March 24, 2026

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: ‘Bostonian of the Year’ ordered to pay back $224K she stole from her own nonprofit. “Monica Cannon-Grant, the former community organizer who rose to fame leading a massive 2020 Black Lives Matter march through Boston, was ordered Monday by U.S. District Court Judge Angel Kelley to forfeit every dollar she made from her crimes — from diverting donations from her own nonprofit, collecting fraudulent pandemic unemployment benefits, and pocketing rental assistance she wasn’t entitled to.”

Posted at 3:49 pm by Stephen Green

NIFTY: F-22 Raptor “2.0” Spotted Undergoing Flight Testing. “Most obvious on the model are the new stealthy fuel tanks, a critical addition to ensure that the F-22 is able to better cover the vast distances that would be involved in a potential future conflict in the Indo-Pacific. In the past, the Raptor’s notoriously short range has been mitigated by using non-stealthy 600-gallon tanks, but these are not a realistic option when faced by more capable hostile air defenses.”

Posted at 2:47 pm by Stephen Green

MUCH MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE:

 

Posted at 2:40 pm by Ed Driscoll

THE DEEP STATE IS REAL…:

…and doesn’t give a damn about what you “little people” might have voted for

Posted at 2:32 pm by Stephen Green

QUESTION ASKED: Why Are Climate Doomsayers Never Fact-Checked?

The “climate emergency” pushers have pompously predicted planetary doom within ten years for more than 30 years. Why are they never checked? Author Kevin Mooney has a new book titled Climate Porn, and we discuss the remarkable imbalance of climate coverage and the nasty tendency on the Left to punish people who even gently question the panic.

MRC Business Associate Editor Joseph Vazquez joined the conversation. The subtitle of the book is How and Why Anti-Population Zealots Fabricate Science, while Targeting American Capitalism, Freedom, and Independence. In the year we celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, Mooney — who was a colleague of ours with CNSNews.com back when George W. Bush was president — argues that the climate doomsayers threaten a climate crisis to undermine our prosperity and liberty.

One of the most embarrassing alarmists of our times, the biologist Paul Ehrlich — who became famous with his book The Population Bomb in 1968, has just passed away at the age of 95. The New York Times was mocked on X when they suggested “his predictions proved premature.” He predicted mass famines in the 1970s. In 1989 and in 1990, NBC gave over chunks of the Today show to Ehrlich. He was not interviewed. He was the reporter-slash-narrator. We never stop talking about his prediction that soon, you’d tie your boat to the Washington Monument. That never happened.

Bryant Gumbel putting the “That’s good stuff” button at the end just adds to the unintended comedy of this bonkers 1990 clip:

Still though, why take chances? Tax the blue zones.

More wacky aquatic urban predictions here: Mile Markers on the Road to Detroit Atlantis.

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

DISPATCHES FROM AL-BRIṬĀNIYĀ:

Posted at 1:59 pm by Stephen Green

FAIL, BRITANNIA: The Shocking State Of Britain’s Navy In 2026. “Successive governments have seen fit to think that only six destroyers are adequate, which is clearly deranged and incredibly irresponsible. So, out of six vessels, how many are operational in March 2026? A grand total of two. HMS Dragon, a vessel recently in the news that was supposed to be sent to Cyprus to protect British interests there, and HMS Duncan. The other four are all laid up for one reason or another. The class leader, HMS Daring, is preparing to return to service after an absence of eight years under refit. Given that it generally takes three to five years for a complete stem-to-stern overhaul and refueling for an American aircraft carrier, eight years for a destroyer seems beyond excessive.”

Much more at the link, all of it bad.

Posted at 1:45 pm by Stephen Green

ANOTHER REGRETTABLE EDUCATION FAD: It’s flashy! It’s fun! It’s a waste of students’ time and attention!

“I ain’t saying you treated me unkind,” sang Bob Dylan. “You just kinda wasted my precious time.”

From X:

Figen posts a video of a teacher who brought a PlayStation to class to use Assassin’s Creed to teach about the Industrial Revolution.

This is a distraction and a waste of time, responds Tom Bennett. It gets students to expect bells and whistles.

SoL in the Wild agrees it’s “100% terrible.” He blames constant messages to teachers to make lessons fun, fun, fun. Learning is supposed to “feel relevant to students’ lives, be fun, and revolve around engaging, activity-based experiences,” he writes. But, dressing something as a game “distracts from the content and decreases the likelihood that students actually learn the concept you’re trying to teach.”

I don’t recall any of my best teachers being particularly fun. Just demanding.

Posted at 1:45 pm by Stephen Green

THANKS, BARRY!

Exit quote:

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

SERIOUSLY, DON’T MISS IT:

Translation: “Don’t miss this editorial that the Washington Post dedicates to Pablo Iglesias and his comrades on their tourism-committed trip to the miseries that torment Cuba.”

Posted at 1:31 pm by Stephen Green

JIM TREACHER: Die, Trek, Die.

If you make a show that people want to watch, they’ll watch. If you don’t, they won’t. They’ll even watch fat alien broads if the story is good. You’d think Paramount would’ve gotten that by now.

The producers and actors probably won’t learn a damn thing, though. These days, the trend is for the custodians of these failed franchises to blame the audience.

“You didn’t like the all-female Ghostbusters reboot, fill of pointless dancing and cringeworthy ad-libs? You just hate women!”

“You didn’t see the point of Rose Tico or Vice-Admiral Holdo or any of the other forgettable characters in The Last Jedi? You just hate Asians! And women!”

“You didn’t even bother with The Marvels or Madame Web or Ballerina? Well, guess what?”

The word “woke” has become so overused that I don’t know what it’s supposed to mean anymore, but I do know that diversity, inclusion, and equity are very poor substitutes for good storytelling. You can’t guilt-trip a mass audience into showing up for your shoddy product by calling them bigots.

The original Star Trek, which aired on NBC from 1966 to 1969, lived on throughout the 1970s and ‘80s in reruns, until the movies and the Next Generation showed up, because it was about big ideas. Its writing was so timeless, the show transcended its plywood sets and primary color uniforms. In contrast, as John Nolte writes, Starfleet Academy feels stillborn, “stale the day it was released, like something from 2020 when there were still enough people high on their woke supply to make garbage like this a temporary hit.”

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

WE’VE BEEN INSOLVENT FOR YEARS, SO NO BIG SURPRISE: The Treasury just declared the U.S. insolvent. The media missed it. “The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a disclaimer of opinion on the U.S. government’s FY 2025 financial statements — the 29th consecutive year it has been unable to determine whether the statements are fairly presented.”

But this is an opportunity for Trump to slash programs because of a “financial crisis.” Since, you know, there actually is a financial crisis.

Posted at 1:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

A DAY IS A LONG TIME:

How many thousands of Americans are learning that the ICE they see on the news is not the ICE they see with their own lyin’ eyes?

Posted at 12:58 pm by Stephen Green

BIDEN-ERA HANGOVER: Why is ATF Still Leaving Its Options Open for Prosecuting Owners of Braced Pistols? “A March 16 government filing in the ongoing case of Texas v. ATF has now renewed concerns that the agency reserves the right to continue bringing felony prosecutions under the NFA for possession of unregistered braced pistols. The passage in question is meant to rebut the plaintiffs’ claims that there are still live issues in the case that deserve a final judgment on the merits, rather than dismissal on mootness.”

Posted at 12:43 pm by Stephen Green

2026: AN ILLEGAL ALIEN ODYSSEY.

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll