In response to requests from several long-time readers‚ we are developing the infrastructure to produce an “Old School” hardcopy mailed newsletter‚ starting in 2024. The concept is to be ready to revert to distributing a paper newsletter that is sent out by traditional mail‚ for if and when SurvivalBlog is expunged from the Internet’s World Wide Web. (“Taken down.”) I’ve dubbed this contingency project: SurvivalBlog – Old School (S.O.S.) The infrastructure required to produce and distribute the S.O.S. Newsletter will include… For grid up‚ but Internet-down situations: A very sturdy desktop photocopier. Dozens of reams Reams of paper. Boxes of … The post The SurvivalBlog – Old School (S.O.S.) Newsletter Plan appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

On December 8‚ 2010‚ the American aerospace venture SpaceX became the first commercial company to release a spacecraft—the Dragon capsule—into orbit and successfully return it to Earth. — On December 8‚ 1542 Mary‚ Queen of Scots‚ was born‚ and six days later she became queen of Scotland. — We are now in need of entries for Round 110 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $850‚000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. We recently polled blog readers‚ asking for suggested article topics. Refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article … The post Preparedness Notes for Friday — December 8‚ 2023 appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

Faint signals we can't confirm.

It can outperform human experts.

A new hope for future treatments.

There's some kind of pattern here.

Amazing. This week‚ Special Counsel Jack Smith released a new indictment of former President Trump.  And it is filled with blatant untruths. Let’s run through but one of them. Smith charges that Trump has a “historical record” of making “knowingly false claims of election fraud.” In fact‚ it is Smith‚ not Trump‚ making a “knowingly false” allegation about voter fraud. There was a reason for Trump to be concerned about voter fraud. I have documented why in this space previously. But since Smith is intent on indicting Trump for speaking the truth‚ let me recall the following again. I noted at the time the history of voter fraud in elections in my own state of Pennsylvania: In the 2016‚ 2015‚ 2014‚ 2012‚ and 2008 elections‚ not to mention back there in the dinosaur age of 1994‚ there were repeated examples of voter fraud in Pennsylvania. All seriously documented. Here’s a list of specifics. In 2020‚ a former Democratic Judge of Elections in Philadelphia‚ Domenick J. DeMuro‚ was convicted in federal court for his role in “accepting bribes to cast fraudulent ballots and certifying false voting results during the 2014‚ 2015‚ and 2016 primary elections in Philadelphia‚” according to the U.S. Attorney for Eastern Pennsylvania. Here is the press release from the Department of Justice. Two months later‚ in July‚ the same U.S. Attorney announced that former U.S. Congressman Michael “Ozzie” Myers‚ a Philadelphia Democrat‚ was indicted on “multiple counts‚ including conspiring to violate voting rights by fraudulently stuffing the ballot boxes for specific Democratic candidates in the 2014‚ 2015‚ and 2016 Pennsylvania primary elections‚ bribery of an election official‚ falsification of records‚ voting more than once in federal elections‚ and obstruction of justice.” The bribery charge‚ by the way‚ was about Myers paying the election judge DeMuro to rig voting machines. Here is the press release from the Department of Justice. In 2012‚ the Philadelphia Inquirer headlined this a few days after the Obama-Romney election: “In 59 Philadelphia voting divisions‚ Mitt Romney got zero votes” “It’s one thing for a Democratic presidential candidate to dominate a Democratic city like Philadelphia‚ but check out this head-spinning figure: In 59 voting divisions in the city‚ Mitt Romney received not one vote. Zero. Zilch.” Which is to say‚ this is a statistical impossibility without voter fraud. In 2008 there was this in October in the middle of the Obama-McCain contest. I covered a press conference at the Pennsylvania State Capitol held by a retired Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice‚ the Dauphin County (Harrisburg) District Attorney‚ and the then-Pennsylvania Republican State Chairman‚ who said: “Between March 23rd and October 1st‚ various groups‚ including ACORN‚ submitted over 252‚595 registrations to the Philadelphia County Election Board” with 57‚435 rejected for faulty information. “Most of these registrations were submitted by ACORN‚ and rejected due to fake social security numbers‚ incorrect dates of birth‚ clearly fraudulent signatures‚ addresses that do not exist‚ and duplicate registrations. In one case‚ a man was registered to vote more than 15 times since the Primary election.” “Voter fraud is no longer just a Philadelphia problem‚” said State GOP Chairman Rob Gleason‚ as “ACORN was targeting key counties across the state.” Then there was this jewel of a voter fraud story from a 1994 special election for a Philadelphia seat in the Pennsylvania State Senate. The New York Times reported this‚ bold print supplied: “Saying Philadelphia’s election system had collapsed under “a massive scheme” by Democrats to steal a State Senate election in November‚ a Federal judge today took the rare step of invalidating the vote and ordered the seat filled by the Republican candidate.…” “Judge Newcomer ruled that the Democratic campaign of William G. Stinson had stolen the election from Bruce S. Marks in North Philadelphia’s Second Senatorial District through an elaborate fraud in which hundreds of residents were encouraged to vote by absentee ballot even though they had no legal reason — like a physical disability or a scheduled trip outside the city — to do so.” In other words? In Pennsylvania‚ voter fraud — which is genuine voter suppression — is as common as winter snow in Erie. Which is to say‚ President Trump is being indicted for speaking a seriously documented truth about voter fraud.  For Smith to say that Trump has in the past had a “common plan of falsely blaming fraud for election results”  is a blatant lie. When‚ in fact‚ right here in Pennsylvania‚ there is a factually documented record of voter fraud‚ replete with federal jail sentences for a former Democrat U.S. congressman and a Philadelphia judge of elections. In fact‚ for Smith to deliberately lie to create a Trump indictment based on utterly‚ blatantly‚ provably untrue charges should result in Smith himself being both fired from his job and then indicted himself for a criminal and quite deliberately corrupt misuse of the legal system. The post The Lies of Trump Prosecutor Jack Smith appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

American academics suffered through their most depressing week since Donald Trump’s election — maybe even since the fall of the Berlin Wall. On Wednesday‚ 67-year-old Anthony Polito murdered three people and wounded a fourth at the University of Nevada‚ Las Vegas. The job applicant passed over by UNLV affirmed the school’s decision by so violently objecting to it. The counterintuitive lesson drawn by many of his fellow professors was that the rest of society needed to become a gun-free zone just like UNLV. Hmmm. On Tuesday‚ the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges punted on a proposed rule to weigh the diversity‚ equity‚ and inclusion (DEI) efforts of a college or university as a condition of accreditation. This end-around on state laws in Texas and Florida limiting DEI ran into a defensive end faithfully fulfilling containment duties‚ i.e.‚ a South unwilling to subsidize leftism disguised as an essential component of education as all other regions do. The worst news at least for the public image of higher education came on Tuesday when the presidents of Harvard‚ Penn‚ and MIT affirmed the oft-affirmed title of a book I wrote two decades ago called Intellectual Morons. Rep. Elise Stefanik asked what the university administrators seemed to regard as a trick question in whether calls for the extermination of Jews rose to a punishable offense on their campuses. Penn’s Liz Magill labeled it “a context-dependent decision.” Harvard’s Claudine Gay said it “depends on the context.” MIT’s Sally Kornbluth offered a “depending on the context” in her answer‚ too. The three weird sisters not only failed the test‚ they copied their answers. How might their universities discipline three students sitting next to one another who gave the same profoundly wrong and bizarrely amorphous non-answer answer? One imagines a penalty worse than for any “from the river to the sea”–type chant. And this hypothetical gets to the heart of the very real issue: the adults in Congress and beyond want to force students to pay for the offenses of their teachers. There