I DON’T KNOW, THEY STILL HAVE A LOT TO ANSWER FOR FROM 2020: How Fox News Reconquered Conservative Media, Neutered Newsmax, and Rebuilt Its Brand.
Archive for 2025
September 9, 2025
FEEL BETTER: 2 FlexiKold Gel Ice Packs. #CommissionEarned
DISPATCHES FROM THE RED ZONES: Second Amendment Tax Holidays…Because Taxing a Constitutional Right is Just Wrong. “Florida’s new Second Amendment sales tax holiday is underway and will last through the end of the year. Firearms and ammunition, along with archery equipment, hunting, fishing and camping supplies, will be exempted from the state’s six percent sales tax. State economists anticipate buyers will save $44.8 million in the Sunshine State.”
Figures from across the film and TV world, including Oscar, BAFTA, Emmy and Palme d’Or winners, have signed a pledge saying they will refuse to work with Israeli institutions and companies that are “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.”
The list of signatories — which has surpassed 1,200 names — includes filmmakers such as Yorgos Lanthimos, Ava DuVernay, Adam McKay, Boots Riley, Emma Seligman, Joshua Oppenheimer and Mike Leigh, and actors including Emma Stone, Olivia Colman, Ayo Edebiri, Lily Gladstone, Mark Ruffalo, Hannah Einbinder, Peter Sarsgaard, Aimee Lou Wood, Paapa Essiedu, Gael Garcia Bernal, Riz Ahmed, Melissa Barrera, Cynthia Nixon, Tilda Swinton, Javier Bardem, Joe Alwyn and Josh O’Connor.
So it’s a list. Presumably written in ink. Ink that happens to be black. I’m so old, I can remember when Hollywood professed to be against those sort of things:
KEEP YOUR NAILS TRIMMED: Ergonomic Long Handle Toenail Clippers with Catcher. #CommissionEarned
RICH LOWRY: Charlotte’s mayor underplays murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zaruska – when city is to blame.
In her response to the murder of Iryna Zarutska on a light-rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina, the city’s mayor demonstrated the mindset that allowed the heinous act to happen in the first place.
The mayor, Vi Lyles, called the murder of the young Ukraine refugee woman “a tragic situation that sheds light on problems with society safety nets related to mental health care.”
It’s shedding light, but perhaps not in areas the mayor would like to see exposed:
And there it is
MacArthur Foundation gave Mecklenburg county $3.3 million to empty out their prisons
This is why Charlotte is so dangerous now https://t.co/bEiz4A1FUv
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) September 9, 2025
ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Is chlorophyll actually good for you?
REFORM: Trump Posts Support for Rep. Luna’s Stock Trading Ban.
On Monday, Trump shared a short video showing the Republican describing the need for quick action on the ban and called the idea a “MASSIVE WIN!”
Luna has proposed a workaround to advance the ban, which has been left on a slow walk by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. Her plan calls for the use of a discharge petition that could force the House to vote on the stock purchase ban.
Trump’s post was supportive of “using a procedural loophole to force a vote.”
Politico reported that Johnson and other Republican leaders have worked hard in recent weeks to water down support for Luna’s plan. Johnson has reportedly lobbied in private that many members of Congress found it necessary to buy and sell stocks to make ends meet, including covering tuition expenses for their children.
My plan is simpler: Any returns congresscritters make in excess of the 7% individual investors hope to earn, tax at 100%.
Paying taxes is patriotic, I’m told.
UM… I SPENT FOUR YEARS REPORTING ON THIS:
🚨 New data shows Trump inherited a much bleaker labor market from the Biden administration than we’d previously known: https://t.co/CICBhd1mGL
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 9, 2025
Realizing that 51% of the jobs reported during the last year of the Biden administration never actually existed…pic.twitter.com/dkf6z23KPK
— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) September 9, 2025
But for those just getting the news, that 1.7 million figure ought to go a long way toward explaining why Trump fired Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer — and all the accompanying panic.
