Author Archive: Glenn Reynolds

THEY CAN’T HELP BUT LOVE US: The Main Attraction at Vietnam’s New War Museum: Anyone Who Looks American: Children mob U.S. visitors for selfies and handshakes outside, while displays inside condemn Yankee ‘imperialists.’

David McCaskey visited the new war museum here to see the American planes, helicopters and tanks from the Vietnam War.

But the 33-year-old graduate student from Buffalo, N.Y., quickly realized those exhibits were playing second fiddle to the museum’s star attraction: David McCaskey.

As soon as he entered the gates, about 30 schoolchildren in identical tracksuits swarmed him. They wanted a photo. Then another group did. And another. After 20 minutes of smiling for more than 100 children, he put on a face mask and sunglasses and finally slipped away.

“It’s the closest I’ll ever get to being a celebrity,” McCaskey said.

The Vietnam War ended 50 years ago Wednesday when North Vietnamese tanks rolled through Saigon, capital of the U.S.-backed South Vietnam. Today, tourists visiting the land of their onetime enemy are discovering that Americans are by and large beloved here.

We can’t help being lovable. Also, they’re next door to an expansionist China and need allies.

IF YOU BUILD IT (SOCIALISM) THEY WILL GO:

THIS IS TRUE OF A LOT OF UNIVERSITIES, AND EXAMPLES NEED TO BE MADE:

OPEN THREAD: Tuesday’s Groovy.

WHEN NARRATIVES COLLAPSE:

THE POLITICS OF LEFTY MOBS:

Compare the above to this:

UPDATE: Related.

Matt Taibbi: Are We In A Soft Civil War?

Since Trump’s second inauguration, these and other critics have been relentless in decrying an unprecedented “assault on norms,” which in their telling began in January and has been marked by such “dictatorial” severity as to require those “new solutions.” The White House obviously sees it differently. Current and former officials connected to the administration believe “norms” evaporated before Trump took office in 2016, with official spying via the Trump-Russia probe, the subsequent launching of multiple successful politicized investigations, the May 2017 opening of a second FBI probe into whether or not Trump was “working on behalf of Russia” after the firing of James Comey, the successful removal of Trump from Internet platforms, efforts to have lawyers who represented Trump disbarred, use of courts to try to remove Trump and other pols from the ballot, the censorship (and in cases like Steve Bannon, jailing) of media figures friendly to Trump, and countless other matters.

We forget how comprehensively institutional America became politicized before the arrival of this new administration. Never mind the prosecutions and investigations: officials from enforcement agencies issued so many warnings about “brazen” efforts by Russia and other countries to meddle in elections on Trump’s behalf that you could set your watch by them. Imagine if Kristi Noem or John Ratcliffe not only issued regular bulletins about Chinese efforts to buy American farmland or dominate “emerging technologies,” but every election season issued warnings about China seeking to “sow division” by “boosting Democrats” and “denigrating Donald Trump.” Op-ed pages would be full of frantic denunciations of the politicization of the DHS and CIA, news pages would be full of analyses correctly pointing out that intelligence can be manipulated in a dozen different ways, and newspapers would valiantly point out that they’re duty-bound to not repeat such assertions until proven. Ten minutes ago, of course, everyone in media felt differently.

Well, “we” don’t forget. Plus

Since November we’ve moved a highly lawyered group of habitual rule-breakers out of office, and replaced them with a payback-seeking group that is often more interested in big results than process. Another way to view it is that we exchanged a group of officials who used executive power in an unprecedented way but didn’t admit it, for a group that is freely admitting its novel and at times unsettling use of presidential authority. It all makes for a fraught, dangerous moment and my main emotion as a voter is hoping none of this devolves into open conflict. Can we get through this with something like an intact legal system in the end?

We may be better off if we bring these conflicts out into the open.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: SCOTUS Will Not Hear Minnesota Appeal On Carry Age Restriction.

The United States Supreme Court has refused to hear Minnesota’s appeal of the state’s carry age restrictions on 18 to 20-year-old adults, which were previously determined to violate Constitutional protections.

Minnesota enforced the now-defunct age restriction law throughout the appeals process, beginning in 2023 when a district judge sided with challengers, through 2024, when that ruling was upheld by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and right up until Monday, April 21, this year, when the case came to a sudden and decisive halt after being rejected on appeal by the Supreme Court.

The previous 8th Circuit decision cited the state’s failure to present evidence of a suitable historical analogue, making it clear that while a government is permitted to disarm individuals who threaten the safety of themselves and others, “Minnesota has failed to show that 18- to 20-year-olds pose such a threat.”

Freedom.

FATCAT J.B. PRITZKER CALLS FOR MASSIVE RESISTANCE. Not the first Democrat to do so. . .

WELL, THEN, THEY’RE GOING TO GET WHAT THEY WANT:

BAD ACADEMIA HAS ITS CONSEQUENCES:

Full article here.

MARK JUDGE: The vindication of Christopher Lasch. “More than 40 years ago, Lasch, one of America’s most brilliant thinkers, noted that America had become fractured and that our elites had lost touch with the people. Christopher Lasch died in 1994, yet he anticipated the rise of President Donald Trump and the new populism. He also diagnosed the spiritual and psychological problems that continue to plague the public.”