Author Archive: Stephen Green

IT’S MY THURSDAY ESSAY FOR VIP SUBSCRIBERS: The Return of Kremlinology — Now with Chinese Characteristics. “Having undone Deng’s reforms, there are now multiple signs that Xi’s rule is coming undone. Over the last several months, I’ve read a series of credible-looking reports that Xi might have received a modified Khrushchev treatment.”

INDEED:

RUY TEIXEIRA: Is Our Democrats Learning? “Democrats have a hard time thinking outside their own views of Trump and the GOP. They are deeply convinced that Trump is perhaps the worst person to ever walk the earth and find it difficult to relate to voters whose views are more mixed. They are convinced that a breaking point from Trump’s actions will inevitably be reached where voters will wake up and realize Democrats were right all along, with happy political results to follow. This fallacy undergirded Democrats’ thinking in the 2024 campaign with rather unhappy results when that breaking point was not reached. Democrats’ reliably florid responses to Trump’s outrage-of-the-day in 2025 indicates that they are still hoping that breaking point can be reached and that they are puzzled, indeed outraged, that voters have not yet mounted the barricades. Conveniently, the expectation of a breaking point let’s Democrats off the hook from changing very much in their own party.”

Of course, that kind of thinking both predated Trump, and also helps explain why GOP voters took a chance on him in 2016.

I’D CALL IT A GOOD START:

IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA: Tax dollars flow to non-profit run by Colorado state legislator.

Democrat State Representative Lorena Garcia was appointed by a vacancy committee to her seat in the Colorado legislature after her predecessor resigned in 2023. She successfully passed a re-election bid in 2024 and is now serving out a full term in the statehouse.

Prior to that, Garcia worked at a number of nonprofits, landing in 2018 as the executive director of Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition (CSPC), a job she presently still holds.

Mirroring Garcia’s political rise among the majority Democrats at the Capitol, CSPC’s fortunes have also greatly improved. According to the nonprofit’s tax form 990, CSPC’s revenues when Garcia took the helm were about $517,000, growing by about five times to $2.7 million in 2023 (the last filing year available).

Clearly CSPC was pleased with Garcia’s leadership, since her salary went from $57,000 to $133,000 in the same period.

This in and of itself isn’t remarkable. It makes sense that those at the helm of a non-profit be compensated when the organization does better; it would, at least, be smart to align things that way. There is a plot twist here, however. CSPC’s revenues have ballooned in large part because of lots of state tax dollars flowing in.

Colorado runs a website called the Transparency Online Project (TOPS), a statewide database where, among other things, you can search to see who the state is paying, from what department, for what, etc. Think of it as an online register for Colorado’s checkbook.

Details at the link.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Amazon will soon employ more robots than humans as 1 million machines toil across facilities.

Many of these robots cover the heavy lifting involved in warehouse work, picking items down from tall shelves and moving goods around facilities.

Others are advanced enough to help humans sort and package orders, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Three-quarters of Amazon’s global deliveries are now assisted in some way by robots, according to the company.

“They’re one step closer to that realization of the full integration of robotics,” Rueben Scriven, research manager at robotics consulting firm Interact Analysis, told the Journal.

Exit quote: “These advanced bots work in tandem with human workers at the Louisiana warehouse, handing products to employees to fill orders and reaching for hard-to-grab items inside shelves as workers supervise. Products whizz through this facility 25% faster than at other warehouses.”

CHANGE? Gov. Gavin Newsom signs housing bill overhauling California’s landmark environmental law.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law an overhaul of California’s landmark environmental protection rules that he says is essential to address the state’s critical housing shortage and long-running homeless crisis.

The Democratic governor widely seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate called the two-bill package a historic reshaping of environmental rules that, while initially well intentioned, too often resulted in tangles of litigation and costly delays that strangled much-needed development.

Newsom said the bills, which he signed Monday night, represent the most consequential housing reform in recent California history.

“We have too much demand chasing too little supply,” Newsom said at a news conference. “So many of the challenges that ail us can be connected back to this issue.”

Well, yeah — it’s just weird to hear a progressive Democrat say it.

Also: He’s running.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Trump’s Win Over CBS Another Nail in the MSM Coffin. “The condescending arrogance of the leftists in the media is really something to behold, given how paste-eatingly (I just made it up, it’s a thing now) stupid they all are. Almost every fabrication that they try to sell to the Dem base is easily disprovable by anyone with internet access who knows how to watch a video.”

WELL, GOOD: The Dalai Lama announces plans for a successor, signaling China won’t have a say.

It is unclear when the search for his successor will start, though the process can take several years. The Dalai Lama has only said it would be “in accordance with tradition.”

The Tibetan spiritual leader had previously speculated that his successor might be an adult, could be an “attractive” woman, or there might not be one at all. In his recently released book Voice for the Voiceless, he said that the new Dalai Lama will be born “in the free world” and outside of China.

“Free Tibet” seems to have disappeared from the Left’s concerns in recent years.

RED-PILLED: Climate change influencer once chums with Greta Thunberg now calls the movement a ‘scam.’ “While her fans cheered her on, Biggers told Just the News that her beliefs in a ‘climate crisis’ took a toll on her mental health. That’s true of many young people. The most recent poll on the topic, published in the renowned medical journal The Lancet, surveyed over 15,000 people aged 16-25 in the U.S. about their thoughts and emotions about climate change. The poll found that 85% are moderately worried about climate change, and nearly 58% are very or extremely worried. Nearly 43% said it impacts their mental health.”

UNEXPECTED HEADLINES: Gay Comedian Scott Thompson: Eliminate GLAAD. “The ‘Kids in the Hall’ alum still saved plenty of venom for another target, one that’s unexpected given his political leanings.”

HMM: Is This How Mamdani REALLY Won the NYC Democrat Mayoral Primary? “Lazer claims Mamdani’s ‘rizz’ — a Gen Z term that’s short for charisma — helped earn him what his campaign couldn’t afford to buy. That, and cracking TikTok’s algorithm.”

Reminder: TikTok is social malware.

THEY’RE JUST DOING THE JOBS THAT LOCAL GOVERNMENT WON’T DO: Four more Portland Antifa riot suspects federally charged. “This brings the total federally charged so far to 17, devastating the numbers Antifa need to attack the building night after night. The cases are not being dropped immediately. Dozens of local Antifa riot cases have also not been dropped by the moderate district attorney, Nathan Vasquez. (Vasquez, running on a law and order platform, won against radical leftist incumbent Mike Schmidt in November last year.)”

TO BE FAIR, THEY HATE THE MIDDLE CLASS: