Just One Thing
The gov't of Sri Lanka collapsed over the weekend. And thousands of people ran through the usually impenetrable presidential palace and jumped into the swimming pool (see video below). The president will likely officially step down within a few days. It's true that the nation's budget -- already saddled with too much debt -- was hammered by COVID-related reductions in tourism. But a major factor in the country's collapse was the government mandate to all farmers to move to organic farming, i.e. not to use any chemical fertilizers. Once that happened, the nation's production of producer, especially rice, plummeted, and now people are hungry...or starving. It is the food equivalent of the Green New Deal. Everybody should have known better but just as with Mao and Pol Pot and V.I. Lenin, there is no sacrifice too large when it comes to pursuing a leftist ideology, at least as long as the ruling elite don't have to suffer along with the people.
Inside the presidential palace now full of Sri Lankans - BBC News
Today's Guests
Alicia Dennis is a senior editor at People Magazine. We'll discuss the new season of People Magazine Investigates, which covers well-known true-crime cases but brings additional details and information to light. One of the upcoming episodes is actually about a crime that took place in Colorado in 1984. (I think it's tonight's episode, actually.)
https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/show/people-magazine-investigates-investigation-discovery
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Andy McCarthy is a former federal prosecutor and current Fox News contributor and contributing editor at National Review as well as writing for other outlets. He's also the author of "Ball of Collusion," the single best book about Democratic efforts to persecute/prosecute former President Donald Trump regarding bogus claims of nefarious ties to Russia, claims which led to the wild goose chase known as the Mueller Investigation. We always end up in a wide-ranging conversation but for today I want to ask Andy about two main things: First, Friday's behind-closed-doors testimony to the January 6 Committee of former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone about which surprisingly little has been said or leaked. And second, the importance of a major Supreme Court ruling that came down while I was on vacation the week prior to Independence Day in a case called EPA v West Virginia. That was a BAD day for big government bureaucrats and for the Green New Deal although I wish the Court had gone further than it did.
Andrew C. McCarthy | National Review
What Are We Learning from the January 6 Proceedings? | City Journal (city-journal.org)
Jan. 6 committee member says witnesses do not 'corroborate other witnesses' (msn.com)
Cipollone provided ‘a lot of relevant information,’ Jan. 6 committee member Murphy says - POLITICO
West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency - SCOTUSblog
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Igancia Fulcher is a supervising editor at Wirecutter.com (now part of the NY Times). As we head into tomorrow's "Prime Day" (Amazon's major shopping sale during this time of the year), we'll talk about the current state of online retail and how other major retailers may try to compete with Amazon. Check out Wirecutter's site for articles pointing out some of the best deals they find on Prime Day and elsewhere.
Other Stuff
It has seemed for a while like Elon Musk didn't actually want to marry Twitter even though he made a very public proposal a few months back. Now the wedding is off. The legal questions remain though: Can a court require the deal to be consummated or, more likely, require Musk to pay the $1 billion breakup fee in the original agreement of intent? Or will Musk get away with saying there was enough material change to the information about the company that he is not required to pay that fee? Meanwhile, Twitter is, in a financial sense, very very screwed. The thing that bums me out the most about this news is that I was really really hoping to see Vijaya Gadde, the uber-woke in-house counsel at Twitter who is largely responsible for the company's disastrous and censorious turn, lose her job.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/twitter-lawyers-sue-elon-musk-broken-deal-report
As Musk moves to abandon deal, Twitter faces 'worst case scenario' (yahoo.com)
Twitter’s top lawyer reassures staff, cries during meeting about Musk takeover - POLITICO
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The "Uber Files" show a company that is, or at least under prior management was, willing to
An Artificial Intelligence-based computer smart enough to write a scientific paper about itself...it's a brave new world: Artificial Intelligence Bot Wrote Scientific Paper on Itself in 2 Hours (insider.com)
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Charlie Gasparino: Big-time corporate execs massively disappointed by Joe Biden: Biden's bombed with business, and there's panic in the C-suite (nypost.com)
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I bet you feel sooooo much better now: Average U.S. gasoline price falls 19 cents to $4.86 per gallon – The Denver Post
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I have no interest in the actual case but as a matter of law I find this quite interesting. (I may ask Andy McCarthy about it as well.) Might Amber Heard (who lost bigly when her ex-husband Johnny Depp sued her for defamation) be entitled to a new trial if one of the jurors was not the person who was supposed to be sitting on the jury? https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/heard-attorneys-say-juror-served-improperly-seek-mistrial/ar-AAZqAgW
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A story I meant to get to last week but it's still worth talking about: Can a person really be this stupid?
Last Supper targeted by climate protesters at Royal Academy - BBC News
U.K. climate protesters glued themselves to a 500-year-old painting : NPR
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USPS "Forever" stamps going up AGAIN: USPS increasing price of Mail Forever stamps - CBS Pittsburgh (cbsnews.com)
Today's Videos
First, from the "Just One Thing" above, a reasonably good report from CNN with great video from the presidential palace of Sri Lanka being overrun by the people of that interesting nation. Unlike the summer of 2020 protests in America, in Sri Lanka things were in fact "mostly peaceful." (Which is not the same as entirely peaceful.)
This is an amazing, heart-warming story, about a most adaptable dog, from right here in Colorado (Ouray, to be precise.)
Here's Dexter's Instagram page: Dexter Dog Ouray (@dexterdogouray) • Instagram photos and videos
As long as we're doing animal videos, here's one from the "What Did I Ever do to You?" files: