OPEN THREAD: It’s all you.
June 11, 2025
THE CALLS ARE COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE: The Cause of Alzheimer’s Might Be Coming From Within Your Mouth.
WHY DOES AMERICAN HIGHER ED WORK SO POORLY? A review of Rich Vedder’s latest book, Let Colleges Fail. At this rate, we may have little choice but to watch a lot of them fail.
TOO MANLY FOR THE DNC:
BREAKING: DNC members vote 294 to 99 to annul vice chair victory of David Hogg, citing diversity quotas pic.twitter.com/yousCBac83
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 11, 2025
JAMES LILEKS ON 1974: “It really was a dull, cheap era.”
How can you say that about Permaneer(tm) furniture?
But not always cheap: “The inflation calculator puts the price of the 19” set at $2200 in modern money.”
MAGA-TIME IN VACCINE LAND: Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. just demonstrated that the familiar complaint that nobody in Washington ever gets fired is not always accurate.
The Heritage Foundation’s Robert Moffit makes the casein The Daily Signal that RFK’s firing all 17 Biden-appointed members of the Advisory Committee on Vaccination Practices is illustrative of exactly what is needed and what the public health lobby most fears
SETH MANDEL’S ROAD MAP FOR PEACE: A Two-State Solution to California’s Woes.
Now I know what you’re thinking: It’s getting pretty crowded here in this hypothetical Greater Los Angeles now. But that’s OK—sometimes justice is crowded.
And there’s an easy solution: Just make Los Angeles an international city! We’d put the greater metropolitan area of LA under a special international regime we could refer to as a Corpus Separatum. The area is home to many religions in addition to its national minorities, so all its holy places—Disneyland, the Staples Center, the Hollywood Bowl, that gas station shop on Pico Boulevard that carries kosher beef jerky—would be placed under a United Nations trusteeship.
And yes, of course Oakland will be demilitarized.
I know this all sounds like a lot, and obviously the devil is in the details, but if what California Democrats are saying about their own state is true, then simply having Donald Trump remove the National Guard from the site of conflict isn’t nearly enough. It doesn’t get at the root causes, you see. Peace isn’t the same thing as justice.
You might be thinking: This is all easy for you to say from thousands of miles away. And you’re right: It is easy for me to say this.
It’s easy for me to say this because the Democratic-progressive one-size-fits-all solution to ethnic and national conflict is seared into my brain. I’ve been listening to it for decades. And what I’ve learned from watching progressives “solve” the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that all conflicts are the same. That the historical record is a matter of opinion. That violence and mayhem should be rewarded. That in any conflict, the side wearing a uniform is the Bad Guy. That what is happening—whatever it is, wherever it is—simply isn’t who we are. Finally, as a Jew, I just can’t stand by and watch it happen. It’s time to take Democrats’ advice and advance a two-state solution. You’re welcome, Gavin.
Well okay, but I still think Andrew Klavan’s One State Solution for Israel is still worth implementing:
Is this progress of a sort for the far left?
IS HARVARD DOOMED? I more or less say “Yep!” in a long article on Greg Lukianoff’s Substack, The Eternally Radical Idea. (Greg asked me to expand on my weirdly popular “Harvard is unironically doomed” X thread.)
XI’S GOTTA HAVE IT: Anti-ICE protests fueled in part by CCP-linked Communist revolutionary org and a tech millionaire. “The leadership and activities of PSL are closely tied to far-left groups bolstered by the financial network of wealthy Marxist businessman Neville Roy Singham, who sold his ThoughtWorks tech company in 2017 and has used the money to fund openly Communist endeavors globally.”
Communism is a rich man’s game.
HOW IT STARTED: Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past.
—The London Independent, March 20th, 2000.
How it’s going: Could Britain face a winter ice age? How future temperatures could plummet due to climate change.
—Sky News, today.
Leonard Nimoy, call your office!
And you too, Stephen Schneider, who appeared in the above episode, only to change his mind decades later and rail on about the dangers of global warming:
UPDATE: Once again, Trump is saving England from itself!
LIGHTNING DEAL: Headlamp Rechargeable 2980 High Lumens Super Bright LED Head Lamp for Adults. #CommissionEarned
ABC NEWS IS ANGRY THAT L.A. IS BEING DEFENDED:
But then, the elites who staff ABC News are pretty uncomfortable with the US military in general:
QTing this again, because the more I think about it, the more telling this is. The comments are a fascinating look into how profoundly out of touch with reality modern liberals are.
They're honestly surprised that the kinds of dudes who fight all of America's wars for us are… https://t.co/oIgGTs3FH4
— Larry Correia (@monsterhunter45) June 11, 2025
Glenn notes that we’ve seen far worse:
As Kurt Schlichter warned the left a decade ago: Liberals May Regret Their New Rules.
I LOVE MY SIG P226s. YES, I OWN TWO. Still Great After All These Years: SIG SAUER’s P226 Mk25 9mm Pistol.
CHRISTIAN TOTO: Jason Bateman: Trump Supporters ‘Need a Talking To.’ “Media superstar Megyn Kelly shared a shocking snippet from low-rated MSNBC host Nicole Wallace’s new podcast, ‘The Best People.’ Bateman joined the show for its premiere episode last week, and the subject naturally came to President Donald Trump.”
MORE EVIDENCE FOR MY THEORY THAT “POLICY” IS A DIRTY WORD:
We live in the era of big data. So, what would happen if lawmakers relied more on metrics to make public policy? Well, in a surprising number of cases … it would totally backfire.
Our new video looks at the unintended consequences of being too reliant on data. pic.twitter.com/0tLhqGNQvL
— Kite & Key Media (@kiteandkeymedia) June 11, 2025
READER FAVORITE: NORTHYARD Men’s Athletic Running Shorts. #CommissionEarned
ADAM MOSSOFF: The Film of Hamas Selfie Videos on October 7.
I will not describe or detail any of the film’s horrors, and so you can read this post knowing that you will not be ambushed with a nightmare that will haunt you for the rest of your days. I will say the film is horrific. In fact, it’s beyond horrific. But if one is to bear witness to evil so that one can better defend the good (Israel) and speak out against evil (genocidal antisemitism and supporters of this nihilism in the West), one must know the evil of which one speaks. Thus, I considered it important for me to see the film, but given the shocking and sickening content of this film, I don’t begrudge anyone not watching it.
Here’s some background context and general information about the film: The IDF created this film in November 2023 given worldwide denials of the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7. Similar to the Holocaust denials that began in 1945 and continue to this day, the denial of the vile atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7 began on October 8 and continue to this day. It’s not just denial of murders of children and babies and other war crimes as “Israeli propaganda.” There’s also the denial of the rape and sexual violence committed by Hamas soldiers on October 7, which has prompted Sheryl Sandberg to create her first documentary as her own act of bearing witness to October 7. It’s called, “Screams Before Silence,” and if you have not yet seen it, I recommend doing so (https://www.screamsbeforesilence.com/).
Given its content, the film is closely controlled by the IDF. I already knew this from an opportunity I had last November to see it, which I declined at the time. One can only see the film through an application, a special invitation, or to be invited to a showing for specific audiences, such as political leaders or media industry representatives who have been invited to watch it.
I’ve seen enough of the publicly available video to have a good idea why the IDF keeps their stuff tightly held, although I still question the wisdom of doing so.
That said, Adam just started a Substack so he could get this essay seen outside of Facebook — and it’s powerful stuff.
I’M SORRY DAVE, I CAN’T ALLOW YOU TO ORDER THAT VENTI, QUAD, HALF-CAFF, NO FOAM, EXTRA HOT, PEPPERMINT, WHITE CHOCOLATE MOCHA: Starbucks to roll out Microsoft Azure OpenAI assistant for baristas.
Starbucks plans to roll out a generative artificial intelligence assistant created with Microsoft
Azure’s OpenAI platform to 35 locations this month as part of its strategy to simplify baristas’ jobs and speed up service in its cafes.
The coffee chain showed off the new technology to more than 14,000 North American store managers at its Leadership Experience in Las Vegas on Tuesday. A broad launch of the “Green Dot Assist” platform across the U.S. and Canada is slated for the company’s fiscal 2026, which starts in the fall.
The three-day event comes as Starbucks pushes to revive its sluggish U.S. sales and “get back to Starbucks,” as CEO Brian Niccol has described the effort since he took the role last year. Niccol’s priorities include slashing service times to four minutes per order. Quick, accurate answers to barista questions could help achieve that goal.
Starbucks running on Microsoft AI just feels so déclassé, but that’s what happens when Apple’s lagging behind in AI: Apple’s AI Siri Update Reportedly Facing Uphill Battle.
Incidentally, how long before Starbucks goes all the way, and implements the coffee equivalent of the Bionic Bar on Royal Caribbean cruises?
