May 27, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Fraud, Iran, Texas Senate Race and Snakes

Featured image It 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 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 — 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 25, 2026 — Bill Glahn

Anti-ICE stunt

Featured imageFrom the New York Post, NJ Gov. Mikie Sherrill slammed for Memorial Day ‘stunt’ at Newark ICE facility as tense protests rage. Sherill is a state governor, not a federal official. What expectation should there have been for a state official showing up unannounced to a federal facility, on a holiday, and demanding entry? The Post reports, Sherrill was denied access to the detention center Monday after several of her »
May 25, 2026 — Scott Johnson

The Times from Castro to Castro

Featured imageStudents of ancient history may recall that the New York Times played a familiar role in the rise of Fidel Castro before he overthrew the Batista regime. The paper supported “Señor Castro” with the rosy tint supplied by reporter Herbert Matthews. (“Señor Castro” is how Matthews referred to him.) Matthews’s work is accessible in the archive maintained at the Times site online. This brief summary provides a useful reminder of »
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 »
May 25, 2026 — John Hinderaker

In France, the Times May Be Changing

Featured imageFrance’s Minister of Justice, expected to be a candidate to succeed Emmanuel Macron, is coming out against immigration: French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin has called for a three-year pause on immigration, arguing that the country has reached its “limit” due to the mass influx of foreigners over the past few decades. *** Speaking to Le Journal du Dimanche, the Justice Minister said he rejects the notion that race prevents some »
May 25, 2026 — Scott Johnson

The rise of anti-history

Featured imageAaron MacLean is the host of the School of War podcast, national security analyst for CBS News, and a columnist for the Free Press. He was a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Hudson Institute. Before that, he worked on Capitol Hill as senior foreign policy advisor and legislative director to Senator Tom Cotton and served on active duty as a U.S. Marine for seven »