July 15, 2025

DISPATCHES FROM THE AXIS OF DAVIDS: David Brooks Tribute: Gergen Was Centrist, ‘A Good PBS Conservative Like Me.’

Friday night’s PBS News Hour tribute to former presidential adviser and former News Hour “conservative voice” David Gergen, who died July 10 at the age of 83, demonstrates how mild, center-left political personas have long been the only flavor of “conservatism” that taxpayer-funded PBS can tolerate. (And if the descriptions of Gergen reminds you of another journalist playing the “conservative” role on PBS these days, read on.)

Brooks described Gergen as “almost out of another era of Washington, of people who serve both parties, who do it for national service. And then he was a centrist, a good PBS conservative like me,” which says it all about both PBS and what Michael Walsh likes to call the Permanent Bipartisan Fusion Party. (And possibly the sharpness of the creases in Gergen’s trousers.)

Or as Glenn wrote in 2016: How David Brooks Created Donald Trump.

(Classical reference in headline.)

Posted at 4:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

MINNESOTA VICE: Trial will be “very difficult” for Sen. Nicole Mitchell to win, Minneapolis attorney says.

It’s a high-stakes trial that could ultimately determine the balance of power in the Minnesota Senate.*

“It has such political ramifications,” said Twin Cities attorney Mike Bryant, who is not affiliated with the case. “I think a lot of people will be watching what happens.”

It was April 2024, when the criminal complaint said Minnesota Sen. Nicole Mitchell‘s stepmother’s called 911 to report a burglary at her Detroit Lakes home. Mitchell allegedly told police she entered the home to retrieve personal items connected to her recently deceased father, because her stepmother had cut off contact.

In a social media post, Mitchell denied all allegations. Mitchell said she had gone to check on a family member with Alzheimer’s disease.

Bryant said he feels Mitchell will have to testify.

“Unless the state has a really super weak case that they can’t prove anything, I think it’s going to be one of those situations where the jury’s going to want to hear from her,” said Bryant.

“I think it’s going to be very difficult to win,” said Minneapolis criminal defense attorney Joe Tamburino, who is also not affiliated with the case. “Let’s face it, according to what’s in the complaint and what we imagine the prosecutor will prove at trial, is that she was found in the house at the very early morning hours, she was dressed in black and she was discovered by her stepmother and then supposedly she ran down to the basement, and then when the police got there, she made a number of incriminating statements.”

Somebody’s taking Michael Walsh’s description of the Democrats as “a criminal organization masquerading as a political party” waaaay too literally:

 

* Curiously though, CBS Minnesota plays doesn’t name Mitchell’s party in the article.

By the way, Mitchell isn’t the only prominent Minnesota Democrat currently racking up high legal bills: “‘The invoices for a $430,000 legal bill run up by Gov. Tim Walz’s administration to prepare him for a congressional hearing last month ranged from $70 to review a letter inviting him to the hearing to $2,880 for “searches for news or statistics for crimes committed by transgender or nonbinary persons.’ Do we at least get a PDF of what they found?”

Ordinarily you would, but PDFs have been temporarily banned, since they might have e-signatures that could be construed by NBC News with the presidential autopen.

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

WELL SAID:

I’m so old, I remember when Warmonger Literally Hitler™ Bad Orange Man was going to start World War III.

Posted at 3:49 pm by Stephen Green

HOW IT STARTED: Chinese property giant close to collapse. China Evergrande, once the country’s second-largest real estate developer, is drowning in debt. Some 1.5 million people have put deposits on new homes that have yet to be built. A collapse could be catastrophic.

—Deutsche Welle, September 16th, 2021. 

How it’s going: “China has built 65 to 80 million vacant homes, enough to shelter the entire population of Germany, as millions struggle to find affordable housing. But the numbers only tell part of the story. Behind these ghost cities are real people who are trapped in a broken system.”

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

WHY IS CNN SUCH A CESSPIT OF RACISM? Watch: Abby Phillip and Ana Navarro Team Up to Excuse Racism, Make CNN Even More of a Dumpster Fire.

Can CNN get worse? That’s an evergreen question with an evergreen answer.

On Monday, libertarian commentator Brad Polumbo was part of the panel on Abby Phillip’s primetime show, and things quickly devolved into racism after Ana Navarro couldn’t form an actual rebuttal. The co-host of “The View” claimed that Donald Trump’s presidency has been a “reign of terror.” At that point, Polumbo rightly, and fairly politely, pointed out that such a statement is hyperbolic.

Did Navarro then provide evidence to back up her rhetoric? Of course, not. She dismissed Polumbo as a “white man” whose opinions don’t matter because of his race. A fair warning that you may lose some brain cells watching this exchange.

Exit quote: “With Scott Jennings likely having political ambitions and appearing on CNN less, this is what Phillip’s program has devolved into. That Greg Gutfeld continues to swamp her in the key demo should surprise no one.”

 

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

GOODER AND HARDER, CALIFORNIA — SO GOOD AND SO HARD:

Did Los Angelenos honestly expect Newsom or Bass to let this crisis they enhanced go to waste?

Posted at 1:45 pm by Stephen Green

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: This is the real doom loop. It will change everything about life in the Bay Area.

The Bay Area is facing a doom loop. It’s just not the one we usually think about.

For years we’ve heard of the potential economic doom spiral circling San Francisco, where a massive city budget deficit fueled by remote work leads to poorer services and even more residents fleeing. But another threat has been building in relative silence.

The Bay Area is getting old fast, and it’s accelerating. Though aging is a global trend, the San Francisco metro area — which includes San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Marin counties — is already the third-oldest among 20 of the largest regions in the U.S., trailing only two places in Florida. And no other region is growing older at a quicker pace.

That means fewer children, more elderly people and a declining number of 20-somethings. The confluence of demographic shifts will profoundly impact every aspect of life in the San Francisco area. Combined with rising housing costs and growing hostility toward immigration, the graying of cities and towns means the region’s continued prosperity is in doubt.

—The San Francisco Chronicle, yesterday.

Perhaps that’s because Chronicle readers took the newspaper’s advice on the topic. In 2008, the paper was complaining that “There is nothing more bacchanalian than a kid’s birthday party,” and how those bacchanalian birthday parties lead to increased global warming, from their perspective, those declining numbers were good news, right?

In 2013, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that San Francisco has the lowest percentage of children of any major American city:

Just 13.4 percent of San Francisco’s 805,235 residents are younger than 18, the smallest percentage of any major city in the country. By contrast, San Jose’s percentage of children is 24.8 percent, Oakland’s is 21.3 percent, Boston’s is 16.8 percent and Seattle’s is 15.4 percent, according to Brian Cheu, director of community development for the Mayor’s Office of Housing. Even Manhattan is composed of roughly 15 percent children, according to Dan Kelly, director of planning for San Francisco’s Human Services Agency.

In 1970, children made up 22 percent of San Francisco. In 1960, they constituted 25 percent.

I’d say there is a glimmer of hope for the city based on this Wall Street Journal headline, “Mayor Daniel Lurie: ‘San Francisco Needs to Save Itself.’” But “unexpectedly” the word “homeless” doesn’t appear until the comments section.

(San Francisco’s last Republican mayor left office at the beginning of 1964.)

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

ROBERT SPENCER: A Spectre Is Haunting the Democrats: The Spectre of Communism. “This time it’s real, and undeniable. The Democrats have for years denied, with varying degrees of scorn or anger, that they are Communists, despite hating both free enterprise and borders, which are just the sorts of things you’d expect socialist internationalists to hate. Now, however, the deniability is no longer even close to plausible.”

Posted at 1:14 pm by Stephen Green