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.