Read it.

Germany’s migrant population has hit a record high, with over a quarter of the country now having a foreign background, official data has revealed.

According to newly released figures from the German statistics office, the number of people with a migrant background in Germany rose to around 21.2 million in 2024—more than 25% of the total population. That marks an increase of 4% (873,000 people) compared to the previous year.

A person is considered to have a migrant background if they or at least one of their parents immigrated to Germany.

Alma T.C. Boykin.  (Whose books I highly recommend.)

So, does a person have to have a word before he can imagine a concept? Or can you understand a concept if your language doesn’t have that word or idea yet? Linguists and historians of language have been arguing over this, and over other questions about how language shapes perception, ever since future Prime Minister William Gladstone write a three-volume analysis about Homer. In a short chapter at the back of the last volume, Gladstone observed that Homer’s descriptions were either about light things, dark things, or red things. Everything else was texture or related it to something (“rosy-fingered dawn”) and so on. Gladstone had some theories about this. He was … ignored, in part because he actually believed that Homer was telling a true story, which everyone knew was silly. Gladstone was right about both things, although not exactly.

It turns out that only comparatively late in the development of languages and vocabulary to people start splitting colors up past dark, light, and blood-colored (red). Next comes yellowy-green, then yellow and green, then blue, and then it gets sort of jumbled. So, does this mean that the human eye develops color vision at different rates in “complex” versus “primitive” societies? Um, well, to make a lot of arguing and anatomy short, no. Colors are need based, to an extent, and only when artificial tints (as in, made by people and put on things like walls, rather than staying on plants and rocks) come into use do larger numbers of color words appear. How the language people finally reached this conclusion is a long and interesting story.

Read it.

A member of the Irish rap group Kneecap has been charged with a terrorism offense for displaying a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London last year, a month after the group displayed a “F— Israel” projection at the U.S. music festival Coachella.

London’s Metropolitan Police announced the charge in a press release Wednesday, saying that Liam O’Hanna, 27, has been charged with the crime for displaying the flag at a November 2024 concert in a way that would “arouse reasonable suspicion that he is a supporter of a proscribed organisation, namely Hizballah.”

O’Hanna, whose stage name is Mo Chara, is one of Kneecap’s three members. He is scheduled to appear in court on June 18.

Read it.

George Washington University says it will ban a student commencement speaker from campus after she used her graduation speech to decry “genocide” in Gaza and urged her graduating class not to donate to the school until it agrees to divest from Israel.

Pro-Israel students and alumni had urged the school to discipline the speaker and a dean who thanked her for “sharing your words and your views.” The dean’s profile no longer appears on GWU’s website.

It is at least the second prestigious university this season to take disciplinary action against a student commencement speaker for remarks related to Israel. New York University said it would withhold the diploma of a speaker there who denounced “genocide” and “atrocities currently happening in Palestine” in his speech last week.

She ought to be expelled and her degree revoked.

Tools of Renewal.

It is difficult to relate to people who live at mental extremes. It is hard or impossible to put yourself in the shoes of a schizophrenic, for example. It’s hard to understand a Palestinian who legitimately believes he should cut Jews up and send his proud parents videos of himself covered with blood. There are many such Palestinians, though. I can’t imagine myself in the mind of a person who thinks he is entitled to shoplift. It’s hard to identify with people who are so arrogant and dishonest they behave as though they suffer from delusions.

When you are care about others and you are pretty rational, it takes a lot of energy to maintain the understanding of how bad or crazy other people are.

…

Naturally, this brings me to the subject of Jake Tapper. Not just Tapper, but the entire leftist apparatus, from rainbow-haired kids who think they have a right to punch people in red hats to journalists who call it “retaliation” when China increases tariffs in response to our retaliation for decades of abusing us.

Read it.

A commemorative flotilla of ‘little ships’ was forced to divert because of migrant ‘small boats’ being escorted in the opposite direction.

Marking the 85th anniversary of the Dunkirk evacuation, Operation Dynamo, 66 official Little Ships set off from Ramsgate, Kent, England for Dunkirk, France, at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, May 21st. Unfortunately, UK Border Force and the French navy diverted the flotilla to create a one-nautical-mile exclusion zone for a migrant ‘small boat.’

As the British historical flotilla was being escorted by ships from the Royal Navy and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, France deployed a warship and the navy vessel Oyapock in the Channel at the time to make things safer for dinghies used by human traffickers—the ‘gangs’ Keir Starmer has, to date, failed to ‘smash.’ The British volunteers were obliged to make way and take a longer, less historically significant route.

The disruption undermined the plans of the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships, whose Channel crossing—the first since 2015—is designed to ensure that the story of the Dunkirk evacuation “continues to inspire future generations.”

At least two of the migrants coming in the opposite direction died in the last 48 hours, with the total arriving to date having set new records compared to last year’s figures. As the same day drew to a close, a further 848 individuals were recorded as having crossed the Channel.

Read it.

Following the publication of a damning intelligence report on the Muslim Brotherhood’s influence in France, President Emmanuel Macron has asked the government to prepare new proposals to counter what he called a long-term threat to the Republic.

While the report itself—submitted to the Ministry of the Interior and leaked earlier today—had already detailed the Brotherhood’s extensive organisational reach and ideological strategy, Macron’s intervention marks the first high-level political response. The Élysée said the president had asked ministers to treat the issue as “a matter of national cohesion” and to present options for dealing with what the report described as “a subversive agenda.”

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau echoed the report’s alarm in remarks on Tuesday, warning of “a low-level Islamism” that seeks to impose Sharia law “by degrees” across French society.

Macron’s call for concrete proposals suggests a shift from years of rhetorical concern to potential policy action—though what form that action will take remains to be seen.

New York Post.

Taylor Lorenz heaped praise on accused UnitedHealthcare CEO assassin Luigi Mangione and slammed the media for criticizing the legion of unhinged youths who consider him a hero or role model.