seems a linkage between these three seemingly disparate events. Prevailing ideas on campus — such as gun-free zones or meted out punishment for calling a man a man but not for loudly wishing Jews dead — make less sense the further one gets from a campus. And DEI‚ a philistine’s way of hijacking education for mindless‚ ideological purposes‚ paved the way for the deer-in-the-headlights responses to a softball question from Rep. Stefanik. Why did the schools not punish one group for chanting words that a second group found displeasing or legitimately threatening seems the wrong question. What foolishness do these colleges teach that emboldens so many to call to erase an entire nation as they obliviously imagine this proposed genocide as social justice? “The real issue on campuses isn’t antisemitism but the anti-Western ethos that has colonized large swaths of the curriculum‚” Heather MacDonald explains in the Wall Street Journal. “Elite schools once disdained Jews because they were seen as outsiders to Western civilization. Now they are reviled as that civilization’s very embodiment. Students explain that their hatreds come from what they learn in class — that the West is built on white supremacism and oppression. Israel is cast as the Western settler-colonialist oppressor par excellence.” Expel as many students for sanguinary speech as one cares to. This addresses symptom and not disease. Nineteen-year-olds‚ even ones at Harvard‚ Penn‚ and MIT‚ amount to human xeroxes. Somebody at MIT taught those 19-year-olds it’s okay to blockade Jewish students from attending class. Somebody at Penn inspired a vandal to scribble “The Jews R Nazis” on a door. Somebody at Harvard taught those 19-year-olds to reflexively blame the victims of the Oct. 7 rapes‚ beheadings‚ and kidnappings. Rep. Joe Wilson asked the percentage of conservatives on the faculty at each school‚ a statistic the professional bean-counters of race‚ sex‚ and myriad other categories divulged they do not collect. Wilson concluded that “no diversity” of thought bequeathed this “antisemitism‚” adding that “it’s due to illiberalism.” Indeed‚ only in a politically homogenous intellectual swamp would one feel comfortable blaming the murder of a tiny‚ harmless Jewish hippie chick on her and her fellow holiday ravers. Rather than punish students who cycle through every few years‚ why not consciously hire a faculty that represents a broad range of thought rather than the bigoted‚ narrow crowd that excludes ideas heterodox on campus but common beyond the walls of Harvard Yard? Alas‚ to do this first requires firing Presidents Gay‚ Magill‚ and Kornbluth. Short of this‚ the adults undoubtedly continue to blame and perhaps punish the teenagers. Donors and governments defunding these schools appears the more realistic way to improve this ghastly situation unmasked but not born this fall. READ MORE: INTERVIEW: Prayer Vigils for Israel Contrast Growing Anti-Semitism on College Campuses Anti-Israel White House Interns Publicly Rebel Against Joe Biden Has the Radical Left Finally Hit a Wall? The post ‘Depends on the Context’ appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

I attended a wedding last weekend‚ celebrating the nuptials of the fourth of my college friends to get married since we graduated in May of last year. The countercultural nature of young marriage isn’t lost on me or my friends. As vows are increasingly delayed and fertility rates linger well below replacement‚ there’s less and less certainty around the schoolyard rhyme that “First comes love‚ then comes marriage‚ then comes baby in a baby carriage.” Brides like my college friends — 22 or 23 years old — were the norm around 1980‚ but the average age of marriage has increased over the past four decades for men and women alike. Today‚ the average American woman gets married at age 28‚ if she gets married at all. A record 22 percent of 40-year-old women have never been married‚ and that number is projected to increase. (READ MORE from Mary Frances Myler: Whitmer Signs Michigan’s Green New Dystopia) With younger generations seeing marriage as a capstone event for their young adulthood‚ men and women are devoting more time to building a career‚ attaining financial independence‚ or just “adulting.” Marriage is increasingly viewed as a cherry on top‚ not a foundation upon which to build. And with this change in priorities‚ couples are having children later in life. The average age of first-time mothers was 21 in 1972‚ increasing to age 26 in 2018 and 27.3 in 2021.  