And over in the west coast’s People's Paradise ...

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Goodbye Pacific Palisades, Hello Full Communism

Building back "in a more equitable and environmentally sustainable way," — and there’ll be a People’s Commissar to ensure that it is.

Embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass made her big play this week to rebuild Pacific Palisades in her own image. Needless to say, it won't be pretty.

During what the Los Angeles Times called "a freewheeling half-hour walking tour in Pacific Palisades," with reporters and "chief recovery officer" and former LAPD commissioner Steve Soboroff, Bass announced that the city plans to hire "an outside consultant to handle a significant rebuilding contract for areas devastated by this month’s Palisades fire," as the Times put it. 

“They’re going to represent you and make sure that everybody does exactly what they say they’re going to do,” Soboroff told reporters. 

Pacific Palisades residents were not so much as consulted on the decision. "Locals have had virtually no input into any of the decisions currently being made by city and state officials," Breitbart's Joel Pollack reported on Tuesday. "Most were only able to access their property for the first time on Monday, after direct intervention by President Donald Trump."

Soboroff later clarified to Pollack that "the ‘consultant’ will be an ‘owner’s rep’ to oversee the work of the various agencies involved, much like a construction manager on a building project," and that there "would be a competitive bidding process for the role.”

In other words: this is going to take some time. Rather than a relatively simple process of homeowners filing their insurance claims and rebuilding once the money and the permits come through, big-name consultants will spend big money on big-name contractors to give the Palisades a big government makeover.

Indeed, that's exactly the case.

With homeowners locked out of the process and without any oversight, Bass will pursue her dream of rebuilding the Palisades "in a more equitable and environmentally sustainable way," as she put it. I'm picturing government-spec apartment buildings and other multifamily dwellings on burned-out lots where single-family homes used to stand. Those 15-minute cities don't build themselves, you know — mostly because, given the choice, people reject them.

Victoria Taft has also weighed in, as has Elon:

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass Just Confirmed the Fears of Palisades Fire Victims

Taft:

From the first spark on January 7, until the rains came, Los Angeles residents wondered if losing their homes would be the worst thing to happen to them. Maui's disastrous fire response wasn't far from their thoughts. Suspicions grew. Now, with an announcement from city hall, their worst fears are being realized. Now, their safe old neighborhood is probably going to be turned into an urban planner's "moonshot." 

I hope Angelenos have learned the hard lessons of Minneapolis, Portland, and Seattle. When you hire people for office and they haven't done the first thing to make you, the citizen, safer, they don't know what they're doing. It demonstrates that their priorities don't match the job. And when the worst comes — riots, police conflict, floods, disasters, and fires — these leaders lack the intellectual reservoir from which to draw their responses and solutions. When that happens, citizens, you're screwed.

After being confronted with the wave of competence from those who lost their homes in Pacific Palisades at that meeting with President Trump last Friday, Bass ignored it and, like the communist autocrat she is, announced she'd put a developer … in charge of planning the rebuilding of the Palisades from the ground up.

… The man chosen by Bass …. to oversee the rebuilding of Palisades is Steve Soboroff. The mayor says he'll act as the city's representative and the "owners' rep" for air and water quality and damage assessments and be the liaison with the feds. He's both. 

Over the years, leftists have replaced "the people" with "stakeholders" so that government or friends of government always have an outsized influence in decisions. So, Bass chose to name a guy no one was asking for, without any buy-in from the people on whose behalf he presumes to act. Homeowners are going to be surprised to learn that they aren't stakeholders. 

…. Already, urban planners from around the country have begun salivating to remake the Palisades neighborhood into something out of Europe. Reuters calls the remaking of the Palisade an urban planning "moonshot." 

The news site imagines "apartment buildings could spring up where strip malls and parking lots once stood, with locals walking to ground-floor shops, offices and cafes, European-style." The city could, "'infill' vertically to add affordable housing in safer downtown areas, rather than outwards with more single-family homes on fire-prone hills," the news site enthuses. 