“It’s hilarious to see these millionaire media pundits on TV clutching their pearls about someone stanning a murderer when this is the United States of America — as if we don’t lionize criminals,” the influencer and former reporter for the New York Times and Washington Post told CNN in a bubbly interview.

Quillette.

Donald Trump’s recent visit to the Middle East has thrown a spotlight onto Qatar, an oil-rich emirate that punches above its weight in the geopolitical arena. While Qatar might be seen as a Western ally, especially given that it is home to the largest US military base in the entire region, it also moonlights as a chief financial sponsor and diplomatic patron of Hamas, the Islamist terror group responsible for the 7 October 2023 pogrom in southern Israel.

For more than two decades, the Qatari government, led by the Al-Thani monarchy, has provided billions in financial backing to Hamas. It has also thrown its diplomatic weight behind the terrorist group and provided luxury accommodation in the Qatari capital of Doha for Hamas leaders like Khaled Meshal, Ismail Haniyeh, and Moussa Abu Marzouk. It’s baffling—Qatar promotes itself as a modern, technological, even futuristic place, and yet it backs a mediaeval jihadist movement whose leaders have led the people of Gaza to utter ruin.

Hamas’s other main backers—chiefly the Islamic Republic of Iran, and to a lesser extent the autocratic regimes in China, Russia, and Turkey—deserve their own share of scrutiny. But Qatar’s case is unique.

The American Mind.

Attending oral argument last week in the case touching on birthright citizenship pending before the Supreme Court, I observed a combination of confusion, omissions, and outright lies from some of the justices. As the lawyer for one of the amici, I witnessed the Court address the propriety of the nationwide, universal injunctions that have been issued by several district court judges blocking the execution of President Trump’s day-one executive order on birthright citizenship.

Let’s begin with the lies.

Read it.

Emma Biswas grew up in a life of luxury. She led the robotics team at the Harker School, which bills itself as one of the nation’s top college prep schools and where tuition can reach $65,000. While there, she interned with a biotech company that boasts, “Prospective Nobel Prize Winners Work Here.” And until she left for Barnard College, Biswas lived in a San Francisco Bay Area mansion worth about $5.8 million, according to a Redfin estimate.

Then she was arrested for storming a Columbia University library, along with 80 other radicals. The May 7 mob injured two security officials, damaged bookshelves, distributed pamphlets praising Hamas, and renamed the library after a terrorist. They were led by Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a notorious anti-Semitic group that wants the Ivy League school to cut all ties with Israel, and chanted, “We want divestment now.”

UPDATE: Meet the Rich Kid Radicals Arrested For Storming Columbia Library. Plus, Taxpayer Dollars Are Still Flowing to Woke Professional Associations.

Read it.

Professional trade groups that push “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” anti-Semitism, and far-left politics are still raking in millions in taxpayer dollars—despite a series of Trump administration executive orders—according to federal spending records. One such organization is introducing young children to radical gender ideology.

The Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) America, which represents over 200,000 gym teachers and health instructors, has received over $2.5 million since 2020 from the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Defense’s educational program for children of American service members.

SHAPE helped draft the National Sex Education Standards, which set age-related teaching benchmarks.

Read it.

A federal judge in Amarillo, Texas, ruled in favor of Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton in a lawsuit over Biden administration-era guidelines issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regarding bathroom and pronoun policies.

Read it.

In 2021 Loudon County Schools in Virginia were implementing DEI policies that allowed for trans students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms of their preferred gender. The institutional decision to let trans students essentially do whatever they please regardless of safety concerns led to an incident in May of that year in which a trans girl (boy pretending to be a girl) sexually assaulted a female student in a school bathroom.

The Loudon case sparked a national firestorm, not just because of the rape (which the boy was eventually convicted of), but because of the reported attempts by school officials to cover up the attack.

The teen perpetrator was found criminally responsible for two counts of sodomy in the May 28 incident at Stone Bridge High School and a separate incident on Oct. 6 at Broad Run High School after he was transferred to that school. He was placed on supervised probation in a locked juvenile treatment facility until his 18th birthday.

Axios, a Voice of the Crust.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said Wednesday she is filing a resolution to expel Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) from Congress after the Justice Department charged her with allegedly assaulting law enforcement.

Read it.

With one broad stroke, Democrat Hillary Clinton called all conservative women “handmaidens” in remarks at an event in New York City earlier this month.

“Well, first of all, don’t be a handmaiden to the patriarchy, which kind of eliminates every woman on the [Republican] side of the aisle, except for very few,” Clinton, 77, said when asked what advice she would give to the first female president.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., are among the “few” Republican women who don’t bow down to the patriarchy, according to Clinton.

Read it.

A federal judge on Wednesday struck down regulations requiring most U.S. employers to provide workers with time off and other accommodations for abortions.

Read it.

Enough already. It is time for colleges and universities to get tough on student protesters who hide behind masks while engaging in violent or unlawful campus demonstrations.

…

When protests cross the line into violence, vandalism, or intimidation—as we have seen recently at institutions such as the University of Washington, Columbia University, and Brooklyn College—masks become tools of concealment, not expression.

In those moments, the anonymity they provide fosters a sense of impunity, which encourages students to act more recklessly and violently, creating a dangerous campus environment.

Masked protest in this context is not about health or symbolic speech. It is about avoiding accountability while breaking institutional rules or laws. When student actions disrupt the learning environment or threaten campus safety, their conduct falls well outside First Amendment protections.

Read it.

Columbia University’s Wednesday graduation was marred by mayhem, as anti-Israel graduates set fire to their diplomas and police clashed with demonstrators outside the Upper Manhattan ceremony.

This is why we can’t ever have nice things.

BBC, a Voice of the Crust.

Two employees of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC have died following a shooting near the Capital Jewish Museum.

