May 29, 2026

TRENT TELENKO TAKES A VICTORY LAP:

Posted at 12:06 pm by Glenn Reynolds

MICHAEL BARONE: California Dreamin’ Ends with, ultimately, Empty Reservoirs and Homeless Tents.

Back in 2011, high-speed rail officials sought advice from SNCF, the French rail operator. But the firm withdrew from California in favor of “less politically dysfunctional” Morocco, where it helped complete a high-speed system in seven years.

California in its golden years made the movie “Casablanca.” Today, Casablanca is better at building public works than California. The state that within six months completed two major bridges across the San Francisco Bay can’t properly route phone calls in Tuolumne County.

Taking a workable system and making it fail requires a particular talent. Reading between the lines, one sees little among California’s well-paid public-sector union ranks of the pride I once noticed in a state employee years ago. Instead, there is an eagerness to extract still more from the state’s private-sector success — SEIU is pushing a supposedly onetime wealth tax on the very rich to boost current employees’ benefits — and a complacent indifference to whether the work actually serves its intended beneficiaries.

Will the politicians astride this rot pay a price? Harris was the Democratic nominee for president in 2024, and Newsom leads in polls for the nomination in 2028. But a countertrend may be visible in the theoretically nonpartisan June 2 primary for mayor of LA. The (sparse) polling shows LA Mayor Karen Bass way below the 50% needed to win reelection next week, and former reality TV star Spencer Pratt overtaking the left-wing council member initially expected to be her chief challenger.

Pratt’s house was burned down in the January 2025 Pacific Palisades fire, which struck as Bass (despite promising in 2002 to take no foreign trips) was headed to the inauguration of the president of Ghana. Pratt’s cheeky ads lampoon Bass’s left-wing policies, which have produced empty reservoirs and streets full of angry, drug-addicted homeless people.

Empty reservoirs and acres of homeless tents — that’s what California’s once-proud public sector has been producing.

As Glenn wrote yesterday at his Substack, “Why don’t Democrats like Spencer Pratt? Because he’s standing up for normal things, and the political system in L.A., as dominated by Democrats and their satraps for decades, has made a point of not delivering those normal things.”

Butt Bass has won the coveted endorsement of, err, Jane Fonda:

Unexpectedly!

From 2020: Karen Bass’s Long March from Communist Fringe to Biden’s VP Shortlist.

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll

“BOOTS ON THE MOON:” Report urges Space Force deployment to counter China.

The Space Force must plan to deploy troops on orbiting space stations and at bases on the moon to prevent China from winning the new space race and controlling outer space, according to a report by an aerospace think tank.

The report by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies warns that a sustained human military presence in space is needed to counter China’s growing space efforts that are run by the People’s Liberation Army, including plans for a moon base by 2030.

“China is poised to achieve positional advantage in setting norms, standards, and legal frameworks for lunar habitation and lunar economy,” states the report, made public May 22. “This condition is unacceptable for U.S. national security.”

Military troop deployments in space are needed to defend American interests over the long term and to prevent Chinese dominance in the region of low-Earth orbit to the moon in the 21st century, the report states.

Using unmanned drones for military operations or limiting space presence to civilians under the direction of NASA poses national security risks, based on China’s current designs on space, the report said.

A human military space presence is imperative because of the growing likelihood of a high-stakes competition for control of lunar access and resources.

How long before Space Force has its own version of the Navy’s Marine Corps? A “Mobile Infantry,” if you will.

Posted at 11:44 am by Stephen Green

MORE ON THAT BLUE ORIGIN RUD:

My original item is now updated with damage estimates and how long this sets back the New Glenn program.

Posted at 11:28 am by Stephen Green

FRAUD ALL THE WAY DOWN: Former Minnesota employee reveals suspected fraud scheme of ‘fake injuries’ at Somali businesses.

Balsimo spent her last years at the Department of Human Services (DHS) in the Tort Recovery Unit as a tort specialist.

She said that she wanted to blow the whistle on workers’ comp cases after what she noticed the last couple of years at her job—as hindsight and the exposure of fraud throughout Minnesota provided even more perspective.

Balsimo explained how she “recovered taxpayer dollars where another party should have been paying for the bills. For instance, like auto accidents or work comp. So we would get cases from attorneys representing the client.”

“And then when the case would settle, we would get paid, the attorney would get paid his fees. DHS would get paid our portion. And then the client would be awarded whatever type of injury that they had back, usually got more awards than neck or arm. So they would get anywhere from $20,000 to $150,000 for their award for their injuries,” Balsimo explained.

However, she noticed a strange trend emerging in her normally routine work. “About a year ago, I can remember my caseloads of Somalian cases were going way up. They were going up so much I even confided in another coworker. She had noticed it as well,” Balsimo said.

And then nobody seems to have done anything.

Posted at 10:42 am by Stephen Green

TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE! Don’t Take Medical Advice from Jill Biden.

