Country Music Is Booming 

It’s big and getting bigger – and in a very democratic way: through sampling on social media. I’ve been predicting to people in my industry that the internet and social media have set in motion a change in consumer buying that will be fundamental. Once ridiculed as the least efficient way to sell products and services, “sampling,” I believe, is the future.

Read this essay by Neil Shah in the WSJ and then check out some of the samples he provides.

Students Hurt by the COVID Shutdowns Are Not Catching Up 

The data keeps coming in. And it’s all bad. One example: Four years after the shutdown, Colorado students showed a 1.3-point improvement in math and 0.4 points in English. Which is something – but way below pre-pandemic levels.

Why Is the FBI Bungling Its Child Sexual Abuse Cases? 

This is troubling. The Justice Department is looking into allegations that the FBI was egregiously and inexplicably mishandling child sexual abuse cases by failing to comply with mandatory reporting requirements in roughly half the cases examined. Click here.

And they’re still doing it. Click here.

Trump and Harris: Who Gets the Most Credit for This Bad Idea? 

In June (I think it was), Trump announced that he was going to make workers’ tips nontaxable. Then last week, Harris made the same promise. I’m still shaking my head over that decision: to make the first promise of her platform something that her opponent had promised two months earlier. But what’s really concerning is that the idea, however tasty it may sound as a political popsicle, sours very quickly if you give it any thought.

Thankfully, the WSJ did give it some thought when Trump first mentioned it, and concluded that it could:

* Create a two-tiered labor market where tipped workers would gain a significant advantage over other low-wage employees.

* Push tipping culture into new spaces, even as consumers already complain about how often they are asked to tip.

* Blow a hole in the federal budget.

Click here for details.

Another Shout-Out to Japan 

The US was #1 in the 2024 Paris Olympics, with a total medal count of 126, including 40 golds. China was next with 91 medals, including an impressive 40 golds. And little old Japan – with one-third the population of the US and a hundredth of China – came in third place with 45 overall and 20 golds!

Antisemitism in US and European Colleges and Universities Hasn’t Gone Away. It’s Just Summer. 

Since the school year ended, the large anti-Israeli protests have been few and far between. All students, even politically Woke, pro-Hamas supporters, have summers to enjoy. But there are still some that are hard at work. And their vitriolic antisemitism is as strong as ever.

On July 31, police announced that a suspect had been arrested in connection to the June 11 vandalism of Brooklyn Museum director Anne Pasternak’s residence and charged with criminal mischief as a hate crime. Pasternak’s residence was splashed with red paint in an apparent protest over the museum’s ties to Zionist organizations. Several Brooklyn Museum trustees were also targeted. Five additional suspects are still being sought by police.

Another Step Toward WWIII? 

According to Politico, the Biden administration has quietly given Ukraine permission to strike inside Russia using US-provided weapons for “counter-fire purposes in Kharkiv so Ukraine can hit back at Russian forces hitting them or preparing to hit them.”

Biden’s Recent Title IX Revisions Blocked 

US District Judge Terry Doughty has blocked Biden’s new Title IX guidelines that allow transgender students in the bathroom corresponding with their identity rather than biology. Doughty called the rules an “abuse of power” in an injunction that applies to four states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, and Ohio.

“This is a victory for women and girls,” said Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, who initiated the lawsuit in April. “When Joe Biden forced his illegal and radical gender ideology on America, Louisiana said NO.”

Fake News and Facts About Replacing Fossil Fuels with Renewable Energy 

In the last 20 years, there has been a much-heralded effort to reduce greenhouse emissions (and, thus, inhibit climate change) by replacing the use of fossil fuels with “renewable” energy sources (e.g., wind and solar power).

There has been some debate about the core thesis, and there have been plenty of serious arguments that the current ideas in favor, including some that have been inscribed into law, will not achieve the intended objectives.

It won’t surprise you to know that I’m drawn to those sorts of skeptical perspectives. But had you asked me to give you an estimate of the success so far in reducing the level of greenhouse gasses that are released every year, I probably would have guessed that – given the hundreds of laws passed and the trillions of dollars spent over the past 20 years – it was probably in the 20% to 30% range.

And boy, would I have been wrong! Take a look at this short post by James Melville.

Calling for Trump’s Assassination Before the Attempted Assassination 

Lat night, I came across this piece, which aired on Sky News about three weeks ago: a number of public figures and pundits calling for – literally, calling for – someone to assassinate Trump.

What’s interesting is that the commentators consider the idea of an attempted assassination so implausible that they treat these calls for him to be killed as ludicrous.

Just a Few Questions About the Attempted Assassination. That’s All. 

I know what you are going to say… and you are right.

As to this attempted assassination of Trump, I’m a conspiracy theorist. I mean. Really. It’s all so bizarre!

* That the shooter was a 20-year-old, non-political, registered Republican.

* That the rooftop he mounted was not guarded. It wasn’t a mile away. It was 140 yards from the podium, which, a number of gun experts said, was an easy shot “even for an amateur.”

* That the shooter was seen and reported to officials as he climbed up on the roof… minutes before he started shooting. And nothing was done.

* That six or more shots were fired before Trump was hit and yet none of Secret Service officers around him made a move to protect him.

* That when they led him off the stage, they did not cover him like they should have but allowed him to be exposed for additional shots.

* That several people in the crowd were shot. This kid may have been a poor shot, but one of his bullets hit the mark – so why weren’t the others that were hit nearby him? Why were they so far away?

* But the oddest part of it for me was this: They say that the kid was “taken out” by some Secret Service marksman. When and how and from where? There’s something fishy there.

Is AI and Robotics Really a Big Thing? Or Is It Just Another Technological Innovation That Will Have Little Impact on Our World? 

We’ve long accepted the idea that the rapid development of AI and robotics will soon be putting millions of truck drivers, warehouse workers, train conductors, customer service agents, and delivery people out of work. What isn’t as frequently talked about is how it will destroy many more millions of white-collar and professional jobs, such as accountants, actuaries, insurance adjusters, telephone salespeople, librarians, bill collectors, dog walkers, marketers, advertising copywriters, quality control officers, personal recruitment officers, human resource directors, financial analysts, software developers, diagnosticians and repair people. Also legal aids and most lawyers, nurses and most doctors, teaching assistants and most teachers…

Can I stop there?

Well, no, I can’t. Because that list doesn’t include another class of workers that I believe will almost certainly be replaced in the next five to 10 years – a replacement that you might think unlikely because these people do the sort of jobs for which the core requirement is being human.

Yes, flesh and blood nurses will be replaced by more efficient and more attentive non-human nurses that will provide 200% better care with 99% fewer errors. But AI and robotics will also eventually replace caregivers, social workers, marriage counselors, conflict dispute experts, spiritual advisers, life coaches, motivational speakers and coaches, and even psychologists and psychiatrists.

Some of these transformations are already underway. But I believe the advantages of AI and robotic labor over human labor are so great that the technological innovations to move it forward will be faster than most people can even imagine. It will be Moore’s Law on crack.

If you think I’m crazy, you may be interested to know this: Several tech companies have already developed and are testing AI/robotics actor/models – beauty-pageant-level avatars that compete for cash prizes and then get contracts with businesses as “ambassadors” of their brands.

I know. This is straight out of the 1985 movie Weird Science, where two teen nerds create a virtual woman on a computer and a freak electrical accident brings her to life. The possibility of that actually happening may have seemed like a ludicrous invention of fiction when the movie came out… but here we are nearly 40 years later.

And don’t kid yourself about avatars being rejected by consumers because they aren’t really real. I’ve seen at least a dozen studies conducted in the last 12 to 24 months that show that even when consumers can ascertain the difference between an avatar and a human actor/model, they don’t care!

I sometimes fear that K saves her most important worries, dreams, and confessions – the ones I’ve always felt privileged to be included in – with Siri and Alexa!

Okay, I’m kidding about that. But I’m not kidding when I say that I believe that by 2030 the world we live in today will have been transformed so radically that young people will look back at 2024 as we look back at the pre-industrialized world of the 17th and 18th centuries.

It’s Not Us… It’s Russia! 

First, they sabotaged Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign…

Then, after we threatened to do it, they sabotaged their primary source of revenue by blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline…

Then, after we added trillions to US debt by all the COVID relief spending and inflation kicked in… well, it turns out it wasn’t the Fed. They caused it!

And then, thanks to 51 top intelligence officials, we found out that Hunter Biden’s laptop was not real but “textbook” propaganda from them!

It’s amazing how vigilant and successful those Russian propagandists are. It’s even more amazing how they’ve seemed to be behind every setback, embarrassment, and failure of the Democrats since 2016!

And they are still at it.

You know those videos circulating on social media showing President Biden falling up and down stairs, off bicycles, off podiums, losing complete track of what he was saying in the middle of speeches, and now suddenly freezing in his tracks with his arms extended, looking like an automaton?

Well, according to MSNBC, those are not real. They are deep fakes courtesy of the Russians!

Read more about it here.

Bad News: More Voting Fraud 

Two political leaders in Connecticut were arrested and charged with election fraud last week. City Councilman Alfredo Castillo, Vice Chair of Bridgeport’s Democrat Party, and Wanda Geter-Pataky, head of the city’s Democratic Town Committee, have allegedly been charged with election fraud in connection with absentee ballots for the 2019 mayoral primary. Campaign workers Nilsa Heredia and Josephine Edmonds were also charged with election fraud and unlawfully possessing another person’s absentee ballot. Click here and here.

Good News: Victory for Free Speech: Stanford Shuts Down Censorship Operation 

The Stanford Internet Observatory, which led mass censorship efforts for the US government, has dismissed its leaders, Renée DiResta and Alex Stamos. Click here.

Question to My Boston-Based Readers: 
How Do You Feel About Your New Mayor? 

Boston’s 39-year-old Mayor, Michelle Wu, has stated publicly that one of her top priorities when she takes office is to make many crimes off-limits to prosecution. I doubt she will succeed in making everything on her list into crimes that won’t be prosecuted, but the list is pretty ambitious:

* Trespassing

* Shoplifting (including offenses that are essentially shoplifting but charged as larceny)

* Larceny under $250

* Disorderly conduct

* Disturbing the peace

* Receiving stolen property

* Minor driving offenses, including operating with a suspended or revoked license

* Breaking and entering – where it is into a vacant property or where it is for the purpose of sleeping or seeking refuge from the cold and there is no actual damage to property

* Wanton or malicious destruction of property

* Threats – excluding domestic violence

* Minor in possession of alcohol

* Drug possession

* Drug possession with intent to distribute

* A standalone resisting arrest charge – i.e., cases where a person is charged with resisting arrest and that is the only charge

* A resisting arrest charge combined with a charge that falls under the list of charges to decline to prosecute – e.g., resisting arrest charge combined only with a trespassing charge

Another Artwork Vandalized… This Time with a French Accent 

Vandalizing priceless artworks has been a several-years-long form of protest for climate activists. After molesting the masterpiece with paint or tomato soup, they glue themselves to the frame or to the wall beside it. Most of the time, they say nothing, revealing their message through the T-shirts they wear.

For the first several months of these stunts, museums in most European cities, including Paris, made no arrests, afraid that doing so might jeopardize their standing as Woke cultural institutions. But after about two dozen world treasures were damaged in this way, museum officials allowed law and order to resume.

As a museum lover and an art appreciator, I’ve always despised this form of protest. I imagined the protestors to be brain-dead, and most of them probably were. But in this particular case, the young woman takes a different approach, explaining what she is doing (in French).

It might be the cleverness of her particular abuse or it might be her accent, but I’m finding it difficult to think of her as brain-dead. Rather, I think she’s sort of cute.

Click here.

Overt and Outrageous Voter Fraud 

Add this to the examples I included in last week’s issue on voter fraud and election interference: 300,000 more votes than voters in Georgia!

If these numbers are wrong, please send me a link to show me data that proves it. If they are right, how is it possible that this isn’t front-page news?

If Necessary, Use Deadly Force? 

When JM, my ex-Navy Seal trainer told me about it, I thought it couldn’t possibly be true.

Trying to defeat your political opponent through “lawfare” is tacky enough for a first-world, wannabe democracy. (See what I said about this tactic in the May 17  issue.) But allowing (encouraging) deadly force against your political foe?

It turns out, it is mostly true.

The FBI, the Justice Department, and the Biden administration are all claiming that Attorney General Merrick Garland’s approval of the use of deadly force for the Aug. 8, 2022, raid on Mar-a-Lago was “standard operating procedure.” And if you google it, you’ll find plenty of stories from the mainstream media that supported that contention. They don’t discuss the fact that no such use of deadly force was used to seize Biden’s illegal possession of classified documents. Nor do they discuss how the FBI has acknowledged that some of the documents at Mar-a-Lago were put there by the FBI and that, after collecting them, they tampered with them before turning them over to Congress, after claiming they didn’t.

Now, as more details of the raid are becoming public, it’s looking more like this kind of authorization is “ordinary” only when they raid armed drug dealers, but it’s never been used for the seizing of documents of a public official, let alone a former president and a candidate for the next presidency.

You can see the range of reporting on this here, here, here, here and here.

Taking the Long View on Presidential Immunity 

A rare, un-politicized essay on a key question in several of Donald Trump’s many legal charges against him: Does a US president have immunity from criminal prosecution for any official acts taken while in office?

Read it here and tell me what you think.

From What River to What Sea?

In my May 9 Special Issue on “Antisemitism vs. Free Speech,” I included this short video of two anti-Israel protesters who weren’t quite sure what exactly they were protesting.

Just this morning, NF sent me another one that is even more hilarious (or disturbing).