April 4, 2025

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: He Had a Knife, Started a Gunfight. “It’s time for your much-needed break from the serious news, and this week we have the Taco Bell paradox, how not to kill time at a Metro Rail station, and Pennsylvania Man’s instant karma.”

Posted at 4:35 pm by Stephen Green 0

LEGENDARY HOLLYWOOD LEFTIST PINES FOR THE 1950s: Good Night, and Good Luck review: George Clooney makes his Broadway debut in a sleepy newsroom play.

“Good Night, and Good Luck,” the play that opened Thursday at the Winter Garden Theatre, is a big story with a huge set and an enormous star.

So it comes as a surprise that the impression left by the dusty historical drama as the audience pours out onto Broadway is so small and fleeting. Good Night, and What’s For Dinner?

The celeb du jour is George Clooney, who makes his Broadway debut — twice. He’s both the co-playwright and stars in the genteel role of Edward R. Murrow, the CBS newsman who waged a public battle with Communist-hunting Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s.

“Good night, and good luck,” was the man’s famous sign-off.

That line is spoken many times in this attractive but empty show. I enjoyed looking at the massive and elaborate TV studio and retro suits for a while. But you can’t light a damp log.

W. Joseph Campbell responds, “In fact, Murrow was quite late in taking on McCarthy in the 1950s. Journos who called out McCarthy’s witch-hunting ways long before Murrow did in 1954 included columnist Drew Pearson, Richard Rovere of the New Yorker, and James Weschler of [the New York Post].

In 2010, Campbell wrote that Murrow was “No white knight–and not above the political fray:”

“Broadcast icon Edward R. Murrow was not a registered Democrat or Republican–he was an independent. Before courageously taking on Sen. Joe McCarthy, he was considered an anti-communist, supporting, for example, the execution of the Rosenbergs as spies for the Soviet Union. He wouldn’t have dreamed of giving donations to political candidates.”

To say Murrow he was studiously nonpartisan is to misread history. Murrow wasn’t so above the fray, and he was no white knight.

Notably, he donated time and expertise to helping the 1956 Democratic presidential candidate, Adlai Stevenson.

In my latest book, Getting It Wrong, I cite A.M. Sperber, one of Murrow’s leading biographers, in noting how Murrow privately counseled Stevenson on “the finer points of speaking to the camera.”

Sperber wrote in her 1986 work, Murrow: His Life and Times, that although the 1956 presidential election was a foregone conclusion, that Republican incumbent Dwight D. Eisenhower was certain to win,  Murrow agreed “to help the Democrats.” Sperber called Murrow’s decision  “a radical departure from his usual practice.”

The idea, Sperber wrote, was “to effect a liaison between the broadcaster and the candidate, to discuss the use of TV in the forthcoming campaign.”

She noted that the Murrow-Stevenson “connection was kept under wraps,” that the “understanding” between the broadcaster and Stevenson advisers was that Murrow “was acting as a private citizen” and that the matter was to be “kept quiet.”

Why did Murrow do it?

Murrow wasn’t the first Democratic Party operative with a byline — and he certainly wouldn’t be the last.

In 2017, Campbell added that “Murrow ‘was very late in confronting McCarthy’ and ‘did so only after other journalists had challenged the senator and his tactics for months, even years,’” creating what Campbell likes to a classic “media myth” that Clooney adopted into first a movie in 2005 and now a Broadway play. That being said, everyone in the media who lives to recreate those moments could have had their equivalent over the last four years with the endless number of failures of the Biden administration (not least of which, their lack of an actual functioning president), but chose to remain silent, and take one for the team. And so did Clooney! Until Obama apparently gave him his blessings to write a New York Times column condemning Joe’s senescence in his catastrophic debate with Trump last June.

And then there’s blacklist subtext of any film or play about McCarthy. That’s a topic that should never be touched by Hollywood again, since the industry has spent the last quarter century blacklisting anyone to the right of Stalin – and even blacklisting lefties who have made anti-blacklisting movies. Or as Glenn wrote in late 2020, “After a decade of seeing leftists doxxing people and getting them fired for expressing a forbidden opinion, I have to ask what’s their beef with Joe McCarthy?”

Heh, indeed. Still though, Clooney’s new play is a triumph on one level:

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll 20

BEEGE: The Menace of Malicious Compliance in Our Military.

The poster boys for the modern woke military might be long gone, but the damage they did and the subversive ideology they nurtured are still very much in situ within the rank and file that make the big machine run. They infest every nook and cranny of the military bureaucracy.

There have always been examples of the concept in government. For example, during a shutdown, the National Park Service will go to great lengths to close off open parks, like the monuments in D.C., that don’t require any National Park Service presence to begin with, just to make their point. In much the same way, they recently expressed their ire with the Trump administration by having only one person with keys and restroom rescue knowledge in all of Yosemite. See what happens to the park when the knuckle-dragging Luddites furlough him?

