Archive for 2025

May 16, 2025

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: The Real Reason Yale Professors Are Leaving Trump’s America.

“We Study Fascism, and We’re Leaving the U.S.,” a Wednesday New York Times headline read.

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At the heart of the issue is a redefinition of the word “fascism” in such a way as to make it sound like it means the same thing as “patriotism.” These Yale professors — and a good many people who think like them — find the American assertion that this country, with its quasi-sacred founding and its insistence on the rights of man given him by God, is an exceptional one a troubling concept. They seem to equate “Make America Great Again” with Adolf Hitler’s “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer.”

But to do so ignores the very close association between fascism and racism, specifically antisemitism. Hitler, as you will remember, was virulently opposed to any race other than his Aryan one. He imagined a world in which blue-eyed, blond-haired giants ruled the earth, and Jews, Roma, and his detractors no longer existed. It’s this connection with racism that Snyder, at least, hasn’t quite fit into the picture.

In a recent piece with the Free Press, Peter Savodnik noted that Snyder’s depiction of Yale as a cloister of free speech and acceptance simply defies the reality that has unfolded at Yale after October 7, where pro-Hamas demonstrators antagonized Jewish students and even poked one woman in the face with a Palestinian flag. As a progressive, Snyder, according to one of his colleagues at Yale, may find it hard or even impossible to “imagine that those on the left could hate Jews.”

To the historian, Trump’s decision to investigate antisemitism on campus is merely an excuse to bully universities. “Nobody ever goes after universities in order to help Jews,” he told Savodnik.

The result is that fascism has become a cheapened term that, at least in popular progressive parlance, has become confused with patriotism. The love of one’s country is a duty, Cicero affirms. That’s not to say that the country should become a god in the popular imagination, but that we should be proud of it, work for its benefit, and wish it well.

Flashback: The Left’s fear of fascism under Trump is the ultimate example of projection.

UPDATE: NYT’s ‘Fascism’ Narrative Is So Tiresome It Has Become Self-Parody.

As George Orwell famously wrote, “The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies ‘something not desirable.’”

Posted at 5:35 pm by Ed Driscoll on May 16th, 2025

DISPATCHES FROM THUNDERDOME: CNN black sheep’s very surprising response to Trump Qatar plane freebie that’s angered liberals and conservatives.

‘Can you imagine if Barack Obama got a plane from the Qataris?’ asked Congressional Democrat Jared Moskowitz, as the costly gift continues to cause pushback from progressives and conservatives alike.

‘I mean, Scott would be calling it the Barack Hussein plane,’ Moskowitz joked, inadvertently offering Jennings a softball he would soon hit out of the park.

‘I mean, we – it would be endless all day long. We would be seeing it,’ he continued – paving the way for a seemingly serious Jennings to interrupt the visibly frustrated guest.

‘No,’ Jennings simply stated. ‘Barack “Huplane” Obama,’ he quickly followed up, offering a pun — and some much-needed levity — in the otherwise austere debate.

Laughs immediately rang out in response.

“Can you imagine it?” Yes we can! According to Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), the plane arrived during Barack Huplane Obama’s third term in office:  Senator Markwayne Mullin Just Tossed a Big Ol’ Wrench Into the Media Freak Out Over Trump’s Qatar Plane.

Posted at 5:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on May 16th, 2025

THE NEW SPACE RACE: US FAA approves license modifications for SpaceX Starship Flight 9 mission.

The Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday said it approved license modifications for the SpaceX Starship Flight 9 mission, but did not immediately allow it to fly.

SpaceX will not be allowed to launch until the FAA either closes its Starship Flight 8 investigation or makes a return to flight determination, the FAA added.

Let’s get this done.

Posted at 4:54 pm by Stephen Green on May 16th, 2025

NEWS YOU CAN USE: The armed citizen needs to know more than just defensive tactics and how to shoot. “Not long ago, I went to an area gun show and, of course, took a couple of guns to trade. At the safety table were two middle-age deputy sheriffs, nice guys. I handed one a double-action Smith & Wesson revolver and gave the other a double-action Colt revolver. The first deputy held the gun and just stared at it; he clearly didn’t know how to open it. I told him to push forward on that little button right there. He did, and the second deputy started pushing forward on the cylinder release on the Colt. No sir, you have to pull back on that one. The first deputy, with an embarrassed grin, said that you learn something new every day.”

Posted at 4:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds on May 16th, 2025

BUILT TO LAST: NASA Revives Voyager Thrusters ‘Considered Dead’ for 20 Years. “NASA’s engineers revived a set of thrusters on board the Voyager 1 spacecraft to use as backup while the mission goes offline for ongoing upgrades to a radio antenna used to communicate with deep space missions, the space agency revealed this week. Voyager’s primary roll thrusters had stopped working in 2004 after losing power in two small internal heaters, but the team managed to restart the thrusters while the spacecraft cruises through interstellar space at a distance of 15.14 billion miles away (24.4 billion kilometers).”

Posted at 3:52 pm by Stephen Green on May 16th, 2025

NIFTY: US Ally Revives Aircraft Carrier Plan Amid North Korea Threat. “The South Korean military will move forward with its aircraft carrier project after making modifications, newspaper The Chosun Daily reported on Monday. The original plan called for the construction of a 30,000-ton vessel equipped with F-35B stealth fighter jets. Under the revised project, the proposed aircraft carrier will be transformed into a ‘multifunctional unmanned combat force command ship,’ capable of carrying dozens of drones for a range of missions, including combat, self-detonation, surveillance and reconnaissance.”

Posted at 2:50 pm by Stephen Green on May 16th, 2025

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: Marlboro Man Thought He Was Usain Bolt. “It’s time for your much-needed break from the serious news, and this week, we learn what happens very quickly when a smoker tries to outrun police, why you shouldn’t replace your license plate with a piece of cardboard that says ‘PRIVATE,’ and Britain’s delusional depths.”

Posted at 2:19 pm by Stephen Green on May 16th, 2025

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN: The Motorola RAZR is back. But, like everything these days, with “too much AI.”

Posted at 2:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds on May 16th, 2025

DATA REPUBLICAN APPEARS TO BE UNSTOPPABLE:

Full text:

Today, I launched a powerful new tool that indexes the National Endowment for Democracy journal… and here’s what it uncovers:

🔍 Dozen-plus Open Society Foundation staff, funded by George Soros, are writing in a U.S. government-backed journal.

🇺🇸 That journal is part of our taxpayer-funded National Endowment for Democracy, a quasi-government operation tied to foreign “democracy” missions- and Congress sits on its board.

No conspiracy theories. This is hard data.

📎 This proves Soros and our intelligence apparatus are deeply intertwined.

You can sift through the data yourself, right here.

Posted at 1:48 pm by Stephen Green on May 16th, 2025