Fun Read on (about) the NYT

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(The times still refuses to return the pulitzer prize it was awarded for walter duranty’s coverup of stalin and the ukrainian holodomor)

Bad News, Guys: The New York Times Says We Lost the War — and Iran Is Now a ‘Major World Power’

Scott Pinsker does a fine job dissecting and discarding the Time’s “expert” from the University of Chicago, but first he discusses some of the paper’s earlier attempts at reporting news.

Running in the April 7 edition of The New York Times: “The Iran War Is Turning Iran Into a Major World Power.” The author, Professor Robert Pape of the University of Chicago, offers the following thesis:

  1. Iran will keep control of the Strait of Hormuz for “months or years,” and there’s nothing militarily we can do about it. (Sorry, guys.)

  2. The U.S. and Europe are now in decline — and the axis of China, Russia, and Iran is ascending.

  3. Iran will emerge as a “new major world power” and the “fourth center of global power” (the other three: America, China, Russia). 

But before we pulverize Professor Pape’s preposterously pessimistic proposal, here’s an earlier example of The New York Times’ piercing wisdom, courtesy of author Hans Mahncke:

The New York Times did not dismiss the possibility of powered flight at random. There was a very specific reason behind it. At the time, America’s most prominent scientific authority, Smithsonian Secretary Samuel Langley, had been showered with large amounts of taxpayer funding to build an aircraft, the Langley Aerodrome. Despite all the money, institutional backing, and elite prestige, Langley and his team could not get it to fly, culminating in a series of very public failures, the last on December 8, 1903.

So when the New York Times declared that flight was millions of years away, what it was really saying was that if the most credentialed and well-funded “experts” cannot do it, then it cannot be done.

A mere nine days later, the elites’ proclamation of impossibility lay in ruins. Two totally unknown bicycle mechanics from Ohio achieved the first powered flight using improvised parts, a few hundred dollars of their own money, and sheer persistence.

In fact, in honor of Artemis, there’s also this doozy from Jan. 13, 1920, when The New York Times insisted that rockets cannot function in space:

That professor [Robert] Goddard, with his ‘chair’ in Clark College and the countenancing of the Smithsonian Institution [from which Goddard held a grant to research rocket flight], does not know the relation of action to reaction, and of the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react — to say that would be absurd. Of course he only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools. [emphasis added]

It was only AFTER Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins left the surly bonds of earth — on a rocket, by the way — that the Times offered a correction:

Further investigation and experimentation have confirmed the findings of Isaac Newton in the 17th century, and it is now definitely established that a rocket can function in a vacuum as well as in an atmosphere.

[…]

The Times regrets the error.

Want more?

How about the Times’ 1922 insistence that Adolf Hitler’s antisemitism was overhyped:

But several reliable, well-informed sources confirmed the idea that Hitler’s anti-Semitism was not so genuine or violent as it sounded, and he was merely using anti-Semitic propaganda as a bait to catch messes of followers and keep them aroused, enthusiastic and in line for the time when his organization is perfected and sufficiently powerful to be employed effectively for political purposes. 

Or its 1939 prediction that television would lose to radio:

The problem with television is that the people must sit and keep their eyes glued on a screen; the average American family hasn’t time for it. Therefore, the showmen are convinced that for this reason, if for no other, television will never be a serious competitor of broadcasting.

Or its 1985 screed that computers had limited mainstream appeal because we’d rather read newspapers:

On the whole, people don’t want to lug a computer with them to the beach or on a train to while away hours they would rather spend reading the sports or business section of the newspaper… the real future of the laptop computer will remain in the specialized niche markets. Because no matter how inexpensive the machines become, and no matter how sophisticated their software, I still can’t imagine the average user taking one along when going fishing.

Pinsker:

The colorful moral of our story: Most of the Gray Lady’s white lies come from brown-nosing silver-spoon liberal elites. 

So keep that in mind as we ply apart Professor Pape’s pointless paper:

(His takedown of Pape can be found at the link)

Market cool-down?

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I’ve previously written about 56 Winthrop Drive in Riverside that was listed for $8.395 million last month and went pending in 5 days. Now, Brother Gideon sends along this update:

“a broker I know bid $9.2M for this place and later learned she was in 4th place.”

That such a low-ball bid could still rank as high as fourth in a contest for this property is sure evidence that prices are weakening, finally.

Nutmeg Pride

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dumber, dumb & Hopeless, llc

Connecticut’s own, 77-year-old House Dem facing younger primary challengers seeks to impeach Donald Trump

Larson charged Trump with 'murder, war crimes and piracy' over Venezuela military intervention and naval blockade

Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., is mounting a long-shot bid to impeach President Donald Trump as he stares down a primary threat from younger challengers, who seek to thwart his bid for a 15th House term. 

Larson, 77, introduced 13 articles of impeachment against Trump on Monday, citing the president’s military intervention in Venezuela, the deployment of National Guard troops to cities across the country and his executive order to curtail birthright citizenship, among other charges.

Larson also charged Trump with "murder, war crimes and piracy" for ordering a naval blockade around Venezuela targeting U.S.-sanctioned oil tankers ahead of the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January and for launching dozens of strikes against alleged drug trafficking vessels in the Eastern Pacific and the Caribbean.

Larson’s impeachment push comes as the septuagenarian congressman faces a heated primary challenge from several younger candidates running on a mantle of generational change.

Certainly, this ridiculous media stunt is intended to show the Democrat Socialist crowd that, “ by golly, I can be as tough on Trump as any of the whippersnappers coming after my seat”, but there may be another explanation for this pathetic old man’s delusion that he can go as far left as the new Democrat base:

Larson, a senior member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, notably suffered a complex partial seizure while delivering a speech on the House floor in February 2025.

His own stroke appears to have vastly improved Pennsylvania’s senator John Fetterman’s thinking skills, but Larson’s been a political hack for most of his life, and the neural damage has been sustained and, by now, irreversible.

Like bombing Iran's power plants, I hope this threat is acted on

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Mullin Drops a Bombshell on Sanctuary Cities

“Considering” pulling Customs and Border Protection officers out of international airports in sanctuary cities. 

In fact, I don’t know why it wasn’t done immediately after the Democrats defunded the DHS.

“…. [Without CBP, there can be no customs clearance. Without customs clearance, you can’t accept international arrivals.”

That would include the airports of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, Denver, Philadelphia, Newark, and New Orleans.

Maine's front-running U.S. Senatorial candidate has ... thoughts, using that term loosely

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Photo credit: Twitchy, but it’s perfect

Weird Senate Hopeful Graham Platner Gives a Weird Easter Message

By now, you must have heard of the far-left and Nazi tattooed candidate for the U. S. Senate in Maine, Graham Platner. This Panzer wreck of a person also trained antifa paramilitary goons. With such impressive leftist credentials, no one should be surprised by his tone deaf holiday wish for Easter.

There is a long tradition of Democratic politicians twisting the meaning of holidays to fit their agendas. Christmas is always the time for Democrats to make it about homelessness and illegal immigration or even worse, pro-Palestinian propaganda.  And who could forget Kamala Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff whiffing the story of Hanukkah that even a pre-AI Yahoo search engine could have found for him?

Enter Graham Platner with his bold entry into the annals of vapid non-religious hijacking of religious holidays.

How, in the broadest interpretation, does the Christian celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, demonstrate that 'the past does not bind us to the future'? That's some serious 'unburdened by what has been' word salad. Did Jesus 'decide to rise' and was it only because everyone decided to 'rise together'? Even the egg-laying Easter Bunny makes more sense than that statement.

Of course, it doesn’t matter to Maine’s Behind-the-Tofu-Line voters what Platner says, they’ll vote for him regardless of what he says or does; in fact, he could shorten his entire message to “I’m Not Trump!” and he’d get all the votes he needs to move to Washington.

Still his handlers were wise to exclude from this “Easter message” any mention of God, redemption, or the Resurrection; Platner’s base despises religion (“Well, okay, the Muzzies are alright, because they hate America too, but otherwise …”) so their candidate scores points with this omission, not loses any.

We can all make memes now, thanks to chatGPD (No, the Greenwich Police Department teaming with an AI firm wasn’t on my bingo card either, but I’m happy it has)

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Hollywood can't fail fast enough

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Animal Farm Gets Ideological Rewrite as New Film Blames Capitalism Instead of Communism

A new animated adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm is drawing fierce backlash after it was revealed the film shifts the story’s core message away from communism and toward a critique of capitalism. The controversy has ignited a broader debate over Hollywood’s growing habit of rewriting classic literature to fit modern ideological preferences rather than honoring original intent.