HAH! GOTCHA

This has been the case in the military since the moment Pete Hegseth issued his first directive.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 3:29 pm by Stephen Green 34

BLOFELD RESIGNS AS HEAD OF SPECTRE: Schwab Out As WEF Chair.

The Wall Street Journal reported:

In recent weeks, the Forum has been shaking up its leadership after the board received the findings of an investigation into the organization’s workplace culture. The investigation was prompted by a Wall Street Journal article last year that revealed allegations by employees of discrimination against women and Black people at the Forum, which is based in Geneva.

Schwab and the WEF originally denied any allegations of wrongdoing, but CEO Børge Brende refused to substantiate the findings but said that the organization would address the issues that had been raised. In a memo, Brende said, “Over these past months, we have taken time—time to pause, to listen, and to reflect. This period of reflection has been grounded in a desire not just to do things differently, but to do them better.” Other departures are said to include Schwab’s son, Olivier, who had been the organization’s managing director, Malte Goberson, who oversaw digital services, and chief legal officer Nicola Port.

“Schwab will remain in his position until a replacement is named,” Lincoln Brown of PJ Media writes. And you vill be instructed to still eat ze bugs until further notice, comrade.

No word yet how NPR is taking this news, but here’s how they freaked out over eating ze bugs in 2023: It’s NPR vs. NPR on ‘right-wing conspiracy theory’ about eating bugs.

 

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll 81

SETH MANDEL: Rules for Jews.

Unlike most voters, American Jews apparently do not get to choose which policies or government actions they support based on political principles. There’s a list, you see, of Special Obligations. Jews must do this or that, because as Jews we have a special obligation to everyone except ourselves.

This Law of Special Obligations is on full display in a New York Times article on the pro-Hamas crackdowns on college campuses.

The Times article itself was inevitable. Any time a politician or government does something ostensibly “for the Jews,” the Times will assign a reporter to write a story on how “the Jewish community is divided” over that thing. If kosher Chinese food were to fall like manna from the heavens, the New York Times would write a story titled “U.S. Jews Are Divided Over Free Chinese Food.” If the Times were around during the Exodus from ancient Egypt, it would publish an article titled “Schism Within Jewish Community Over Freedom From Slavery.” If the Purim story were to happen today, we’d get “How Haman’s Humiliation Has Become Fraught For Many Jews.”

The current version is “Trump’s Fight Against Antisemitism Has Become Fraught for Many Jews,” though another Times article about this topic used the “schism” framing, and a third used “divide” in the headline.

The point is not that it’s unusual for Jews to have varying opinions on the same issue—that’s the norm. Instead, what jumps out from the Times piece and others like it is the idea that Jews don’t get to choose. Like Hebrew National hot dogs, we answer to a higher authority apparently. Unlike Hebrew National hot dogs, the higher authority being referenced isn’t God.

It turns out that, like Judaism itself, Jewish political opinion-forming entails many rules. As far as I can tell, here are the main ones.

From the Times: “‘Find me a moment in history when Jews anywhere benefited from a mix of rampant nationalism and repression,’ wrote the journalist Matt Bai in a Washington Post opinion piece on Tuesday. ‘You’ll be looking awhile.’”

Related: Writing in the Boston Globe (which was owned by the Gray Lady from 1993 until 2013), the dean emeritus of Tufts University insists: Jewish community must stand up to Trump’s targeting of international students.

The image is seared into my mind: masked federal agents emerging from unmarked vehicles on a Somerville street, forcibly detaining a frightened young woman in broad daylight as she was walking to an interfaith center to break her Ramadan fast. The surveillance video of Tufts University PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk’s detainment by Department of Homeland Security agents evokes images that should terrify every American who values democracy and the rule of law.

What happened next is equally chilling. Despite a federal court order requiring that Ozturk not be moved out of Massachusetts without advance notice, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials transferred her to a detention facility in Louisiana. Her F-1 student visa had reportedly been terminated without notice or due process. Despite the fact that, according to her attorney, no criminal charges have been filed, Ozturk, a Fulbright scholar pursuing a PhD in child study and human development, has been branded without evidence or due process by the US government as a threat to our national security.

This is not an isolated incident. A University of Alabama doctoral student from Iran was detained March 25 without explanation, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently boasted, “It might be more than 300 at this point. We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas.”

Well, good:

Related: There’s More Than One Way to Shape a Narrative™: “Networks Spend 10x More Time on Student Arrest Than Gang Leader Capture—That’s the liberal media for you.”

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll 91

THE NEW SPACE RACE: SpaceX tests previously flown Super Heavy booster.

SpaceX is having trouble with Starship’s upper stage after back-to-back failures, but engineers are making remarkable progress with the rocket’s enormous booster. The most visible sign of SpaceX making headway with Starship’s first stage—called Super Heavy—came at 9:40 am local time (10:40 am EDT; 14:40 UTC) Thursday at the company’s Starbase launch site in South Texas. With an unmistakable blast of orange exhaust, SpaceX fired up a Super Heavy booster that has already flown to the edge of space. The burn lasted approximately eight seconds, Ars reports.

