Robert Reich: 'nuf said

Powerline: "Dems lying about taxes: What else is new?"

As John Hinderaker notes, Robert Reich is not a fool and surely understands that the way he presents his argument is deeply dishonest.  But he's got to stir up the outrage and get the clicks.

RIP Kyle Busch

I can't improve on this excellent article from Jerry Wilson at Red State: "Why Kyle Busch's Death Hurts So Much."

For those of you unfamiliar with the NASCAR scene, Kyle Busch was a talented driver and a two-time Cup champion.  But it's fair to say he was not a fan favorite.  He was abrasive and off-standish and was an ungracious and sullen loser.  When he won, boos would rain down on him from the grandstand.

But I kinda liked him for his uncompromising style.  At one NASCAR race I saw in New Hampshire, I might have been the only person in the crowd wearing a #5 Kyle Busch hat.

Kyle Busch leaves behind an 11-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter.  Very sad.

Something happened

Ace: "Surprise! The DNC's "Autopsy" Is a Sham, a Deliberately Incomplete Document Left Unfinished Because Democrats Don't Dare Tell the Truth About Their Collapse."

Politico: "'The report's so stupid': The DNC 2024 autopsy is roiling Democrats."

From what I can tell, the report is a version of the joke of when you're asked at an interview about your greatest weakness and you respond: "I work too hard!"  In this case the Democrats have come up with "gosh darn it, we just weren't negative enough against Trump."

"Sure we called him Hitler but we should have called him Super Hitler!"

Also, I hear the passive voice does some heavy lifting in phrases like "then the debate happened."

That's okay. You guys didn't mention it either until you were forced to after that debate. https://t.co/qXdi5z79cg

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 21, 2026

Colbert is a coward

Sasha Stone: "Good Riddance, Stephen Colbert - It couldn't have happened to a bigger jerk."

Good riddance, Stephen Colbert, you snide, smug, sanctimonious, intolerable partisan hack. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

My main beef with Colbert/Kimmel/Oliver etc. is that they love to play the tough guy within their echo chamber but they'll never confront their enemies face-to-face.  If they truly believed they had a monopoly on political rhetoric, they would invite Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio or Scott Jennings onto their show to mix it up.  Instead they all - like cowards - invite Bernie Sanders and AOC so they call all agree with one another and bask in the glow of their own moral superiority.

Oh it's (D)ifferent now

Manhattan Contrarian: "Sue and Settle: Two can play this game." - "So no, New York Times, there is nothing “unusual,” let alone “highly unusual,” about the government using settlement of a litigation to set up a slush fund to pass out to political friends and allies.  The only thing unusual is the use of this strategy by a Republican President.  It took him a while, but it looks like he finally figured out that two can play this game." 

This will go as well as "buy nothing" day

Nobody is going to do this: "NAACP Urges Athletes to Withhold Support From Schools in States That Have Moved to Erase Black Votes." 

Here we go again

Red State: "SCOTUS Just Hit Reset on Two Voting Rights Cases - and KBJ Is Not Happy."

The sole dissenter...again. 

Extra - Legal Insurrection - “KBJ has become the equivalent of a hand grenade that Joe Biden threw into the Supreme Court”

Medicaid for...art lessons?

Wall Street Journal: "The Great California Medicaid Grift - Why the federal share of the state’s spending on the program is $138 billion, more than the general fund of every other state." 

And the media lets them off the hook

Townhall: "Democrats Refuse To Even Talk To the American People Anymore."

I used to watch the Sunday morning shows but the quality of the interviews has gotten so poor.  The guests are asked a question and - no matter the topic - they launch into their talking points as a kind of filibuster to run out the clock.  You will never get Elizabeth Warren to tell you what a "fair share" is.  Hakeem Jeffries will never explain how he thinks the Supreme Court is full of racists.  Democrats can say the craziest stuff and the interviewer just nods along.

Flashback - "Bill Maher Blasts Democrats for Being Too ‘Afraid’ to Go on His Show."

There's no crying in NASCAR

Outkick: "Female NASCAR driver cries during shocking in-car meltdown, parks truck during race and rage-quits the series." - "In no world should her boss be trying to talk her off a ledge over the radio during a race. That's high school stuff. This is the real world." 

I've been a NASCAR fan for a long time so let me say this about another female driver that NASCAR was desperately trying to promote: Danica Patrick.  She was considered something of a joke and her racing record was extremely spotty with more DNFs than top-10 finishes.  But she was never afraid to jump out of her car after a race and confront somebody who had done her wrong.  She's a spitfire.

Crying in your truck?  What a travesty. 

Mamdani discovers he's the parasite

NY Post: "Billionaire Ken Griffin ghosts Mamdani after NYC ‘Tax the Rich’ video flap"

After Mamdani doxxed Griffin, the billionaire said he was "reviewing" a huge development in New York City and that he was definitely going to expand his financial operation in Miami.  Quite suddenly, the Boy Mayor discovered that he's the parasite to Griffin's host.

SCOTUS to VA Dems: GTFO

Hot Air: "BREAKING: Unanimous SCOTUS Rejects VA Dems Attempt to Reinstate Referendum."

This was all just posing.  Nobody actually believed the Supreme Court was going to rule on a state matter.  The Dems didn't even get KBJ, that's how stupid this appeal was.

Defamation 101

Jen Psaki makes up some fake stuff and here comes the blowback: "Eric Trump Torches Psaki’s ‘Monolog of Lies,’ Vows Massive MSNOW Lawsuit."

This is the only way the mainstream media learns: with cold, hard cash.

None dare call it fascism

Hot Air: "Tossing the Constitution: The Democrats' Latest 'Save Democracy' Plan." 

He bought this on himself

PJ Media: "Biden's Third 'Memoir' Will Embarrass and Humiliate Him."

Biden tried to claim executive privilege to prevent the release of audio tapes with his ghostwriter.  But - guess what! - Trump is in control of the government now. 

Booker is incapable of shame

LA Times: "Cory Booker should be ashamed of himself"

But do we really believe that white Democrats — in the post-Jim Crow South, or anywhere else — are unwilling or incapable of representing the political interests of Black voters? Do Black legislators ignore the interests of their white constituents?

Which brings me back to where I started.

Cory Booker is Black. Black residents make up roughly 13% of his state’s population. Are the other 87% disenfranchised or otherwise unrepresented by his election? Of course not. But I would love to have heard Booker explain why.

Good question!  In a totally unrelated question, can a gay man represent the interests of straight constituents?  The people need to know.

I've heard better political slogans

Karen Bass has settled on a position for her campaign: "Meth heads need teeth!" 

Xavier Becerra is pathetic

Ace: "Obama's Oxygen Thief DHS [sic] Secretary, Xavier Becerra, Is Currently the Leading Democrat for California Governor and Cannot Answer Questions About His Record Without Begging for Mercy."

When the reporter points out that children as young as 14 wound up, get this, working as near-slave labor in slaughterhouses and with heavy machinery, he just sulks. It's not fair to demand accountability from a Democrat.

As Thomas Sowell says: "When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination."  And, brother, nobody gets more reach-arounds from the mainstream media than Democrats.

Now this is where it turns pathetic: He begins whining that he agreed to a profile not an interview and in a profile you're supposed to shine his ass with Turtle Wax and a sheepskin chamois and only ask a few "tough questions" while this monster just keeps asking him tough questions!

Let me repeat the headline fact: He's the current front-running Democrat for governor, and he says it's not fair to ask him about his actual record.

In my opinion, the funniest part of this interview is when Becerra tries to dismiss these criticisms of losing immigrant children as Trump-driven propaganda and the interviewer responds "that's from the New York Times."  Oh, man.

The Left hates free speech

Legal Insurrection: "UCLA Under Senate Investigation After Threatening Federalist Society Students - A dean’s threat to punish Federalist Society students if they released the names of disruptive protesters “violated the First Amendment.” 

Democrats believe in assassinations

Unless they fail and - unacceptably! - generate sympathy for the attacked: "Washington Post: 42% of Democrats Think the Butler PA Assassination Attempt that Killed One Man Was "Staged"." 

The one-time tax on billionaires...

...will be neither "one-time" nor only on billionaires.  Real Clear Policy: "California’s ‘Billionaire Tax’ Could Reach Far Beyond Billionaires." 

Never go full banana republic

PJ Media: "The Democrats’ Unhinged Response to the Virginia Ruling Tells You Everything."

That’s right, Democrats literally violated the state constitution to pass the gerrymander, yet they're blaming the Supreme Court of Virginia for calling them out on it. Two options emerged from the call. The first was a straightforward act of defiance — redraw the congressional lines anyway, despite the court having already struck them down.

The second was something out of a banana republic playbook: engineer the replacement of the entire Virginia Supreme Court, potentially through retirements or impeachment, then push through a newly constituted bench that would rubber-stamp the invalidated map. The New York Times described this as "an unusual gambit to replace the entire state Supreme Court, with a goal of reinstating their gerrymandered map."

That’s one way to put it.

The story I saw said the Democrats wanted to lower the retirement age to 54 (!) to clear out the entire Virginia Supreme Court, then install seven new justices.  This is sheer lunacy.

Do the right thing, L.A.

Pirate Wires: "The Case for Spencer Pratt - if angelenos have any survival instinct left, they'll elect the only candidate capable of restoring our belief in reality."

This was a tough article to read, especially if you like dogs.

Look who's prosecuting fraud!

Fox News: "Minnesota nonprofit accused of siphoning $6.5M to fund Vegas trips, luxury cars, private liquor store - We Push for Peace leaders face civil lawsuit from Minnesota attorney general"

Minnesota is a target-rich environment and Keith Ellison was shamed into doing his job.

Performative coping

Virginia Democrats are appealing their own Supreme Court's ruling to the Federal Supreme Court: "What VA Dems Are Doing Following Their Brutal Redistricting Defeat Will Leave You Howling."

They can't be this stupid.  This has to be just for show to prove to the sheep they're "fighting."

I love the answer to this question

PJ Media: "Who’s the Biggest Loser After the Virginia Supreme Court Ruling?"

The answer is Hakeem Jeffries, who set $40 million on fire.

Unconstitutional

Huge news out of Virginia: "Breaking: Virginia Supreme Court Overturns Gerrymander Scheme in Big Blow to Democrats." 

From my quick read, it sounds like the Virginia Court ruled the process to cram the referendum through the Legislature was so flawed that it was ruled unlawful. 

Extra - The ruling was 4-3 and it looks like the Virginia Supreme Court also has three justices who just ignore the law.  As former Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli notes, the dissenting judges decided to make up a rationale that was never argued by the State of Virginia. 

Thanks, Virginia!

Hard to overstate how much Virginia’s insanity, led by Democrat Louise Lucas, pushed multiple red states to redistrict. The Callais decision from SCOTUS was obviously important, but by itself it wouldn’t have led to TN or AL redistricting. The insanely corrupt Democrat overreach…

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) May 8, 2026

I have secondhand embarrassment from this article

Boston Globe: "For Colbert, humanity was never a punch line - What’s most noteworthy about the late-night host is not his anger but the extent to which his comedy is grounded in empathy and rooted in values."

OMG.  The whole article is a hagiographic tribute to Colbert for his humanity starting with this banger:

If there were a Mount Rushmore of late-night TV hosts, as measured in terms of cultural impact, four visages would be carved in stone: Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert, whose final night on the air is May 21.

For once, I laughed at something related to Colbert.

Boston Globe columnist Don Aucoin wants us to praise Colbert for his biography instead of for the job he was supposed to have: comedy.  As for the show reportedly losing $40 million a year, well Aucoin just ain't havin' it:

The network has insisted the cancellation was “purely a financial decision,” driven solely by how much money the show was losing, not Colbert’s scorching takedowns of Trump. If you believe that, I’d like to offer you a good deal on the Mystic River Bridge.

Um, I do believe that and can I see that deal on the bridge?

As I said below, Colbert failed at his job and killed the "Late Show" forever.  Don't try to put lipstick on this pig by telling us his heart was in the right place.

I love David Letterman...as a comic

As a culture commentator, not so much.  Don Surber: "Letterman defends Colbert—poorly - In an NYT interview, Santa David made a case that failed like a Colbert monologue."

Colbert was done in by his hubris, which led him into believing he could survive on network television with only half the potential audience.

Oh, Colbert can. He made $15 million a year doing a half-assed job, but CBS made less than zero on the show—reportedly taking a $40 million loss each year.

Don’t cry for Stephen Colbert. Victimhood is a badge of honor on the left and the money will roll in from stand-up tours, TV specials and maybe a movie.

When you strip away all the niceties, Colbert is a failure.  He strayed from comedy for a nightly ego stroke and people changed the channel.  David Letterman - who I saw live in NY during his heyday - should know the difference.

Tennessee goes all red

Shot: "Hakeem's End Zone Dance May Have Been a Safety."

Chaser: "Hakeem's Folly: TN Legislature (Noisily) Passes Redistricted Map. Mississippi's Next. UPDATE: Lee Signs." 

Gonna be some reapin'

Hot Air: "It's Going to Be a Long, Very Hot Summer in Blue Cities."

I, for one, am shocked that New Yorkers somehow feel they have permission to let their antisemitism flag fly.

100% scripted

Twitchy: "Remember When President Biden and Jimmy Kimmel Had a Good Laugh About Jailing Political Opponents?"

Watch this 20-second clip at the link of Joe Biden and Kimmel.  The "comedy" host sets up a Monopoly-themed question and Dementia Joe makes a funny quip within a half-second of being asked.  This was completely set up in advance.

Joe Biden assured me she was smarter than anyone else on the Court

Hot Air: "Uncivil War at SCOTUS: KBJ v ... Everyone?"

The gist of this article is that the Supreme Court suspended the usual 32-day pause before posting the ruling on the Louisiana redistricting case.  The reasoning is that, having ruled racially-drawn districts violate the 15th Amendment, that ruling should take effect before the next election.

Seems reasonable.  And it seems that this procedural ruling had an 8-1 majority since only one Supreme Court Justice dissented.  Take a wild guess.

Justice Alito, in particular, seems to have had enough of Jackson's insults and grandstanding.  KBJ has alienated justices on both sides of the ideological spectrum in record time and it seems like she's incapable of reading the room.

Suicidal empathy in Sweden

Hot Air: "Sweden Lays an Immigration Hammer Down."

The Swedish people were asked to "show tolerance" and "open their hearts" to immigrants and those immigrants showed up with hand grenades. 

Another day, another assassination attempt

Fox News: "Secret Service officers shoot armed individual near White House."

By my count, this is attempt #5 on Trump.  

Fauxcahontas kills another company

Flashback: "iRobot Faces Bankruptcy After Elizabeth Warren Helped Kill $1.65 Billion Amazon Merger."

Today: "Elizabeth Warren Killed Spirit Airlines and Now She’s Complaining About It." 

When journalism happens

NY Post: "Bill Maher drags Gavin Newsom for high-speed rail and sky-high gas in blistering interview."

I cracked up at this line:

The moment appeared to catch Newsom off guard, his expression shifting as the criticism landed.

Yeah, imagine that: an interviewer pressing a politician and expecting a straight answer.  This is why somebody like Hakeem Jeffries would never appear on Maher or Rogan.  Jeffries, in particular, excels at never answering a question and he sticks to shows like "Meet the Press" where he knows he can get away with his obfuscation.  The last time Jeffries was pressured was when GOP Congressman Mike Lawler confronted him in front of cameras and all Jeffries could do was engage in schoolyard insults.

How do low-IQ clowns like Newsom and Jeffries rise so high on the national stage?  It's because the media actively covers up their deficits until - like Biden on the debate stage - it's all exposed.

Like this:

Staffers for Seattle Socialist Mayor Katie Wilson abruptly end an interview with KOMO News Senior Reporter Chris Daniels when she can't answer basic questions

Wilson has been criticized for dodging the press & being unable to answer basic questions since she came into office pic.twitter.com/eJnFtg6CLy

— Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) May 1, 2026

Another aftereffect of runaway Covid spending

American Thinker: "SNAP Is Beyond Broken - From millionaires to overseas foreigners, from NFL players to luxury car owners, our money is going to everyone but us."

Please come back and pay our bills

The Laffer Curve is hilarious!

The return to normalcy

Federalist: "Dems Revive Court-Packing Threats After Being Told They Can’t Do Racist Gerrymandering - After being told states can’t partake in racist gerrymandering, Democrats are renewing their threats to pack the Supreme Court once they regain power." 

Why wait?  Can we pack the courts right now?

Here come the sob stories

NY Times: "Since Congress Let Obamacare Subsidies Expire, Millions Are Dropping Coverage - Americans can’t afford the higher health insurance premiums that resulted from Congress’s refusal to extend federal tax credits."

Just a reminder: Congress passed Obamacare subsidies and then extended them during Covid to paper over the structural failure of the program.  According to the NY Times and the Democrats (I repeat myself) we were supposed to prop up this farce in perpetuity, like Somali Learing Centers.

Uh-huh

U.S. Sun: "DROPPED AGAIN? ABC chiefs are ‘ready to pull’ Jimmy Kimmel Live! & have already spiked promo ads over his Melania ‘widow’ comments."

The man with the Nazi tattoo

The Corner: "Maine Shows Antisemitism Is a Shortcut to Success in the Modern Democratic Party."

Platner was largely unknown at this point last year and yet managed to drive a sitting governor out of the primary before a single vote was cast. But he had one thing going for him, which is that he gained attention for his antisemitism. That is a ticket to success in the modern Democratic Party.

Sadly true.  Still, you have to be careful about those secret Israeli agents. 

Extra - Of course: "Maine Kampf: Bernie Sanders Gives Dem Senate Hopeful Graham Platner His Socialist Seal of Approval." 

While we were watching Iran

1945: "Russia’s Economy Is on the Brink of Collapse." 

West Coast Mamdani

Twitchy: "She Seems Nice: Seattle’s Socialist Nepo Mayor Cackles 'BYE' as Wealth Flees Her Dumpster Fire City." 

Is *everything* in California a money-laundering scheme?

Hot Air: "California Is an Unfunny Joke."

If you stacked dollar bills in the $231 billion needed to finish California's high speed rail, it would be over 15,000 miles high. 

This is not the government's role

Disagree: "The FCC’s Bad News for Disney/ABC: The Time for Playing Nice Is Over."

Agree: "Here's an Idea — Just Let Jimmy Kimmel Continue to Cancel Himself." 

Kimmel has lower ratings than Stephen Colbert who is losing $40 million/year on his way to cancellation.  The federal government shouldn't be involved in pushing Kimmel out.  That's the job of the market and Disney's calculation.

Already ran out of other people's money

That was quick!  Twitchy: "Socialism's Math Lesson: NYC Mayor Mamdani Promises Free Everything, Then Begs New York State for Bailout."

Who could have predicted this outcome?  Oh, yeah, everybody outside the Upper East Side.

Eliminate it

Reason: "The Federal Minimum Wage Is Irrelevant. Good. - The national wage floor is so low that it might as well not exist." 

They cannot be reasoned with

Sasha Stone: "There is No Saving the Left - There is only saving the country from them." 

After ten years of dehumanizing language, they can’t see the reality of who Trump is anymore, much less see his supporters as their fellow Americans. They can only see the delusion - the mirage - the supervillain they invented. If he isn’t even a human anymore, then killing him is as easy as taking out the garbage.

They speak in mantras. They mirror each other. Their hysteria spreads from person to person and ultimately unites them. They are as aligned and of one mind as a cult. They must believe they are still the “resistance” going to war on an insurmountable evil force that can’t be defeated in any ordinary way. It requires something extraordinary, someone, to “just do it.”

Some of my favorite videos on YouTube are the conservatives who wander into "No Kings" rallies and starts asking very basic questions.  These so-called adults just completely melt down at the slightest pushback.

Good question

Hot Air: "Trump to ABC: When Are You Going to Fire Assassination Clown Kimmel, Anyway?"

Kimmel is gonna paint himself as a free speech warrior but at heart he's a coward who would never allow anybody to confront him to his face.  Go ahead, Jimmy: have somebody like Ted Cruz on your show.  Let's see how that goes.

Kimmel must go and NOW

Fox News: "Kimmel calls Melania Trump an ‘expectant widow’ before White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting - The segment aired shortly before a gunman opened fire at a Secret Service checkpoint at the Washington Hilton."

I've said this before but I'm one of those Disney people.  I've been to the parks with my kids a half-dozen times and, after they left the nest, my wife and I have been on a bunch of Disney cruises.  I was so desperate to get out of the house during Covid that I got the vaccine just so I could cruise on the Disney Magic.  Needless to say, I've paid the Disney premium for the Disney brand of entertainment.

But I can't do it anymore if ABC is going to continue to give Jimmy Kimmel a platform for his bottomless and humorless brand of Trump Derangement Syndrome.  Look, Disney, we already know his low-rated show is losing millions a year.  Just cut the cord already.

And, yeah, I get that I'm a molecule in the ocean of Disney's revenue.  But maybe there are millions of guys like me who make the decision to switch to Universal for my theme park needs and Norwegian Cruise Line (leaving out of Boston) for my cruise desires.  Maybe we cancel our Disney Plus accounts and get our Disney merchandise from knock-off sites on Ebay.

But I won't support ABC and Disney while Kimmel still has a show because you're obliquely telling us what you think of half the country.

Pretty much what you would expect

NY Post: "Read White House Correspondents’ Dinner gunman Cole Allen’s full anti-Trump manifesto."

Just another loser covering himself with moral vanity.

China buys 80% of Iran's oil

TIPP Insights: "The Squeeze - The Strait of Hormuz is squeezing Iran. It's also squeezing China."

So I just got back from vacation

To this news: "BREAKING: Shots Fired at Correspondents Dinner, Shooter Neutralized, Trump Evacuated."

This is breaking news but what I'm hearing so far is that somebody tried to get through the metal detector and was shot dead by Secret Service after producing a gun.  Fox Business is allegedly reporting there is a separate person in custody.

So this is by my count the fourth assassination attempt on Trump by nutcases fomented into violence by the political Left.

Update - Now they're saying the gunman is not dead.  Hannity is saying that a Secret Service agent took a bullet to the chest but his vest stopped it.  Trump is supposed to speak in 30 minutes.

Update 2 - In custody: Cole Tomas Allen from California.

Update 3 - Red State: "WHCD Shooter Identified, a 31-Year-Old Teacher From California."  Usually when you reach your thirties, you develop some perspective and reason in your life but I guess not if you're from California. 

Hiatus

Gotta take a break for a couple of weeks.  Catch you later.

When journalism happens

PJ Media: "Maryland’s Wes Moore Gets the ‘Spotlight’ Treatment — and He’s None Too Happy About It."

There is nothing here that a good newspaper wouldn't pursue for a potential Presidential candidate, but all Wes Moore can do is complain that the Baltimore Sun has been taken over by a right-winger.  Sure thing, buddy.  Tell your story to Jen Psaki. 

As I predicted

Hot Air: "Vance: No Deal – And That’s Bad News For Iran."

The sum total of this "negotiation" was that Iran give up its efforts towards nuclear capability.  But they would never do that because they've spent nearly a half-century convincing themselves that opposition to America and Israel is the sum total of its existence. 

Every movement by the Iranians is geared towards delay.  The U.S. response should be geared towards this reality...and a prompt response. 

Overnight implosion

Townhall: "The Eric Swalwell Sexual Assault Story Is Now a Total Fiasco."

Damn, this whole thing went from zero to a 100 in record time.  Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.  I suspect that divorce and resignation from Congress is in his future given the severity of these allegations.

By the way: do you remember what Senator Al Franken did to be forced out of office?  He did an adolescent joke where he mimed grabbing a woman's breasts.  As of now, Swalwell is being accused of r*pe.  He can't remain in office.

We have a name

I've been keeping my powder dry on the Eric Swalwell sexual assault allegations but now it appears like the dam has broken open: "CNN: Three More Women Describe Sexual Misconduct by Rep. Swalwell."

Ally Sammarco is the named woman and there's enough panic that Swalwell's co-campaign managers have both resigned.  As is his wont, there is a 100% chance Swalwell will blame Trump for forcing him to Snapchat his junk.

Flashback: "Eric Swalwell's Fake 'Oh, You SURPRISED Me With That Question' Videos."

Extra - NY Post: "Eric Swalwell’s campaign falls apart as ex-staffer levels horrifying sexual assault claim."

More - Powerline: "Swalwell goes down."  This dirtbag was front-and-center with his baseless allegations against Brett Kavanaugh.  Time for Swalwell to live by the rules he created.

Then resign from Congress.

Nose rings and useless graduate degrees

Reason: "Why Is It so Damn Hard To Find Sympathetic Student Loan 'Victims'? - Less than half of the Class of 2024 took out college loans averaging $30,000—a manageable amount that buys over $1 million in extra lifetime earnings."

Is any subgenre of journalism more debased and alienating than the student-loan sob story? If paying for college with heavily subsidized, federally backed loans was in fact the cause of the new, universal serfdom we hear so much about, you'd think that places like The New York Times would be able to scare up highly sympathetic young adults who tug at readers' heartstrings like orphans in a Dickens novel.

Instead, in stories like last week's "Student Debt Burdened Them, So They Moved Abroad and Stopped Paying," you get characters like 37-year-old Amanda Lynn Tully, who "graduated in 2017 with a master's degree in historic preservation from the University of Oregon, $65,000 in federal student loans and no job offers in the conservation field." Tully, reports the Times, "felt misled" and so "made a drastic decision: She moved to Prague, where she had completed an internship, and defaulted on her loans. She hasn't made a payment in over seven years."

This grown-ass woman defaulted on her student loan and fled the country because she "psychologically" couldn't pay $60/month. 

No free buses in NYC

PJ Media: "Comrade Mamdani Is Getting Smacked Around by Reality."

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani rode into office on a socialist unicorn after promising everything but free ice cream for life to the children of every voter. There are only two blocs in any electorate who vote for the kind of socialist utopian garbage that Mamdani spouted: young people who are too dumb to know any better, and older people who know better, but are so wealthy they don't care. The latter group is simply looking for a politician they might be able to control. Unfortunately, New York has a preponderance of both young, dumb voters, and rich, bored voters.

Imagine believing all these rainbow promises.  Politicians like Mamdani and AOC and Sanders keep insisting the "rich" are sitting on a Scrooge McDuck pile of gold coins and we can have every amenity under the sun if we just take it from them.

All the journalists' egos

Twitchy: "All the President’s Men Turns 50: The Movie That Gave Journalists an Unbearable God Complex."

I've read the book and seen the movie.  The most insufferable part of the Woodward & Berstein saga is how they were spoon-fed every part of the story by Mark Felt and yet they're held up as this paragon of journalism.  It wasn't like they made any big breakthroughs on their own.  They took this unbelievable piece of professional luck and turn it into a half-century grift where every couple of years they appear on some news show to say the latest scandal is "worse than Watergate."

I think I spotted the flaw in the system

Christopher Rufo: "Gavin Newsom’s $30 Billion Fraud Magnet - California’s In-Home Supportive Services Program is ripe for scams, experts say."

The system operates largely on trust. Providers self-report their timecards and check-in records. In roughly 60 percent of cases, providers and beneficiaries live together, delivering care in private homes—typically without the threat of random, unannounced visits.

Suicidal empathy rears its head again.

We'll see

PJ Media: "BREAKING: Trump Announces a Ceasefire."

Delay is a perpetual tactic of the Iranians so I'm not as sanguine as the market futures.

Always with the class warfare

Fauxcahontas is on the warpath again: "Eating Jeff Bezos - Senator Elizabeth Warren proposes a wealth tax on "ultra-millionaires." Note that in 1913, the federal income tax was sold as a tax on the richest of the rich in America."

Warren and Bernie Sanders have exactly one schtick: that guy has more money than you - let's take it.

That's a whole lot of babysitting

Two Eric Swalwell stories today: "Report: Group of Women Preparing to Accuse Rep. Swalwell of Harassment" and "Thread OWNING Eric Swalwell for Nannygate Payments Takes CRAZY Turn to 'OMG, Is He a CREEPER' Town."

The latter grabbed my attention because the rules for paying for child care during a campaign are strictly defined and, by all appearances, Swalwell just paid his nanny a regular salary out of campaign funds.  A whopping $240,000 went for "childcare" reimbursements.

I'm not saying that Swalwell was paying off his nanny to keep her mouth shut about an affair.  I'm just saying that's a lot of cash for somebody who - allegedly - is going to be accused of a lot of DM sliding.

There's always a catch

Just the News: "Iran rejects 45-day ceasefire plan."

There was one minor quibble:

🚨Breaking: My sources confirm that Iran and the US are VERY close to signing a deal. The only issue holding it up is Iran's insistence on destroying America

— David Keyes (@DavidMKeyes) April 6, 2026

Misdirection and logistics

It sounds like those factors are what saved that downed airman in Iran: "Second F-15 Pilot Rescued as Iranian Civilians Aid American Operation to Rescue Him."

The U.S. lured Basij militants to a location 100 miles away from where the guy was hiding while we built our own airport as a forward base.  Amazing.

Excellent news (if true)

Hot Air: "Unconfirmed Reports That F-15 WSO Recovered After Special Forces Battle IRGC."

The unconfirmed stories coming out sound like something from a Hollywood movie: the IRGC swarmed the area looking for their prize and the USAF mowed them down.

Confirmed - "US celebrates successful rescue of F-15E crew member as Trump's Iran ultimatum ticks down." 

Money laundering scheme

Federalist: "Report: ActBlue Likely Lied To Congress About Illegal Foreign Donations, Its Lawyers Feared Privately." 

Layers of fact-checkers

Fox News: "New York Times goes viral for erroneous print headline on Trump's NATO exit threat - Times spokesperson says the paper will issue a correction after wrongly calling it North American Treaty Organization."

Couldn't happen to a nicer newspaper.

Hollywood is dying

Long thread on Instapundit discussing this Wall Street Journal article: "See How Hollywood’s Job Market Is Collapsing - Studios are making fewer movies and shows than they did just a few years ago. The ones they do make are increasingly being shot outside the U.S."

It's easy to say Hollywood went woke and got broke but look at the evidence: the two biggest hits of the last couple years are "Top Gun: Maverick" and "Project Hail Mary" - movies that tell a compelling story with a strong male lead and zero lectures.  Meanwhile, Hollywood recently bestowed Best Picture to resistance porn "One Battle after Another," which arguably flopped.

But then there's California which destroys all it touches.  Shooting films or TV is way too expensive there so producers are looking to other states and countries.  I remember the craziest story I read is that it's cheaper for producers of the game show "The Floor" to fly all the contestants to Dublin than it is to shoot in the United States.

ICYMI - Buh-bye Bad Robot!  "Hollywood heavyweight behind sci-fi classics leaves LA as Tinseltown bleeds talent." 

I love this headline

MSN: "Hospice with 97% survival rate accused of defrauding Medicare for $7.45M."

Why is the government arresting people with such a high level of success?  It's a mystery!

When you hate Trump more than you love Americans

Townhall: "Will Gov. Spanberger Ignore Detainers for These Violent Criminal Illegals? ICE Is Warning Her Not To." 

Massive, systematic, brazen fraud

City Journal: "Gavin Newsom’s Empire of Fraud - California has lost at least $180 billion to fraud, according to officials and experts."

This story is B A N A N A S:

Total budgeted Medi-Cal spending—which includes federal, state, and local contributions—has more than doubled on the governor’s watch, rising from $93.5 billion the year before he took office to $196.7 billion in the current annual budget. During the same period, California’s resident population declined by 0.2 percent.

-------

The state lost $32.6 billion dollars of taxpayer money to fraudulent applications,” he said. “In California, at one point, you had more people applying for unemployment insurance benefits than you had people over the age of 18.”

-------

Talcove estimates that the Medicaid fraud rate in California is 20 percent, which he calls a “very conservative” figure. Federal officials, however, believe that the current Medi-Cal fraud rate is even higher—and, given the state’s oversight failures and massive Medi-Cal expansion under Newsom, they are almost certainly right. Multiple high-ranking sources at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is currently probing fraud in California, told City Journal on the condition of anonymity that their initial estimate for Medi-Cal’s fraud rate since 2019 is 25 percent.

That state needs a thousand Nick Shirleys.

Thank heaven

Fox News: "Artemis II launches astronauts around the moon in first deep space mission since Apollo."

I'm on record being nervous about this launch, so I'm glad it went off without a hitch.

The theater kids again

Really good article from the Federalist: "The Latest ‘No Kings’ Protest Is The Sound Of A Tired Old Thing Trying To Not Die."

The American political left as a cultural formation, and the Democratic Party as an institution, have sunk into a style of oppositionalism that contains no opposition. They speak in a vernacular of protest because they speak in a vernacular of protest, out of habit and as a cultural identity, but they have no idea what they’re protesting. They’re very angry about the, you know, stuff. Something something Trump something something. 

At three o’clock, the nurse brings pudding. Comfortable and wealthy people, many decades into their experience of affluence and safety, are putting their bodies on the line to oppose fascism for a couple hours before the driver takes them back to their mansions.

This was a theme picked up by Sasha Stone: while the citizens of Iran and Venezuela are trying to throw off actual dictatorships, Grandma is cosplaying as a freedom fighter against a fascist regime.

Imagine being in Iran, knowing how many brave citizens attempted to protest their government, only to be mowed down just for standing there, seeing all of these idiots in America marching in their No Kings parade. It would be like someone dying of hunger watching the line form at the Golden Coral all-you-can-eat buffet.

There was a video of a mother-daughter pair at a "No Kings" protest and they were asked by a local news reporter about their protest.  It was unintentionally hilarious because it was instantly clear that even they didn't know why they were protesting.  It was all self-esteem boosterism about protesting.

Mental illness in Canada

 

These are the new rules you advanced

Ace: "FBI Director Kash Patel Eyes Releasing the Eric Swallwell Fang-Fang Documents."

Is this a vindictive move to derail the Fartman's campaign for California governor?  Probably!  But the Russiagate Hoax and the Epstein file release put "getting to the truth!" ahead of grand jury secrecy and the cautious pursuit of justice.

Does Swalwell even live in California?  Hey, just asking questions here!

He dropped out of UNLV

The Corner: "Jimmy Kimmel’s Unearned Snobbery." - "I don’t have anything to add to their defense of plumbers, but let me just pile on with one further thought: Who is Jimmy Kimmel to be any sort of intellectual snob?" 

A child shall lead them

I wasn't going to write about the group therapy session called "No Kings" today but this excerpt from a Western Massachusetts protest was too good not to share:

Amherst local Amy Steinhauser, 74, was perplexed by the lack of college students, even though Amherst College was a stone’s throw from the common. Like other grandparents who spoke to The Republican, she said part of the reason she showed up was to lead by example.

At least one demonstrator in Amherst harbored doubts about the protests turning the ship around, as Trump was booted from the White House in 2020, only to reclaim the presidency in 2024.

“I’m wondering if this is gonna do anything,” said Jorah Byl-Evora, 14.

Jorah is the wisest person among the geriatric AWFLs. 

Extra - This guy gets it: "Essentially, the participants in No Kings tire themselves out making signs and standing by roadways to honks from passersby, then pat themselves on the back and think they’ve fought fascism." 

She must have attended the learing center. pic.twitter.com/9H1PMlTPPb

— Paratrooper Brady (@paratroopbrady) March 29, 2026

I *love* the Critical Drinker!

Hollywood in Toto: "Why Vince Vaughn’s Late-Night Critique Is a Game Changer." 

"And yet it moves"

I feel like Galileo in the debate over whether millionaires and billionaires are moving out of Massachusetts.  The early answer based on 2023 data is "yes" - to the tune of $4.2 billion in taxable income - and more recent data will show an acceleration, which is what triggered this Boston Globe article.

Nevertheless, Boston Globe letter writers are going to stick to two themes: it's not really happening and, if it is, we don't need those rich jerks.

Extra - Wall Street Journal: "The High-Tax Wealth Flight Continues - IRS data show that taxpayers keep fleeing rapacious states even after the pandemic."

While out-migration declined from pandemic levels for most states, not so in Massachusetts. Taxpayers making more than $200,000 accounted for 70% of the state’s net outflows, roughly double the share in 2019. This is notable since progressives claim Massachusetts shows that raising taxes doesn’t drive away top earners.

Come back and be patriotic!

Schumer gets nothing for this chaos

Hot Air: "Dems Throw In Towel on Schumer Shutdown II: TSA Boogaloo"

Democrats didn't stop immigration enforcement. They didn't defund ICE or the Border Patrol. They didn't get any new concession on immigration-enforcement practices. All Schumer got from his latest shutdown was weeks of snarled travel for millions of Americans and an opportunity for ICE agents to engage in a public-relations lovefest in airports with voters who would otherwise have had little or no contact with the agency. 

Why cave now? Trump took their last bit of leverage off the table. Schumer wanted to create chaos in airports to keep pressure on Trump and the GOP to get his radical "reform" agenda adopted. At one point, Schumer and the White House appeared to have a deal on some concessions, but then Senate Democrats decided to walk away and demand their entire wish list. Trump then ordered new DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to pay TSA agents out of other funds and order them back on the job, leaving Democrats with nothing at all to show for their weeks of disruption of Homeland Security in the middle of a war.

The only thing they got from this deal was that ICE and CBP - which are already lavishly funded from the One Big Beautiful Bill - are going to get their funding through budget reconciliation which only requires a majority vote in the Senate, meaning Republicans can control the funding.

This bratty temper tantrum was just another appeal to the infantile Left.

Same vibe as California's high speed rail

Twitchy: "Two Years After Its Collapse, Let’s Check in on the Rebuilding Effort of the Key Bridge."

Voice vote then skedaddle

NY Post: "Senate approves deal to end DHS shutdown without Democratic immigration demands"

Senators approved a compromise measure early Friday to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security through the end of September, taking a major step toward ending the 42-day partial shutdown that has seen hundreds of airport security workers quit after missing paychecks and snarled travel nationwide.

The agreement, passed by voice vote before senators departed Washington for a two-week recess for Easter and Passover, will be considered by the House later Friday morning.

Nothing motivates these clown like threatening their beloved recesses. 

Has she considered using the race card?

Oh, it's a'comin'.  Hot Air: "Florida Democrat Could Be Expelled from Congress." 

Kimmel is an asshole

Powerline: "Time to get the hook"

It will be a happy day when the last of the left-wing late-night “comedians” is finally off the air. The latest outrage comes from Jimmy Kimmel, who might have been funny once in his life, but if so, I missed it.

I can't believe that ABC/Disney extended Kimmel's by a (token) one year after his Charlie Kirk comment.  IF anything, they've freed him up to say even more outrageous things, daring ABC to fire him.  Then, if that does happen, he can spend the rest of his days as a First Amendment martyr.

Trump has utterly broken this man-child and his schtick is a stone-cold bore.

Extra - Speaking of insufferable celebrities, here's Sasha Stone on Bruce Springsteen and his new band: "So here comes No Kings, complete with aging billionaire boomer Bruce, irritating aristocrat Jane Fonda, and screeching socialist Bernie Sanders to remind everyone just how crazy and how unbearable all of them still are and how they see themselves as morally superior."

People like Springsteen and DeNiro and Fonda and Kimmel can't sit down and discuss their thoughts with anybody slightly adversarial...so they don't.  

More - Legal Insurrection: "Actor Vince Vaughn Slams Groupthink of Late Night TV: ‘They All Became the Same Show’ - “It stopped being funny and it started feeling like I was f—— in a class I didn’t want to take.”

Because of course

Fox News: "Loyola student newspaper apologizes for calling suspected murderer of Sheridan Gorman an illegal immigrant." 

Also huge if true

And I also doubt it will work.  Gateway Pundit: "BREAKING: Senate Leader John Thune Floats RECONCILIATION Plan to RAM Through SAVE America Act — Only Needs 50 Votes + VP JD Vance to BYPASS Democrat Filibuster." 

I believe reconciliation can only be used for budgetary purposes so I don't see how voter ID can pass under this structure.

Huge if true

But probably not true.  Red State: "Breaking: Trump Says Iran Has Agreed to Give Up Its Nuclear Weapons Fantasy."

Why would we believe anything the Iranians have to say, given their history?  How can whoever is "authority" now even make that promise, given the chaos over there?

Just a flat-out lie

I started reading this Hot Air article about a viral video of an American woman and her young daughter being detained by evil ICE agents and knew it was going to conclude with a statement by Homeland Security explaining everything alleged was false.

A Laken Riley situation in Chicago

Ace: "The Party of Illegal Alien Gangsters and Third World Pirates Claims Another Innocent Life."

As the post notes, Illinois governor J.D. Pritzker had time to travel up to Minnesota but can't be bothered to say a single word about somebody killed in his backyard.

I'm unsure this is going to help

Townhall: "Trump Just Made a Major Move After Democrats Crossed His Red Line."

If the goal here is to help out the TSA and make the security lines move faster, I'm all for that.  But if the goal is to stick it to the Democrats, I'm not sure it's going to open the logjam on funding.  As always, it never would have gotten this far if the mainstream media put appropriate pressure on the Democrats for once.

"Chuck Norris beat the sun in a staring contest"

NY Times: "Chuck Norris Punched This Article Into the Sun - Norris, best known as the butt-kicking star of action films, became an unwitting if good-natured pioneer of the internet meme." 

Condescension is all they have

American Thinker: "The Liberal's Insufferable Superiority Complex - They truly believe they have a monopoly on intelligence and morality."

All you need to do is watch a couple of minutes of James Klug or Kaitlin Bennett to find the limits of the Left's intelligence.

This is the MSM

As somebody once said, when they show you who they are: believe them.  Twitchy: "'Politics May Overshadow His Legacy': Variety's Chuck Norris Headline Gets Ratio'ed to the Moon."

I loathe these soy boy scribes.  Want to know why men gravitate to Andrew Tate and Joe Rogan?  It's because of fem-boys like Gavin Newsom and this "journalist." 

My favorite Chuck Norris joke

Amazon has since removed it from their site but for a brief time they offered an enormous Swiss Army Knife and the reviews were absolutely hilarious.  It took some digging but I found the Chuck Norris comment:

California's FAFO future in Norway

Let's see what happened in Norway: "Norway's Wealth Tax Unchains a Capital Exodus." - "Norway's wealth tax increase, expected to raise $146M, led to a $448M net loss as $54B in wealth left the country, reducing tax revenue by $594M."

I continue to be amazed to think that Gavin Newsom is considered a serious candidate for the Presidency.  Everything - everything! - in California is a train wreck.

Except for the train.  Because it hasn't been built.

Residents exiting Massachusetts took a net of $4.2 Billion in adjusted gross income with them in 2023, one of the largest totals in the country, after a tax on millionaires took effect - Bloomberg pic.twitter.com/s47lnvXCRg

— Evan (@StockMKTNewz) March 20, 2026

Time for the mainstream media to step up

Hot Air: "The Democrat Lies About the SAVE Act Are Wild."

