Author Archive: Ed Driscoll

STACY MCCAIN: How Trump Ruined the Media’s Weekend.

Oh, sure, it was a bad Saturday for the Ayatollah, but try to imagine what it was like for the news media. Suppose you’re the lead national security reporter for the Washington Post or the New York Times. It’s a Saturday in June, so maybe you’re out at the beach for the weekend, having a nice seafood dinner with friends at some beachside bistro on the Maryland shore. You’re probably on your third glass of wine when, shortly before 8 p.m., your phone explodes with messages from your editors.

“HOLY FUCKING SHIT! THAT SON OF A BITCH!”

Which is how reporters talk, by the way, especially when they find out on a Saturday night that they’ve got barely an hour to write the lead for a front-page story in the Sunday paper, and the only information they’ve got is a Truth Social message from Donald Trump. Bwa-hahahahaha!

David Frum must not be feeling too happy this morning:

Two more people not having a good Sunday:

UPDATE:

ROGER SIMON: Yes, Iranians Can Throw Off the Mullahs.

Evil as Xi and Putin may be, they are at least, to us, somewhat rational actors. Not so the mullahs. They follow a bizarre messianic eschatology—”Twelver” Shia Islam—through which they wish (or wished) to take over the entire world. At least some of them do. Others may be playing along for profit. But whatever the case, that is who is putatively in charge.

In all, it’s a kind of religious insanity.

As is generally known, they exercise power with incredible brutality, especially toward women, with levels of misogyny that are horrifying to read about, let alone witness or experience.

I have spoken with victims of this misogyny—rape is almost the least of it—and wonder what American women like AOC and Whoopi Goldberg are thinking when they make their moronic pronouncements. Nothing much, I’m afraid, except about themselves.

But more interesting in this situation is what the Iranian people themselves will do.

Read the whole thing.

NOT ANTI-WAR, JUST ON THE OTHER SIDE:

DISPATCHES FROM ABC NEWS: Wealthy Whoopi Goldberg fails to see the irony of her ‘oppression’ narrative – or that the US is NOTHING like Iran.

One of the many problems with weaving a victim narrative is that it transports you into an ideological oblivion, making you nearly ­incapable of recognizing how self-unaware you sound to normal people.

Watching millionaires on “The View” trash a nation that has given them lives of abundance is absolutely nauseating to ­witness — and, to the average American, comes across as ­incredibly ungrateful.

Like Goldberg, many wealthy black people, lacking any ongoing sense of personal struggle, feel guilty for their success.

Yet they believe being black in America is synonymous with strife — and through race association, they can live the poor black experience vicariously, safe inside their gated communities and ­penthouses.

Goldberg is one I would classify as a “verbal victim,” because she has in fact overcome a multitude of personal and social obstacles to achieve worldwide fame and ­fortune.

Yet she pathetically holds on to her oppression narratives because they carry no negative ramifications in her luxurious world, only applause from victim-enabling white leftists like Joy Behar.

Goldberg could instead hold up her life as an example of an American success story — but then she’d have no struggle to complain about.

After being fired by ABC News earlier this month, Terry Moran claimed:

“I guess I’m a Hubert Humphrey Democrat,” he said, “I’m old enough to remember him. And you know, get practical things done that people need in a decent way, and stand up for what’s right.” Humphrey was a liberal Democrat pushing LBJ’s massive “Great Society,” not a centrist. It’s like saying I’m a centrist who’s a Ted Kennedy Democrat or a Jimmy Carter Democrat. But he suggested that because [Trump aide Stephen] Miller “degrades” the civil discourse, he’s “dangerous.”

[Tim Miller of the never-Trump Bullwark] pointed out that Republicans might say, aha, he’s outed himself as a Democrat. The mask is off. Then Moran did the screw-objectivity thing.

“My own feeling is that you don’t sacrifice your citizenship as a journalist. And your job is not to be objective. There is no Mount Olympus of objectivity where a Mandarin class of wise people have no feelings about their society. We’re all in this together. What you have to be is fair and accurate.”

