July 11, 2026 — Scott Johnson

When the Times profiled Omar

Featured image News that the New York Times will launch a Twin Cities newsletter brings to mind a few of the Twin Cities stories that the Times has covered over the years. Some of them overlapped my own work on Power Line and gave me a fresh perspective on how the Times works. When Minnesota Fifth District Rep. Ilhan Omar was elected to Congress in 2018, then-Times congressional reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg »
July 11, 2026 — John Hinderaker

The Week In Pictures: Goodbye, Nazi Edition

Featured imageThe week began with Independence Day, and it featured a lot of World Cup action. If you can call anything that happens in soccer action. Europe sweltered under a non-air conditioned heat wave, and the Iran conflict resumed. But what motivated meme-makers more than anything else was the spectacular implosion of the Graham Platner Senate campaign. I suppose because it was so unexpected: who would have imagined that the campaign »
July 10, 2026 — John Hinderaker

The Times Expands Its Range

Featured imageThis is something I haven’t seen noted anywhere–the New York Times is expanding geographically, by adding “local newsletters” for metro areas outside of New York. The first one will be in the Twin Cities: The New York Times is piloting a local newsletter for the Twin Cities. It said: "Our hope is that The Local: Twin Cities can serve as a model for similar future efforts elsewhere around the country" »
July 10, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Platner Says Goodbye

Featured imageGraham Platner officially withdrew from the Maine Senate race today. This is his letter to Maine’s Secretary of State: I only want to call attention to the manner in which Platner concluded his letter, presumably expressing his priorities: F*ck ICE. Free Palestine. Up the Hearts. “Up the Hearts” is a soccer reference, which I guess fits–so much for Platner’s blue collar bona fides. But “F*ck ICE” and “Free Palestine” are »
July 10, 2026 — Bill Glahn

Deported

Featured imageEvery now and again, justice prevails. As John noted earlier, Tou Lue Vang, pardoned child rapist and Laotian national, has been deported: Some backstory here. There are a handful of southeast Asian men who arrived in Minnesota as refugees decades ago who went on to be convicted of serious felony crimes. As a result, they lost their legal immigration status and were ordered deported back to their home countries. But »
July 10, 2026 — John Hinderaker

A Happy Ending

Featured imageWell, this is great: Bill Glahn wrote about the Tou Vang case here. Briefly, Vang was convicted in 2005 of repeatedly raping a ten year old girl, something he said was “normal in his culture.” Vang had a legal status in the U.S., but he lost it because of the rape conviction. He was ordered deported, but as so often happens, the order achieved nothing. Twenty years later, he came »
July 10, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Don’t cry for him, Argentina

Featured imageAn observant reader writes in response to “For whom the Totenkopf tolls” with a question regarding Graham Platner: Do you perhaps strongly suspect as I do that a not insignificant percentage of P-Hustle’s [P-Hustle was Platner’s digital username on platforms like Reddit and Kik] apparent bitterness over his current situation stems from a realization that he went through the trouble of reluctantly covering “[his] Totenkopf” with that ridiculous replacement, all »
July 9, 2026 — John Hinderaker

NY Times Recants Dog Rape

Featured imageSort of, anyway: I don’t share Posner’s regard for the New York Times news operation. On the contrary: I think Times reporters and editors have been responsible for more misinformation than any other news outlet over the last 40 years. But it means something that the paper’s head news guy says he wouldn’t have run the Kristof smear. I didn’t track down the podcast, and I don’t know whether there »
July 9, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Socialism Surges

Featured imageMany think that the left wing of the Democratic Party is an exotic species that represents few actual voters. I am afraid that is not the case. Socialism is the most rapidly growing political ideology in America. Thus, Rasmussen finds: More than a quarter of American voters now believe socialism is better than capitalism, and this preference is strongest among Democrats. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey »
July 9, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Platner’s Demise and the Midterms

Featured imageI was on Sky News last night with James Morrow, filling in for Rita Panahi, who is in the U.S. at the moment. It was a hard-hitting interview, covering Graham Platner’s demise, the lack of normal men in the Democratic Party, and prospects for the midterms. I think you will enjoy it: »
July 9, 2026 — Scott Johnson

At SPA, the Ottley protection provision

Featured imageThe Star Tribune took a look at the Ottley era at SPA in Eva Herscowitz’s page-one story “Claims of retaliation, suppression and secrecy fuel turmoil at St. Paul Academy.” Luis Ottley is the head of school at St. Paul Academy. In the school year just passed, the enrollment contract introduced a provision empowering Ottley to dismiss students based on the conduct of parents. Herscowitz briefly summarized her story in the »
July 10, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Strait developments

Featured imageIt seems unlikely that President Trump will choose to leave the Strait of Hormuz under the control of the Iranian thugocracy. Can he really leave the Strait in a condition worse for us than it was before the commencement of the current hostilities? It makes it hard to claim victory. It would in fact represent a significant defeat. The Institute for the Study of War has posted this Iran Update »
July 10, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Ayatollah on ice

Featured imageThe Reuters caption on a photograph taken from the scene captured in the video below reads: “A person enters a refrigerated truck carrying the coffin of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on February 28 in Israeli and U.S. airstrikes, as people attend Khamenei’s funeral procession, in Karbala, Iraq, July 9, 2026.” Video of the incident can also be seen in this Times of India story. »
July 9, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Birth Tourism In Texas

Featured imageBirth tourism–foreigners coming to the U.S. for the specific purpose of having a baby that will be an American citizen–has been going on for some time, but the Supreme Court’s reaffirmation of birthright citizenship likely will give it a boost. That, at least, seems to be happening in Texas: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to investigate a hospital in Mission, Texas, according »
July 9, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Sentor Kennedy does Platner

Featured imageFor the record I want to record Senator John Kennedy’s assessment of former Maine Democrat Senatorial candidate Graham Platner: “With respect to Mr. Platner, he was nominated by the Hamas wing of the Democratic Party, which is in control.” Fact-check: Harsh but not unfair. The rest of Senator Kennedy’s assessment is both true and funny. It rises to Senator Kennedy’s usual level of blunt hilarity. Every American with an IQ »
July 9, 2026 — Scott Johnson

For whom the Totenkopf tolls

Featured imageIf there were any justice in the world, the defenders of former Maine Democrat Senate candidate Graham Platner among the Democrat/Media Axix would be required to listen to Platner’s announcement that he is abandoning the race in an endless loop for at least a day or two. See, for example, Andrew Stiles’s round-up in the Washington Free Beacon. Last call for Ro Khana and friends! I have posted Platner’s video »
July 8, 2026 — Bill Glahn

The centrist trap

Featured imageDemocrats sound so reasonable, according to local media. From the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Klobuchar opens door to ending nuclear ban while GOP rivals for Minnesota governor’s seat call for repeal. The Star Tribune reports, Minnesota’s next governor could play a pivotal role in deciding whether the state ends its 32-year ban on new nuclear power plants, a proposal that has drawn renewed attention amid rising energy demand. The state has »