Ideological diversity at the Boston Globe

I went into this article in the Boston Globe with high hopes: "On this 250th anniversary of America, how should a liberal feel about her country?"  It started out well:

My first visit was with Beverly Gage, a Yale University historian whose new book, “This Land Is Your Land,” recounts a year she spent road-tripping around the country, visiting historic sites in preparation for the country’s 250th anniversary.

“Whether or not people on the left like patriotism, it exists, and it’s a powerful, powerful force,” she told me when I visited her home in Connecticut for an interview. “To step aside, roll your eyes, to disengage, is not only, I think, a disservice to the people of the past but is also to concede a lot of things that I don’t think people on the left or liberals should concede to — that America is this one thing.”

I can get behind that!  Yes, patriotism is a powerful force and (most) Americans love their country.

Let's get another perspective:

I asked Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley...

Oh Lord.

...about how she connects to the idea of patriotism, and she told me that one of the most patriotic things she’s ever seen was the Black custodians cleaning up the mess left behind by the January 6th insurrectionist mob who trashed the United States Capitol.

Of course.  We might as well make January 6th a national holiday at this point, the day where the government nearly collapsed to a bunch of middle-age men armed with MAGA hats and heart medication.

Moving to our last stop in this journey of patriotism:

To close out my series, I visited the Chelsea High School history fair, where freshmen presented projects on different chapters of American history. Chelsea is ground zero for ICE raids in Massachusetts, and I was curious how these kids — Chelsea High is 90 percent Latino — are processing various truths about American history while the American present bears down on them.

Unsurprisingly, the students were focused on eras that echo the chaos and xenophobia of America today. I saw at least three projects on the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, a law that incentivized the capture of Black people in free states whether or not they were runaways.

Yeah, unsurprisingly indeed.  Victimology is the new coin of the land and the study of our oppression must never cease.  I wonder how many displays at that history fair showed the other side of the American Civil War: men who left their homes to march and die fighting to free men.  Probably zero.

After Donald Trump won the first time in 2016, shocked journalists pledged to spend more time in "flyover country" to better understand the people outside their intellectual echo chamber.  But they've learned exactly nothing.  Instead they stay firmly within the Bluesky tribe with a Yale historian, a Democrat representative, and some kids in Chelsea.

No viewpoints outside this sample size are required.

Game for the ages

Um, I decided not to watch the World Cup bronze game today.

Highlights on YouTube:

It was never "alive" to begin with

Townhall: "Iran Just Killed the Memorandum of Understanding."

The problem with negotiating with Iran is that nobody knows who is in charge.  The civil government is regularly undermined by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard who is being directed by a gay ayatollah in a coma.

I'm leaving today

Jonathan Turley: "“Start Spreadin’ the News”: New York Losing Billions as Millionaires Flee the Big Apple." 

If you "make it here, you can make it anywhere" is true.  You can make it in Florida or Texas.

Extra - Get ready for the Texas Stock Exchange:

The Wall Street Journal reported in recent days that the Texas Stock Exchange is now officially open for business, and trading is expected to start soon. Everything is big in Texas, as the saying goes, so New Yorkers should take this rival stock exchange seriously.

In some ways, the idea that Dallas could become the new financial center makes sense. Texas has no income tax. New York City has the highest income tax, capital gains tax and dividend tax. Mayor Zohran Mamdani is threatening even higher "soak the rich" tax increases as part of his goal of making NYC a socialist mecca. Housing will be free, groceries will be free, health care will be free, buses will be free.

This isn't Democratic socialism. This is unmitigated socialism.

New York was already losing to Texas before any of this happened. Over the past decade, nearly 2 million residents of New York state have fled. Many of them are now in Texas. New York has lost almost $1 trillion of income cumulatively over the past 12 years.

Sadly, these socialists will never learn.  These cities will go bankrupt gradually, then suddenly.

The source of much eye-rolling

Washington Post: "The rise and fall of a corporate fad - DEI mentions took off in 2020 and started collapsing in 2024." 

The important thing is that feelings weren't hurt

Hot Air: "Progressives in Cambridge, Mass Eliminated Shot Spotter. There Were Consequences."

Grinding gears

Washington Post: "The death of the stick shift is almost here - Driving a manual vehicle is a lost art. Hopes of a revival have fallen flat. With the rise of EVs and autonomous vehicles, only a few die-hards are holding on."

Less than 1 percent of new vehicles made for the U.S. market in 2025 were stick shifts, according to preliminary government data. At just 0.6 percent, it was an all-time low.

My first car was my father's hand-me-down Volkswagen Rabbit which (nobody recalls) had a helpful "shift up" light in the center of the dashboard console.  Soon the knowledge of operating a manual transmission will fade from memory like an ancient language.

NDAs? For an internal meeting?

PJ Media: "Democrats Are Panicking and Scrambling to Hide Something Big."

The DNC had their own officials sign non-disclosure agreements before a finance meeting.  The scuttlebutt is that the DNC is deeply in the red with debt exceeding money on hand. 

The intolerance factory

Hot Air: "Bluesky Gave Up on Competing with X."

Bluesky's actual problem is the one that no one there wants to talk about. It is a political silo for left-wing extremists that has a reputation for death threats and cancel culture. In fact, the last time I noticed something happening on Bluesky was when Popehat was banned for suggesting it would be good if someone murdered Elon Musk.

The stories I've heard about Bluesky is that the slightest deviation from the most left-wing positions will trigger a swarm attack like something from "The Birds."

Swalwell's pal

NY Post: "Swalwell pal Sen. Ruben Gallego had sexual relationships with two House staffers, sources reveal to The Post." 

The autopen must be exhausted

Ace: "Biden Slurs and Stumbles His Way Through Ad for His Ghostwritten "Memoir"."

Biden go vroom vroom! 

Brandon Gill: Superstar

Red State: "Like a Boss: Brandon Gill Ends an Ayanna Pressley Rant on Women's Rights With One Perfect Question."

Brandon Gill is like the Scott Jennings of Congress.  He does his homework and then confronts witnesses and opponents with simple questions that lead to unsatisfying responses.

After making NY too expensive

These guys need a raise: "NYC Council members want to give themselves 18.2% pay hike — and set automatic increases every year after." 

"Have you seen how much it costs to rent an apartment?" they cried.

The Left hates free speech

Hot Air: "A Case of Campus Cancel Culture Finally Goes to Trial."  Pushing back against the heckler's veto.

Cheating at Brown

Free Press: "I’m a Brown University Professor. Half My Students Are Cheating."

I saw this story elsewhere and the proof of cheating is the wide chasm in scores between the take-home midterm exam and the in-class final exam.  The funniest part is that there are two students - one got around a 95 on both exams and the other got around a 57 - who were clearly playing it straight.  I feel like the 57-score guy should be allowed to pass the class just on honesty.

The textbook definition of suicidal empathy

NY Post: "NY mom Jamey Carney’s migrant beau asked her for hefty dough a week before her murder in Ireland."

The migrant boyfriend suspected of murdering a New York mom at her home in Ireland allegedly asked her for a bunch of money just a week before her death.

Jamey Carney, 43, had told a pal that her beau, Ahmad Al-Saqar, sought the equivalent of around $5,700 about a week before her murder at her house in Killarney, the Irish Independent reported.

Al-Saqar is now wanted for questioning by authorities in connection with the murder of Carney, who is believed to have been beaten and then suffocated in her bed early Tuesday.

This woman absolutely bathed in the moral vanity of her bottomless tolerance and her pro-Palestinian causes.  She leaves behind a 13-year-old daughter.

Another business eyes the California exit

Semafor: "Paramount weighs leaving California over Warner Bros. rift."

As California tries to derail Paramount’s $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount CEO David Ellison’s friends and advisers have been pushing the media executive to consider shifting his business out of the state.

There's no saving that state.  Wait until the wealth tax hits.

Shocking news

Fox News: "Longtime GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham dies at 71 after 'brief and sudden illness'."

Ukraine is winning

Hot Air: "Russia Closes the Kerch Strait After 76 Ships Hit With Drones."

The Russians recently had their yearly military parade and there were no vehicles, only marching soldiers and a brief flyover.  And then, last week, Russia suspended exports of diesel because the entire country is running out of gas.

Entitled graduate students

Manhattan Contrarian: "What makes a person become a Communist?"

One requirement seems to be never holding a real job.

A man needs to have principles

Still rollin'

LA Times: "Every Rolling Stones album, ranked worst to best."

It's always crowded at the bottom but this list correctly names "Exile on Main St." as #1.

I saw the Rolling Stones at Shea Stadium in 1990 (I think) and - although the show was good - I swore off stadium concerts forever.  With my binoculars I could see the giant TV screens broadcasting the concert.

Free stuff for everyone

Paid for by the billionaires!  That's the shallow and childish ideology of the Socialist left: "Washington Post: Yes, the DSA Really Does Want to Destroy Capitalism." 

You can vote yourself into socialism but you have to shoot your way out.