The film, directed by Andy Serkis, takes Orwell’s famously bleak political allegory and reshapes it into a family-friendly animated feature complete with slapstick humor, futuristic elements, and — most controversially — a hopeful ending. For many readers and longtime fans of the novel, that change represents more than creative license. It represents a fundamental misunderstanding of what Animal Farm was written to warn against in the first place.

Orwell’s Original Message Was Never Subtle

First published in 1945, Animal Farm was Orwell’s scathing allegory of the Russian Revolution and the rise of Soviet totalitarianism. The animals overthrow their human owner in the name of equality, only to watch the pigs become even more oppressive than the humans they replaced.

The story was not ambiguous. Orwell was critiquing how revolutionary movements rooted in collectivist ideology inevitably collapse into corruption, propaganda, and authoritarian control. The pigs were not misunderstood heroes. They were the point.

That clarity is precisely what critics argue has been lost in this new adaptation.

Turning Capitalism Into the Villain

Rather than focusing on the pigs’ abuse of power, the new film reframes the central conflict around capitalism itself. The animals are now depicted fighting to save their farm from corporate exploitation, represented by a new human antagonist named Freda.

Freda is portrayed as a greedy businesswoman attempting to seize control of the farm for profit. The character is voiced by Glenn Close and is explicitly positioned as the story’s true villain, replacing the original novel’s focus on internal tyranny.

This shift has not gone unnoticed. Viewers reacting to the trailer online have pointed out that the story now appears to suggest communism “works” — at least until capitalism interferes. For many, that reversal turns Orwell’s warning on its head.

A “Happy Ending” That Undercuts the Warning

Adding to the controversy is the film’s optimistic conclusion. In Orwell’s novel, the animals ultimately fail. The pigs become indistinguishable from the humans, and the revolution is revealed as a tragic cycle of power and betrayal.

In contrast, the new adaptation ends with the animals overthrowing the pigs and planning a brighter future together.

On the other hand, Stephen Green says that my hope’s already been realized:

Who Killed Hollywood? Or Did it Kill Itself?

"The Hollywood industry is dying," comedian David Spade told Fly on the Wall cohost Dana Carvey last week, specifically calling out California Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass.

California and L.A. stopped competing for big-ticket productions, which is why studios decamped to Georgia, the U.K., and, yes, even Romania. But there's more to the story than just California's business-hostile environment driving filming out of state.

Whether filmed in Los Angeles or Timbuktu, Americans increasingly won't buy what Hollywood sells.

Netflix largely produces "second screen" content that people kinda-sorta watch while scrolling on their phones, and will pay for on an all-you-can-eat basis. But streamers produce very little that would otherwise draw people into theaters. What struck me most about Project Hail Mary — which hit the big screen on Friday to great reviews and awesome ticket sales — is how rare that kind of good-natured hit film is.

I hope Project Hail Mary goes on to earn a gazillion dollars, and maybe even remind Hollywood that you don't need capes, a sequel, or a reboot to produce a winner. Just a really good story that almost anyone can enjoy will do. We still love going to the movies, but Hollywood only sometimes remembers anymore how to get us to go.

Alas, the summer slate is filled — you guessed it — capes, sequels, and reboots. And, of course, more second-screen algorithm-pleasing slop from the Netflix content firehose. 

The view from Flyover Country is that Hollywood committed suicide, and that Newsom and Bass just added a few shovels of dirt on top of the coffin.

I was last in a movie theater two years ago, when I took two friends to see a special, limited-run re-release of Blazing Saddles on its 50th anniversary. Two of us had seen it several times over the years, the younger friend never had; all three of us agreed afterward that it could never be made today (Mel Brooks said the same thing years ago) and that’s sad.

However, and based on the recommendation of CT Tempest, Mikki and other readers, I’m going off today to see “Project Hail Mary”. Hollywood won’t care whether or not it fills a seat with my aging butt — I’m not the demographic — but maybe it should have, before it went woke.

Because "the enemy of my enemy is my friend"

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You could ask Chris Murphy the same question, and you’d get the same answer.