It seems that The Post is in a race with the Los Angeles Times and CNN (which lost $400 million last year) to see which news outlet can go bankrupt first.
And for a silver lining to this story, our CTUP ace reporters have discovered that most of the lost Washington Post readers are now subscribers to the HOTLINE!
For some strange reason, some Republicans and conservatives have suddenly fallen in love with trial lawyers - despite that they have always given almost all of their money to Democrats.
A case in point is the bipartisan push to bombard the internet content platforms with lawsuits. Conservatives are upset with the leftward bias of Google and Facebook, but the only result of these lawsuits will be to make trial lawyers rich. The trial bar sees America’s tech giants (owned by tens of millions of American shareholders) as the next tobacco jackpot.
This reverses what we've said often was one of the smartest legislative achievements of modern times - the bipartisan decision in the 1990s, backed by then Rep. Chris Cox and other stalwart conservatives to keep the Internet tax-free, regulation-free, and lawsuit-free.
Now many Republicans and conservatives want to repeal Section 230 lawsuit protections. It’s a trap, of course, because it will be conservative “hate speech” that courts find harmful, not liberal propaganda and lies.
Jessica Melugin of the Competitive Enterprise Institute made this point beautifully in a WSJ letter to the editor:
The only remedy Reps. McMorris Rodgers and Pallone Jr. offer for online harms is to turn the plaintiffs’ bar loose on tech companies, a curious solution for Republicans who historically favor tort reform. Eradicating or curtailing Section 230 will ensure that only those companies already big and rich enough to pay legal-defense bills will survive.
The First Amendment already ensures that social-media companies don’t have to carry any content they don’t wish, but Section 230 makes it fiscally safe to carry content they might not otherwise. Changing that should worry those concerned about the removal of online conservative speech, as those sentiments might be the first to go under the justification of increased legal risk.
3) The Climate Change Industrial Complex Is Real and Growing
We’ve warned many times that the global warming hysteria has become a multi-billion money-raising racket. The "green" is about dollars, not protecting the environment.
Now, Robert Bryce (our favorite climate change industry watchdog), has calculated the dollars flowing into just one element of the complex - nonprofit NGOs and foundations. He reports that what he calls the “Anti-Industry Industry,” which includes “the top 25 climate nonprofits are spending some $4.5 billion per year.”
Show Me the Money!
Just to put these numbers in perspective, the largest conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, has an annual budget of around $100 million. These groups spend 50 TIMES that much.
4) Bob Menendez’s Latest Ploy Puts Senate Democrats’ Majority in Danger
New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez - the Democrat who was caught red-handed with gold bar “gifts” in his basement - has come up with a wily way to avoid a corruption conviction and a prison sentence.
He has begun circulating a petition to run for reelection as an independent.
He is hoping to show enough support to split the Democratic vote and put the seat in play for Republicans. He’s using this threatened run in order to bargain for a sweetheart deal and slap on the wrist as a condition for withdrawing from the race.
Recall that Dems have only a one-seat majority in the senate and every seat is needed to retain that majority in 2025.
Recall also that during Menendez's first trial, zero Democrats called for him to resign -- because Republican Governor Chris Christie would name his replacement.
We’ll keep you informed on how Dems deal with their Menendez migraine headache.
5) Video of the Day: Even CBS Calls Out Mayor Pete on Government Charging Stations
MARGARET BRENNAN: The Federal Highway Administration says only seven or eight charging stations have been produced with the $7.5 billion investment that taxpayers made back in 2021. Why isn't that happening more quickly?
SECRETARY BUTTIGIEG: So the President's goal is to have half a million chargers up by the end of this decade. Now, in order to do a charger, it's more than just plunking a- a small device into the ground, there's utility work, and this is also, really, a new category of federal investment. But we've been working with each of the 50 states, every one of them is getting formula dollars to do this work--
MARGARET BRENNAN: Seven or eight, though?
SECRETARY BUTTIGIEG: --Engaging them and the first handful- again, by 2030, 500,000 chargers. And the very first handful of chargers are now already being physically built. But again, that's the absolute very, very beginning stages of the construction to come.
If you watch the video you will see that Brennan is contemptuous of Pete's non-answer answer.