The embassy has named Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgram as the victims. The pair have been identified as a couple who planned to get married.

The couple were shot dead as they were leaving an event at the museum shortly after 21:00 local time (01:00 GMT) last night. Diplomatic sources tell Reuters and AFP news agencies that Lischinksy was also a German national.

The suspect has been detained and was identified by police as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago. Police say he shouted “free Palestine” after being taken into custody. Officers will “look into ties to potential terrorism”.

UPDATE: Who is Elias Rodriguez, the far-left activist who killed two Israelis in Washington?

The Times (UK).

Two migrants died as more than 800 crossed the Channel in small boats on Wednesday in a record daily high for this year.

Official figures published on Thursday are set to show that overall immigration levels in the UK have fallen but net migration is still expected to stand at more than half a million in the year to December 2024.

Border Force sources said that about 820 migrants had crossed the Channel in small boats by 7am on Wednesday, although the final figure will not be confirmed until later. It is higher than the previous daily record of 705 on April 15.

The British seem unable to get a handle on their illegal immigration problem. Dare I say that Trump would have fixed this?

TechCrunch.

It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but it actually comes from a lab in Maryland.

In 2018, Liangbing Hu, a materials scientist at the University of Maryland, devised a way to turn ordinary wood into a material stronger than steel. It seemed like yet another headline-grabbing discovery that wouldn’t make it out of the lab.
“All these people came to him,” said Alex Lau, CEO of InventWood, “He’s like, OK, this is amazing, but I’m a university professor. I don’t know quite what to do about it.”

Rather than give up, Hu spent the next few years refining the technology, reducing the time it took to make the material from more than a week to a few hours. Soon, it was ready to commercialize, and he licensed the technology to InventWood.

Now, the startup’s first batches of Superwood will be produced starting this summer.

Read it.

A teacher in Berlin has faced years of harassment from Muslim pupils and parents after revealing he was in a same-sex relationship—yet school authorities have repeatedly failed to intervene.

Oziel Inácio-Stech, who works at the Carl-Bolle-Grundschule in the district of Moabit, told Süddeutsche Zeitung he has endured threats, insults, and classroom disruption since telling students five years ago that he was civilly married to a man. Pupils from Muslim backgrounds called him “disgusting,” “a disgrace to the family,” and “unclean.” One declared: “Islam is the boss here.”

Despite numerous reports to school leadership, no serious action was taken. Instead, Inácio-Stech became the target of anonymous parental complaints, leading to an official investigation. Although the case was dropped, authorities refused to clear his name, cautioning him to maintain “emotional distance” and warning him not to speak to the press.

Teachers at the school describe a growing climate of fear and pressure. One colleague reported that Muslim pupils refused to be taught by an Israeli teacher, who later left the school. Another said parents regularly demand dress codes for female staff. “Islam is spreading further and further in our school,” said one. “We Germans are being pushed out.”

Inácio-Stech is currently on leave with post-traumatic stress. Though he remains committed to teaching, his case has sparked wider concern about the unwillingness of officials to confront religious intolerance in migrant-dominated schools.

Imagine how peaceful the world would be if the Religion of Peace didn’t exist.

Read it.

The Syrian man, who stabbed and injured five people with a knife and a sword in front of a bar in the western German city of Bielefeld, had previously been in contact with three Islamists known to the police, according to German media reports.

Mahmoud Mhemed’s mobile phone was found during the search of his room in an asylum shelter, and the data revealed that he had contacts to three known Islamists, two of whom have been accused of terrorism.

Imagine how peaceful the world would be if the Religion of Peace didn’t exist.

Let’s see where the Narrative Media are stampeding today, shall we?

Judge Threatens DHS Officials With Contempt Over Migrant Removals To South Sudan (David Kurtz/Talking Points Memo)

Judge Orders U.S. to Keep Custody of Migrants Amid Claims They Were Sent to South Sudan (New York Times)

US Accused of Defying Order by Sending Migrants to S. Sudan

Migrants deported to South Sudan in violation of court order, attorneys say (Zach Schonfeld/The Hill)  Attorneys say! That proves it!

Trump admin deports Asian immigrants to South Sudan in violation of court order, lawyers say (Kyle Cheney/Politico)

U.S. put Asian migrants on deportation flight to South Sudan, lawyers allege (Camilo Montoya-Galvez/CBS News)

National Science Foundation Ends 196 Grants To Harvard Amid Feud With Trump (Jennifer Bendery/HuffPost)

Justice Dept. Opens Inquiry Into Cuomo, Singling Out Another Political Target (Devlin Barrett/New York Times)

Don’t lose sight of the pain Trump is passing on to American consumers (Jeff Nesbit/The Contrarian)

Massie Fundraises Off Being ‘Threatened’ by Trump

Marco Rubio Says No Judge Has Authority Over Him in Alarming Testimony (Hafiz Rashid/New Republic)

Wealthy gain, low-income people lose from GOP megabill, analysis finds (Ben Leonard/Politico)

Trump Administration Live Updates: House G.O.P. Hunts for Votes on Policy Bill (New York Times)

Blue States Mount Court Challenge to Trump’s Tariffs

Enraged Democrats plan to “double down” on ICE visits (Andrew Solender/Axios)

Trump’s $4 trillion deficit bomb (Zachary Basu/Axios)

The controversy over Rep. LaMonica McIver’s criminal charges, explained (Niall Stanage/The Hill)  Come get yer Narrative, right here.

Musk Insults Interviewer for Daring to Ask About His Big DOGE Promise (Leigh Kimmins/The Daily Beast)

A Liz Truss Moment for America? (Paul Krugman)

Trump’s Plan to Cap Drug Prices Doesn’t Exist (Rogé Karma/The Atlantic)

rhetoric’ (Washington Post)

Diseases are spreading. The CDC isn’t warning the public like it was months ago (Chiara Eisner/NPR)  More to the point, it isn’t scaremongering and causing panic the way it was months ago.

Trump Is Waging War on the Future (Jamelle Bouie/New York Times)

The conspiracy theory that broke Dan Bongino (Philip Bump/Washington Post) Philip Bump loses his shit.

Pope Leo XIV’s MAGA Brother Gets White House Blessing From Trump (Lee Moran/HuffPost)  MAGA is the New Nigger.

DOJ politicization escalates with bogus arrest of congresswoman (Liz Dye/Public Notice)  So holding lpoliticians to account for breaking the law is ‘politicization’? Say it with me: Nobody Is Above The Law. Not even Democrat Congresscritters.

Trump’s Newest Crackdown on Dissent (David A. Graham/The Atlantic)

Universities struggle to keep cancer research afloat amid Trump funding cuts (Lexi Lonas Cochran/The Hill)  Because, as we all know, cancer research is TOTALLY the responsibility of the Federal government – and the Federal taxpayer.

EU, Business Join to Stop “Romanian Donald Trump”  Maybe Trump is the New Nigger.

The Spanish Historical Lesson (Jennifer Rubin/The Contrarian)  Jennifer Rubin demonstrates that she is as ignorant of history as she is of economics.

Budget office: Republicans’ megabill would give to the rich and take from the poor (Steve Benen/MSNBC)  Only if you think all money belongs to the government. If you don’t, it lets the rich keep more of the money that creates jobs, and quits giving money to the poor who just spend it.

The GOP Tax Bill Ignores Decades of Economic Research (Kathryn Anne Edwards/Bloomberg)  Because it was wrong, and has put us in our current predicament.

US ‘illegally deported’ Vietnamese and Burmese migrants to South Sudan (The Guardian)  According to ‘immigrants rights advocates’, and they wouldn’t lie to us, would they?

The forgotten book that foretold Trump’s power grab (Zack Beauchamp/Vox)

Trump ambushes South Africa’s president with video footage in Oval Office (Avery Lotz/Axios)  Ambushed him with the truth by playing a clip of his people singing ‘Kill the Boer’. (Trump Confronts South African President Over Killing of White Farmers)(Trump Shows South African President Receipts of Genocide)

Trump’s big bill is terrible in all the normal Republican ways (Dylan Matthews/Vox)

Judge criticizes DOJ for ‘worrisome’ and ’embarrassing’ blunders in arrest of New Jersey mayor at ICE facility (Ry Rivard/Politico)

Trump illegally fired surveillance watchdog agency’s Democrats, judge rules (Alfred Ng/Politico)

Maybe I need a new post for Today in Democrat Lawfare.

Read it.

The Feiyang Times is an unassuming tower in Shenzhen’s Huaqiangbei district, but it has earned the nickname “the stolen iPhone building” in Apple community forums. According to a Financial Times investigation (paywalled), the building has become a major hub in a global network trafficking stolen iPhones.

This is why we can’t trust the Red Chinese.

UPDATE: Many iPhones stolen in the US and Europe end up in one building in China

UPDATE: How stolen and locked iPhones are being broken down in China for profit

Read it.

Only if another country (like, oh, say, China; or its lapdog, North Korea) attacks us with ICBMS.

If nobody attacks us, then it won’t be a ‘battlefield’. Problem solved.

Read it.

As Mulder used to say, the truth is out there….

Newsbusters.

As NewsBusters was first to report, in April, the Associated Press was sued for defamation by U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young with combined damages possibly reaching $453 million. In a Monday filing obtained by NewsBusters, the AP via their lawyer Charles Tobin (who also represented CNN during Young’s successful defamation trial against them) requested that the court dismiss the case.

Throughout the filing, the AP referred to Young’s accusations as “meritless defamation claims” and asked Judge William Scott Henry of Florida’s 14th Judicial Circuit (who also oversaw the CNN trial) to “dismiss this lawsuit with prejudice under Florida’s Anti-SLAPP statute, which protect ‘the rights of free speech in connection with public issues.’”

Read it.

Dogs don’t like it when you rub their noses in the poop the put on the carpet.

The Foundry.

leaving us with constant whiplash. Even so, we have a duty to remember how bad things were under President Joe Biden, because the institutional factors that enabled his presidency—and the cover-up of his health problems—have yet to be dismantled.

Human beings are fickle, and our memories often end up getting twisted by present concerns. When the Israelites were hungry in the wilderness, God had to remind them that he brought them up out of slavery in Egypt, because their hungry stomachs led them to say they had it better under the whips of their masters (Exodus 16:1-8).

Similarly, we are often tempted to leave injustices in the past, because it’s easier to move on. Thus, after the COVID-19 pandemic, some voices I respect called for a “pandemic amnesty.”

Yet COVID-19 exposed the corruption of the public health bureaucracy, which repeatedly lied to the American people. Bureaucrats abused their power—forcing churches to close, demanding businesses shutter, and keeping kids out of the classroom.

These abuses show why Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s shake-up of the public health establishment is way overdue. We must remember the abuses, so we accept the hard medicine we now need. If we forget, we may not address the corruption at the root of these problems, and the excesses of the bureaucracy will metastasize like Biden’s prostate cancer.

Read it.

Another wave of knife attacks has hit Germany, showing that not much has changed despite the many lost lives and Germans maimed in knife attacks.

In fact, the statistics show that these crimes are even getting worse, with 79 knife attacks per day now recorded. A German criminal lawyer warns that Germany has “imported knife violence,” in response to growing blade crimes.

In the last few days, headlines include Kosovar man arrested after knife attack in Germany injures three, including 12-year-old girl” “Man stabbed half to death on basketball court,” “Manhunt continues after Syrian asylum seeker stabs 5 outside student bar in Bielefeld,” and “Rioter injures police officer with knife.”