No Babies‚ No Future As family formation is delayed — not just in the U.S. but across the world — fertility rates continue to fall. Currently‚ American fertility hovers around 1.784 births per woman‚ a marginal increase from 2022‚ and researchers project a continued decline in population growth over the next 30 years. When fertility dips below the replacement rate of 2.1 births per woman‚ society is headed for transformation‚ either through demographic distortion where the elderly outnumber the young or through mass immigration promoted to fill a shrinking workforce.  While American fertility isn’t ideal‚ it’s far from the imminent nightmare facing South Korea. Forty years after the country’s fertility fell below replacement‚ South Korea hit a new low just this year: 0.7 births per woman. Unless things turn around soon‚ New York Times columnist Ross Douthat explains‚ the country is heading for “a depopulation exceeding what the Black Death delivered to Europe in the 14th century.”  “The current trend in South Korea is more than just a grim surprise‚” Douthat writes. “It’s a warning about what’s possible for us.” Knowing us‚ Americans won’t heed the warning‚ but South Korea’s neighbor to the north certainly is. Under Kim Jong Un‚ North Korean fertility is approximately 1.6 births per woman — below replacement but not dissimilar from the fertility rates of many western nations.  Recently‚ the North Korean dictator acknowledged the falling birth rate and encouraged women to have children‚ saying‚ “When all mothers clearly understand that it is patriotism to give birth to many children and do so positively‚ our cause of building a powerful socialist country can be hastened faster.” Only time will tell whether Kim’s natalist plea will be met with more children. My hunch is that he’ll fail‚ if only because altruism doesn’t seem to be a major factor in the decision to have kids.  DINKs and Postmodern Narcissism The environmentalist anti-natalist position is familiar — don’t have kids because you’ll only strain the world’s limited resources‚ accelerate climate change‚ and doom your heirs to a dismal life on a dying planet — but it doesn’t seem to be all that popular in real life. If people aren’t having kids‚ they’re making that choice for far more selfish reasons.  Over the past week‚ videos of “DINKs‚” millennials with “dual income‚ no kids‚” circulated on TikTok and X/Twitter. If young people aren’t eager to start a brood‚ it might have less to do with climate change and more to do with money and near-total freedom.  “We’re DINKs‚” one couple said‚ “We go to Trader Joe’s and workout classes on the weekends.” They can “go to Florida on a whim‚” they boast. And take up golf‚ and vacation in Europe‚ and get a full night’s sleep‚ and buy 8-dollar lattes. (RELATED: DINKs Are Going Viral: That’s Not Good for the Human Race) There are going to be a lot of “DINKs” in the future in their 50s to 80s that are going to be regretting this strategy. pic.twitter.com/BZU2xNQrmZ — Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) December 5‚ 2023 Another couple shared a similar litany of the perks of childlessness: going out to eat‚ buying their favorite snacks from Costco‚ spending money on themselves instead of a kid‚ not having to arrange childcare.  You’re both genetic dead ends congrats pic.twitter.com/IACLvQzp1v — ᴡᴇϟ (@offtheraiIs) December 4‚ 2023 Taking into consideration the pressures of wage stagnation‚ increased housing prices‚ and the decreased possibilities of one-income households‚ it’s understandable that younger generations face significant hurdles in their pursuit of the traditional American dream. But while there’s certainly nothing wrong with enjoying the phases of life and marriage that precede parenthood‚ the glorification of the DINK lifestyle simply puts mediocre adolescence on a pedestal. Freed from children and the corresponding obligations‚ these millennials can make money and spend it on‚ frankly‚ petty expenses. Children don’t exist to provide fulfillment to their parents‚ and it’s wrong to treat family size as conservative or religious bona fides‚ but a society that prizes unhampered independence over family formation will ultimately collapse in on itself. Though his main goal is the production of more workers for his communist hellscape‚ Kim Jong Un at least has the rhetoric to express why children are good. It’s not much‚ but the expression of civic duty is far more compelling than the DINK treatment of children as obstacles at worst‚ accessories at best. Amid these utilitarian views of children and fertility‚ the words of the Catholic wedding Mass stand out. Prior to exchanging vows‚ the bride and groom stand before the congregation and declare their commitment to “accept children lovingly from God and bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church.”  