Stunning and brave

Legal Insurrection: "‘Wicked’ Star Cynthia Erivo Cast as Jesus in Hollywood Bowl’s ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’."

Never change, Hollywood.

Wipe it out

Issues and Insights: "Isn’t 46 Years Of Failure Enough? Time To Kill The Education Dept." 

Margaret Brennan again

Power Line: "Why no one respects the legacy Media."

To which I would add that Amy Klobuchar recently appeared on CNN spreading outright lies about Trump's budget cuts, receiving absolutely no pushback from Dana Bash.

Extra - Red State: "'60 Minutes' Airs an All-Timer, and the Depths They Sink to Will Blow Your Mind."  What's in the water over at CBS News?

More - PJ Media: "What the Hell Is Wrong With CBS News?"  Good question!

It's complicated

Nice review here by Eugene Volokh as to whether the Associated Press can be excluded from the White House press briefings: "May Officials Exclude Journalists from Press Events Based on Disapproval of Journalists' Speech?"

The short answer appears to be: "yes, but it's a bad idea." 

The Left hates free speech

If it's Sunday, it's time for Margaret Brennan to make an ass of herself again: "Marco Rubio Leaves CBS News' Margaret Brennan Speechless After She Claimed Nazis 'Weaponized' Free Speech." 

That was an exciting 12 laps

Rain stopped the NASCAR season after a dozen laps.  Oh well, there's this: "NASCAR fans cheer as Trump arrives for Daytona 500 in Air Force One."

SNL is a crashing bore

Hollywood in Toto: "How ‘Saturday Night Live’ Betrayed Its Legacy (and Us) - Once-mighty show's political bias only half of its existential crisis." 

Here's my take: I used to watch SNL fairly regularly, at least catching the opening sketch and monologue for a laugh.  But then there was a stretch where Alec Baldwin as Trump opened the show every single week.  It was a predictable and total bore with the same anti-Trump jokes recycled over and over.  For the past four years, I've been waiting for the Joe Biden sketches but they never materialized until after the debate and he was essentially a zombie candidate.

So maybe the show is funny again, maybe not.  But I'm not watching so I wouldn't know.

The Paper of record

Babylon Bee: "Democrats Demand Transparency From Man Who Posts Literally Everything He Does On The Internet." 

This was written by a grown man

I had to check but apparently Dan Froomkin is not a sophomore at Oberlin College.  He's a man (allegedly) who wrote this childish temper tantrum over the Trump White House banning the Associated Press: "How the White House press corps should respond to the banning of the Associated Press."

Spoiler alert: it involves a lot of ineffectual foot-stamping and moral solipsism.  Legal action?  OMG, don't threaten me with a good time, Dan. 

"It's just so obvious. They're so bad at it."

Twitchy: "Trump and Musk Amused at Dems and Legacy Media’s Lame Attempts at Driving Wedge Between Them." 

Fauxcahontas on the war path

Reason: "Elizabeth Warren's Hubris Allowed Trump To Defund the CFPB - Instead of isolating the CFPB from Congress' budget-making authority, Warren and former President Barack Obama made it easier for a president to effectively shut it down."

Here's where the hubris enters the story. When Warren and Obama created the CFPB, they designed that unorthodox funding structure specifically to prevent a future Republican-led Congress from trying to defund the bureau. Remember, this was in the age when Republicans were running around the country telling voters they intended to repeal Obamacare too. By isolating the CFPB from Congress' budgetary powers, Warren was trying to make it invulnerable to attack.

Instead, she simply gave it a fatal flaw.

Earlier this week, the Trump administration submitted its CFPB funding request to the Federal Reserve. It asked for…$0.

If Warren didn't get cutesy and instead just submitted CFPB to the normal budget process, it may have survived.  But instead she and Obama created a federal fiefdom that fell under executive purview alone and now that's Trump. 

This is the way

Here's Trump answering questions from the Oval Office today:

Trump schools CNN reporter on Russia/Ukraine war: "This should have been done by Biden years ago. This should never have been allowed to happen. I know he's a friend of yours. He's a friend of CNN. That's why nobody watches CNN anymore because they have no credibility."

BOOM! pic.twitter.com/vGuPPsRU7h

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) February 13, 2025

Haha - holy cow.  This is the only way for Republicans to address the mainstream media: always assume they're the enemy.  It's a well-earned reputation. 

Corruption in Illinois? No!

Just the News: "Ex-Illinois House Speaker convicted on 10 corruption charges at trial that exposed Democrat greed." - "Michael Madigan, the long-serving Illinois House Speaker who in his hey-day rubbed elbows with elites like Barack Obama, was convicted Wednesday on 10 federal charges after a long-running influence peddling trial that exposed corruption and greed inside the state's Democrat establishment." 

FEMA FAFO

NY Post: "FEMA employees fired over ‘egregious’ $59M payment for NYC migrants." 

This is just career suicide. 

They can't help themselves

Here's liberal pollster Ruy Teixeira stating what is completely obvious to non-Democrats: "Defending USAID Is Political Suicide for Democrats."

Okay, let’s recap the situation:

1. Democrats are unconditionally defending an obscure government institution at a time when even well-known and previously trusted institutions are regarded with intense suspicion. A key finding from New York Times polling in the 2024 election cycle was that voters overwhelmingly believe the political and economic system in America needs either major changes, or to be completely rebuilt.

2. This particular obscure institution does one of American voters’ least favorite things: provide foreign aid.

3. Finally, not only are Democrats blanket defending an obscure institution that does something American voters don’t particularly want to, they are defending it without explaining their own priorities. What aid would they preserve and what would they get rid of? It is a legitimate issue, in light of concerns about USAID, which is not a “criminal organization,” as Musk called it, but does have long-standing issues with efficiency and focus.

A political faction not consumed with sheer hatred would accept the current zeitgeist and pick their battles more carefully.  But that's not the TDS-obsessed Democrats today.  

They're in a spiral.

The Left is utterly lost

The grasping madness: "Liberal Magazine: Hitler Knew How to Fund Science, Unlike Trump." 

CFPB powers down

Red State: "Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Website Goes Dark and the Woodchipper Warms Up."

I'm not necessarily opposed to the role of the CFPB as a kind of overseer of the financial sector.  What I do not like is the quasi-legal structure of the bureau which is semi-isolated from the control of the executive branch.  Until now, maybe.

Update - CNBC: "Consumer Financial Protection Bureau staff told to work remotely as headquarters is shuttered."