As a Democrat who has been left homeless, who is now definitely in the center but probably leaning increasingly right, I am left yet again with an appreciation, despite the messenger, of the message of the Trump administration because what those guys did was pretty incredible in hindsight. So much of the work that happened in that administration turns out to have been right. And that’s what is so frustrating for me. The work on the border wall? We didn’t like the messenger, so we killed the message. Turned out it was right. Issuing long-term debt to refinance when rates were at zero? We didn’t like the messenger, so we killed the message. A structural peace in the Middle East? We didn’t like the messenger, so we killed the message. When are we gonna stop shooting ourselves in the foot? And when are we going to actually see and take… Read more →
Author Archive: Paul Epps
Israel’s 9/11
Today should mark the end of the Biden administration’s dishonorable effort to reenter the Iran nuclear deal and its string of disgraceful and one-sided concessions to Hamas’s biggest backer. Biden gave Iran access to frozen money, most recently $6 billion that had been frozen in South Korean banks. Since the administration came into office, it has been pouring money into Gaza aid projects knowing well that Iran’s client terrorist group, Hamas, is fully in control of the territory and would benefit from the help. In fact, Biden officials put in writing, in recently leaked documents, that they knew Hamas would benefit from the money they were sending. They sent it anyway. — Noah Pollak Read more →
True and False Statements About Trans People
Report: Trans People Seven Times More Likely Than Cisgender People to Experience Violence In California An annual report detailing how many Californians were the victims of violence over the past year finds a slight dip in reported violence among most populations, but a sharp increase in reported violence against transgender people. — sfist.com (emphasis added) Nothing I say here is intended to disparage trans people . . . I’m fine with adults doing what they want, dressing the way they want, acting the way they want, with a few minor restrictions — keep your hands to yourself, that sort of thing. I don’t really care about trans people. But I take exception to being lied to by people advancing an agenda. That said, the report mentioned in the article above is based on the fourth annual California Violence Experiences Survey, conducted by UC San Diego and Tulane University. If you… Read more →
My Boyhood Sports Icons Are Dying: Brooks Robinson
Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson, the “Human Vacuum Cleaner,” has died at the age of 86. Robinson played his entire 23-year career with the Orioles. He was selected to 18 All-Star Games and earned the 1964 AL Most Valuable Player award after batting .318 with 28 home runs and a league-leading 118 RBIs. He won 16 consecutive Gold Gloves. He was the best-fielding third basemen I’ve ever seen. Robinson’s most memorable performance came as MVP of the 1970 World Series, a five-game triumph over the Reds, He hit .429, homered twice and drove in six runs. In Game 1, Robinson delivered the tiebreaking home run in the seventh inning. One inning earlier, he made a sensational backhanded grab of a hard grounder hit down the line by Lee May, spun around in foul territory and somehow threw out the runner. Robinson contributed an RBI single in the second… Read more →
Clapping for Nazis
The photo shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other members of the Canadian Parliament giving a standing ovation for Yaroslav Hunka, a Ukrainian World War II veteran who later immigrated to Canada. Let me put this in hockey parlance so the Canadians can understand it. This is what’s known as an “own goal.” It’s hard to figure out how this happened, because Hunka’s introduction included the fact that he fought against Russia in WWII. Did no one think “Why was he fighting Russia? Russia was on our side.” It turns out that he was fighting Russia because he was in the Waffen-SS, i.e., he is (or was, at least) a Nazi. House Speaker Anthony Rota, who invited and introduced Hunka, has since resigned, and Trudeau has issued an on-brand non-apology apology. I haven’t heard that Zelenskyy said anything, but if he did, it was probably… Read more →
A Mystery of the Digital Censorship Era
A mystery of the digital censorship era is the ease with which its core ideas have been sold to people who were its fiercest initial opponents. The closer you look at mechanisms now used to isolate, remove, disrupt, and spy on everyone from environmentalists to antiwar activists to anti-mandate or anti-lockdown protesters, the more easily you’ll see a direct line to high-profile civil liberties controversies of two decades ago. The modern Internet surveillance state was born in programs bitterly opposed then by left-leaning intellectuals, of the type who subscribed to The Nation and carried NO BLOOD FOR OIL signs while protesting war in Iraq. — Matt Taibbi Read more →
A Beautiful Day in the Great State of Iowa
View this post on Instagram A post shared by President Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump) Read more →
OnlyPans
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Isabella Maria DeLuca (@isabellamdeluca) Read more →
Robbie Robertson, 1943-2023
RIP Robbie Robertson Read more →
Success!
