Highlights of the News

“My rule about bears is simple. Don't poke them.”

Makes no difference with Australian Drop Bears.https://t.co/u4vLbg0Ffq

— The Old and Unimproved Dave (@DaveToau) April 20, 2022

Bear. Australian for wingman. Click the video.

ITEM 1: Let's start today with some Trumpenfreude.

CNBC reported, "Shares of Netflix closed down more than 35% Wednesday after the streamer reported earnings Tuesday evening that showed it lost subscribers for the first time in more than 10 years. The results and weak outlook led to a wave of downgrades from Wall Street on fears over the company's long-term growth potential.

"The drop caused Netflix to shave more than $50 billion off its market cap. It is now the worst-performing stock of 2022 in the S&P 500, down 62.5% year-to-date."

Flashback to May 21, 2018, when Variety reported, "Barack and Michelle Obama Sign Netflix Production Deal."

The company was worth $140 billion then.

It is down to $100 billion now.

ITEM 2: CBS reported, "The Florida state senate voted to repeal a law allowing Walt Disney World to operate a private government over its properties in the state, the latest volley in a feud between the Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the entertainment giant over what critics have dubbed the Don't Say Gay law.

"DeSantis, an ascendant GOP governor and potential 2024 presidential candidate, has battled with Disney over the company's opposition to the new law barring instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade."

I call it the Don't Poke the Bear law.

ITEM 3: The Washington Times reported, "The Biden administration plans to remove a Trump-era conscience clause that protected medical workers from participating in services like abortions and transgender sex-change treatments."

Forced vaccinations, now forced atheism. Democrats are pushing hard for people to leave the medical profession.

ITEM 4: The Daily Mail reported, "Now Bidenflation comes for your burger: Price of Big Mac rises by 7% in a year as food and labor costs spike with Seattle now selling America's dearest at $6.39."

Instead of "you want fries with that?" the order takers soon will ask, "you want a small loan with that?"

ITEM 5: The Epoch Times reported, "The Tennessee GOP has voted to remove three candidates who were vying for a seat representing the state’s 5th Congressional District. Republicans voted to boot Morgan Ortagus, Robby Starbuck, and Baxter Lee from the primary ballot, Tennessee Republican Chairman Scott Golden told news outlets. 

"Golden and the party did not respond to requests for more information. Ortagus, a State Department spokeswoman during the Trump administration who recently moved from Washington, was just endorsed by former President Donald Trump."

Let's see what our Constitution says.

"No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen."

They can run in 2024 -- provided they stay in Tennessee. (You don't have to live in the district.)

And yes, I know that leaves a RINO candidate, Beth Harwell. The district is now held by Jim Cooper, a  Democrat who is not seeking re-election.

But Constitution > my butthurt.

ITEM 6: The Washington Examiner reported, "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is slated to campaign for GOP Senate hopeful Adam Laxalt in Nevada next week as the Republicans ramp up their efforts to flip the majority in November.

"The governor, who is seen as a top presidential contender for the 2024 election cycle, will appear alongside the Trump-endorsed candidate at a rally in Las Vegas set to take place on April 27. It's a relatively rare campaign swing outside of Florida for DeSantis, who has aligned himself with former President Donald Trump and taken aim at woke culture."

He should arrive there at 8:24 PM.

Or 2024, as they say in the military.

ITEM 7: Andrea Widburg reported, "WaPo triggers the Streisand effect for Libs of Tik Tok."

The Streisand effect is when a liberal attracts attention without intending to do so.

Libs of Tik Tok went from 639,000 followers when WaPo posted the hit piece to 859,000 in just 36 hours.

For those unfamiliar with its work, here is a recent example of its work.

“I’m a man but when I was a baby the doctors told my parents I was a girl”

“I talk to my students about what it means to be trans all the time”

These are 6 year old kids. pic.twitter.com/9CEOVvCdI5

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 11, 2022

That is indefensible. Jeff Bezos, owner of WaPo, should apologize for harassing Libs of Tik Tok for providing such a public service.

Liberals want us dead and our kids turned into their sex slaves.

ITEM 8: Breitbart Politics reported, "House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) has reportedly given multiple family members over $200,000 in campaign cash over the recent years.

"The number two Democrat in the House showed on his campaign expenditures, reviewed by Fox News, that five relatives have enjoyed the payday from some of his hefty campaign hauls, equaling upwards of $200,000. Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show that those relatives include two of his daughters, their husbands, and a grandson."

Maxine Waters and others have done the same.

Republicans must expel such crooks when they take the House over. Black or white, male or female, Republican or Democrat -- I do not care. Throw the bums out.

ITEM 9: Legal Insurrection reported, "Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah, offers a class on pornography in which students watch raunchy films as a group.

"Students at the private liberal arts college can take FILM-300O: Porn to earn two credits toward their film studies degree during the 2022-2023 school year, according to the film department’s website."

I remember when Utah had dignity.

ITEM 10: The Epoch Times reported, "Florida’s surgeon general on Wednesday recommended against youth transgender procedures and surgeries while criticizing the Biden administration’s backing of those treatments for children.

"'The federal government’s medical establishment releasing guidance failing at the most basic level of academic rigor shows that this was never about health care,' Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, who was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, said in a statement. 'It was about injecting political ideology into the health of our children.'

"According to his office, for children and adolescents who use so-called puberty-blocking drugs, hormone treatments, or surgical procedures, about 80% will lose their desire to identify with the non-birth sex while he also noted that during puberty, the pre-frontal cortex of the brain continues to develop until approximately 25 years of age.

"There are also potentially irreversible consequences such as cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, infertility, increased cancer risk, and thrombosis, Ladapo wrote."

Non-birth sex?

Oh good grief. Does no one speak English anymore?

If you are not old enough to drink a Margarita you are not old enough to change sexes.

ITEM 11: NBC reported, "An audio recording obtained by NBC News appears to show that former President Donald Trump’s highly publicized interview with Piers Morgan did not end with Trump storming off the set, as edited promotional video clips suggest.

"Instead, according to the recording, which was provided by Trump's spokesman, the two men thanked each other and laughed at the conclusion of the interview for Talk TV, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

"Talk TV, which is set to debut Monday, teased the interview — billed as 'the most explosive interview of the year' — in a video summary that is dramatized with cinematic music and portrays Trump as being angry about the content of questions Morgan asked. The video and the alleged walkout were reported in an article by the New York Post, which is also owned by News Corp."

Memo to the next Republican president: Ban Piers Morgan.

ITEM 12: Post Millennial reported, "Young Hispanic woman attacked in Boston by large group of black teens for being 'white b*tch with braids.'"

CRT in action.

ITEM 13: How nice of a Never Trumper to scold us to be nice to groomers and their supporters.

DeSantis and the legislature pushed through a sensible education bill, and then stared down Disney’s ridiculous, hysterical criticisms. They fought. They won. There is no need for them to salt the earth, take revenge, or make Florida’s policies worse. https://t.co/fmVkfhUVU7

— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) April 20, 2022

Disney is the world's largest marketer of children's programming. It must be ruined, its CEO chased into retirement and its board of directors fired.

There is every reason in the world to punish these pedo-friendly (bad word) people because they are going after children ages 4 to 9, which is the target audience for their products.

I don't want to send a message. I don't want to make an example of them. I want them punished for their promotion of perversion.

ITEM 14: You say Item 1 wasn't enough Trumpenfreude for you?

Have another dollop, bub.

OK.

Breitbart reported, "The Walt Disney Co. is the worst performing stock in the Dow Jones Industrial Average for the past year, plummeting 31% in the last 12 months.

"Of the 30 companies that comprise the Dow, Disney has seen its stock drop the most on a percentage basis, followed by 3M, which is down 25%, and Home Depot, down 23%."

Its market cap (total value of the company's stock) was $183 billion on April 21, 2021. Down to $124 billion yesterday.

Yes, I have expanded the meaning of Trumpenfreude to schadenfreude of all enemies of conservatism and common sense.

ITEM 15: Still not enough Trumpenfreude?

Bloomberg reported, "Obamas to Leave Spotify, Seek Podcast Deal Elsewhere."

Hahaha.

Nice spin. They were canned because otherwise you get the deal first, then leave.

Maybe CNN+ will make an offer.

ITEM 16: NPR reported, "It's planting season in Ukraine, and that means problems for global food supply."

Africa will suffer the most. But why does a continent with twice the growing season have to depend on Ukraine for sustenance?

Perhaps this will lead to an agricultural revolution.

ITEM 17: The Guardian reported, "Schools and other public buildings in Italy will be forbidden from setting their air conditioning to any setting lower than 25C (77F) from next month, under a scheme intended to help the country dodge an energy crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine."

Gonna be 82 this weekend.

Gonna set the AC at 20C (68F).

I have sweaters.

ITEM 18: USA Today did a fact check of an image I posted the other day.

The fact check said, "The claim: Students at a public school in Missouri were given a math assignment referencing Maya Angelou’s sexual abuse and sex work."

A 9th grade math class.

Paragraph 6 said, "This was indeed a real assignment given to high schoolers in the Lincoln County R-III School District in Missouri. The full image of the assignment shows additional questions about Angelou’s hometown and professorial career at Wake Forest University, among other topics."

There was a happy ending.

The school board took the questions down.

The bad news: No one was punished.

ITEM 19: Breitbart reported, "Donald Trump holds the greatest net favorability among Republicans, while failed presidential candidate Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) ranked the lowest, a Wednesday YouGov poll revealed.

"Coming in with a net favorability rating of +63, Trump leads Donald Trump Jr. (+57), and Gov. Ron DeSantis (+53), Sen. Ted Cruz (+43), Nikki Haley (+41).

"Meanwhile, Romney’s net approval rating was -31. The difference between Romney’s approval rating and Trump’s is 94 points."

No one likes Romney not because he is a loser but because he is a backstabbing whiny little (bad word).

FINALLY, maybe I post too much about DeSantis.

Maybe other Republican governors should take some initiative.

NOW - Gov. DeSantis wants to hold Twitter's board and directors accountable for potentially injuring Florida's pension fund.pic.twitter.com/lyfk0BBwoe

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) April 19, 2022