January 20, 2025 — John Hinderaker

James Biden’s Pardon Wasn’t the Worst

Featured image As Steve’s chart shows, the sheer number of pardons issued by Joe Biden shatters all previous records. There has been much outrage over the pardons given to members of Biden’s family who shared in his bribery enterprise, to Anthony Fauci, and the January 6 committee members. But perhaps the most outrageous of such actions was Biden’s commutation of Leonard Peltier’s life sentence for murdering two FBI agents. The murders happened »
January 20, 2025 — Steven Hayward

The Daily Chart: Pardon Scorecard

Featured imageProof that Joe Biden really liked inflation is how he hyper-inflated the pardon power, which the founders intended for rare cases of misjudgment. I’m not sure this chart includes today’s pardons, but at this point they hardly make a difference. I wish President Trump had finished his inaugural address by turning around and saying, “And Joe, you’re under arrest!” P.S. Looks like someone else had the same thought: »
January 20, 2025 — Steven Hayward

Podcast: In the Room with Nixon and Reagan

Featured imageFor your Inauguration Day listening pleasure, Peter Robinson and I teamed up for a special edition of the Ricochet podcast with speechwriter and presidential advisor Ken Khachigian to discuss his time working with Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, as laid out in his newly published memoir, Behind Closed Doors. Going through his start in politics by landing a job under Pat Buchanan in the ’68 campaign to drafting Reagan’s first inaugural and »
January 20, 2025 — John Hinderaker

A New Era Dawns

Featured imagePresident Trump took office an hour ago. The inauguration ceremony was memorable; I think it benefited from being brought indoors. Trump’s speech was dynamite: he reprised favorite themes from his rallies, boldly predicted a bright future, and–happily–stayed on script. We may have more to say before long about the content of the speech, which was bold. Trump threw down one gauntlet after another. But none of it was surprising; these »
January 20, 2025 — Steven Hayward

Inauguration Day in Pictures

Featured imageAs I write, still 50 minutes for Biden to reach absolute rock bottom by issuing a pre-emptive pardon for the rest of  his family. Otherwise I’ve run out of can’t-evens for Biden’s disgrace. Who knew that when he said over and over again “My word as a Biden” meant that the word was “hypocrisy.”  Anyway, I wish we still had the great cartoonist Jeff MacNelly around to top his 1981 »
January 20, 2025 — Scott Johnson

Is any price too high?

Featured imageWho wasn’t moved by the sight of the reunion of the first three Israeli hostages held by Hamas with their loved ones? Who doesn’t want to join the celebration of their reunion? Not I. I’m thrilled for the women and their families. Maybe no price is too high to pay. Yet I doubt the deal resulting in the release of the Israelis is to be celebrated. It is at best »
January 20, 2025 — Scott Johnson

Coup’s next

Featured imageOne would never understand the lawlessness of the Minnesota Democrats from the news pages of the Star Tribune. They are engaged in a slow-motion coup that is obscured by DFL representatives’ disappearance from the state House of Representatives, which convened by law this past Tuesday at noon. They seek to prevent the current Republican majority from organizing the House by purporting to deprive them of a quorum. In this case, »
January 19, 2025 — Steven Hayward

One Last Kick on the Way Out the Door

Featured imageDown to the last few hours of the Biden interregnum, and the scene is almost enough to make this near-geezer giddy. First, who would imagine you’d ever see this: Now, is that a Village Person, or is it Elon Musk in costume doing his patented X-dance? I’m good either way. But the New York Times isn’t: While we’re talking about the Times, it is worth gong back to savor how »
January 19, 2025 — John Hinderaker

Inauguration, Confirmation Hearings and the Biden Clown Show

Featured imageLast night I was on the Outsiders TV show on Sky News, Australia. As always, it was a fun appearance. We talked about Trump’s nominees and their confirmation hearings, in particular Pete Hegseth, about the end of the disastrous Biden Administration and the imminent inauguration of Donald Trump. I am impressed to see that the YouTube version of the interview has already gotten 53,000 views: I’ll be doing the Bolt »
January 19, 2025 — Steven Hayward

Bill Maher for Governor of California?

Featured imageThere are several memes going around featuring trendy Californians expressing their disgust for our current government (which I think is a real thing—so much so that if Kamala runs for governor she just might repeat Richard Nixon’s famous 1962 faceplant), in which the punchline is: “Next time I’ll vote for a different Democrat!” Sadly there’s a lot to this, owing to the feebleness of the Republican Party in California these »
January 19, 2025 — Scott Johnson

Faceless in Gaza

Featured imageThe celebration has commenced today in Gaza with the commencement of the ceasefire. Surviving members of Hamas have reemerged from the shadows. Three innocent women held hostage by Hamas — Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, and Doron Steinbrecher — are in the process of being freed while Israel is to release 30 actual terrorist murderers for each freed hostage. Despite the commandment to redeem captives, there must be a commandment somewhere »
January 20, 2025 — Scott Johnson

Strange interlude

Featured image“President Biden” probably won’t be done inflicting harm on the United States until he leaves office later today. There is yet more to come. At the moment, we have today’s preemptive pardons. Biden’s “presidency” already seems like a strange interlude in our history. One might have thought that only an avowed enemy of the United States would open our borders and invite the rest of the world to come on »
January 20, 2025 — Scott Johnson

The prophetic voice

Featured imageWhen Martin Luther King, Jr., brought his nonviolent campaign against segregation to Bull Connor’s Birmingham, he laid siege to the bastion of Jim Crow. In Birmingham between 1957 and 1962, black homes and churches had been subjected to a series of horrific bombings intended to terrorize the community. In April 1963 King answered the call to bring his campaign to Birmingham. When King landed in jail on Good Friday for »
January 19, 2025 — John Hinderaker

More Confirmation Follies

Featured imageMy takeaway from the confirmation hearings so far is that the Democratic Party suffers from a severe IQ deficit. Their senators are at best dull-witted, and often embarrassing. Rarely do they ask a serious question; rather, they repeat discredited anti-Trump tropes that the witnesses can generally swat away without difficulty. Here, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, a dim bulb even by Senate Democrat standards, tries to run the “family separation” chestnut »
January 19, 2025 — Steven Hayward

The Retro World of AI

Featured imageI can’t get my head around all the permutations of the AI world coming to us at a rapid pace, though it looks as revolutionary at Gutenberg’s movable type in the 15th century. Who knew that the mass production of books would have such far reaching effects. One use of AI that I am enjoying, however, is its retro possibilities. Two from “Abandoned Films” on YouTube update contemporary Sci-Fi icons »
January 19, 2025 — Scott Johnson

Tangled up in lies

Featured imageState representative Walter Hudson has kindly compiled the video update below on the last week in Minnesota politics. I hesitate to reiterate the ins and outs of all the maneuvers and developments we have tried to track. The theme here is that Democrats are tangled in their own lies. Your #mnleg week in review. pic.twitter.com/Lqc8deM2dY — Walter Hudson (@WalterHudson) January 18, 2025 On Friday, the Minnesota Supreme Court held that »
January 19, 2025 — Scott Johnson

Speaker Johnson’s testimony

Featured imageLast week Free Press founder/editor Bari Weiss interviewed House Speaker Mike Johnson for her Honestly podcast. In the clip below, Johnson testifies to his observation of the mental incompetence of “President Biden.” John draws on the New York Post story reporting Johnson’s testimony in his post “It isn’t funny.” Eli Lake posted the video and reported on it in his Free Press story here. EXCLUSIVE: @SpeakerJohnson tells @BariWeiss that President »