It’s Hard To Be a Trumpist  In addtion to RINOs, there appear also to be TINOs.

How the Supreme Court is using Trump to grab more power for itself (Ian Millhiser/Vox)

Jared Kushner, the President’s Son-in-Law, Is Part of Paramount’s Bid for Warner Bros. Discovery (Lauren Hirsch/New York Times)  So what?

Boasberg escalates contempt inquiry over Alien Enemies Act deportations (Kyle Cheney/Politico)

Trump Ban on Wind Energy Projects Ruled Illegal by US Judge (Bloomberg)

MAGA Pushes Racist Cinnabon Worker’s Fundraiser Past $100,000 (J.D. Wolf/MeidasTouch News) MAGA is the New Nigger.

Court Reform: Breaking the Corrupt Rule of the Six GOPers Is Everything (Josh Marshall/Talking Points Memo)

Federal judge throws out Trump order blocking development of wind energy (Associated Press)

Trump, 79, Jolts Awake After Nodding Off at Roundtable (Erkki Forster/The Daily Beast)

A Trump Doctrine of Contradictions (Wall Street Journal)

The POLITICO Trump interview (Politico)

Trump’s trade wounds force White House into action (Courtenay Brown/Axios)  Wounds!

‘I Worry People Are Going to Get Hurt in the Short Term’ (Declan Harty/Politico)

We asked activists from authoritarian regimes what they wish they’d known sooner. Here’s what they said (Danielle Renwick/The Guardian)

Looks Like the Supreme Court Will Continue to Overturn the 20th Century (New York Times)  I like that idea.

Fact check: Trump denies saying something he said on camera five days ago (Daniel Dale/CNN)

There is a real chance of a US-Venezuela war — so why does it feel fake? (Joshua Keating/Vox)  Perhaps because it is fake.

Vulnerable Republicans sweat amid GOP divisions on health care (Alexander Bolton/The Hill)  They hope.

In Warner Fight, a Hollywood Plot That Makes Trump the Star (Damian Paletta/Wall Street Journal)

At will? Whose will? — Removing independent agency heads is part of a broader assault on a nonpartisan government (Don Moynihan/Can We Still Govern?)  In the Executive branch, the President’s will. You might read the Constitution. Just a suggestion. (The only ‘nonpartisan government’ is government by the Deep State.)

Democrats Want Probe of Trump Officials and Immigration Deals (Fola Akinnibi/Bloomberg)  Of coufrse they do.

Trump doesn’t rule out troops in Venezuela, says President Nicolás Maduro’s ‘days are numbered’ (Megan Lebowitz/NBC News)

After NIH grant cuts, breast cancer research at Harvard slowed, and lab workers left (Martha Bebinger/NPR)  Because, as we all know,  breast cancer research is TOTALLY the responsibility of the Federal government—and the Federal taxpayer.

Trump Reversing “Humphrey’s Executor” Is NOT Priced In

Supreme Court Struggles With How to Insulate the Federal Reserve From Politics (Adam Liptak/New York Times)

7 takeaways from POLITICO’s interview with President Trump (Megan Messerly/Politico)  Getcher Narrative right here.

The Movement: Warning signs emerge for MAGA populism over ObamaCare (Emily Brooks/The Hill)  MAGA is the New Nigger.

As Pope Leo’s MAGA criticism builds, Trump suggests he’d meet Catholic leader (Seb Starcevic/Politico)

Capitol agenda: What Trump told POLITICO about health care (Calen Razor/Politico)

How Jared Kushner became Trump’s indispensable second peace envoy (Washington Post)

Cheryl Hines ‘Surprised’ Friends Dropped Her Over RFK’s MAGA Conversion (Tom Latchem/The Daily Beast)  Trump Cooties.

‘Dishonors the decades-long bipartisan commitment’: Democrats slam Trump for his European takedown (Gregory Svirnovskiy/Politico)  I.e. Republicans are no longer rolling over.

America Has Become a Digital Narco-State (Paul Krugman)  Krugman has become a clone of Keith Olbermann.

Supreme Court Poised to Vastly Expand Presidential Power, Again (Kim Wehle/The Bulwark)

US civic health rating downgraded after year of ‘restrictive’ Trump actions (Maya Yang/The Guardian)

Justice Department faces call for internal probe into legal opinion on Venezuelan boat strikes (Scott MacFarlane/CBS News)

Advocacy groups sue Trump administration seeking release of legal memo justifying boat strikes (Courtney Kube/NBC News)

GOP lawmakers wary of Trump escalating beyond boat strikes in Venezuela (Washington Post)

Defense Bill Requires Trump Spy Agencies To Declassify COVID-19 Origins Intel, Chinese Obstruction Just the Trump Spy Agencies, mind you.

Trump Accidentally Sabotages Case for Bombings in New Interview Fiasco (Greg Sargent/New Republic)  Greg Sargent loses his shit.

New Illinois Law Limits Courthouse ICE Arrests God forbid ICE should get hold of an illegal immigrant with a criminal record—that would kill the whole Narrative.

DHS Nabs N.J. Twins in Plot to Shoot ICE Agents ‘on Sight’

Senate Democrats introduce bill to block Trump from putting face on dollar coin (Alexander Bolton/The Hill)

Life Inside the Undocumented Underground (Hunter Walker/Talking Points Memo)

Greene: ‘I feel very sorry’ for Trump (Sarah Fortinsky/The Hill)

The Inevitable, Trumpian Betrayal of Ukraine (The Contrarian)

Clinton-Appointed Federal Judge Tosses Trump’s Order Halting Wind Energy Projects

Trump will again test ‘blame Democrats’ message on the economy — this time at a casino (Alex Gangitano/Politico)

NewsBusters.

I’m not sure I’d ever bet against Elon Musk.

NewsBusters.

Although that’s not always a guarantee.

Read it.

In a brazen push to normalise the unthinkable, radical abortion activists are now targeting America’s youngest minds with a colorful children’s book that glorifies killing the unborn as some kind of heroic “superpower.”

Newsbusters.

The New York Times has invented a new genre of reporting — covering big stories showing Democrats in a bad light years after the events that matter.

At the tail end of 2025, The Times has freshly broken the news that the Biden administration flooded the country with illegal immigrants, partly for ideological and partisan reasons, partly out of sheer incompetence.

Who knew?

Newsbusters.

They call their newsletter “Politico Pro,” but it can sound more like “Politico Promo.” Take reporter Andrew Howard with his embarrassingly unskeptical pitch for funds on Monday, “Anti-Trump former Republicans have a multimillion-dollar plan to save House Democrats.”

When you hear the name “Lincoln Project” you should check your pocket to make sure the contents of your wallet are still intact. A co-founder of the Lincoln Project, Steve Schmidt, is back at the political money trough searching for funds using the name of the Save America Movement (SAM). And all they say they need is about $100 million.

Read it.

Highlighting exactly why Barack Obama, Joe Biden and James Clyburn needed to deploy a 2021 Machiavellian strategy to get her moved onto the Supreme Court, Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson (KBJ) argues for the supreme power of the DC bureaucracy that must not be challenged by the President of the United States (Executive Branch).

In the case of Trump v Slaughter, the removal of the FTC Chair, Justice KBJ argues that presidential authority must be kept in check by the unelected “professionals and experts” who make up the bureaucracy underneath him. The “No Kings” argument is entirely ridiculous given the plenary power of the executive and the constitutional authority of the office.

Read it.

The Virtue Signalling Advantage of an electric car ‘trumps’ the angst of Trump Cooties Derangement Syndrome.

Read it.

$2.90 per gallon on average as of Monday, according to data from GasBuddy, a company that tracks gas prices.

My wife filled up yesterday at $2.17.

Read it.

President Donald Trump’s approval rating edged up to 41% in the past week as Republicans warmed to his handling of the cost of living, a sign the administration’s new focus on affordability might be supporting his popularity, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.

The six-day poll, which closed on Monday, showed approval of the president rising from 38% late last month, which was the lowest since Trump returned to the White House in January. Trump started his second term with a 47% rating.

Republicans performed poorly in a handful of state elections in November as Democrats hammered the Trump administration over persistently high inflation. But in recent weeks Trump has engaged more forcefully on the topic, scaling back some of his tariff increases and pledging to combat high food prices.

Read it.

You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried…

The 2026 World Cup has been the talk of the sports – and political – world lately. The United States, Mexico, and Canada will host it, and last week, the presidents of all three countries attended and participated in the draw to determine which teams would play in which groups.

In the United States, Seattle is one of the host cities, and one of the matches in that city will take place on June 26.

Before the draw, local organizers there determined that the theme for that particular night would be LGBT-etc “Pride Night” to coincide with June being “Pride Month.” Why? Because Seattle’s going to Seattle and insert propaganda into sports, no matter how much it alienates people.