Just as countercultural as young marriage — perhaps even more so — is this radical openness to life as a gift from God. It takes humility‚ maturity‚ and the willingness to lay down one’s life for another. Children aren’t guaranteed‚ and they are not primarily a social duty or a hazard to avoid. They’re a gift. And I‚ for one‚ am excited to see my friends and their husbands accept those gifts lovingly from God and bring them up to be lights in a dark world.  Mary Frances Myler is a writer from Northern Michigan now living in Washington‚ D.C. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2022.  READ MORE by Mary Frances Myler:  Is Friendsgiving the Future? Weed Comes to the Buckeye State The post Kim Jong Un‚ Demographic Destiny‚ and DINKs appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

This is going to be the second time this week that I mention CNN without complete derision. You already know about the first one. This time‚ it’s for something that many of you have already begun to notice‚ and we should spend a little time talking about it. And that’s all the introduction this episode of the 5QT is going to get. 1. The Dirty Joe Show Is Getting as Old as He Is And now to CNN‚ which just put out a poll showing that Joe Biden’s approval rating has descended into the catastrophic range. Red State’s Mike Miller wrote: Such was the case on Wednesday when a new CNN poll — such irony — revealed that Biden has now reached the lowest approval rating of his miserable presidency. The most intentionally inept U.S. president in history stood at just 37 percent approval in November‚ two points less than in October‚ and the lowest since he assumed office in January 2021. Check out the steady decline: November 2023: 37 percent October 2023: 39 percent August 2023: 39 percent July 2023: 41 percent December 2022: 46 percent June 2022: 38 percent October 2021: 50 percent March 2021: 51 percent Ouch. Can you win reelection with a 37 percent approval rating? No. Regardless of the problems Donald Trump might have‚ whether they be campaign-finance related‚ the legal issues springing from the weaponized prosecutors in New York‚ D.C.‚ Atlanta‚ and South Florida‚ or whatever else‚ it doesn’t matter. Joe Biden can’t be at 37 percent and win that election. He can’t. Because at 37 percent‚ Biden doesn’t hold his base. And turning out his base is an even bigger problem. Here’s the thing: Republicans win competitive elections‚ when they do‚ because Republican voters tend to be more civic-minded and there’s a higher floor where it comes to voter turnout than Democrats have. When Republicans lose competitive elections‚ especially in the Obama era‚ it’s usually because the Democrats are able to overcome that higher Republican civic engagement with systematic‚ data-driven voter turnout operations that turn low-engagement voters into high-turnout voters. Those efforts lead all the way up to straight-up ballot harvesting. But the problem is this: you have to have a reservoir of people who can be made to participate. When there’s a motivating factor out there that can be applied to bring out those low-information‚ low-engagement voters that the Democrats depend on to put them over the top‚ that reservoir will be pretty big. When Barack Obama was atop the ticket in 2008 and 2012‚ that reservoir was more than sufficient to win. People liked the novelty of a black president‚ or they earnestly believed that Obama was a racial healer or charismatic figure. Then‚ after Obama‚ when it was Hillary Clinton fronting the operation‚ it didn’t work as well. But then they had the abject hatred of Donald Trump to fill the reservoir‚ and Trump didn’t exactly foil their efforts to make the 2020 election a referendum on how much they hated him. Team Obama — or put a different way‚ the Democrat Party — inflicted on the country a corrupt‚ cognitively deficient hack politician everyone knows is a