News of the Week for March 19^th, 2023

• Abortion
• Gun Rights
• Hide the Decline
• Obamacare
• War & Terror
• National News
• Economy & Taxes
• International News
• Opinion

 

Abortion

Dobbs Decision

 

New Mexico bill targeting ‘sanctuary cities for the unborn’ heads to governor’s desk
On Friday, the New Mexico House of Representatives agreed to changes made to House Bill 7 by the Senate, approving the bill that aims to prohibit any branch of government or individual acting on behalf of the public body from denying an abortion to anyone who seeks one. It also attempts to prohibit cities from becoming “sanctuary cities for the unborn.”

 

Gun Rights

 

Second Circuit to Hear First Comprehensive Post-Bruen Firearms Statute Challenge
On March 20 the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals will hear oral argument in cases challenging New York’s unconstitutional response to the Supreme Court’s Bruen case, which held that there is a constitutional right to keep AND BEAR arms

Here comes Biden’s EO on gun control
You may have thought that the pen Joe Biden uses to sign executive orders had run out of ink after the record-setting flood of EOs he signed upon taking office. But it appears that you would be incorrect. In a rare leak from inside the White House staff, we learned that Joe Biden plans to sign yet another order today, this one dealing with gun control. This is an area that’s typically left to the legislative branch and the president shouldn’t be able to significantly alter federal gun legislation with the stroke of a pen, but that apparently won’t stop Uncle Joe from trying. When the full details are revealed, however, it already sounds as if there will be much less meat on this order than those in the gun confiscation crowd might desire.

 

Hide the Decline

Environment &“Green Energy”

 

Biden Admin Approves ConocoPhillips 30-Year Willow Oil Drilling Project in Alaska
The Department of Interior discovered “the big new project would create annual emissions that equate to less than 1 percent of total U.S. annual emissions in 2019.”

Power Transformer Shortage is Wreaking Havoc in the U.S.
A massive power transformer shortage is wreaking havoc in the US — “A nationwide shortage of power grid transformers is causing delays across the US for everything from infrastructure for electric vehicles to new homes”

Electric Vehicles: Cars of Whose Future?
The title of this post is rhetorical. Electric vehicles are probably in the future of most drivers in the West (at least the future of those drivers who will be able to afford them) — whether or not they are based on the automotive technology car buyers prefer. Reason being that the choice to opt for ‘traditional’ cars will be more and more constrained. And the reason for that is that Western consumers freely deciding what car they want to buy is not the sort of choice climate policymakers want them to have.

UN gets reality checked after Burkina Faso energy whoop-dee-do
Okay. This is one of the funniest body slams I have ever seen in my life and it just played out on Twitter.

Biden Administration Is Trying to Ban Gas Stoves
A Biden administration Consumer Product Safety official said that regulation of gas stoves, including a potential ban, was in the works. Conservatives (and people who like to cook) were then up in arms, but were reassured by numerous “fact checkers” that it was a false alarm. Just another right-wing fantasy: the Biden administration has no such plan. So the CSPC just made it up, apparently.

EU Takes Step to Force All Homes, Buildings to Meet Crushing Energy Efficiency Standards
The European Parliament has just given the green light for the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) on Tuesday (14 March).

Maryland Becomes Latest State to Ban New Gas-Powered Car Sales After 2035
Maryland becomes the 5th state to follow California off the green-energy cliff.

Biden is not only after your gas stove but also your fridge and washer
An official on President Joe Biden’s Consumer Product Safety Commission let it slip to a reporter earlier this year that the sale of gas stoves might soon be banned for health and safety reasons.

 

Obamacare

Government in Healthcare

 

How Congress Can Help Open Up America’s Healthcare Markets
Bad healthcare policy raises costs and lowers quality for individuals and families. Yet too often, federal and state officials, driven by special interests, impose meticulously detailed laws, rules, and regulations that restrict competition in healthcare markets.

Foreign actors suspected in hack of DC Obamacare exchange, theft of House members’ personal data
“It’s not lost on any of us that there are both nefarious international actors as well as criminal gangs that try to get this to sell it for profit and are engaged in these types of data breaches all across the United States every single day,” said House Administration Commttee chair.

