News of the Week for Aug. 14th, 2022
- Election 2022
- Abortion
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Obamacare
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
Election 2022
Wavy: Internal polls show GOP now within striking distance in districts Biden won by 10+ points
A striking bit of counterprogramming from Politico during “bedwetting season” for the GOP, as news sites are overflowing today with Democratic optimism. “With Deal in Hand, Democrats Enter the Fall Armed With Something New: Hope,” the Times proclaims. “Inside Biden’s hot streak, from the poolside to the Capitol,” WaPo promises. Politico itself has a piece headlined, “Biden suddenly is piling up wins. Can Dems make it stick?”
Republicans Have Reason for Optimism in the Nevada Senate Race
An in-depth dive into Nevada’s hotly contested 2022 senate race.
Anti-Trump GOP group comes for Herschel Walker with ad using his ex-wife
The Republican Accountability Project (RAP) is out with a 30-second ad against Hershel Walker. RAP is an anti-Trump Republican group led by Bill Kristol, editor at large of the Bulwark, and Sarah Longwell, Publisher of the Bulwark, according to its website. Walker is endorsed by Trump so he is on their radar.
Beto at rally: Stop laughing at me, “motherf****r”
Maybe someone should send Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke a copy of “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” At a small meeting of prospective supporters, O’Rourke brought up the need for more gun control in Texas, which suggests that this took place in Austin. (I kid, I kid … kinda.)
Judge shoots down Joey Gilbert election lawsuit over lack of ‘competent evidence’
A Carson City judge has blocked Reno attorney and former Republican gubernatorial candidate Joey Gilbert’s effort to re-do the 2022 primary election, finding that “no competent evidence” was presented that would warrant the extraordinary changes Gilbert sought.
In deep-blue Las Vegas, Laxalt looks to court Latinos
Inside a packed wing of the spacious Bonito Michoacan — a Mexican restaurant in the heart of Las Vegas’ urban sprawl — Republican Senate candidate Adam Laxalt had a message for Latino voters: This is an election about policies.
At Basque Fry, many calls for party unity after bruising GOP primaries
During an election cycle showcasing widening political divisions between conventional party-line candidates and more radical ones, conservative speakers at the seventh annual Basque Fry event called for a united front heading into the midterms.
Abortion
Dobbs Decision
Seattle outlaws “abortion discrimination”
So when did this become a thing? I’m not sure that the phrase “abortion discrimination” ever appeared anywhere in print before this story out of Washington State cropped up. But whatever it is, it will now be illegal in Seattle, Washington and anyone found to be discriminating against people based on their “pregnancy outcome” can be charged with a misdemeanor following a vote on a new bill in City Council. A separate bill that was also passed will make it a crime to “interfere with health care, including abortions and gender-affirming care.” So if you’re unfortunate enough to be stuck living in Seattle, be sure you keep that in mind if you’re planning any discrimination or “interference” in the future.
Gun Rights
D.C. Circuit Upholds the Bump Stock Ban, Saying It Is Consistent With the ‘Best Interpretation’ of the Law
It is hard to see how, given the contortions required to deliver the unilateral prohibition that Donald Trump demanded.
The unconstitutional nature of CA, NYs latest gun laws
Everyone knew what was coming. The result of the Bruen decision meant that “may issue” permitting was a thing of the past. Gun laws were going to have to change.
Hide the Decline
Environment &“Green Energy”
The real impact of the energy provisions in the “inflation reduction” bill
The so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” looks as if it’s going to make it into law now that it slithered out of the Senate on a 50-50 vote. We’ve already covered the negligible or even negative impact the bill will have on actual inflation here, but there is plenty more tucked away in the bill that many voters likely didn’t see coming. There are all sorts of climate change antics included in the bill’s language, but another portion of it directly impacts the energy sector and you should not anticipate it doing anything to address the Biden energy crisis. The Institute for Energy Research has finished a full review of the portions of the bill impacting energy policy and the news is not good. There are massive extensions of existing tax credits and subsidies for wind and solar energy, while nothing will be done to help sustain the country’s oil and natural gas supplies. Given that far more than half of the country’s energy grid relies on these supplies, the math simply does not add up.
