Power Line.

What is your fair share? They never do tell us.

Why so shy? We we can never quit worrying about their coming back for more. There is a reason they never tell us what our “fair share” is.

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The oldest recognizable map in the world comes from Ukraine and is dated as much later than cave art, around fifteen thousand years ago. An etched mammoth tusk was unearthed along with many mammoth bones at a site called Mezhirich. The scratched lines on the tusk are not random but form a drawing or picture that is likely some kind of map. The design is made with lines, some straight, some zigzagging, presumably to denote a topographical feature. There seems to be a river at the bottom of this first map, and marks of a mountain or hill have been placed at the top. In between are more small lines that look like houses or huts. All the slashes are lines; none of them are curved in any sort of artistic way. There are also no animals and no human figures. This tusk is markedly different from any cave painting in its lack of story and figurative representation. Then, there is its straightforward presentation, which also makes it seem more map-like.

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members of the goth subculture is probably very low. Their dedication to a nocturnal lifestyle and collective fetish for ghostly pale skin is both an ideological rebuke to shiny, happy consumerism and a great way to avoid melanoma.

With another global-warming summer ominously approaching, I chopped it up with some creatures of the night to get some tips for us normies on how to protect ourselves from the accursed sun (and look fabulously ghastly doing it).

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This result shouldn’t surprise anyone. Inflation has driven up operational costs for businesses across the US and shrunk profit margins for major food chains in the past few years. This has led to higher menu prices (like the “$18 Big Mac”) and slowing sales for every major fast food company. Another anchor dragging on the restaurant business in many regions was at least two years of covid stimulus coupled with rent moratoriums, creating aggressive labor shortages and raising wages in upwards of $16 per hour for brand new no-skill employees.

…

Mass layoffs are now a guarantee with many restaurants already firing thousands of workers as well as some chains closing multiple locations because the cost of operation will be higher than the benefits.

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The “digital options” that many fast food franchises are referring to are automated ordering systems as well as robot workers which are slowly but surely becoming more cost effective than human laborers. At least one fast food location in California is testing a fully robotic restaurant with no human workers.

Washington Post.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. repeatedly advanced an argument Monday that President Biden poses a greater threat to democracy than Donald Trump, a comment that drew swift rebukes from several historians and experts.
Kennedy, speaking to CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday night, criticized the Biden administration’s push for social media companies to monitor their platforms for medical misinformation. Kennedy was temporarily banned by Instagram for spreading misinformation online about vaccines. Kennedy claimed Biden was “censoring me” and is “weaponizing federal agencies.”
He added that Trump — who has alarmed some experts with rhetoric and stances they have compared to authoritarian leaders, plotted a more extreme second term and inspired his supporters to fight the results of an election he continues to falsely claim was stolen — is not as significant a threat to democracy.

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Spike protein could remain in immune cells for more than 245 days following vaccination, according to a recent preprint. The study evaluated 50 patients who developed long COVID-like symptoms after the COVID-19 vaccine; none had been infected with the virus.

Power Line.

America’s colleges and universities have damaged our country badly, and don’t show any sign of reform. So one obvious path to improvement is for fewer people to attend them. Happily, that is happening: not only that, but young people are finding better alternatives.

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A candidate for mayor of a violence-wracked city in Mexico has been killed just as she began campaigning.

No wonder so many ‘migrants’ are heading north.

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Army Futures Command announced last week that troops from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, have received the Army’s next-generation rifles and light machine guns chambered in a new 6.8mm round. These new weapons are replacing the decades-old M-4 and M-16 battle rifle platforms.

Military Times reports soldiers from 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell were handed XM7 Next Generation Rifle and XM250 Next Generation Automatic Rifle ahead of training in April.

Produced by firearm maker Sig Sauer, the XM7 is a 6.8×51mm gas-operated, magazine-fed assault rifle that replaces the M-4 carbine for close combat fighting. The XM250 is a 6.8×51mm gas-operated, belt-fed light machine gun that replaces the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, or SAW. Both rifles are chambered in 6.8×51mm, a new round for the Army that will increase range and improve lethality against the most advanced body armor used on the modern battlefield.

Anyone with a brain knew that the M16 sucked; the existence of a built-in forward assist is testimony to that. The fact that it has taken this long to replace it doesn’t give one much confidence in the competence of our government.

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There have been widespread reports of mass deportations of Muslim migrants from Russia in the wake of the March 22 terror attack on the Crocus City Hall venue in a Moscow suburb which killed at least 140 people and left hundreds more wounded and injured.

