April 1, 2025

March 31, 2025

STANDING UP AGAINST HATE AND BIGOTRY AND DISCRIMINATION: Trump Administration Will Review Billions in Funding for Harvard: The move follows the cancellation of roughly $400 million in funding for Columbia and the suspension of $175 million for the University of Pennsylvania.. The Trump administration said on Monday that it was reviewing roughly $9 billion in federal grants and contracts awarded to Harvard, claiming that the university had allowed antisemitism to run unchecked on its campus. In a statement on Monday, the administration said that it was examining about $256 million in contracts, as well as an additional $8.7 billion in what it described as ‘multiyear grant commitments.'”

Posted at 9:54 pm by Glenn Reynolds 72

OPEN THREAD: Monday, Monday.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds 1120

GREAT MOMENTS IN ASTROTURFING: Asphalt Assault: Anti-Tesla Protesters Unleash Their Scariest Weapon Yet – Nazi-Infused Line Dancing!

Tesla protesters in Seattle, Washington pulled out their scariest secret weapon against Elon Musk – line dancing. It was an assault on the eyes. Protesters hate Musk’s electric vehicles but enjoy the Electric Slide.

Have a look. (WATCH)

The irony of choosing the Electric Slide was not lost on commenters.

Other Tesla protestors had their talking points preprinted in large type, just like a Biden press conference. (Why didn’t his handlers talk him into attempting the electric slide?):

And then everybody quit at noon.

No word yet, if like the mob in Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, they all went off for brunch afterward “to have a little sponge cake und a little wine,” before contemplating their next assault on civilization.

UPDATE: Indivisible Takes Down Web Page Offering $200 for Tesla Protests.

Posted at 9:22 pm by Ed Driscoll 201

LOL, TIM WALZ:

Posted at 8:44 pm by Glenn Reynolds 103

BECAUSE BETA MALES LIKE AN EXCUSE TO FEEL POWERFUL: Why Do Democrats Love Violence? “The coordinated attacks on Teslas, Tesla drivers and Tesla dealers represent one of the most appalling political developments of recent years. These attacks are coordinated, organized and financed: yesterday was proclaimed a ‘global day of action’ by the ‘Tesla Takedown’ movement. CNN found the violence exciting. As do, apparently, 100% of Democratic politicians. I hadn’t seen any Democratic officeholders condemn the violence, so I thought I must have missed it. But no: the Google search ‘Democrats condemn Tesla attacks’ turns up zero instances of any such criticism.”

Posted at 8:23 pm by Glenn Reynolds 105

BREAKING: Marine Le Pen Found Guilty of Embezzlement, Barred From Running for President.

‘Is France still a democracy?’

…The dramatic judicial intervention into the French presidential campaign is threatening to deny to voters the choice of the candidate who is ahead in all opinion polls. On the news channels this lunchtime, the question was being posed: is France still a democracy?

According to what I have learned of the European Union’s definition by watching the political lurching and machinations on the continent these past couple of years, it most assuredly is.

Granted, I am looking at this through American eyes, but, man, do I have a cynical squint on right now.

Next up, wondering what the average French citizen in the street thinks of it.

They’re normally not too shy about letting anyone know how they feel.

But, boy — I hope they’ve got those fire trucks filled.

Related: Has French democracy been ‘executed?’ “There may be other more immediate repercussions. Le Pen’s party could join the left in bringing a motion of no confidence in Bayrou’s coalition government. They did it in December, to topple Michel Barnier, but this year she has been more conciliatory. Not now. Le Pen may be gone, but her party will probably benefit from this judgement. The anger of her 11 million voters is likely to go from simmering to seething in the days and weeks ahead.  Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, reacted to the verdict by tweeting ‘Je Suis Marine.’ France may not have heard the last of that battle cry.”

UPDATE:

Posted at 6:14 pm by Ed Driscoll 396

GREAT MOMENTS IN TOLERANCE FOR DIVERSITY: Takes a Dive on The Subway.

On March 19, 2025, just before midnight, decency quietly expired aboard a northbound subway car — somewhere between Midtown Manhattan and the Land of Perpetual Outrage.