As this article explains, CNN (!) fact-checked Chuck Schumer in real time on his wild mendacity.  This is a litmus test for the MSM.  It's time to report the truth and not the preferred narrative.

Blackboard jungle

Joanne Jacobs: "Why teachers quit: 'It was the wild West'." - "One Wisconsin teacher needed 66 stitches and foot surgery after breaking up a fight between five students, but that's not why he retired early, he told interviewers. It was the administration's failure to enforce the no-cellphone policy." 

Suicidal empathy in the UK

Twitchy: "Criminal Migrant in UK Beats Deportation, Arguing His Son Can’t Tolerate Foreign Chicken Nuggets."

That country, man.  I've read so many stories like this.

Don't end the filibuster

Wall Street Journal: "Sen. Ron Johnson: Move to End the Filibuster Now—Before Democrats Do

The 60-vote threshold stops bad bills, but it also makes it impossible for the GOP to pass good ones."

First of all, the Democrats did try to eliminate the filibuster and it was thwarted by Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona and Joe Manchin from West Virginia.  I firmly believe that they were the sacrificial lambs for the Democrats to act tough.  Democrats don't really want to eviscerate minority rights in the Senate and this is especially true for Democrats from smaller states.  Turning the Senate into just another version of the House robs these Senators of the (arguably outsized) power they have in that chamber.

Second, "what goes around comes around."  Republicans will be in the minority sometime in the future and the GOP shouldn't set the standard.  Look what happened when the Democrats triggered the "nuclear option" on judicial nominees and ended up with Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett.

I don't think either party in the Senate really wants to get rid of the filibuster so it will remain.

As useful as an Amazon box

Fox News: "Iran's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei 'misfunctioning,' not controlling regime: sources"

I don't think I've ever seen the word "misfunctioning." 

I swore this was AI

Twitchy: "Hochul Begs Billionaires to Come Home— Iowahawk Counters with Bounty for Every 'Fugitive' Captured in FL"

The governor of New York, shocked at the exodus of high-value taxpayers, appealed to the "patriotism" of these taxpayer to come back from Florida.  When I saw this video, I thought for sure it was a spoof.  Unbelievable. 

The numbers are in

LA Times: "2026 Oscars telecast scores 17.9 million viewers, down 9% from last year."

Whomp whomp.  Hollywood was digging out of its all-time-low of 2021 but it looks like it was just a blip on the road to irrelevance. 

Listen to the people. No, not like that!

Hot Air: "NBC Wonders: Are the Only Americans Opposed to Voter ID on Capitol Hill?" 

How's that millionaire tax looking now?

It's not just California.  Massachusetts was the pathfinder for soaking the rich.  Boston Globe: "‘Everyone’s leaving’: Why more of the wealthy are moving from Massachusetts to other states."

If there’s a group of people you probably don’t spend a lot of time worrying about, it’s those with tens — or hundreds — of millions of dollars.

But Paul Karger argues you should. At least, you should worry when they start heading for the exits.

Which is precisely what they’ve done in Massachusetts, says Karger, the cofounder and managing partner of Boston-based Twin Focus, a firm that manages investment portfolios for wealthy families.

“Half of my Massachusetts clients over the last five years have either left or are planning to leave,” Karger says. That represents “billions of dollars in net worth and hundreds of millions of dollars in annual income.”

Maybe we can get Bernie Sanders to come down from Vermont and shake his finger at them.

ICYMI - California lost another billionaire: "Billionaire Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick admits strategically moving to Texas before California wealth tax." 

Also, he's made of cardboard

Ace: "The New Ayatollah is Probably Gay and What Is Even More Disqualifying, He's Also Dead."

Mojtaba, who is believed to have been wounded in the same Feb. 28 airstrike that killed his father and other members of his family, has made "aggressive" sexual overtures to men caring for him, possibly while under the influence of heavy medication, one of The Post's sources said.

I don't know if this is true - it sure is funny - and it suggests the previous Ayatollah knew something was up because he left specific instructions to keep his son away from the levers of power.

It's the hypocrisy

Sasha Stone: "How the Oscars Made Everyone Hate Them."

I won't even be hate-watching, as Sasha suggests.  I'm the Don Draper "I don't think about you at all" meme.  And I wouldn't even mind the political speeches if these empty suits did the slightest bit of self-reflection about what they're saying.  Leonardo Dicaprio never saw a private jet he didn't like while he urges us all to use paper straws.  Last I checked, Billie Eilish hasn't moved out of her stately mansion that sits on "stolen land" behind security walls.

At least Joaquin Phoenix is a lifelong vegan when he told us to stop drinking milk.

Extra - Jeffrey Blehar: "On Oscar Night, Hollywood Celebrates Its Collapse into Cultural Irrelevance."

NY Times is gonna NY Times

Townhall: "New York Times Describes Suspected Michigan Terrorist as 'Quiet Restaurant Worker'." 

ICYMI Cynical Publius was doxxed

We are not the same.

Today has been pretty intense. Thank you all for your support. I'm going to sign off for a bit, but I want to leave everyone with some thoughts.

People on the Right tend to use pseudonyms on social media because we have well-founded concerns of death threats, attempts to get…

— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) March 14, 2026

Coming soon: the Nevada Seahawks

And the Dallas Mariners: "Seahawks GM Warns Washington's 'Milionaire Tax' Could Cost Free Agents."

London has fallen

Daily Mail: "Nearly 40 per cent of all homes built by 2030 will be needed for migrants, Conservative Party analysis shows." 

Other people's money

NY Post: "Extreme Mamdani estate tax proposal goes right after New York's middle class families."

We tried to warn you, New York. 

Judicial madness

Red State with an all-time dissent: "9th Circuit Judge Comes Out Swinging (Ahem)...in Spicy Dissent Over Women-Only Nude Spa."

When the law no longer protects people, vigilantism is the next step. 

Switzerland awaits

Jonathan Turley: "Eat the Rich: Sanders and Khanna Introduce Federal Billionaires Tax" - "There are legitimate concerns over the glaring and growing wealth gap in the United States. However, a wealth tax is neither a constitutional nor a practical way of addressing the problem." 

All of this is unsurprising

Ace: ""The Motive May Never Be Known" Is Now "The Motive Is White Supremacy, Somehow"." 

This is some grade-A gaslighting

LA Times: "Anyone who says the Oscars have gotten ‘too political’ hasn’t watched the Oscars."

And the Oscars have never been particularly political.

Speeches that deviate from the ubiquitous laundry list of thank yous always get more attention, whether they’re political or not, for the simple reason that they’re so dang unusual. But taken as a whole, either by decade or particular telecast, the Oscars is mostly, and consistently, apolitical. As in, almost every minute of a three-hour-plus show, year after year after year.

Right, the guy who won for best sound editing didn't get political but the spotlight winners like Leonardo DiCaprio needed to lecture us on environmentalism before jumping on his private jet.

Here's the NY Times back in 2018 reminding us what happens when these Hollywood phonies start waving a finger in our faces:

Whether viewers of the Oscars want to listen to the resistance is another matter. Producers who specialize in awards telecasts have said that post-show research, compiled mainly from Nielsen, indicates that most viewers dislike it when celebrities turn a trip to the stage into a political bully pulpit. One recent producer of the Oscars said that minute-by-minute post-show ratings analysis indicated that “vast swaths” of people turned off their televisions when celebrities started to opine on politics. He spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential metrics.

Not only are these political outbursts performative, they're tired.  We're a full decade into this Trump temper-tantrum.  Give it a rest, already.

The mainstream media's self-licking ice cream cone

Boston Globe: "One thing voters agree on: They don’t like the Supreme Court."

This will surely hurt the Supreme Court's re-election during the midterms.

You'll be shocked to learn that America's view of the Supreme Court just happens to correspond with the media's relentless attacks as the Court turned more conservative.  When then leads to deep thought opinion pieces about the state of the Court.

Good guys with guns

Townhall: "Security Guards Hailed As Heroes After Stopping Attack at Michigan Synagogue Housing 140 Kids."

This guy gets it

Hot Air: "Can We Talk About the So-Called Talking Filibuster and Why It Won't Save the SAVE Act?"

For the record, I am strongly against getting rid of the 60-vote threshold for a filibuster and word on the street is that deep red states (e.g. West Virginia) are against making the rule change.  That leaves the arcane and byzantine Senate rules which are designed to slow down the pace of legislating.

The Democrats will lie about the SAVE Act and the media will cover up for them.  It won't pass.  Sorry.

He's taking his (Star)bucks to Florida

PJ Media: "WA Dems Pass 'Millionaire' Tax and Business Icon Says Hmmm, Florida Sure Looks Good Right Now."

I, for one, am happy to see this new age of class warfare in America since it's going to quickly sort out the red and blue states.  The 2030 census is going to be epic.

Nick Shirley scooped you

Ace: "CBS Report: Billions of Dollars of "Hospice Care" Fraud in Los Angeles Alone; One Building Sports Eighty-Nine Fake "Hospice Care" Offices."

Mistakes that only go in one direction

Twitchy: "Yet Another CNN Reporter Steps on the Rake."

For those of you keeping score, there are now four representatives from CNN absolutely lying that NY Mayor Mamdani was the target of a bomb-throwing by two pro-ISIS men.  They so desperately want to make him into the victim here, they'll just declare it.

On the "news network" with the motto "facts first."

Extra - Red State: "Hot Takes: X Users Respond Accordingly After Yet Another CNNer Pushes Fake News About NYC Attack." 

Still doing this, huh?

Twitchy: "‘Media Personality’ Notes Pete Hegseth Doesn’t Salute Black Service Member."

When your only tool is the race card, everything is racist. 

It's called journalism

Federalist: "‘Smoking Jars Of Metal’: Media Obfuscate Alleged NYC Bomb Attempt And Its Islamist Motives."

Mixed message

Breitbart: "Trump says war is nearly complete."

Actually what he said was: "I think the war is very complete, pretty much" which is all over the place.  How can you put a qualifier on "complete"?  Either it's complete or it isn't.  Adding on "pretty much" just contributes another layer of contradiction.

The military action in Iran has been a wide-ranging success so far but I wouldn't say it's near complete.  I think Trump is trying to maintain command flexibility here while also calming the financial markets.

Checkmate, Great Satan!

You can't kill a guy who's already dead!  That's 4D chess there.  Hot Air: "Is Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei Actually Alive?" 

Mystery achievement

PJ Media: "Iran Has a New Supreme Leader, but They Won’t Tell Us Who It Is."

Update: "US-sanctioned Mojtaba Khamenei named Iran’s next supreme leader after father’s death: reports"

That's a pretty low bar

Townhall: "Bill Maher Made Adam Schiff and Don Lemon Look Like Morons Last Night." 

Welcome to the Hotel California

You can permit any time you like, but you can never build.  Hot Air: "California's Inferno of Regulations."

Regime change in Iran will be a tough lift

Washington Post: "Intel report warns large-scale war ‘unlikely’ to oust Iran’s regime - A classified U.S. report doubts that Iran’s opposition would take power following either a short or extended U.S. military campaign."

A classified report by the National Intelligence Council found that even a large-scale assault on Iran launched by the United States would be unlikely to oust the Islamic republic’s entrenched military and clerical establishment, a sobering assessment as the Trump administration raises the specter of an extended military campaign that officials say has “only just begun.”

The findings, confirmed to The Washington Post by three people familiar with the report’s contents, raise doubts about President Donald Trump’s declared plan to “clean out” Iran’s leadership structure and install a ruler of his choosing.

The U.S. is not putting boots on the ground and I doubt the Kurds have the firepower to take Tehran.  It's really on the people of Iran but, as the story notes, the opposition is fragmented.

Trump's the captain now

The New York Times (!) says Trump is showing Putin who's the boss: "As Trump Out-Putins Putin, Russia’s Global Influence Erodes - The conflict in Iran may give Moscow a short-term boost economically and in Ukraine. But it has also shown the limits of Russia’s partnerships."

For years, Mr. Putin supported anti-American authoritarian governments in Iran, Venezuela and Cuba, with little worry that Washington would use its overwhelming military power to kill, capture or push out their leaders. That has now changed, as Mr. Trump has demonstrated a willingness to disregard international norms and engage in foreign adventurism by fully exploiting Washington’s might.

Even though Iran came to Russia’s aid with critical drones at the outset of Mr. Putin’s bungled invasion of Ukraine four years ago, Russia has stood aside as the United States and Israel have pummeled Iran’s leadership and military. Moscow has issued little more than condemnatory statements that largely avoid naming Mr. Trump.

Guess we ain't gonna hear about "TACO" or "Putin's puppet" anymore. 

I can't believe people take this clown seriously

Hot Air: "Newsom Is the Barometer, and He Is Signaling a Leftist Hurricane."

There's a video embedded where Newsom is asked what positions or policy goals he holds as a candidate and he can't articulate a single thing.  Instead he launches into a Kamala-style word salad about "injustice" that is so substance-free that it flies around the room and perches on a windowsill.  At one point he says "I've struggled with being able to communicate" - no shit, Sherlock.

Newsom has no governing principles: he'll just pander and tell whatever audience he's in front of whatever they want to hear.  When he's in Israel, they're "extraordinary people."  Back home in front of a Lefty audience, then Israel is an "apartheid state."  Don't bother asking if a man can become a woman.

He's a completely empty suit and I keep waiting for him to look down, Wile E. Coyote-style, and plunge to the ground.

Why do they do this?

Such an obvious fake: "Sen. Tina Smith Calls Child’s Anti-ICE Letter an ‘Absolute Gut Punch’." 

One way out

This story from the WSJ cracks me up: "Iran’s Underground ‘Missile Cities’ Have Become One of Its Biggest Vulnerabilities - U.S. and Israeli aircraft are circling over the subterranean bases, destroying missile launchers as they emerge to fire."

Basically, the Iranian military built these massive underground bunkers to store missiles but there was only one entrance/exit to roll them out.  The US & Israelis just parked a couple of fighters overhead and waited for a battery to roll out so they could blow it up.

Great planning, guys!

Soy-boy cuck emasculated

Wait until his wife's boyfriend hears about this!  Washington Free Beacon: "Levi Strauss Heir Dan Goldman Distances Himself From Pro-Israel Wife Who ‘Liked’ Social Media Post From ‘God Bless Donald Trump’ - One meme that caught Corinne Goldman's eye mocked the slogan 'Jews for Palestine' as 'chickens for KFC'."