June 9, 2023 — John Hinderaker

Breakthrough Near In Ukraine?

Featured image I have followed the war in Ukraine from a distance, and my impression has been that the conflict has settled into a stalemate that is unlikely to be broken. That being the case, I have thought that our goal should be to push toward a cease fire and a political settlement. But former British tank commander Hamish de Bretton-Gordon sees it very differently. He foresees an imminent Ukrainian breakthrough. I »
June 9, 2023 — Steven Hayward

The Daily Chart: Smoke Gets in Your Panels

Featured imageBack during the last solar eclipse over the continental United States in 2017, grid operators in California had to make adjustments to the electricity grid to account from the lost solar power during the 90 minutes or so that the eclipse dimmed sunlight in California. Such is the sensitivity of solar power to clouds and other obstructions such as routine dust, winter snow, and  . . . forest fire smoke. »
June 9, 2023 — Scott Johnson

Why is this man laughing?

Featured imageFor forty-one years Esquire featured a photo of Richard Nixon in its annual year-end Dubious Achievements feature accompanied by the headline WHY IS THIS MAN LAUGHING? The answer, Esquire disclosed in 2007, is that Nixon had just been told he won the Republican nomination in 1960. I have the Esquire question about President Biden’s characteristic laughter over his own senescent ramblings. He is laughing at us. In this case yesterday »
June 9, 2023 — John Hinderaker

Trump In the Crosshairs

Featured imageSo Donald Trump has been indicted again, this time in connection with his retention of classified documents at his home in Florida. We knew this initially because Trump announced it on Truth social. It has since been confirmed by the special counsel’s office, although, at this writing, the actual indictment does not seem to have been made public. The prosecutor’s office leaked it to ABC News, so we have descriptions »
June 9, 2023 — Scott Johnson

Comey’s hip new media tour

Featured imageMatt Taibbi posted his subscribers-only assessment of “Jim Comey’s hip new media tour” on May 31 at his Racket News site. On a day when the perversion of American law enforcement is the only story, Comey has earned another moment in the sun. Taibbi’s eloquent derision of Comey and his media hosts is now available in the video narrated by Jared Moore below. Quotable quote: “This stuff makes Central Television »
June 9, 2023 — Scott Johnson

“Break the Wheel,” or something: A review

Featured imageCity Journal has posted my essay/review of Keith Ellison’s Break the Wheel: Ending the Cycle of Police Violence. I am grateful to managing editor Paul Beston for letting me have my say under the auspices of City Journal and for giving me permission to cross-post my review on Power Line today. Please see the review as published with links here at City Journal. Having covered Ellison’s career on Power Line »
June 8, 2023 — John Hinderaker

Speaking As One President to Another

Featured imageToday British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visited the White House and met with Dementia Joe Biden. They then did an appearance before reporters that began with Biden referring to Sunak as Britain’s president: But to be fair, that was the sort of mistake even a sentient person might make. What followed was worse. Biden rambled incoherently, and couldn’t get through even the usual chit-chat without reading from a large-type script. »
June 8, 2023 — Steven Hayward

The Daily Chart: The Big Green Energy Lie

Featured imageWe’re constantly told that renewable energy will be abundant and dispatchable enough such that we can close down nuclear, coal, and gas power plants. And then Germany comes along to admit the nonsense, in this pair of headlines just three months apart: The second great green lie is that renewable energy will be cheaper. Well: [Hat tip: Willis Eschenbach] More here from the Daily Mail: Germany faces electricity shortages that »
June 8, 2023 — John Hinderaker

Join Me Tomorrow On the Dennis Prager Show [Updated–Canceled]

Featured imageDennis Prager is cruising in Southeast Europe, so I will host the Dennis Prager radio show tomorrow from 12 to 3 p.m. Eastern, on the Salem network. If you don’t have a station near you, you can listen live here. It should be a fun show. My guests will include Josh Holmes, host of the Ruthless podcast; Jon Lauck, author of The Good Country; Andrew McCarthy, who will talk inter »
June 8, 2023 — Scott Johnson

Twitter Files updates

Featured imageRacket News has unlocked Andrew Lowenthal’s column “Twitter Files Extra: How the World’s ‘No-Kidding Decision Makers’ Got Organized.” Subhead: “The Atlantic Council is hosting its 360/0S Summit at RightsCon this week, and Twitter Files documents tell us more about how this VIP-room-within-a-VIP-room was formed.” Lowenthal describes himself as a writer and consultant focused on digital authoritarianism and civil liberties. He manages the Network Affects site on Substack and now works »
June 7, 2023 — John Hinderaker

Trump Indictment Watch

Featured imageSpecial Counsel Jack Smith is wrapping up his investigation of former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents after he left office. Smith met with Trump’s lawyers on Monday, and he has reconvened a Florida grand jury after a hiatus. Official D.C. buzzes with speculation that an indictment is imminent, likely by the end of this week. The Democrats intended to indict Trump over keeping classified documents at his home »
June 9, 2023 — Scott Johnson

Thoughts from the ammo line

Featured imageAmmo Grrrll does not need Kantian epistemology to declare I DOUBT IT! She writes: When I arrived at Northwestern University in 1964, it represented the first time in my life that I had ever been away from my parents for longer than a week at Bible Camp. On my first day checking into Willard Hall women’s dorm, I had all my worldly goods with me: a small blonde Samsonite suitcase »
June 8, 2023 — Steven Hayward

Thought for the Day: America as the Best Regime

Featured imageFrom William B. Allen’s book, George Washington: America’s First Progressive: “The founding of the United States constitutes the single most important event in the development of political philosophy over the ages. Further, I am convinced that the government established by the U.S. Constitution in 1787 is the best yet devised—without qualification.” Allen doesn’t mean “progressive” the way the left means it today. But more to the point: I am currently »
June 8, 2023 — Steven Hayward

2024 Panic Growing on the Left

Featured imageElizabeth wrote yesterday about taking seriously the presidential candidacy of Cornel West, and while no one thinks West will actually gain many votes, the memory of Ralph Nader’s 95,000 votes in Florida in the 2000 election still haunts the memories of Democrats. (By the way, since Cornel West has put out his own rap CDs, clearly his running mate should be the other West who has made noises about running »
June 8, 2023 — Scott Johnson

Comer’s grit vs. Biden’s grift

Featured imageI have been waiting for a New York Post editorial or column to bring us up to date on House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer’s struggle to extract the Form FD-1023 in which the FBI “recorded allegations, from a long-term trusted, paid confidential FBI source, that Joe Biden was allegedly paid a $5 million bribe by someone in Ukraine while he was vice president.” Miranda Devine performs the service in »
June 8, 2023 — Scott Johnson

Beware former Walz admin officials bearing gifts

Featured imageThe Star Tribune is offering “a gift for graduates,” as editorial editor and vice president Scott Gillespie put it in his daily newsletter yesterday (link omitted): “The Star Tribune is offering every high school grad in the state a free one-year subscription. Use this link to sign up for the subscription, which will not automatically renew. Congrats and good reading, graduates.” Woo hoo! It’s got a good sports section. I’ll »
June 7, 2023 — Steven Hayward

Let’s Not Go All X-Files Just Yet

Featured imageWith the rise of potential threats from AI making some people think Hollywood dystopian films like The Terminator were documentaries, it is to be expected that recent news stories  that sound straight from the X-Files are getting a lot of fevered attention, too. The latest are two Pentagon “whistleblowers” who claim the government has “intact” UFO aircraft or parts of aircraft, and perhaps even some extraterrestrial remains. Cue the calls »