 

War & Terror

 

How China would hit US bases from California to Japan with ‘invincible’ hypersonic missiles in Pearl Harbor-style strike
CHINA could strike US bases from California to Japan with “invincible” hypersonic missiles, experts have warned.

China’s Xi promises to build ‘great wall of steel’ in rivalry with West
China needs “self-reliance and strength in science and technology” to better compete with the West in military preparedness, economic growth and many other areas, leader Xi Jinping said Monday, closing an annual Chinese Communist Party meeting during which he cemented his hold on power and escalated his rhetorical confrontation with the United States.

Trillion-Dollar Defense Budget ‘Inevitable,’ Pentagon Comptroller Says
The Pentagon’s top budget official, Mike McCord, told defense reporters this morning that a $1 trillion defense budget is “inevitable”.

Micronesia’s president accuses China of ‘political warfare’
Micronesia’s president accused China of “political warfare” in a letter to other national leaders and discussed switching diplomatic allegiance from China to Taiwan in exchange for $50 million.

Russian fighter jets ‘bullied’ US drone before knocking it out of the sky
A US ‘Reaper’ drone crashed into the Black Sea after being intercepted by two Russian fighter jets.

Russia ‘sends WOMEN prisoners to Ukraine war zone for the first time’ as Putin looks to make up for recent heavy losses that have seen more than 1,000 invading troops killed daily
Russian president has sought ‘alternative sources to replenish man power’

6 Takeaways From China’s National People’s Congress
The People’s Republic of China wrapped up its annual National People’s Congress session on Monday as tensions remain high between Beijing and Washington.

Aukus deal: US, UK and Australia agree on nuclear submarine project
The US, UK and Australia have unveiled details of their plan to create a new fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, aimed at countering China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

How Fast Can We Build Warships Today?
Jerry Hendrix has a fine overview in the Atlantic, following the last major piece there on the subject by Alfred Thayer Mahan in 1890, on the still-crucial importance of sea power to the United States, its economy, and the global order. That includes a component of domestic industry. As Hendrix notes, “We have ignored the linkage between the ability to build commercial ships and the ability to build Navy ships—one reason the latter cost twice as much as they did in 1989. The lack of civilian ships under our own flag makes us vulnerable.” We could use another John Adams or Chester Arthur, presidents who took seriously the central importance of the U.S. Navy, or leaders such as Abraham Lincoln who pushed for technological innovations.

Lithuania designates Russia’s Wagner as terrorist organisation updated
Lithuania’s Seimas on Tuesday unanimously recognised Wagner, a private Russian military company, as a terrorist organisation.

The Pentagon seeks to stock up on Tomahawks and other tactical missiles in $842 billion budget
The US military would need a lot of munitions in a war against China or Russia.

Antifa smash glass doors at UC Davis to protest Charlie Kirk
Charlie Kirk gave a speech last night at UC Davis and, as you’d probably expect, he was not welcomed by all. A group of protesters, some of them dressed in black bloc, tried to prevent students from entering the building, vandalized the outside of the building and smashed a bunch of glass doors.

Tons of uranium missing from Libyan site, IAEA tells member states
U.N. nuclear watchdog inspectors have found that roughly 2.5 tons of natural uranium have gone missing from a Libyan site that is not under government control, the watchdog told member states in a statement on Wednesday seen by Reuters.

It Sure Seems Like Darkstar, Lockheed’s Secret High-Speed Jet, Is Real
The long-rumored SR-71 successor—last seen in Top Gun: Maverick—may be legit after all.

Honduras opts for the Axis of Evil
This week brought us the latest example of the old rule about believing them when they tell you who they are. Following the recent tumultuous elections in Honduras and unrest across much of the region, Honduran President Xiomara Castro had been sparring with other Central and South American leaders. But now she’s announced another, potentially more disturbing change. She instructed her Foreign Affairs Minister to open a dialogue with China, seeking to establish diplomatic ties with the Chinese Communist Party. This will come as welcome news to Xi Jinping, who has been seeking to expand the CCP’s base of power in the region. But it will be extraordinarily bad news for the people of Taiwan, who had maintained similar ties to Honduras which will now presumably be cut. This would leave Taiwan with only 13 countries around the world that recognize the island state.

More Boats? We Need More Seamen
Dan wrote recently about warships (chum in the water for any sailor with an opinion). Specifically, Dan muses about Jerry Hendrix’s piece in The Atlantic, which frets about America’s self-inflicted loss of naval dominance. With that in mind, Dan considers what can be done to bolster the United States’ ability to produce naval vessels at scale and with rapidity — should the worst come to pass and something approximating a world war force our industrial might to once again take up Paul Bunyan’s welding torch.

The Iraq War at 20
“When the war in Iraq began,” Elliot Ackerman writes in the new special issue of National Review, “we were in crisis.”

Karen Bass Met With a Chinese Influence Group After Intelligence Officials Warned It Was Targeting Local Politicians
Los Angeles mayor met with the head of Beijing’s top influence outfit

China-proposed initiative on global civilization hailed
Leaders of political parties and organizations from around the world have hailed the China-proposed Global Civilization Initiative, saying that it has great relevance, together with the Global Development Initiative and Global Security Initiative, to building up countries’ consensus on addressing mounting global challenges in terms of peace, security, development and harmonious coexistence.

Arrest warrant issued for Vladimir Putin by International Criminal Court over Ukraine war
The court said in a statement that Vladimir Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of the population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation”

Brown University Students to Host Senior Chinese Official Implicated in Hong Kong Crackdowns
Students at Brown University this weekend are hosting a senior Chinese official who escalated the suppression of Hong Kong’s protest movement.

China Challenges Russia by Restoring Chinese Names of Cities on Their Border
While proclaiming its support for Russia, is China capitalizing on Moscow’s weakness to stab it in the back?

Don’t Expect Navy Robots In South China Sea Anytime Soon, CNO Says
Navy pursues big AI ambitions with gradual approach.

 

National

 

How to Make Study-Abroad Programs Better
Administered properly, overseas-study programs can be a boon for UNC-System schools.

Are you a “mixed berry gender fluid muffin?”
Apparently, this is a thing. At least sort of. In Wales.

Black California diversity director fired for asking questions
At a small community college in Cupertino, California, De Anza College, Dr. Tabia Lee (who happens to be a Black woman) thought she had landed a great position in 2021. She was placed as the school’s director of its Office of Equity, Social Justice and Multicultural Education. But her tenure grew rocky almost immediately. She committed the sin of asking questions about the school’s “anti-racism” policies and the language that was being used in describing what the policies meant. She would later go on to publish an article in the Journal of Free Black Thought that was critical of DEI policies. That turned out to be a bridge too far for the school and Dr. Lee was removed from her position. And today she remains unsure of how and why it happened.

Stanford Tells Federalist Society Students To ‘Reach Out’ to Diversity Dean Who Encouraged Disruption of Their Event—and To Shut Up on Twitter
Tirien Steinbach helped derail a talk by a federal judge. The school says the talk’s organizers should contact her for ‘support.’

Colleges Have Been a Small-Town Lifeline. What Happens as They Shrink?
Declining student enrollment is hitting the rural areas that rely on universities. They’re trying to adapt to survive.

Maryland Teacher Urges ‘War Against Capitalism,’ Brags About Indoctrinating Students
“Revolutions involve violence.”

Republicans Reveal the Democrat-Held Seats on Their 2024 Radar
The Republicans only have a four-seat majority. The party wants to add to its majority.

The end of BART? California’s bullet train isn’t the only rail system in deep trouble
Earlier this month we learned that California’s ruinously expensive bullet train system had gone up in price once again. The full system is now expected to cost $128 billion and that’s if it’s completed sometime in 2040. The other bad news about the bullet train was just as worrisome. A new estimate of anticipated ridership for the finished system showed a drop of about 25%.

Well, This Is Embarrassing
Newark, New Jersey, has humiliated itself. “Earlier this year, Mayor Ras Baraka invited what he thought was the Hindu nation of Kailasa to Newark’s city hall for a cultural trade agreement,” CBS notes. “But it turns out Kailasa is no nation at all. It’s a fake.”

L.A. riders bail on Metro trains amid ‘horror’ of deadly drug overdoses, crime
Matthew Morales boarded the Metro Red Line at MacArthur Park as classical music blared over the station loudspeakers.

Biden Calls Evil Good and Good Evil
This is bad news for Democrats, who call things by the diametric opposite of what they are in an attempt to dupe us into swallowing the unpalatable. For example, sex change operations are now called “gender affirmation.” For a starker example, our leftist president declares that it is “cruel” and “close to sinful” to protect kids from being permanently disfigured on behalf of the LGBT agenda.

Ron DeSantis hit with an ethics complaint from Trump super PAC
The primary pro-Trump super PAC is filing a complaint with the Florida Ethics Commission over what it says is the governor’s “shadow presidential campaign.”

A Chinese Businessman’s Trek From Beijing Gadfly to Steve Bannon Confidant to Fraud Suspect
Prosecutors say Guo Wengui diverted investor money to buy a yacht, Ferrari and $36,000 mattress

Beauty Pageants Have First Amendment Right to Limit Contestants to “Natural Born Females”: No Rehearing En Banc
The Ninth Circuit has just decided not to rehear this case, so the panel opinion remains the law.

The urban doom loop could be bad news for Democrats
Last year columnist Thomas Edsall wrote a lengthy piece about the concept of the “urban doom loop” driven by the pandemic. There’s a lot to say about this topic and you can read some of the background here and here but the very short version goes like this.

Another of the Adverse Effects of the Diversity Mania
The idea that all groups must be correctly “represented” in colleges and universities has been doing bad things to American higher education for almost 50 years. One of the adverse effects is that it puts students who have lower academic preparation but fill a “diversity” quota into competition with better prepared ones.

The Key Question Concerning Racial Preferences
Last fall, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the two cases challenging the legality of racial preferences in college admissions. Writing on Volokh Conspiracy, law professor David Bernstein points to a key question that no one asked: Why is “Hispanic” a racial category meriting preferences?

Would Today’s Supreme Court Allow States to Enforce Immigration Laws?
From the Associated Press: “Republican lawmakers in Texas are proposing legislation that would make it a state felony to cross the border from Mexico illegally and create a new border police force that could deputize private citizens, the latest in the state’s continued push to test the limits of the federal government’s authority over immigration.”

Oregon High School Teacher Asks Students to Describe Sexual Fantasies and Identify Classmates They Would Engage in Sexual Acts With
An X-rated health class assignment given to high school students has left parents disturbed and demanding change in the curriculum.

Silicon Valley Bank Gave $73,450,000 to Black Lives Matter
When hyperwoke Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, we were left to wonder where the money went.

Arizona Launches Hotline so Parents Can Report Critical Race Theory, Other Woke Subjects in Schools
“that would include lessons that focus on race or ethnicity rather than individuals on merit, gender ideology, social-emotional learning, or inappropriate sexual content”

Prof. Charles Negy, Investigated and Fired After Tweets Disputing Systemic Racism, Files Federal Lawsuit Against U. Central Florida
Negy, who was reinstated after an arbitrator ruled in his favor, alleges constitutional and tort claims for harm Negy suffered “for nearly two years at the hands of UCF administrators who, because they disliked his political views, treated him as less than human.”

U.S. Attorney’s Office Declines to Prosecute Two-Thirds of Arrests in Washington, D.C.
This is the sort of data that feels particularly relevant to the discussion about the District of Columbia’s criminal code, which was, for a day or two, a controversy of national importance.

A Misleading Defense of Fox in the Dominion Case
I recently took a long look at the damning evidence presented by Dominion Voting Systems in its defamation suit against Fox News. Over at the Federalist, Eddie Scarry argues that the lawsuit shouldn’t be treated as a real problem for Fox.

Former Deputy to John Kerry Participated in CCP Front Group–Sponsored Event Last Year
A former deputy to U.S. climate envoy John Kerry appeared on a virtual panel last fall with a former Chinese climate negotiator as part of a joint forum hosted by the University of Chicago and Peking University, urging greater cooperation on climate between the U.S. and China.

Journalist Confronts Outgoing Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot: ‘Get the Hell Out of My City’
“As somebody who was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, I never thought in my life that I would ever see the city of Chicago brought down so low”

Stanford Law Protester Screamed At Conservative Judge: “We hope your daughters get raped!”
From everything the shout-down of Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan reveals, there is a deep culture of intolerance at Stanford Law School. We don’t want the law students shouting down Judge Duncan and wishing rape upon his daughters on the bench, but no doubt many will end up there long after this incident is forgotten..

Maine School’s “Civil Rights Team” Accused of Bullying at Rowdy School Board Meeting on Parental Rights
RSU 14 parents from Windham and Raymond aired grievances against the school board and the school system Wednesday evening, with an overwhelming majority of parents opposing x-rated books and intrusive, sexualized surveys.

Bay Area Regulators Will Not Allow New Gas Furnaces and Water Heaters After 2027
Ridiculous.

Judge Duncan describes his ‘struggle session’ at Stanford Law
Today the Wall Street Journal published Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan’s firsthand account of what he experienced at Stanford Law School. Many people have seen the video showing the disruption of his speech by students and a DEI dean. In his account, Judge Duncan explains the hostility started before he even entered the building.

Nevada: SB 163 Mandates Tax Payer Funded Gender Reassignment Surgery For Minors
Senator Schieble: ‘Gender dysphoria is a medical condition that requires medical treatment’

Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions
Herring monitors, state-created dangers, and kicking out the jams.

‘Mutilating children for profit.’ California teen sues doctors over breast-removal surgery at age 13 in Kaiser Permanente’s SECOND blockbuster trans lawsuit
Layla Jane says her puberty blockers and hormones were a medical ‘torment’. Kaiser Permanente doctors offered trans care after minutes-long consultations. Another California teen Chloe Cole last month sued the same hospital.

Colleges Preparing for Massive Resistance
What will happen if the Supreme Court rules that racial preferences in higher education violate the law? At many schools, administrators will just keep on doing what they’ve been doing, believing that it would be nobler to fight on for the wonders of diversity (and never mind the litigation expenses) than to stop a policy that makes them feel so good.

At this California prison, ‘we are no longer prisoners. We are professionals’
Before the graduates strode in to the strains of “Pomp and Circumstance,” their prison blues peeking out from under their gowns, correctional officer John Janvrin encouraged them not to rush.

 

Economy & Taxes

 

Federal Regulators Announce They Are Stepping In to Back Silicon Valley Bank Deposits
Regulators also close New York’s Signature Bank, citing systemic risk.

Inflation gauge increased 0.4% in February, as expected and up 6% from a year ago
The consumer price index rose 0.4% in February and 6% from a year ago, in line with market expectations.

Tax Burden by State
This year, Uncle Sam will take his cut of the past year’s earnings on April 18. Many taxpayers are undoubtedly wondering how this year’s Tax Day will affect their finances, as a lot of people are still struggling financially as a result of the pandemic. Since the tax code is so complicated and has rules based on individual household characteristics, it’s hard for the average person to tell how they will be impacted.

The Party Is Ending for French Retirees
All advanced economies face demographic strains, but France’s stand out; now President Macron wants to raise the legal retirement age to 64.

Cheering Silicon Valley Bank Bailout, Gavin Newsom Doesn’t Mention He’s a Client
At least three of the California governor’s wine companies are held by SVB, and a bank president sits on the board of his wife’s charity.

From Bank Run to Panic
Looks like the bank panic is back ON today, with news that Credit Suisse is looking shaky. Yesterday bank stocks enjoyed a nice rebound from Monday’s swoon as everyone calmed down about the possibility of a contagion, but then there was this…

Credit Suisse shares tumble to new record low as European banking sector reels
Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse on Wednesday saw its shares fall to a new record low, pressuring the broader market and the rest of the European banking sector days after two lenders collapsed in the U.S.

Credit Suisse shares tank after Saudi backer rules out further assistance
Shares of embattled bank Credit Suisse hit another all-time low for a second consecutive day. Credit Suisse’s biggest backer, Saudi National Bank, has said it won’t provide further financial help for the bank. Speaking to CNBC’s Hadley Gamble during a panel session in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday morning, Credit Suisse Chairman Axel Lehmann declined to comment on whether his firm would need any sort of government assistance in the future.

Pornhub Acquired By Canadian Private Equity Firm ‘Ethical Capital Partners’
The parent company of controversial website Pornhub – which has allowed all sorts of child sexual abuse on the platform despite repeated efforts to remove such content – has been sold to Canadian private equity firm, Ethical Capital Partners, which was formed last year and says it’s focused on technology businesses that “have legal and regulatory complexity and that put a value on transparency and accountability.”

Midsize banks plead for unlimited FDIC backstop for two years
A coalition of midsize U.S. banks is calling on the government to insure all deposits for the next two years, in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank’s emergency rescue that insured all of the firm’s deposits regardless of size.

Limiting Government: The Failure of ‘Starve the Beast’
“In sum, there is no significant evidence that a recent high deficit ever had an effect similar to that of reducing a child’s allowance; the difference is that the federal government has a credit card with no effective debt limit. Federal spending is better described as buying government services at a discount equal to the deficit, the costs of which will be borne by someone sometime in the future.”

 

International

 

Pope Francis calls Catholic Church’s ban on priests having sex ‘temporary’ opening door to review of 1,000-year-old celibacy rules
Pope Francis, 86, hinted that priests may not have to be celibate in the future

Gay anti-communist activists in Spain put a skirt and lipstick on Che Guevara bust in Madrid
A bust of the homophobic Marxist mass-murderer Che Guevara in the Spanish capital of Madrid got a makeover of sorts in a protest by three gay anti-communist activists. The activists, who go by the name Marifachas (short for “maricones fachas,” or roughly translated, gay look or gay style) were calling attention to Che Guevara’s history of being a homophobic murderer who sent gay Cubans to concentration camps.

France’s Macron risks his government to raise retirement age
French President Emmanuel Macron imposed a highly unpopular bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 on Thursday by shunning parliament and invoking a special constitutional power.

Spring break horror as gunman kills one and injures another in Miami Beach while Mexico deploys the armed SOLDIERS on Cancun coast… but revelers ramp up celebrations
Gunfire erupted in an area of Miami Beach where two men were shot, one died the other injured and a person taking into police custody in connection. It comes after one college student died just days after another spring break reveler was taken to hospital with a brain bleed. A police presence is obvious in spring break locations with Mexico deploying armed soldiers onto coastline hot spots as the party rolls on into the weekend.

Britain backs Rolls-Royce effort to develop micro-reactor to power moon base
Britain is pinning its hopes on nuclear power becoming the energy source that will fuel the next phase of human exploration of the moon, the country’s space agency said Friday.

 

Opinion

 

Buckley’s Corner: Panama Debates and Crotchety Conservatives
“We’re in the end times” is a refrain I often hear from older conservatives, especially those of an Evangelical stripe. They praise the halcyon wonder of the ’50s, early ’60s, and then the Reagan ’80s — quick to remind a young conservative that his generation will see the end of the American Experiment and the death of all that is good.

US should reject China’s Kamala Harris-for-Kevin McCarthy Taiwan compromise
Anticipating a visit to Taiwan by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) — still to be planned and scheduled — China is offering a compromise. In return for allowing McCarthy to visit Taiwan without the sort of military reaction that followed Nancy Pelosi’s 2022 visit to the island democracy, China wants Vice President Kamala Harris to visit Beijing simultaneously.

Don’t Let the Culture War Degrade the Constitution
The Constitution of the United States, properly interpreted, provides a marvelous method for handling social conflict. It empowers an elected government to enact even contentious new rules while protecting the most fundamental human rights of dissenting citizens. Political defeat is never total defeat. Losers of a given election still possess their basic civil liberties, and the combination of the right to speak and the right to vote provides them concrete hope for their preferred political outcomes.

How Nevada stymies education entrepreneurs
In theory, strong regulations are supposed to guarantee excellence. In practice, they often protect mediocrity, which is what’s happening with Nevada schools.

Ron DeSantis Gets Ukraine Wrong
The governor’s statement on the war isn’t predicated on an understanding of America’s permanent interests abroad or on principle. It’s pure politics.

Progressives Want Urban Density, but Do Voters?
“The era of urban supremacy is over,” Joel Kotkin, the executive director of the Urban Reform Institute in Houston, recently told New York Times columnist Thomas B. Edsall. The evidence Edsall marshaled in defense of this proposition is compelling.

DeSantis vs. Post-Modern Republicanism
The truth is heresy when in conflict with “my truth” and feelings

Of Course You Know What “Woke” Means
I’d rather use any other term at this point, but can we get real please?

ASSOC. PROF. Buynevich: I grew up in the Soviet Union. Even those universities valued merit more than some American schools do today.
Today, many American college students do not understand that they are advocating for a system that goes beyond what even the Soviets promoted.

DeSantis’s Higher-Education Strategy Needs Adjustment
I know of no Republican governor from Ronald Reagan’s era in California to the present with a more impressive education record than Ron DeSantis. As Rich Lowry puts it, DeSantis isn’t just building a dike to contain the woke tide, he’s aggressively rolling that tide back. DeSantis has blocked action civics, banned K–12 CRT, taken age-inappropriate discussions of gender identity out of schools, helped elect reformist school-board candidates, courageously said no to the College Board’s biased AP African American Studies course, initiated important university-accreditation reforms, appointed college and university trustees committed to transformative change, pushed back against federal imposition of CRT and action civics, and may be the only governor to have genuinely replaced Common Core. To top it off, H.B. 999, sponsored by Representative Alex Andrade and carrying DeSantis’s latest and most ambitious higher-education-reform plans, promises major and much needed changes to our colleges and universities.

Adam Smith — English Teacher?
Caroline Breashears, a professor of English at St. Lawrence University, has written the March essay for the Adam Smith 300 series for Capital Matters.

Increased Transparency Key to Trust in Nevada Education
What prompted Candra Evans, a Nevada parent, to file a lawsuit against the Clark County School District board of trustees in January 2023?

Are We the Byzantines?
When Constantinople finally fell to the Ottomans on Tuesday, May 29, 1453, the Byzantine Empire and its capital had up to that point survived for 1,000 years beyond the fall of the Western Empire at Rome.

DeSantis’s Higher-Education Strategy Needs Adjustment
I know of no Republican governor from Ronald Reagan’s era in California to the present with a more impressive education record than Ron DeSantis. As Rich Lowry puts it, DeSantis isn’t just building a dike to contain the woke tide, he’s aggressively rolling that tide back. DeSantis has blocked action civics, banned K–12 CRT, taken age-inappropriate discussions of gender identity out of schools, helped elect reformist school-board candidates, courageously said no to the College Board’s biased AP African American Studies course, initiated important university-accreditation reforms, appointed college and university trustees committed to transformative change, pushed back against federal imposition of CRT and action civics, and may be the only governor to have genuinely replaced Common Core. To top it off, H.B. 999, sponsored by Representative Alex Andrade and carrying DeSantis’s latest and most ambitious higher-education-reform plans, promises major and much needed changes to our colleges and universities.

Erdogan Lifts Objections to Finland’s Pending NATO Membership
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his government no longer objects to Finland’s request to join NATO, paving the way for the Nordic country’s potential membership in the alliance. The parliaments of Turkey and Hungary will still have to approve Finland’s bid, though Erdogan’s support removes the main obstacle that had previously held it up.

Of Wokeness and Word Games
If you are notably online (it is not advised), then you might have been aware of a recent internet kerfuffle that erupted over a piece of ridiculous Twitter nonsense. (And no, I am not talking about how our own Dan McLaughlin loosened a pebble that somehow landslided into Jack White of the White Stripes writing a bizarre public tribute poem to his ex-wife’s negligible drumming talents. But that really was hilarious.) This kerfuffle is about how Bethany Mandel, author of the recent book Stolen Youth: How Radicals Are Erasing Innocence and Indoctrinating a Generation, was apparently caught flat-footed when Briahna Joy Gray over at the Hill asked her in an interview to define wokeness on the spot, and she fumbled for words.

Let the public see what their public servants are up to Mar
This is Sunshine Week, March 12-18. The annual observation was created by the American Society of News (formerly Newspaper) Editors to spotlight the importance of public access to government information in a democratic republic, allowing citizens to be the watchdogs over their elected and appointed representatives.

Dear Wokesters, You Named Yourselves
It’s time to let America’s amnesiac wokesters in on a secret: They embraced the term “woke.” They defined it, wrapped themselves in it, screamed it from the rooftops, and invested it with religious passion. The rest of us merely responded.

‘Stockholm Syndrome’? SVB, BLM and the Toxic Plague of Liberal White Guilt
Bert the Samoan Lawyer sent this story to me with the dry remark, “Basically, this means the taxpayers are picking up the tab for BLM”