This trend is said to be the result of a significant uptick in raids by authorities on apartments and dorm complexes known to house Central Asian migrants, amid concerns that Islamic radicals could carry out more attacks.

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Preventive mental health therapy for children may be doing more harm than good—and there’s research to prove it, author Abigail Shrier suggests in her new book “Bad Therapy.”

“What you might not know is that the stuff that travels under the headline ‘mental health’ is really harmful for kids,” she said at a recent book-signing event hosted by the Lincoln Club at Newport Beach. “I’m telling you that according to the best psychological research available, it’s exactly what you would want to do if you wanted to break kids down.”

In “Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up,” which hit The New York Times’ best seller list, Ms. Shrier investigates the mental health industry and its negative impact on children, and concludes that when it comes to preventive therapy—especially for children—more is not always better.

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Donald Trump must stop verbal attacks on family members of a New York judge and others in his upcoming trial on business transactions, the court ruled Monday, after the former president called out the judge’s daughter for being a Democrat fundraiser.

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Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic uncovered one of the mechanisms that a type of virus called Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) uses to induce cancer.

The study, published last month in Nature Communications, found that the KSHV virus activated a specific pathway responsible for cell metabolism and the way cells grow and multiply. Using current U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved breast cancer drugs, they were able to reduce the replication of the virus, stop the progression of the lymphoma, and shrink existing tumors in preclinical models.

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The White House on Friday welcomed the formation of a new Palestinian Authority government, suggesting the West Bank-based PA was on track to take over administration of Gaza from Hamas.

President Joe Biden’s administration “looks forward to working with the new cabinet,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement. “A revitalized PA is essential to delivering results for the Palestinian people in both the West Bank and Gaza and establishing the conditions for stability in the broader region,” Miller added.

However, at least two of the newly installed PA ministers have advocated Palestinian terrorism against Jews.

My, what a surprise.

Washington Free Beacon.

To hear the Biden White House and their allies tell it, Third Circuit judicial nominee Adeel Mangi—whose nomination is all but dead following three Democratic defections—is the victim of a vicious right-wing smear campaign.

White House chief of staff Jeff Zients charged that “some Senate Republicans and their extreme allies are relentlessly smearing Adeel Mangi with baseless accusations.” Mangi, Sen. Cory Booker (D., N.J.) told the Senate chamber on the verge of tears, has been “trashed and smeared and maligned.” And in the Atlantic, Mangi’s law colleague, Gregory L. Diskant, recently seen filing an amicus brief to the Supreme Court pressing the justices to toss former president Donald Trump off the ballot, writes that Mangi faces “opposition grounded in hate.”

Sounds bad.

The Spectator.

Among the many political advantages of the presidency, surely one is the ability to extend warm wishes to Christians, Jews and Muslims on their holidays. It’s a golden opportunity to invite a few for pictures at the White House and explain how much the holiday has always meant to you. Easy-peasy. For a Catholic president such as Joe Biden, expressing solidarity with co-religionists on Easter ought to be a well-practiced routine.

It took genuine incompetence and obtuseness for the Biden White House to muck up the chance to reach out to fellow Christians on the holiest day of their calendar. But that’s exactly what the White House did on Sunday — Easter Day — by stressing its strong backing for Transgender Day of Visibility. All they had say was, “We love trans people and we will celebrate Visibility Day on Monday this year.” But noooooooo. It’s hard to think of a more obvious train wreck a-comin’. But this White House ignored the flashing red lights, drove right onto the tracks and parked.

The Spectator.

Mirabile dictu, as we Latin lovers like to say. In other words, wonderful news! Attractive women have fallen for ancient Rome — and for classicists.

Well, that’s what the British Museum thought when it cooked up its advertising campaign for its new show, Legion: Life in the Roman Army, about Roman legionaries. The museum put up a controversial social media post, promoting the exhibition as an opportunity for single women to find single men.

I spotted a lissom blonde in green T-shirt and tie-dye trousers. We fell in step as we approached the gift shop

The post read: “Girlies, if you’re single and looking for a man, this is your sign to go to the British Museum’s new exhibition, Life in the Roman Army, and walk around looking confused. You’re welcome x.” It added: “Come for the Romans, stay for some romance.”

Washington Free Beacon.

California’s $20 minimum wage for fast food workers became law Monday and quickly caused chaos, with pizza chains preparing to cut hundreds of employees, ice cream and pretzel shop franchisees struggling to learn if the law applies to them, and industry leaders eyeing price hikes in the state.

California governor Gavin Newsom (D.) last week signed more carve-outs for the law, which already exempted bakeries and chains inside grocery stores, adding increased confusion over which franchisees must comply with the mandate.

The chaos over the law could deal a political blow to Newsom, who became the face of negotiating the $20 fast food wage as a “compromise” between unions and business interests. Newsom, whose approval ratings have tumbled in recent months, signed the legislation last September after a rushed and secretive process, but critics say the fallout is only beginning.

Newsbusters.

On Easter Sunday, CBS’s Face the Nationturned to two prominent Washington religious leaders: Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the Catholic archbishop of Washington and Rev. Mariann Budde, Bishop of Washington for the Episcopal Church, which is politically a better fit for Biden.

White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe was the substitute host, and he seemed most interested in underlining how Biden faithfully attends Catholic services, and not so much whether he’s in complete contradiction with Catholic teaching on the hot-button social and sexual issues. He kept pressing the Cardinal on if Biden “resonates” with Catholic voters:

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A Russian intelligence unit that specializes in assassinations may be behind “Havana syndrome,” a mysterious condition that afflicted U.S. diplomats, according to a report.

A joint investigation by CBS’s 60 Minutes, along with Der Spiegel and The Insider, revealed links between Russia’s GRU Unit 29155 and suspected attacks on U.S. government officials both in the United States and abroad.

Symptoms of Havana syndrome—which the U.S. government terms “anomalous health incidents,” or AHI— include sudden headaches, vertigo, ringing in the ears, nausea, and in some cases blindness or hearing loss. The syndrome was named after U.S. officials in the Cuban capital first reported experiencing these symptoms in late 2016.

The American Mind.

In 2001, the United States embarked on the War on Terror, rallying the world not just to fight terrorists but to replace autocratic and tribal societies with liberal democratic regimes, despite the lack of local interest. That approach now looks hopelessly wrongheaded.

Though Islamist terror groups still threaten the civilized world, geopolitical power players continue to use terrorist puppet regimes for strategic advantage, despite occasional “blowback.” Russia has been fighting ISIS in Syria since 2015 and, in 2017, prior to the recent ISIS-K raid on the Crocus Music Hall on the outskirts of Moscow, withstood a deadly attack by that group on the St. Petersburg Metro. Yet it’s been friendly with Hezbollah and Hamas terrorists and received a Hamas delegation following the October 7 attack on Israel. Its leadership appears to view NATO, not political Islam, as an existential threat.

Russia’s double standards when it comes to their proxies might be hypocritical, but they are also pragmatic and amoral. We can’t rationally expect that the people in charge can be shamed with accusations of hypocrisy into amending their ways. No one holds Russia to a high standard. If Russia is accused of damaging a church here or a hospital there, it rarely trends on social media or is covered in the news. Russian security forces must step up their game to make anyone pay attention.

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A Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty member who last month went on an anti-Semitic tirade—in which he called House Education and the Workforce Committee chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.) a “treasonous Zionist tool” and referred to Israelis as “parasites”—is now urging his followers to shut down an Israeli company in Cambridge, saying, “No stoping [sic] until liberation.”

Afif Aqrabawi, a postdoctoral associate working in MIT’s Tonegawa neuroscience lab, encouraged his Twitter followers to shut down an Israeli company located in Cambridge, Mass. The MIT faculty member was responding to a Twitter follower’s suggestion to shut down a Raytheon facility in Bedford, Mass., to which he responded, “Elbit in Cambridge as well. No stoping [sic] until liberation.”

The call to action followed pictures Aqrabawi posted of a pro-Palestinian protest in Boston that blocked traffic Saturday evening.

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Author JK Rowling could be prosecuted for “misgendering” trans people under Scotland’s odious new hate crime law that comes into force today, an SNP minister has admitted.

Senior police officers are expecting a deluge of complaints over online posts after the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 created a new crime of “stirring up hatred” relating to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or being intersex.

A person could now be imprisoned for up to seven years if they engage in “insulting” behaviour towards ‘protected’ groups, and the prosecution only needs to prove that the hatred was “likely” rather than “intended”.

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Woke progressives have spent a considerable amount of time and energy over the past several years trying to hide and deny the existence of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion agenda.  The reasons are obvious – The philosophy removes all merit from society and replaces it with a cult of perceived oppression.  Academic prowess, mental drive, personal success, inherent intelligence or toughness; none of these things matter anymore when it comes to college admissions, corporate employment, municipal job access or political promotion.

All that has mattered for almost a decade is skin color, gender, sexual orientation and how much a person’s minority status raises the ESG score of a particular institution.   

DEI goes far beyond the notion of Affirmative Action.  While the value of AA alone is questionable in western societies today, it is simply a legal affirmation that companies should hire minorities that have the correct qualifications and not ignore them based merely on their ethnicity.  Does AA still lead to unqualified hires?  Yes.  But DEI takes the problem to a whole new level by incentivizing the erasure of merit as a “social construct.”

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Police arrested 27-year-old Xavier Israel, who has three prior arrests all from January 2022, without incident at the Russian Consulate, we’re told.

‘Stop worrying about what’s happening in the White House and start worrying about what’s happening in your house.’ — Adam Sosnik

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When unemployment and inflation cause skyrocketing incentives for thieves to steal industrial metals like copper, criminals rush for some of the biggest sources: critical infrastructure. That includes cell towers, water pipes, street lights, and rail lines. These copper heists threaten transportation, communication, municipal services, urban safety, and other essentials of modern life.

The chaos they can cause can cost lives, too — for example, copper heists from railways can cause warning lights, intersection gates, and turnouts that divert trains to other tracks to go offline.

Naval News.

American submarines will further extend their advantage in the undersea domain. In the first of a kind, the U.S. Navy has fitted a new form of propulsion, magnetohydrodynamic drive (MHD), to a Virginia class submarine. This promises to make the submarine virtually undetectable, the holy grail of naval warfare.

The Magnetohydrodynamic drive is being developed under the PUMP program by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), first reported in 2023. Water passing through it is accelerated by means of a magnetic field using superconducting magnets. This is often likened to the way a caterpillar crawls leading to the colloquial term ‘caterpillar drive’.

The first boat to be fitted with the new propulsion will be the USS Montana (SSN 794). This Virginia Class attack submarine was commissioned into the U.S. Navy in June 2022. Although still a new boat, she has been brought in to Groton, Connecticut, for the modifications.

The Antiplanner.

In what could be considered an April Fool’s joke, the Montana state legislature passed several laws mandating densification of cities. Apparently, the legislature believed the nation’s fourth-largest state, with the third-lowest population density, was running out of land and could only accommodate growth by building high-density apartment buildings in all major cities.

These laws were passed in response to a “housing crisis” that resulted when Bozeman (Gallatin County), Kalispell (Flathead County), and Missoula (Missoula County) passed the functional equivalent of urban-growth boundaries, making housing in those counties unaffordable (value-to-income ratios greater than 5 in 2022). Billings (Yellowstone County), Great Falls (Cascade County), and Helena (Lewis & Clark County) have not, and housing in those counties remains affordable (value-to-income ratios below 5 and mostly below 4).

In response to the “crisis” of unaffordable housing in three out of 56 counties, the legislature passed several laws requiring cities in the state, unaffordable or not, to allow accessory dwelling units in single-family zones, high-density housing projects, and other imagined remedies. This led to the formation of Montanans Against Irresponsible Densification, which filed a lawsuit to overturn those laws.

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A group of migrants involved in a riot at the southern US border have been ordered to be released by an El Paso magistrate judge.

The swarm of migrants overwhelmed Texas National Guard soldiers who were trying to organize them into groups to be taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection (CBP). At one point, a migrant attempted to grab a soldier’s firearm, one National Guard source told the NY Post.

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The following video examines the Muslim scene in the Italian city of Milan. It visits several illegal mosques, and then looks at the career of an Italo-Moroccan thug rapper named “Baby Gang”.

What is notable about the Moroccans featured in this report is that none of them, not even the ones born in Italy, are “integrated” into Italian society. And, significantly, they’re not interested in integrating — they’d rather remain Moroccan.

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A top Denver official was caught on tape in a local migrant shelter begging illegals to go to other cities, as Denver – a so-called ‘sanctuary city,’ can’t support them.

“The opportunities are over,” said Mayor Mike Johnson’s political director Andres Carrera, who also serves as the city’s Newcomer Communications Liaison, in an exchange with newly arrived migrants.

“New York gives you more. Chicago gives you more. So I suggest you go there where there is longer-term shelter. There are also more job opportunities there,” Carrera continues in the video obtained by 9News.

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But the facts are even worse. Delaying aircraft carriers courts disaster at a time when their deterrence value is higher than ever. The Navy has a budget plan for new aircraft carriers that can launch drones, carry lasers and face down China, but President Joe Biden’s budget took out so much money that the whole aircraft carrier plan may fall apart.

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One person was killed and four others were wounded when a gunman opened fire inside a Nashville restaurant during Easter Sunday brunch service, authorities said.

Gunfire rang out inside Roasted, a popular brunch spot at 614 Garlfied St. in the Salemtown section of the city, just before 3 p.m., Metro Nashville police said.

Betcha a large amount of money that the perp ‘identifies’ as black.