Instapundit » Stephen Green

Author Archive: Stephen Green

May 29, 2026

THEY KEEP DOING THIS: James Talarico Is Playing to a National Audience That Won’t Be Voting for Him.

FRAUD ALL THE WAY DOWN: Former Minnesota employee reveals suspected fraud scheme of ‘fake injuries’ at Somali businesses.

Balsimo spent her last years at the Department of Human Services (DHS) in the Tort Recovery Unit as a tort specialist.

She said that she wanted to blow the whistle on workers’ comp cases after what she noticed the last couple of years at her job—as hindsight and the exposure of fraud throughout Minnesota provided even more perspective.

Balsimo explained how she “recovered taxpayer dollars where another party should have been paying for the bills. For instance, like auto accidents or work comp. So we would get cases from attorneys representing the client.”

“And then when the case would settle, we would get paid, the attorney would get paid his fees. DHS would get paid our portion. And then the client would be awarded whatever type of injury that they had back, usually got more awards than neck or arm. So they would get anywhere from $20,000 to $150,000 for their award for their injuries,” Balsimo explained.

However, she noticed a strange trend emerging in her normally routine work. “About a year ago, I can remember my caseloads of Somalian cases were going way up. They were going up so much I even confided in another coworker. She had noticed it as well,” Balsimo said.

And then nobody seems to have done anything.

YES:

The argument that Spencer Pratt can’t be mayor because he’s a reality TV star is hilarious. Los Angeles has been run into the ground by people with impeccable resumes, elite endorsements, and decades of political experience. At some point, the “qualified” candidates need to… pic.twitter.com/qsg8TX41QZ

— Chef Andrew Gruel (@ChefGruel) May 29, 2026

You could do much worse than a reality TV star, Los Angeles — in fact, you already have.

VIDEO AND MORE: Blue Origin’s Earth-Shattering Kaboom. “So that was a big badda-boom — very nearly a Wickwick Event. I’ll explain that last part in just a moment, but first the big news.”

CHANGE: ExxonMobil shareholders approve plan to redomicile to Texas.

In March, ExxonMobil Corp., based in Spring, Texas, announced its board unanimously recommended its shareholders approve changing its legal domicile from New Jersey to Texas, where its leadership and core operations have been based since 1989. The board hadn’t held a meeting in New Jersey for more than 40 years, and 30% of ExxonMobil’s global employees are located in Texas. Seventy-five percent of its U.S. employees live and work in Texas.

ExxonMobil said the reason for changing the legal domicile was Texas’ legal and regulatory environment, including its modernized business statutes and new Texas Business Court, The Center Square reported.

Not soon after, the New York City comptroller; Glass, Lewis & Co., and Institutional Shareholder Services recommended ExxonMobil and Chevron investors vote against their boards’ position on the shareholder proposals, including ExxonMobil’s plan to redomicile.

Looks like a shareholder win — Texas, too.

WELL, YEAH:

It's because he hates Jews. That's why. That's the reason. https://t.co/MBMxq0qrcE

— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) May 29, 2026

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Hide Your Kids — Pride Month Is Almost Here. “The rhetoric of the LGBTQ people does not match reality. I would like a list of what any of the letters aren’t free to do. The ‘courageous visibility’ line is utter stupidity. Pride parades have been going on since Richard Nixon’s first term in the Oval Office. After more than half a century of dudes in harnesses and garish drag queens in rainbow makeup marching down the street, trust me, they’re visible.”

I LIKE THE CUT OF HIS JIB: Florida Governor Calls for Special Session to Eliminate Property Tax for Homeowners.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on May 27 called for a special legislative session to pass his plan to exempt homeowners from paying property taxes on their permanent residence.

The Republican governor revealed his plans to sign a proclamation that would require state lawmakers to convene in Tallahassee and discuss his “Save Our Homes” proposal starting on June 1.

“Taxing something that you own repeatedly, which is a property tax, is the worst way to do taxation,” DeSantis said in a news conference on May 27.

DeSantis said he hopes that eliminating taxes from Florida homesteads could be a bipartisan effort.

“You pay all these taxes to acquire that property, and then year after year, you’re just having to write a check just for the privilege of being able to maintain ownership of something that is supposedly yours,” he said.

Indeed.

JAMES TALARICO COULD NOT BE REACHED FOR COMMENT:

Bessent is a Beast.

— Jocelyn James (@jtjames55) May 28, 2026

TREAT SWATTING AS ATTEMPTED MURDER, BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT IT IS: Swatting Justice Barrett Was a Threat, Not a Prank.

WINNING: Republicans are poised to finish this year’s redistricting war 10 seats ahead of Democrats.

The coast-to-coast battle to gain an edge in November’s elections through partisan gerrymandering is racing to its conclusion – with Republicans poised to finish with as many as 10 seats ahead of Democrats through redistricting alone.

The GOP kicked off the fight last year in Texas, changing boundaries for US House districts in the hopes of improving the party’s chances of surviving a blue wave this fall, with Democrats responding in turn. The US Supreme Court’s blockbuster decision last month to gut one of the remaining pillars of the 1965 Voting Rights Act further supercharged redistricting efforts across the South, prompting several Republican-controlled states to move election dates and eliminate districts with sizable Black populations.

The moves could be a major boon in efforts to protect House Speaker Mike Johnson’s razor-thin majority ahead of the midterm elections. But regardless of the outcome in November, the mid-decade redistricting battle has likely altered American politics permanently – fueling a growing appetite to redraw lines for partisan advantage every election cycle, rather than every decade after the census, as is traditional.

“There is no normal,” said Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Marymount’s law school who runs the “All About Redistricting” website. He pointed to the high court’s string of election-related rulings in recent years, including a 2019 opinion declaring that federal courts could not police partisan gerrymanders, as helping pave the way for the extreme actions now taking hold.

“The Supreme Court has effectively announced that the adults have left the room,” he said. “What you see is what you get when you reward bad behavior, which is a lot more bad behavior.”

With primaries well underway around the country, both parties now have run out of battlegrounds on which to wage new redistricting fights this year. But they are gearing up for even more aggressive gerrymanders in the 2028 election cycle.

This is CNN, so of course the story paints a most unflattering picture of Republicans districting the way Democrats do. Although that’s (D)ifferent because reasons.

But no matter how the media chooses to frame the story, the 10-seat gain is real.

ROBERT SPENCER: What One Illinois Speaker Said About Islam and America Has People Talking. “The video, which began circulating on Wednesday and has over 560,000 views as of Thursday afternoon, is arresting on a number of levels. It shows a woman wearing a hijab and leading a prayer at the Illinois General Assembly, which is not all that odd in itself: The General Assembly often features clergy of various religions leading the assembled legislators in prayer. Muslim clerics, however, are universally male, and so in this case, we have a Muslim layperson leading the solons in prayer. What she says, however, is far more striking than the event itself.”

May 28, 2026

THIS IS JUST NEWSOM WANTING TO WEAPONIZE THE TAX CODE AGAINST PEOPLE HE DOESN’T LIKE…:

“The whole point of the fund is to make victims whole after the federal government was weaponized against political opponents, pro-life activists, and parents at school board meetings, and Newsom never had a problem with any of that weaponization when it was actually happening.” https://t.co/a50y97BVat

— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) May 28, 2026

…and he wants to be president.

SARAH ANDERSON, MARCO’S NUMBER ONE FAN: Go Marco! It’s Your Birthday! (And You’re the Most Popular Man in the GOP).