May 21, 2024 — Scott Johnson

A shout-out to Sir Charles

Featured image I have patronized the Davanni’s pizza/hoagie restaurant since it was founded in 1975 as Pontillo’s, meaning the original store at the corner of Grand and Cleveland in St. Paul. I think its pizza hoagie got me through law school. and it has grown into a thriving local chain. The entrepreneurial spirit still courses through the chain. Stopping there for lunch today, I found the sign above. It quotes budding Timberwolves »
May 21, 2024 — Steven Hayward

The Daily Chart: The Kids Aren’t All Right

Featured imageSeparately I intend to get around to considering whether it is starting to occur to our university leadership class that the ugly campus protests of this spring are the result of two generations of the steady infantilization of students and indulgence of radical ideology (short answer for now—not yet). But the results of several recent surveys show how different the current younger generation (Gen Z) is: And finally, from the »
May 21, 2024 — Scott Johnson

The worst commencement speech

Featured imageThe White House has posted two May 19 transcripts of “remarks by President Biden at a campaign event” (here, at CRED Café, and here, at Huntington Bank Convention Center). The White House should have listed a third — Remarks by President Biden at the Morehouse College Class of 2024 Commencement Address. In view of Biden’s office as President and his audience of black college graduates, it may be the worst »
May 21, 2024 — Scott Johnson

Quotations from Chairman Joe

Featured imageIn 1968 Simon & Schuster published Quotations From Chairman LBJ — in the form of Quotations From Chairman Mao (“The Little Red Book”). The cover depicted President Johnson in a Mao jacket. With thirty chapters on varying subjects, the book was “translated” (compiled) by Jack Shepherd and Christopher Wren. I still have my copy. It leads with this epigraph attributed to “Chairman Johnson”: “Don’t spit in the soup. We’ve all »
May 21, 2024 — Scott Johnson

Moms Mabley, phone home

Featured imageIranian president — the late Iranian president — Ebrahim Raisi suffered a hard landing on Sunday. May he rot in hell. He was a murderous bastard, a personification of the evil of the Iranian regime, and an enemy of the United States. Raisi’s nickname was “the butcher of Tehran.” No one thought he didn’t earn it fairly. Under Raisi, Iran armed and assisted terrorists with American blood on their hands. »
May 20, 2024 — John Hinderaker

Feeding Our Bank Accounts: The Swag

Featured imageWe have reported many times on the Feeding Our Future scandal here in Minnesota. Minnesota’s Department of Education allowed taxpayers to be defrauded of somewhere between $250 million and $500 million in programs that ostensibly were intended to feed poor children during covid. Of course, if you did the math, there aren’t that many poor children in Minnesota, and the facilities whose operators got the money couldn’t possibly have fed »
May 20, 2024 — Steven Hayward

Loose Ends (255)

Featured image• Regarding the helicopter crash that killed Iran’s President Raisi, what are the possibilities here: He had information that would lead to the arrest of Hillary Clinton He was flying on Jeffrey Epstein’s used chopper. Jewish space lasers. He was the next Boeing whistleblower Possible evidence for #1: But I think this might be fake. And probably this too: • It is frequently said that the left can’t meme. Here »
May 20, 2024 — Scott Johnson

Hamas hostage video recovered

Featured imageYesterday the IDF released raw video it recovered in Gaza. Hamas filmed the videos of 8-year-old Ela Elyakim and 15-year-old sister Dafna Elyakim. The two sisters were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nahal Oz on 10/7 and held hostage for 51 days before Hamas released them in a hostages-for-murderers deal. The Times of Israel reported the sisters’ release here this past November. The Times of Israel published the story with the family »
May 20, 2024 — Scott Johnson

Raisi’s hard landing

Featured imageThe initial AP story by Jon Gambrell on the possible death of Iranian President Ebrhaim Raisi included a euphemistic quote from Iranian media: Raisi was traveling in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province. State TV said what it called a “hard landing” happened near Jolfa, a city on the border with the nation of Azerbaijan, some 600 kilometers (375 miles) northwest of the Iranian capital, Tehran. In the AP sidebar on Raisi »
May 20, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley

When Aaron Met Tony

Featured imageDr. Anthony Fauci “was given over $350 million to research this, to come up with drugs, new or repurposed to handle the AIDS pandemic. And all they came up with was AZT,” contends New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who also wonders about Dr. Fauci’s royalties from vaccine companies. The quarterback is on to something, but there’s more to the story. Anthony Fauci earned a medical degree at Cornell in »
May 19, 2024 — Scott Johnson

Trump comes to town: The video

Featured imageI commented on President Trump’s remarks to the Minnesota GOP’s sold-out Lincoln Reagan dinner in St. Paul on Friday night in “Trump comes to town.” I assessed that Trump was in good form. Below are a few video highlights via X. I stand by my assessment. NEW: Donald Trump’s Minnesota rally practically turns into a stand up comedy skit as he ditches the teleprompter. Amazing. Trump even used props including »
May 20, 2024 — John Hinderaker

Yer Under Arrest!

Featured imageAs Scott noted briefly this morning, the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The prosecutor says there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that they “bear criminal responsibility” for Israeli war crimes beginning on October 8, 2023. The fact that the prosecutor also seeks arrest warrants against top Hamas terrorists, now hiding in tunnels under Rafah, simply confirms »
May 20, 2024 — Steven Hayward

The Daily Chart: Sanction This

Featured imageIt is likely the case that Russia is slowly winning the war against Ukraine, despite American assistance to Ukraine. But, we are told, our sanctions, together with our European allies, are grinding down the Russian economy. I wonder about this. Especially when you see figures like this (EU exports to Kyrgyzstan, indicating a massive workaround for sanctions): Does anyone really believe that Kyrgyzstan’s economy boomed this much starting in March »
May 20, 2024 — Scott Johnson

Better off than you were four years ago?

Featured imageStudents of ancient history recall the classic question Ronald Reagan posed in his only debate with Jimmy Carter before the 1980 presidential election: Are you better off than you were four years ago? Students of ancient history also understand that the 2024 presidential election reframes that question, Grover Cleveland style. In the Monday edition of Bubba News, Bubba Atkinson posts “one heck of a chart,” as he calls it. It »
May 20, 2024 — Steven Hayward

War in Our Back Yard? (Updated)

Featured imageA few weeks back when I was a guest host on the Ricochet podcast, I asked retied Lt. General (and former national security adviser to President Trump) H.R. McMaster whether there are any potential “sleeper” conflicts out in the world that we aren’t paying attention to because of Ukraine, Gaza, China, etc. I mentioned specifically Venezuela and Guyana. McMaster agreed it is certainly possible. I note this from economist John »
May 19, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley

May 19 Mayhem

Featured imageMay 19 marks the birthdays of Malcolm X and Ho Chi Minh, the pair who inspired the May 19th Communist Organization, according to William Rosenau, “the first and only women-created and women-led terrorist group,” and “sort of an offshoot of the Weather Underground.” In 2020 Rosenau authored Tonight We Bombed the U.S. Capitol, which the May 19s pulled off on November 7, 1983, hardly their only terrorist action. The gals »
May 19, 2024 — John Hinderaker

Fury versus Usyk

Featured imageLast night’s fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk was big, for a number of reasons. For one thing, it yielded an undisputed, unified heavyweight champion for the first time in 25 years. I am not particularly a fan of the heavyweight division; in my opinion, the welterweight and middleweight divisions generally have better fighters and better fights. Still, a unified heavyweight title is a pretty big deal. Beyond that, »