ZMan is not impressed.

The latest indictments of Donald Trump are a good example of how narrative is a controlling feature of the managerial state. This is the fourth batch of indictments and arguably the most ridiculous. The players on the side of the regime are like characters from a racial satire. The fact that they accidentally posted the results before the grand jury vote is what we have come to expect in the crisis of competency. It is as if the regime is trying to prove the critics are right.

John Stossel.

It’s August, when many young people head off to college.

This year, fortunately, fewer will go.

I say “fortunately” because college is now an overpriced scam.

Overpriced, because normal incentives to be frugal and make smart judgments about who should go to college were thrown out when the federal government took over granting student loans.

Why?

Because our government basically vomits money at everyone who applies.

Definition: To edit a video or audio clip (typically by removing context) such that it appears to suggest the opposite of the actual case.

Examples:

• The Charlottesville Fine People Hoax: Deliberately truncated to remove Trump’s explicit disavowal of the Nazis in the march and to exclude them from the previous remark that the people marching included ‘fine people’.
• The Drinking Bleach Hoax: Deliberately truncated to remove Trump’s beginning and ending comments making clear that he was talking about the use of light as a disinfectant.
• The Covington Kids Hoax: Deliberately truncate to make it seem that one of the kids had confronted the Old Indian Agitator when it was the other way around.

Named for Democrat ‘journalist’ Aaron Rupar, who makes this sort of thing a regular practice.

Mary Rose Cook.

I used to believe that every book has an objective value. And I used to believe that this value is fixed and universal.

Now, I believe it’s much more useful to say something in this form: this book has this value to this person in this context.

This is one of those metanoia experiences where you encounter something that completely changes how you think about the world. Read The Whole Thing.

Read it.

table of contents

Don’t use VPN services. §
Why not? §
But my provider doesn’t log! §
But a provider would lose business if they did that! §
But I pay anonymously, using Bitcoin/PaysafeCard/Cash/drugs! §
But I want more security! §
But I want more privacy! §
But I want more encryption! §
But I want to confuse trackers by sharing an IP address! §
So when should I use a VPN? §
So, then… what? §
But how is that any better than a VPN service? §
So why do VPN services exist? Surely they must serve some purpose? §

Welcome to my world.

Read it.

Indeed, monarchy itself is not so easy to define. Mention the word, and the modern mind—fresh from being ordered to its room in masks by our freely elected masters, whilst the same impose their racial, gender, and hormonal views on a more or less unwilling society—immediately exclaims “tyranny.” Images of Nero, Henry VIII, and a wildly distorted George III are summoned up before said mind, subjected to an obligatory two minutes of hatred, and then once again sent triumphantly back to the mental recesses from whence they came. That task accomplished, one is able to return to the weary world one actually inhabits, feeling that at least one is ‘free.’

And yet, and yet, there are still people who openly call themselves monarchists. If the ‘M’ word is uttered, the malefactor’s hearers often reply: “So, you want to be a lord or something? If we had a monarchy again, you’d be nothing!” My favourite response to this was made by an American lady living in Germany, who answered “What makes you think I’m something now? Do you think the chancellor cares if you or I live or die?” There was no answer to that. At any rate, let us put that argument aside, as well as those who do indeed look for titles or orders of knighthood as social accessories, and concentrate on those who are serious about holding this unpopular view.

Quilette.

To hear almost anyone tell it, racial preferences in university admissions are dead. But this pervasive sense of finality belies a curious silence in the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions. The Court never expressly overrules the line of precedent that has allowed universities to discriminate for the last 50 years. Without a direct overruling, how can we know whether the Supreme Court has ended racial preferences or simply renovated the existing case law?

A careful reading of the Chief Justice’s opinion and an understanding of his judicial philosophy indicates that the Court has left universities with no realistic means to rely on racial preferences in admissions, even if the case law stating otherwise lingers in a vegetative state. Four key cases have formed the foundation for racial preferences in student admissions, with a case called Grutter v. Bollinger as the cornerstone. The Students for Fair Admissions case presented the Court with a choice: either apply the existing test under Grutter and friends or uproot the whole line of precedent.

Read it.

The New York Fire Department recently reported that so far this year there have been 108 lithium-ion battery fires in New York City, which have injured 66 people and killed 13. According to FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh, “There is not a small amount of fire, it (the vehicle) literally explodes.” The resulting fire is “very difficult to extinguish and so it is particularly dangerous.”

Organized crime or gangs could be behind a $300K L.A. ‘flash rob,’ police say (NBC)

Johnson quotes Tupac, dances around questions about health chief’s firing (Chicago Sun-Times)

Disputes over school reopenings, mental health centers key in firing of Chicago’s top doctor (CBS)

Chicago’s ex-top doctor reveals how she was fired in new wide-reaching interview (NBC)

Brandon Johnson’s unconscionable treatment of Dr. Allison Arwady (Chicago Sun-Times)

On Visit to China, NBA Mediocrity James Harden Attacks League Exec Who Supported Hong Kong Freedom Protests

She Wasn’t Able to Get an Abortion. Now She’s a Mom. Soon She’ll Start 7th Grade. (TIME)

Alabama Republicans defend not creating a second majority Black district in court (Politico)

Arkansas rejects AP African American Studies, cites Arkansas law on “prohibited topics” (Popular Information)

NKorea: Travis King Wants Refuge from Mistreatment in US Army

Georgia charges Trump, former advisers in 2020 election case (Reuters)

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis speaks after Trump election case indictment is unsealed (CNN)

Georgia lieutenant governor describes testimony to Fulton County grand jury as ‘very serious’ (The Hill)

Donald Trump among 19 charged in Georgia election interference case (WHAS 11)

Trump ‘like a toddler’ who needs consequences for speaking about cases: former White House press secretary (The Hill)

‘He’s going to be very surprised’: Georgia DA Fani Willis prepares to face off with Trump (The Guardian)

Georgia Grand Jury Delivers Indictment Hours After Court Claims Trump RICO Document “Fictitious”

‘Daring the judge’: Donald Trump attacks judge in 2020 election case, despite her warnings (USA Today)

Two Months in Georgia: How Trump Tried to Overturn the Vote (N.Y. Times)

Trump ups the ante on going after judges and witnesses. Where’s the line? (Washington Post) How about the First Amendment?

Ga. Judge to Allow Cameras in Courtroom if Trump Indicted  Admitting, after all, that it really is a show-trial. Beria would be proud.

Trump Attorneys on Georgia Charges Leak: Not a ‘Mistake’

Trump Spent The Weekend Publicly Attacking His Judge (Talking Points Memo)

Finger-pointing begins inside Trump team over Jan. 6 indictment (Washington Post) When ‘journalists’ don’t have anything to write about, they just make shit up.

Age Of Rage: UChicago Report Finds 30 Million American View Violence As Justified To Keep Trump From Power

How a law associated with mobsters is central to charges against Trump (Associated Press)

Trump has no plans to stop posting about 2020 election conspiracy case despite stern warnings from judge (CNN)

Hillary & Maddow Cry About Election Deniers, Dream About Trump Moving to Belarus

Trump’s 4 criminal cases, ranked in order of how screwed he is (Insider)

Trump is indicted in Georgia on charges of racketeering. What it means, what happens next (Washington Post)

Trump Indictment, Part IV: A Spectacle That Has Become Surreally Routine (N.Y. Times)

The Georgia Indictment Offers the Whole Picture (The Atlantic) All of the Narrative witch-hunt in one comprehensive package.

Meet the 18 people charged with Trump in Georgia indictment (The Hill)

Georgia DA Indicts 18 Trump Attorneys and Allies  (NewsMax) Apparently it’s illegal for Trump to talk to a lawyer. Who knew?

Dershowitz slams GA indictment, says Trump used same tactics as Al Gore in 2000: not a ‘crime’

Awkward: Rachel Maddow Calls Out ‘Election Deniers’ As Hillary Clinton Offers Blank Stare

Biden Admin Coaches Colleges on How to Use Race in Admissions After Supreme Court Ruling

Biden censors battered — expect an epic Supreme Court showdown (N.Y. Post)

Biden administration urges Supreme Court to block Texas social media law (Washington Post)

Biden administration asks Supreme Court to hear cases on state social media laws (CNN)

Biden administration tells US Supreme Court to review social media laws (Reuters)

ABC Fears Joe Biden Will Be Forced to ‘Pay’ for the ‘Sins of the Son’ Ten percent for the Big Guy!

Media Lies About ‘Bidenomics’

FBI Veteran Corroborates IRS Whistleblower Account of Investigators’ Tipoff to Hunter Biden 

House Foreign Affairs Chair Threatens To Block Afghanistan Funding Until Taliban Cut Off

Cruz: It’s Time For Biden Impeachment Inquiries

WATCH: Democrat Rep Admits Hunter Biden Did ‘Really Unlawful and Wrong Things’

Report: Biden Campaign Nixes MSNBC Talk Over Hunter ‘Shut up!’ they explained.

Tell-All Book Reveals Pentagon Knew Kabul Airport Attack Was Coming Days In Advance

Biden Team, Secret Service Tipped Off Before Hunter Skipped Out On FBI Interview: Agent

Timeline of Ukrainian Pay-to-Play Scheme Confirms Bidens’ Corruption

Inside Biden’s Nearly $1 Billion Migrant Housing Plan

‘Bidenomics’ Leaves Americans Becoming Homeless At “Record Rate”

White House: ‘Zero Evidence’ Biden Knew of Hunter’s Deals

8 Democrats Who Have Declared States of Emergency Over Border Crisis

Conservatives Push for Energy Secretary’s Resignation

Kamala Harris’s home aesthetic is as charming as a Super 8 hotel room

Social Security Checks on Track To Be Slashed in Less Than a Decade, Study Finds

Taliban Marks 2 Year Anniversary Of Return To Power In Afghanistan With ‘Victory’ Holiday

How America Got Mean (The Atlantic) David Brooks does his house-conservative thing.

NASCAR Faces Boycott After Suspending Rookie Phenom

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin blasts GOP senator’s blockade of military promotions as ‘unnecessary’ and ‘unsafe’ (NBC) They could unblock it tomorrow if the administration were willing to quit pushing abortion in the military, but they’re unwilling to do that.

While Hundreds Deal With Maui Fires, Paris Hilton Vacations With Fam

NPR Airs MASSIVE Story On the ‘Cost’ of Parents Pushing Librarians on ‘Book Bans’

The Dream Was Universal Access to Knowledge. The Result Was a Fiasco. (N.Y. Times)

The Media Still Doesn’t Get Biden Voters (The Bulwark)

Damning Report Reveals Big Tech’s Interference in Kari Lake’s Election

Massachusetts Bars Couple From Foster Care Over Christian Views on LGBT Matters

Newest “anti-woke” tantrum: Right-wingers don’t think kids of different races can be friends (Salon)

PBS, ProPublica Insult Justice Thomas: ‘He’s Always Wanted to Get Paid’

Snow White Star Rachel Zegler Dubbed ‘Fake Feminist’

The GOP Senate candidate whose Trump ambassador stint is coming back to haunt him (Politico)

This Far-Left Socialist Is a Top Donor to RFK Jr.

Where is Hillary’s Indictment on the Same Charges as Trump?

Marjorie Taylor Greene is out but not down (Politico)

Dems Outraged at RFK Jr. After Abortion Comments  How dare a Democrat be in favor of actual democracy.

PolitiFact Rates DeSantis ‘Mostly False’ For True Statement About CRT

DC ‘Selectively Enforced’ Anti-Defacement Laws Against Black Lives Matter vs. Pro-Life Groups, Federal Court Rules

Orgs EXPOSED for Blacklisting ‘Conservative News’ Online

Washington can’t get a climate pact. Gavin Newsom just cut another one. (Politico)

Mountain Lions Run Riot in One of America’s Wealthiest Towns (Newsweek) Perhaps they can do something about the homeless problem that seems to be beyond the capacities of local elected officials.

The Candy Sellers (Curbed)

PG&E Joins Proposal to Set Utility Rates Based on Income (San Jose Inside)

Enes Freedom on Trans Athletes: ‘Should I Put on a Wig’ and Dominate the WNBA? (Breitbart)

Not a Parody: Gov’t Employees Told To Work From Home Due to Rampant Crime Outside the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in SF

Skittles Are The Latest Bud Light After Releasing Trans BLM Packaging

The Bill Comes Due for Blue Sanctuary Cities

How the Left Captured the Newest Smithsonian Museums

NYC Mogul Pulls Restaurants From Hotel Turned Migrant Shelter

N.J. Ruling: Catholic School Can Fire Pregnant Unwed Mom

The Looming Supreme Court Nullification Crisis (Washington Monthly)

West Coast Collapse: America’s Most Affluent Regions Are Dying Under Democrat Control

Some Parts Of America Are Already On The Verge Of Being Ungovernable As Rampant Lawlessness Spreads Like Wildfire

Maryland Superintendent’s Deleted Texts and Hidden Email Surfaces Amid Intensifying Grade-Rigging Scandal

From ‘Defund the Police’ to ‘Send in the Troops’: Anti-Cop Democrats Beg National Guard To Stop Crime in Their Cities

“‘Sex Work’” and the Language Games We Play 

Oliver Anthony and the sorry state of Rolling Stone

House GOP Investigates State Department Grants Promoting Atheism Abroad

New York’s ‘Right To Shelter’ Law Now Has Mayor Adams Saying “Go Away”  Sanctuary City – It’s a Pity.

TIME Unloads 3,500 Words on 13-Year-Old Mom Denied an Abortion in Mississippi

Top Colleges Continuing Diversity Drives

School District Allowed to Keep Child Gender Transitions From Parents, Court Rules Time to leave.

Soros-Backed District Attorney Hires Boyfriend for Six-Figure Position

France: Serial Sex  Offender Arrested for Barbaric Rape; Left Worried About ‘Racism’

California’s Newsom Hints at Legislative Crackdown on Parental Rights

Appeals Court Says DC ‘Selectively’ Enforced Statute to Arrest Pro-Life Activists But Not BLM Protesters (The Foundry)

A Legal Battle for Truth in Kansas (The Foundry)

Soros-Backed Calif. DA Facing Recall, Charges of Nepotism (NewsMax)

New Covid vaccines are on the way as ‘Eris’ variant rises (Reuters)

States brace for COVID-19, Flu, RSV this fall (CBS Texas)

‘There are reasons to be optimistic’ about new COVID boosters, expert says (WTOP)

New vaccine: Local health officials expect to receive updated COVID-19 shots as vaccinations lag in Columbus area (The Republic)

Tennis Star Novak Djokovic Returns to U.S. Following Ban Over Vaccination Status

‘People Letting Down Their Guard’: CBS Demands Return to COVID Masks

It’s Not Just The Office: School Attendance Rates “Plummeting” As COVID’s “Stay At Home” Effects Linger People have discovered that you don’t need a government school to produce an educated child. (Indoctrination, Intimidation & Intolerance: What Passes for Education Today)

Termination Zero: Our Predicament May Be Totally Unprecedented (The Conversation)

The new climate law is upending the solar landscape (Axios)

EPA Overrules Texas Plan to Reduce Haze From Air Pollution at National Parks (Inside Climate Narrative News)

The desperate race to create a protection zone around the rapidly melting Arctic (The Guardian)

Engineers Find a Zero-Carbon Way to Make Everyday Chemicals (Newsweek)

An alarming pattern: Climate disasters hit, and Spanish-language misinformation spreads (NBC News) Apparently Spanish-language media aren’t pushing the Climate Change Narrative strongly enough.

ALERT: This Portland Woman Won’t Date You Unless You Suffer From Crippling Climate Anxiety  A bullet, dodged.

Two Princeton, MIT Scientists Say EPA Climate Regulations Based On A ‘Hoax’

Those who don’t study weather history are condemned to repeat it as ‘climate alarmism’

This Bold Plan to Kick the World’s Coal Habit Might Actually Work  (Wired ‘Science’)

China Abandons Clean Energy Goals Making US Efforts Painful And Pointless

New Studies Find No Global Drought Trend Since 1902…Global Flood Magnitudes Decline with Warming

Deadly Hawaii Fires Are Result of Political and Policy Failures—Not Climate Change (The Foundry)

Why is Canada giving two automakers $30B in subsidies for EV battery production?  Oh, maybe corruption?