This is an actual job posting. I don’t know if I’d want to take success tips from someone making 22 bucks an hour . . . Read more →
Bruce Lee Playing Table Tennis With Nunchuks
This is one of the more amazing things I’ve ever seen: View this post on Instagram A post shared by table_tennis_love_ (@table_tennis_love_) Read more →
California’s a Brand-New Game
All the gold in California Is in the bank in the middle of Beverly Hills In somebody else’s name. So if you’re dreamin’ about California, It don’t matter at all where you’ve played before. California’s a brand-new game. — Larry Gatlin, “All the Gold in California” Read more →
Failing To Notify Parents When Their Child Changes Gender Is ‘The American Way’?
Dem Governor: Failing To Notify Parents When Their Child Changes Gender Is ‘The American Way’ — freebeacon.com The Democratic governor is Phil Murphy from New Jersey, who says that “outing” LGBTQ students to their parents is a violation of the child’s constitutional rights. Thus, opposing parental notification is “the American way.” “Listen, we took these actions because it’s the right thing to do,” Murphy said. “Let’s protect the rights of these precious kids. Let’s do things the right way, the American way.” I wasn’t even aware that constitutional rights apply to children. Without researching it, I suspect they don’t. I also don’t think that children have the cognitive maturity to make decisions on their own about sexuality and gender identity. Transgenderism, for example, is a mental disorder: gender dysphoria. It’s a diagnosis obtained via medical care and therapy, not obtained via the internet. There almost certainly is not someone at… Read more →
It Never Gets Old
View this post on Instagram A post shared by President Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump) Read more →
Days of Wine and Roses
They are not long, the weeping and the laughter, Love and desire and hate: I think they have no portion in us after We pass the gate. They are not long, the days of wine and roses: Out of a misty dream Our path emerges for a while, then closes Within a dream. — Ernest Dowson Read more →
Missouri v. Biden
Here’s how federal judge Terry Doughty yesterday described the digital censorship controversy at which pundits a half-year now have repeatedly rolled eyes, dismissed, and mocked as a nothingburger: “If the allegations made by Plaintiffs are true, the present case arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history.” — Matt Taibbi Read more →
National Math and Reading Scores are Plunging
National math and reading scores are plunging. In the new educational philosophy, test scores are just a racist measure of racist things. Parents who are pro–standardized testing are far-right hate groups. Obviously closing schools for years was really bad. You can see the scores drop off a cliff after 2020. But overall, the scores are actually lower than they were 40 years ago. We’ve made no progress in educating kids since 1980. There was progress till slightly after 2010 and then . . . What has happened in that time? I bet deciding that math and reading are racist didn’t help. And teachers being primarily tasked with gender-discovery journeys also did not improve scores. Midwestern public school teachers are trading tips on how to transition kids without telling parents. (I don’t know why these stories are only covered in non-US media.) Having teachers paint your son’s nails does not improve… Read more →
An Alternative Approach to Student Loan Relief
The Supreme Court just struck down Biden's disastrous student loan forgiveness program. We have a bad habit in America of paying people to do the exact opposite of what we want them to do: more $$ to stay at home than to work, more $$ to be a single mother than married, more $$… pic.twitter.com/kexfAig09l — Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) June 30, 2023 I knew Biden wasn’t allowed to do this. Here’s the good news. You can just flip those signs over, write a new begging message on the back, and go stand on a freeway offramp. Read more →
Supreme Court Kills Affirmative Action
The Supreme Court Has Killed Affirmative Action. Mediocre Whites Can Rest Easier. — thenation.com The author of that piece really hates white people. I don’t recommend reading it, you will not be a better person for having done so, as it consists solely of sweeping generalizations, broad judgments, unfounded inferences and racial insults. Even if five points (out of a possible 100) were deducted for each verifiable fact, it still scores at least a 95. Grammar and spelling are passable. The only “fact” I remember being cited in support of affirmative action is actually false: In California, which ended its affirmative action policies over 25 years ago, the studies show that, without affirmative action, Black enrollment plummets, Latino enrollment plummets, AAPI enrollment goes up a little bit, and whites flood the remaining opportunities. The article that the author links to doesn’t even say that. Black and Latino enrollment in the… Read more →
Diversity at Harvard
The Harvard University president, vice president, provost, and 15 deans signed an email reaffirming the institution’s commitment to diversity after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action on Thursday. The Supreme Court ruled that the race-conscious admissions policies practiced by Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The email states that “diversity and difference are essential to academic excellence” and “to prepare leaders for a complex world, Harvard must admit and educate a student body whose members reflect, and have lived, multiple facets of human experience.” Whatever that means. But what does race have to do with it? Why is race the deciding factor? I think it would be easy to find a young black person and a young white person who’ve lived very similar lives. Or to find two young white people who’ve led very different… Read more →