KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Hey, Thom Tillis — the GOP Doesn’t Need a Lisa Murkowski Lite. “So, Tillis wants to rekindle the Democrats’ un-American witch hunt and let them resurrect an issue that greatly contributed to their defeat last year. How is this guy a Republican?”
Archive for 2025
May 8, 2025
FIGHTING THE OLIGARCHY LOOKS A LITTLE… OLIGARCHIC:
A multi millionaire who's too good to wait in line at the airport like the rest of us peasants and is instead flying around on private jets is "fighting oligarchy" and climate change?
— Pro America Politics (@Pro__Trading) May 8, 2025
“Or carry my own bags, like a peasant?”
NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: Albany sneaks in budget language that would put NY taxpayers on the hook for Tish James’ legal bills if she’s probed by Trump admin.
New York’s operations budget bill includes specific language that indicates certain state officials could tap into a $10 million fund to cover “any reasonable attorneys’ fees and expenses incurred” as part of a Trump administration-led probe tied to their state-based employment.
Multiple sources told The Post that the language in the bill, which will be made public later Wednesday, would apply to James’ looming legal fight.
It would also cover other state employees whom the Trump administration considers going after, the sources added.
While the bill language shared with The Post doesn’t mention James by name, the relevant section indicates state employees could be covered if the “legally compulsive process” was initiated by the US government after Jan. 1, 2025.
Say what you will about the Dems, but they look after their own — and they’re willing to spend as much of other people’s money as it takes.
IT’S NOT AS IF THE GOVERNMENT IS RUN FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PEOPLE: Government Officials and Contractors Are Surprisingly Indifferent to Human Trafficking.
LIGHTNING DEAL: Wireless Lavalier Microphone with Charging Case. #CommissionEarned
PEOPLE WITH SOMETHING TO HIDE TEND TO TRY AND HIDE THINGS: Foreign Aid Official Resisted DOGE Having a Look at His Foundation’s Books. Now We Know Why.
I MEAN, YEAH.
Well I guess 99% of your political views are based on economic illiteracy. https://t.co/8JSG3wv4Ru
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) May 7, 2025
WELL, YES, YOU’RE TALKING TO A LEFTIST AFTER ALL:
Well I guess 99% of your political views are based on economic illiteracy. https://t.co/8JSG3wv4Ru
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) May 7, 2025
FIVE YEARS AGO TODAY AT REASON: Were the COVID-19 Lockdowns a Mistake?
Many Americans are losing patience with statewide shelter-in-place orders.
“We don’t have months or weeks—businesses are hurting,” says Jim Desmond, a San Diego county supervisor who unsuccessfully attempted to introduce legislation hastening the re-opening of businesses in his county despite the statewide lockdown in California.
“[Those] hurt the most in this are the poor people, the people that rent, that worked in the hospitality sector and the restaurants, and a lot of single moms….We have people on the phone crying saying, ‘Hey, I got a kid to feed,'” Desmond tells Reason.
So have the lockdowns actually saved lives? There’s a debate over how to analyze the data.
“Lockdowns just don’t actually alter behavior all that much,” says Lyman Stone, an economist and demographer who’s an adjunct fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a research fellow at the Institute for Family Studies. He argues that there’s no correlation between the timing of statewide or regional shelter-in-place orders and a decline in the COVID-19 death rate.
“We can basically build a theory and assert that the world obeys our theory and just go looking for any scrap of evidence that supports it,” says Stone, “or we can start by looking at what are the trends we actually observe.”
A month later, the trends we all observed were the dancing TikTok nurses promoting the George Floyd rioters. Both of which groups, perhaps unintentionally, definitively answered the question.
YEARS LATE AND SO MANY WASTED TAX DOLLARS SHORT: Reason Magazine tugs back on Gov. Jared Polis’ ‘libertarian’ card.
Amidst ongoing battles within his own party, and despite recently vetoing a pair of bills that concentrated more authority in Colorado state government, Jared Polis’ carefully scripted reputation as a libertarian-leaning governor appears to be fading.
Even Reason Magazine, the national media outlet that has for years has hung its hat on the idea that Polis is more liberty-minded than progressive, is now questioning whether Polis’ moderate temperament is real, with editor-at-large Nick Gillepsie tugging back on Polis’ libertarian card in an April 14 article asking if the “small government Democrat is beefing up state power.”
Reason has long been considered the standard-bearer for libertarian thought and ideas, complete with the tagline of “Free Minds and Free Markets.”
Gillespie notes in the very first sentence that it’s Polis himself who identifies as a “libertarian Democrat.” However, it was also Gillespie — who recently said he was “an admirer” of Polis’ on a Facebook post pitching his latest story — who penned that Polis “might be the most libertarian governor in America,” in a profile story he wrote in 2022.
…
“Through the years, Gov. Jared Polis appears to have welcomed the libertarian label — affixed to him by the news media, political commentators and even some other politicians. It’s almost as if he wants to create a buzz about it,” Goodman writes. “However, a closer examination of what he has done to our state reveals a stark contrast between that label and his actions.”Goodman goes on to note that while that while Polis supports marijuana legalization and school choice — two important Libertarian Party principles, he fails in the area of reducing government size, civil liberties, and taxation. “Polis, while campaigning as an advocate for lower income taxes, consistently passes and advocates for legislation which increases the tax burden upon Coloradans.”
Goodman also says Polis’ stance on the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) is a big red flag.
The results speak for themselves.
ELITE PREJUDICES AGAINST THE SOUTH GUARANTEE THIS: Mississippi Can’t Possibly Have Good Schools: And yet it does. Are we ready to deal?
Wikipedia has an entry dedicated to the phrase “Thank God for Mississippi” because its horrible performance on so many metrics saves other states the embarrassment of finishing last. The term has been used since at least 1945.
Which has made it awkward in recent years as Mississippi has become the fastest improving school system in the country.
You read that right. Mississippi is taking names.
In 2003, only the District of Columbia had more fourth graders in the lowest achievement level on our national reading test (NAEP) than Mississippi.1 By 2024, only four states had fewer.
To be fair, for nearly all those years when Mississippi was a joke, it was ruled by Democrats.
Related: ‘F’ Is for Democrat: Colorado’s Collapse Under One-Party Rule. “Colorado’s economic report card is in and my beloved home state — formerly a solid A and B student — just flunked every subject.”
But they’re making A+ in graft.
NO KIDDING! HAS ANYONE SEEN MY SHOCKED FACE? Prince Harry is being blackballed by royal family because none of them trust him — or Meghan Markle: sources.
GONE FISHING: I’m off to a secure, undisclosed vacation for a week and will be as offline as I can manage. I have a few posts saved, but the rest of the Insta-Crew will keep the lights on while I enjoy a much-deserved (and much-needed!) break. See you in a week! Well, a bit more than that.
THIS IS THE TYPE OF THING GREAT PULP NOVELS WERE WRITTEN ABOUT: The Great Timbuktu Book Heist. How the city’s librarians smuggled 400,000 ancient texts past Al-Qaeda.
TO BE FAIR, THEY’RE VERY FLAMMABLE: Bill Maher Again Sets the Woke Left Aflame in Latest Commentary.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A MEDIA CRITIC TO SEE WHICH WAY THE WIND’S BLOWING: Media Critic Nails What NY Mag’s Hit Piece on John Fetterman Is Really About.
DECK CHAIRS ON THE TITANIC: ‘Absolute Silliness’: DOE Delays Biden-Era Rule On Emissions.
ONCE YOU ALLOW THE ARRANT FRAUD OF VOTE BY MAIL, YOU END UP WITH THIS KIND OF CLASSLESS CLOWN: Colorado Senator Mocks Jesus Over Trans Issue.
HMM: CFTC ‘Staff’ Placed on Leave Amid Investigation. “The interesting reference Chairman Pham made regarding the union leadership’s part in facilitating this fraud might also turn out to be uncomfortable for those folks, considering the seriousness of the violations listed in the IG report. Chairman Pham does say ‘criminal violations of the law’ in her official statement and ‘members’ of the staff have been put on administrative leave. Could be a serious house cleaning coming.”
The government needs a lot of that.
MAD MAXINE COULDN’T OUTSMART JOE BIDEN: Bessent Keeps His Cool as Waters Tries (and Fails) to Belittle, Outsmart Him.
BUT BUT BUT CRISIS. CLIMATE CHANGE…. Antarctica’s Ice Sheet Expands for the First Time in Decades.
IT WAS AS BAD AS WE THOUGHT: Remember Biden’s Failed Pier in Gaza? It Turns Out It Was Worse Than We Thought.
VERY MUCH ABOUT TIME: Trump’s 2026 Budget Pulls Plug on Biden’s Green Energy Scams.