This was the first time SpaceX has test-fired a “flight-proven” Super Heavy booster, and it paves the way for this particular rocket—designated Booster 14—to fly again soon. A reflight of Booster 14, which previously launched and returned to Earth in January, will happen on the next Starship launch, SpaceX confirmed Thursday. “This booster previously launched and returned on Flight 7 and 29 of its 33 Raptor engines are flight proven,” the company said. “The first Super Heavy reuse will be a step towards our goal of zero-touch reflight.”

The next Starship flight test is expected late this month or in May.

Posted at 1:48 pm by Stephen Green 15

OH NO, NOT THE EPA MUSEUM, TOO! EPA Museum – Yes, One Actually Existed – Shuttered After Zeldin Calls Out Massive Funding, Lack of Visitors.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under Administrator Lee Zeldin, has decided to close the National Environmental Museum and Education Center, a project launched during the Biden administration, Fox News reports. Despite its mission to “highlight environmental achievements,” the museum struggled to attract visitors leaving taxpayers with a hefty bill for a largely empty space. Even with free admission, relatively no one could find any desire to walk through the doors. Although the lack of visitors is likely not surprising anyone, the money being poured into the museum just might.

The museum, located at the EPA headquarters near the White House, opened in May 2024 with the goal of celebrating America’s environmental progress. Former EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan envisioned it as a space to honor bipartisan efforts to protect public health and the environment. However, the museum saw fewer than 2,000 visitors in its first nine months, which some may call pathetic.

Taxpayers had invested $4 million to bring the museum up to Smithsonian standards, with an additional $600,000 per year required for upkeep. That worked out to about $315 per visitor—a price tag that Zeldin and his team argue cannot be justified.

But what will fans of the Newseum do, now that they no longer have a museum they can look down upon?

(Found via Ace of Spades, who writes, “These people [are] demented space aliens. They have no conception of how actual humans think. Real humans do not go to Museums of Bureaucracy. I used to laugh at conspiracy theories about ‘the Reptilians.’ Now I want to know more.”)

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll 109

YES: Rubio Urges NATO Members To Increase Their Own Defense Spending To 5% Of GDP.

“I understand there’s domestic politics, after decades of building up vast social safety nets that maybe don’t want to take away from that and invest more in national security,” Rubio added. “But the events of the last few years … full-scale ground war in the heart of Europe as a reminder that hard power is still necessary as a deterrent. We do want to leave here with an understanding that we are on a pathway, a realistic pathway to every single one of the members committee, and fulfilling a promise to reach up to 5% of spending.”

Rubio stated the United States would also spend 5% of its GDP on defense as well.

“The majority of the 32 NATO members currently spend 2% of their nation’s GDP per previous NATO commitments, eight nations – Croatia, Portugal, Italy, Canada, Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Spain – have yet to meet their defense spending pledges,” Fox News noted. “Only Poland spends over 4% of its GDP on defense, while four other nations spend over 3% – Estonia, the U.S., Latvia and Greece.” The United States spent 3.38% of its GDP on defense in 2024.

We fell badly behind during the Biden years and it shows.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN):

Posted at 12:46 pm by Stephen Green 199

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Bill Burr Executes Perfect ‘Clown Nose On’ Backpedal.

He also keeps saying “Free Luigi,” referencing the young man accused of shooting a healthcare CEO in cold blood. Naturally, two reporters pressed Burr about his recent comments on the red carpet.

So how did Burr handle the questions?

“Hey, I’m just a comedian.” He didn’t say those words, but he came remarkably close.

He refused to clarify his Mangione comments to one reporter. Doing so would give her the reporter the click-bait moment she craved, he said.

Later, he continued his backpedal when a second reporter pressed him on his recent comments.

“I don’t watch the news,” Burr said, adding he prefers watching goofy videos on Instagram. You can almost see him putting that clown nose on for the reporter in question, Nicholas Ballasy.

Burr began in a humorous manner but quickly turned serious. And a tad cruel.

“I don’t think you should be asking a comedian … you’re a journalist,” Burr said before Ballasy defended his line of questioning.

“Comedians are on top of current events,” Ballasy began to say.

“No, no. That’s weak. That’s you guys passing the buck,” Burr said, cutting him off. “You guys need to have balls again which you don’t. You guys always goes, ‘Should we be thinking this?’ Duh? You guys present stuff like that. You guys used to have balls. You need to get your balls back,” Burr added before moving on. “That’s not my job. I’m a dancing clown.”

The clip may become the ultimate “Clown Nose On” example for years to come. Burr couldn’t have scripted it any better, even if he lacks the self-awareness to see what he did.

“You guys used to have balls,” says the leftist comedian who doesn’t have the balls to defend his own inflammatory rhetoric and love of radical chic.

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll 99