Monthly Archives: May 2023
May 19, 2023 — Scott Johnson
House Republicans convened a hearing on FBI whistleblowers yesterday. The name of the committee is a mouthful — the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Rep. Jim Jordan is chair of both the House Judiciary Committee and this House subcommittee and chaired the hearing. The hearing was a companion to the interim staff report released yesterday. The subcommittee heard testimony from three FBI whistleblowers and
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May 19, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Ammo Grrrll recounts A DAY OF LIVING WHITE. She writes: You can’t call me Ishmael, because that is a guy’s name. At least for today. But this is my story. So call me Blanca McPaleface. I am White, okay? I had suspected as much for quite a while. For example, I had to get into college based on my grades and SATs. To my certain knowledge, I have never twerked
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May 18, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Back in 1975, after several years of the earliest expression of leftist anti-intellectualism in colleges and universities, Yale commissioned historian C. Vann Woodward to lead a Commission on Freedom of Expression at Yale, and write a report on academic freedom. Here’s one excerpt from the conclusion: The primary function of a university is to discover and disseminate knowledge by means of research and teaching. To fulfill this function a free
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May 18, 2023 — John Hinderaker
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (Harry and Meghan) are among the world’s most annoying people. They are the ultimate in having one’s cake and eating it too; i.e., abandoning royal duties but insisting on royal status. Unsurprisingly, they are massively unpopular in the U.K. In their never-ending quest to remain in the public eye, despite the fact that they do nothing noteworthy, they claimed rather hysterically to have been
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May 18, 2023 — John Hinderaker
South Africa, the world’s 14th-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, has good news: it is exceeding its goals for reducing CO2 emissions. The bad news is, the reason is that South Africa is so inept it can’t keep its power plants operating: Blackouts will indeed reduce CO2 emissions, but South Africa isn’t doing it on purpose: “It’s unintentional,” Crispian Olver, the executive director of South Africa’s Presidential Climate Commission, said in
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May 18, 2023 — Steven Hayward
The move to “Defund the Police” was supposed to promote greater “equity,” but in fact the unspoken truth is that the chief victims of this mania are the very people it is supposed to be helping. And nowhere is this fact more evident than Minnesota (hat tip to Minnesota native Mark Perry, as usual):
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May 18, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Miranda Devine celebrates the beatdown of the repulsive Rep. Dan Goldman by reporter Julio Rosas at the House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Tuesday. Devine’s column is headlined “Taking down loathsome lefty pol Dan Goldman.” Goldman cuts a ridiculous figure as he appeals to the authority of the FBI. His timing of the appeal to authority is a bit off in this case. Goldman’s histrionic appeal to authority comes in
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May 18, 2023 — Scott Johnson
John Durham’s detailed report on the Russia hoax should destroy the (positive) reputation of the FBI. It is devastating. One has to go beyond the four corners of the report to assess the impact it should have on the (positive) reputation of the establishment press, though its positive reputation has been crumbling for decades. The press was of course an integral part of the Russia hoax all along the way.
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May 18, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Back from the treatment for depression that followed on his stroke, Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman pretends he is capable of doing his job. Earlier this week Fetterman questioned Silicon Valley Bank executive Greg Becker during a Senate Banking Committee hearing about SVB’s March collapse. Steve Hayward posted this pathetic video clip. This is just sad. pic.twitter.com/q1NKwUWcMR — Clown World ™ 🤡 (@ClownWorld_) May 16, 2023 See if you can follow
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May 17, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Electing Lori Lightfoot as Mayor of Chicago was the beginning of the end for that city. Replacing her with someone even more far left is accelerating Chicago’s terminal decline. Tom Bevan notes that the death throes are under way: Progressive allies of Mayor Brandon Johnson have released a financial blueprint titled – and I'm not joking – "First We Get the Money" calling for $12 billion in new taxes, including:
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May 17, 2023 — Steven Hayward
A reminder from the great sociologist Robert Nisbet: “There is no substitute for punishment in a social order, and that means holding human beings accountable, treating them as human and therefore responsible. Concern for human rights is rampant these days, but a right is possible in the strict sense only for beings who can be rationally regarded as responsible. The celebrated dignity of man oozes away in an atmosphere where
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May 17, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Well, that might be a slight overstatement. But I guest hosted Dennis Prager’s radio show last Friday, and it was a darn good show if I do say so myself. In the first hour I talked about the implications of the ongoing sorting of America into Red states and Blue states, and about the Left’s effort to build up my own state of Minnesota as a paragon of liberal governance.
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May 17, 2023 — Steven Hayward
With the Biden Administration determined to make good on Al Gore’s dementia that the internal combustion engine is a greater threat to mankind than Nazism and Communism (he actually said this in his 1992 schlock-horror classic Earth in the Balance) and eliminate gasoline powered cars, I’m guessing that there’s going to be a huge H1-B visa market for those Cuban auto mechanics who still keep ’56 Buicks running with no
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May 17, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Last week on the podcast I predicted that the chief sticking point on a deal to raise the debt ceiling wouldn’t be any of the GOP demands for spending restraint, but rather the demand for new work requirements of able bodied welfare recipients. Because the left views welfare and other income support programs as means of entitled redistribution without reciprocal obligation rather than relief from unfortunate circumstances, Democrats would resist.
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May 17, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Nina Jankowicz has filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News. The lawsuit has gotten some coverage, but I wouldn’t be aware of it if it weren’t for Matt Taibbi. Taibbi performed a fact-check on her complaint in a subscribers-only column at his Racket News site last week. Taibbi has now posted an audio version of his column narrated by Jared Moore (video below). The audio is also accessible on the
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May 17, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Catching up with last week’s hard copy Wall Street Journal, I was struck by the numerous uses of “militants” in lieu of “terrorists” or “jihadists” to describe members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Take the headline of the May 9 story by Dov Lieber, Aaron Boxerman, and Anas Baba, for example: “Israeli Strikes Kill Senior Militants, Civilians in Gaza.” Query what you have to do to become a “senior militant.” Does
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May 16, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Dianne Feinstein is back in the Senate, but to hear her tell it, she was never away from it: Dianne Feinstein claimed she hasn’t ‘been gone’ when asked about her lengthy absence from the Senate: ‘No, I’ve been here. I’ve been voting’ Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California insisted that she had not been absent from the Senate when asked about it by reporters on Tuesday, according to Slate and
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