July 16, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Thank you, Senator Cotton

Featured image You may have heard Vice President Vance’s lastest line about the government of Israel undertaking a secret influence operation to undermine Vance’s brilliant work on the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran. Dana Perrino asked Senator Tom Cotton about it on FNC’s America’s Newsroom this morning. Senator Cotton bluntly denied knowledge of any intelligence to support Vance’s braying. Thank you, Senator Cotton. Iran’s revolutionary leaders aren’t serious about making a deal. »
July 16, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Secrets of Abdul El-Sayed

Featured imageMichigan Democratic Senatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed seems to me most notably a member of what Louisiana Senator John Kennedy has denominated “the Hamas wing of the Democratic Party, which is in control.” He also mirrors fake working class Dems like Maine’s “ill-starred oysterman” and former Senate candidate Graham Platner as well as the extremely wealthy Rep. Ro Khanna. Running in a competitive primary for the Democrat nomination, El-Sayed has withheld »
July 16, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Flight of the billionaires

Featured imageThe absurdist playwright Eugène Ionesco wrote Exit the King. It stands out in Ionesco’s canon as a play whose plot is straightforward and focuses on depletion rather than accumulation. In that sense it resembles the proposed billionaire tax that has made its way onto the California ballot this November. We have been following the proposed tax and its federal counterpart in several posts on Power Line (with more to come). »
July 16, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Strait talk

Featured imageThe Institute for the Study of War has posted its Iran Special Report Update (July 15) as of yesterday afternoon. It is a dry recitation indicating that the current hostilities continue. Aaron MacLean invited the Hudson Institute’s Michael Doran to appear on the current edition of his School of War podcast. Doran seeks to explain where we are now and why. Doran’s analysis is the most acute I have read »
July 15, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Bogus Blue Rankings

Featured imageLiberal news outlets produce a steady stream of state rankings that are designed to make blue states look good, and red states look bad. These rankings are always based on oddball criteria that have nothing to do with what actually makes a state desirable. CNBC, a left-wing outlet, is an excellent example: Businesses in top industries, from health care to renewable energy and manufacturing, understand the benefits of investing and »
July 15, 2026 — John Hinderaker

House Votes to Continue Aid to Israel

Featured imageIt is ironic that the $3 billion or so that the U.S. provides in aid to Israel is perhaps one or two percent of the amount that is lost to fraud each year. It would be nice if the Democrats got 50 to 100 times as exercised about fraud as they do about aid to Israel. Today the House of Representatives voted on an amendment offered by outgoing Rep. Thomas »
July 15, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Put a MyPillow over it

Featured imageMinnesota Republicans have not won a statewide election since Tim Pawlenty was reelected governor in 2006. We have a road that has been made more difficult this year by the performance of ICE during Operation Metro Surge. The performance of ICE has done much to offset the disgust of Minnesotans with the massive fraud that has proliferated under Governor Tim Walz. It resulted in Walz abandoning his quest for an »
July 15, 2026 — Scott Johnson

A word to Howie Carr

Featured imageBoston media’s great Howie Carr linked to my post “Unsafe At MIT.” My purpose was to draw attention to the book of that title by MIT Professor Yossi Sheffi, published on July 7. Before publication, the New York Times took note of the book in a fair-minded story by higher education reporter Mark Arsenault. Perhaps most notably, Barton Swaim wrote about the book in his July 8 Wall Street Journal »
July 14, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Why Are So Many Americans “Disabled”?

Featured imageThrough pretty much all of human history, if you wanted to survive you had to work. Of course, there have always been people who were truly disabled and needed to be cared for by others, but their numbers were small. In recent years, that has changed. Now, there is a virtual army of people who to all appearances are able-bodied, but who for some reason have successfully claimed to be »
July 14, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Race Discrimination Is Illegal

Featured imageDemocrats are opposed to “bad” race discrimination and in favor of “good” race discrimination. They haven’t yet gotten it through their heads that this is not how the law works. As reaffirmed in the UNC and Harvard cases, there is no “good” race discrimination. Race discrimination–DEI–in employment and education is illegal, period. The point was made again by Inez Stepman under questioning by Brandon Gill, who is fast becoming the »
July 14, 2026 — Bill Glahn

Motive unclear

Featured imageFrom Sky News UK, Ann Widdecombe latest: Politician killed in ‘targeted attack’, counter terror chief says. Now they tell us. Over the weekend, local police tried to dismiss the “incident” as merely a random burglary gone wrong. Sky News reports, A 28-year-old white British man remains under arrest on suspicion of commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, as well as on suspicion of murder, the head of counter »
July 15, 2026 — John Hinderaker

What Were They Doing In England?

Featured imageIf you wonder why a clear majority of Europeans oppose their governments’ suicidal immigration policies, this case tells you everything you need to know: A gang of asylum seekers who raped a woman on Brighton beach and filmed the “predatory and callous” attack have been jailed for up to 21 years each. Abdulla Ahmadi, 26, from Iran, and Ibrahim Alshafe, an Egyptian, attacked the woman, who was “incapacitated” and “staggering »
July 15, 2026 — Scott Johnson

The view from Haaland

Featured imageErling Haaland was the star of Norway’s World Cup soccer team. He returned to Norway carrying the Whiskey Raccoon he picked up in Dallas during his visit to Wild Bill’s Western Store. Like Freddy, Haaland is helping us see ourselves as others see us — with renewed appreciation. Now that Halland has returned home, I have imbibed Aakash Gupta’s mareketing retrospective on X: Nike pays Erling Haaland roughly $20 million »
July 15, 2026 — Scott Johnson

In lieu of a Strait update

Featured imageI had intended to provide a status report on the current situation in the Strait of Hormuz, but would prefer to let time provide additional the clarity another day or two might afford. In lieu of a Strait update, let’s tune in to Hugh Hewitt’s 8-minute segment with former Israeli Amabassor to the United States Michael Oren yesterday. Oren is the historian and author of the memoir Ally (2016) as »
July 14, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Democrats Need to Cease Fire

Featured imageToday Supreme Court Justices Amy Barrett and Elena Kagan testified before a House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Court’s budget for security. Justice Barrett testified about having to wear a bulletproof vest and about a swatting incident at her home: Threats against conservative justices must be taken seriously, given the foiled attempt on Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s life. And swatting is a favorite liberal tactic. Is there any reasonable prospect of a »
July 14, 2026 — Bill Glahn

Blind ambition

Featured imageComments by MN state Clemency Review Commission members raise more questions about the controversial pardon of convicted child rapist, Tou Lue Vang. From Fox News, Exposed docs reveal why Tim Walz board awarded repeat child rapist pardon: ‘No future’ Tue Lue Vang, convicted of raping a girl starting at age 10, has been deported to Laos after Rubio intervened By now, everyone is familiar with the three-person membership of the state Board of »
July 14, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Unsafe At MIT

Featured imageProfessor Yossi Sheffi is the author of the book Unsafe At MIT: A Chronicle of a Campus War on the Jews. The book was published a week ago. When I first read about it, I wrote Washington Free Beacon deputy editor Vic Matus to ask if he had assigned it for review — I wondered if the book was worth buying. Vic wrote me back that he thought the book »