John Hinderaker at Power Line.

The Georgia indictment relates to his (and 18 other defendants’) post-election efforts to reverse the apparent result of the 2020 election, in Georgia and elsewhere. That Trump made such attempts is not disputed. The question is, what did he do that was illegal?

The indictment alleges a vast conspiracy, supported by 161 “overt acts,” that ultimately comprises Count I, a violation of Georgia’s RICO statute. The problem is that, with two exceptions, the “overt acts” are all legal. You can’t aggregate a series of legal acts and make them a crime by calling them a conspiracy.

The Antiplanner.

First, planners identify a solution they want to implement. It might be light rail or high-speed rail, it might be urban densification, or it might be something like complete streets or vision zero.

Second, planners cast around for problems that they think they might be able to persuade people their proposal will solve. These can include childhood obesity, global warming, traffic congestion, or housing affordability.

Third, they use public involvement techniques designed to generate support for their plans. One such technique is the charente, a meeting in which planners strictly control the agenda to make sure that people only consider questions the planners want to answer. At the charities, planners might ask, “Do you want more congestion or less?” or “Do you want higher housing costs or lower?” Since they assume their proposals will reduce congestion or housing costs, if you answer less congestion or lower housing costs, they will claim that you support their plans.

Another technique is a survey with a limited number of questions. The San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Commission wants to increase taxes to subsidize transit, so it is asking residents to fill out a survey. The survey never asks if people want to pay more taxes; instead the higher tax is a given. Instead, it asks how people want to spend the money. There are five possible answers: transit, transit, bike lanes, transit, and transit.

Actually, this is a good description of any Democrat-dominated political regime devoted to increasing government power and government employee paychecks.

NewsMax.

The juvenile allegedly contacted the group through an Instagram account in March and April and had contact with the Chechnya-based terrorist group Riyad-us-Saliheen Martyrs’ Brigade through WhatsApp, the agency said.

Wherever you go,
Whatever you do,
A Muslim waits there
To try to kill you.

Washington Post.

In the first ruling of its kind nationwide, a Montana state court decided Monday in favor of young people who alleged the state violated their right to a “clean and healthful environment” by promoting the use of fossil fuels.

This is horseshit.

First of all, there is no such right that can be enforced by a court without a degree of judicial authoritarianism foreign to the entire history of the United States. If people don’t feel that they have a sufficiently ‘clean and healthful environment’, the remedy is through the political process and the legislature; that’s what they’re for.

Secondly, a state of the United States has sovereign immunity unless what they do violates some provision of the U.S. or State constitution, neither of which is either alleged or demonstrated here.

This is a result of rampant Wokery in the educational system wreaking its havoc on the judicial system like a smallpox pustule erupting on a body. There is serious sickness here, and even if it is caught and corrected, it will leave scars.

Scott Adams claims that the COVID authoritarianism was merely a dress rehearsal for the upcoming more serious Climate Change authoritarianism. I hope he’s wrong, but I’m afraid he might be right.

Don’t expect the greens’ 1,600% mistake on ocean plastic to get them to change course (N.Y. Post)

Under Siege: Earth’s “Living Skin” Under Threat From Climate Change (SciTechDaily)

‘This way of farming is really sexy’: the rise of regenerative agriculture (The Guardian)

New York Climate Change Congestion Charging Scheme Blocked by Federal Environment Law

Climate Hysteria Ramps Up in Antarctica but Recent Data Shows Sea Ice Levels Similar to 1966

Every Step You Should Take Now to Prepare for a Climate Disaster Evacuation (Lifehacker) Some days it’s hard to distinguish the Proglodytes from the Preppers.

Biden administration coming for middle-class money, not billionaires’ wealth (Fox)

Fewer migrants are crossing the U.S. border, but that hasn’t slowed influx to NYC (The Gothamist) Sanctuary City – It’s A Pity.

