IT HAD TO BE HOMOPHOBIA, RIGHT? RIGHT? Seattle closed the door on the subminimum wage for people who work for small businesses, earn tips, or enjoy medical benefits under a punishing new minimum wage law.

"I hate to close a safe space for queer people at this time," Bebop Waffle Shop owner Corina Luckenbach explained on Instagram, "but the money just isn’t there after the minimum wage increase (which I fully support)."

In honor of Occam's Razor, stupidity is a better option....

ANOTHER REASON why we no longer live in Virginia.

AMMO GRRRLL We are finally able to see 2024 in the rearview mirror.

WHAT YOU MEAN “WE,” KEMO SABE? Allstate presents as yet another example of woke corporate stupidity.

Yeah, just pay the bills you contracted for and leave me the hell alone otherwise. I don't need -- or want -- your 'advice'.

HEH: The world's largest flying Pez dispenser will make the first trillionaire.

I'll welcome that.

NEW YEAR, same as the old year.

Well, maybe not. We'll see.

[PJMedia VIP site] CUSTOMER SERVICE IS IN DECLINE: Are these companies just too big to care?

Too true. The "you've gotta login to your acccount on our website to to 'talk' to our computer's chatbot" makes customer service a contradiction in in terms. I've closed several store credit accounts in the past and just cut up the credit cards for another account that I've held for nearly 50 years. The company responded almost immediately with a letter a giving me the number of their website chatbot. Needless to say, I haven't responded....

FIVE PREDICTIONS for higher education in 2025.

A shake-up at the Education Department. Closing it is the better option.

Artificial Intelligence will continue to provide new opportunities — and frustrations. My suspicion is that frustration will come to the fore during the next few years. AI is fast but not intelligent. That will become more evident as time passes.

DEI programs will continue to take a hit. As above with education, vanish is the better option.

A ban on men in women’s sports. Absolutely. Chromosomes matter.

Campus culture wars will continue. Probably, but violence should be cause for immediate expulsion of students and firing of faculty/staff. Tenure is well past its expiration date and adults should be put in charge of course offerings.

I'm optimistic that at least some of this will happen during the Trump administration.

I CAN BREATHE AGAIN: Rep. Mike Johnson [R-LA] has been re-elected as Speaker of the House.

RANDOM THOUGHT: What happened to all those drones that were swarming over New Jersey and parts Northeast before Christmas?

HEH: Tesla Cybertruck voted 'worst vehicle' by National Association of Terrorist Car Bombers.

HAPPENSTANCE, COINCIDENCE, OR ...: Las Vegas cybertruck explosion suspect ID'd as an Army veteran who served at same base as the Bourbon Street attacker.

From Ian Fleming's Goldfinger: "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action." I'm leaning toward enemy action.

Expect more.

EPIC FAIL: The bomber "tried to send a message by using a Tesla, but it ended up saving lives instead."

RANDOM THOUGHT: Can we just have an interim President and Cabinet until January 20th?

JANUARY 20TH can't come soon enough.

More.

BEST DEFINITION OF DEI EVER: It is about what their co-confessionals in the Diversity Industry are all about; finding jobs for otherwise highly credentialed but unemployable people in the productive economy and increasing their unearned bureaucratic power.

THANK YOU, BARACK AND JOE: For the first time since FDR and the Great Depression, voters who identify as Republicans outnumber Democrats by a significant margin.

THE SQUATTER HUNTER: The 2024 Washington Free Beacon Man of the Year.

IMPRIMIS: Drain the swamp.

IF I OWNED A FORD, I WOULD SELL IT: Ford Motor Co's X account posts 'Israel is a terrorist state,' calls to 'Free Palestine'.

To a progressive, of course.