Author Archive: Ed Driscoll

January 17, 2026

GREAT MOMENTS IN “FOSTERING INTEGRATION:”

Posted at 2:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jan 17th, 2026

YES, SHE CAUSED A BELOVED FRANCHISE TO DEI A PAINFUL DEATH: Good riddance, Kathleen Kennedy.

If you wanted a skilled producer with excellent taste and blockbuster smarts, you sent for Kathleen Kennedy. And she delivered, over and over again.

It therefore was not remotely surprising that, when Lucasfilm passed into the hands of Disney, Kennedy was seen as the perfect person to shepherd their projects into highly profitable existence. With Star Wars pried from the protective hands of Lucas, Kennedy was free to expand the saga from a galaxy far, far away into a never-ending project in IP renewal. The first picture that came out, 2015’s The Force Awakens, was a shameless exercise in fan service, but it was still exciting and nonetheless made over $2 billion at the global box office. Kennedy was lauded to the skies; she announced plans for more films, to be released at the rate of one a year, and television series to fill in the gaps. Audiences loved Star Wars, and they were about to get an awful lot more of it.

What went wrong over the intervening decade represents one of the most fascinating – and deadening – studies in Hollywood hubris that there has ever been. There were two more canonical Star Wars films, Rian Johnson’s insultingly sneering and smug The Last Jedi, and returning director J.J. Abrams’s panicked The Rise of Skywalker, which was a desperate exercise in undoing all Johnson’s provocations. Both films were commercial hits but lacked the freshness of The Force Awakens.

As John Nolte wrote a couple of weeks ago, “Personally, Star Wars has worked so hard to alienate, offend, insult, and troll its loyal fanbase, it wouldn’t surprise me if Mandalorian & Grogu underperforms. We just don’t care anymore. There’s an air of indifference out there, a sense of moving on. I see it too with Paramount’s woke warping of its Star Trek franchise. The creators politicize their golden geese to a point where disappointment turns to anger and then the most deadly fate of all sets in for the brand: indifference.”

UPDATE:

Posted at 1:50 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jan 17th, 2026

“IS THE NEW YORK TIMES A LIBERAL NEWSPAPER? OF COURSE IT IS:” The Same New York Times That Called Trump a ‘Nazi’ and ‘Fascist’ Objects to THIS Hateful Word for Women.

As the article piously reported:

In the days since a federal agent killed Renee Good in Minneapolis, Republican officials and conservative commentators have called the 37-year-old white woman “very violent,” a “deranged lunatic woman” and a “domestic terrorist.”

Some right-wing influencers have latched onto a different word — or rather an acronym: Ms. Good, they have said, was AWFUL.

“An AWFUL (Affluent White Female Urban Liberal) is dead after running her car into an ICE agent who opened fire on her,” the conservative commentator Erik Erickson posted on social media. “Progressive whites are turning violent. ICE agents have the right to defend themselves.”

Affluent. White. Female. Urban. Liberal.

Which of those five words does the Times believe is hateful?

Because for a solid decade now, the New York Times has bashed Donald Trump with the harshest, most vicious language imaginable. Words such as Nazi, Hitler, and fascist were used over and over again:

May 28, 2016: Rise of Donald Trump Tracks Growing Debate Over Global Fascism

Aug. 8, 2017: The Test of Nazism That Trump Failed

Sept. 11, 2018: Is Trump a Fascist?

Oct. 15, 2018: If You’re Not Scared About Fascism in the U.S., You Should Be

Nov. 30, 2020: 1918 Germany Has a Warning for America

Dec. 19, 2023: Trump Attacked for Echoing Hitler, Says He Never Read Mein Kampf

Oct. 29, 2024: Presidents, Conventions and Nazis: A Political History of ‘The Garden’

Nov. 6, 2024: Amid Talks of Fascism, Trump’s Threats and Language Evoke a Grim Past

Of course, every now and then, the Times would criticize Trump without calling him Hitler, a fascist, or a Nazi. For example, on April 13, 2018, the Times ran this delightful essay: “Tethered to a Raging Buffoon Called Trump.”

I dunno. Maybe it’s just me, but isn’t “raging buffoon” a tad more mean-spirited than AWFUL?

Apparently not. In fact, according to the Times, affluent white women are now a targeted, vulnerable minority — just like the Indians and Jews:

Liberal white women are only the latest group to be on the receiving end of right-wing animus. In late October and November, as Tucker Carlson offered a friendly interview to the Holocaust-denying white nationalist Nick Fuentes, the fear among some conservatives was that attacking Jews was inching toward the mainstream of the Republican Party. Last month, Vivek Ramaswamy, the wealthy entrepreneur who is a Republican candidate for governor in Ohio, was calling out a surge of bigotry directed at Indian Americans, like himself.

Exit quote: “Gosh, it’s almost as if the Times is telling its readers exactly what they want to hear.”

Because of its subscriber-based model, it has to. The consequences otherwise would be disastrous for the awful Gray Lady:

(Classical reference in headline.)

Posted at 1:45 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jan 17th, 2026

DAVID BROOKS DESCRIBES ICE IN MINNEAPOLIS AS ALMOST AN ‘ARMED OCCUPATION:’

On Friday’s installment of PBS News Hour, New York Times columnist David Brooks proved once again why PBS needs to find an actual conservative for their weekly news recap segment. While doing that rhetorical trick where someone calls for the lowering of tensions in Minneapolis while simultaneously hurling inflammatory accusations at ICE and the Trump administration, Brooks described the city as under “something like an armed occupation.”

Host Amna Nawaz thought Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was doing his part to lower the temperature, “David, we’ve seen tensions only rising on the ground in Minneapolis. We saw Governor Walz publicly come out and call for a lowering of the temperature, telling the protesters, don’t take the bait, don’t be violent, even as the administration says it’s going to surge more agents. Criminal subpoenas for the state and city leaders, does that lower the temperature?

Of course, that omits all of Walz’s previous “Gestapo” rhetoric and that Walz’s version of Frankenstein’s monster has led to rioting, vandalism, and assault of ICE agents.

As it was, Brooks was happy to play along with Nawaz’s framing, “Not exactly. We’re coming close to something like an armed occupation of an American state by the American federal government. There are 3,000 ICE officers in Minneapolis, which is like five times the number of police officers. And they are behaving with reckless and violent abandon.”

Exit question:

Flashback: As Glenn wrote in 2016: How David Brooks Created Donald Trump.

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jan 17th, 2026

THE MONEY-MAKING SECRETS BEHIND HOTEL DESIGN (Video):

Posted at 10:45 am by Ed Driscoll on Jan 17th, 2026

January 16, 2026

TOO ON BRAND: School Purges 1984, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, and Others to Promote ‘Diversity.’

A London, Ontario, secondary school binned more than 10,000 library books between January and March this year under the Thames Valley District School Board’s “inclusive libraries revitalization project,” eliminating more than half of the school’s 18,000-book collection.

H.B. Beal’s library once held one of the largest collections in the board. Today, fewer than 8,300 books remain. The estimated value of the discarded materials exceeds $180,000.

Education Minister Paul Calandra moved quickly to halt further library culls while the ministry investigates the Beal revitalization project. A spokesperson for the ministry confirmed last week that “the minister has directed that all current and future library collection reviews be paused, pending further evaluation.”

In accordance with the prophecy:

“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped.”

That line from Orwell comes from 1984. And of course that means it was tossed into the trash bin.

Evergreen:

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jan 16th, 2026

THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING: Why This Building Makes So Much Money (Video).

Posted at 10:35 am by Ed Driscoll on Jan 16th, 2026

MINNEAPOLIS MAYOR PARTYING LIKE IT’S 1859: ‘Fight ICE Agents in the Streets.’

Enter the escalator-in-chief, Minneapolis’ weasely mayor, Jacob Frey, who doubled down on the incendiary rhetoric, blaming Trump and ICE agents for doing their jobs in enforcing the nation’s immigration laws.

“Meanwhile, we have ICE agents throughout the city and throughout our state who, along with Border Patrol, are creating chaos,” Frey said. He called ICE’s operations in Minneapolis an invasion, like the actual invasion American towns and cities have been dealing with thanks to Democrats’ cynical open-border policies. Frey whined about what he asserts is Minneapolis’ inadequate police force (around 600 sworn officers), a problem that defund-the-police-pushing liberals in local government created when “mostly peaceful” protesters were burning down portions of the city in the last wave of manufactured riots.

And Frey said something very curious.

“We are in a position right now where we have residents who are asking the very limited number of police officers that we have to fight ICE agents on the street. To stand by their neighbors,” he said.

Hmmm? Are Minnesota police cooperating in what would clearly be an insurrection? More evidence in support of the president invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807 to end the open rebellion against federal law enforcement.

The Minneapolis chief of police does quite a double take in response to Frey’s call that his men “fight ICE agents on the street:”

Here’s another angle, showing the two men side by side:

Posted at 8:22 am by Ed Driscoll on Jan 16th, 2026

TEN YEARS GONE:

Shot: Iran’s Murderous Regime Is Irredeemable.

—New York Times editorial board column, Wednesday.

Chaser:

This particular Persian excursion, after all, is sponsored by none other than the New York Times, the esteemed paper of record that, in case you hadn’t noticed, is quickly transforming itself into a travel agency of some renown, offering an array of exhilarating (and expensive) cultural journeys for the sophisticated traveller.

Looking for a “people to people experience” in communist Cuba? The Times has you covered. Eager to help solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Ditto. Keen to “retrace the footsteps of some of the world’s greatest explorers” in Antarctica? There’s a trip for that. It’s not clear whose footsteps you’ll be retracing aboard the “297-foot luxury expedition yacht” the Times has commissioned, but why quibble? Rates start at $15,695. Carlos Slim must be loving this.

No Times Journey, as they’re called, is as popular as “Tales from Persia.” Ours is the inaugural voyage, but there’s been so much interest that they’ve already had to increase the number of offerings this year from three to five, all of which are sold out. At the end of the day, no one—not even the ayatollah—is going to f—k with the Times. That’s what you’re counting on, anyway. Although the Gray Lady has certainly gone to great lengths to ensure her release from liability:

Without limitation, we are not responsible for any injury, loss, or damage to personal property, death, delay or inconvenience in connection with the provision of any goods or services occasioned by or resulting from, but not limited to, acts of God, acts of government, weather, force majeure, acts of war or civil unrest, insurrection or revolt, strikes or other labor activities, criminal or terrorist activities or the threat thereof…

But even if it comes to that—getting yanked into a windowless room upon arrival at Imam Khomeini International Airport—you’ve settled on a failsafe strategy: blame everything on the Jews. Before you know it, your Qatar Airways flight to Tehran (connecting through Doha, site of the 2022 World Cup final) is preparing for takeoff. There’s a large compass displayed on a big screen at the front of the cabin. One arrow points towards Mecca, the holiest of Muslim holy sites, and another (for some reason) towards Gaithersburg, Md.

—Andrew Stiles, “What I Saw in Iran,” the Washington Free Beacon, March 30th, 2015.

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll on Jan 16th, 2026

SOMETIMES THE LEFT HAND DOESN’T KNOW WHAT THE FAR LEFT HAND IS DOING: Democrats Are Begging Radical Members Not To Revive the ‘Abolish ICE’ Craze. It’s Not Working.

Sensible Democrats who care about winning elections are begging their elected leaders to ignore the screeching activists who are (once again) hounding them to abolish ICE, the immigration enforcement agency.

It’s not going very well.

Two left-leaning advocacy groups published memos this week urging Democrats not to get swept up in the frenzy of anti-ICE rhetoric unleashed after an ICE officer shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. The Searchlight Institute, a think tank founded by former Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) adviser Adam Jentleson, thought it was necessary to remind Democrats that “advocating for abolishing ICE is tantamount to advocating for stopping enforcement of all of our immigration laws,” a policy that is “wrong on the merits and at odds with the American public.”

Third Way, another moderate think tank, warned Democrats that caving to the “abolish ICE” mob would be politically “lethal” and squander “one of the clearest opportunities in years” for meaningful reform. That is precisely what happened in 2020, the group argued, when enough Democrats embraced (or refused to condemn) the activist-led campaign to “defund the police” following George Floyd’s death. “We shouldn’t be the party against enforcement entirely,” Third Way wrote on X.

The rhetoric on the left could get even zanier:

(Classical allusion in headline.)

Posted at 7:14 am by Ed Driscoll on Jan 16th, 2026

January 15, 2026

OPEN THREAD: All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day to find it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act out their dream with open eyes, to make tonight’s Open Thread possible.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jan 15th, 2026

THE CRITICAL DRINKER: The Golden Globes Happened, I Guess…

Back in 2010, when the gulf between reality and what the legacy media was reporting was too big to ignore, I wrote, “A few years ago, the news industry built a mausoleum of their own — remember the Newseum? And that’s not the only place where they’ve entombed themselves. Their news product, particularly on TV, is essentially a closed-circuit system designed to assuage the ruling class. That you and I can choose to also watch is merely a byproduct.”

But that’s the news. I’d call the material released by Hollywood the industry’s own closed-circuit system, but I doubt the people who make this material are actually sitting down to enjoy it themselves. Who is consuming Hollywood’s “entertainment” product these days?

QED:

UPDATE: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Already a Flop — Free YouTube Premiere Draws Shockingly Low Viewership.

MORE: Dispatches from United Earth’s Newspaper of Record:

Posted at 9:20 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jan 15th, 2026

REDNECK NATION:

(Classical reference in headline.)

UPDATE (FROM GLENN):

Posted at 8:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jan 15th, 2026

THOMAS SOWELL: My Experience With Artificial Intelligence.

Another target of this particular AI fraud is military historian Victor Davis Hanson. In addition to his profound scholarly writings on military history, Prof. Hanson has also spoken out strongly on many current and controversial issues.

