The quest to prove Einstein right
Here’s an entertaining documentary on Einstein. It focuses on the efforts of others to prove whether Einstein’s general theory of relativity was correct by photographing the sun during an eclipse in order to see whether it bends the light of stars. It wasn’t easy.
Give it a go, if that interests you:
The experts bet against Trump’s tariff policy and lost …
… says Matt Margolis in this PJ article. But the vast majority will never admit it.
But it occurs to me that it’s not just that they thought his tariff policy would be disastrous and they were wrong (at least so far). After all, I certainly thought his tariff policy might be disastrous or at least considerably worse than it’s turned out to be. However, I realized – because it was apparent from Trump’s history – that his tariff policy would feature opening moves in a chess game in which he would pressure other countries initially and then make a deal that aimed at a result that was quite different from what it had initially appeared to be. I respected that about him and still do, and have observed that his endgame virtually always includes a goal that would benefit the US, and that he often achieved it despite what looked like powerful odds against it.
But so many “experts” ignore that history of Trump’s successes, because they despise him. They continually bet against Trump and they often lose. And yet that doesn’t deter them from doing it again the next time and yet again and again, so strong is their dislike for him and their contempt for his style of negotiating. And to top it all off, there usually isn’t any penalty for their having been wrong, or any demand for accountability. So they persist, and their audience seems to lap it up.
CDC shooter
Shots were fired toward CDC headquarters on the campus of Emory, a police officer has been killed, and the shooter is also dead either from police fire or a self-inflicted wound. Some details:
The deranged man who fatally shot a cop at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters has been identified by Georgia authorities as 30-year-old Patrick Joseph White.
White, of Kennesaw, Georgia, unleashed a barrage of bullets on the health agency before storming into a CVS located on the Emory University campus in Atlanta around 4:50 p.m. Friday, the police department said.
Dekalb County police officer David Rose, 33, was reportedly struck and killed while responding to reports of the active shooter at the Clifton Road drugstore, which is located across the street from the CDC’s main campus.
Rose – a heroic officer who joined the department in September 2024 – was rushed to Emory University Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
The gunman was also found shot at the scene, though authorities have not said if his fatal wound was self-inflicted.
RIP Officer Rose.
It’s reported that the killer was despondent over an illness or supposed illness he ascribed to the COVID vaccine. It occurs to me that this shooting motive is somewhat similar to the recent murders in New York in which the killer supposedly felt he’d been injured by playing football, and tried to target NFL headquarters (although he got off the elevator at the wrong floor). Is this a new pattern?
In both cases there appears to have been some history of mental troubles, if this report (in, of all places, the Hindustan Times) is correct. It says the following:
The shooter who opened fire at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention building in Atlanta, Georgia, on Friday afternoon was suicidal, the father of the suspect revealed to law enforcement. CNN reported, citing an unidentified law enforcement official, that the suspect’s father said he alerted law enforcement about his son’s condition a day before the shooting.
There’s no link to CNN provided, and I can’t find the original article or interview.
NOTE: I’ve written many many times about the COVID vaccine; you can find my most recent post on the subject here.
Palestinian exceptionalism: the art of propaganda
The Palestinians have made quite a name for themselves.
They’re not good at creating a viable economy. But they’re very good at getting others to give them financial assistance.
They’re good at tunnel-building. They’re good at ghoulish mayhem and murder. But what they’re best at is propaganda. At that, they excel.
As Gerard Baker writes: “If there were a Goebbels prize for propaganda, Hamas would win it every year.”
And this despite their habit of stirring up trouble wherever they go. As commenter “Unwillin’ Barkis” has written on this blog:
I cannot think of another group of people – short of gypsies – that are more unwanted than Palestinians. They’re unwanted even among their own religious brethren, that being much of their own fault. I can’t think of another ethnic group in modern history that have done more to destroy humanitarian goodwill than they have, and they’re quickly on track to become the transnational refuse of Earth by the end of the century.
Palestinians have managed to attempt to overthrow government after government of their host countries in order to take over if they can, get more power for themselves, and/or spread the word of their Cause. Their host countries have said “no thanks” in no uncertain terms – for example, Black September in Jordan:
After the 1967 Six-Day War [with Israel], Palestinian fedayeen guerrillas relocated to Jordan and stepped up their attacks against Israel and what had become the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The PLO’s strength grew, and by early 1970, leftist groups within the PLO began calling for the overthrow of Jordan’s Hashemite monarchy, leading to violent clashes in June 1970. Hussein hesitated to oust them from the country, but continued PLO activities in Jordan culminated in the Dawson’s Field hijackings of 6 September 1970. This involved the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) seizing three civilian passenger flights and forcing their landing in the Jordanian city of Zarqa, where they took foreign nationals as hostages and blew up the planes in front of international press. Hussein saw this as the last straw and ordered the Jordanian Army to take action.
… [T]he Jordanian military attacked again in January 1971, and the fedayeen were driven out of the cities, one by one, until 2,000 surrendered after they were encircled during the Ajlun offensive on 23 July, formally marking the end of the conflict.
Jordan allowed the fedayeen to relocate to Lebanon via Syria, where they later became involved in the Lebanese Civil War. The Palestinian Black September Organization was founded after the conflict to carry out attacks against Jordanian authorities in response to the fedayeen’s expulsion; their most notable attack was the assassination of Jordanian prime minister Wasfi Tal in 1971, as he had commanded parts of the military operations against the fedayeen.
“Became involved in the Lebanese Civil War” can be translated from WikiSpeak as “played an enormous role in sparking the war.” At any rate, the history of the particular Arabs known as “Palestinians” explains why Egypt has not allowed any refugees into its country during the present post-10/7 conflict.
Another very important thing about the Palestinians which accounts for their status as victims favored above all others by leftists and the international community is that aiding them is big business for the UN and NGOs.
But I think the greatest fortune the Palestinians have had is that their designated enemy is Jewish. If it were some other Arab country, the world would yawn and look the other way. A good analogy for this in the US is when a white person kills a black person versus black-on-black crime; it’s the latter that gets so little publicity. So Palestinians have an ideal built-in situation for their message, which uses the antiquity, ubiquity, and intensity of anti-Semitism to enhance the appeal of Palestinian propaganda.
The Palestinians are smart, too, especially about creating the proper propaganda to match the audience and the target. The Holocaust is deliberately evoked through Palestinian imagery and rhetoric in order to accuse the Jews of perpetrating one. The blood libel, of even greater antiquity, is also frequently and knowingly employed. It is especially painful to Jews who are aware of Jewish history, and especially effective with the wider population of the world because of its harmonic resonances.
Open thread 8/9/2025
Roundup!
So much news … how to choose?
(1) Remember how the Democrats were keen to pack the Court? Now – funny thing – not so much.
(2) Judge Boasberg’s ridiculous criminal contempt finding against the Trump administration for turning over Tren de Aragua gang members to Salvadoran officials gets overruled. From the opinion:
The district court’s order raises troubling questions about judicial control over core executive functions like the conduct of foreign policy and the prosecution of criminal offenses. And it implicates an unsettled issue whether the judiciary may impose criminal contempt for violating injunctions entered without jurisdiction.
SCOTUS had ruled that the Boasberg court had no jurisdiction.
(3) Trouble for “no one is above the law” Letitia James? See this:
The Department of Justice has launched a grand jury investigation targeting New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), focusing on allegations of deprivation of rights related to her $454 million civil fraud lawsuit against President Donald Trump.
The probe is being run out of Albany. Subpoenas have already reportedly been delivered for documents concerning James’ lawsuit, which accused Trump of inflating his net worth to secure favorable loan terms.
Fox News Digital reports that James’ office received the subpoenas for documents and information pertaining to that case this week.
The grand jury investigation is at its early stages, according to reports, but marks a clear escalation in the DOJ’s attempts to hold James accountable for potential rights violations and potential abuse of her office against the president.
She ran for office with a promise to get him. She was elected, but she failed to keep her promise – although not for lack of trying.
(4) Keir Starmer wants Israel to make nice to Hamas and Gazans, and Ambassador Mike Huckabee has what I’d say is an appropriate answer:
BREAKING: Ambassador Huckabee slams Keir Starmer.
“Did UK surrender to Nazis and drop food to them? Ever heard of Dresden, PM Starmer?” pic.twitter.com/cjPaY8Lgsk
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) August 8, 2025
(5) It’s the 3-year anniversary of the raid on Mar-a-Lago, and Tom Cotton has some observations:
This double standard is nothing short of breathtaking.
Where Trump was charged for merely “causing” boxes to be packed, Biden was specifically not charged because he “did not move the files himself” and “depended on staffers.”
With Trump, the Reagan precedent was ignored; with Biden, it was upheld due to “basic principles of notice and fairness.”
For Trump, the Supreme Court’s “express statement” doctrine, that certain laws should not apply to a president unless expressly stated, was ignored.
For Biden, the DOJ applied this doctrine — historically extended to include vice presidents — and declined prosecution to avoid “significant separation of powers concerns.”
Prosecutors charged Trump with 40 felonies — effectively life in prison.
Prosecutors charged Biden with nothing.
Those now angrily denouncing Trump for enforcing US laws — laws he is duty-bound to enforce — fully supported forging the justice system into a guillotine to lop off Trump’s head.
Because they don’t really care about law.
And they don’t really care about justice.
They only care about power.
Regaining power — and retaining it.
The news of the Russiagate Hoax appears to be reaching the public after all …
… and even some Democrats, despite the attempts by the MSM to ignore or “debunk” it.
We have stories of this sort from the WaPo, which somehow frames the story as anti-Gabbard for releasing the information that implicates the likes of Brennan et al, and never reveals the content of what that information was:
“Exclusive!” boasts Washington Post intel reporter Warren P. Strobel in a report this week: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and “other intelligence agencies” didn’t want Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to declassify a report that makes the CIA look bad. …
Strobel does not make it easy for the reader to see the report, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence’s 2020 staff report regarding the Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian Election Interference. At no point does he offer a link to the report or explain its explosive findings: that John Brennan, CIA director under former President Barack Obama, produced a sloppy Intelligence Community Assessment promoting the lie that Russian President Vladimir Putin interfered with the 2020 election to help Trump win. The foundation of Brennan’s report was an out of context fragment of a sentence that could not be confirmed and the comically false Steele dossier. A newly released CIA review shows high level CIA analysts and officers urged Brennan not to include the Steele dossier in the report.
Beyond being thin on facts, Strobel’s piece paints Gabbard as the villain right off the bat with the title, “Gabbard overrode CIA officials’ concerns in push to release classified Russia report.” It reads as if Gabbard did something wrong; she didn’t. Gabbard does not need permission to declassify these documents.
I have noticed time and again that MSM efforts to cover up stories that reflect poorly on Democrats and the left are often quite successful, at least among the Democrats I know. Even though not so many people read the MSM anymore, somehow the viewpoint espoused there filters down and is spread and amplified by social media.
And yet – at least according to a recent Rasmussen poll – the news is reaching the public and even some Democrats don’t seem to be dismissing it. This surprises me, but it’s good news. Miranda Devine summarizes the poll’s findings:
According to a Rasmussen poll released Monday, nearly two-thirds of voters (65%) are following declassified releases over the past month by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) “very closely” (32%) or “somewhat closely” (33%) …
The poll of 1,172 likely voters, conducted July 29-31, shows 54% believe Obama administration officials committed serious crimes in “manipulating intelligence,” with 37% saying it’s “very likely” and 17% saying it’s “somewhat likely.”
A staggering 69% agree it is critical that the perpetrators be held accountable “for the survival of our country.”
Even more disturbing for Democrats is that it’s not just Republicans who are concerned. The poll shows 56% of Democrats are following the investigation, 32% believe serious crimes were committed and 59% agree the perpetrators must be “held accountable.” The respective Republican comparison is 75%, 83% and 86%.
Hispanics are more cynical about the scandal than either black or white voters, with 66% saying serious crimes were committed and 74% wanting accountability, compared to 51% and 65%, respectively, for blacks and 53% and 69%, respectively, for whites.
Men are more concerned than women, with 74% vs. 59% following the revelations closely, 60% vs. 49% believing there is serious criminality, and 72% vs. 66% favoring accountability.
Of course, it’s always possible that the Democrats who think serious crimes were committed think they were committed by Trump.
Yahoo has once again decided to “improve” things
Suddenly, without warning, Yahoo has introduced a new and vastly inferior email format. And this comes after many other “improvements” over the years that are anything but. For example, just recently Yahoo kindly added a seemingly useless and unnecessary step to the process of accessing the email, even if already signed in: a “next” tab to click on.
The plaintive cry of “why?” escaped my lips when the new format appeared. But I soldiered on, trying to find the magic tab that would return me to the old format. I’ve learned that such a secret door sometimes lurks somewhere in hiding. Finally, after a lengthy and frustrating search, found! What a relief. But if it’s anything like previous times, the old format won’t remain available for long. I feel in my gut that, like so many other times before, they someday will remove that option when I least expect it.
And this despite the fact that I – like many others, no doubt – have clicked the “feedback” tab and sent a blizzard of complaints and pleas.