Asylum seekers could cost NYC $12B (Pix11News)

Randall’s Island migrant shelter to cost NY taxpayers $20M a month — or $10K for every migrant: source (N.Y. Post) It would cost less than that for a first-class airline ticket back where the came from.

NBC Admits New Hunter Probe: ‘Could Damage Biden Pretty Seriously’

“Illusion Of Influence”: The Media Moves The Goalpost Again On Biden Corruption Coverage

Hunter’s Lawyer: No New Charges Expected From Weiss

CNN’s Tapper Asks If Biden Should Stop Saying Hunter Did Nothing Wrong

Here Are The Dumbest Moments from Al Sharpton’s Kamala Harris Interview

Biden’s Favorite Super PAC Used Illegal Scheme to Conceal Its Donors, Experts Say

Rep. Greg Steube introduces impeachment articles against President Joe Biden (Washington Examiner)

Ukraine condemns Russian navy following warning shots fired at Black Sea cargo ship

Türkiye Quietly Renounces NATO Links, But Not NATO Benefits

MURPHY’S LAW: The Ukrainian Counteroffensive

LEADERSHIP: China Shakes Up Its Military Leadership

Strange snapshots from the Ukraine war

Majority of Ukrainians Blame Zelensky for Government Corruption

Ukraine-Russia Naval War

Monday briefing: The new variant that’s a reminder the pandemic never fully ended (The Guardian) At least for some people.

COVID Victims’ Families Sue EcoHealth Alliance For ‘Funding, Releasing’ Virus

Children Excluded From Official UK COVID Inquiry  What are they trying to hide?

The legal battle in Oklahoma over public funding for a religious charter school (PBS) Proglodytes don’t want any religion other than theirs taught in government schools.

Oklahoma sued for funding US’s first ‘state-sponsored’ religious charter school (The Guardian)

The mystery of Vivek Ramaswamy’s rapid rise in the polls (Politico) It’s not a mystery at all–he’s smart and he’s got great ideas. (Understandable, though, that that’s a mystery to Politico.)

GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy rejects Sen. Mitt Romney’s call to back one Trump opponent (Deseret News)

Climate skeptic Vivek Ramaswamy on fire in White House presidential race (Firstpost)

Tennessee Mayor’s ‘Hate’ Council Strategized With Far-Left Group Demonizing Moms for Liberty

EXCLUSIVE: Court Upholds Texas Dad’s Free Speech Claim Against School Board That Had Him Arrested (The Foundry)

Police Raid on Kansas Newspaper Sparks Outrage

DeSantis campaign struggles unsurprising, say some Florida insiders (Washington Post)

AfD Bavaria Chief Beaten Up in Organised Migrant Attack

Fox Executives Are Pouring Cash Into Joe Manchin’s Campaign (The Intercept) Dunh dunh DUNHHHH….

Christie says no one has given him a loyalty pledge to sign (Politico) Perhaps because any ‘loyalty pledge’ from Christie isn’t worth squat?

Big Tech Should Pay Its “Fair Share”… The Best Way Is To Leave California

Questions Over Legality of Kan. Newspaper Raid

Video Shows Looters Ransacking L.A. Nordstrom

Massachusetts passed a 4% millionaire’s tax last year. Now every public school student is going to get free lunch. (Business Insider)

‘Huddled Masses’ Update: Why Is This ‘Crisis’ Costing New York Billions?

Trump’s legal team connected to Georgia voting system breach: report (The Hill)

Georgia prosecutors have messages showing Trump’s team is behind voting system breach (CNN)

In Georgia, cameras could sharpen the focus on Trump in the courtroom (NBC News)

‘Overlapping conspiracies’: How Trump’s team accessed confidential voter data in Georgia (MSNBC)

Obama’s Brother ‘All-In’ for Trump in ’24 (NewsMax)

Why Are So Many of Trump’s Alleged Co-Conspirators Lawyers? (N.Y. Times)

Playbook: Another week, another indictment? (Politico)

GOP sees turnout disaster without Trump (The Hill)

Trump’s Bid to Sink the Manhattan DA’s Case Has Already Made It Stronger (Daily Beast)

Why Georgia’s case against Trump could be so damaging (Axios)

Georgia on My Mind: A Fourth Trump Indictment Needs Something Other Than ‘The Call’ (Jonathan Turley)

McConnell in Winter: Inside the GOP Leader’s Attempt to Thwart Trump (Politico) Soon to be a major motion picture: The Turtle In Winter. The problem is finding somebody who looks goofy enough to play McConnel.

Scarborough: Trump Would Be ‘Quite Dumb’ Not to Give Up and Plead Guilty  Presumably Joe Scarborough once had a brain. I wonder where he saw it last.

Judge In Trump J6 Trial Worked At Law Firm that Repped Russia Hoax’s Fusion GPS, Tied To Hillary’s Emails  My, what a surprise.

Off-Guardian.

And I am so very sorry that I have to type this.

Rod Dreher.

Confession time! I did something last weekend that I’ve never done before: I read a business book.

It’s called Truth To Power, and it’s the memoir of André de Ruyter, who led the troubled South African power monopoly Eskom for three years, before resigning in early 2023. Over his short, fraught tenure, he uncovered criminal networks stealing from the company, allegedly with the collusion of partners high in the ruling African National Congress. On his way out the door, someone in his office tried to poison him with cyanide. Quite a business climate South Africa has these days.

The Antiplanner.

At the latest count, 93 people died in the Maui fire that also burned most of the town of Lahaina. The blame for this fire can be traced directly to Hawaii’s 62-year-old land-use law, which was written to protect Hawaii’s agricultural industry but had the opposite result.

The land-use law divided the state into urban and rural zones and heavily restricted development of the rural areas. As the state’s population grew, Maui’s median home prices rose from about 3 times median family incomes in 1969 to 7.9 times median family incomes in 2021. Any prices above 5 times median incomes are unaffordable since banks won’t approve a mortgage for a home that costs that much more than a family’s income.

The stated goal of the land-use law was to protect Hawaii’s agricultural industry from urban sprawl. But high housing prices made it impossible for Hawaiian farmers to hire the help they needed as people earning farmworker pay couldn’t afford to live in Hawaii. As a result, most Hawaiian farms went out of business. Between 1982 and 2017, according to USDA’s 2017 Natural Resources Inventory, the number of acres in Hawaiian crop production declined by 72 percent as sugar cane, pineapple, and other crops moved to other tropical countries that didn’t have self-inflicted housing crises.

NewsMax.

Al-Qaida has called for targeted assassinations of Swedish and Danish diplomats at embassies worldwide after several copies of the Quran were burned in the two Scandinavian countries in recent months, U.K. news outlet Express reported.

Copies of the Islamic holy book were burned during a recent spate of public desecrations in both Sweden and Denmark, sparking angry protests in Muslim countries.

A reminder that freedom of speech is not a Muslim value.

Wherever you go,
Whatever you do,
A Muslim waits there
To try to kill you.

Fox Business.

The U.S. manufacturing sector is in the midst of revitalization as global supply chains reshuffle in response to changing economic conditions and geopolitical shocks, reversing a decades-long trend of American industrial capacity moving overseas.

Manufacturing firms began to offshore their operations from the U.S. to countries with lower labor costs several decades ago. But the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and concerns over China potentially looking to compel Taiwan’s unification with the mainland by force have driven efforts to reshore manufacturing – in addition to government incentives and rising labor costs overseas.

Georgia prosecutor will present witness testimony to grand jury as another Trump indictment appears imminent (Politico)

Ex-Lt. governor’s subpoena indicates Trump indictment in Georgia coming soon (CNN)

Georgia DA will present case against Trump early next week (The Hill)

Trump swoops into Iowa fair, defying customs and clashing with DeSantis (Washington Post) Since when has the WaPo given a shit about ‘customs’?

How Trump Benefits From an Indictment Effect (N.Y. Times) Well, if the witch-hunt weren’t so obvious, there would be no such effecgct. ODF.

Former Rep. Al Lawson’s Florida congressional seat could come back under new agreement (Politico)

School District Blames ‘Rogue’ Principal For Anti-White Discrimination, But Documents Suggest It Was Official Policy

White Americans Under 18 Are Already Ethnic Minorities in the U.S.

