Author Archive: Stephen Green
August 5, 2025
WHAT WE DODGED: ‘China is happy:’ New memos expose Homeland Security’s concerns about Tim Walz CCP connections.
Newly released internal memos confirm the Department of Homeland Security and FBI had longstanding concerns about Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his connections to the Chinese Communist Party, especially after he was selected by Vice President Kamala Harris as her presidential running mate last year.
Homeland Security turned over the documents to watchdog group Judicial Watch, which had filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and sued the government earlier this year, seeking communications in an agency group chat that allegedly referenced the probe into Walz. The existence of those messages was shared with the House Oversight Committee last year by whistleblowers, but the Biden-era DHS resisted turning over responsive documents.
“China is happy,” one Homeland Security employee wrote in an explosive message to the group chat called “NST NFT Bi-Weekly Sync” on August 7, 2024, one day after Harris announced Walz as her running mate, the memos show. The employee linked a BBC News article detailing Chinese internet reactions to the choice, which were reported as largely positive.
In response, another employee, whose name is also redacted, suggested looping in the FBI due to its responsibility for domestic counterintelligence, the messages show.
RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA! began as a way to smear Trump, but I wonder if it’s become a way to distract from China.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): I think it was always a way to distract from China, as I’ve said before.
SCIENCE! Organized scientific fraud is growing at an alarming rate, study uncovers.
By combining large-scale data analysis of scientific literature with case studies, the researchers led a deep investigation into scientific fraud. Although concerns around scientific misconduct typically focus on lone individuals, the Northwestern study instead uncovered sophisticated global networks of individuals and entities, which systematically work together to undermine the integrity of academic publishing.
The problem is so widespread that the publication of fraudulent science is outpacing the growth rate of legitimate scientific publications. The authors argue these findings should serve as a wake-up call to the scientific community, which needs to act before the public loses confidence in the scientific process.
I’m afraid that ship sailed in 2020.
HEY MAN, NICE SHOT: Trump Celebrates Shooting Sports Month.
COME SEE THE ANTISEMITISM INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM: Anti-Israel activism is ‘highly coordinated,’ Indiana University study concludes.
The “central node” is the national Students for Justice in Palestine, “which functions as a strategic and narrative hub,” Professor Günther Jikeli wrote in the 61-page report. Jikeli leads the university’s Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and is a recipient of the Raoul Wallenberg Prize in Human Rights and Holocaust Studies by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation and Tel Aviv University.
The researchers also wrote in their report that criticism of Israel is not always the same as antisemitism. “While political debate and student activism are vital to academic freedom, the rhetoric and actions of some groups now frequently cross the line into antisemitism, creating a hostile climate for many Jewish students and faculty,” the report stated. Many of the posts reflect Hamas messaging, the study alleges.
“Our analysis focuses on documented antisemitic incidents and on online activity where anti-Israel activism intersects with the glorification of violence and the amplification of extremist narratives,” the authors wrote in an introductory note.
However, many anti-Israel groups promote violence, the report alleges.
Exit quote: “Foreign funded groups try to push the anti-Zionist agenda to radicalize students.”
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Former NYT Director: Paper Is ‘Digging Own Grave.’
DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Harris County Jail: You’re Free To Go. Inmate: You Can’t Make Me Leave. Jailers: Watch Us. Fatality Ensues. “Remember how we reported that Harris County jails had already killed ten inmates this year? Well, you can add another one. Maybe.”
DON’T LEAVE OUT THE ATTRACTIVE WOMEN:
It sucks that Twitter became a far right echo chamber. Now my timeline is filled with extremists urging me to lift weights, eat healthy, have children, and read Shakespeare.
— Clifton Duncan (@cliftonaduncan) August 4, 2025
KRUISER: From Vaudeville to YouTube: Late-Night Is Dying Because That’s How the Entertainment Industry Works “Anyone in the entertainment industry knows that it is all changing at a pace which is hard to keep up with. Nowhere is that more true than broadcast television, which is a dinosaur in cultural hospice care. Watching the spectacle of so many comics I know and other industry pros ignoring this harsh reality in defense of Colbert was just sad.”
NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG:
BREAKING: Palestinian billionaire Bashar Masri has resigned from Harvard after being sued for allegedly aiding Hamas through Gaza development projects, that ended up just being terrorist tunnels.
Masri is now reportedly on the run. pic.twitter.com/1PqWGRqLct
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) August 4, 2025
HAMAS LEFT HIM WITH NO OTHER CHOICE: Netanyahu decides on full occupation of Gaza Strip, IDF activity in areas with hostages, PMO says.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reached a decision for the full occupation of the Gaza Strip, including operations in areas where hostages are held, a source in the Prime Minister’s Office told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
The Prime Minister’s Office conveyed the message to IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir: If this does not suit you, then you should resign.
Hamas responded to the reports about the intent to conquer Gaza, saying, “Israel’s threats are repetitive, worthless, and have no influence on our decisions.”
The announcement comes after months of talks in Doha between Hamas, Israel, and mediators to reach a ceasefire-hostage deal.
The White House has yet to respond, but Trump is clearly fed up with Hamas.
ELECTION INTEGRITY: Lawsuits Proceed Against Two Blue States’ Corrupted Voter Rolls.
PER-PUPIL/PER-STUDENT SPENDING INCREASES ARE A MYTH BECAUSE THE MONEY GOES TO PAY FOR UNNECESSARY ADMINISTRATORS:
Where's all the money going, Randi? https://t.co/m8G5kOK0dd pic.twitter.com/C2B11WIZHA
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) August 5, 2025
DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Misspent transportation dollars keep Colorado’s roads crumbling.
Last month, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) quantified this dismal state of affairs: barely one-third of our state roads are in “good” condition, far below the national average.
According to Colorado Department of Transportation’s own analysis, 71% of all highway miles under state maintenance have less than 10 years of “drivability” remaining, including more than 800 miles where the drivability life is completely exhausted.
…
Why can’t we have good roads? It’s simple: those in charge at the State Capitol would rather discourage us from driving than use the taxes we already pay to properly maintain our highways.In 2021, the Democrat-controlled legislature passed a $5.4 billion package of new “fees” – including a yearly increase in fuel taxes plus that irritating 29-cent charge only Coloradans pay on orders from Amazon – to boost the transportation budget.
The problem is most of that money isn’t spent to build or repair our highways.
“The state now takes transportation-related fees and directs them toward environmental mitigation, mass transit, and demand management efforts rather than infrastructure,” according to a study by the Common Sense institute that pierced the thick veil of obfuscation that is Colorado’s transportation budget.
Democrats took control. The rest was inevitable.
SUPPLY, MEET IMPORTED DEMAND: Irish Lawyers Blame Mass Migration for Homelessness Crisis.
UGH: Tyson Foods Confirms Protein Switching Underway Amid Record High Beef Prices.
“Chicken continues to provide support to the business as the company continues to face beef headwinds,” analysts at brokerage Stephens wrote in a note to clients.
Making sense of all this is simple: rising chicken demand alongside sliding beef demand is known as “protein switching.” This trend is driven by excessively high supermarket beef prices, prompting low- and middle-income consumers to seek cheaper alternatives like chicken and pork.
This comes as the latest USDA cattle report shows America’s cattle and calves herd population has fallen to 94.2 million, its lowest mid-year level since 1973. The nation’s shrinking herd size has pushed USDA retail ground beef prices to record highs.
We also had 120 million fewer people in 1973.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: This Week in Orange Jumpsuit Possibilities — Adam Schiff. “Schiff is a product of the California Democratic machine that is working overtime to corrupt and destroy the United States of America as we know it. At some point, one or more of them has to be stopped. Seeing him getting some comeuppance for the criminal abuse of his power would be satisfying and a boon for the future good for the Republic. Having someone that amoral and unprincipled in the United States Senate is dangerous.”
WOEING: More than 3,000 Boeing fighter jet, munitions machinists go on strike. “On Sunday, the 3,200 machinists, who work in Missouri and Illinois building and maintaining F-15 and F/A-18 fighter jets and munitions, voted to reject Boeing’s offer of a four-year contract that included a 20% wage increase, $5,000 ratification bonus and better retirement benefits.”
LAWLESS LAW ENFORCEMENT: New Jersey’s Anti-Gun AG Matt Platkin Makes Complying With the State’s Byzantine Gun Control Laws a Crap Shoot.
The case concerned two undercover buys from the shop by agents of the AG’s office. The first was a box of .223 caliber ammunition and a six-round magazine for a Walther .380 pistol. The second was a 1,000-round case of .223 caliber ammunition. The buyer in each case paid cash.
New Jersey law imposes various explicit (and likely unconstitutional) requirements for the sale of “handgun ammunition.” Sellers must be licensed gun businesses. Buyers who are not so licensed must display a valid Firearms Purchaser Identification Card, a permit to purchase a handgun, or a permit to carry a handgun. Retail sellers of handgun ammunition must record sales and make these records available to state authorities. Sales of 2,000 or more rounds must be “immediately” reported to the state police.
Following the undercover buys, the AG initiated a civil enforcement action against Butch’s Gun World under the reasonable controls statute. Significantly, the complaint did not claim .223 ammunition or the Walther magazine were “handgun ammunition” nor did it claim the sales were a direct violation of the “handgun ammunition” requirements.
Instead, the complaint relied entirely on the idea that Butch’s Gun World had an affirmative duty under the reasonable controls law to apply additional safeguards to the sales of “gun-related products” beyond those specifically dictated by the New Jersey legislature. These “products,” moreover, include not just all types of firearms and ammunition, but “any … ammunition magazine, firearm component or part including, but not limited to, a firearm frame and a firearm receiver, or firearm accessory ….”
The complaint asserted, for example, that Butch’s Gun World should have understood the “reasonable controls” statute as extending certain requirements of the “handgun ammunition” statutes to ALL “gun-related products,” even though there is no language in the law that actually specifies this.
Read the whole thing, but first, this quote from Ayn Rand: “Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed? We want them broken. There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted — and you create a nation of law-breakers — and then you cash in on guilt.”
I’M NOT STUNNED AND THE BIAS IS ANYTHING BUT INADVERTENT: Fired ABC Journalist Makes Stunning Statement About Media Bias. “Terry Moran, a former senior correspondent with ABC News, recently admitted in a piece on Substack that his one-time employer is ‘almost inadvertently’ biased in its news coverage. This is something Americans have been privy to for quite some time, likely leading to the big GOP victories in the 2024 election cycle, but it’s always nice to have an insider confirm it.”
DON’T GET COCKY, BUT DO ENJOY THE FLOP-SWEAT: ‘More like a blue trickle’: Dems are hoping for a blue wave that might not happen.
LEFTISM AS A NEUROSIS, EXHIBIT #1,000,006: Chicken Funerals and Watermelon Rage: The Left’s Latest Cries for Help.