Here are the latest Wuhan Red Death stats from the CDC. The page shows the week-by week numbers since the beginning of the outbreak. As of May 1st, the revised U.S. total is 37,308. Enjoy your new economy.
It’s becoming clearer every day that Michael Flynn’s persecution was a nothing more than a politically motivated frame-up (many of us have known this for ages, but in the past week documents have come to light that make it irrefutable). But why Flynn? Andrew McCarthy gives us the reason: he was a liability to the […]
The criticism of President Trump’s response to the Wuhan Red Death has been all over the map; in general whatever he does is wrong, regardless of whether Blue politicians have done the same or worse in their own bailiwicks, and whatever he doesn’t do is a crime of omission. He’s been faulted at every step […]
From the Babylon Bee: Bernie Sanders Drops Out As Campaign Goals Of Locking Everyone Up, Destroying Economy Already Achieved Full story here.
Perhaps the most dispiriting aspect of this Wuhan-virus emergency is how clearly it reveals the breadth and depth of the great fissure dividing the nation. In times of crisis, families set aside their internal squabbles: Me and my brother We fight with each other But woe betide The guy from outside. When the towers fell […]
Curtis Yarvin (whose erstwhile nom de plume “Mencius Moldbug” we will, for the time being, continue to mention), has posted a new essay calling for a temporary dictatorship to combat the Wuhan coronavirus. After a discussion of the many, many shortcomings, weaknesses, and debilities of our national government, and of democracy in general — which […]
March 30, 2020 – 12:31 pm
I’ll confess that all this self-isolation has hardly been difficult for me. I’m a homebody by nature anyway, and having an excuse not to go anywhere suits me fine. I’ve been reading a lot, walking in the woods, cooking, and spending a lot of time on various musical projects downstairs in the studio. One thing […]
With a hat-tip to our pal Bill Keezer, here’s a rumination by Victor Davis Hanson on the challenge facing Donald Trump in the coming weeks and months.
March 23, 2020 – 11:22 pm
Kind of a slow news day today, but here are a couple of items: First, we’ve all heard that things seems to be getting better in China, with Wuhan-virus deaths tapering off. We’ve heard it, that is, but we also know that the Chinese government, which lies about everything, is almost certainly lying about this […]
March 22, 2020 – 11:18 pm
I’m coming increasingly to the conclusion that our reaction to this Wuhan virus, if it keeps the economy comatose for any appreciable length of time, will do more damage than anything the disease itself might have wrought. On the more benign end of the scale, we have at minimum a crisis that has already been […]
A young person, someone I am very fond of and have known for many years, wrote me today with a harsh assessment of Donald Trump, surprised and disappointed that I would defend such a man against some of the charges recently leveled against him in the press. Mr. Trump, in my correspondent’s opinion, is “a […]
March 11, 2020 – 11:58 am
Over at American Greatness, Chris Buskirk discusses what Wuhan coronavirus should teach us about self-reliance. Here.
March 10, 2020 – 11:36 pm
How about that Joe Biden? Two weeks ago — just two weeks! — he was all washed up. Now he’s the last man standing. Amazing. The problem, though, is that nobody really thinks he is fit for purpose. His accelerating slide into a pitiable and disqualifying caducity is increasingly plain to see, every time he […]
The billionaire Michael Bloomberg is a world-famous former three-term mayor (and wealthiest resident) of America’s principal city. He also commands a global media empire. He just spent half a billion dollars in an attempt to win the coming election, and accomplished nothing more than to win a primary in American Samoa. So: next time you […]
I don’t know how Victor Davis Hanson manages to produce essays and articles at the rate he does; it’s awfully impressive in terms of volume alone. It’s even more impressive when they are as meaty as the one he published yesterday at American Greatness: a blistering recap of the Obama administration’s eight-year spree of executive […]
February 22, 2020 – 5:36 pm
John Batchelor’s series of conversations with historian Michael Vlahos about civil war continues this week with a discussion of regicide. Readers may recall a post here last June describing a tripartite taxonomy of civil war. Professor Vlahos suggests a similar classification of regicides: those that seek to replace not just the nation’s leader, but also […]
February 17, 2020 – 5:51 pm
I haven’t written much about it lately, but I really do think the Democrats are in for a historic ass-whipping this fall. (In case you missed it, this lifelong Democrat thinks so too.) More than anything else, it’s because they seem to have lost sight of what most people want most: stability. They want the […]
February 14, 2020 – 11:22 pm
I’ll ask your forgiveness once again for the lack of substantial posts here over the past few weeks. Regarding the political scene, I’m finding it awfully difficult right at the moment to summon up the will to comment on any of it — not that there isn’t plenty I could say, but at this point […]
February 8, 2020 – 5:43 pm
John Batchelor is in Baku again this week — I don’t know how he does it, at his age — but he managed to continue his weekly conversation with historian Michael Vlahos on the question of American civil war. This week, Mr. Batchelor comments on an obvious metaphor from this week’s news that I (somehow!) […]
February 4, 2020 – 12:19 pm
The Democratic Caucuses in Iowa (or, as the ailing Rush Limbaugh calls them, the “Hawkeye Cauci”) are in embarrassing disarray, with a new report-resulting “app” (reportedly designed by Hillary Clinton campaign bigwig Robbie Mook) having apparently failed to work. Multiple candidates are claiming victory, but nobody knows. (Remember the rollout of the Obamacare website?) Meanwhile, […]
January 29, 2020 – 8:03 pm
I haven’t commented on this impeachment show — in part because I have nothing original to say about it, but also because I don’t want to dignify it with serious commentary. Eventually it will come to an end; Mr. Trump will not be removed from office, and then we can all wait a few days […]
December 11, 2019 – 12:02 am
Here’s an interview given Tuesday by Attorney General Barr. He discusses the Inspector General’s report, and reminds us that it was limited in scope and power, and that the full investigation is the one being conducted by John Durham. (Mr. Barr tells us not to expect anything from that until mid-2020.) Eighteen minutes in, Mr. […]
December 4, 2019 – 1:37 pm
In a recent item at American Greatness, Angelo Codevilla acknowledges that America is divided beyond the possibility of reconciliation. [R]estoring anything like the Founders’ United States of America is out of the question. Constitutional conservatism on behalf of a country a large part of which is absorbed in revolutionary identity; that rejects the dictionary definition […]
December 1, 2019 – 9:11 pm
With the Democratic slate of candidates looking weaker by the day, a lot of people are whispering about Michelle Obama entering the race. She would be a much stronger opponent, I think, than any of the current crop of hopefuls, and the idea of her getting in has some on the Right worried. I don’t […]
November 14, 2019 – 11:23 pm
I see that Pete Buttigieg is now leading the pack of Democratic candidates in polls for the Iowa caucus. I don’t think Mr. Buttigieg, should he win the nomination, will do very well at all against Donald Trump in the general election. It should go without saying that we would not even know his name […]
November 5, 2019 – 7:06 pm
Michael Vlahos, who for years now has been discussing with John Batchelor the possibility and growing likelihood of a third American civil war, now has a new article up at The American Conservative. He writes about the steps that lead to a crisis of constitutional legitimacy, at which point the outcome is determined by a […]
October 27, 2019 – 3:24 pm
With a hat-tip to the indefatigable “JK”: Michael Flynn’s new attorney, the formidable Sidney Powell, has filed a devastating motion-to-dismiss in the distinguished general’s defense. It lays bare the disgraceful chicanery that the government engaged in to set him up — a sickening and abusive conspiracy, for political ends, by rogue agents in the Justice […]
October 25, 2019 – 11:36 am
Last night I noted that the DOJ’s investigation of the Russian-collusion hit-job had become a criminal investigation. The story was originally reported by the New York Times, which still pretends to be a “news” outlet. It is, of course, nothing of the sort. Were the Times in the business of impartial reporting, it would have […]
October 24, 2019 – 9:31 pm
It appears that the DOJ’s investigation of the origins of the Russia hoax has now become a criminal investigation. Thank you, AG Barr. And about bloody time.
October 21, 2019 – 3:58 pm
Back in June, after one of the Democratic debates, I mentioned Tulsi Gabbard in generally approving terms. It was the first time I’d ever seen here, and she made a favorable impression on me — especially in comparison to the gibbering lunatics occupying the rest of the stage. A commenter suggested that she had some […]
September 27, 2019 – 11:15 pm
From Sean Davis, reporting at The Federalist: Between May 2018 and August 2019, the intelligence community secretly eliminated a requirement that whistleblowers provide direct, first-hand knowledge of alleged wrongdoings. This raises questions about the intelligence community’s behavior regarding the August submission of a whistleblower complaint against President Donald Trump. The new complaint document no longer […]
September 26, 2019 – 2:06 pm
Given the accusations leveled against Donald Trump for asking Ukraine to assist in corruption investigations, readers might like to have a look at this: The White House, November 10, 1999. To the Senate of the United States: With a view to receiving the advice and consent of the Senate to ratification, I transmit herewith the […]
September 20, 2019 – 11:37 pm
So: In 2014, the Obama administration backs a revolution in Ukraine, intended to turn that nation away from Russia. Joe Biden, then vice-president, becomes the administration’s go-between with Ukraine. That makes Biden a powerful guy, as far as Ukraine is concerned. Biden’s kid Hunter ends up being on the board of a corporation over there, […]
August 31, 2019 – 3:44 pm
We hear all the time — it’s a favorite trope of our current crop of Democratic candidates — that the United States has a shamefully high percentage of people living in poverty. Not so fast, say the authors of a new study. Where these accusations go wrong is that they measure only paychecks, and not […]
August 22, 2019 – 8:37 pm
The New York Times has a spot of bother in the PR department today: its chief political editor is in hot water for blatant anti-Semitism. There isn’t a peep about this at the paper’s website (not surprising, I suppose, given that this is the same rag that bent over backwards to cover up the Holocaust) […]
August 22, 2019 – 12:36 pm
President Trump made an encouraging remark yesterday about the possibility of ending the nation’s lunatic policy of granting U.S. citizenship to any child whose mother managed to get her uterus onto American soil, by any means whatever, before giving birth. “We’re looking at that very seriously, birthright citizenship,” the president said. It seems he is […]
August 21, 2019 – 8:19 pm
A young man by the name of Joshua Lawson, who is a graduate student at Hillsdale College, has written a vigorous response to the New York Times’s Orwellian project of “reframing” all of American history as a Marxist narrative of racial oppression. The essay is published at The Federalist. Mr. Lawson provides moral and historical […]
In last night’s post, I wrote that, based on what I’d just seen, I believed that Donald Trump will be re-elected in 2020. The impression, however, that the ten people on stage last night had made on me was so strong — the craziness so palpable — that I had, in the moment, forgotten to […]
Just watched the first hour or so of the second round of the Democrats’ debates. Donald Trump will be re-elected in 2020.
The New York Times has published an article, with lovely graphics, explaining that the GOP is now an extreme right-wing party, while the Democrats — whose presidential candidates were on stage tonight calling for, among other things, abolishing private healthcare, stripping and redistributing legally earned wealth that they believe to be “in the wrong hands”, […]
In David Armistead’s fascinating and insightful book Civil Wars: A History in Ideas, the author distinguishes three kinds of civil war: “successionist”, “supersessionist”, and “secessionist”. Successionist civil wars are those that are fought over which individual shall sit atop a nation’s institutional hierarchy. The king dies. Who will succeed him? In this sort of war […]
Here’s a scathing summary, by the indispensable Kimberly Strassel, of the government’s abuse of power in what has come to be known as Spygate. Please watch. It would be all too easy for an increasingly childlike and easily distracted polis to let all of this slip out of mind. (I’ve started the embedded video about […]
Attorney General William Barr sat down for an interview on CBS a couple of days ago. Mr. Barr was, as usual, sensible and forthright, and made clear once again that he is interested in the truth about the Russia investigation, and that what he’s seen so far gives him reason to have serious concerns about […]
In a brief, fork-tongued statement yesterday, the august Robert Mueller got a lot done: he let slip his naked partisanship, jettisoned the bedrock principle of American jurisprudence, ensured that the U.S. government will for the rest of Donald Trump’s first term be paralyzed by bitter factional conflict, and fanned the coals of a smoldering civil […]
Yesterday our friend Bill Vallicella, the Maverick Philosopher, commented on a 2018 column by Mackubin Thomas Owens about kinds of nationalism. Mr. Owens says that American nationalism is good and necessary because it is of the right sort: an allegiance only to a set of philosophical principles. Bill singled out this passage: Much of today’s […]
In the news today is a scathing letter from Emmett Flood, the Special Counsel to the President, to Attorney General William Barr. It was written on April 19th, shortly after the lightly redacted Mueller Report was released to the public. The Mueller Report may have produced no indictments, but this letter charges the Mueller team […]
April 29, 2019 – 11:23 pm
In his Notes On Democracy, H. L. Mencken said of the American politician the following thing: He is a man who has lied and dissembled, and a man who has crawled. He knows the taste of boot-polish. He has suffered kicks in the tonneau of his pantaloons. He has taken orders from his superiors in […]
April 25, 2019 – 10:53 pm
Michael Anton, a senior fellow of the Claremont Institute who is currently a lecturer and researcher at Hillsdale College, wrote what became the most influential political essay of the 2016 presidential campaign: The Flight 93 Election. (If you haven’t read it, I’m surprised — but you can do so here. Readers may also recall our […]
The House held a hearing on “white nationalism” today. One of the speakers was the conservative black woman Candace Owens, who gave a rousing opening statement. You can watch it here. The focus on “white nationalism” by the Left has been a clever and effective tactic, one that exploits the essence of the conservative disposition. […]
Here’s the distinguished Russia scholar Stephen F. Cohen on what he calls the “myth” behind Russiagate: the idea that Russia “attacked” the United States during the last presidential election.