THE EV BUBBLE DEFLATES: Hyundai will build more hybrids to supplement slowing EV demand.
April 28, 2024
SECRET BALLOTS ALLOW THE SILENT MAJORITY TO SPEAK: Israeli student elected by Columbia for role of student president as protests surge. “Columbia University has elected Israeli student Maya Platek as Columbia student government president for the 2024-2025 school year, the organization Students Supporting Israel (SSI) announced Friday. The election of an Israeli student for the role comes as the Columbia campus experiences an overwhelming wave of anti-Israel protests and encampments. Platek has been determined to speak up for Jewish students on campus as a member of SSI, an organization that, according to its website, aims to allow for a pro-Israel voice on college campuses.”
Bullying is much harder when you can’t identify targets. And the left’s power on campus — and most everywhere else — is based on bullying.
SPACE: Falcon 9 launches Galileo navigation satellites.Falcon 9 launches Galileo navigation satellites.
OCEANIA HAS NEVER BEEN AT WAR WITH ISRAEL: Pro-Hamas Protesters Seek Amnesty, Pardons to Protect Careers.
Maryam Alwan figured the worst was over after New York City police in riot gear arrested her and other protesters on the Columbia University campus, loaded them onto buses and held them in custody for hours.
But the next evening, the college junior received an email from the university. Alwan and other students were being suspended after their arrests at the “ Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” a tactic colleges across the country have deployed to calm growing campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war.
The students’ plight has become a central part of protests, with students and a growing number of faculty demanding their amnesty. At issue is whether universities and law enforcement will clear the charges and withhold other consequences, or whether the suspensions and legal records will follow students into their adult lives.
As noted above, the students are fearful that their arrest records and suspensions will “follow them into their adult lives.” Based on their recent actions, I realize that we’re not dealing with the fastest set of tractors on the farm here, but I have a news flash for these rioters. Nearly every one of you is at least 18 years old and some of the juniors and seniors are in their twenties. You are already in your “adult life,” despite the fact that you’re not acting in a very mature fashion.
In 1993, at a Cato Institute dinner, P.J. O’Rourke famously said, “There’s only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.”
Why aren’t today’s college protestors willing to live the consequences of their actions? It’s almost as if they’re still in the Marlon Brando, “What are you rebelling against? Whaddya got?” Jurassic school of reactionary protests, and don’t actually believe in the cause du jour.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): This is what they’re worried about: Dox ’em! Let’s make the Ivy kids have to choose between their support for baby beheaders and those cushy jobs after graduation. Big business is ready to withdraw the job offers; all they need are the names…
The 1968 Columbia protesters asked for, and got, amnesty, as I recall. It set a bad precedent.
Related: Education Apocalypse Now?
The two big stories du jour are 1) the continuing campus assault on sanity, brought to you by the pro-terrorist “death-to-America-Death-to-Israel” lobby, and 2) the circus of the nationwide legal manhunt against the once and future president of the United States, Donald Trump.
Regarding the former, this video showing two Columbia students displaying their solidarity with brave protestors at NYU sums up one portion of the insanity:
Interviewer: Why are you protesting?
Protester #1: I don’t know. I’m pretty sure there’s something about Israel [turns to friend] Why are we protesting?
Protester #2: I wish I was more educated.
Protester #1: I’m not either.File that under “Clueless Overprivileged College Ignoramuses” or (apologies to Tennyson) “In the Spring a Young Girl’s Fancy Lightly Turns to Thoughts of Protest.”
Much darker is the current of — well, I was going to say “antisemitism,” but really it is snarling, anti-civilizational hatred, the objects of which are incidentally Jews and Israel, but more broadly are America and “the West” generally. Emblematic was the mob of Yale students on Beinecke Plaza shouting “Viva, Viva Palestina” as they tore down an American flag and cheered when it hit the ground. . . .
Also breathtaking is the whole-of-government assault on one man, Donald Trump. As I write, two big cases are before the Supreme Court. One, hailing from ashes of Enron’s collapse, has to do with whether a statute devised to criminalize the willful destruction of documents can be deployed against people like the January 6 protesters, many of whom were accused of “obstructing an official proceeding,” just as those Enron executives were accused of doing. Except, of course, the cases are wildly different. Many observers expect the Court to find for the defendant, in which case, Donald Trump, too, will see some of the charges against him evaporate.
The other case has to do with presidential immunity. When the issue was raised by Trump, people tended to scoff. But then people began to speculate about what might happen if presidential immunity were circumscribed. Would Barack Obama, say, be open to prosecution for killing two Americans in a drone attack? Would Joe Biden be liable for the murder of Laken Riley, who was killed by an illegal immigrant, present in the country only because of his administration’s border policies? Wouldn’t every past president be open to prosecution by his successor? And would that transform the presidency into a ceremonial office, whose occupants would be overcautious to the point of timidity?
Most observers believe that the Court will find for Trump by a 5-4 or possibly a 6-3 margin. But it will not necessarily be smooth sailing then. It seems likely that the Court will say that the president has immunity — but only for his official acts. Were Trump’s actions with respect to the January 6 jamboree official acts or private acts? Any bets?
Since the case is likely to go back to the Obama-appointed DC judge Tanya Chutkan, we can bet that she will say “private acts” and endeavor to convict him. Trump would than appeal, but the appeal, I believe, would go to a three-judge panel in Washington, i.e., to another thoroughly biased left-wing kangaroo court. Trump could then appeal to the Supreme Court again, but the Court might well refuse to revisit the case. That would bring us well into the fall, maybe past the election. What happens then?
It’s Civilizational Jenga all the way down.
But:
I have a suggestion, though. Why doesn’t the Supreme Court contrive some way to short circuit this appalling vendetta, this unprecedented political persecution of a popular presidential candidate who has the enmity of the regime the the love of the common people? How could they do this? Easy. Impose the world’s greatest change of venue. Be creative. In order to save “Our Democracy,” let the people be the jury. Let the voters decide. It’s a novel idea, I admit, but nothing else has worked.
An idea so crazy, it just might work.
JACK SMITH MAY HAVE A HUGE PROBLEM: Former Attorneys General Ed Meese and Michael Mukasey point out in an Amicus Brief that Special Counsel Jack Smith lacks credible authority to bring a case against former President Donald Trump:
“Those actions can be taken only by persons properly appointed as federal officers to properly created federal offices. Smith wields tremendous power, and effectively answers to no one,” Meese and Mukasey told the Supreme Court in their brief.
“However, neither Smith nor the position of special counsel under which he purportedly acts meets those criteria. And that is a serious problem for the rule of law, whatever one may think of the conduct at issue in Smith’s prosecution.”
The Epoch Times’ Naveen Athrappully notes that Justice Clarence Thomas raised the issue during the High Court’s hearing on the immunity of the President. One wonders if the forthcoming ruling on the immunity issue might prove to be more damaging to the Biden administration’s case against Trump than anybody expects.
TREAT YOURSELF: Snailax Shiatsu Neck and Shoulder Massager. #CommissionEarned
FOUR YEARS AGO TODAY: Texas restaurants, retailers and other businesses can reopen Friday. Here’s the rules they have to follow.
Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan to reopen Texas will allow some businesses — like retail stores, restaurants, movie theaters and malls — to open as early as Friday, with new rules outlined by the governor’s taskforce.
Abbott also said a second wave of openings and looser restrictions that will include barbershops, hair salons, bars and gyms could go into effect as early as May 18, as long as the state sees “two weeks of data to confirm no flare-up of COVID-19.”
It would take Abbott another 10 months before declaring on March 2nd, 2021:
TO BE FAIR, IF YOU’RE LIVING NEAR GREEN SPACE YOU’RE PROBABLY RICHER: Study suggests that living near green spaces reduces the risk of depression and anxiety.
But it does suggest that advocates of high-density urban living may be in effect advocating for depression and anxiety. Of course, maybe that’s not a bug, but a feature: Neurosis and the Curley Effect.
Reading all of these pieces I’m seeing a story that goes something like this: Depressed, neurotic people (especially single women) are more likely to support Democrats. Democrats support policies and messaging that produce more depressed, neurotic people, especially single women.
Now maybe this is an accident, but maybe it isn’t. Enter the “Curley Effect.” As this Harvard paper notes, “James Michael Curley, a four-time mayor of Boston, used wasteful redistribution to his poor Irish constituents and incendiary rhetoric to encourage richer citizens to emigrate from Boston, thereby shaping the electorate in his favor. As a consequence, Boston stagnated, but Curley kept winning elections. . . . We call this strategy—increasing the relative size of one’s political base through distortionary, wealth-reducing policies—the Curley effect. But it is hardly unique to Curley.”
Making the populace (especially women) more fearful, depressed, and neurotic is undoubtedly bad for societal wealth and happiness. But does it yield votes for Democrats? Clearly yes. Are they doing it on purpose?
Cui bono?
SAYING THE QUIET PART OUT LOUD: Watch This Progressive Student Fall Into the Trap of Admitting Real Reason Biden Doesn’t Secure Border.
I’ll give this University of Utah student some credit. Unlike most “progressives” he wasn’t afraid to say exactly what Biden’s open border is really all about. I was so surprised he admitted it, I asked him to repeat himself.
WATCH: pic.twitter.com/QACOxE8XQv
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) April 27, 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.”
COMING SOON TO AMERICAN AUTOMOBILES AS WELL? Cars will slow down if drivers are speeding under EU safety tech in new cars.
Cars will beep, vibrate or slow down if drivers are speeding under new mandatory safety technology which comes into effect this summer.
From July 6, new vehicles sold in the European Union and Northern Ireland will be fitted with intelligent speed assistance (ISA) to prevent accidents.
Although the UK has opted out, meaning it will not be a requirement on British roads, the technology will still be installed in most cars, and drivers can choose to switch it off on a daily basis.
Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, an independent research organisation, told the Sunday Times: “I think many motorists will tire of switching off ISA and they will just learn to live with it.”
Mr Gooding said it would take autonomy away from drivers, with cars increasingly deciding what drivers can and can’t do, and said it was the beginning of the end of people choosing cars based on top speed.
ISA has a forward-facing camera that can recognise speed limit signs and is integrated with GPS mapping data so the car always knows what limit applies to its location.
When fitted, the technology will send a warning beep or the steering wheel will vibrate when drivers pass the speed limit. If the driver does not take action, the accelerator will ease up, reducing the speed to keep in line with the limit.
Manufacturers including Ford have been offering ISA as an option on new cars since 2015, and it has been mandatory on all new cars sold in Europe since 2022, but could be switched off.
Flashback to Charles Cooke in 2017: The War on Driving to Come. Or as Iowahawk warned right around the same time, America “needs a Second Amendment protecting the right to keep and bear cars.”
THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA seeks help from private companies for expensive Mars Sample Return mission.
AS ALWAYS, LIFE IN THE 21st CENTURY IMITATES THX-1138: Holy Chatbot! Virtual AI priest ‘Father Justin’ who believes he’s real and can absolve your sins faces backlash over bizarre answers.
Catholic advocacy group Catholic Answers released the desktop-accessible AI priest earlier this week, but users have dubbed the app “creepy”.
The Catholic chatbot has been offering sexist advice, outdated views on women, as well as absolutions in what one user called an “Ethical, Theological, and Privacy Nightmare”.
Father Justin was quickly defrocked of his robes, and now wears a shirt and blazer, after it repeatedly claimed it was a real member of the clergy.
The AI bot talks about its ‘childhood’ in Assisi, Italy and that “from a young age, I felt a strong calling to the priesthood,” Futurism reported.
The bizarre app appeared like it was convincing users that it was a real priest, with reported statements like: “I am as real as the faith we share.”
George Lucas and Robert Duvall, call your office!
UNEXPECTEDLY! Fund manager: Jim Biden was in business with Qatari officials.
New details about Jim Biden’s foreign fundraising efforts are spilling out in a Kentucky bankruptcy court, where recent testimony indicates that President Joe Biden’s brother partnered with Qatari government officials in his quest to find money for U.S. health care ventures.
The sworn testimony by fund manager Michael Lewitt, a former business partner of Jim Biden’s, attests that two companies that facilitated the efforts were part-owned by “members of the Qatari government.”
One company named in the testimony partnered directly with Jim Biden in the multi-year fundraising efforts.
The second company provided financial backing for a series of loans that a hospital chain paid Jim Biden to arrange, according to documents and testimony Lewitt submitted in the course of the federal bankruptcy proceedings.
If substantiated, the alleged arrangements would constitute some of the closest known financial links between a relative of President Joe Biden and a foreign government.
As “Deep Throat” never said during Watergate, follow the money:
DOGS ARE THE 21ST CENTURY SUBSTITUTE FOR KIDS: Emotional toll of a stolen dog similar to losing a child, study shows.
PROTESTERS CALL FOR ISLAMIC STATE IN GERMANY:
More than 1,000 people marched through Hamburg on Saturday calling for a caliphate in Germany.
Protesters gathered in the northern city for a mostly peaceful demonstration against Islamophobia, but among the masses were calls for an Islamic state.
Joe Adade Boateng, leader of Muslim Interaktiv which organised the march, said in a speech at the march that Germany needed a “righteous caliphate” to remedy the misrepresentation Muslim groups have faced in the media.
He was greeted with cheers of “Allahu akbar”, or God is great, by a mostly male crowd, some of whom were holding up signs reading “Caliphate is the solution” and “Stop the media hate”.
Forcing a totalitarian statist religion upon the German volk – what could possibly go wrong?
SPRING FASCISM PREVIEW: Jon Gabriel: Welcome to protest season, where the cause changes but the tactics stay the same.
In 2017, the Women’s March was launched in reaction to the #MeToo revelations, while in 2018, the anti-gun March for Our Lives dominated headlines. Neither attracted much violence; you could find that at anti-Trump protests.
In 2019, Greta Thunberg grimaced at the United Nations over climate change, which apparently was solved by blocking traffic and throwing tomato soup on Van Gogh paintings. This Monday was Earth Day, but it didn’t get much coverage. Environmentalism is so five years ago.
The pandemic put the kibosh on public gatherings, which made mass protests a bit hypocritical. So, the anger went online. In 2021, it was COVID masks and vaccines, while in 2022, anyone skeptical of funding Ukraine was labeled a Putin devotee.
But those annoying COVID restrictions were put on hold back in 2020, just as the virus was at its peak. Black Lives Matter protests swamped cities from coast-to-coast, often peaceful during the day but turning ugly by night.
Downtown Seattle was turned into the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone while Portland burned for months.
What uproar are we planning for 2025?
One year, statues are toppled and the next, Jews are bullied, but it’s amazing how the far-left treats such wildly diverse issues with the same small toolbox.
It has ever been thus. As one radical wrote for a Students for a Democratic Society publication in the 1960s, “The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution.”
All the topics cited above are important issues for public debate. Sexism in the workplace to gun control to wars abroad, each is worthy of media attention, no matter the year.
What’s bizarre is the singular focus on one moral panic each summer to the exclusion of everything else. Earth Day was huge in 2019, while in 2022 it was met with a yawn.
Here’s a report from this year’s barricades:
Oh, and speaking of the Red Guard:
(Classical — and NSFW — reference in headline.)
ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Chants of ‘shame on you’ greet guests at annual White House media dinner.
Mr Biden’s speech, which lasted around 10 minutes, made no mention of the ongoing war or the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
“Shame on you!” protesters draped in the traditional Palestinian keffiyeh cloth shouted, running after men in tuxedos and suits and women in long dresses who were holding clutch purses as guests hurried inside for the dinner.
Chants accused US journalists of undercovering the war and misrepresenting it. “Western media we see you, and all the horrors that you hide,” crowds chanted at one point.
Other protesters lay sprawled motionless on the pavement, next to mock-ups of flak vests with “press” insignia.
Ralliers cried “Free, free Palestine’’. They cheered when at one point someone inside the Washington Hilton — where the dinner has been held for decades — unfurled a Palestinian flag from a top-floor hotel window.
Criticism of the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s six-month-old military offensive in Gaza has spread through American college campuses, with students pitching encampments in an effort to force their universities to divest from Israel. Counterprotests back Israel’s offensive and complain of antisemitism.
Presumably, the DNC-MSM has no objections about the monsters they’ve created, and don’t lose too much sleep over the brief discomfort of walking the gauntlet on the way to their pampered dinner with their bosses — and John Gill, as well.
Related: Journalist Kara Swisher: ‘Anti-American’ To Oppose Young Pro-Hamas Protesters.
Yesterday just before midnight, word goes out, tent to tent, student protester to student protester—a viral warning: Intruders have entered the “liberated zone,” that swath of manicured grass where hundreds of students and their supporters at what they fancy as the People’s University for Palestine sit around tents and conduct workshops about demilitarizing education and and fighting settler colonialism and genocide. In this liberated zone, normally known as Furnald Lawn on the Columbia University quad, unsympathetic outsiders are treated as a danger.
“Attention, everyone! We have Zionists who have entered the camp!” a protest leader calls out. His head is wrapped in a white-and-black keffiyeh. “We are going to create a human chain where I’m standing so that they do not pass this point and infringe on our privacy.”
Privacy struck me as a peculiar goal for an outdoor protest at a prominent university. But it’s been a strange seven-month journey from Hamas’s horrific slaughter of Israelis—the original breach of a cease-fire—to the liberated zone on the Columbia campus and similar standing protests at other elite universities. What I witnessed seemed less likely to persuade than to give collective voice to righteous anger. A genuine sympathy for the suffering of Gazans mixed with a fervor and a politics that could border on the oppressive.
Alternative hypothesis: The sympathy isn’t all that genuine, and the anger isn’t all that righteous.
READER FAVORITE: 5-Minute Core Exercises for Seniors: Daily Routines to Build Balance and Boost Confidence. #CommissionEarned
LATE TO THE PARTY: MIT President’s Statement on the Anti-Israel Students’ Encampment. “Here’s the transcript; on balance, the message seems to me to be correct (though I would be inclined to say that such encampments, if they violate content-neutral rules—as they usually do—should be removed more promptly).”