And no, I don’t like gmail’s format any better, although I do use it for certain things. I’ve had my blog email at Yahoo for over 20 years, and I’m loath to pack up and move.
Open thread 8/8/2025
The ramped-up Pallywood game
The MSM falls for Pallywood deception – or knowingly cooperates with it and promotes it. I think at this point it would have to be the latter, because if the press is ignorant at this point, it’s willful. Richard Landes – who coined the phrase “Pallywood” – exposed this twenty years ago with the al Durah hoax (extensively covered on this blog), and already the French media knew about the hoax aspect and thought it was okay because of A Higher Truth about suffering Palestinians.
The mendacious press coverage falsely accusing Israel is destructive and vicious. Here’s a recent article describing some of it:
A recent investigation by Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung casts serious doubt on a number of highly circulated Gaza images, suggesting that several were either selectively staged or carefully framed to serve a broader propaganda agenda — one that plays directly into Hamas’s media strategy. …
As foreign journalists have virtually no access to Gaza, most war photography is conducted by Palestinian freelancers — some with open or suspected ties to Hamas. According to historian and photography expert Gerhard Paul, Hamas exercises “100% control over image production” in southern Gaza. Every frame is curated. Every shot is a message.
The goal? Elicit sympathy from Western viewers. Stoke anger against Israel. Blur the moral lines between terrorist and victim.
Here’s a link to the German article; you can use a translation program to translate it.
And here’s Legal Insurrection on the same subject:
The problem is not limited to a few rogue Hamas-linked journalists. Palestinians have an entire industry dedicated to fabricating and disseminating fake statistics, imagery, and news. These Pallywood lies travel halfway around the world before the truth even has a chance to put on its proverbial shoes.
We’ve known that for literally decades. Images are merely one aspect of it – although an important and highly emotional one.
Trump calls for new census that doesn’t count illegal aliens
I assume that this is an issue that will be fought in the courts:
President Donald Trump ordered the Department of Commerce to develop “a new and highly accurate census” that does not count illegal aliens.
The idea is that many blue states that welcome illegal aliens have had their representation padded through counting illegal aliens, as well as enhancing their coffers with extra federal dollars. The process of a census is determined this way:
Also known as the Population and Housing Census, the Decennial U.S. Census is designed to count every resident in the United States. It is mandated by Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution and takes place every 10 years. The data collected by the decennial census determine the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives and is also used to distribute hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funds to local communities.
Seems like a census is mandated every ten years but an extra census isn’t banned. Does it have to be justified, and if so to whom, and in what way? And what is a resident; does it include illegal residents?
The Census Bureau has long counted illegal aliens as residents. I’m not sure the Constitution can be a guide here, because originally the laws defining legal and illegal immigration hadn’t been passed. I am immediately reminded of the compromise that counted slaves as 3/5 a person in order to reduce the power of slave states, but illegal aliens aren’t slaves and in any case slavery is illegal. However, the issues are strangely similar, although I doubt that current mores would allow for illegal aliens to be counted as 3/5 of a resident.
This issue isn’t new, but it’s heating up:
During his first term in office, Trump issued an memorandum in 2020 declaring that he “determined that respect for the law and protection of the integrity of the democratic process warrant the exclusion of illegal aliens from the apportionment base, to the extent feasible and to the maximum extent of the President’s discretion under the law.”
President Joe Biden issued an executive order in 2021 which revoked Trump’s memorandum, but Trump revoked Biden’s order this year.
In 2020, SCOTUS also weighed in, kind of:
The Supreme Court has ruled it is too soon to bring a legal challenge against the Trump administration’s still-developing plan to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census count used to allocate seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The case is Trump v. New York.
From the ruling:
A foundational principle of Article III is that “an actual controversy must exist not only at the time the complaint is filed, but through all stages of the litigation.” … The plaintiffs now seek to substitute an alternative theory of a “legally cognizable injury” premised on the threatened impact of an unlawful apportionment on congressional representation and federal funding. Id., at 100. As the case comes to us, however, we conclude that it does not—at this time—present a dispute “appropriately resolved through the judicial process.”
So SCOTUS punted because the damage was merely threatened and had not yet occurred. Would the same be true now? It would seem so. And at the point at which the damage would become actual, and SCOTUS would deign to hear it, I can’t say what the Court would rule. But if I absolutely had to guess at the moment, I would say they wouldn’t rule in Trump’s favor and would use a fairly non-restrictive use of the word “resident.”