Two words: Kindle App.

Read it.

A report on Wednesday claims Apple’s first foray into the automotive industry will be a fully autonomous vehicle designed to operate without a human driver, suggesting it might not be marketed as a consumer product.

UPDATE: First Apple Car to Be Fully Autonomous and Designed to Operate Without a Driver

Steve is not very optimistic.

I try not to look at the news, but sometimes I do. Yesterday I saw that Elizabeth Warren is trying to get a wealth tax through congress. Who predicted that? Don’t hurt yourself trying to find the answer. It was me.

Income taxes and other taxes are bad, but wealth taxes are the supreme taxation evil. When they tax your income and your purchases, you still have some hope of retiring and dying in comfort. When they come for what you already paid tax on, the world crumbles under your feet and you have to consider unthinkable futures such as one in which you share a big, dirty room with other paupers in a government-run assisted living facility.

Warren is going after the “ultra-rich,” of course. When you pass totalitarian measures, you have to start by attacking segments of the population who have very few votes. She wants to take 2% of what they have. So if you have a billion-dollar net worth, kiss $20 million goodbye, in cash, in addition to the death tax your kids will have to pay. If you have to close your business or borrow to keep it going, so sorry. Not all billionaires have a lot of cash.

NBA to Strictly Enforce Mask Rules for Players, Coaches

UCSF team has engineered a tiny antibody capable of neutralizing the coronavirus

It’s Time for a National Pandemic Prediction Agency  (Wired ‘Science’) Gotta keep that panic going….

Olympics: Wear a Face Mask, and No Singing or Chanting

Andrew Cuomo Announces Indoor Dining Can Resume Despite Coronavirus Being Worse Than When He Banned It  Guess he’s feeling the heat.

Myths of Vaccine Manufacturing

San Francisco To Sue Its Own School District Over Lack Of Clear Reopening Plan To Force It To Open Classrooms

‘Capitalism Really Does Work’: Michael Bloomberg Blasts Government Handling Of Pandemic  Which is why he’s a Democrat? That does not compute.

San Francisco teacher says Bernie Sanders’ mittens are a ‘lesson in white and male privilege’

Fans ejected after LeBron James confronts unmasked ‘Courtside Karen’

Black leaders offer several key steps to help close the racial wealth gap (CNBC) Give us money!

San Fran Teacher Blasted for Saying Bernie Meme Showed ‘Privilege’

SMUG: ABC’s ‘Black-ish’ Attempts to ‘Build a Better White Man,’ Finds It Impossible

Navy Diversity Task Force Recommends ‘Bias Awareness Training’ And ‘Exchange Program’ With Historically Black Colleges

USA Today Publishes Column Claiming Tom Brady Gets A Pass On His Politics Because He’s White  Wouldn’t that be refreshing? But I doubt that’s the reason. It’s just an excuse.

The Biden Admin Abandons Major Racial Discrimination Lawsuit

‘White Violence’ Is Used To Increase Surveillance ‘Against Communities Of Color,’ Activists Say  The trouble with ‘activists’ is that they’re always On The March about something. They can never let anything or anybody rest.

Black Lieutenant Governor Criticizes Local News Outlet For Depicting Republicans As KKK Members  Is that allowed?

‘I’m Not Making New Law, I’m Eliminating Bad Policy’: President Joe Biden Tries To Justify His Large Number Of Executive Orders

‘Gut Louisiana Like A Fish’: John Kennedy Warns Of Fallout From Biden’s Oil And Gas Orders

China Top Diplomat Warns Biden Not To Cross “Red Line” Of Interests  His master’s voice.

ON POINT: Leveraging Corrupt Media, China Draws a Red Line for Biden Administration

Biden staffs up with China sympathizers

Montana Lawmaker Outlines Troubling Implications of Biden’s Executive Actions

Joe Biden just made his first big mistake as president  At least, according to CNN.

Former CBP Head: Biden Has Decimated Border Protections With “Stroke Of A Pen”  Improper use of ‘decimated’, but nobody cares about that except me.

Biden’s Labor Board Begins Withdrawing Complaints Against Unions  It’s all about dat base….

Biden Education Secretary Pick Says Schools Have Responsibility To Let Boys In Girls Sports If They Are Trans

John Kerry Flew in Private Jet to Receive Award for Climate Activism  Rules are for thee but not for me.

Helpful Psaki Gives Reporters A List Of Questions To Ask Her  Babylon Bee.

John Kerry Accepted Environmental Award In Iceland After Arriving In Private Jet

The Biden Admin Abandons Major Racial Discrimination Lawsuit

‘What Planet Are You From?’ — Rand Paul Slams Biden’s Education Secretary Nominee Over Transgender Athletes

‘Joe Biden On Day One Killed Their Job,’ Wisconsin Congressman Says Of Keystone XL Pipeline Decision

Biden Admin Won’t Release Trump Visitor Logs

Biden appoints anti-Israel, pro-Hamas man to key Middle East post

In Historic First, Janet Yellen Becomes First Female Treasury Secretary To Request Ethics Waiver For Wall Street Speaking Fees

Sea Levels Are Rising Faster Than Most Pessimistic Forecasts  At least, according to Bloomberg.

The New Pause lengthens from 5 years 4 months to 5 years 6 months

The Shocking Climate Graph @climateofgavin Doesn’t Want You To See

US Cities Are Vastly Undercounting Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Researchers Find  ‘Greenhouse gas emissions’ sounds like something that would afflict Uncle Fred.

Read it.

As expected, the Justice Department, now under the control of Joe Biden, has voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit against Yale for discriminating against Whites and Asian Americans on the basis of their race. I wrote about that suit here and here.

The Justice Department’s complaint demonstrates the magnitude of Yale’s race-based disfavoring of Whites and Asians. According to the complaint, which is based on the DOJ’s lengthy investigation of Yale’s undergraduate admissions process, Blacks in the tenth decile (the top one) are admitted to Yale at a rate of 60 percent. By contrast, Whites are admitted at a rate of 20 percent and Asians at a rate of only 14 percent.

Because Yale is a highly selective college, few applicants of any race or ethnicity are admitted from the third decile or below. However, in the fourth decile, Blacks are admitted at a rate of 12 percent — about the same rate at which Asians in the tenth decile (the top one) are admitted. The admission rates for Whites and Asians in the fourth decile are just 2 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively.

In the fifth decile, Blacks are admitted at a rate of 21 percent — about the same rate as Whites in the tenth decile. For Whites and Asians in the fifth decile, the admission rates are just 4 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively.

In other words, Blacks with slightly below average credentials in relation to other applicants stand about the same chance of being admitted to Yale as Whites and Asians whose credentials place them in the top 10 percent of the applicant pool.

Read it.

Xerox’s new printer is 9 feet wide, 7 feet tall, and reaches an internal temperature of more than 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s not an inkjet, of course—it’s a 3D printer that can produce bespoke metal components. The Naval Postgraduate School, an grad institution for Naval officers and others, is the first place to put one of these massive Xerox machines into service.

Let’s hope it works better than my printer.

Read it.

Students for Fair Admissions intends to file a lawsuit against Yale University for its discriminatory admissions process, according to a Wednesday press release.

The announcement comes the same day the Justice Department decided to drop its discrimination lawsuit against Yale, upending a two-year federal investigation that found the Ivy League school often used race as a “determinative” factor in its admissions decisions. Edward Blum, president of Students for Fair Admissions, said in a statement that his group plans to sue Yale “in the coming days.”

That’s a really good picture of Cross Campus. On the left under the tree is The College Formerly Know As Calhoun.

Read it.

“We will categorically not allow any local government to lock people down. We will not let any local government kick anybody out of their job,” DeSantis told reporters when asked about local officials’ requests for more control over coronavirus mitigation measures. “We will not let any local government fine individual Floridians. We will not let any local government shut down schools. And we’re not going to let any local governments do those things.”

This gets around the fact that most metro areas are ruled by fascist Democrats. Texas could profit from their example.

I’d move to Florida if it weren’t for the hurricanes.

Read it.

I guess he figures to take his new membership in the Woke Ruling Class out for a spin.

Read it.

People may shout NEVER AGAIN as loud as they please, but without governments willing to step up to the plate and do something about it, nothing will get done.

Read it.

Elections have consequences.

Read it.

Perhaps the Republicans in Congress have decided to quit bringing a knife to a gun fight. That’s encouraging.

Could AOC be next? Stay tuned.

Severian teaches a little history.

A brief summary of our story so far: back at the dawn of the Age of Aquarius, the US Surgeon General finally let the cat out of the bag. Turns out that sucking the fumes of burning weeds straight into your lungs isn’t optimal for your pulmonary wellbeing. That being the case, huckster politicians saw a chance to plug a few budget holes by pretending to care about public health. They decided to tax smoking out of existence.

As they should’ve learned from Prohibition, but didn’t, politicians soon discovered that lifestyle crimes are basically unenforceable.* The new taxes created a vast black market economy for smokes. Which had three knock-on effects, in ascending order of importance:

1. massive budget shortfalls, as idiot state governments, being governments, had already spent the anticipated tax revenue several years in advance;
2. an increased disrespect for the law, as unenforced laws are worse than no laws; and
3. turning what was a harmless(-ish) private vice into a public statement of minor rebelliousness — total per capita smoking remained roughly the same from 1960 – 1990, while total cigarette consumption actually went way up (though the ever-increasing importation of Third Worlders, all of whom smoke like chimneys, probably had a lot to do with that).

Read it.

I have three college-age daughters who all view the underlying resentments and jealousies required to produce leftism as a sign of immaturity. The idea that a leftist Utopia could fix everyone’s problems if we just take enough money from rich people strikes them as the lazy thinking of the unimaginative. Besides their interest in world affairs, they also share an interest in boys. Specifically, boys who would not be wasting their time. They hope for a conservative boyfriend, or at least one who appears somewhat mature and open-minded.

Which is tricky, because no conservative college kid is out of the closet. Universities are such incredibly hostile territories for free-thinkers that they would never consider admitting what they think about anything. So my daughters engage in frequent discussions with one another, trying to figure out if a boy they like might be a closet conservative. And it’s fascinating to listen to them. The cues they pick up on are not necessarily what you might expect.

ZMan blows the whistle.

The paleoconservative thinker, Sam Francis, developed the concept of anarcho- tyranny, which is when the state tyrannically regulates citizens’ lives yet is unable or unwilling to perform the basics of rule. For example, the government put speed cameras and red-light cameras up, in order to catch small violations, but if your car gets stolen, the cops will not bother looking for it. The tyranny is the micromanagement of the good citizens while driving. The anarchy is ignoring the car thieves.

It is a great framing because it is both true and easily validated. It is one of those observations that reminds us that conservatism was not always a collection of toadies and flunkies validating the latest Progressive fads. The Right used to have smart and thoughtful men genuinely concerned with the direction of Western society. They also had the courage to honestly examine what was happening. In other words, the current crisis did not sneak up on us like the fog.

Look, people elect who they want to Congress. That’s the way the system is set up. There is no IQ test – would that there were! – and no education requirement – would that there were! – and, tellingly, no requirement that a doctor certify that they are sane. You get the votes, and if they can’t PROVE you broke the law, you’re in. So all this talk about policing our own or not suitable for public service is a bunch of self-righteous hand-waving. Votes count; sputtering chattering class members do not. That’s the way it works.

Democrats have been electing crooks (Alcee Hastings) and nut-cases (Sheila Jackson Lee) to Congress for decades, not to mention people who deliberately incite violence (Maxine Waters) and people who don’t openly advocate it but who are okay with it when it happens (Kamala Harris and every other member of the Congressional Black Caucus, not to mention The Squad). For them to get all up in arms about Greene is a case of the pot calling the non-stick pan black.

Unless the system changes, the results aren’t going to be any different. A look at who is now in Congress is the greatest argument against democracy as a form of government that I can imagine. The only problem is to demonstrate that some other form of government wouldn’t be as bad or worse. As Bill Buckley famously said, I’d rather be governed by the first 2000 names in the Boston telephone directory than by the 2000 member of the faculty of Harvard University, and I don’t just say that because I’m a Yale man; Yale these days is just as bad.

We have to work with what we’ve got. Dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.

Read it.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin fired hundreds of members of Pentagon policy advisory boards Tuesday, resorting to a blunt method of removing last-minute Trump administration appointees, The Wall Street Journal reported.

How very retro. Welcome to the 19th century.

Would that Trump had done the same when he came in. But we live and learn.

Read it.

Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf wants to raise taxes on wealthy residents and the natural gas industry to help pay for new investments into education and coronavirus relief.

The governor’s proposal will call for increasing the personal income tax rate from 3.07% to 4.49%.

Guess he wants all such people to move to Texas or Florida.

The reported budget plan follows a statement Tuesday in which Wolf’s office said 67% of Pennsylvania taxpayers would see tax cuts or have their taxes stay the same under his plan to cut costs for working class households while raising billions to invest in education and “workforce development.”

Not if the people paying higher taxes move somewhere else, which they are in the process of doing. Honestly, you’d think that some of these people would wake up and smell some basic economics.

Read it.

Most non-stick pans are so only for a limited time. Still, they’re more non-stick than non-non-stick (sorry) pans, so you’ve got that going for you. And since most people are Too Fargin Lazy to learn how to cook properly in a plain metal pan, I suppose it’s all for the best.

I use non-stick pans because I’m bone-lazy. So there it is. (Two words: Swiss Diamond.)

Read it.

With the Prius be dethroned from its Crust-carriage role?

Steve Sailer.

The reviewer doesn’t want to come out and flat out say that biographers of the Vice President should simply cover up the fact that her fabulous political career was launched in Willie Brown’s bed, but she wants to imply it.

Read it.

Chris “Fredo” Cuomo’s seething hatred for Republicans was boiling during the Tuesday edition of CNN’s PrimeTime. Between telling his viewers that they all “have to worry about the GOP” going forward because they could become the party of presidential assassins and suggesting they didn’t care about murdered Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, Cuomo was out to stoke division and animus (so the very thing he accused the GOP of doing)

Audacious Epigone runs the numbers.

epublicans are being red-pilled. Four-in-five Republican voters are white, and they understand that the influence awarded to non-Asian minorities will come at their expense.

Especially encouraging are the dual perceptions that the poor are going to lose and the wealthy are going to win under the uber-Establishment Biden. While Democrats still portray the GOP as the party of the rich–and the party leadership eagerly, desperately plays along–Republican voters realize the monied classes are against them.

Democrats have vastly outraised Republicans in corporate cash since 2004. For nearly two decades now the Democrats have been the party of the elites. It is electoral malpractice that in an increasingly populist age the GOP willingly allows itself to be portrayed as the party of fat cats and the Democrats as the party of the little guy while the fat cats stuff Democrat coffers full of cash.

Read it.

Those who call President Joe Biden a “devout Catholic” may do so in attempts to suggest that “Catholicism is indistinguishable” from liberal ideology, a professor of theology told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“When a U.S. President cloaks himself in the outward signs of Catholic identity in order to expand access to abortion, or to use executive power to enforce a gender ideology that will inevitably threaten the freedom of the Church in this country, what you have before you is a Trojan Horse,” Dr. Chad Pecknold, an associate professor of Theology at the Catholic University of America, told the DCNF.

Read it.

In case you need another job skill on your résumé during COVID Panic times.

Steve Sailer.

There’s an ancient Wall Street joke about a visitor to the Hamptons who is shown harbors full of the yachts of stockbrokers and bond salesmen. He naively inquires, “But where are the customers’ yachts?”

We might ask the same question about the clients of diversity consultants.

These days, we are constantly lectured that hiring more diversity is the route to riches. Studies, we are assured, prove that organizations that employ more blacks, women, or whatever will make more money.

Yet the people who get paid to tell us that diversity-inclusion-equity (DIE) is good for us seldom can remember documented examples of organizations that gained an enduring competitive advantage by fighting racism or sexism.

It’s certainly a  profitable gig for the Diversity Consultant, who is typically a Fashionable Minority, but there is no evidence that increased Diversity ever helped either the company or the affirmative-action hires.

Read it.

You can lead a union member to the workplace but you can’t make her work.

Parents rebel over posh NYC school’s ‘obsessive focus on race’

Black History Month and Republican Support for Civil Rights in 1960s

America’s BLM-induced homicide spike

Racial Equity and Justice Initiative

Multiple Teachers Suspended Over ‘How Will You Punish This Slave?’ Activity Question

Race-Hustling MSNBC Host Al Sharpton Demands Abolishment of the Filibuster

High School Teacher In California Claims In Op-Ed That Bernie Sanders’ Mittens Flaunted His ‘White Privilege’

The Impact of Chief Diversity Officers on Diverse Faculty Hiring

Lori Lightfoot Blames The ‘Incompetence Of The Previous Administration’ For Chicago Schools Not Being Open  BRAAAAAAAINS!

Hispanic Caucus Takes Aim at African-American Veteran’s Service on Key Panel

REPORT: Former NFL Running Back Mark Walton Arrested After Meltdown Over Failed Pizza Hut Order

San Francisco Officials Declare Acronyms Racist  Not the Babylon Bee.

Man Arrested After Allegedly Shooting 5 Children, 1 Adult To Death In Oklahoma  Not white, so no headlines.

Defunding the Police Isn’t the Answer, Say Black Mothers of Slain Children

Singer/Actor Sia Blames Casting Controversy on Listening to ‘White Men

This Legal Hurdle Could Trip Up Biden’s Cancellation of Keystone XL Pipeline

NEW: Reporters Whine (Anonymously) Team Biden Wants To Know Questions In Advance  My, what a surprise.

Forget Myanmar: Here Are 12 Other Countries Biden Should Invade RIGHT NOW  Babylon Bee.

Biden’s Climate Plans are Energizing National Secuity Problems

Biden’s climate change plan and the battle for America’s most threatened workers

SHOCKER: CNN’s Zakaria Corners John Kerry on Biden Killing Jobs

Biden’s Strategic Gift To Russia And The Gulf Regimes

Richard Epstein: Biden’s Unlawful Re-entry into Climate Accord

McConnell Hammers Biden’s DHS Pick Over ‘Unethical’ Political Favors For Democrats

Biden Justice Department Nominee Faces Ethics Minefield From Father’s Corporate Interests

Rep. Andy Biggs to Newsmax TV: Biden Border to Get ‘Overwhelmed’

Republicans Demand Hold on Biden Commerce Pick Over Huawei Concerns

Greenland is careening toward a critical tipping point for ice loss

Claim: Atmospheric river storms can drive costly flooding – and climate change is making them stronger

At New York City’s biggest power plant, a switch to clean energy will help a neighborhood breathe easier  (Popular ‘Science’)

Those Most Likely to Get Covid Are Last in Line for Vaccines  We’re from the government, and we’re here to screw things up.

Climate Model Failure

Read it.

If Republicans in Alaska and Utah would show some of that backbone, perhaps we could fix the RINO problem.

More Americans Have Received At Least One Dose Of COVID-19 Vaccine Than Have Tested Positive For Virus

Top NY Virus Officials Quit As Cuomo Wages “War” With His Own Health Department

Thousands Of Maskless Orthodox Jews Ignore Israeli Lockdown To Attend Funerals 

The Brazil Variant Is Exposing the World’s Vulnerability

UK COVID Cops Arrest Man For Handing Out Free Soup

Fauci: CDC May Recommend Wearing 2 Masks to Fight Virus

Democrats Announce It Is Safe To Reopen Now That Federal Government Has Tested Negative For Trump  Babylon Bee.

Lots of people moved out of New York and California in 2020. Here’s where they went

New COVID-19 Strain Could Be Vaccine-Resistant Due To New Mutation, Study Finds  Head ’em up, move ’em out….

Read it.

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has a press release announcing that she will join the Senate Finance Committee. From the release: “She also announced plans to introduce legislation implementing a wealth tax on fortunes over $50 million. The Finance Committee’s jurisdiction covers taxation and revenue policy, including oversight of the Internal Revenue Service. The senator’s legislation reflects her 2020 campaign proposal to impose a two cent tax on every dollar of individual wealth over $50 million, with an additional surtax on every dollar of wealth over $1 billion.”

Read it.

Why would Biden select someone this incompetent for such an important job? Because LeVine and her husband donate generously to Democrats. The LeVines gave more than $400,000 to the Biden campaign and other Democratic causes in 2019 and 2020, according to federal campaign records. In 2017, they were appointed as deputy national finance chairs for the Democratic National Committee.

Read it.

Trigger warning: The following contains detailed descriptions of addiction, codependency, and withdrawal.

Read it.

House Democrats prosecuting former President Donald Trump released a memorandum Tuesday laying out key points against Trump, the first president to face an impeachment trial in the Senate after leaving office.

A temper tantrum at taxpayer expense.

UPDATE: Trump Lawyers Counter Democrats With These 4 Impeachment Arguments

Read it.

There has been a steady uptick in the number of migrants along parts of the U.S.-Mexico border as they look for the possible easing of immigration restrictions by President Joe Biden.

Fox News reported that Border Patrol agents have seen increases in apprehensions among Central American families and unaccompanied children — especially in the Rio Grande Valley and Tucson, Arizona, sectors.

An agent based in Texas noted that in three out of the last seven days, there had been at least 800 arrests in his sector — an increase of 450 a day from just a few months ago. He also told Fox News that border agents encountered two separate groups of more than 100 migrants approaching the border.

My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

Read it.

Ten Senate Republicans released a $618 billion counterproposal to President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package hours before they met on Monday evening in hopes of finding some common ground, but the two proposals have far more differences than similarities.

The $618 billion package only slightly resembles Biden’s, whose proposal is three times as large and includes bigger stimulus checks for a greater number of people. Despite the differences, the senators expressed willingness to work with Biden, who campaigned on unity and his ability to reach across the aisle.

Read it.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz appeared for a 10-minute interview with CBS Minnesota’s Esme Murphy over the weekend. Here if you can withstand it and if you can keep up one can observe Walz’s blizzard of verbiage and question-begging along with the media support that enables it.

If you are not subject to the Walz regime of one-man rule, you may be able to watch this video with the kind of detachment that allows for amusement. If you have followed Walz’s press conferences over the past year, however, you may find it sickening. Joe Isuzu has absolutely nothing on this guy and he was a work of advertising art.

Read it.

“Incitement of Insurrection against him as moot, and thus in violation of the Constitution, because the Senate lacks jurisdiction to remove from office a man who does not hold office,” reads the filing.

Severian applies some history.

Let’s take a closer look at yesterday’s example of “butt smuggling,” the now-hilarious contemporary term for the Mob’s cigarette racket in the late Sixties / early Seventies. This is exactly the kind of un-glamorous scam that will never make it into the movies, but which keeps Organized Crime afloat, and to which the Feds will soon be forcing us at an ever-increasing pace.

In the late Sixties, you’ll recall, a combination of cash-strapped state governments (places like Illinois were already feeling the pinch of a few decades’ worth of total Democratic control) and Health Nazis slapped egregious taxes on smokes. It turns out that the tax stamps are easy to forge, cigarette trucks are easy to hijack, and when all else fails, smuggling is pretty easy, too. It’s a low-margin, high-volume sort of racket, but it’s profitable — sure, you don’t make $10K per kilo (or whatever) like you do selling coke, but you don’t run coke’s ludicrous risks, either, since while some squarejohn citizen type might well rat you off to the fuzz for selling drugs, he’s much likelier to ask you for a pack when he finds you’re smuggling cigarettes…

Read it.

Last week, an official from Washington State was nominated by the Biden administration to be “Interim Assistant Secretary of the Employment and Training Administration”, a post in the Labor Department. And just what the hell is that? “Interim” “Assistant”? Someone must have searched long and hard for a suitable slot for the former Head of the Washington Employment Security Department, which handles unemployment claims.

Here in Washington State, Suzi LeVine presided over the loss to the State of $600 Million in Unemployment Fraud, during the Covid-unemployment deluge last year. The Department even today has a 40,000-claim backlog in processing 2020 claims. I wonder how much taxpayer money she will now lose for the rest of the country in her new job?

ZMan nails it.

The GameStop story, which is becoming more of a general short squeeze story, is a good example of what happens when an economy is fully financialized. Since there is little money to be made in making things or creating things, the best human resources flow into finance, where a bright person can get rich finding a slight imbalance in the marketplace for an asset or an error in the holdings of another player. The economy becomes a massive poker tournament with the central bank as the house.

If you step back and think about the transaction at the heart of this story, there is no moral or economic reason for it to exist. The practice of shorting a stock can have both moral and economic utility. In the former case, an investor seeing some corruption in a company or sector is letting the world know about it by betting against it with his own money. On the latter point, the blend of shorts and longs provides useful data about stocks and sectors for investors and planners.

When everyone at the table is using chips borrowed from the house and many of the whales at the table will never have to repay the house, both of these functions are flipped on their head. In the case of GameStop, some sharps were gaming the system in an effort to artificially deflate the value of otherwise good companies.

Read it.

A climate scientist spent years trying to get people to pay attention to the disaster ahead. His wife is exhausted. His older son thinks there’s no future. And nobody but him will use the outdoor toilet he built to shrink his carbon footprint.

Read it.

The Daily Caller News Foundation and Judicial Watch filed a notice of appeal to the Supreme Court of Delaware on Monday asking for a reversal of a lower court opinion that blocked a Freedom of Information Act request for access to records from President Joe Biden’s Senate career.

The motion seeks a reversal of a ruling by the Superior Court of Delaware in early January that the 1,850 boxes and 415 gigabytes of digital records from Biden’s 36-year Senate career that he donated to the University of Delaware in 2012 are not subject to release because no public funds have been used to support the Biden library.

The lower court rejected the DCNF and Judicial Watch’s argument that some of the university’s approximately $120 million annual taxpayer appropriation could have been used to indirectly support the Biden library by funding archival space and staff salaries. The court said a statement from the university that claimed, without evidence, that no state funds supported the library was sufficient to rule against releasing the documents.

Victor Davis Hanson.

Pan-progressivism

To be a Silicon Valley executive, a prominent Wall Street player, the head of a prestigious publishing house, a university president, a network or PBS anchor, a major Hollywood actress, a retired general or admiral on a corporate board, or a NBA superstar requires either progressive fides or careful suppression of all political affinities.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, 98 percent of Big Tech political donations went to Democrats in 2020. Censorship and deplatforming on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media companies is decidedly one-way. When Mark Zuckerberg and others in Silicon Valley donate $500 million to help officials “get out the vote” in particular precincts, it is not to help candidates of both parties.