Jill Biden, the former first lady and assisted caregiver to the president, has a memoir coming out next month. The publicity tour kicked off this week with a series of interviews and published excerpts. It’s safe to say the esteemed doctor maintains her abiding faith in the American public’s capacity to consume utter bullshit.

For example, Jill recalled how “frightened” she was watching her husband ramble on about beating Medicare on the CNN debate stage. “I had never, ever, seen Joe like that—before or since,” she told CBS News. “I don’t know what happened. I mean, when I, as I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh my God, he’s having a stroke.’ And it scared me to death.”

Is that so? In the book, which purports to “set the record straight,” Jill recalls her first interaction with Joe as he walked off the debate stage. He wanted to know if he had “really f—ed up,” and she agreed that he had. Granted, I don’t have the ex-first lady’s medical background, but that seems like a harsh way to speak to a loved one who might be having a stroke. Unless she’s lying, which she is.

Jill did not appear to be deathly worried about Joe’s health when she joined him after the debate and told supporters how proud she was that he “answered every question” and “knew all the facts.” She could have taken him to see a real doctor. Instead they made an appearance at a local Waffle House, where Jill looked on in terror as reporters asked Joe about his performance.

Elsewhere in the book, Jill describes being worried that Sleepy Joe had accidentally “drugged” himself with sleeping pills or cough syrup. That she presents this as a plausible scenario does little to dispel concerns that the president’s brain was not functioning and she knew all along.

As Jim Geraghty adds. “When every second counts, you don’t keep the president suffering an ongoing stroke up on the stage, waiting until the end of the debate and hoping for the best. What Jill Biden is unwittingly declaring in this implausible nearly-two-years-late spin is, ‘I thought my husband was suffering a medical emergency that risked permanent brain damage and possibly death, but I concluded that finishing the debate was more important.’”

Posted at 10:35 am by Ed Driscoll

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: 442 colleges could close in next decade over ‘financial exigency’: report.

Related:

All is proceeding as I have foreseen.

Posted at 10:30 am by Glenn Reynolds

YES:

You could do much worse than a reality TV star, Los Angeles — in fact, you already have.

Posted at 10:26 am by Stephen Green

VIDEO AND MORE: Blue Origin’s Earth-Shattering Kaboom. “So that was a big badda-boom — very nearly a Wickwick Event. I’ll explain that last part in just a moment, but first the big news.”

Posted at 10:11 am by Stephen Green

CHANGE: ExxonMobil shareholders approve plan to redomicile to Texas.

In March, ExxonMobil Corp., based in Spring, Texas, announced its board unanimously recommended its shareholders approve changing its legal domicile from New Jersey to Texas, where its leadership and core operations have been based since 1989. The board hadn’t held a meeting in New Jersey for more than 40 years, and 30% of ExxonMobil’s global employees are located in Texas. Seventy-five percent of its U.S. employees live and work in Texas.

ExxonMobil said the reason for changing the legal domicile was Texas’ legal and regulatory environment, including its modernized business statutes and new Texas Business Court, The Center Square reported.

Not soon after, the New York City comptroller; Glass, Lewis & Co., and Institutional Shareholder Services recommended ExxonMobil and Chevron investors vote against their boards’ position on the shareholder proposals, including ExxonMobil’s plan to redomicile.

Looks like a shareholder win — Texas, too.

Posted at 9:40 am by Stephen Green

ALIENS AMONG US. Haha.

Posted at 9:10 am by Glenn Reynolds

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Hide Your Kids — Pride Month Is Almost Here. “The rhetoric of the LGBTQ people does not match reality. I would like a list of what any of the letters aren’t free to do. The ‘courageous visibility’ line is utter stupidity. Pride parades have been going on since Richard Nixon’s first term in the Oval Office. After more than half a century of dudes in harnesses and garish drag queens in rainbow makeup marching down the street, trust me, they’re visible.”

Posted at 9:09 am by Stephen Green

#JOURNALISM:

Posted at 8:45 am by Glenn Reynolds

I LIKE THE CUT OF HIS JIB: Florida Governor Calls for Special Session to Eliminate Property Tax for Homeowners.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on May 27 called for a special legislative session to pass his plan to exempt homeowners from paying property taxes on their permanent residence.

The Republican governor revealed his plans to sign a proclamation that would require state lawmakers to convene in Tallahassee and discuss his “Save Our Homes” proposal starting on June 1.

“Taxing something that you own repeatedly, which is a property tax, is the worst way to do taxation,” DeSantis said in a news conference on May 27.

DeSantis said he hopes that eliminating taxes from Florida homesteads could be a bipartisan effort.

“You pay all these taxes to acquire that property, and then year after year, you’re just having to write a check just for the privilege of being able to maintain ownership of something that is supposedly yours,” he said.

Indeed.

Posted at 8:38 am by Stephen Green

JAMES TALARICO COULD NOT BE REACHED FOR COMMENT:

Posted at 8:22 am by Stephen Green