The miserable truth is that our leaders don’t want us to have cheap energy
Politicians, in hoc to eco-extremists, have come to believe that consuming fuel is intrinsically sinful
Coral Levels In Parts of Australia’s Famed Great Barrier Reef Highest in Decades
Life finds a way: Two of the reef’s three regions, north and central, have seen coral cover increase.
EPA Sends Helicopters Over Permian Basin Oil Fields, Supposedly Seeking Methane “Super-Emitters”
Climate intimidation.
Net Zero: Big Neighbor Should Be Watching You
Say what you will about Britain’s outgoing prime minister, Boris Johnson, but when he was making things up he didn’t go for half-measures.
Why Red Meat Negative Health Claims are False
The World Economic Forum, assisted by food researchers in academia, wants you to believe that meat is unhealthy compared to soy, tofu, insect and fungus protein diets. Statistical workings of food research are presented here to show this is not true. Food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) are used in studies of population cohorts. Years later, this information together with health outcome observations are combined in statistical analyses. These analyses easily lead to over 20,000 food-disease associations tested in a typical FFQ study – called multiple testing. Researchers can then search thru and select and only report the results they want, but many of these can be false. Red meat is not unhealthy. It is belief of deceptive statistical practices and false claims from academic food researchers that are unhealthy.
Man ‘smashes his way out of a COFFIN after being buried alive “as a sacrifice to mother earth” when he passed out while drinking at a festival’ in Bolivia
Victor Hugo Mica Alvarez broke out 50 miles away from where he had passed out
Obamacare
Government in Healthcare
The Corruption of Medicine
Guardians of the profession discard merit in order to alter the demographics of their field
Former patient calls for closing Scottish gender clinic for kids after detransitioning
Last week, Jazz wrote about the decision by Britain’s National Health Service to close the Tavistock clinic in London after parents complained that the “gender-affirming care” being offered to children was “shoddy.” Saturday, the Times of London published a story about a Scottish clinic which one former patient says is just as bad.
Disability experts accuse Canada of using assisted suicide to dispose of the disabled
The horror stories from Canada about pressure for “assisted suicide” choices on the disabled and those with profoundly-chronic illness rarely make news in American media outlets. That makes this report from the Associated Press eye-popping indeed. Disability advocates in Canada have leveled accusations that Canada’s nationalized health-care system has used the legalized assisted-suicide system as a vehicle for euthanasia and cost savings
War & Terror
China needs ‘TWO MILLION soldiers to invade Taiwan & could be devastated just like Putin’s failing Russians in Ukraine’
CHINA would need two million soldiers to invade Taiwan and could end up failing just like Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, experts have said.
Did Ukraine attack Crimea?
This feels like the Doolittle Raid, a stunning blow to an enemy that thought it was out of range of attack.
Massive leak reveals Russian soldiers tricked into fighting in Ukraine
A 21-year-old man says he is in a ‘very depressed state’ having been sent to fight against his wishes as parents file complaints to watchdog
China releases white paper outlining plans for reunification with Taiwan
China has released a document outlining it’s plans for a reunification of Taiwan under a “one country-two systems” approach. Bloomberg has published a translation of the entire document which opens by stating China’s claim to the island.
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania Are America’s Willing and Like-minded Allies
Following in Lithuania’s decisive footsteps, Estonia and Latvia have just forsaken China’s decade-old initiative for engaging with Central and Eastern European countries.
Dead Man Found in NYC Surrounded by Biohazard Cans and WMD Plans
Cops from the New York Police Department (NYPD) were conducting a wellness check on an elderly man in the Cypress Hills neighborhood when they found the decomposing body of a gentleman known in the neighborhood as “John the Knish Man.”
FBI searched Trump’s home to look for nuclear documents and other items, sources say
Classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items FBI agents sought in a search of former president Donald Trump’s Florida residence on Monday, according to people familiar with the investigation.
Eight explosions at Russian air base in Belarus just across the border from Ukraine
There’s no shocking video of beachgoers gawking at massive explosions here like there was with the strike in Crimea. In fact, this story is thinly sourced. *Something* happened at Belarus’s Zyabrovka military airport, enough to warrant an official explanation, but that’s as much as we know. Surveillance video from very far away detected a large flash on the horizon.
