Musk Frustrated in the Golden State

For John, BLUF:  California Bureaucrats are acting to strangle Mr Elon Musk's ingenuity and initiative.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

California officials reject more SpaceX rocket launches, with some citing Musk's X posts

From The Los Angeles Times, by 11 October 2024 at 2:35 PM.

Here is the lede plus five:

SpaceX's plans to launch more rockets from the California coast were rejected by a state commission this week, with some officials citing Elon Musk's political posts on X and raising concerns about the billionaire's labor record at his companies.

The plan to increase the number of rocket blasts into space up to 50 a year was rejected by the California Coastal Commission on Thursday despite assurances from Space Force and Air Force officials that they would increase efforts to monitor the effects that rocket launches have on nearby wildlife.

The military also vowed to mitigate the reach of sonic booms that often span across 100 miles of coastline, an issue that has caused controversy.

Members of the California Coastal Commission commended Space Force and Air Force representatives for reaching an agreement, but some cited their concerns about Musk, the owner of SpaceX, before rejecting the plan.

Among the issues raised were Musk's decision to insert himself in the presidential race, his spreading of conspiracy theories, the labor record of his companies and derogatory comments he has made about the transgender community.

"We're dealing with a company, the head of which has aggressively injected himself into the presidential race," commission Chair Caryl Hart said.

We are talking about shutting down an operation that just recaptured a first stage back onto a gantry, ready to refuel and relaunch.  For the first time.

Is there any question about why firms are leaving California?

This kind of action in California adds to the swirl around if the Federal Government is out to get Mr Elon Musk.  I hope this is just internet misunderstandings.

Regards  —  Cliff

A Relook at Voting History

For John, BLUF:  An interesting dive into history that looks at a big political myth.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

The Goldwater landslide myth

Here is the sub-headline:

Alabama political columnist needs a history lesson

From Don Surber Substack, by Reporter Don Surber, 15 October 2024.

Here is the lede plus ten:

It’s that time in the presidential election year when lazy journalists roll out their frightening fairy story about Nixon’s southern strategy. The fable is meant to portray Republicans as racists. It is of course a lie but it goes like this, as reported by Steve Flowers whose weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature.

He wrote:

Lyndon Johnson was the Democrat nominee for president. Johnson carried 44 states and won the presidency by a landslide. Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona carried only his home state and the five deep south states, including Alabama. Goldwater carried Alabama overwhelmingly, thus the label given to the Republican victory in the south was ironically the Goldwater Landslide.

The so-called “Solid South” had been Democratic more out of tradition and protocol than philosophy. Both national parties took the south for granted in national elections. The Democrats ignored us because we were in the barn and the Republicans ignored us for the same reason.

The 1964 election was the turning point when the deep south states voted for Barry Goldwater. The south has never looked back. It was the race issue that won them over. Goldwater and the Republican party captured the race issue.

Let us look at the facts.

Goldwater was one of only 6 Republican senators who opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The other 27 voted for the act — clearly a higher percentage of the support than the Democrats who split 44-23 on passage of the law. The two-thirds majority was necessary to overcome a Democrat filibuster.

Goldwater indeed carried 5 of the 11 Confederate states with his stand against civil rights. Four years later, Nixon too carried 5 of the 11 Confederate states.

None of them, however, were the 5 states Goldwater carried. Those five states all went to a Democrat which shows that if Nixon had a Southern strategy of wrangling klansmen into the Republican Party, he failed miserably.

For example, Goldwater received 87% of the vote in Mississippi in 1964. Four years later, Nixon received less than 14% of the vote in that state.

Of course, Nixon had no such designs on the South. He was an ardent supporter of civil rights as vice president and therefore, President of the Senate.

This is different from how the "Nixon Southern Strategy" is normally portrayed.

It should be pointed out that the Candidacy of Alabama Governor George Wallace iin 1968 impacted who got which Elecoral College votes.

This year we are seeing such blocks breaking up as votes look to issues rather than to racial groups.

Regards  —  Cliff

Reason for Large Illegal Immigration

For John, BLUF:  The Department of Homeland Security has a problem with putting out a coherent story that sells across the fruited plain.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Trust Me, We Would NEVER Do That, Says Mayorkas to Disbelieving Americans

From PJ Media, by Reporter Victoria Taft, 14 October 2024, 9:18 AM.

Here is the lede plus six:

Alejandro Mayorkas, the impeached Department of Homeland Security Secretary, wants you to know that he's vewy, vewy angwy that people would dare say that the reason he, Border Czar Kamala Harris, and President Joe Biden, have opened the borders to a marauding horde of millions of illegal aliens is to import new Democrat voters.

That's just "disinformation," he said on CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday morning, with just a tad too much-feigned disbelief in his voice.

Mayorkas told Margaret Brennan that these kinds of stories combined with the concerns over helping North Carolina hurricane victims vote this election have caused Americans to "lose confidence in the integrity of the election system, and we need people in positions of authority to actually communicate accurate information to the voting public."

Getting "accurate information" would be a refreshing change, wouldn't it?

But this was my favorite line from Mayorkas. Make sure you're not eating or drinking anything while you read on.

"The notion that we in law enforcement have sought to intentionally allow individuals to cross the border illegally for the purpose of voting is preposterous, and everyone should condemn that rhetoric," he solemnly told Brennan. "Everyone, regardless of party affiliation."

That's right. It's not his contemptible behavior that begs explanation, it's our daring to ask the question that's the problem.

So, can we say that the flood of illegal immigrants is due to incompetence on the part of the Bush Administration?  Or, are they tryihng to compensate for all those childless cat ladies?  Maybe it has to do with fertility collapse.

Fertility has collapsed worldwide owing to female empowerment, urbanization, economic insecurity and climate concerns. "Peak humanity" is upon us – and that's before we factor in another pandemic or accelerating climate disasters.

Yes, we need more immigration in the United States.♠  However, we need to do it the right way.  The Senator Schumer supported Immigration Reform Bill is not the right way.  For one thing, it allows for 1.82 milllion illegal immigrants a year before actions kick in, if they are not waived by the Administration.  Really?  Just go with the House Bill they have been suppressing.  Hypocrits all the way down.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠ 

Getting the News

For John, BLUF:  Back in the day we believed that there was objectivity in our news sources, the days of Yellow Journalism having passed.  No more.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

CBS and Objectivity

From Chicago Boyz, by Mike, 10 October 2024.

Here is the lede plus four:

CBS has had an interesting week. First there was the interview of Ta-Nehisi Coates by “CBS This Morning” co-anchor Tony Dokoupil regarding Coates’ book “The Message.” Dokoupil treated Coates well, like a Republican, in that he asked some pointed questions about Coates’ book; his claim Israel was a white supremacist ethnostate akin to the Jim Crow South, that he treated Palestinians exclusively as victims without agency, and that he failed to state how Israel was surrounded by enemies pledged to destroy it.

Tough, but civil…. and then all heck broke loose

Apparently the morning show staff was so traumatized by the interview that CBS held a struggle session the next day. One of the criticisms that was hurled at Dokoupil was that he ignored the “one-sheet:”

”…the network went through its standard protocol of vetting questions through its legal, standards, and race and culture departments. The properly vetted questions were then included on what’s known as a ‘one-sheet,’ from which everyone within the show works.”

It’s standard protocol to vet questions through a race and culture department?

Mike seems to think that CBS is a fraud in terms of being an objective news organization.  For example, he calls out one of my big concerns:

The first is the standard DEI mantra of equating a certain percentage of racial/gender/LGBT+ identities in their newsroom with a diversity of viewpoints.

It is a little sad that we need to filter our news, looking for inherent biases that might distort what we are learning.  It is even sadder that there are people working in such organizations who have to filter what they say or write in order to conform to some socially constricting standards impose by identity politics.

It is incumbent on all of us to widen our news souorces and do the tear and compare of what we are hearing, so we can be better voters and citizens.

Regards  —  Cliff

You Still Have to Govern

Blog Template.
Winning an election is only the first step.  Then you must govern.  It appears the aparliamentary Labour Party og Greak abritain was not prepared for this second step.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

LABOUR DITCHES 100 DAY CELEBRATION

Here is the sub-headline:

NO PLANS FOR CELEBRATION OF DISASTROUS FIRST 100 DAYS OF LABOUR

From Order Order, by Guido Fawkes, 11 October 2024, 12:26.