Oh. Well if that’s the case: ABC News Needs to Apply the Terry Moran Standard to The View

Incidentally, if Moran can claim in 2025 that he “guesses” that he’s “a Hubert Humphrey Democrat,” how would Whoopi’s ideology be defined? Eve Barlow attempted just such a thing three years ago when the ABC News employee claimed on air that “the Holocaust isn’t about race:”  Whoopi Goldberg’s Ignorance About The Holocaust Is What Happens When Intersectionality Rots People’s Brains.

UPDATE: Bill Maher says Democrats need to ‘do something’ about The View after Whoopi Goldberg’s Iran comments.

ACE OF SPADES: The New York Times is Boohoo Whinin’ and Cryin’ That Unrealistic Extremists in the ACLU Brought the Tennessee Trans Case to the Supreme Court and Lost Bigly.

The article is trying to be nice to their trans allies, but the general thrust is that these people are so isolated in their progressive trans bubbles that they have no idea of what the rest of the country thinks about their extremist crusade to sexually mutilate children.

It’s a long, long, super-long article. I’ll just quote the parts where the NY Times hints that maybe the trans movement is too strident and delusionary for its own good.

Note the article talks a lot about the transgender lawyer who argued the case for the ACLU. “Chase Strangio” — super-realistic name there, “Chase,” totally sounds like your parents gave you that name and totally not like you just went through YA Novels looking for “kewl” teenager names — is actually a woman, though she dresses like a man and really thinks she’s passing.

I’ll try to change the incorrect pronouns he/him/his to she/her/hers, but if I miss any, well, I tried.

If this is too long for you: The main point that true-blue Super Liberal Propagandist Nicholas Confessore is making is that the trans movement is extremist and refuses to see any nuance on any issue and is determined to just ride roughshod over all those who question the Strange New World they’re trying to will into being.

They went too far in going after the kids like they’re shrimp cocktail at a wedding reception, and by doing so, they have put their own movement and the entire Democrat-Media Party in a precarious place they may not be able to get out of.

Including this moment in the Times’ article:

In fending off attacks on gender-affirming care, however, WPATH had itself allowed politics to dictate some of its recommendations. [Rachel] Levine, the Biden Health and Human Services Department official, had been instrumental in WPATH’s mysterious last-minute deletion of the age minimums in SOC-8, documents uncovered by Alabama showed.

After seeing an early copy of SOC-8, Levine and her staff began pressuring WPATH to drop the new age minimums, arguing that “specific listings of ages, under 18, will result in devastating legislation for trans care,” as the group’s president relayed to colleagues in July 2022. That September, the American Academy of Pediatrics — which had also been provided a preview — followed suit, threatening to publicly oppose SOC-8 if the age minimums were not deleted.

The demands set off a furious debate within WPATH. Conservative politicians might attack WPATH for recommending medical intervention at younger ages than before. But Bowers, the group’s president-elect, pointed out that without specific age requirements, “insurers may not grant authorization” for pediatric care. Others worried about capitulating to political pressures in what WPATH intended to present as an “evidence-based” document.

Just as WPATH’s internal emails began trickling into public view, the Supreme Court announced that it would hear Skrmetti. Not long after, Levine’s requests to WPATH were reported by The Times. White House officials were blindsided, several told me. Though Levine would later tell Biden aides that she had been trying to protect the president, the West Wing saw it differently: Her request could suggest that the administration thought there should be no minimum ages at all. “Everyone was like, holy cow — did Rachel Levine really go out and lobby for 9-year-olds to get surgery?” one former Biden aide told me. (Levine’s spokesman says she based “all policy recommendations on the best available science.”)

Hey remember when Biden was sold to the American public as the safe, boring, middle-of-the-road moderate alternative to the out of control Bad Orange Man during the 2020 election? Good times, good times.

Related:

UPDATE: Rachel Levine Let Notorious Gender Clinic Meet With Child In Gov’t Office.

WE’VE DESCENDED INTO SOME SORT OF BIZARRE HELL-WORLD IN WHICH VAN JONES IS A VOICE OF SANITY:

THE TIPPING POINT:

Guam, you say?

And since we didn’t mention it yesterday, in the interest of being a full-service news aggregation Weblog, we must now warn more sensitive readers in advance that what is heard cannot be unheard. Watch: Hank ‘Guam Might Capsize’ Johnson Releases Anti-Trump Song and Good Lord, Make It Stop.

