May
9
2025

And There's a Local Angle, Granite Staters!

Dave Barry writes, hilariously, on Influencers at Sea.

This is just a short breaking Substack to bring you up to speed on the near-tragedy that we almost potentially had here in Miami over the weekend.

What happened, according to the Miami Herald, was that a yacht carrying 32 social-media influencers sank near Miami Beach. Unfortunately, they all survived.

No! Sorry! I of course mean fortunately they all survived. The yacht was in only nine feet of water, which is 12,491 feet shallower than the water where the Titanic sank. Also they were close to land, and the Coast Guard was nearby.

But still, it makes you think about the physical risks that our influencers take on our behalf in their selfless efforts to influence us by taking pictures of themselves making pouty faces in front of scenic views.

For some reason, Dave devotes a good deal of attention to …

The good news was, the influencers did not panic when near-tragedy struck; they remained calm and continued courageously taking selfies. The Herald states that "Former Miss America participant Regan Hartley was seen holding a $350 bottle of Clase Azul Gold Tequila as the yacht’s passengers were moved to safety."

That's right: If not for the bravery and quick thinking of Regan Hartley (Miss New Hampshire 2011; also, according to her website, "Singer/Songwriter, Actress, Model, Anti-bullying activist, and Inspirational Speaker") we might have lost the Clase Azul Gold.

Regan's Facebook page also claims she was "Miss America 2012", but the relevant Wikipedia page doesn't support that. She may have stuck that in under the influence of Clase Azul Gold.

(In case you're wondering if you can get Clase Azul Gold Tequila for less up here in NH: nope.)

Also of note:

  • Good for Noah Smith. He's a Democrat, Kamala voter, backed Biden's "industrial policy", but there's a line he will not cross.

    When you've lost Noah, choo-choo fans, it's time to pack it in.

  • Not even trying to make a good argument. James Freeman "hails" the Champions of the Donor Class.

    A few Republican members of the House are using bogus Democratic talking points to get tax breaks for rich liberals while discouraging blue states from enacting pro-growth reform. Now these rogue GOP lawmakers are even threatening to trigger nationwide tax hikes if they don’t get their way.

    Tobias Burns reports for The Hill on a group of five Republicans who are demanding that the state and local tax (SALT) deduction be raised above its current cap of $10,000:

    The lawmakers are saying they’re prepared to vote no as a group on the wide-ranging tax and spending cut package key to President Trump’s agenda if they don’t get the raise they want.
    The group consists of Reps. Andrew Garbarino (N.Y.), Nick LaLota (N.Y.), Mike Lawler (N.Y.), Young Kim (Calif.) and Tom Kean Jr. (N.J.) — Republicans from wealthier suburban districts of major U.S. metropolitan areas, where higher property taxes make the increased cap especially valuable to taxpayers.

    The federal SALT deduction is terrible policy because it takes the pressure off profligate state governments run by Democrats to restrain their own taxes. A proper cap would be set at zero, so that Americans nationwide would not have to subsidize the high-tax policies of New Jersey, New York and California. Without the ability to deduct heavy state and local taxes on federal returns, citizens of blue states would be fully accountable for their bad political choices and would be motivated to demand reform at the state level.

    Just a note if you missed it back in February: Tom Kean Jr. has the "distinction" of being the only GOP CongressCritter representing one of the top 15 richest districts in the US.

AIsplaining

Well, I thought I had come up with a clever new term. Turns out it's old, maybe already tired. From a year ago:

But I did find a pretty good example. Starting from this morning's Bleat from James Lileks, which dug out this old newspaper clipping:

Interesting, because I used to live in Nebraska, and zoomed back and forth on I-80 quite a bit.

James also provides a recent Google Street View of "Erma's Desire", one of the sculptures:

But I wanted to see the rest of that article! Where's page 14B?! So I googled the headline "Bicentennial art fails Nebraska road test" and … failed, alas.

But I did check Google's "AI Mode". Which contained (among other things) an indication of what the AI thought might be the Real Issue:

"Lack of Understanding: Some residents struggled to grasp the meaning or artistic merit of the modern sculptures, fueling criticism and debate."

Reader, that's AIsplaining.

For the record, I can no longer duplicate that result. But I swear it's accurate!

(It turns out "Erma's Revenge Desire" is eminently Googleable, so if you're interested…)