Related:
Remember when the media just suddenly redefined what a recession was in 2023 to protect Biden in the upcoming election? https://t.co/0V3zqNgXni
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) September 9, 2025
From the replies: “The economy wasn’t in recession; it was just pining for the fjords.”
GEORGE MF WASHINGTON: When Hollywood Did It Right: Die Hard.
Recently we saw an entertainment news story which suggested that Disney was trying to figure out how to get young men back into theaters to see Disney movies again. Well, it seems to me that the best way to do that would be to get more John McClanes on Disney’s movie screens and a lot less of whatever it is Disney has been producing for the last 20 years.
Besides being one of the greatest, most quintessential American action movies ever made, one which spawned its own genre (for years Hollywood execs sold movies by saying “it’s Die Hard in a (fill in the blank)), “Die Hard” reveals an important way in which the current theatrical movie model is hopelessly broken.
Much like “Lethal Weapon” (the subject of last week’s essay), “Die Hard” was a relatively inexpensive contained action “programmer” which caught lightning in a bottle and became a cultural juggernaut, spawning multiple sequels, launching Bruce Willis into the pantheon of our biggest movie stars, and adding multiple one-liners (“Yippee-Kai-Yay-Motherfucker!”) to the speech patterns of every day Americans.
But movies like these were more than just a low-risk way for the studios to make a little money, they were an opportunity to introduce promising young stars to the moviegoing audience. Like Mel Gibson and Danny Glover before “Lethal Weapon”, the average American movie fan had no idea who Bruce Willis was before “Die Hard” introduced him. The death of the studio “programmer” has meant the disappearance of this young star farm system as well. And this has been a critical cause of the total breakdown of Hollywood’s once formidable movie star factory.
Exit question: “The bottom line is that Hollywood needs to be asking itself a very important question… are there no movies because there are no stars? Or are there no stars because there are no movies?”
FIVE KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM FIRE’S 2026 COLLEGE FREE SPEECH RANKINGS—RELEASED TODAY! Claremont McKenna reclaims the top spot, Barnard and Columbia bring up the rear, and a troubling trend regarding violence continues.
ACT BLUE INDICTMENTS AHEAD? Rod Martin’s status report on the revelations thus far regarding the federal probe of political fund-raising behemoth of the Left suggests some other shoes are about to drop. Money laundering, foreign contributions are involved and 19 states are investigating in addition to the Feds.
DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Singing a Different Tune: Chicago Rapper Shot Moonlighting as a Carjacker.
CONGRESS NEED TO PASS A BIG BEAUTIFUL NATIONAL DO-OVER BILL, ZEROING OUT EVERYTHING CONGRESS DID DURING THE FIRST HALF OF BIDEN’S TERM…
An actual constitutional crisis and media refusing to report this is just another example that they didn't just miss the story. https://t.co/awG8H3KZna
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) September 9, 2025
…along with all the executive actions the Constitution allows.
Sadly, we’re probably stuck with the pardons.
SHE GOT WHAT I PUT IN IT: Great, galloping glorious fun! No Man’s Land!
No, Laura and I aren’t engaged in a trade of reviews. We actually traded manuscripts a few months ago. The rest was a great surprise. Particularly since her brand of SF is far more “serious and hard” than mine. (And I’m a wee bit jealous of her ability to write it.) As for why we know each other, well… we both run in Libertarian and Space circles. Sometimes I think I know everyone in those.
JOURNALISTS POUNCE ON REPUBLICANS FOR NOTICING CRIME:
Republicans have done the unthinkable once again by noticing the senseless murder of an attractive young woman in Charlotte, N.C., and using it as an example to counter the Democratic view that crime is good and criminals are the real victims.
