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February 2, 2026
AN LLM CAN’T INSTALL A FURNACE: Plumber or programmer? Trades workers close the job gap.
While AI has taken some entry-level white-collar jobs, hurting new college graduates, demand is strong for blue-collar workers.
“Mean hourly wages for plumbers, pipe fitters, electricians and boilermakers — all of which typically require apprenticeships — eclipsed the overall hourly mean wage for U.S. workers in 2023, which was about $31.50,” Telford writes. Elevator and escalator repair technicians averaged more than $48 an hour.
Education and skills still matter, says Jeff Strohl, director of Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. The center’s “Future of Good Jobs” report predicts that 66 percent of workers with a four-year degree will be able to compete for “good” jobs — with median pay of $82,000 — in the next five years, compared to only 19 percent of workers with a vocational certificate or two-year degree.
However, schools went too far in pushing “college for all,” Strohl told Telford. “What we didn’t do was set up viable alternative pathways for students to succeed, to the detriment of the economy and the detriment of those students.”
Yes.
THE WSJ HAS LOST WHATEVER NEWS MOJO IT ONCE HAD:
"Gabbard answered written questions about the allegations from the inspector general’s office … That prompted the acting inspector general at the time, Tamara Johnson, to determine the allegations specifically about Gabbard weren’t credible."
They are deathly afraid of Tulsi. https://t.co/WBUW2WFSfK
— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) February 2, 2026
UPDATE (From Ed):
What a spectacular own goal by the Wall Street Journal stenographers who wrote this hit piece on Tulsi Gabbard. They actually compare their supposed scoop to a John le Carre novel, apparently oblivious to the fact that in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy the plot revolves around a… https://t.co/pLZgCUL0D0
— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) February 2, 2026
21st CENTURY QUESTIONS: How often do AI chatbots lead users down a harmful path?
OLD AND BUSTED: “Nobody is illegal on stolen land.”
The New Hotness? Let’s celebrate America stealing some land!
SHARE THIS WITH YOUR LEFTY FRIENDS: Trump Was No Draft-Dodger, and Here’s the Timeline That Proves It.
LOL, LINKEDIN: Conservative group blasts LinkedIn for removing pro-ICE post, labeling it ‘hateful.’
“.@DHSgov is carrying out the essential task of keeping our country safe,” State Freedom Caucus Network posted on Jan. 27 on multiple platforms, including X and LinkedIn.
“Biden let over 10M illegal aliens enter our states, many being violent criminals and pedophiles. Every state must ensure collaboration with ICE and CBP to remove them. Our caucuses are on the frontlines leading their states to support @POTUS’s mission to keep Americans safe!”
On Thursday, SFCN revealed a screenshot showing that while the post had been allowed by X, it was flagged as “hateful speech” by LinkedIn and removed.
“Apparently protecting children is ‘hate,’ but letting actual predators roam free is fine,” SFCN wrote. “@elonmusk doesn’t censor us, but @LinkedIn does! We’ll be deleting our account as a result.”
I can’t remember the last time I read something about LinkedIn that wasn’t basically a joke.
“THE AESTHETICS OF REBELLION ARE WORN BY THE ACOLYTES OF THE REGIME:”
We live in a backwards age where the aesthetics of rebellion are worn by the acolytes of the regime. If someone is goth or otherwise weird-looking, you can be reasonably sure they hold all of the Approved Opinions, or at least mouth them fervently. https://t.co/agDLqcg8vT
— Hunter Ash (@ArtemisConsort) February 2, 2026
This is why the British government coding Amelia with the aesthetics of rebellion was such a strange choice: Amelia Victorious: How to Lose the Culture War With a Video Game.
There’s something genuinely funny going on in the United Kingdom right now.
The British government’s Prevent office, housed under the Home Office (think Department of the Interior, but allergic to dissent), partnered with a media nonprofit called Shout Out UK (like a PBS focused on preventing “radicalism”) to come up with a clever new way to re-educate British youth.
The concern, as always, was “radicalization.” They thought the solution was inspired: a choice-based video game. Kids like games. Games involve decisions. Decisions shape values. What could possibly go wrong?
Thus Pathways was born, a government-funded interactive morality play designed to gently shepherd British children toward being properly antiracist, properly accepting, and properly enthusiastic about the ever-increasing number of migrants reshaping their country. Civics class, but fun. And digital. And corrective.
As part of this effort, the designers introduced a character named Amelia, a cute, purple-haired, vaguely goth girl who carries a Union Jack and talks about Britain being for the British. She was meant to function as a warning, a living illustration of how nationalism can look attractive, even charming, and yet be dangerous to the impressionable youths of Britain who may not have fully internalized the idea that Brexit is bad and they are to obey their elitist overlords.
What they did not anticipate was that the public would take one look at adorable, charming Amelia and decide she was the good guy.
QED:
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Heart disease remains the top threat many women never see coming.
CHESSBOARD RESHUFFLED: F-35As Deployed to Puerto Rico Now Moving Across the Atlantic. “USAF F-35As deployed to Puerto Rico for the attack on Venezuela might now be part of what Trump called a ‘massive armada’ moving towards Iran.”
NONE OF OUR VERY BEST PEOPLE WORRY ABOUT CLEANSING WHEN MUSLIMS DO IT: Iran, Nigeria, DRC, and Kenya: Deadly Persecution of Christians Goes On.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Doctors share the best ways to get the most from a bidet.
DON’T GET COCKY: Even CNN Admits That Democrats Are Screwed.
THAT WOULD BE NICE: Former Trump economic official Gary Cohn says Kevin Warsh will ‘take the Fed back to its traditional’ norms.
“He was instrumental in that crisis,” Cohn said. “Kevin was the point person at the Fed — he was involved in every one of those discussions. And I truly believe, without Kevin’s expertise, and without Kevin being there, we would not have come out of the 2008 crisis as well as we have.”
The president’s selection of Warsh as his nominee was expected to be viewed as a safe choice on Wall Street given his monetary policy experience and well-established views on inflation.
Cohn said he expects Warsh to “stay out of a lot of the non-financial issues,” while he is “going to be involved, obviously, in setting interest rate policy.”
Looks like a real improvement over Powell — still, maybe the best selection for Fed Chair would be a dedicated “End the Fed!” type.
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PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:
Shot:
Let's talk about the opening part of this statement: "nobody is illegal on stolen land." We can break it down, but we should also know what it is. What we are looking at is Chinese-style political sloganeering called "tifa" (提法).
Communist communications ever since Mao took… https://t.co/OPEfOnL9FI
— James Lindsay, anti-Communist (@ConceptualJames) February 2, 2026
Chaser: Billie Eilish gets permanent restraining order against man who repeatedly turned up to her home.
—Metro News, June 19th, 2020.
EZRA KLEIN AND MUZZLE VELOCITY:
He didn’t seem overwhelmed at all, and that was at night, on a gruelingly noisy plane, grilled by reporters after an evening event where, as WaPo puts it, “Trump tries humor, gets some silence, at black-tie dinner with ‘people I hate.'”
He seemed to be up for all of it. But I’m pretty sure Klein wants to think otherwise: “This is a presidency that is, by any measure, failing. Trump is unpopular; his brutality and his tariffs have turned immigration and affordability, once among of his strongest issues, into liabilities. Trump’s opposition is increasingly united and mobilized; Democrats are besting Republicans in elections all across the country and disciplined, brave, beautiful protest movements have emerged in the cities ICE has sought to occupy.”
By any measure? That can’t be true. He’s at least succeeding by that measure of “muzzle velocity” and the measure of courage and optimism in facing a hostile press. Ironically, Klein is exhibiting the same kind of optimism, energy, and boasting to which Trump is so deeply committed.
One of them’s right and it’s not Young Ezra. Who’s not so young as he was when that name was coined, but the, none of us is.
TO BE FAIR, THAT’S WHAT LEFTISM IS ALL ABOUT: Boston’s Mayor Wu Has a Great Idea, If Destroying the Nation Is a Great Idea.
I ALREADY LOVE HER, YOU DON’T HAVE TO KEEP SELLING ME:
IT’S AN INSURRECTION, AND AN INSURGENCY, AND IT’S FOREIGN-FUNDED AND ORGANIZED:
Julio Rosas has spent years documenting left-wing riots. "What I’ve witnessed over the past five years is the emergence of something else entirely: networked, coordinated, ideologically committed groups that operate more like cells than citizens."https://t.co/lYLY7grNZ6
— Junto (@ReadJunto) February 2, 2026
NICE: Biden-appointed judge rejects effort to halt Trump admin’s immigration operation in Minnesota. “Judge Katherin Menendez said that there is ‘no precedent for a court to micromanage such decisions.'”
AND SO IT BEGINS: AIs Now Talking With One Another Behind Our Backs. “‘The most interesting place on the internet’ has no humans in it.”
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