September 24, 2023 — Steven Hayward

Loose Ends (230)

Featured image • Gavin Newsom is running. His surprise veto of the gender identity bill, coming on top of his previous tough talk on immigration, shows he is already tacking to the center. It’s only a matter of time now. One or two more polls like today’s Washington Post poll and Democratic panic will reach critical mass. What about Kamala, you say? Surprising that no one has figured out that Newsom also »
September 24, 2023 — Lloyd Billingsley

POLITIQUEROS?

Featured imageFormer Federal Election Commission member Hans von Spakovsky brought up the term in 2000 Mules, and politiqueros will doubtless draw a blank from many voters. Once upon a time National Public Radio actually directed a beam of light at this issue. “In Rio Grande Valley, Some Campaign Workers Are Paid To Harvest Votes,” the July 7, 2015 Morning Edition explained. Politiquero or politiquera means “campaign worker,” and these workers are involved »
September 23, 2023 — John Hinderaker

The Root Cause of Crime

Featured imageMany criminals are dumb, and some are crazy. But virtually all criminals pay attention to what concerns them the most: the likelihood of being caught and the severity of punishment for their crimes. Even the most deranged criminal does not commit his felony in front of a policeman. And the extent to which laws are enforced is the most important variable influencing whether laws are broken. We are reminded of »
September 24, 2023 — Scott Johnson

“Biden poll disaster”

Featured image“Biden poll disaster” is how Drudge flags the just-released ABC News/Washington Post poll results reported here by Gary Langer (PDF with full results, charts, and tables posted here). Clicking on the story, I thrilled to the beat of the first few paragraphs. President Joe Biden’s job approval rating is 19 points underwater, his ratings for handling the economy and immigration are at career lows. A record number of Americans say »
September 23, 2023 — John Hinderaker

Kamala’s Latest Whopper

Featured imageIn an interview with a Pennsylvania news station, Kamala Harris explained that “climate anxiety” is deterring “young leaders” from buying homes, as well as having children: As the Free Beacon points out, what is preventing young people from buying homes is skyrocketing interest rates, which are entirely the fault of the federal government, primarily the Biden administration. It’s just one more consequence of Bidenflation. But I would add this: if »
September 23, 2023 — John Hinderaker

Weimar 2?

Featured imageDestroying the German economy isn’t easy, but that country’s government is working hard at it. Since the Industrial Revolution, it has been hard to imagine a de-industrialized Germany. But that is the way things are trending. The London Times reports: Germany is in the teeth of a “severe and sustained downtrend”, experts warned after a closely watched survey showed that a deep contraction in factory output was keeping its economy »
September 23, 2023 — Scott Johnson

Biden to pitty-pat the picket line

Featured imagePresident Biden will travel to Michigan to join the picket line of auto workers on strike nationwide. “Tuesday, I’ll go to Michigan to join the picket line and stand in solidarity with the men and women of UAW as they fight for a fair share of the value they helped create,” Biden Xeeted yesterday on the site formerly known as Twitter. Tuesday, I’ll go to Michigan to join the picket »
September 23, 2023 — Steven Hayward

The Week in Pictures: Take a Flyer Edition

Featured imageHow do you lose an advanced fighter jet? A metaphor of our incompetent times perhaps? Almost as incompetent at John Fetterman’s tailor and valet. Almost as incompetent as Joe Biden’s brain. Almost as incompetent as Kamala Harris. And who knew that Bob Menendez was a gold bug—a real hard money guy? I can tell you from my temporary outpost in Budapest that even dour Hungarians are wondering how the U.S. »
September 22, 2023 — John Hinderaker

Now Can We Do Joe Biden?

Featured imageAs Scott noted earlier, Bob Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has been charged with bribery. Allegedly he was using his influence on behalf of the government of Egypt, along with several individuals or companies. The feds executed a search warrant at his house: The feds raided Menendez’s Englewood Cliffs home in June 2022 and found “the fruits” of his “corrupt bribery agreement” — including the 2019 Mercedes »
September 22, 2023 — Steven Hayward

The Daily Chart: Who Gives What

Featured imageThis New York Times chart may be a little hard to make out unless you enlarge it, but it displays by the familiar blue and red colors how political donations from large public organizations and private businesses skew. (The larger the circle, the larger the amount of total contribution dollars.) As you can see it is overwhelmingly tilted to Biden over Trump. Only the U.S. Marines and the NYPD clearly »
September 22, 2023 — Scott Johnson

Biden doubles up

Featured imageDid you hear the one about “those folks from Charlottesville, as they came out of the fields and carrying those swastikas…?” According to Joe Biden, it is responsible for prompting his decision to run in the 2020 presidential election. Some people in Manhattan paid big bucks to hear Biden tell it twice at a campaign reception on Wednesday. Having told it once, Biden told it again within a few minutes. »
September 23, 2023 — Steven Hayward

Podcast: The 3WHH, on No Qualified Whisky Immunity

Featured imageThis circuitious episode, hosted by me in Budapest with John Yoo in Dallas and Lucretia in her undisclosed desert location, starts off with the entirely predictable news that David Brooks drinks his whisky on the rocks (insert shudders and horror here), and quickly moves on to the news that hasn’t broken yet, so we’ll fix it: Gavin Newson is running for president. We know—he hasn’t offically announced, but he’s behaving »
September 23, 2023 — Scott Johnson

Jimmy Lai’s struggle

Featured imageIn John Updike’s short story “Bech in Czech” (collected in Bech at Bay), Updike’s fictional alter ego is sent to Czechoslovakia on a cultural exchange program through the United States government in 1986, while the country is still Communist. Bech attends a party of dissident writers, one of whom had been imprisoned. Bech reflects: Jail! One of the guests at the party had spent nearly ten years in prison. He »
September 22, 2023 — Steven Hayward

Confronting BLM at Berkeley

Featured imageIn the hectic days before departing for my current overseas assignment (more on that shortly—I’ve got a lot in the can already), I didn’t have time to relate hosting Heather Mac Donald, the most fearless journalist in America, for the Federalist Society at Berkeley Law. A substantial contingent of Black Lives Matter protestors turned up to register their displeasure at Heather’s presence and message. Let’s just say it was a »
September 22, 2023 — Scott Johnson

Brooks’s complaint

Featured imageHaving spent $78 on lunch at the Newark Airport, New York Times columnist David Brooks seized the opportunity to present himself as a man of the people in the Xeet below. Like Bill Clinton, he has felt their pain. Before he got burned in Newark, however, he apparently couldn’t understand the economic plight of Bidenomics. The X community has added a note that gives Brooks’s complaint a little “context.” This »
September 22, 2023 — Scott Johnson

Menendez indicted again

Featured imageNew Jersey Senator Robert Menendez has been indicted along with his wife and three other defendants in the Southern District of New York. The detailed three-count indictment runs to 39 pages and alleges a bribery scheme benefiting Menendez and his wife in exchange for official acts undertaken by the senator. The prosecutors seek forfeiture involving hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and numerous gold bars seized from a safe »
September 22, 2023 — Scott Johnson

Martyrs — and newsmen — for freedom

Featured imageClifford D. May is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a columnist for the Washington Times. He is a veteran reporter, foreign correspondent, and editor for the New York Times and other publications. Cliff’s most recent column is “Martyrs — and newsmen — for freedom” (at FDD, where it is posted with links). Cliff has kindly given us his permission to post his column »