April 22, 2024 — Scott Johnson

What we’ve got here

Featured image The Columbia campus appears to have been taken over by the pro-Hamas kill the Jews crowd among the student body. Jessica Costescu rounds up the news in the Washington Free Beacon story “Columbia University Campus Unravels in Face of Escalating Anti-Semitic, Eliminationist Protests.” The New York Post reports “New anti-Israel tent city takes over Columbia University lawn days after NYPD raid as activists vow to stay ‘forever.’” In other words, »
April 21, 2024 — John Hinderaker

Iran Triumphant?

Featured imageAs the dust seems to be settling in the Middle East, who is coming out on top? Perhaps, Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh write in the Wall Street Journal, it is Iran. First, some history: Iran’s theocratic regime has to stand as the most successful imperial power in the Middle East since the British Empire. The comparison would offend the mullahs, but both managed to patrol large swaths of »
April 21, 2024 — John Hinderaker

The Times Weighs In

Featured imageCheck out this headline from today’s New York Times, on the criminal trial that is under way in Manhattan: “Will a Mountain of Evidence Be Enough to Convict Trump?” I understand that readers of the Times tune in mainly to get their daily dose of Trump-hate, but is the Times even pretending to be a newspaper anymore? The trial, which could brand Mr. Trump a felon as he mounts another »
April 21, 2024 — John Hinderaker

It Isn’t About Israel (2)

Featured imageNot wanting to be left out, anti-Semites at Yale are camping out to support genocide against Israel. They have made various demands on Yale’s administration. It will be interesting to see the result: it isn’t easy to get to Yale’s left. Here you see a depressingly large number of Yalies demonstrating: The climax came when they tore down the American flag: A mob of Yale students shout "VIVA VIVA PALESTINA" »
April 21, 2024 — Scott Johnson

In the AOC archive

Featured imageIn a recent post Lloyd Billingsley returns to David Garrow and holds out the prospect of more. I thought I would repeat my own observations on Garrow in the context of a review he wrote for the Washington Free Beacon today (quoted below). Bear with me while I work my way back to it. I think you will find it worth waiting for. I greatly respect David Garrow’s integrity as »
April 21, 2024 — John Hinderaker

The EV Bubble Bursts

Featured imageDoes this quote sound familiar? “The electric automobile will quickly and easily take precedence over all other kinds of motor carriages as soon as an effective battery of light weight is discovered.” That’s the Los Angeles Times in 1901. How about this one? “Prices on electric cars will continue to drop until they are within reach of the average family.” That’s the Washington Post, 1915. At Substack, Robert Bryce headlines: »
April 20, 2024 — John Hinderaker

Is It a Crime To Be Openly Jewish?

Featured imageEver since October 7, mobs of Muslims have taken over much of central London for kill-the-Jews rallies. The effect has been to make being Jewish in London increasingly dangerous. Things came to a head last Saturday when a group of Jews leaving a synagogue bumped into the Muslims’ weekly protest. One of that group, Gideon Falter, describes what happened: It was early afternoon, in central London, and I was with »
April 20, 2024 — Steven Hayward

Podcast: The 2WHH, on ‘Will It Get Worse Before It Gets Worse?’

Featured imageThis week’s ad-free episode is probably better thought of as a Two Whisky Happy Hour, because John Yoo is away on a lecture- and Philly-cheesesteak-procurement tour back east, and Lucretia is also out of action this weekend, too, though she appears in this episode by proxy, so to speak. So two whiskies it is. Last weekend, Lucretia and I offered a keynote duo-presentation for Ammo Grrrll’s annual CommenterCon conference in »
April 20, 2024 — Scott Johnson

Mob rule at Columbia

Featured imageIt looks like the mob has taken control of Columbia University, SA style. The Columbia Spectator reports on the suspensions issued for for participation in Wednesday’s “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.” One of Ilhan Omar’s daughters (Isra Hirsi) is among the suspended students. The rotten apple doesn’t fall far from the rotten tree. The Spectator quotes Columbia undergrad Maryam Alwan, another one of the suspended students. Alwan told the Spectator that she »
April 19, 2024 — Steven Hayward

Join Me Monday for Earth Day!

Featured imageNext Monday, April 22, is Earth Day. Again. But on Monday I’ll be “returning to the scene of the crime,” in a manner of speaking, to revisit the annual Earth Day project I carried on for nearly 20 years starting way back in 1994: the Index of Leading Environmental Indicators. Back when I started doing that annual report, The Economist magazine suggested that claiming the environment is a cause for »
April 19, 2024 — John Hinderaker

Why Biden Can’t Win

Featured imageI don’t think he can, anyway. Check out these numbers from Rasmussen: Republicans have a major edge over Democrats in terms of voter excitement, and voters overwhelmingly see President Joe Biden as too old to hold the office.. *** More Republicans (68%) than Democrats (50%) are genuinely excited about the election rematch. Voters not affiliated with either major party are about evenly split between being genuinely excited (44%) and choosing »
April 21, 2024 — Scott Johnson

Columbia then and now

Featured imageWorking for then Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale in the summer of 1969, I went to hear the late Allard Lowenstein speak to a large group of interns. Lowenstein was serving his only term in Congress before he was gerrymandered out of his district. Lowenstein asked us to go back to our campuses, do our thing in opposition to the Vietnam war, and “eschew violence.” He said the word “eschew” several »
April 20, 2024 — Steven Hayward

Bill Maher on Hollywood Pedophilia

Featured imageSo I’m just going to come right out and say it: in the privacy of the voting booth in November, Bill Maher is going to vote for Trump. The only question is whether he will admit it directly, or continue, between rote Trump denunciations, to provide strong hints week after week, like yesterday’s rant about pedophilia in Hollywood. Along the way he says, “Governor DeSantis was right” about Disney. C’mon »
April 20, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley

Come and Get these (Motown) Memories

Featured imageAs Scott notes, “You Beat Me to the Punch,” performed by Mary Wells, was written by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ Ronny White. There’s a back story here fans should know. “There was a guy who lived in Detroit and had a group called the Diablos,” Smokey recalled. “His name was Nolan Strong. They were my favorite vocalists at that time.” Strong was with Fortune Records and his “Mind Over »
April 20, 2024 — Steven Hayward

The Week in Pictures: Uncle Bosey Edition

Featured imageThis is the week we learned at long last about Joe Biden’s forgotten uncle “Bosey,” who secretly received the congressional medal of honor for single-handledly subduing an entire tribe of New Guinea cannibals before single-handedly defeating the Japanese at Hiroshima, while rescuing Corn Pop’s eventual father while he was at it. (Apparently “don’t” wasn’t a word in his vocabulary.) What other Ripley’s-worthy family secrets is Joe from Scranton withholding from »
April 19, 2024 — John Hinderaker

Why Trump Might Win

Featured imageWell, he gets to run against Joe Biden. That is the main reason. But one of the extraordinary features of this year’s race is the Democrats’ lawfare. In a series of civil cases and criminal prosecutions, they are trying to bleed Trump’s financial assets and, more important, convict him of a “felony” to convince voters not to vote for him. The prosecutions range from selective (Trump’s handling of classified information) »
April 19, 2024 — Steven Hayward

The Daily Chart: Democrats Turn on Israel

Featured imageIt’s not exactly news that a large portion of Democrats are anti-Israel, but it now appears to be a majority. The latest Gallup survey shows Israel with net negative sympathy among Democrats for the first time. This marks the end of bipartisan support for Israel in American politics. Will this change historic voting patterns? As Trump likes to say, we’ll have to see what happens.   »