Nobody Likes Nikki
Plus: Norwegian smokes, German-French ghosts, American gender clinics, and more...
Nikki Haley's shadowboxing: Last night, the results of Nevada's Republican presidential primary were tallied up. Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who was running basically unopposed, received fewer votes than the option "none of these candidates." Yes, you read that right.
BREAKING: Associated Press calls the race for "None of these candidates." #NevadaPrimary pic.twitter.com/aW9triB11P
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) February 7, 2024
"The primary, which awards no delegates, had seemed like a foregone conclusion, as former President Donald J. Trump chose not to take part," reports The New York Times. "On Thursday, he will instead participate in party-run caucuses where all of the state's 26 delegates will be awarded, a choice by Nevada Republicans that complicated the process and rendered the primary basically irrelevant."
The dual-primary system in Nevada is confusing and frankly kind of stupid, so Haley's bad showing doesn't count for anything other than embarrassment, and the fact that so many people felt comfortable giving a protest vote doesn't count for much given the utter insignificance of the contest.
Nevada used to, in the past, hold caucuses, but did away with them circa 2021 in favor of a primary with both mail-in and in-person voting. This year, the Nevada Republican Party chose to host an in-person caucus, further adding to people's confusion and the extraordinary chaos that is this election season—one full of Trump skipping debates, Biden memory lapses, Gavin Newsom/Ron DeSantis debate-stage showdowns, oddly high Robert F. Kennedy Jr. polling (?), and "section guy" Vivek Ramaswamy constantly interrupting everyone else.
And it's only February. Someone could still die or go to prison!
Ronna McDaniel gets the boot: Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has told Donald Trump that she will resign following the South Carolina primary at the end of the month.
"Mr. Trump is then likely to promote the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, Michael Whatley, as her replacement, according to several people familiar with the discussions," reports The New York Times. "Under the arcana of the committee's rules, however, Mr. Trump cannot simply install someone. A new election must take place, and Mr. Whatley could face internal party dissent."
Though she was not technically fired, "McDaniel has faced months of pressure, a campaign from Trump-allied forces to unseat her and growing dissatisfaction and anxiety in the Trump camp about the strained finances of the R.N.C.," adds the Times. Whatley has consistently curried favor with Trump, endorsing his stolen-election theories.
Scenes from Tromsø: Hello, I am back and going rogue since I can't stand the busybody Europeans. No more SFNY this week, just pictures from my travels.
Several years ago, the Norwegian government forced tobacco manufacturers to comply with a new regulation that standardizes the look of all cigarette packs (as well as all loose and chewing tobacco). They also mandate that 30 percent of the front and 40 percent of the back of each pack must be covered with warning labels.
Of course, lots of countries do this. Plain packaging can be found in Australia, France, the U.K., Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Singapore, and Israel, to name just a few.
But can you imagine having to deal with the pain of living in Norway, land of conformity and high tax rates, while not being able to dull it via a pretty pack of American Spirits?
(For more on how Norway is a fake country populated entirely by gnomes and statists, check this out.)
QUICK HITS
- A note of housekeeping: Some of you have complained that I use many paywalled links. I implore you to either be less cheap or to use special internet magic to get around them. (And stop complaining, I need frequent love and validation!)
- Relevant/stupid:
Once again I find myself agreeing with Hamilton Nolan: The only way to save journalism, long term, is public funding. There's no secret as-yet-undiscovered business model that can get around that. https://t.co/v9MDYc5Ucq
— David Roberts (@drvolts) February 6, 2024
- Dartmouth will be the first Ivy League school to restore its standardized testing requirement. Now get ready for the rest of them to follow suit, and for you to be told five years from now that, actually, they never removed them, it was all a dream.
- "When the leader of the training brought up hormone treatments, I shakily tapped the unmute button on Zoom and asked why 70 to 80 percent of female adolescents diagnosed with gender dysphoria have prior mental health diagnoses," writes gender clinic whistleblower Tamara Pietzke for The Free Press. "She flashed a look of disgust as she warned me against spreading 'misinformation on trans kids.' Soon the chat box started blowing up with comments directed at me. One colleague stated it was not 'appropriate to bring politics into this' and another wrote that I was 'demonstrating a hostility toward trans folks which is [a] direct violation of the Hippocratic Oath,' and recommended I 'seek additional support and information so as not to harm trans clients.'"
- Chinese economy watch:
People in China are so mad at the CCP right now that they're going to random US Embassy posts to complain/ask the US for help.
This is a US Embassy post on Weibo about giraffe conservation efforts. The comments are all like "Help me, I've been unemployed for so long" pic.twitter.com/4MsbYELxEi
— Jeremiah Johnson ???? (@JeremiahDJohns) February 7, 2024
- Yale Law's activist group, Students for Justice in Palestine, is claiming an Israel Defense Forces soldier's visit to campus "makes many of us—especially Palestinian Arab, Muslim, Black, and brown students—feel physically and psychologically unsafe and unwelcome in our own school." More from Free Beacon writer/Just Asking Questions guest Aaron Sibarium.
- I went on Megyn Kelly's wonderful show (whilst terribly jet-lagged) along with Reason's Matt Welch to chat RFK Jr., Trump immunity, and Brooklyn mom mental derangement. Watch!
- Will Adam Neumann revive WeWork after all?
- Headlines you wish were satire: "This Bay Area school district spent $250,000 on Woke Kindergarten program. Test scores fell even further." (I wish this were merely a Los Feliz Daycare-esque account instead of ACTUAL REALITY.)
- This poor man must have somehow escaped from the nursing home—oh, wait, that's our president:
WATCH: Joe Biden says he recently met with "Mitterand from Germany."
Mitterand was the FRENCH President between 1981 and 1995.
He also died in 1996. pic.twitter.com/W0YPBDp69n
— Raheem. (@RaheemKassam) February 5, 2024
- Your morning chuckle:
Socialism isn't about inducing bland mediocrity. It's about unleashing the creative potential of all.https://t.co/yB1eQ7l8w2
— Jacobin (@jacobin) February 6, 2024
