DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: The FBI raided a notable journalist’s home. Rolling Stone didn’t tell readers why.

The Rolling Stone story created a stir. Reporter Tatiana Siegel stated that the April 22 raid was “quite possibly, the first” carried out by the Biden administration on a journalist.

In this case, the journalist was ABC News national security producer James Gordon Meek. A former investigator for the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, Meek had been with ABC News since 2013. He also was a producer of 3212 Un-Redacted, an investigative documentary that streamed on Hulu.

As published, the Rolling Stone article’s first two paragraphs lionized Meek’s record and swashbuckling style.

“Meek appears to be on the wrong side of the national-security apparatus,” it stated.

As the story noted, Siegel’s sources told her “federal agents allegedly found classified information on Meek’s laptop during their raid.” Siegel reported that Meek left his job at ABC after the raid; a publishing contract with Simon & Schuster evaporated.

As edited by Rolling Stone Editor-in-Chief Noah Shachtman, however, the article omitted a key fact that Siegel initially intended to include: Siegel had learned from her sources that Meek had been raided as part of a federal investigation into images of child sex abuse, something not publicly revealed until last month.

Why did Rolling Stone suggest Meek was targeted for his coverage of national security, rather than something unrelated to his journalism?

Why indeed? “It sounds like Rolling Stone’s editor in chief deliberately buried the truth about the sex abuse allegations against Meek because the two of them were friendly. Meek looks really bad, obviously. But so does Noah Shachtman. And so does Rolling Stone. And it’s not like Rolling Stone has a whole lot of credibility to spare.”

UPDATE: Rolling Stone Magazine Faces New Journalism Scandal After Misleading Readers in a Big Way.

This is not the first time Rolling Stone has abused and discarded facts about a major story in order to (possibly) push an agenda. The magazine landed in serious hot water several years ago after publishing a “bombshell” report about a gang rape on the University of Virginia campus. That “bombshell,” though, turned out to be entirely fabricated.

That story led to a major defamation case against the magazine. They were found guilty, and the resulting damages ultimately resulted in the sale of the magazine.

Of course, the magazine has a well-known leftward bent, more recently calling Democrat Joe Manchin a destroyer of worlds and attacking ivermectin during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Flashback: Sticky Fingers: A New Biography Explores the Seedier Side of Jann Wenner.

(Updated and bumped.)

ANOTHER UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Who do I trust more, the FBI or Rolling Stone? More like who do I trust less.

ROGER KIMBALL: China’s ‘Peace Plan’ for Ukraine Could Pave the Way for Russian Aggression.

As far as I know, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has yet to express a judgment about “China’s Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis,” but he can’t be pleased about a peace plan that essentially rectifies Russia’s absorption of various bits of Ukraine while giving Putin respite from fighting in order to catch his breath and rearm.

Zelenskyy will have an opportunity to make his views known soon when he and Xi have their scheduled talk.

Some observers believe he may acquiesce to something like China’s plan.

Ukraine has so far lost somewhere north of 120,000 men, fewer than Russia, but proportionality much more.

Then there’s the fact that the war has been entirely on Ukraine’s soil.

The toll on Ukrainian infrastructure has been steep.

Everyone expects Ukraine to mount some sort of counter-offensive in the spring—which began on March 20—but few observers believe that Ukraine can prevail absent massive aid from the West.

Will that aid be forthcoming?

Opinions differ.

I doubt it.

But how would we know? How to win the war that everyone is losing. “Zelensky, the Western media’s hero of liberal democracy, has banned political opposition. That may be understandable, if still lamentable, in wartime. But who will hold his government accountable after the war? The aim of any war is a superior postwar order. If the White House or global democracy gurus such as Anne Applebaum and Francis Fukuyama can’t offer a credible postwar scenario, we should assume this war will end like most of our others since the dying days of the Cold War.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE:

● Woke Crazy: Whites Who Drink Coffee Are Racists.

● Is the word ‘picnic’ racist? How to deal with questions about language right now.

● L.A. Times: driving your car is racist.

● Are helicopters racist? The LA Times thinks so.

UPDATE: Here’s a hilarious thread of 28 everyday things that have now been labeled racist.

(Updated and bumped.)

OH, THAT LIBERAL FASCISM: Fauci Said He Must ‘Break’ Republican Vaccine Hesitancy in 2021 Video.

SHOT: Losing My Religion? Reflections on falling away from unbridled tech-optimism.

Chaser: Will advanced AI result in new religions?

Neil McArthur, the Director of the Center for Professional and Applied Ethics, at the University of Manitoba, writes this over on StudyFinds:

We are about to witness the birth of a new kind of religion. In the next few years, or perhaps even months, we will see the emergence of sects devoted to the worship of artificial intelligence (AI).

The latest generation of AI-powered chatbots, trained on large language models, have left their early users awestruck — and sometimes terrified — by their power. These are the same sublime emotions that lie at the heart of our experience of the divine.

People already seek religious meaning from very diverse sources. There are, for instance, multiple religions that worship extra-terrestrials or their teachings.

As these chatbots come to be used by billions of people, it is inevitable that some of these users will see the AIs as higher beings. We must prepare for the implications.

Arthur C. Clarke, call your office! “In a prescient 1963 article, Clarke mentions a future situation where a scientist creates the ultimate computer. He powers the machine up and asks it a question humans have been asking since the dawn of creation: ‘Is there a God?’ The computer, after checking that its power source is independent of human controls, replies, ‘There is now.’”

FAUCI CAUGHT SAYING THE QUIET PART OUT LOUD ABOUT THE COVID VACCINE DURING PBS SPECIAL:

Fauci being exposed as a liar by his own laudatory documentary is fabulous. https://t.co/hGizbJzGBD

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) March 20, 2023

“The pure comedic aspect surfaces when Fauci blames red states for not pushing vaccination, saying they will keep COVID around as new outbreaks occur. Sir, you’re in deep-blue DC, and people are skeptical of getting vaccinated. Also, the cat was already out of the bag: COVID is endemic. The one thing that Fauci should have come away with during this little walk through DC is that he’s abysmal at messaging. He also said that Republicans needed to be broken to his whims on vaccination.”

Why, it’s as if: Fauci Has No Idea Why People Are Mad At Him.

DISPATCHES FROM THE “IT’S DIFFERENT WHEN WE DO IT” PARTY: “It’s Only Sex!” Isn’t the Looming Trump Indictment Reminiscent of Bill Clinton’s Monicagate Scandal?

JEREMY CLARKSON: A Tory BBC? Everyone I met there in 25 years was flaming red.

It’s often said that when someone emerges into the world from university and likes what they see, they will go into the City or into business and they will devote their lives to making money and going to parties and having fun. However, if they leave university and think the world is all broken and full of injustice, they will try to change the system. Which means they will add a rainbow emoji to their Twitter bio and join the BBC.

Of course, in recent weeks we have been told over and over again that this is emphatically not the case. Many angry, red-faced people have pointed out that the present chairman of the BBC is a Tory party donor and that Tim Davie, the director-general, once stood as a Conservative candidate in the local council elections in Hammersmith & Fulham. The message, then, is clear. At the very top, the Beeb is a festering maggot pit run by the bastard love children of Margaret Thatcher and Gordon Gekko.

* * * * * * * *

The mob, however, is wrong. Yes, at this precise moment of history it’s possible that the two people at the top of the BBC might at some point in their past have voted Conservative, but what about everyone else? All the other 22,000 people involved in running this broadcasting giant? The army that creates and writes and presents all the shows it produces? Well, I worked at the BBC for more than 25 years, and I can tell you that almost everyone I met was redder than the end of a dog’s lipstick.

I was once told when visiting the Simon Mayo show that I would have to leave my copy of The Spectator outside as “extremist material” was not allowed in the Radio 5 Live offices*. And then, while I was waiting to go on The One Show, a producer said that I had to agree with the public sector strikes that were happening that day or it would be “awkward”.

I know someone who was told to take down his Union Jack because it was “offensive”, and I was asked to remove my poster of Mrs Thatcher because it was upsetting people who walked past. I did, and replaced it with a picture of Kate and [Prince William], which somehow made them even angrier.

* Gentlemen, you can’t have differing opinions here, this is a broadcast network!

THE GREAT ABDICATION: In California, public officials now favor the lawless and deviant over the law-abiding and hardworking.

No one exemplifies the post-Floyd antiracist reformer more dramatically than George Gascón. In 2011, when he was mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom appointed Gascón as the city’s district attorney; before then, Gascón had led the police agencies of San Francisco and Mesa, Arizona. In November 2020, Gascón was elected district attorney in Los Angeles, running on an antiracism platform and ousting L.A.’s comparatively conservative black district attorney.

Within hours of taking office, Gascón instituted 90 pages of policy changes that had been recommended by defense attorneys and anti-incarceration advocates. He banned the use of all sentencing enhancements, which seek a higher sentence for a particular crime than might otherwise be sought. Grounds for enhancement include criminal history and the defendant’s conduct during the latest crime in question, such as the use of a gun or the infliction of great bodily harm.

This prohibition on enhancements resulted in about 8,000 fewer sentence years imposed during Gascón’s first three months in office, compared with the same period in the previous year, reported the New York Times. Gascón banned his staff from bringing cases against criminals who had resisted arrest, trespassed, engaged in disorderly conduct, loitered for the purpose of prostitution, driven with no license, or driven with a suspended one. He banned prosecutors from attending parole hearings. He eliminated bail for all “nonserious” offenses.

Gascón started reviewing the sentences of some 20,000 state prisoners for possible early release. In March 2021, a convicted murderer in Sacramento’s Folsom State Prison recorded a video of himself and another inmate toasting Gascón for his retroactive sentence shortenings. While convicted felons would get their sentences reopened for review, police officers who had shot a suspect but who had been cleared by Gascón’s predecessor would see their cases reexamined for possible prosecution.

As Tom Cotton wrote in December, 2021: Recall, Remove & Replace Every Last Soros Prosecutor.

WATCH: We the People Speak out Against San Antonio’s Threat to Use Eminent Domain to Steal a Texan’s Business.

Eminent domain is one of several methods the government has used to achieve tyrannical ends. Originally intended to make way for infrastructure projects and others that are ostensibly “for the public good,” it has been expanded over the years to allow the state to steal property and land from American citizens.

This is what the state of Texas, in conjunction with the city of San Antonio, is doing to Vince Cantu, owner of Moses Rose’s bar and grill, which is located next to the Alamo. The city has initiated eminent domain proceedings against him to take his property so that they can do some renovations to the Alamo and build a museum and gift shop on the land where his property lies. Check out my article and conversation with Cantu here.

Also check out this recent Reason article and accompanying video on Cantu: A Tavern Keeper’s Last Stand at the Alamo.

UNEXPECTEDLY: 56% (!!) of liberal white women age 18-29 have been diagnosed with a mental health condition. That’s more than twice (!!) the rate of their conservative counterparts.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS NOBODY IS ASKING: Is coffee racist? How drinking coffee perpetuates white supremacy.

THE ULTIMATE BARN FIND: The Super-Rare 1969 Lamborghini Miura He Found at the End of an Oregon Dirt Road.

THE LONELY LIVES OF DEMOCRATS: LOL! Ron Filipkowski wants to see Trump’s package and the replies are HILARIOUS.

BRITAIN’S SHRINKING MILITARY — FROM COLD WAR COLOSSUS TO CASH-STRAPPED SHADOW. New video from historian Mark Felton:

But their pronouns were perfect: An army of snowflakes. The British Army wants to recruit snowflakes to its ranks. What is it thinking?

Related: Due to Spending Cuts, UK Military Would Run Out of Ammo In 1 Day of Fighting Russia, Top General Warns.

BUT YOU HAVE TO WEAR THE RIBBON! San Jose Sharks Goalie James Reimer Declines Wearing Pride Night Jersey; Usual Couches Fainted Upon.

Reimer, who is something of an NHL anomaly in that he is an outspoken Christian, provided a statement as to why he would not wear the Pride Night jersey.

Naturally, the usual subjects typed their furious replies through clutched handkerchiefs.

The You Can Play Project, which works to promote inclusiveness in sports, said the organization was disappointed in Reimer’s actions.

“Religion and respect are not in conflict with each other, and we are certainly disappointed when religion is used as a reason to not support our community,” the organization said. “Wearing pride jerseys, like any celebration jersey worn, is not about the personal feelings of an athlete; rather the communication from the team that a community is welcome in the arena and the sport.”

Whoever updates the San Jose Sharks’ Twitter account also got into the uber-woke action: Last night the San Jose Sharks’ Twitter account really posted a bunch of “LGBTQIA+ information” instead of covering the game. Here are the tweets along with my indispensable commentary.

2001: A POLYVINYL CHLORIDE ODYSSEY:

I was forced to watch this among numerous other trailers before seeing the new German version of All Quiet on the Western Front in a Fort Worth theater yesterday, so now you must suffer as well. Incidentally, the new All Quiet is well worth seeing that way (err, minus the Barbie trailer) if you get the chance. It felt somewhat the reverse of watching it on Netflix — the quiet scenes in-between the massive set piece battles are much more fascinating to observe on the big screen than a TV screen. And while tanks have been in the movies since forever, seeing them emerge on the big screen and the soldiers’ initial reactions really gives a sense of how utterly terrifying to opposing foot soldiers they must have been during their first introduction in WWI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNC83oXZ5KM

DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: ‘Close To Sinful:’ Biden Floats Possibility Of Nation-Wide Transgender Law.

President Joe Biden appeared to criticize Ron DeSantis on his handling of transgender youth and floated the possibility of a nation-wide transgender law in an interview clip released Monday.

“What’s going on in Florida, is as my mother would say, ‘close to sinful.’ I mean, it’s just terrible what they’re doing,” Biden said while speaking with actor Kal Penn.

“It’s not like … a kid wakes up one morning and says, ‘you know, I decided that I want to become a man or I want to become a woman … I mean, what are they thinking about here? They’re human beings, they love, they have feelings, they have inclinations,” Biden continued. “It’s cruel.”

“And the way we do it is we make sure we pass legislation like we passed on same-sex marriage. You mess with that, you’re breaking the law and you’re going to be held accountable,” Biden added.

Well, it’s good to see that “devout Catholic” Joe Biden has the same definition of sin as his former boss: “Being out of alignment with my values.”

DON SURBER: Highlights of the Week.

ITEM 17: The Daily Mail reported, “One of the progressive liberal politicians pushing for reparations in cash-strapped San Francisco also wanted to defund the police, and believes some Honduran fentanyl dealers are human trafficking victims who should be protected rather than prosecuted.

“Hillary Ronen is one of the 11 supervisors who will decide on a wide-eyed reparations plan for the city’s black residents that would pay them each $5 million, promise them $97,000 salaries and wipe away personal debt.”

We all identify as black San Franciscans now.

ITEM 18: The Daily Mail also reported, “Hallie Biden received a cut of $3 million in cash from China sent through an associate of Hunter, according to Republicans who released information from subpoenaed bank records.

“Beau Biden’s widow was identified on Thursday as the third member of the first family wrapped up in Rep. James Comer’s investigation into allegations they used their names to profit on business deals around the world.

“In a memo seen by DailyMail.com, Hallie received $35,000 in two transfers in March from Biden family associate John ‘Rob’ Walker, after he received a $3 million wire from the Chinese State Energy HK Limited, a firm affiliated with CEFC China Energy.”

Correction: We all identify as black San Franciscans named Biden.

Heh, indeed. Read the whole thing.

DESTRUCTIVE BUT MOSTLY PEACEFUL ROBBERY: CNN reporters doing a story on San Fran street crime hired security to watch their cars at city hall. You know what happened next.

Got robbed. Again. @jasonkCNN & I were at city hall in San Francisco to do an interview for @CNN. We had security to watch our rental car + crew car. Thieves did this in under 4 seconds. Security stopped the jerks from stealing other bags. But seriously- this is ridiculous pic.twitter.com/3zcCzckavW

— Kyung Lah (@KyungLahCNN) March 17, 2023

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Shot: defund the police; Chaser: I am begging for more police.

Liberals are never, ever held to account.

San Francisco District Supervisor Hillary Ronen is “begging” for more police officers in the Mission District. Crime is out of control, and the city absolutely has to do something about it.

It’s a disaster! Somebody do something!

Life comes at you fast. pic.twitter.com/RrKedusl42

— Leighton 明 Woodhouse (@lwoodhouse) March 16, 2023

You have to sympathize with her and her constituents. Sure sounds like things are really bad out there. I wonder how any city could allow such a degradation in its policing capability?

Hillary Ronen is the one to ask. She led the fight to defund the police, after all.

Flashback: White Progressives Shocked to Learn Black and Latino Voters Don’t Share Their Radical ‘defund the Police’ Views.

AN OLD BOLSHEVIK FIGHTS ON:

Lt. Hiroo Onoda hid in the Philippine jungle for three decades after World War II, devotedly carrying out his soldierly duties till 1974, when he returned to an unrecognizable Tokyo. Likewise, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) carries on a torch for the proletariat, long after the rest of the Left has dumped the worker for racial and sexual categories.

Even if you disagree with Sanders — and you must if you understand basic economics and human nature and have even a passing knowledge of how socialist societies have ended — you have to give the Vermont socialist senator some credit for steady commitment. Just as Onoda continued to venerate the emperor as a deity while evading raiding parties, Sanders continues to revere economic determinism even as he, from time to time, is forced to mumble new pieties on climate, sex, and race.

On March 4, Sanders harrumphed to HBO’s Bill Maher that the Democratic Party had abandoned the worker.

“When FDR was president, when Truman was president, even when JFK was president, you go out on the street and you say to people, ‘Which party represents the working class of America?’ Most people, I think … would’ve said the Democratic Party,” Sanders said. “Today, you go out on the street, and that is not the sentiment. In fact, the Republican Party probably has more adherents than the Democrats.”

Sanders predictably went on to blame corporations and Republicans for this real shift in working-class political sentiment — because if a Marxist doesn’t blame capitalism for rain, they take his Marxist card away.

* * * * * * * *

Sanders knows well how the Left dropped the worker. But he also knows that to spell out how and why this shift occurred would be political suicide.

Hiroo Onoda plays a minor role in Mark Manson’s 2016 self-help book, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. As Manson wrote:

Yet, later in his life, Onoda said he regretted nothing. He claimed that he was proud of his choices and his time on Lubang. He said that it had been an honor to devote a sizable portion of his life in service to a nonexistent empire. [Norio Suzuki, the young man who, incredibly, found Onoda in the jungle before dying in an even more preposterous quest], had he survived, likely would have said something similar: that he was doing exactly what he was meant to do, that he regretted nothing.

These men both chose how they wished to suffer. Hiroo Onoda chose to suffer for loyalty to a dead empire. Suzuki chose to suffer for adventure, no matter how ill-advised. To both men, their suffering meant something; it fulfilled some greater cause. And because it meant something, they were able to endure it, or perhaps even enjoy it.

If suffering is inevitable, if our problems in life are unavoidable, then the question we should be asking is not “How do I stop suffering?” but “Why am I suffering—for what purpose?”

Hey, those three houses don’t pay for themselves, you know.

QUESTION ASKED: Are Democrats Deliberately Making Trump a Martyr to Boost Him With GOP Voters?

Many predict that this move will backfire dramatically on the Democrats.

“If this happens, Trump will be re-elected in a landslide victory,” Elon Musk tweeted in response to a report about Trump’s potential pending arrest.

He’s not alone in thinking this way. “If they handcuff Trump, he is your next president,” Scott Adams predicts.

Trump Defense Lawyer Joe Tacopina agrees. “I believe this will catapult him into the White House.”

Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire has another theory. “They want Trump to be the Republican nominee,” Walsh tweeted Saturday, referring to the Democrats. “That’s obviously the play here. There is no other conceivable reason to arrest and perp walk him on a bulls—t misdemeanor charge. I might be overestimating the tactical intelligence of the idiot power-hungry hacks behind this. But if there is any political strategy then that has to be it.”

It’s a fascinating theory, for sure, but I think it gives Democrats too much credit and ignores some key facts. As I previously pointed out, Democrats, including the thugs in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, have been desperately trying to pin something on Trump for years. The party base believes Trump is guilty of something, even if they don’t know what that is, so there’s enormous pressure to give the base what they want.

Matt Margolis’ article is for is just for our VIP members; please use the discount code LOYALTY if you’ve been thinking of becoming a supporter.

THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: Bank Fun Run Edition.

PUTTIN’ ON THE RITZ! Update on Fetterman’s Health Leaves Doubts As His Mental Health Treatment Continues.