January 9, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Los Angeles is burning, and the scope of the catastrophe is only now becoming evident. If you want to understand what is going on, check out Duane Patterson’s Hot Air essay. Duane, Hugh Hewitt’s radio producer, lives in Orange County. He traces the total government failure that has led to the present fiery crisis: the lack of water management, despite billions of dollars in appropriations; the incompetent woodland management, driven
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January 8, 2025 — John Hinderaker
As if driven by a law of nature, government spending at every level has gone up and up, for decades. We are now facing a fiscal crisis: profligate government spending cannot go on, let alone continue to increase by leaps and bounds. Pretty much everyone agrees with that proposition, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that voters are ready to start cutting. One should always bear in mind that basically, all
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January 8, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Wildfires are raging in Southern California, driven by unusually high winds. There was a report that the Getty Villa, a wonderful museum, had been destroyed. That report turned out to be wrong, at least so far, but only just: Many homes have gone up in smoke, and 30,000 Los Angeles residents have been told to evacuate. Donald Trump, never one to stay on the sidelines during a crisis, says that
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January 8, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Whiffs of empire are in the air! Donald Trump has floated the idea of taking over (in some fashion) Greenland, and even dispatched Donald Jr. there on some sort of mission. Then there is the Panama Canal, which we foolishly gave to Panama some years ago, and over which Trump wants to exert some kind of control so it will operate better. Trump has sounded rather bellicose at times: Reporter:
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January 7, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, on his nomination as Secretary of Defense, is scheduled for next week. All indications are that he has the support of Republican senators and will be confirmed, but Elizabeth Warren, the ranking minority member of the committee, isn’t going down without a fight. Or without a last opportunity to smear Hegseth. Yesterday, Warren sent Hegseth a 33-page letter that is
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January 7, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Jury selection is under way in Panama City, Florida, where Zachary Young is suing CNN and Jake Tapper for defamation. CNN falsely said that Young, who made efforts to extricate people from the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, acted illegally, using a “black market” and charging “exorbitant fees.” It sounds like CNN and Tapper could be in trouble. Responding to voir dire questions from Young’s lawyer, prospective jurors indicated a willingness
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January 7, 2025 — John Hinderaker
In another victory for free speech, Meta has announced that Facebook will no longer employ third-party “fact checkers.” Instead, it will adopt a system similar to X’s “community notes” feature: Meta is ending its fact-checking program in the US and replacing it with a “Community Notes” system similar to that on Elon Musk-owned X, the Facebook parent said on Tuesday. The Community Notes model will allow users on Meta’s social
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January 6, 2025 — John Hinderaker
As one who has been known to pop a beer and hoist a glass of wine, I was concerned to see headlines about America’s Surgeon General saying that we should put warnings on alcohol products similar to those on cigarettes. Because moderate drinking is a “leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States.” That would be significant news, if true. Happily, it isn’t. In the Wall Street Journal, Allysia
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January 6, 2025 — John Hinderaker
In one of the most interesting corporate developments in a long time, Meta announced today that it is bringing three new members into its board of directors. One of them is Dana White, proprietor of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a speaker at the Republican National Convention, and one of Donald Trump’s closest friends. This is Meta’s announcement: Many corporations have been reaching out to Trump and his circle, contributing money
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January 6, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Of all Donald Trump’s policy positions, his sympathy for tariffs is among the most controversial. We are constantly told that “Trump’s tariffs” will ignite a trade war, damage the world economy, and raise prices in the U.S. As with other hysterical fears of what Trump might do in his second term–internment camps!–it makes sense to look at what actually happened during his first term. The simplest source is the U.S.
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January 5, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Most people likely think of political corruption in terms of bribe-taking. But there are more dangerous forms of corruption than bribery–obtaining power by violating election laws, for example, and maintaining power through lies and deceit, and buying votes by scattering public funds in disregard of legal standards. Minnesota, once regarded as a politically “clean” state, is now awash in these and other forms of corruption. Minnesota is sometimes seen as
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January 5, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Cartoonist Ann Telnaes has resigned from the Washington Post after that paper decided not to run one of her cartoons, perhaps because it was critical of the Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos. Telnaes took to Substack to explain her resignation, and she has gotten a lot of sympathy on the left. First, here is the cartoon: several tech moguls are offering bags of money to, apparently, Donald Trump, while Mickey Mouse–Disney–isn’t
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January 4, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Elon Musk ignited a firestorm of controversy in Germany by penning a column in Die Welt in which he supported the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the election scheduled for next month. AfD is a “far right” European party, which means that it doubts the wisdom of mass third-world immigration. Given their experience in recent years, most Germans share that skepticism; hence the fear in establishment circles that AfD
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January 4, 2025 — John Hinderaker
We can’t be sure, since his alleged presidency still has 16 days to go. But Biden’s awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to George Soros is likely to stand as his final insult to America. In honoring Soros, Biden said: “Born into a Jewish family in Hungary, George Soros escaped Nazi occupation to build a life of freedom for himself and countless others around the world,” reads the Soros citation.
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January 3, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Of all the bogus criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits that the Democrats have brought against Donald Trump, perhaps the most ridiculous is the New York “hush money” case. In that case, corrupt prosecutors and a corrupt judge colluded, using an unprecedented and incoherent legal theory, to transform Trump’s perfectly legal payment to Stormy Daniels into a felony under New York Law. The jury’s conviction, on charges that the prosecution was
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January 3, 2025 — John Hinderaker
In a severe disappointment for Democrats and their press minions, Speaker Mike Johnson was re-elected today when two “no” votes flipped after the first round of voting, making a second round unnecessary. Keith Self of Texas and Ralph Norman of South Carolina were the Congressmen who changed their minds, leaving Kentucky’s Thomas Massie as the only purported Republican who voted with the Democrats. Johnson says that he made no promises
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January 3, 2025 — John Hinderaker
We are spending more and more money on public education, and getting worse and worse results. There has been no accountability for the systemic failure of our public schools, except for the fact that millions are fleeing them in favor of home schooling and other options. Minnesota is typical in this regard. We keep spending more and more money: inflation-adjusted per pupil spending is up 31% since 2002. And yet
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