May 23, 2026 — Steven Hayward

The Week in Pictures: Messy Massie Edition

Featured image Greetings from Palermo, where I’m currently on a diplomatic mission to sort out the Europeans. Meanwhile, the salient news of the week is that Republicans seem to dealing with the anti-Semites in their midst while Democrats nominate theirs for higher office. More significantly, in purging Sen. Bill Cassidy and Rep. Thomas “Hot Mess” Massie (did Trump ever call him that?—he should have if not), Trump has achieved what Franklin Roosevelt »
May 22, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Is There a Based Approach to the Law?

Featured imageYoung conservatives often refer to themselves as “based.” What does it mean? A based conservative is a young, populist, America First, non-establishment conservative. That isn’t a description that applies to many lawyers and judges, especially these days. Is there such a thing as a based approach to the law? There is, and it probably sounds to you like common sense. Law professor Ilan Wurman explains: Right. At the margins, under »
May 22, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Minnesota Pays Murderer $4.5 Million

Featured imageIn the course of committing an armed robbery in Minneapolis in 2004, Marvin Haynes shot and killed the owner of a flower shop. He was prosecuted, identified by witnesses (“Oh my God, that’s him”), and heard to talk about “shooting an old white man” at the time of the murder. Haynes was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. His conviction was upheld by the Minnesota Court of »
May 22, 2026 — John Hinderaker

The Dems Are Hurting For ’28

Featured imageDemocrats think they have the GOP on the run for this year’s midterms courtesy of their Iranian allies, but a problem looms: they need a presidential candidate for 2028. It has been a while since the Democrats have fielded a strong presidential nominee. Joe Biden was pedestrian at best in 2020, and Kamala Harris was awful in 2024. Surely they can do better in 2028. Right? Perhaps not. Rasmussen reports »
May 22, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Douglas Murray comes to town

Featured imageI wrote about Douglas Murray’s appearance at the Temple of Aaron earlier this week in “From Saint Paul to San Diego.” This year’s annual temple fundraiser honored retiring executive director Ken Agranoff after 39 years of service to the congregation. Ken interviewed Murray on the raised temple pulpit for about an hour, when Murray exited stage left. At the outset of his remarks Murray refers to two of the speakers »
May 22, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Liberal Occupations and Conservative Occupations

Featured imageVia InstaPundit, check out this chart showing political donations by occupation, where the donations are most one-sided either in favor of Democrats or Republicans: The most striking part of this chart is how much bluer the bluest occupations are than the reddest are red. Progressives & liberals are far likelier to live in a monopartisan/monocultural bubble. pic.twitter.com/ZO4DlKzQjp — Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) May 19, 2026 Dan McLaughlin’s observation is clearly right, »
May 21, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Dems Lying About Taxes: What Else Is New?

Featured imageWhen Scott and I began writing newspaper op-eds and magazine pieces circa 1990, one of the subjects we focused on was the Democrats’ persistent lying about taxes. One of our articles in National Review, which exposed lies that Democratic journalists told about former President George H.W. Bush’s taxes, generated a signed, hand-typed letter from Bush to us. Lies about taxes are particularly absurd, since the IRS publishes data every year »
May 21, 2026 — John Hinderaker

About the New Minnesota Fraud Prosecutions

Featured imageEarlier today, Scott attended the press conference in Minneapolis hosted by Robert Kennedy Jr., Dr. Oz, U.S. Attorney Dan Rosen, and others from DOJ and the FBI. He no doubt will report on the press conference shortly. I will just add a few observations of my own. * The assembled officials announced 15 new fraud indictments relating to various Medicaid programs. This is the fulfillment of what Assistant U.S. Attorney »
May 21, 2026 — Bill Glahn

Almost heaven

Featured imageI’m finishing up one of my frequent cross-country road trips. In the past two days, I have covered more that 1,100 miles through the mid-Atlantic and the Midwest. Judging by my mid-week observations on America’s interstates, there is no economic recession. The highways of America are all but impassable owing to the volume of tractor-trailers on the road. Judging by their performance up and down the mountains of West Virginia, »
May 20, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Bad Ideas Never Die

Featured imagePrice controls are in the Hall of Fame of bad ideas. They have an unbroken record of failure, stretching back literally thousands of years. And yet, they remain alluring to people with no knowledge of either history or economics, or–probably more relevant–to failing governments. There was a time when Britain’s government was known for a certain level of financial sophistication. No longer: [British Chancellor] Rachel Reeves is pressuring supermarkets to »
May 20, 2026 — John Hinderaker

America’s Worst Senate Candidate

Featured imageIt is a remarkable fact about the Democrats’ Senate candidate in Maine, Graham Platner, that his Nazi tattoo is not the most reprehensible thing about him. His social media history is appalling and is just now coming to light. Thus: Seven years ago, Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner cruelly mocked an American soldier who was caught on camera taking fire from the Taliban in Afghanistan. The viral helmet footage »
May 22, 2026 — Scott Johnson

A chamber of horrors

Featured imageSometimes the Twin Cities feel to me like the highly improbable center of the universe. Once upon a time Prince created his own musical world here. It’s been downhill from there. Prince’s tragically premature death in 2016 may have been an early warning signal. By 2016 Minnesota had became a fertile source of recruitment for foreign terrorists. Serving as counsel for TCF National Bank’s Minnesota operations, I was repeatedly told »
May 21, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Dr. Oz makes a house call

Featured imageI erred. I confess. Please don’t turn me in to PolitiFact! Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche did not come to town. He was otherwise engaged when he was advertised to appear at the press conference the Department of Justice advised us he would attend at 11:00 a.m. this morning in the Office of the United States Attorney for Minnesota. The press conference did not begin as scheduled either. I have »
May 21, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Cuba Libre?

Featured imageEvents are moving forward in Cuba, to what end we do not yet know. Federal prosecutors have indicted Raul Castro, the Tyrant’s younger brother, now 94 years old, for murder. The charge goes back to 1996, when Castro allegedly ordered the downing of two airplanes occupied by American citizens. There is generally no statute of limitations on murder. The indictment obviously raises the prospect of Castro being placed under arrest »
May 21, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Mr. Blanche comes to Minneapolis

Featured imageFeeding Our Future fraud ringleader Aimee Bock will be sentenced at a hearing before Judge Nancy Brasel at 9:00 this morning. The government has asked for a sentence of 50 years. Bock has asked for a sentence of time served or a maximum of 37 months. Judge Brasel has the discretion to depart from the recommended sentence under the federal sentencing guidelines, but she will take them into account in »
May 20, 2026 — John Hinderaker

A Shameful NAACP Boycott

Featured imageI am willing to assume that there was a time when the NAACP did some good. (I do not make the same assumption about the SPLC.) But that time is long, long gone. For many years, the NAACP has been a force for ill, not for good. An excellent example is its just-launched boycott campaign: The NAACP is calling on Black athletes and fans to boycott the athletic programs of »
May 20, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Quote of the day

Featured imageThe government has filed its sentencing memorandum in the case against Aimee Bock, the convicted ringleader in the massive Feeding Our Future fraud. The government seeks a sentence of 50 years. Although the memorandum has been widely reported, I haven’t seen any story that actually links to it. It is accessible online here. Dated May 18, the memorandum is filed under the signature of Assistant United States Attorney Rebecca Kline. »