However, thousands of such headlines have run in the German press in recent years, with Remix News reporting on many of them. The overwhelming number of perpetrators are foreigners or those with a foreign background, yet despite promises to crack down and enact deportations of migrant criminals, the bloodshed not only continues but appears to be getting worse.

Read it.

The Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF.. Ansarallah/Houthis) announced that its leadership has decided to impose a blockade on the northern Israeli port of Haifa, in response to Tel Aviv’s violent escalation in the Gaza Strip.

“In response to the Israeli enemy’s escalation of its brutal aggression against our brothers and people in Gaza … The Yemeni Armed Forces … has decided, with God’s help, to implement the leadership’s directives to begin work on imposing a naval blockade on the port of Haifa,” it said in a statement released on its media page early Tuesday.

“Accordingly, all companies with ships present in this port or heading to it are hereby notified that the aforementioned port has been included in the target bank since the time of announcing this statement, and they must take into consideration what is said in this statement and what will be stated later,” it added.

Imagine how peaceful the world would be if the Religion of Peace didn’t exist.

Read it.

From Portland to Washington, D.C., and across Europe, the far-left extremist movement known as Antifa has unleashed years of orchestrated chaos driven by a radical, anti-capitalist agenda aimed at destabilizing the West. Now, for the first time, explosive undercover footage reveals life inside an illegal Antifa headquarters.

YouTuber The Urban Legend has released 30 minutes of explosive footage captured inside a secret and illegal Antifa headquarters in Manchester, United Kingdom.

I love the smell of conspiracy in the morning.

Read it.

Taxing unrealized gains is equal parts outright f*cking mathematically insane and cut-and-dry authoritarian. And while I’m appalled by the policy itself, there’s a perverse part of me that’s almost glad it’s happening in Australia first—because the disastrous results will be on full display for the world to see.

Starting in July 2025, the Albanese government is set to debut its latest economic masterstroke: taxing imaginary money. That’s right—if you’ve got more than $3 million sitting in your superannuation, not only will you get slapped with a 30% tax, but it doesn’t even matter if you actually made any money.

Didn’t sell anything? Didn’t cash out? Never saw a cent? Tough luck—Big Brother took a peek at your account, saw some numbers went up, and decided you owe them a slice of your hypothetical success.

Read it.

The optics are grim for far-left Maryland Governor Wes Moore. As the state grapples with a fiscal crisis (deficit explosion), a credit downgrade, illegal alien invasion, violent crime, the looming threat of resident and business flight, a potential tsunami of new taxes, and a worsening power crisis, Moore is facing a growing backlash from all Marylanders. His ability to lead is increasingly being questioned—and it’s becoming clear he’s far from presidential material.

Moore has managed to anger both sides of the political aisle. The latest outrage comes from within his own party after he vetoed a bill that would have established a state commission to study and recommend reparations for African Americans affected by slavery.

In a letter explaining his decision, Moore said it’s not the time for another study, emphasizing the need for direct action to address racial disparities such as the wealth gap, homeownership, education, and food insecurity.

“I will always protect and defend the full history of African Americans in our state and country,” Moore wrote in his letter, adding, “But in light of the many important studies that have taken place on this issue over nearly three decades, now is the time to focus on the work itself: Narrowing the racial wealth gap,…

Which means taking money from white people and giving it to black people.

… expanding homeownership, …

Which means giving people mortgages who don’t qualify financially, which is what started the subprime mortgages meltdown in 2008.

… uplifting entrepreneurs of color, …

Which is anti-white racism, straight up.

and closing the foundational disparities that lead to inequality — from food insecurity to education.”

Which means the traditional Democrat playbook of putting as many people as possible on the dole, where they have to vote Democrat in order to keep the gravy flowing.

Read it.

According to recent articles, engaging in physical exercise is now linked to right-wing extremism.

The narrative suggests that lifting weights, building discipline, and taking responsibility for your body are somehow dangerous acts. The Guardian claims that getting in shape could turn you into a “right-wing jerk,” while TIME runs pieces on “the white supremacist origins of exercise.” MSNBC warns that during the pandemic, workout trends ended up leading to “extreme” ideologies.

Seriously? Can we just stop with the nonsense?

I’ll tell you the real reason fitness is under attack. It breeds autonomy. And autonomous men are a threat to systems built on dependence and compliance.

The Foundry.

Much has been made of The Associated Press getting the boot from the White House. It’s even sparked a protracted legal battle between AP and the Trump administration.

The AP’s sudden difficulty getting access to the president has been a long time coming as the news organization has drifted strongly to the left in recent years.

What’s equally important to note is the recent shift in AP’s funding model, which increasingly relies on donations from, in many cases, far-left advocacy organizations.

Take, for instance, a recent AP story on the budget reconciliation bill making its way through Congress and the inclusion of a $5 billion school voucher program.

The story is framed with the assumption that school choice policies are harmful.

The AP reporter called the inclusion of school choice policies in the bill an “unprecedented effort to use public money to pay for private education” and presented a somewhat lopsided case why choice in general is bad.

One of the sources of commentary criticizing the bill in the piece is Sasha Pudelski, advocacy director for the School Superintendents Association, a government employee union, and co-chair of NoVouchers.org.

Read it.

The two-day ‘Reactionary politics, women, and feminist critique’ conference at Loughborough University in Leicestershire, England, starting on Wednesday, May 21st, promises a keynote on ‘Feminism After Neoliberalism and the New Far Right’—economic and political perspectives that are typically difficult to reconcile.

“This event focuses on women and feminised popular culture in the context of resurgent reactionary politics,” the organisers advertise, effortlessly linking ‘reactionary’ and ‘far right.’ One of the major smears thrown from Brussels at the growing populist revolt is effortlessly integrated into higher education’s vocabulary, almost as if it has been captured by the Left (spoiler: it has).