One planner at Pomona College imagines that "burned-out lots could be turned into what he envisions as fire buffer zones. While disruptive to residents, Miller believes many would be willing to use the money to relocate." 

We're living in such a strange world these days that I'm not dismissing this possibility out of hand

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That’s the headline I wrote for a draft of this post yesterday afternoon, because, although I’d been following the story as it unfolded, and even though the paper publishing it, The Maine Wire, has done some excellent reporting in the past — uncovering and publishing a year-long series of articles about the huge marijuana grow industry in Maine being conducted by Chinese employing illegal Chinese aliens, for instance, and local corruption in various police departments in the state, I still was skeptical.

The Wire’s report in based on an investigation on Andy Ngo’s reporting, and he’s been fairly out there — but almost always right. However, like the marijuana scandal, this one is finally being reported in the mainstream media (well, the NYPost, but that’s close enough – they did break the Hunter Biden notebook story, when the rest of the media covered it up), so I’m beginning to think it’s all true. How bizarre.

New Details on Vermont Border Patrol Murder Suggests Suspects Were Members of “Trans Militia”

The two suspects accused in the fatal shooting of Vermont Border Patrol Agent David Maland, 44, have been identified as transgender extremists affiliated with the so-called “Ziz group,” according to a report from independent journalist Andy Ngo.

[RELATED: Vermont Border Patrol Murdered During Traffic Stop…]

On Inauguration Day, two suspects, since identified as the trans-identifying Felix “Ophelia” Baukholt, a German national in the U.S. on an H1B work visa, and Teresa “Milo” Consuelo Youngblut, 21, of Seattle, allegedly incited a firefight with Maland.

The shootout left Maland and Baukholt dead, and Youngblut injured and facing charges for allegedly firing at Maland.

“Both in the duo are leftist trans militants. One of the deceased armed militants is a German believed to be in the country on an H-1B visa. The duo is allegedly connected to a trans terror cell,” said Ngo on X.

Much more at the Post. None of this is really earthshaking, but it does make for interesting reading; there are sone very strange people wandering around the country.

Sale in Nosebleed territory

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1068 Lake Avenue, listed in October at $7.495 million, has sold for $6.550. That’s an improvement from the 2014 sale at $3.750, and even higher than the price achieved in 2000, when, two years after being built and trying for $5.9 million, it sold for $4.8.

My opinion of this place has always been that it’s an odd house with an odd layout, in an inconvenient location, but at least three different buyers have disagreed with that assessment over the past quarter-century, so there you have it.

The buyers are from Bear, DE, a modest town with, apparently, much to be modest about, at least according to Zillow:

Originally a small crossroads in a rural area, approximately 14 miles south of Wilmington, the area supported small farms growing mainly corn and cattle. In the late 1980s and 1990s Bear became a popular location for the construction of sprawling housing developments and shopping centers along U.S. Route 40. Much of Bear runs along the highway, and extends to approximately Delaware Route 896.

Phew! He won't have to find work in the blueberry fields after all — though the farmers could use the help

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Michigan State U. Dismisses Plagiarism Allegations Against Dean of College of Education

In October of last year, the Washington Free Beacon reported on Jerlando Jackson, the Dean of the College of Education at Michigan State, alleging that he had committed plagiarism in a number of academic papers over the course of many years.

From that report:

The complaint includes nearly 40 examples of plagiarism that span nine of Jackson’s papers, including his Ph.D. thesis, and range from single sentences to full pages. It adds to the allegations of research misconduct already facing the embattled dean, who was a coauthor on several papers implicated in complaints against diversity officials earlier this year, including Harvard University’s chief diversity officer, Sherri Ann Charleston.

“Jackson has failed all ordinary standards of academic honesty,” said Peter Wood, the head of the National Association of Scholars and a former provost at Boston University, where he helped lead plagiarism investigations of faculty and alumni. “As long as he remains as a dean, the university has no legitimate basis to hold students and faculty to basic standards of intellectual integrity.”

Now, months later, the school claims it has cleared Jackson of any wrongdoing, and is wrapping the story in a defense of DEI policies.

A letter sent to university leaders this month — and signed by President Kevin Guskiewicz and Provost Thomas Jeitschko — said a “preliminary assessment” was conducted by the university’s research integrity officer after it received a plagiarism complaint against Jackson.

Following that assessment, “it was determined that there was not sufficient credible evidence to support further review of the Allegation,” said the letter, which was shared with The State News by an MSU spokesperson.

“The (research integrity officer’s) thorough review encompassed relevant documents, records, and materials referred to in the Allegation and confirmed that Dean Jackson’s work meets our institution’s highest standards of academic integrity. In alignment with the university’s exoneration policy, we recognize the importance of restoring the reputation of individuals involved in unsubstantiated misconduct allegations. Michigan State University will continue to actively support Dean Jackson and his distinguished career in education.”

The dean’s accusers are not satisfied. I can’t say that I’m entirely comfortable basing a conclusion of plagiarism on an AI analysis, but it is what educators are employing to catch dishonest students, so sauce for the goose and all that, I suppose.

Quelle horreur!

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CNN Analyst on Deportations: Just You Republicans Wait Until Women Can't Get Their Blueberry Smoothies!

A “Democrat strategist” — snicker — attempts to defend open borders by asserting a … peculiar argument:

ARNOLD: Farm, picking strawberries. I mean, like, I can't wait --

STEPIEN: These building trades guys are being hurt by labor that shouldn't be here.

ARNOLD: I can't wait until American women can't get blueberries for their smoothies. I cannot wait until there is a full crackdown on all small businesses as if that's going to be the solution to the immigration problem. It is just going to put immigration related issues further into the darker corners. We're not going to see them. It's just going to become even harder to solve the problem. It doesn't make sense to punish individuals and people when there is a broken system.

Mary Katharine Ham is no more impressed than the rest of the not brain dead voter pool:

Essential Spending (UPDATED)

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Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today released the following statement on the Trump Administration's recent decision to freeze all federal grants:

“Congress approved these investments and they are not optional; they are the law. These grants help people in red states and blue states, support families, help parents raise kids, and lead to stronger communities.

“Donald Trump’s Administration is jeopardizing billions upon billions of community grants and financial support that help millions of people across the country. It will mean missed payrolls and rent payments and everything in between: chaos for everything from universities to non-profit charities.”

Schumer’s talking about all those federal grants dreamed up by individual congressmen and senators for the benefit of their campaign donors and future employers and slipped into 1,780-page continuing resolution spending packages read by no one and passed by huge majorities.

Spending like this, discovered by PJ Media’s Stephen Green testing out a new database search tool for federal spending:

I thought, "What is the most boring thing in the world and how much taxpayer money is Washington giving away on it this year?"

"Yarn," I immediately decided. "Yarn is the most boring thing in the world." To me, that is — knitters, please take no offense. I'm sure you'd find my collection of Polish LEGO-knockoff WWII warships boring as heck, too. 

As it turned out, Americans — unbeknownst to 99.99% of us, I'm sure — will spend $16,500,001 on three yarn-related projects this year. The bulk of it, an even $15 million, went to something called The Industrial Commons on NSF engines.

UPDATE: Turns out, we’ve also been sending Schumer Simoleons to left-wing journalists opposing Hungary’s conservative government.

"There are some very fine people on both sides — I don't mean journalists, who are all morons, and horrible examples of human evolution."

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Erasing the Past: ‘Journalist’ at The New Yorker Can’t Remember the Last Five Years

From time to time, ‘journalists’ pop into your life to remind you how ignorant they are. Some days we lose count because it’s such a competition. Tuesday, Susan Glasser of The New Yorker was the big winner. Congrats, Susan! Woohoo! You did it! Glasser thought she was a making a point, but ended up only pointing out what a monumental hack she is.

Here’s the proof. (READ)