Here is the lede plus one:

No 10 has just confirmed at today’s Lobby briefing that there are no plans to hold a celebration to mark 100 days of government.  Starmer will be holed up in Downing Street this weekend working on his “reset”…

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has run into a number of issues since moving to No 10 Downing Street.  Among them is a major popularity crash.  Not that the Tories (Conservatives) have managed to get their act together .

The best of British Luck to our cousins across the pond.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

24/7

For John, BLUF:  I am impressed that Waffle House provides greaat waffles 24/7, and works to do it under all conditions.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Yes, Waffle House really has a storm center

Here is the sub-headline:

Waffle House has a reputation for not only staying open 24/7, 365 days a year, but also for its disaster response. Here’s what we can VERIFY about its storm center.

From Verify This, by Author Erin Jones, 5:29 PM EDT, 9 October 2024.

Here is the lede plus one:

Hurricane Milton made landfall in Siesta Key, Florida, as a Category 3 storm on Wednesday, Oct. 9.

On Oct. 8, an X post with over 2.6 million views claimed Waffle House, a popular restaurant chain with more than 1,900 restaurants in 25 states, set up a storm center ahead of Milton.

“Waffle House has a Storm Center with an entire operations team that is so good at their job they assist FEMA during hurricanes,” the post said.

Many people who commented on the post questioned if Waffle House really has a storm center.

Yes, Waffle House has a storm center and it works to keep its resturants open or to get them back up and runnihng, even if with a limited menu and on temporary power.

Excellent food and excellent serice, 24/7.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Ignorant Students

For John, BLUF:  Asw a college graduate I am embarrassed at the way students at Columbia University, and elsewhere, are acting toward Israel and their Jewish Classmates.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Columbia's Student Protesters Really Have Embraced Hamas

From Hot Air, by Opinionator John Sexton, 8:40 PM, 10 October 2024.

Here is the lede plus seven:

I touched on this earlier this week when Columbia's anti-Israel group, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), held a walkout/protest on the anniversary of 10/7, but I think it probably deserves more attention.

You may remember this guy, Khymani James, one of the student organizers at Columbia who made news earlier this year when a video circulated of him saying, "Zionists, along with all white supremacists, need to not exist." He added, "Be glad, be grateful that I'm not just going out and murdering Zionists."

After this made news in April, James was suspended and CUAD put out a statement, apparently from James himself, apologizing for his comments.

“CUAD and the Gaza Solidarity Encampment have made clear that my words in January, prior to my involvement in CUAD, are not in line with the CUAD community guidelines. I agree with their assessment,” the apology read. “Those words do not represent CUAD. They also do not represent me.”

This week, CUAD reversed course, not only saying it regretted its earlier statement but making it plain that the group supports violence, i.e. it supports Hamas.

The pro-Palestinian group that sparked the student encampment movement at Columbia University in response to the Israel-Hamas war is becoming more hard-line in its rhetoric, openly supporting militant groups fighting Israel and rescinding an apology it made after one of its members said the school was lucky he wasn’t out killing Zionists.

“We support liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance,” the group, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, said in its statement revoking the apology.

The group marked the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by distributing a newspaper with a headline that used Hamas’s name for it: “One Year Since Al-Aqsa Flood, Revolution Until Victory,” it read, over a picture of Hamas fighters breaching the security fence to Israel. And the group posted an essay calling the attack a “moral, military and political victory” and quoting Ismail Haniyeh, the assassinated former political leader of Hamas.

One wonders what is happening at Columbia University.  From a cultural point of view there students seem to have slipped away from American, into some new grouping.  It is one thing to be against Zionism, or evewn the return of Jews to their ancesteral home, now Israel.  It is another to call for killing of Zionists.

Further, the student protestors seem to not give a fig for the 7 million Israelis.  What is to become of them.&nsp; To not care about them is to betray the progress our Western Culture has made in accepance of Jews.  It would be like the United States standing by and saying nothing as Liberia was buldozed into the Atlantic Ocean.  Morally unacceptable.

There is no doubt we need peace in the Middle East.  To get there e need to recognize the underlying animosity of Iran toward israel and the United States.  Not Irran as a whole, but the Mullahs of Iran, from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, on down.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff