THAT THING THAT NEVER HAPPENS KEEPS HAPPENING: Kentucky Driver’s License Scam = Registering Illegal Aliens To Vote.
Author Archive: Stephen Green
August 15, 2025
IT’S TIME FOR VICTORIA TAFT’S West Coast, Messed Coast™: Gavin Newsom Falls Hard for Trump Troll, and It’s Glorious. “As President Donald Trump was preparing for his big meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, California Gov. Gavin Newsom was falling hard for what he said was a “sick and pathetic” — and hilarious — Trump troll in L.A. A shocking stat from the mean streets of Portland, Ore.. More reaction to Dog Park Karen. Portland, protesters are so violent that a school has decided to move away from THEM. In Washington, Republicans are out and murders are up.”
FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: Why’d It Have to Be Snakes? “Florida Man Friday is back after a one-week hiatus, and this week, we’ll learn why the gender pay gap actually runs the other direction (thank goodness), what a quiet night at Waffle House sounds like, and how New York Man broke pretty much all the laws in one headline. “
BEEGE: There’s No Pinched Sour Face Like Nicole Wallace Pinched Sour Face.
Over the years, major dad and I have come up with a nickname for these chicks who adopt this sort of world-weary, affected, always disgusted mien:
MISS PERPETUALLY PAINED
Dana Bash is one, Brianna Keilar yet another, and MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace is a shining example of the variety.
Where once there was an all-American, kind of attractive girl with brains and potential, there’s now a bitter, hard, shrewish harpy.
How does being a successful progressive do that to you?
Being ugly on the inside eventually shows through.
CDR SALAMANDER: China’s Show of Force in… the Arctic.
When you have the world’s largest navy, you soon realize you can be everywhere, all at once, because you want to.
We all had fun at the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) navy and coast guard’s expense yesterday in Operation Bumper Boats, but now it is time to get back to serious things.
As we discussed six months ago, the PRC is not an Arctic nation. It has, at best, a tertiary concern with the Arctic. Just look at the chart at the top of last week’s post, no PRC coastline to be seen.
That isn’t stopping her.
While we continue to try to figure out a way to catch up in the icebreaker game, the PRC is already there.
They are not doing this for pure research; they are looking at how to leverage every corner of the planet for military and economic gain for themselves.
Read the whole thing — and remember, this is a zero-sum game. Each CCP gain is a loss for the US.
CHANGE (IT BACK): The Era of ‘Defining Deviancy Down’ Is Over.
INDEPENDENCE INSTITUTE: Colorado’s Race To The Bottom.
I got to have a great chat recently with Jon Caldara about the Colorado that used to be, but now is.
CUTTING OFF THEIR NOSES TO SPITE THEIR FACES: Allies, in jab at Trump, threaten not to buy F-35s. “The F-35, made by Lockheed Martin, is especially vulnerable to this sort of economic turbulence. Its parts come from more than 100 suppliers around the world, and big overseas orders help keep the price of each jet down. If countries pull out or cut back, costs go up for everyone. The combined price tag for Spain’s and Switzerland’s F-35 orders was about $15 billion for several dozen planes each.”
Spreading the production around globally was supposed to A) keep prices down, and B) keep allies on board through domestic job creation. So I guess we’ll see whether they’ll go through with the threats.
YES. NEXT QUESTION? Does Poor Little Mamdani Really Deserve This Treatment?
SCREW THESE GUYS: Trump’s debanking order could create headaches for banks, sources say.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order requiring banks not to discriminate against clients on political or religious grounds could create uncertainty and administrative headaches for the industry, sources said.
Trump signed an executive order on Thursday directing the Treasury Department and bank regulators to ensure lenders do not have policies in place that deny services to customers based on political or religious beliefs, a practice known as “debanking.” Any wrongdoing uncovered could result in fines, disciplinary measures, and even referrals to the Justice Department.
The order came days after Trump accused JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N), opens new tab and Bank of America (BAC.N), opens new tab last week of debanking him, and alleged that lenders discriminate against conservatives. Large banks have denied rejecting clients on political grounds, and instead blamed unclear rules for some of the account closures.
Seriously, screw these guys.
Debanking and other cancellation efforts didn’t become a thing until Big Business lefties — particularly in Too Big to Fail banks that we, the people, had bailed out — felt powerful enough to do whatever the hell they wanted to people they disagreed with.
I ALREADY THINK IT’S A GREAT IDEA, YOU DON’T HAVE TO KEEP SELLING ME ON IT: Israel’s West Bank settlement plan could ‘bury’ the prospect of a Palestinian state. Here’s why.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Trump Hilariously Manhandles Newsom’s Sad Attempt to Troll Him. “There are people in America who believe that California Governor Gavin Newsom is a tough, competent warrior in the Democrats’ battle against everything that President Donald Trump does. Collectively, these people are known as the mentally insane. Fortunately for America, there aren’t nearly as many of them as Gov. Gav and the Democratic Party elites think.”
A FLASH OF SANITY FROM CALIFORNIA: Local Calif. School Board Bans Trans Athletes From Girls’ Sports.
The Kern County Board of Education voted on Tuesday to adopt a resolution related to Title IX, KBAK/KBFX reported.
Title IX is a federal law that requires equal opportunities for boys and girls in school sports and programs.
Under California law, transgender students can compete in sports that match their gender identity.
“Now, there be it resolved the Kern County Board of Education affirms it is for Title IX and calls on athletic governing bodies to uphold its protections by ensuring fairness in girls’ sports,” trustee Lori Cisneros said.
To be fair, Kern is majority Hispanic, and culturally and politically pretty conservative.
Meanwhile, a bit further north: Washington state elementary school brings in drag performance to stage R-rated Rocky Horror Picture Show for kids.
COMMISSAR MAMDANI, TAKE NOTE: Say Goodnight and Good Luck to Missouri’s City-Owned Grocery Store.
CHANGE?
Police in Paris arrest a rioter 👇
Rioter: “I just said Free Palestine”
Policeman: “Shut the f*ck up. Go to Palestine if you've got the balls” 🤣 pic.twitter.com/IlV4quciQP
— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) August 15, 2025
THE PENTAGON SEEMS TO BE IN DENIAL: From the Front Lines of Ukraine: A Soldier’s Warning to America.
What does this war look like now?
A 20-year-old soldier sits in his bunker with a small team, on a mission he planned himself, flying $500 drones that were assembled by volunteers in some basement according to a constantly updated distributed protocol. Refinements to the drones are made at his battalion’s informal drone lab, where some parts are 3D-printed and others are crowdfunded. The young soldier monitors via Starlink a constantly rotating livestream of quadcopter or fixed-wing expendable drone ISR platforms, either freely asking to kill or waiting to be directed by a duty officer to do so. His team is always making small adjustments and trying new things with their drones, ground stations, and antennas, even though most of them had zero engineering experience before finding themselves here. This is a far cry from the duties of a U.S. Marine infantry lance corporal.
From his position a few kilometers from the front, our drone soldier will fly his drones against infantry just one to ten kilometers deep into enemy territory. The infantry they hunt walk relentlessly forward, around the clock, like zombies, singly or in pairs (or small teams) through rubble, tree lines, and even open fields. They have little choice but to take a rifle and press forward for a quick death – what waits behind them is worse. Some ride motorbikes just to speed the process.
Even if 95% of them are killed in their march, a small percentage will pass through the large gaps in the porous, thin Ukrainian defenses, and could surprise and gun down the unsung Ukrainian infantry or mortar teams. Some may even make it far enough to slaughter drone teams in their hides. If they take even one tree line a day across a front, it is more than enough.
Win, lose, or draw, Ukraine has changed how wars are fought — and Russia, the laggard until the last year, has played an impressive game of catch-up.
But few in NATO capitals seem to be paying much attention.
UNEXPECTED HEADLINES: CNN Admits That Americans ‘Vastly Prefer’ Trump’s Approach to Crime.
August 14, 2025
IT’S MY THURSDAY ESSAY FOR VIP SUBSCRIBERS: All That Jazz.
Legendary jazz vocalist Cleo Laine died last month, age 97, at her home in Wavendon, England. Hardly anyone outside of the most dedicated jazz fans seemed to notice. I’m 56, and probably among the youngest to mourn her passing.
Even so, I didn’t think to write the obit I’d been carrying around in my brain for years. Cleo, you see, was born too late. British music critic Derek Jewell once called her “quite simply the best singer in the world,” but even at the height of her success in the 1970s, the Washington Post’s Mark Kernis had to admit that “She is not a household name. In fact, to many people, she’s no name at all.”
This week’s essay is not about Cleo Laine, although the power and clarity of her four-octave voice, her impressive career, and her almost unrivaled ability to work an audience certainly make her worthy of one.
When Cleo was coming up in the ’50s, a jazz artist like her dying would have been big news. Maybe not “LENNON MURDERED IN NEW YORK” or “ELVIS DEAD ON TOILET” big, but still a noteworthy passing.
Again, this isn’t really about Cleo — it’s about the near-silence that followed her death, and what it says about the music she thrilled audiences with for seven decades.
What happened to jazz?
Much more at the link.
Related (From Ed): John Coltrane and the End of Jazz.
A CALIFORNIA CONSERVATIVE DISCOVERS WHAT MIGHT BE California’s Last Hope.