EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY:

BREAKING: 43% of small businesses were unable to pay their rent in full in April due to economic headwinds.

That’s the highest rent delinquency rate since March 2021, per Bloomberg.

— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) April 29, 2024

More:

Independent restaurants are having the most trouble, with 52% not paying April rent on time. On the other hand, just 20% of small manufacturers are delinquent.

More than half of small-business owners say that their rents are higher now than they were six months ago. Of those, 11% are paying at least 20% more than they did last fall.

Alignable found that fewer than a third of businesses founded prior to March 2020 are earning as much or more each month than they did before the pandemic. And among firms founded after the pandemic, 60% are making less than they did a year ago.

Bidenomics is working.

MY LATEST SUBSTACK ESSAY: Notes on the Asylum Where I Was Raised: In Which I Visit the Harvard Protests, Among Other Things.

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THE ENEMY WITHIN: K-12 ‘Action Civics’ Trained Students Encamped on College Campuses. Here’s What Parents Need to Know.

LIMITED TIME DEAL: 10Ft Extension Cord with Multiple Outlets, Flat Plug Power Strip Surge Protector. #CommissionEarned

I’D SETTLE FOR JUST ONCE — AND SOON: Outlaw Joe Biden Wants Us to Believe That He Has Been Arrested At Least Twice.

OF COURSE: Biden Civil Rights Chief To Speak at Columbia Law Commencement Amid Anti-Semitism Scandal.

CORN, POPPED: A Massive Scandal Is Brewing in Los Angeles After DA George Gascon’s Number 3 Is Charged With 11 Felonies.

Unlike many alleged felons in Los Angeles County, the Diana Teran scandal has the potential to topple the county’s power structure, or to put a severe dent in it.

That potential exists because of the sheer volume of personnel and criminal cases Teran was involved with that might now be challenged in court, and because her actions at issue in the criminal case allegedly involve coordination with high-ranking county officials, such as Inspector General Max Huntsman, District Attorney George Gascón, and current and former members of the county Board of Supervisors.

According to a press release from California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Teran “accessed computer data including numerous confidential peace officer files in 2018, while working as a Constitutional Policing Advisor at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and, after joining the LADA in January 2021, impermissibly used that data at the LADA.”

That sounds rather vanilla, but additional details on what Teran is alleged to have done demonstrate that there’s nothing vanilla about it at all. It’s more convoluted than any script Hollywood could come up with.

Read the whole thing.

BLUE ON BLUE: ‘Blood Libel’: ADL Rips Ilhan Omar for Calling Jewish Students ‘Pro-Genocide.’ Of course, ADL has stood idly by — or cheered — while so many other people have been similarly smeared by lefty politicians. It’s not like they’re against all defamation.

DO THE LETTERS “F O” MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU? Shocking moment pro-Palestine protester tells counter-demonstrator ‘You’re just a white person, we don’t like white people’ at UCLA.

Oh, we know.

THEY’RE COSPLAYING A REVOLUTION:

Moral authority only inheres to those actually willing to risk their future for deeply held beliefs. Only pretending to risk mocks those who did.

This is a form of stolen valor.https://t.co/poNHP7Pir5

— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) April 28, 2024

HAHA: “Mastectomies for cancer patients but not for trans women? Don’t they mean mastectomies for cancer patients but not for trans men?! The Washington Post is having trouble keeping up, just like the people it looks down on.”

FROM THE BIRTHPLACE OF ENGLISH LIBERTY: Iranian Arrested in UK for Calling Hamas ‘Terrorist’ Praises Israel, Jews.

JESSE SINGAL: So Columbia Really Screwed This Up, Huh? Plus some other thoughts on the protests, including the anti-Semitism debate.

WHAT ABOUT? The problem of evil. How can evil — like, just to cite one obvious example, the October 7 Massacre of 1,200 Israelis — happen if an all-powerful, all-good God exists? Cold-case detective J. Warner Wallace takes on that challenge this morning on HillFaith.

WHY DID THEY HAVE TO CALL IT “OPERATION MINCEMEAT”?:  On this day in 1943, a British submarine surfaced off the coast of Spain.  As the captain read the 39^th Psalm, the body of a Welsh homeless man, dressed up to appear to be a military courier, was gently cast adrift.

It was all part of an audacious plan.  Attached to the body was a briefcase containing documents—false ones—that suggested that the Allies would soon be invading Greece and Sardinia and that the upcoming attack on Sicily was merely a diversion.  In fact, the real Allied invasion was going to be Sicily.

The hope was that the body would wash ashore and that the Spanish authorities would assume that the man had been the victim of an air crash.  With luck, they would deliver the documents to German intelligence, and the Germans would be fooled into shifting reinforcements to Greece and Sardinia. Sicily would be left relatively undefended.

The British worked hard to make the whole thing seem believable.  The body was given the name Captain (Acting Major) William Martin.  He carried a wallet with a photograph of a fictitious girlfriend “Pam”.  Also in the wallet were two love letters from “Pam,” a receipt for the purchase of a diamond engagement ring, and a notice of overdraft from a bank.  The overdraft notice was a nice touch.

The scheme worked.  The Germans did indeed beef up their positions in Greece and Sardinia at the expense of Sicily.  The Allied attack on Sicily was no picnic, but in the absence of Operation Mincemeat, it would have been a lot worse.

And, of course, they made a movie out of it.  How could they not?  The 1956 thriller starred Clifton Webb and was given a wonderful title–The Man Who Never Was. (This had also been the title of the book written about the operation by Ewen Montagu, who had played a leading role in the scheme.)  I just love that title.

Here’s the part I can’t understand.  In 2021, Warner Bros. did a new movie about Operation Mincemeat, which they named … Operation Mincemeat.  What?  Shouldn’t they have come up with a better title?

A few years back, the BBC did a documentary about the operation, which is available on YouTube.  Some of the players are interviewed in it—including “Pam” (or rather the woman in the picture).  I recommend it.

OPEN THREAD: Because I love you and want you to be happy.

MY LATEST SUBSTACK ESSAY: Notes on the Asylum Where I Was Raised: In Which I Visit the Harvard Protests, Among Other Things.

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THE NEW SPACE RACE: Advisory committee recommends moving FAA commercial space office out of the agency.

PLUTO WILL ALWAYS BE MY PLANET NINE: ‘Strongest Statistical Evidence Yet’ For Planet Nine Has Been Found, Scientist Says.

#NeverForget

THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA still doesn’t understand root cause of Orion heat shield issue: “When we stitch it all together, we’ll either have flight rationale or we won’t.”

Well, that’s comforting.

SO YOU MEAN MILK DRINKERS PREFER ACTUAL MILK? More people prefer cow’s milk over plant-based milks, new Yahoo/YouGov poll finds. Here’s what nutritionists think about that.

MEANWHILE, IN GEORGIA:

Anti-Israel protesters tried to set up an encampment at the University of Georgia but it didn't last long after police arrested protesters who refused to leave for criminal trespassing.

Protesters can be seen screaming and resisting arrest while others shouted at the police. pic.twitter.com/NdC5Fqonc3

— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) April 29, 2024

Criminal trespass is still a criminal act in some places.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Georgia Governor Kemp Signs Law to Protect Financial Data of Gun Buyers.

“FAILURE MCFAILED STATE” SHOULD HAVE BEEN ONE OF THE INSCRIPTIONS: Gavin Newsom Asked the Internet to Submit Designs for a New Coin Honoring CA’s Innovations, and Hoo Boy…

ESCALATION: Columbia Squatters Ignore 2PM Deadline to Clear Camp.