So now that everything’s finalized and settled, we know who will be paying in that particular match: Egypt and Iran. No, I’m serious.

Read it.

Illinois sanctuary policies have allowed more than 1,700 criminal illegal aliens to slip back onto the streets since President Trump took office on January 20, and the Department of Homeland Security is now calling out state officials for putting politics ahead of public safety. Among those released are individuals charged with or convicted of homicide, sexual assault, and kidnapping—crimes that should have kept them locked up and handed over to federal immigration authorities.

Read it.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is using his last months in office to release dozens of inmates convicted of homicide — and says many more are coming, according to NJ 101.5.

Since December 2024, Murphy has granted clemency to 283 offenders, including 31 people convicted of murder, felony murder, or aggravated manslaughter, according to NJ 101.5. Some had been serving life sentences or faced decades before being eligible for parole. All will now walk free with five years of supervision.

The governor fast-tracked the releases after creating a new Clemency Advisory Board. In November alone, he freed 23 convicted killers. Murphy has defended the move by highlighting a few cases involving women he says were victims of abuse and “received excessive sentences.”

Read it.

Western Civ is choking itself to death with lawfare in the name of “democracy.” If you think just a little bit past the sale, you will realize that few will say what they mean by “democracy,” including the most ardent “democracy” cultists. What it supposedly means is legal outcomes that the political left wants, not what the law, or the truth, or justice requires.

On the surface, the left pretends to want outcomes that favor their roster of designated victim groups: women, dark-skinned people, and sexual outliers, the familiar cast of characters with its tiresome scripts.

Newsbusters.

Under Democrat Governor JB Pritzker, Illinois has refused to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), resulting in the release into the state of nearly 1,800 criminal illegal aliens since President Donald Trump took office, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported Monday.

Read it.

The head of a Louisiana diocese has become the fourth Roman Catholic bishop to allow illegal migrants fearing deportation to skip their weekly obligation to attend Mass.

Bishop Michael Duca of the Diocese of Baton Rouge granted a dispensation from Sunday and holy day Mass attendance for immigrants who are “rightfully afraid” to go to church because of immigration enforcement concerns.

He said the climate of “fear and anxiety” has made attendance “untenable” for some faithful.

During the persecutions in the fourth century, priests would sneak into prison in order to give communion to imprisoned Christians. I think that the modern Roman church has lost rack. Presumably their parishioners also get a plenary indulgence for having broken the law to get here.

Read it.

Well, I’ve always thought so.

Navy Matters.

ComNavOps has discussed various aspects of what our naval force structure should be but it’s generally been in isolation rather than presented as a grand overview. This has sometimes made it difficult for people who haven’t been following the blog closely to understand how the individual components relate and where they fit in the overall force structure. I think it’s time to begin presenting the overall picture. One way to do this is to examine the naval force structure we’ll need to fight China and win. Of course, we lack an explicit military strategy which is what we really need to do a detailed analysis and presentation but we can still generate a pretty good picture just by looking at the typical types of naval operations that will be needed.

With that in mind, here are some of the naval operations that will be required in the China War and the specific force needed to meet those requirements.

Read it.

The Department of Health and Human Services changed the nameplate on an official portrait of Adm. Rachel Levine, the department’s former assistant secretary, replacing the legal name with a prior name.

The portrait is displayed at the Hubert H. Humphrey Building in Washington alongside those of past holders of the assistant secretary role.

NPR first reported the nameplate beneath Levine’s portrait was altered to read “Richard,” Levine’s birth name.

Officers of the Public Health Service wear uniforms similar to those of the Navy and use Navy rank terminology, but that’s just cosplay. Levine was no more a real Admiral than a real female.

Supreme Court, Minus Alito, Rejects Case Against Trump

AP Editorializes All Over Pipe Bomber Arrest as DOJ ‘Rewrite of History’ of January 6

Trump May Be Getting Ready to Blow Up the Model of a Presidential Library (Luke Mullins/Politico)

Trumpian Corruption Is Worse Than Ukrainian Corruption (Anne Applebaum/The Atlantic)  Anne Applebaum loses her shit.

Trump slams pardoned Democratic congressman as ‘disloyal’ for not switching parties (Bill Barrow/Associated Press)

Mainstream Media Jumps On Bogus Narrative That J6 Pipe Bomber Was A Trump Supporter

Former FDA commissioner: Trump claims about hepatitis B transmission ‘simply not true’ (Max Rego/The Hill)

In the Line of Fire — During the Trump era, political violence has become an increasingly urgent problem. (Benjamin Wallace-Wells/New Yorker)  TDS will do that.

