May 27, 2026 — Bill Glahn

Deep state

Featured image My vote for headline of the day: from NBC News, Former CIA officer accused of stealing 300 gold bars, sources say. Wut? NBC reports, A former CIA senior officer with top secret-level clearance has been accused of secretly stashing millions of dollars in gold bars in his home that he said he needed for “work-related expenses,” according to court documents and two people familiar with his employment history. David Rush, »
May 27, 2026 — John Hinderaker

In the U.K., Violence Works

Featured imageThe British Museum, in recognition of Jewish Culture Month, scheduled a lunchtime lecture event titled “Ancient Israel and Judah in the British Museum.” The lecture was to be given by Dr Paul Collins, Keeper of the Department of the Middle East. The description sounds interesting if you like ancient Near Eastern history: The histories of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah can be illuminated by the archaeology and art of »
May 27, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Whistling Past the Graveyard

Featured imageToday President Trump expressed confidence about the situation in Iran, and unconcern about the midterm elections: President Trump has said he does not care about the midterm elections and is willing to “outwait” Iran after the White House rejected the latest ceasefire deal proposed by Tehran. At a cabinet meeting in the White House, Trump said that his government was “not satisfied” with the Iranian proposals and reiterated his threat »
May 27, 2026 — Scott Johnson

In camera inspection

Featured imageMarco Polo’s Garrett Ziegler has identified the “sitting” federal district court judge found to have committed judicial misconduct, perhaps most notably, for having having sex in her chambers. Ziegler concisely reports the facts and identifies “the subject judge,” as the Eleventh Circuit Judicial Council Order gingerly puts it, or “the Subject Judge,” as the 20-page memorandum attached to the Order gingerly puts it. Ziegler has identified Judge Eleanor Ross of »
May 27, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Fraud, Iran, Texas Senate Race and Snakes

Featured imageIt was a wide-ranging conversation on the Rita Panahi Show last night, covering the latest on welfare fraud and on Iran. We talked about the Senate race in Texas, where Kan Paxton won the runoff decisively, and Rita wondered whether a candidate like James Talarico could really get elected. We also discussed my Power Line post on the growing supremacy of red states, and wrapped up with RFK Jr’s remarkable »
May 27, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Will the Administration Shut Down International Travel?

Featured imageThis is justifiable, but perhaps the most radical idea the Trump administration has floated so far: 🚨 HUGE DEVELOPMENT: Sec. Markwayne Mullin announces DHS is drawing up plans to BLOCK ALL international flights into sanctuary cities by ending Customs screening there This would DEVASTATE those cities. Mullin is doing it as a direct result of sanctuaries refusing to cooperate… pic.twitter.com/GRHOWtdipv — Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 27, 2026 As I understand »
May 27, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Threre’s a darkness…

Featured imageOver the Memorial Day weekend this past Sunday, Margaret Brennan hosted two Medal of Honor recipients on the CBS News gabfest known as Face the Nation. Rush used to refer to it as Deface the Nation. Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel William Swenson and retired Army Command Sergeant Major Matthew Williams appeared on the show to discuss military service, martial valor, and the promise of America. Then Captain Swenson’s Medal of »
May 26, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Who’s Behind the War on Data Centers?

Featured imageFor many years the Soviet Union, and then Russia, financed the environmental movement in the United States. Their purpose was to suppress American production of oil and gas, and they succeeded to a considerable degree, to their own great benefit. Today, we are in the midst of another kind of race with Communist China–the race to develop superior systems of artificial intelligence. The Chinese Communist Party knows that if it »
May 26, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Red States Clobbering Blue States

Featured imageThe sorting of America into red and blue zones is one of the most important developments of our time, about which we have often written. People are leaving blue states for red states, in part in search of lower taxes. But that is actually half, or less, of the story. Richard Vedder and Nicholas Jadwisienczak of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity have analyzed growth in personal income from 2000 to »
May 26, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Include us out

Featured imageGraham Greene designated his less serious fiction “entertainments,” though he eventually dispensed with the designation. One such “entertainment” was the thriller Ministry of Fear (1943, now with an introduction by Alan Furst), turned into the 1944 film of the same name directed by Fritz Lang. Greene’s novel comes to mind this morning in connection with the Brussels Signal daily newsletter Brussels Calling! From Brussels Calling! I learn that Spain has »
May 26, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Whip it

Featured image“Begs the question” does not mean “raises the question.” “Imply” does not mean “infer.” “Affect” does not mean “effect.” “Discrete” does not mean “discreet.” “Flaunt” does not mean “flout.” See if you can spot the error in Mike Davis’s Fox News column “Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Democrats’ patron saint of human traffick”: Kilmar Armando Ábrego García, a Salvadoran alleged criminal, blatantly disregarded our laws by entering the United States illegally. »
May 27, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Exit Brian O’Hara, stage left [Updated]

Featured imageI have probably written too much about Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara over the past few years. I thought he willfully sold out his department in the various pattern-and-practice civil rights cases brought against it by the state and federal government. He agreed to absurd consent decrees that followed on those cases, although the Trump administration nixed the federal consent decree. To top it off, he supported Deputy Chief Katie »
May 27, 2026 — Scott Johnson

What Swift saw

Featured imageYesterday we took a look at the unahappy scientific cranks of Laputa in Part III of Gulliver’s Travels. Gulliver observed the “continual disquietudes” that upset their peace of mind, but he didn’t leave it there. He also observed their political obssession: Most of them, and especially those who deal in the astronomical part, have great faith in judicial astrology, although they are ashamed to own it publicly. But what I »
May 26, 2026 — Bill Glahn

Stock market paradox

Featured imageIt’s the worst news ever. From the Associated Press (AP), As US stock market hits new highs, 2 of 3 Americans are cutting back on spending, survey shows. The construction of the headline implies causality, rather than coincidence. Stock market records are producing widespread suffering amongst the general populace, as fat cats grow ever richer. It is a truth universally acknowledged that when a Republican occupies the White House, stock »
May 26, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Memory versus anti-history

Featured imageYesterday I posted the full video of Aaron MacLean interviewing Niall Ferguson for Aaron’s School of War podcast in “The rise of anti-history.” As I always do, I watched the video its entirety before recommending it here. You had to watch it to the end to hear Aaron rejecting the “anti-history” in which we are suffocating. He did so with an anecdote that powerfully recalled his father. In case you »
May 26, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Laputa today

Featured imageI studied Gulliver’s Travels in Jeffrey Hart’s course on early eighteenth-century English literature, from Dryden through Pope. Hart was a great teacher and this was a great course. In Part III of the book Gulliver recounts his voyage to Laputa. Laputa is an island levitating in the sky. This is Gulliver’s description of the men he first encounters in Laputa when he climbs up to the island: At my alighting, »
May 26, 2026 — Scott Johnson

A nod to Bob

Featured imageSylvia Weiser Wendel writes in response to my celebration of Bob Dylan in two posts — “Not dark yet” and “Chimes of freedom” — this past Sunday. Dylan’s 85th birthday provided the occasion of my posts. Ms. Wendel’s personal site is Joseph Conrad Fan Fiction. She writes: Your Dylan columns triggered the following reminiscence: In 1987 I was in the car, on my way to work as a paralegal in »