On Monday, Axios lamented that a video of the gruesome fatal stabbing of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska, who fled war-torn Ukraine for a better life in the United States, was “drawing repeated attention” from Republicans who believe that protecting innocent civilians is more important than coddling career criminals in the name of “equity” and social justice. The perpetrator, Decarlos Brown, was a mentally deranged homeless man with an extensive criminal record who had received lenient treatment under the Democrat-controlled justice system.
Axios reporter Marc Caputo pounced and seized on GOP officials and “MAGA influencers” for highlighting Zarutska’s tragic death—in a random unprovoked attack by a repeat offender who belonged in prison—in order to “elevate the issue of urban crime” and accuse mainstream media outlets of refusing to cover the case and other horrific acts of violence in cities run by Democrats.
For what it’s worth, the accusation of media indifference seems rather irrefutable given that Axios was one of the first national outlets to mention the fatal stabbing, which occurred on Aug. 22, in a story suggesting Republicans were at fault for noticing.
The New York Times finally deigned to cover the Zarutska stabbing today. Naturally, they go with the “Republicans Pounce” angle that the DNC-MSM have all triangulated on, if they’re going to report on this story at all: A Gruesome Murder in North Carolina Ignites a Firestorm on the Right.
CNN’s media janitor has chosen a similar approach as his form of anti-journalism:
And speaking of anti-journalism:
Other bastions of old media are attempting to memory hole this story as quickly as possible: Back to Bias by Omission: ABC, CBS Wave Goodbye to Covering Charlotte Light Rail Murder.
NOW LAUNCHING: Larry Correia American Paladin Series Kickstarter.
A worthy project by a great guy.
MAYBE SOMEONE SHOULD SUE THEM:
And there it is
MacArthur Foundation gave Mecklenburg county $3.3 million to empty out their prisons
This is why Charlotte is so dangerous now https://t.co/bEiz4A1FUv
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) September 9, 2025
ED MORRISSEY: Israel Hits Hamas Meeting — In Qatar.
This comes just a couple of days after Trump offered a final proposal and warned that time had run out for the release of the hostages. “This is my last warning,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, “there will not be another one!” Trump is making it very clear that any red lines he draws in military terms will get immediate action if not respected.
Update: Did the Qataris know? This message from the emirate to Hamas sounds prophetic a day later:
Reuters: Qatar’s Prime Minister urges Hamas in Doha to accept the latest U.S.-backed proposal for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release.
He most probably hinted that the U.S. will green light an operation against them… pic.twitter.com/HO4tF5HGCf
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) September 8, 2025
Maybe they did know and at least agreed to tolerate it, if not green-lit it. However, one has to wonder whether this is yet another instance of Trump working with the Israelis to use an offer as a pretext for targeting senior leadership gathering to strategize a response. And maybe the Qataris helped out with that too, tiring of providing a safe haven to the freeloaders. The Billionaire Boys Club should have relocated to Turkey after the October 7 massacre.
Exit question:
Try their beepers? https://t.co/VAMZPnNmgf
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) September 9, 2025
One suspects the condemnation is pro forma, and the Qataris actually provided intelligence, on pain of being targeted themselves by Israel or the US.
PROFILES IN COURAGE: Reuters pulls Xi, Putin longevity video after China state TV demanded its removal.
THE NEPALESE FOUND THE SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM. WHEN WILL THE EUROPEANS?
Rulings like this make sense once you understand that the law does not exist to protect the citizenry
The law exists to punish those who threaten the interests of the state
And a woman who calls out migrant crime is a much bigger threat to global liberalism than a rapist https://t.co/uPGrmT8HQc
— Lauren Chen (@TheLaurenChen) September 9, 2025
I mean, it isn’t exactly a new solution — but I did enjoy watching this update.
The Nepalese government banned social media last week to "regulate misinformation."
This is the government building today as ministers flee in helicopters. pic.twitter.com/t2Eivinsu0
— Tommy Robinson 🇬🇧 (@TRobinsonNewEra) September 9, 2025
ANALYSIS: TRUE. Rand Paul Is Wrong on Borders and Drug Cartels.