Trump’s foreign policy vision: Make Europe white again (Andrew O’Hehir/Salon)

Jamie Dimon Blames ‘Militarizing’ Govt in Debanking Trump Media

Dimon on Trump Media debanking: ‘People have to grow up here’ (Sarah Fortinsky/The Hill)

Compromise defense bill stymies Trump on Europe troop withdrawals (Connor O’Brien/Politico)

Former MAGA loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene says Trump policies are not America First (Lesley Stahl/CBS News)  Which, indeed, they are not. But they’re the closest we’ve come in my lifetime.

Appointment of controversial FDA official rocking agency like “an atom bomb,” scientists there say (Michael Kaplan/CBS News)

‘I am America First’: Marjorie Taylor Greene knocks Trump for not focusing on domestic issues (Scott Wong/NBC News)

‘Only so long’ before Trump’s tariff costs hit consumers, businesses warn (Daniel Desrochers/Politico)  Why, it’s a sure thing—as sure as Global Warming, as sure as sea-level rise, as sure as ….

Trump’s battle with independent agencies is back at the Supreme Court (Lawrence Hurley/NBC News)  He’s won so far.

Trump pardons major drug traffickers despite his anti-drug rhetoric (Washington Post)  Perhaps he realizes (as the Washington Poop does not) that ‘drug offenses’ are one of the Deep State’s favorite tools to suppress people they don’t like.

PBS Creeps Up to Minnesota’s Somali Fraud Scandal, Fixates on ‘Xenophobic’ Trump

Venezuela’s Maduro, shaken but still standing, aims to wait out Trump (Washington Post)  He’s got three years to go.

Trump’s Own Mortgages Match His Description of Mortgage Fraud, Records Reveal (ProPublica)

The Trump show hits the stage (Politico)  You can almost hear the sniffing of the noses in the air.

Let’s call Trump’s anti-Somali hate for what it is (Noah Berlatsky/Public Notice)  Trump’s ‘hate’ for Somalis is nothing compared to their hatred for America. At least we know whose side Noah Berlatsky is on.

Is This The End of the Free World? (Paul Krugman)  Paul Krugman loses his shit.

Rural America relies on foreign doctors. Trump’s visa fee shuts them out. (David Ovalle/Washington Post)  Rural America wouldn’t be depedant on foreign doctors were it not for Federal restrictions on medical residencies. This artificial block on the number of doctors who can be trained in America is the problem, not Trump.

All Gas. No Brakes. Trump Quakes. (William Kristol/The Bulwark) Kristol fakes.

The second strike isn’t the only problem (Jennifer Rubin/The Contrarian)  Jennifer Rubin loses her shit.

The War Over Nick Fuentes Is Over. He Won (Tessa Stuart/Rolling Stone)  And it BURNS, doesn’t it, Tessa?

RINO ALERT: Anti-Trump former Republicans have a multimillion-dollar plan to save House Democrats (Andrew Howard/Politico)

DOJ attacks judges for criticizing Halligan appointment (April Rubin/Axios)

A Scholar’s ‘Bombshell’ Questioned Trump’s Power to Fire Officials (Adam Liptak/New York Times)  ‘Bombshell’? Try squeaky whine.

Humphrey’s Executor: SCOTUS weighs Trump’s power to fire (Axios)

Supreme Court Hears Fight Oover Trump’s Power to Fire FTC Membes

Trump Wants Complete Control. Will the Supreme Court Hand It to Him? (Kate Shaw/New York Times)

Harvard Poll: Trump Outperforms Congress by 19 Points

ICEBlock app sues Trump administration for censorship and ‘unlawful threats’ (Bobby Allyn/NPR)  They ought to be arrested for obstructing justice.

WH: Report Trump Wants to Fire Noem ‘Fake News’  As it so often is.

A Dozen F.B.I. Agents Sue Patel After Being Fired Over Kneeling at Protest (Devlin Barrett/New York Times)

Ex-FBI Agents, Fired for Protest Kneeling, Sue to Get Jobs Back

‘Total Lie’! MS NOW Hosts Fulminate Over Illegal College Kid Deported to Honduras

Supreme Court conservatives poised to back Trump in FTC firing case (Reuters)

Mamdani Moves to ‘Trump-Proof’ New York as ICE Tensions Rise (Myles Miller/Bloomberg)

Supreme Court seems ready to let Trump fire independent commissioners (Ashley Gold/Axios)

Read it.

A monument in Lisbon commemorating Jews killed during a 1506 massacre was defaced last week with neo-Nazi slogans, including with a reference to Adolf Hitler.

The Star of David-shaped statue outside a central church was marked with “Haltz Judeu 1488,” prompting condemnation from the Jewish Community of Lisbon. David Joffe Botelho, president of the Lisbon Jewish Community, urged authorities to take proactive measures against rising antisemitism, calling for the restoration of the monument and swift punishment of those responsible.

Another incident occurred in Brussels when a nativity scene in the city’s Grand-Palace was spray-painted with the words “Free Palestine” on Saturday, December 6th, raising concerns of anti-Christian vandalism.

A spokesperson for the Combat Antisemitism Movement highlighted the broader threat to religious symbols across Europe.

Read it

On Friday evening, December 5th, in Lindau, Bavaria, a 13-year-old Austrian boy was hurt in a serious attack by a group of four underage youths—comprising two Syrians and two Ukrainians.

Reportedly, the assailants used emergency hammers taken from a city bus. The boy fell to the ground and was further kicked by the attackers before police arrived.

Police were dispatched shortly before 10 p.m. to the ZUP bus station after receiving an emergency call. By the time the first patrol arrived, the suspects had fled. A manhunt was immediately launched, involving federal and border police. The injured boy was taken to a hospital, but authorities reported he did not sustain serious injuries.

About 300 meters from the scene, police found four minors hiding behind the criminal police station building. The group consisted of a pair of Syrian brothers and two Ukrainians, aged between 11 and 13. All four live in Vorarlberg, Austria. Legal guardians and the youth welfare office were informed, and investigations are ongoing.

Read it.

Georgia State Rep. Sharon Henderson, D-Covington, was arrested Monday after a federal grand jury indicted her on charges alleging she stole more than $17,000 in pandemic unemployment benefits by falsely claiming she had lost work due to COVID-19.

“It is shocking that a public official would allegedly lie to profit from an emergency program designed to help suffering community members,” U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said in a statement. “Politicians who violate the public trust and steal from the needy to enrich themselves will be held accountable.”

Prosecutors say Henderson, who joined the Georgia House in 2021, applied for federal unemployment programs in mid-2020 while running for office, asserting she had recently worked for Henry County Schools.

Read it.

And rightly so.  Beyond that: The thieves need to go to jail.

Read it.

The political advocacy arm of the Council on American-Islamic Relations is “operating entirely outside the regulatory framework Congress requires,” and its foreign-linked ties “warrant immediate federal scrutiny,” according to a nonpartisan watchdog.

A new report from the Network Contagion Research Institute, produced with the Intelligent Advocacy Network, alleges CAIR Action, a 501(c)(4), has built a nationwide political fundraising and voter-mobilization operation while failing to meet state and local registration requirements in the jurisdictions where it operates.

In its “bottom line up front,” the NCRI report claims CAIR Action raises money or conducts political activity in 22 states without the “licenses, registrations, or legal authority” required under state solicitation and reporting laws.

Read it.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and several other senior U.S. officials have criticized the internet policies of the European Union (EU), likening them to censorship, after the governing bloc last week levied Elon Musk’s social media platform X with a $140 million fine for breaching its online content rules.

Read it.

A new StopAntisemitism report card finds that antisemitism remains widespread and largely unaddressed across American college campuses, with 14 schools receiving an F grade for failing to protect Jewish students.

The 2025 assessment, shared exclusively with the New York Post before its public release, surveyed students at 90 colleges and documented campus incidents throughout the year.

“The schools that received Fs in the report have become ground zero for antisemitism in American higher education,” StopAntisemitism founder Liora Rez told the Post.

Read it.

million fine for alleged violations of the Digital Services Act, can no longer be viewed as a simple regulatory dispute. For Musk, this clash is the symptom of a deeper trend: a Union turning into a bureaucratic super-state determined to restrict freedom of expression, control the digital sphere, and accumulate political power without direct democratic legitimacy.

Read it.

A new report from Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) highlights stark differences in crime rates between German and foreign suspects, with Syrians and Afghans showing particularly high figures. The federal report Crime in the Context of Migration for 2024 reveals that, across numerous types of offenses, Syrians and Afghans appear as suspects significantly more often than German citizens.

Among Germans, 163 suspects per 100,000 inhabitants are recorded. By contrast, Syrians account for 1,740 and Afghans for 1,722 per 100,000. A similar pattern emerges in sexual and drug-related offenses. Overall, non-German suspects now make up over 40% of all cases, while the proportion of foreign convicts has grown over the past decade and now exceeds one-third.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) told Bild that the government plans to respond with tougher measures. Migrants who integrate, work, and obey the law may remain in Germany, but those who commit crimes or pose a threat risk losing this right. The ministry is preparing deportations to Afghanistan and Syria to remove offenders and potential threats from the country.

Read it.

This video essay examines the collapse of housing affordability across the developed world and the demographic, economic, and political consequences that follow. Drawing on Joel Kotkin’s analysis, it argues that restrictive planning regimes, urban-containment strategies, and elite-driven housing policies have undermined the pathway to ownership that once sustained the middle class. Over the last two decades, housing prices have risen far faster than household incomes, locking younger generations out of wealth accumulation and family formation.

The Antiplanner.

Taxpayers in Highland Park, Texas pay $10 million a year to the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) system, which carried 22 Highland Park commuters to work on a typical weekday before the pandemic, but only 11 in more recent years. This raises an important question: is the purpose of public transit to provide efficient transportation, or is the purpose to transfer money from wealthy suburbanites to transit bureaucracies?

Read it.

If there is one robust trend visible here, it is not in rainfall but in rhetoric: the persistent escalation from modest signal to grand conclusion. Until that trend reverses, the distance between climate data and climate discourse will continue to grow—and with it, public confusion about what the numbers truly mean.

UPDATE: Rationality Returns to Australia as Climate Scare Wanes

Read it.

A “color revolution” (sometimes called a “soft coup” or “regime-change operation by non-kinetic means”) is a modern form of orchestrated political upheaval designed to replace an existing government without traditional military invasion or civil war. The term arose from events in the early 2000s, such as Serbia’s Bulldozer Revolution (2000) and Georgia’s Rose Revolution (2003).

These operations follow a remarkably consistent playbook, refined over two decades by Western NGOs, intelligence-linked foundations, and State Department-affiliated entities (Open Society Foundations, USAID, etc.).

Authors describe seven stages of a color revolution.

Read it.

The culture war in the western world is currently hitting a crescendo. At first the media said it was all “conspiracy theory” being amplified by a “fringe minority” of radical right wingers. Then, they admitted the conflict was real but claimed that conservatives were monsters trying to “dismantle democracy”. Today, the culture war has become the dominant issue of our age with the debate echoing through the halls of the White House.

Leftists hoped they could make it all go away by dismissing it. They hoped they could continue with their ideological takeover at their leisure. They failed. The rebellion in the US is a product of decades of effort by liberty advocates and it is finally bearing fruit.

However, I think many Americans and some Europeans are discovering that movements like progressive wokism (essentially Cultural Marxism) are much more than a mere reaction to the return of conservatives to the cultural space. The fight that’s happening in front of the curtain is only a dim reflection of the fight that’s going on behind the curtain.

Read it.

In the old days, English class meant two things: one, reading Shakespeare, Tennyson et al., and two, learning to write. The classics plus grammar and punctuation—they made English a serious subject respected for its content and skills. Of course, it’s not like that any longer.

Read it.

An experimental Chinese nuclear plant reportedly just crossed a historic threshold, successfully operating the world’s first thorium-based molten salt reactor (TMSR). The Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics has broken a major scientific barrier by successfully converting thorium to uranium in a historic first.

The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reports that the breakthrough, which took place at an experimental reactor out in the Gobi Desert, is “poised to reshape the future of clean sustainable nuclear energy.”

Newsbusters.

Anyone expecting tough questions from CBS’s Margaret Brennan to U.S. Representative Ilham Omar was sorely disappointed at the end of this week’s Face the Nation. Brennan instead provided a tour-de-force in media coddling, as Omar was the beneficiary of a kid-gloves interview that cast her as the victim of unfortunate events beyond her control.

This coddling of Omar is, as was noted by our own Tim Graham, part of a broader pattern seeking both to shield Omar from her connections to the Somali welfare scam currently roiling the state of Minnesota and to Trumpwash the scandal by focusing on President Donald Trump’s reference to Omar as “garbage” during a recent Cabinet meeting. As a reminder: Trumpwashing is that media tactic that suppresses any and all coverage of a Democrat scandal until President Trump reacts to it, then shifts coverage to turn Trump’s reaction into the scandal, as opposed to the scandal itself.

Read it.

Conservative political commentator and podcaster Tim Pool said nobody was hurt despite his West Virginia home being fired upon late Friday night.

Pool, who has a large online following, said Saturday on X that a vehicle approached his property and “opened fire.”

He added that no one was injured and that his security team is reviewing what happened and will forward a report to law enforcement.

Tim Pool is not a conservative, as he will be the first to tell you. He’s just realistic about what’s happening with our political class. (Follow him on YouTube. You’ll be glad you did.)

UPDATE: Tim Pool Addresses Shots Fired At His Property, This Is The End

The War Zone.

The U.S. Navy has chosen the LST-100 from Dutch shipbuilder Damen to be the basis of a new class of Medium Landing Ships, or LSMs. The service’s goal now is to have received the first of those ships before the end of the decade, avoiding setbacks that have become worryingly commonplace with Navy shipbuilding programs in recent years. The planned acquisition of a fleet of 35 LSMs, which has been long delayed, is seen as central to enabling still-evolving U.S. Marine Corps’ expeditionary and distributed concepts of operations.

The Navy announced the LSM decision today in a video on social media that includes statements from Secretary of the Navy John Phelan, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle, and Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Eric Smith. This follows a similar video announcement last week, wherein the service disclosed its decision to cancel the Constellation class frigate program. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) separately confirmed to TWZ that it is hoping to see construction of the first LST-100-based LSM start in 2026 and to take delivery of that ship in 2029. These ships are primarily expected to be used for ferrying relatively small Marine units, especially between far-flung islands, without the need for access to established port facilities, in future conflicts in the Pacific region.

Uh-huh. Ask yourself why the vehicle exiting from the bow of the shit has “UN” markings.

I find this very disquieting.

The War Zone.

On the approach to land on the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman, the F/A-18F Super Hornet’s pilot looked out the canopy and saw a Standard Missile-2 (SM-2) launched from the Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg speeding through the sky. At first, the pilot thought the missile was aimed at a Houthi drone or cruise missile, one of several fired at the carrier strike group on Dec. 22, 2024, during an attack from the Yemeni rebel group. But as the SM-2 drew closer and changed its course toward the Super Hornet, configured as an aerial refueler, the crew knew it was heading straight for them. However, they had no way of knowing that on the Gettysburg, their jet had been identified as a Houthi anti-ship cruise missile like others fired at the strike group, and thus a threat.

What happened next, the cascading series of problems that led up to it, and efforts to correct those issues are laid out in a Navy investigation report released Thursday. The investigation was one of four conducted into mishaps aboard the Truman during its troubled deployment to the Middle East. There were two additional Super Hornet losses and a collision with a merchant ship. You can read more about that in our initial story about the investigations here.

Judge Rejects Trump Admin’s Bid to Toss Guantánamo Migrant Detention Suit

Have Trump’s Tariffs Gone as High as They Can Go? Businesses Hope So (Ana Swanson/New York Times)

Trump Weighs Moving on From Noem (Adrian Carrasquillo/The Bulwark) More mind-reading from the Narratve Media.

The sorry history of US policy in the Middle East (Sasha Polakow-Suransky/Financial Times)

DHS Rejects Claim ICE Ran Over Man’s Leg

Trump won’t quit the filibuster fight. Thune can’t give him what he wants. (Alex Gangitano/Politico)

Media Elitists Attack Trump’s Cruel Shutdown Strategy But Hail Democrats’ Great Retreat 

Trump’s Security Doctrine Leaves Europe at a Strategic Crossroads (Jason Horowitz/New York Times)

Trump’s Top Advisers Wage Campaign to Shift His Focus to High Prices (Wall Street Journal)

Inside Trump’s transformation of the Kennedy Center (Betsy Klein/CNN)

Three-year-old child forced to serve as her own attorney in Tucson immigration court (Sahara Sajjadi/Copper Courier)

Conservative Project at Supreme Court Meets Trump’s Push to Oust Officials (Ann E. Marimow/New York Times)

ICE has arrested nearly 75,000 people with no criminal records, data shows (NBC News)  Yet.

The U.S. citizens getting caught in Trump’s immigration crackdown (Robert Klemko/Washington Post)

Trump’s latest anti-immigration push echoes the nativism of the 1920s (Karen Tumulty/Washington Post)  “Echoes” means “seems like it to us”, the people who see racism as far as the eye can see.

Mom of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew rejects White House narrative of her ICE arrest (Washington Post) My, what a surprise.

For Landmark Test of Executive Power, Echoes of a 1930s Supreme Court Battle (Abbie VanSickle/New York Times)

National Park Service drops free admission on MLK Day, Juneteenth while adding Trump’s birthday (David Klepper/Associated Press)

America’s affordability crunch is real — and worse under Trump (Financial Times)

Trump’s son suggests president may walk away from Ukraine (Nahal Toosi/Politico)

Trump on Cuellar running as Democrat after pardon: ‘Such a lack of loyalty’ (Sophia Vento/The Hill)  Expecting loyalty (or even gratitude) from a Democrat is like expecting honesty from a … Democrat.

Not All Targeted Killings Are the Same. Hegseth’s Boat Strikes Are Illegal. (Jeh C. Johnson/New York Times)  Let’s not confuse what The New Hitler did with what The Magic Negro did.

Trump vows to slam America’s doors shut as he heaps scorn on immigrants (Robert Tait/The Guardian)

Homan defends Trump after president calls Somali community ‘garbage’ (Cheyanne M. Daniels/Politico)

Amid Chuckles, CNN Dumps Out Early From ‘FIFA Peace Prize’ Presentation To Trump

From shooting to Slim Jims, immigration agents’ poor tactics made for needless safety risks, experts say (Chicago Tribune)

Trump sours on Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar after issuing pardon (Jacob Wendler/Politico)  Gee, I wonder why?

Land War or Self-Terrorism? (Timothy Snyder/Thinking about)

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A month’s supply of Miebo, Bausch & Lomb’s prescription dry eye drug, costs $800 or more in the U.S. before insurance. But the same drug — sold as EvoTears — has been available over-the-counter (OTC) in Europe since 2015 for about $20. I ordered it online from an overseas pharmacy for $32 including shipping, and it was delivered in a week.

This is, of course, both shocking and unsurprising. A 2021 RAND study found U.S. prescription drug prices are, on average, more than 2.5 times higher than in 32 other developed nations. Miebo exemplifies how some pharmaceutical companies exploit regulatory loopholes and patent protections, prioritizing profits over patients, eroding trust in health care. But there is a way to fix this loophole.

Note that the problem isn’t with Bausth & Lomb, as the author suggests, but rather with the regulatory scheme imposdd by the FDA in the U.S. that makes such shenanigans profitable. Too many modern people, steeped in proglodyte indoctrination, accept the government schema as a given and then look for scapegoats in the business world. Companies must comply with the law, and if the law gives them a path of advantage they’re going to take it. The problem is not with the companies but with the law.

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Sexual assaults are up 5% in Minnesota. Statistics from the Hennepin County prosecutor’s office, which includes Minneapolis and its Somali population, shows that the number of sexual assault cases is up 62% from 2018. Cedar-Riverside, the neighborhood commonly known as ‘Little Mogadishu’ for its Somali population, has some of the worst crime rates in Minneapolis.

To what extent does the state’s Somali settler population contribute to its sexual assault crisis?

While there are no firm numbers, I tracked some of the offenders with the most common Muslim name Mohamed (after the prophet of Islam, whom the Koran described as a serial sex offender, assaulting captured women and in the process legalizing the sexual assault of non-Muslim women under Sharia Islamic law) and what I found was not only a pattern of offenses, but of complicity by local authorities who have allowed Somali Muslim sex predators to reoffend.

John Stossel.

Google settled a racial bias lawsuit for $50 million.

Merrill Lynch paid $20 million.

Maryland taxpayers will have to pay $3 million to make a racial discrimination suit go away.

“This is ridiculous! Taxpayers should not be on the hook for this!” complains Heather Mac Donald, author of “When Race Trumps Merit.”

In our new video, she argues that companies and governments feel forced to pay because of a legal doctrine called “disparate impact.”

“Most people don’t even know what it is!” I say.

“It is their greatest weapon against excellence,” she replies, “and it is an abuse of the spirit of our civil rights laws.”

Disparate impact rules say any policy or test in which some races or sexes do better than others is illegal discrimination, even if the policy has nothing to do with race or sex.

“The Maryland State Police wanted to make sure state troopers could read at a very basic level,” says Mac Donald.

But because black applicants got lower scores, the test was ruled racist.

Because women got lower scores on the physical fitness test, the state was also found guilty of sexism.

State politicians promised to change their standards and create new tests. Maryland taxpayers still have to pay millions.

Read it.

Just in case you were wondering.