Salman Rushdie attacked on stage, reportedly stabbed
No word yet on his condition but it looks like he’s down on the ground here, which isn’t great.
“Correct Understanding of China”: Another Chinese Diplomat Advocates “Reeducation” of Taiwan
China’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, strongly suggested that Beijing aims to “reeducate” the Taiwanese population, seeming to endorse remarks that another Chinese envoy made last week.
Kavanaugh Assassination Suspect Identified as Trans Girl, Advocated Mass Abortion in Depraved Online Posts
The man charged with attempting to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh appears to have had a disturbing online presence, posting sexually explicit messages in which he identified as a transgender girl and advocated for mass abortion as a means of population control.
Is Russia’s army starting to stall out?
I’ve been writing variations of this post since the first month of the war. “They can’t keep taking casualties at this rate! Their army’s going to break!” Almost six months later, the Russians are still slogging forward. Putin keeps scrounging for recruits and tossing them into the blender in Ukraine, keeping his military machine going.
Suspect in stabbing of Salman Rushdie identified
The suspect in the stabbing of Salman Rushdie has been identified as a 24-year-old Hadi Matar from New Jersey. Police also clarified that Rushdie was stabbed twice, once in the neck and once in the abdomen. Here’s a bit of the most recent press conference.
War gamers predict America and Taiwan could beat China, but…
I suppose this is a fairly smart thing to do after Nancy Pelosi threw a rock through the Chinese hornet’s nest. Dozens of military and intelligence officials are huddled in a room in Washington playing a series of hundreds of different war game scenarios. They are trying to estimate what will happen if China invades Taiwan and the United States steps in militarily to defend the island nation. The results thus far are something of a “good news, bad news” prediction. In nearly every scenario they have tested thus far, our combined forces would eventually repel the Chinese invasion leaving Taiwan under the control of the current government. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the cost of fighting that war would be horrendous and it would almost certainly end up looking like a pyrrhic victory.
China Preparing to Moving Forces to the Atlantic, Says French Naval Chief
China is building a fleet of icebreakers to give itself the ability to operate in the Atlantic Ocean, with Russian assistance, Admiral Pierre Vandier, the chief of France’s navy, said last month. Le Figaro reported on his remarks yesterday, in light of China’s brazen military activity in the Taiwan Strait.
Man crashes burning vehicle into US Capitol barricade, begins firing gun, shoots himself
Capitol Hill police say ‘it does not appear’ the man was targeting any Members of Congress
National
Illinois Daycare Worker Tests Positive for Monkeypox
Meanwhile, after bureaucratic bumbling cut vaccine supply, officials consider adopting new vaccination strategy.
NYC Mayor Adams Thinks It’s ‘Horrific’ that Abbott Sends Illegal Immigrants to the Sanctuary City
This is what you wanted, Adams. Sanctuary city!
More flights cancelled as air traffic snarls worsen
Are you flying today? Don’t answer that question without checking your text messages. After a weekend of massive cancellations and delays, airlines announced even more interruptions this morning
A Novel Plan to Reduce Student Debt
This year the Supreme Court has made a lot of progress in undoing the judicial overreach of the past fifty years. In the reversal of Roe v. Wade (1973) and the discontinuation of the intrusive “Lemon Test” in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, we have seen the Court return to its proper place as an interpreter of the law, rather than a cultural arbiter. But the work is not yet done.
Diversity-Office Funding Wastes UNC-System Resources
Colleges and universities nationwide are quickly adopting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) ideologies, and the UNC System is no exception. In recent years, this has led to DEI-inspired task forces, departments, and hirings, and DEI has become embedded in all 16 of the schools’ strategic plans.
The Unprecedented FBI Raid on Former President Donald Trump
It is unprecedented for the FBI to raid the house of a former president, as it did on Monday when it searched inside Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.
Dem strategist: DeSantis is a “scarier prospect” than Trump
“Scarier” how? “Scarier” as in “more frightening in his political beliefs”?
Biden vs. DeSantis: The Unknown Clash
What kind of leader is Ron DeSantis? Undoubtedly, we get a clue from his widely discussed suspension of a state attorney who had publicly pledged that he would not enforce state laws against late-term abortions and sex-change surgeries for minors. An equally important clue, however, comes from a battle that far fewer have noticed. DeSantis is at odds with the Biden administration over university accreditation.
Natomas Unified School District pays teacher $190,000 to resign after ANTIFA flag in his classroom is found
The Natomas Unified School District has come to an agreement worth $190,000 for a teacher to resign after it was discovered that he kept an ANTIFA flag in his classroom.
Proposed Elementary School Curriculum in Wisconsin District Includes Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation
“identify the medically accurate names of external body parts including the genitals”
Rhode Island School District Encourages Entire Town to Report Violations of ‘Anti-Racist’ Policy
“any member of South Kingstown is encouraged to report incidents or allegations of incidents”
Some “Stranger Thiongs” fans are now trying to cancel Metallica, Twitter reacts
Some Stranger Things viewers have turned against Metallica in a seeming attempt to “cancel” the veteran metal band after learning more about their past. Metallica got a boost in popularity last month when one of their songs appeared on Stranger Things 4.
McConnell breaks his silence on Mar-a-Lago raid
Mitch McConnell finally broke his silence on the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago executed on Monday. On Tuesday night, McConnell released a statement calling for a “thorough and immediate explanation.” What took so long, Mitch?
Miami mayor eyes White House
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez’s political operation is making subtle but significant moves toward a potential White House run, Axios has learned.
5 policies that will test Gavin Newsom’s national dreams
The California governor wanted a national role. His actions in the coming weeks could shape it.
Whole Foods’ John Mackey: ‘I Feel Like Socialists Are Taking Over’
The ‘conscious capitalism’ innovator on overregulation, COVID mandates, and why he will be speaking his mind much more freely when he retires.
School Board in Fargo, ND, Drops Pledge of Allegiance From Meetings for Not Aligning With Diversity Values
“the Pledge of Allegiance doesn’t align with the school district’s diversity, equity and inclusion values”
Teachers Union Promotes Pronouns Cards for Students: ‘Hello, My Pronouns Are… ‘
A “Student Identification Card” sounds relatively innocuous, like something that could come in handy for a field trip, emergency drill, or cafeteria hour. Such a card seems unlikely to serve a purpose in promoting LGBT indoctrination and deceiving parents. And yet, that’s exactly what it is now being used for.
College deletes race-based job posting after news inquiry
Following Campus Reform’s outreach to Montgomery College regarding the job posting, the original listing was deleted from the school website.
Shots fired near FBI office in Cincinnati; pursuit underway
Is this related to a series of threats reportedly received by the FBI after the raid on Mar-a-Lago? Or is this an incident entirely unconnected to politics? WLWT in Cincinnati reported on a “threat” at the local FBI office, which touched off a police chase in Clinton County on I-71 and local lockdown orders.
Trans activists want archeologists to stop identifying skeletons as male or female
We’ve known for some time now that transgender activism has been making a mess of the sciences, particularly in medicine. Thousands of years of scientific research is being swept away as medical organizations like the American Medical Association buy into the bizarre notion that people can simply “decide” whether they are male or female. But it’s not just the field of medicine that’s feeling the impact. Would you have guessed that archeologists and anthropologists are coming under the same sort of pressure as well?
FIRE Challenges College Removal of Posters Criticizing “Leftist Ideas,” Restriction of Anti-Abortion Flyers
The Clovis Community College policy bans “posters with inappropriate or offense [sic] language or themes.”
Episcopal Church Endorses “Gender-Affirming” Mutilations of Children
The Episcopal Church has endorsed “gender-affirming care” at all ages, including mastectomies and “bottom” surgeries that sterilize and cause sexual dysfunction.
Is the “DeSantasy” over?
Well, it depends. Do we believe Republican voters are disordered enough to bypass a younger, smarter, more electable, and more accomplished candidate in favor of a widely loathed demagogue whose candidacy is an elaborate exercise in spite?
University of Utah investigated over doctoral program only open to black students
Department of Education had to be convinced an “African American” only program could be discriminatory
Court Unseals Trump Search Warrant and Inventory of Items Seized
The inventory does not give any indication what the records were, other than that some were marked as having high classifications. What also is clear is this was a wholesale rummaging through Trump’s office. They even seized a lot of boxes of documents that had no classification markings.
