May 12, 2025

UKRAINE HAS A WAR OF NATIONAL SURVIVAL TO FIGHT; WE HAVE LOBBYIST-CONTRACTORS — THIS IS THE DIFFERENCE:

Posted at 5:52 pm by Stephen Green 13

MISTER WE COULD USE A MAN LIKE SNAKE PLISSKEN AGAIN: Chaos at Newark Airport: Everything You Need to Know.

By May 7, the Federal Aviation Administration pledged to add staff and upgrade equipment. Planned improvements include new high-bandwidth data lines, fiber optic telecom replacements and a temporary backup system for Philadelphia’s TRACON.

The following day, the White House introduced a nationwide overhaul plan. It proposes rebuilding 15 control towers and TRACON centers, constructing six new coordination hubs, and replacing thousands of legacy systems. The initiative, supported by industry stakeholders, awaits congressional approval and has no set cost.

Despite reassurances from federal officials and airline executives, another outage occurred May 9, again knocking out radar visibility for 90 seconds. A third incident followed on May 11, prompting a 45-minute ground stop at EWR.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby defended the safety of flying, citing pilot training and system redundancies. Both acknowledged the urgency of infrastructure reform.

Duffy said the system is operating on outdated technology. He indicated that the challenges facing EWR could soon become relevant at other airports nationwide.

Related: How archaic tech, staff shortages and construction made a meltdown at Newark Airport.

Posted at 5:00 pm by Ed Driscoll 67

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN: This Exotic Italian Sports Car Pairs a Free-Breathing V-8 with a Manual.

Between Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Pagani, and countless others, Italy has a rich history of producing jaw-dropping sports cars. Now there’s another name to add to the list: Automobili Mignatta, a new startup that is based out of Valfenera d’Asti in Piedmont, around 25 miles outside of Turin. The company’s first car, the Rina, was revealed this week and pairs classically beautiful bodywork with the equally classic combination of a naturally aspirated V-8 engine and a manual transmission.

The Rina’s monocoque is made from carbon fiber, as is the handcrafted barchetta-style body, which draws inspiration from Italian sports cars of the 1960s. The curvature of the fenders, oval-shaped headlights, and lack of a windshield call to mind classics like the Shelby Cobra or Maserati 450S. The Rina has an athletic stance and perfect proportions, and small visors sprout up in front of each occupant to divert the air flowing over the long hood.

Beneath the bodywork lies a 5.0-liter V-8 that remains free from both turbochargers and superchargers. The naturally aspirated unit is hooked up to a six-speed manual transmission that delivers power to the rear wheels only.

If an Italian startup can stick a naturally aspirated V-8 and a manual transmission into an exotic sports car, surely Ford or GM could do the same for a no-frills pickup…

…if Washington would just get out of the way.

Posted at 4:50 pm by Stephen Green 49

I KEEP SAYING THAT DEMOCRATS CAN’T STAY THIS STUPID FOREVER, BUT THEY SURE SEEM DETERMINED TO PROVE ME WRONG:

Some of the replies are priceless.

Posted at 4:35 pm by Stephen Green 93

CDR SALAMANDER: The US Navy is Sleepwalking into Defeat.

We must put to the side the system of incentives and disincentives we use to promote our most senior leaders. This last quarter century’s process has a record of consistently producing sub-optimal performance. This isn’t just my opinion. Look at everything from how we manage our people using a Cold War framework, to program management that cannot design a laudable warship or a fit-for-purpose airwing, to the shambolic results of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and the Horn of Africa.

The results speak for themselves.

No, even if we ignore that dysfunction, we have to look at the potential conflict that presents the greatest danger to our nation’s power, economy, and that of our allies—the threat that would, if it has its way, change the international order in ways that will reverse centuries of progress.

That challenge is in the Pacific.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 3:48 pm by Stephen Green 61

MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Child Sex Trafficking Ring Busted. “It may be a false impression, but it sure seems like the Trump47 Administration has been a whole lot more aggressive pursuing child sex trafficking crimes than the Biden Administration was, maybe because some of their precious illegal aliens were involved in it.”

Posted at 2:46 pm by Stephen Green 77

IT’S COME TO THIS: David Hogg’s Critique of Democrats: Men Want to Get Laid.

The newsy, clippable bit of Hogg’s interview/discussion with Maher was his diagnosis for why men are fleeing the party, and in particular for why younger men have been leaving in droves after having hewed the line within the party for years: young men want to get laid and have fun, and the Democratic Party has been the party of killjoys.

In acknowledging this, he’s not entirely wrong, but neither is he entirely right. The Democrat Party is entirely fine with young men having fun and even getting laid–the party is absolutely obsessed with sex, and only likes freedom in any form if it includes consensual sex between queers or in front of a computer screen.

Heterosexual sex between women and men, while not strictly forbidden, requires intense negotiations and multiple dangers for men when Democrats get their way.

But Hogg doesn’t seem to get that the problem goes much deeper than Democrats’ focus on promoting a pleasure-based lifestyle for everybody but heterosexual men. It’s that the Democrats hate masculinity per se, and are deeply hostile to the aspirations of men that go far beyond mere sexual pleasure (which men indeed do seek out and love).

If you’re feeling an enormous sense of whiplash at this point, you’re not alone. Prior to Covid and riots, much of Trump’s first term was taken up with headlines and articles and think pieces about what was then called “#MeToo.” Back in October of 2018, I wrote a post that began by quoting a piece by Christopher R. Taylor titled “The New Prudes,” which began:

The people who told us “love the one you’re with” and “if her daddy’s rich take her out for a meal, if her daddy’s poor, just do what you feel” are now telling us that you have to get signed proof for every stage of sexual contact and even if you do, if she regrets it later, it was rape.  The people who created Animal House are now wondering if its even okay to laugh at it.  People routinely say “that could never get made today” about films like Blazing Saddles, but could you even make Pretty in Pink?  Not according to its star Molly Ringwald.

Russ Douthat recently wrote about this odd shift in of all places the New York Times:

The world of Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford’s youth, the world that’s given us this fall’s nightmarish escalation of the culture war, was not a traditionalist world as yet unreformed by an enlightened liberalism. It also wasn’t a post-revolutionary world ruled by social liberalism as we know it today. Rather it was a world where a social revolution had ripped through American culture and radically de-moralized society, tearing down the old structures of suburban bourgeois Christian morality, replacing them with libertinism. With “if it feels good, do it” and the Playboy philosophy.

After spending 50 years tearing down everything everyone held dear, mocking morality, breaking apart a system of ethics and behavior, cynically undermining all sense of public etiquette and cultural norms… now we’re being told everything they said to do is all wrong.

Suddenly what pretty much everyone has done in the past is grounds for dismissal and attack.  Went to parties and got drunk?  Now you’re a sinister potential rapist.  Got a diary accounting for where you went and what you did?  Got witnesses?  You might need them now; all it takes is a woman to suddenly remember something she says you did, and a political benefit and you’re doomed.

It’s worth rereading the whole post in light of Hogg’s sudden revelation that his party have become a group of killjoys, including the conservation between John Podhoretz who believed the left’s #Metoo and anti-Kavanaugh tactics were “all situational,” and Jonah Goldberg reminding him that “once you use the neutron bomb, the radiation has an effect long after you use it.” Young Mr. Hogg is apparently only just now discovering how long the fallout lasts from one of his party’s biggest moral panics.

And that he’s not immune from its effects, either:

 

Related: The Costs and Consequences of Sexual Liberation. Review: A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century by Louise Perry.

Posted at 2:00 pm by Ed Driscoll 314

BUY, SELL IS BETTER THAT WAR, WAR:

Meanwhile: India-Pakistan ceasefire: Life returning to normal in border districts of Punjab.

Posted at 1:44 pm by Stephen Green 133

MICHAEL WALSH: American Caesar.

Best of all, the current resurgence of religiosity among young men means the Pope can both catch the wave and steer it. The entirely predictable collapse of “fourth wave” feminism from licentious hedonism to vengeful litigiousness has led to widespread unhappiness among Western women as they finally realize they cannot have it all, that traditional sex (not “gender”) roles are traditional for a very good reason. This will inevitably lead them to follow their men back into something larger and more fulfilling than the empty promises of a cubicle, meaningless sex, zero domestic skills, and the possession of multiple cats which have been on offer since the 1970s.

For all its faults (and I take a deep dive into them in Rage), the Church has survived from its own fraught early history including the break from Judaism and the wrangling over doctrine, to its adoption by empire, to its preservation of Greco-Roman civilization throughout the so-called Dark Ages as modern Europe was forming, to the glories of 18th- and 19th-century European high culture, and hopefully through its post-World War II nadir to emerge more Catholic, and catholic, than ever.

May Robert Francis Prevost, the Chicago-born Cubs fan, polyglot missionary, dual American-Peruvian citizen, and now Leo LIV, pontifex maximus — “bridge builder” — seize the moment. It does us well to remember that that was Julius Caesar’s title as well.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Will Tax Complexity Force Pope Leo To Renounce His U.S. Citizenship?

Posted at 1:00 pm by Ed Driscoll 187

IT’S COMPLICATED: Russia’s Plans Are Bigger Than Conflict With the West or Camaraderie With China. “When it comes to Russia’s relationship with China, economic and strategic cooperation has visibly intensified but falls short of a ‘partnership’ or ‘overreliance,’ despite frequent claims in Western media. Indeed, there is an asymmetry in the economic relationships that is forecast to increase. In 2023, China-Russia trade jumped to $250 billion, compared to a meager $147 billion in 2021. But there is a lot of noise coming in the other direction too, which signals Putin’s long term game plan to derisk from China. Russian businesses have been quick to voice their concerns over Moscow’s increasing economic ties with China, and remain distrustful of China’s intentions.”

Posted at 12:42 pm by Stephen Green 76

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Celebrities: Trump Will Destroy the World!

Robert De Niro warns Donald Trump ‘will destroy the world’

Robert De Niro played the “Trump could destroy the world” card prior to Election Day with little to show for it. More recently, George Clooney had to walk Patti LuPone away from the ideological ledge when she wondered if the country could survive a second Trump term.

Clooney, ever the patriot*, told the Broadway star to hold out hope.

Rosie O’Donnell deserves some credit for putting her money where her mouth is when it comes to Trump. She literally left the country, picking a hotbed of antisemtism as her new home – Ireland. The 62-year-old has kept up her anti-Trump rhetoric, warning the president’s tariffs would be “disastrous to the world.”

“Sopranos” alum Joe Pantoliano described the world as “on fire” due to President Trump. He didn’t share specifics, nor did he explain how Trump had anything to do with the Ukraine war, October 7 or academia’s violent upsurge during the Biden years.

From The Matrix’s IMDB trivia page, regarding the character “Cypher,” depicted by Pantoliano:

Agent Smith refers to Cypher as Mr. Reagan during their meeting. This makes him the only character in the movie besides Neo to be identified by both their Matrix identity and their real world “handle” identity.

* * * * * * * *

Along with the many other Christian parallels in this movie, the character Cypher is a reflection of Judas Iscariot in the New Testament. Judas was one of the twelve apostles that Jesus chose to minister in his name, but, in a tragic turn of events, Judas denied his perfect knowledge of the Savior by betraying Him in exchange for thirty pieces of silver. Cypher likewise betrays Morpheus and the entire cause of Zion in exchange for the vanities of the Matrix.

* * * * * * * *

Cypher, whose last name is Reagan, wants to be “important, like an actor,” a wink to President Ronald Reagan. A reference to this is that in the same conversation, Cypher says that he doesn’t want to “remember anything”. President Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Every Republican is Hitler (and/or Judas) and will destroy the world, before the new Republican who is Hitler and will destroy the world comes along.

In 2020, Hollywood was fine when the world came twice came to to an end: As the Babylon Bee joked in April of 2020, “Inspiring: Celebrities Spell Out ‘We’re All In This Together’ With Their Yachts.” And then a couple of months later, the studios issued supportive press releases during the summer riots, when businesses were being looted and cities set alight. But having lost wide swatches of their audiences to first streaming, and then the pandemic’s disruption to the audience’s regular moviegoing habit, shouldn’t the industry be dealing with the end of its own world? As Toto begins his piece, “The era of the movie star ended some time ago, assuming your last name isn’t Cruise.”

Related:

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll 128

THE NEW SPACE RACE IN TECHNICOLOR AND PANAVISION:

Indications are that Starship Flight 9 might take place as soon as May 20.

Posted at 11:40 am by Stephen Green 46