May 18, 2024

GOT WOKE, WENT…: Sports Illustrated fails to deliver May issue after breakup with publisher: sources.

Sports Illustrated’s tumultuous breakup with its publisher caused the magazine to skip production of the May edition – leaving more than 1 million subscribers with empty mailboxes last month, The Post has learned.

Arena Group – which had its license revoked in January after failing to make a $3.75 million quarterly payment to rights-holder Authentic Brands – refuses to turn over the subscriber list to new publisher Minute Media, three sources close to the situation told The Post.

By the letter of its contract, Arena – controlled by 5-Hour Energy founder Manoj Bhargava – does not believe it needs to share the SI subscriber list, sources said.

Authentic sued Arena for $48 million for backing out on the remaining three years of the deal, and Bhargava might use the subscriber list as part of negotiating leverage in potential settlement talks, one of the sources speculated.

Arena Group and Authentic Brands declined to comment.

Minute Media did not return calls.

The disruption – believed to be the first skipped issue in the magazine’ 70-year history – was further fueled by Arena firing about 100 SI employees as part of its negotiating tactics with Authentic.

Bhargava had even threatened to kill the print edition of the iconic magazine after learning Authentic owner Jamie Salter was leaning toward awarding the rights to Minute Media, as The Post previously reported.

The last monthly issue printed was the April 2024 baseball preview edition with Shohei Ohtani on the cover – which was mailed to SI’s roughly 1 million paid and non-paid subscribers before the handover. Arena continued publishing SI after its license was terminated while attempting to regain the rights.

In accordance with the prophecy:

Posted at 2:44 pm by Ed Driscoll

JOHN LUCAS: What Incentives Does Israel Have to Agree to a Cease Fire?

The following is a guest post (originally on LinkedIn), by an Army officer with extensive combat experience in the Mideast and the Levant.

* * * * *

What incentives does Israel have to cease counter-Hamas operations?

Nations, like individuals, historically (not always) operate off a series of incentives.

Net positive = do it

Net negative = avoid it

An easy concept to understand but not simple in practice.

There is no shortage in calls for Israel to implement a ceasefire with Hamas, despite the fact that the current conflict is a direct result of the October 7 Hamas attack where over 1100 Israelis were killed, many of them civilians.

To date Israel has resisted these calls, including those from the U.S., for an operational stand down.

But why?

As a student and practitioner of war I find myself asking, what incentives does Israel have to bow to international pressure?

This is NOT a political commentary, merely a thought experiment on incentives vs. disincentives.

Below are three reasons why Israel has no incentive to stop short of total victory:

Read the whole thing.

Related: Only Israel Wants To End the ‘Forever War.’ “Which brings us to the second point: This is already a forever war. And that forever war was declared by Israel’s enemies and is re-declared each time Israel offers to end it. Hamas’s raison d’etre, in fact, is forever war. You can find this out by doing such things as: asking them; reading their statements; reading their essential documents; watching their interviews; opening your eyes; etc.”

Posted at 2:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

LES RUSSES ARRIVENT! LES RUSSES ARRIVENT! France Invites Russia to D-Day Anniversary Events and Allies Are Naturally Upset.

France has decided that Western allies shouldn’t let a little old thing like a war in Europe prevent the 80th-anniversary party for the D-Day landings from including the Russians.

Russians were not involved in the D-Day landings. In fact, Russia helped start World War II when its alliance with Nazi Germany gave Hitler a free hand in Western Europe to attack Poland.

All water under the bridge, right? We were “allies” then even when Russian troops raped their way across Germany on the road to Berlin and afterward.

So leaving Russia out of the 80th anniversary commemoration of D-Day would have been bad form. And for French diplomacy, “form” always trumps the real world.

Officials from the U.S., the United Kingdom, and two other NATO allies expressed their chagrin at the invite.

Protocol issues, the symbolism of inviting Russians, and questions about what sort of “diplomatic engagement” would be required were the kinds of queries being asked by the Allies.

“We would defer to the government of France, which organizes the commemoration at Normandy,” a White House official said. “But perhaps this will remind the Russians that they actually fought real Nazis once, not imaginary ones in Ukraine.”

Touché.

Oceania has never been at war with Omaha Beach.  Though I’m shocked that France has finally found another nation to surrender to.

Posted at 1:48 pm by Ed Driscoll

THE PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF BEZOS: The Washington Post’s Disgrace.

In that chat, several people pressed Adams to send the New York Police Department to clear out Columbia University’s dangerous, disgraceful, and violent pro-Hamas encampment, something that did not happen until student reprobates further escalated the situation and broke into and occupied a campus building several days later.

The Post surfaces no evidence—zero—to indicate there is any connection between the demands made in the chat and the cops’ appearance at Columbia, since the decision, of course, was left to Columbia University’s weak-kneed president Minouche Shafik.

A spokeswoman for the newspaper declined to comment, and the paper did not publish the piece in its print version on Friday.

Maybe this is why. “The messages offer a window into how some prominent individuals have wielded their money and power in an effort to shape American views of the Gaza war,” the reporters write ominously. Get it? The piece is a modern-day echo of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in which Woodward and Bernstein—er, Natanson and Felton—mimic the uncovering of a secret plot.

We hope you’re sitting down, because the Post reveals that several of the billionaires also “worked with the Israeli government” to screen film footage of the Oct. 7 massacre compiled by the IDF and one of them, the hedge funder Bill Ackman, even facilitated its screening at Harvard.

And as Jeff Jacoby notes, the WaPo has made one of their periodic reminders that they’re simply Democratic Party activists with bylines: A cynical Washington Post tells Biden: Nothing matters more than beating Trump.

Of course the Times leans well to the left and many of its journalists revile Trump. All the more reason, then, for Kahn to emphasize that it is not the newspaper’s responsibility to ensure a Republican defeat. The Times may — the Times does — often fail to resist its liberal bias. Nonetheless, its highest-ranking news editor deserves credit for articulating the principle that the paper ought to uphold.

Now consider the principle articulated by The Washington Post opinion section.

Last week, the Post’s editorial board — which speaks with the institutional voice of the newspaper — declared that it regards President Biden’s reelection in November as a matter of such importance that it will not fault him for promoting misbegotten policies that are designed to attract votes. The president’s policies “clearly pander to core constituencies,” the editorial board conceded, and “some of these policies are quite bad — even dangerous.” Other pandering by the White House may be “less obviously dangerous but still violates common sense and principle.”

For example, the Post cites the president’s refusal to approve a ban on menthol cigarettes. The editorial board has strongly supported such a ban, which it maintains would save tens of thousands of mostly Black lives. But as a political matter, it knows that if the White House were to issue the ban, the Democrats would lose a significant number of voters “whom Mr. Biden can ill afford to alienate in this close election.” And since “Mr. Trump’s reelection is the kind of nightmare scenario any responsible politician would go to great lengths to prevent,” the Post concludes that it is responsible, or at least acceptable, for Biden to let those deaths occur rather than weaken his odds of reelection. “Democrats are scrapping for every vote,” the editorial asserts, so this is no time to be fastidious about matters of principle, or about right and wrong.

In a lifetime of newspaper reading, I have never encountered an editorial so cynical in its willingness to discard any principle other than to win at all costs. “Trim your principles, Democrats, and pander away,” the Post advises Biden and his party. To “play Machiavelli” isn’t the worst thing, it says — the worst thing is “losing.”

Or as Matt Taibbi wrote in December: Democracy Dies in Daylight: Eight years ago the Washington Post pledged to save democracy, but now argues we need to be saved from it.

Posted at 1:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

REVEALING THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TOP GEAR POLAR PICK-UP (Video):

Posted at 12:45 pm by Ed Driscoll

QUESTION ASKED: Francis Ford Coppola and Megalopolis: genius or flop?

This Friday sees the Cannes premiere of a film that, by rights, really ought not to exist. As the likes of its stars Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Dustin Hoffman and Shia LaBeouf all assemble on the Croisette, it will be its now eighty-five-year-old director, screenwriter and producer, Francis Ford Coppola, who will be the most closely watched figure of the night, if not the entire festival.

Megalopolis, the movie that they are all gathering to promote, has been Coppola’s great passion project all through his career. He first came up with the idea in 1977, began to develop it in 1983 and, finally, sold part of his wine empire a few years ago to raise the film’s $120 million budget. At every turn, it seemed somehow unlikely that he would manage to make it; there were rumors of chaos on set (something of a Coppola specialty), with the director firing the visual effects department and, in turn, the production designer and art director resigning, citing the “unstable filming environment.” To which the only riposte must surely be: did you guys not see Apocalypse Now?

Initial reviews are mixed, but many are brutal: Francis Coppola’s $120million self-funded epic Megalopolis panned as an ‘abomination’ by critics following allegations of chaos on set as crew members claim legendary director smoked marijuana in his trailer and ‘pulled young women onto his lap.’

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

NOW OUT FROM ANDREW WAREHAM: Part 1 of a new series, The Half-Bred Heir.

Posted at 11:59 am by Glenn Reynolds

BURGMENTUM! America’s Next Vice President?

The question, I think, is what kind of balance should Trump seek? I think he needs, more than geographic or demographic balance, personality balance. Someone who is solid, reliable, non-dramatic, not susceptible to tabloid distractions, with a record of success in business and an air of obvious competence that will reassure the business community, Wall Street, and upper-income voters. In my view, more than any of the other VP contenders, Burgum has those qualities in spades.

So I have come around to the idea that, while Trump has other good options, selecting Doug Burgum as his vice presidential nominee could be a smart choice. One more thing: it also offers the prospect of Doug Burgum debating Kamala Harris, which could be a mismatch for the ages.

Or, perhaps: Ex-Rep. Tulsi Gabbard says Democrats, Biden-Harris administration put themselves in God’s place.

Posted at 10:14 am by Ed Driscoll