Representative Hank Johnson (D-GA) – he of ‘Oh noes, Guam might capsize’ fame – put out an anti-Trump song on social media for reasons known only to him.

It’s genuinely an injustice that his staff didn’t stop him from releasing it. I mean, tackle the guy out of his chair before he hits the ‘post’ button if you have to. Just make sure this never sees the light of day.

Johnson uploaded the video to his X account, where he is celebrating June as Black Music Month.

“This year, I decided to come back with another jam session for you all,” he wrote. “Here is my rendition of ‘Hey Joe’ by the Godfather of Rock, Jimi Hendrix.”

Iowahawk is succinct in response:

Barring that, could someone at least give Johnson a decent guitar tuner before he inflicts another video upon us?

THIS WILL END WELL:

In his 2000 book, How We Got Here: The 70’s: The Decade that Brought You Modern Life (For Better or Worse), David Frum wrote:

Americans over a certain age are often surprised to see diminutive women patrolling their city’s meanest streets. The policemen of their childhood were tall, commanding figures. Have the cops shrunk? Well, yes. In March 1973, the federal Law Enforcement Assistance Administration issued an order forbidding any local police department that received federal funds (that is, all of them) to maintain minimum height requirements—the rules disqualified too many women. In 1977, the Supreme Court seconded LEAA by striking down Alabama’s minimum height requirement as a violation of the 1964 act. The federal government lived up to its own principles. In 1971 it waived size and strength requirements for its own police forces. In 1977, New York City acceded to a judicial order and permitted women to apply for fire-fighting jobs. None of the applicants passed the department’s strength test so the judge ordered the strength test made easier until sufficient numbers of women could pass.

Thus leading to this cringe-inducing moment, which made the rounds on social media in January during the devastating L.A. fires:

LET’S TALK ABOUT CHATGPT-INDUCED SPIRITUAL PSYCHOSIS:

Responding to the recent New York Times article that depicted people such as an accountant becoming convinced via ChatGPT that “he was trapped in a false reality and could escape by disconnecting from this simulated world—eventually believing ChatGPT when it told him he could jump from a building and fly,” Katherine Dee writes, “this always happens with new communication technology:”

And with similar severity, too!

Twenty-five years ago, media scholar Jeffrey Sconce traced this history in his book Haunted Media, showing how we have consistently linked new communication technologies with the paranormal and esoteric. It’s not a random coincidence or sign that we’re in a “uniquely enchanted” age1 but rather a predictable cultural response, one we’ve been replaying over and over for hundreds of years.

Spiritualist mediums claimed to receive messages from the afterlife through Morse code. These operators saw themselves as human receivers, bridging the material and astral. The technology that sent messages across continents without physical contact made it easy to imagine messages crossing the veil.

Radio seemed to throw every word into what Sconce calls an “etheric ocean,” a limitless and invisible sea where messages bobbed about like bottles adrift. By the late 1920s, the big broadcast companies tried to “net” that ocean with fixed frequencies and scheduling. Sconce writes about how fiction reflected this taming of the radio waves. The wistful romances of amateur “DXers”2 scanning the dial gave way to sinister tales of mass hypnosis, government mind-control rays, and Martians commandeering the airwaves.

Television, again, added another layer, perhaps most iconically portrayed in the 1982 film Poltergeist:

Read the whole thing.

DAVID THOMPSON: Dumb, Yes, But Fashionable.

From the world of cinema and pretentious agonising:

* * * * * * * *

The dogmatic scolds who bang on about “cultural appropriation” rarely display much understanding of how culture comes about. Perhaps they imagine that the world would be richer and more pious without Akira Kurosawa’s vivid reworkings of Shakespeare, or his ‘appropriation’ of American band music of the 30s and 40s, and without Kurosawa’s own films inspiring Sergio Leone and George Lucas, etc. The riffs and copying, the to-and-fro, are to a very large extent what culture is.

There is a easy remedy for Boyle if he truly wishes to expunge his guilt:

Otherwise, as Rob Henderson of City Journal tweets, “Get all the money and applause for making it, then all the moral credit for saying you wouldn’t make it. Some people always know precisely the correct next move on the chess board.”