U.S. Consulate workers in Tijuana told to shelter in place amid wave of violence
Employees of the U.S. government in Tijuana, Mexico and Baja California were told to shelter in place late Friday as police responded to reports of violence and property crime, the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana tweeted late Friday night.
Supreme Court sets date for UNC, Harvard affirmative action cases
The Supreme Court announced on Wednesday it would hear oral arguments for two high-profile affirmative action cases on October 31 that could challenge how universities use affirmative action in the admission process.
Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions
Presidential audits, political patronage, and mail inspections.
Ignition confirmed at California fusion reactor
Without bogging us down in too many technical details, suffice it to say that this is a big deal. Or at least it might be at some point. Scientists and engineers have been working on a way to build a workable fusion reactor for decades. A fusion reactor is quite different than the fission nuclear reactors you see around the world today. But there are enormous challenges involved in taking the fusion process from the hypothetical realm and creating a functional reactor capable of producing electricity for our energy grid. One problem is the fact that early experimental models required more energy to operate than they would be capable of producing. The other great challenge involved getting the tritium that fuels the fusion reaction to initially ignite and create a sustainable reaction. (Tritium or hydrogen-3 is a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen.) That latter hurdle has now officially been achieved. It actually happened a little more than a year ago, but it’s now been confirmed. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory National Ignition Facility in California successfully ignited the hydrogen fusion reaction last August.
Clemson restaurant gets grilled over ‘offensive’ chicken sandwich sign
Student groups at Clemson University were NOT pleased, calling the sign “offensive” and “distasteful.” Loose Change related its “Tijuana Chicken Sandwich” to the migrant caravan in a sign at its facility.
California Efforts to Reduce Jail Population During Covid Come to End as Crime Rises
San Jose mayor says policy largely failed, as L.A. and San Diego also cease efforts to set zero bail for nonviolent offenses to slow the spread of virus behind bars
Economy & Taxes
What’s Behind the Democrats’ IRS Expansion?
Nearly half of the Democrats’ Inflation Promotion Act is devoted to increasing the budget of the IRS. Think about that: when has more IRS ever been popular? Never. So what are the Democrats up to?
Americans Are Correct to Be Instinctively Terrified of the IRS
I do not “cheat” on my tax return, and I never have. I don’t “lie,” either. But I’m still terrified of the IRS. Why? Because the process of being audited — especially in-person, which this funding will increase — is an absolute nightmare. It’s costly. It’s stressful. It’s invasive. It’s time-consuming. It’s easily manipulated by rogue political actors. And it is all of those things even if the saga concludes with a nice letter saying that everything is in order after all.
Robot Arms Are Replacing Shelf Stockers in Japan’s Stores
Telexistence Inc. and FamilyMart Co. are rolling out a fleet of AI-driven robots to restock shelves in 300 convenience stores across Japan.
Port of L.A. Flooded with Cargo Nearly a Year After Biden ‘Fixed’ Supply Chain Crisis
Remember way back in October of 2021 when President Biden supposedly fixed the broken supply-chain issues just in time for the holidays simply by visiting the Port of Los Angeles? Yeah. Well, about that fix…it now seems the supply chain is (unsurprisingly) even more broken than ever at our nation’s busiest container port. And in reaction, the port is sounding the alarm over the backlog of cargo containers already waiting at the docks as even more ships flood the port with this year’s holiday cargo. That’s right: it’s ten long months later, and Gov. Gavin Newsom, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and the rest of the feckless Biden Administration have failed to actually fix anything.
Consumer prices rose 8.5% in July, less than expected as inflation pressures ease a bit
The consumer price index rose 8.5% in July from a year ago, below expectations, due largely to slumping energy prices.
July CPI report: Inflation dips to 8.5%, flat month-on-month — but why?
Food, rent, electricity still rising
CBO Confirms at Least $20 Billion From New Audits Will Come From Those Making Less than $400K
Key point: “At LEAST.” So more than likely, it will be more than $20 billion.
International
Inferno: Another massive explosion at Cuban oil facility
The tweet below reads “Terrible images come to us from Matanzas where a new explosion has just taken place.”