Sponsored by the European Journal of Cultural Studies, speakers at the conference promise to tackle “Popular feminism, the gig economy, and the discursive potency of women’s safety;” “Self-Care and ‘Disappointing’ Politics in the Trump-Era Novel,” and “‘Gender Debate’ Discourse: Polarising, bigoted and validating’”—no debate there then. Casting such preoccupations further afield, other speakers will condemn “Female-fronted anti-feminism in Sweden, Germany and Russia” and the “Rise of Trans Exclusion in Self-identifying Radical Feminists in South Korea.”

Other targets include ‘tradwives,’ ‘momfluencers,’ and ‘victimcould,’ with no one there to make the counterargument. Digitally themed sessions typically imply an online threat from some types of men, while others seem to downplay physical threats to women’s safety from others, hinting at a ‘far-right’ agenda—unless the danger comes from the U.S.-European ‘manosphere.’

Not since academics gathered in Sheffield to discuss “How Do You Solve a Problem Like GB News”—answer: more regulation—has there been such confirmation bias on display at a supposedly scholarly gathering. To be honest, such get-togethers happen week in, week out at a campus near you—typically at your expense.

New Economics, a Voice of the Crust.

It has long been accepted that there is a line beneath which people have too little to thrive or survive. In a period defined by rapidly growing wealth inequities, there is increasing discussion about whether we should also be asking how much is too much. At what point does wealth accumulation become excessive, unjust, or harmful?

Excessive – in whose opinion? Unjust – in whose opinion? Harmful – in whose opinion? The envious levelers who permeate proglodyte space?

The concepts of a poverty line and an extreme wealth line (EWL) are not the same. One focuses on the minimum income, or the level of resources, required to access life’s essentials such as food, shelter, and clothing. The other considers whether there is a point beyond which the concentration of global wealth, such as income-generating land, properties, and financial assets, in the hands of relatively few people, is harmful – to individuals, to society, and to the environment. Drawing a line in either case has the potential to be highly contested, but also hugely impactful: it enables us as a society to discuss and reassess our tolerance for inequities and ultimately design better policies to tackle them.

Socialism red in tooth and claw.

Scientific American, unfortunatley these days a Voice of the Crust.

In 1884 the anthropologist Franz Boas returned from Baffin Island with a discovery that would kick off decades of linguistic wrangling: by his count, the local Inuit language had four words for snow, suggesting a link between language and physical environment. A great game of telephone inflated the number until, in 1984, the New York Times published an editorial claiming the Inuit have “100 synonyms” for the frozen white stuff we lump under a single term.

Boas’s observation had swelled to mythic proportions. In a 1991 essay, British linguist Geoff Pullum called these claims a “hoax,” citing the work of linguist Laura Martin, who tracked the misinformation’s evolution. He likened it to the xenomorph from Alien, a creature that “seemed to spring up everywhere once it got loose on the spaceship, and was very difficult to kill.” His acerbic critique rendered the subject taboo for a generation, says Victor Mair, an expert on Chinese language at the University of Pennsylvania. But now, he says, “it’s coming back in a legitimate way.”

In a sweeping new computational analysis of world languages, researchers not only confirmed the emphasis on snow in the Inuit language Inuktitut but also uncovered many similar patterns: what snow is to the Inuit, lava is to Samoans and oatmeal to Scots. The results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA in April. Charles Kemp, a computational psychologist at the University of Melbourne in Australia and senior author of the study, says the results offer a window onto language speakers’ culture. “It’s a way to get a sense of the ‘chief interests of a people’—what’s important to a society, what they prioritize and value,” he says, quoting Boas.

Read it.

Previous studies have explored gender and ethnic biases in hiring by submitting résumés/CVs to real job postings or mock selection panels, systematically varying the gender or ethnicity signaled by applicants. This approach enables researchers to isolate the effects of demographic characteristics on hiring or preselection decisions.

Building on this methodology, the present analysis evaluates whether Large Language Models (LLMs) exhibit algorithmic gender bias when tasked with selecting the most qualified candidate for a given job description.

…

Despite identical professional qualifications across genders, all LLMs consistently favored female-named candidates when selecting the most qualified candidate for the job. Female candidates were selected in 56.9% of cases, compared to 43.1% for male candidates (two-proportion z-test = 33.99, p < 10?²⁵² ). The observed effect size was small to medium (Cohen’s h = 0.28; odds=1.32, 95% CI [1.29, 1.35]). In the figures below, asterisks (*) indicate statistically significant results (p < 0.05) from two-proportion z-tests conducted on each individual model, with significance levels adjusted for multiple comparisons using the Benjamin-Hochberg False Discovery Rate correction.

Read it.

If you haven’t come across it before, NotebookLM functions as an AI research companion that helps users analyze and interact with their documents, websites, and other content. The tool can generate summaries, create FAQ lists, produce timeline views, and even transform research materials into podcast-style audio discussions with AI-generated hosts. Google originally launched it in 2023, and then launched its NotebookLM Plus plan for businesses, schools, organizations, and enterprise customers in December. NotebookLM Plus is also available as a part of a Google One AI Premium subscription.

One of the big additions with the app is offline access to Audio Overviews, the genuinely impressive feature that sees two hosts have a podcast-style chat about your project sources. Users can now download summaries for listening on the go, which should be handy for those looking to conserve data. Whether offline or online, the app also supports background playback, making it easier to catch up on research insights while multitasking.

The iOS version also adds more interactivity. Users can tap “Join” to engage directly with the app’s AI-powered hosts, allowing them to ask clarifying questions, change the direction of a summary, or toss in an offbeat query.

Sharing content into NotebookLM is now easier than it was via the web app. If you’re viewing a website, a PDF, or a YouTube video, access the share sheet and select NotebookLM to add the material as a source. Google says it plans to expand the range of supported input types over time.

The NotebookLM app is now available on the App Store for iPhone and iPad.

The article has a link that will allow getting the app. It appears to be free, but (as is the way of the world) there may be in-app purchases.

Read it.

It’s true what they say, “they don’t make ’em like they used to.” We know, because our company restores historic windows. Many of these windows are still working well after 100 years. Most brand-new windows will not be in service 100 years from now.

Why? Because wood windows made with “new wood” aren’t made like they used to be. Historic windows made with “old growth” wood, from trees 100 years ago, are the most durable windows there are.

The difference between old growth wood and new growth wood is like the difference between granite and paper. Old growth wood has better stability, durability and longevity. New growth wood and the windows they’re made of, begin to rot and warp after only twenty years.

Sometimes the old ways are best.

The Verge.

One morning last month, I walked into my kitchen to get a glass of water, but my smart faucet was out of battery. I went to sit down in my front room, and the shade was still shut — it was out of battery. I walked down the hall and found a beached robot vacuum — out of battery. I headed outside to feed the chickens, unlocking the back door on the way out. The battery-powered smart lock had done what it was supposed to and automatically locked at 8PM. At least something was working.

The game changer here is wireless charging. Not wireless like putting your phone on a charging pad, wireless like across the room. For the past year, a Wi-Charge transmitter in my ceiling has been shooting infrared lasers at a photovoltaic panel on the specially modified Alfred DB2S smart lock on my back door, keeping its battery hovering at 100 percent. So I never have to deal with a dead lock when going to feed my chickens.

To get this souped-up setup cost around $1,250, required cutting a hole in my ceiling, and is only available through an early access program (the Wi-Charge-compatible Alfred lock can’t be purchased off the shelf). However, despite this extra effort, after a year of living with a wirelessly-powered smart lock, whose battery I never have to mess with, I want this for everything in my smart home.

Read it.

NYU Tandon-led research team discovers unprecedented genetic adaptations in Gowanus Canal organisms, revealing a potential new approach for cleaning contaminated waters and recovering valuable resources

Read it.

While the Colorado Legislature passed a new transgender bill, sponsors compared parental rights groups to the Ku Klux Klan. Now, those groups are suing to block the legislation, mere days after Gov. Jared Polis signed it.

“The State of Colorado cannot stifle viewpoints it doesn’t like simply because it finds those views offensive or disagreeable,” Sarah Parshall Perry, vice president and legal fellow at the parental rights group Defending Education, told The Daily Signal in a statement Tuesday.

The parental rights groups Defending Education, the Colorado Parent Advocacy Network, and Protect Kids Colorado teamed up with the medical watchdog group Do No Harm and a medical doctor, Dr. Travis Morrell, to file the lawsuit Monday, challenging HB 25-1312, which Polis, a Democrat, signed Friday. The law amends the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, which bars discrimination on the basis of “gender expression,” specifically stating that refusing to use a person’s “chosen name” will constitute discrimination.

The Talented Mr. Vance — J. D. Vance could have brought the country’s conflicting strands together. (George Packer/The Atlantic)

South Africa’s President to Challenge Trump on Afrikaner Refugees (John Eligon/New York Times)

Scoop: Vance decided against Israel visit due to new Israeli operation in Gaza (Barak Ravid/Axios)

Trump DOJ changes to civil rights division spark mass exodus of attorneys (Ryan Lucas/NPR)  Saves the effort of firing them.

Trump Has His Law Firms Right Where He Wants Them (Jeffrey Toobin/New York Times)

What you — yes, you — should know about interacting with ICE (Philip Bump/Washington Post)  Never take advice frsom a rabid proglodyte ‘journalist’.

A Terrible Idea — Now is not the time to limit the ability of federal courts to enforce their judicial orders. (Erwin Chemerinsky/Just Security)

Brendan Carr stages a Trumpian show at the FCC (John Hendel/Politico)

Will Anyone Take the Factory Jobs Trump Wants to Bring Back to America? (Wall Street Journal)  No, because all of those people are already on the government dole.

Head of CBS News to Depart Amid Tensions With Trump (Michael M. Grynbaum/New York Times)

Donald Trump Jr. Mocks Biden Cancer Diagnosis in Heartless Post (Troy Matthews/MeidasTouch News)

Republicans are raiding childcare funding – to push women out of the workforce (Moira Donegan/The Guardian)  Because, as se all know, childcare funding is TOTALLY the responsibility of the Federal government – and the Federal taxpayer.

Trump order targets barcodes on ballots. They’ve long been a source of misinformation (Charlotte Kramon/Associated Press)

Papers please: Trump employs proof of identity tactic to monitor Americans (Sareen Habeshian/Axios)

‘Sesame Street’ Saved, Inks New Streaming Deal With Netflix (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)

How Trump’s family-linked crypto deals are threatening a ‘Hunter Biden-style’ scandal at the White House (New York Post)

Transcript: Trump’s Threats to Defy Courts Suddenly Get More Dangerous (New Republic)

The Real Threat of the Nonprofit “Terrorism” Provision in Trump’s Big Bill (Shirin Sinnar/Slate) Terrorism!

Lawyers seek to force Trump to return Guatemalan deportee (Nate Raymond/Reuters)  Good luck with that.

Supreme Court Backs Trump on Ending TPS for 350,000 Venezuelans

Supreme Court allows Trump to revoke protected status for thousands of Venezuelans (Lawrence Hurley/NBC News)

Trump threatens ABC News over Qatar jet coverage (Dominick Mastrangelo/The Hill)

Supreme Court allows Trump to cancel protected status for Venezuelans for now (Justin Jouvenal/Washington Post)

Supreme Court Sides With Trump – Allows Removal Of ‘Protected Status’ From 300,000 Venezuelan Migrants

Supreme Court Allows Trump to Proceed With Plans to Remove Temporary Legal Status for Venezuelans

Supreme Court Lets Trump Lift Deportation Protections for Venezuelans (New York Times)

Grounded by Bureaucracy: Trump’s Chance to Ditch the Feds, Commercialize the Skies

Judge Bars DOGE’s Ending of Institute of Peace

Appeals court allows Trump’s anti-union order to take effect (Lindsay Whitehurst/Associated Press)

Guess Who Democrats Blame For The Mexican Pirate Ship Smashing Into Brooklyn Bridge…

Federal judge overturns Trump’s efforts to take over and cripple US Institute of Peace (CNN)

Supreme Court allows Trump to strip legal protections from 350,000 Venezuelans who risk deportation (Mark Sherman/Associated Press)

A Tiny Bank in Trump Tower Is Enriching the President’s Sons (Bloomberg)

Supreme Court allows Trump to revoke immigration protections for 350,000 Venezuelans (Josh Gerstein/Politico)

Scoop: First flight leaves U.S. under Trump’s $1,000 “self-deport” deal (Axios)

Rural Missouri Jails See Windfall in Trump’s Mass Deportation Effort (Jesse Bogan/The Marshall Project)

Whoopi Claims: No Biden ‘Health Cover-Up,’ Trump Could Be Deported

Trump’s FBI bosses are angering the MAGA media bubble they once stoked (Brian Stelter/CNN)

Leavitt: Trump Committed to ‘Obtaining Greenland’

Trump Admin Must Facilitate Return Of Another Wrongfully Deported Man, Appeals Court Rules (David Kurtz/Talking Points Memo)

Republicans Are Making Their Politically ‘Suicidal’ Medicaid Cuts Even Worse (Rolling Stone)

Big, Beautiful Bullshit (Jay Kuo/The Status Kuo)

Scoop: Schumer to seek vote on blocking Qatar’s gift to Trump (Stephen Neukam/Axios)

Another Abrego Garcia, and the Administration’s “Contrivance” to Keep Him in El Salvador’s Prison (Ryan Goodman/Just Security)

Obama-Appointed Judge Blocks Trump’s Bid to Revamp Institute of Peace

Trump Admin Assails Walz for ICE-Gestapo Comparison

350,000 people are losing protection from deportation (Patrick Reis/Vox)

Sources contradict Trump narrative about Qatar offering plane as ‘gift’ (CNN)  Sources! That proves it!

Federal Judge Boots DOGE Out Of Institute Of Peace After Armed Takeover (Kate Riga/Talking Points Memo)

Federal Judge Orders Trump Administration to Restore Environmental Grant Funding (Amy Green/Inside Climate News)

Judge strikes down DOGE takeover of the U.S. Institute of Peace (Ryan J. Reilly/NBC News)

Trump Signs Controversial Law Targeting Nonconsensual Sexual Content (Paresh Dave/Wired)  Controversial!

The Supreme Court Has Officially Had Enough Of Donald Trump’s Excuses (Paul Blumenthal/HuffPost)

The U.S. Under Trump: Alone in Its Climate Denial (David Gelles/New York Times)  Denial!

The Inside Story of Trump’s Search for a New Air Force One (New York Times)

The Trump-Supporting Christians Accusing Jews of Antisemitism (Michelle Goldberg/New York Times)

Trump Goes Off Script And Says What He’s Really Thinking About Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis (Taiyler S. Mitchell/HuffPost)

60 Minutes’ Scott Pelley Tells College Grads: ‘Freedom of Speech is Under Attack’ By Trump Administration

Schumer Proposes Ban on Foreign Air Force One Planes

White House officials wanted to put federal workers ‘in trauma.’ It’s working. (Washington Post)

Alien Enemies Act Deportations on Hold in California

Justice Dept. to Use False Claims Act to Pursue Institutions Over Diversity Efforts (New York Times)

Trump’s Pick to Lead I.R.S. Promoted a Nonexistent Tax Credit (Andrew Duehren/New York Times)

‘Dried out prune’? ‘Corrupt’ and ‘incompetent’? It’s getting nasty between Springsteen and Trump (David Bauder/Associated Press)

Donald Trump and the power of the big (fake) number (Paul Waldman/Public Notice)

Trump can complain all he wants – but he can’t stop his own economic mess (Sidney Blumenthal/The Guardian)

Words & Phrases We Can Do Without (Jennifer Rubin/The Contrarian)  Jennifer Rubin votes for censorship.

New York Times: Trump’s Approval Still Up Because of ‘Lower-Information’ Voters

Donald Trump Drops Crude Line At Kennedy Center Dinner In Bizarre Rant About 2020 Election (Lee Moran/HuffPost)

Trumpism’s growing split: Bannon vs plutocrats (Edward Luce/Financial Times)  There is no such thing as ‘Trumpism’, and if there were Bannon would be no part of it.

The President Will Destroy You Now — One thing stands out amid all the chaos … (Thomas B. Edsall/New York Times)

Insider Advantage Poll: Trump Approval Up to 55 Percent

Trump tries to persuade, and threaten, GOP to support his budget bill (Washington Post)

Noem botches habeas corpus questions at Senate hearing (April Rubin/Axios)

Kristi Noem flunks an important test on the basic meaning of habeas corpus (Steve Benen/MSNBC)

Democrats Are Greenlighting Trump’s Crypto Corruption (Chris Lehmann/The Nation)

Democrats Unveil DOGE BROS Act To Punish People For Meddling In Private Data (Jennifer Bendery/HuffPost)

A Top Law Firm Said Trump Was Infringing on the ‘Rights of All Americans.’ It Runs a Scholarship That Excludes White Students.

DOGE sought access to Government Publishing Office (Katherine Tully-McManus/Politico)  I guess that comes as a surprise to some people.

Republicans keep clinging to Biden’s health to ignore Trump’s decline (Rex Huppke/USA Today)  He looks pretty active to me.

Kristi Noem Should Probably Know What Habeas Corpus Is (Jonathan Chait/The Atlantic)

Democratic senator says he has recordings of favors ‘promised’ by Trump’s IRS pick (Tobias Burns/The Hill)