mere puppet by selling hatred for Trump. Now‚ that package is 37 up‚ 63 down. And that CNN poll’s right track–wrong track number is 29 up‚ 71 down‚ which means even a sizable chunk of the Democrat base is now giving up. Can you get those people out to vote solely on the hatred of Trump? Before you answer‚ consider the evidence that even they don’t believe it. You wouldn’t be hearing this narrative about how Trump is a dictator in the making if they did. That might be the most desperate political attack in American history‚ and we’re six months away from anything close to a general election campaign. It smells like panic. If the reservoir of low-information‚ low-engagement voters stays this empty — and the thing is that it’s pretty likely that it will‚ given that nothing on the horizon will lift a declining‚ skeletons-in-closet-ridden‚ low-talent pol like Biden substantially above that 37 percent — then it starts to become a real problem. Because when you depend on machine politics to turn out your vote‚ you’d better make sure it’s your vote. And for example‚ if instead of Biden having a nine-to-one advantage in the black community over Trump‚ it’s only a three-to-one advantage‚ as a poll not long ago showed‚ spending millions to turn out votes in black neighborhoods starts to generate a very‚ very low rate of return. Now you have to focus those GOTV efforts into retail-based politics in communities where you’re used to getting big results with a wholesale approach‚ and it’s substantially harder. Here’s how bad it is. That same pop-culture media that built Barack Obama and acted like a giant sword swinging at Trump is now starting to beg Biden to go away. The Daily Show temp host Charlamagne tha God has the holiday blues "I want Biden stepping in to beat Trump the way I want him stepping in to defend me at a bar fight…So‚ please‚ Mr. President‚ give America the ultimate Christmas gift and step aside" pic.twitter.com/iRGqIc1cGp — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) December 7‚ 2023 Charlamagne tha God isn’t exactly the biggest fan of Biden’s‚ but the fact they let him lead with that on The Daily Show is pretty striking. This is not the kind of thing the corporate media has commonly allowed on its airwaves — especially when it comes to programming aimed at younger audiences — over the past 15 years. But then again‚ you look at what younger voters think of Joe Biden‚ and you start to realize that they simply can’t push the narrative anymore. Obviously‚ I’m not saying that it’s curtains for the Dems next year. What I’m saying is what I’ve been saying all along — make no assumptions whatsoever about this election because almost literally anything can happen. 2. Where Are the No-Knock Raids on CAIR? I don’t have to say much of anything about this. I’ll just let you see it… CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad at AMP Convention: I Was Happy to See the People of Gaza Break the Siege on October 7; They Were Victorious; the People of Gaza Have the Right to Self-Defense – Israel Does Not #Hamas #Gaza #Palestinians @CAIRNational @NihadAwad pic.twitter.com/WDbSRjFJo0 — MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) December 7‚ 2023 Why do we put up with CAIR‚ again? They’re the “civilian” front for Hamas like Sinn Fein was for the Irish Republican Army. Seeing as Americans were killed and taken as hostages by the people Nihad Awad was extolling the virtues of‚ I think it’s safe to say that these are domestic terrorist enemies. And if Mark Houck got a SWAT raid for shoving a guy on a sidewalk who was harassing his son‚ then what about this? 3. Good News on the Election Integrity Front Shreveport‚ Louisiana’s local elections have a certain history of catching national attention; after all‚ about a decade ago‚ George Soros dumped well over a million dollars into the local district attorney race‚ swamping the Republican candidate and putting an incompetent racist criminal sympathizer named Alvin Stewart in that job. Shreveport’s population has begun to crater as a result of Stewart’s tenure; the criminals own the streets and the law-abiding are filling the U-Hauls. And interestingly‚ last year a Republican won the mayoral election there after another Soros-funded clown‚ the hilariously incompetent and mentally unstable Adrian Perkins‚ botched things so badly that even black Democrats were willing to cross the aisle. But the sheriff’s election in Caddo Parish‚ which is the Louisiana equivalent of a county that Shreveport dominates‚ was won on Nov. 18 by a Democrat named Henry Whitehorn over John Nickelson‚ a Republican city councilman. By one vote. Nickelson sued‚ claiming there were enough fraudulently submitted ballots to invalidate the election. And on Tuesday a judge agreed‚ ruling that Nickelson’s campaign had proven there were 11 illegal ballots among the mail-ins‚ more than enough to overcome the margin of victory‚ and ordering a new election on March 23. And with that order went the only competitive election in the whole state that was won by a Democrat over a Republican this year. The interesting thing is how quiet the Democrats have been about this. It’s almost like they really‚ really don’t want to talk about vote fraud and mail-in ballots. And that’s understandable. 4. Of Course They Made Taylor Swift the Person of the Year Evita Duffy-Alfonso absolutely nailed it in her piece about Taylor Swift catching that Time’s Person of the Year award this week. I even love the headline: “The Most Insufferable Woman In America Wins Time’s ‘Person Of The Year.’” A quick excerpt: My Federalist colleague Mark Hemingway argues that Swift’s popularity is largely an indictment of our culture and “a sign of societal decline.” There’s a lot of truth to that‚ but we also can’t discount the media’s role in promoting and arguably creating the Taylor Swift phenomenon for its own ends. Taylor Swift represents the perfect‚ controllable woman. Joe Biden supporter? Check. “Feminist”? Check. Mask-wearer? Check. Like her young adult female fans‚ Swift is easily influenced by the left. She blamed Donald Trump for the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots (not the Democrats who put their Covid tyranny on hold just long enough to egg on terrorism and arson in American cities). She also accused Trump of trying to “destroy our right to vote” because the former president opposed the U.S. Post Office facilitating non-secure mass mail-in voting. All of which is correct‚ as is Duffy-Alonso’s note that Swift’s songs are mostly obnoxious hate screeds about her ex-boyfriends. I’d simply add something that I’ve said before‚ which is that the four most important numbers in American society right now are that married men are R+20 (voting for Republicans by 20 percentage points more than Democrats)‚ married women are R+14‚ unmarried men are R+7‚ and unmarried women are D+37‚ based on 2022 exit polling. And corporate media‚ particularly entertainment media‚ is owned and run by a very small number of people who are completely homogenous in both worldview and ideological persuasion. They’re in lockstep with the Obama Democrat faction. Which means that everything corporate media puts out — from the action movies all featuring low-personality female characters who beat the hell out of men‚ to the TV commercials making the fathers look like dunces‚ to the pop songs trashing men (if you think Swift is bad‚ wait until you get a load of Olivia Rodrigo) — all of it is designed to make single women (1) want to stay that way and (2) incapable of changing it even if they want to. Talk to 20-something and 30-something single guys and you will get a mountain of complaints about how few women are out there who are even remotely worth considering for marriage. And the 20-something and 30-something women are even worse; it’s become a joke how out of line with reality the expectations have become. As the Romans used to ask‚ cui bono? Who benefits? Not society. But making as many of those D+37 voters as possible is clearly a top priority for the leftist cultural and political elites alike‚ and showering Taylor Swift with as much publicity as possible is a killer app for that. They will ride her as far as they can. You’ll never get rid of her. 5. Lady Ballers As I noted at the Hayride Thursday‚ your expectations for the Daily Wire’s new comedy offering‚ Lady Ballers‚ shouldn’t be that it’ll rival Blazing Saddles or Anchorman. And it doesn’t. But it’s the No. 1 streaming movie in America‚ and that’s an achievement. The Critical Drinker gave a very honest‚ balanced review of it. Well worth watching… READ MORE: The Further Ridiculous Lies of Joseph Robinette Biden CNN Is Useful After All A Blood Sacrifice to the Mob The post Five Quick Things: The Chorus Builds‚ the Foundation Shakes appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.