Scientists create world’s first ‘synthetic embryos’
Researchers use stem cells from mice to form embryo-like structures with intestinal tract, beginnings of a brain, and a beating heart
Cuban military is recruiting and training squadron leaders for repression of imminent popular uprising
Roberto Álvarez Quiñones reports in Diario de Cuba that the island’s armed forces have begun a very unusual recruitment drive that promises to turn out “instant” lieutenants through a five-month training program.
Cuba fire update: Third oil storage tank collapses, firefighters still missing
Despite help from Venezuelan and Mexican firefighters, the fire in Matanzas keeps raging. Castro, Inc., as usual, is filtering all information from the disaster site, so piecing together what can be learned from various sources, the big news is that the third oil tank has exploded.
‘I’m a boy!’: Child, 4, born a female announces transition with a blue gender reveal cannon at Vancouver Pride Parade – with his grandmother by his side
Charlie Danger Lloyd, four, has wanted to be a boy since the age of two, according to his mother Alaina Bourrel, 27
Cuban oil depot fire intensifies, inferno still out of control
Four days after a bolt of lightning started a fire at the Matanzas bay oil depot, the raging inferno keeps intensifying, spewing toxic smoke over a very wide area. Thousands have been evacuated and the city of Matanzas has been turned into a ghost town.
The Baltic Monument Wars Continue
Six weeks ago, I wrote about plans to demolish what is now known as the Victory Monument, a massive, triumphalist excrescence that wrecks what would otherwise be a pleasant park in the Latvian capital, Riga. It was originally constructed in the 1980s to commemorate the Red Army’s “liberation” of Latvia toward the end of the Second World War, a liberation that, in the view of most ethnic Latvians, would have been improved had the Red Army had not stayed on — for nearly half a century.
New Zealand Judge Declares 12-Year-Old Children Can Consent To Sex With Adults
A New Zealand judge has told a jury that 12-year-old children can consent to sexual intercourse with adults.
New Virus Reported in China is Sparking Concerns
While people infected with Langya virus had symptoms like fever, so far there have been 0 deaths. However, as it is genetically similar to deadly Nipah virus, scientists keeping an eye on cases.
Britain’s Attorney General Rejects Trans Overreach in Education
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, the United Kingdom’s attorney general, Suella Braverman, has clarified that schools are legally permitted “to refuse to use the preferred opposite sex pronouns of a child.” School personnel who encourage children to “socially transition” without their parent’s knowledge or consent risk being in “breach of their duty of care to that child.” Braverman also wrote that schools are legally obligated to “provide single-sex toilets in schools.”
Britain’s Gender-Youth Clinic Faces Mass Legal Action
Britain’s main gender-youth clinic was shut down after an independent review deemed it unsafe. Now, it’s facing mass legal action from an expected 1,000 families in a medical-negligence lawsuit.
Gang violence leaves 11 dead in Mexican border city
A gang riot inside a border prison that left two inmates dead quickly spread to the streets of Ciudad Juarez where alleged gang members killed nine more people, including four employees of a radio station
Greenland Now Targeted by Billionaires for Rare Earth Mineral Mining Development
Trump was right.
Latvia, Estonia leave China-backed East Europe forum
Latvia and Estonia say they have left a Chinese-backed forum aimed at boosting relations with Eastern European countries, in what appears to be a new setback for China’s increasingly assertive diplomacy.
University investigates PhD student’s paper on masturbating to comics of ‘young boys’
Manchester University launches inquiry into ethical standards after paper details masturbation sessions
Opinion
The ties that bound the GOP could use some fresh strings
Both before and during his presidency, Ronald Reagan famously made reference to the “three legs of the conservative stool,” or variations of that description. As part of his political job (as opposed to his official duties as president), he saw it as his responsibility to help bind together the largest factions inside the Republican Party into a cohesive force that would be able to win elections and implement policy at the national level. The factions in question were generally defined as the fiscal or economic conservatives, the social or Christain conservatives, and the foreign interventionists or neocon hawks.
Do We Believe Our Own Dogma?
The FBI’s serving a search warrant on Donald Trump’s residence is not — in spite of everything being said about it — unprecedented. The FBI serves search warrants on homes all the time. Donald Trump is a former president, not a mystical sacrosanct being.
If the Raid on Mar-a-Lago Was Not Justified, Then What?
The opinion on last night’s FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago around which many in the media seem quickly to have coalesced is that it was, indeed, a “dramatic” and “norm-breaking” event, but that this fact implies that it “must” therefore have been warranted. On CBS last night, Major Garrett confirmed that such action “is without precedent in American history, a former president of the United States now subject to a search of his primary residence by the FBI.” This morning’s Politico Playbook describes it as “the most aggressive law enforcement action ever taken against a former American president.” The BBC notes that “there has never been a search warrant quite like this in American history.”
Big Lies Matter
Welcome to the Tuesday, a weekly newsletter about Olympian heights and Augean dregs. The Tuesday is available only to NRPlus members. If you aren’t one, then you really should sign up: The late Rush Limbaugh used to tell a story about calling NR’s offices in New York City and asking if he could subscribe to the magazine — at the time, he thought it was a club you had to be invited to join. In truth, all that is required is a modest annual subscription fee — black tie optional. You don’t even have to agree with everything I write — heck, it’s probably better if you don’t. More fun that way, at least.
Trump Takes the Fifth
Former President Trump’s announcement that he will assert his Fifth Amendment privilege to avoid answering questions in New York attorney general Letitia James’s investigation of the Trump organization is significant.
The Reopening of the American Mind
The Alumni Free Speech Alliance proves that the fight is not over.
Why is the New York Times Publishing CCP Propagandists?
Yesterday, the New York Times published an opinion piece from Wang Wen, a literal CCP propagandist. That’s not an exaggeration — here’s Wen’s biography, as described in the Times article: “Mr. Wang researches global governance and has studied China’s re-emergence as a world power. He is a Communist Party member and a former chief opinion editor of The Global Times, an arm of the official Communist Party newspaper, The People’s Daily.”
Another Danger of Domestic Political Escalation
With Trump controversies consuming yet another news cycle, I thought it might be useful to highlight an overall trend and a paradox.
Flashback: The 1969 Prophecy of the Corruption of Affirmative Action
With Supreme Court oral arguments now scheduled for the Harvard and University of North Carolina affirmative action cases, I’ve started reading through some of the amicus briefs filed in the case, and will comment on some of them in due course.
How to Prosecute Donald Trump
A criminal case against an ex-president must be simple, clear, and damning. It must also avoid novel legal theories and any whiff of selective prosecution.
Peer-Reviewed History is Dying of Wokeness
A flagship journal’s latest issue tells the tale.
Continuing the Conversation about “National Conservatism”
Earlier this summer, the Edmund Burke Foundation released a statement of principles outlining the tenets of “national conservatism.” Accompanying the statement was also a list of signatories expressing agreement with its principles. Amid a resurgence of the ever-present debates within conservatism, the statement has attracted considerable attention. It has also provided an occasion for what Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts and Intercollegiate Studies Institute president John A. Burtka IV called the “urgent and honest debate” that has always been an essential part of conservatism. In this spirit, then, it is worth looking at four recent appraisals of the statement.
Conservatism and Mediating Institutions
I commend National Review Institute summer intern Frank Filocomo on his strong first piece for National Review, posted on the Corner earlier today. The piece, titled “Conservatives for Community,” emphasizes the importance of “what Buckley called the ‘libertarian’ streak” as “an essential part of the American character” but cautions that “it must be counterbalanced by a complementary communitarian streak,” arguing that “what we need right now is a synthesis of these two aspects of America’s unique identity.” Filocomo makes the case “for a more Tocquevillian America, as opposed to one characterized solely or mostly by a liberal (in the purely classical sense) ethos,” renewing the communitarian aspect of the American — and conservative — tradition
An Unsettling Glimpse at CPAC Texas
Recently, the Conservative Political Action Conference was in Dallas. Conferences of this sort are often strange affairs, and have been for a long time. But Chris Schlak, an ISI Fellow for USA Today who attended the conference, found unpleasant oddities attached to the proceedings beyond what is reasonable to expect.
How To Groom Commissars
The tale of Yuri’s first encounter with a college Maoist struggle session