That night, Alberta Testanero, 55, came down with a familiar civic illness: the belief that her opinion was law. The New York Post would later describe her as “agitated.”

A freelance creative director for Tiffany & Co., Coach, and Kate Spade, Alberta is the kind of professional who describes herself — on LinkedIn, naturally — as “an experienced team leader with a keen understanding of corporate strategy… always furthering brand vision.”

But that night, on that train, Alberta her vision was a target, and she was all out of ideas.

Testanero had spotted her personal demon. Not a man. Not even a policy. A hat. Not just any hat. The hat. The MAGA cap — poly-blend, unironically worn, clashing perfectly with her curated contempt.

Alberta — a Murray Hill progressive, Fashion Institute of Technology pedigree, luxury-brand whisperer — had spent a career aligning handbags with identity. But here, aboard the late-night 6 train, she found a brand she could not abide: a brown-skinned young man wearing that red lid. He smiled. She snarled.

Metaphor alert, for those remaining few who didn’t see how the viral video concludes:

In his Commentary newsletter today, Abe Greenwald adds:

The subway car is full of typical New Yorkers, which is to say it’s a kaleidoscope of ages, ethnicities, and social stations. And no one seems to be on the woman’s side. What’s more, they vocally support the young man. One off-camera witness who—there’s no sense in dancing around it—sounds like a black man, tells the woman, “That’s why he [Trump] won. Because of people like you.” The woman then turns on this guy, asking him if he’s “okay” with the MAGA-hat passenger. “I’m so okay with it,” he says. “I’m [expletive] okay with it. Leave him alone.” He goes on to criticize the Democrats and praise Donald Trump for pulling the rug out from under them. And finally, when the woman lands on her face, the car erupts in cheers.

So the clip is a portrait of the country’s politics in microcosm. In the 2024 election, Trump gained support among almost every demographic, including ethnic minorities. And while Kamala Harris lost Democratic support among women overall, she brought in more women over 65.

Okay, the subway scold is 55, but it’s close enough to make a larger point: Americans of every conceivable stripe have given up the grievance politics and doom-casting that dominated   Trump’s first term. And they no longer give liberal narratives the benefit of the doubt. Even New York subway riders root for the man in the MAGA hat over the liberal Karen. The only ones who didn’t get the memo are represented by a small, coastal elite. And they fell flat on their faces.

The woman shouldn’t suffer the rest of her life for her foolishness. Among other reasons, she played the starring role in a small masterpiece.

And while one Harris voter was triggered by a baseball cap, another is triggered by a car. Guess which one: “A Bucks County man scratched a swastika into a Tesla, police allege. Musk fans are not pleased,” the left-leaning Philadelphia Inquirer reports, nudge-nudge, wink-winking away the vandalism:

Tesla dealerships nationwide have become the site of anti-Musk demonstrations in recent weeks, while police reports of vandalized Tesla vehicles are surging.

The damages range from gunshots to fires, scratches to crude gestures leveled at drivers. Blowback has been strong enough that in Washington, D.C., it is now considered a hate crime to deface one of Musk’s cars.

The Philadelphia region is no exception to the tension, and one recent incident — in which a Bucks County man allegedly keyed a swastika into the side of a Tesla SUV — set local social media circles ablaze this week.

In what’s become a feature of the polarized political climate, the online outrage cycle ended with social media vigilantes identifying the suspect before police even filed charges.

And in the case of Teslas, the vehicle’s onboard cameras that record almost constantly are providing keyboard warriors and law enforcement alike with an up-close look at the mounting cases of vandalism.

On Thursday, the Central Bucks Regional Police Department issued an arrest warrant for 55-year-old Chadd Ritenbaugh, charging him with two misdemeanors and two summary offenses for damaging property, harassment, and disorderly conduct in the Monday incident.

Footage captured by the Tesla’s side camera in a Planet Fitness parking lot that morning shows a man police say is Ritenbaugh exit a gray Lexus, duck behind the vehicle, and scratch the neighboring car with an “unknown” object before walking out of frame.

The Tesla’s owner later left the gym to find “what appeared to be scratches in the shape of a swastika” on the side of the vehicle, according to court documents.

But don’t worry, the suspect told the driver that “I’m sorry you’re upset” about his alleged vandalism: Watch Leftist Vandal Squirm When Confronted for Keying Swastika on Tesla.

2020 doesn’t repeat, but it does rhyme: During the Summer of Love, many of those who committed vandalism or arson made it much easier for police to track them down thanks to their obsession with selfies and social media. In 2025, those vandalizing Teslas are discovering the hard way that the cars are festooned with security cameras for a reason.

Related:

Posted at 5:45 pm by Ed Driscoll 173

HOWEVER MUCH YOU DESPISE THE MEDIA…

…it isn’t enough.

Previously: There was no famine in Gaza… according to famine review groups’ own data.

You’d think that someone in a position like Leslie Stahl’s might be up on the news. Or maybe you wouldn’t.

Posted at 5:39 pm by Stephen Green 151

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: “How Biden’s frailties hampered Harris,” The Hill reports today:

Democratic Party officials and White House staffers were well aware of former President Biden’s frailties ahead of his choice to end his ill-fated reelection bid last summer, according to exclusive excerpts of a new book released to The Hill.

The excerpt from “Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House” by The Hill senior political correspondent Amie Parnes and NBC News senior national politics reporter Jonathan Allen reveals extensive steps to cover up the signs of Biden’s aging and contingency planning if Biden chose to step aside or even died in office.

“It shows what we had to do to prepare with the unique circumstances we had, which was an eighty-plus-year-old president who was running,” one party official who was involved in the secret discussions said, according to Parnes and Allen.

Concerns around Biden’s age dominated much of his reelection campaign from its launch in April 2023 to its end in July 2024 following a disastrous debate performance.

Party and administration officials repeatedly downplayed these worries, insisting Biden was fully capable of winning and serving another four-year term in office. Despite Biden’s occasional public stumbles, they sought to assure the public that behind closed doors, Biden remained sharp and fully in command.

And The Hill was quite ready to pitch in! Flashback to this June 19th, 2024 article headlined: ‘Cheap fake’ Biden videos burst into national spotlight.

Another clip came from Biden’s recent trip to Italy for the Group of Seven (G7) meeting, when he and other world leaders watched a skydiving demonstration. A cropped version of the video seemed to show Biden wandering off before the Italian prime minister nudges him back toward the group.

But the fuller angle makes clear Biden was gesturing toward a parachutist who had just landed. The New York Post made the incident the centerpiece of its front page the next day, with the headline, “Meander in Chief.”

Right-wing media also spread a clip from a Saturday fundraiser, alleging Biden froze up on stage and had to be led away by former President Obama. Aides for both Biden and Obama disputed that characterization.

The video shows both Obama and Biden waving goodbye to the crowd at the end of the event. After a few moments, Obama grabs Biden by the hand and pats him on the back before they walk away. In response to a New York Post headline claiming Biden froze up and had to be led off stage by Obama, an Obama adviser responded, “This did not happen.”

Former President Trump highlighted the videos during a Tuesday campaign rally in Racine, Wis., and mocked the White House response.

“Crooked Joe and his handlers are insisting he’s sharper than ever, and they say the videos of crooked Joe shuffling around are ‘clean fakes,’” Trump said. “They say they’re deceptively edited. All of the mistakes that he’s made … he can’t go anywhere without a mistake.”

Although the “cheap fakes” are less convincing than sophisticated AI deepfakes, they still pose a danger — especially by eroding trust among voters, said Paul Barrett, deputy director and senior research scholar at the New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.

“What they do is they further erode the distinction between what’s true and what’s not true, and I think they provide fuel that feeds highly polarized partisan attitudes that are already in place,” Barrett said.

While the videos may not sway many Democrats to change their vote, over time the altered videos can reinforce and provide “artificial fuel” to a false narrative about Biden, he said.

Oceania has always been at war with East Scranton.