Chants for Trump Overshadow DeSantis at Iowa Fair (NewsMax)

he Supreme Court is taking a wrecking ball to the wall between church and state (Vox) Proglodytes can dish it out but they can’t take it.

Uganda Pivots to Russia Amid World Bank LGBT Boycott

Scoop: Biden wants new housing program for migrant families (Axios)

U.S. Rep. Greg Steube Files Articles of Impeachment Against Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., President of the United States, For High Crimes and Misdemeanors

Spectator: Investigate Biden Special Counsel

“David Weiss Can’t Be Trusted”: Comer, Jordan Slam Hunter Biden Special Counsel ‘Coverup’

Experts: Don’t Credit Inflation Act for Slowing Inflation (NewsMax)

China vows ‘forceful measures’ as Taiwan’s William Lai arrives in US (Al Jazeera)

INTELLIGENCE: China Exploits Western Universities

Downtown San Fran Office Tower Sells At 66% Off As CRE Crisis Claims Another Victim

Future Headline: Oakland Police Advise Residents To “Appear As Poor As Possible”

Vos says lawmakers may consider impeachment if Protasiewicz doesn’t recuse from redistricting cases (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

McDonald’s Scrubs Mentions Of “ESG” From Its Website

Crime blotter: Apple Stores hit with forklift, serial thefts, and slight-of-hand cash robbery.

Surprising Study: Seemingly Healthy Ecosystems May Already Be on the Path To Decline (SciTechDaily)

What’s going on with your lightbulbs? (Vox)

Good-bye, Incandescent Bulbs (New York Magazine)

Biden turns the lights out on yet another one of your home’s essentials (Fox)

Is Carbon Capture and Storage a Climate Solution? (Inside Climae Narrative News)

The Rise and Rhetoric Of The Climate Chicken Littles

Read it.

Imagine a politician who is so hated by the political establishment that people form or fund entire parties to stop him.

That is where Donald Trump is today. At present, he looks like the safe-bet Republican presidential candidate for next year, despite obviously coordinated efforts from the political establishment to stop him.

Now a third party is getting ready to run its own candidate for president, with one and only one goal: to stop Trump from getting elected.

Washington Free Beacon.

Postliberals are on the march. Whether it is decrying modern American conservatism, cheerfully embracing the administrative state, or insisting that tyranny is the natural fulfilment of Anglo-American classical liberalism, a slew of books written by postliberal intellectuals seeking to save us from the delusions of liberal order—political, legal, and economic—continue to appear.

They’re everywhere, the bastards.

The Spectator.

This week’s truism: all top-down attempts at leftie social engineering end up causing rather more misery and injustice than the misery and injustice they were designed to alleviate. This is chiefly because they come up against that most un-leftie of things, reality — but also because liberals are incapable of looking at actual outcomes and are able only to wring their hands in despair and wish for stuff. The world is not an ideal place and attempts to pretend they can make it so are always misbegotten.

Steve Sailer.

I haven’t been to the Nancy Pelosi building, but I’ve been to Mayne’s CalTrans building in downtown Los Angeles, and it radiates a palpable hatred toward the bureaucrats and visitors who must come into contact with it. Genius is said to be an infinite capacity for taking pains, but Mayne is a peculiar kind of genius, once with an infinite capacity for inflicting psychic pains on the public forced to deal with his buildings.

Read it.

The Taliban government in Afghanistan – the nation that until recently produced 90% of the world’s heroin – has drastically reduced opium cultivation across the country. Western sources estimate an up to 99% reduction in some provinces. This raises serious questions about the seriousness of U.S. drug eradication efforts in the country over the past 20 years. And, as global heroin supplies dry up, experts tell MintPress News that they fear this could spark the growing use of fentanyl – a drug dozens of times stronger than heroin that already kills more than 100,000 Americans yearly.

We’ve Been Accidentally Geoengineering the Earth for Decades (Daily Beast)

Is It Time To Fact-Check Corporate Media’s ‘Climate Hysteria’ Over “Hottest Day Ever”?

Green Tasmania, the “Battery of Australia”, Runs Out of Electricity