Apparently those who do not agree with him cannot argue effectively against what he said. So they use AI to make him seem to be saying something different.

Political or ideological reasons for creating fraudulent imitations of people on the internet are not the only reasons. Some of the creators of these deceptive imitations have things to sell or donations to seek. These are the easiest imitations to tell are not mine.

My own website—FactsAgainstRhetoric.org—sells nothing and asks for no donations. It contains not only things that I have actually said, but also a great many things that others have said—on subjects ranging from affirmative action to medical issues, education issues and geographic influences.

This is a website set up in hopes of helping young people get an education, despite being in college.

Heh, indeed. Read the whole thing.™

Posted at 6:45 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jan 15th, 2026

TURNING DOWN THE TEMPERATURE WOULD BE EASY — COORDINATE LOCAL POLICE AND ICE, AND ALLOW ICE ACCESS TO JAILS:

More here: A Belated Call for Peace.

Posted at 4:32 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jan 15th, 2026

REPORTS: New York Giants, John Harbaugh finalizing $100M contract. “According to multiple reports, the Giants offered Harbaugh a five-year deal that could be worth as ‍much as $100 million. The 63-year-old head coach was only out of work eight days after the Baltimore Ravens fired him over the phone last week, ending their 18-year partnership after missing the playoffs.”

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jan 15th, 2026

JIM GERAGHTY: Trump’s Sudden Reversal on Iran.

To be fair, Iran’s mullahs are doing a fair job of imploding the nation all by themselves:

I cannot say with certainty that the Iranian regime will topple in the coming year. But I can say with certainty that this current Iranian regime will never be able to fix the country’s deepening economic problems. Earlier this week, Jason Malsin of the Wall Street Journal had a spectacularly reported account of how a bank collapse illuminated the deep-rooted destructive rot running throughout the country’s economy:

Late last year, Ayandeh Bank, run by regime cronies and saddled with nearly $5 billion in losses on a pile of bad loans, went bust. The government folded the carcass into a state bank and printed a massive amount of money to try to paper over all the red ink. That buried the problem but didn’t solve it.

Instead, the failure became both a symbol and an accelerant of an economic unraveling that ultimately triggered the proteststhat now pose the most significant threat to the regime since the founding of the Islamic Republic half a century ago. The bank’s collapse made clear that the Iranian financial system, under strain from years of sanctions, bad lending and reliance on inflationary printed money, had become increasingly insolvent and illiquid. Five other banks are thought to be similarly weak. . . .

The director of bank supervision at the Iranian central bank last year called Ayandeh “a Ponzi scheme.” For many Iranians, it was a symbol of a system whose few resources had been diverted to a well-connected few while they suffered.

The regime in Tehran is running out of money. And it’s not helping when every elite in Iran can see the cracks in the foundation widening and is trying to get every portable asset out of the country.

As Geraghty writes, “You don’t move tens of millions out of a country on a whim. You don’t fly planeloads of gold to Moscow unless you think there’s a good chance you’re going to lose it if you keep it in the country. The people within the regime and closest to the regime are moving their money out, risking its seizure. You only take that risk when you’ve concluded that keeping your money in the country is more dangerous.”

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jan 15th, 2026

DUDE. SO CLOSE! LOL! Mayor Jacob Frey’s Whiny ‘ICE Invasion’ Meltdown Backfires Spectacularly (Watch).

UPDATE: Great moments in losing the plot:

Posted at 1:55 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jan 15th, 2026

KAMALA HARRIS BUYS $8.2 MILLION SEASIDE MANSION AFTER WARNING ‘SEA LEVELS ARE RISING’ DUE TO ‘CLIMATE CRISIS:’

Former vice president Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff purchased an $8 million mansion in an exclusive oceanside Malibu neighborhood last month. The move came after Harris spent years warning that such communities could be threatened by the “climate crisis.”

A real estate listing for the mansion, reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon, says the luxury pad is “perched in a prime coastal location” with “breathtaking ocean views.” The property sits right near a coastline that—according to climate scenarios endorsed by Harris—is at risk of facing extreme flooding. A climate model issued by the Biden-Harris administration determined that Point Dume State Beach, the beach a short walk from Harris’s new property, would be severely damaged by sea level rise even under the model’s most modest projections. The Trump administration discontinued that model in June 2025.

The purchase, which was first reported by the New York Post, calls into question Harris’s earnestness when discussing the threats posed by what she calls the “climate crisis.”

“Our oceans are warming. Sea levels are rising,” Harris wrote duringher short-lived presidential campaign in 2019. “Extreme weather is destroying our communities. We are poisoning the planet.”

2019 was also the year that AOC claimed, “The world is gonna end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change,” so I hope Kamala and Doug enjoy their mansion while there’s still time…

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jan 15th, 2026
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