the job market tighten up. A tight job market pressures employers to boost wage offers to get and keep the workers they need. One equally surefire way to sort-circuit this useful dynamic is to turn on the immigrant spigot every time some group’s wages go up.”
● Former Trump administration senior adviser Stephen Miller: Biden’s Immigration Plan Would “Erase America’s Nationhood.”
● “Labour wanted mass immigration to make UK more multicultural, says former adviser. Labour threw open Britain’s borders to mass immigration to help socially engineer a ‘truly multicultural’ country, a former Government adviser has revealed.”
Related: Japan won’t forget Biden’s ‘xenophobia’ accusation.
The other possibility is that he just went off script, and his inner grouchy grandpa persona leaked out. His summit with Kishida was all of three weeks’ ago, so it is understandable if he has forgotten about it. And perhaps he has been binge-watching the remake of Shogun on those long spells at his Delaware retreat and imagines it still to be the Edo period.
Whatever the explanation, two things are certain. Firstly, this won’t be forgotten any time soon — the Japanese have only just about forgiven the Democrats for Bill Clinton skipping the country on an Asian tour in 1998 (the “Japanese passing” incident). And Donald Trump just made a load of new friends in Japan.
But, look on the bright side! Unlike Papa Bush, during a key milestone on his way to losing reelection, Biden only metaphorically vomited on Japan.
READER FAVORITE: 10-Minute Strength Training Exercises for Seniors: Exercises and Routines to Build Muscle, Balance, and Stamina. #CommissionEarned
THERE HE GOES AGAIN: Antony Blinken’s Big, Stupid Middle East Trip. “Poor SecState Blinken — never the sharpest penny in the pantry — finds himself tasked with the impossible.”
I SUSPECT THE REASON IS THAT PHARMA CAN NOW MAKE MONEY OFF OF IT: “I remember when it was socially and politically unacceptable to say anything making a problem out of women’s hormones, especially to say that they are skewing us mentally. What’s going on?”
BIDEN STILL STUCK IN “VERY FINE PEOPLE ON BOTH SIDES” MODE: Biden Satisfies No One With Lackluster Speech Decrying ‘Antisemitism & Islamophobia:’
Summary: Last night, CNN spent its prime time segment decrying the Democratic president’s “radio silence” on the Gaza-related campus protests and chaos. MSM pundits have pointed to his lack of leadership as violence at times erupted from UCLA to Columbia to a number of elite schools.
As expected, Biden began by trying to chart a kind of middle course condemning “antisemitism” and “Islamophobia”… though many conservatives have pointed out it’s only the former they are seeing evidence of during these campus protests.
“Dissent is essential to democracy. But dissent must never lead to disorder or denying the rights of others… no place for hate speech in America,” Biden said. “Denying the rights of others” appears a very vague reference to students occupying buildings, and denying the ability of tuition-paying students to go to their classes, libraries, or to take exams.
“In moments like this, there are always those who rush in to score political points. But this isn’t a moment for politics. It’s a moment for clarity. So let me be clear…Violent protest is not protected. Peaceful protest is.”
“Destroying property is not a peaceful protest, it’s against the law. Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows*, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation. None of this is a peaceful protest, threatening people, intimidating people,” Biden said.
We should note that Biden’s ‘middle way’ attempt (akin to “good folks on both sides” rhetoric that the Left gets angry about) is unlikely to satisfy either side. In the end, this lackluster speech is not going to make the encampments disappear, or the protesters disperse.
* Wait until Biden discovers what his vice president was doing in 2020:
Prior to today’s typically lackluster speech, the Washington Free Beacon dubbed Biden “The Invisible President:”
We’re not in the business of offering political advice to President Joe Biden, but it is hard to miss his absence from the situation. The New York Times calls him a “bystander,” and the president has forsaken the bully pulpit for strongly worded statements meted out through various spokesmen. “The president believes that forcibly taking over a building on campus is absolutely the wrong approach,” the spokesman, John F. Kirby, told reporters hours before officers cleared the hall. “That is not an example of peaceful protest.”
Good to know. The chaos engulfing the campuses is but a first foretaste of the bitter cup which will be proffered to Biden at the Democratic convention this summer, when the same protesters, with degrees from the same “elite” institutions bring their “peaceful” protest tactics to Chicago intent on wreaking havoc.
Biden wants to blend into the curtains.
And ultimately, at least on this issue, he still does, which seems an odd stance for someone who’s ideology believes that “silence=violence,” and who tweeted in 2020 (or far more likely whose handlers tweeted):
And as a result, the increasingly Corbynized left are at an inflection point: Democrats enter panic mode as Gaza protests erupt.
On the other hand though, Biden, through his silence, is creating a path for both sides of the aisle to move forward in agreement! ‘F*ck Joe Biden’ Chant Unites Pro-Palestinian and Counter-Protesters at University of Alabama.
THE NEW SPACE RACE/EASTER EGG: China Releases CGI Video of Moon Base and It Contains Something Very Strange. “The video is also raising eyebrows for a bizarre cameo: a NASA Space Shuttle taking off from a launch pad in the distance.”
ROBERT SPENCER: Why Is the Pro-Palestinian Encampment Craze Sweeping Our Colleges? “Not only is it not spontaneous, it’s clearly orchestrated from outside the colleges and universities where the encampments have sprung up.”
BENJAMIN KERSTEIN: This is the way 1968 ends…
The most powerful and influential form of radicalism in the Western world today has no real name in the United States. It does in France, or at least its adherents do: les soixante-huitards, “the ‘68ers.”
The term refers to the radicals who took part in the 1968 student riots in Paris, as well as their ideology and the movements that emerged out of it: Third-worldism, environmentalism, anti-Americanism, anti-racism, etc. In many ways, the ethos of this kind of 1968ism defines the modern left. It has rarely achieved outright political power; it rarely wins elections; but it exercises hegemony over culture and higher education, as well as the activist industry.
The ‘68ers may go unnamed in the US, but their influence is no less powerful. Above all, their primary post-1968 tactic has met with more success than in perhaps any other country. They called it “the long march through the institutions,” though it was essentially a barely modified adaptation of the old communist tactic of “entryism.” Put simply, it involves the infiltration by radicals of more moderate institutions to conquer and colonize them. Once successful, they use the facade of moderation and the prestige of these institutions to consolidate power and pursue radical ends.
It hardly needs to be said that the American ‘68ers’ greatest success was in academia. During the 1960s, American radicals realized the power of the campus. They mobilized thousands if not millions of students, most of them wholly ignorant of the ideologies they claimed to advocate, in service of the movement to destroy South Vietnam and install a communist government in its place. In many ways, they succeeded.
Along the way, they also destroyed the Democratic party for a generation, committed numerous acts of terrorism, and forged a counterculture that continues to wield immense cultural power even after the passage of half a century.
And unless fiercely resisted, all that was just the warm-up.
Do read the whole thing.
WHY IS WESTMINSTER COLLEGE SCARED OF STRONG, INDEPENDENT BLACK PEOPLE? Black conservative YAF event canceled after university obstacles.
SHOCKED FACE NOT ACTUALLY REQUIRED: You Won’t Believe What RFK Jr. Said About ‘Red State People.’
CALIFORNIA KILLING FAST FOODS: That $20-per-hour minimum wage for fast-food outlets in California is rapidly wreaking havoc on an industry already suffering due to inflation, over-regulation and social disintegration, according to Issues & Insights:
“The $20-an-hour wage floor foisted on California’s fast-food restaurants, dubbed with the innocent-sounding moniker Assembly Bill 257, was signed into law last fall. It didn’t take long to become a disaster…
“Those who are losing their jobs in this new higher-wage environment are those most easily replaced, with the lowest productivity — which usually means minority youths with minimal education and little or no work skills. In short, the most vulnerable among us…
“Because of escalating costs, many restaurants are also adding ‘ordering kiosks,’ basically firing workers and replacing them with user-friendly computer terminals. And, to repeat, this was even before the law went into effect. In the coming weeks and months, expect more job devastation, business closures and sharply higher prices paid by consumers.”
THE ENEMY WITHIN: University of South Florida anti-Israel protester brought firearm to campus, shared Hamas propaganda on Facebook: Police. He doesn’t look much like a student.
SO MUCH FOR ‘STUDENT’ UNREST: Joshua Arnold at The Washington Stand reports more than 1,600 individuals have been arrested thus far at 33 campuses in 23 states in the coordinated and planned Pro-Palestinians campus protests. In at least 11 instances, more of those arrested were non-students than students.
AFTER BLOWING THROUGH OUR SAVINGS AND MAXING OUT THE CREDIT CARDS, THIS WAS BOUND TO COME NEXT: Long-predicted consumer pullback finally hits restaurants like Starbucks, KFC and McDonald’s.
Excuses don’t fully explain the weak quarterly results. Instead, it looks like the competition for a smaller pool of customers has grown fiercer as the diners still looking to buy a burger or cold brew become pickier with their cash.
The cost of eating out at quick-service restaurants has climbed faster than that of eating at home. Prices for limited-service restaurants rose 5% in March compared with the year-ago period, while prices for groceries have been increasing more slowly, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Clearly everybody’s fighting for fewer consumers or consumers that are certainly visiting less frequently, and we’ve got to make sure we’ve got that street-fighting mentality to win, irregardless of the context around us,” McDonald’s CFO Ian Borden said on the company’s conference call on Tuesday.
“Irregardless,” really?
Meanwhile, here’s the view from inside the Beltway.
JUST IN: Treasury Secretary Yellen says “people are generally better off despite recent price increases.”
Do you agree? pic.twitter.com/2syUIKbf7I
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) April 30, 2024
The replies are brutal.
Related: Customers Fed Up With Starbucks: ‘You Want HOW MUCH for a Cup of Coffee???’
HAHA: Pro-Hamas Protesters at Harvard get respect they deserve when Harvard students “streak” the protest site.
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY SURRENDERS TO PRO-PALESTINIAN DEMONSTRATORS, Antisemitism Task Force Members Resign in Protest.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: FINALLY—A Reason to Feel Good About College Kids in America. “Just when we thought that all hope for our future generations was lost. OK, I really didn’t think that, but the campus Brownshirts might have gotten me there.”
WELL, BYE: Google lays off 200 workers, shifts jobs to Mexico and India in latest restructuring.
The job cuts — announced internally on the eve of Google’s blowout first-quarter earnings report — targeted members of Google’s “core” team, which works on the “technical foundation behind the company’s flagship products” as well as the online safety of users and its global IT infrastructure, according to its website.
At least 50 of the roles were based at Google’s headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif. Google is expected to hire replacement workers for the roles in Mexico and India, CNBC reported, citing a review of internal documents.
“Announcements of this sort may leave many of you feeling uncertain or frustrated,” Asim Husain, vice president of Google Developer Ecosystem said in an email to staffers last week announcing the cuts, according to CNBC.
Husain said the company’s restructuring plan was “in service of our broader goals.”
So they’re not going to remove the ideological blinders that have ruined their search engine and other services? Sarah Hoyt’s shocked face could not be reached for comment.
FROM HER LIPS TO GOD’S EAR: Meghan McCain: ‘Trump is going to win.’
A RELIGIOUS TEST FOR SPACE EXPLORATION?
An editorial recently published on SpaceNews took the position that my company’s Luna Memorial Spaceflight service should not be permitted on the Moon because the Navajo Nation views the Moon as sacred.
In essence, the author is arguing that lawful space missions should be subject to the religious test of a single culture.
No religious tests. And no religious vetoes on humanity’s future.
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: It’s Long Past Time to Give the Commies the Nazi Treatment.
THE ATLANTIC: Will Biden Have A Gaza Problem in November?