Posted at 5:30 pm by Ed Driscoll 45

SPOILER ALERT: IT’S ENGLAND, SO YOU’LL ABSOLUTELY BELIEVE THE REASON WHY: You’ll Never Believe Why a Toddler Was Kicked Out of Nursery School.

What are some reasons kids typically get kicked out of preschool or daycare? I worked at one while I was in high school and college, and the two main reasons I remember were either behavior problems or health risks. There was this little boy who loved to bite anyone he could put his little mouth on, and while he didn’t get kicked out per se, his parents did get a lot of warnings. There was another incident in which we had a little boy who ran a high fever and cried constantly, and his mother got to a point where she didn’t really want to do anything about it because we were disrupting her job. Don’t get me started on that lady…

However, I don’t remember “transphobia” being a reason, though this was back in the early 2000s when we were all still a little sane. But that’s the case for a nursery school student in the U.K. — we’re talking a kid between the ages of three and four.

The U.K.’s Department for Education (DfE) keeps data on why students are removed from government schools, and it looks like homophobia and transphobia were added to the list of potential reasons during the 2020-21 academic year. That data reveals that during the 2022-2023 school year, one child in that age range was removed for “abuse against sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Does a three-year-old even know what sexual orientation is? And isn’t that the beauty of the innocence of being three years old? You’re more likely to hate someone because they won’t let you have a cookie than you are because they feel the need to tell you their pronouns.

Exit quote: “In the words of JK Rowling, ‘This is totalitarian insanity. If you think small children should be punished for being able to recognise sex, you are a dangerous zealot who should be nowhere near kids or in any position of authority over them.’”

Posted at 5:14 pm by Ed Driscoll 44

THIS IS KIND OF A BIG DEAL: NASA’s Dust Shield Successfully Repels Lunar Regolith on Moon. “NASA’s Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS) successfully demonstrated its ability to remove regolith, or lunar dust and dirt, from its various surfaces on the Moon during Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1, which concluded on March 16. Lunar dust is extremely abrasive and electrostatic, which means it clings to anything that carries a charge. It can damage everything from spacesuits and hardware to human lungs, making lunar dust one of the most challenging features of living and working on the lunar surface. The EDS technology uses electrodynamic forces to lift and remove the lunar dust from its surfaces. The ‘before’ image highlights the glass and thermal radiator surfaces covered in a layer of regolith, while the ‘after’ image reveals the results following EDS activation. Dust was removed from both surfaces, proving the technology’s effectiveness in mitigating dust accumulation.”

Posted at 4:53 pm by Stephen Green 17

ENDORSED: Trump should bring back Anno Domini and make ‘Common Era’ a woke footnote.

Even a casual reader of history will have noticed over the past many years that the antiseptic term Common Era (CE) has slowly but surely replaced the elegant Anno Domini (AD) as the marker of the time period that began 2,025 years ago in most historical works.

Though at first glance this may appear to be a minor change, it most definitely is not, and given the Trump administration’s brave and much-needed work to repair the damage done by wokeness, it’s possible that the damage here could be reversed.

Before getting to how an executive order bringing back AD would work, let’s first take a look at why it is so necessary to restore it to our written works of history.

Anno Domini is not only a description, it is an explanation. It is directly telling us that the reason we call this year 2025 is that Christ lived 2,025 years ago. It’s not just some happy accident that Jesus lived at this time. His life is the entire basis of the chronological system.

This keeps us in communion with over 1,000 years of our own history, from old books that used, “In the year of our Lord, ….” to 20th Century classics of history that used the classic and traditional AD.

Now, progressive historians, which accounts for all but about six of them, insist that all they are doing by using Common Era instead is separating religion from the “scientific” or at least empirical, study of history. But this is an easily disproven lie.

The names of our months, for example, are taken from Roman gods, and yet nobody thinks we should change the name of March so it isn’t derived from a Pagan god of war. The difference is that, like all things leftist, this is really about power.

Exit quote: “As to the restoration of AD in our history books, there is a huge step that President Trump could take by executive order. With the swipe of a Sharpie, he could require that all books documents produced by the federal government or with federal funding use the more accurate and descriptive term Anno Domini.”

 

Posted at 4:45 pm by Ed Driscoll 193