May 30, 2026 — Scott Johnson

She’s caught the Pratt!

Featured image I would have missed this if it weren’t for my brilliant friend Brian Sullivan. Brian texted me the Spencer Pratt video below with the comment: “This is great.” Fact-check: True. Indeed, the ad conveys something like a timeless truth. Whether Pratt wins or loses his race for mayor of Los Angeles, we’ll always have Paris…I mean the Pratt — the rejection of leftist bromides and the aversion to the media »
May 30, 2026 — Scott Johnson

A word from Edmund Burke

Featured imageReading Edmund Burke as a college freshman was a transformative experience for me. I am thinking specifically of his Reflections on the Revolution in France, but other of his works also had a deep impact on me. In this passage of his Letter to a Member of the National Assembly (1791), he restates the wisdom of the ancients for modern man: Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion »
May 29, 2026 — Bill Glahn

Asymptotic peace deal

Featured imageThere is a concept in geometry called an asymptotic curve, which as it curves towards another line (such as an axis) it gets ever closer, but never quite touches or crosses it. In regard to the peace plan with Iran, the “deal” draws ever closer to finality, but never quite makes it. From Zerohedge, But close enough for the stock market. From Barrons, Stock Market News From May 29, 2026: »
May 30, 2026 — John Hinderaker

The Week In Pictures: Remember the Alamo Edition

Featured imageThere was plenty of news this week, but meme creators were mostly focused on lesser stories, like Jill Biden’s recollection of her husband’s disastrous debate performance, which came as a surprise to everyone who hadn’t been paying attention for the previous four years. Good times! But what inspired memesters more than anything else was the candidacy of James Talarico, Democratic candidate for the Senate in Texas. Can a non-binary vegan »
May 29, 2026 — John Hinderaker

A 50/50 State

Featured imageAround the country, many people think of Minnesota as a blue state. But that is misguided: the Minnesota House is split 67-67, and the Senate is 34-33 for the DFL. We have eight Congressmen, four Republicans and four Democrats. And in 2024, 50% of votes for Congressional candidates were cast for Democrats, and 48% for Republicans. It doesn’t get any closer than that. This year’s election promises to be excruciatingly »
May 29, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Another Faux Sports Controversy [Updated]

Featured imageJaxson Dart is the second-year starting quarterback for the New York Giants. The Giants have been a terrible team, but Dart, from the University of Mississippi, excelled as a rookie and has brought hope to the franchise. Last week he had the opportunity to introduce President Trump at a rally in New York. His introduction was brief and anodyne: Nevertheless, it sparked a storm of controversy. One of Dart’s teammates »
May 29, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Dr. Jill’s diagnosis

Featured imageDr. Jill Biden is back in the news with her forthcoming memoir of husband Joe Biden’s presidency. In it she recalls her husband’s catastrophic debate with Donald Trump in June 2024. Dr. Jill purports to have been concerned that Joe was “having a stroke” during the debate. In an interview with CBS News to be aired this coming Sunday, she relates, “I was frightened, because I had never ever seen »
May 28, 2026 — John Hinderaker

On Climate, Theory vs. Observation

Featured imageI think most people had already figured out that climate hysteria is a money-motivated scam by the time the U.N. threw in the towel on its most extreme forecasts. Lacking support at the federal level, climate fanatics are in retreat in the U.S., and around most of the world. This is largely due to the fact that observation–the ultimate criterion–consistently fails to verify the theories that are embodied in climate »
May 28, 2026 — Bill Glahn

Emergency pardon [With Comment by John]

Featured imageFrom Fox News, Tim Walz pardons illegal alien convicted of armed robbery before ICE deportation to Laos. “Armed robbery.” The headline pretty much covers the story. Minnesota’s Democratic governor on Wednesday pardoned an illegal alien previously convicted of armed robbery before he could be deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Jai Vang, an illegal alien from Laos, was convicted of aiding and abetting and armed robbery in Hennepin County »
May 28, 2026 — John Hinderaker

The Better Part of Valor

Featured imageCNN reports that the Department of Justice is investigating Jean Carroll, who famously sued President Trump for sexual assault and defamation: The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the former magazine columnist who accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. The investigation is focused on whether Carroll committed perjury in testimony tied to her two civil lawsuits »
May 28, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Blackwell’s folly

Featured imageBrian O’Hara as resigned as chief of the Minneapolis Police Department in disgrace. Katie Blackwell, formerly assistant chief of operations, is now the acting chief. I was seving as a member of the board of Alpha News at the time that Blackwell sued Alpha News and Liz Collin as a result of her brief appearance in the film The Fall of Minneapolis (produced by Liz Collin). Based on her appearance »
May 29, 2026 — Scott Johnson

A response to Graham Platner

Featured imageMaine’s Graham Platner is one of the vile candidates for the United States Senate that the Democratic Party has vomited up and into public prominence. He recently attacked Army combat vet and Purple Heart recipient Teddy Daniels. I have posted a thumbnail photo of Daniels on the home page. Fox News caught up with Daniels for a video response to Platner that is posted here. The editors of the Wall »
May 29, 2026 — Scott Johnson

“I’m thinking it over”

Featured imageLooking for an up-to-the-moment summary of where we are with Iran, I turn to the Hill’s Sophie Bram in her story “Trump on Iran: ‘They’re very good negotiators.’” Yes, they are stringing out the ceasefire in which they seem to have given up nothing in exchange for a cessation of hostilities. According to this story: Trump announced on Saturday that the U.S. and Iran were closing in on a deal »
May 28, 2026 — Bill Glahn

Peace is at hand?

Featured imageThere is a concept in contract law that goes by the phrase “a meeting of the minds.” As everyone knows, I’m not a lawyer, but I keep thinking about the phrase whenever I see headlines like this one from Investors Business Daily, Stock market today: Nasdaq leads rise to record highs on Iran deal hopes. “Hopes” is the correct word. I don’t see a deal because I don’t think the »
May 28, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Quiet about it

Featured imageJonathan Turley has written a good summary of the findings in the matter of Northern District of Georgia Judge Eleanor Ross. Without mentioning Judge Ross’s apparent delegation of her duties in some cases to law clerks, Professor Turley elaborates on the concern that I expressed about the “private reprimand” that is the sum and substance of the discipline the Eleventh Circuit Judicial Council has imposed: All of this leaves me »
May 28, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Not caught in a trap

Featured image“We’re caught in a trap,” Elvis Presley sang in “Suspicious Minds.” The trap then was jealousy. The trap everyone is talking about now — even China’s Xi Jinping found it of use — is the so-called “Thucydides trap.” Thucycides wrote the classic history of the Peloponessian War. Yale’s late, great teacher Donald Kagan wrote a four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War that is a standard in the field. All four »
May 28, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Jeffrey Hart: A teacher celebrated

Featured imageJeffrey Hart taught English at Dartmouth College from 1963 to 1993. During most of those years and after Professor Hart also served as a senior editor of National Review. I was his student for four of those years. The memories have come flooding back as I have been rereading Gulliver’s Travels over the past several weeks, a book I first read in Professor Hart’s course on the era of Dryen »