The left is still trapped in Redneck Nation territory; consider the implications for potential audiences. As one wag commented in response to Wayne Burkett’s tweet above, “If a white person can’t tell that story because they can’t learn about India and tell it…then there’s no point to a white person WATCHING that story or buying a ticket to see it, either. You already told me I won’t understand it, and can’t learn from it, because of my race.”

TALES FROM THE FRENCH LAUNDRY: THE NEXT GENERATION. Gavin Newsom Sipped Cabernet While Los Angeles Burned.

As riots engulfed Los Angeles and mobs vandalized public buildings, incinerated vehicles, and assaulted law enforcement officers, California governor Gavin Newsom was enjoying a swanky wine-tasting party in Napa Valley.

The wine-tasting was held on the afternoon of June 7, 2025, at the Odette Estate Winery, which Newsom co-founded in 2011. Dubbed “Vineyard Vibes,” the event was a fundraiser for the PlumpJack Foundation, founded by Newsom’s sister, and featured “contemporary yet sophisticated” wines, live jazz music, and locally made pizza and smash burgers. “It’s the perfect kick-off to summer fun,” read promotional language. “The fete will take place on the Winery Crushpad, where we’ll gather for music, food, conversation, and delicious wine!”

A source who photographed Newsom at the event expressed shock that the governor was in attendance, given that riots had broken out in Los Angeles the day before. “I couldn’t believe it,” the source said. “He was just walking around like this was an everyday occurrence.”

Violence and destruction in crime-ridden California? They are an everyday occurrence.

UPDATE: Clueless gov in tapas bar:

SOMEBODY SET UP US THE BOMB: Liquid Death Is Selling Empty Iced Tea Cans Containing Ozzy Osbourne’s DNA.

Liquid Death, purveyor of canned water, has announced that it’s selling 10 empty cans of iced tea that were drank by Ozzy Osbourne and were then sealed to contain his DNA.

Dubbed “Infinite Ozzy,” these 10 cans are valued at $450 apiece and are being sold via the Liquid Death website to anyone lucky enough to snag one. Each was laboratory sealed and signed by Ozzy himself, with their timely arrival coming just weeks ahead of Black Sabbath and Ozzy’s final concert on July 5th in Birmingham, England.

“Once technology and federal law permit, fans can use this DNA to try to clone Ozzy in the future and enjoy him for hundreds of years to come,” stated Liquid Death’s publicity team on the goal of the campaign. Added Ozzy, “Clone me, you bastards.”

Shouldn’t we get Leonard Nimoy properly cloned first, before it’s Ozzy’s turn?

 

THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: Down With Monarchy Edition. “This week, Democrats turned out across the country to protest against monarchy–monarchy being, apparently, when the president tries to execute the laws as required by Article II. Anti-law enforcement riots continued, although by week-end they were petering out. Tucker Carlson mounted a defense of the mullahs, for no apparent reason. But we all learned the population of Iran.”

IN ORDER TO SAVE THE FRANCHISE, DISNEY REALLY NEEDS TO GREEN LIGHT THIS STAR WARS SEQUEL ASAP:

THE SECOND COMING OF AMERICA’S FUNNIEST WRITER:

Though P. J. O’Rourke passed away three years ago, his sharp wit and defense of freedom continue to resonate in a world still tempted by interventionist solutions. Reclaiming his work is more vital now than ever. What he told us through laughs and jabs in recent decades has proven to be one of the sharpest diagnoses of the dangers of postmodern left-wing ideology—and one of the most inspired reflections on why we must root our societies in individual liberty, private property, the free market, and the Judeo-Christian values that shaped the West for centuries.

Progressives want bigger government, and often conservatives don’t want it as small as we ought to like. O’Rourke knew all too well that the larger the state grows, the smaller individuals become. He devoted much of his work to explaining this in a way anyone could understand—even those not particularly interested in politics. His words resonate today in a new light, and fortunately, they remain easy to access: the Internet is full of O’Rourke’s articles, and all his books are still in print. The ideas, the jokes—the profound, the outdated, and even the ones that haven’t aged all that well—are still out there, waiting to be discovered by any digital wanderer with a sense of humor and a thirst for sharp thinking. It’s almost frightening to realize that some of O’Rourke’s tech-related jokes would go completely over a millennial or zoomer’s head today. And it’s even more pitiful to think that some of his old comments would be cancelled in today’s dull, hypersensitive postmodern world. Perhaps it’s because, as he once said, “One of the problems with being a writer is that all of your idiocies are still in print somewhere.” Incidentally, that’s where O’Rourke found his only point of agreement with environmentalists: “I strongly support paper recycling.”

Heh, indeed. Read the whole thing.

NOW WE KNOW WHY THE MINNESOTA ASSASSIN STORY DISAPPEARED OVERNIGHT:

Have you wondered why the story of the Minnesota assassin Vance Boelter has suddenly vanished from the news? Now we have a pretty good idea why.

Boelter, who murdered State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband while also shooting State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, unleashed terror that sparked a massive manhunt before his capture late Sunday. Initial media coverage was rife with speculation, with left-leaning outlets eager to cast Boelter as a MAGA Republican, hastily blaming the GOP and even President Donald Trump for inciting his shooting spree.

Yet the letter found in Boelter’s abandoned vehicle tells a radically different story, one that not only exposes the media’s rush to judgment and political opportunism but sudden drop in coverage.

In an article published late last night, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports: Letter to FBI from Minn. Shooting Suspect Made Wild Claims About Klobuchar and Walz, Sources Say:

In a rambling, conspiratorial letter addressed to the FBI, alleged assassin Vance Boelter claimed Gov. Tim Walz instructed him to kill U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar so that Walz could run for the U.S. Senate, according to two people familiar with the contents of the letter.

The letter is the clearest evidence yet of Boelter’s mindset after the targeted violence against Minnesota politicians last week. It is incoherent, one and a half pages long, confusing and hard to read, according to two people familiar with the letter’s contents. It includes Boelter alleging he had been trained by the U.S. military off the books, and that Walz, who is not running for Senate, had asked him to kill Klobuchar and others.

Asked to comment about the letter, Hennepin County Attorney spokesperson Daniel Borgertpoepping said the office cannot comment on an open investigation but “due to the seriousness of the allegations it contains, we will state only that we have seen no evidence that the allegations regarding Governor Walz are based in fact.”

Speaking of things not based in fact: Pardon Me?

To repeat: a Trump-appointed federal prosecutor, Joe Thompson (acting U.S. Attorney), has filed multiple death-penalty-eligible murder charges against an alleged political assassin.

In last year’s election campaign, Trump himself was the subject of two assassination attempts. The one in Butler, Pennsylvania, resulted in Trump’s wounding, the death of a spectator, and the wounding of two other spectators.

Now comes KSTP-5 TV (local ABC affiliate) to report on Moriarty’s petulance at being big-footed by the Feds. KSTP digs up a local law school professor willing to spread some malicious disinformation in the case. At the 2:00-minute mark of the broadcast, Prof. Rachel Moran says the following,

“It’s possible Hennepin County is worried about the political motivations of the prosecutors involved and the possibility of a pardon down the road,” said Moran. “I’d like to think that’s not an issue in a case this egregious, but it’s possible that’s on the Hennepin County Attorney’s mind.”

“Possible.” “the possibility.” “I’d like to think.” “it’s possible.” Prof. Moran’s misinforming musings are entirely unmoored to any fact in the observable universe. Not just unmoored, but in direct opposition to all available information in the public domain.

“Motivations.” “pardon.” Moran casually defames Thompson, a career prosecutor serving on an interim basis. No effort was made by KSTP to contact the White House for a comment on the alleged, possible, pardon for a double murderer.

The victims were all Democrats. Among the few verifiable facts about Boelter is that he was a twice appointed to an obscure board by Democratic governors as an unpaid public member.

Local media have worked overtime attempting to portray Boelter as a MAGA fanatic, doing Trump’s bidding, based on next-to-no verifiable information.

Including Walz slow-dragging the publication of his manifesto, and the article about it in the Star-Tribune having a time stamp of 10:28 pm on a Friday night.

OLD AND BUSTED: “A Chicken In Every Pot.”

The New Craziness Hotness? A fighter jet in every Israeli home!

Wouldn’t the jet blast cause a terrible stain on the carpets when it took off?

(No word yet if there’s an Imperial Star Destroyer in the basement as well.)

SOMEBODY SET UP US THE BOMB: “‘Sex and the City’ actress Cynthia Nixon said her trans son, a biological female, is an ‘observant Jew’ who is currently on a hunger strike in Chicago to support Gaza, according to Newsweek.”

Are we sure he isn’t on a hunger strike to protest mom’s appalling taste in food? Flashback to 2018: Cynthia Nixon Orders Cinnamon Raisin Bagel With… Lox And Capers. “On Sunday, Cynthia Nixon became the latest aspiring [New York mayoral] office-holder to briefly lose her mind while attempting to eat on the campaign trail, when she ordered—in public and on purpose—a cinnamon raisin bagel with lox from Zabar’s on the Upper West Side. She didn’t stop there, but went on to request red onions, capers, tomato, and plain cream cheese to the mess. Again, this was on a *shudders* cinnamon raisin bagel.”

OH SURE, THEY CHANT “DEATH TO AMERICA,” BUT…: MSNBC Analyst, a Former Obama Official, Calls Iran ‘Most Western Nation’ in the Middle East.

MSNBC political analyst and former Obama administration official Rick Stengel questioned why the United States is aligned with Israel rather than Iran, which he called “the most Western nation” in the Middle East. Though Iranians chant “death to America,” Stengel said, they also “love American movies.”

“Why is it a foundation issue for Trump that Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon?” Stengel, who served as an undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs under former president Barack Obama, asked during a Thursday appearance on MSNBC. “Why are we allied with Israel?”

When pressed on Iranians’ “death to America” chants, Stengel recalled a 2014 trip to the country. “I was sitting … at a rally,” he said. “These young guys were chanting ‘death to America.’ … They finished the chants. And two young men came over and said, ‘Are you American?’ I said yes, [and they said,] ‘We want to welcome you to our country. We love American culture. We love American movies.'”

The 1963 comedy album, Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks at the Canne Film Festival kicked off thusly (audio available at the Wayback Machine):

CARL REINER: Ladies and gentlemen, we are at the Cannes [pronouncing it “Can”] Film Festival here in Lower Italy. And we are going to meet some of the producers, directors, and stars of the films that are being exhibited here for the annual competition.

First, I’d like you to meet the German representative from Nartsi? Narsi? Narzi? From the Narzi Film Company! Herr Adolf Hartler. Good afternoon, Herr Hartler.

MEL BROOKS: Heil Hartler! How are you?

REINER: Now, this is a strange name. It’s Narzi Films.

BROOKS: Yes, we… well, we… well…

REINER: That doesn’t have anything to do with Nazi, does it?

BROOKS: No, are you kidding? They are our worst enemies. We are against them. We always were! Are you kidding?

* * * * * * * *

REINER: Sir, sir, you’re wearing your bathing suit, I noticed.

BROOKS: Yes, yes.

REINER: And as you scratched your head, I noticed a little “SS” tattooed under your arm. What does that mean?

BROOKS: Oh, oh, oh, well, wait! That’s the Simon Says!  Umm, umm, Simon Says, We played that on the beach. I’m the captain of the Simon Says team! And that’s where we get SS from! I’m serious about the game, I love it, and so I had myself tattooed, “Simon Says!”

REINER: How did you feel about the motion picture, Stanley Kramer’s motion picture, Judgment at Nuremberg?

BROOKS Unfair!

REINER: Why did you consider it unfair?

BROOKS: Well, because he didn’t tell the whole truth. What was the picture about? Really about a misunderstanding, really, wasn’t it? I mean, look, you have, you send people to camp, don’t you, in the summer? We sent a few people to camp. I don’t know what the whole fuss is about! Sent some nice people to camp…mostly in the summer!

I’m pretty sure Brooks and Reiner thought they were recording a comedy album, not a how-to guide for “Progressive” diplomacy with the Middle East.

ACTIONS MEET CONSEQUENCES: